xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 1:40 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lunging forward with his right pincer, the monstrous Loumo attempted to strike at Bernard, prompting him to prepare a counteroffensive.
"Baurs! You're on defense!" Bernard exclaimed as the large rock lizard quickly stepped forward to block the attack.
Rushing forward, the large Baurs blocked the pincer strike against her body with her hard rock form. Bouncing off her body, Loumo attempted to swing back around with its other arm for another strike against Baurs but the large Earth Elemental proceeded to rush forward into the crab/human sculpture in an effort to push it back, locking it in place in a test of strength.
"Corvus, aim for the head with an electro-ball attack." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus as the crow smirked.
"Oh yeah, here I come!" Corvus said as he flew forward and sparked up electricity. Shifting his wings together, he formed a red and white ball of lightning energy and chucked it directly at the face of the Loumo monster. Receiving the blast in the cranial region, the Loumo monster was electrocuted but acted as if it didn't take any damage as it continued to be held back by Baurs.
"Damn it..." Bernard thought with a wince as he looked on, glancing in the direction of Claudia with a cruel smirk on her face.
"What the hell!? I threw a good amount into that!" Corvus shouted in surprise as he noticed the lack of damage from his attack.
"It's the metal bits mixed with the clay..." Bernard said aloud as Corvus looked back towards the beanie sporting young man. "The metal is conducting the electricity but the clay is stopping it from possibly reaching the real him under the material..." He said as he looked at the creature.
"Oh come on! That's a load of scientific bullcrap!" Corvus exclaimed as his body sparked up, ready for another attack attempt.
"Wait!" Bernard said as he raised his hand to stop Corvus. "Save your energy!" He said as Corvus proceeded to stop. "I need him at as much power as possible... Because she hasn't done anything yet..." He thought as he glanced over at Claudia once again, noticing her standing around with her suitcase in hand and doing nothing outside of watching, causing Bernard to grow more and more uneasy.
Baurs, continuing to struggle at pushing back the large crab monster man, looked upward and noticed Loumo had lifted his crab claw arms and proceeded to slam both of his arms into Baurs backside, causing her to fall down onto her chest and cracking her hard carapace slightly.
"Oh no... She can't hold this up for much longer with the energy I gave... Damn it, plan B!" Bernard thought as he looked on with a struggled expression. "Baurs, mud spray! Aim for the ground!" He ordered as the damaged Baurs quickly opened her mouth.
Expunging her torrent attack of mud downward into the ground, the force launched Baurs into a ramming attack that uppercut Loumo into the chest of his monstrous form. Sending herself and Loumo upward towards the ceiling, Baurs crushed the monstrous sculpture against the top of the room as the two fell back down to the floor.
"Ugh!" Baurs grunted as she hit the ground as she twisted to get back on all fours. In response, Bernard proceeded to point his fingers in the direction of Baurs, transferring his energy into her as her body started to grow back some of the rocks and stone that formed her body.
"Crap... Baurs ain't looking so good and Corvus' attacks don't work on him." Bernard thought as he looked over at Vulp, standing by Bernard in a protective manner. "And Vulp is on standby... Damn it, I need to break up this standstill of- huh?" He continued to think until he noticed Claudia was glancing in another direction, not bothering to look at the fight between her sculpture monster and Bernards beasty allies.
Looking over, Bernard looked in the same direction as Claudia and noticed the paintings on the walls had become uncentered and some of the rooms statues had shaken and twisted a little from the reverberations caused by Baurs and Loumo falling and hitting the ground.
"Tch!" Claudia grunted as she clicked her tongue as Bernard noticed the sudden action from her.
"She's... Worried over her art? Wait... That's the weak point!" Bernard thought until he came to a realization that may have turned the tide in his favor. "Baurs! Are you good enough to move?!" He asked of the rock lizard.
"I am now..." Baurs said in a slightly pained tone.
"Kid? Got any ideas?" Corvus asked as he continued to look on while flapping his wings in the air.
"Maybe..." Bernard said hesitantly. "Baurs, I want you to spray your mud... And aim for Loumo to hit the wall." He said as he pointed at a wall with paintings on it, prompting Claudias eyes to widen.
"What?!" Claudia screamed in a shocked and defiant tone.
"Now!" Bernard ordered as Baurs proceeded to open her mouth as Loumo attempted to get up from the ground. Launching another torrent of mud in his direction, Loumo was pushed back by the force of the liquid and was sent crashing into a painting adorned wall.
"No!" Claudia violently screamed as she saw Loumo leave a large indent in the wall that knocked over two of her statues and tear into a painting.
"Ha! Maybe next time you have a "big battle," you don't have it in your treasure room!" Corvus said in a mocking tone as Claudia was staring at the destruction of her artwork. As she stood with a blank expression that was trying to hide the rage boiling up inside her, Bernard looked on with a drip of sweat rolling down the side of his face.
"...She looks like she's ready to blow a gasket..." Bernard thought with a nervous tone as he noticed Claudia begun to slowly walk to the downed Loumo as the monstrous sculpture flailed to try and get up as his master approached him. Looking up from the ground at her, Claudia looked down at him with disdain as she lifted her leg and begun to stomp on Loumo's head.
"You flat-headed... Useless... Uncultured... Idiot!" Claudia bellowed with anger as she stomped more and more into the head of Loumo between her words, her angered frenzy startling Bernard, the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental. "I spend all that time covering you in my clay and burning iron onto you and this is the "thanks" I get?! I made you worth a damn and you act like a dumbass and ruin my hard work!" She continued to scream with insanity in her tone as she made a harsh glare into the slightly crushed head of the monstrous Loumo.
"She's going insane..." Baurs said in Bernards direction.
"She already was..." Bernard said as Corvus flew over towards Baurs.
"Hey, this might be our chance…" Corvus whispered to the group as he got closer to Baurs, Bernard nodding in response.
"Vulp, stay here." Bernard said as Vulp nodded in compliance. Looking over at Claudia, standing over the bloody headless mess of clay that was left from her ruthless stomping on what used to be her subordinate, she proceeded to shift her agitated glare in Bernards direction.
"I always knew you were a piece of trash with no respect for fine art... But this is destruction of my life's work... And I won't take that lightly..." Claudia said in a crazed tone as she lifted her suitcase and proceeding to unlock it at the latches.
"What're you gonna do? Spit out another dumb knickknack from your little case? Doubt you have much in there!" Corvus said in a cocky tone.
"Don't tempt her dude!" Bernard said in an annoyed tone.
"..."Dumb?"' Claudia quietly said with a twitch in her eye as she took Corvus's insult very seriously.
"...Damn it... What now...?" Bernard thought with hesitation.
Opening her case and dropping it on the floor, Claudia stood out with her curved knife in hand and with a furious expression forming. Looking on, Bernard and the beasts looked down at the case and noticed a multitude of different colored smokes begun to emerge from inside. As the smoke permeated, the pouches that lined the suitcase had started to expand and bulge to the point where tiny white hands with gems encrusted in them stuck out.
"What the hell?!" Corvus exclaimed as Bernard and the others looked on as a myriad of small white imp-ish creatures with hunched backs, thin limps and solid black eyes with multicolored gemstones sticking out of their bodies begun to climb out of the suitcase. Dozens upon dozens of the tiny creatures continued to crawl out of the container as they continued to spill out from the case, like ants escaping an ant hill as they swarmed around the floor and crawled up the walls, making sure to avoid touching Claudias art.
"My word..." Baurs said as she and Corvus looked at the myriad of small clay imps around them as the creatures glared at the beasts.
"...Wow, maybe I should've kept my mouth shut..." Corvus said with wide eyes as he looked around as the group was now surrounded.
"Crap, we lost the numbers advantage..." Bernard thought as he looked around at the small imps surrounding the ground, forming a circle as Baurs and Corvus moved back towards Bernard for cover.
"Wait a minute, they're so tiny, why are we acting like cowards!?" Corvus complained.
"Because there's practically a thousand of them and look..." Bernard answered as he pointed over at the case as it continued to spawn imp creatures. "The suitcase is still spitting them out..."
"Then we gotta get to work!" Corvus said as he begun to spark up, launching blasts of lightning in random directions that were hitting the imps, sending them flying but as he continued to spark up, more and more came and continued to surround the group. "Kid?! A little planning would be nice!" Corvus exclaimed as he realized that his attacks weren't make a dent in their numbers.
"I know already! Give me some time!" Bernard said as he tried to think. Unbeknownst to him, however, was a few of the imps quietly walked over to his feet and proceeded to open their mouths and bite Bernard on the leg. "Yeouch!" He exclaimed in pain as he looked down and noticed some of the imps attempted to crawl up his leg and bite into him. "Ge-get off me!" Bernard exclaimed as he quickly grabbed at the imps and threw them off his lower body, back into the swarm.
"Are you alright?" Baurs asked as she proceeded stomp on some of the imps that approached.
"Physically?! No! Mentally?! Even worse!" Bernard replied with an agitated tone as he looked over at the suitcase and noticed it was starting to spawn a set of much larger creatures. "Oh what now?!" Bernard thought as he noticed two sets of large muscular hands with three fingers on each begun to grow from out of the case.
With their large horse-like heads with muscular golem bodies and wielding large claymores, a set of minotaur-like golems made of clay with gems and paint splattered colors appeared from Claudias suitcase as it continued to spit out imps. Raising their claymores, the pair of horse-headed golems attempted to rush towards the team as Vulp, transforming his tail into a pair of broadsword-like objects proceeded to clash blades with the large golems, blocking them.
"Nice work Vulp- Ahhh!" Corvus said as some of the imps jumped up from the ground and proceeded to pull and weigh down on Corvus as they start to nibble and chomp on him, dragging him into the swarm. "Hey! Hey! Ouch! I'm not a turkey for you to munch on! Ow!" Corvus complained as the imps continued to bite as he was pulled into the swarm.
"Crap, Corvus!" Bernard exclaimed.
"I'll go assist!" Baurs said as she rushed into the fray, kicking over the imps as she attempted to rush to Corvus' aid. Approaching where he was swarmed, a sudden burst of electricity appeared as Corvus flew out of the pile and into the air, away from the pile as Baurs looked at him, covered in bite marks. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"I feel violated..." Corvus said with annoyance. Looking back towards Bernard, Corvus looked at the beanie sporting boy standing behind Vulp as the fox continued to clash swords with the claymore wielding horse golems.
"Vulp can't protect me and destroy these things at the same time... Compromise time..." Bernard thought as he swallowed spit. "Vulp, fight them, leave me!" Bernard ordered as Vulp looked back with concern as he held back the claymores. "I'll be fine..." He said with concern as he looked over at Baurs and Corvus.
"Kid! Plan?!" Corvus asked as the large rock lizard and crow looked at the swarm begun to approach them once again.
"Get to work! Start fighting them!" Bernard said as the two creatures started to attack the creatures.
"What about you!?" Corvus said as he was firing off low powered sparks in the direction of the clay imps.
"...About to do something dumb..." Bernard said as he looked over at Claudia, who was blankly looking at the damaged painting and sculptures from before. "She's not paying attention, the damage to her art has her lost in her own little world... Only idea I can think of..." Bernard thought as he looked in the direction of the suitcase. "Here goes nothing..."
Sprinting out of the circle away from Vulp, Bernard dashed towards the suitcase in an effort to grab and close it, kicking over the imps to avoid them. As he reached forward, Claudias eyes rolled towards Bernard as she noticed him attempting to grab the case, prompting her to sprint in the direction of where Bernard was heading and cut him off.
"Doofh!" Bernard grunted as Claudia pushed him out of the way, onto the ground.
"Stay away..." Claudia said as the imps dispersed from around where Claudia and Bernard were as she held up her curved knife. "This douchebag is mine..." She said with a crazy set of eyes.
"Damn it-Gah!" Bernard said as he sat up before getting his throat grasped by Claudias hand. Holding him down by his neck, Bernard struggled to breathe as she looked at him with disdain.
"You are the villain here, not me! You are an enemy of the arts!" Claudia screamed as she pointed the end of her curved knife against Bernards cheek, lightly cutting him.
"You're an insane kidnapper and psychopath who likes to mess with peoples bodies to fit her own viewpoint of beauty!" Bernard retorted back as he gripped with one hand at the wrist of the hand choking him. "Crap, have to use it now!" He thought as he moved his other hand in the direction of his back pocket.
"I've had enough of your damn mouth and your disgusting uncouth eyes and your- huh? What are you grabbing at?!" Claudia angrily ranted before noticing Bernard was reaching for something, prompting her reach behind him and grab what he had. "The heck is this?" She said as she looked at what Bernard had on him; a clear glass flask filled with a mysterious liquid of blue, black and red fluid.
"...Okay, time for a change of plans..." Bernard thought as he looked at Claudia holding the flask. "No, don't!" Bernard shouted as Claudia looked down at him and noticing his reaction. "That's my medicine! I need it for my heart!" He exclaimed.
"What the hell is he talking about? I don't remember him taking any meds?" Corvus thought as he continued to fight the imps on the ground.
"Give it back!" Bernard said as he reached for it in Claudias hand as she used her other hand holding the knife to push Bernard back down to the ground threateningly.
"Shut up!" Claudia exclaimed. "...You care about this huh?" She said with a devilish smirk forming on her face. "Then you can lose something you care about as well!" Claudia screamed as she stood up and threw the glass flask against the wall, shattering it and letting the liquid seep to the ground.
Bernard, looking at the liquid dripping off the wall, then turned his head back towards the direction of Claudia, who was standing over the downed young man with a wicked grin as she felt happy over destroying something Bernard owned, thinking it was important to him. As she looked down, however, her happy expression turned to one of confusion as she noticed a peculiar sight: Bernard with a cocky smile forming on his face.
"...Why are you smiling like that... Wipe that stupid smirk of your face..." Claudia said slowly and angrily as she pointed her curved knife at him once again.
"Nah." Bernard bluntly retorted. "Give it a couple of seconds." He said while still smirking as Claudia in her aggravated state grabbed him by his shirt and then pushed him against the wall of the room, holding him with her hand on his neck once more.
"Oh no- Huh?" Corvus said as he swatted away more of the clay imps until he noticed the liquid in the flask, that was dripping off the wall from where Claudia broke it, had started to move and twist as if it was alive. Slinking away, the fluid shifted into a crack in the floorboards and escaped the room. "Wait... Was that some of the big goop?" Corvus thought.
"Quit it with that disgusting smile on your face!" Claudia complained as she continued to choke Bernard. "The more I look at it, the more I want to vomit!" She continued in her enraged state.
"Then do it! Because you won't!" Bernard retorted. "Just got to bait her to draw some more time..." Bernard thought as he held his ground.
"Gladly..." Claudia said as she lifted her knife overhead to stab Bernard.
"No stop!" Corvus exclaimed as Vulp and Baurs jerked their heads in worry as Claudia swung her knife down towards Bernards skull.
"...How long can you hold your breath?" Bernard asked casually as she suddenly stopped from trying to stab Bernard in the head.
"...What?" Claudia responded confused. "The hell are you talking about?" She continued, not sure what the young man was doing by asking that question.
"I can hold mine for about a minute... Comes in handy." Bernard said casually as he jerked his head in the other direction.
"What are you looking at- Oh my god..." Claudia said as she turned her head, noticing a sight that bewildered and terrified her.
Dripping from out of the backside of one of her paintings was the red, blue and black fluid that was originally in the flask but in a larger quantity. Looking upward and then downward, the fluid came out of the ceiling and emerging from the floorboards, respectively. Engulfing some of the clay imps at the same time, boney spikes emerged from the liquid begun to fill up in the room and the sloshing liquid begun to knock over the paintings and the statues as they became drenched in slime.
"No! My art!" Claudia exclaimed in shock as she let go of Bernard as she attempted to get to some of her art pieces and salvage them as they fell over from the bone spikes knocking them down and become messed up as the slime coated them.
"Whoa! How'd you bring the big slime guy here?!" Corvus asked as he looked at Bernard as some of the imps he was fighting got washed away by Formosa flooding the room.
"Gave Formosa an order to come to my position if I broke that bottle around that piece of its slime as a form of signal for it arrive here, did it before we even left for the forest because I was being cautious. Now hold your breath!" Bernard explained he looked down at the slime. "Formosa! Do not let a single drop of yourself leave this room! Stay concentrated only in here!" He barked.
With the imps and the claymore wielding golems slipping into the fluid and as Vulp, Baurs and Corvus floated within the water, Bernard and Claudia were now floating as well as Bernard held his breath and swam into the slime. Looking around, he swam in the direction of Claudias suitcase that was expunging the clay dolls, floating around in the goop, as he closed it, sealing them inside. As he did that, Bernard swam back to the surface of the liquid as it nearly reached the ceiling.
"Formosa! Return!" Bernard exclaimed as the fluid and bone spiked stopped filling the room and begun to draw itself back into Bernards Lacrima pacemaker as the golems and imps laid sprawled around the room broken from Formosas fluid and spikes having pierced through them amidst the fighting.
Corvus, Baurs and Vulp had quickly stood back up as they shook off Formosas liquid that they were covered in. Looking in Bernards direction, they noticed he was holding the suitcase as he looked over in Claudias direction as she was cradling a piece of a bust she made as she was kneeling.
"...My... Precious... Pieces..." Claudia said in a broken state of mind as she twisted her head in the direction of Bernard as he held her suitcase. "You... Took... Everything from me!" Claudia screamed as she picked her knife back up and rushed at Bernard to finally kill him.
"Oh no you don't!" Corvus exclaimed as he shot a bolt of lightning in Claudias direction, zapping her into dropping her knife.
"Gaahh!" Claudia screamed as she felt electrocuted.
As she stood dazed, Bernard grabbed the handle of the suitcase and rushed at Claudia, swinging her suitcase towards her face. Smashing her in the side of the head with the edge of the case, Claudia fell to the ground in pain.
"My... Art..." Claudia said before passing out from the blow to her skull as Bernard stood over her, victorious.
"We did it!" Corvus shouted as he flew through the air cheerfully as Vulp jumped up and down in glee.
"Most wonderfully!" Baurs stated casually in similar joy.
"Shhh!" Bernard shushed as he got the creatures to stop celebrating. "We forgetting something?" He asked as he pointed towards the direction of a door in the destroyed gallery as he put the case down.
"Oh right." Baurs said as Bernard walked over to the door.
Opening the entryway, Bernard looked around and saw a preparation room with tools for building art pieces, several unfinished projects as well as a locker that Bernard took one whiff of and immediately decided he didn't want to go near with its disturbing "rotting flesh" smell. Shifting towards the direction of a crib in the room, Bernard swallowed the spit in his mouth and walked over to it, the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental following behind him.
"Okay..." Bernard said as he looked over at the crib, seeing the sleeping infant, Merilo, for the first time since the party last night when she got kidnapped. "Wow… Still conked out..." He said with surprise.
"Dang. A bomb could go off and this kid would still be out." Corvus said as he perched himself on the edge of the crib.
"Hey there little one... Let's get you out of here." Bernard said calmly as he reached down and picked up the child, holding her in his arms. Looking at Merilo, he noticed the child was beginning to open her eyes. "Whoa! She's waking up!" Bernard said with surprise as the others looked at her.
"About time!" Corvus said.
"Amazing." Baurs said simply.
Opening her eyes whilst in Bernards arms, Merilo looked up at the unfamiliar face of Bernard and the other creatures. Immediately upon seeing them, the baby begun to wildly cry and scream loudly in Bernards arms, startling Bernard and the monsters.
"First time waking up and she screams her head off at us?!" Corvus said in surprise.
"Just my luck..." Bernard said with an exhausted smile forming on his face as he looked at the others as he felt tears and snot drip onto his arms and scream in his ears.
God damn it! Shut up you stupid artist about beauty and all that! Ugh! I am so glad she got smacked in her dumb face!... Sorry, back to narrating. It was a hard fought battle but finally, Bernard and his beastly allies succeeded in defeating Claudia and her living sculpture creatures at her disposal through Bernard ingenuity and his trump card: calling back Formosa to him with an SOS signal of the creatures fluid in a glass flask. With Claudia defeated, the deed is done and Merilo has been saved, despite her outlandish crying tearing Bernards earlobes into pieces. But what now? What will happen when Bernard returns the child home and what of the team outside? Find out next time in the next exciting chapter of Menagerie!
