Chapter 23: Fight for your Life

"Current objective: Survive."

-Halo: Reach

Ralsei clapped his hands together, sending a wave of flames billowing outwards. He whirled in all directions, tossing flaming projectiles at any attackers who approached. Susie followed up with a few heavy strikes of her own.

"I don't know if you noticed," she punched a Shadowborn troop hard enough to crack his helmet, "but we kinda have better things to do than mess around with you."

A mage conjured a series of solid stone spikes from the earth. "We care not for your plans. On our loyalty to the dark, you shall not harm Master Helsing."

She cleaved the spikes in twain. "You're seriously still loyal to that freak? Hasn't he been doing nothing but disrespecting you?"

The mage fortified his own armor with stone. "Some of his remarks have been hurtful, yes, but nonetheless, we shall not forsake our duties."

"It'd be real nice if you did, though." She attacked the mage, only to have her weapon bounce harmlessly off of his stone armor. She prepared a followup attack, but was repelled when the mage struck her with a wall of solid rock.

Another soldier stepped up to duel her. They traded blows until yet another plunged a spear into her back. The two surrounded her and continued attacking. She fended them off to the best of her ability. Ralsei sprayed one down with a stream of flames, forcing him to raise his shield in defense.

Susie whacked her other attacker with the hilt of her weapon and kicked him to the ground. She spun around, grabbed the spearman by the collar, and delivered a punch to the kidney. Ralsei pacified him before casting a healing spell on her.

Susie charged into the mage, knocking him to the ground. Before he could get back up, she repeatedly stomped on his chest, each impact sending cracks through his stone armor. She raised her weapon to defend against another incoming soldier. She parried his attack and jabbed at him with her hilt.

The mage dispelled his armor, breaking it apart into several sharp chunks of rock that he launched at her. She stepped back to shield herself from them. The mage jumped to his feet and pulled yet more stone chunks from the ground, sending them her way.

Ralsei stepped in front of her with a barrier raised. He discharged its energy to knock the mage back. Susie rushed him and punched him in the jaw hard enough to throw him back to the ground, at which point Ralsei pacified him.

A halberdier clashed blades with Susie. Ralsei moved to assist her, but was challenged by two more soldiers. He bombarded them both with a flurry of flaming projectiles. He did not relent in his assault; when they backed away, he only redoubled his efforts.

One of them shrieked when a fireball exploded in her face. "What the hell? I thought you were supposed to be a pacifist!"

Ralsei prepared another barrage. "I'm willing to make an exception for you."

Susie forced her attacker back. "Damn, Ralsei, don't cut yourself on that edge."

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Nevermind." She returned to her skirmish. She stabbed her opponent with the spike atop her weapon's blade, and buried the blade itself into his shoulder. While he was reeling, she gave him a swift punch to the gut that caused him to fall to his knees. Ralsei stepped up to pacify him.

The two turned to face the pair that had challenged Ralsei. They seemed winded, but still eager to fight. Curiously, one of them still had his sword sheathed.

"Enough of this. Your interference ends now." He held his scabbard in one hand and unsheathed his weapon just enough to reveal its shining steel blade.

Susie eyed him. "What, are you gonna show off your anime sword techniques?"

He narrowed his eyes and fully drew his weapon, casting the scabbard aside. He stared her down for several seconds. She rolled her eyes. No one dared interrupt the two.

Eventually, he held his sword in a low stance and rushed at her at blistering speed. She simply held her fist out in front of her, and he promptly ran into it. He stumbled backwards, his sword clattering to the ground. She lifted him up by the collar and forcefully threw him down. Ralsei pacified him before he could get up.

"Ugh, you idiot…" the soldier's partner grumbled to herself. She tapped her fists against each other, causing them to surge with magic energy. She nailed Susie with a right hook that struck hard enough to spin her around, then punched her in the back, knocking her down.

Susie barely had time to roll out of the way of the soldier's next attack, which left a sizable dent in the ground. "Damn, lady, you pack a punch."

"Thank you for noticing." She leapt into the air and delivered a flip kick that narrowly missed. Susie took a swing at her with her halberd. She blocked the attack by discharging the magic energy in her hands.

Susie followed up with a kick to the chest, which knocked her back into a barrier Ralsei had raised. He used its energy to launch her back in Susie's direction, where she delivered a punch to the head. Ralsei pacified her when she hit the ground.

Only two Shadowborn troops remained, and one of them appeared to be internally debating whether or not to run away. The other held his ground with his weapon firmly in hand. Susie sauntered up to him with a menacing grin on her face.

"This is the part where you give up," she said. "Your pal's got the right idea."

The other soldier took on a defensive stance. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you look like you're about to run like a little bitch."

"Why, just because you beat everyone else into submission and made it look easy? N-no, I'm not running…!"

"That's very brave of you, but also very stupid of you."

"Don't listen to her," the other soldier urged his partner. "We can take these two."

"The rest of your army couldn't take us. What makes you think you're special?"

Before he could reply, she charged at him and hit him with a left hook. She followed up with a headbutt, and concluded by throwing him back. She pinned him to the ground beneath her boot.

"Don't bother answering."

Ralsei pacified the soldier. Susie turned to glare at the one who remained, baring her teeth. He panicked, dropping his weapon and taking off running.

Susie laughed. "Well, that was pretty easy."

"I know…" Ralsei looked over the battlefield. "I was expecting more of a fight. Do you think Helsing's trying to get us to let our guard down?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, for someone so desperate to stop us, you'd think he'd bring absolutely everyone with him. Maybe he intentionally brought a skeleton crew to make us think he's weaker than he really is."

"C'mon, you think that crackpot has that much foresight? If anything Rouxls told us is true, he's one good insult away from going hollow. Besides, how many hundreds of his dudes have we taken out by now? How many can he possibly have left?"

He shrugged. "Maybe you're right. I'd just rather be safe than sorry."

"Yeah, I get that. Come on, let's go find the others."

Frisk's barrier shattered beneath the Shadowborn's assault. A spear from Undyne struck one of the soldiers in the shoulder, quickly followed by her fist. She pulled Frisk behind her and continued to fight them off. Despite Frisk's best efforts at a defense, both of them were beginning to break.

"Officer, you're hurt pretty bad," Frisk observed.

"Don't worry about me." She skewered another soldier. "Are you alright?"

"I think so. My head is killing me, but I'll be fine."

"Not for long." Helsing emerged behind her, slashing her across the back with his scythe. She let out a scream and fell to one knee. He skittered away from Undyne's retaliatory attack, raising his scythe overhead.

"Die!"

Undyne threw herself in front of the attack, blocking with a pair of crossed spears. She drove one into his abdomen, and thrust at him with the other. His tendrils snaked around it, stopping it mere inches from his chest. He cast it aside and pulled the other from his abdomen with a wince.

"Get out of my way!" he demanded.

"Not happening," she sneered. She rained a series of spears down upon him. He leapt to the side to evade, countering with a wide swing of his weapon.

While they dueled, Frisk took to defending herself from the Shadowborn troops. She mustered up the strength to raise another barrier. The pain in her skull only intensified. She couldn't maintain her defense for long; it only took a few hits for her barrier to shatter.

She backpedaled, trying to create another. A faint spark flickered in her hands, but nothing more. Her legs gave out beneath her. She whined as she nursed her pounding headache.

"Looks like you could use some help," a familiar voice came from the distance. Frisk looked up to see Susie brandishing her halberd, with Ralsei at her side.

"You?" Helsing seethed. "For fuck's sake, what does it take to get rid of you?!"

Susie shrugged. "Nuclear ordnance, maybe? Definitely something beyond your means."

He slithered forth through the shadows, emerging a few inches away from Frisk. Ralsei bombarded him with a series of fiery projectiles, causing him to slink back defensively. Ralsei rushed to Frisk's side and raised a barrier to protect her. Susie took to fending off the Shadowborn troops.

Undyne took the opportunity to clash with Helsing again. She thrust a pair of spears at him, but he deflected them with a swing of his scythe.

"You're just as annoyingly persistent as they are," he hissed.

"Well, thanks for noticing." She conjured several spears from the ground beneath his feet.

He swiveled around her and lashed at her with his tendrils. "I didn't mean that as a compliment. I'm sick of you lightners ruining everything."

"Excuse me for not letting you take over the world." She smacked him across the face with a baton hard enough for it to snap in half. She grabbed him by the wrist and twisted his arm, pulling his scythe from his grasp and tossing it aside.

His eyes flashed white as he dissolved into the shadows. He rematerialized behind her, wrapping his tendrils around her throat and delivering a firm kick to her back, accompanied with a sickening crack. She sunk to her knees, desperately clawing at her neck.

Susie's halberd sliced through Helsing's wrist, cutting his left hand, tendrils and all, clean off. He let out a scream of pain and skittered away.

"You…" he clutched his wrist. "You defiler! Heretic!"

Susie glanced at the malformed appendage, lying in a pool of viscous black blood. "You're kidding, right? That thing was due for an amputation."

Helsing faded into the shadows and reclaimed his scythe. "Attempting to sever the source of my gift… I never thought you could stoop so low."

"You and I have different definitions of 'gift', pal."

He glowered at her, rushing at her and swinging his scythe madly. She blocked his attack, but stumbled back under the force of the blow. He struck again, forcing her weapon aside, and followed up with a dropkick to the chest. She fell to the ground, while he faded into the shadows and emerged beside her with his scythe raised.

He brought his weapon down, the blade finding purchase not in Susie's chest, but in Undyne's.

"Officer…?" Susie pulled herself up.

"How heroic." Helsing pulled his weapon free, stepping back as Undyne fell to the ground.

She felt her body begin to break down. Her hands tightened into fists. She struggled to stand, powering through the immense pain racking her body. It was as if she was refusing to die.

"You're…" she growled, "you're gonna have to… to try harder than that…!"

Unimpressed, Helsing hooked his scythe through her shoulder and pulled her down. He plunged his blade into her back, viciously slicing her in half at the waist.

"I expect you to stay dead," he stated.

Undyne died in silence, her body finally dissolving into dust.

"Now, if there will be no further interruptions…"

A crossbow bolt flew past his face. He turned to face his attacker, and was taken aback by what he saw. A dozen or so defectors stood before him, brandishing all manner of weaponry.

"Hey, look who decided to show up!" Susie acknowledged them.

"Yes, look who," Helsing echoed. "I hate to be a bad host, but I think I'll be taking my leave now."

"You're gonna run away again? Why don't you stand and fight, you little bitch?"

"Because doing so would be stupid." He created a wall of black flames to cover his escape. He was gone by the time it faded.

Susie glanced at the pile of dust that was once Undyne, and sighed heavily. "That bastard won't get away with this either."

"I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner," one of the defectors said. "We were held up at Castle Town. Are you all okay, at least?"

"A little worse for wear, but we'll be fine," Frisk said.

"We're still looking for two of our own," Ralsei said. "We could use your help finding them, before we lose them too."

The defector nodded. "Then we better get going."