Ch.41: War of the Witches! Earth and Hell Collide Pt.1!
Flames stretched out through the oasis as far as the eye could see. No longer a luscious grove of greens and browns, but a heated inferno of violently warm colors burning everything into unrecognizable blacks. A fog of smoke consumed the air, blanketing everything in an impenetrable darkness.
Medusa braved the smoke as she ventured through. The oasis served as her eyes with what little plant matter endured against the flames. Her closed eyes scrunched up into an irritable glare as the heat blew across her face.
"Disgusting," she muttered. She twirled her staff in her tail, coiled around it, and slammed the end onto the ground with a thunderous crack. "Come forth, Mysto! Come forth, Oasis Zone! Lend me your magic and end this deadly blaze!"
Magic ruptured from the ground and spread through the flora. Streams of water seeped from the trees, rapidly shriveling them into wilted corpses. The water converged at the tip of Medusa's staff, swirling into a concentrated mass. Medusa aimed her staff and the water orb toward the inferno, furrowing her brow as she lined up her aim.
"Extinguish!"
She fired a powerful geyser through the trees and completely obliterated the flames with a single stroke. The water buried the smoke under its wave, giving way to an outpour of mist from the extinguished flames. A crackling hiss of smothered flames blew through the air. Medusa covered herself beneath her cloak as the mist struck her.
She felt a rapid decline in the heat, returning to the usual sweltering temperature of before. The mist even cooled her down some, making way for a refreshing blast of cold wind. Her slick skin collected droplets of water that slid down her face.
She spun her staff again, struck it down, then sighed in relief. "What horrors brought about these actions? Who dares assault my domain so brazenly to—"
She felt a tremor through the ground. Not an earthquake, but a pulse of magic pinging through the earth like sonar. Her eyes flew open as the magic struck her, projecting the cry of a small child to her, followed by the grunts of a young man. She heard crazed laughter bellowing in the void of message.
A warning from the oasis itself.
"Venus?" she gasped. She closed her eyes again, then clenched her teeth furiously. "They dare not…Oasis, show me where my granddaughter is!"
An image of Venus' location projected through her mind. She saw her cowering behind a tree as Andre held off against a mad Lombre chucking knives at them. She sensed great evil in those weapons, as well as their master. An aura of tainted power and greed.
Medusa snarled. "You dare enter my domain and attack my granddaughter? A brave fool, you are. A brave fool who shall find his last stance in these very trees." She turned and slithered hurriedly toward the secret grove.
The tainted presence she felt from the Lombre told her all she needed. The false witches of this era. A scar on their history coming to wipe the last of them out, perhaps? What better day than today to finally wipe that scar off the face of the planet.
"AAAHHH!" Gwyn wailed, dodging through a flurry of shadow tendrils lacerating everything in sight. She narrowly avoided a trio of tendrils that turned the nearby trees into mulch. The flames spewing from sharp-tipped ends spread to the other trees and caught them on fire as well.
Gwyn rolled onto her feet after landing, then punched the dirt. Giant roots sprung from the ground and thrusted towards her fiery opponent. War glared at the roots, then split her arms into three separate bladed tendrils on each side. They flailed wildly and shredded the roots to ash.
One tendril snuck through and whipped down near Gwyn's feet. She yelped and jumped back. The stricken spot melted and bubbled like molten plastic.
"Ooookay, you're tougher than I initially thought," Gwyn mumbled. "A lot tougher, in fact…"
War molded her tendrils into a giant pair of claws and thrusted them at Gwyn. Gwyn held her arms out to catch the claws, or at least keep them from reaching her neck. They slammed into her and drove her through the trees behind her, incinerating them to ash and spreading more fire. Gwyn winced from the heat burning into her palms.
"E…Enough!" Gwyn stamped her foot down and summoned spikes of wood from the ground. They punctured down the length of the extended claws, chewing through their lava-like texture and ripping the claws in two.
War retracted her tendril and reshaped them back into a regular pair of claws. "I will break you," she hissed. The ground set fire with each step she took. The menacing, fiery aura of red intensified around her, something that reminded Gwyn of Griffin's own aura. Less hateful and more bloody, though.
Gwyn pulled out a handful of seeds and threw them to the ground. "Accelerated Growth: Mad Party Mutation!" She clapped the ground and fired a motley bundle of plants toward War.
War's eyes flashed with a fiery blaze. "That won't work!" She morphed her right claw into a buzz saw and slashed through the mismatched plants in one stroke. Plant matter when scattering through the air, set ablaze like fireflies dancing on the wind.
Something burst out from the ground behind her and wrapped its arms around War, pinning her arms down. War glared over her shoulder, meeting the eyes of a wooden effigy baring the appearance of Gwyn.
Gwyn raised her Spiky Berry in her gloved hand and absorbed it. "Nutrient Transvoro: Cactus Coffin!" She fired a thin green beam from her fingers and nailed the forehead of her effigy.
The effigy's eyes glowed green. Its physical body warped into something monstrous, opening and expanding its entire front wide open. Inside, a hollow chamber sat lined all over with sharp, pointy, cactus-like spikes. The effigy pulled War it and closed down around her with a harsh snap.
Gwyn bent down and pressed her hands to the ground. "That won't hold her forever, so…" The ground cracked open behind her. Sunflowers baring red petals shot out, their buds the width of wagon wheels. Magic flowed through their stems and concentrated into the buds. "Helianthus Ruin!"
Magic overflowed through the buds rapidly, then fired dozens of aquamarine light beams straight down on the trapped shadow warrior. An explosion of light swallowed the surroundings, flooding out the harsh glow of flames in a blinding blue. Gwyn had to close her eyes to keep herself from going blind.
Pure magic pulled straight from the ground. That was the secret to this new spell of Gwyn's. With her passive ability to control nature, the earth lent the full extent of its power mixed with her own godly abilities, bringing for destructive power that could swallow the darkness itself.
At least, that's what she was hoping for.
Surely this will be enough to stop that creep, Gwyn hoped.
She did sense resistance behind the glow, a disturbance delivered to her through the ground. The wooden shell made to hold War had shattered, and she was guarding against the beams, seemingly losing. For a moment, Gwyn felt like she was coming out on top.
Her hopes dashed when she sensed movement against the beams. Sluggish steps, granted, but ones that were putting up a fight. This wasn't Gwyn's full power, but she didn't want to be wasteful with the Oasis Zone's magic or her own. Still, to hold up against her attack…
She's really strong, Gwyn growled.
She called off the lasers and jumped back. As the lasers were cut off, War lunged through the light and nearly slashed Gwyn with a scythe-shaped hand. She did flinch from the heat coming off of the shadow warrior. In fact, the lava glow of her body seemed to be getting brighter.
Gwyn stumbled back on her feet and wiped her lips. "What in the…"
She looked around, then noticed the flames were diminishing around them. All the fires caused by War were lessening until they were nothing but tiny embers. Her eyes followed the smoke until she saw magic flowing through the air, resembling lava as well. It flowed down into War, absorbing through her back. War was more lava monster than shadow by now, with her bladed arms resembling white hot sickles.
Gwyn gritted her teeth. "What are you doing?"
"I am War. I am destruction and conflict. I am the ends of civilization. I am the rampage of Pokémon kind. I am the aftermath of their sins." War shaped her right arm into a giant shadow blade, the tip burning white hot with lava cracks running down the black body. "First comes War, then comes destruction, then comes power."
"What are you talking…about?" Gwyn blinked, then looked around at the ruins left behind. Only the flames caused by War were being absorbed, while other flames continued to rage as normal. Only the damage War caused was lessened, leaving blackened earth in its place.
First comes War, then destruction, then power…
Gwyn's eyes widened. "Oh no!"
"Count Aeternus designed me to be an instrument of turmoil and rampage," War explained. "For the damage I lay waste with my magic, in equal does its destruction grant me strength beyond. In ruins, regardless of death, pestilence, and famine, only War shall exist as a memento of the abyss."
Gwyn reached behind her waist and pulled out her whip. "You gain power from how much destruction you cause to the area?!"
"Your magic is beneath me. I shall tear through your earth and blister these grounds into a proud scar of War's triumphant. To hell with the witches and their scheming. War only cares for battle and bloodshed, not surrender."
Gwyn grimaced. Wait, Callista's coven is here, too? Oh dear…
"Now, face me in combat, Gwyn Belladonna!" War lunged at the green Mew and swung her gargantuan, superheated blade.
Gwyn stretched her arms out and caught the blade. A mistake on her part as flames burst from her palms and spread down her hands. She bit back a scream, then kicked War off with a surprise root from the ground. It coiled around the airborne warrior's ankle and smashed her into the ground.
Gwyn stepped back and took a moment to look at her hands. Unlike last time she pulled that move, the flames burned through her aura and left burns across her arms. It hurt just to move her fingers. "Crap," she muttered. She reached into her bag and pulled out a potion, spilling the liquid over her burns.
She flinched as flaming tendrils spawned from the ground and lacerated her roots to ash. War leapt from the ground and came crashing down on Gwyn, grinding her foot into her face. The ground split open from the collision, burying the poor Mew head first. War morphed her claws into an oversized stake and smashed it down on Gwyn's helpless body.
Gwyn cried out as the stake pressed against her chest. Its superheated tip burned through her aura, aiming to drive straight through her heart. She pursed her lips and let loose a sharp whistle.
Her thorn whip, assuming its serpent form, sprung out from beneath her and lunged at War's face. It coiled around the shadow warrior and dug its prickly thorns into her skin and helmet. Worst of all, they were laced with a powerful, irritating poison. War screeched and pulled back on her attack, gripping at the dragon-shape whip.
Once the pressure left her chest, Gwyn sat up and breathed a sigh of relief. She pulled out another potion and splashed it over herself to satiate the burns, then pulled out her Informis Oak Berry. With one bite, her body transformed into its malleable oak form.
She picked herself up right as War ripped the whip off her face and incinerated it to ashes. War wiped the dripping poison from her face, her glare dripping with its own venom.
"This zone shall become collateral of War's rampage," the shadow warrior threated, shaping her claws into another sword. She struck the ground with the tip, setting leftover foliage ablaze. "I am the inevitable of Pokémon kind. The conflict, the tyranny, the fall of civility. I am War."
Gwyn shaped her hands into giant clubs and glared. "You've made that very clear. Now, let me show you the power of a witch and a goddess."
Some days, Ambrosine woke up thinking everything was going to be okay. That nothing was going to further drive her down the existential hole she dug over the course of her life. Next thing she knew, she was being attacked by monkey-like, stone goblins.
Ambrosine screamed and flailed as Isidore's flunkies descended on her, gripping her arms and pulling on her leaves as they hooted and hollered. With incessant screeching that bordered on laughter, they jumped and kicked on the stumbling Steenee.
"Get them off, get them off!" Ambrosine yelled, throwing her weight into the trees. The flunkies clung tight, so she threw herself to the trees again. Sadly, for as much as she tried with herself, she wasn't a fighter like her friends. She was skin and bones compared to them, and she was trying to pry stone goblin monkeys off herself.
What only made her situation worse was the laughter coming from Isidore. The Ambipom witch balanced on her tails, grinning impishly at Ambrosine. "Don't be like that, dearie. They just want to play. They're perfectly harm…ful."
Ambrosine growled through clenched teeth, but couldn't come up with a witty retort. Instead, she purposely stumbled over her feet and threw the full force of her weight to the ground. The flunky clinging to her back had the back of its head cracked open. The flunky didn't shatter, but the pain caused it to release its grip on Ambrosine's wrist. She whipped out one of her scalpels and pierced it through the other three flunkies holding her, driving it through their eyes.
The flunkies hollered in pain and scattered away from Ambrosine, covering their cracking eyes. They retreated close to Isidore, whose face fell into an annoyed frown.
Ambrosine stepped back after recovering and pulled out a handful of scalpels. "Time for your physical, Ms. Isidore," Ambrosine growled. "Let's start with your reflexes!" She chucked the scalpels straight at Isidore.
Isidore spun her staff and deflected the scalpels, scattering them through the air. Ambrosine waved her hand, commanding the scalpels to turn their blades on Isidore's back and strike down. Isidore noticed them right before jumping out of the way. The scalpels impaled the ground.
Isidore jumped into the trees for cover. "Get her!" she ordered her flunkies. The stone monkeys howled, then charged toward Ambrosine.
Ambrosine swiped her hand, commanding the scalpels to dislodge from the ground and fly towards her. They pierced through the flunkies, severing limbs and puncturing eyes out. She caught the scalpels, imbued them with her magic, then threw them back. The scalpels easily slashed through their stone bodies and decapitated their heads. Though their bodies collapsed and crumbled to dust, the heads remained animate.
One head lunged at Ambrosine and bit down on her leg.
Ambrosine's eyes widened before she broke out into a mad shriek. "Ew! Get off!" She gripped a scalpel in both hands and viciously stabbed the flunky until its head split open like a coconut. She shook off the dust on her leg, then threw her remaining scalpels into the other heads before they could follow their brother's example.
Over with Isidore, she hung from the trees by her tails and aimed her staff. "Noitcnitxe Yar." Dark magic coursed up the length of her staff and fired out as a dark purple beam.
Ambrosine barely caught sight of it from the corner of her eye before diving out of the way. The beam struck a tree and instantly incinerated it to ash. Ambrosine flinched from the pained cries of the tree, seeing for a split second its tongued orifices cry out a final wail in defeat.
Another beam fired down on Ambrosine. She combat-rolled out of the way and chucked more scalpels at Isidore.
Isidore reeled herself back into the trees and jumped along the branches as scalpels grazed by her fur. She deflected a few with her staff while secretly using her tail to reach inside her robe. She pulled out a couple more flunky charms. She lifted them close to her face and whispered something for their ears only.
"Find the Nightshade's Lament. Get as much as you can. A single berry if you must." She landed on a branch and spun her staff, channeling a ring of dark magic around it. "Ssendam Xetrov!" A cyclone of dark winds fired from her staff.
Ambrosine took cover behind the trees and covered her head. The winds pounded against the trees, stripping the bark clean off before steadily grinding through the wood into sawdust.
With Ambrosine preoccupied, Isidore whipped her tail and threw the three charms deep into the trees. They expanded to life. The newly formed flunkies quietly hollered to themselves before taking off into the forest on their mission.
Isidore nodded to herself, then canceled her spell. She gripped her staff in both hands and raised it high, channeling magic through the tip. "Eriflleh Esnaelc!" She swung down and lit a wave of dark flames across the ground, swallowing the earth and trees like a flood.
Ambrosine peeked out from behind the trees right as the flames came barreling towards her. Like a Pachirisu scampering for food, Ambrosine skittered up the tree and caught a branch in time as the flames passed under her. Looking down, she saw nothing but a sea of flame enraged with the fury of Hell. Something out of a novel about a mighty sailor conquering the unforgiving sea, except the sea was an inferno and there wasn't some horrible beast haunting the waters. Just the flames themselves.
Ambrosine wrapped her legs around the branch and hung upside-down. She pulled out another handful of scalpels and threw them into curve shots. They spun through the air like shuriken, arcing around the torrent of flame spilling from Isidore's staff.
Isidore canceled her spell and dodged the scalpels. One came flying through her blind spot and nailed her in the side. "AH!" Isidore cried. She grabbed and ripped it out. Blood spilled from the wound, so she closed her hand around it. She passed her staff into her tail hands and jumped through the trees as more scalpels came flying at her.
Ambrosine pulled herself up, then started running parallel with Isidore through the trees, albeit less gracefully. She nearly slipped off a branch after making the landing, but found her rhythm and kept up with the fleeing Ambipom.
Isidore glared over her shoulder and yelled, "It'll take more than a puny set of knives to stop me, twerp!" She kicked off into the air and aimed her staff. "Noitcnitxe Yar!" She fired the dark purple beam from the staff.
Ambrosine dove forward as the beam grazed over her head, eradicating her previous perch. She caught a branch and flipped herself back onto non-burning ground. She raised her hand and caught a scalpel returning to her person. "True, but they come in handy for other medical procedures, like a blood sample."
Isidore stopped on a branch and squinted, catching the faint splash of red coated over the blade. The blade that punctured her. Her blood. Isidore touched her side again, glaring at the Steenee. "What did you—"
Ambrosine took the bloody scalpel and sliced it across her own hand, enough for a thin line of red to bleed out. "I'm not suited for combat, but that doesn't mean I'm useless." She clapped her hands together, spraying a little bit of blood, then inhaled. "Album Defender!"
She blew through her cupped hands. A teal, bubbly mass expelled through her hands, blowing up to into a giant pile of good. A face formed at the top of the mass resembling a scary face for a jack-o-lantern. Viscous, clawed arms grew out from the sides, but fell apart into messy piles. They came and went in a cycle of growth, reabsorbing into the mass once they hit the ground.
Isidore gagged at the sight of the creature. What the hell? What kind of medical magic does that?
Ambrosine finished summoning her creation, then teetered back a bit. Her face was flushed, and her breath was ragged. "Are you…familiar with white blood cells, Isidore?" Ambrosine panted. She wiped a trail of spit off her face, then smirked wearily. "I'd start running."
She raised her hand and, with a flick of her wrist, snapped her nonexistent fingers.
A menacing white pupil shined from the creature's hollow eyes. It locked onto Isidore, then bounded after her with one big bounce. Isidore jumped out of the way as the creature came crashing down, spraying its goo all over the trees and air. Isidore wasn't quite fast enough to escape a glob hitting her foot.
Isidore landed on her tail hands and tried to shake the goo off. "What even is this stuff?" She looked around at the trees, then at the monster as it reoriented itself. "Doesn't look like it's doing much—"
A staggering pain shot through Isidore's foot. She gasped and instinctively reached to clutch her foot, but stopped short of touching the goo. Her eyes widened as the goo bubbled around her foot. A sizzling sound erupted from the bubbling mess, followed by a rancid gas.
Isidore dared another look at the trees, noting they weren't having any adverse effects to the goo. It was only affecting her.
"White blood cells," Isidore mumbled. Her eyes widened, then gazed back down at her foot. "Ah…shit!"
The goo monster lifted itself back up and let out a howling scream. Ambrosine limped over and smirked at Isidore's realization. "I feel it's worth reminding you, I was friends with a group of pirates. Horrific acts of slaughter aren't anything unexpected for me."
"B-But you're a doctor!" Isidore gasped.
"I am, and I'm here to get rid of the disease right in front of me." Ambrosine bowed to Isidore as her goo monster rose to full height behind her in an intimidating stance. "Dr. Lifeblood, at your service."
Flint kept close behind his Guardian as dozens of puppets descended from the trees, armed with retractable blades and internal firing mechanisms. Bullets rained down on Flint, who called upon his Guardian to deflect them with its flurry of punches from all directions.
Reuben kept close to the back with Chantal as he adjusted his artificial eye. "It's hard to decide what to do with your corpse, Flint," Reuben said despite being drowned out by the gunfire. "Do I eviscerate you into tiny pieces and feed you to the demons, or do I turn your corpse into my personal plaything? Though, I wouldn't mind having your soul to torture. Not much use in your useless soul aside from a meager snack."
Though he couldn't hear Reuben, the fury in Flint's eyes didn't lose their spark. "Time Halt!"
He vanished and reappeared behind Reuben. His Guardian reached to grab him by the hood, but Chantal pushed him out of the way and took the hit instead.
"Knock her out," Flint ordered.
Right as his Guardian reared back its fist, Chantal's eyes blanked out in a white glow. She screamed a ghastly wail into Flint's face. A haunting, reverberating wail that sounded like the battle cry of a ghost. Flint covered his ears and backed off. He glared up at his Guardian and saw it fizzling out, unable to maintain stability.
Chantal slipped through the fading fingers and skipped away from Flint. Once she was far enough away, she unhinged her jaw like a Seviper and spilled out a mass of spectral blobs out into the open. Dozens of spirits with glowing red eyes, wielding spectral weaponry while forcibly bunched together in a tight cluster.
Flint's confusion and horror was answered by the jeering laughter of Reuben. "Dark Mediums like Chantal can call upon souls of the dead. Murders, psychopaths, freaks of nature, and all those fun kinds. A death of both body and soul! Puppets, kill him!"
The puppets charged in tandem with the ghost cluster straight toward Flint. Flint raised his paws and casted a Blockade Reflector. The horde slammed into his barrier, putting pressure on his hindlegs as he tried to keep up with them. He winced from the pressure exuding on his bad leg.
"G-Guardian!" Flint's Guardian reappeared, scooped Flint up, and retreated into the air before the Blockade Reflector was overwhelmed. "Mystic Beam!" The Guardian extended one hand and fired the powerful, orange beam into the crowd.
Puppets went scattering through the air, some losing whole pieces in the blast, but the ghost cluster pushed through unfazed. One even chucked a spectral battle axe at the fleeing pair, barely grazing Flint's cheek.
Flint winced and covered his cheek. He felt no blood spill from the phantom wound, though the cut felt deeper. No physical, but directly to his soul itself. If the threat of being horribly mangled by puppets wasn't enough, now he had the risk of ghosts tearing his soul to ribbons.
The ghosts continued their pursuit of the airborne Flareon, but Flint ordered his Guardian to throw him back to the ground. He felt the breeze of the ghosts' weapons grazing across his face, a hair or two short of a hatchet splitting through his skull.
Flint hit the ground and rolled with his landing. His eyes fell on a handful of puppets raising their arms and popping open the hidden cannons underneath. "Blockade Reflector!" Flint casted the reflective barrier and deflected the barrage of cannon fire pounding down on him.
His eyes widened, catching an intense red glow building on his right. Through his peripherals, he barely spotted Reuben dashing by and charging up his eye laser. "Burn, Ravenfield!" Reuben fired the laser.
The laser came in fast, but Flint's reflexes kicked in faster. He slammed a free paw down and erected pillars of orange crystal with Crystallo Growth. The laser struck the crystal and reflected off its angular surfaces, redirecting its beam into a tree which instantly caught fire.
"Crystallo Growth!" Flint rose to his hindlegs, then stomped one down in Reuben's direction with a wave of orange crystal surging toward him.
Reuben's right arm split open into a railgun-like appendage, then fired a blinding purple laser into the approaching crystal. The explosion instantly shattered the crystal and sent back a shockwave that blew Flint off his paws. The puppets aimed at the flying Flareon and continued firing on him.
"Guardian!" Flint's Guardian reappeared and rapidly punched the energy shots. He caught the ground with his forepaws and skidded to a stop. "Mystic Beam!" The Guardian raised its hands and fired two beams, one for the puppets and one for Reuben.
The puppets were sluggish and took the brunt of the beam while Reuben gracefully dove away from the one heading towards him. He rolled to his knees, then fired another shot from his arm cannon.
The Guardian crossed its arms and tank the blast. Flint gripped his bowler hat and braced against the shockwave. His ears suddenly twitched to a noise coming from behind. Having only just forgotten, Flint dodged out of the way from an ambush of ghosts stabbing their weapons into his previous position.
"Crystallo Growth!" Once Flint got back on his paws, he stomped the ground and drove a stake-like crystal through the cluster. Though the ghosts had no solidity to rupture, they behaved more like mist than traditional, intangible ghosts. One strike from the crystal stake burst a hole through the cluster and even dispelled a majority of ghosts bunched up in the center.
Flint panted and took a moment to catch his breath, though precious seconds were not awarded to him as another laser beam form Reuben came close to incinerating half of Flint's ear off. He fortunately ducked out of the way in time with only the heat of the beam as a cruel reminder of his last second dodge.
Reuben fiddled with his mask again as he laughed. "I've made numerous modifications to my body since our last encounter, Ravenfield. All designed with the intense purpose of murder."
Flint adjusted his hat, then scowled. "Gee, I knew you were vain, but I didn't take you as some self-proclaimed Prometheus."
"Laugh at me all you wish, but I will evolve further beyond than any of your rubes can dream of." Reuben finished fiddling with the mask, then charged up his next shot. "You can't really do much with that bum leg of yours, too. I'd gladly hunt you in your sad attempt to limp away, but I can't bare the thought of a dying dog trying to flee in such a pathetic state when there's more dignified methods of torture to unleash."
Flint glanced over at Chantal's immobile form, still spewing a cluster of ghosts that slowly reformed from his last attack. He glared, then looked back at Reuben. "Why are you here, Reuben?"
"I told you, business as usual."
"You're definitely here for something other than our deaths." Flint shifted on his paws. At a moment's notice, he would be ready to flee if either Reuben or Chantal attempted another attack. "I'd wager Gwyn's still a primary target, but that's not important for the shadows. Just you witches. You're after something in the Oasis Zone."
Reuben's smirk dipped a little. "You're being awfully cheeky with the deductive reasoning. Inhaling any of the poison around here?"
Flint's glare deepened. The only unique thing here I can think of is the Nightshade's Lament. Why would they need a poisonous berry, though? True, it's super deadly, but that doesn't seem like their style to just make super dangerous poison. Then again, if Gwyn can repurpose it, so can—
"Gwyn Belladonna has the target item." Flint gasped and whipped his head around to face Chantal, who blinked out of her pseudo trance. She glared back at Flint. "If Barrett or Isidore haven't found it yet, we can still acquire it through Belladonna."
Flint seethed through clenched teeth. Shit, I forgot she can read minds!
Reuben grinned. "Really? Well, well, my lucky day." He snapped his fingers, ordering three remaining puppets to aim their armaments at Flint. "We'll torch you first, then we'll pay Gwyn a visit. I'm sure we can strike up a reasonable trade for those berries."
Even in his situation, Flint gained a tiny victory in his error. "So, you really are after Nightshade's Lament."
Reuben sighed and crossed his arms in a dramatic fashion. "Not like you'll be alive long enough to huff about it. Puppets, erase him."
The puppets unloaded a hail of bullets on Flint. With a scream, Flint called upon his Guardian and had it bombard the bullets with a flurry of fists. A few slipped through and shot into Flint, cracking his defensive aura and drawing blood from the wounds. One struck him in the forehead and knocked him backwards.
Reuben charged up his laser eye. "Let's get rid of that useless heart first." He locked onto Flint's back, then fired.
Flint gained his second wind just as Reuben fired. "Soul Blaze!" A ripple of powerful magic enveloped his body just before the laser struck him. His defensive aura revitalized and withstood the laser's heat. "Time Halt!"
Reuben immediately spun around and fired his laser behind himself, but no one was behind him. Right as he turned back around, an orange fist clobbered across the side of his unmasked face. What?!
"Just because I said the spell's name doesn't mean I actually used it," Flint's voice projected through the Guardian.
Reuben's eyes widened as his vision started to become hyper saturated. Time slowed to a crippling halt. He collapsed to the ground, feeling unusually energized. He lifted his head and gasped to find his own body right before him in a slow fall just after being punched. Everything was almost completely standstill, like his consciousness went wild and his body couldn't keep up.
Outside of the slowed perception, Flint and his Guardian raced away while Reuben was comatose on the ground, with only Chantal and the three puppets remaining.
"I've got to find Gwyn and warn her about the Nightshades!" Flint exclaimed.
Chantal glared at Reuben's paralyzed body, then spat on his face. "Pathetic." She sighed, then closed her eyes. Isidore. Isidore, can you hear me?
"Chantal?! Uh, kind of busy right now—ah shit! Ah!"
Did you find Belladonna?
"No, but I found that medic girl, Ambrosine, and she's—stop trying to digest me, you freak of nature!"
The Heliolisk witch raised her brow. Should I ask?
"What do you want? Did something happen to Reuben again?"
Oh, he'll be fine.
"Ugh. One of these days, he's going to be more puppet than Pokémon if he keeps upgrading himself."
As for your first question, Gwyn Belladonna has the Nightshade's Lament. Do you know where she is?
"I think, maybe. I'm seeing a lot of carnage farther up ahead. Might be War. She might've found Belladonna."
Concerning.
"I sent my flunkies to hunt down the Nightshades, though. If they're on Belladonna's person, they'll go to her."
Make sure War doesn't kill her or destroy the berries. We need both intact.
"Roger—oh darkness, it's got my tail now!"
Chantal sighed, then pointed to the three remaining puppets with her. "You three. You take orders from me now. Follow." She ran off in the direction Flint fled to with the puppets in tow.
Flint, Gwyn, and Ambrosine had magic to protect them. Andre had muscle, a pocket full of tools from his couple weeks of hard labor, and a small witch in training. He didn't like his odds, especially against the deranged Lombre chucking knives at him.
Andre kept Venus tucked close to him as he ran around the grove, ducking under flying knives that melted trees into gooey, fleshy abominations of horror. The air reeked of rotting flesh. Andre focused on dodging purely to forget about the overwhelming smell, lest he pass out from sensory overload. Venus kept her face planted firmly in his nape to block the smell.
Barrett wasn't fazed by the smell, or was doing a really good job of blocking it out, too. He seemed more invested with the thought of turning the pair into rotting pin cushions. His eyes were bloodshot with sinister delight, the face of a mad butcher preparing the day's quota.
Andre slid behind a tree for cover, pulling Venus into his forelegs. They winced as knives drove into their cover, rotting it away with their curses. Andre glanced around the rotting trunk, then pulled back just before a knife nicked him in the face.
"Okay, I've dealt with my fair share of punks in school, but this is way outside my usual targets," Andre said aloud, whether to Venus or himself was anyone's guess.
Venus looked up at Andre with tears running from her eyes. "W-What are we going to do?"
"Dodging might not do us good forever," Andre said. He shivered as he felt rotting tree slime run down his back. "Can't you pull off some magic to help us?"
"I never learned witchcraft for violence."
"Don't you know anything that can help us? Maybe a curse or something?"
Venus frowned. "Those are super advanced and dangerous."
"Is it really just me here to play the hero?" Andre groaned and slumped his head forward. "I'd be better off dunking heads in toilets, not fighting witches."
Venus looked over Andre's shoulder, then gasped. "Mr. Andre, look out!"
"Huh?" Andre craned his neck just as knives came flying around the melting cover, spinning and coming in at tight arcs like boomerangs. "Shit!" Andre dropped to the ground and barely avoided getting cut by the knives. They stabbed into the ground next to him. Andre rolled onto his paws, dropped Venus on his back, and took off running again.
More knives stabbed the ground in front of him, keeping him from escaping it. Andre looked back at Barrett, who juggled knives in his hand. The Lombre witch smirked at the evident fear in Andre's face.
"You're lasting much longer than the other normies I butchered. You even have deadweight as a handicap. Good on you for your efforts."
Andre growled, then dropped into an attack stance. "Do with me what you want, but leave the kid out of this. Although, I'd also prefer not to be killed, but—"
Barrett threw his head back and laughed. "Are you really in the position to negotiate? Please! You're not even a threat. You're just some guy who tagged along with his much more superior friends. You're nothing but some incidental casualty in the hero's journey. A bystander to be killed off to demonstrate the evil of my efforts." Barret raised a knife, stroking the face with his tongue slowly. "Unlike that idiot Reuben or my vastly superior higher-ups, I prefer gutting the weak show them their place. Stomping out the inferior worms to bolster our strength. Everyone has their roles. I'm the one who kills useless trash like you."
Andre went from growling to full-on snarling. "You're sick."
"Thank you, I'm glad you noticed. Not that it means much coming from a dead man." Barrett reared his arms back, flashing dozens of knives in each hand. "Screw the mission. I just want to watch the world decay into the filthy hellhole society turns a blind eye to!"
"Then I have no qualms putting you down!" Andre retorted, suddenly bucking Venus off his back.
"AH!" Venus gasped.
"Hide, now!" Andre ordered before sprinting straight for Barrett.
Barrett's grin stretched. "Hasty for your new coffin, trash?!" He whipped his arms forward, letting dozens of knives fly at Andre. If the decaying curse didn't kill him, the sheer number of stab wounds will.
Andre, however, wasn't in the mood to play Chicken with Barrett. Rather than boldly and deftly take on the knives with the skills of a trained fighter, he opted for the smarter option of literally stepping outside the knives' path just before Barrett threw the knives. They stabbed into the ground and decaying tree matter, but not a single one landed a killing blow on Andre.
Andre reached into the satchel strapped to his side, pulling out a hammer and nails in his teeth. "Let me teach you a lesson, jackass! I'm not a fighter!" He threw his weight into Barrett, staggering the scrawny witch backwards.
Andre spat a nail from his teeth, letting it spin through the air. He twisted his neck, aiming the hammer precisely on the nail's flathead, and hammered it straight into Barrett's left eye. The nail pierced through seamlessly, spraying blood out like a faulty water pipe, while the hammer doubled on the impact by pounding down on his eye socket.
"I'm a blacksmith!" Andre finished.
"GAAAAH!" Barrett covered his eye, stumbling backwards as blood drenched down the left side of his face. "You bastard, what the hell?!"
Andre didn't give him time to recover. He slammed the hammer across Barrett's jaw with everything he had, nearly knocking it out of place from the way it jostled. Blood sprayed from Barrett's mouth. The one advantage about his opponent was that he drew his magic from a foreign source, not a byproduct of his own aura. No magic aura, no mystical defenses. Just a hammer to flesh and bone.
Andre took the two nails between his teeth and, with his own paws, jammed them into Barrett's stunned body. One through the shoulder, and one through the chest. It didn't hurt nearly as bad compared to the eye, but it was something.
"Unlike you, I actually trained my body for the worst situations," Andre said as he pushed Barrett to the ground. "You're just a scrawny punk who's in for a hell of a beating!" He raised his hammer high, then slammed it down on the forehead. Andre could see the flesh rippled from the impact. "I don't have any qualms with putting a bastard like you into a coma."
Barrett was barely twitching. His eyes—well, eye—was unfocused, almost unresponsive. Blood dribbled from his bruised jaw and lips.
Andre raised his hammer again. "Back to hell, you fu—"
He froze. A searing pain shot through his stomach, causing him to drop his hammer. It fell beside Barrett's face, which bared a cruel grin. The unfocused gaze corrected itself, now staring at Andre with the same delightful and spiteful glee from before.
Andre, in his dazed shock, looked down to see a dagger being driven into his stomach. Barrett twisted it, then kicked Andre off, spraying blood out as the Thievul collapsed onto his back.
"NO!" Venus cried, running out from her hiding spot despite the dangers. She ran to Andre's side. "Mr. Andre, are you—" She gasped and covered her mouth at the wound.
Aside from the visceral wound left in his stomach, what horrified her was the black, vein-like markings stretched out from the wound. They almost looked like they were physically digging into his skin.
"Those…Those markings," Venus gasped as tears fell from her eyes.
Barrett picked himself up and laughed behind his arm. "Satisfied, hero? I hope you enjoy a slow, agonizing death. Have your friends ever told you what happened to Belladonna? How do you suppose the infamous witch that cursed that foolish Mew even acquired it? She isn't a Curse Weaver, but I am."
Andre tried to raise his head, growling through clenched teeth. "You…You…!" Venus hugged Andre's neck protectively as magic flowed through the ground beneath her.
Barrett threw his head back and laughed. "Scream all you want, but what's done is done. Enjoy living the rest of your short life in despair! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"…Disgusting."
A root flew from Barrett's newfound blind spot and slapped him mercilessly through the ground. He skidded off his face, then flipped on his back. Thorns protruded through the ground and dug across his backside as he skidded along, tearing out his robe and digging through his flesh until he stopped.
Barrett sat up, blood dripping down his back, and glared at the intruder. Venus turned her head and gasped as her grandmother slithered out from the trees, staff wrapped snuggly in her tail.
And she was pissed.
Barrett, however, reveled at her arrival as he stood up, letting his arms hang limp. A bloody, toothy grinned plastered across his face. "Oho! The main witch herself finally came out to join us."
Medusa narrowed her closed eyes. She sensed Andre's writhing on the ground, and the menacing aura festering through his body. A disgusting, vile curse she knew all too well from the cesspool that plagued the good name of witches. She felt nothing but grief for the Thievul, who no doubt did this at the expense of protecting her granddaughter.
For that, she felt bloodthirsty rage for the Lombre in front of her.
"You sordid, slimy snake," she hissed in a low tone. "I will make you suffer."
Barrett held up his dagger, waving it tauntingly at her. "Lady, I sold my soul to demons. There's literally no threat you can dish out for me."
Medusa scoffed. "Bold words." She uncoiled her body and spun her staff down the length of her neck before impaled it into the ground. "They shall be etched onto your tomb."
Gwyn and War traded blows that echoed off each other, blowing away the ash beneath them as shockwaves blasted against their bodies. Gwyn's massive wooden arms broke down in the contact against War's fists, but quickly regenerated once she pulled back.
An exchange of fists bashing into the other. It was uncommon territory for Gwyn, who preferred to stay in mid-range combat, though her main arsenal offered very little advantages against the beast before her.
War morphed her claws into a scythe and slashed through Gwyn's midsection. It burned through cleanly, but Gwyn regenerated through the injury just as fast as the cut was made. Gwyn countered with a wide sucker punch to the helmet. The weight and size overtook War and knocked her across the scorched ground, slamming her into a tree.
Gwyn dug her hands down and extended tendrils of wood through the dirt. They sprung on War right as she stood up and coiled layers upon layers over her body. More and more tendrils until they exceeded the material of the previously used coffin technique. A spiral, wooden cocoon to eliminate movement.
Unfortunately, War was much stronger now and burning through the cocoon faster than the coffin. Gwyn detached her hands from the ground, then morphed them into a giant wooden cannon. She plunged her tail into the ground and began siphoning magic from the land.
"Hopefully this works," she muttered. Magic built up inside the barrel, mixed in with her own. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I really hope you don't get up!" She rooted her feet through the ground, then took a deep breath. "Fire!"
She unleashed a wide beam of magic into the wooden cocoon, seconds after War pried her way free. War wrapped herself in her malleable tendrils as the beam engulfed her. The trees and foliage behind them parted by Gwyn's will, enough for the beam to shoot on through without torching more of the land.
Gwyn squinted through the overwhelming flood of magic and barely detected War resisting inside the beam. The beam's power kept her from escaping, but it did nothing to chip away at her defenses. Gwyn didn't want to risk drawing more magic out of the ground than necessary, though it was becoming increasingly tempting.
She canceled the beam, then rushed at War as the magic faded, morphing her arms into giant spiked maces. War uncoiled herself just in time to dodge Gwyn's overhead slam, shattering the ground in a single swing.
War morphed her arms into eight bladed tendrils, then unleashed them in a flurry of stabbing thrusts. Gwyn morphed her arms into a thick barrier and blocked their onslaught. She clenched her teeth, feeling the pressure of their rapid flowing motion chipping through the barrier.
I need to slow her down. Gwyn reached into her bag and pulled out a flash freeze flower. She absorbed it into her glove, then jumped out from behind her barrier.
"Scorching Winter!" A magic glyph appeared in front of her, then fired a swirling blue beam into War.
War slapped the ground with her tendrils and threw herself into the air. However, her tendrils got caught in the beam and suddenly went rigid. When the magic cleared, a pathway of steaming ice covered the ground below with War's tendrils anchored deep inside the ice.
Gwyn reverted to her normal form, then grabbed her bracelets. She ripped them off and transformed them into grass swords. "That should hold you for a second!" She kicked off the ground and flew at the stationary shadow warrior.
War heated up her tendrils and wiggled them loose, but Gwyn capitalized on her immobility with a fast flurry of slashes. She slid across the ice, dealing several hits across War that tore through her shadowy body, ripping whole layers off.
Gwyn spun around and caught the ground. "Ha! Not so tough without your…" She paused and looked closely at the torn shadows.
Through their ripped, cloth-like appearance, she saw blue skin underneath. Dark blue. In fact, it looked more like fur if she was correct. She figured there was some Pokémon under that mass of darkness, but something about the fur color didn't sit right with her. It looked familiar.
A pang of realization hit Gwyn.
"That odd presence of I was feeling. Are you—" Gwyn gasped.
War pulled her tendrils out and whipped them at Gwyn. Gwyn blocked them with her grass swords, then rushed up close to War. She drew back the swords and delivered a fierce double slash that War blocked with her wrists. Gwyn's eyes widened when one of the swords slashed through War's right wrist easily while the other stopped on her left wrist.
"One…hand?" Gwyn mumbled fearfully.
War bashed her head across Gwyn's in her confusion, then drilled her claws into her stomach. Gwyn screamed from the searing heat chewing through her aura, seconds from shredding her entrails to mush. She quickly plunged her sword into the ground and had it extend from behind War, stabbing her through the shoulder.
It halted War's attack, allowing Gwyn to throw herself at the shadow warrior and grab her arms. She glared into War's solid, blood red eyes and reared her fist back.
"Who are you?!" Gwyn screamed before cracking her fist across War's face.
The magic rippling off her fist completely displaced the shadows overlapping the left side of War's face. The shadow warrior stumbled back and held her ailing cheek as tattered shadow waved off her head like a ripped sail.
War looked up and glared at Gwyn. One half shadow, one half snarling, red-eyed Pokémon.
Gwyn's heart stopped at the face staring back at her. Though only half was visible, Gwyn had seen that face before. A face that was a twisted corruption of its former owner, looking upon Gwyn like she was a savage animal to be mauled and ripped asunder.
Tears brimmed from Gwyn's eyes. She backed away, dropping her grass swords, and covered her mouth in horror.
"In…Indigo?"