Chapter 76: Burning Hellfire

This fight involving us and the fifth Yog was certainly an intense one... and it was by NO means easy. "Here it comes!" Schezo took his sword out. "Yog Beam!" The Yog fired. Raffina was the target of it, but I went in front of her to take it instead. "Hrrrrrgh...!" I was pushed back without being knocked over. "Thanks, Dave! Time for me to hit this thing with... Static Shock! Hah!" Raffina jumped and threw. "Geh-! That barely did a thing." The Yog flinched. "Most of us may be weak compared to you, but our numbers will overwhelm you in due time! Calamity!" Satan blasted. The Yog dodged that incoming attack from Satan and shot a large fireball at Klug. "K-Klug, watch out!" I panicked. "Dave, I have this in the bag... and you will see why that is!" He didn't look worried in the slightest. "What's Klug doin'?!" Lemres wondered. "This is something that I have been working on in secret for a while... and you are all about to see the fruits of that bit of labor! Elemental Shield!" Klug quickly presented. The shield in question was around Klug's size and made of water, which soaked up the fireball and gradually reduced it to nothing. "*gasp*" We all went. "I-I don't believe it! Klug, you were workin' on castin' this on your own time?!" Lemres was shocked. "You better believe it, Lemres! I figured this would have been useful against the Yogs, since they have ALL been element-based so far." Klug adjusted his glasses in a badass way. "Holy shit! Where did you learn to use that, Klug?! That was amazing!" I was impressed. "How about we save that for another time? We have a Yog to defeat." Accord suggested.

We agreed and continued our fight against the fire Yog. "Taaaake this! Blizzard!" Amitie released. "Tch. Persistent upstarts of humans…" The Yog withstood the icy attack. "We have to be if we want our worlds to be safe from you Yogs! Cryogenic Bomb!" I launched. "Geh-! ... Bothersome HUMANS! Fiery Vortex!" The Yog suddenly lit up with huge flames and spun around. "T-talk about an explosive attitude!" Amitie flinched a little. "Flames incoming!" Ex pointed out the obvious. "Who can possibly stop the Yog from coming straight to us?" Feli took a defensive stance. "... I might jus' have the thing needed to stop it. ... Jawbreaker Cannon!" Lemres thought and fired at the swirling fire. However, the big jawbreaker didn't stop it. Instead, the projectile itself stopped because of the crazy flames and dropped to the ground, breaking into a few pieces. "Well, that didn't work... Anyone else got somethin' that might put a stop to it...?" He became worried. "..." The rest of us didn't answer that question. None of us were sure of how to exactly stop the fires of doom. "Damn it... We HAVE to do something here... If we don't, then the entire town will be consumed by fire. At that point, it'll be as though the Puyo Underworld made its way to the surface. Ugh, if only we had a water spell of sorts..." Satan said.

We were clearly running out of options already. The flames erupting from that Yog were so intense. The heat rapidly melted the snow surrounding the giant floating eyeball. Accord and Witch were definitely not ready to unleash their magic and we were losing ground. Before long we were attacked by that Yog's fire, which me and Ex had to cover for everyone else with our armor. "Hrrrrrrrrrgh!" We both struggled in the intense heat. What we didn't realize was that our sets of dragon armor heated up to where it began to burn us. "Aah! Hot! Hot! Hot! Amitie, cool our armor down...! NOW!" I screamed. "B-Blizzard!" She aimed at us. "Somebody... PLEASE ATTACK AND STOP THE YOG'S FIRE!" Ex requested. "If it's an attack you need, I'll do it to stop that Yog on my terms! Sword Spike! Hah!" Schezo stuck his sword into the ground. After that happened, a giant blade came from below the Yog. But... this big blade melted from the Yog's flames before it could make contact. "What?!" The swordwielder's eyes widened. "Goddammit!" I cursed. "A-are we doomed...? Are we all going to die...? *sniff* *sob*" Lidelle began to cry.

We stared at what could have been our demise at the time, many of us shuddering at the thought of everyone burning to ash. I don't wanna say that there's no hope, because there still is with Ms. Accord and Witch... The question is though: Can Witch fully charge up before we all perish to these flames? "Like hell we're doomed! I'm not gonna stand here and be burnt to a crisp! Cryogenic Bomb!" I quickly launched at the Yog. "...! Geh-! ... That's still not enough to stop me, no matter how many times you throw ice at me!" It continued to emit flames. "Perhaps not alone it won't... but with this, you will definitely feel something! Hoho Beeeeam!" A familiar voice came up. The attack itself landed and I couldn't believe it. "GAH! Stop this you pathetic-!" The Yog was knocked back and stopped emitting flames. "H-Hohow Bird!" I was surprised with the bird's quick recovery. "Dave, I have to get back up at times like these; this is a town I have to protect no matter what, even if I'm not in the best condition! CAW!" He screeched. "I'm now up to fight too!" Arle joined us. "... You lot... must you ALWAYS bounce back?!" The Yog got its bearing's straight. "Shut up, we have to! Weren't you listening to what he just said?!" I brought up Hohow Bird. "I don't care that he and the rest of you feel obligated to protect a place we Yogs consider to be insignificant. The only thing we care about is the destruction of your worlds and it doesn't matter if you think it is bad we targeted this place... because it is not special in the slightest." It responded with.

That statement must have struck a sensitive part of Amitie, because she became angry. "Wha-?! Y-you piece of crap! Primp Town is a lot more special than you believe it to be! You and the other Yogs may not see, but we all love this town and the people that live in it! People like my friends... Ms. Accord... Oshare Bones... Akuma... all of them! Don't you dare say that it's a place that doesn't matter! It's not all about you bunch of giant eyes that cause destruction; it's about the people that live together and share happy times with one another... And in my book: You're stopping that from happening and I don't like it at all! I'll take you out myself if it comes down to that!" She carried on. "...! Damn…" I went. "Yeah, you tell it, Amitie!" Ringo approved. "... Bah! Then perhaps I shall burn you up, so you can remain silent. Hrgh! Take this!" The Yog took a fiery shot at Amitie. "*gasp* Ngh-!" Amitie closed her eyes shut. "A-Amitie! ... No, you don't, Yog! Elemental Shield!" Klug went to defend her. The fire was blocked out as Amitie opened her eyes to see what just happened. "...? ... *sigh*" Amitie felt relieved. "... As much as we can make some smack talk, that's pretty much all we can do for the time being... Ms. Accord, Witch... are you ready yet?" I stood still. "No, unfortunately we need more time, Dave... I am starting to think that we do not have enough to last." Accord told me with a frown.

Well, that's not great... We've been in shittier positions in recent history, but that doesn't mean we can just pull a victory out of our asses. ... Damn... "That does it! I won't have this sort of thing anymore! Haaaaaah!" Satan made a giant ball of energy appear. "Woah! I've never seen him do that before!" Ex was surprised. "Gh-! Get out of the way, you two! I can't hold on to this for very long!" Satan told me and Ex. "O-okay!" We nodded and moved. "What are you doing? Do you think you can defeat me by yourself?" The Yog scoffed. "No, of course not... However, I can weaken you in one way... WITH THIS! Diabolic Explosioooon!" Satan said to it before launching. *boom* "GAAAH-!" The eyeball flew back. Holy fuck! That's literally an explosion! So now, the Yog wasn't emitting flames whatsoever; it was like the giant eye itself was burnt out. It eventually smacked into a lone tree and fell to the ground. That tree's trunk snapped into two from the force of the Yog colliding with it. "N-nice job, Satan! You brought it down!" Arle cheered. "No, this fight is still long from being over, Arle... look at the Yog." He pointed out. "... It's getting up…" Ex readied himself in advance. "Yes, there's no way that this one would just fall over from one strong attack…" Schezo commented.

Well, it was expected that this one would be tougher than the previous ones... Now we probably know just how durable the rest of these Yogs will be. "I'll make sure that this thing stays down! Hohoooo! Exotic... Kiiiiiiick!" Hohow Bird threw himself at the Yog. Suddenly though, the Yog lit up once more with fire. "*gasp* Hohow Bird, get away from-" I started warning him. Before I could finish telling him, something else happened. "Gyaaaaaah! ... ... ...? Hey, why am I not smacking into the fire?" Hohow Bird screamed, then stopped. After that, he flew in the opposite direction and came back to us. "What in the…" We all looked around. "Father! Are you and the others okay?!" We heard a familiar voice. It was Yui and she ran to Ex, all worried. …! So Yui used her psychokinesis to save Hohow Bird, even though she has that nasty bump on her head… "Y-Yui...! ... What are you doing here? I told Ess, Ai, and O to keep you on the ship. You're in no shape to stay around here…please go back." Ex turned to face her and said. "But...! I was worried about you!" Yui wrapped her arms around her adoptive father. … Good point...

Ex stood silent briefly before speaking again. "... I won't lie in saying that this is dangerous for me... but you'll be more easily hurt by this than me. So please, Yui... go back to the ship. I don't want to lose you… ... I've already technically lost two family members: Someone who would've been your mother... and Zed. I'm not going to have a third family member of mine perish before my eyes. ... Do you understand, Yui? You and Ess are the only family I have with me now. Can you imagine how ruined I would be if either one of you... or even worse, both of you get killed from something right in front of me?" He looked down at her. "..." She didn't say anything. "Look, it was great that you saved Hohow Bird like that... but let me do the rest with the others. Okay?" He got her to stop hugging him. "... ... ... O-okay, Father… I'll go back to the Tetra." Yui gave in. "Good girl. Don't worry, we can handle things from here... so off you go." Ex sent her away. The girl ran off in the direction where the ship was. As soon as we couldn't see her anymore, the Yog got back up. "...! Here it comes again!" I readied myself once more.

The eyeball floated back to us as we all glared at it. "I admit... I felt that one. Still, it will take more than that to put me down." It said. "Tch." Satan scoffed. "If this was either of the first two Yogs we encountered, then it would've most likely fallen to something like that." Rulue said. "But of course these things would be stronger after we deal with each one of the others…" Ex added. "And none of our ice magic does any substantial damage to this Yog." Klug also added. "Then I suppose that it is time to put you all down for good, since you cannot bring me down." The Yog said in response. And those two still aren't ready to unleash their combined attack on it... Shit. "... …" We all quietly stood in front of Accord and Witch. "Goodbye, humans and bird... you all shall become ash in a matter of seconds." The eyeball flared up. Damn it... This can't be the end, not now... "Fiery Spheeeeere! ... ... Haah!" The Yog dropped down on us. "AAAAAAAAAAAH!" We all screamed. This attack made us close our eyes in fear. We felt the heat quickly approaching us and we thought that everyone was doomed for sure.

However... The heat somehow went away as we heard a cracking sound. This made us open our eyes. "Huh...?" Satan was the first to look at the current situation. "Wh-what…?!" The Yog went. "Where is that…?" Amitie looked around. The fire that the Yog launched at us was being pushed back by what looked like a beam of ice, which was coming from behind us. I turned my head to see a familiar face that I was glad to see. "*gasp* Reyson!" I noticed him. "What?! Reyson's here?!" Ex turned around as well. "H-holy crap, a dragon!" Arle's eyes widened. "Wait, you two know this dragon?!" Amitie couldn't believe it. "Yeah, Reyson here is a friend of sorts!" I nodded to her. Soon, the fire Yog's sphere dissipated from the extreme cold of Reyson's ice breath. Seeing this, the dragon stopped. "Why did you come here?" Ex asked him. "As I saw fire and smoke from afar, I sensed major trouble of sorts... And what do you know? I found you two and these other people fighting against that Yog. I figured that I would lend you a claw or two to help fight this thing off." Reyson answered.

This is amazing... Reyson came here and now he wants to help. This might be the ice power that we needed to put this Yog down! "Thanks, Reyson! Your help is greatly appreciated! Don't worry, we won't need you too much. Just keep the Yog busy so that we can strike it down with one powerful attack." I said to him. "If you only need me to keep it busy, then I think I can last for a good while... ... Yog! Now you are fighting me; you will not do as you please in destroying these humans! At least us dragons have some sense of morality compared to you." The dragon said before getting the Yog's attention. "...? Why must you side with humans, dragon?" The eyeball asked. "*roar* Silence, Yog! You don't get to ask why I must side with humans. But... I suppose I could still answer your question... ... I side with humans because we live on the same planet. If a home and its creatures are being threatened by a single thing to this extent, then it is only natural that the creatures would band together to fight it off. Oh, and it also helps that this is my way of saying thank you to two humans for snapping me out of something. A... return gift of sorts." Reyson spoke to it.

Of course... me and Ex came to Reyson to snap him out of that weird phenomenon. He's partially doing this to make things up to us. "Bah! At the end of the day: All creatures from here are foolish and think they can protect what they "cherish". I have just about heard enough of that! You will regret saying that, dragon!" The Yog flared up once more. "*snarl* Then strike me down, if you can! We dragons are not pushovers by any means!" The dragon flew past us. "Hrgh-!" The rest of us struggled to keep ourselves standing from Reyson's wingbeat. Once the generated wind subsided, Reyson got up close to the Yog. "Now, the rest of us will charge up for an attack along with Witch when the perfect time shows itself." Satan decided. "Yeah." The rest of us nodded. While we all prepared our massive assault, we watched Reyson duke it out with that fiery eyeball. Strangely... he constantly tried to bite the Yog, which only resulted in irritation from its fire. At that point, he switched up attacking methods and clawed at the Yog. It didn't do that much damage, but it was noticeable.

Now, Reyson wasn't getting through this unscathed. He got banged up a little from the Yog's fire and its Yog Beam. Even still, he fought ferociously to make sure that we would have enough power to defeat the Yog. Until then, this was a war of attrition for both Reyson and the Yog. Full minutes had gone by and we were just about ready, and this happened: "Gah...! Get out of my way, dragon! Mega Yog Beam!" The Yog blasted. "...! Gaaoooooooooooh!" Reyson flew backwards and hit the ground. "R-Reyson!" Me and Ex worried for the dragon. "Nevermind him for right now! Everyone, it's time to strike! ... Fire!" Satan gave the command. "HHAAAAAAAAAAAH!" We all charged up and each used one of our most powerful ranged attacks on the Yog. "...?! N-no! I will not have you all do this to me! ... FIERY EXPLOSIOOOOON!" The Yog blew. *loud boom* This attack of the Yog's was literally a massive explosion of fire. It clashed with our combined attack and why did our best to try and overpower it. "Geh-! This must be insanely powerful...!" Ex felt. "Holy shit...! I'm not sure if we can get through it!" I was pushed back a tiny bit.

Please...! We need to push through this fucking-! "...! The Yog's attack is getting through, we can't let it hit us! If it does, then Primp Town will REALLY be engulfed in flames along with us...!" Satan struggled. "I don't want that to happen, but do we really not have enough to pull through…?!" Hohow Bird stared at what was in front of us with frustration. "I-I'm sorry, children... I don't believe we can hold out for much longer...!" Accord lost hope "What?! Damn it...!" Schezo was at his limit. Before long, the explosive broke through our major attack. "Gyaaaaah!" The girls screamed in terror. "SHIT! Hang on, every-! AAAAAAH!" I was the first to get hit. Everyone else followed suit, and we all flew back far from the force of the explosion. The attack itself ended up being so strong that it made the armor from me and Ex disappear. As everyone hit the wet ground, we were all in a lot of pain. Many of us were burned and had been bleeding from the impact. It was clear to us that we were weakened and exhausted... not just from this, but also from the fight with the fourth Yog.

At this point, we couldn't fight back as we laid there on the ground. "Ugh... ... *cough* That hurt like a bitch…" I winced. "Now die, humans." The Yog charged up for another beam. "... …? ...! N-no, Dave...! ... You stay away from him, you monster! *loud roar*" Reyson got up and threw himself at the eyeball. "R-Reyson...! Stop! You'll get hit by-! Ugggh…" I tried to get him to stop. "Fine, then YOU will die first, dragon!" The Yog redirected its aim. "Are you sure about that?! I have a trick up my scales! Icicle Claw! HAAAUGH!" Reyson's claw turned into a set of sharp icicles. This claw of his sliced through the would-be beam, as well as the fire surrounding the Yog. Thus, the eyeball itself was slashed by it and screamed. Blood trickled down Reyson's claw, and that claw soon turned back to normal. The Yog began to bleed and landed on the ground somewhat weakly. "*pant pant* I have not had to fight like that in a while... ... Worry not, I will do the best I can to reverse the harsh burn that thing did to you all... It's not much... but it will hopefully be enough to get you up." The dragon said in exhaustion.

This surprised me. "What…? You can do that?" I looked at him from where I lied. "Yes... … Do me a favor and defeat this Yog, so that we can rest. When I found you all... you looked a bit tired, as though you have been through a rough day as it is. Am I right?" Reyson told me and guessed. "... ... Yeah, we were fighting another Yog... not too long before finding out that this one was attacking this place." I answered. "Tch. Of course they would do something like this... ... Well, that should do it for most of the burns; you have to recover more for yourselves, I cannot do anymore of it for the time being." He stopped. "Ugh... ... That's fine, Reyson... you've already done plenty for us. ... Draconic Replenishment." I got up and healed myself a bit. Everyone else got back up, one by one as I stood in front of the bleeding Yog. "... We're going to get back at that Yog for you, Reyson." Ex pulled himself together. It didn't take long before I was able to get back enough strength to reapply my bulky armor. And this came in at the perfect time, because the Yog was also getting up from the slash it received.

Ex seems to be unable to bring back his armor right now... he's too weakened. "Ex, stand back with the others and let me finish this on my own. I know that may seem to be a stupid as hell idea... but hear me out. I'm the only one out of any of us that can self-heal... with my Draconic Replenishment. Therefore, I'm still able to fight somewhat. Get what I'm saying?" I turned to him. "...?! ... ... Yeah, I get you… Give that thing hell, Dave." He was surprised, then eventually nodded. "Of course, I was planning on doing just that since we began fighting it…" I cracked my knuckles. "Kick its ass, Dave!" Ringo and Feli cheered. "... You damn dragon...! You-!" The Yog showed obvious anger towards Reyson. "Yo, Yog. ... You're going down right here, right now…" I pointed at it. "Pah! I may be hurt, but you are all worse off than me. How can you say that?" It glared at me. "I probably should've thought to use this incoming attack before... but that intense heat you produced at times made it difficult to justify using it. But now that you can't make that heat on the fly, I can finally use it to defeat you. … This is for attacking this town like a coward...! Haaaaaaaah! RISING PRECIPICE!" I said before exclaiming.

I punched the ground and rocky formations appeared from under it and hit the Yog. "GH-! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The Yog let out one last scream. The eyeball flew up in the air and slowly descended to the ground, where it laid down in an incredibly weak state. "And that's why you Yogs should never underestimate us." I made my armor disappear. "... ... Let this be known, humans: There are still three more Yogs to come after you. All three of them are more powerful than what you can possibly handle…" The eyeball told me. "Like we care... We'll defeat them, and stop this whole plan of you all spreading chaos and destroying worlds. We won't let our worlds be destroyed; not now, not ever." I spoke against it. "... Fine. Believe that you can protect your worlds from our destruction... It won't matter when we do come back as Yoggus. If you had this much difficulty with me... then it should be impossible for you to defeat the eighth and last of us Yogs." The Yog scoffed before disappearing.

When that Yog disappeared, flames from all around the town dissipated and everyone was safe. With that, we surveyed the damage that the fire did to buildings and such. Safe to say, it was rather horrible to look at... "G-guys, Primp Town's…" Amitie frowned as she tried to say. "We know, Amitie... ... Primp has almost been burned to the ground. We ought to be thankful that Dave managed to defeat the Yog when he did…" Ex placed a hand on her shoulder. "Even I have to admit, this is a rather depressing state... ... How many homes were completely burned down? How many people survived with burns going across their bodies? How many people perished in the flames? How many of those people were just innocent bystanders...?" Schezo appeared to shakened by this. Even Schezo's appalled by how this town ended up... … ... We CANNOT let something like this happen again... Primp doesn't deserve to be hit with all of this destruction. I just hope that the town's citizens are okay…

Hohow Bird was possibly the most affected by this. He looked as though he was emotionally ruined... but he managed to stay stable. "We may have defeated that thing... but we couldn't fully save the town from the fire. ... D-Damn it... ... How can I, or even Dave, be true heroes if we couldn't stop the town from burning like that...? *sob*" He said in a solemn tone before shedding some tears. ... Hohow Bird... "Don't worry, Hohow Bird... When the next three Yogs do show themselves, we'll make sure that they never get the chance to put Primp Town in danger. You'll help us defeat them, will you?" I went up to him. "*sniff* ... Yes... These Yogs need to learn to not mess with the town that I love. I will fight alongside you to see that through to the end. ... You know... being serious was never really my thing before you came into my life, Dave. But now that those Yogs have messed with the one thing that I place above myself... I have to get serious for the next time we see one of them. They are a legit threat and I can't bring myself to be cocky now." The bird slightly nodded and said.

The mayor suddenly came to us and requested to talk to Hohow Bird alone. The two of them walked away and we were left feeling upset and remained quiet for the most part. "... Kiddies and such, me and Ms. Witch will go back to the school to see how it has fared. I fear that it is in such a dreadful state... ... I would suggest that you all should go back home and rest." Accord told the rest of us. "... It's probably for the best, there's not much that we can do for the town now… as sad as that may sound." Satan agreed. "Then let's split up for the night... we've been through enough for one day." Ex nodded. So without saying much else, we all went our separate ways. Me and Ringo went through a portal that was made by Ex, allowing us to go back to Suzuran. This was after I noticed the other girls frowning all the same, which saddened me a little.

When me and Ringo arrived home, we told Ms. Ando and Serilly what truly happened... explaining our late arrival and current facial expressions. Ms. Ando felt sad and gave us a hug. Before it became too late, me and Ringo ate dinner and that made us feel a little better. The rest of the night came and went with us bathing briefly and going to bed early. As I laid in my bed, my mind had all these serious thoughts swirling about. ... I wonder how long it's going to take Primp to recover from something like that... Surely, it's going to take a while to fix up the shops and homes, right? ... But what about the people? It's like Schezo wondered to himself: How many people died in those flames? How many more are alive, but burned? ... And just how many of those people were just innocent bystanders? ... This is something I might have to figure out tomorrow. Thankfully, me and the others don't have school then since it's a Sunday. So we can probably see the destruction close up when we're ready to go tomorrow. ... … I should get some shut-eye... And so, I fell asleep for the night and allowed my body to refresh itself.

Author's Notes: Dave and friends have managed to defeat the fifth Yog in less than stellar condition, thanks to Reyson suddenly showing up and Dave eventually giving that Yog of Fire what it deserved. But, this came at a price: All of Primp was nearly burnt to the ground, with many visible buildings and structures left barely standing. So, the town ended up getting mostly ravaged anyway in spite of everyone's best efforts to defeat the Yog quickly. After surveying the current state of the town, pretty much everyone quietly left to go back to their homes... feeling somber. The night quickly passed as Dave got back into his room to sleep, but not before going through those thoughts that he had regarding Primp Town's state. What will happen as Dave and possibly some of his friends get a closer look at the burned homes and shops on the next day? Next chapter, Chapter 77: The Pain of Loss.