Chapter 55 - Abnormal Intervention

IF grunted as she dropped her friends to the ground, landing outside the Dungeon known as MS Mountain, more specifically at its base. Her wings remained out while her limbs returned to normal, and in the meantime IF turned her head to look at the Dungeon. She figured by the intense sounds she was hearing that the fighting was beginning to escalate. 'Geez, I get the feeling that we were just holding Nico back if the fighting's this intense…' she thought with a sour gaze.

"Ugh, my chest…" a feminine groan reached her ears, and IF turned to the source to see that Neptune was coming too. Her eyes opened groggily as she placed her hands on her chest. "Feels like I got kicked by a horse…anyone got some tress relieving Pudding?"

When her eyes were fully opened, Neptune looked around and saw IF. Her eyes brightened as she perked up upon seeing her friend. "Iffy! How ya doing, girl? Geez." She then winced upon noticing the state IF was in. While her injuries had regenerated, she still looked a little rustled from the constant fighting and flying. "You don't look so hot."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Nep." IF remarked sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. She then placed a hand on her hip and began to explain. "Had to get our asses out of there since we would only be collateral damage that Nico doesn't need." She felt a pang of irritation stab at her pride for not being able to help, but smashed it down. If she were to follow her pride and go back there, chances were that she would be killed. Even with healing, it wasn't good to be reckless.

Shaking her head, IF then focused on the preteen, to be more specific the chest area where she had been impaled by those Tentacles of that guy's. 'Wait a minute, I heard that guy called himself a 'Ghoul' before, right? Is that the name of an Abnormal monster? Surely seemed different from the other's we'd fought…' she remarked as she spoke. "Anyways, all that aside, how you feeling, Nep? You took a pretty bad hit there." She then pointed to the unconscious Compa, who was sprawled nearby. "Compa ran herself ragged trying to heal you, used up lots of energy too."

At first, Neptune was all calm, with her arms crossed, eyes closed and head nodding away. She had raised herself to a sitting position while IF had spoken, as well. "Eh? Ohhhh, I see…." However, that soon changed once she registered everything that IF sad, or rather, most of it. "Wait, Compa?! What happened, is she alright?!" Neptune cried, shooting to her feet while getting in IF's personal space, much to the Spec Ops Candidate's annoyance.

"Settle down, Nep, like I said before, she's alright just needs to rest and recover her energy." IF stated, pointing to the downed Nurse-In-Training. She watched ad Neptune raced to her side, quickly reaching into her Inventory and pulling out some SP Chargers, special potions to restored one's energy. She began to make Compa open her mouth by sticking her fingers in and forcing the girl's mouth to open, which prompted the brunette to act. "Hey, easy, Nep. You might choke her! Here, this'll help."

Seeing that the preteen looked so determined to their resident medic, IF sprang into action as well. Her energy hadn''t completely run out ye, and she cvould feel her body recovering from the recent experience. The C Gene felt like it was hard at work using the experience to create and promote stronger cellular growth. Putting that aside for now, the brunette went behind the two and kneeled, sitting Compa upright to allow Neptune to open the SP Charger and put it inside Compa's mouth. She lifted it upwards to let the liquid pour down her throat, the unconscious girl automatically beginning to drink the liquid. Once the liquid had been emptied into her, they pulled the empty bottle out of her mouth, allowing Compa to cough ad get some air back into her lungs.

"#COUGH# #COUGH# Ugh, what happened? I feel like someone tried to suffocate me with water…" Compa drowsily spoke, slowly opening her eyes. She closed them and repeated this process several times, before they finally opened for real and landed upon both Neptune and IF. "Huh? Iffy, Nep-Nep?... Nep-Nep, you're alright!" the girl exclaimed, tears gathering in her eyes as she lunged forth and glomped the girl, hugging her tightly. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

What she didn't realise was that she had put too much strength into her hug as Neptune flailed about, her face turning into a mix of blue and purple. "C-Com…pa…! C-Ca…n't… br-br… breathe!" she tried to say, but it came out as inaudible blabbering.

Luckily for her, before Compa could unknowingly suffocate the poor girl, IF intervened by pulling them apart with her BOW strength. She had to even resort to amplifying her arms with Biomass to do this, a testament to Compa's strength. "Whoa there, girl, ease up. You don't want to kill her, do you?" she questioned the young girl, eyebrow arched. 'She just woke up from a pounding, and she's that strong already? Geez...'

For a moment, Compa stared at them, blinking in confusion. "Wh? What do you…" However, this wasn't to be the case for long as realization shone in her eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Air! How I missed you!" Neptune bellowed to the heavens, kneeling on one leg while her arms were spread like a preacher with her head tilted towards the skies. When she registered Compa's comment, she turned and stood straight, laughing nervously as she rubbed the back of her head. "Hehehehe, sorry about that Compa… anyways!" deciding that a change of topic was the best way to move past this little awkward moment, Neptune decided to probe IF for information. "What happened, Iffy? Where are we and where's Nicky? You didn't leave him to rot, did you?" she asked worriedly, before gasping in horror. "You did, didn't you?! You took his little jr and left him back there, didn't you!"

Compa covered her mouth with tears brimming in the corners of her eyes. "Iffy, you're so cruel! Why would you do that to poor Ni-Ni?" she asked with quivering lips and a sad pout.

The brunette groaned, punching the bridge of her nose with the hand that wasn't on her hip, eyes closed as she fought off the migraine these girls were giving her. "Nep, stop making up stories. Anyways, no I didn't leave him to rot, he told me to leave the area and to leave the enemy to him. He had transformed while saying this, so I wasn't about to argue. You guys were defenceless back there, why would he want you to be collateral?"

At the brunette's rhetorical question, Neptune and Compa calmed down, sighing in relief that their assumptions were wrong. "Oh, that's what happened… I see… that's a relief…" Neptune remarked. "If Nicky was left to rot, his favorite Nep would have to go save his booty from that meanie."

"Nep-Nep, you're our only Nep-Nep…" Compa commented with a sweat drop, but was ignored by the preteen Goddess. Turning to IF, Compa decided to shift topics again. "Oh right, Iffy, did he say anything about that guy? Ni-Ni has a lot of know-how on the really bad monsters after all."

The brunette nodded as both girls paid rapt attention to what she would say next. "Yeah. Before I got your asses out of there, I heard him call the guy a Cannibal, then the guy said he was a 'Ghoul'…. I think I've heard of them before, but I can't remember where." IF explained with a frown.

Ghouls, the moment she had heard that name the first time, a surge of familiarity had welled inside her chest. She vaguely remembered hearing of them once before, along her travels throughout Planeptune, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where. It was probably in passing if she couldn't recall it, but IF swore she had heard that name before. She would have to get some answers through her contacts and her own research. The best way to survive was through knowledge of the enemy, it was what she did to get as far as she did as a Guild Agent when she was on her own.


None of them could ponder this for long, though as a man walked up to them. He wore strange black robes, not showing any colours belonging to the four nations. He had a cowl on his head, covering most of his face, but dressed himself with ornaments t show that he was of a religion. "You folks there. Hello. Can I speak with you for a moment?" he asked them, walking over.

Neptune regarded the man for a moment, before tilting her head in a questioning manner. "Are you hitting on us?" she queried, before giving an easy chuckle. "No can do, though. I already have over one gajillion fans." She then pumped her fists in front of her chest as a dreamy expression fell over her features. "Plus, I already have my hubby."

Compa pouted and glared at Neptune, jealousy shining in her eyes. "Nep-Nep, he's my hubby first…" she whined, but like usual Neptune ignored it.

"The people who see me are pure in heart, so I don't want to let them down."

The man frowned, looking weirded out by the preteen before dousing the notions she was spouting out of the blue. "Um, no, I'm not trying to hit on you folks. I just want to talk." The man replied, to which the girls calmed down from their previous assumptions. Well, Neptune, but you get the gist.

"Talk? Talk what?" Compa asked curiously, wondering why some random stranger would want to talk to them.

IF didn't say anything, but her suspicions about the situation were obvious, especially in her eyes as she gazed at the man before them with doubtful intent. 'Something about this guy feels off… No random civilians would just come up to us like this, and this timing is also off…' She knew it was unwise to be suspicious of everyone you met on your travels, as it made you overly paranoid and tuned you into a douche, however she just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off here. Maybe Nico was rubbing off on her, who knew? The Guy was paranoid, and his mother said he had trust issues, but unlike her he obviously had lots of experience with unsavoury people.

"Do you folks believe in Overlord Momus?" the man asked them, getting straight to the point. Well, that was at least one point in his favour, IF wasn't a fan of beating around the bush.

Neptune hummed in puzzlement, a finger on her chin. "Mammary?"

The man shook his head at the mispronunciation, before clarifying it for her. "No, Momus." He said, stressing the second part of his sentence so she wouldn't make the misconnection again. But if he had experience with Neptune, he would have realised that his efforts would end in vain.

"Overlord Mammary? I've never heard of it before… Have you, Compa?"

This time it was IF who got it wrong, earning a slightly irritated look from the man, who spoke once more but this time to her. "Um, Momus. M-O-M-U-S."

"I've never heard of Overload Mustard before, either." Compa replied, either ignoring or not having heard the man, as she responded to IF's query.

At this point, the man released a groan as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Not 5 minutes in and he was already suffering a migraine. "I don't know where to start…" he mumbled under his breath, before proceeding to correct them the THIRD time. "That's M-O-M-U-S. And its "Overlord"."

The three girls looked at him in confusion for a moment, before Compa shook her head and decided that the name wasn't important. Since they hadn't heard it before, it likely wasn't, at least in their opinion. "… Anyways, what does Mr. Overlord talker person want with us?" she asked him, and above her head were question marks, each one popping in and out of existence.

Deciding to get this conversation going along and ignoring this phenomenon, the man answered the girl's question while flashing a badge within his robes. "I am a Messenger of Momus and I'm here to spread the word of the Overlord." He then raised his arms preacher style, like Neptune had done earlier. "We want everyone to know the joy of coming to know Overlord Momus."

His answer, while it did satisfy Neptune and Compa, only heightened IF's suspicions. She knew that this was a rather strange place to spread the word of an Overlord whatever, that would be better done in a City or other populated areas. One near a Dungeon where the only residents were monsters or Agents killing those monsters was unusual, if not wrong on so many levels. She had met a few messengers of other Goddesses in her travels, and out of all of them, none took place near a Dungeon.

Finally getting a chance to speak, IF moved in front of the other two before they could do something stupid, and pushed them back lightly. "Well, you may want to stop already. We're not interested." She stated bluntly.

"Yes." Compa nodded her head in agreement, smiling sweetly with a sense of apology in it as well. "I believe in Lady Purple Heart." She explained, while also stating who she believed in. If Nico was here, she bet he could say that as a Spec-Ops, he didn't believe in anything but his own strength. He had already made his opinions on religion clear about that. She then turned to Neptune, who was ironically the Goddess she was talking about. "Speaking of… how about you, Nep-Nep?"

Pointing to herself, Neptune tilted her head and responded. "Me? I believe only in myself." She said, and she wasn't unaware of how Nico-like that answer sounded. She then did a nervous laugh as her friends gave her looks. "… Just joking! I must have sounded narcissistic there a bit!"

The man stepped back in surprise, starting to sweat a bit which made IF's eyes narrow. Her BOW enhanced ears picked up sounds of rapid heartbeat, which indicated he was panicking. Neptune noticed too, and gave a disbelieving look at him. "Oy? Did I do it again…?"

"Well, just hear me out a bit." The man began, his hands raised as if trying to placate something. "Overlord Worship is actually really fun."

He would have continued, but then IF stepped forwards with a sweet smile, although her tone had a dangerous tint to it. "I thought I told you, we weren't interested." She said, and strangely enough the man felt the eyes of death looking down at him from above her, like he was in the presence of a serial killer about to go on a murderous rampage.

Nevertheless, the man quickly gathered some courage and began rummaging his robes for something. "Here, let me give you this! A Special "Overlord Momus Limited Set"!" he proclaimed, pulling out several well decorated Boxes. They were small, their size good enough to be held in one hand, though they still were long enough to be considered rectangular.

IF sweat dropped as the man literally forced them to have the Boxes. "You don't give up, do you?" she would admit, this man had guts, though she knew one who had more guts than this guy ever did.

"Oh, come now. Just take it. You'll love it!" Again, the Messenger for this 'Overlord Momus' wasn't having any of their refusal. He then moved his hand in a whirling motion, and the box IF was holding was opened, much to her surprise since she didn't see any sharp objects in his hand. He then reached in and pulled out at first. a white Mug, with the words OVERLORD MOMUS in black bold letters around its side. "See, here's a mug with the Overlord's logo. Coffee tastes like love in it!" Next was… what looked to be an… image of a cell phone. "This laser die-cut cell image is hand-numbered as the 666th!" Next was a set of cards. "Also included is a set of [Overlord Trading Cards] made just for this set!" Next item was a book. "The illustrations are also in this art book that's included!"

After that was a Disk, and at that point everyone was getting creeped out by the man's blatant Selling out, Neptune, IF and Compa sweat dropping as they watched this. "Oh, and what's a set without an Overlord BGM CD? Perfect when you want to have an ambient background to your gaming! Of course, it was recorded to provide maximum excitement and tension!"

He then held the Disk in his hand like it was a holy relic, and was there crocodile tears streaming down his cheeks? "A special Disk to make you feel like you're near our Overlord!" If they thought he was done before, then they were proven wrong when the man pulled out a phone from his robes and opened a website, before showing it to them, not aware that the screen was so small that it was difficult to even see the webpage. "Also, buy our Overlord items online store to get Overlord Stamps!" he manipulated the site a bit before showing it to them again. "Collect enough stamps and you get this life-sized Overlord hugging pillow!"

At this point, a certain someone exploded! One guess as to who that was. Clue: purple hair, amnesia and a talent for fourth-wall breaking. "Hold it! You're using my script Space! I'm gonna let the author know!" she yelled, tilting her upper body forwards with her fists clenched at her sides. She had several tick marks on her forehead to show she was infuriated by the man's actions.

Said man stepped back with his hands raised as a gesture of surrender. "Oh, now. I only appear here in this story. Let me go and this pin is yours." He offered, pulling out a Pin that was purple with a black O on it.

Now, IF was pissed. She trusted her instincts and gave an angry growl. "Pins and all this other stuff is just junk to us. Take it all back." She spoke, barely retraining her limbs from mutating into Tentacles and impaling this person before them.

While not showing anger like her friend, Compa never the less pushed the unopened box in her hands towards him. "My grandpa taught me nothing is free, so you can take them back."

"No strings attached. You can have them." Like a shrewd businessman however, the man didn't take them back as he began to run away, yelling over his shoulder at them. "Well, I have to go now. Take care!"


The girls tried to stop him, but by the time they moved he had already fled the area, vanishing into the distance. He had been a fast runner, that was for certain, something that befuddled the trio of girls.

Seeing that they couldn't give them back now that the messenger was gone, IF looked down at the box she was holding with the items inside it. She grunted as she tossed them to the side. "… What are we going to do with all this?" she wondered, addressing the others with her question.

Compa frowned at IF's disregard for merchandise, even if forced onto them they should still treat it with care. People worked hard to make these after al. However, she couldn't blame her either, since IF was not one for these kinds of items. It would be rude to belittle her for something she didn't even want in the first place. Nevertheless, Compa gave her honest answer. "We can't leave them here, so I guess we have to take them with us."

IF gave a frustrated sigh, seeing the logic Compa had. She knew when she saw the temporary scolding face on her that Compa wasn't amused with how she casually discarded the items, but since she didn't say anything, IF assumed that she understood why. Still though, she couldn't help but moan in complaint. "Why do we always get the strange ones?" Compa nodded in agreement, placing a hand on IF's shoulder before patting it with said hand, a "there, there." Coming from her. Out of the corner of her eye, IF noticed a certain someone near the merchandise, her brow quirking at this. "Hm? Nep, what are you doing?" she asked.

Neptune, who had moved to the boxes that they had discarded, though Compa had put hers down gently, began rummaging through the boxes, having opened them with Murasama which lay at her side. "Well, since we're resting, I wanted to see what else was in here." She explained, although how she assumed they were resting boggled IF's mind.

However, a rest did sound good right about now. Her muscles were still aching from having to carry 3 unconscious people out an entire Dungeon. Along the way, she had seen how the Dungeon no longer had any of the Corruption on it, meaning that the Graverobber was likely the boss of that Dungeon. Why it was somewhere else other than its designated spawning area didn't really register in her mind considering it was an abnormal. Just thinking about that Necromorph filed her mouth with bile that she refused to upchuck, as it would waste Biomass.

While she was contemplating this, Neptune rummaged through the boxes and found something that gleamed in the sunlight. Thinking that it may be some jewels or even a platinum Pudding, Neptune excitedly pulled the object out. "Oh, hey, here's the BGM CD he was promoting… Wait a minute…" her eyes focused as she stared hard at the Disk, finding something strange about it. it looked familiar to her, like she'd seen it somewhere before…

"What's wrong, Nep-Nep?"

Neptune turned her head behind her to see Compa and IF walk up to her. Standing on her feet instead of the kneeling position she was in earlier, Neptune faced them and showed them the Disk. "Doesn't this BGM CD look oddly like that Monster Disk thingy?" she questioned.

As the two looked at the Disk for a moment, it became clear to them that it indeed looked like an Enemy Disk, just stuffed with decorations to hide its true nature like a wolf in sheep's clothing. "What?!" IF shrieked, horror plastered on her face as she quickly held a hand out to her. "Hand, it over, Nep." She urged

However, it was too late as Neptune's fingers accidentally wandered onto the activation button, which made it begin to glow. "Aaaaaaaaah… It's… starting to shine!" Neptune shrieked, quickly flipping backwards and gripping the sheathed Murasama. She then flipped into the air and landed in a ready stance, with Compa and IF doing the same. The former summoned her Syringe from her Inventory while deploying her Armour, and IF mutated her arms into blades.

More lights began to shine, reaching IF and Compa's visions. Their faces paled in horror as they realised what this meant. "The ones in mine and Iffy's set are starting to shine too!" The young Nurse-In-Training exclaimed.

IF cursed under her breath. "Of all the… Guys, back to back, now!" she yelled, the two girls nodding and quickly getting behind each other, with IF doing the same. They formed a triangular formation with their weapons at the ready, the brunette growling as she realised what was going on. "That guy! He tricked us!"

The flashes stopped, and just as they feared a ring of Monsters had surrounded the three. Thing was, they were a mix of them, as in…. normal monsters AND an Abnormal.

From the Leanbox bestiary that IF had gained from the Guild, they realised that there were 12 'Lightbulb Angels' which looked like the Contracted Angels in the Monster Cave, well, they would have been there had the Banshee Infestation not happened. There was also 12 'Boomerangs' which looked like small humanoids with large heads, clad in orange suits with white gloves, boots, horns, long noses like a certain living puppet, and yellow visors.

As for the Abnormal, this one dwarfed EVERYTHING in sight. It was easily at 20 feet in height and length, with a brown colored furry body, which was reinforced with stone Armour on the back of the hind legs and shoulders. Its claws were merged into stone gauntlets, while its snout sported a fiery red mane. It had an equally fiery red bushy tail the length of 2 people on top of each other. Overall, one could consider it a wolf-like Monster, which growled at them as it reared its head to the heavens and unleashed a loud how.

Turning to her friend, Compa's eye hardened behind her helmet. "Its transformation time, Nep-Nep!" she bellowed, getting a salute from the preteen.

"Aye-Aye, sir!"

A bright pillar of light enveloped Neptune as her transformation into the Goddess of Planeptune, Purple Heart, completed. When it vanished, Purple Heart took the preteen's place as she unsheathed her Katana sword, holding it in 2 hands. "Let's hurry and get rid of them and report back to the Basilicom. It would be a disaster if these were placed in the city."

The others nodded and the battle begun.


Getting rid of the normal monsters, the Light-bulb Angels and the Boomerangs was easy, if a bit annoying since the former liked to heal each other and the Boomerangs, while the Latter kept using ranged attacks. Fortunately, IF had grouped some together and used DEMON FLAMES to burn them to ashes, demoralizing the others which made them easy pickings for Neptune and Compa.

However, dealing with the Abnormal 'Garm' wasn't.

The Leanbox Bestiary was also specific on Abnormal monsters, and IF had looked and seen what this one was called before the battle. Its abilities were fire based, so ice attacks were the key here. Unfortunately, none of them had any Ice related abilities yet, something they would have to change in the future if they survived this. The Garm was proven to be a difficult opponent, as expected for an Abnormal Monster. It not only had strength, but it had the intelligence to use it.

As for Tekken, she had managed to remain out of the loop till the monsters showed up, and had helped in destroying them from the outside. The martial artist however, was taken out of the fight immediately by the Abnormal via claw to the face, sending her crashing into the side of the mountain, out cold. Although thy thought they heard a moan from her lips at the damage when she did, but the battle's intensity was too much for them to care.

Purple Heart groaned as she missed another strike, the creature having leapt over her. The Garm landed behind her and made to swipe a claw under the ground at her. A fiery ring appeared around its feet, before it swiped. Its claw dug into the ground and the ring turned an otherwise normal boulder into a fiery meteor. It was oddly reminiscent of FIRE SCORCHER, a Skill belonging to Nico's DPU form, but nonetheless, Purple Heart managed to dodge it.

"Eat this, bastard!"

The Garm turned to see IF rearing her right arm, which had shifted into her 6 Tentacles, back. She then sent them at it, the Tentacles slamming into its gauntlet. The brunette cursed, having been intending to get its side not the gauntlet, which endured the impact of her Tentacles. The Garm then lunged and bit onto the Tentacles, making IF cry out as it pulled back, taking her with them before using them to slam her into the ground before it.

"Iffy!" Compa yelled when she saw the Garm jump into the air and come down with its claws set aflame. She knew that it would make a massive fiery inferno around it if it dug those claws into the ground, having seen it before when it tried to do the same thing to her. "COMPA'S LOVE HEART!" She quickly activated her sole offensive Skill and aimed it at the space in front of the Garm, launching the attack there.

The attack hit the Garm in the face as it was about to burn IF alive, making it howl and veer off course, crashing into the ground 10 metres away from her. The flames burned the ground around it, charring the grass and reducing everything around it in a 6-metre radius to soot.

Using this opportunity, IF quickly got to her feet and jumped away, getting some distance between it and her. "Okay, that was too goddamn close for my liking." The brunette whispered under her breath. She quickly patted her coat down before deciding to use a different mutation. Her arms returned to normal as she switched to one of her more… defensive mutations.

Unlike her previous ones, her whole body began to shake uncontrollably, many crackling, flesh tearing and bone- snapping sounds coming from her as she gritted her teeth, enduring the pain this mutation brought as her body was modified from it. Black liquid shot out her shoulders, stomach, chest and legs, covering everything from her toes up to the lower half of her face.

When the mutation solidified, IF had her own set of armour clad over her body. The armour was black with a slight shine to it, with fractions decorating its form. There was a black mask that covered te lower portion of IF's face, from her jaw to the bridge of her nose. IF had also applied another mutation to her hands, which were a set of grey metallic claws forming from her wrist and consisting of 3 fingers that were about 10 inches long.

IF grinned behind her half-mask as she dashed towards the enemy at speeds that exceeded what she did before by far, her form like a blur as she clawed away at the Garm as it tried to get on its feet. It raised a gauntlet claw and brought it down, but IF managed to dodge it by jumping onto its head. Rearing her right claw back, the girl grinned under her half-mask, her eyes widening with glee and bloodlust, Biomass coursing through her. "Alright buster, let's see about those eyes, shall we?!"

With that battle cry, IF drove her claw into the creature's eye, which caused it to howl in agony as it thrashed around, trying to shake her off it. Eventually, IF jumped off it, landing in a perfect crouch before twirling around and crossing her arms in front of her, blocking a strike to the face from its Tail. She slid backwards several feet before coming to a stop, in which he lowered her claws.

Her handiwork was shown when they saw that the Garm's eye was shut, a trail of blood going down the side of its snout. The Gram gave a feral growl, clearly it was infuriated with the damage the brunette had done to its eye, and would be coming for revenge. It gave a loud howl as it ran at them, bringing a large claw down on them with the intent of crushing them under it.

However, IF dodged by jumping backwards while her companions went to the sides. "I got this!" Neptune told them, dashing forwards while activating her Skill. "CROSS COMBINATION!" the Skill empowered her sword and she went into a vicious barrage of slashes, her sword a blur of motion as it dug repeatedly into her opponent's side. The Garm jumped into the air before she could complete it, but she jumped after it and aimed the slash at its head, sending it crashing down to the ground.

When she landed opposite it, the creature quickly scooped up a boulder and turned it into a meteor, sending it at her. Neptune however, pushed her free hand forwards and formed a large purple barrier in front of her, blocking the Meteor from hitting her. The attack was burned out of existence the moment it contacted the barrier, much to her amusement. "Is that all you have to offer?"

Her taunt served to provoke it as the Garm howled in anger rushing towards her with the intention of taking a chomp out of her flesh. Unfortunately, it soon learned that was a bad idea as Neptune disappeared in a flash before it could clamp its jaws around her flesh. Above it, she reappeared with her sword pulled bac for a horizonal slash, the Sword glowing brightly along with her blue eyes. "Here's a Skill I learned from a friend! ATOMIC INFERNO – PLANEPTUNE EDITION!' She yelled, swinging her sword and sending 30 purple energy beams down towards it. they hit it in the back, causing the Garm to fall to the ground with a yelp.

Seeing that its underside was exposed, Compa quickly activated her Skill COMPA'S LOVE HEART, sending the attack towards its exposed area. The Garm, sensing the attack, managed to recover and flip pit the way in time, much to the girl's announced as she pouted with puffy cheeks. "No fair you were supposed to let me hit you!" she whined, flailing her arms dramatically.

The Garm didn't respond as it swung its claw at the ground, sending another meteor in her direction. Compa gave a squeak of fright as it closed in on her, with the rate it was going, and the distance between them, she knew that the meteor would be unavoidable, thus could only prey that her beloved armour was going to be durable enough for her.

"COMPA!" IF and Neptune called out to their friend as they rushed to her aid. While they were running as fast as they could, Neptune flying thanks to her floating, neither of them would make it in time to intercept the Meteor in time. Yet, they kept going, nothing but adrenaline fuelling them at this point.

SSCCCCCCCCCCCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A Loud shriek was all they heard before something crashed into the Meteor and caused a massive explosion, like a miniature supernova.

BOOM!

The resulting shockwave was great enough that the girls were flung away from the Nurse-In-Training's vicinity. "Kyaaaaaaa!" Compa screamed out as she fell onto her back, sliding across the ground till she stopped. Fortunately, her armour prevented any serious damage to her clothes and her flesh.

IF managed to land on all fours, growling as she looked up. "Ugh, what the hell was that?!" she shrieked, before looking to where the meteor once was. However, the smoke made it hard for her to see what was inside, so she looked to Compa. "Compa, you okay?!"

"A-Okay, Iffy! I'm still alive and kickin'!" Compa replied, sitting up and giving IF a thumbs-up sign, beaming behind her Mask.

"Okay, then… not so sure you should say that with a happy tone, but whatever."

The brunette could only sweat drop at her response, before looking towards Purple Heart, who was floating back into position. "Hey Nep, you okay too? You were the closest to that thing." She asked her.

Purple Heart didn't answer right away as she placed a hand on her head, her mind filled with dizziness from tumbling so much. She shook her head and forced the dizziness away, before looking up and glancing towards the brunette. "I-I am unharmed, Iffy. I managed to reduce the brunt of the impact with my powers. Anyways, what was that? It came so quick that I-"

SSCCCCCCCCCCCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The girls quickly gasped and covered their ears, an ear-piercing shriek echoing from within the smoke as well as pained growls and yips. The sounds of blood being shed, bones being crushed, and flesh being torn could be heard from within the cloud, the action keeping it up like a barrier that concealed what was inside.

They shuddered at the sounds, as well as the ones of tortured agony coming from the Garm that they had been fighting. Whatever had saved Compa had gone after it, and for some reason they got the feeling they didn't want to get involved. It was like they were following the instincts of prey, hiding from their predator. Tat cloud they faced was looking more and more dangerous by the second, even though they knew that it couldn't hurt them.

"Um, Iffy…?" Purple Heart asked her friend as they regrouped, watching the smoke warily as if whatever was inside would come out at any moment. She made sure to speak quieter than usual so that whatever was in there wouldn't notice them. "What do you think that is? It sounds tough…"

"If I knew that Nep, I wouldn't have asked that the last few times!"

The sounds of combat began to die down, until an uneasy, tense, eerie silence replaced them. The smoke began to die down, following the lack of motions within to indicate something was happening.

That is, until they began to hear some strange sounds, sounds like flesh being torn, but no dust was being kicked up, so the one making them wasn't moving about. "What is that sound? Something squelching?" Purple Heart wondered, frowning. she raised her sword in a ready stance, she didn't know why, but her instincts were screaming at her to be ready, that she was in danger.

"I Don't know, but it sounds creepy…" IF muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowing as she tried to peer through the smoke. She then widened them when she began to see a vague silhouette. "Look, the smoke's clearing."

Indeed, the smoke was beginning to clear, to the point where they could see a vague silhouette within. But as time passed, the silhouette gained a proper defined shape. It looked like there was something before their opponent, which was sprawled on its side motionless. There was the faint flicker of something swaying in the air, but it wasn't visible yet to the naked eye. It looked like a… tail, though.

Finally, the smoke cleared completely… though they soon wished it hadn't.