Straight into combat, and with more words than ever! Hopefully I can make my other chapters nearly as long as this one, I like the new writing style I'm adapting.
The situation wasn't looking good for Withern at all. Shortly after the introduction of some new smiling trashbag, less boney yet more of a douchebag, he was promptly grabbed by the wires and thrown straight into the wall. Needless to say, the pain was excruciating, feeling bricks break on his back and his body thrown through the fiberglass insulation. It would've hurt a lot less if he didn't have his soul still somewhat gray, preventing his aura from blocking out a good portion of the damage as it should've.
Withern grunted as his body skidded on the ground. The pain seared throughout his body, a fresh wave of gloom pouring into his mind. Unfortunately, he had no time to cry over a few cracked bones and open wounds, he could see the wires quickly approach him with the full intent of causing harm. "Bastards..."
extending a pale green shield out from his soul, he'd block the group of wires aimed at his chest. At that moment, his eyes drifted over to the pitch-black figure watching with their creepy smile. Were they controlling the wires? No, that couldn't be the case. they were just standing there, just watching. They weren't the source of the wires and nor were they moving.
The defensive item wouldn't last long to the powerful cords, cracking before shattering and forcing Withern to move away. He flexed his hand to create another shield, but the wire's changed trajectory and aimed towards him far too quickly. His reactions were slow.
He'd clench his teeth and prepare for the pain, but instead he'd feel his shoulder grabbed and his body suddenly become light. Before he knew it, he was standing on top of Grillby's with Sans right next to him. "h-huh?"
Did we just... teleport?
"wow. you were really going to stand there and take it. don't pull my strings like that." Sans commented, patting Withern's back. He glanced over at the fast-approaching wires and shrugged. Right before it'd close on the two, the skeleton grabbed Withern by the collar and yanked them back with himself.
"I hope that pun wasn't intentional." Withern grumbled. Those wires were seriously coming after him and the monster, they were quick too. Normally he'd be able to easily counter and block, but his lacking soul power was driving him closer to the grave.
Keeping a steady mind for a moment, he allowed his current shield to sharpen around the edges. The moment one of the many wires approached him, he'd block and violently jab his armament through its patience magic. Upon the wire being sliced in two, the others would retract and hoover above Boukyaku. "We need to disable those wires..."
Sans eyed the sentient strings of patience. "we could do a widespread attack, but it'll take a lot of magic. just bundling all of them into one group would be easier."
"Got it."
"I see you two are planning something!" Boukyaku shouted out loud while leaning against the wires. He casually pointed a finger gun at them and winked. "Why don't you two just give up? It's far better to die easily than die hard. Just my opinion."
"Why don't you shut up and stop attacking us?" Withern questioned back, glaring down at the humanoid from below.
"hm...I'll have to ask my companions." Boukyaku's body began to shift, almost phasing out of existence over and over again in a rapid manner. As he did so, duplicates of himself would diverge from his body, sprouting seven new versions of him. They all shook their heads. "The majority vote said NO!"
"i didn't see that coming. duplication, how strange." Sans placed his hand under his chin, intrigued by the display.
"Is anyone taking this fight seriously?" Withern asked with exasperation. This really was just the worst day for him. It'd be worse if he died hearing shitty jokes though, living was on his mind. At least it was buying his soul enough time to heal most of his wounds, feeling practically brand new again. He'd need that energy for what was about to come.
"I am now!" the Boukayku's laughed, charging forward with their hands overlaying with sharp claws of perseverance. Following behind and from above were the wires, ready to barrage the human and monster with a flurry of slashes. Using the cords as stepping stools, the duplicates would leap onto the and jump towards their targets on the rooftop.
Withern pursed his lips. Both attackers and their duplicates were difficult to take on. Those patience strings would kill him easily with such speed and precision while perseverance magic was known to be a shield breaker with such powerful melee attacks. He knew who he wanted to take on though. "Sans, can you distract the wires? I can't react to them, but I can handle the monsters."
"sure thing, just stick with the plan." Sans would disappear to shortly reappear behind the mess of strings with a coalition of bones next to him. Without hesitation, he'd send the pellets at his target, fully intending to cut them down.
For the most part it didn't work, each wire dancing around the bullet hell with its thin shape aiding. Only some wires were unfortunate enough to be broken down from the attack. What was worse is that the cut wires would regrow themselves quickly with a new, equally long cord in a matter of seconds.
"huh. not my proudest moment." Sans said before evading an incoming wire. He reached out to grab the wire, overlaying his hand with a gaster blaster that'd chomp down on the insanely sharp object. With quick thinking, the skeleton threw the large thread into the others, causing a chain reaction of a good chunk of them getting tangled between themselves.
There were still far too many approaching him, forcing the monster to continue evading wire after wire. "geez, kid. you really gave me a hard job here."
"Just trust me." Withern took out another shield and formed it into a spiked bat. He had a plan, but it involved patience. Four left.
The human waited for the clones to strike him, watching them get up close and with their luminescent claws. He ducked and slammed his bat against their stomachs, sending all of them flying back...Or, almost all of them.
He had a slight, dreadful feeling creeping behind him: his intuition.
"Shit!" He turned around and held up his shield, just in time for the claws to be blocked and shatter the shield. He stumbled back and glared at the being. They were grinning ear to ear. Annoyed, he backed away and hopped off the roof to get himself some lower ground. Three left.
Withern turned to look at Sans for a moment. He was holding up, using the blaster attached to his hand to mow down the cords of patience in front of him. It was clear it was taking effort out of the monster, sweating visibly from his forehead. It was so soon too, but those wires were too difficult for him get away from. Seconds after he teleported, he would need to do it again and again, constantly being struck at wherever he went. It didn't give him a break. Withern needed this fight to end soon. Sans can't just dodge forever.
The skeleton had tried to conserve his energy, but so many wires attacking him was a hassle. "whew, you- huff - sure tire me out." he forced a breathy chuckle while two blasters manifested above him. "you forced my hand I guess." with that he'd fire two blindingly bright lights.
"Hey! Pay attention! Don't take me as some chump who doesn't know combat. It's my favorite game after all!" A Boukyaku scolded while the others charged forward. One of them leaped high into the air and extended his claws.
Withern snapped his attention back to his attackers. Maybe he was biting more than he could chew. If these souls were really serious about being adept in battle, then this fight certainly wasn't going to sway in his favor. What didn't help was that he was practically taking on seven humans at once and not all of them used the same attacks.
He spun around, gaining momentum to throw his shield into the airborne humanoid. It worked, managing to strike them, but it didn't do nearly as much damage as he'd like. Dammit, why can't my soul just be stronger...? Two left...
The mohawked teen held out his bat with both hands and blocked the incoming slash, enduring their sharp nails cracking through his bat. "Dammit..."
The clones cackled and one would manage to get close enough and rake their claws past Withern's chest while he was open. "Weak! You're the worst play toy I've seen to date."
Withern's eyes widened from the hot pain burning throughout him. With all his effort, he threw his bat and the decoy clone away from himself and focused on the other attackers, They didn't leave him much of a chance to do anything, one of them kicking his bleeding chest and body onto the ground.
He was losing. Again...
"I have no idea what your plan was, but it must've been stupid if this is where it got you." Boukyaku mocked as one of the other versions of himself snapped the bat in half, leaving it to crumble into shards of kindness magic and stay on the ground. One left.
Withern looked at his wound, seeing a purple outline around it that was preventing his wound from healing. His passive healing magic wasn't enough to bypass it at his current state. "Fuck you..." he weakly croaked.
"Nah, you're far too ugly for me." the humanoid scoffed and grabbed Withern by the neck. He forced the human to gaze upon the current scene of Sans and the sentient wires of corrupted patience. "Can you even call this a fight? We've practically mowed you down in two minutes!"
Sans was struggling at this point, tired down to the bone. All this dodging, weaving, and gaster blasting got him nowhere. His movements were becoming horribly sluggish and at one point he had to start using his own attacks as shields. stumbling back, he heaved in exhaustion. "I'm...worn out...buddy. why not call it off this fight?"
He stepped aside just in time for a wire to miss him. His eye sockets became pitch black. "Fine."
The skeleton teleported into the air and held out both his hands. His right eye began to glow and flicker between yellow and blue, his magic pouring out from his soul. Behind him, numerous gaster blasters would appear, an entire wall of them aimed directly at the bundle wires. It was painstaking clear he was on his last legs, desperation overcame the grinning monster.
"Oh, that's just pitiful. Look, Withern." Boukyaku raised Withern higher in the air, all while digging his claws harder on their throat. It was hard for the teenager to breathe and they'd futilely try to pry his hands away while kicking their legs in the air. "He really thinks he can just blast away all those wires.
"It's just too bad they won't get to do it."
Withern's heart sank, knowing the skeleton's attack would dreadfully backfire on him. He tried to strain out words of warning to Sans, but his throat was far too constricted and he was barely getting any air in. Blood began to seep from his neck from how hard the claws were digging into his skin. It was hopeless for him to do anything.
Sans readied his blasters as the wires shot towards him. His permanent smile widened and he'd wink. Within a split second he'd disappear away from the wall of gaster blasters nearly charged and ready to strike. "you asked for this."
"Oh, They know."
Whatever semblance of smugness that overcame the skeleton would quickly shatter. The wires weren't after him, they targeted the attacks. The gaster blasters. To his utter dismay, the strings of patience would latch onto the boney contraptions. Only a few managed to fire, but by then most had been overtaken and overridden.
Their once blue eyes turned sickly cyan. The blasters targeted its original owner. With one huge, coordinated blast, Sans was overcome with a massive wave of magic.
He attempted to block it all out with what little energy he still had in store, raising a new gaster blaster to endure the continuous, overwhelming assault, but his defense was quickly cracking away and inching him closer to death.
"No...!" Withern wheezed out.
Protect him! Protect him now! That was all on Withern's mind at the moment: saving the monster before him.
But there was nothing he could do. Attempting to reach his hand out and form a shield resulted in one of Boukyaku's clones grabbing him by the wrist. With a quick, upwards strike from their knee, his arm snapped like a twig. A gasp of pain emitted from the summoned shield fell from his stunned hand, dropping onto the ground and cracking upon impact.
"Were you really about to use that weak shield? " one of the swirly-eyed creatures asked as he lifted up Withern's shield. "Heh. This thing is practically paper, what do you think it'd do?" He tore the shield in front of the human, piece by piece, just to rub salt on their wounds. Zero left...But it doesn't matter anymore.
Sans's bone-like shield cracked and left a wide enough hole for the magic to seep through. The beam of deadly, blue and white light pierced past the cracks and struck the skeleton's right arm. Right as that happened, the blasters ceased and allowed the monster to collapse to the ground.
He looked over his shoulder, huffing in pain and spotting his detached, burnt limb on the ground. looking up at his controlled blasters, they were already charging again.
Withern could feel the world around him die, focused on the horrifying scene that pierced him with agony. What had he said? 'Trust me'? And look where that trust got him, the skeleton being murdered right in front of his eyes.
He failed again, he couldn't protect anyone.
Sans words vaguely came to mind, how they told him he couldn't save everyone. He took a chance, he tried, but his efforts failed. He couldn't expect to save everyone, even with all the power they had, but the pain was still there. It still hurted how he couldn't even properly defend a single soul. The blood was on his hands too, this time. He gave them a half-assed plan. Why did he expect it to work? Why did he not consider the odds?
He was indirectly a murderer. The consequences of his actions had become evident.
He shouldn't have even tried. They were all stronger than him. Why did he bother? He hated it, he hated that he kept failing. Every. Time.
Withern's soul begin to shift back to gray as he watched the blasters fire at his ally, engulfing their body. Something harshly pulsed in him at the sight.
What was left of the skeleton was just his arm, sitting there leaking dust and blood
"Well, I guess I should kill you too." Boukyaku released Withern, letting the grayed human collapse onto his knees. All the clones would surround him, claws ready to gut the human for the sake of their own twisted amusement. "I really don't know what you expected. I've done fighting for decades, unlike you, and we're so numerous it'd be impossible to take us all down..."
One of the duplicates bent down and patted Withern's head with a wide, toothy smile. "I'm already killing off all your friends. That failure called Hate is being slowly murdered in my dimension, and I've rounded up four of your other friends into a single room to massacre them for pleasure! You really think you're more than just prey to me?"
Withern's mind was burning; burning with thoughts of intense anger and pain. Why was he always failing? Why couldn't everything work out for him just once? Why did everyone around him suffer? So many questions, too many for him to coherently find an answer to. His mind was muddling under the stress.
Far before he even had met his friends, the same plight had followed him. He felt like he was cursed, damned to have anyone even remotely close to him experience high hell. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair to him! why couldn't he just do his job right?
His soul darkened.
Withern wanted to make everyone hurt.
How can he be kind when the world was cruel to everyone he knew? Tulah, Null, Hate, Milo, Mila...Mom...Dad... Even those he barely knew suffered in his presence.
Tears overcame his eyes.
"Oh you're so boring...Goodbye!" The Boukyakus brought down their claws.
His tears pulsed with HATE.
Withern growled and summoned a shield around him, outlined with jet-black oozing around. He watched the many pairs of perseverance claws strike and dig into the shield, lifting his head up. His eyes were black, all except the green pupils he has.
Kill them. Kill them. They deserve what's coming to them, don't they?
Nothing mattered anymore, except destroying whoever was in front of him.
"What the hell?" The Boukyaku's exclaimed in surprise, right before they saw Withern's shield threaten to morph. They all moved away in a panic, ripping their claws back and jumping backward. One wouldn't be so fortunate, the shield spiking out to the left and piercing him straight through the chest. The fake, constructed soul within him shattered, instantaneously killing him.
"I wasn't informed about this! This is cheating!" One of the other clones yelled, reforming their claws into a knife. He'd skillfully dodge the next set of spikes coming towards the copies. He'd throw his knife into the shield and summon another one in his hand. "You cheater!" hopping over the last spike, he'd be up in front of the shield and jab in the other knife. With two of his weapons embedded, he pulled down on them and crack in an opening.
Withern didn't react and instead form a handful of olive green orbs. He flicked the orbs right into the intruder, piercing their skull and body in multiple areas. He watched as they collapsed, dead on the ground and bleeding purple.
They asked for this, they were the ones who pushed him over the edge and no one else. They were the ones hurting people. They deserved it.
Keep Killing.
The human chuckled at his thoughts and moved his hand to reform his shield into a bat. It was much less tame than its normal counterpart, the barrel protruding spikes and the bat itself being much larger than normal. He knew his magical output was low, he had barely any mana left now, even with the new rush of power in him. It didn't matter though, it would be soon when his targets will all be laying dead around him.
"Ugh, he just had to get stronger..." A Boukyaku groaned "I thought people got weaker without the power of friendship." he diverged from the group to head over to the wires. Grabbing one of them, he'd be pulled high into the air. "How many of those whatchamacallits do we have?"
He was referring to the gaster blasters, all of which were intact and 20 in counting. Counting them, since wires couldn't talk, he smiled. "Ah, this'll do perfectly. Kill the human."
Withern was far more skilled than he originally was thanks to his kindness intuition - if you can still call it kind. Unlike his grayed form, he could assume when an attack would occur every time his mind flared. He leaned away from a set of claws after him and brought his jagged bat down on his opponent's arm, nearly breaking their arm into two pieces.
"Gah! Fuc-" The clone's head was met with a brutal end, the force of Withern's bat swing bashing his skull in. He fell dead next to the other clones, whose sharp smiles had turned to sawtoothed frowns.
These humanoids may be combat adept, but it wasn't hard to notice their near inability to assess the situation correctly. They all played around and none of them had taken Withern seriously up until now. Even then, they couldn't compare to his new reaction time, making even landing a cut difficult.
"Okay! I'm through with you! Die like that rat bastard of a monster!"
Well, landing a hit didn't seem like too much trouble now with so many gaster blasters aimed at Withern. However, he didn't seem phased by the sight when he turned towards the voice. Truth was, he was highly prepared for the situation. There was a good reason he had openly allowed his shields to break into shards of kindness.
As the clones made a run for it and the blasters charged, the mohawked teen bent done and picked up one of the bloodied orbs he had shot. It was still intact. Turning and facing the skeletal weapons, he threw the orb up and slammed it towards them with his bat.
Without hesitation, he'd enact his special. Tapping his bat on the ground, the shards of kindness magic would shoot up and follow behind the tiny orb. Like a rain of spears, the shards would pierce through the floating skulls, tearing through and breaking down them into bonemeal. The strings of patienece would also endure the wrath, cut from multiple angles and harshly reducing in size in a matter of mere seconds.
Withern watched in glee, a crooked smile creeping onto his face. His dark, overtaken eyes, focused on the destruction he caused, especially seeing the sky-high Boukyaku get caught in the crossfire. He would watch them fall off the wires and crash onto the ground with a splattering crunch.
His gaze slowly shifted to the remaining four duplicates, all of whom were more pissed than scared. He clenched his fist and ordered his shards to move towards them.
Kill them. Make sure they can't hurt anyone anymore.
Within a split second, a flash of green appeared and the number of clones reduced from four to one.
"D-dam...Wow. That wasn't planned, huh?" The last Boukyaku coughed while poking at one of the pieces of kindness embedded in his chest. He stumbled back and fell onto his knees, feeling lightheaded and weak from the fatal damage he sustained. "You sure like being a dirty cheater don't you- AGH!" his sentence was cut short when Withern bashed one of his knees in.
"Take a fucking joke, will you?!" the black figure hissed. "You weren't supposed to win!"
No response.
"what's got you mad anyways? Angry your new friend died?" he violently teased, crawling forward and leaving a trail of blood behind. He gasped for air, feeling his lungs having been pierced. It didn't stop him from continuing to mock the enraged teen, even as his breathing became broken. "heartbroken you couldn't protect that soul?"
Withern shifted his arms.
Boukyaku cracked a wide grin at the subtle reaction. "You're a failure of a kindness soul, you know? You're better at hurting people than protecting them! what a joke! I bet you've never sav-"
Withern screamed, bringing down the bat on the creature's head while his eyes filled with rage.
Again. Again. Again. He'd keep knocking his weapon into their skull, ignoring the gory mess each strike made.
KILL HIM! KILL HIM! HE DESERVES IT! EVERY HIT!
He Deserves It For Every Failure That Has Happened!
He deserves it for all those losses!
he deserves to suffer!
he deserves the pain.
...you deserve it all...
"...What's wrong with me?"
Withern dropped his bat and stared down at the gruesome, headless corpse. The black in his eyes seeped out into tears and he doubled over, breaking into a sob. The color from his hair drained to gray once more. He was a failure... He can't save anyone, even when he tried. He looked up into the air, looking at the torn wires in the sky retreating. Kindness, patience, and perseverance filled the air, but he felt like he was none of those.
Time would resume.
Welcome to the super short story section. Every chapter will come with a tiny story that adds to a character's background or it will just be fun interactions.
Withern sat down next to his friend, bento box in hand with a light smile on his face. The two of them were out near a river, within Glistening Thicket where only the noise of chirping birds replaced the silence. The two of them didn't say anything for a minute, but eventually the long-haired teen would speak out, feeling rather cheery today. It was his friend's birthday of course! How could he not? "Hey, thanks for letting me hang out with you today! It's uh...Nice seeing you when I do."
"...Yeah." His friend failed to share the same sentiment, kicking over a pebble into the calmly following water. Their eyes were awfully glued to the scene as if in thought.
Withern would stay upbeat despite his friend's lack of interest. He looked over and tilted his head to get a glimpse at their expression, although his long cyan and green hair would get in his way. He stuck his tongue out past his tresses and held out his bento box. "Wanna share some of this?"
They looked over at the box with their dull, white eyes. The item pretty much had what they'd expect from Withern: rice, tofu, some fried noodles, and veggie rolls. No meat in sight. "Not to be rude, but your tastes suck..."
He laughed while taking out some chopsticks and scooping some noodles. With no sense of space, he'd hoover the long consumable near his friend's mouth. "Come on, don't be like that. I know you've never had this before!"
"I'm not hungry..." They muttered and turned his head away.
"You always say that, but I know you're just a dirty liar~" Withern teased as he once again held out the noodles in front of the fellow human's face.
reluctantly, they bite down on the chopsticks and ate the noodles. After swallowing it down, they scowled. "Better? Will that get you to shut up?"
"Hm... Not quite, why not try this too?" He took out a veggie roll and held it out. They didn't seem to comply with his demands, just glaring at him and biting their lips. He was used to those kinds of reactions from them, they were always a stubborn soul. "Come on, it's your birthday! loosen up a little! If you're not going to have a cake, then at least enjoy some snacks. You deserve it."
Their friend stared at the roll for a moment. They eventually leaned forward and took a bite, although it was only a nibble at best. "There..."
"You hardly bit it at all!" Withern said, exasperated.
"boo hoo. I don't give a fuck." His friend huffed. "I told you, I'm not hungry..."
"Don't lie to me, I have my intuition." He reminded with a wide smile. It was almost impossible for him to NOT detect something wrong with someone if there was ever one. His friend had plenty, this just happened to be the one on his mind the most.
"Oh boy, that helpful 'intuition'. It didn't save you from batting down several students and getting expelled, did it?" They harshly reminded in an attempt to get Withern off their back. To their annoyance, it didn't work and only seemed to fuel him more to speak. Sometimes they hated he was partially a patience soul.
"No, but it did save you from being beaten down, right?" He remarked while settling his food aside. "You know I'd never leave you behind, right?"
"You should've, I'm not worth you time." His friend uttered. They shifted their hand on the ground and gripped on the grass, ripping it out a moment later. "Why do you even care about my birthday?"
"Well, I'm not about to let you sit in the dark for another day in your room." Withern started, ignoring the irritated grumbling from them. "And of course you're worth my time! You're my friend, I have to help you! What kind of person am I if don't?"
"A smart kind of person." They murmured. "Don't you ever think about yourself?"
"Do you?"
His friend went silent and released the patch of grass in their hand. They leaned back then completely laided down, looking up at the clear blue sky. "...I give up. You're impossible. Do whatever the hell you want with me."
"Does...that mean I can feed you and protect you?" Withern asked, starry eyed as if he just discovered some sort of secret code to his friend. Maybe he did, it was so rare for them to ever get through to them. Today was a nice change of pace - maybe it was because today was special for them.
"Savior complex." They muttured.
"What?" Withern tilted his head in confusion.
"Are you going to shove more of those shitty veggie rolls in my mouth or what?" They growled in annoyance.
Withern smiled.
"Yea."
Notes:
• Yeah, Withern has a tone of emotional baggage, which was hinted at in the previous story. He doesn't really touch on it unless he's pushed over the edge, which evidently went well this time.
• HATE is awfully susceptible. More info on that in future chapters.
• Imagine being an important Undertale character and getting your shit rocked a chapter after your appearance lmao.
Sorry if this chapter was edgy lmao, I'm a sucker for edge.
