Damn I had fun making this. Like, you have no idea. I literally had to start color-coding the character's perspectives so I could more easily identify a section.
...Okay, actually, I just started by making the minor sections blue and the major sections a red, but then for some reason I thought it would be fun to give Propeller Knight's sections its own color (bright green), and then I gave Plaguey his own color (dark green), and then Specter Knight got to keep the red since all the major sections had been about him and were in red, and then I gave Albrecht's small little section at the end the blue, mostly because I liked the color, and it fits his color scheme.
"Wow, you're back early," Mona commented upon her partner's return.
Plague Knight gleefully held up the two essences and laughed when Mona's mask shattered and she sputtered for a moment in utter disbelief.
"T-two?" She questioned.
"Haha, yep!" Plague Knight said. "I wish you could have seen it. Propeller Knight was there. In a dress. With makeup. Hehe. It was great!"
Mona attempted to respond, but couldn't come up with anything even remotely intelligent to say.
"I also raided his treasury," Plague Knight informed her, tossing her his bag and again having a good laugh when she started to pull out the coins to count them, only to give up halfway through.
"I… I don't… There isn't… words… fuck." She groaned in frustration.
Plague Knight chuckled and told her gently, "Deep breath, Mona, deep breath."
She did as instructed and said, "Well, this is off to a good start. Far better than what I could have ever imagined."
Plague Knight nodded happily. "Yeah! I was thinking that I should try to attack Specter Knight since that didn't take nearly as much time as I thought. Hehe, he'll be so surprised he won't have time to retaliate!"
"Three in one day? And they say this is the hard part."
Plague Knight grinned. "Haha, yeah, right? Maybe the universe just likes me today."
"Let's just hope it stays that way." She held out her hand. "I'll deal with the essences. You just worry about taking down that ghost."
Plague Knight carefully handed over the oh-so-important ingredients to his partner before rushing off to gather as much information on the Lich Yard as he could.
Specter Knight was honestly surprised at people's stupidity sometimes. Take the idiot rambling in another language currently ransacking his territory, for example. No one in their right mind would seriously go around the area searching for… something without a degree of stealth involved seeing as the Yard was home to arguably one of the most powerful members of the Order of No Quarter.
And yet, there was some asshole foreigner going around, picking up hefty rocks, ensuring that was he was looking for was not under or near it, and then throwing it at any nearby forces that attempted to oppose him, including but not limited to benevolent ghosts that happened to be minding their own business, animated skeletons that the ruling undead man had actually set there as security and the occasional blade of dying grass that dared to attempt photosynthesis in his presence.
Even from a distance, Specter Knight recognized the design of the armor as one of Propeller Knight's Hoverhaft crew, and the inverse color scheme signaled to him that it was the one that would get up in his face the most. His only question was what the fuck did the German think he was doing?
Specter Knight was just about to go down there when his personal servant stopped him. "I can deal with him for you, sir," she informed him.
"No," Specter Knight told her, waving her aside. "I want to speak with him myself."
Mitzi cocked her head to the side in confusion but didn't say another word, instead following behind her master as he floated over to the invader.
"What do you think you are doing?" He asked, trying his damnedest to look as cool as possible by floating out of the shadows of a nearby tree.
Albrecht, however, was completely unfazed. "Looking for Propeller Knight," he answered simply as though the apparition had been there the whole time.
Frowning, Specter Knight asked, "What makes you think he'd be here?"
"He's ended up in some odd places," Albrecht answered, tossing another rock, this time in Specter Knight's direction.
Almost lazily, the stone was cut in half by the ghost's large scythe as he replied, "I can't argue with you there."
"Exactly," Albrecht muttered. "So leave me be so I can look in peace."
"I don't see why I should," Specter Knight snarled while folding his arms in annoyance.
"Because if I fail to find him, that means he's not there to act as one of the Enchantress' protectors. When someone strong enough to oppose you people appears, that means that the Enchantress will die sooner, and then you will most likely return to being dead."
Specter Knight frowned as he realized the German had a point. He didn't have a clue if he would continue to exist after the Enchantress' demise, but the odds were most likely not in his favor.
"Fine," he spat. "But be quick about it."
"I cannot be quick," Albrecht informed him. "I have to be very thorough. If I am not, I may miss the one place he could be hiding."
Specter Knight felt an almost overwhelming urge to bang his head on a nearby tree, hurt the German, or both, but he ultimately refrained from doing any of that.
"How long will you be here?" He questioned with a sigh.
"At least until the end of the day, maybe some of tomorrow."
"Has it occurred to you to call out for him? You didn't make a noise until I came."
"I assume he's asleep, which is why he has been gone for the past hour and a half."
"Wait wait wait!" Specter Knight yelled, successfully making Propeller Knight's bodyguard pause midway through the action of hurling another small boulder, comically causing him to fall to the ground. "He's only been gone an hour and a half?!"
"For him, that is highly concerning," Albrecht informed him as he picked himself up from the ground.
"How do you know he didn't just fall asleep in a meadow or some shit?"
"I didn't imply I was the only one searching for him, did I?"
"How many people do you have searching for him?"
"The whole crew. Don't ask where, though, I have no idea. There are too many to decide where each will go without taking the whole day."
"Do you have anyone staying behind on the ship?"
"Nope."
Specter Knight lowered his head with a sigh. "You are an idiot."
"Excuse you!?" Albrecht yelled, offended. Seeing as he had a large stone in his hands at the moment, he tossed in at the apparition's face.
"Specter Knight!" Yelled a random, heroic voice.
The two feuding men stopped their bickering and turned to the newcomer. Unfortunately for Specter Knight, this caused him to forget the rock being hurled at his head, and subsequently he was knocked to the ground. Pulling himself off the dirt, he grabbed Mitzi before she could assault Albrecht, and instead made her focus on who distracted him to begin with.
Standing there, weapon at the ready, was Shovel Knight.
"You," the ghost growled.
"Yes, me," Shovel Knight laughed.
"Why are you here? It is not your time, and King Knight was closer. I don't understand why you have come here already."
Shovel Knight shrugged. "It was the weirdest thing. I got the feeling that someone was going to beat him up for me if I didn't interrupt whatever was going on there."
"Like who?" Albrecht questioned.
Again, Shovel Knight shrugged, this time far more helplessly. "I'm honestly not entirely sure."
"Yeah, that answers everything," Specter Knight commented sarcastically.
"Shut up, my gut rarely lies!" Shovel Knight yelled.
"And yet it had nothing to say on the Amulet of Fate," Albrecht mocked.
"I-!" Shovel Knight paused and deflated somewhat. "Okay, I'll admit it; I was a little drunk at the time."
"What?" Albrecht asked, his jaw dropping in disbelief.
"I found some odd liquid and didn't think it could harm me that much." He groaned. "Oh fuck was I wrong."
"Why would you just drink some random liquid in an ancient tower?" Specter Knight questioned, lowering his face into his hands.
Shovel Knight laughed miserably. "I was thirsty and Shield Knight had the water. We had split up at the time, too."
"And you never thought to bring two canteens?" Albrecht asked.
"We did. The other one got crushed by a cave-in a couple days prior," Shovel Knight answered.
Specter Knight frowned. "Those are some impressive coincidences."
"I think he's lying," Albrecht accused.
"I'm not!" Shovel Knight yelled.
"Right…" Specter Knight laughed.
"I don't even believe you," Mitzi chimed in. "And I'm not exactly the most skeptical of this whole group."
"Okay, now that just hurts," Shovel Knight informed her, slumping slightly before rising and readying his trusty weapon.
"Did we just provoke him?" Albrecht asked.
"I think we may have," Specter Knight answered, quickly summoning his weapon of mass destruction. "How about we put our fight on hold for now? I don't think he's going to let either of us leave without a bruise or two now that we've offended him."
"Well, it's not like I can leave so long as Propeller Knight is still missing," Albrecht said, grabbing his halberd and preparing himself for a fight.
(Back to the main topic of this story for a couple of moments…)
"My money!" King Knight cried upon barging into the room that used to contain his riches.
"Who are you, Treasure Knight?" Propeller Knight questioned sourly. "Honestly, you should have seen this coming. You knew he turned traitor. You knew he had not been dealt with. We knew he needs funds. And we both knew he was going to come for us eventually."
"You didn't expect it either!"
"Yeah, because I was busy getting shoved in a dress and having my ass kicked in by your guards."
"You assaulted me!"
"And you insulted me!"
"How did I insult you?!"
"You called me a woman!"
"Yeah, because you make a damn good one!"
"And you then proceeded to insult Mona!"
"Why do you care about that?!"
"Because she is a lovely woman!"
"That's your opinion."
"Yeah, but my opinion overrules yours when it comes to women."
"No it doesn't."
"Please, if you knew the first thing about women, you wouldn't need me to play one."
"That's not true!"
"Right, sure I totally believe that!"
This bickering continued for another half an hour until Propeller Knight's throat started to burn from all the shouting.
"This is starting to hurt," he complained in a low whisper.
"Agreed," King Knight muttered.
"Can we just… call this off for a couple minutes? Or hours? Or days, maybe even years?"
"I say that is a brilliant idea. Come, let's go find some honey."
"I'm actually not all that fond of honey."
"Really? That's odd. Fine, we'll figure out if we have any tea then."
Propeller Knight nodded, for the first time that day feeling something akin to contentment.
(And back now to that epic fighting, of which you have now missed most of)
Albrecht blocked a strike and swiftly received a kick to the stomach for his troubles, surprising considering Shovel Knight's rather short legs. Specter Knight swooped in to cover him while he was recovering, all the while holding a rather casual conversation with Mitzi.
"I'm going to go to Pridemoor Keep after I deal with this."
"Very well."
"I have no idea when, but if Plague Knight appears while I am out, I have a very specific message for you to tell him."
Mitzi nodded and listened carefully to what he told her, muttering it to herself a couple times to help herself remember it. "Got it sir!"
"Good," Specter Knight said, attempting an overhead swing that was dodged.
Seeing a chance, Albrecht rushed forward, aiming to impale his foe on the pointed upper part of his blade. Shovel Knight barely reacted in time, but managed to bring up his weapon and let it ram into his shovel rather than his chest. He frowned at the dent that existed now on his beloved blade, forgetting it a moment later as he was forced to jump over a scythe attack aiming to cut off his feet.
Growling, he sidestepped the Hoverhaft that had attempted to stab at him again and managed to deliver a powerful bash to the back of his foe's head. Albrecht stumbled but managed to stay upright, though he was left preoccupied with the pain in his skull.
Shovel Knight wanted to capitalize on the opportunity he had, but he had to stop his assault to dance around Specter Knight's swipes. The final swing clipped his elbow and nearly succeeded in taking off his arm. Fortunately, it was just slightly out of range and merely sliced through his armor as though it was nothing but butter.
Starting to grow fearful, he glanced to Albrecht and noticed the Hoverhaft had nearly recovered. Realizing that he would not survive if he once again had both enemies on his ass, he dashed forward and hit Albrecht again, this time successfully knocking him to the ground and very likely out of the fight completely.
Shovel Knight paid the price for this maneuver, however, as Specter Knight was suddenly there, attempting to rip his chest open. He somehow managed to lean to the side fast enough and the most damage done was that one of his horns became detached from his helmet.
Shovel Knight frowned. "Oh come on, that was custom!"
"That's what you're worried about?"
"That costs a lot!"
Specter Knight sighed, to which Shovel Knight grinned. While the ghost was distracted, he jumped forward and knocked away that dreadful scythe.
Specter Knight was not overly concerned and merely attempted to summon it to his side again. Shovel Knight growled and decided he had to knock the ghost out now, even though he was admittedly unsure as to if it were even possible for an undead man to be knocked unconscious.
Aiming to distract more than anything else, he kicked Specter Knight on the thigh. This served its purpose, as the apparition paused in his summoning to gaze at his foe questioningly. That is, until he get hit upside the head with a battle shovel.
As he started to fall to the side, Specter Knight reached forward and grabbed onto the remaining horn on Shovel Knight's helmet, unfortunately dragging him along when the headgear did not simply get pulled off as one would expect.
The two tumbled to the ground rather painfully. Shovel Knight pushed himself to his feet faster than his opponent and hit him as hard as he could. Specter Knight went limp.
Shovel Knight sighed in relief and didn't notice it when his foe's servant appeared behind him and gave him a good whack with her rusty blade.
Mitzi looked around to the three unconscious people in her field of vision. "Well, this is disappointing," she commented to herself.
(And now for another semi-related section)
Enchantress' log: Entry 713178247192375483294isdhaknclkaenrgnaerg (I really need a better ordering system…)
Well, as it turns out Plague's appearance actually succeeded in bringing some order to the keep. Go figure. King's quite upset at the loss of most of his money, but it stopped his and Propeller's stupid arguing. After they got sore throats from all the yelling, that is, but they aren't bickering anymore, so I suppose that's good.
Meanwhile, Specter got his ass handed to him by Shovel, with help from another decently competent warrior no less! Propeller's bodyguard worked quite well with him, which is what makes it so surprising. I blame the fact that he got cocky, seeing as he held a casual conversation with his servant. Now they're both just lying there. I didn't even know an undead warrior could be knocked unconscious!
And now it looks like Plague's going to get another free essence (maybe even two is Shovel's is strong enough) if he moves his ass over there in a swift and timely manner. I can't believe the fortune he has had today. Maybe he has a luck potion or something. Wouldn't put it past him, really. Although, with that he could easily manipulate many different factors around him and just rule the world with that. He wouldn't even need the Ultimate Potion! Maybe I should just suggest that before this can get out of hand… Although I do want to see just how long this luck of his lasts…
(And to a slightly more related piece)
"Prepare, ghost!" Plague Knight yelled, bursting his way into where he thought Specter Knight would most likely be based on his rather hasty research.
Turns out he was dead wrong, though, as only the undead spirit present was that of a female, who was playing absentmindedly with a rusty sword.
The girl jumped upon the bird man's entry, but overall did not seem particularly surprised.
Upon getting over the initial shock, she said without waiting for him to say anything, "Yeah, sorry, he's not here right now. But he knew you'd come at some point, so he told me to tell you this if he was out: 'Fuck off, you creepy little coward.'"
Plague Knight's eyes grew wide at this message momentarily before narrowing dangerously. He twitched in annoyance.
The girl took notice of the slight movement and wisely floated away.
"Where is he?" Plague Knight growled.
"You seriously think I'm going to tell you?" The ghost shot back. "Clearly you underestimate me. Or at least my fear of my master."
Plague Knight jumped his way closer to the ghost, bringing his face close to hers, proclaiming in a nigh demonic voice, "And you clearly underestimate me."
The girl squeaked.
Albrecht groaned as he peeled himself from the ground. "Oh fuck my head hurts!" He groaned, clutching his cranium.
He looked around and saw Specter Knight and Shovel Knight laying on the ground some way to his right. Shovel Knight had the possibility of still being alive, but Specter Knight was definitely dead. Mostly because he was before the fight even began. Haha, jokes!
Deciding he didn't want to deal with that, he retrieved his dropped halberd and turned to keep on looking for Propeller Knight. Yes, even when he has a possible concussion, he will not pause in his search.
He stopped momentarily when he heard a terrified shriek. Feeling rather uncaring at the moment, he did not address it and with a shrug just kept on searching.
A moment passed and suddenly a small man with a bird mask appeared. Again, Albrecht stopped. The two gazed at each other for a moment before the Hoverhaft proceeded to ignore the newcomer. Plague Knight, in turn, ignored him and made his way to Specter Knight and Shovel Knight.
Albrecht heard the alchemist make a vaguely surprised sound and almost started to wonder what he was doing in the Yard to begin with. Glancing over revealed Plague Knight had pulled something resembling orbs from the two unconscious warriors. He stared at the one he obtained from Shovel Knight, as though considering something. He seemed to smile and nodded, giggling softly to himself as he tucked the two spheres away into his pouch.
Albrecht looked away when the alchemist turned his gaze in his direction, resuming his search.
Plague Knight did not make a sound for several moments, but the German could feel his gaze on his back. He wondered if Plague Knight would ask him what he was doing, but then the bird man turned and calmly walked away as though there wasn't one of Propeller Knight's guards throwing rocks around in Specter Knight's domain, potentially without permission.
Albrecht let out a sigh when Plague Knight was finally gone. It wasn't that the alchemist himself creeped him out, it was the silent watching he did when he wasn't exploding something. The two sides of his personality contrasted each other greatly, and it was just odd.
Still, he was gone now. Thusly, Albrecht returned to his mission, ignoring everything that occurred recently did not involve his missing friend.
(More obnoxious jumping!)
"No," Propeller Knight said immediately.
"So you're seriously-" King Knight tried to ask, only to be cut off.
"Yes."
King Knight rolled his eyes. "Don't complain to me later when your back hurts like hell."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, it already does."
The annoyed Frenchman marched forward, grabbing a pillow from the bed.
"That's my pillow," King Knight protested, ceasing when Propeller Knight growled dangerously. "Alright, alright. Yeesh."
Propeller Knight proceeded to curl up on the floor, tightly hugging the pillow with an annoyed scowl on his face.
Letting out a resigned sigh, King Knight merely prepared himself for bed and slipped under the covers.
"Good night, Queen Propeller."
"Do not call me that!"
King Knight frowned as something occurred to him. "You know, I should have thought about this earlier, but what are we going to call you in the presence of others?"
"Oh gods, I have to get up in front of other people?"
"Well, yeah, this whole thing would be for nothing other than shits and giggles otherwise. And quite frankly, I don't see you laughing, so I don't think you'll accept that."
"Huh, look at that, you're right."
"Propeller Knight, come on, you aren't seriously going to sleep on the floor until you finally go back to your ship, are you?"
"I am not a happy person right now, leave me be."
"Fine, but we will deal with this in the morning."
"Whatever."
When Albrecht finally returned to the Flying Machine, the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, and he wasn't entirely sure if he should feel surprised or not that he found everyone had simply cuddled up together and proceeded to fall asleep.
Feeling somewhat guilty he forced them to wait for as long as he did, he swiftly located a map and set about gathering reports and sending people off to bed. Not a single person questioned what had taken him so long. They probably just thought that he had been physically and verbally fighting with Specter Knight for a solid hour straight, even though that would inevitably end in him dead. The tired crew members merely informed him of where they went and dragged themselves away.
Unsurprisingly, most everyone had looked in the most peaceful places possible. Surprisingly, Propeller Knight was not at any of them.
By the time that everyone had given their reports, it was at least midnight, and the pain in the German's head was getting worse. With a frustrated groan, he gave up for the night, rolling up the map and putting it by his equipment once he managed to pull it all off.
With a small sigh, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep.
You know, I told myself I wouldn't give Plaguey a large role in this. Technically he doesn't. But he kinda just kept on having these perfect little points where I felt he would fit, so... here he is. I'm probably just going to keep up the tiny little sections until something goes wrong for him and the Enchantress can have a laugh at his luck running out.
Also, I actually don't really know how Albrecht feels about Plague Knight, and my reference point kinda hasn't indicated to me that she's awake at the moment. And because I'm lazy and wouldn't want to change it later, here we are, with him mildly creeped out by the alchemist's silence.