Chapter 11: Mountain Monster!
Harold led Courtney's Resistance further up the mountain. "Now, Courtney," Harold said, "Don't worry. We'll get you guys to a true sanctuary soon. Suddenly the ground started shaking.
"What was that?" Courtney asked. "A-a-a-avalanche?"
"No," Harold said, "Not an avalanche… Chris's army!"
"Chris's army?" Courtney asked. "I thought you guys said the mountains were a sanctuary!"
"We don't get out much," Harold shrugged. "Who knows what might have changed during that time?"
"You might as well give up, resistance!" Chris shouted.
"Chris!" Courtney said and then she approached him.
"No," he said, "I'd much rather see you fall at the hands of my special general. Perhaps you all remember him." A tall, white and purple creature stood at the center of attention.
"Sas-Sas-Sasquatchanakwa…" Courtney stammered.
"Oh, yeah, I really gotta get out of here," Chris said, and then he dropped a smokescreen and vanished.
"Oh no!" Harold shouted, "Not Sasquatchanakwa! We're doomed! Doomed I tell you!"
Duncan ran up and struck him. "Are you out of your mind, Harold? We can win this thing."
"That beast can easily rip someone to shreds," Harold said, "There's no way we can fight that."
"Actually," Noah said, "Let me talk to him."
"You're a little cocky for such a wimp," Duncan said, "All for letting Poindexter get himself killed?"
"I believe in you, Noah," Tyler said.
"Well at least someone does," Noah responded uneasily. A scattering of soldiers stood on every side of the mountain peak, with Sasquatchanakwa standing near the summit. All fifteen of them needed to fight in this battle, and they quickly broke into three groups of five. The first group contained Courtney, Duncan, Alejandro, Geoff, and Bridgette and headed to the west side of the mountain. The second group contained Sierra, Cody, Gwen, Trent, and DJ, and headed to the east side of the mountain. The third and final group contained Katie, Sadie, Harold, Tyler, and Noah, and decided to charge the center straight on.
The west group was bombarded by some swordfighters and a couple of soldiers. Most of them were attacking Bridgette, which Courtney saw and rectified by giving Bridgette her spare book of light magic, which Bridgette had recently learned how to use. She only used it in self-defense because she spent all of her directed energy trying to keep Geoff from dying to the lances of the soldiers. Courtney and Duncan were also popular targets, but that didn't matter because they were so easy to miss.
The east group decided to have Trent and Cody stand in front, while Gwen worked from behind and DJ healed the wounded. Sierra was kept in the back as a last resort because she was so powerful that if she got her breath on one of the opponents, they would be incinerated shortly after and Trent, Cody, and Gwen would be unable to benefit from the damage.
Noah wanted to go talk to Sasquatchanakwa but he was too far away. He could have chosen to get around ten feet from the yeti, but he did not want to because that would in all likelihood get him killed if Sasquatchanakwa spotted him before he had a chance to talk to him. Tyler and Harold were not unaware of his plight, and each one of them pushed Noah closer to the yeti, hoping that that would allow him to reach Sasquatchanakwa.
Their plan worked and Noah said to Sasquatchanakwa, "Oh, Sassy? Why don't you go get the magic ball? Here, it's all glowing and bright. Follow the light! Yes, that's it, look at the pretty light…it's right there!" Sasquatchanakwa was distracted.
"Oh no!" a random soldier shouted, "The special general has been distracted! We better start fighting twice as hard!"
Their plan didn't work, as each of them attacked Katie and Sadie, the former of whom could now kill most of the enemies in one or two blows with ease, and the latter of whom continually hit when her opponents missed and overall fought faster. A group of archers attacked Trent and missed, attacked Cody and hit, and attacked Gwen and died.
Only a couple of fighters and the distracted Sasquatchanakwa remained. Tyler politely went after the fighters so that Courtney would not be distracted when she reached Sasquatchanakwa. "Nice yeti, good yeti," she said. He roared in response. She sent some light at him. It did not kill him, but it weakened him significantly.
Harold followed suit by attacking with light as well. This time Sasquatchanakwa did fall. He let out a large roar as he fell, but it sounded suspiciously like he was attempting to shout, "NO!"
"You… you killed Sasquatchanakwa," a random soldier ran up the north side of the hill and said, "The overlord's not going to like this. He's not going to like this one bit."
"I couldn't care less what the overlord thinks," Duncan responded, "This is our world and we deserve to be free from tyranny."
"Yeah," Harold said, "For once I agree with him."
"The Ladies of War were right…" the random soldier said.
"Who are the Ladies of War?" Harold asked.
"Oh, you, the Squealing Monk, have never heard of the Ladies of War? They're only the fiercest female warriors in the land. I'd like to tell you where to find them, but I can't. Orders and all," the random soldier said.
"Well, can you tell us where you think they… ahem… aren't?" Courtney asked.
"Well, I don't think I overheard one of them say they were congregating around the Screaming Gophers' cabins. And I certainly don't think that they would meet there. And if you run into a young woman in bulky armor I'm almost certain that you've found the wrong place," the random soldier responded.
"Thank you for telling us where not to look," Courtney responded.
"You're welcome," the random soldier said, climbing down the mountain.
"Well, I guess we know what our next task is," Courtney said, "We need to find the Ladies of War and convince them to join our cause."
"Yeah," Duncan said, "And when that fails we can convince them to die."
"Duncan, I really don't think it will come to that," Courtney said.
"You never know, princess," he said, "You never know."
Meanwhile, Chef Hatchet and the network executive brought Chris a woman. "You'll never guess who we caught snooping around your lair," Chef Hatchet said. "This one was riding around on her little flying horse and spying on you."
"Chris," she said, "You know that I'd never spy on you for evil. You're just so darned irresistible I can't help it."
Chris said, "Blaineley, I've had enough of your two-faced sycophantism. Why can't you be straight with me like M…" The network executive cleared her throat. "Like the network executive? Or be a better sycophant like Chef," Chris complained.
"I'll make it up to you, Chris," Blaineley said, "I promise."
"I'll have to think about that," he responded. "For now, let's just keep an eye on her."
Chef Hatchet and the network executive took her away.
"Sir!" a random soldier ran in to say to Chris, "Courtney's Resistance has defeated Sasquatchanakwa and they are now looking for the Ladies of War!"
"What?" Chris asked, "Well, that's just not going to fly with me. Courtney," he laughed, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include alternate versions of the (first part of the) ending dialogue (Duncan died; Harold died), Courtney and Bridgette's Support (Level B), Courtney and Sierra's Support (Level C), Bridgette and DJ's Support (Level A), Gwen and Cody's Support (Level C), and Cody and Sierra's Support (Level B).