Clash of the Elements Part 3: Reality's Game

by mewmaster93

A year after the battles against the forces of darkness, Plit has enjoyed an era of peace. But the arrival of someone both new yet familiar signals the advent of a new threat, one that will twist the very fabric of the world. Can this new protagonist hope to survive this game, or will Plit forever fall into the hands of this unknown being?

33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Decisive Battle! Mario and Bowser

I didn't care at all about time right now. Whether I was gone for longer or shorter than I could've anticipated in those three nostalgic areas was not the most important thing to take into consideration here. What did matter was the safety of my own life as I battled Mario and Giga Bowser, for if I were to lose then billions of other lives would perish under the flow of molten magma. But if I survive, then the 'Midnight Channel' vanishes forever from this world. There was no questioning it, my survival was imperative. But what needed to be asked was this… "How was I going to pull if off?"

Speed and variety for Mario, and brute strength for Bowser. Those were their forte, and combined they were a dangerous threat. The thing about Bowser in his current state was that while he hits hard, he had to get close to harm me, and he lacked the speed that me and Mario possessed. However, I can't keep my focus on both of their presences at once in the midst of battle, so the chances of my accidentally getting within range of the berserk Koopa King's strikes was obscenely high. Not to mention Mario would likely work in tandem with him, knocking me into the general vicinity of his devastating claw swipes that could more than likely tear through even solid diamonds.

"Yeah, Bowser has to be beaten first…" I grit my teeth and firmly glared at the beast as I said that, since that is honestly easier whispered than done. After all, Bowser had to have had some serious durability to survive his many, MANY bouts with the famous plumber, and that trait can only have been amplified thanks to his brutish transformation. "Oh well…" I said with a shrug to get me to stop thinking about the situation, since I wouldn't even be here now if I wasn't confident in my victory…Actually, that's not true. Even if I was the slightest bit ill-prepared to fight, I still would have come because it was the right thing for me to do.

Thus, after raising and lowering my fingers one at a time on the handle of my lance, I tightened my grip and swung it outright in an arch that ended with the lance above my left shoulder as a gash opens in the sky and thick icicles thrust themselves at both Mario and Bowser. While the projectiles are like a prickle to the monstrous Koopa as they touch and shatter against his chest, Mario sees them as a threat and reacts accordingly, swinging his blazing fists outward like a furious, intertwining storm in order to break and melt the ice as it approaches his glowing aura.

When my attack has subsided Mario breaks his own onslaught with a forceful, outward swing of his arms. He then pulls his right fist behind his head and charges at me, thrusting its ignited form out like a rampaging train to meet the defense of my nigh invulnerable lance as I bring it down in front of me until the tip is nearly one-inch above the ground. With the impact of his knuckles comes a flaming shockwave caused by the sudden dispersal of the fire around his fist. I then use my lance to jab at Mario horizontally, just so I can get him to weave his body to the right so he ends up where I want him to be.

Not even noticing how strange it was that both of his hands had been dulled of their flames, I lifted and thrust my right foot out to strike Mario in the gut in order to disable him briefly so I can focus all of my efforts on damaging Giga Bowser. However, something tugs at my right leg mid-kick, and the leg is suddenly yet forcibly suspended in the air thanks to Mario wrapping his hands around the bottom half of it. Having previously ducked a bit to stay away from my lance, he stands back up fully as he knocks me head first onto the ground with one tug, the feel of charcoal lasting only a fleeting moment before he lifts me up by both legs and begins to rapidly spin his body around to build up momentum for a throw.

When he finally lets go of me I instantly drop my lance onto the ground and fly towards Giga Bowser without any control of my direction. I lift my body up and curl my back, using my powers to force a wall of ice to protrude from my armor to trick the monster into attacking prematurely and breaking the newly made defense instead of hitting me. However, instead of doing what I had planned for him to do, the beast swings his right claw out in front of me and grabs my body whole, immediately jumping up as high as he could and spinning his body around rapidly while pressing me against his chest until he reached maximum height, at which point he released his grip on me and allowed himself to descend at a rapid pace.

Bowser crushes me against the ground, his bulk somehow not cracking it as he rebounds into the air and gets on his feet in a matter of seconds while I'm launched into the sky with shards of my now broken armor poking into the chain mail wrapped around my skin underneath. Mario leaps above me with a burst of speed, raising his fist and slamming it into my gut with enough force to shift my legs and arms upward before I break away from the force of his blow and crash straight back into the ground below the plumber, the impact of my neck against the charcoal forcing me to cough up a wad of spit that splits and lands on the ground around me.

However, Mario wasn't finished yet, and after swinging his arms up in front of and behind his face he prepared to dash down with enough force that he would surely push me straight into the lava below. I had to react quickly, and with a steady raise of my left hand I forced my lance into the air, thrusting my hand upward to command it to charge straight forth, the tip poking through the side of Mario's clothing and cutting into his skin, making him flinch and slow down long enough for me to crunch my fingers together and summon an Indian hut made entirely of icicles that criss-cross between each other diagonally. Mario punches the ceiling hard, which I am able to see through the clearness of the ice.

This gives me a brief moment to catch my breath as I notice that my right eyelid has been damaged and forced to seal itself halfway. "Shoot…Did I really take that much damage…Shit, I even pointed this out and let this happen…" I had little time to berate myself for my error as Mario doesn't waste any time in lighting his fist on fire to melt through my barrier. I only had a few seconds to get up and get a lock onto my lance with a hurried thrust of the arm, where I then guided it through the air like a missile, not to strike Mario, but to crack an opening in my self-made cage so I can run out. I had no chance of combating Mario in here otherwise.

Thankfully, the lance broke through both sides of the cage with one piercing blow, leaving me an opening that was wide enough for me to tumble through with one thrust of my body in the air. Mario landed on the ground soon afterwards after melting through, his fist colliding with the ground and incinerating the cage with a massive pillar of flame that lasts two seconds. I get up weakly after landing flat against the charcoal floor, pulling my lance up in the grasp of my left hand as I sense Mario quickly charging at me and flinched my eyes in utter shock of this face.

Even though I reacted as quickly as I possibly could, my body was sent backwards in recoil from one punch due to how weak the raising of my lance in defense was. I tumbled, barely able to sustain my balance due to how damaged I was after Bowser's slam. Even after I regained my focus I had to stamp the tip of my weapon into the ground, wiping the sweat that was dripping off of my chin away with one brush of my damaged left gauntlet as I looked at the nearly undamaged Bowser and Mario. I wasn't going to last at this rate, that was something that was very hard for me to admit, but as I stood there weakened and bruised I notice a faint glow sticking out between my right fingers and turned to look at it.

Peeking through them, I saw the triggers glowing lightly, something that had never occurred before in any of the other fights. Sure, I was able to use my other forms during the battles against Shadow Gemini and "Shadow" Geno, but that was only to satisfy the fairness of the RPG boss fight and what-not. Save for that, Mr. Reality hadn't lifted the rule that prevented me from switching forms after entering the a new section of the 'Midnight Channel'. As I panted and looked at the triggers in confusion, a voice rang out in the ears of my mind "Hurry up and use the triggers! You don't have much time left!" Whoever it was talking eerily reminded me of the leader of the Genesis Samurais, Zeno Blaze.

Whoever it was, their hasty urging gave me the motivational boost I needed to shake my head and lifted it up courageously, stating with vigor to both of the beings I was fighting and the reality warper who was likely watching from afar "Its time we play this game by my rules!" I thrust my lance in front of my with one hand, even though it strained the tendons in my arm to do so, and moved my fingers towards the grey trigger. "Blow asunder the itinerant skies! Trigger: Wind Reaper!" With a single tug, a veil of fog covers my body, but through the confines that leave me blind I notice Mario reacting to my transformation, not by attacking mind you, but by digging into his pocket and pulling a strange object that looked like a combination of a Mushroom and a rock out of it.

"Huh?" I arched my eyebrows upward in confusion at this event as my transformation unfolds and I wind up in my poncho with my rugged scythe grasped tightly in my newly re-strengthened right hand and my damaged skin renewed as well. I pull my weapon backwards, sucking in a bit of the air towards me that promptly gets absorbed into the bumps on my scythe to give it power for later as I lifted my head up confidently to see what Mario has done with that Mushroom of his. As it turns out, he too has changed forms by letting the power-up fall onto him. Though he still retains the gold and white color scheme from his Star Spirit empowered form, he now wears a rocky helmet instead of his familiar hat and his clothes in general look a bit more blocky in appearance. However, he still retains the scar my lance left him from before, so at least I wouldn't have to worry about him healing any wounds each time he used a power-up.

"Come on then Mario…" I thought to myself as I swung my scythe behind me and dashed forward as quickly as a light breeze, getting near him and swinging my weapon out gently in an attempt to rob the plumber of a bit of oxygen so he would slow down, but the metal of my scythe merely clinked against his hardened clothing without him even flinching in surprise. He raises his head up and does a miniature leap, but before he had a chance to draw rock and other debris around him to create a boulder that would surely ram into me at this range I released a burst of air from one of the bumps on my handle, which hit Mario with enough of a gale that he is thrust through the room and collides straight into the back wall, where his body makes an appropriately sized indent that would prove difficult to remove himself from.

So while he was incapacitated, Giga Bowser finally chose to take charge in the battle, his silence since his one attack showing that he is merely around to follow-up on moves Mario does unless he gets knocked out temporarily. The gargantuan beast opens up by widening his mouth and sending out a flurry of flames in my direction. I leap into the air as the fire scorches the ground in a circular spread around the impact zone, and swing my scythe to launch two thick waves of compressed air straight at the area where Bowser's lungs should be. They push through the body by slipping into the creases of his muscles and skin, dragging out a bit of air from within until they reach the back and disperse without so much as a sound.

Giga Bowser immediately stops with his fire breath so he can take a moment to draw in more oxygen through his mouth, but in the meantime he looks up at me with furious eyes and leaps into the air with a surprising amount of height when you took into consideration his girth. The next few seconds played out rather slowly, as I weaved out of the way of a claw swipe that was meant to set up another grab and watched as the Koopa King took the momentum from his failed attack to begin spinning around, bending his body forward and tucking his limbs and head into his shell as a cold chill protruded from all-around him in a flurry of icy flakes. Before I was hit though, I quickly converted my body into fog and flew out of the vicinity of his attack as gravity took hold and dragged him down to the ground with one mighty thud.

With the beast on the ground I looked down at him from above the center of the room after solidifying my form. I readied my scythe for another attack while he was vulnerable, only for my body to be rammed from by a rolling, mid-air boulder. As I carried me across the sky, I forced my eyelids to stay open even with the air pressing against my face and realized that Mario retained his flight powers in this form. However, what was more concerning than that was that Giga Bowser rose up and waited for me to get close so he could hit me with an overhead swipe. That was something I wasn't about to let happen.

With quick thinking I turned my body into fog, feeling woozy as Mario passes through my ethereal form and takes the brunt of Bowser's swipe, which knocks the boulder upward after breaking apart a small portion of its structure. I waited for the claw to lower down to the beast's side before solidifying once more and slowly backing away from the creature's terrifying range. I then came to a rather unfortunate conclusion. "I have to change forms again…I can't harm Mario while he wears that suit, and his movements are too unpredictable…I can damage Giga Bowser, but it would take too long to down the beast if I keep employing the same pragmatic attacks over and over again…"

I raise my scythe and let my grip slip so my fingers can get near the triggers, and I look up to see Mario ricocheting off the curved wall face above and heading my way. I hoped that by activating my trigger his charge would cease immediately and he would change to another form, so with that thought I pulled at the green trigger while declaring "Lash out at the abhorrence of nature! Trigger: Jungle Whipper!" A couple of poison ivy leaves rise up and spin around me to initiate my transformation, and sure enough Mario pops out of his boulder form and lands on the ground, his appearance flashing back and forth between the Rock Suit and his regular form.

Once I changed into my nature empowered form, Mario returns to his base appearance, obviously since his fireballs would be enough to counter the plants I threw his way. Oh well, at least he can't get all of them I throw his way at once, so if I can just wrap one vine around him it would be easy to get a few strikes in with my whip. After lashing and retracting the segments against the air, I charged down at the plumber at full speed. He prepared his hands with fireballs thinking that I was to strike him with my weapon, only for me to instead swing it out and launched seeds from between the segments that plant themselves on the ground all-around the plumber and begin to blossom.

As the vines from the seeds launch out and crackle the ground, Mario reacts with impeccable timing, flinging his fists around to react to each and every one of them before they get even an inch close to his body, setting them ablaze and causing them to turn brown and become ash in a matter of seconds. However, one penetrates that perimeter and begins to wrap itself around Mario's gut as he has turned away from me. As the violent tendril screeches upon reaching the right side of his body, the plumber thrusts his hand down and latches his fingers around the head, crushing it tightly to halt its movements while he puts his other hand around the other side of the vine.

He then merciless incinerates the vine down to the last fiber, the ashes fading as they fall and he turns around rapidly like a cyclone with his flaming fists extended, somehow sensing the bombardment of rose petals I had sent his way and burning them all to a crisp just like he did everything else I threw at him. However, while I mounted a defensive pose on the ground in case this next move failed, my mind was hard at work manipulating the two remaining vine seeds I had placed into the ground below Mario's feet without his notice. After I accelerated their growth, they busted out from the charcoal and though their forms were stained with the blackened dust they thrust through the tornado that the plumber had turned himself into and latched themselves around the elbows to force him to stop instantly.

Mario is then lifted up into the air against his will, his flaming hands put out by the strain forced around his wrists. However, the plumber unsurprisingly keeps his cool despite the pain he should be suffering. I arched my eyebrows in suspicion, since the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom was giving tell-tale signs that he had something planned in his current predicament. The fact that Giga Bowser wasn't attacking even though his partner was incapacitated was also rather dubious. Still, I had to attack, and I quickly lashed my whip forward through the air to try and take advantage of the wound I had inflicted on Mario not too long ago.

Sure enough, Mario's eyelids slant and the eyes themselves flare up in courageous determination, and after forcibly pulling the vines closer together by folding his arms in front of his chest he uses his flight powers to flip himself upside-down so my attack passes harmlessly below his head. While he focuses on my weapon though after briefly glancing up at me, I swing it upward the very second his fists ignite and burn away the vines keeping him in place. With the spiky metal colliding with his head, Mario is launched into the air, the spikes themselves doing little to him save for damaging his famous hat.

The moment he recovers though I stamp the ground, sending a crack spiraling across the floor and up the wall until it is straight behind the plumber, at which point a gigantic wooden stump ruptures through the thick layers of rock and smashes Mario right in the back, sending him hurtling towards me as I hear the feint sound of his bones cracking. I ready my whip to strike, focusing entirely on the plumber's descending figure as the segments swirl around my body to protect me from all outside harm.

I then hear a sudden vibration in the ground, and without warning my body flinches on instinct upon seeing a sudden wave of lava pop out from the very crack I had made earlier. This catches me off guard, and by the time I noticed that Giga Bowser was responsibly for this distraction I had already broken my guard to protect myself from the lava and gave Mario a perfect chance to recover and slam the full power of his blazing right fist into my chest, which leaves a scorching black indent as my body proceeds to be launched across the ground, my bare feet scraping the charcoal ground and setting off sparks that leave a trail in front of me before I finally collide with the wall and make a massive indent that nearly crumbles a large portion of the rocks off onto me.

"Gah…That really stung…" I noted as I peel myself out of my own body shaped indent and take an accidental whiff of the smoke rising off of my own body. Needless to say the smell of burning skin tissue wasn't something I wanted to experience again, and I likely never would if I kept up performing like this. Still, it was nice to know that my efforts were doing some good against Mario, seeing as his blow wasn't as strong as it could have been, not to mention that he is looking a bit limp in his posture. I had a while to go, but progress was still progress and I was grateful to be making some.

"I still got a bit of energy left…I'll perform a few more attacks, and then switch forms and try and target Giga Bowser a bit." My first move after thinking my strategy through was to whip my weapon against the center of the ground in front of me, two seeds splitting off from the end segment and coursing through the ground for a few seconds before the hyper accelerated growth causes them to take form underneath the watchful eyes of my opponents. The roots crawl out of the ground, swirling out in a twisted, condensed form that leaps through the air in an arch surrounded by thorns before they dig back down and advance rapidly towards Mario. I wanted the plumber to get a glimpse of what I was sending his way so he would preemptively ignite his hands to take care of them.

However, as I commanded the roots to burst through the ground and thrust themselves straight at Mario, I gave the plumber a light smirk of cockiness, seeing as I had made the roots entirely out of Cumaru wood, which was the most fire resistant wood in the known universe. So when Mario tossed his fireballs out, while he did manage to set them ablaze they didn't instantly turn to ash much like he expected them to, and continued charging quickly enough to lash across his shoulders and make him wince in pain from the combined strength of his own flames and the thorns. As the roots retracted, Mario flipped backwards to avoid being in the range of another strike.

However, I wasn't about to let him out of my sight, and as he flew diagonally upwards and away from the ground I thrust my left hand out towards him to command the roots to strike out into the air, departing the sanctity of the ground with much life left in their structures despite how scorched their appearance was. But all it takes is a clap of Giga Bowser's hands with the two roots struck between them and they are crushed with no hope of ever living again, the sentient beings letting out a shriveled screech before they fall to the ground and fade into ashes that blend in perfectly with the charcoal floor.

"Alright, so much for that option…" I swing my whip out to the side, retracting the segments before holding the weapon front and center and placing my hands around the handle with fingers near the yellow trigger. "Pierce the roaring flash of lightning! Trigger: Lightning Sni-" I see Mario land on the ground and flip out a Cloud Flower from his overalls, as he feels as though he has predicted my next transformation and is preparing a suit to counter it. However, he fell right into my trap, and I quickly switch my fingers to pull the blue trigger without saying a word nor without catching the suspicions of the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom.

After my body becomes covered in a water bubble that quickly burst and leaves me in my next form, I see Mario with the Cloud Suit already on and quickly pull my trident out and brandish it after a quick spin, summoning a stream of water from a thin portal in the air that flies out and lands on the plumber gently, causing his suit to quickly fade away and leaving him in his previous state with his eyebrows raising slightly in shock. I could tell that Mario wasn't going to risk fighting me right now when he I had covered him in water, so he backflips behind Giga Bowser and lets him take the helm while he dries off.

The beast nods his head as the plumber gets behind his shell, and with a mighty stamp of the ground he dashes at me by bending down and grinding across the floor as if he were a type of motor vehicle. He then leaps head first towards me, my own leap managing to get me over his body as it falls to the ground and sends a powerful tremor throughout the room. A few pieces of debris crack off from the ceiling and land on the ground around the mighty beast as he pulls himself up and leaps into the air without pause, curling into his shell and attempting the same freezing spin move he did when I was in my Sky form.

This was actually a threat to me, but this time around I had to swerve and fly my way out of the range of the ice, which ends with only my right arm getting frozen from a brief touch of the chilly wind. "Shit!" I thought with teeth clenched in pain from having to endure the sub-arctic cold gripping my skin tightly. I had to quickly get to work to remove the thick sheets of ice, otherwise I would be unable to readily defend myself against Giga Bowser's next attack. I motioned my left hand from the tip of my belted staff to the ice, drawing out hot water form the emergency reserve in the jeweled tip that I splash against it to raise the temperature of the frozen material.

It begins to crack in a matter of seconds, and as soon as my muscles receive the water that seeps through the cracks I would be able to break free. In the meantime though I saw Giga Bowser leaping out again, his eyes glaring bright red and surprisingly close to me as he opens his jaw up wide and draws in heat from the air to power the bright orange-red glow within the backside of his mouth, his mind fully intent to burn me until I was nothing more than steam against the wall. Within seconds of silence I flex my right arm muscles and break the ice in a panic, thrusting my trident forward as the heat forces sweat unto my body.

"HRAAAAH!" I yell out as three separate torrents of water thrusts itself from the prongs of the trident and combine together into a powerful beam that meets the flamethrower in the middle of the monster's mouth, the two forces clashing in a battle of dominance of which neither chooses to give way for the other. It was rather surprising really. You'd think that water would win straight out against any fire, but at the same time high amounts of heat pressing against water causes it to evaporate. It all depended on how long and how strong one could keep the opposing element going for, really, but I wouldn't expect a mindless beast to grasp the concept of what I was thinking.

As I narrowed my eyes I focused as hard as I could on the water I was spewing out from my weapon, and with hardened determination I increase the amount of pressure protruding out of it. This forces the flames back into the beast's mouth, flooding its scaly confines to the point that some of the excess splashes out against my face after being infused with some of the creature's saliva. I barely flinch as this gooey mixture touches my skin and my attack hits the back of Giga Bowser's esophagus, launching him through the air until he collides with the back of the wall, impaling into it thanks to the spikes on his shell.

Some of the water from my attack drips down and sticks to the beast's chest and nether regions, but unfortunately for me he falls off the wall without his own influence and lands on the ground, which would surely cause him to be dried off by the time he gets back up. As I focused on his body, I noticed that Mario was not around, even though he should've been right below Giga Bowser before he became detached from the wall. I knew what this meant, but even I had no time to react to the plumber's next move as he appeared behind me with the gale from the speed of flight just now catching up to my body and ruffling my hair a bit as I turn around to face the plumber.

His fist swings out like a heavy cannonball meant to blow my head clean off, but with a quick raise of my trident I manage to block the strike with only traces of the flames bristling between the prongs and gently lapping against my face. The tingling sensation the heat bring vibrates through my body and gives me goosebumps after I readjust to the room's temperature. I couldn't let Mario get too many blows in on me, especially since I needed to drench Giga Bowser again and switch to my Lightning form to finish him off quickly. I had to act quickly, otherwise Mario WILL catch on to my plan and take me down before I had a chance to deal the definitive blow.

"Come on Mew, focus…" I think to motivate myself into concentration as I twisted my hands slightly to position my trident diagonally and tried to force Mario's fists off of it with a powerful swing downward. Not wanting to risk breaking the bones in his wrist in an attempt to penetrate my defense, Mario pulls his limbs back and flies backwards, turning his feet so they stick to the wall and allow him to push off of it to fling himself through the air above my head as I swing my trident outward with water wrapped around it in hopes of lashing the plumber with a powerful strike that would leave him incapacitated against the wall.

With his swift movements having outsmarted me, I turn around and see him descend towards the ground, flicking his hands out of his overalls to toss up an icy blue flower that connects with his body and causes his figure to flash back and forth multiple times as his model changes to that of a golden, crystalline being with an arctic chill surrounding his form. He was now wearing an Ice Suit, albeit the "Galaxy" variation instead of the "New Super Mario Bros." one. He lands on the ground, immediately stamping the open palm of his right hand onto it to create a hexagon platform of ice that erupts into a series of miniature icicles around the border.

The plumber turns around and begins to run along the ground, his speed increasing with every platform that is created below his skating feet. He flicks ice balls out casually to keep his trail going until he is only a foot away from being below me, at which point he leaps into the air, the momentum from his run giving him enough height to reach the halfway point of the wall that is between me and the ground, using one more ice balls to grow a stick of ice that he grabs after twisting his body to the side and holding his hands upward to latch onto it.

He then spins himself around it as I turn towards him and without hesitation send a blast of water straight from my right palm after flipping my trident into the grasp of my left hand. He launches himself off two seconds before the heated blast collides with the wall and sends water flying everywhere, melting the ice pole off and leaving me focused entirely on where Mario plans to go next. The plumber, as he falls, tosses out an ice ball that manages to create a thick enough platform for him to stand on that's connected to the wall on the right. After a brief moment of tumbling forward the plumber wastes little time in getting a move on across more self-made platforms as I launch a steady barrage of water bullets that merely serve to break apart the ice platforms so he doesn't perform a backflip and retread across them to escape me.

After getting as close as I can to Mario with a bullet I throw my trident with a quick raise of my left arm, letting go at the halfway point so the weapon obtains maximum speed and gives Mario little time to strike back against it. Of course, defensive blows aren't the only one to stop and obstacle or projectiles, and the plumber comes up with a rather simple solution that saves him the trouble of having to even LOOK at my trident. He leaps into the air over the handle of my weapon and throws an ice ball downward as the prongs puncture the wall and the water I had secretly stored within them begins to leak out from the cracked holes. In the span of three seconds, Mario creates and land on another ice platform and narrowly escapes the geyser that bursts out in an attempt to consume and launch him towards me.

I had to admit, I did end up freezing in place and glaring at Mario in disbelief after he performed that maneuver, and the plumber quickly turned towards me and took advantage of my frozen pose to launch four ice balls at each of my limbs. They connect with the wrists and ankles, solidifying them in blossoms of permafrost that weight me down and somehow manage to knock me out of my flight. By the time I realized what was going on I was already plummeting towards the ground, with Giga Bowser leaping into the air and folding his body into a position where he would easily be able to squish me upon descending.

I had to react quickly as I usual do in these situations, using my mind to drag the last drops of water from my staff so I can melt the ice off my weighted right hand. Upon finishing this process I draw out the moisture from my own sweat with my freed hand in order to melt the ice off the opposing limb, leaving both of them freed so I can thrust them upwards and clap in a panic. From the center of my fingers comes the biggest torrent of water that I could physically muster, which not only propels me into the ground and nearly breaks my spine in two, but also collides with the underside of Giga Bowser and hits him with enough pressure that his body's descent is suspended long enough for me to recover from my fall.

I weakly lifted my body up, my right arm twitch as my legs showed difficulty in standing due to the ice that was weighing them down. Mario waited for me off to the left, standing confidently in place with his arms firmly grasped as his side. Three seconds until the water stops running and Giga Bowser plummets, but I wasn't going to put Mario in harms way. So with a weakened wave of the hand and a plan already brewing in my head I saw the plumber charge at me and leaped backwards ten feet through the air, moving us both out of the range of Giga Bowser as he pounds the ground with his rear end.

Mario tosses an ice ball that I quickly cut through with the middle tip of my trident's prongs as I flip it around casually and move my fingers towards the yellow trigger. I didn't need to say the phrase this time around, and pulled it to summon the lightning bolt that would force me and Mario's transformations. As I am surrounded by the armor of purest lightning, I notice that the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom has been forced back into his normal, Star Spirit empowered appearance. I theorized that Mario could only use each suit once, and since I had taken care of the Cloud suit in one shot he wouldn't bust it out again.

However, that wasn't the most important thing to focus on. As I stared down Mario from above and backed my body up with the boosters on my feet, I cocked my rifle into the air with my right hand, pulling the trigger to release a light flare from the barrel that would signal to the heavens to launch an attack at my enemy. No, it wasn't Mario I was planning to smite with the full fury of the gods of thunder, but someone else who was unfortunate to come in contact with the water I had used in self-defense. The roar of thunder is the call that makes Mario shifts his head around in confusion and puts him on guard as he moves his hands towards the hilt of his cape and peers back and forth.

I lift my head up to look at Giga Bowser, my desired target, as the beast lumbers off the ground and prepares to turn and face me, only for the ceiling to tear apart above him, annihilated by a lightning bolt that was even more monstrous than he was. As the bottom of the bolt pierces the ground and electrocutes Giga Bowser down to the very core, Mario's eyelids thrust up in unhinged surprise upon hearing the pained roar and screech of the mighty beast, whose pain was only amplified by the water that had attached itself to his skin. You could barely make out the beast's figure from behind the shroud of screeching lightning, but when it finally comes to an end the scars of my attack were as plain as could be.

With his skin singed beyond recognition and smoke pouring out from all parts of his body, it was any wonder that the creature's pupils were still visible after that violent assault. Of course, if burning the Koopa King's skin off wouldn't kill him, then a lightning bolt of that magnitude isn't going to do the job either, thankfully. After leaning forward and collapsing onto the ground, the beast is surrounded by a pale, unearthly glow and his body shrinks down as the transformation was undone and the Koopa King was finally returned to his regular size and appearance, unconscious and forever out of this battle.

That just left Mario, who after seeing his comrade falling from over his shoulder turns towards me with eyes flaring with righteous fury, which is reflected in the intensity of the fireballs he produces in both of his hands. He pounds the air beside him with both fists, summoning around him a luminescent, golden/white aura that is as powerful as powerful as the flames around his fists. The plumber had unleashed his full power, ready to use it all against me to avenge his fallen foe and partial ally. Even though he fought against me for the sake of Mr. Reality's game, every action he performed just reeked of the real Mario.

Still, I was a bit concerned about seeing him use his full power at this point in the battle. I was down to this form and my Earth one, which meant only one heal remained, and I had to use it wisely. Not to mention that I had used up a lot of my rifle's ammunition to waste Giga Bowser, so I had to be conservative in the attacks I used that relied on it. After cocking my smoking barrel to disperse said smoke, I handled the weapon perfectly in both hands and aimed at Mario while he was still charging up in place. With a quick piercing bolt aimed at his right shoulder, I had hope to incapacitate the limb Mario was more used to using to make my battle easier, only for the plumber to swipe his hand through the bolt's line of fire and swat the projectile away as if it were nothing more than a fly in the air.

His glove wasn't even singed, for the aura diluted the strength of the bolt. Simple shots weren't going to cut it anymore, I would really have to strike hard if I had any chance of finishing this battle now. "Well that's just great…" I say with disdain after I sigh and pull my rifle over my shoulder. I then blink my eyelids once, and my scanners don't have nearly enough to give me a warning as Mario closes the gap by appearing in front of my with his right hand already halfway towards my helmet. With widened eyes I try to force my weapon outward in the one second I have left, but the plumber forces his burning hand against my visor and grasps around it tightly.

In any other armor, this burning sensation would signify the end of my life, for that would mean that the metal would be melting and preparing to burn through my flesh and into my brain. However, with solidified lightning as the base element, all I had to worry about was the safety of my neck bones as Mario forcibly tries to push my head to the left so he can dunk my body into the ground with one singular push. As I struggle against his move while gritting my teeth as sweat drips down through the cracks below the gums, I take my rifle and turn it so the barrel would fire across the front of Mario's chest if I get a chance to pull the trigger.

The plumber notices my movement though and with the freedom of his other hand still intact he slams his palm against the barrel to push it away from its current line of fire so I can no longer harm him. He then finishes up his prior maneuver by taking his fingers around the barrel of my gun and pulling it right out of my loosened grip, and presses my face down with enough force that I am slammed against the ground in a matter of seconds, my helmet feeling the full brunt of the charcoal as its grinded up and thrown about with a few pieces nearly entering my mouth.

When Mario finally stops dragging me along the ground, he uses his hand to rip my helmet right off of my face, letting my head sink into the edge of the trench he created as he pulls his body up and tosses my protection away while taking his left hand and holding it out ready to incinerate me with one shot. My head, the most vulnerable part, was where the palm was aiming at, and I had to quickly react to his move or I would be dead. I glared out at my rifle, commanding it to rise up with a mere thought while also switching the ammunition around so a paralyzing shot would fire out of the barrel next.

It positions itself perfectly behind the plumber, who is unaware of its existence as the trigger clicks and fires a bolt that punctures Mario's aura and strikes him square in the back, releasing a field of electricity that covers his whole body and makes his muscles spasm uncontrollably, releasing the flames from his glove and giving me plenty of time to plant my hands behind me and launch my feet forward through the air to kick him square in the gut with enough force to send him hurtling into the faraway wall, a cloud of stony dust covering him after he connects that obscures his posture against the crater his impact made.

I got up and called my rifle back to me, lifting it high into the air and moving my fingers towards the brown trigger while declaring the pre-transformation chant "Crack open the reclusive earth! Trigger: Gaia Bruiser!" As the layer of mud needed to change my form covers my body, I think about the battle up until this point and realize a grave truth. The reason I had been having such a difficult time against the plumber is because I was too afraid to cause permanent harm with my long-range moves, and scaled back the power of my attacks to the point that they were more easily countered than they should have been.

Besides, its not like those type of moves would wear Mario down quickly and get him unconscious like I wanted him to be. No, I had to hit him with physical blows, engage him in hand-to-hand combat and overpower his own blows so I could strike at his body. All I needed to do is keep my strength up until I broke through whatever defenses he tossed my way, and then purposely weaken myself so I don't accidentally break the plumber's bones and have him bleed too much. The mud cracked around my body as I finished thinking about this, and though the hammer was gripped high above me in both hand I swung it behind and away from me because the range of it would actually leave me with too many openings if my swing were to fail to connect.

You know, I honestly could have broken up the energy reserve right then and there, but I had a gut feeling that even if I did that Mario wouldn't have been freed. I needed to defeat him to secure victory, no matter how hard that endeavor was proving to be. I pounded my fists together, my renewed knuckles cracking tightly as I flexed my muscles once and say the dust disperse in front of Mario. He was now in a new suit, surprising considering the fact that he still appeared to be implanted into the wall. Either way, he was now wearing golden shelled armor and a similar helmet, his shoes now leather in texture while a hammer is gripped in both hands.

This was one of Mario's most famous suits, the "Hammer Bros. Suit", and I could understand quite easily as to why he chose to use this one against this form of mine. "Sorry to disappoint Mario, you aren't going to be breaking any rocks today…" I smirk and spring across the ground, my fists dragging through the air behind me as my feet tear up the ground with each rapid step. Mario pulls himself from the wall and forces himself across the air as he falls, landing in front of Bowser's fallen body and dashing outward without a care as his aura tears apart the ground while the lips of his hammers dig up two trails behind his feet.

Mario then swings his arms up as we meet in the center and I swing my earthquake empowered fist out, crossing his hammers in an "X" formation to readily block my punch like it was nothing, firming his stance as the force of my tremor pushes the ground downward to create a widespread yet thin crater below both of our feet. There was a light crack put into the handle of the right hammer, but I could only take advantage of it by pulling my fist back and allowing him a few seconds to swing out at me.

I proceeded to do that, charging my strength in reserve for another strike as Mario arches the swings of his hammers in two different directions to keep my movements contained in one specific area while he jumps and flips his foot around in an attempt to kick me. My free arm raises up and catches his foot with an open hand, but he kicks off of it and flips through the air before I can get a chance to grab it. After landing on the edge of the crater he tosses two hammers my way, forcing me to raise my arms in guard to rebound them off the skin, only for Mario to leap through the air and pound me straight on with both feet, which causes me to skid backwards barefooted for ten feet until I suddenly stop.

I see Mario picking his hammers back up after landing from over my crossed arms, and I quickly kick my heel against the ground to send a line of rocky spikes at the plumber to get him into the air to avoid it. I then leap up and swing my elbow at him, spiking him into the ground by smashing him against the top of his helmet. He falls onto his body stomach first, though the hammers stay grasped in his hands as tightly as possible. He pulled himself up before I could bring both of my elbows down upon his back like a pair of hammers, and after he leaps out of the way he flings one hammer into my forehead.

My head is flung back in recoil, my body swaying against the cloud of debris nice and slowly while the plumber stands his ground and grabs the hammer as it returns from the rebound off of my head. He then smacks his weapons together and pounds them both into the ground like a massive guillotine, cracking apart a portion of the charcoal flooring like a massive fissure and causing it to split apart, revealing the river of lava underneath. If I didn't recover from my daze, my body would lean forward and fall in. I knew this, and quickly recovered just in time to plant my hands against the sides of the fissure.

I then used them to vault myself into the air, narrowly avoiding both hammers tossed at me as I spun around and kicked Mario square in the jaw, knocking him off of his firmed stance and sending him hurtling through the air until he lands seven feet away from the edge of the crater. His hammers were gone for the moment, but I knew he could bring out more if given the proper amount of time. I ran out as the plumber lifted himself up and leaned on his right arm, wiping some blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth with the appropriate glove as he turns and sees me coming.

He uses the placement of his right hand to kick himself up, spinning his body around quickly enough to trip me up as I prepared to leap up and punch him from above. As my body tumbled through the air Mario got on his knees and leaped up high, pulling out a hammer that he uses to uppercut me in the jaw and lead into a series of rapid hammer blows from both hands which finally ends when he swirls his weapons above his head like a helicopter in order to get a little more height necessary to piledrive me into the ground with one powerful blow to the head.

If it wasn't for me quickly raising my left arm in defense, I'd be left with a major concussion and would definitely have lost this battle not long afterwards. Still, despite the lower bones in my legs cracking upon impacting the floor, I get up weakly and stare at Mario as he lands, and I stare into his fiercely determined eyes and suddenly realize something I hadn't quite noticed up until now. He was looking at me with anger the likes of which he had never used since the time he fought Bowser in this very room. I got to thinking about that for a moment, and came to the conclusion that Mr. Reality must have made it so Mario saw me as one of his enemies while also making him believe that Peach was in danger because of me. He wouldn't care about Bowser's presence then, since they had teamed up before in the past to save the Princess and all.

"Sorry Mario, but your Princess is back in her home castle." I said coyly to the plumber, even though I knew he wouldn't either listen or believe me. Mario knocked his hammers together and charged at me, and as I stood there patiently I analyzed his movements, seeing his right arm twitch and reacting to his swing by throwing a powerful punch from my right hand that strikes below the range of his hammer and hits the underside of his wrist, causing him to wince in pain as the weapon drops out of his hand and leaves him with only one way to defend himself.

He stands merely three inches away from me and tries to attack my weakened legs with a lower swing, only for me to block it with my left hand, throwing it out of alignment just to make sure that I wouldn't tumble onto my knees. Though Mario was being a bit pragmatic in his tactics, he wasn't the only one who could behave that way in the midst of battle, and with a swift blow to the part of his armor close to where his bleeding scar was I cause the plate to press against the open wound and make Mario bite his lip to control the agony overwhelming his body.

"Mario, I really hate to do this to you, but I have to save the planet. It was kind of fun if not a bit sad fighting you, and I do admit that you gave me a hard time alongside Giga Bowser…Perhaps when this all settles, we can have a more friendly battle…But for now…" Hesitantly yet tightly clenching my right fist as I build up energy and cause the very room around me to tremble from the amount of pressure I am exuding from the act of firming my feet against the ground, I keep Mario in place with my left hand weakly grasped around his right arm and pull my fist back slightly.

"Its time to save this world!" I boldly declare, and without any boisterous cries I thrust my fist out, the impact with Mario's gut sending a powerful, echoing vibration across the floor and walls around us. Many rocky fragments break off of the walls and crash onto the ground, filling the atmosphere with dust for a few brief moments as silence descends upon the battlefield. The plumber's eyes widen in surprise and pain as my fist broke through his armor and struck him hard in the gut. I didn't go past the skin though, thankfully for him, but the vibrations that shook his body wore out his muscles to the point of exhaustion.

I pull my limb out and let Mario fall to the ground, his suit fading away and leaving him in his Star Spirit empowered form once more for but a few seconds until he returns to the red and blue garb that everyone is more familiar with. I let out a sigh of relief that the battle was finally over, but realized that I likely didn't have much time until the lava would burst through the walls and flood the room, especially now that I had ended the battle like that and weakened them. So with a quick turn around I looked at my hammer, which was planted into the ground far away from me.

I used my hand to thrust it into the air, and ran towards the throne of fire with all the strength that was left in my body. After getting halfway there I leaped up to meet my hammer, grabbing it in my right hand and hold it high above and behind me as I focused firmly on the throne that I was going to meet after my rapid descent. I could feel my vision fading due to how exhausted I was, but forced myself to keep going until the final energy reserve was broken open. The next few seconds are something I barely recall, as I bring my hammer down upon the seat of the throne and release the red energy trapped underneath, restoring the fire element and returning the entire planet back to its normal state of existence. I land on my knees with my hammer barely grasped and my body just a millisecond away from collapsing. Before I fall though, I let out a joyous grin, for I knew that I had done a great thing here today…

…...

"So you have beaten the seven temples and the guardians I had created for you to defeat. The energy reserves have been broken open, and the elements have been restored. No longer will the 'Midnight Channel' exist on this planet, and no longer will the heroes you so cherish ever have to witness their Shadows. But you have disappointed me…To beat the final temple, you somehow managed to break the rules of my game, and for that the consequences shall be dire. Rest now while you can, young one, but when you awaken, I will deal with you using the very remnant of the Overlord's greatest power…"

Next Time: The Koopalings and the Koopa Kin