Chapter 59: A Blast from the Past - Part 5:
Down in the deeper recesses of the Retro Simulator, there was a rather odd-looking area consisting of a dirty and mossy cobblestone floor with white and yellow lines painted on it, (much like the lines typically painted on a city street) surrounded by trees and destroyed buildings that were caught on fire, and all being accented by a red sky. A few scattered black aliens were seen flying off in the distance, though they appeared to show no interest in this area. It just so happened that this place was a fusion of three different locations from the past: Camelot, Westopolis, and Chaotic Inferno Zone. The three hedgehogs landed in the arena, though this time they stuck the landing. Sonic performed a front-flip during his descent and landed with one leg and its opposite arm out behind him. Meanwhile, Shadow made use of Chaos Control to instantly warp onto the ground, and Silver caught himself with his telekinesis, before dropping just five inches and landing on his feet.
"Where the hell are we?" Sonic asked, "This kinda' looks like Camelot."
"No, I think it's Westopolis." Shadow replied.
"Nope. It's Chaotic Inferno Zone." Silver replied.
Before any of them could say anything more however, a snarling noise could be heard from somewhere in the distance, followed by the flapping of some large wings and some echoey footsteps that sounded like those of a horse. In a fighting stance, the trio looked around, but it was impossible to tell where the sounds were all coming from due to the echoey nature of the area they were in. Soon enough, a bright light suddenly came into view over the trees, prompting them to face in that direction. Within a new more seconds, three large beings emerged from the woods. One was a blubbery, purple and red beast with alien-like facial features and a single green eye, held off the ground by a pair of small, mosquito-like wings. Another was a demonic, winged dragon-like creature who appeared to be composed purely of magma rocks and fire. The third and final enemy was a man covered entirely in complex armor, who was carrying an absurdly large sword while riding atop an equally armored horse.
"King Arthur?!" Sonic said.
"Black Bull?!" Shadow said.
"Ifrit?!" Silver said.
"Well, well, well! If it isn't that chili dog-obsessed blue rat who tried to attack me earlier!" King Arthur mocked.
"For the last time: I am not a rat! I'm a hedgehog!" Sonic replied, "...Oh wait! Wrong villain!"
"And I see you have your friends Lancelot and Galahad here to back you up this time?!" The king continued, "...Wait! Lancelot and Galahad?! How dare you turn your backs on me, knights!"
"Um...I think you've mistook us for someone else!" Silver replied.
"Doesn't matter though." Shadow added, "We'll still kick your asses all the same!"
"Well then! It looks as though this will be a 3-on-3 duel!" King Arthur replied, readying his sword as Black Bull and Ifrit moved in closer to him.
"Challenge accepted!" Silver replied.
As soon as everyone got into a fighting stance, Sonic, Silver, King Arthur, and Ifrit all darted into the woods, leaving Shadow alone in the clearing with Black Bull. The alien beast let out a large roar, spraying gray slime all over Shadow, which he promptly shook off in a dog-like manner. Immediately after doing so, Shadow pulled out yet another gun and began firing it off rapidly, though the bullets did not hurt Black Bull but rather bounce off of his blubbery exterior. The repelled bullets hit the ground and created a small explosion that was dodged with a simple front-flip.
Upon running out of ammo, Shadow callously tossed the gun away, but was not prepared as the beast swiped at him with his flipper, sending him sliding along the ground. From a distance, Black Bull proceeded to fire a barrage of large fireballs. Shadow, however, was unfazed by the attack he had suffered and was quick to get up and slow down time via Chaos Control. He skated around the fireballs and launched a homing attack right at his opponent's eye, and continuing to spin in place on it, causing blood to spray outwards in the process. When he finally cancelled the attack, he immediately backflipped out of the way as Black Bull proceeded to flail his flippers wildly and roar in agony.
After recovering, he then proceeded to breathe a thick stream of fire at Shadow, who was still recovering from his evasive maneuver. At the last second, the black hedgehog launched a Chaos Lance back at him, blocking his fire breath. After a few seconds of the two projectiles trying to overcome each other, the Chaos Lance managed to break through the flame breath and fly right into Black Bull's open mouth, electrocuting him and leaving him stunned. Not hesitating for a moment, Shadow skated over towards the downed beast and landed a series of punches and kicks to his face, ending with a roundhouse kick into one of the dead trees lining the clearing. Afterwards, he grabbed his tail and proceeded to swing him around rapidly, before flinging him in the air and sending him flying above the treetops. Without delay, Shadow proceeded to skate after him.
Upon catching up to Black Bull, (who had landed in another clearing) he proceeded to jump towards him, about to land a dropkick right in his eye, but was swatted away and sent rolling across the dead grass for a spell. As soon as he got back up, however, Shadow quickly found himself backflipping out of the way of another breath of fire. After kicking off of the tree behind him, he launched himself back towards the Black Bull's face, and above the oncoming assault. He managed to land a hard aerial punch to his eye, spraying out more blood, and landed right in front of his stunned foe. As he was preparing to punch him again, however, Shadow was hit by Black Bull's flipper again, and sent reeling backwards into a tree, before landing on the ground. Before he could get back up, a tree branch fell onto his leg due to having been shaken down from the impact. Though it didn't injure Shadow, it was still too heavy for him to lift off, and he found himself cornered by his foe. The beast proceeded to open his mouth wide and lower his head down towards the defenseless Shadow, who could do nothing more than desperately try and pry his leg free.
"Nngh!" He groaned, trying to lift the branch, before eyeing Black Bull's widened mouth looming closer and closer, "Wait, that's it!"
Shadow decided to willingly let his enemy ingest him, which he did, via slight suction, and not using his teeth at all. Inside the alien's rather cramped stomach, he could feel powerful muscles squeezing the chamber tightly and giving him less room to breathe, attempting to squeeze the life out of him. In the process, he started to release some digestive juice. A drop of it landed on Shadow's arm and burned off a tiny patch of his fur.
"Okay, now!" Shadow said, "Chaos, Blast!"
From outside, Black Bull could feel a painful cramp in his stomach, which prompted him to start shrieking. As this happened, his body began to inflate until it almost became a perfect circle, before it exploded, with the explosion accompanied by a loud farting sound. Shadow stood up from inside the smoking corpse, covered in blood and other bodily fluids.
"Hah! That was all too easy!" He said, shaking the liquid off of his body, "Farewell, douche!"
Shadow then proceeded to skate off into the woods to find the others.
After Shadow left the scene, Sonic immediately entered from above, using the rubbery flesh of the dead Black Bull like a trampoline to break his fall.
"WHEEE!" He shouted, performing a front-flip and taking off running into the woods as soon as he landed.
Upon running through the forest for a bit, Sonic finally caught up with Ifrit. He launched a homing attack at it from behind, hitting its tail and sending it spiraling forwards before it fell to the ground. He then boosted into it while it was grounded, to knock it upwards again. The fiery beast retaliated by spewing several fireballs, which were dodged with a well-timed series of quick-steps, and a backflip. While Sonic was still airborne, Ifrit launched an even larger fireball, which nearly hit him, but was stopped at the last second by Silver's telekinesis. Sonic managed to stick his landing on the ground and looked behind him to see Silver step into the open and launch the massive fireball back at Ifrit, sending him reeling backwards until he crashed into a particularly large tree and almost knocked it over. However, he immediately got back up and started flying full speed towards the two hedgehogs again, prompting them to both take off quickly. Once Ifrit caught up, it proceeded to swipe its claws, attempting to hit Sonic and Silver, though it missed repeatedly. Sonic retaliated by revving up a spin-dash, and launching himself right at the beast's wing, tearing through it and rendering it useless, as well as causing molten lava to spew out rather than blood. With an ear-grating shriek of pain, it proceeded to continue flying, but much more slowly and more erratically.
From behind, Sonic rammed into the other wing, hindering it even more. In its painful frenzy, Ifrit began haphazardly spewing large fireballs in random directions, one of them knocking Sonic right out of the air and sending him reeling into the woods. Silver ground to a halt at the sound of his screams.
"No!" He yelled, before proceeding to dodge the incoming rain of fire via a series of backflips and spins.
He began to levitate himself in mid-air and catch a large amount of the fireballs via his telekinesis. He then merged all of them into each other to create a massive projectile, and launched it back at its creator, who was directly hit and sent reeling backwards again, before exploding.
Meanwhile, Sonic landed somewhere else in the woods and got up onto his hands and knees to instantly find himself at the feet of King Arthur's horse. Without hesitation, he leapt from his position and performed a triple-backflip, before landing a few yards away in a fighting stance.
"My! Aren't we feeling a bit aggressive?" King Arthur taunted.
"Hmph. Well, I'm not in the mood for jokes this time, Crowny! I've gotta go smack the ever-living crap out of Eggman, so I can save my wife from his sexual harassment!" Sonic replied.
"Who is this 'Eggman' you speak of?" King Arthur asked.
Oh right! Eggman wasn't there! Sonic thought, "Never you mind! Now! Are you gonna take your chances with me, or are you gonna go peacefully and keep your armor?" Sonic asked.
The king said nothing.
"Well?!" Sonic asked.
Suddenly, King Arthur raised his sword high into the air as its tip started to glow. He then released a pink bolt of lightning which shot upwards before coming back down in the form of five different bolts. Sonic sped out of the way by means of a Super Peel-Out, and ground to a halt.
"Hah! Somebody doesn't know chivalry! According to that ruleset, a knight never flees a foe!" King Arthur finally said, caressing his blade in his armored hands as he spoke.
He then held it out to his side, and gently swiped it, sending out a large number of dark magic spheres floating towards Sonic, who promptly dodged them by taking off running. As the projectiles homed in on him, he continued to run, eventually choosing to scale a tree and jump off of the top. King Arthur was still on the ground, cackling at Sonic's attempts to run away, and unaware of his current position. Sonic landed a homing attack right on the king's head, which did no damage, but stunned him long enough to leave him open to his own projectiles, which all hit him and created a large black cloud of fog.
"What?!" King Arthur asked, "D'oh! What was that?! Gah! Oof!"
Sonic slid backwards out of the dust cloud in a fighting stance, waiting for it to clear. When the fog lowered, King Arthur was revealed, he and his horse still standing as they had been, though with many dents scattered all over their armor.
"Oh, so you're gonna force that shit on me?" Sonic said, "Well then, so be it. But don't expect any mercy!"
"O-ho, I think you're the one who shouldn't expect any mercy, rodent! Now. Let the real fight begin!" King Arthur replied, raising his sword.
He swung the massive blade downwards, creating a large dent in the ground, but missing Sonic despite its long range. Sonic had managed to jump out of the way as he noticed that the tree he was just in front of had been split right down its trunk. He retaliated by boosting towards his enemy, and managed to knock his horse over. He attempted to hit the downed king with a downward aerial kick, but was caught off guard as he revealed his sword again.
With no choice but to cancel the attack and land on the ground close by, Sonic had to quickly dodge the incoming slash. He charged up a spin-dash, and launched himself at King Arthur again, but this time his horse managed to defend him by flailing his legs. One of his kicks managed to knock Sonic (still in his ball-form) back into the woods. He managed to uncurl himself and break his landing in a separate clearing.
"Goddamn it!" Sonic cursed, "I can't attack him directly with that long and powerful sword of his! And trying to take it from him is too risky! Hmmm..."
He looked around as he pondered, and a stone appeared in his peripheral vision. It had a sword with a golden hilt sticking out of it.
"Perfect." Sonic said, hurrying over to the stone.
Hearing the king's horse approaching, he quickly drew the sword out and got into a fighting stance with it, before feeling it vibrating in his hand.
"What the fuck?" He asked himself, before noticing the hilt of the blade glowing.
"Fool! A knight never uses such foul language!" The sword snapped, its accent British.
"Oh, it you, Caliburn! Man, I'm so glad you're here!" Sonic replied.
"You speak as if we have met previously. And we have not." Caliburn replied.
"Yeah yeah, well no time to explain! I've got some armor to pierce!" Sonic said nonchalantly, returning to his fighting stance.
"B-But wait! You are but a squire! I cannot let you...!" Caliburn started.
"Sorry! Can't hear you!" Sonic replied.
King Arthur's horse finally entered the clearing and halted.
"Ah, so you've finally found a sword to combat me with, eh?" The king jeered, "But don't think you can just get close to me without fear. For my sword is longer, more finely crafted, and infused with magic!"
"Heh." Sonic grunted, before drawing back his sword, "Hyaah!"
Sonic lunged forward through the air, front-flipping rapidly with Caliburn held out in front of him. At blinding speed, he sliced right through King Arthur's horse with his buzzsaw-like maneuver, splitting it in two.
"Gah!" King Arthur yelled, jumping off of his horse's back at just the right moment to avoid the sharp blade.
Sonic landed on both feet, his knees bent harshly and Caliburn's handle held in both hands, its bloody blade sticking out to the side and slightly behind him. He stood back up and looked behind him to see the horse give out an ear-grating neigh of pain, his eyes bugging out from below his facial armor and blood gushing out of his wound. He eventually faded away in a puff of dark smoke, leaving only a large bloodstain on the ground.
"You may have a point there, Crowny." Sonic said, "But this isn't just any sword I've got here! It's a sacred sword, and there's nothing it can't cut through!"
"Wait! How did you know that?!" Caliburn asked.
"Will you shut the hell up already?!" Sonic asked, ignoring his question.
"Language, Knave!" Caliburn snapped.
King Arthur had barely managed to stick his landing, and was kneeling on the ground, his sword sticking into the dirt, when he noticed the puddle of blood on the grass.
"Hoofers? HOOFERS! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Damn you, hedgehog! Damn you!" He moaned.
Caliburn gave out a sigh.
"You shall pay dearly, you prickly prick!" King Arthur continued, rising to a stand.
"Save it, Crowny!" Sonic replied, "Besides! Now it'll be a fair fight!"
Enraged, King Arthur stuck his blade out in front of him and started dashing straight towards Sonic.
"Hah! Too slow!" Sonic replied, front-flipping over his oncoming foe. The king was quick to turn around though, and blocked Sonic's attempted slash with his own sword, and the two began clashing swords repeatedly, before Sonic chose instead to nail King Arthur with a straight-on stab, only to be blocked with a stab from the king as well.