Chapter 12: The Beast of Thorns
The team battle against the Beast of Thorns. They have some of their magic back, but will it be enough to defeat this demonic creature?
The beast slashed at the three with his claws, but the group managed to dodge the attack. Silky ran around behind the beast and attempted to try and launch an attack from behind. However, the beast could sense Silky's presence, so it attacked Silky using its tail. Silky used her Kamas to block the slashes from the beast's barbed tail. While Silky was fending off against the beast's tail, Chise and Ruth were keeping the beast busy in the front. Ruth ran up and jumped on top of the beast's back. He started scratching and biting viscously but his attacks were doing nothing as the beast had thick armoring on his back. While Ruth was biting at the beast, Chise ran up to the beast and punched him hard in the face. The beast tried to take a bite out of Chise's arms, but she fired a beam of magic into the beast's mouth. After this, the beast spit its sticky slime onto Chise, knocking her down, and gluing her Dragon Arm to the ground. The fall also knocked her wand out of her hand. With Chise stuck in place, the beast turned his full attention to Ruth and Silky. The beast ignored Ruth for a moment as it turned to face and attack Silky. The beast tried to bite Silky, but Silky jumped up on top of the beast's head. Silky managed to stab out two of the beast's eyes before the beast flung Silky off. The beast then spit his slime on to Silky, gluing her to the ground completely. Now Ruth was the only one left. The beast managed to shake Ruth off and threw him off of his back. Ruth landed on his paws and got ready for a head on fight with the beast.
"You are outmatched, dog! You may possess a bit of magic, but it won't be enough to stop me!" the beast hissed.
"I don't need any magic to stop you! Now shut up, and give me a fight!" Ruth barked as he charged at the beast.
The beast opened his mouth to consume Ruth, but Ruth jumped above the beast and unleashed a fire magic blast onto the beast's head. Ruth landed on the beast's back again and started to claw and bite the beast. The beast tried to shake Ruth off again, but Ruth had managed to pierce through the thick armor on the beast's back. Ruth bit down on the soft flesh of the beast and the beast roared in pain. Ruth used his back feet to continue to claw through the beast's armor and give himself more openings to attack. The beast tried to jump multiple times to get Ruth off of his back, but Ruth's claws were locked on the beast's flesh. Ruth then leaped onto the beast's face and bit out one of the beast's eyes. The beast roared in pain as it grabbed Ruth with it's claws and threw him to the side. Ruth rolled on the ground and eventually picked himself up and got back in the fight. Ruth dove underneath the beast and starting clawing and kicking the beast's chin with his back feet. The beast moved his head away from Ruth and tried to slice him up with his massive claws. Ruth rolled out of the way and continued to dodge the beast's swings at him. Ruth eventually took a shot and jumped forward and managed to latch onto one of the beast's fingers. The beast smacked its hand down to the floor, causing Ruth to hit the ground hard and loose his grip. The beast then slashed Ruth across the back, causing Ruth to hiss in pain. Ruth did his best to shake off the pain but it wasn't easy. The beast tried to slash Ruth over and over again, but Ruth was able to avoid that attacks. Ruth tried to bite onto the beast's fingers again, but the beast saw this coming and smacked Ruth away with his claws. Ruth got another nasty slash, this time across his side. Ruth got back up and did something he had never done before. Ruth opened his mouth and his teeth began to light up in flames, two of his teeth grew to become long fangs that also lit up in flames. Ruth jumped through the air and barely avoided getting slashed again. Ruth jumped on the beast's back and then bit the beast using his fire fangs. The beast roared in pain as it felt Ruth's fire fangs pierce his flesh.
Meanwhile, Chise was trying hard to pull the sticky slime off of her arm so she could help Ruth, but it was no good, the slime was strong and it wouldn't be torn off easily. Chise then decided to try and lift the slime off using her Dragon Arm. She put in all her might to try and yank her Dragon Arm out of the slime and eventually it worked. Chise managed to free her left arm from the slime. Chise ran and picked up her wand and saw Ruth battling against the beast. Chise used her wand to fire another beam of magic at the beast. The beast was hit by the beam and he growled angrily. The beast tried to move to Chise, but Ruth was dealing a lot of pain on the beast's back. Chise was about to get in closer for more close-range attacks, but Ruth stopped her.
"Don't! You stay on the outside and use long-range attacks! I'll deal with the close-range attacks!" Ruth called over to her as he continued to bite down with his fire fangs.
"Got it! Since when could you use that kind of fire power?" Chise asked as she used her magic to attack the beast.
"You've seen me use fire magic before! I just learned a new a way to use it for my own! When we get back home, I'll try and teach you how to develop more ways to use our shared magic!" Ruth called.
"I'll hold you to that!" Chise yelled as she fired another beam of magic at the beast.
The beast roared loudly and shook its back vigorously. This time, it managed to cut Ruth a bit with the spikes on his back. Ruth lost his grip and was thrown off. Ruth fell to the ground and struggled to stand back up due to suffering three nasty injuries. The beast turned and walked towards Ruth, drooling and licking his lips in the process. The beast reached Ruth and placed his claw on top of Ruth, preventing him from getting back up. Only Ruth's head was exposed now.
"I always wondered what dog tastes like!" The beast roared as he opened his mouth wide and went down to Ruth.
Ruth closed his eyes, ready to have his head bitten off, but when he opened his eyes, he saw the beast was being pulled back.
"Hey!? What is going on back there!?" the beast asked.
Ruth saw that Chise was holding onto the beast's tail with her Dragon Hand and pulling back.
"LET HIM GO!" Chise yelled as she somehow managed to pull the beast back, swing him in the air by his tail, and then throw him into some trees a good distance away.
Ruth was shocked at this amazing strength he just witnessed and Chise was just as surprised.
"Since when could you do THAT?" Ruth asked as he got up and walked over to Chise.
"I, I don't know." Chise said as she looked at her Dragon Hand. "I mean, I know the Dragon's Curse gave me enhanced strength but I didn't know it was that strong." Chise said.
"Well, then again, you always did have trouble controlling how much power you put in that hand." Ruth said.
"Yeah, I guess so." Chise said.
"But, sh*t, I guess this means you can beat up Elias if you could lift that thing with no problem." Ruth said.
"I hope it never comes to that." Chise said.
"Me too. Alright, that thing is coming back, same strategy as before." Ruth said as they saw the beast get back up on its feet.
"No, this time I go for the head on attacks and you strike from the outside. I'll tell you when to join in, got it?" Chise asked.
"Chise, I'm not letting you do that." Ruth said.
"Ruth, we're a team. Either you help me or you stay here." Chise said firmly.
"Yeah, alright. Let's show this freak some teamwork." Ruth said.
"You bet!" Chise said as the they ran to the beast, who was also running to them.
Chise used her magic to emit a bright light from the palm of her hand. The light was so bright that is temporarily blinded the beast, stopping him in its tracks. Chise took this opportunity to punch the beast multiple times in the face using her Dragon Hand. She then started to smack the beast's face multiple times with her wand and she even jabbed him in the eye with the tip of her wand. While Chise was beating the living hell out of the beast's face, Ruth was launching fire attacks as he ran around the beast, hitting the beast from all directions, while making sure to avoid hitting Chise. The beast started to swing his tail around, trying to hit Ruth, but Ruth just avoided the tail as best he could. The beast finally got his sight back and tried to bite Chise's head off. Chise reacted quickly and suck her wand in the beast's mouth. The beast gagged and jumped back. Ruth ran over next to Chise and got prepared to breathe fire at the beast. The beast tried to spit its sticky slime at them but Ruth breathed his fire at the slime and into the beast's mouth. While beast was stunned, Chise slashed at the beast's face with her claw. Ruth jumped on the beast's face and used his tail to try and keep the beast's mouth shut. Chise tried to land a punch on the beast, but the beast smacked Chise away with the back of his hand. The beast then grabbed Ruth and flung him off and threw him right into Chise.
Chise got back up, helping Ruth up to his feet as well. Chise signaled for Ruth to go around behind the creature and he did so. Chise distracted the beast by swinging her wand at the beast multiple times. Once Ruth was behind the beast, he lit up his fire fangs and pit down on the beast's tail. The beast roared in pain as he tried to get Ruth off of his tail. While the beast did that, he spat his slime at Chise. But Chise used a magic attack to deflect the slime and it fired right back at the beast. The slime hit the beast in the mouth and now the beast could no longer open his mouth as his mouth was glued shut by his own slime. Chise then dodged a slash attack from the beast and slid under the beast. She left a nasty claw mark on the soft-underbelly of the beast. The beast tried to crush Chise, but she quickly rolled out from underneath just in time. The beast had finally had enough of this and kicked Chise back with his back foot. She flew back and hit the ground very hard. Both of Chise's arms broke due to the sheer force and impact and she yelled out in pain. Ruth was still holing onto the beast's tail, but the beast slammed his tail into the big tree so hard, that Ruth was knocked unconscious from the impact.
"No, Ruth! Argh!" Chise yelled as she felt immense pain in both her arms.
The beast looked over to Chise and let out a deep growl. The beast then used his claws to rip out the slime from his mouth, freeing his jaws. The beast then walked over to Chise slowly. Once the beast reached Chise, he opened his mouth, ready to eat her. Then, the beast pounced at Chise. But right as the beast was about to kill Chise, he was smacked away by something. Chise looked up and saw Elias, in his Pilum Murialis form.
"Elias!?" Chise called to him.
Elias did not acknowledge Chise's words at all, he just growled angrily at the beast.
Elias roared at the beast and the beast roared back at him. The beast then stood on his hind legs so he could run at Elias and counter-attack him. The beast towered over Elias, but Elias showed no signs of being afraid or even intimidated by this. Elias just roared loudly at the beast. After the two roared and snarled at each other a few more times, they both ran towards each other. Elias held out his claws and opened his mouth as wide as he could, while the beast did the same thing. The two clashed with each other, both stepping back to give themselves more room to fight. Elias tried to bite the beast over and over but the beast kept pushing Elias's head away. The beast also managed to slash Elias's back a few times, but Elias did not give up. Elias then slammed his whole body into the beast, stunning him. Elias took this opportunity to bite the beast and chomped down hard on his arm. Elias yanked the beast's arm, trying to rip it off, but the beast wouldn't let that happen as it pried Elias's jaw off of his arm and pushed him away. Elias managed to slash at the beast, cutting his stomach badly, but not enough to cut him open. The beast then punched Elias 4 times in the face. Elias returned the favor, punching the beast in the gut and then in the face. Elias tried to go for a third punch, but the beast leaned his head back far enough to avoid the hit, then the beast bit down on Elias's arm. Elias roared in pain as he felt hundreds of razor sharp teeth jab his arm. While the beast was holding onto Elias's arm, he slashed Elias across the stomach. Elias tried to pull his arm away, but the beast had a tight grip. When the beast let go of Elias's arm, he grabbed Elias by the jaw and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming Elias hard to the ground.
The beast kicked Elias in the face until Elias managed to catch the beast's foot in his jaw. The beast howled in pain as Elias flung the beast into the big tree. The beast got back up and punched on Elias, knocking them both to the floor. Elias rolled off of the beast and got back up. Elias swung at the beast, but the beast blocked Elias's hand and pushed it back. Elias then tried to headbutt the beast, but the beast blocked the attack. The beast then bit down on Elias's back and tossed him to the side. Elias got back up and roared. The beast went back down on all fours and prepared the impale Elias with his barbed tail. The beast snarled as he tried to stab Elias in the heart with his tail, but Elias grabbed the tail and flung him over the side like the beast had done to him earlier. Elias jumped on top of the beast and bit down on his neck. The best tried his best to get Elias off of him, but Elias bit down even harder. The beast eventually went limp and Elias let go of his neck, thinking the beast to be dead. Elias got up and turned to walk back to Chise. But he failed to see the beast did not die and was ready to pounce.
"(Gasp) Elias, look out!" Chise screamed as she pointed behind him.
Elias tried to turn around but it was too late, the beast had leaped on his back and shoved him to the floor. Chise screamed as she saw the beast rip out a chunk of flesh out of Elias's back or possibly even his neck. Even after that attack, Elias stood up so quickly that he caused the beast to lose his grip. Elias turned around and roared. The beast roared back at him as they glared at each other. Chise was horrified as she saw a nasty open wound on Elias's back, very close to his neck. The beast had missed Elias's neck by just barely. Elias and the beast began to slash and bite at each other viscously.
Chise tried to stand up, but every time she applied even the slightest of pressure, her broken arms made her feel intense pain. But Chise pushed past the feeling of pain and got back up. She walked over to where her wand was and picked it up. As Chise was about to run over and help Elias, some large thorns came out of the ground, blocking her path. Chise looked up and saw that Elias was looking at her with a look that said, 'Don't come any closer'. Elias went back to fighting against the beast when he was sure Chise understood the message. Chise understood well enough, but she couldn't bare the thought of watching Elias die without being able to do anything to help him. Chise decided the best she could do was free the rest of her friends from the slime they were trapped in. But she needed at least one of her arms to not be broken. Chise used her magic to seal her wand away and then she ran over to a tree. She held her breath and then rammed her left shoulder into the tree hard. Chise yelled out in pain, but she had managed to fix her left arm. Chise then did the same to her right arm so she had fixed herself up. Chise ran over to Silky, making sure to avoid the fight between Elias and the beast. Using her Dragon Hand, she ripped away the slime and freed Silky.
"Thank you, Chise." Silky said as Chise helped her to her feet.
"You're welcome, come on, let's get Joseph next." Chise said as they ran over to where Joseph was slimed.
"Chise! Silky! Thank goodness!" Joseph said as Chise ripped away the slime from him. "(GASP) LOOK OUT!" Joseph yelled as he jump forward, knocking Chise and Silky back.
Elias had gone flying and almost crushed them. Joseph managed to move out of the way just in time. Chise, Silky, and Joseph watched in fear as Elias was starting to get destroyed by the beast. Elias was running out of energy. The beast meanwhile was repeatedly slashing Elias in the chest over and over. Chise summoned her wand and was about to run and help Elias when Silky and Joseph stopped her. Chise tried to get free of their grip but they would not let her go.
"What are you doing!? Let. Me. Go!" Chise said as she tried to get free.
"You can't Chise, it's too dangerous!" Silky said.
"You could die, Chise!" Joseph said.
"And what about Elias!?" Chise asked as she watched dreadfully as Elias was being hit multiple times.
The beast slammed into Elias hard, knocking him back a bit. Elias shook it off and roared at the beast. The beast ran up to Elias to try and bite him, but Elias managed to hit the beast in the face. The beast shook the hit off and roared at Elias. Elias and the Beast charged at each other, headbutting each other hard. Their heads were locked against each other as they pushed back against each other. Eventually, Elias couldn't keep his head in place and the beast managed to knock his head back and then landed a bite on Elias's neck.
"ELIAS!" Chise screamed as the beast dropped Elias to the floor.
Elias laid on the floor, bleeding profusely as the beast climbed on top of him. The beast lifted his claw up and was ready to rip out Elias's heart.
"I've won! DIE!" The beast roared.
Ruth: (BARK, BARK)!
"Huh?" the beast asked.
Chise, Joseph, and Silky turned and saw Ruth was back on his feet and running straight for the beast. Ruth barked again and again and leaped through the air, landing on the beast's face. Ruth began clawing and biting the beast over and over. This caused the beast to step off of Elias's body and he tried to grab Ruth and throw him off. Ruth was much more aggressive and agile as he was avoiding being grabbed but at the same time biting and slashing. The beast was about to smash his head on the ground to try and stun Ruth, when Elias got back up and chomped down on the beast's back. Elias brought the beast down to the ground and held him there with his jaws while Ruth was attacking the face. The beast eventually managed to knock Elias back by hitting him in the face with his barbed tail. The beast then flung Ruth off and was about to spit his slime at Ruth. But since the beast was so focused on getting rid of Ruth, he failed to avoid getting grabbed by Elias. Elias grabbed the beast by the back of his neck and slammed him into the big tree. The beast got up on his feet, but the very moment he stood up, Ruth used his fire fang to chomp down on the beast's foot. With the beast stunned, Elias was able to grab the beast by his legs and then he flipped him onto his back. Ruth jumped back so he could let Elias do his thing. Elias was going to tear at the under-belly of the beast but the beast kicked Elias in the face. The beast was given almost no time to recover right as the very moment he got back up, Ruth launched a fire attack at his face. Elias then took this opportunity to ram the beast into the tree so hard, the tree was dented and you could hear the sound of bones breaking. The beast got up slowly and glared at Elias and Ruth. Then all 3 of them roared at each other. The beast snarled and then roared one last time before he fell to the floor in defeat.
Elias and Ruth just stood there, panting and breathing heavily. They both looked at each other. Ruth morphed into his human form and Elias morphed back to his regular form. Once Elias morphed back, he fell to the floor.
"Elias!" Ruth said as he watched his friend fall.
"Elias!" Chise cried as she rushed over to them, with Silky and Joseph following.
"(Cough, cough) Do not worry about me, Chise. I am fine." Elias said weakly.
"No you're not! We need to get out of here now." Chise said.
"Give me a moment, while I heal Ruth." Elias said as he preformed a healing spell on Ruth.
"Elias, don't worry about me. You should be healing yourself." Ruth said.
"If you die, Chise dies." Elias said.
"That rule isn't in effect right now." Ruth said.
"So, our link is still disconnected? I thought you said that only lasted for a certain period of time." Chise said.
"I did. I guess since magic doesn't work here, our link was never able to be reconnected. But I'm not reconnecting our link until we get back home." Ruth said.
"There, all healed." Elias said as he managed to heal up the slashes on Ruth's body.
"Okay, thanks now you." Ruth said.
"Very well." Elias said as he was about to heal himself.
BANG!
There was a loud gunshot. The team looked over in the direction it came from and saw who else but the Spell-Breaker, behind him, his skeleton army.
"Damn it, I knew he would show up eventually." Chise said.
"Of all times, why now?" Ruth asked.
"We were weakened by the beast. We are vulnerable." Joseph said
"Like hell we are. We can still fight." Chise said.
"Chise is right. We can still fight back." Elias said as he sat upright.
"You sure you can fight, Elias? You were torn up pretty badly." Chise said.
"When the beast tore off some of my flesh, he tore off extra flesh that is only present in the form I took when I fought him. I am unaffected, but I do still feel pain." Elias said.
"That and you have some pretty big scars on your chest, man." Ruth said.
"No worries. I can fight." Elias said as he stood up and summoned his wand.
"I'm glad to hear that." Chise said.
"Well, well, you managed to defeat that monster. I'll be honest with you guys, I knew either you would all die, or you would win but be wounded after the fight. Looks like I guessed right." The Spell-Breaker said as he approached the team with his army.
"If you knew we would survive the fight, why didn't you just kill us when you had the chance?" Chise asked.
"Because where's the fun in that? Besides, when I kill you Chise, I want to make sure you die while looking into my eyes. I want to watch you die! I will be the last thing you'll ever see!" The Spell-Breaker said.
"Like I said, you're all talk!" Chise said.
"Yeah! And you know we toasted your army before right?" Joseph asked.
"HA! The first group that attacked you guys was a test." The Spell-Breaker said.
"I knew it!" Ruth said.
"Tell us something! How did you know!?" Chise asked.
"How did I know what?" The Spell-Breaker asked.
"How did you know the things we were doing? How did you know about our training? How did you know about my visions? How did you know about our plans? We never told you, how did you know these things?" Chise asked.
"Oh, that's easy. You told me." The Spell-Breaker replied.
"I never told you anything!" Chise yelled.
"You want to know how I know? Thank your new friend, Joseph." The Spell-Breaker said.
"What?" Joseph asked.
"Joseph?" Ruth asked.
"What are you talking about?" Silky asked.
"What do you mean, 'thank, Joseph'?" Chise asked.
"Let me explain, you see when me and Cartaphilus were beating the shit out of Joseph after I separated the two of them, I put a microchip on the back of his neck. And that microchip allows me to hear everything you all say to each other when Joseph is present." The Spell-Breaker explained.
"Huh?" Joseph said as he reached for the back of his neck. "No! No! You guys, please, I didn't know about this, I swear!" Joseph begged as he pulled the microchip off of his neck.
"That's how I was able to be ahead of you all. That's how I knew your plans. It's called being smart!" The Spell-Breaker said.
"Chise, Ainsworth, Silky, Ruth, I swear I had no idea!" Joseph begged.
"It's okay. We believe you Joseph." Chise said.
"You do?" Joseph asked.
"Even if we didn't believe you, we have no time for bickering amongst ourselves." Elias said.
"Why don't you take off that damn mask already!" Ruth called to the Spell-Breaker.
"Yeah! Save us the trouble of trying to figure out who you are." Joseph said.
"Honestly, even if I took off my mask, you wouldn't know who I am at first glance. I'd have to explain who I am to you all. Besides, none of you have ever seen me before. Well no one except for you, Chise." The Spell-Breaker said.
"What are you saying?" Chise asked.
"I'm saying that you and I have seen each other before. You've seen me without my mask. You've seen me even before I was the Spell-Breaker. I became the Spell-Breaker very recently. As far as how many times we've seen each other in the past, who knows, maybe once, maybe twice, maybe more than that! I'll never give out that information! When the time is right, I'll tell you who I am, and when I do, you're going to wish that your mother had killed you!" The Spell-Breaker said.
"Your identity is not as important as your death, Spell-Breaker. We will stop you and end you!" Elias said.
"(Chuckle) You can shut your skeleton jaw, old man. Let me let you all in on a little secret, no matter where you run, your lives will always be on the line." The Spell-Breaker said.
"And you can get out of our way, Spell-Breaker. Leave now and no one gets hurt." Chise said.
"Ha, ha! You are really stupid, you know that? Besides why would I leave now? I mean, aren't you pleased to see your friends?" The Spell-Breaker asked.
"What are you speaking of?" Elias asked.
"(Chuckle) Your FALLEN friends, (snaps fingers)." The Spell-Breaker said as 3 figures stepped out from behind him.
The team gasped and were horrified to see who they were. In front of them, stood Simon, Angelica, and Lindel. Their eyes glowed a bright green color and they had green cracks all over their body. Their veins also glowed green.
"Simon, Angelica, Lindel?" Chise said as she looked at her fallen friends.
"Yes, that is indeed them. Cartaphilus restored them to life." The Spell-Breaker said.
"No! They are living a life worse than death! What did you do to them!?" Chise cried.
"Correction: What did Cartaphilus do to them? All I did was kill them. Cartaphilus brought them back to life and corrupted their souls. Now they work for us." The Spell-Breaker explained.
"They would never want this!" Chise shouted.
"(Chuckle) Their wants and desires mean nothing to us. What does matter, is that they are loyal to us now. It is a fate you will all share. Well, except for you, Chise. I want you permanently dead. But the rest of you will serve us well, once you are dead." The Spell-Breaker said.
"You sealed our fate, Chise. You have condemned us all!" Corrupted Angelica said.
"This is YOUR fault! The suffering you caused our master, is the reason we are dead!" Corrupted Simon said.
"No, that's not true!" Chise yelled.
"This is just like your vision. The one where you said everyone was against you and verbally attacking you. Simon, Angelica, and Lindel accusing you of being responsible for bad things happening to them." Ruth said.
"Now, enough chit chat, let's get to business, ATTACK!" The Spell-Breaker commanded as his army and the 3 corrupted ran ahead of him, charging at the team.
The team, braced themselves and ran forward, ready to clash once again with the skeleton army.
And that was chapter 12. How did you all enjoy the fight against the Beast of Thorns? I hope it was entertaining at least. Thanks for reading and for the support! See you next time! :)