Author's Note: Nothing of note. Sorry this chapter's a bit late though.

Review Responses:

Elysium: I dunno. Maybe something will happen, maybe something won't. Also, I guess you're right. Disclaimers by this point is somewhat repetitive.

Sheldon: Thanks but I'm not sure what I would do with more characters so let's just see what happens.

Chapter 19: I get an item after how long?

"This is a pretty nice view." Oblivion commented. We were standing on the peak of the mountain. Unfortunately, I was busy.

"Stop talking about the view!" I swung with the Beam Sword, hitting nothing but air. I felt something strike my back. I stumbled away and spun, swinging again. Nothing was there.

"I know that you're getting attacked by invisible enemies but you do have to admit, the view is nice."

I gritted my teeth as I felt another blow hit my back. I fell forward and felt a shock run through my body. I rolled away from the source of the electricity only to feel claws dig through across my back. Reacting, I kicked back at the attack. My foot made contact and I slashed with the Beam Sword as well.

This same pattern has been going on for the past 20 minutes since I got to the mountain's peak. I would get knocked around by the invisible Puppet Fighters for a while, then get lucky. From the attacks that I got hit with, I think there's three fighters.

"I'm kinda getting flashbacks to when I told Clarence that splitting up was okay." I admitted to Oblivion as I backed up.

"Don't get dramatic, you'll be fine."

A fighter punched my back for the third time. I spun, grabbing the fighter by the arm. Slashing with the Beam Sword, I landed the attack and then headbutted the fighter away. I threw my sword after them but it fell to the ground. I leapt forward, hand stretched to grab it. Instead, I got knocked away.

"Oof!" I hit the ground hard. Using the momentum, I rolled back to my feet."Oblivion, please tell me you have something to help with invisible enemies!"

"What? Do I look like Crazy to you?"

"I guess that would be no." I pulled out my next weapon, Death's Scythe. I swung in a wide arc, hitting something light at the end of the attack. Darting forward to where I felt the hit, I kicked. My foot hit something small and it was sent flying.

I heard the fighter land and a few feet from me, smoke rose from the ground. "I guess that's one fighter down."

Another blow to my back and I grunted. I turned, trying to find some hint of where the fighter was. Something like a cannon fired behind me and I got hit again, this time by some kind of projectile. I got knocked away and landed face-first on the ground.

"I hate everything," I grumbled, spitting dirt out of my mouth. Wait. Dirt? "You have got to be kidding me."

I got back to my feet, flourishing my scythe as I focused on the ground. I felt like kicking myself for not realizing it, but the dirt on the ground was soft. Soft enough to leave footprints of the fighters.

A set of footprints were charging towards me, along with clawed handprints, as if the person was running on all fours. I waited for the footprints to enter my scythe's reach before swinging. I felt contact and began to act on instinct. I burst into smoke, shooting to behind where the fighter is. I kicked, feeling the attack land before slashing with the scythe. There was a brief moment of resistance before the blade cut through smoothly.

I heard the body collapse as smoke rose up in front of me. I muttered, "One left."

I heard someone run up behind me. Anticipating another blow to my back, I dropped to the ground, swiping at where their feet would be. I heard them trip and I aimed a kick to where they were. Once my foot made contact, the fighter burst into smoke and the Spirit seemed to float out of nowhere.

I collapsed onto my back. "That was terrible."

"Stop complaining. It could have been worse."

"I'll be honest, when you say that, it kinda feels like it invalidates the effort I just put in." I got back to my feet, groaning a bit. Searching through my pockets, I pulled out the Joy-con to collect the Spirit. "Shiitake mushrooms."

The Spirit was gone.

"Nathaniel, you had one job."

"Hush, it couldn't have gone too far." I grabbed my Beam Sword and ran down the mountain trail. Eventually, I reached a crossroad, with the trail splitting into four paths. There was one that I was on, one east to the hills, one south that went to the town that Clarence was and the last ran west. Checking all of them, quickly, I found the Spirit floating down the western path.

I jumped, grabbing the rainbow orb before it float any further. "Gotcha you rainbow macguffin!"

"Yeah. You really showed that Spirit who's boss." Oblivion muttered as I captured the Spirit with the controller.

Putting the Joy-con away, I raised my head to see that at the end of the path was a forest, complete with a semi-thick purple fog. Shrugging a bit, I followed the path into the forest.

Once in the forest, the trail got harder to walk on. Plants were cluttering the path, making it harder to walk. The trees obscured the sky, blocking it out for the most part. As for the fog, despite the color, it wasn't poisonous. All the fog did was lower visibility somewhat.

"I'm starting to hate nature," I grumbled as I picked myself back up after tripping over another tree root. Brushing dirt off my pants, I noticed something next to where I tripped.

It was a flower. The green stem had a leaf, also green, near the base. The flower head was an oval, with an outer ring being red, the middle ring being yellow and the center was white. There was also a pair of eyes. Slowly, I reached down and plucked it. "Oblivion, what's this?"

Item Acquired:
Fire Flower

"Easy. Point it away and squeeze the stem."

I did as the voice said. As soon I squeezed, a burst of flames shot out of the flower. "PIZZA SLICES!"

The flower stopped shooting fire when I dropped it, leaping back at the sudden heat. I poked the flower a few times before picking the flower up with a thumb and a forefinger. "So. It's a flower. That shoots fire."

"Brilliant powers of observation Nathaniel. Would you also like to guess the flower's name as well for double the points?"

"Ignis flowereous?"

"No. It's a Fire Flower. Where did you get that name?"

"That's not important." I got up slowly, avoiding the burning branch from that was my fault. Cutting the branch, I kicked some dirt on it to put out the fire before continuing on the path.

Thankfully, I didn't have to think of a conversation topic off since one came to me. In the form of a slingshot pellet.

I rolled away, looking for where it came from. Apparently, the fighter was hiding in the forest. I couldn't see them anywhere. "That was Villager, right?"

"Wait, didn't you have to ask Crazy for help when you fought Villager?"

"Hush. Don't remind me." Doing a small practice swing, I scanned the trees looming around me. Something struck me in the back. Recovering, I spun and ran into the direction the attack came from. All I found were more trees.

I heard branches behind me moving. Turning, I was met with a rocket speeding towards me. It exploded, throwing me on my back. Jumping back up, I dodged another slingshot pellet before rushing to where the attack came from,

Leaping through the bushes, I came face-to-face with the enemy. She was the same height as the Villager I fought before but was clearly a different gender. She also had pink hair and wore a matching dress with a flower print. I faltered once I saw her. The Puppet Fighter responded by pulling out a giant bug net, putting it on me, then throwing me into a tree.

"I thought I was fighting Villager!"

"You are," Oblivion answered as I pulled myself up. "There's basically eight versions of Villager. All their moves are the same though."

Villager ran towards me, tripping and throwing a flower pot. Instinctively, I caught the pot and slashed at villager with my other hand. Villager was thrown back and I followed. Tucking the pot into my inventory, I kicked Villager into a nearby tree.

Villager began to fall and I did several weak slashes to build damage. I finished the combo with a stronger slash that sent Villager into another tree. Instead of a collision, Villager twisted, landing on the tree with her feet and dropped to the ground.

Dashing over, Villager armed herself with boxing gloves and threw a punch. Knocking her fist away, I stabbed with my Beam Sword. The blade went through, ending the fight.

"Do I still need Crazy's help? Huh, Oblivion?"

"How about you worry more about the Spirit that's floating away?" I turned, just in time to see the Spirit that Villager released shoot away into the underbrush. Following, I used my sword to hack at the plants that were in my way. "Is it just me or does the Spirit seem like the it's going somewhere in particular?"

"Hopefully that means a store. Or maybe a Dojo. I hope it's a store."

"You just want another sword."

I ignored him as I came out into a clearing. I lost sight of the Spirit but something else was there. "Oblivion? What's this? Help!"

The something else in the clearing looked like a plant. But, like everything else, it couldn't be a daisy or something that won't kill me. It had a green stem and a pair of leaves near the base where it came out of the ground. The flower head was spherical, red with white dots scattered on it. On its head was a mouth, filled with razor sharp teeth. Overall, it was the height of a dinner table.

"That's just a Piranha Plant. Ignore it and look for the Spirit."

I took a step to the side but my attention returned to the plant. It's head was looking down and I took a step towards it. The plant raised its head slightly before lowering its head again. "Do all Piranha Plants act like that?"

"No actually. Shouldn't we be looking for the Spirit?"

"One minute." I took several more steps to the plant, walking on toes as I approached. The plant didn't seem to care, keeping it's head down.

"Hey there," I spoke softly. "Is something wrong little guy?"

"I'm pretty sure it could bite your head if it wanted to."

"Not helping Oblivion." I turned back to the plant, "Maybe I could help if something's wrong?"

Raising its head slowly, the Piranha Plant looked at me. Then it looked down and gestured with its leaves a few times before looking up at me again.

"I have no idea what you're trying to say."

The plant repeated the motions several times, each being met with cluelessness. Huffing, it pointed both leaves at me. I nodded. It pointed at itself. I nodded. It pointed at the ground.

""I don't get it."

"I think it's jealous that you can walk around while it's stuck in the ground."

"Oooooooh. So you want to walk?" Piranha Plant nodded vigorously. Digging through my inventory, I pulled out the pot I got from the fight with Villager. "Maybe this will help."

I dug a hole and emptied the pot in there, leaving room for Piranha Plant. Quickly, the plant uprooted itself and entered the pot. After adding some more dirt, Piranha Plant was able to move by tilting the pot in a direction.

After watching Piranha Plant enjoy its newfound freedom, Oblivion spoke up. "This is nice but we should get back on track Nathaniel."

"Oh right. Piranha Plant! Quick question: did you see a rainbow ball float by?"

Stopping, the plant pointed to the right with a leaf before running back and forth. Giving a quick thanks, I ran in the direction the plant gave. Eventually, I reached another clearing, this one bigger than the previous. It also had something else in it.

Stopping, I gazed in wonder at the massive structure before me. It was a massive pyramid shaped temple, built of stone. Despite the temple's grandeur, it seemed abandoned, with vines and other plant life covering it. Then, I noticed someone near the base.

I ran up to her, a small girl with a pink mushroom hat and pigtails. Dressed in clothes fit for exploration, she also had a backpack on. She was waving at me and yelling. "Hey! Are you the help that the Hands promised?"

"Excuse me? Help for what?"

Putting her hands on her hips she huffed, "Master Hand and Crazy Hand said they would be sending someone over to help me explore this temple. Did they send you?"

"Um, yeah." I decided. "They sent me but they didn't tell me why?"

She narrowed her eyes, "I guess that would mean you're a newbie."

"Yeah. I'm Nathaniel." I held my hand out.

She took it and we shook. "I'm Toadette. Let me give you a rundown on what I do." We started walking towards the temple's entrance. "Basically, I work for the Hands under a contract. They help fund my explorations into ruins like these and in return, they get some of the money I earn in return."

I nodded, "So, what are we looking in the ruins? I'm not exactly sure what we should be looking for."

"That's tricky," Toadette answered. "Sometimes, things that don't look valuable actually are but sometimes it will be the opposite. Just tell me whenever you see anything of note. It can be anything from wall inscriptions to a cool rock."

"Nathaniel, why are you doing this?"

"Because Oblivion," I thought. "Toadette's clearly the Master Spirit from the Villager we just fought. Also, because money." With that final thought, Toadette and I entered the ruins.

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?)

Items: Nathaniel- Beam Sword, Steel Diver, Death's Scythe, Fire Flower

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Peach, Bowser, Lucario, Villager

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: Wow, we're at chapter 19 already. Next chapter will be the 20th. This feels weird.

MG: Tell me about it. Also, SWOL has 30 followers! Thank you to Gfish59, 21x, Thanatos 2018, Eagle Master17,, xxsugarxxfitxx, Kurama The Platinum Zoroark, DannerBanana, oyuki kita540, brice51297, blueblade0007, and FairyTalePrincess16! If anyone doesn't want me to mention them for the thanks, just PM and I'll edit the chapters.

Crazy: Thank you to all of you for your support.

Clarence: When will I get screentime?