Chapter 7

Boss Before the Dungeon Crawl

Seaweed Head's boat was a super nice speeder, almost like a small, sporty yacht. Kris drove the vessel, racing towards the monster as it corralled their friends. Berdly and Catti were almost back in the prison. Susie hung out the back, waterskiing. Kris took a few opportunities to peak back and watch her. It was good that she was having some fun before their next big battle. Plus, she looked really sexy with the way her skirt and hair flowed in the wind.

"Oh no! The guards are coming out!" Ralsei shouted. "It looks like they're going to recapture Catti and imprison Berdly, too."

Kris gritted their teeth in response. This was exactly what they had hoped to avoid, but there was no other way around it now. It was time to put down this sea serpent and see if they could get their friends back before they went back into the slammer. Otherwise, they would be doing another side quest!

Kris shouted to Noelle to come up to the front and cast a blast of ice. The reindeer girl hurried over and took in the scene before her.

"I'll do what I can," she promised, determined. Shaking her bell, she cast an enhanced ice spell, hurling a beam of instant ice right at the sea serpent. It crashed into the back of the monster's head. It whipped around and screamed at them. Its large tail reached out of the water and pushed the barge-ship right into the prison docks, breaking it.

Noelle tried freezing the beast's mouth shut next. Ice formed all along its snout and then crawled along its head and down its body. The frost quickly expanded into a full ice cube. Ralsei whooped with excitement, but it was premature. The sea serpent's scales glowed white hot as a great blast of fire worked its way up and through its jaws, shattering the ice. Kris swerved the boat to avoid getting hit.

"WOAH! Did you guys just start the battle without me?" Susie roared.

Kris didn't immediately answer. They were observing the sea serpent, looking for a good way to deal with it. Freezing the beast right off the bat might not have been the best way to deal with it, but they had hoped the distraction would give Berdly and Catti a chance.

A calculated but failed risk.

"It's coming right for us!" Noelle fretted.

Concentrating, Kris saw that there was an option to remove scales from the sea serpent. They called back to Susie to get ready. Just as the sea monster closed the distance, throwing up great waves, Kris turned the speedboat around. Susie whipped about in a wide arc. She racked her shark-toothed axe across the beast, shearing some scales from its chest.

"HA! THAT TICKLED!" the sea serpent laughed.

"Oh great… It talks," Noelle muttered.

"If it talks, we might be able to befriend it! I'm Ralsei! What's your name?" the fluffy prince asked.

"DRAGONMITE!" the sea serpent roared. "THE GREATEST WARRIOR THE SEAS HAVE EVER SEEN!"

"Perfect! I look forward to knocking you down a few pegs!" Susie laughed back.

The monster's great tail swung out of the water, flipping Susie into the sky. The dragoness spun and somersaulted before landing expertly on the ship's deck, right next to Kris.

"Alright! Let's do this," Susie said excitedly.

Kris didn't see any way to befriend Dragonmite but taking off its scales seemed like the best way to approach this battle than going for an outright kill. They brought the boat in even closer and ordered Noelle and Ralsei to take off the beast's scales. Ralsei wielded his towel like a whip and Noelle shot out more ice. Scales were chipped off, but Dragonmite continued to laugh.

The tail lashed out again and Kris barely managed to dodge. Unfortunately, they drove the boat right into a deluge of flames. The hit was an instant critical. Ralsei went down and Susie and Noelle were severely burned. Kris was crispy.

Kris fed everyone the enormous crab cake from Crab Cakes and instantly healed everyone up. Sadly, the boat was taking a beating. Kris ordered the dizzy but revived Ralsei to start using the seaweed from Seaweed Head to patch up the ship. They would continue driving and dodging, while letting Susie and Noelle peel off the scales. If the boat no longer worked, they'd be done for!

"TRYING TO GET AWAY? GOOD LUCK? I LET ME BRING YOU IN FOR A HUG! COME ON, LET'S BE FRIENDS!"

Segments of Dragonmite's body came up and like a great snake tried to coil around the boat. Kris expertly threaded the needle, giving Susie and Noelle plenty of chances to chip away more scales off the great serpent. Soon, plenty of scales floated on top of the roiling, crimson waves.

"HA! THOSE SCALES ARE PART OF ME! THE MORE YOU SHAVE AWAY, THE MORE PROJECTLES I HAVE TO THROW AT YOU!"

Dragonmite took control of the discarded scales and launched them at the ship like missiles. There was no dodging them this time and the boat took a serious pummeling. Everyone on board got hit from the scales and the shrapnel. Kris doled out as many healing items as they could. Ralsei continued to patch up. Susie supercharged her axe and hurled a mighty Rude Buster right into Dragonmite's chest. The scales erupted off the monster.

"ALRIGHT, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! IT'S TIME TO PLAY ROUGH!"

The sea serpent blew globs of liquid flame into the air. They rained down like bombs on the party. And when these flames took to the ship, they would not go out when the water hit.

"It's using a type of Greek fire!" Noelle gasped. "It won't stop burning until there's nothing of us left!"

"Then we take out this dragon! Stop messing around with its scales!" Susie growled. "Come on, Kris! Let's work together to end this!"

But Kris saw an opportunity. Susie's enhanced attack had removed enough scales that the softer, flaming underbelly had been exposed. If the ship was going to go down, then Kris might as well use it to the fullest. They hit the gas and crashed the boat right into Dragonmite's chest.

The sea monster howled in shock and pain. In an eruption of molten scales, something burst out of Dragonmite. The large body deflated and collapsed, creating a real mess all across the waves. The team looked up and watched a great, fiery serpent flying overhead.

"Uh… Were we aiming to do that?" Susie asked.

WHOOOOOOSH!

A mighty torrent of flames washed over the boat and the Fung Gang. It was another critical blast, taking out both Ralsei and Kris this time. Noelle was nearly spent. Susie was forced to use up a lot of the candy pieces to revive her friends and heal everyone up.

Dragonmite dove back into the water. A loud sizzling sound filled the air and steam washed over the battlefield. The entire scene was obscured. Once more, the tail lashed out and strafed the boat. Seaweed Head's ship was all beaten up, smoking, and still on fire in some places.

Kris ordered Noelle to freeze the water. Soon, they were surrounded by solid, red waves, frozen in place. They looked around for a place where the ice would break. Susie stood on guard. The tail burst through the ship, flailing about. Susie swung with all her might, shredding through hot, bright pink scales.

The ice cracked and thundered as it broke nearby. Kris turned pointed, Noelle cast another ice spell, freezing Dragonmite in place. Kris and Ralsie leaped overboard and skidded across the ice to deal more blows to the sea beast.

"What are we doing, Kris?" Ralsei asked anxiously.

"Taking off the scales! It's the only way!"

Up close, even in the obscuring steam, Kris could now make out the monster's new form. It was much smaller than before, but now Dragonmite was covered not in burning, pink scales, but row upon row of bristling, serrated quills. Razor-sharp fins were shaped like clawed hands, scrapping to break the ice. Fire gleamed white hot under the scales as Dragonmite prepared for another blast.

Kris ordered Ralsei to whip his beach towel around one of the quills behind Dragonmite's head and yank back. Ralsei did just that and threw his back into it. He manages to pull the sea dragon's head back just enough so that when the blast came, the pillar of fire passed narrowly over Susie and Noelle's heads.

The ice was rapidly melting, so the two had to retreat, but they had managed to hack away some scales. Susie and Noelle hauled them back on board just as Noelle's spell was shattered. Dragonmite was once again using its scales and now animated the husk that had once been its body. It caught the ship and began constricting it, squeezing and crushing the boat like an empty can.

Ralsei got right back to work but called out, "We're going to run out of seaweed soon!"

"I told you not to jinx us," Susie snorted at Noelle.

"S-Sorry!"

"Nah, it's alright. This guy said he was the greatest warrior in the seas. We'll just have to fight harder!"

"CORRECTION! SHE IS THE GREATEST WARRIOR ON ALL THE SEAS!" Dragonmite roared.

"Oh… Ooops? I guess I've learned to not judge based on voice?" Susie said, shrugging.

"WELL, SO LONG AS YOU'VE LEARNED YOUR LESSON-"

"Psyche! Take this!"

Susie hurled her axe right into Dragonmite's face. As the axe stuck, the sea serpent lost control over her scales. The ship was free. Kris once more brought the ship in close, bringing the fight right to the boss. Noelle threw more spells at Dragonmite, freezing her in place.

Kris smashed the boat once more into the sea serpent. Dragonmite's face exploded as something else now erupted from the second body. Flames poured down on the team, doing insane amounts of damage. They resorted to more healing items, nearly running out. Ralsie slapped on the last of the seaweed.

Another sea serpent flew in the sky, great feathering wings sprouting from its smaller body. This new Dragonmite was far more graceful and sparkling. Jeweled eyes gleamed dangerously from above. It was going to dive in and burn them all up. The ship was so badly damaged that there was no good way for Kris to evade the next attack.

That was when they saw a brand-new possibility to ACT.

Kris ordered Noelle to create a mirror of ice. Her hands shaky, she managed to conjure a disc of ice just in the nick of time. She and Kris held it up to the incoming dragon. Dragonmite stopped in midair, staring wide-eyed at her reflection in the mirror.

Her jaw dropped. "Oh my! I look amazing!" she gushed, her voice far softer and more feminine now. "You helped bring out the real beauty in me!"

"Wait, that's what this was all about?" Susie sputtered. "We were chipping away at those scales and risking our lives to help bring out this monster's inner beauty?"

Kris nodded in the affirmative, grinning. In truth, they were glad to have followed their observations and intuition. Fighting Dragonmite face-to-face would have been suicide!

Dragonmite hummed happily to herself. "Monstroid can't turn me down for my looks anymore!"

Susie gaped at her. "Come on, dude! You're a powerful sea serpent! You almost beat us because you're so damn powerful! What the hell does this Monstroid have that makes him, she, them, whatever, so special? They should be crawling to you, begging to date you!"

Dragonmite blinked back at her in surprise. "Do you mean it?"

"Yeah! You bet your ass," Susie growled. She pulled Kris in close. They were stunned but appreciated being smooshed up against their girlfriend's boob. "This dork sees the best in me for a long time now, more than I deserve. They saw the monster within and not the beast that everyone thought I was. They fell in love with that side of me!

"If this Monstroid didn't want to see the real you beneath all the scales and anger, then you don't need them now! Go there, beat the ever-living crap out of them and move on!"

Dragonmite grinned. "I like that idea. Yeah, Monstroid's going to wish he had seen this before he dismissed me! Thanks for the advice, small dragon. Glad you found someone who loves you."

"Same here," Susie beamed.

"Wow, that took a big turn real fast," Ralsei muttered into his towel. "He looked up and smiled as well saying, "You are amazing Dragonmite! We wish you the best of luck! But could you please give us a ride over to the prison before you go?"

"Wait, why?" Susie asked. "They're going to lock us up!"

"Precisely!" The rest of the team looked back at him, slack jawed. Ralsei laughed and said, "Don't worry, I have a plan!"