When reaching out the giant skeletal structure of Ursula's grotto, Pyrrha turned to her side and pointed. "There! I see her! And she has the trident!"
The dozens of people used every bit of strength to chase her down. Ursula glanced behind herself, becoming furious before turning and stopping as she gripped the trident. "You pathetic fools! I rule the seas now!" In a curled up spin with her tentacles in, Ursula floated at a higher level then them before the tridents glowed. To everybody's surprise and awe, Ursula was growing. Jets of smoky-looking ink emerged below them and formed underneath Ursula, who along with her titanic size, now was adorned with a crown similar to Triton's. "The sea and all it's spoils bow to my power!"
Her voice echoed so loudly throughout the vast space of water. The water swirled upward as far as the eye could see. If this wasn't proof enough how deadly a weapon like the trident could be in the wrong hands, nothing would be. Everyone swam higher so as not to be consumed by the darkness beneath them but when they all became head level with Ursula and her wickedly smiling face, they all knew this was going to be even more difficult than their last fight with the sea witch. "If she tries to eat me? I honestly swear I will never have any fish for a meal, ever again." Blake said, somewhat meaning what she said before she and the others prepared to fight.
Blake's dry comment aside, Sora felt a pit rise in his stomach at the sight of the massive sized Ursula. Though they had faced such powerful foes before, he had a feeling this was going to be their most dangerous foe yet. Jafar with the power of a genie was bad enough, but at least he trapped himself in his own lamp. They would have to fight Ursula to the finish, with the power of the trident on her side. Still he refused to back down. With Donald, Goofy, Ruby, Ariel, and everyone else beside him, they weren't going to let Ursula do as she pleased.
"Hey you! Not so fast!" Ursula of course seemed determined to destroy them. And so, she chose that opportunity to deal the first blow. But not in a way they expected. For the instant she spoke, electrical bolts began to converge above Sora's head. "Look out!" Ariel cried out, dashing to push Sora out of the way of the bolt that surprised everyone else. But whatever sorts of tricks they had up their sleeves, Ursula wasn't about to let them use them. "Get ready for this!" she yelled out, rearing her head back and inhaling sharply. She then lurched her head forward, unleashing a stream of bubbles in the direction of her small foes, forcing them to duck and dodge.
But that wasn't the only trick that Ursula had up her sleeve for them. For an instant later, she opened her mouth with a sharp, throaty inhale, and suddenly began to suck the group towards her open mouth! "Oh no. No! Nononononononono! You have got to be kidding me!" Blake exclaimed in disbelief. She couldn't believe she just jinxed herself. Ursula actually WAS trying to eat them! Or at least bite them! Regardless, she did NOT approve in the slightest. Especially as she saw Goofy Ursula's mouth which snapped down him. "Goofy!" Blake cried out with worry. Fortunately, Goofy withdrew into his shell just in time, prompting Ursula to spit him out with a VERY disturbing comment of, "Euugh. Not very tasty."
Yang charged at the side of Ursula's face. "If you're hungry then have a taste of this!" Both her fists were forward and knocked into Ursula's cheek, making her stagger for a moment.
After rubbing the spot she was hit, the giant lady glaed at Yang. "You dare to strike me?!" She winced when feeling something all over. The others swam at different angles, trying to attack up close from several directions at once. "Insolent little fools!" With tendrils raised, she sent Weiss, Ren and Pyrrha flying back before using them to grab Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ariel and Jaune. The moment they were caught in her grasp, she smiled a most unsettling, toothy smile. "How about a tender squeeze?"
Everybody caught within the grasp of her tentacles cried out in pain as they were squeezed far too tight for their bodies to stand. "Aagh! Donald! Do something!" Jaune said, struggling to bear with the pain. Looking to Jaune with one eye barely open from the pain, Donald yelled back, "What!? ACK! What do you mean 'do something?!'" Their struggles to escape weren't going well as Ursula just kept squeezing tighter. "Rrgh! Well, you're the one who's an octopus just like her! Can't you do something to wriggle free or free us or something!?" Jaune's words left Donald so stunned by the lack of logic, his sheer disbelief nearly made him forget about the pain. How did Jaune think that made ANY sense at all?
The rest of the party were struggling to try freeing the rest of them, but between Ursula's other tentacles, the bubbles she insisted on blowing at them, and the periodic bolts of lightning trying to strike them, the remaining hunters weren't having much luck. "We've got to do something!" Pyrrha exclaimed, unable to get a clear shot or slash along with Weiss and Blake. "This sea witch is getting on my last nerve!" Weiss griped, narrowly avoiding Ursula trying to impale her with the trident.
In the midst of their constant evasion, Ruby noticed something. She was moving so sluggishly, so she clearly wasn't able to pursue them easily. Which was why she did that sharp inhaling. If she could use it against her..."I have an idea!" Ruby announced to her friends. "I'll distract her. Once she slips up, you all strike her in the face until she loosens her grip." Ren and the rest of the girls nodded to Ruby, swimming out of reach of Ursula's tentacles so she could enact the plan. "Go get 'er, Ruby!" Yang cheered encouragingly.
Speeding in front of her, Ruby switched her Crescent Rose into scythe form. Ursula grunted when feeling her cheek cut and saw Ruby swimming away. The red scaled huntress was able to dash through the flurry of tentacles, but Ursula suspected that was her plan to begin with as she gave another throaty inhale. Ruby tumbled as she was caught in the current, getting closer to Ursula's maw. Just as it looked like she'd be chomped by the sea witch, Ruby zipped away with the aid of her semblance, leaving only a flurry of rose petals in Ursula's mouth. Spitting them out and looking where Ruby was, Ursula let out an unamused huff. "Hmph. Slippery little morsel."
Seeing that her plan worked, Ruby yelled out "Now!" prompting everyone to charge the oversized sea witch at once. The sudden flurry of attacks struck true, causing Ursula to wince and cringe and jerk from the sudden flurry she received. They'd grown wise to the pattern her electrical bolts were appearing in. More still, she couldn't focus on keeping her grip on her captives, giving them just the opening they needed to free themselves from Ursula's tentacles and join the onslaught on the sea witch's unpleasant face.
By now, Ursula had had enough of their defiance. She was the ruler of the seas! She was the wielder of the trident! "I'll teach you some respect! This won't be pretty!" she yelled furiously as she leaned away from them. With the trident raised, a ring of lightning bolts suddenly struck down all around her, blasting her attackers from above. Everyone cried out in agony as they were all struck at once, and left stunned from the sheer power of Ursula's desperate blast.
"Guys!" Nora cried out, seemingly unharmed. Seeing them all stunned and vulnerable, Ursula turned to look at the hammer wielder, glaring angrily. "Hmph. Looks like I missed one. Time to rectify that!" she yelled, giving a great big inhale. Sparks of what looked to be electricity arced along her teeth before she closed her mouth and reared her head back.
By the time everyone recovered, they realized Ursula still wasn't done. "Uh oh. That doesn't look good!" Goofy exclaimed. "Scatter!" Sora cried out, prompting everyone to swim in different directions. Nora however stood her ground, clutching her weapon firmly as Ursula smirked and lashed her head toward the still huntress, unleashing a massive beam of electricity right in her direction. "Nora!" Sora cried out as Ariel gasped at the seeming doom of their friend. Donald and Goofy covered their eyes at the sight, thinking the same as Sora and Ariel as the beam ended and Ursula remained panting with weariness at her absolutely draining attack.
As she recovered, she let out a wicked cackle, turning toward the rest of the group. "And now for you!" she taunted, raising the trident, only to be surprised at the unconcerned smirks on the faces of the huntsmen and huntresses. They knew full well what Nora's plan was. And Ursula was in for a rude awakening as she turned back to the clearing smoke. There stood Nora, a bit singed and slightly worse for wear, but nowhere near as destroyed as Ursula hoped she would be. "What!? How did you-" Before Ursula could finish her exclamation of disbelief, Nora let out a fierce yell and dashed toward Ursula, surging with the electric absorbing power of her semblance. With a swing of immense force powered by her electric charge, Nora's hammer knocked the trident out of Ursula's grasp!
"No!" Ursula said in desperation as she fell back from Nora's strike while the trident flew higher and out of her reach. "N-No, no, no!" The attack she'd been preparing for the rest of the group during her moment of presumed victory had finished charging, but as it drifted out of her reach...it was now pointing toward her! By the time she realized her folly, the three prongs released a large beam of lightning that everybody had to cover their eyes from the intensity of. They heard the surges of the lightning mixed with Ursula's scream of agony, before her voice slowly died down. As they looked back at the scene, the last thing they all saw was Ursula's massive arm weakly grasping at nothing as it sunk into a huge cloud of ink.
A pillar of light shined up from where the sea witch fell, and there, back to its original size, was the trident. Now free of Ursula's ownership. "Yes!" Sora shouted in victory. "We did it!" Ruby joined in. Ariel was far more reserved as she let out a sigh of relief
Out the corner of his eye, Ren noticed several lights shining from Ursula's grotto. "Guys, look." he called out softly. Everyone looked and Pyrrha realized what was happening. "Look! They WERE all merpeople!" she said in awe. The polyps had turned back into the merfolk they were before falling for Ursula's poisoned words and promises. Weiss hummed curiously at the pleasant development. "Interesting. Maybe when we defeated Ursula, her magic faded and everybody she tricked turned back to normal?" she theorized. "Well some magic does work like that, so maybe you're right." Donald all but confirmed with a stroke of his beaked chin.
"Who cares about the science, or magicology, or whatever you'd call it? We just kicked Ursula's big fat butt!" Yang cheered, trying to get things back on track. A display that made her sister sigh with a shake of her head, yet also made Blake smirk while doing the same. "I know right!? You guys see how I knocked the trident out of her hand?!" Nora said with proud enthusiasm, making various vocal sound effects as she exaggeratedly replayed her moment of triumph, until she was reigned in by Ren who simply smiled at her. "You did great, Nora." His proud smile and praise made Nora's cheeks turn almost as pink as her fish tail's scales. "Oh! E-Eheheh. Thanks Ren."
"Way to go, Nora!" "You were great!" Jaune and Pyrrha said, joining in on the Nora Valkyrie praise train. A train that Nora was happy to be conductor of as she let out a pleased little giggle. "Awww shucks, you guys." she said bashfully...not letting this go to her way in any way shape or form in the slightest. No siree.
As they basked in their victory, Ariel swam up to the trident and held it close. They actually managed to get it back. Even now with it in her hands, she could hardly believe it. And she owed it all to her new friends. They saved her, they saved her father, they saved all of Atlantica!
In the midst of the group's celebration, Sora noticed something else. Like the air...or waters, perhaps, had changed somehow. "Hey guys...The ocean seems calmer with Ursula gone, doesn't it?" the spiky haired keybearer observed swimming around with a rather liberated feel to his movements.
"Huh?" Donald looked around, not quite getting what Sora meant. Though Ariel certainly did, going by the smile on her face. Not only that, but they hadn't encountered a single Heartless on the way back to the palace. By that point, everyone most definitely noticed. "Ursula was a blight upon Atlantica. Even more so when she brought the Heartless here." Sebastian said with an edge of bitterness toward the defeated sea witch. "But thanks to all of you, the seas will finally be calm and peaceful, as they should be. King Triton is sure to reward you all for your heroism."
The mention of her father made Ariel's face drop. She nearly doomed her father, her friends, and her entire world by giving the trident to the very person who brought the Heartless to it in the first place. She may have been hurt by her father's outburst, but the guilt of her own deeds weighed more heavily. "Ariel?" Flounder spoke up softly, swimming right beside her with a sympathetic expression. Ariel looked back at him with a sad smile as they approached the palace. "Boy, I hope Triton is in a better mood..." Jaune said, really not looking forward to another angry lecture from Ariel's protective father.
