Chapter24: The second Appearance of the royal one.
"Xandread think about th-" Octomush can't even finish his statement as Xandread slams the Morlock into the forest floor, the crash causing trees nearby to be uprooted.
Before he can even get up, Octomush is forced deeper into the ground by a sudden elbow drop from Xandread.
"Hehehaha" the Nighlok laughs as he grinds his elbow into the back of Octomush's head. His joy is short, as Xandread suddenly finds himself eating the bottom of a giant robotic foot.
A newly formed burning bull megazord kicks Xandread away, firing off its canons as it does.
The ground is stuck in constant state of vibration while Xandread gets up, but he doesn't even get to knees when the royal blue golem gets him in a choke hold.
The Phoenix and Pegasus zords fire blasts of fire and wind respectively, hitting the air deprived Nighlok in his stomach.
While this is happening, Octomush manages to get up, his attempt to fly off and figure out another plan, but the royal yellow dragon zords coils around him, squeezing tight enough to where he could hear a crack.
"Hgh, get off me…foul beast"
" WHAT!? I CAN'T HEAR MY BEAUTIFUL VOICE CAUSE OF YOU!!"
While Octomush struggles against the yellow serpent, Zolda takes this time to summon every weapon he has. The royal red centaur now armed to the teeth charges at his foe.
Octomush manages to fling the yellow dragon zord off him, spinning around to kick the centaur, but he is met with a blade to the foot.
The Morlock winces as he hops back on one foot and sends reckless blasts of magic at Zolda.
Like before, Zolda has the centaur zords hold the hilt of the energy blade out, absorbing the various blasts. But unlike before, the cable on the bottom connects to the top of the zords back, powering up its shoulder rokkets.
What comes out the shoulder cannons aren't the usual balls of energy, but instead it's a stream of purple energy that pierces the Morlock's right arm and right side of his chest.
The burning bull megazord gives Octomush no time to recover as it slams both its fist on the back of his head. Before he can even hit the ground, the yellow dragon returns and positions itself right under the Morlock's face.
Then it roars
The force of the roar is quite literally keeping Octomush hovering up by his head. When it finally stops, the dragon bites down on his face and flies up, dragging the Morlock to Xandreads location.
…
Speaking of which, the Nighlok leader was having a comparably better time dealing with the three royal Zords.
He can move well enough with the blue golem on his back, and the blasts coming from the Phoenix and Pegasus zords aren't much of an issue for him either.
The Nighlok takes all the attacks, all the while slamming the golem into anything it can.
Realizing this strategy is getting them nowhere, Thruster has the golem let Xandread go, opting to let his summons wear the Nighlok down.
With five presses of the turbo book, the smaller versions of the turbo zords come out. The green and yellow ones tackle Xandread at his knees, blue and pink hold his elbows, and the red one around his neck.
With his movements restricted, Kyle presses the MF book.
"WHICH ELEMENT!?"
"Fire"
White that command, a ball of flame forms and hovers over the Phoenix zord. It shoots forward like it was shot from an invisible cannon, hitting the Nighlok dead on.
Xandread screams, and Thruster keeps the pressure up, pressing the samurai book.
"WHICH ELEMENT!?"
"Fire"
The command causes flame to engulf the golems hand, And it swings at Xandreads back, sending him flying into the direction of the pegasus zord.
The force of the hit causes Xandread to be forced into the ball of mystic fire, and before it can hit the green pegasus, the Phoenix zord knocks the attack it created.
It doesn't stop there, as the blue golem hits the ball back in the direction of the Phoenix.
And the Phoenix knocks it back to the golem.
And the golem knocks it back to the Phoenix.
This continues until the yellow dragon zord drops Octomush onto the ball of fire, this makes the blue and pink royal rangers press their center books again.
"WHICH ELEMENT!?"
"Wind", both rangers call out, causing a tornado to form around the ball of fire trapping the two monsters.
The wind picks up, and soon the wind vortex turns into a fire cyclone.
Even all the way at root core, the attack can be seen. People panicked at the sudden pillar of fire appearing in the forest.
When the attack finally burns out, Xandread and Octomush lay on top of each other, their bodies black, and their skin seared together.
From far away, someone wouldn't even be able to tell what was in front of them, just a mass of black char.
All the rangers take a moment to collect themselves, they just needed a few seconds to breath before they continued.
That was a mistake.
In the few seconds they stayed still, the charred Bodies of the Octomush and Xandread tore themselves off from each other. The spectacle looked like sticky coal splitting in two.
What happened next was an impromptu combo attack that none of the rangers were prepared for.
Xandread grabs the tail of the yellow dragon zord, swinging it with such force that it hits the golem zord and coils around it like a whip.
He then pulls the two zords close, throwing them into the direction of the burning bull megazord.
At the same time, Octomush dragged the pegasus and Phoenix zords out of the sky. Slamming them into the ground and throwing them at the same target as Xandread.
Both the centaur and burning bull catch the zords, their second mistake. The moment they are preoccupied, Octomush casts a bind spell on the zords, stopping them from moving. Two devastating attacks are changed up by the Nighlok and Morlock.
The former raises his blade up, purple energy filling his sword.
The latter moves at the same time, his tentacle-like wings digging themselves into the ground so he can brace himself for what he's about to unleash.
From the tips of his fingers, from his palms, from his eyes, from his mouth. Purple energy pools out and condenses itself into a forest sized ball above him. The Gargantuan sphere is then slowly absorbed by Xandreads blade.
The Nighloks sword extends, reaching the sky and causing the space around it to shift. It looks almost as if space itself was being pulled into the blade.
The blade comes down slowly, it hasn't even made contact and the rangers can feel the power radiating off it. None of them can move and inch, Nick tries to dispell the bind, but to no avail.
Zolda struggles with all his might, he thinks about his theal the lives that will be lost with this attack, but it gives him no greater power.
That's when he begins to think about his life, it's unfairness, the pain he's endured.
That's when the purple haze takes hold.
The first two zords to break free from the attack are the centaur…and the Phoenix.
The cable from Zolda's energy blade disconnects from the zords back and connects to the Phoenix.
The pink zord falls as its power is quickly drained, and the cable just as quickly reconnects to the zords shield.
The shield grows in size, blocking the attack and causing the space around them to crack.
Fractures literally appear in the air as the world ending attack is delayed, but not stopped entirely.
The powered up shield is failing, and to make matters worse, Octomush is preparing to attack the occupied centaur.
He doesn't get the chance as the burning bull megazord is finally free, protecting Zolda.
As the shield cracks, Zolda thinks of a last ditch effort to save everyone. He disconnects the energy blade's cord from his shield and has it hook up to the phoenix zord. He then grabs the upper part of the cable and twirls his sword hilt like a lasso, praying that way he does works.
Letting the hilt fly, the top of it hits Xandreads blade dead on, and it is quickly drained of its power.
The cracks in space disappear as the blade loses its glow, and the Phoenix zord gets up with a fury.
No one really sees it move, one moment it was on the ground, the next was behind a cut in half Xandread. The zord literally flew through him.
As the burning bull megazord tosses Octomush away, the battle seems over. That's when Octomush and Xandread have a conversation.
"Octomush, let's merge again"
"What?"
"You heard me, merge with me so we can destroy the rangers"
"No really, what? I can't hear what you're saying, the yellow one deafened me. I'm gonna merge us now, since your half dead and probably can't stop me"
Xandread sighs as he lets it happen, and once again the two merge. None of the rangers can stop the second union of Nighlok and Morlock, they simply prepare to face the flesh covered ranger again.
But that's not what stands before them.
The monstrosity before the zords looks to be rushed, sewn together Octomush and Xandread. They were literally stitching together, right down the middle.
Seeing the gross combination of the two evils almost made Kyle puke, and it make Zolda groan in agony.
"Absolutely not, we're ending this." He says as the purple haze disappears.
"It's your time to shine, Royal One."
All the remaining Royal zords are freed from the bind spell. Flying in the direction of the centaur.
As the royal one megazord finishes forming, the energy that was flowing through the Phoenix zord redirects itself evenly through the others.
MORPHING MASTER MEGAZORD: THE ROYAL ONE!!
The new zord waste no time, grabbing the fused abomination by the head and throws it up into the stratosphere.
Both megazords charge up a final strike, the royal one's blade takes its more spear-like appearance. While the burning bull megazord summons a giant fire smasher and bullzooka.
"End the story!" A voice calls out, and the two megazords unleash all they have.
The spear is sent flying fist, followed by the burst of plasma from the Burning bull megazord. It engulfs the spear and sends it flying faster directly at the monster.
The spear doesn't even fully impale the monster, as soon as the tip touches its abdomen, it explodes in a spectacular fashion.
Zolda and Kyle instinctively hold their hands out, pulling them back to reveal the Xandread and Octomush books in their hand respectively.
"It's over" zold sighs as all the royal rangers slump in their seats.
Jaden takes a deep breath, Nick taking a knee inside the cockpit since he can finally relax.
"Rangers, victory is ours"