Chapter 28 Stomping Koopas

The trip toward the Castle went smoothly. The party only stopped once, and that was when they flew over Aria's house. She had gone in to get the supplies for the ritual, and then the lot of them all resumed flying. As they glided over the region the Koopalings called home, Ludwig sat down on the manta just behind the lead. He looked down at the ground, all while wearing a frown. This experience felt nothing like when he usually flew. The jumbo rays floated through the air so gracefully, so easily. They weren't nearly as fast or impatient as Ludwig usually got when he was using his powers. As a result, he wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. He didn't know if he appreciated this experience or if he wanted the mantas to fly a little differently. All he knew was that he was very eager to get his koopa form back, and his flying powers by proxy.

He studied the party that accompanied him. Mario and Peach stood on the back of the lead manta ray, directing the mantas and showing them where they were supposed to go. All of Ludwig's siblings, as well as Toadette and Luigi with his trusty Poltergust G-00, were behind him. Luigi seemed to be hopping from manta to manta, just so he could talk to the Koopalings and/or calm them down. Ludwig really appreciated this; it seemed like Luigi was a sweetheart no matter what life-threatening situation he was in. Mario really won the sibling lottery.

Ludwig readjusted his position on the manta, accidentally touching Aria's knee. He pulled away, his face warming up. Aria, in response to this, patted him on the shoulder. He smiled, leaning in closer to her as she began stroking his hair. It felt so delightful in so many ways. It reminded him of the times Aria had done it before, how she would play with his hair and run her perfect fingers through it. She would wear a smile whenever she did this as if playing with Ludwig's hair was her primary source of joy in life. Ludwig did not doubt in his mind that Aria was smiling right now.

It was just too bad that he couldn't see it. When he had that thought, Ludwig's spirits sunk lower than they had been throughout this whole experience. He looked in the spot where Aria's face was supposed to be, frowning as he did. To think that she was right there, right in front of him. They were so close to each other, but because he couldn't see her face, it felt as though they were miles away. It was cruel what the Shadow Seeker had done to her, diabolical even. It made the spell that the Koopalings were under look more… frightening. Sure, being turned into humans wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to any of them, but after seeing what could've happened?

Are you okay? Aria wrote down.

Ludwig hesitated. "I'm… I could be better." He tightened his hand into a fist. "I'm looking forward to kicking that Shadow Seeker's ass."

You and me both. Aria stayed still for a minute before writing something else. We just need to be careful. More than likely, the Shadow Seeker knows we're coming.

A pit formed in Ludwig's stomach. "Damn, I think you're right." He stood up on the manta. "Guys, we need to get ready to fight now! The Shadow Seeker probably knows what we're planning to do! So… activate your power-ups; this could potentially get messy."

The others nodded and activated their power-ups without protesting. Ludwig let out a breath and got his fire flower out. Bracing himself for the horrific flavor, he swallowed it. He noticed Aria writing something down as the power-up activation noise rang out.

You know, you look pretty good in red.

Ludwig snorted. "Thanks." He sat back down. Instead of looking at the ground down below him, he focused on his hand. He thought of boiling water, of smoky campfires, of the surface of the sun. A fireball blazed to life in his hand, causing him to grin. "Oh yeah. That looks pretty…"

"Guys, look!"

Ludwig blinked and looked ahead. For a second, he felt unbelievably relieved, as Bowser's Castle was just up ahead. However, his relief was short-lived when he looked just a little bit lower. An army of koopas, koopa troopas, and goombas stood on the ground, with every single one of them looking up at the party. Ludwig couldn't tell because he was so high up, but it almost looked like their eyes were glowing red. And if they were... well, Ludwig's stomach churned just thinking about

"Holy moly!" Larry exclaimed, his jaw dropping. "Didn't expect such a big welcome party!"

Mario kept his eyes focused on the army. "They must be under the Shadow Seeker's control…" he turned back around. "If we want to get into the Castle, we'll need to get through them."

"Get through them… there are hundreds of them!" Wendy exclaimed; her eyes wide. "How in the world are we going to do that?"

"Don't worry, Wendy," Toadette said from right beside the Koopaling. She patted her on the arm. "Mario is an expert when it comes to taking down Koopas."

"Eh, true." Wendy looked up ahead at Mario. "But is he strong enough to take on an entire army?"

Mario turned toward her with a cheeky grin. "Well… there's one way to find out." With that, he jumped off the manta, whooping as he plummeted toward the ground.

Ludwig cringed. "I… I guess we follow him." Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and jumped off his manta. The fall seemed to last an eternity for him, and his heartbeat continually increased the closer he got to the ground. He partially expected himself to go splat, so he was pleasantly surprised when he landed without breaking any bones.

"Huh." He examined himself, smiling as he did. "I had no idea human bodies were this durable."

BOOM!

Ludwig shrieked. He saw that a koopa soldier holding a bill blaster had picked it up and blasted a honing bill toward the mantas. His heart rate picked up when they bill hit, causing an explosion to occur. He started to sweat, fully expecting everyone to fall and splatter to the ground in many tiny pieces.

"LUDWIG, WE NEED TO ATTACK!"

Ludwig gasped, noticing for the first time some troopas and goombas charging him. As much as he didn't want to, he knew he had to put the safety of his siblings to the side for a minute. He took a deep breath, focusing on the sun's surface and its millions of degrees. He faced forward, trying to tell himself that the chances of this working were pretty high.

"YAAAHH!" He started spamming fireballs. The goomba who hit got pushed back, all while their face looked black as charcoal. The koopa troopa retreated into his shell when he got hit, causing Ludwig to smile. Noticing that more soldiers were heading his way, he jumped on the koopa shell, sending it shooting toward the army. Many soldiers yelped, their glowing-red eyes growing wide the second the shell hit them. Laughing, Ludwig notice a hoard of goombas rushing him. He jumped on each one of them, smushing their heads in.

"Wow," he said between breaths once he finally got a break. "This… this is really satisfying." He looked over at Mario, doing triple jumps and flips as he aimed fireballs of his own at the army. "I can see why he jumps on our heads all the time."

"Nice going, Ludwig!"

Ludwig perked up, a shot of happiness rushing through him. He turned, seeing the rest of his party taking on various parts of the army. It was Lemmy who had complimented him, which made Ludwig smile and giggle. At the very least, he was glad that his siblings had made it out of the explosion okay.

"Thanks!" He gasped when he saw a koopa troopa rushing at Lemmy. "Lemmy, troopa at ten o'clock!"

Lemmy turned, blinking when he saw the mindless drone rushing at him. His face fell. "Wait a second… that's Shelldon!" He looked toward Ludwig, the cat ears on his catsuit drooping. "I can't hurt Shelldon; he's a good…" Before he finished his sentence, Shelldon kicked him. He shrieked as he went flying in the air, landing face-first in the dirt.

"Lemmy!" Ludwig turned toward Shelldon. For a second, he found himself in a very similar position to his younger brother. He… he really couldn't hurt Shelldon. He was one of the best servants in the castle, and he always did his job with a smile on his face. Could Ludwig hurt someone like that? Could he kill someone like that?

Well, when he got another look at Lemmy, laying on the ground and groaning, he swallowed a lump. "Sorry, Shelldon." He rushed at him, shooting another fireball at the troopa. He retracted into his shell, which Ludwig threw at some dragon koopas who were charging him.

Once that was taken care of, he rushed over to Lemmy. "Lemmy, are you okay?" He turned him over, his eyes growing wide when he saw his dirty, bruised face. "Lemmy?"

Lemmy coughed. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled at Ludwig. "I… I'm fine." He giggled. "I'm purrrfect."

Ludwig chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Well, that's good." He chuckled too. "And that's something I can say fur sure."

Lemmy laughed again as he pulled himself to a sitting position. "Man, we are the kings of comedy, you and I."

"WOOHOO!" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ludwig shrieked. He looked up above to see Roy, flying in the tanooki suit. In his hand was the bill blaster that had blasted the manta earlier, and he shot so many bills at the army that it was really impressive (as well as really concerning). "GET A TASTE OF THE BULLET BARRAGE, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Ludwig chuckled. He helped Lemmy to his feet, and they went over to the rest of the group. Because the soldiers were more concerned with avoiding Roy's attacks than giving attacks of their own, the party got to watch the chaos unfold without any problem.

"I must say, it is impressive how Roy can still wield a bill blaster in human form," Iggy said.

Larry snickered. "Not really; he's more brawn than brain no matter what body he's in."

"Eh, true."

Within no time at all, Roy had completely demolished the army. As they lay on the ground, either dead or severely injured while smoke rose up around them, Roy grinned a shit-eating grin and flew back down to the party. He puffed out his chest, looking like he was just minutes away from patting himself on the back. "Now that's how you take down an army!"

"Yep, you did good, Roy," said Mario. He cleared his throat and looked at the group. "Is everyone here? Where's Aria?"

Panic filled Ludwig when that question was asked. "Oh, shit!" He looked around, his heart racing. "Aria? Are you… where are…" he felt a tap on the shoulder, breathing a sigh of relief to see the floating notebook and pencil. "Oh, thank Grambi!"

I wouldn't thank anybody quite yet, Aria wrote. The Shadow Seeker is in the castle, after all.

"Right." Ludwig stepped forward, his eyes focused on the castle door. "Come on, everyone! Let's go take care of the Shadow Seeker!" He cringed. "And hopefully not get ourselves killed along the way," he muttered under his breath.

With that, everyone rushed into the castle. The Koopalings led the way, making their way through the tight, winding corridors. In Ludwig's mind, there was no doubt where that annoying stain of a demon was. They were in the throne room, probably carefully calculating their next move. The closer Ludwig got to the throne room, the more nervous and ill he became. He almost didn't even want to see what was in there, as he knew it wouldn't be good.

And, unfortunately, his suspicions were confirmed when everyone got to the throne room. At first, what met Ludwig's eyes was so shocking that he had to do a double-take. It took a second for it to even sink in, but when it did, he felt like he was going to both panic and throw up.

"Well well well. I've been expecting you."

The Shadow Seeker stood in front of the throne, in possession of Bowser's gray-toned body.