In this chapter, our heroes will go visit the Jellyfish Sisters.
And make their way to Murdaw.
I figured featuring him would be a good idea in this fanfic.
Should I include Mortamor too?
Given his strength I think he would be a post game boss. Or end game at least.
I feel like uploading a chapter every four days instead of three might be easier for me.
But then again, I like to see if I can improve my writing through this fanfic.
I'm trying to see if I can make the battle scenes a bit longer.
Anyways, I almost got 1337 words again.
Chapter 45: Jumping Jellyfish
In order to get to the next tower, our heroes would need to go through a cave.
Donkey Kong volunteered.
He got the feeling there were beast enemies inside.
And beast enemies were his speciality.
After all, he had fought against crocodiles before. And they were known for their jaw strength.
Waddlewing's Nest
"The Waddlewings are hibernating." noted Luigi.
Even though it wasn't winter.
One wondered if they had managed to find a lot of acorns. They wouldn't want to go hungry, now would they?
To be honest, there doesn't seem to be any flying squirrel enemies in Dragon Quest. How about vampire cats? They look a bit like Waddlewings.
"It seems as good of an enemy as any." spoke Jessica.
Vampire Cat's Nest
Sure enough, some Vampire Cats flew towards them.
They could heal themselves by biting in them.
And they were reasonably fast.
Since they could fly, it was best to use ranged attacks.
'You think if we expose them to sunlight, they'll be defeated?" asked Luigi. That usually seemed to work against vampires.
He knew that it was sunny outside, so maybe they could use that to their advantage.
"We're not that kind of vampires." answered the Vampire Cats. Some vampires were different. Like the Count from Sesame Street that didn't drink blood.
Luigi shrugged. It seemed worth a try.
Luckily, jumping on them worked.
Our heroes wondered if there were any other monsters living in the cave.
As a matter of fact, there were.
There were Enormoose in the cave.
And they were strong.
It was bad when the moose decided to charge at them.
After all, they had strong horns on their heads.
Luckily, they happened to fear fire.
"Run!" exclaimed one of the Enormoose.
There were Warhogs in the cave as well.
Were they related to the Half Hogs?
Perhaps they were.
There were also Axesauruses to deal with.
They resembled Hacksauruses, but were red.
They shared the ability of fire breath, but with greater potency.
Instead of Falcon Slash, they used Hatchet Man.
It was very bad when they landed Hatchet Man successfully.
Once again, there were two bosses in the level.
They were Slon the Rook and Kon the Knight.
Together, these two were formidable. They had been high-ranking members of Grandmaster Nimzo's army, after all.
It seemed they didn't want to fight the heroes alone after their individual defeats at the DQV's hero's hands.
Kon the Knight charged towards the heroes.
He was hoping to pierce them with his horn.
"I thought unicorns were peaceful." noted Luigi.
Then again, there were Bunicorns and Spiked Hares that always seemed to be looking for a fight.
Perhaps monsters should not be judged by appearances. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he had fought Pikachu, who was cute but strong.
Speaking of which, Kon summoned Spiked Hares to attack them.
The Spiked Hares charged towards them.
Luckily, fire would ward them off.
It seemed a lot of beast enemies were afraid of fire.
DK swing his fist at Slon, but he blocked his fist with his shield.
He then sank his fangs into DK.
"Ooh!" exclaimed DK.
Bianca zapped Slon with lightning.
His armor conducted the electricity.
"Aaarghhh!" exclaimed the hog in armor.
That had been a strong attack.
And his armor didn't protect him, either. Quite the opposite, in fact.
However, this made Kon angry.
He decided he would make Bianca pay for that.
He charged straight towards her.
Bianca narrowly avoided it.
Kon crashed into a wall instead.
He was left stunned.
It looked like our heroes had a good opportunity to attack him.
So Jessica hit him with Frizzle.
"Hot hot hot!" exclaimed Kon, who was now heating up. Where was an ice pack when he needed one?
If only his armor protected him from magic. His life would be easier that way.
Angelo slashed him with his sword.
"I find it ironic that I'm fighting a horse considering I'm traveling with one." noted Angelo. Such was fate.
She then followed by blowing a kiss.
It summoned a heart that exploded.
Slon swung his shield at DK.
It was covered in spikes, so it made for an efficient weapon. It wasn't strictly for defense.
But DK dodged it. He was fast for all that muscle.
He then fired coconuts at Slon.
He quickly used his shield to defend himself.
But DK fired an orange grenade.
The orange grenade knocked Slon off his feet, leaving him vulnerable.
Angelo slashed him with his sword.
Slon was down.
"I think I might want a new job." noted Slon.
But this made Kon furious.
He started to attack much faster.
As such, our heroes had to work harder to dodge their attacks.
"Take this!" exclaimed Kon, trampling Angelo with his hooves.
"Gah!" shouted Angelo.
It looked like he was going to need to heal himsef up.
So he cast a healing spell.
"I'm taking you down!" exclaimed Kon.
But DK knocked the evil horse down with a punch to the face.
"Oof!" shouted the knight.
DK then clapped his hands together to make a shockwave.
Kon was defeated.
Slon and Kon were dismayed at the result of the battle.
They had failed as guardians.
Though to be fair, so had a lot of them.
Why did the guardians continue to fall?
"Even when working together, we still couldn't win!" exclaimed Slon.
"I hope Bishop Ladja can handle things." noted Kon. He wasn't sure where he was, but perhaps he was in World 7 somewhere.
Or perhaps the king. Or the queen. They were both stronger than they were.
They had managed to defeat Pankraz in the past…but that was because Bishop Ladja decided not to play fair. They admitted using a child as a human shield was a bit far even for them.
Where was his sense of honor?
"Did he say Bishop Ladja?" asked Bianca.
He was one of the most evil monsters of them all.
She wasn't looking forward to facing him.
Though she wondered how the Dragonlord had managed to get him on his side.
After completing the level, our heroes kept on moving.
Our heroes realized they were right next to Murdaw's tower.
It was rather menacing in appearance, befitting someone who once served the Archfiend. And there was a lightning cloud above it. It was weird considering the weather was not stormy.
There were also bats swarming the tower as well.
"We sure made it here fast." noted Jessica.
It only took one level to make it there.
Mario nodded. It was surprising how closely the two towers were placed together.
Perhaps Morag and Murdaw wished to keep tabs on each other.
"I guess there's nothing stopping us from entering-a the tower now." noted Luigi.
However, while the tower within their reach, it might be best to purchase new equipment before they headed in the tower.
Given that this was World 6, there were likely strong enemies lurking inside.
And Murdaw was a reasonably strong opponent.
He had been a Dread Fiend back in the day, after all. Along with Jamirus, Gracos, and Dhuran. Even if he was the weakest among them.
He would be waiting to challenge them.
"I'm looking forward to fighting you." noted Murdaw.
Perhaps if he won against the heroes, he could become a general himself.
There were open positions available now that five of the generals had been defeated.
One of Gracos' children had become a general as well.
Personally he thought he had what it took.
Meanwhile, at the Gwarhar Lagoon…
There were more Gritty Goombas at the lagoon.
They shared the ability to summon sand.
However, they attacked faster.
Oddly enough, these Goombas did not seem interested in kidnapping princesses.
Perhaps princesses did not usually visit the lagoon.
In addition, there were also Boomerang Bros.
They were quick with their boomerangs.
Our heroes had to be quick on their feet as a result.
These particular Boomerang Bros happened to wear shades.
It seemed they were dressed for the beach.
And there were also ? enemies.
They didn't know for sure what they were.
But they happened to be fish and shark enemies.
Both of which had shark fins.
The fish were harmless unless the heroes jumped, in which case they would bump into them.
The shark enemies were a different story.
As to why there were fish in the sand, our heroes had no idea. Didn't fish need water to breathe?
Well, Cheep Cheeps were different. But these fish weren't Cheep Cheeps.
It was hard to tell which one they would encounter, seeing as they were always buried in the sand.
Though the shark enemies did seem to move faster.
There were also Huckit Crabs, that tossed rocks at a fast pace.
They could also burrow themselves in the sand for the purpose of ambushes.
So they had to pay attention to their surroundings to avoid it.
Last but not least were Jellybeams.
They attacked with electricity.
They seemed to have replaced the Jelectros from Super Mario Bros 3.
But unlike the Jelectros, these jellyfish were mobile.
It seemed appropriate that they were encountering them on the way to the resort, seeing as it was run by jellyfish people.
It was a bad idea to jump on them, because they coated themselves with electricity.
But if they attacked from a distance, they would be safe.
Our heroes reached the Jellyfish Resort.
"We made it!" exclaimed Captain Toad.
It looked like their efforts had paid off.
It was time to pay the sisters a visit.
After all, they had fought through some Bowser Baddies to get there. It would be a waste not to do so.
Incidentally, they also had a weapons and armor shop.
They were being run by two Kurako.
They seemed to be all over the place.
But that wasn't a bad thing considering all the fighting that they did. And their enemies did keep on getting stronger and stronger.
Though one could hope they sold those weapons to people who were responsible. Selling weapons to the Koopa Klan didn't seem like a good idea. They already had enough weapons as it was.
Before visiting the sisters, they decided to spend their money.
Though perhaps they would need some coins to get the sisters to help them.
From what the receptionist had told them, they happened to like pearls.
Toad decided to buy a Toxic Toad Hat.
It resembled a poisonous mushroom.
It could poison enemies if they touched him.
Luckily, it did not work on allies.
He also decided to buy a beach vest.
It would be nice to have some protection.
When they were done shopping, they decided to talk to the Jellyfish Sisters.
They were similar to the Mario Bros in that they dressed in red and green. Though the two of them were sisters instead of brothers.
It was a mystery as to why Mario and Luigi had no less than three doppelgangers in the Beanbean Kingdom.
Though to be fair, the Beanbean Kingdom had many similarities to the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Are you here for massages?" asked the sister in red.
That was their speciality. And what they got paid for.
"We were hoping to get your help." said Ashlynn.
"With what?" asked the sister in green.
"We're trying to get into Lemmy's sand castle." explained Ruff. If they could defeat him, they could claim the Beanstar piece.
It was heavily guarded. Getting Beanstar pieces was a lot of work, it seemed.
Lemmy wasn't going to make the same mistakes his predecessors had, it seemed.
Though even if they did break down the gate, they would still have to deal with the Bowser Baddies that were inside. Who knew what they would encounter in there? Though they would likely be related to the beach.
The Jellyfish sisters nodded in understanding.
"You can help us?" asked Nera.
"We have a training ground." answered Merri.
"You can learn techniques that will help you break in." continued Gigi.
"How do we access it?" questioned Kiryl.
"Sit down in the chairs and we'll show you." explained Merri.
The heroes nodded and sat down in the chairs the sisters provided them.
They were pretty comfortable.
It was nice to get to relax after all the traveling.
Suddenly, the chairs descended into a cavern.
Our heroes found this shocking. What were the chances of the chairs taking them underground?
Though maybe this event was not quite as much shocking as the Jellybeams.
"That was scary!" exclaimed Ruff.
Personally he thought that the Jellyfish Sisters should have warned them.
"I guess that was our ticket in." noted Peasley.
Perhaps they could use the chairs to get back to the resort as well.
"So, what's the first training exercise?" asked Alena.
"We were hoping someone would help us collect the pearls in this cavern." spoke Gigi.
It would make them so happy if someone got the pearls for them.
"The pearls, you say?" asked Alena.
Merri nodded. Those pearls were exceedingly valuable. You didn't come across them every day, that was for sure.
However, they were currently in the possession of powerful Bowser Baddies. It seemed they were planning to sell them in the future.
Our heroes were definitely going to have to work in order to get their hands on them.
"I'm not sure how that counts as a training exercise." noted Ruff.
"We figured this would be a good way for you to train." explained Merri.
"Well, we do get a lot of experience fighting Bowser Baddies." noted Peasley.
They decided to check to see just what Bowser Baddies were guarding the pearls.
One of them was in the hands of King Bob-Omb.
The other was in the hands of a mechanical version of Bowser.
It seemed that the Koopa Troop had built it to take the heroes down.
But perhaps it didn't have the strength of the original.
Still, it would be best if they didn't take it lightly.
The Koopa Troop had likely designed it to take them down, after all.
Our heroes decided to take on King Bob-Omb first.
They had experience dealing with Bob-Ombs.
It seemed plausible that he was vulnerable to fire.
And besides, the Mecha Bowser was scary.
However, it seemed that the path forward was guarded by Bowser Baddies.
They were going to have to get through them if they wanted to face the king.
Some of them were Lethal Bob-Ombs.
They acted like regular Bob-Ombs, but they exploded much faster.
So they had to be more careful around them.
There will also Banzai Bill Blasters.
These were much more dangerous than regular Bullet Bill Blasters, due to the increased size.
Last but not least were Broozers.
"I didn't know that ghosts liked to box." noted Maya.
They had some impressive skills, so it was a good idea to fight them from a distance where their fists could not reach.
The king of the Bob-Ombs was sitting on a throne.
The throne in question was surrounded by boxes carrying sticks of TNT.
He immediately realized why the heroes had come.
"So, you've come to challenge me for the green pearl, have you?" asked the king.
"That's what we're here for, yes." answered Alena.
"Then I hope you're ready for a trial of strength." spoke the king of the Bob-Ombs.
"We're ready." answered Peasley.
After all, they weren't expecting the pearl without a fight.
Our heroes drew their weapons.
I hope you're enjoying this fanfic...as usual.
As you can see, I'm branching out when it comes to the guardians.
Any suggestions for them? The next tower boss will be Murdaw…of course…but I'm open to ideas for the next guardian after that.
I'm going to see if I can get seven followers for this fanfic.
You think that's achievable? I think so.
I'm also open to ideas as to what Bowser Minions they will face.
Of course, I'm pretty sure you know who's going to be the final boss of Alena's journey.
Though I'm open to ideas regarding that.
In the next chapter, our heroes will face King Bob-Omb..and Mecha Bowser
As a side note, I went to my grandma's funeral.
God bless her soul.