It's time for our heroes to fight Rashaverak, the fifth general.
If they can defeat her, they'll be headed to the Rock-Candy Mines.
There are strong monsters there.
It is World 6, after all.
Oh, and I was thinking of featuring another DQ 5 character.
I'm trying not to go too overboard with all the heroes.
That's why I split the heroes into two teams.
Chapter 40: Dragon Slayer
This time, the team would be Jessica, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Angelo.
Iggy's Volcanic Castle
"Didn't Iggy go to Woohoo Hooniversity?" questioned Mario. Perhaps he figured he might learn a thing or two about fighting plumbers.
Alternatively, perhaps he figured that he wanted to visit a place that was a little…colder.
It was a good thing Alena's team managed to protect the scholars from the crazy Koopaling and his minions.
Otherwise, where would the Beans go to school?
That he did.
Rashaverak's Volcanic Castle
"Wait, volcanic castle?" asked Jessica.
They were going to have to tread carefully.
Taking a lava bath was not something she wanted to experience. It's plausible that she would have to be revived at a church. At least the Toads had them.
Sure enough, there was lava all over the place. It made our heroes sweaty.
Why anybody would make a castle full of lava was anyone's guess. Though it wouldn't be the first time somebody built one.
DK remembered going to a volcano once.
It was his last stop in defeating the Tiki Tak Tribe. TTT for short. That had certainly been perilous. It was a good thing Diddy had gone with him.
Even in such a hot environment, they were still monsters wandering about.
Some Drakularges approached them.
It wasn't hard to tell that they were approaching, because they walked loudly due to their weight.
They were led by a Drakulard…which was a stronger version of the Drakularges. And green in color.
"These dragons sure are picking up weight." noted Angelo. It seems there was no shortage of food for the dragons.
Ironically enough, the Drakulard had debuted before the Drakularge.
Angelo cast Zap to zap the large dragons.
There was also Magmalice.
It was an appropriate enemy for a fire level.
Though they also would have worked well in World 8.
A Magmalice slapped Jessica in the face.
"Ow!" exclaimed Jessica, who put her hand on the cheek. Ironically, she herself had done that when men made her angry.
The thing about Magmalice was that they had big hands.
Well, each of them only had one.
But their hands were effective in combat.
They also had fire breath.
So they had to be careful not to get scorched.
Luckily, Angelo could heal them if necessary.
Some Dragurns were in the level as well.
Though they seemed to want to finish eating before they fought the heroes.
"Should we wait until after you've finished?" asked Jessica.
"We're pretty hungry today!" exclaimed a Dragurn.
There were some Tap Devils in the castle as well.
Their dance moves were improved compared to Dancing Devils.
So they were a tad more difficult to defeat.
There were Knight Errants as well.
They didn't seem to match the volcanic nature of the castle.
But on the other hand, it wasn't surprising to find them in a castle in itself.
They were similar in nature to Restless Armours and their brethren.
However, they fought with their fists instead.
And they packed a punch.
Angelo blocked a strike with his shield.
"I wonder why these knights fight with their bare hands." noted Angelo.
"People said that we looked a bit too much like Restless Armours." explained the Knight Errant.
Rashaverak was waiting for them in her throne room.
There was a lavafall behind it.
Jessica was reminded of Rhapthorne's throne room.
However, the Black Citadel had been lacking in lava by comparison overall.
"So you've come here to challenge me, haven't you?" asked the purple dragon.
The heroes nodded. They hadn't traversed through lava for no reason. That was dangerous.
"Then get ready to fight me…and make sure it's interesting!" exclaimed the female dragon.
"We'll do our best." answered Jessica.
Unsurprisingly, Rashaverak attacked by breathing fire.
However, her fire breath was more potent than that of normal dragons.
So our heroes had to be extra careful.
Luckily, Mario had plenty of experience fighting fire-breathing enemies.
So this wasn't anything new for him.
He had also fought dragons before this fanfic. Luckily, there was no audience for Rashaverak to devour. That would be very frightening.
Mario leapt on top of Rashaverak.
But she blew him away with her wings.
"Mamamia!" exclaimed Mario.
He was knocked off his feet.
Rashaverak then charged towards our heroes.
Jessica was knocked down.
"She's fast." noted Jessica.
Mario helped himself to his feet.
He then leapt on top of her again.
"Yah!" exclaimed Mario.
But this made Rashaverak angry.
"You're going to regret that!" exclaimed the purple dragon.
She sank her teeth into Mario.
They were very sharp.
"Mamamia!" exclaimed Mario. She certainly had strong teeth.
She then followed by swinging her tail at the heroes.
That too could be used as a weapon, it seemed.
"Oof!" shouted Mario.
Rashaverak's strength was impressive.
She wasn't the fifth general for nothing.
Angelo healed him.
"Take care of yourself." instructed the white-haired warrior.
Mario nodded. Angelo did not have unlimited MP.
The holy warrior then slashed Rashaverak with his sword.
It served him well in fighting dragons…which came in a variety of sizes.
"Aargghh!" exclaimed the purple dragon.
She prepared to use Kafrizz in retaliation.
A big fireball descended towards Angelo.
"That's not good." noted Angelo.
He was burned, causing him to scream.
"Take that, pretty boy!" exclaimed Rashaverak.
Mario quickly gave Angelo a Super Mushroom.
He could use some healing after that attack.
"You have my thanks." spoke Angelo.
Rashaverak let out a roar.
Our heroes quickly covered their ears.
It was very loud.
Donkey Kong punched Rashaverak.
She prepared to breathe fire on him.
But DK fired an orange grenade into her mouth.
"Mmm…fruity!" exclaimed Rashaverak.
The orange exploded.
Rashaverak was left stunned by the attack.
Now was their opportunity to attack the dragon.
So our heroes did just that.
It worked well.
But Rashaverak decided to take to the air.
Now that she was in the air, she was that much harder to hit.
She could still be jumped upon, but when Mario tried to do so, he ended up being hit with her tail.
"Mamamia!" exclaimed Mario.
DK used his coconut gun to shoot her down.
This worked rather well.
Rashaverak crashed into the ground.
Mario then leapt on her one last time.
It seemed that she was down for the count.
"I, the great Rashaverak, have been defeated?!" exclaimed Rashaverak.
It didn't seem possible.
But then again, they had defeated other generals of the Dragonlord. Why exactly couldn't they win against the heroes?
Was it because they had experience fighting monsters? They had defeated foes like Bowser, Rhapthorne, and Mordegon.
Our heroes discovered that there was a damsel in a cage nearby.
It seemed Rashaverak had been guarding her.
Mario thought that was familiar.
Her name was Bianca.
"Thank you for rescuing me!" exclaimed Bianca.
She wasn't sure what was with dragons and damsels.
She had fought the Dragonlord's minions well, but she had been captured in the end.
"Would you be willing to accept me as a party member?" asked Bianca.
Jessica nodded.
"Thank you!" exclaimed Bianca.
Bianca has joined the party!
The Dragonlord wondered why his generals kept failing to the heroes.
Time and time again they lost to them.
Now there were only two generals left. He was losing power.
This was really hindering his invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom.
He wondered if he would eventually run out of generals. Then who would command his army? Baramos?
On the lighter side of things, Hargon was ready to fight the heroes again. He was confident that he would win this time.
He had assembled a new platoon of monsters.
And he would be ready to leave shortly.
Hopefully Hargon would win this time. Anything that would get the heroes out of the way once and for all was decidedly welcome. He had lost enough soldiers as it was.
He departed World 8 on his airship.
Now he just needed to hunt down our heroes.
He imagined that they would be in Rock Candy Mines somewhere.
Meanwhile, at Little Fungitown…
Our heroes were impressed with the weaponry and armor Little Fungitown had for sale.
Since they were their heroes, they got a discount.
Though it might also have to do with Peasley's good looks. And for being the prince of the kingdom. Were they really going to overcharge him?
Speaking of Peasley, he bought a Mercury's Rapier.
Meena bought a goddess shield. She figured some protection would be useful. After all, our heroes would want access to her healing magic. And having more defense would help prevent her from going down.
Maya bought a tempest shield. It would be a good idea to have a shield that could protect from wind attacks.
A Toad warned them that Bowser Baddies were approaching.
He had seen them using a telescope.
So our heroes got ready to fight them.
The first wave were Chargin' Chucks.
They attempted to tackle the heroes to the ground.
But our heroes had experience fighting them.
Some of them, anyway.
The second wave was Sumo Brothers.
They used ground pound attacks.
Ground pound attacks that summoned lightning.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Maya. These Bros were strong.
The third wave was Mace Guys.
As their name indicated, they were Shy Guys that wielded maces.
They had to be careful to dodge them.
The fourth wave was Hammer Bros.
So they had to watch out for their hammers.
Our heroes saw Bowser Junior.
It seemed he was leading this attack.
And yes, he was the last wave.
"You again!" exclaimed Alena.
It seemed he hadn't learned his lesson from last time.
So they would teach him another one.
"Are you here to fight us again?" asked Ashlynn.
She was ready to rematch him.
"Not just yet. I'd like to introduce you to my big friend!" exclaimed Bowser Junior.
"Big friend?" asked Ashlynn.
"I don't like the sound of that." noted Ruff. Just what big friend was he talking about? He sure hoped that it wasn't his father. Something told him that they weren't ready to face him yet.
Luckily, it was not Bowser himself. But it was decidedly someone that our heroes should be considered about.
This time, Bowser Junior had summoned The Tower Power Pokey…a Pokey that had grown to enormous size.
The Tower Power Pokey approached them.
Our heroes were astonished.
"That is one big Pokey!" exclaimed Ashlynn.
She didn't know they could be that size.
But then again, she was in a world where Mega Mushrooms existed.
So perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising to her.
Bowser Jr. let out a laugh.
"Let's see you heroes get past this!" exclaimed Bowser Jr.
Tower Power Pokey summoned a tornado.
It was sandy in nature.
Our heroes ran away from it.
It was a bit tricky because the tornado followed their direction.
Due to the size of Tower Power Pokey, there was no way our heroes could jump upon it.
There were other ways to fight it, however.
Alena used her claws to attack the Pokey.
She was careful not to get poked by its thorns.
Tower Power Pokey summoned Pokeys to assist it.
The Pokeys fired off their body segments.
Luckily, when Ashlynn cast Boom, she could scatter their body parts.
This left the Pokeys weakened.
The Tower Power Pokey fired a beam of light from its sprout.
Our heroes scrambled to avoid the beam.
This was not a suntan that they wished to experience.
Ashlynn fired a fireball at Tower Power Pokey's face.
This left the Pokey stunned.
It seemed the head was the weak point.
But it wasn't exactly easy to hit it.
Still, if our heroes had ranged attacks, then it would be a good idea to aim there.
Alena tried tossing fireballs at it.
They narrowly missed the face, but they still did damage.
Peasley took to the air and slashed the Tower Power Pokey in the face.
The Tower Power Pokey collapsed on the ground.
Our heroes then attacked it as hard as they could.
This was enough to finish the fight.
Bowser Jr. could not believe what had just happened.
"What? They defeated Tower Power Pokey? Impossible!" shouted the young Koopa.
He threw a temper tantrum. He thought that the heroes would surely fail fighting such a big opponent. But he thought wrong. Those heroes were full of surprises.
He wondered for a moment if he was going to lose to our heroes again. Should he just give up?
Alena decided now that the town was definitely safe, it was time to search for the next Koopaling. It didn't seem that the Koopa Troop would attack the town anytime soon after that.
Judging by the pattern, they would be facing Lemmy next.
But on their way out, they noticed a young Toad hiding behind a tree.
He was sweating excessively.
Perhaps he was unaware that the Bowser Baddies had retreated.
So the princess decided to explain the situation to him.
"The Bowser Baddies are gone. You're safe now." assured Alena.
"Yeah…but there's a monster lurking in the Guffawha Ruins!" exclaimed the Toad.
His parents had told him never to go there. They wanted to look out for him, after all.
"A monster? That sounds scary." noted Kiryl. Though this was decidedly not the first time he had heard about a monster. He had fought a lot of them.
"It makes it hard for me to sleep at night." spoke the Toad. He could only imagine what that monster looked like. His parents decided not to describe it to him.
Even with his teddy bear…and Mario plushie, he still had trouble sleeping.
"You don't suppose the monster is real, do you?" asked Nera.
"If so, we should do something about it." noted Ruff. That was what heroes were for.
If it existed, the citizens of Little Fungitown might not be safe. And they wanted to make sure it was safe.
After all, it had been attacked by the Koopa Troop not long ago.
"Wait, what if the monster isn't real?" asked Ashlynn.
If it wasn't, then they would be wasting their time. She didn't want to go to the ruins for no reason. Not when they could be spending their time fighting the Koopa Army.
"Perhaps. But I think it would be better be safe than sorry." suggested Alena. She would feel good if that Toad could rest easy at night. Though personally she wasn't sure if that monster was affliated with the Koopa Troop.
"There might also be treasure in those ruins." noted Peasley. That could help them buy some new gear.
"That's a fair point." acknowledged Maya.
"You have us convinced." spoke Meena.
Their next destination was the Guffawha Ruins.
"How do we get to the ruins?" asked Peasley.
Perhaps they should consult their map.
But it might also help to ask for directions.
"You want to go there?!" exclaimed the Toad.
That was surprising to him.
"If it means protecting the town, then yes." answered Alena.
"It actually isn't far from here." noted the Toad.
"I see." comprehended Nera.
It was to the west of Teehee Valley.
So it looked like our heroes would be traversing the desert again.
Our heroes wouldn't have to fight another Koopaling, however.
So that was a plus.
It was time for another mission.
I will admit that Rashaverak didn't actually die but I figured dragon slayer had a ring to it.
It looks like our heroes won't be going back to Beanbean Castle Town just yet.
You probably remember that so-called monster.
Why did such nasty rumors start anyway? It can be hard to trace a rumor.
Personally, I don't think that Moai even looks that scary.
Either way, he's the reason why our heroes will be going to Guffawha Ruins.
It's a bit of a shame you can only visit it once. I happen to like that level. It has Limbo Bros. and Oucher Glasses.
Though you can fight the former again in Teehee Valley…once you have Ultra Hammers.