In this chapter, our heroes will continue making their way to Baramos' Tower.
But there is one more level to go before they can reach it.
Can our heroes make it?
You can tell by the title who's guarding it.
It wasn't obvious in the last chapter though, am I right?
I got 1337 words writing a chapter yet again! That makes me smile.
Chapter 54: Tyriant's Tyranny
Baramos wondered how all the Dread Fiends had fallen to our heroes.
He wondered if they should really call themselves the Dread Fiends.
They didn't seem so menacing now that they had all fallen to the heroes. And they had all lost once before.
Maybe they needed to work in pairs instead of alone. That might give them the edge.
Though to be fair, the heroes that have banded together to take down the Dragonlord had taken down six of the seven generals. The Dragonlord wanted to make extra sure that they didn't defeat the last one.
Switchback Hill
This time, our heroes used platforms that were activated and deactivated by switches to get around.
Some mischievous monsters decided to mess with the switches, stonewalling their progress.
"Hey!" exclaimed Jessica.
It looked like they were going to have to take care of them if they wanted to go any further.
These enemies were Spitegeists.
One of them let out a laugh. It seemed that he loved doing his job.
They could turn invisible for a short time, making them harder to hit.
And they also could paralyze their foes by scaring them.
Namely Luigi.
Luckily, he had a Poltergust he could use to fight the ghosts.
After defeating the Spitegeists, our heroes could continue onward without interference.
Some Gustblusters appeared as well.
They had to be careful these enemies didn't blow them away.
It wasn't a surprise they called the sky world home.
Our heroes had Donkey Kong and Wario fight them because they were heavyweights.
They would not be blown away easily.
The Poltergust also worked on them, but they could counter with gusts of their own.
There were also Marrow Escapees.
Oddly, these enemies were not flying enemies.
But perhaps the Dragonlord had run out of flying enemies to place in the Meringue Clouds.
As to where they had escaped from, perhaps it was from the dungeon of Peach's Castle.
Our heroes noticed a flagpole.
It had a crown on it this time.
And it was purple in color.
It seemed the author decided to come up with unique flagpole designs.
Might as well freshen up the fanfic a bit.
Our heroes waited to see if the guardian would make his presence known.
Surely there had to be one, right?
There was one for every level.
Suddenly, the sky began to darken.
"What's going on?" asked Luigi.
He felt scared.
And so did Allister.
Tyriant was waiting for our heroes.
He let out an evil laugh.
"So, you've come to challenge Baramos, have you? Well, you'll have to fight me first!" exclaimed Tyriant.
It seemed he was their last obstacle before the tower.
If that was the case, Baramos had likely thought he would be a strong opponent for them.
So our heroes had best approach him with caution.
Now that they thought of it, they had faced multiple undead enemies before reaching him.
It seems he was the one commanding them.
He pulled out his blades.
Jade recalled Hendrik fighting him along with the Dragon Quest XI hero, Iven. It was very impressive that the two managed to take him down by themselves.
However, it didn't seem like the heroes would be able to take him on as a duo this time around. He was stronger than before.
He was one of the Spectral Sentinels.
While each of them were powerful, each of them had their own unique power.
Except for Indignus, because Jasper could use Disruptive Wave as well.
In the case of Tyriant, he could create a copy of himself. His own shadow, to be exact.
This made him a tad trickier to deal with. They would have to fight two different foes instead of one.
He could also cast Zammle as well.
With his clone, he could use Co-Zammle for extra power.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Jade.
It was a good idea to attack the copy every now and then. That way Tyriant wouldn't be able to use his team attacks.
Fortunately, since Tyriant was undead, holy attacks worked well against him.
And Angelo happened to be able to use those types of attacks.
"Aaarrrghhh!" exclaimed Tyriant as Angelo's blade struck him. It was glowing with holy energy.
He swung again, but Tyriant blocked it with his dual blades.
Seeing as Tyriant had two swords, Angelo was at a bit of a disadvantage.
So our other heroes decided to help him out.
Tyriant decided to summon Shadows to aid him.
This was a creative liberty, but did it not suit his character?
Luckily, they too were weak against the light.
But they had strength in numbers.
Jessica hit Tyriant with fire.
"You heroes are stronger than I thought…" noted Tyriant.
He was starting to see how our heroes had managed to make it to World 7, which was no small feat considering all the minsters they had to go through.
Jessica then swapped out with Peach.
She cast a powerful healing spell on Tyriant.
"Aaaaahhh!" exclaimed the undead. This princess was not to be underestimated. Even if she did have a habit of playing the role of distressed damsel.
Angelo then finished Tyriant off with his blade.
"You managed to defeat me? I can only hope my fellow Spectral Sentinels can avenge me…" murmured the undead boss.
As soon as he was defeated, the sky turned back to normal.
It was nice that the environment wasn't spooky anymore.
Now Allister wouldn't have to hide in Jessica's bag.
"We did it!" exclaimed Bianca.
"We sure did. But Tyriant was the weakest of the Spectral Sentinels." said Jade. And she got the feeling more of them might be out there. After all, they had encountered all four of the Dread Fiends, one of which had been a general. And Tyriant did say that he was hoping the other Spectral Sentinels would avenge him.
There were six Spectral Sentinels in all, including the one they had just defeated. Though it was on the fence to as to when the other five would show themselves.
Angelo pulled on the flagpole. He felt like he deserved a day in the spotlight. It was good that the author had remembered that he was in this story.
The heroes noted that the Dragonlord seemed to have recruited a plethora of Dragon Quest villains. The author figured why stop with one Dragon Quest game?
Anyways, it looked like the hero's hard work had paid off, for they had managed to reach Baramos' tower.
He was looking forward to dealing with the heroes once and for all.
They had defeated the three bosses before him, so he imagined that they would make things entertaining for him.
He did find their boss fight with Tyriant to be entertaining, after all.
Meanwhile, our heroes fought the Shroob army outside.
Perhaps they would be able to enter the pyramid once they had cleared out.
There might be something they could use to their advantage inside. Perhaps one of the Shrooboids would leave behind plans for an invasion.
And there may be a reason why the Shroobs had chosen the pyramid as a gathering spot specifically.
It was too risky to assault the pyramid, but the Shroobs outside seemed manageable.
There were Shrooba Divers in the sand.
Given that they had appeared in Gritzy Desert in Partners in Time, it wasn't a big surprise to see them in Teehee Valley.
They were two very similar environments. You didn't see skeleton sailors in Gritzy Desert though. That was the difference.
Though our heroes wondered why they were diving in the sand instead of water. Didn't the Beanbean Kingdom have an ocean? They recalled going there before.
Our heroes had to be careful. It was surprising what the divers could pull out from the sand.
Sometimes they pulled out Poison Mushrooms.
There were more Shrooba Plants as well.
Our heroes needed to make sure they didn't get bitten, for their fangs were poisonous.
There were Snifaros floating around as well.
In the original, they had been in the Gritzy Caves.
But it seemed they wanted to be in the sunlight this time.
Last but not least were the Desert Shrooboids, which were orange in color.
These Shrooboids had turbans on their heads.
They attacked by summoning sand twisters.
So our heroes had to be careful not to get blown away.
Though they also had to worry about not getting sand in their eyes.
Our heroes noticed the Koopa Troop assaulting the pyramid.
Now seemed like a good time to sneak in.
Though they wondered if they were strong enough to take on Princess Shroob the Younger herself.
And even if they defeated her, they would still have her elder sister to deal with.
Our heroes could see what was going on through a window.
So our heroes decided to take a look.
As they were expecting, there were numerous Shroobs in attendance.
Our heroes had made the right choice not waltzing in. That would likely lead to a game over.
Was there a way to disguise themselves as Shroobs by any chance? That had ended up working out for Luigi, though it wasn't his intention to disguise himself as a Sockop.
Perhaps the best way to defeat one's enemy was to become one's enemy.
The younger Princess Shroob descended via a tractor beam.
The Shroobs clapped and cheered.
It made them so happy getting to see the younger Princess Shroob in the flesh. That was a special priviledge.
And besides, they needed a break from the invading. They had had a couple of setbacks, after all. Who would have thought that Yoob would fall? The plan seemed foolproof at the time.
Some Shroobs pulled out a poster saying "Long Live The Shroob Princess!"
She began to drink from a beverage.
It seemed to be made from the vim extracted from the Beans…which was disturbing, to say the least.
"That's her alright." noted Ashlynn.
She could sense power radiating from her.
"Greetings everyone. Today I shall be discussing our plan to invade the Mushroom Kingdom!" exclaimed Princess Shroob.
Alena didn't feel like they were ready to face her yet. Perhaps they should take her on later when they had defeated more of her minions. They would level up that way.
"I don't think we're strong enough to take her on." noted Alena.
The rest of the heroes nodded. They needed to get stronger.
However, Alena figured it would be a good idea to draw a portrait of her.
It was important that the Beanbean Kingdom knew what she looked like.
And they didn't want to leave empty-handed.
Our heroes drew a portrait of her.
It was an accurate picture.
Now all they had to do was deliver it to the Beanbean Kingdom.
Queen Bean would like to take a look at it.
But on the way out, they were approached by the Shroobs.
They aimed their ray guns at them.
"Uh-oh." spoke Nera.
It seemed that the aliens had already found out about their presence. Perhaps they had been expecting them.
How did they get discovered so fast? Weren't the Koopa Troop fighting them?
"Well well well, if it isn't for the heroes that took down Yoob! I'm sure Princess Shroob will be happy to see you!" exclaimed Commander Shroob.
"This can't be good." noted Captain Toad.
The Shroobs took them to Princess Shroob.
She was very happy to see that they had been caught. Their defiance of the Shroob Empire angered her. Now it was time to make them pay for it.
"If it isn't for the heroes that are interfering with our invasion! I think you've caused us enough trouble!" exclaimed Princess Shroob.
The Shroobs began to boo.
If it weren't for them, they probably would have fully conquered the kingdom by now.
Our heroes got ready to fight.
"I know what to do with you! I'm going to end your games in front of a wide audience!" shouted the princess.
Shrooboid Brat approached them.
"The author seems to be using a lot of enemies from Partners in Time." noted Ashlynn. She recalled fighting the Snifaros not long ago.
"He's taking creative liberties with this boss fight!" exclaimed the Shrooboid Brat.
"Great! That makes it more interesting!" shouted Alena.
"Wait, what happened to the Koopa Troop?" asked Nera.
They didn't hear the sound of them fighting anywhere.
It was weird.
"We abducted them using our saucers!" exclaimed Princess Shroob.
They hadn't seen it coming.
The saucers were delivering the Koopa Troop to the mothership, as the mothership was more secure.
"What happened to gravity?" asked one of the Koopa Troopas who was sucked in.
They would deal with them after they had dealt with the heroes. There were a variety of experiments that they intended to perform on them.
If they managed to find out the Koopa Troop's weakness, it would make fighting them a lot easier.
"I guess we're not getting their help then." noted Captain Toad.
Perhaps they should rescue them. Sure, the Koopa Troop had caused a lot of trouble in the Mushroom Kingdom, but they needed all the help they could get to stop the invasion.
Though they admit that it was risky to assault the Shroob Mothership. There were likely powerful Shroobs onboard.
For now, they would focus on fighting the Shrooboid Brat.
As with the Heavy Shrooboid, he was stronger than ordinary Shrooboids.
He used a lollipop as a choice of weapon.
Our heroes carefully dodged his swings, though he sometimes threw it at them. He would then replace it with another lollipop.
Before the Shrooboid Brat attacked, the Shroobs got to vote on who they wanted him to attack.
What they didn't seem to realize is that it made things easier for our heroes. They knew exactly who should defend.
After a few minutes of fighting, Shrooboid Brat pulled out a chocolate bar.
He used the chocolate bar as a shield.
The brat decided that he shouldn't focus solely on defense. There were hard-hitting heroes on the team, like Alena, their leader.
It reminded them of when they had fought the Chuckolator.
The difference was that they were being attacked by soda instead of candy.
Perhaps if they did enough damage they could break the chocolate shield.
Ashlynn had an idea.
Since the shield was made of chocolate, why not try heating it up?
She hit it with fire magic.
Sure enough, the shield began to melt.
The Shrooboid Brat frowned. It seemed the shield was ineffective against fire attacks.
It occurred to the Shroobs that perhaps they were making things too easy for our heroes.
So they came up with an idea.
They would change the color of their votes, but have the letter remain the same.
That way it would be harder for the team to predict who was going to be attacked.
They decided to test it out.
Alena ended up being hit by the Shrooboid Brat's lollipop.
"Ow!" exclaimed Alena.
She wondered why she had gotten hit.
The votes were the color orange, which matched Ashlynn.
Upon closer inspection, they seemed to have changed the color of the votes.
So they decided to focus on the letter instead.
The Shrooboid Brat swallowed powerups to use against our heroes, but it seemed when he swallowed Poison Mushrooms he ended up spitting normal mushrooms.
He facepalmed.
Peasley slashed the Shrooboid repeatedly.
Alena punched the brat as hard as she could.
The Shrooboid Brat exploded, like the Heavy Shrooboid before him.
The Shroobs all began to boo. This was not how they wanted the fight to end. Though it was entertaining while it lasted.
Princess Shroob was disappointed herself. She had expected more from the Shrooboid Brat.
But to be fair, these heroes were experienced with fighting Shroobs.
"Oh dear, it looks like the Shrooboid Brat couldn't take you down. I guess we're going to have to resort to Plan B." noted Princess Shroob
"What's Plan B?" asked Ruff.
The Shroobs pulled out some hammers.
"This can't be good." noted Nera.
The Shroobs whacked the ground with the hammers.
It caused the area the heroes were standing on to collapse.
Our heroes fell into a pit. And unfortunately, they did not have parachutes.
Was this the end for Alena's team?
The Shroobs certainly seemed to think so.
They let out evil laughter.
Meanwhile, Kamek looked for a way for his fellow Koopas to escape.
Was there a way off of the mothership?
One could only hope they could escape before the Shroobs concocted experiments on them.
That did not sound pleasant.
It would be helpful if they had a map of some kind.
But they would need to free themselves from their cells first.
Unfortunately, the Shroobs had confiscated his wand.
How was he going to get it back?
Surely there had to be a way.
What do you think of this chapter?
Now that the Dread Fiends are gone I figured I could use the Spectral Sentinels. At least one of them, anyway.
Which one should I choose next?
I could go in the order they were faced in the original game. But I didn't do that with the Dread Fiends. Aside from Dhuran.
