In this chapter, our heroes will face the Stone Golem! And the Goomba King.
You probably know who's going to face who.
Chapter 8: Heart of Stone
Alena and Peasley arrived in the throne room…after getting past the guards, of course. And yes, they were proud of themselves for it.
"So, you're the ones who have been causing trouble around here!" exclaimed the Goomba King.
The Goomba King was very angry. How dare they treat his followers like punching bags!
"Your Goomba comrades were causing trouble." explained Alena.
"Well, now you're going to have to face my wrath!" shouted Goomboss.
"We better be cautious." noted the princess.
Otherwise, this fight might not turn out so well for them.
OST: Stage Boss (Super Mario 64)
Goomboss charged at our heroes.
Our heroes dodged and he hit a wall.
"Ow!" exclaimed the Goomba King.
He should have watched where he was aiming.
Well, he was going to try again.
This time, he charged towards Prince Peasley.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the prince. He hit rather hard for a Goomba.
It was a good thing he knew healing spells.
Though he would make sure to keep some Mushrooms on hand as well.
"Consider that retribution for all the Goombas you've stomped!" exclaimed Goomboss.
"I don't think we usually fight Goombas by jumping on them." pointed out Alena.
"Well, you know what I mean!" shouted the king.
Alena punched Goomboss in the face.
"Ow! My beautiful face!" shouted the Goomba King.
In retaliation, he performed a ground pound.
"I'm dizzy!" exclaimed Alena.
Unfortunately, some Bowser Baddies could stun their foes by ground pounding. Such as Fire Sumos.
When that happened, their foes were vulnerable.
Prince Peasley shook Alena back to her senses.
"Thanks!" thanked the princess.
She hit the Goomba King with her fist.
This one was a critical hit.
The king summoned Goombas.
But Peasley slashed them away.
Alena hit the king with a flying kick.
The Goomba King exploded.
He reappeared a few moments later.
"I've been bested! Well, I shouldn't be too surprised. I am a Goomba." noted the Goomba King to himself.
"You were rather strong for a Goomba." complimented Peasley.
"Really? Perhaps us Goombas can evolve." suggested the king. He heard there were Hyper Goombas that could charge themselves up and do double damage. Those were not weak enemies.
"Maybe you can." nodded Alena.
"Fare thee well!" exclaimed the royal Goomba.
A door to the next area opened up behind Goomboss.
'We did it!" exclaimed Alena.
Peasley nodded.
However, he got the feeling that there were more Bowser Baddies in other areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. They would want to make sure the Beanbean Kingdom was completely safe before they called it quits.
"I think we should check Hoohoo Mountain for Bowser Baddies next." noted the prince.
The mountain was nearby, so it wouldn't take them long to get there.
Stoneslide Tower
Our heroes discovered Candy Cats waiting for them.
"I don't get it, why are there-a cats in the desert?" questioned Mario.
"They're associated with Egyptian deities." explained Peach.
It seems the princess was not a dumb blonde.
Luckily, the candy cats had a habit of getting distracted.
Sometimes, they stopped to lick their faces or roll around. It seemed these monsters were not elite soldiers in the Dragonlord's army. If they were, they would most likely take their duties more seriously.
However, their claws were sharp.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Mario. This kitten did not play nice.
"Bad kitty!" shouted Peach.
She whacked her with her frying pan.
"Meow." muttered the Candy Cat.
There were also more Drackmages.
Luckily, Peach had learned the Buff spell, which helped counteract Kasap.
Jessica blasted the Drackmages with fire.
"That's hot!" exclaimed one of the Drackmages.
"Are you talking about me?" asked Jessica. People said she was very hot.
"Well, I was talking about the flames. But you are too!" shouted the bat.
"Thanks!" thanked the mage.
There were Mummy Boys in the tower as well.
"I-a guess it was only a matter-a of time before we encountered some mummies here!" exclaimed Mario. This was a desert world, after all.
"Now that I think of it, this place does look like a tomb." noted Jessica.
The mummies could launch cursed orbs as projectiles.
Being cursed restricted movement.
"Mamamia!" exclaimed Mario, who was now black as ink. These mummies were scary.
"It's times like this when I wish Tavian was with me." spoke the mage. He was completely immune to curses.
If it weren't for him, Dhoulmagus most likely would have trapped her and her friend in a curse of thorns. Medea and King Trode had gotten off easy.
Luckily, Mummy Boys were weak against fire. It wasn't a big surprise.
Peach summoned a Firespirit and it began shooting fireballs at them.
"I want my mummy!" exclaimed one of the mummies.
Some Grinades appeared.
They were sliding down from above.
"Now I know how this tower got its name." remarked the sorceress.
"Something-a tells me we should-a take caution with them." noted Mario.
"That we should. Grinades are capable of exploding." warned Jessica. They didn't pack as much of a boom as their relatives, but it was still something that they needed to watch out for. Especially since none of them could cast Zing yet.
Sure enough, one of them exploded.
"Mamamia!" exclaimed Mario. Jessica wasn't kidding.
"I missed!" shouted the Grinade.
He needed to work on his aim. Now he was KOed and without a single KO to his name.
There were also Walking Corpses.
"I had a feeling we would encounter undead monsters in this world." noted Jessica. Her hunch turned out to be right.
"Are you hungry for brains?" asked Mario. If so, he couldn't just give them to the zombies.
"Actually, we're hungry for spaghetti." explained a walking corpse.
"Oh a-no! Not my spaghetti!" exclaimed the plumber, pressing his hands against the sides of his head.
Peach had an idea to fight the walking corpses.
She summoned a Healslime, and instructed her to heal the walking corpses.
"I was under the impression that goo would want me to heal your comrades." pointed out the Healslime. They were in a dungeon, after all. Now would be a good time to call on her services.
"I do. But I think that this might work in our favor as well." explained the princess.
"If that's what goo think, I will give it my best shot!" exclaimed the slime that resembled a jellyfish.
Sure enough, the Walking Corpses took damage from being healed.
"Ouch!" exclaimed one walking corpse.
"Just as I thought." spoke Peach.
"That was good thinking." nodded Jessica.
She would want to keep that in mind when they encountered more undead enemies.
Our heroes encountered a Metal Slime.
"Quick! Catch it!" instructed Jessica.
Peach caught it.
They got a lot of experience from him.
'Whoa! That's-a lot of experience!" exclaimed Mario. He leveled up from it.
"It's a good idea to hunt them if you want to level quickly." noted Jessica.
Peach saw another Metal Slime, but she fled.
"Gotta goo!" exclaimed the Metal Slime.
"I guess if we want to get their exp, we have to be quick." noted Peach. A metal slime's agility was second to none. That included their relatives as well.
"Yeah...they're not the types of monsters to stick around in a fight." admitted Jessica. But then again, that would make leveling up from them too easy.
Waiting for them in an arena was the Stone Golem.
"So you have come to face me. You shall fall before my might!" exclaimed the stone golem.
Suddenly, Baramos showed up.
"Uh-oh." spoke Jessica.
It seemed the right-hand of the Dragonlord had showed up to lend a helping hand for the golem.
Baramos let out a laugh, then cast a spell on the Stone Golem.
"Alright! I feel like a new golem!" cheered the giant.
"What did he do?" asked Mario.
"Now he can summon monsters!" exclaimed Baramos.
"That's a problem." noted Peach.
"I'll be seeing you…if you can make it to the next tower!" shouted the evil mage.
Though if they fell here, it would make his day.
He vanished in a puff of purple smoke.
The Stone Golem stomped towards them.
"Mamamia! How do we stop it?" asked Mario.
This monster was big. And he was stronger than the troll they had fought before.
And to make matters worse, it was most likely that he had high defense.
"I heard wind works well against them." noted Jessica.
Luckily, Peach had learned a wind spell.
She had learned Woosh, to be precise.
"Take this!" shouted the golem.
He prepared to step on them.
However, Peach knocked him down with a wind spell.
'What just happened?" asked the stone golem.
Mario jumped on him a few times as he rose to his feet.
"Alright, now I'm angry!" exclaimed the golem.
He began to muster his strength.
"That's not good." spoke Peach.
It would be best if they defended themselves.
The next attack was going to pack a punch.
Sure enough, the golem attacked with extra vigor.
"Phew!" exclaimed Jessica. Defending had paid off. Otherwise, that attack would have done a lot of damage.
Alistair cheered the party on.
They got extra tension.
"I'm glad we brought him along for our journey." remarked Jessica.
He was certainly proving to be helpful.
Jessica hit the Stone Golem with fire.
Luckily, his defenses didn't shield him from magic.
The Stone Golem summoned Grinades.
"Uh-oh!" exclaimed Mario.
He kicked them over to the heroes.
One hit Mario.
"Oof!" shouted the plumber.
Unsurprisingly, being kicked caused the Grinades to explode. So this was a good offensive tactic.
However, Peach got the bright idea of hammering one back to the golem.
This worked exceptionally well.
"Aaarghhh!" exclaimed the rock giant.
He fell to the floor.
"How did I lose? I'm made of stone!" exclaimed the stone golem. He should have punished them.
"Even stone has weaknesses." pointed out Peach.
"Fair point." nodded the golem.
"We should probably try to find the weaknesses of the monsters we fight." noted Jessica.
It would make fighting them a lot easier.
The Wight Emperor noticed that the Stone Golem had fallen.
It seemed not even a monster of his caliber could handle the job. Even with Baramos deciding to give him aid.
Still, he was looking forward to being the one who defeated the heroes.
The Wight Emperor was waiting for them in his castle.
"Come to my castle...if you dare..." spoke the emperor.
"He looks scary." noted Peach.
"He sure does." nodded Jessica.
Toad approached the party.
"Did you know you can fuse monsters together?" asked Toad.
"We can?" asked the sorceress.
"You should give it a try!" noted the desert resident.
"Maybe we should." nodded Mario.
Chances are they could get stronger monsters this way.
Though the results might be a bit unpredictable.
"Yoshi?" asked Alistair. Were they going to merge him?
"I think you're fine the way you are." assured Jessica.
Alistair was glad Jessica felt that way.
Though maybe he could be a different color other than orange.
Red might be nice. Or green. Or maybe yellow.
Elsewhere…
Alena and Peasley arrived on Hoohoo Mountain.
They saw a map.
"Should we go down the mountain or up the mountain?" asked the princess.
"Something tells me that the baddies are up the mountain. Though if we wish to head back to Beanbean Castle Town, we should go down the mountain." noted Peasley.
"Just in case, let's ask the locals." suggested Alena.
It would be a good idea to know what they were up against.
Spike's Spouting Sands
"Spike is taking a vacation at Isle Delfino." reminded Mario.
No doubt he wanted to enjoy the sunshine.
Slime Knight's Spouting Sands
"Wouldn't an alliterative name work better?" questioned Jessica.
Not all levels have to be alliterative. But I can do that.
Scorpion's Spouting Sands
"Sounds good. Wait, did you say there were slime knights?" questioned Mario.
They were indeed being attacked by knights.
'If thou wish to pass, thou must fight us!" exclaimed a slime knight.
'Funny, I'm a princess but I don't speak that way." noted the princess.
But if the slime knights wished to speak that way, she would not judge.
Peach summoned a Slime to fight the knights.
"You know, I wouldn't mind a knight riding on top of me." noted a Slime.
"Maybe if I merge you, you could become a Slime Knight." suggested Peach.
"That sounds nice." nodded the slime.
One of the slime knights dropped a scale shield.
Jessica equipped it.
"This should help me fight my foes." noted the sorceress.
After all, the Stone Golem they had not fought a few minutes ago could pack a punch. It was helpful to have extra defense in that situation.
There was also spouting sand. Our heroes needed to make sure it didn't get in their eyes.
That would be unpleasant.
Our heroes began their search for a flagpole.
Levels were rather short in length, so it shouldn't take too long.
They would just need to watch out for the enemies. In particular the Scorpions.
I hope you liked this chapter. Did you like the name I came up for Yoshi?
I figured Alistair would be a good name for him.
And yeah, I figured I would feature metal slimes in this chapter. I find it fun to try to catch them, after all. I've gotten very good at it in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince too.
Bye!