Chapter 12
Duel of Dragons
SWISH!
Susie axe fell right on Kris' neck.
They did the only thing they could. Kris accessed their inventory and released all the bags of candy they had collected. With a soft whomp, Susie's axe was stopped, but Kris was still concussed by the cushioned blow. Their head ringing and gore slipping through the wound in their side, Kris lashed out with their sword.
Drake's armor was not perfect. His calves were exposed. Kris plunged their blade deep into Drake's left leg. He howled in pain and let go of Lancer. And that was when the spades began flying.
Although he wielded far fewer spades than his father Lancer was more than capable of being annoying with the few he had. He summoned and sent them careening from different angles. They slammed into Drake and knocked him off balance.
"Kill them!" Drake hissed to Susie.
Susie snarled and swung her axe once more at Kris, this time aiming for their chest. Ralsei lashed out his scarf and wrapped it around the base of Susie's axe. Her attack went wide and crashed into the street. Pebbles of rubble pelted them, but Kris still couldn't do much. But was when some healing went into them, patching them together.
"Sorry, Kris! But that's all of our TP!" Ralsei panted.
Drake hurled his sword into Ralsei. The Dark Prince was blown off his feet and landed in a heap. Kris let loose their own enraged scream. Kicking off their bags of candy into Susie's face, momentarily blinding her, they lunged for the sword still stuck in Drake's leg. They sliced upwards, severing muscles and flesh from bone. The larger dragon teen gasped and fell to one knee.
Kris flourished their sword and thrusted to plunge its point deep into Drake's face.
Crunch!
Susie kicked Kris and launched him back to the other side of the street.
Lancer kept pummeling Drake with spades as he gasped to Susie, "Heal me!"
She turned and lifted a hand to cast her Ultimate Heal. However, there was not enough TP for her to tap. Her kick had completely discombobulated Kris, but that was nowhere near enough damage to build up 100% TP. Drake cursed, demanding that she take care of him, all while becoming a pincushion for Lancer's attacks.
"Susie! Susie! You need to wake up!" Lancer cried. He grabbed her leg and shook.
Grunting, she snatched up the small prince and tossed him over her shoulder before trying to heal Drake again.
"Dammit! Why isn't it working!" He pointed at Kris and snarled, "You! Human! Tell me why her spell isn't working! I saw it heal the Headless Horseman! If it is powerful enough to completely restore that monster to its normal state, it should take care of me! What is happening?"
"Stop yammering and figure it out for yourself," Kris coughed, struggling back to their feet.
"Susie, kill them!"
Forced to obey, she stopped trying to restore Drake's leg and rushed Kris. Once more, a pink scarf lashed out, this time grabbing ahold of Susie's ankle. It didn't stop her, but it tripped her up just enough. Kris countercharged, using their sword to batter aside Susie's weakened swing. They followed through with an elbow to Susie's chin. It felt like rushing into a metal door, but they kept up the pressure.
Meanwhile, Drake fumed. "How!? How are you still alive?"
Ralsei sat up, grinning weakly. "That was a nice move you pulled… But you only hit me with the pommel of your sword. I'm only winded, not wounded."
"I'll fix that!" Drake snarled, crawling towards the Dark Prince.
Lancer jumped onto Drake's head, driving and bashing him into the pavement. He giggled as he danced on the turncoat. "Nice job, Toothpaste Breath! How do we now help Susie?"
"Kris! The best way to break the spell is to give Susie true love's kiss!"
"Don't you mean true love's first kiss?" Lancer said.
"NO! Ralsei snapped. "Susie and they already have a strong connection! Those little false angels were using a devious spell to mislead Susie, but they can't actually take her over or completely overwrite who she is at her heart; Susie is too strong! And her feelings for Kris are even stronger!"
"Never!" Drake spat, trying to snatch Lancer. But the little bouncy boy was not going to get caught the same way twice. He bounded out of the way and out of reach, mocking Drake.
Kris was doing their best to keep Susie on the defensive. They moved as fast as they could, hacking ferociously with their sword. Susie easily moved her axe to block each attack, but Kris's impressive speed meant that she could afford to use her axe to swipe back. She tried shorter, vicious strikes. Making quick jabs and forearm-length swipes with her axe, Susie sought to push Kris back and give herself some breathing room.
Kris dodged many of these attacks by ducking low and stabbing up. Susie kicked at their face, but Kris sidestepped each blow. If Susie kept kicking, she'd lose her balance. The dragon then retreated, again trying to put distance between herself and Kris. With her longer stride, it would have been easy, but Kris went in pursuit. Even if it was sloppy, they stabbed angrily, forcing Susie to keep deflecting and defending.
Hearing Ralsei's instructions, they risked everything on a jump. Normally, Kris would be too weak to attempt this maneuver, but with the Dark World's power flowing through them, there was a chance. Putting on a burst of speed, Kris jumped.
Susie caught Kris, holding them far away from her face.
Red eyes widening, Kris realized they had screwed up.
"Good! Now bite off their head!" Drake ordered.
Boing!
Lancer bounced into Kris's back. The blow softened Susie's elbow and it bent. Kris crashed into their girlfriend. Kris scrambled to get their heads around Susie and pull each other in for a kiss. At the same time, Susie chomped down.
Reflecting on it, it wasn't their worst kiss.
Kris' lip was punctured. Susie was nearly eating their face. It was hardly a proper kiss, but Kris was doing their best. Willing Susie to remember who she was, that they had worlds to save, friends to protect, and that she would never have kissed Drake under normal circumstances.
Susie crushed Kris, digging her claws into their back. Drake gaped at what was happening, unsure of what it all meant. Ralsei got up and began moving away, stealing the teen's sword.
I hope this works! Kris thought fervently.
Then a warm tongue tickled inside their mouth. Susie's jaw relaxed and she pulled back, though her grip became even stronger. Kris went limp as their girlfriend began making out with them in the middle of a Halloween storm.
"No! Come on! What's this?" Drake spat. "There's no way that should have worked!"
"Ah, but there is!" Ralsei declared, pushing up his glasses. They flashed as another bolt of lighting lit up the sky. "I was paying close attention to what those little traitors were getting up to in my library. Their powers are based on specific books they have read. Books tied to the stories of the Dark World. True love's kiss is one of the cures to a mind-altering spell that was once used, a long time ago."
"That could be any one of a thousand stories!" Drake protested, now crawling away from Ralsei. He knew he was in trouble, and Kris' wound was too incapacitating. Damn you, Mrs. Dreemurr! Why didn't you give me proper protection everywhere? Your creepy kid just hamstrung me!
"Yes, but there was something funky about those little guys," Ralsei said. "It was too convenient for them to suddenly appear as the curse took hold. Their explanation worked, but only if you crammed into everything that we already knew. Even with the pseudo-Dark Worlds, they still functioned according to the known rules. The angels' appearance was a simple explanation to a far more complex and complicated scenario.
"I still don't fully understand how they managed to engineer and initiate the curse, but we will soon figure out how to break it for good," Ralsei added confidently. "Then you'll be brought to justice for hurting my friends!"
"Damn you!" Drake hissed.
All while they spoke, Kris and Susie made out in the rain.
She finally mumbled to them, "Sorry, Kris… I don't know what came over me."
"Dumb magic from a dumb guy," Kris said simply. "It's not your fault."
"Like hell it isn't! But I still feel like I need to do something to make up for it."
"Let's stop this stupid curse," Kris said, giving her one more kiss.
Susie accepted that before putting them down. She then cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders. "Alright, Kris! First, I need to get some payback! And then we're going to find those little shits who did this to me and pound them flatter than pancakes!"
"Sounds delicious!" Lancer said, appearing at their sides.
"Yeah… The sweet taste of revenge!" Susie roared, launching herself at Drake.
The new guy screamed and tried to get away, but his injuries were too great. Susie snatched him up. She held up Drake with one clawed hand and raised her axe with the other. Drake raised his hands and begged for her let him go.
"You think for a second," she seethed. "That I'm going to let you go when-!"
"BLAAAARG!"
Drake unleashed a torrent of flames from his own maw. Susie pounced, clamping down on his snout with her own jaws. His flames cut off and sputtered out. Susie planted her axe into the pavement with a mighty swing.
Whump!
Her fist buried itself deep in Drake's gut. He went limp and Susie spat him out. Fire escaped from between her teeth as she snarled, "That was for taking me over and forcing me to kiss you. The rest is for Kris and my friends!"
"Wait!" he wheezed. "I can tell you what my brother and his- Gah!"
Susie laid into him. Kris and Lancer joined Ralsei to watch the show. Their girlfriend went full barbarian as her fists flew and kicks came on rough and fast. With the storm still raging and the darkness falling, the Dark World personas they wore did not fade away. Susie tore off Drake's armor and crushed it as she continued pummeling him. Flecks of blood and bits of broken teeth splattered across the pavement.
"Do you think she's done enough?" Ralsei asked, concerned.
Kris shook their head, disagreeing.
Eventually, Susie got up and dragged Drake onto the sidewalk by one twisted leg. She flung him to the side with a huff. "That does it. No more Drake."
Indeed! The bloody pulp of scales and crumpled, torn costume bits barely resembled Drake. Kris didn't bother delivering a kick of their own. Susie had meted out more than enough justice, and they had much bigger problems to worry about.
"Kris! Susie!" Noelle yelled at them, sprinting their way, and waving her arms. Her angelic clerical robes billowed as she ran. Catti and Jockington struggled to keep up. "We dealt with some killer clowns trying to murderer everyone in the town square!"
"Good job!" Susie shouted back. "We fought a werewolf, the Headless Horseman, and I just finished kicking Drake's ass!"
"Drake? What's going on?" Noelle gasped.
"Muh Drake? Wut happened to him?" Temmie added, rounding the corner and hearing the commotion.
"Yay! The whole gang is back together!" Lancer cheered happily, but everyone else was visibly shaken.
"This asshat thought it was a good idea to betray right after a fight and worked with the suspicious angel guys to possess me," Susie quickly explained. Kris and Ralsei nodded along. "Apparently Ralsei had the brains to look into what was going on and figured out a way to break the spell over me. Kris kissed me, I snapped back, and then I beat the every living-!"
"Wait, how did you figure that out?" Noelle asked Ralsei.
"Oh, well, I had a bad feeling about them," Ralsei said, scratching his neck embarrassedly at being put on the spot. "As a Darkner, I can sense when someone is a Lightner or a Darkner. Even the pseudo-worlds had their own Dark World imprint. But these guys felt wrong. There was something covering their identities, which felt more like Lightners. I wanted to get rid of them, but they had some interesting powers, and I figured they would cause mischief.
"So, I started doing research!I went back to what Susie, Kris, and I learned from last Christmas, when someone came from Mr. Gerson Boom's unpublished book. I did my best to look for his series and cross referenced that with the Dark World's history. I uncovered all kinds of interesting information and realized that the angels were using little tricks from Gerson's books, which aligned with some old tidbits of adventures and heroes that far predated you guys!"
"Wait… You've had… this information… all along?" Catti asked.
"Yes," Ralsei said sheepishly. "It's just the first time I felt pressed that any of it would be relevant."
Temmie meanwhile was checking out Drake's unconscious body. She prodded him, a disgusted expression on her face. She asked Kris, "Eez it all true?"
Kris gave her a solemn nod. They knew how much she had liked the new guy. Heck! If he hadn't come on so strong early on, Kris probably would have liked him as well. It was sad to see her dreams crumble. Without a word, Temmie began dragging Drake towards the bushes. Catti moved to join her, followed closely by Susie.
"Well…" Monster Kid said awkwardly. "We ran into Sans and Papyrus while Trick-or-Treating and helped them fight a monster that was trying to kill them. Apparently, it was sicked on them to stop them from figuring out what was really going on."
Kris wondered what the brothers had managed to discover.
Berdly answered, "The one who cast the curse on Hometown are here in town! And they're trying to suck out everyone's souls! All of the candy we've been collecting as carried a piece of every home's soul and the people who live there. When we bring all the candy together to try and break the curse, their souls will instead be taken and used. The nature of the curse is to manifest life into something, but they weren't sure exactly what it was."
"Oh! And they're right now headed to your house, Kris!" Snowy interjected.
While they discussed the matter, the nearby bushes began rustling and the stormy air was filled with the muffled sounds of digging, huffing, and puffing.
"Aha! That explains it!" Ralsei yelped. "That explains it! The False Angel that came for Mr. Boom's manuscript was a big fan of the Lord of the Hammer series! They wanted the story and they especially wanted to go on adventures like what Gerson once wrote!"
"Are you following any of this?" Snowy asked Monster Kid.
"Nope! I'm barely understanding tonight!"
"Kris, can you please clear this up?" Noelle pleaded.
Kris did their best to quickly convey the series of events. That some deranged superfan of Gerson's old series had somehow opened a new Dark World in their home during Christmas, trapping them and Susie. It was all part of an elaborate plan to find the manuscript for Gerson's unpublished book that he had gifted to Kris' parents years before. It was a book that wasn't supposed to be published because it contained too many dangerous secrets about the Dark World. If it got out into the public, it would mean that even more people could open Dark Fountains and cause the worlds to go out of balance, thereby destroying everything.
Snowy lit up and cried out, "Wait! Wait! There were all those clones of Gerson that we encountered in the Dark World that The Dude opened up! Do you think The Dude and your Christmas False Angel could be connected?"
"They definitely are," Ralsei said seriously. "Like I said, I think that the reason why I sensed that the angels could be Lightners is because that's exactly who they are! And I can't believe I didn't see it earlier; Orgo and Hodo had a pig monster, and human looks about them respectively!"
"If those bastards are in town and trying to break into your house again, Kris, then let's go and kick their asses into another world!" Susie growled angrily. She and the other girls stepped out from behind the bushes, covered in mud and gore.
"Uhhhh… What did you three do to Drake?" Noelle asked, concerned.
"They'll find him eventually," Susie said dismissively.
"He's still… breathing," Catti confirmed.
"It sounds like the big bosses though are just up ahead," Jockington mused. "Do you think we can stop The Dude from escaping again?"
"Certainly! They are committed to their plan," Berdly said confidently. He spun his halberd, eager for a fight. "We just don't bring them the candy and then there's no way they can use their spell! We help Sans and Papyrus stop them and then the day is saved! Or, well, the night!"
Kris indicated that there were still the concerns about The Dude did back during the summer. None of them had figured out exactly what he was after. Ralsei posited a theory that perhaps the plan had been all along to get information on the teens or learn more about the Dark World before making their big move on Halloween.
"Although, that is all speculation."
"Pushing your spectacles isn't getting us anywhere!" Snowy harumphed.
"Yeah, stop being so brainy and be more brawny like Susie!" Lancer added.
Susie stepped in and said, "No, this time we need to be smart." This drew everyone's shock and attention. "If we don't figure out how to stop these guys tonight and catch them for good, they'll just keep coming back and putting innocent people at risk. I didn't save the world just to let morons like these book fans come and end the world because they really want some dead guy's book!"
"The series is a modern classic, though," Noelle pointed out.
"Doesn't matter! Gerson didn't want anyone to have it! So, Kris, this time when we stop them, we're also going to shred and burn that book for good and prevent it from ever falling into anyone else's hands! Got it?"
Kris gave her another thumbs up.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Jockington asked. "Forward charge to the Dreemurrs!"
"Let me at 'em!" Temmie bellowed, leading the way to the final bosses.
