Chapter 10
The Third Task: Bone Tussle
"See? Didn't I say that my method would help us get through the apartments at top speed?" Berdly said proudly.
"No, your idea of ringing every doorbell while running up the levels and then working our way back down would have cost us soooo much time," Monster Kid said, rolling his eyes.
"Wurkin' our weh down from the top, eech person takin' their own floor is why we made eet threw so fast!" Temmie concurred.
"Yes, but would we have done the smart thing if I had not been my big dumb self and suggested the worst idea?" Berdly said, evidently very satisfied with his contribution.
Snowy shook his head, but didn't indulge Berdly's weird fantasy further. Instead, he lamented, "It's a shame that we all have to run around like this and collect candy from everyone in the town without working together. What if this is the last Halloween we all have together before we graduate and go our separate ways? Look, I get that we're saving the town and possibly the whole world, but this is a sad way to spend what might be our last group Halloween. Plus, we aren't getting that much candy by separating! This is totally lame!"
The others listened to Snowy's rant. Normally, he'd try passing off all kinds of jokes, both good and bad, but this time he was totally serious and sad. His words resonated with the other teens. They were growing up. The passage of time could not be halted. Not even the Dark World could turn back the clock and bring them back to simpler and more carefree times.
Halloween wasn't the favorite holiday for some of the kids, but it was a special time. A night of candy, costumes, wackiness, and good friends. Since Kris, Susie, and Ralsei had saved the Light and Dark Worlds, their class had finally come together and they were all real friends. With the exception of the weird summer excursion against The Dude at the beach, all of their adventures had been far calmer, more enjoyable.
This Halloween should have been a group affair and party…
Berdly was the first to shake himself from the melancholy of Snowy's self-reflection. "Look, once we wrap this up, we'll have a great party! The night is still young, my veteran adventurers! Let's go and save Hometown by collecting candy!"
The four friends tramped back out onto the street. The wind tore at their costumes and fat drops of rain periodically pelted them. Since they weren't in the Dark World, their costumes and armor did not give the same comfort or warmth they might have felt. Still, they were undeterred as they made their way to Asgore's flower shop. It was doing better than it had in the past, though Kris' dad was still far from prospering.
"Here's some seeds! The gift that keeps on giving so long as you take care of them," he said happily, handing out seeds for butterscotch squash and sugar peas.
"I'm not sure if this really counts as candy," Berdly pointed out.
"Er, yeah, well… They're pretty sweet! Once you discover the joys of growing your own plants," Asgore said, fumbling his way to a bad recovery. "Raising a garden is so rewarding! You learn how to be responsible, do things according to a strict timetable, how to be diligent for those who are relying on you…"
The teens let his explanation wash over them. He should have taken all of that good advice to heart long before, and maybe his flower shop would have prospered long ago. But as Kris had explained to them, Asgore was a little too carefree and scatterbrained. He needed someone strong and grounded like Toriel to keep him afloat. But Asgore was a good guy. There wasn't anyone in town other than Toriel who had any real beef with him.
Luckily, it had been going better for the divorced couple recently, but that was their personal business. The teens decided it was best to just accept their seeds and move on.
Next came Napstablook's house, where he had set up stall for people to pick up one ghost-jam candy as they went through. No one dared steal more than one piece from one of the town cops. Not just because Undyne might snap them in half, but everyone loved the soft-spoken, music-playing ghost cop.
"Hey, doesn't it seem like there's more people on the road than usual?" Monster Kid asked.
"Doesn't it seem like a bunch of them come from the Dark World?" Snowy added.
"Dozn't it seam like the boundreez between our worlds are getting' thin?" Temmie asked.
Not to be left out, Berdly said, "Doesn't it seem like it's getting colder?"
"Nah, you're just imagining things," Snowy said.
"Easy for the ice monster to say!" the bluejay snapped.
"I can always find you a thermometer."
"Nuh, maybe it eez different," Temmie mused. "I bet Drake wood know!"
"There you go again, always talking about Drake," Monster Kid groused, walking over to the nearest Darkners. Tasque Manager was ordering a bunch of kids into the most efficient line for retrieving candy. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something wrong about that guy. It took me a while to figure it out, but-"
"You mean it's hard to pin down because you don't have any fingers," Snowy scoffed.
"HEY!"
"MK, look here," Temmie retorted testily. "Drake eez one of duh best-lookin' men in this whole dang town! Take tha' back; he's da bestest! And Tem isn't gonna rest until she and Drake eez togetha four eva!"
"You need to calm down there, Temmie. You're about to break our ability to understand you," Snowy snickered. This earned him a slap from her.
Monster Kid ignored her outburst and approached Tasque Manager. "Hey, um, so how did the Darkners get here?"
"Oh! It's really simple. The boundaries between all of our worlds is now so thin that when his Highness Ralsei came to assist the Heroes of Legend, we found that we could all cross. And we've really wanted to, and to help as well, so we came. As simple as that!
"Now, if you want to get some candy from the homes here, you need to get in line with the rest of these good children. That is most efficient way to do things! And don't worry, the bosses are right now patrolling the shadows to make sure that other creatures don't spring out of other worlds and attack."
Monster Kid could blink in surprise. That was a lot to take in! But at least it sounded like they were going to get some much needed to help to turn the tides of this curse. That was a massive relief for him!
"Hey everyone! Looks like Ralsei is bringing us all the backup we need!" He turned back to Tasque Master and said, "Thanks for coming to help! We'll jump into the line soon, but first we're going to hit Sans and Papyrus' place."
"No one had been answering," Tasque Manager replied. "It would not be optimal to waste your time trying to get their attention if they're not home."
"Maybe they're at the shop?" Snowy suggested.
But Berdly was already on the move to knock on the front door. The moment he rapped his knuckles at the wood, the wind picked up and the sky grew even darker. More rain fell and an ominous presence rested over the street. A horrendous rattling sound filled the air. Like the clacking and rattling of old, dry bones.
"Queeck! Get the kids outta here!" Temmie gasped, feeling her costume transform.
Their Dark World avatars became real as a transparent TP counter appeared in the corner of their visions. However, there were no options to fight or ACT. It felt to the four teenagers as if they had one foot in the real world, a foot in the Dark World, and a third, unexplained foot in a different space, one where anything was possible.
Griped by a sudden spike of panic, Berdly knew he couldn't wait for either of the skelebros to open the door. He spun his halberd and struck, shattering the door. A beam of colorful lights and wind crashed into him, rocketing him backwards into his friends. Berdly landed in an undignified heap as a massive creature pushed and squeezed itself through the small threshold.
It has a cracked, horned skull with wires and sensors attached to it and running down its back like a mane. The body was hard to really perceive or describe. It was ever-shifting, made of prismatic light as if it was condensed and hardened into a multi-limbed, salamander-esque form. A tornado of bones was at its core. A stone-rending roaring escaped from its dry maw, scattering the Trick-or-Treaters.
The threat had finally come to Hometown!
"Guard the children!" Tasque Manager called out to the other Darkners along the road. "Keep them safe!"
While she barked her orders, bones flew down the arms and clawed feet of the unnamed creature and spilled out. They spun and rattled quickly reassembling themselves to form complete, humanoid skeletons. Light flowed around them and formed medieval armor and weapons. The creature released another roar, prompting its warriors forward.
"Well, £ !" Temmie swore.
"Quick, get Berdly up," Monster Kid told Snowy, registering a spike of TP in their collective scale. "We need to work together if we want to bring this thing down!"
"No shirt, Sherlock!" Everyone gave Snowy a confused, thunderous glance. He shrugged. "What? Temmie just used up our allotted count of adult swears!"
"Act more like Susie and really say what you mean!" Berdly cried, leaping to his feet. "Never give up! Never surrender! If you want to swear, live your life without regrets! You are free!"
"And you'll be dead unless you're careful! Nyahahaha!"
They all looked up to the roof where Papyrus cut a dashing figure against the storm. With his arms crossed, a football helmet finally on his head, and the cape billowing majestically. His sockets fleshed with a pure, white, energetic light. he threw out one hand and sent down a tumbling of bones to pierce the onrushing warriors in the back, impaling them.
"Allow me to remind you, fiend, that you are not done with us!"
"Us?" the four friends said together.
"Hey kids, watch out. Those soldiers may be real numb skulls, but they don't go down easy," Sans said lazily as he walked out behind the beast
The summoned warriors wrenched themselves free from Papyrus's attack and kept on coming. Tasque Manager used her whip to knock a few back, but they were not destroyed at all. Berdly swooped in with his halberd, bringing its down in an almighty arc. It crushed in the light helm of one skeleton, cracking the skull underneath, but it did not stop. A short sword made of contracted light swept across the bluejay's stomach, making him feel weak and queasy.
With a hungry roar, the gigantic monster lunged to swallow Berdly whole. A blue aura encased the teen and threw him to the side.
"What was that?" he gasped.
CHOMP!
The creature just missing closing its serrated jaws on Berdly. Temmie flew into action, attacking the beast's head. In true Temmie fashion, she was a whirlwind of different weapons, alternating between nunchucks, daggers, short swords, and Eg. Though she racked up a significant amount of TP, there was no visible harm done to the creature. Snowy and Monster Kid tried to keep the mindless skeletons off her, but to no avail. They too, along with Temmie, were suddenly coated in a blue aura and whisked away.
Sans walked calmly out into the wind and rain, saying, "If you kids want to be useful and not just flail around, then pull back and help coordinate."
Papyrus performed a swan dive off the roof and crashed into the creature's skull. With a heavy punch, he managed to cause a significant crack from curled horn to the right eye socket. However, the thing's body roiled and radiated even more light than before. With a puff of sparkles, the wound was completely healed.
"GAH! Sans, this thing refuses to accept the fist of justice!"
"How about you hit it with your special attack?"
"No! There's too many people here watching!"
"Fair enough. Besides, the heroes should be pulling their weight," San said with a wink to the teens.
Tasque Manager was turning the skeleton warriors around with her whip, forcing them to march and crash into each other. But it still wasn't enough to take them out. Papyrus flipped over the beast's head to avoid getting caught. A parade of bones erupted from the skeleton and slapped the monster, but to little effect. It pounded its gigantic claws down on Papyrus, who was also encased in a blue aura and yanked out of the way.
"GAAAAAAH! Stop doing that!"
'Stop making yourself such an easy target," Sans said with his typical grin.
Tasque Manager beat a slight retreat and jumped onto a roof to survey how the larger evacuation was going. Her fellow Darkners were thankfully working fast and hard to get all of the kids and Trick-or-Treaters out of the way and to safety. The four heroes quickly regrouped. Berdly held out his halberd in a warding manner as the skeletal warriors wheeled in their direction.
"Alright, does anyone have any bright ideas for how we win this one?" Berdly stammered.
"Find Kris and Susie, and let them deal with this?" Snowy asked fearfully.
"We can't abandon them, though!" Monster Kid said, nodding to the brothers and Tasque Manager.
"Maybee Drake could save me? Uh, Temmie meant us!"
"Come on! Could you give Drake a rest!? Gah!" Monster Kid yelped as Sans appeared right next to them.
"I have an idea, but you will all have to trust me," Sans said cryptically. "Also, I'll need you to have iron stomachs."
"Why's that?" Snowy asked.
The blue auras encased them all again. Sans' grin widened as he answered, "Because we're going to gun that guy there ragged. I need you to distract him while I deal the real damage."
"Wait, wait! Hold ooooooon!" Monster Kid screamed as he and the others were thrown right at the creature.
Berdly spung in a green hurricane as he slashed and carved up the beast's side, doing unfortunately very little damage. Snowy got tangled in its weird mane and ripped out a bunch of wires and tubes. Monster Kid and Temmie smashed against its skull, accumulating loads of TP. The beast let loose a frustrated roar and tried to snatch the teens out of the air, but Sans moved them easily out of reach. At the same time, he summoned hundreds of jagged bones up from underneath the earth to impale the monster.
The whole creature beamed brightly once more and fully restored itself from whatever small amounts of damage the heroes had managed to inflict. However, a lot of its smaller bones flying around in the center had been popped out by Sans' follow-up attack.
"I'm going all out!" Berdly announced, tapping their TP reserves. He summoned his own storm of papers and sent them flying into the creature. The papers didn't do much except to obscure everyone's vision. The beast weathered the assault, but then a great explosion rocked.
The monster collapsed to the street with a large hole punched through its skull head.
"You finally used your move!" Sans commended, pulling the kids back into the fight.
"Yeah, felt about the right time to use it!"
What special move? the four heroes thought, frustrated.
"Don't waste so much TP on a dumb move next time!" Monster Kid berated Berdly as he flew right into the beast's large wound. He unleashed a blade attack from within, creating tons of wide cracks in the creature's skull. Unfortunately, Temmie and Snowy's outer attacks were not as effective.
Feeling sick and lightheaded from the flight and the monster's bright light, they all came to stop above Sans. The small skeleton summoned another barrage of bones to punch the beast and throw out more of the bones tumbling within it. The creature stumbled, its light faltering after it used another burst to heal itself.
"Ah, now I get it. We need to get that thing to lose all its excess power and light if we want to defeat it," Snowy declared.
"Finally picked up on it, eh?" Papyrus shouted, punching the thing in the head. "It was positively blinding when our fight against it began."
The creature ignored Papyrus and rushed at Sans. It knew where its greatest pains were coming from. Sans created a thick wall of bones, but the creature began slashing its way through with its multiple arms. The bone warriors tried to stream through the gaps, but Papyrus and Tasque Manager managed to throw them back and engage the soldiers.
Sans tossed the teens over his wall for another attack on the monster's head. They all noticed just how much dimmer the creature was, but it was still large and deadly. It noticed them coming over and tilted its head back. Its socket glowed with a deathly light. The jaw dropped and a massive beam began forming in its gullet.
"Oh, that can't be good," Snowy groaned.
BBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZ!
A powerful laser beam tore through the bone wall, slamming into the beast's face. Its inner beam ignited, blowing off the monster's jaw. The teens fell into the creature's forcefully opened maw. But as they dropped, Berdly had a genuinely good idea.
"Guys! We need to destroy the bones inside that creature! I don't understand why, but for some reason those have something to do with its life force!"
"Got eet!" Temmie shouted, going in first. She unleashed a frenzy, pulverizing tons of bones as she passed through the dizzying light. Monster Kid went in next, kicking like mad. Snowy passed in next, casting small freezing spells to hold the bones in place. Lastly, Berdly tore through once more like a green tornado.
All four of them tumbled out onto the street, completely drained and queasy from the flight and monster's light. But their attacks destroyed all the bones within the monster. It slumped and slackened a little. Its light began winking out, revealing that it was little more than a scary, translucent sack that formed the monster's body. It lacked any real energy to keep itself together and heal.
It turned and growled at the skeleton warriors. It took its light back from them, trying to heal itself in one more gambit. Even though his vision was double, Berdly noticed that the monster was also retreating for the shadows between Sans' home and shop. He wanted to say something, but nearly threw up in the process.
Fortunately, Sans also noticed what the creature was doing. With a gesture of his boney fingers, he summoned another barrage of femurs to appear and pin the beast. The teens then glimpsed another great skull, almost like a dragon's, eyes glowing and maw open. It unleashed a horrific beam of energy that blew off the monster's head. And in a flash of light, it all vanished.
The storm immediately began letting up. The rain almost stopped, and the wind died down. But many people were already fleeing into the relative safety of their own homes. Halloween was clearly on the brink of disaster.
"Crap! Sans, quick! We need your candy. If we can get it, we should have almost everything we need to finish off the spell holding Hometown!" Monster Kid said hurriedly, stumbling back to his feet. "Please…"
"Hold on there, kid. That might be a bad idea," Sans answered seriously.
"Why?"
"Because gathering the candy around town during this night is akin to gathering the souls of everyone in Hometown!" Papyrus cackled frustratedly.
"It's true," Sans confirmed. "After my brother's fight against one of the shadow monsters earlier, we decided to do some of our own investigating. What we found out is that someone is desperately trying to destroy Hometown as part of a greater sacrifice. This creepy Halloween is all a part of that."
The friends were all shocked by this revelation.
"Thun wut are wee supposed to do?" Temmie asked.
Papyrus cleared his throat impressively and importantly. "First, we need to find Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. And then we're going to find the ones responsible for this whole mess."
"And make sure they have a really bad time," Sans added, the light going out from his eyes.