Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 24: Dragon's Uprising
At the snowfields in the mountainous regions of Avalice, Torque, Carol, Nicole and Milla were running across the fields in search of Mayor Zao and his army when multiple red trucks transporting the soldiers of Shang Mu were zipping by them and they ran up after them. However the army slowed to a stop due to the sight of General Gong and the Shang Tu army standing in their way much to the relief of Torque and the others.
"What are they doing here?" asked Zao with a look of annoyance.
The leaders of both armies approached each other in the middle, though one can amusedly take notice of the stark difference in heights from a certain perspective.
"Hmph, nice hat," said Gong.
"Nice gut," Zao replied, given that it's what he's able to look at.
"Let me help!" Milla scampered over and made a mound of snow for Zao to stand on and be equal in height with the general, creating a sense of equality in a weird but logical kind.
"It seems that we have a common enemy, Zao," Gong presented a letter for the mayor to take and read before replying.
"So let me get this straight…the Magister said that if we join together and fight Mr. Braven, we get half of the Kingdom Stone's energy?" asked Zao.
"Sounds like a fair fight, does it not?"
But the mayor got angry "Are you kidding?! My city needs way more than half!"
General Gong angry as well "Pah, you just want to hog the last of our reserves!"
"I know that you feel a little jealous, but I can't help that my city is bigger than yours!"
Gong growled in as his men armed themselves with Zao's doing the same in preparation for an incoming fight, but Torque quickly intervened to stop them from doing so.
"Hold on a minute fellas, this is exactly what Brevon wants! For you to fight each other while he gets away with all of your energy!" said Torque.
"He's right, and we're running out of time before he makes his getaway!" Nicole voiced in as well.
"What difference does it make if it's Brevon or this swine?" asked Gong.
Zao's face turned red as steam blew out of his ears "Grrrrrrrrrrr, we're marching into Shuigang whether you like it or not!"
"You don't have the guts!"
*ROOOOOAAAAR!*
There was a loud thunderous roar which startled everyone to look around confusedly especially Zao, Milla then looked up to the sky and noticed something to which she called out to the others.
"Look!" Milla pointed out, everyone turned towards her direction only to be stunned upon seeing a large blue serpentine dragon with red orbs on its back descending from the sky and levitated in the air before them. Oddly enough, the mound which Zao was on quickly melted in a matter of seconds.
"Dragon…kneel before the ancient beast!" Gong proclaimed before doing so with everyone else following suit.
*Growl*
"Oh…" Zao was still stunned.
*Growl*
"So you're saying…that we should work together?"
The great dragon nodded in affirmation to his statement.
"Ohohoho, of course! Eeheheh! Heh…Please don't eat us!" he chuckled nervously.
The dragon roared once more before flying away, Torque and the others ran a short distance as they watched it leave with feelings of familiarity.
"Was that…?" asked Milla.
"It couldn't have been her…could it?" asked Torque unsurely.
Then a familiar voice spoke up from behind them "Be careful what you wish for…"
"…cause it might come true," another voice finished the sentence.
They quickly turned towards the voices to see two figures on top of a truck, it was none of than Naruto standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face as Kou and Yoru waved at them happily while Lilac sat next to him with a smile on her face as well.
"Naruto/Lilac!" Nicole, Milla and Carol called out to them joyfully, as the duo landed on the ground before them.
"Hey guys," said Lilac.
"Yo," said Naruto before he was suddenly engulfed in a hug by both Milla and Nicole while Carol hugged Lilac instead.
"It's really you two! You came back!" said Milla happily.
"That's my girl!" Carol looked at Naruto and noticed his new outfit "And you too Naruto, I'm totally digging the new threads, a totally hot look for you,"
"Thanks Carol-chan, I'm glad you like it though," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Naruto, how were you able to recover from those wounds of yours?" asked Nicole, drawing the attention of the others.
"That's because I possess a powerful healing factor and had some 'help' for my speedy recovery," Naruto replied.
"That's right, you better be grateful," said Kurama smugly, causing Naruto to roll his eyes.
"I'm just glad to see that both of you made it out okay," said Torque with a smile.
"So how were you two able to do that giant dragon thing?" asked Carol curiously.
"We didn't do it, this little fella did," Lilac gestured to Pangu who floated down next to them, but the group tensed upon seeing its form all too similar to Brevon's robot "There's no need to worry, this robot wasn't made by Brevon,"
"Really?" asked Torque with a look of interest.
"That's right and we learnt about other things which was more than enough to persuade the magister to helping us," said Naruto.
"That is rather fortunate to hear," said Nicole, they all turned their attention to general Gong who was making a proclamation.
"My friends! We have been blessed with the seal of the dragon! We must heed its call and join together for the greater good!" said Gong.
Mayor Zao suddenly piped up "Under my leadership!"
Gong looked at him with a deadpanned expression "You can't be serious,"
Later on, the allied army set up camp and the main factors had gathered around a small campfire to have a discussion concerning battle strategies against Brevon and his forces.
"So what can you tell us about the invaders?" asked Gong.
"Well Brevon is a starship commander, he doesn't have much experience on the ground as much as you do," said Torque.
"Then we take it to the streets!" said Zao.
Naruto punched his fists together with a smirk "You got that right, gonna show him how we roll around here!"
"But we need to cross the snowfields without getting wasted," Gong pointed out.
"We do have one advantage…Brevon wants four of us dead no matter what. If he sees us coming, we can definitely distract him," said Lilac.
"He'll be targeting me especially because of my power and abilities," said Naruto, drawing looks of worry from the girls.
"A diversion, you think you can pull it off?" Gong was rather skeptical.
"Remember how we distracted you lots of times back then?" asked Carol slyly.
"You have a point there,"
"What about the stone? How do we get it back?" asked Zao.
"I could modify one of my hacking devices to knock out power to the engine mainframe," said Torque.
"I'll be assisting in the modification," said Nicole.
"…In my language?" asked Zao.
"Pull the guy's plug and take back the Kingdom Stone while blowing a raspberry at the greenie," Naruto clarified.
"Pretty much that," said Torque.
Sometime later, Naruto and Lilac were currently keeping Torque and Nicole company in one of the tents as they worked on the hacking devices, Milla and Carol went to make preparations and the Chao were hanging out with them. Naruto was sitting on a wooden bench, cleaning both swords while listening to some music on his regained headphones with Lilac sitting close to him with a thoughtful look on her face.
"I hope this works, in case it doesn't…I need you to be prepared for what I might have to do," said Torque.
"…it will work, it has to," said Lilac.
Naruto stopped cleaning the Masamune and took off the headphones to speak up "Same here, the importance of the Kingdom Stone is much greater than what we thought. If anything Brevon should be the one who is to be taken down,"
Lilac was quiet for a moment before speaking again "…would Brevon have left us alone if we hadn't tried to stop him?"
"He pulled that trick on you huh?" Torque said this not as a question but a statement.
"But is it true?"
"Maybe, but I wouldn't trust him on it. Even if he did leave your people alone, it would only be a matter of time before his conquest affected your world,"
"Otherwise I wouldn't have come here either but I am now, Brevon reminds me of a madman named Orochimaru, he had an unquenchable lust for ultimate power and immortality with the capability of going through any lengths to get them. Many people were deceived and forced to do his bidding and he would throw away their lives with a care in the world. I was able to save a few from his corruption but there were others who were too far-gone to be saved, he and Brevon are so much alike that it's not even funny," said Naruto, thinking back on his numerous encounters with rogue snake Sannin back in the Elemental Nations.
"He's right, I'm suspecting that Brevon was trying to break your spirit which meant that he saw you as a threat too," said Torque in agreement.
"…I guess you're both right, we can't quit now," said Lilac, Naruto smiled in response then quietly walked out of the tent to get some fresh air outside and the purple dragoness followed after him.
Naruto noticed Lilac throwing glances at him every once in a while "What's the matter Lilac-chan?"
"…it's just that…I'm worried about you Naruto" Lilac looked down to the ground at that.
"How come?"
"It's about what you said back then, that Brevon would put most of his focus on taking you out and it's no farther from the truth. He tortured you to find out about your power and I feel that he'll do it again if he catches you," Lilac looked very worried about this.
"Normally I would say that there's no need for you to worry but given what happened last time, it isn't so assuring. But this time, definitely nothing will happen to me cause this time I won't be holding back my true strength," Naruto held out his pinky finger to Lilac "It's a promise,"
Lilac looked at Naruto for a few moments before hooking her pinky finger with his as she smiled at him "I'll definitely hold you on to it…and I almost forgot to give you something,"
"What is it?" asked Naruto curiously, before he realized, Lilac walked up close to him then stood on the tips of her toes to reach up to his height and lean in to plant a soft kiss on his cheeks, resulting in both blushing beet red.
"I hadn't gotten to chance to thank you for healing me back then," said Lilac with a happy smile.
Naruto looked away from her shyly "Y-you're welcome, Lilac-chan," at that moment, they heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Milla and Carol walking around the tent to seeing them.
"Hey guys, we were looking over for you and…did something happen?" Carol was talking when she noticed something off about the duo.
"N-nothing at all, we were just talking about something," Lilac stammered before quickly walking away.
Naruto managed to get his blush under control before speaking up "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"
"We wanted to tell you that Gong and the army are ready to go," said Milla.
"Alright then, I'll go and let Torque and Nicole-chan know about it before joining you two," Naruto quickly left, though Carol can't help but feel that something's going on between Naruto and Lilac and can't help but want to know what it is.
"Sooooo…when's the wedding?" asked Kurama teasingly, ever since the beginning of their friendship, Kurama has been taking great pleasure from poking fun at Naruto, at times making him wonder how things would have been if they were friends much earlier before the war…boy he would have gotten a lot of ammo on him!
"Shut it Kurama, it's not like that!" thought Naruto.
"Are you sure?"
"Y-yeah, it isn't,"
"Can you stare at me in the eye and say it isn't so?"
"…just put a lid on it," Naruto cut off the link with Kurama laughing at him as he walked to the tent to speak with Torque and Nicole.
Sometime later, both armies from Shang Mu and Shang Tu were driving across the snowfields with their vehicles shifted to top gear, Milla, Carol and Torque were on board battle tanks which were provided to them by Mayor Zao to take the lead. Lilac hung onto Pangu who activated its hard light hologram projector to take on the form of the Ancient Water Dragon once more, as for Naruto he was running alongside the others with his speed.
"Hey Naruto, why is it that you do want to use the tank?" asked Carol, she and the others were surprised when Naruto refused to use a tank when Zao offered it to him.
Naruto turned to smile at them "That's because I have no need for it, I'm about to get real serious and a buddy of mine has waited long enough to get a piece of the action,"
Nicole who was in fairy form and flying next to him then realized what he was talking about "Naruto-kun, you mean…"
Naruto punched his fists together "That's right, let's get wild!" golden chakra burst out from his body and engulfed him, revealing him in his Nine-Tailed Chakra mode much to the surprise of everyone as they looked at him in awe.
"Whoa, I thought he was hot but he's absolutely blazing!" thought Carol.
"Wow, I didn't know he could do that," thought Milla.
"Astounding, and to think Brevon wanted to access this kind of power," thought Torque.
"Let's go, Kurama!" chakra surged from Naruto once more and took on the form of a giant Kitsune with nine tails and the upper-body structure of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands, its whiskers are much thicker, and black circular markings appear on its shoulders, stomach, as well as the front and back of its paws. Black lines also run the length of its spine, arms, legs and tails.
"Finally, it's about time to get back at that green slimeball!" said Kurama with a smirk as he ran along with the others.
Lilac was surprised at first but smiled upon recalling what Naruto told her earlier about fighting more seriously in this oncoming battle. Now's the time to make Brevon regret ever stepping foot on this planet!
Inside the Dreadnought, Brevon, Syntax and Prince Dail were at the engine room where the Kingdom Stone was currently placed to power up the massive ship. Syntax suddenly beeped a few times before speaking to its master.
[The alien army has commenced its attack and I'm detecting a high power level that is with the army] it then projected a holoscreen to display the allied armies along with what appears to be giant creatures running ahead of them. Brevon was both shocked and angry upon seeing the blonde fox hovering with the energy construct with a look of determination and the purple dragoness, just like he suspected those will definitely serve to ruin his plans. Plus it also includes the fact that the fox launched a missile at him!
"Give the order to your troops," said Brevon still frowning at the vulpine pest.
"It shall be done," said Prince Dail.
"You ready Carol?" asked Lilac.
"Ready to rock!" Carol replied with gusto.
"Find the commander and his pets and tear them to shreds, and leave their brains intact if possible. I might use them for something to my use…especially that damn fox," said Brevon.
"Milla?"
"Together!" the basset hound responded.
"Fire at will!"
"Let's show this green maniac how to save a planet!" said Lilac.
"You heard her guys, let's mess 'em up!" said Naruto with determination.
"Roger that!" said Torque.
Music Start: Naruto Shippuden OST- My Name
Kurama was running across the fields as a large fleet of giant drones in the form of green eyeballs flew towards him and the others before firing a barrage of energy bolts at them, Kurama quickly used four of his tails to deflect the shots away from the tanks then pointed them at the drones with chakra gathering at the tips "Nine-Tails Beam!" he fired powerful beams which pierced through the targets, destroying them.
"Hey Naruto, Kurama! Save some of the baddies for us!" said Carol, she picked up speed in her tank and took aim at some of the other spheres with her launcher and fired red sparks to shoot them down to the ground "Hah, multiple bulleyes!"
"No worries Carol-chan, there's enough of these guys to go around," Naruto replied with amusement.
Up in the skies above them, Lilac was controlling the Holodragon to taking evasive action to prevent the energy bolts fired by the drones from hitting her before returning fire with scattershots of blue fireballs in three directions with most of them striking the enemy. More drones appeared and this time are accompanied by Gunships as they began to fire energy waves at them along with the bolts. Lilac launched another volley of fireballs to cancel them out but it had no effect, forcing her to evade them before they could hit her.
Naruto saw that Lilac was having some trouble and quickly called out to Kurama "Yo bud, Lilac-chan needs some backup so let's give it to her!"
"Got it," Naruto activated his celestial aspect with the halo appearing above his head and large orbs of light floating around Kurama, both focused on the gunships with the orbs glowing brighter than before then called out "Shooting Stars!" they launched the orbs at high-speed in forms of comets to shoot them down, Lilac seized the opportunity to fire a massive blue energy beam to take out all of the remaining drones.
"Thanks for the help Naruto, Kurama!" said Lilac gratefully.
"No problem Lilac-chan!" Naruto smiled in return as the orbs returned to float around them, they took notice of flying saucers heading straight for them, Kurama roared out loud as he destroyed them with punches, shattering them into pieces. Milla and Torque provided support by firing sweeping flamethrowers for wide range attacks, Nicole pitched it by transforming into her default form with her data wings active before firing blasts of data to disrupt the functionality of the machines to make it easier for the others to destroy them.
By this time, multiple drones, gunships and saucers began attacking them with full force. Carol, Milla and Torque rapidly alternated between their Spark Launchers and flamethrowers to beat them back whilst either shooting down incoming projectiles or veering from left to right. Foxfire began radiating from Kurama's mouth and the tips of his tails before he proceeded to launch fireballs and streams of blue flames to take them down and at times coating his fists with foxfire to punch away any that manage to get close to him.
"Let's keep this momentum up guys, we're almost there!" said Lilac.
"I'm detecting Syntax rapidly approaching our position, please exercise caution," said Nicole,
Soon the aforementioned robot appeared before them, surrounded in a purple energy shield before glowing brightly then faded to reveal it in a giant crablike form as it hovered poised to combat them.
[Please remain still while the extermination is in process] said Syntax.
"Like we would listen to you, let's get this tin can out of the way!" said Carol.
"I couldn't agree with you more, Carol-chan!" said Naruto.
Syntax pointed one of its pincers at Lilac and the other at Naruto and the rest before firing massive laser blasts at them. Lilac controlled the Holodragon to rapidly rise and dive to avoid the blasts fired at her constantly and retaliated with a dragon beam for high damage, Milla and the others quickly drove out of the way of the blasts while Naruto and Kurama batted them out of the way with their tails then he activated his wind aspect, one of Kurama's tails was coated with swirling air and took on the form of a large shuriken "Gigant Air Shuriken!" they launched the spinning wind projectile at high-speed to slice off one of the pincer.
"Take care of the other one and it will be smooth sailing from here," said Naruto.
"Got it!" said Torque in affirm before taking aim at Syntax and firing his Spark launcher rapidly, however the robot ascended to the air quickly to dodge the projectiles and began firing scattershots of laser shots with its remaining pincer in multiple directions.
"It's certainly not going down without a fight," said Carol.
"Yeah well it's all for nothing, I'm ending it here," said Lilac with the Holodragon charging up another dragon beam.
"Right behind ya!" Naruto thrusts his hands forward as balls of blue and red chakra gathered around Kurama's mouth and fused to form a large purple sphere of chakra "Tailed Beast Bomb!" they fired one of their ultimate attacks with Lilac following suit with her dragon beam. Both attacks struck Syntax and resulted in a massive explosion "Well that takes care of it, we'll split up and rendezvous at the entrance of the Dreadnaught!"
"Okay Naruto, we'll meet you there!" said Milla.
"Time to tag out Kurama, we're going incognito," said Naruto.
"Tch, just when we're getting started. Well I've had my fun for now," Kurama grumbled a bit before his avatar receded with Naruto back to normal for the time being, he landed on the ground and began to pull away from the others with Lilac flying above him.
Music End
Naruto skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff with Lilac landing next to him as Pangu flew away to assist the allied armies as they went to retake Shuigang from Prince Dail's control for the meantime. The trio looked ahead to see the Dreadnaught and its refueling station at a far distance from where they're standing.
"Let's get a move on, sometime tells me that we're running against the clock here and that we must get to that ship as soon as possible.
"You're right, I'm detecting a gradual buildup of energy from it. I believe that it will take soon," said Nicole.
"Then we must hurry," Lilac determinedly.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Battle Glacier 1
The duo began running towards the edge with the intention to jump when suddenly large cubes of purple energy materialized before them to form a pathway. Though slightly confused, Naruto and Lilac continued their run along the cubes to the other side onto a ledge. They moved along the snowy path when a pair of the yellow flying versions of the Turretus went ahead and began firing energy projectiles at the duo, Naruto quickly unsheathed Hazy-Moon to deflect the shots from them and channeled chakra to the ECG X gloves to create shuriken then throwing them to slice through the robots, destroying them.
They moved on whilst jumping across the floating platforms with the purples energy blocks appearing every now and then to provide a route to the next area for them. They were running when the ground began to shift and rise much to their surprise but refused to back down as they made use of them as makeshift ramps to launch themselves into the air to the upper levels. Meteor Rollers fell from above in meteorite forms to attack the duo, Lilac quickly used her Dragon Boost and Naruto with his Rasengan Barrage to knock them out of the way in midair then switched to a double dive kick to smash through multiple dragonfly robots, Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai and threw it at a Bullfrag which was about to attack with its green bubbles then flashed over to appear overhead with Hazy-Moon unsheathed "Flying Raijin Slash!" he cleaved the robot in half with a mighty swing of the blade. Lilac ran past him towards a small group of Turretus and slashed through them with her hair.
Naruto and Lilac moved along, having to descend to the lower levels by rolling through a vertical spiral loop a couple times then climbing up a few floating platforms again to get to an upper ledge before continuing on. The duo were dashing up an uphill slope with Meteor Rollers chasing after them. Naruto spun round with his earth aspect activated and stomped hard on the ground to form a large piece of rock in the shape of a rhinoceros's head before him "Bedrock Rhino Rush!" he performed a palm thrust to launch it towards the robots, smashing them into pieces "That takes care of our followers, now to keep on moving," they continued on their way into the next area.
"Be careful everyone, I'm detecting robot activity underground," said Nicole in alert when Naruto and Lilac were moving on ahead. No sooner she said that did large orange snakelike robots burst from the ground and spraying rocks so they had to get clear or risk being hit.
"We can't worry about them now, we need to get through here as quickly as possible," said Naruto, he took off with Lilac following him at high-speed as they carefully avoided the rocks flung around by the machines to the other side then spinning through another vertical spiral loop onto a slope to pick up speed before dashing up a ramped cliff wall to the top. There they were attacked by a Shuigang helicopter from above with missiles, Naruto crossed his arms with chakra channeled into the ECG X gloves to project a transparent dome of energy to shield them from the attack then Nicole stretched her hands out to the chopper as bits of data and electricity was being drained from the aircraft till it crashed to the ground.
They continued their climb up the ledges till coming to an area full of levitating platforms which is guarded by a lot of Lava squids which began to shoot lasers upon seeing them. Naruto and Lilac dashed from side to side to evade the projectiles before going into the offensive. Naruto performed the Bladed Shadow Dance as he unsheathed Hazy-Moon and unleashed a flurry of slashes all around with afterimages trailing behind him then landing on the ground and slowly sheathing the blade with a metallic click for the robots to fall into many pieces. Lilac took to performing aerial Dragon cyclone to take out surrounding enemies while at times switching between dive kicks and roundhouse kicks to finish off her portion of enemies. They had finished taking care of all the opponents when they heard a loud whooshing sound and looked up only to see a familiar but unallied starship flying over their heads.
"It's Brevon's ship, the Absolution," said Nicole warily.
"Guess the teme is siccing his metal lapdog on us," said Naruto.
"But we won't let that stop us!" said Lilac determinedly with the others nodding in agreement.
The group moved on ahead as they ran up a couple of ramped walls to the upper levels before arriving the outskirts of the refueling station only to have their route blocked by large metal craters of explosives. At that moment, several missiles with drill bits at the head burst out from the ground and hovered lightly in the air, this gave Lilac an idea as she jumped into the air and kicked them towards the crates to destroy them and pave a way for them to go through. However the Absolution swooped in from above and fired green laser projectiles at them, the duo quickly took cover behind some of the building structures as shield while they advanced with more of the purple energy cubes materializing to help make their climb much easier. Naruto and Lilac used some bounce pads to launch themselves to an upper level blocked by more metallic craters and this time Naruto took charge.
"Rasengan Super Barrage!" Naruto began creating shadow clones armed with Rasengan to charge at the craters and smash through each rapidly to create another route for them to proceed into the next.
The group went along the pathway before finding themselves standing in the middle of a wide open area. They were about to take another step when the Absolution flew by then came round to land on the ground with its four legs which released shockwaves around itself, Naruto and Lilac quickly built some distance between themselves and the hostile starship before taking combat stances.
"Seems like it doesn't want us to advance any further," said Lilac.
"Might as well kick it aside like the tin can it really is," said Naruto with his body radiating with chakra as they prepared for a battle. Beforehand, Naruto played a track from a custom playlist on his headphones
Music Switch: Hopeku - Blue Brass of the Beast (2x Arrange)
"I'll begin analyzing it for its weak points!" Nicole shrunk down into her fairy form and held her arms out for three holoscreens to appear before her then using the reticle in the middle screen to aim at the Absolution with the others gradually displaying graphs and blueprints. A low humming was heard from the starship as it began to charge up energy in its frontal cannon enough to form a green electrical orb before leaping backwards and firing three large laser shots at the group. Naruto and Lilac quickly jumped out of the way with the later foxfire balls rapidly at the ship for the projectiles to simply bounce off the ship's hull much to their mild annoyance.
"Blazing Barrage!" Naruto activated his fire aspect and began launching salvos of fireballs at the ship, inflicting little damage then quickly used Shadow Step to move out of the way when the Absolution pounced at him from a distance, Lilac charged in and leapt into the air to perform a dive at what she thought to be the ship's cockpit but the attack simply bounced off with no results. The Absolution leapt into the air once more to stomp on the ground to unleash another shockwave at them.
"Terra Quake," he switched to the earth aspect with his fist emitting a bronze aura before he punched the ground to create ripples which collided with the shockwaves, cancelling each other out "Have you found anything yet, Nicole-chan?"
"I'm still in the middle of analysis, please give me some more time," said Nicole completely focused on the screens and processing the data.
"Please hurry, we can't afford to waste any more time!" said Lilac worriedly.
The starship hovered into the air with a large machine gun appearing at the bottom as it fired rapidly at its targets, Naruto crossed his arms with the ECG X gloves projecting an energy shield to defend against the bullets while Kou had flown over to Lilac and protect her with its energy shield too. Suddenly the Absolution flew off at high-speed around the area then came swooping in towards them for a head-on collision. Naruto flung a Hirashin kunai into the air and then rushed over to grab Lilac and disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear above the Absolution, however they saw it drop several mines on the ground so he quickly grabbed the airborne Hirashin kunai and threw it again at a safer area to warp them over.
"Well, anything yet?" asked Naruto.
"…I've got it now, its weakness is the multicolored gem on the front! It serves as part of the combat system, destroying that with cripple it severely," said Nicole.
The duo leapt away from the starship's slam attack again "Thanks for the info, now we know we to strike. Time for some offense!" Naruto formed his signature handsign to create a squad of shadow clones and dashed at the ship with them following him. The Absolution switched to rapid-fire of laser shots with a few able to take out a few but the others quickly reached it before leaping it into the air while activating different elemental aspects.
"Aqua Vortex Kick!"
"Burning Kick!"
"Earthbreaker Kick!"
"Wild Tempest Kick!"
"Thunderbolt Kick!"
The clones channeled elemental energy to one of their feet as Naruto then called out "Quintuple Elemental Kick Strike!" they all dove towards the starship and consecutively struck the gem to inflict great damage before puffing into smoke with the original backing away. Lilac quickly followed up by also jumping at the gem and striking it repeatedly with a Dragon cyclone. The Absolution took to the air once more and fired with its Gatling gun again along with dropping more landmines on the ground to reduce their ability to evade and took to the air for another charge attack. "Nice try but not this time, EMP grenade!" Naruto create a small orb of electricity and tossed it at the landmines, shorting them out with its discharge.
"Naruto, it's coming round!" Nicole alerted them.
"I got this, Earth Submergence!" he slammed a palm to the ground for a large hole to appear for them to jump into, completely avoiding the charge and coming out once it's past and landed back on the ground. The starship turned around and fired laser shots at the duo, Naruto rolled to the side while summoning his Star Ball with the earth aspect active "Earth Shot!" he reared a leg back and launched it with a mighty kick with the impact powerful enough to crack the gem by a lot.
"It's almost down!" said Lilac.
"Then let's wrap this up with a combo attack!" said Naruto with Lilac nodding in affirmation then she curled up and gathered energy in preparation for a Dragon Boost, Naruto reabsorbed his Star Ball and changed to his wind aspect with air swirling around his arms "Air Cannon!" he thrusts them forward to fire a powerful blast of air to launch Lilac with her resembling a comet with wind swirling around her.
"Tempestuous Dragon Boost!" they spoke simultaneously as Lilac slammed hard into the Absolution, completely shattering the gem and causing it to malfunction. The starship took to the air and flew away, this time not returning to attack them again.
"Well that's out of the way now, let's get a move on," said Naruto with a slight frown at having had their time wasted from the battle.
"Right," Lilac nodded in agreement.
Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Battle Glacier 2
The group left the area through a short passageway to the other side where they stepped into some sort of anti-gravitational elevator which lifted them up to a higher level where they jumped onto a ferris wheel-like platform to get up to a platform. They ran into a ghetto blaster robot which launched a powerful sound wave with its speaker-like cannon, Naruto evaded by dashing to the side while Lilac skillfully flipped over the robot to land behind it and lashed out with her ponytails to destroy it before continuing onwards. The duo jumped along several hanging platforms to reach over to the other side before running down a slope to ascend through a ramped wall to reach the top, there were a small squad of Shade Elite waiting for them.
"Hey Lilac-chan, check this out!" Naruto activated his lightning aspect and began to channel a mass amount of electricity to his left hand with his right gripping it to hold it steady and was producing the sound of many birds chirping, he crouched slightly then took off at high-speed with a white trail of electrical energy behind him. The elites fired at him but he was much too fast as he zigzagged whilst picking up speed and soon each of them had a gaping hole each time he sped by before appearing at the other side with the electricity dissipating from his hand "…Chidori," then they fell to the ground and didn't get up.
Lilac was wide-eyed in surprise at what she saw just now before finally speaking up "Amazing, just what was that?"
"That was a recreation of my sensei's most powerful and original jutsu, the Chidori. It is a highly ranked assassination jutsu known to guarantee a one hit takedown once it hits an especially vulnerable area of an enemy. I've been wanting to learn the technique for so long but couldn't until now," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"I recall you whining like the kid you were until Jiraiya taught you the Rasengan," Kurama pointed out with a smirk which Naruto choose to ignore.
"It certainly is powerful but we need to hurry," said Lilac.
"Right, couldn't help but want to show it off to you girls," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly to which Nicole and Lilac giggled at much to their amusement before continuing on their way.
The group moved along the metal pathways and used a bounce pad to ascend towards a ladder to climb up to a platform, then they ran into a Bullfrag which proceeded to blow green bubbles in their direction. Kou engulfed itself in an energy shield and plowed through the bubbles to pop all of them then Yoru lunged at one of the robot's legs and bit it off with its sharp teeth, causing it to lose balance and tumble to the floor for Naruto to finish it off with chakra enhanced punch.
Naruto and Lilac jumped onto a platform to reach up to another Ferris wheel-like platforms to carry them up to another level, however there was a barrier blocking one of the pathways which forced them to take an alternate route. They followed the pathway into a room where suddenly a robot descended towards them from above with spherical body resembling that of a caterpillar with a color scheme of black and red, and equipped with a pair of laser blasters. The robot proceeded to fire its blaster at them, Naruto channeled chakra into his gloves to create a pair of chakra kunai and used his speed to deflect the incoming projectiles away from them, and Lilac moved past him and performed a jumping roundhouse kick to inflict before the robot flew away from them and fired again.
"Light Barricade!" Naruto projected his celestial based shield to absorb the laser shots "Repercussion!" the shield glowed briefly before launched a large blast of energy to seriously damage the robot. By now it was seriously firing everywhere in a frenzy to hit its targets, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai above the robot then flashed over to it with a Rasengan in hand "Flying Raijin: Level Two!" he rammed the spiraling sphere into it, driving the robot to the ground and destroying it.
They doubled back to find the barrier gone and the way is now clear for them to pass through, Naruto and Lilac dashed down a slope and through an angular downhill but quickly slid along the ground to pass under a row of large spiked metal balls ahead of them. Lilac and Naruto performed the Dragon Boost and the Kitsune Spiral Dash respectively to smash through a small group Turretus standing in their way into the next area.
"What's this?" asked Naruto as he and Lilac stood before a barrier made out of red energy cubs "Looks different from the usual,"
Nicole approached it to analyze "It appears to function the same as the previous but hitting that switch should turn it off," she pointed at the red crystal nearby, Naruto touched the crystal for it t turn green and the red barrier to disappear, they passed through to notice that they along a green barrier to the other side and a green crystal before them. They touched the crystal for it to turn red and the green barrier to disappear and the red one to come back online.
"I think we get the gist of how these things work now," said Naruto.
They dropped down the open path and dashed along to launch off a diagonal spring to get to the other side where they floated upwards in an anti-gravity elevator in midair to ascend to an upper level and walked across a red barrier serving as a bridge to a staircase-like path with Turretus stationed to attack them, Lilac performed a rising slash with her ponytails and Naruto channeled foxfire to his leg while performing a back-to-back flipkick to attack them as they climbed up the path before moving on ahead and touching the crystals to change the positions of the barriers. Naruto and Lilac happened upon an area where there were small green circular platforms scattered about, suddenly the platforms glowed brightly before materializing Shade Elites into the area.
"Those must be teleporters!" said Nicole.
"We'll be wasting our time fighting them, I'll create an opening for us to get out of here!" said Naruto then he performed his signature handsign and created dozens of shadow clones to engage the enemy "Come on, this way!" Naruto ran ahead of them but then a small group of the elites stood in their way ready to fire at them "Get out of our way, Kitsune Fire Wheel!" Naruto radiated foxfire from his body and curled up for a spin dash before launching himself forward and knocking the robots out of his way for him and the others to exit from the area.
The next area was quite a puzzle for the team as they had to carefully select which crystal they should touch to enable of disable the barriers to proceed or else risk having to start other, Nicole played a large role in helping them get through it due to having memorized which crystal is to be activated for them to leave. The pathway was long and straight for Naruto and Lilac to use their full speed to run, but there were a small squad of flying Turretus pursuing them. Naruto took out a few kunai and wrapped some explosive tags around the handles and then he performed a somersault in the air to throw them at the robots before detonating the tags to destroy them with the chains of explosions as they continued to run.
"We're almost there!" said Lilac, the group had finally arrived at where the Dreadnaught is currently stationed and preparing to take off into space.
"Yeah, now we need to wait for the others to catch then we can board the spaceship and get the Kingdom Stone back…after kicking Breovn-teme's butt," said Naruto, but then he began to frown upon sensing killing intent directed at them and it was coming from above "Heads up Lilac-chan, Nicole-chan. We aren't alone,"
Lilac was confused at first but then looked up and saw why he said so, above them was Prince Dail and he was standing atop what appears to be a large eyeless rust-brown and white spherical monster head with lots of golden teeth and a fence for the prince to hold onto which was hovering in the air, also large numbers of small yellow cyclopean creature with crab-like legs gathered round to form a tall pile for the beast to place itself on top of it.
"It's Prince Dail!" said Lilac.
"Such a shame that you chose the wrong side, enjoy the last few minutes of your pathetic lives!" Prince Dail declared in a loud voice before surrounding himself in a gray ironball-shaped energy shield.
"Remember that he's under Brevon's control so we'll need to knock him out," Naruto spoke up.
Lilac nodded in affirmation and took a combat stance as well "Got it,"
Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Prince Dail Boss Battle
Prince Dail was the first to start the battle as he flung to sets of green playing cards towards Naruto and Lilac for the duo to quickly dash sideways to avoid the incoming projectiles, however the cards stopped in midair and chased after them so Naruto created a chakra kunai to deflect the cards aiming for him and Lilac did the same by performing the Dragon cyclone to parry hers.
"Air Shuriken!" Naruto activated his wind aspect and channeled his energy to create shuriken out of wind and throwing it straight at Prince Dail himself, however the energy shield around him was able to defend him against the attacks much to his slight annoyance. Lilac used the Dragon Boost to launch herself at the Prince for an attack, however the Shade Beast intercepted her attack to knock her away from him.
"I can't seem to get to him," said Lilac.
"We to find an opening to take down that shield then attack him directly," said Naruto.
"I'll keep a reading on how energy his shield has left to defend," said Nicole with a holoscreen next to her.
"How about this?!" Pirnce Dail flung a set of grey playing card out into the area, they hovered in midair for a moment before unleashing large beams of electricity vertically, the duo quickly moved away from the trajectory of the beams to avoid getting shocked. Naruto created a chakra spear and infused his wind aspect into it then he took aim and threw it to break through the energy shield, Lialc used her Dragon Boost once more to reach Prince Dail and this time was able to land a strong hit on him, he grunted in pain before bringing up the shield again and glaring at the duo "Why you little- attack them my loyal minions!" some of the Beast irises jumped out from the squirming pile with white circles taking their places as they rushed at their master's enemies.
"Here they come!" Naruto took his fighting with his claws bared, one of the beasts lashed out with its claws to attack him but he bobbed from left to right like a boxer before responding with a two hit claw attack then performed a wind powered 360 roundhouse kick to knock back the others which tried to swarm him from all directions "Swift Release: Shadow Rush!" he unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks at high-speed all around with afterimages left behind with every attack successfully connected. As for Lilac, she was busy fighting off the beast irises with use of her kicks and hair lashes, she performed a Dragon Cyclone and moved around to continuously strike them.
"Lilac-chan, watch out!" Naruto hastily called out to her, said dragoness looked up to see that the prince had flung green playing cards straight at her, Kou intercepted the projectiles with its energy shield, Yoru emitted dark energy and formed a large claw which it swung to smack the irises away from her.
"Thanks Kou and Yoru," said Lilac gratefully.
"Chao/Choa!" the Chao responded in affirmation.
Sudden the Shade Beast lowered itself to the ground and opened its mouth wide while moving about, Naruto and Lilac were about to move in for an attack when they saw a large concentration of purple energy gathering at the mouth, and their instincts were telling them that something big is coming, they spoke true the moment the Prince yelled out "Die vermin!" then the Shade Beast proceeded to unleash a burst of aura orbs all around it, Naruto and Lilac used their speed to dodge the orbs until they finally stopped but the Shade Beast was raising back up.
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai at the prince and flashed over to it with one of his fists covered in rock "Terra Punch!" he lashed out with a haymaker punch to smash the shield before falling back to the ground when he saw Lilac running up to him "Come on, I'll give you a boost!" he cupped his hands together and waited for Lilac to step onto it and launched her into the air.
"Take this!" Lilac performed a dive kick and struck the prince several times before landing back on the ground next to Naruto.
"You need to hurry and defeat him before the ship launches," said Nicole.
"We know, and Carol and the others should be here by now," said Lilac.
"Hey guys!" a familiar voice called out to them then landed nearby revealing it to be Carol along with Milla "Hope you don't mind if we join in?"
Naruto smirked in response "Sure, you're welcome. We could use some help anyways,"
"Okay Naruto," said Milla.
"More of you miscreants? No matter, you will all be destroyed!" said Prince Dail angrily, he commanded more of the beast Irises to attack the enlarged group.
"Carol I need you to help take care of the minions with my clones while Milla takes out his shield for Lilac-chan and I to get a hit in on him," said Naruto as he created a small group of shadow clones to assist Carol.
"You got it!" Carol nodded in affirmation before baring her claws and pouncing at the incoming enemies with the clones moving in to help her out.
Prince Dail continued to launched green playing cards at the group but Milla with Kou's help were able to defend against them with their energy shields, she stood next to Naruto who was firing volleys of foxfire at the Prince's shield and created a Phantom block then she took aim at the shield and performed the Super Shield Burst with the attack shattering the shield once more.
Naruto activated his water aspect and formed a sphere of swirling water in front of him "Aqua Ball!" he launched a barrage of water spheres to repeatedly slam into Prince Dail before firing the last but stronger blast before he brought up his shield again. Carol was pouncing at the Beast Irises and striking them with her powerful Wild Claw and rolling to the side to evade the slashes from their sharp claws then retaliating with her signature Wild Kick, one of the Irises attempted to strike from behind when one of the shadow clones intercepted it with a Rasengan to send it flying into one of its cohorts. Others had unsheathed their copies of the Hazy-Moon and Masamune for a single or dual swordstyle as they attacked swiftly and ferociously until there was none of the Beast Irises left at all.
"Hey Naruto, they're all cleared out!" Carol called out.
"Thanks for the heads-up, Carol-chan!" said Naruto before facing Prince Dail "Now to finish this up," he stretched out his hands and created a Rasengan in each of them then crouched waiting for an opportunity to strike.
"Just die, all of you!" Prince Dail yelled in madness as the Shade Beast lowered itself to gather energy for its attack again, Naruto immediately dashed forward at high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him. The moment the beast unleashed its burst of aura orbs, one of Naruto's tails lashed out and something glinted in the light revealing it to be a Hirashin kunai before Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and reappearing above the Prince.
"Flying Raijin: Level 3!" he rammed the first Rasengan into the shield, easily shattering it then ramming the second into the Shade Beast after kicking Prince Dail off to the ground, causing it to be destroyed completely.
Music End
"We got him!" Carol cheered happily with the others following suit except for Naruto who was looking over his shoulder behind him.
"Hey guys!" Torque ran up to them "I finally caught up to you!"
"ALL OF YOU SHALL FALL!" Prince Dail suddenly hovered in the air above them with a massive purple energy ball ready to fire when a barrage of cards struck him, forcing the technique to dissipate. The Prince quickly fled and Spade came to land next to them.
"I was wondering when you would show yourself," said Naruto.
"Hang on, you knew he was following us?" asked Carol in disbelief.
"Pretty much yes,"
Spade looked away and turned to leave when Lilac called out to him to stop.
"Spade!"
"I hate to disappoint you, but I'm just passing through. Have fun saving the world," he turned to leave again.
"Look, I'm sorry okay? I was scared! I didn't know what I was doing!" said Lilac.
"You still don't,"
Naruto stepped forward "Which is why she's learning, she chose her own path just like you chose yours. Neither of you are each other's navigator. Right now you've got something to do so get going while we do our part,"
"Hmph," Spade dashed in pursuit of Prince Dail, leaving the group behind.
[Attention troops! Prepare for liftoff!] Brevon's voice was heard from the loudspeakers.
Torque stepped forward with a look of determination "Listen guys…I'll go in alone while you help the general take back the city,"
"Why can't we go in together?" asked Milla worriedly.
"It will be easier this way, trust me," Naruto wasn't buying it, for he was sensing the fear within him.
"But they'll have a harder time catching us if we stick together," Carol pointed out.
"But that what's Brevon is expecting us to do,"
"Then let me go instead, you're too important for the mission," said Lilac.
"This again?" Naruto was about to reprimand her when Torque suddenly yelled.
"I CAN'T LOSE ANOTHER CREW!" everyone was silent after that "If something happens to you, I'm…I'm not strong enough to save you,"
"*Sigh* you and Lilac-chan can be so forgetful at times," said Naruto with everyone looking at him "We started this mission as a team and yet here you are trying to go solo. Quite leaving us out already,"
"He's right about that, after what happened back then, I decided to stick with you like I was supposed to," said Carol with a soft smile.
"That's right, we'll be strong together!" said Milla.
Nicole changed into her normal form "I'll be sure to provide my utmost support,"
"'Those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum' that I what my sensei taught me, and I have no intentions to be the ultimate scum in the least bit but rather the ultimate comrade," said Naruto.
"Yeah…you're all right about that," said Lilac feeling a bit ashamed.
"As soon as you step foot into that Dreadnought, you may never come out again," said Torque "Are you ready to make that sacrifice?"
Carol rolled her eyes "Yeah whatever, can we get going already? We're wasting time here,"
"Exactly what I was thinking, quite dawdling and get going already. Can't wait to sink my fangs into that Brevon," said Kurama.
"You and me both," thought Naruto as he smiled as the others, ready to go.
Torque smiled at the group who nodded in encouragement at him "Alright, here's the plan," then he passed out four green microchips out to them "Once inside, we need to make our way to the engine room. Once there, insert the device into the console which will then force a complete system shutdown for us to acquire the Kingdom Stone.
"Okay, but in the meantime we also need to draw the attention of Brevon's forces away for us to avoid any interruptions," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"Sounds like a plan, now let's get going!" said Carol with gusto.
"Alright everyone, let's do this…together!" said Lilac with determination. The group proceeded towards the Dreadnought into what might just be their biggest battle yet in their lives.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Carol and the others followed General Gong and his army to intercept Mayor Zao and his soldiers to prevent them from attacking Shuigang. They tried to negotiate but both sides were rather disagreeable with each other and almost fought when Naruto and Lilac arrived with the use of Pangu's holodragon projection to make both armies cooperate with each other and rise against Brevon. After a happy reunion with the others, the group made their way towards the Dreadnought with Naruto even using Kurama's chakra to let loose on the enemy. They almost reached the ship when Prince Dail appeared to obstruct them but was soundly defeated with Spade making an appearance to stop him on his own. Torque tried to convince the others to let him go on his own but they were adamant to remain and support him like they promised from the beginning. It is now time for the endgame and the stakes are extremely high with it being anyone's game.
Read and Review as always
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.