//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 - The Final Boss // Story: Fun & Fantasy // by Yosh-E-O //------------------------------// The party found themselves all standing within a large chamber that had an immense iron gate located ahead both on the left and right. To its center was a series of stairs which lead to a circular platform made of marble. “There it is!” cried Leon. “Just as we learned on our way down here!” Leon looked at the plush version of Nixi while his brother admired the shimmering alter at the raised platform’s center. “This was quite a quest!” he cheered. “Wasn’t I totally awesome against all those alligator warriors?” “Eeyup!” agreed Big Mac with a nod. “What about how I defeated a Glaremaster?” beamed Spike. “Those things can cast hundreds of spells at once but this awesome pendant allowed me to use all of my high level magic and totally take it down!” Discord rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he spat with disbelief. “We all just showed up in this room! There were no alligator warriors and you never took down a Glaremaster!” The party looked with confusion towards the draconequus. “Oh, c’mon!” he scoffed. “If you believe all that I have a plot of land in Pony Land to sell you!” Everyone blinked while exchanging baffled expressions. “You don’t remember solving those puzzles with your enchanted bow?” questioned Parker. “You were the one who made the ice platform bridges to get us to the Master Key for this dungeon.” Added Leon. TING Discord suddenly caught a flicker of light from the Nixi plush’s eyes. It gave him a most unsettling feeling. “Something wrong, Captain Wuzz?” asked Leon upon noticing Discord’s long face as he stopped hovering in the air and had genuinely allowed his feet to touch the ground. “Your mother,” he groaned. “What about her?” Parker glared. “Yeah,” added Spike. “What’s up, Wuzz?” Discord sighed and waved a paw towards the alter before them. “Let’s just get this over with,” he said. *** Leon and Parker knew it had to be the two of them to place the Nixi plush on the alter in order to complete their quest. However they were surprised when an unseen force field kept the rest of the party from even touching the first step. “I have a bad feeling, Parker,” worried Leon as he steadied himself in front of the sparkling alter. “You worry too much!” snapped Parker as he worked to quickly place Nixi upon the alter. FWUM! “Wha?” both brothers said as they stumbled backwards. Leon fell on his padded bottom as a result of the negative effects of the ‘Toddle Waddle’ status effect he was still bewitched with. CHING! CRASH! CHING-CRASH! “The iron gates!” cried Spike as he noticed monsters starting to crash through the broken bars that were located to the left and right of the raised platform. CRASH-UMBLE! BWAR! Leon felt himself slide back towards an invisible barrier at the marble platform’s edge as a huge minotaur burst through the wall located behind the alter. “Ha!” cried Parker. “I knew we wouldn’t be cheated out of an epic boss fight!” *** As Parker got thrilled at the upcoming battle, Spike, Discord, and Big Mac had some quick thinking to do. “What’s the deal!” growled Discord upon realizing he couldn’t get past the barrier leading up to the final boss. “We have more pressing things to worry about!” shouted Spike as a grouping of brown-colored monsters with axes for hands raged towards them from the left. “EEyup!” gulped Big Mac as lizard warriors wielding clubs charged from the right. “I got the left and you get the right?” asked Spike while preparing to use the power of his pendant. “EEyup!” nodded Big Mac while utilizing the ring on his horn to cast a series of attack and defense buffs upon himself. “What about me?” whined Discord while Sir McBiggun and Garbunkle started using their virtually limitless powers to beat back the hordes of menacing monsters that were attempting to flank them. Spike crashed a series of ice meteors upon a wave of axe wielders before replying, “Find a way to help Safety Pants and Rubber Blade!” “Blech,” grumped the draconequus while watching Leon struggle back to his feet and Parker charge his blade with elemental energy. “How anti-climatic.” *** “I think it’s just us!” cried Leon who was very thankful he could use the invisible barrier to aid in getting back to his feet. “GWAR!” boomed the minotaur as it raised its hammer to attack the little dragons. “That’s fine!” announced Parker. “You have all the MP in the world and can keep boosting me up while I take this guy down!” Leon gulped as he watched an exchange between his brother and the minotaur. Parker managed to land a few strikes on its leg but a swipe from the boss monster’s hammer sent the samurai flying against the invisible barrier. “Heal me!” commanded Parker. Leon did as told while also adding as many elemental protection spells as he could think of to aid his brother. SLASH-SLASH SWISH-FWUM BWAP! “Oof!” groaned Parker as he found himself, yet again, being launched back into the barrier. His HP, as before, was almost gone. “Heal me!” barked Parker. Leon did as he was asked and kept going about this process four, or twelve, more times. “Ah!” cried Parker. “Only a single HP left!” Leon raised his staff and healed his ebon twin while putting even more enchantments on him for attack and defense. “You can use your magic to see how much HP and stuff the minotaur has, right?” Parker asked with a growl. “See how close I am to beating this thing!” The discolored dragon used his magic to cast a spell to get the information he knew would help them towards victory. SHING! The fairy appeared above the minotaur as it stated, “Magna Minotaur. HP994,124 of 1,000,000. MP 25,000 / 25,000. Flame Element. Weak Against Water and Ice.” Both boys gulped. “Did she just say this thing had one million HP?” panicked Leon. “It also says I barely dented it!” whined Parker. “And I’ve been using water and ice with my samurai sword!” GWOOR! SLAM-CLANG! FWOOF! “Ah!” cried Leon as a jet of fire rushed from the hammer’s impact straight towards him. He then flipped in the air and found himself landing comfortably on his enchanted padded bottom. “What?” baffled Parker. “You didn’t take any damage?” Leon shrugged. “No…,” the currently pink and red colored cleric replied. “Didn’t feel a thing.” CLANG-FWOOM! The minotaur struck again with Parker taking the full assault of his fiery blast. This made the samurai dragon flip onto his bottom as he realized he was, yet again, at the verge of finding his HP at zero. “What gives?” he moaned while Leon instinctively healed him. “You cheat! How are you not taking damage?” “I’m not cheating!” defended Leon. “I haven’t cast a single defense spell on myself because I’ve been busy keeping you from getting a big game over!” SLAM-WHISH “Yikes!” both boys yelped in near unison as the minotaur hit his hammer on the ground and released an energy pulse that flew like a wave towards the young dragons. “Argh!” groaned Parker as he was pressed against the invisible shield prior to landing on his diapered rump. “Whoah!” gasped Leon while he nearly hit the ceiling before freefalling straight down to yet another safe landing on his crinkle-covered butt. “How aren’t you taking damage?” griped Parker. “Give me your cloak!” Leon didn’t have much choice as his brother stripped him of his robe and placed it upon himself over the onesie and training pants he already had on. “Let’s do this!” boomed Parker as Leon just healed him to, once more, engage the minotaur. BAP! BWOOM! “How!” the sibling pouted. “How am I always getting knocked down to almost zero HP?” “Perhaps there’s another way we are supposed to defeat this boss?” suggested Leon. Parker eyed Leon’s diaper that had changed his brother’s colors thanks to the odd goo from the earlier treasure chest. “Gimme!” he demanded while trying to remove the grey and black diaper from his brother. However it would not give in to Parker’s pulls nor tugs. SLAM-FWOOM! “Eep!” both boys cried as the minotaur’s fire attack hit both of them. Parker found himself flipped and dropped to two HP as Leon spun in the air and fell gracefully having taken no damage. “This is stupid!” tantrummed Parker. “How do we win?” Leon healed his brother as he noticed the card he had gotten from earlier was now lying on the floor before them. “I may have an idea,” he stated thoughtfully as he read the text upon the magic card. “Here goes nothing.”