//------------------------------// // Chapter 85: Red Volcano // Story: A Sweetie Dream Land // by Lucar //------------------------------// The party is as worried about exploring Red Volcano that it has been about exploring Green Valley. Despite the many dangers, they are by now very used to them. Avoiding lava has become second nature, and since they can all fly or air-jump, and Elline can use her rainbow rope if the worst was to happen, then falling to a burning death is almost impossible. So without worry, barely they land, the heroes start exploring, only Elline looking at the lava with some apprehension. Well, Bandana still tries to avoid getting too close to the lava. Too bad for him, the lava is everywhere, and solid land is rather rare, so they often have to jump or use the rainbow rope above the lava to continue, some no paint zones not helping. To make things more annoying, the green slime is back, and in great numbers both on the ground and on the walls, and many Bronto Burts are assaulting them. They have some respite when they enter a tunnel without any lava and enemies, where they find a door that leads them to a section with many Hot Heads, many of them firing fireballs at them while standing on blocks above the lava. Kirby, now Fire Kirby, counters with his own fireballs, but in the end, Sweetie Belle is the one eliminating the majority of them with her cannons. When the last Hot Head falls in the lava, they pass another door and appear in a small room beside a lava fall blocking the only way out. So Sweetie uses a shield to block the lavafall and free the way, and they all exited the room, which is just above a large lake of lava, leaving them no choice but to fly or use the rainbow rope until they reach a bridge of stone. On this bridge, they are attacked by two Hands, but despite their number and the presence of a no paint zone, they are still easily defeated. With the hands gone, they enter another small tunnel, pass another lavafall, and take another door. They appear in a room not very large but more verticale with a big lava fall in the center, and like previously, Sweetie uses a shield to block it as they climb the room until they find another door. In the next room, the ceiling falls on them piece by piece before those same pieces slowly sink in the lava below, so the heroes doesn't lose time and use the rainbow rope to quickly move around the falling pieces. When there are no more falling pieces, before they can breathe a sigh of relief, they are attacked again by two Hands who are rapidly crushed against a wall by a very annoyed filly. After two no paint zones, they pass a door that gets them in front of a gondola, and they use it to move while focusing on dealing with the obstacles, mainly lava falls, while Elline uses her rainbow rope to get them from rope to rope, which is not always easy because of some no paint zones on the way. Then, as they pass and exit a small tunnel, they get a surprise bombing from none other than Bastron, back for a second round. The battleship has been fully repaired, but for some reason, it has a metallic eyepatch on its right eye. It has even been upgraded with two rocket launchers on its back, two more rows of cannons, spikes all over its body, and the face cannon has been replaced by a laser cannon. But the most dangerous of all are two arms ending with sharp mechanical claws added near the front, showing that the ship is ready to be attacked from the front like last time. There are even two more laser cannons in the palm of the claws! "As you told, Bandana," says Sweetie Belle. "Bastron is back, and it's ready for a fight." "Will you still face it?" asks Bandana. Before Sweetie Belle can answer, Bastron restarts attacking with all the cannons that can fire at them, both on its side, and the three laser ones, as well as the rockets homing in the group. Elline quickly draws a rainbow rope, and the heroes use it to glide, avoiding the bullets, rockets and lasers. But Bastron intercepts her path, and fire all its projectiles on it. So Sweetie grabs everyone with her magic and jumps from the rainbow rope, then surrounds all of then in a spherical shield before they plunge in the lava, the shield protecting them. After moving a little in the lava to trick the battleship, Sweetie Belle answers Bandana with an innocent smile. "Of course!... But, and you?" "Uh..." "Poyo!" shouts Kirby in determination. "Wait, are you sure Kirby? Our rocket form isn't as adapted to fight this upgraded Bastron!" "Poyo!" "I may have an idea!" shouts then Elline. "If Claycia used the plans to build Bastron like I think, then there is probably a conduit near the engines that we could use to enter it and destroy it from inside!" "Oooh! Like Sweetie and Kirby did to the Halberd!" "Excepted that with its arms, approaching Bastron will be too dangerous for you. It will not let you reach the conduit," says Sweetie Belle. "Yeah..." "Poyo..." "And that's why I will be facing it. And while its attention will be on me, you will discreetly fly to its conduit." "You're crazy!" shout Yin and Yarn. "Are you sure you will be able to face it alone with all those upgrades?" asks Bandana. "Yes, but I will not try to destroy it this time, so I will essentially focus on dodging everything it throws at me while you deal with it from inside. Of course, I will also attack it when I can to weaken it, so prepare for some shaking while you are inside." "Eh. Don't worry about us. It's us who should be worried about you. You will have the most dangerous job. But I suppose it's the best we can do. Alright! Let's do it!" At this, they exit the lava and Sweetie rapidly lands them on a nearby rock before she invokes an easel. And before Elline even starts painting on it, she goes fight Bastron who has just spotted them. She moves away to avoid that one of his projectiles targeting her reaches her friends, surrounds herself with another shield, and rams its head right between the eyes. Then she flies away, Bastron now chasing her, meaning that her friends are now safe. Once she judge they are far enough, she turns around, facing the battleship. "Alright! Bring it on!" Bastron rises its claws, palms facing the filly, and fires lasers at her that she easily dodges. With her cannons, she counters with her own lasers and other projectiles that don't do much to the battleship, but at least it's something. Rockets are fired at her while Bastron sweeps from the left and right with the lasers of its claws, and she ascends thanks to a shield to avoid those lasts one while she destroys the rockets with her magic beams. As she ascends, Bastron targets her with the laser cannon of his head, and fires a charged laser, and she makes the shield under her disappear, letting herself drop to avoid it before she creates another to land on. Bastron decides to approach her, and he starts using its claws to try to slash or slap her, so she starts circling the battleship while firing at the cannons at its side. To her surprise, Bastron then raises its head and fires from the laser cannon here a few lasers, smaller, homing in her. Using mirrors, she does all she can to protect herself from them, and while she is able to reflect some of them, her mirrors are eventually destroyed, and one of the lasers successfully hits her. But she quickly recovers to dodge the bullets and rockets that follow as she charges a Giga Force Blast that she throws at one of the rocket launchers just as it fires a rocket, creating a huge explosion that destroy it and badly damage the area of the ship around it. From the corner of her eye, she spots Kirby, Bandana Dee, and Elline, the first two as rockets, approaching the ship from behind before disappearing in it, probably entering the conduit. Ok, now she just has to continue fighting this ship for a few minutes. No problem. With one of the rocket launchers destroyed, less rockets are coming at her. Already, she prepares another Giga Force Blast to do the same at the other, only for the left claw to grab her before it starts crushing her. Surrounding her whole body in soul energy, she resists it as best as she can and slowly raises her head to spot Bastron's remaining eye looking at her. Seeing that the filly doesn't let herself being crushed that easily, it starts charging a laser from the cannon on its head, and Sweetie Belle herself starts charging her Ultimate Doom Laser that she hoped not to use for this fight. They both fire, and the lasers clash, but Bastron's laser slowly overpowering Sweetie's. Thinking quickly, regretting not knowing how to teleport, Sweetie Belle turns herself into metal to better resistor the constricting strength of the claw, and starts gathering energy in her mouth. Opening it, she fires another laser, smaller, then uses mirrors to redirect the laser at Bastron's eye. When the laser hits, it causes Bastron to unintentionally move its head, and so its cannon, stopping the clash between the lasers. With no opposition, Sweetie's Ultimate Doom Laser reaches Bastron's head and destroys a part of it, including the facial cannon. Sweetie Belle then separates her cannons into two groups of five to form two staffs, then connects the two staffs with her the green physical magic to form one giant staff above the arm holding her. She then suddenly lowers it, and the magic of the staff cuts through the arm, sectioning it from Bastron. With the claw stopping constricting her, she uses her soul energy to boost her strength and free herself, and before the claw falls in the lava below, she grabs it with her magic and thrusts it at Bastron's face, punching it. Bastron grabs it with its other claw, and throws it at the filly who moves out of the way before she restarts circling the ship, and fires a Giga Force Blast at the second rocket Launcher, creating a second explosion like with the first one. She could actually destroy it, given some time. One by one, she starts destroying the cannons at its sides, each one's destroyed making the fight easier. There's a time where Bastron tries to ram her like it did in the first fight, but Sweetie Belle has prepared for that and creates a drill around her body with a shield before spinning, drilling a small hole in Bastron's hull, making it understand that it shouldn't try to ram her anymore. And then, as she is bust having a fist fight between her fist shield and Bastron's remaining claw, she spots her friends exiting the ship, and she quickly flies away from it. Three seconds later, Bastron explodes. They all land on a small bridge of stone as they watch Bastron's pieces fall into the lava. When the last piece disappears, they exchange high fives. "Good job you three! You did it!" "Good job to you too! It must have not been easy fighting Bastron alone!" "Poypoyo! Poyo!" "It must have been intense! The ship didn't stop shaking and we could hear explosions almost all the time!" "You have no idea!" "Ahahah! Claycia must be red now!" "Yeah/Poyo!" When the excitement mostly disappears, the party restarts exploring the volcanic world, approaching a volcano as they recount what happened in the fight. Apparently, Kirby and the others also got their share of problems inside Bastron. It was full of enemies and obstacles like giant saws and crushing walls, without forgetting that they had to escape the ship before it exploded. When she recounts the moment she fired a laser from her mouth, Sweetie swears she has seen Bandana and Elline's eyes turn into stars. After taking a succession of cannons, they enter the volcano, only to discover that the volcano is about to erupt as the lava is rising below them, so they quickly start climbing the inside, passing many blocks and Gordos before reaching a door that get them in a safe area outside the volcano, the two Hands ambushing them here not counting before they aren't a threat at all. But it doesn't last long, because after a small climbing, they find another door that gets them back inside the volcano, where they have again to escape the rising lava. They have to pass many weird spiked totem-like enemies, Blados, and various blocks including many metal ones before they reach cannons that propel them out by the chimney of the volcano. They quickly run away on the stone bridge connected to it before the volcano erupts. While they haven't found anything, they are now high enough to have a good view, and they spot a huge lake of lava with a small island with a hole at the center. It's not hard to guess that this is the lair where the squid is waiting for them. It doesn't take long for the heroes to reach it by walking on a bridge that looks like a long spine, and as expected, the squid comes out of the hole, now sporting an eyepatch on his left eye. Also, his ten limbs have been replaced with metallic prostheses. And he looks absolutely pissed at Sweetie Belle. Smiling innocently, the filly waves at him. "Hello!" The squid becomes red and roars in rage before he points all ten of his limbs at her, revealing that they are now like Bastron's claws, but smaller. He then fires a laser from each of them at Sweetie Belle, only for the filly to use mirrors to deflect all of them back at the squid. Growling, the squid plunges two tentacles in the lava, and they come out under the bridge, grabbing it at both sides of the group, before breaking it and bringing it in the lava. The heroes all rapidly fly to avoid a forced lava bath, only to watch in awe as the squid uses his eight legs as thrusters to fly too! He then starts spitting balls of ink at them, and they use a rainbow rope to get out of the way. So the squid decides to thrust his two tentacles at them, which are parried by two beam swords from Sweetie Belle. One of the squid's legs then attacks too, revealing a giant beam sword about to slash at her. As she readies one of her own beam sword to parry it too, Kirby suddenly comes and uses his comet-like attack to ram the leg and deviate its slash while Bandana jumps on one of the two tentacles still clashing with Sweetie's beam swords and runs on it toward the squid. Three more of the squid's legs rise to create beam swords, letting four of them to continue propelling him, and Bandana immediately returns on the rainbow rope, not wanting to attack alone anymore with such a defense ready. The squid stops his clash with Sweetie Belle to attack her again with a total of six beam swords, and the filly is able to parry all of them with her own double beam swords. With the four remaining swords, she attacks directly the squid while approaching it on a shield. Risky move, because the squid tries to ram her like a torpedo, his thrusters adding power and speed to his attack, and Sweetie Belle counters it with her Drill Shield that she used earlier against Bastron. The two clash in a violent shower of sparks under a deafening high-pitched sound, until the squid flies back and lands back on the small island, rising his ten limbs to ready ten beam swords. Ten beam swords and ten double beam swords start clashing in an exchange of slashes, parries, and counters hard to follow for everyone else. Too bad for the squid, Sweetie can attack separately from her swords, so while his limbs are busy dealing with the double swords, he can't protect himself against the projectiles of the filly, and Bandana and Kirby join her in the assault. The squid eventually rises all his limbs and rapidly spin to force everyone away, Elline creating another rainbow rope for her friends to land on as the squid continues spinning while firing lasers from his ten limbs that are moving up and down, becoming like a deadly carousel. But as the heroes do all they can to avoid the lasers, Sweetie moves her double swords around him, and... Slashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslash! She cuts him into little cubes, the protheses being the only parts that aren't cut. "Aww... Too bad it's clay, those pieces are ready to be cooked," says Bandana. "Sorry for you," says Sweetie. "But really, a flying squid cyborg. This adventure is full of weird enemies." "This is what happens when your enemies are created by a mad artist. Speaking of, let's destroy the seal so we can kick her butt."