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GREATER EVERFREE
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“Dragons are a common occurrence in this world?”
Shining Armor nodded in response. “Yes. They live mostly at peace with ponies, though it’s mostly because there’s a mutual respect there. We don’t want a pointless, bloody war, and they don’t either.”
“Are many of them like Kalameet?”
“That black dragon? No. For the most part, they’re more sleek and less straightforward built-for-combat. How are you familiar with dragons, yet this is the only one you’ve seen?”
Karen shook her head. “No, actually, it’s not the only one I’ve seen. Though they’re only loosely dragons, I’ve fought several drakes in a valley between places, two Undead dragons, a drake on a bridge, and met an Everlasting Dragon down in a lake of ash.”
“Everlasting dragon?” Shining was confused. “Aren’t dragons already practically immortal?”
“I suppose so, but these were supposed to be different. Stone scales that could only be peeled apart by great blasts of lightning bolts. They used to rule the world, so I hear.”
“Your world is a dangerous, deadly place, Karen.”
She nodded, and rose to her hooves. “Yes, yes it is. Now, we should get moving towards that citadel Kalameet mentioned.”
“What!” Shining exclaimed, jumping up. “You want to go fight that thing now?”
“It’s the only way. We know where he is, and I really don’t want to have to search him out. He’d be a menace otherwise.”
She started moving towards the ruins, keeping her eyes open wide to find any dangers.
“It seems like an unnecessary risk, though. It-“
“Down!”
Karen jumped back and shoved Shining to the ground, who heard something whiz by his head. “Shining, hollows, coming up fast! Look right!”
Shining Armor did so, and found an army of dirt-covered shambling bipeds moving towards them in various states of fighting ability. Several had bows, and all of them that did were lining up shots on the duo.
“Smack the ones that get close. I’ll shoot all of the bowmen I can.”
The unicorn stallion braced himself before the oncoming hollows. He saw several shots go by from his side, thunking into several enemies’ heads. Before long, several of the faster bipeds had reached the duo. Shining, gathering his resolve, raised his club. Then, he got a good look at his foe.
Its face was hideous. Even he could tell that it barely resembled what it had been at one time. Its cheeks were sunken, the eyes were missing, and there were no teeth in its mouth. It had a mad look to it, and it chilled him to the very core of his being.
He was shocked out of his reverie when a flash of gold swished by his face, lopping that horrid head off its body.
“Snap out of it, man!”
Shining watched a moment as Karen waded into the opponents, sword flashing with every swing. As a hollow shambled up behind her, Shining finally gathered the courage to strike. With a great swing, the club smashed into the hollow, sending it flying in a burst of flame.
Instead of regret, sadness, and guilt, he only felt one thing: Elation. He soon found himself swinging the club with wild abandon, every thwak and crash giving him a sensation of euphoria. He no longer cared that he was in the forest. Shining found himself at one last foe, and swung his club.
“Shining!”
Karen brought her shield up and knocked the club away. She rushed forward and put her sword to his neck, panting heavily. “Shining, can you hear me?”
He stared at her for a shocked moment, then swallowed, wincing slightly when he felt the sword bite a little into his neck. “Yes. Yes I can hear you.”
Karen took the sword away from him and turned away for a moment. Shining dropped to the ground, letting his weaponry fall with him. “What… what was that?”
“That…” Karen began, “that was what every Undead feels when he or she gathers souls.”
“Souls?” Shining was horrified, but Karen simply nodded.
“Souls. When you kill something stricken by the undead curse, or something that is truly immortal, you absorb its essence, or in other words, its soul. The feeling you get is so fantastic the first time that you lose yourself.”
Shining was quiet a moment. “Do you… did… did you go through this too?”
She nodded. “In the asylum. There were some hollows that just sat there. Right after my escape, I attacked the first hollow I found, thinking it would attack me.”
She shook her head. “They were helpless, and I didn’t care. It wasn’t until I found my first Bonfire that I settled down. I’m not proud of what I did, but it’s in the past now.”
Shining Armor was speechless, the two ponies just staring at each other for a moment.
“Whatever. We need to move, Kalameet isn’t going to wait forever. I don’t relish this, he seems to be at full capacity this time.”
“You mean last time you fought it he was injured?”
“Yep. Giant arrow through one of his wings, making him unable to fly at all. Let’s go.” Karen walked off towards the citadel without another word. Shining reclaimed his club and followed, still shaken. Absorbing the souls had been euphoric, just like Karen had said.
“Keep an eye out. We’ll not likely see a group like that again, but it could likely-“
“Changeling!”
Shining Armor jumped ahead and slapped the thing away just as it pounced at Karen. Undeterred, it rose to its hooves and stared him down. It no longer looked normal – it had red, evil-looking eyes, its horn was jagged and broken, and its wings seemed nonfunctional. Shining swung his club, but the agile insectoid pony dodged and made a jump for him. Just as it was about to connect, jaws open wide, it found itself sporting an arrow through an eye and was knocked away.
“Thanks for the warning.” Karen walked forward and patted the adrenaline-filled captain of the guard on the back. “Let’s keep going.”
They had slowed to a snail’s pace, ready to be attacked at anymoment. “As I was saying, it could likely be that there are a ton of single enemies in here. What was that thing? A changeling?”
“There are these things, changelings – they can use magic to make themselves look like any pony. They feed on positive emotions, especially love.”
“Why would there be one here? No food.”
“That one looked feral. Usually, their eyes are a soft blue, and they use magical attacks. That one’s eyes were an angry red, and it just flung itself at us.”
Karen glanced back at him. “Strange. But not so much in the big picture – why wouldn’t they be affected too? Let’s just hope we don’t meet any of your bigger, stronger creatures.”
“I think we already are,” Shining said, stopping. He pointed forward, causing Karen to check their path.
They had exited the forest, finally coming to the citadel. Unfortunately, blocking their way was a gigantic minotaur, sporting an oversized greatsword that was even taller than the beast itself.
“Minotaur,” Shining Armor breathed, nearly the same time that Karen mouthed ‘Taurus Demon.’
Regardless, the beast charged them, crossing a short stone bridge on the way. Karen reacted quickly, whipping out her bow and firing arrows at it. Shining moved to flank it, readying his club.
The demon swung its huge sword at Karen, forcing the unicorn to quickly bring her shield to bear. The blow nearly knocked her off into the valley below, the force transferring through her telekinetic grasp. Shining took advantage of the choice and slammed his club into the beast’s leg.
Unfortunately, it only seemed to aggravate it. It turned and did an overhead swing, forcing Shining to block it with his club unsuccessfully, earning his armor a few dents and him a few dings.
Still one great beast is inferior to two powerful warriors. Karen darted forward and slashed at its already wounded leg with her tracer, its sharp, curved edge making blood pour out of the wounds she inflicted. Within just a few short moments the beast staggered, and fell on its back. Karen leapt on top of it and stabbed her sword into its throat, severing its spine and ceasing its struggles.
Shining moved towards the corpse and kicked it. “Stay dead.”
Karen just looked at him with a small grin. “Easy stuff. Now comes the hard part.” She turned back at the citadel, and the white fog that obscured the doorway. “To kill a dragon.”