Freedom Through Harmony: Book II

by Electricut

Fifty-two

Chapter in color

Fifty-two

Leeroy

The young Hero of Blood slashes forward, sword colliding with his own stolen weapon. Discord is furiously fending off attacks, but he is struggling.

Leeroy swings forward, turning his momentum into a spin, and delivers a series of slashes directly to Discord. Preoccupied with Quick Fix, Discord fails to block. Leeroy is shoved back, but not with any exceptional force. Discord is too outnumbered to deal with them all at once.

He snarls and lunges forward, blade swinging at the Dalek. The sprite manages to dodge the first few attacks, but is soon hit with a barrage of strikes, at the end of which a bright blue light explodes before Discord.

The demon wipes a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. “One down. Anyone care to volunteer to be next?”

Quick Fix rushes forward, giving Discord another series of furious strikes to block. Leeroy dashes forward as well, slicing away where Discord’s defenses were down. Ratchetsprite joined them in the frontal assault, with Derpy’s mom and the Heavyspartanguy firing away from a distance. Finally, Discord becomes enraged, and releases a burst of energy that sends the fighters reeling backward.

“Clank, open fire!”

Leeroy watches as an entire grid of massive turrets reveals themselves around the door, cloaked until necessary. At once, they glow with power, and bullets and lasers fly from every direction at Discord. He dodges deftly out of the way, but several of the turrets adjust too fast and hit him where he lands. Furious, he dashes forth, seemingly riding the storm of fire, and slashes one of the turrets in half. He proceeds with this process, cutting down the lines of turrets, ignoring the fighters on his tail.

At last, Ratchet falls back and yells into his communicator: “Clank, he’s moving in on your command station. Get out of there!”

“No you DON’T!” Discord shouts. He speeds forward faster than anyone can chase him, and slashes the command station clean in half. The cut wiring, machinery and ammunition causes a chain of small explosions in the pieces.

“CLANK!” Ratchet shouts, an expression of pure terror on his face. It is soon replaced by one of pure black rage. He rushes forward, wrench swinging, joined by Quick Fix. The two rage-fueled wrenches collide with Discord’s blade, and he has to continuously back away to avoid being hit. This doesn’t protect him from the bullets of the Heavy and lasers of Derpy’s mother. His health continues to drop.

At last, he practically roars in anger, leaps away from the two wrench-fighters, and swings his sword wildly at the Heavysprite. The sprite is struck, and explodes in a blast of pink light.

Quick Fix lands near Leeroy, flowing with dark energy as much as ever. “This is an uphill battle, sis. It’s not too late, Ratchet and Derpy’s mom can hold him off for a little while longer. Let’s just get out of here…”

“He will not be escaped.” she replies. “If allowed to live, he will continue his path of destruction, and someday find us once again. I will not leave while he lives.”

Leeroy sighs. “That’s what I figured.” He and Quick Fix ready their weapons and charge back into the fray. Ratchet is still holding his own against the demon, refusing to back down until his friend has been avenged. Derpy’s mother keeps her distance, hitting Discord with all she has while the others keep his sword busy. He has adopted a vicious smile, and Leeroy knows that their defense probably isn’t going to last much longer. They either need to finish him or escape.

Discord swings wide, knocking the three back, then leaps to the side. They attempt to charge him again, but he vaults over them, sword swinging, and cuts straight through Derpy’s mother. Another bright explosion. Leeroy, Quick Fix and Ratchet are the only ones left standing against him in the rubble. Discord’s eyes are clearly locked on Ratchet, and Ratchet’s on his.

The three charge. Discord blocks the first series of hits deftly, but Leeroy is able to slip past his defenses as Quick Fix’s next attack connects, slashing at his leg. It cuts deep, and Discord flinches back. Ratchet swings with his wrench, and when his attack is blocked, he dashes closer and punches with his machine arm. Discord makes a swing for the final sprite, but Quick Fix is faster, and blocks him while swinging her whole body closer. Discord’s free hand moves to deflect her attack, but she simply slams her wrench into his wrist.

He shouts in frustration, and begins swinging the blade wildly. Clearly, he isn’t accustomed to not getting his way. Leeroy slips behind him during his mad charge, delivering several hits to his back. His HP is under one quarter now. Reaching the end of the area, marked simply by the rubble of the turret grid, he turns around, vaults off of one of them, and slashes wide. Quick Fix manages to absorb the hit with a parry, but Ratchet is knocked back, weakened but not dead yet.

He grins, and his wrench disappears. On his normal hand, he begins charging an energy attack, clearly planning on putting everything he has left into it. Discord moves to stop him, but Quick Fix and Leeroy both intercept him, keeping him busy with a flurry of attacks and preventing him from getting closer.

“MOVE!” Ratchet shouts. Leeroy and Quick Fix dodge to the side, and turn to see their ally’s entire body glowing with energy. He charges, and Discord’s eyes widen. He readies his sword to block, but Ratchet swings around it, pushing it to the side, and barrels straight into the demon. He delivers several punches before Discord moves aside and brings his sword down to finish the stubborn sprite. As a parting gift, all the leftover energy Ratchet had prepared causes a massive explosion upon his death, and when the smoke and light clear, Discord is clearly on his last legs.

The two heroes rush forward once more, but despite his condition, Discord isn’t ready to give up. He blocks every attack they throw at him, and Leeroy knows that they were able to deal damage before because he had been distracted. But there’s no one left to fight now. A few errant Prospitans and Dersites, the underlings and the Denizens are the only living creatures left elsewhere in the Incipisphere, and Leeroy knows full well that they won’t be able to come to their rescue.

Quick Fix brings her wrench downward for a mighty strike that stuns Discord for half a second, enough time for Leeroy to slip in and slice at his arm. Discord angrily swats him aside, then deflects several hits from Quick Fix.

“That’s QUITE enough out of you.” he says, and raises his free arm. A bolt of red energy erupts from his palm, barely missing Quick Fix. The second misses as well, but the third hits, and dark energy fumes furiously at the point of impact. Leeroy can only guess that if she wasn’t under the influence of the Horrorterrors, that attack would have torn her arm clean off. Leeroy rushes in, but Discord turns to him, a snarl on his face, and delivers three brutal slashes, all of which connect. Leeroy pulls back, clutching his wounds.

Quick Fix doesn’t slow down, moving in once more with another series of attacks, but Discord has reached the point in rage at which he will not let another attack through. He pours energy into each attack and counter-attack, energy which reverberates through Leeroy’s sword, through Quick Fix’s wrench, hurting her with every attack she makes and every attack she blocks. The black smoke begins to envelop her body, but soon it begins to grow thin.

She leaps back, the dark smoke fading, but her eyes glowing brighter than ever. Leeroy catches a few sounds, horrible voices, but their words are incomprehensible. She puts a hoof out, a black energy glowing, pointing at her enemy. Discord smirks and readies his own red energy.

Both release their attacks at once. Leeroy expects them to collide in the center of the space between them, but they pass each other by, both too fast to be dodged. The red energy cuts straight through Quick Fix, and with a flash of light, the Horrorterrors’ grip on her is released. At the same time, the blast of dark energy cuts into Discord’s side, missing his center, but leaving a sizeable hole in his side. It begins repairing immediately, but his HP bar is only a few notches away from being empty. Hope flares in Leeroy’s heart, and he clutches his sword between his teeth. Maybe he can really end this.

He begins floating over, as fast as he can in his own injured state. Discord sees him and readies his stolen sword. “Think you’ve got enough left in you to deal the final hit before you bleed out?” he taunts.

Leeroy removes his hoof from his side. Both his arms and torso are dripping with blood, but he manages to right himself eyes fixed on Discord. Pushing his broken body to the limit, Leeroy rushes forward and slashes with his aero blade.

Regrettably, Discord is faster. The Blade of Blood chops down, driving Leeroy several feet lower in the empty space, the last of his energy sapped. For the first time, he notices that the Blade of Blood is larger than it should be, swollen with energy that Discord cannot properly release, energy only Leeroy was supposed to use. Energy stolen from countless innocent lives.

“Good fight, both of you. Now, enjoy bleeding out while I hunt down your friends.” Discord spits, moving over to the door to the exit of the session. Leeroy turns his head, about the only action his body will permit him now, and sees Quick Fix drifting over to him. She is clearly too broken to fight anymore either, but he sees in her eyes that she has regained her own mind.

“Welp…” Quick Fix sighs. “Guess we didn’t quite cut it, bro…”

“Don’t worry sis… We did good. We both did good…” Discord releases a string of curses, and Leeroy chuckles slightly. “We stalled him for long enough. That door isn’t opening for him. Derpy, Doc and Fancy Pants are safe and sound. He won’t get to them.”

Quick Fix smiles dimly. “That’s good… Shame you, me and Cheerliee couldn’t join them…”

“Yeah… But hey. Maybe there’s something after this. And if there is, she’s waiting for you there.”

Quick Fix nods shakily, but happily. Leeroy watches the last of her life fade out before him. Discord drifts over to the pair, enraged. He clearly thought he could force his way through the door, or at least allowed himself to believe it for a brief, emotion-fueled moment. Leeroy makes a point of sticking his tongue out in spite just before his own life fades away.