January 27: The NOPEiest Fight in Existence
Cassuis supported himself with his hindlegs, his back pressed against the door, wings and forelegs spread to bar it further. His breaths were hard and ragged, his expression locked in wide eyed vacant terror.
That’s how Phoenix found him, having raced all the way from the chamber of mushrooms and undead. “Cass! What happened?” Phoenix demanded as he quickly scanned the room. The fact that he found nothing to account for Cassius’ fear worried him more.
Cassius didn’t react even when Phoenix nudged him, who then shoved him when that failed. Cassius just toppled over, something fluttering to the ground. Curious, Phoenix grabbed it in his magic and was about to read it when the clatter of stones alerted him to something’s approach. He spun, orienting on the sound, coming from a hole in the ceiling he had missed before. His horn glowed and three soft ball sized balls of blue fire burst into being, launching in rapid succession at the hole, rapidly igniting the webs that clung to the opening.
A moment later Myst dropped out of the hole, a bit miffed with traces of ash on his coat. “Seriously? Are you trying to kill me!”
“Mountie,” Phoenix said, hiding his sigh of relief.
Myst rolled his eyes and shook himself to get the ash off. “Okay, I he-,” his statement died off when he spotted Cassius stiff on the ground where Phoenix left him. He raced over and quickly accessed him. “HP fine… He’s still got his stuff… paralyze effect? What’s wrong with Cass?”
“I dunno, I found him like this,” Phoenix admitted as Myst sorted through his inventory for a curative. He prodded the prone pegasus a few times. “Come on, Cass, this isn’t funny.”
Myst got the vial of paralyze heal out and deftly poured it into his friend’s mouth. The orange lightning symbol faded, but popped back up a moment later. Myst’s wings flared in confusion. “What?”
“Okay, that doesn’t make sense,” Phoenix said, pointing at the symbol. “You sure you used the right item, Mountie?”
“Of course I did!” Myst retorted, doing another full body examination. “Maybe there’s a dart or something in his armour…”
The door opened with a rattling creak. There wasn’t much in terms of lighting inside, just a few distant glowing clusters. Cassuis twitched slightly.
“So… how much you want to bet whatever hit Cass is in there?” Phoenix smiled.
“Bubbaloo… I know that look, don’t you dare…” Myst warned.
“WAAAGH!” the combat happy unicorn yelled, his brandished in the blue glow of his magic as he galloped into the room.
“DAMMIT FIREBUG! NOT THE TIME!” Myst yelled, scrambling to follow Phoenix, hoping to grab his tail and pull him back. “We got Cass to worry-”
The door slammed shut the moment Myst’s tail cleared the threshold, the impact echoing with an undeniable finality.
“- about,” Myst finished lamely, on the verge of panic. He quickly got his sword out. “Oh, this is such a trap… so much a trap…”
“Don’t worry, we can handle it,” Phoenix scuffed, his eye open for enemies in the dark.
“Without Cass?” Myst retorted. “Who, I should remind you, is outside the room we are trapped in with who know what, paralyzed!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Phoenix insisted. “We are trapped in herewith something, something is trapped in here with us.”
A slight chill washed over them. Large mushrooms started glowing brightly in turn, steadily progressing from a pair flanking the doors and defining the limits of the room. It was still below typical lighting levels, but anything was better than the darkness it was before. Myst groaned. “This is such a boss trap…”
“I know!” Phoenix was in his element. “We can take it!”
Something rattled above them, with a large form fell from the roof with a rush of displaced air. It remained in the shadows as it rose from it’s crouch, the light of the mushrooms not yet reaching it save for giving a reflective glow to several clusters on the form. A tag above it declared it the WolfSkull Cluster Mother.
“That explains it…” Phoenix remarked as their foe was revealed. “Cass is petrified of spiders…”
The signs were obvious to that point, but even the prepared would pause when faced with a manticore sized arachnid, hairy legs shifting as its mandibles rapidly shook, making the rattling sound, eight forward facing eyes, two far larger than the other six, gleaming in the lighting. Several smaller spiders, only the size of dogs, which still easily placed them in the ‘far too large’ category. WolfSkull Brood Hatchling hung in the air over them.
“Wait… you can give yourself status effects in this game?” Myst realized, shooting Phoenix a panicked expression.
“WAAAGH!” the battle hungry unicorn roared before charging the spiders.
“Dammit, PHOENIX!” Myst wailed as he took to the air. The room had good clearance, letting him put a good amount of distance between himself and the monsters. Phoenix was going for the direct route, wading into the mess, his axe swinging at the hatchlings as he yelled out “Great Cleave” with each swing. He wasn’t taking them down with a single strike, nor had he managed to slay any just yet, but he was keeping the press of them at bay with his attacks, each strike knocking its targeted unto its back, causing the spiders time as they were forced to flip themselves upright before attacking again. Still, it was one unicorn and his axe against eight determined spiders. Well; seven, as one of his strikes dug deep into a spider’s head, the red glow of an injury spreading slowly before the creature burst into code.
Unfortunately, the hatchlings had back up.
The Cluster Mother must have been programmed with a maternal instinct, for she hissed as Phoenix attacked her brood. She reared, waving her four forward legs in the air before dropping back down and launching herself at him with a mighty pounce.
“Swift Slice!” Myst yelled, crossing her trajectory with his sword at the ready. His aim was less than perfect, and he only got half the blow he wanted across her abdomen, but it was enough to make her abandon her initial attack, crashing to the ground and skittering to the other side of the room.
“Phoenix! Switch up!” Myst yelled as he turned his momentum into a swoop, bowling over one of the hatchlings as he skidded to a landing.
“What?” Phoenix demanded, leaping at the hatchling Myst’s landing upset, sinking his axe into it’s underbelly. The spider spasmed, oddly silent as it expired, bursting into code.
“Fog Cover!” Myst activated his ability, flapping to spread the conjured fog effect outward as much as he could without the whole thing breaking apart into useless wisps. The spiders initially backed away, but it wouldn’t last long. It was only a few seconds of time purchased.
“I hit faster than you, you hit harder than me,” Myst explained quickly, not wanting to waste any of the time he had to share his plan. He lunged suddenly; swinging his sword in a low arc, knocking the hatchling that had braved the fog right back out of it, sans on of its legs. “Switch from your axe to your magic. Keep the Mother at midrange. I’ll try and take out the little ones and keep them off your flank!”
“You want me to burn the sucker? I’m loving this plan!” Phoenix grinned maliciously as he stowed his axe.
“Yeah, I thought you would,” Myst rolled his eyes. Able to see through his own fog without much issue, Myst swallowed when he realized the boss was approaching again. “Now go already! She’s coming! On the left!”
“How far?” Phoenix asked, reorienting himself, his horn aglow.
“About twenty meters, why?”
“FIREBALL!” Phoenix roared, launching a soccerball sized flame. The attack burned the fog in the immediate area way with a fizzle that was lost in the roar of it’s flames, the mass of fire soaring with surprising accuracy to strike the Cluster Mother amidst her right legs.
Phoenix charged out of the fog even before the blow landed, his horn glowing as he prepared another blow. “FOR THE IMPERIUM!”
“For- gah…,” Myst snorted. He crouched and used his leg strength to help launch himself skyward, bursting out of his cover, trailing wisps of fog.
“Spire Fall!” He stopped flapping at the peak of his ascent, only using his wings to aim as he dropped, his sword’s sharp point leading, right into the abdomen of one of the hatchlings.
Across the room, Phoenix unleashed his second attack. His horn’s nimbus flared, then shrank to the tip before his magic burst out as a stream of blue flames as water from a hose. The torrent spilled over the ground at first as he reigned in control, before he played it across her head and back.
The Cluster Mother hissed again, using her oversized and powerful legs to leap out of the way after the first second or two of damage, launching herself unto the roof. With movements that seemed too swift to be natural, she covered several meters before leaping back to ground level, striking Phoenix with a pedipalp.
“Fuck!” Phoenix swore as he was knocked off his hooves and into a tumble. The Cluster Mother rushed at him, but a wild shot of flame, one that unfortunately missed, warded her off just long enough for him to pick himself up.
“You okay over there?” Myst yelled, struggling to ward off the attentions of two of the hatchlings.
“I can handle this!” Phoenix yelled, igniting his horn again. This time, he used the faster, though weaker, shots he had accidentally used against Myst earlier, trying to keep up a steady stream of them turned on the Mother. “I think she wants to go after you!”
“That’s just dandy!” Myst ground out as he reared up on his hindlegs, using his wings to help keep his balance, and cephalothorax of his closest adversary, his blow just missing the potential kill strike, instead lobbing off a leg and pedipalp. Another spider arched itself up, bending it’s abdomen under it and sprayed Myst’s right hindhoof with white gunk. Webbing.
Myst yelped when he found himself snared. His glance back at it almost cost him when another spider leapt at him. Still, it was an opening. He leapt through the opening it formed and charged after the hatchling that forsook taking him on and choose to try and go after Phoenix.
Two strikes, one from the ground up lashed through the exposed lower body and sent the spider tumbling back, the second sundering it in half, bring the kill count up to four of eight. With a powerful flap, Myst torn himself free and quickly made his way to Phoenix, casting a frustrated look at the remaining hatchlings. “Switch for a spell?”
“Got a plan?”
“NOPE!” Myst yelled, taking to the sky again.
Phoenix, battle mad, laughed and turned, blasting the hatchlings. The rate of fire cut down on how much magic he could pack into each burst, the individual blasts now about golf ball or small in size, but he fired a lot of them. One of them has strayed too close in its attempts to keep up with Myst and got the brunt of the attack. As they fled the fiery assault Phoenix took the chance, stomping and pumping out a sustained wave of fire that spread a few feet along the rocky ground, washing over the closest bug.
The fire didn’t last long, and the spider soon burst into code. On the other end of the power charge, Myst was circling the Mother, trying to find an opening. His feints were met with powerful swipe attempts from leg and pedipalp alike or lunging attempts to snag him out of the air with fangs. At best, he was getting in a few glancing counter strikes.
In short; no opportunity. It was frustrating. Equally frustrating to the Cluster Mother, as well. Fang’s rattling her war cry, she reared up, waving four legs and her pedipalps at him. Myst took the risk and darted in. Wings pumping, he lashed at her exposed underbelly, going into a full rotation before plunging his blade in.
She hissed in pain then slammed her body to the ground. Myst, his sword still lodged in her flesh, was forced down with her, hitting the ground with an unhealthy crack.
“Mountie!” Phoenix yelled. Abandoning his attack on the hatchlings, he charged the Cluster Mother, an orb of flame building at the tip of his horn. The Cluster Mother hissed again, and jabbed her fangs into Myst, the pegasus crying out at the pain. Phoenix yelled again, releasing the built up flame in a short lived plume of heat and flame. It didn’t do much damage, but it made the Cluster Mother retreat.
“Fuck, Mountie! You okay?” Phoenix asked as he stood guard over Myst’s beaten form.
“No…” Myst groaned. He staggered to his hooves and fumbled for a health potion, his health bar in the red. Unlike Phoenix, you didn’t need a can opener or six to get to his soft chewy center. Any old thing would do. The price of being a mobile fighter. He groped for his sword, which fortunately had become dislodged during the Mother’s retreat. “Remind me not to do that again without backup… I think she almost broke my wing…”
“And you say my ideas are stupid…” Phoenix fumed. He launched another one of his triple shots at the Cluster Mother, who lurked at the edges of the room. Despite the less than idea end, Myst’s attack had managed to nudge the Mother’s health down into the yellow. “Tag back?”
“Tag back,” Myst agreed, rubbing the spot where the fangs had punctured his body. He tossed a mana potion at Phoenix and drank from a vial himself. “Watch out for her fangs. Pretty sure those are poisoned. Punched right through my armour…”
“And you made fun of mine,” Phoenix smirked. The Cluster Mother decided they had enough time to reflect and relax and started her next series of attacks. Phoenix laughed at her challenge. “Round Two!”
“Watch out for their webs!” Myst warned, taking to the air again and bringing up his Fog Cover. He had switched to his crossbow for a while. He wasn’t as good with it as his sword, and far from as good at sharpshooting as Cass, but he figured it would be better to go with it for a while.
Phoenix decided to try for flame tank. The Cluster Mother had turned her attention towards Myst as he stuck to the curve of the room’s ceiling, taking shots at the hatchlings with his crossbow, a lucky shot managing to take out the spider he has partially de-legged earlier. She readied herself to pounce, lowering her form, eyes trained on Myst, or at least the fog obscured form that was Myst.
Phoenix blindsided her with one of his soccerball sized attacks. For a moment, her fur kindled, but her furious movement extinguished it. She pounced, but aimed instead for Phoenix, crashing into him with wild abandon, testing the integrity of the armour he was bragging about so recently.
With her so close, Phoenix grabbed his axe with a hoof and swung it with a mighty yell, catching her just under the base of a pedipalp. She recoiled, smashing him with the sister appendage, sending him skidding a few meters.
“I’m okay! Get the little ones!” Phoenix quickly yelled before Myst could get himself involved again. To reinforce his point, Phoenix quickly let out a wash of unfocused flames.
Myst growled, but kept up his side of the fight. There were only two more hatchlings left. The faster those went down, the faster Phoenix could get back up. Myst still fired a shot in the Mother’s direction before diving and planting both hindhooves into one of the hatchlings.
He bounced off it, and it bounced away, only to be rendered code when Myst shot it from relatively close range, having reloaded in his approach. Only this reflexes and the bonus from his Dodge Skill saved his wings when the last hatchling tried to web him. Instead, it only caught his tail and hindlegs. Myst dropped his crossbow and rolled, drawing his sword in the process.
The hatchling hissed and leapt at him. Had the webbing not tangled his leg and tail, Myst would have made short work of it, but he was slowed, and forced to place keep away as he oriented himself and tried to keep his dexterity, both on the ground and in the air, with three limbs tangled. Still, he bided his time, stumbling out of the range of the first three leaps before managed to lunge into the fourth one, thrusting his sword through the hatchling’s abdomen.
Back at the main challenge, Phoenix was finding it more difficult than he anticipated. His armour was doing much to keep him alive, and his HP likely would have been down at nothing without it by that point, but it was also slowing him greatly.
The Cluster Mother had changed her tactics, probably a coding thing triggered by her HP reaching a certain point. She wasn’t content to just sit and take Phoenix’s attacks anymore. Instead, she moved, leaping from ground to ceiling to wall, barely giving him the chance to aim properly. He was rapidly burning through his magic reserves with little return.
“Would you hold still!” Phoenix yelled, frustrated. He galloped from one side of the room to the other, trying to keep up with the swift moving arachnid. Two more gouts of fire were wasted, doing little more than singeing the Cluster Mother’s legs as the leaped away. Landing on the wall, she paused for a moment before catapulting her bulk at Phoenix.
“Fuck!” the unicorn swore as she landed heavily just before him, smashing a limb into his side. Phoenix only just managed to brace himself for the hit, as was still knocked reeling. Even then he managed to retaliate with one of his unfocused washes of fire, forcing the Mother to skitter back a few feet.
Phoenix snorted with mixed frustration and exhaustion. As much as he hated to admit it, it didn’t seem like he could take he down on his own. His health was too low and his magic was dropping as well. The Cluster Mother started to approach again, but a bolt suddenly sprouted in one of her legs.
She reared, mandible rattling fiercely as she thrashed, dislodging the barb.
“Fog Cover!” Myst yelled out, landing beside Phoenix and spreading a mass of obscuring white. “Can’t keep this up for long. I can get you maybe ten seconds before I need back up,” Myst reported. “You good on potions?”
“Yeah,” Phoenix said, pulling one from his quick access. “But I’m seriously going to have to restock after this.”
“You and me both,” Myst replied grimly. He pulled his sword out again, not trusting his crossbow skills to the dart and weave tactics he’d have to depend on. Taking a breath to steel his nerves, he charged out, a borrowed war cry on his lips. “WAAAGH!”
“Idiot,” Phoenix scuffed. He didn’t waste too much time on reflection, not when he could hear Myst yelling and the Cluster Mother’s hissing and rattling in return. He flexed, testing his armour as his health and mana bars rose, and charged his horn before galloping out of the fading fog cloud Myst left him in.
The battle had moved to the other side of the room. Myst looked like he was on the defensive, but Phoenix had fought with him long enough, and actually taught him how to fight, and recognized when the pegasus was baiting a foe. Of course, it was a tactic that worked better on something, anything, not a miniboss or higher in challenge level, but it was still good enough that he had kept the Mother away from Phoenix while he recovered.
“Blue Blazer!” Phoenix roared, letting loose the spell he had been holding. It wasn’t quite a fire ball, in the conventional sense. It was more a fire comet, a blazing spheroid mass with a tail of smokeless fire erupted from his horn and soared towards the Cluster Mother.
The spider whirled and tried to leap out of the way, but Phoenix was ready for it. Blue Blazer wasn’t a spell he used often, and was only accidentally discovered while getting back at training Myst. It had a longer casting time than he liked, but it did have the perk of being semiguided. He yanked his head sharply to the right, his horn still glowing, and the blazing comet curved to track the spider, smashing into her side with almost physical force even as the blue flames set a few of her limbs ablaze.
In moments, one of her forelegs burst into code, having taken too much damage over the course of the fight. Myst didn’t ease up either, not when he could perceive an opening.
“Swift Slice!” Myst yelled, darting across her face, his sharp blade sending one of her pelipalps to the same code graveyard the leg went to.
With a hiss, the Cluster Mother batted Myst from the sky with one of her remaining limbs. He hit the ground hard before he had a chance to recover, his health shooting down again.
“Fireball!” Phoenix shot another blast of fire at the Cluster Mother before she could get in rank to try and finish his partner. “She’s almost out Myst!”
“Almost isn’t good enough!” Myst complained, taking wing again, circling around the far ends of the room. The Cluster Mother drew her legs under herself, lifting her body away from the ground and curling her abdomen under her.
Myst zoomed back in, ready to try for more harrying damaged, but was forced to abort, breaking off his charged with almost painful abruptness when the Cluster Mother revealed her new tactic. A burst of webbing shot out from her abdomen, almost snaring Myst midair. “Aw, come on!”
“Fuck that!” Phoenix swore. Heedless of his magic levels, he galloped around the Cluster Mother, letting loose gouts of flames as soon as his horn’s charge built up enough power, focused on just dealing damage and not staying in one place. Myst tried the same tactic from the other side.
It seemed to be working. The giant spider didn’t quite have a ranged attack that dealt damage, and this ‘last ditch’ tactic seemed to be more coded for facing a team of conventional melee fighters. It was one odd benefit of only having two fighters. Despite his embarrassing start with his wings, Myst had grown to be more agile that his teacher Cassius. By staying on the opposite side from Phoenix and attacking whenever she tried to target the slower tank, the managed to keep her spinning.
For all of thirty seconds.
The Cluster Mother simply ignored one of Myst’s strikes and focused on Phoenix. Encumbered by his armour, he wasn’t nimble enough to avoid the blast of webbing she launched at him. It left him in an awkward position. Three hooves pinned to the ground, the fourth pinned to his body, his neck arched back slightly and his tail totally covered. Needless to say, he wasn’t getting out for a while.
Myst charged in immediately, hitting the Cluster Spider with a flurry of mostly ineffective, though highly distracting slashes. “Phoenix! Burn yourself out!” he yelled, drawing back just enough to keep the Cluster Mother interested. “I can distract her!”
“Fuck that! I’m going to burn this sucker!” Phoenix cursed, completely enraged. His horn glowed, then it glowed, his building blue halo raising the ambient lighting like the rising sun. A spark formed, flickering and dancing before settling into a ball of fire in front of him. It grew. Gold ball sized. Softball sized. Football sized. Soccer ball sized. Bigger still.
Myst was forced to break off when his health hit red, putting some distance and altitude between himself and the Mother. Which his nuisance gone, she faced her trapped prey. Myst quickly yelled at Phonix. “Whatever you are doing, do it already!”
“Blast Burner Blaze!” Phoenix yelled, barely able to hold on to the over powered spell he forged. The massive orb of constrained fire shuddered before it burst; the drain of magic sending Phoenix’s bar pretty much down to nothing, the strain actually causing recoil damage to himself. Rather than a gout or a burst of fire, it was more like a directed explosion that struck the Cluster Mother, like truck smashing into a wall. The webs that bound him were set ablaze from the backwash of heat and fire, inadvertently freeing him partially, which mainly let him crash to the ground.
The force knocked the Cluster Mother back, every limb writhing, her hisses the loudest they had heard it, her health rapidly dropping. Phoenix managed a smug grin. “In your face! You smug assshit!”
The Cluster Mother’s writhing was slowing. Flames were still burning on her body, likely a status effect of the spell, but her HP’s fall had slowed. Phoenix struggled to move, but his limbs were still partially snared, and his magic was drained. The flame effect would likely kill the Mother eventually, but she would still have enough time to take them out, as neither of the pair had much HP to their name.
“SPIRE FALL!” Myst’s voice roared. From the shadowy peak of the room, Myst dived, not caring about the lack of recovery space, or even the fire that still burned on his target. His sword’s blade glowed just before his impacted the boss.
Cassius stared intently at the door. It had sealed behind them. Even after he had managed to shake off his petrifying fear, it refused to open. He had been forced to stand there helplessly, listening to the sounds of combat that faintly drifted out from the room, ignorant of what was truly happening, only sure of the fact that his friends and teammates were in a fight he should have been helping them with.
He shuddered again, remembering the spiders he saw in there. “Damn it, Cass… you could have still helped them…”
He started pacing again, threatening to wear a grove in the ground. A sudden explosion jarred him and he stumbled, missing a step. His mind ran from the worse to best case scenarios wildly. What the hell was going on in there? There was silence. Was it over? Did they win? Did… were they… killed?
With a familiar creak, the door opened again, the room behind it dark. Nothing came out. Cass nervously held his gun ready, worried that it would be those things coming out.
His ears pricked forward when he heard something. Several things. He placed them a moment later. Hoofsteps. A grin split his face as both Myst and Phoenix emerged, both with shit eating grins on their faces.
“See?” Phoenix managed, sounding like he wanted nothing more than to collapse into a bed. “Told you we could handle it.”
“You’re alive!” Cassius said, half trotting, half galloping over. He paused as he got a better look at them. “You look like shit.”
He wasn’t kidding. Phoenix’s armour was covered in bits and pieces of spider web mixed with ash and scorch marks, dented in a few places. Myst’s right wing was hanging a bit off, and he had a slight limp on his left side. Oddly, he had even more scorch marks than Phoenix did.
“What the Sam Hill happened in there?” Cassius demanded.
Myst’s grin somehow got broader and he dragged Cass into a hug. “Sarge… I got Hoofblades!”
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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The action scenes are good in there description, as well as the humor, but for reeding the previous Chapters as well as the main story I don't feel that the characters are really aware that they are playing a sick deadly game were the there is a real risk of ending there lives at any encounter they face. I like the fact they are facing the situation with humors, which all in there honer, but it lack the under line tone of the drama that they are facing make it fell like just a bunch of guy .
One last thing, the group seem a bit aimless in there mission, as in they don't seem to have a clear objective other than to weather out the storm until it blows over and get thing back to normal. I think you would need a clear objective for there to follow, at least one that differs enough from the the original to set it apart from it.
keep up the good work
5728804
One of the main point is that they don't have a huge major goal; they just wanna stay alive and don't mind letting other people fight the good fight. They're just three random dudes
5728956
Lowered down to level six
5760607
And I mixed in some of the pulp fiction rant too
5760616
Eeyup, part of the Potema The Wolf Queen thing
Awesome! I loved it.
5760954
You can thank Greycait for that
You need to do more proofreading. You have had quite a few uncapitolized words so far and several times you have flat out used the wrong word.
ie 'Have you on any potions?'
This has been present since the start.