An Underground Mission!

by tmz112

Chapter 10: Savior

Ravenheart was down...

She rolled to the side, dodging a swipe from the Diamond Dog's claws.

...but she wasn't out.

The Diamond Dog leader lunged at her again but missed as she took back to the air.

She hovered in the air just enough to be out of the Diamond Dog's reach but was struggling to maintain her current altitude. She clutched her side with a hoof, the grievous wound taking a toll on her stamina. She was barely holding her own against the surprisingly strong Diamond Dog and after being disarmed of one of her swords, her bite, so to speak, was incredibly less viscous.

She pulled her hoof away from her wound and was met with a grave sight: blood... so much blood. At first, the wound didn't tax her strength but over the course of the battle and several more smaller cuts later, it was finally causing her movements to slow. Her vision was beginning to blur slightly but she quickly shook the feeling away.

'No..., I can't give up. Not yet.' She thought to herself. No matter how much she tried to though, she couldn't shake one thought: the realization that things were not looking good for her and there was no apparent way that she could get out of this situation.

She thought of trying to fly away but as the idea entered her mind, her wings immediately seized up. As she dropped through the air back to ground, she realized that she no longer had enough energy to be able to fly, making flight impossible for the time being.

Ravenheart attempted to land on her hooves but stumbled slightly as she hit the ground. As she did, all four of her legs gave out on her and she crumbled to the ground. Due to the suddenness of her unplanned landing, her sword was thrown off to the side during the crash, now leaving her defenseless.

After taking several seconds to breath, she heard the menacing cackle of her opponent. She struggled to lift her head off the ground and face her enemy. She watched as the Diamond Dog laughed uncontrollably at her unfortunate situation, savoring his soon-to-be victory. After his triumphant laughing died down, he almost looked at Ravenheart with pity.

"Ssstupid pony thinking it could stop us! Diamond Dogs reign sssupreme! We will continue ravaging this ssstupid pony-filled land. We will hit city after city until all your preciousss gemsss are ours!"

"No..."

The Diamond Dog leader only looked on in amazement as the pegasus pony slowly rose to all four hooves, struggling as she did. Her once beaten face now adorned a look of determination.

"No. I will not allow you to... I will fight you with every last fiber of my being. I will stop you and your forces from hurting anypony else even if it's the last thing I do."

The Diamond Dog chuckled in response and snarled out a threat.

"Looksss like you won't be able to do that either, pony."

The ferocious beast lunged forward, taking a swipe at the worn down pegasus. However, Ravenheart didn't feel like dying today. With a second wind and a renewed will of staying alive, she rolled out of the way of the swipe with all her might. Recovering from the dodge, she shot forward and hit the Diamond Dog with a hoof to the face. The enemy stumbled slightly, rubbing the skin where he was hit with a paw.

"Pony ssstill wants to play, huh? Then we will play too!"

With a renewed vigor to kill, the Diamond Dog lunged at Ravenheart once again, taking quick swipes at her. Ravenheart struggled to get out of the way of her attacker's agile swipes and even used her her forelegs sometimes to block the attacks even though it only hurt her worse.

The Diamond Dog finally got lucky and connected a punch to Ravenheart's face. She was sent spiraling through the air, blood trailing through her trajectory. The strap that held her helmet onto her head snapped and it was sent flying as well.

Ravenheart landed on her back with a thud. She tried to get back on her hooves but her limbs no longer heeded her call for she was no completely drained of energy. Her time, as she saw it was, was up.

The Diamond Dog stood triumphantly over the fallen pegasus. He only chuckled as he began to raise his claws for the killing blow.

"See, pony? We can not be stopped! WE CAN NOT BE ST-"

Before the Diamond Dog could finish his sentence, he found himself no longer on the ground and no longer in control of his body. He began to flail around in the green aura of a unicorn's magic.

"DOWN, LET ME DOWN"

Truestrike, her horn glowing, levitated the trapped dog in front of her and laughed.

"Very well."

With a twist of her head, she flung the Diamond Dog into the wall. The beast hit the wall with a loud thud and slid down the wall. The Diamond Dog sat there, dazed and confused, not entirely sure of what just happened. Truestrike walked in front of the disoriented dog and began charging a spell. She smiled.

"Now..."

She shot a bolt of magic at the Diamond Dog.

"Sleep."

As soon as the spell connected, the Diamond Dog immediately went stiff and his eyes closed. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he sat there, unconscious.

Ravenheart sighed, relief washing over her.

"That's another problem solved, now to deal with..."

As she turned her head to Ravenheart, she quickly realized the situation was a lot worse than she thought. There was blood dripping out of many of her wounds and she laid there, unconscious. Ravenheart quickly rushed to her side, scared.

"Ravenheart, Ravenheart! Wake up!"

She furiously shook the unicorn, screaming.

"WAKE UP!"

Seeing that her efforts were in vain, she tried to do her best to help. She quickly checked Ravenheart's pulse and was relieved to find out that she was still alive, although only slightly. Truestrike looked around, furiously searching for a medical unicorn, finding none. There was no way she could move Ravenheart in her current state.

Truestrike only had one choice: healing magic. Even though she was very inexperienced in it, she had to try something, Composing herself, she focused intensely on the large, grievous wound on Ravenheart's side.

Her horn began to channel a spell onto the wound. If she was more experienced she could have healed it faster but since her specialization was the complete opposite of mending, destruction, it was a slow process.

Sweat began to form on Truestrike's body as she continued the spell, the wound finally starting to seal. After its completion, Truestrike collapsed out of exhaustion. She scanned the rest of Ravenheart's body, seeing several, but minor, wounds. She knew she didn't have enough energy to heal those as well so she did the next best thing she thought she could do.

Struggling, she levitated a roll of medical wrap out of her pouch to stop the bleeding. She slowly began to wrap it around her wounds, bandaging what she could. After she finished, she scanned over her body to look at her work.

She was definitely looking better, although only slightly. Truestrike smiled down at the still unconscious pegasus and sighed. She did all she could and she only hoped that it was enough.

Truestrike checked on the battlefield, relived to see that the number of Diamond Dogs was now very small. Even though there was a significant less amount of pony presence, she was happy to see that today, they had won the battle.

Author's Note:

Feedback would be highly appreciated.