Dead in the Water
Like so many things in life, Summer and Iron’s touching embrace was broken by the horrific screech of a giant monster. The two slowly turned their heads to look up at the rising form of Rustjaw.
“How...how is it still alive?” Summer whispered in shock.
The giant serpent had changed drastically over the past few minutes, his once blue scales turning jet black and his teeth, already long and numerous enough to make any shark feel inadequate by comparison, had suddenly grown more jagged. Not only that, but his entire jaw had been twisted and mutated beyond reason, going from the normal u-shaped gums that most creatures had to a strange circular set-up. The round jaw looked uncomfortably like the entrance to some sort of terrifying cave, the effect only slightly marred by the many gleaming teeth that populated the cave entrance. Many would say that it was impossible for things to get any worse.
And then the teeth began to spin.
Against all rational natural reason, Rustjaw’s teeth began to rotate around his mouth, turning the beast’s maw into a whirling pit of death and fangs. Summer and Iron watched, half in fascination and half in horror, as something began to emerge from the depths of Rustjaw’s throat, carefully negotiating its way past the spinning chainsaw teeth. With what sounded like a hacking cough, Rustjaw finally managed to get whatever it was out of his throat. A dozen tentacles emerged from his mouth, framed horrifically by the spinning wall of silver death around them. Each tentacle had a pair of red eyes on the end and, as their mouths split open to reveal teeth that would have been threatening where they not dwarfed by Rustjaw’s own, Summer and Iron realized where they had seen this before.
“Oh...well that explains how the beast survived that.” Iron muttered.
Summer grimaced in response, “Yeah, but now there is a more important question.”
“And what’s that?”
“How are we going to survive?”
Before Iron could respond, Rustjaw let out another screech which, amazingly, wasn’t too gargled by the fact that he had a dozen tentacles sticking out of his mouth. The smaller snakeheads, seemingly in response to the sea serpent, let out a shrieking hiss of their own before they collectively darted forward, heading directly for the minotaur and the unicorn. Without even needing to communicate, the two experienced warriors dodged to the side, Iron rolling to the left whilst Summer leapt to the right, both of them quickly recovering and turning around to see what damage the creature’s attack had managed to inflict.
Each of the twelve heads had struck a different part of the deck where the two had just been standing and each head had bitten down on their respective targets. Even though the red eyes had narrowed in anger and a hiss of disappointment was coming from each of them, that didn’t impede the blood-chilling effect that their bites had. The wooden deck around each head slowly began to darken, going from shining wood to dark grey in seconds. With a start, the minotaur and the unicorn realised what was happening. The creature’s bite had turned the wood into iron. Seemingly, the tales of Rustjaw having a magical breath attack that turned objects into iron had translated into his mutated form.
The snakeheads were far from done yet though. Each jaw clamped down all the tighter, needle-like teeth managing to dig into the solid metal. With a single shriek of protest, the tortured metal was ripped from the deck of the ship and shot upwards, moving faster than the eye could track as the tentacles returned back into Rustjaw’s mouth with their meal. The various scraps of metal were tossed almost carelessly into the spinning grinder of teeth, the sound of metal being ripped apart filled the air as each piece of debris was torn apart into tiny chunks and funneled into the serpent’s gullet.
Gulping, Summer and Iron managed to close their open jaws, amazed at the sheer destructive violence that had just been displayed. There was one thought that was going through their mind; a single attack from Rustjaw would be the end of them, without a doubt. No being could survive something like that. However, they both knew that they couldn’t merely dodge forever and, with them being trapped on a ship in the middle of the ocean, chances of escaping the sea monster were slim to none.
Gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the mounting headache that pounded through her skull, Summer charged her horn, channeling even more magic through her body. Spots danced at the corner of her eyes and she was vaguely aware that her legs were shaking uncontrollable, yet she continued regardless. She had used up far more magic than was safe for a unicorn of her calibre, which was a fact that she was choosing to ignore for now. Even when she was practically running on fumes, she had no intention of leaving Iron to fight on his own.
Out of the corner of his eye, Iron saw several bolts fly out from Summer, impacting the beast’s scales to little effect, doing little more than seeming to tickle the colossal monster. Quickly, Iron began to assess what little they had in terms of weapons. Unfortunately, with Rustjaw being situated safely out at sea, he was far out of punching range for the minotaur. Not only that, but there was very few items left on the deck that had survived Summer’s rage storm and none of them looked to be weighty enough to harm the beast. Other than the two adventurer’s own abilities, the only thing they had to work with was the ship itself.
“Summer!” Iron bellowed across the deck, his booming voice only just managing to carry through the wild winds that had been whipped up by the magical typhoon earlier.
“What?!” The unicorn shouted back, frustration entering her voice as the fatigue began to get to her.
“Do you think you can hold yonder beasty still for a minute? I have a plan.”
“Oh wonderful, the bull has a plan.” Summer muttered, before shouting back, “Maybe, but you’ll have to be quick with whatever you’re thinking of.”
Iron simply nodded before rushing off to do whatever it was his plan entailed. Summer, for her part, simply snorted and turned back to face Rustjaw, her horn lightning up once more. The giant serpent appeared to be preparing for another attack, rearing its large head back as the mouth-tentacles danced around, tongues flicking out of the smaller mouths as they tasted the air and hissed menacingly. The razor sharp teeth continued to spin about happily inside the dark maw, promising a swift and brutal death to any who came near.
Summer had to admit, the new mutated Rustjaw was one of the creepiest things she’d ever seen. And she had once walked in on her dad in the shower when she was younger. Some small, cynical part of her mind was strangely thankful to the sea serpent for giving her nightmares some variety. So at least there was that silver lining.
Gritting her teeth and focusing her wandering thoughts, Summer began to draw in the very last of her magical essence. Her very bones ached as she drew upon the one piece of magic that all unicorns were taught never to use; her life essence. This spark of magic was within all ponies and should only be used in the most dire of circumstances. It was what gave them their great joy for life, it provided them with their abilities and connected all members of ponykind together. Even as she channeled this spark, the magic flowing from deep within her to her horn, Summer could practically feel her lifespan being cut shorter. By using up her life essence, she was practically condemning herself to an early grave. If she didn’t though, then their grave would be a watery one right here and now.
With a shriek of pain and rage, the magical build up shot out of Summer’s horn. Unlike her earlier attacks, this one was not the smooth attacks of a trained mage, nor the furious assault of an enraged unicorn. This attack was quite clearly a desperate one, cast by a mare who had literally nothing left to give. The lighting that came out her horn seemed to be travelling almost sluggishly towards its target and was coming out in short, ragged bursts, each one progressively shorter than the last.
Despite their pathetic looking nature, the bolts quite clearly had an effect on their target. They slammed into Rustjaw with impressive force, many scales splintering and cracking under their aggression, the skin beneath steaming and burning. The true power of the attack wasn’t in it’s direct power though, but in the effect it had on Rustjaw. The great serpent bellowed and shrieked in pain as the magically formed electric current seized up his muscles, preventing him from doing little more than spasming. To all intents and purposes, Rustjaw was trapped, unable to avoid any attacks that came his way.
Which meant he couldn’t react when Iron Will grabbed the wheel of the ship and spun it hard.
Wooden groans and creaks issued out as the ship itself appeared to be protesting against being forced to turn. The wild winds, caused by Summer’s earlier outburst, leaped onto Iron’s idea with gusto, quickly filling the sails as they turned to catch the gale in their canvas embrace. Iron was forced to grab hold of a rail as the deck shifted dangerously about beneath him. The exhausted Summer was not so quick, however, and took a tumble across the deck, barely managing to grab a rope in her mouth before she tumbled overboard. She hung there precariously like some peculiar pony piñata as the ship went through its violent turn.
Turning a ship at sea is nowhere near as simple as turning a cart on land. Ships are large, and rather ponderous, meaning that they tend to have quite large turning circles. Therefore, when Iron Will attempted to execute his sudden u-turn, the ship naturally encountered some logistical problems.
Mainly, the electrocuted and helpless body of Rustjaw that was blocking its path.
Four hundred tonnes of sailing ship met one hundred and seventy tonnes of sea serpent in an epic clash with predictable results. As the wooden side of the ship slammed into Rustjaw’s body, both of them crumpled under the impact. Wood around the immediate area of contact practically exploded, instantly folding under the pressure and sending shrapnel flying as they broke. The planks of wood were not the only casualties in the collision though. Scales from the serpent cracked and fell from his withered hide, some were cleft entirely in two whilst others simply fell off from the force of the impact running through Rustjaw’s body.
The now partially naked monster collapsed onto the remaining deck of the ship, half of his great body still hanging in the water whilst the rest was left trapped, beached upon the vessel. It’s spinning teeth now lay completely still and the mouth-tentacles hung out his gaping mouth like some sick parody of a lolling tongue. All of the beast’s eyes were shut, either in pain, unconsciousness or death, Iron couldn’t tell. At the moment he had greater priorities.
Abandoning his post by the wheel, he hurried across the deck, sprinting around Rustjaw’s prone form to reach where Summer lay. When the ship and serpent had collided, she had been sent flying to the deck, to land there with a nauseating crunch and remain unmoving. Iron knelt down by his friend and gently wrapped his arms around her, cradling her in his grasp. Feeling the touch of the minotaur, Summer began to awaken slightly, her eyelids fluttering to look up at Iron and her eyes themselves clearly dazed.
“Iron,” She whispered wearily, “Did you just shoulder barge a sea monster with a ship?”
Iron let out a choking laugh, half thankful that she was alive and half amused , “Yeah, it seemed an appropriate thing to do at the time.”
“That is soooo...” Summer’s woozy mind seemed to struggle to find the right words, “Awesome, yeah. It’s awesome. And so are we.” She let out a weak chuckle, “I’m gonna have to find some way to reward you for being so awesome later.”
Iron’s eyes shot open as he looked down on the unicorn, who didn’t seem quite as dazed as she had a second ago, “Summer, what are you saying?”
“No more pussyhoofing around.” She declared, her eyes determined and her jaw set, “Once this is all over, we are going out for a nice meal as more than just friends. I like you Iron and I’m pretty sure you like me in return,” Iron nodded numbly and Summer chuckled again, “Knew it. You promise right? A nice meal, with suits...and a band...and all the trimmings.”
“I promise.” Iron smiled.
“Sweet. I’ve used up way too much magic though. Gonna pass out now.” Hesitantly, she raised one leg and ran a hoof along the minotaur’s jaw, “Stay awesome for just a bit longer alright?”
Iron hesitated and began to respond, but Summer had already closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness. Instead, the minotaur simply leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the unicorn’s brow, just above her horn. With barely a grunt of effort, Iron lifted Summer’s prone form up from the deck and began to walk away, ready to try and signal some sort of lift and leave this damn place.
However, just as he was about to walk away, a disturbing sound came from behind him, from a place where there should only be the creaking of wood and the roar of the waves. It was a disgusting sound, like the ripping of flesh from bones. Hesitantly, Iron began to turn, Summer still clutched protectively in his arms, to behold a sight he really didn’t want to see.
The skin on the great serpent was rippling and moving of its own volition. Wherever the flesh pulsated the most it seemed to begin to harden and grow outwards, ossifying at an incredible rate and growing new scales to replace those that had recently been lost. Iron subconsciously pulled Summer’s form a little tighter to his chest as his jaw dropped.
This thing just would not die!
Quickly, Iron gathered his thoughts before he lost them to panic. Fact: Summer was out of the fight right for now. Fact: He had very little time before Rustjaw managed to regenerate fully. Fact: Should the previous fact be allowed to happen, then Iron would quickly find himself in a situation most would refer to as ‘pants-shitting terror’.
His mind raced at a mile a minute as he considered all of his options. His gaze leapt back and forth between the unconscious form of Summer and the beast before him. Eventually, a terrible calm descended on Iron as he decided what he had to do.
Turning away from Rustjaw, he slowly marched to the foredeck of the ship, climbing up the staircase and gently laying Summer down at the top. Hopefully, all the way up here, she would be safe from what he was about to do. Iron whispered a small prayer to whatever gods could hear him, thanking them for her being asleep right now. She would not like to see what was about to happen.
With a sombre pace, Iron began to walk back towards the prone form of Rustjaw, sending one last glance over his shoulder at Summer. Some treacherous thought broke through the oppressive miasma that hung over his head, sneakily whispering to him how cute she looked when she slept. How peaceful she looked in that moment, even as a storm roared about them and a monster from the darkest depths was seconds away from awakening to devour them all. How desperately Iron wanted to run over to her, to grab her and flee this place. For a moment, he seriously considered it. He could make a raft of some sort from the wood of the ship, grab her and sail their way out of this living Tartarus.
With a slow shaking of his head, Iron banished these thoughts. He couldn’t allow this monster to regenerate and escape. The strange mutations it had gained from the Black Water would allow it to become a terror to anyone who dared go near the sea. No, he had a chance to end this here and now, before the serpent could recover. Iron knew he had to take that chance.
No matter what the cost.
As he reached the stairs down to the main deck, Iron noticed something strange about the creature. Almost the entire body of the snake was rippling as he regenerated lost scales, but the head remained completely unaffected. The large cracked scale that had been caused by Sergeant Brick’s final sacrifice was still there, untouched by the strange healing factor of the Black Water. Perhaps it was because the injury was caused before the introduction of the Black Water? Maybe whatever mutational effect the liquid had assumed that the cracked plate was just a part of Rustjaw and had decided not to heal it?
Whatever the reason, Iron could see that his luck had turned. Not only was the beast vulnerable now, but its weak spot, the only place on its cranium not covered by thick scales, was exposed to the world as it lay prone on the deck.
Iron frowned as he realised a problem with attacking it there. Even without scales, Rustjaw was huge. His skull would be far too dense to penetrate with anything short of a sledgehammer, and the ship was sadly lacking in any tools or weighty objects after what it had been through. Perhaps if he checked below deck?
As Iron considered this, a shiver passed through the serpent’s bulk as it continued to heal. The minotaur grimaced as he strode directly towards the monster’s maw, knowing what he had to do. Since he had no time to find a heavy weapon, he would just have to make one.
Standing in the shadow of Rustjaw was a nerve wracking affair, especially considering that the fiend could awaken at any moment. With this knowledge firmly at the forefront of his mind, Iron acted quickly. Striding forward and kneeling down, he grasped one of the mouth-tentacles in one hand, shivering internally at just how cold and slimy the appendage felt. Clamping his hand around the snakehead;s mouth, he pried it’s jaw open with a few of his meaty fingers, revealing the needle-like teeth that inhabited its mouth.
Teeth that could turn anything into metal.
Iron had observed the effect closely earlier, noting how the immediate area around the bite, almost a half-metre with in fact, had been turned into solid iron. The minotaur knew that there was no way around it, this next part was going to hurt. A lot. Forming his spare hand into a solid fist, Iron brought it closer to the snakehead’s open jaw and it’s magical teeth that could turn anything to iron.
It was only as he forced the teeth into his left fist, easily breaking the skin, that Iron realised the irony.
He would have snorted at that particular pun if he wasn’t already pulling the unmoving snakehead from his flesh and casting it away, gritting his teeth as he prepared for the pain that was no doubt about to hit him. Iron Will focused all of his considerable mental fortitude inwards, ready to fight of the coming pain.
It was not enough.
His mouth shot open in a bellow as the first wave of pain shot through his arm, his crouched knees immediately buckling underneath him as he fell to the deck. His eyes immediately narrowed and his breathing became ragged and forced as he focused entirely upon his closed fist. The fur there, a steely greyish-blue, had slowly begun to darken, each individual strand of fur slowly flattening down as it changed material composition and became more weighted. The skin beneath the fur joined it a moment later, swiftly petrifying as it too was turned to iron. Eventually, the entire affected area was a dull, dark grey and the curse continued deeper.
Iron’s mouth shot open again as the second wave of pain hit, though the sound that came out could not be called a bellow. A strangled scream rent the air as Iron clutched his good hand to the afflicted one. He forced his eyes shut, tears of pain slowly working their way out of the closed slits. Even though he couldn’t see the effect of the serpent’s bite, he could still feel it. An unbearable pain shooting through his arm as the blood vessels and muscles in his fist were slowly altered, growing harder and thicker until they eventually became pure iron. The minotaur could feel his heart hammering against his chest, desperately trying to pump blood into an area that it simply couldn’t accept anymore. For a moment, Iron felt like his chest was going to explode from the pressure before it eventually died down, his nervous system evidently deciding that his left arm must have been lost and, thus, didn’t need blood anymore. Well, it was half right.
Strangely, the next part was practically painless, especially compared to the last two steps. The cursed bite had finally reached the bones in his hand and begun to convert them to iron as well. However, except for a slight tingling feeling and the inexplicable urge to scratch at his bones, Iron could honestly say that he barely felt a thing as the bones in his hand were altered and turned into metal.
With the process complete, Iron wearily struggled to his hooves, panting from exhaustion. Slowly, he brought his left arm up in front of him, observing the changed limb. A solid grey fist greeted him, the smoothly textured metal extending about halfway down the minotaur’s forearm before cutting off abruptly as the magical bite ran out of range. As he ran one hand over it, Iron was confused by how strangely warm the metal limb was, a comforting sort of warmth rather than the cold iron that he was expecting.
Shrugging once, Iron let his new fist fall to his side as he began to walk towards the shuddering form of Rustjaw. The serpent’s regeneration had continued through Iron’s transformation, to the point where most of the scales had been reformed and the serpent’s body was jerking around, his lower end thrashing about in the water. Iron increased his pace as he grew closer to the serpent’s shaking side, slowly building up speed until he had reached a full sprint, speeding directly at the wall of flesh.
Just as it looked like he was about to impact, Iron’s leg muscles tensed up underneath him and he converted his momentum into a running jump, his metallic hand attempting to pull him to the ground with its weight whilst his organic hand was raised high into the air, ready to grasp whatever it could.
The air exploded out of Iron’s lungs as he slammed into the side of the creature, his right arm scrabbling about before eventually managing to seize the edge of a scale. Iron grunted in pain as the sharp scale cut into his hand but he refused to give up. The torn flesh was nothing compared to what he had just been through and he wasn’t about to give up now. With a snort, Iron swung his other, more weighted hand up, even though it couldn’t grab anything it was still better than hauling it up after him. Bracing his hooves against the beast’s hide, the minotaur scaled his way up onto Rustjaw’s enormous back, feeling like an ant in comparison to the giant serpent.
On woozy legs, Iron stumbled his way across Rustjaw’s back and towards his head, almost slipping several times but always managing to correct himself before he fell. Despite his faltering gait, Iron eventually managed to make his way to to his target, the cracked plate now directly in front of his hooves.The iron-handed minotaur frowned down at it, wondering if his plan could actually work and, if it did, if it would actually put Rustjaw down for good. As he was considering this, a particularly violent shudder went through the serpent’s body, the agitated shaking threatening to knock the minotaur from his hooves. Deciding not to waste anymore time, Iron Will got to work.
Silently, Iron raised his metallic left fist above his head, it’s immobile shape hanging there for a moment like a terrible hammer before, with a roar of anger, the minotaur brought it slamming down. The fist crashed down directly onto the exposed bit of skin in between the cracked plate. The weak flesh split open under the force of the blow, dark blood seeping out around the broken hide. Iron wasn’t done yet though. With another mighty roar, he brought the fist up, and back down again. The crack opened up further under the strike, even more blood seeping out and pooling around the injury.
The fist came up, and back down again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Iron beat out a bloody rhythm upon the beast’s skull, each blow echoing out with a sickening crunch, blackened blood flying up and painting the minotaur with each beat. Iron wasn’t entirely sure how many strikes it took him to break through the serpent’s huge skull, nor was he certain how long it took him to stop when he did reach the creature’s brain. The blood rage was upon him, all of the minotaur’s great strength directed towards this one purpose; crushing Rustjaw’s brain to a pulp. He carried on at it as the crunching noises changed to a repulsive squelching as bone gave way to brain matter. As he went about his bloody business, the shudders of the serpent’s body increased, before eventually dying down. By the time Iron had broken through the skull, they had stopped entirely, the once powerful creature now lying completely still.
Iron stood, panting and snorting, in the middle of the carnage he had created. A pool of dark blood swirled around his ankles, whilst various splinters of bone lay about him, some of them even embedded in the minotaur’s flesh. With a mighty, heaven-splitting roar, Iron plunged his arm forward one last time. But it was not his metal fist that he used this time, but his organic arm. Reaching deep inside the beast’s skull, Iron grasped onto the largest piece of muscle he could find, ripping it out of its casing with a shout. Holding the piece of brain loosely in one hand, Iron stalked forward, leaving the gaping hole behind him as he walked towards the front of the creature. Not even hesitating, Iron leapt from atop the serpent’s head, landing heavily on the deck and almost collapsing as his legs gave out from under him. He forced himself onwards though, towards the unmoving snake-headed tentacles.
Dropping the broken piece of brain in front of one of the snakeheads, Iron knelt down next to it and grabbed the disgusting creature with his organic hand, forcing the mouth open with his fingers just as he had done only a few minutes earlier. Unceremoniously, he slammed the beast’s needle teeth into the brain muscle, watching with grim satisfaction as the brain was turned to iron in only a few seconds. As he stood up, Iron felt like he should make some clever quip, or some witty one liner that would fit the situation.
But really, what was the point? He was far too tired and he was the only one on the ship that was still awake. He didn’t have to impress anyone.
Barely managing to keep himself upright, Iron stumbled his way towards the front of the ship, wearily dragging himself up the stairs to the foredeck. Once at the top, his legs finally gave out on him, sending the huge minotaur crashing to the deck. Unperturbed, Iron simply reached out with his good arm and began to drag himself forward, pulling himself over the rough deck in silence. Finally, he reached his objective and rolled onto his back next to her.
She had not stirred since he had left her and, if it wasn’t for the steady rising and falling of her chest, Iron would have thought she had passed on. Gently, Iron wrapped his normal arm around her, barely managing to move the limb as he felt fatigue overwhelming him. Finally, with the unicorn that he love held close to him, a giant monster dead on the deck nearby and his left arm permanently turned into metal, Iron Will allowed sleep to claim him.
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Maybe someone slipped you some acid, which spawned mutant Rustjaw? Wieirder things have happened to me...
RustJaw belongs in Resident Evil.
im not sure what you were on but mutated rustjaw was way more badass than regular rustjaw
Okay, I think it's a safe bet that nothing that ever happens in the Chessverse from now on will ever be as pure, unadulterated BADASS as what Iron Will just did.
Well, would you look at that, Barrel strikes again with another fantastic chapter. Have a moustache.
2946133 sadly, this is true....
i came here for funny banter!
Rustjaw's nasty, but it aint got nothin on the mimics xP
That was great. The boss battle was extremely well planned and well executed. Congratulations on a job well done here, Barrel.
And Rustjaw's mutated form reminds me of the Whispering Death from How to Train Your Dragon.
t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSaqzUGNVaw09Rg3QFTznTR33_PdrD7aiOBypgU_i5HVyi_Idggdg
that. was. SO AWESOME!!
It would be better if Iron could use his arm still. You know, the curse only turned it to iron but still can be used like a normal arm.
The monster is like a lovely mix of kaiju and leech with a good kind of evil goo from places best left unknown for sanity reasons. Have to love that sometimes you have to choose a path, and the rough aspect of what that takes. But lovely update, thank you.
2946329
So many types, so many evil dms.... *shudders*
mfw
I wonder what Ace is going to say when he sees all of the crap that happened to his friends.
So since this is all permanent I guess that Ace's special healing card wont help them...
Furthermore, out of curiosity, what is the usual life span of a Minotaur and a Unicorn in your universe?
Well that was awesome! Predictable, but awesome nonetheless! Good job man! i wonder what Summer is going to think about iron's new arm
this is, undoubtedly, one of the best chapters in this story (so far)
:| I can't use my go-to comment (
) because that would be kind of strange...
That is all...
2946904
I think that the average lifespan for a pony in the Chessverse is 150 years. You know, discounting all the slavers, raiders, monsters and general death stuff that happens.
For Minotaurs, who lack the magical healing and medicine of ponies, I'm gonna say that the average is closer to 100. (Though that's just my opinion really).
Thanks for your comment
2946602 oh I'm not talking about the stationary ones, I'm talking about ones that look like ponies but most certainly are not.
2947717
So I see, or I don't, in this case respectively.
But heh, i still fear the worries over more than a fair share of stationary ones that a few older dm's needs to play a round as the dodgeball victim with mighty kord.
2947774 hah, Good things to be wary of certainly! Never a fun thing to come across xP
2947717 My God, that sounds like a terrifying version of a Changeling...
2947840 Honestly, they're a LOT worse than changelings, to the point Changelings openly drop their disguise to attack them on site. you want the details, PM me. Don't wanna flood the comments with them XD
2947848 I know what a Mimic is. I've played just about every game I could with them, and I hate them all. Nasty little buggers...
2947861 Yeah, but what I talk about are mimics almost only in name. far too proactive in their hunting to be thought of as normal mimics.
You have to impress yourself.
Iron Will: grade A bad@$$
2947607
Thanks...
I guess this sorta works out, I mean, now the life span gap between them wont be too much.
Still, living longer than your partner for 35 years...
Anyway, can't wait for the next chapter! :D
first thing I read the description of the mutated form of Rustjaw I was a bi reminded of that old shark monster from James and the giant peach.
dvdmedia.ign.com/media/reviews/image/410giantpeach019shark2.jpg
Surely a thing of nightmares Rusty is... even more so with the lethal additions you've made to him. Hope Iron will recovers with a magical cure like phoenix tears or something...
Huh, now I'm curious as to whether or not Iron can still use his left hand like a normal hand, or is it forever balled up into a fist?
tfportal.de/gfx/items/large/gunslinger_large.png
This was the only thing I could think of. Sorry.
2950246
It's completely locked into a fist forever. An Iron Fist...of JUSTICE!
2951005
Here's hoping he's right handed.
What were you on? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you've gone to see Pacific Rim in the recent past, that has some monsters that would welcome Super Rustjaw and treat him to a piece of Hong Kong when they went to trample it.
Is it weird (anyone who's watched it) that I hear that theme music, you guys know the one, dragging a ship? That one, when Iron's walking up Rustjaw's back with his new iron fist? No, it's probably not weird, just fanboyish
Anyway, you're right, BoF, these things do call for a sacrifice. I'm just a little shocked by how much you put in. I was expecting, and a little hoping, that you'd use the rest of the guard a little more. Not much more, just a little, bring a couple of them in on the clouds, pull Summer to safety on one of them and have Iron wave them away so he could go finish off the beast. Then the ending could have been them sweeping him up onto another cloud and carrying him off, and the crawl-and-cuddle scene would have been accompanied by the helping hooves of the pegasus guards bringing her back to him.
I liked how you did it, but it made their battle seem so much more alone, as if it's just them fighting for their survival and not them fighting a rear-guard for all the escaping ponies and not being able to let this one go because it's too dangerous to try and leave without finishing (imagine if this thing had been forced to give up on them, and instead made landfall... doesn't bear thinking about...).
In any case, a solid effort, very much a balance to Ace and how he's gained something very profound, emotionally, in the last chapter to have Iron and Summer lose something very profound physically. Summer's life is now too short to waste (hey, the girl's still young, but she's not going to be 'old' in the same way her father is, that's for sure), and Iron now has a ridiculously un-funny limb, but Ace now finds out he's a demi-god, and has a mother? Amazing. Oh, and not to mention Summer's finally gone and hung her chin out, that's one huge weight off my 'must be revealed at an appropriately inappropriate time' list (this includes the 'we're going to die, you might as well know' list, which is thankfully shorter).
Well done, just... be gentle with them for a while. This is a lot, and you need to finish this chase and give us a chapter of calm. The characters you've created are just brilliant, but you've also been very clear on their limits. I can't help but think that if you push them beyond this, you'll break them, and I don't mean as individuals, I mean as characters. Pushing them even further beyond the limits you've set for them would ruin all the hard work you've done so far.
I'm expecting a full chapter of just them resting, dealing with mundane things and being annoyed by Ace in that familiar, comforting, back-to-normal way. You hear?
2952161
I am honoured by your words and agree with you wholeheartedly. This is without a doubt the most Iron and Summer centric chapter I've done and they definitely deserve a rest after that. I don't want to break the characters after all, just push them to their limits and maybe a bit beyond. That way they can expand their boundaries and become stronger. Although, I do think that's all the excitement Summer and Iron can handle at the moment (considering they are both unconscious) so I'm going to give them some time to rest...and a reward for services rendered.
I didn't actually plan for it to turn out as an 'Ace gains something as Iron and Summer lose something' thing
but now that you mention it I'm glad that it did. It's a good idea, wish I'd thought of it 
Need to watch Pacific Rim as well, just for the line "We are cancelling the apocalypse!". That one line is just so epic and so cheesy at the same time. Even if the rest of the movie turns out to suck I'm pretty sure that one line could carry it.
2952248 As a personal recommendation, go see it. The plot is fairly basic, the ending a little cliche, but as far as the classic summer blockbusters go, it's well worth the time.
The giant mecha are fantastically done, the action only has one point where I said 'why did they do that, and not use that, even as awesome as it does look?' And the only point about the whole thing that I disliked in any way was the characters of the two scientists (not a spoiler).
In my opinion it's the work of a guy that watched all the true Big Mecha shows back when they were about twelve and thought to themselves 'That's what I want to do when I'm older.' I'm not talking Eva here, I'm talking the real giant robot stuff, it's awesome to behold, a real sense of just how these things would work. Good variety, good concept, good universe to put them in. And beyond that, some really, really, really good giant monsters.
Again, be aware that it's not the most challenging of films to watch (if you're looking for something intellectually stimulating, go watch Cloud Atlas, there's a brilliant film for you), but what it lacks in plot, it makes up for in sheer, brilliant excecution. It brings anime to the live action world in a way I've never seen before.
2952397
I'll make sure to hop on down to my local cinema and check it out then. I do love me some giant mecha, though, to be honest, I find a lot of the giant mecha animes a bit dull. They focus too much on the emotions of the mecha pilots (who, in typical anime form, are usually a bunch of wimpy idiots) and not enough on the fact that you just kicked a giant mutant Skeletor in his wrinkly face.
Seriously, we need more giant-monster face-kicking in the world. There is a tragic deficit at the moment.
But if the teeth turn anything into iron why didn't Iron just grab some wood and get that turned to iron and use that to beat Rustjaw's skull in?
Just found your story and I have to say, spending a day reading this was a day well spent. Amazing writing and from what I can tell from the authors notes it updates quite often. I really can't wait to see more of this beautiful universe told through the eyes of Ace and friends. Live long and write well.
2946744 probably something along the lines of, "So... Wild party?"
Iron's iron fist. Also, that whole scene, all I could think of was, "FALCOOOOOOOOOON PUUUUUNCH!"
2952416 PACIFIC RIM
2959512
'Cause Iron Will is a silly goose :3
congrats, Rustjjaw's gonna give me nightmares.
To me the rustjaws new look reminded me of the Lovecraft mythos beasties. All hail the glory of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones.
So instead of her Nightmares getting it on with her showering dad, they're now enjoying tentacle monsters?
Well, the less said about that the better I guess.
Man, Iron Will's name seems really prophetic now. If he were king, I bet he'd rule with an iron fist
2968218 because he plays football and i'm just a boxer
I have only one thing to say:
Holy crap that was badass!
o-o
sounds like the hydra from Hercules
but scarier