Momodora: Equestrian Adventure

by Whiskas

Chapter 6 - "Is it over?"

Chapter 6 - "Is it over?"

The group composed of a high priestess, a town guard, his wife and a currency exchange shopkeeper did what presumably all groups composed of the same members would do while confronted with a three stores tall village destroying monster made of sand.

They ran towards it. Though in Kaho's case it was more like hobbling. And Shadow was tripping over his legs, pale at the thought of facing something way beyond his league. Bold's and Honey's faces were those of grim determination but it was clear they weren't thinking highly of their chances.

Needless to say none of them were looking forward to this confrontation.

Kaho's vision lost it's sapphire tint around the time they started moving towards the monster. That resulted in a pain filled gasp as the only completely safe body enhancer she had ran out. Bold turned towards her but she shook her head. They continued, but Bold was walking closer to her in case she fainted. She ran through the list of items in her bag that could help her right now and wouldn't worsen her condition. The Tainted Missives were out as they hurt both body and spirit by injecting spite and hatred directly into both. Definitely not safe or reasonable in her current condition but sometimes useful. The Faerie Tear was not useful in this particular situation, or at least she assumed so. Unless the elemental could curse things or poison people or burn them. She shook her head. She really couldn't see it doing that. The Magnet Stone was useless, same with the Dull and Edea's Pearls because there's no way you can poison sand. The Clarity Shard was a good idea if she wanted to blind herself right now. She didn't have any fingers to put her rings on. The Astral Charm would be useful, since luck is something she'll need a lot of right now. Those really weird arrows that the Karstian Archery used were not something she bothered to acquaintance herself with, except the ones she used a few minutes earlier.

Her magic items that cast spells would cause collateral damage. Not acceptable.

Kaho took a deep breath and settled with the fact that she might not be of much use in this fight. But maybe she could pass some knowledge along, presuming the townspeople, didn't know all of it already.

"Miss Bee, do you know any weaknesses of these monsters?"

"No, I don't. The same goes for the rest of the town. If we knew any, they wouldn't be a problem." Honey answered keeping her golden eyes on the monstrosity they were approaching.

"Well, while I was fighting the ones that almost killed me, I found out some things."

Honey's head snapped back towards Kaho and she fixed her with a look.

"Tell me. I'll run forward to repeat what you say to others. Quickly because lives are at stake!" She exclaimed while speeding up.

"They are vulnerable to fire hot enough to turn sand into glass. The glass parts restrain them, because they can't move them and they seem smarter the bigger they are. I also found out that there are stones inside their chest area that seem to animate the sand. Taking them out killed them or at least disabled them." As soon as Kaho finished explaining, Honey's horn glowed and there was a flash of yellow light, same as yesterday and she flied away as a bee.

"That does explain why they die when you cut them there enough times." Bold mused, increasing his tempo just a tiny bit.

"Fire hot enough to melt sand into glass..? That's crazy! Do you know how hard it is to make a fire that hot magically!" Shadow exclaimed, face even more nervous than before.

"Well technically water would also turn it's sand into mud which would at least slow it down but-" Kaho shrugged somehow,"- we are in a desert." Shadow shot her a look at that.

"You're not making me feel any better."

"Well sorry if I can't help trying to lighten my mood after almost dying." She deadpanned in response. Shadow looked guilty after those words.

"Stop arguing like foals! This isn't the time for this!" Bold exclaimed, and both of them jumped in surprise though Kaho quickly regretted it.

"How long do we have before we're going to be in the fight?" Kaho asked, lightning her horn and opening the bag once again. A few seconds later the Astral Charm was hanging of her neck and the Black Sachet was back in the bag.

"From what I'm seeing we'll be joining the guard in thirty seconds." Bold commented, speeding up again.

"Do you know if there's anyone capable of creating a fire hot enough to restrain it?" She asked, feeling her stomach trying very hard to tie itself into a knot.

"I think Honey should be capable of cranking up at least five fireballs to that level. Blowtorch is definitely capable of throwing much more of them around. He's probably doing it right now. I'm not sure about anypony else. It would definitely be a stretch for them." He responded, face growing more grim with every second.

"I think I can make one." Shadow spoke up nervously. He didn't appear to be confident about it.

"Save it as a last resort then." Bold replied.

They turned right after reaching a crossroad and were greeted by the sight of a column of sand rising from the ground and moving about rather fast. The massive elemental occupied an another empty space, same as the one she fought the smaller ones in. There wasn't a lot of room to run around in it, but it wasn't impossible. Two earth ponies rushed past them, carrying an unconscious bleeding pegasus on their back. Kaho assumed they were going to the hospital. Kaho winced when she saw the winged pony bleeding from their mouth, nose, ears and a hole in their torso.

A bright yellow flash appeared up above them and Honey fell down to the ground, rolling to prevent any of her bones from breaking.

"You're here!" She shouted.

"What's the plan Honey?" Bold asked. She let out a humorless laugh.

"There isn't! Sound Mind was rushed to the hospital a few minutes ago, no one can agree about anything, half of our guard is panicking and the other half is convinced that we should try to escape!" She took a deep breath.

"As you can tell the situation is far from optimal."

"Escaping doesn't sound like a bad idea right now." Shadow muttered absently, sitting on his flank and staring in horror.

"It would chase us down. We live in the desert but that thing is the desert." Bold shook his head. "Anyone got any good ideas?"

"The fire?" Kaho half asked, half reminded because the other mare didn't mention anything about it.

"Sunny is getting Blowtorch here, he lives on the opposite site of town and it was his off day. He decided to sleep in. They should be here in two minutes." Honey answered, her horn starting to glow.

"That's way too long, we need to start right now before it wipes out everyone!" Kaho argued.

"I know!" Honey turned towards the monster who was swiping at the remaining pegasi. A fireball about as big as Bold shot out of her horn straight into the elemental's head. An explosion of fire swallowed it's head and the surrounding sand. The glass on top of it's head was reflecting sunlight straight into their eyes, so it was harder to notice that it was now focused on them.

"Uh, oh." Honey made a weird face. It could have been described as one of a child who just realized that his parents did hear them mutter that curse.

"Dodge!"

The warning was entirely unneeded because their group was already moving. They scattered, Honey and Bold to the left and Shadow with Kaho to the right. The gigantic arm slammed down on where they were standing two seconds ago. Kaho took the opportunity to smash the leaf into their enemy. The amount of glass created by the hit was unsatisfactory. The arm moved to crush Honey and Bold against a building. Everyone looking in their direction gave a shout of alarm. Honey threw herself at her husband and grabbed him, horn glowing. There was a bright yellow flash, a loud crackle and both of them suddenly weren't there.

"Miss Bee can teleport?" Shadow asked, making the best impression of a fish Kaho's ever seen. The priestess only rolled her eyes at his reaction before grabbing him with her undamaged hoof and dragging him away from their foe. Seriously teleportation couldn't be that rare. She fought people and things that could do it a lot. She looked around trying to spot where the pair teleported to but couldn't manage to spot them. She did spot the next fireball impacting the right shoulder of the beast. It let out a deafening roar and both her and Shadow fell to the ground covering their ears.

"That thing can scream really damn loud!" Shadow shouted. Kaho only turned her eyes to him, still laying on the ground and deadpanned when the noise finally stopped.

"Really? I couldn't tell." He blushed in response.

"Sorry."

The priestess rolled her eyes and slowly got up, trying not to strain her right leg. Some cuts already reopened and more would soon follow if she didn't stop running around. But it wasn't like she could just drop out of the fight. The monster was currently occupied with her hostess who threw an another fireball, this time at the right arm, immobilizing one fourth of it. She already casted three and her husband was sure she could manage five. Honey's usefulness in restraining the thing was rapidly dwindling. That meant someone needed to step up their game and Kaho was willing to do just that despite the risk.

The mare opened the bag again and quickly consumed an another bellflower to heal the injuries on her leg before taking out a piece of bloodied paper. She speedily read through the contents, cringing when she felt her body burning, as the horrible, horrible words entered into her brain, their hateful message hurting her being. Kaho crumpled the paper in her magic. The world seemed more bleak, darker, evil, not worth living in. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before returning the text into her bag. The priestess ran forward and levitated the leaf up to the right arm of their enemy to hit it. Yet another explosion of fire was born from her strike today, nearly completely covering the limb in glass. She jumped away ready for a retaliatory strike from the monster, ready to run but no blow came.

She looked up slightly confused. The creature's right arm was completely restrained and the left one was reared back ready to attack... itself?

The glass exploded in every direction, as the elemental hit it's glass arm with the sand one. She heard screams of pain and shouts of alarm. It only took her half a second to register the fact she was one of those screaming. There were at least five shards of varying sizes stuck in her and countless more that grazed her. Her vision blurred, the world darkened.

The priestess grit her teeth and pulled out two more bellflowers and ate them. The bleeding stopped, but there was even more glass stuck in her body.

This was decisively not her day. Oh, how much time she'll spend at the hospital, assuming she lived through this fight. Kaho just couldn't wait. Her vision cleared a bit, but not completely. She estimated that she couldn't afford to lose much more of her blood, unless she really wanted to die today.

The priestess looked up, trying to judge if their chances have shot up with the right arm gone or-

"Dear Goddesses..." These words didn't really convey the horror she was feeling. The giant was supposed to lose an arm, make this fight easier, winnable. Instead there was sand flying off the ground attaching itself to the arm that was supposed to be gone. She fell to her knees, staring. Some part of her was screaming. Get up you idiot! Fight! Don't give up! but she just couldn't muster the will to do that. If she had been a human this fight would have gone differently. She still didn't figure out how to utilize the Karst Crest pieces in this form. It would take a miracle for the fight to swing in their favor.

"Cavalry has arrived!" A feminine voice called out, which was followed by a series of explosions. Kaho idly noted in her head that it was a weird thing to hear a pony say and she should probably ask about that later. An orange coated unicorn with a red mane was standing on a nearby roof, throwing fireballs like nobody's business. Nearby a pegasus was flying around, futilely stabbing their spear into the sand. It took all of two seconds for the regrowing arm to stop. The monster roared this time a bit quieter and Kaho noted again that it shouldn't be doing that with it's head being glass. It tried smashing the unicorn with it's other arm but was stopped almost immediately by more fireballs. The priestess let out a sigh of relief.

Then the elemental charged the building on which the unicorn who was probably Blowtorch was standing.

The pegasus with the spear let out a shout of alarm before swooping in, grabbing Blowtorch and flying away. The building collapsed and the beast turned around. Kaho suddenly realized she was still standing in place, without anything to hide behind. She backed away hastily, though their opponent seemed to be paying attention to Blowtorch. It tried to move it's arms around by rotating it's torso to break the glass.

"Blowtorch! Glass it's torso, NOW!" Honey shouted from somewhere.

"Can do!" He called back, as the pegasus put him down on an another roof. The monster surged towards him and Kaho rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming wall of very painful death. She got up and turned just in time to see his horn glowing an insanely bright pink before a wall of flames erupted from him. It couldn't stop in time and ran straight into it.

The roar of fire quieted down in a few seconds, after he stopped his spell before sitting down. There in place stood a giant statue of warped see through material.

"Is it over?" Someone called out.

"It isn't until we take care of the rock inside of it!" Honey answered, though Kaho still didn't know where she was.

"And how are we gonna do that? I'm not exactly keen on having it break out, just so I have to stop it again." Blowtorch said rubbing his head with a hoof. The pegasus - a mare, probably Sunny, Kaho realized as she touched down and hugged the orange unicorn. Honey walked into the strange space Kaho still couldn't determine purpose for, with Bold at her side. Both of them were bleeding from numerous wounds, though they didn't seem to be that bothered by it so Kaho ignored it for now.

"So how do we do it?" Sunny asked.

"I can rip out the rock, though I think it won't be enough to do this one in. It was more capable than it's smaller kin so I wouldn't put past it to be capable of living trough it." Honey answered again, because apparently she was an encyclopedia now.

"I'm pretty sure I can break it after you do that. These muscles aren't just for show you know, Honey?" Bold jokingly flexed. His wife rolled her eyes, amused.

"Okay then, everypony move away, Bold get ready." She commanded, as Bold took his gigantic sword of his back.

Honey's horn glowed yellow and the rock was ripped out of it's hold. The instant it was out sand swirled, moving towards it. There were shouts of alarm, Blowtorch lit horn, Sunny lifted her spear, Kaho levitated the leaf up. Bold calmly jumped forward and hit the magical rock vertically with his sword. It went straight trough and the sand stopped.

There was a moment of silence before the rock split into two halves. Everyone stared at the sword.

"What?" Bold asked with an innocent expression.

"What is that sword made of?! That was solid rock!" Sunny asked.

"You can ask my wife, I'm sure she'll share that information with you." He gave them a daring look. Kaho glanced at her hostess and noticed the expression on her face. She interpreted it as "Ask me that and I'll gladly rip out your spine." And Kaho would know, she's seen that one before. And she was now also becoming aware of the fact that there still is a lot of glass in her body. That probably wasn't optimal for her health. Dizzily she looked at them and spoke, swaying slightly to the left

"Well, I'm sure you all have things to do, like cleaning up this mess but would anyone mind helping me to the hospital?" She grunted.

Everyone present actually looked at her and noticed the sharp shards sticking out of her and the many scratches she was covered in. At the drying blood clinging to her fur. In the next five seconds Bold already had her on her back and was galloping through the streets. Sunny flied by them, too fast for them too catch up. Honey Bee was behind them but was slowly catching up despite her smaller size. And Kaho thought as her eyelids started closing and the world started quietening around her that maybe, it was her fault for not raising their attention to her sorry state sooner. There was some shouting about something, but she wasn't paying attention right now. What she was thinking about is that this was a perfect time for a nap.

So she closed her eyes and fell into deep sleep.

Author's Note:

Mid-week Update! Also, Oh my God. I'm sorry for the delay but while I'm doing better at school right now and theoretically should have more time, there are issues with written assignments. Every time I get one handed out to me, I write and it just feels like it saps all my inspiration and motivation away. The next chapter will come out God knows when at this pace and I'm sorry about it. Good news is that December has a lot of days where you don't go to school because of all the holidays. I should be able to write a fair bit then. This chapter isn't edited and I may work on that tomorrow or sometime later. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one and hopefully you'll all get the next one soon. Take care!
- Whiskas