Dark Body, Light Soul (Or the Tale of the Stalfos)

by Garino

24: No Respect

Chapter 24: No Respect

There is little one can do after they've already been through an army. Usually, they are tired, their mags are empty, the opposition is fresh, and there is NO escape. A rout is simply inevitable. Our own group was, quite simply, on the bad end of this. At least Wisp had the decency to reclose the door and bar it to give us time for a plan.

"So, let's review: hundreds of them versus three of us," I began.

"I'm here, too, you know," Melody interrupted.

"Can you fight?"

"...not really, no..."

"Hundreds of them versus three of us," I continued. "Although the drop out the window isn't long, it can still take time to recover from the fall, and that door can't take much more abuse. What are our options?"

Wisp threw out the first, most obvious choice. "We stand and fight to the end. No way are we going down so simply."

"But these are fresh troops, and we've barely had time to recover," Drac pointed out. "I say we go back and at least find a place where we can ambush them and recover ourselves."

"There's also the possibility that Shanoa has recovered, and she will not go gently after I humiliated her. I'm not taking THAT chance." I sighed. "Wait...Drac, why do you stay a unicorn all of the time, anyway? Don't you have wings?"

Drac raised an eyebrow. "Well...yes, but it's actually very taxing. I can't stay in it for longer than half an hour per one day."

"But you haven't gone 'alicorn mode' all day today, right?" Melody asked.

"Not at all. I was saving it for the king," the vampire stated.

"Then that settles it!" I exclaimed. Right as the door broke. Thankfully, two of the biggest soldiers tried to go through the pathway at the same time, blocking everyone else and giving us a bit more time. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a plan, and I'd like to call it..." I pointed to a window that showed the whole of Necro City, just a few feet away.

"Operation: Tower Escape Alpha?" Wisp guessed.

"Operation: Necro City Defense?" Drac asked.

"Operation: Tactical Withdrawal?" Melody finished.

"Wrong, wrong, and wrong," I chuckled. "Y’see, when the path forward is too problematic, consider a leap of faith." I ran to the window and jumped right out, much to the chagrin of everyone as I yelled out, "RIDE THE WIIIIIIIND!" Thankfully, Drac caught the idea before I jumped, because he was right beside me in seconds, wings revealed as he positioned himself under me. I grabbed on and pointed.

"ONWARDS, TO THE ARENA! I need to pick up my crap!" I yelled. So yeah. I got to ride to an underground arena on the back of an alicorn vampire with an earth pony ghost beside us, and a warrior pegaghost on the earth pony's other side. The only thing more awesome than this is riding a black unicorn down the side of an erupting volcano while drinking from a chalice filled with the laughter of small children. Nothing can ever be more awesome than that, period.

Sadly, it took us half an hour to get to the arena. How did I figure this out? Well, the fact that we suffered a hundred foot drop when Drac's wings disappeared was a huge clue. Thankfully, our fall was cushioned by zombies. ...before you ask, no, there wasn't a tournament going on, and no, I don't know why. What I do know is that half of the town (don't ask me how I know that) was in here.

After helping Drac up and getting him stable, Wisp and Melody caught up to us, with worry on their faces. "The guards will be here any minute, Dan," Wisp said. "And all we've done is given them more room for their forces."

Now is when the citizens decided to take note of us. I actually expected them to attack us, saying they were guards in disguise. Instead, they parted to show us a pretty bad sight. Shiira, the blood-red pegasus from my arena match, was badly injured, carrying a dead gryphon. The two notable things about him were that A. he was wearing the armor of a guard, and B. the crimson-red armband on his right talon.

"Daniel. You and I need to talk. Now," Shiira commanded.

---

*KSHH*

We interrupt this chapter of Dark Body, Light Soul for a not-so-special announcement. Due to lack of creative thoughts, Shiira’s explanation of what happened, while eventful, cannot be planned out thoroughly. All you, the reader, need to know is that there are three more Reverent Dawn somewhere in the city, Highwind has been deemed crazy by half the population and therefore want a new king, and exactly what happened while Shiira was in the infirmary. While you can read the two previous chapters to find out the last item, the rest will be written in what the author calls a ‘gaiden chapter,’ as to not throw off the story too badly. It will be linked to this very page once it is finished. Thank you for your time. We now return to your regularly scheduled fanfiction.

*KSHH*

---

"...and now, they plan on assassinating the king, taking his crown, and finding Tartarus. If they do, undead creatures everywhere, good and bad, will be wiped out," Shiira finished.

"Wait, what does assassinating the king and taking the crown have to do with finding Tartarus?" I asked. "And how are we certain that an entrance to Tartarus is even close by?"

"You're in an undead city. Where there's undead, a gate is usually close by," Allegro spoke up. Now THERE'S a face we haven't seen in a while! "As for the crown, one of the gems embedded in it has the power to open Tartarus’s gate. Everyone here is willing to face whatever they'll throw at us. But we don't know what to do, sadly."

I put a hand to my chin, thinking. "First off, where's my shield?" I asked. Multiple hands pointed to the brown kite shield in the middle of the crater from our finals. Funny how Highwind wasn't keeping that away from me.

Wisp tapped my shoulder and whispered, "We would've brought that to you, but we can't lift it. No one can, for some reason." I went over and picked it up without a problem. I would've been more happy to have it back, but the paw on the front reminded me of the trials ahead. Just because I have this back doesn't mean all of our problems are solved. Time to get thinking.

"Okay, now that I have this, how am I going to pull everything together?" I muttered. "The arena leaves us too exposed, my team needs rest, we have three more Reverent Dawn paladins out there, and Highwind's forces want me dead, too. But that's not the plan."

Allegro overheard me, because he asked, "There's a plan?"

"I don't know yet, don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself," I replied. I kept muttering to myself, trying to think what a great strategist would do. Oh, wait, I don’t know a great strategist personally. Ah, screw it. Let’s just wing it, I thought.

"Alright, I've got it! Skeletons, you stay here and guard the VIPs. If anything happens to them, I'll hold every single one of you PERSONALLY responsible, TWICE. Ghosts, you can pass through walls, so I need this half to do recon. Find the Dawn and lead them to Highwind's forces. If I'm right, they'll be too busy dealing with THEM to deal with US. The other half, get to topside and inform Morva of what's going on. He'll be the bipedal lizard at the front gate.

"Zombies, I want you to sneak around and find the entrance to Tartarus. When you do, pick three of you and stay there, the rest need to get back to the arena and help with defense duty. You should start..." I put a finger up, pretending to test the air for disturbances (completely useless underground, by the way) before I pointed in a random direction and continued, "...that way. It should be a good direction to start."

"Next set of commands. Shiira, Drac, Wisp, stay here and recover. When you do, mobilize everyone and get them to safety."

"What do I do?" Melody asked.

"Follow the ghosts going to Morva. Stay with him, he should protect you," I said. "I will be going back to Highwind's Castle and I'll make him know that the Dawn managed to break in. However, if he attacks me, I will not hesitate to kill him. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I got one," one zombie piped up. "How are you going to kill Highwind if it comes to that?"

"I'll do a thing," I deadpanned.

"What thing?" same zombie asked.

"I don't know, it's a thing in progress! Respect the thing!" I commanded. "Any other questions?"

“What about us?” one of the unicorns asked.

“Well...” I looked at the unicorn. Uh-oh, I forgot about the vampires. “Um...flyers take to the skies and keep an eye on everything. Ground units sneak with the ghost team going to Morva. If we can’t keep control of the city, we need some kind of escape route secured.”

“Okay, that should be all the races. Did I miss anyone else?” Silence again. “Okay, last call. Questions, comments, concerns?” Still silence. "Then let's do this! ALLONS-Y!"

Comments

[Garino]

Yes, I had to look up the quote for riding a black unicorn.

[thefluffyone]

1462610

[bloodwolf432]

It's not a plan, but it's a perfect plan

[AlolanRaichu]

gifstumblr.com/images/putting-sunglasses-on-like-a-boss_863.gif Respect. The. Thing.

[Garino]

1456583 Talking to other Chessverse authors, I have confirmed that the start of the story takes place...let me check my calendar.

dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Mr_Cake.png Ah! 4 months after the GGG.

[kragor]

I just noticed something, every Dragoon character in the Final Fantasy series has Highwind for a last name, if there is a fight with the king, will there be some High Jumpin' Spear wielding badassery?

[AlolanRaichu]

1465322 Highwind used Jump! It's more effective than it'll ever be for the player.

[Garino]

1465692 And more painful for Daniel, should it connect. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Redheart_gasp.png

[AlolanRaichu]

1465713 Well, at least he isn't spamming Drain/Esuna/ A stronger variation of either............ Right?

[RealityDowngrade]

So confused as to why all those creatures were in the arena, but is also strangely awesome for a reason I can't quite put my finger on.

[Garino]

1466139 Drain: Restore health equal to how much damage you deal to the opponent. Considered "Dark" skill.
Undead: Light healing is hurtful, Dark skills heal them.
Daniel: Skeleton. Considered "undead."

Put it together from there.

[AppleTank]

1465139
Ah, so there is a timeline. Somewhere.

[AlolanRaichu]

1468126 thestifledartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/touchc3a9.png

[Mother3Forever]

1465322 Not Mog, Edgar or Kimahri.....

[Garino]

1475135 They're the Reverent Dawn, friend. They call their paladins the "Dawn's Light."

[Big-X]

Gotta love a half-baked plan.

Heh, It's a better plan then anything I could have come up with if I were in Dan's situation.

[Magical Trevor]

YES! The Thing! Gotta respect the Thing!

[Plasmadon]

24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyxbqiud1H1rnd5zuo1_400.jpg

[ArtaisiousX]

1518318 angels are the scariest who monsters ever

[Equin0x27]

Go doctor!

[Scornas]

RESPECT THE THING

[sirraf]

respect the thing!static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/11/118689/2723575-the_thing_marvel_comics_8479357_1401_1504_953x10241.jpg

[Black--Soul]

He just wings it like the doctor