Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-nine, Mountain and Molehills: Stones.

-Mount Aris, backside beach, Skelly-

I watched the others go off to fight the mole monster thing again. I could help, but they wanted me to watch the boat and I guess they wanted to not trouble me.

If they don’t need my help or won’t ask for it, then I was completely okay with that. I’m actually having lots of fun on this beach, aside from the sand sticking to my bones. I’m sure they can handle the monster, they were strong and brave warriors.

Left to my own thoughts I wondered something idly.

If I eventually reach the afterlife, will it have beach as nice as this one is?

-Mount Aris, Hippogriffia, Fortitude-

“Well we’ve been digging around our archives and we found out that bugganes hate positive religious architecture.” Sky Beak waited for a moment before frowning. “I’m sorry, that’s not very helpful information is it?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got this!” Flamberge turned us to walk by the diamond dogs again who were lazing about waiting for the mole to stop being a problem. As we passed by, one of them spoke up.

“You are crazy to go in there a second time, it’s far smarter than you think it is.” The diamond dog then went back to relaxing with her four waiting friends. “Even we know better than to fight something that’s far smarter than we are.”

I agree, it is a bad idea to fight an opponent without any kind of plan, our plan seemed sound this time though. Last time we were getting an estimate of our opponent, this time we had sweetcakes ready to blow away that disturbing aura with the magical fan and we should be able to fight it far more effectively.

-Buggane den, take two, Flamberge-

With a gust of wind the aura causing my sword to flicker and spark was blown away and the flames of my sword increased to full strength.

However we didn’t see our quarry, I was floating the air expecting the monster to pop out of the ground from below.

Ryu ignited to blue, but didn’t form his flaming wings yet. He would look for opportunities to hit the mole to the best of his abilities.

Fortitude stood protectively in front of Sweetcakes, he could take as many hits as he needed to with that shield.

Sweetcakes would be our healer who just expended quite a bit of energy to use the fan to blow away the aura. I’m just surprised that the buggane even let Sweetcakes set up to blow the aura away.

We were ready for it now.

I’d eat my own thoughts a minute later.

-Buggane den, malicious buggane-

Waiting for moment. Hot lizard pony fall in pit was signal, pit filled with dirt putting out his hot.

I drop out of ceiling onto dragon clawing at his wings viciously and then I bash skull into ground with both paws.

Lots of pain is caused, it’s delicious!

Attack strange wind blowing creature next!

-Minutes later, Flamberge-

“That monster is definitely something else and nothing that I’ve ever encountered the likes of before!” It was quite painful and not only that, but Ryu almost suffocated when he was buried alive after the ground fell out from under him and a large amount of the ceiling collapsed into the hole. “Given its strong enough to even shred the membrane of my wings!”

Ryu’s body was mostly fine if not for the oxygen deprivation making him pass out.

We had not been prepared for how smart the buggane actually was, the thing had actually managed to ambush us almost perfectly and if it wasn’t for Fortitude getting us out of there I’m sure it would have slowly tortured us.

The thing actually thrived on causing misery, I could tell when it shredded my wings and while it was bashing my skull into the floor. I was a little intimidated by it now and with good reason to be scared of it.

Sweetcakes was deeply injured as well when the buggane targeted her before Fortitude could intercept.

The buggane picked soft targets after taking out our offensive with a perfectly executed surprise attack.

That the monster somehow dug the hole for Ryu to fall into was frightening considering the buggane couldn’t have known Ryu would be in front of Fortitude. In fact I think the hole was meant for my brother to disable his defensive qualities.

“Are you sure all of you are okay?” Sky Beak looked worried for our injuries and Sweetcakes was still healing my wings with gentle slow strokes of her tails. She looked quite tired from the effort and I’m actually kind of glad she’s here, otherwise it would have taken a while for my wings to heal from this.

“I can heal quite well. Injuries are not that bad. Friends okay, I’m glad.” Yes, but you were flagging after everything and taking two nasty slashes to your side and back Sweetcakes.

Healing herself was likely less energy intensive than healing a dragon, which I would certainly think is much more complicated for her.

“Even so, it’s becoming fairly obvious you need all the help you can get to take the buggane down, what can we do to help?” Sky Beak and several other hippogriffs looked to us, we didn’t exactly have an answer.

“We wait until Sweetcakes is ready to go again of course!” I considered something for a moment, then added as an afterthought. “We’ll also need Blade’s help this time!”

A curious look passed among the hippogriffs, Blade was an unusual stranger and they looked like they were wondering why I wanted Blade’s help.

She could echolocate the monster before it could surprise attack us when we went in to fight it again.

-Mount Aris, backside beach, Skelly-

I wonder if my bones will bleach in the sun… not that that would be a bad thing, at least my bones aren’t crawling with wisps of darkness and evil scrawl. Wouldn’t know how to live with myself if my other appearance actually looked demonic and not just like a pile of animate bones.

I wondered what my friends were getting up to. It’s so peaceful here, I doubt anyone would actually try to steal the boat. The hippogriffs and sea ponies were all friendly and nice, though I’m not exactly sure how true that would be if they saw the other side of me.

Also I had a lot of sand on my bones and it was annoying to clean it off and every time I went into the ocean I could taste the salt water even with my mouth closed.

Aside from these few issues, I was having a nice time.

-Mount Aris, buggane den, take three, Blade-

I didn’t need Flamberge and Fortitude’s help, but apparently they needed mine now and I did owe them for helping me in Neighpon.

Knowing that they’ve lost to this thing twice already was a bit hard to swallow, but I accepted that this thing was exceedingly dangerous and asked for a few supplies from the hippogriffs before I would even consider stepping in.

I got some halfway decent knives to wield in this fight and a little bit of lightweight armor that is puncture and cut resistant, not that it'd help much if the mole monster could hurt a strong and sturdy dragon like Flamberge.

Flying in here was also a no go for me after hearing about what had happened to Flamberge, I like my wings on my back and undamaged thank you very much! Well… at least I wouldn’t be flying until I knew where the monster was.

We were near the den and I had my ears flicking about as I listened for any movement whatsoever. It would not do for us to be ambushed because I was inattentive. I flicked my left ear, my right ear and then both of them.

Nothing yet, but I wasn’t going to drop my guard at all here.

Sensing a vibration I looked at the nearby wall, so did Flamberge, Fortitude, Ryu and Sweetcakes. We all slowly backed away from the wall, most them were following my lead.

“Do you suppose…” Fortitude started only to immediately bring up his shield when the horrible mole monster burst out of the wall showering us with stones.

The buggane brought both its claws together in an attempt to eviscerate Sweetcakes, said kitsune was busy trying to charge up the fan with magic to blow away that aura causing the sense of dread in all of us.

Fortitude quickly imposed himself and took both the claws on the shield and I backed up and took to the air. Flamberge and Ryu came at the mole from both sides.

It deftly hopped backwards and swung for Ryu. Ryu was knocked backwards and the buggane dodged the subsequent sword swing from Flamberge.

While Flamberge had its attention Sweetcakes voiced something that was somewhat concerning.

“Spikes on the ceiling, an unusual new feature, made by that creature.” So the stalactites aren’t normal and weren’t here the last time they attacked the buggane?

I think Sweetcakes realized the same thing that I did, the buggane was not attacking with its full ferocity and was in fact slowly retreating back and away from us with what looked to almost be a grin.

It was actively luring Ryu and Flamberge into a trap as they assaulted it.

“Fortitude look out, the monster made a new trap, pull them both back here!” Sweetcakes words got a good reaction out of Fortitude as the grinning buggane leapt back and slapped the floor with its claws.

The entire area shook as if there was an earthquake happening.

Fortitude, after wrapping his hooves around Ryu and Flamberge, immediately started backpedaling with his rear hooves trying to avoid the many falling manufactured stalactites that were now attempting to puncture and pierce them.

“Almost got it now, I need a little more time, stall that beastly mole.” Not once has Sweetcakes dropped her haiku speech. She was just about done charging up the fan when she had to hop backwards as another stalactite would have went through her spine if she hadn’t.

The mole smiled and started to furiously claw at the ground and disappeared into it leaving behind a large molehill of rock. I kept my sense open for its movements, where was it going and just exactly how smart was this thing if it could make stalactites?

“Where is it going Blade?!” If you’d just give me a moment, then I’d find out for you Flamberge!

He looked in the direction I was looking. The creature was digging fast, but the filling in hollow spots it was traveling through was quite clear to my ears. It was below me right now…

It stopped at this point and then stayed in that one spot doing something, the entire place started to shake. What was it… a spike erupted from beneath me almost impaling me where I was hovering. I tried to contain my surprise and flew higher.

The mole then turned and erupted out of the ground just as Sweetcakes was about to blow away its aura. It went to swing for her and she panicked unleashing the magic from the fan knocking it back.

That aura weakened slightly, but it didn’t stop entirely like the last time they attacked the buggane. I think the buggane knew what Sweetcakes was doing as it disrupted her using the fan and made her misfire it, it then went to attack her with its claws again.

Fortitude got into position and caught its left claw on the shield and avoided the second swing to get its right claws around the shield by backing up.

Instead of pressing its attack it spun around and caught Flamberge’s blade on its right claw, then rammed its left claw right into his belly sending him tumbling to slam into a wall in a painful manner.

Ryu leapt onto and quickly climbed on the bugganes head to start stomping and hitting it with his hooves, the monster mole wasn’t taking this lying down and started to shake around trying to throw him off. It eventually managed to do so with a heavy swing of its head. Ryu bounced off the floor twice and that’s where I came in.

I pulled out one of the knives I retrieved from the hippogriffs and then darted in to attack it. When I managed to scratch the thick skin on its shoulder, not drawing blood, it swung outwards and I barely flapped out of the way of the attack.

I struck it several more times, with the knife barely doing much to it. It then clapped its claws together in an attempt to shred me with them.

It missed, but the air pressure still knocked me to the floor. The buggane launched itself for me, its entire body threatening to crush me before Flamberge shoved me out of the way and got smashed into the ground by the buggane landing on him in a painful looking belly flop.

Flamberge was tough, but he was taking some pretty nasty hits here. Fortitude in a fit of anger rammed the buggane off of the dragon.

The buggane rolled onto its chest while swiping out at Ryu who chose to move in to attack, then it stomped the ground again and more stalactites started falling all around us.

“Retreat!” Fortitude called out as he grabbed his brother and started to drag him away.

Distracting the buggane while the others retreat by flying around and slashing its thick skin with the knife several times, I eventually retreated and was the last one out.

That thing was ridiculously tough, scarily so.

-Mount Aris, Hippogriffia, Evening, Ryu-

We failed again, bruised, battered, but at least we weren’t skewered or hurt even worse.

“We are needing Skelly’s help next time.” Looking to Fortitude I concurred with that thought, but we needed to hit that monster harder and faster next time. We weren’t going to give it time to do much of anything.

“I have an idea.” I looked over to the tired Sweetcakes. “But I suggest we sit on it until tomorrow, I’m sure the buggane will be waiting for us with new traps by then.”

“Any idea is better than trying to face it in direct combat a fourth time.” A wise statement Fortitude. “We are needing a good plan.”

-Mount Aris, backside beach, night, Skelly-

“How strong is your axe?” Ryu asked me and I held it aloft with pride, my axe was strong and magically gifted in cutting through most materials. Why was he asking me this though? What happened to Flamberge and Fortitude? “We’ll need your help tomorrow and a contingent of hippogriffs will be our backup plan if we can’t make this work. Wait until morning when your appearance is fleshy once more, then come up to help us defeat the buggane.”

I made a series of gesture to him asking about the others and he understood what I was asking.

“Sweetcakes tired herself out using the fan twice and healing our wounds from both attacks, she wasn’t even able to heal all the wounds fully. Thankfully, none of the injuries were debilitating.” He rubbed his chin and flicked his tongue out while looking to the stars, he then sent me a smile. “That buggane is a wily creature, I thank you for making me consider something I might have missed otherwise... I’ll add it to the plan.”

Author's Note:

Fourth times the charm right?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Hope Skelly can come up with something better, all I have left is trying to get the thing distracted enough that it falls for its own traps, but that implies noticing such newly placed traps first and planning up for them.

Or rolling Nat 20.

[Sigmacipher]

9768809
I have an Idea...how about having diamond dogs flood the caves with water and drowning that motherfucker.

[Herald of Opera]

If I eventually reach the afterlife, will it have beach as nice as this one is?

Considering you're pre-approved for Yakhalla... actually, yeah. Now that I think about it, they'd need all sorts of terrain to practice on.

[Herald of Opera]

9768809
So in case you haven't seen the next chapter yet, it turns out that the answer was that Skelly being skelly made her immune to the buggane's fear aura, freaking it out instead.

[The Scarlett Mare]

9773487
I thought that before I read it
My thoughts were to go for Skelly at first notice, really