Chapter 9: Sudden Ambush (EDITED FOR PERSONAL CHOICES)
In the edge of the Everfree Forest nearby the cliff, Zade and his companions, guided by Kamahl, observed the situation that was occurring on the other side from behind the semi-lifeless trees. They knew that they would have to face Twilegion's forces and Julius, but they never imagined to face an entire legion. However, their plan wasn't fighting them, but to help that doesn't make them feel any better. The four demons looked visibly unnerved, unlike Kamahl, being the only unperturbed due to him having experienced an analog situation.
On the other side, Julius was in front of the Castle of the Two Sister, leading a tremendous legion composed by alicorn Royal Guards, bronze armored unicorns, huge metallic earth-ponies and obsidian armored pegasi with electrical wings. That army was gathered by him with the purpose to demolish the castle, apparently unaware of the fact that Starlight and her Insurgence was still there.
Everything was quiet, but the storm hadn't arrived yet. The ranks of altered ponies where immobile, as if they were waiting his orders.
"What are they waiting for?" Zade asked.
"I don't know," Sera replied perplexed, visibly nervous. "But I think Julius is waiting for something. Probably for us to make our first move. He's probably thinking that we are still inside the castle."
"That prick seems to know that Starlight's Insurgence was also there," Jace guessed with a fed-up tone. "How the hell did he managed to bring this legion of his without making a sound-." He paused and then groaned, having guessed the answer. "I got it, Twilegion teleported them here... Coming to think about it, if he's powerful, why he didn't came after us by himself?"
"I don't think he can do what he wants freely." Chris remarked.
"Julius may be this mastermind as we know," Zade said. "But he's still, at least in appearance, under the service of Twilegion. So he may have to obey her in order to preserve his agenda. She would had probably gave him the permission to lead this army."
As they continued to talk, Kamahl turned around and walked toward the depth of the forest. Zade noticed that and approached him.
"Hey, where are you going in a moment like this?" Zade asked.
"There's one thing I check," Kamahl replied before narrowing his eyes. "I won't take too long."
"Alright... If you says so," Zade said reluctantly as Kamahl leaved the group.
Zade couldn't help but think about a detail that didn't add up. Something that give a hint regarding Kamahl. As he tried to make sense to this, Sera approached him and spoke to him.
"Zade," Sera called. "I need to talk with you."
"Is about Kamahl?" Zade asked.
"Well, not just him. When Jeska asked Kamahl if he was going on the battlefield with us, he said 'not going directly'. I think he has a plan that doesn't involve fighting Julius' forces, but I'm not so convinced."
"You know, there's one thing about them that bothered me since we met them."
"What are you implying?" Sera asked.
Zade turned to Jace. "Jace, do you remember when Kamahl said that irritating remark about us, when he first stepped in the reading room?"
"Hmph, why you ask?" Jace responded, a little annoyed. "He said that we, in comparison to the monsters that had fought, are just a bunch of cretins who couldn't cont-" He stopped, froze up in realization.
A grotesque silence fell upon the group as Chris and Sera had the exact same revelation. As for Zade, he had that impression from the very beginning. Jace took a little long to recover his composure, being still shocked about not having noticed that detail before.
"Are you telling me," Jace started, hesitantly. "That he knows who we really are?"
"Its just a hypothesis of mine," Zade replied, unsure about that. "I think we have to save that for later. Julius won't take too long before he will order the onslaught to the castle."
"And we must act now." Kamahl's voice echoed from their left.
In the same moment they heard his voice, a strange sound resembling that of roots growing rapidly caught their attention. They turned toward it's source, only to see Kamahl heading toward them from afar.
What they didn't expected was him walking two legged in front of their eyes, with all of his legs being wrapped in green vines forming humanoid limbs. His lower body was wrapped in vines, with his hind legs having become plant-made feet and his forelegs were root made hands, now holding his bizarre stone axe.
That sight made them almost speechless, except Jace, who seemed amazed to see that.
"H-how can he even walk two legged?" Sera stammered quietly. "Is impossible."
"Dudes, I don't want ruin any surprise," Jace said incredulous. "But I think he had retained his powers of when he was alive during the Mirari saga. He was a barbarian who then became a druid, devoting his life to the nature and learning to control the green mana. One of his most noticeable powers was that to turn trees, mountains or natural creatures into living things."
"Seriously?" Chris asked, slightly impressed.
Once Kamahl reached the group, he stopped a few inches away from them, towering on them. He looked at the army of altered ponies on the other side of the cliff for a moment and then looked back at the four demonic ponies.
"I'm fully aware of their great numbers," Kamahl stated calmly. "Which is why we have to render both Julius and his army unable to act without even fighting them. We have to give Starlight and her group to complete the mass teleport. Keep in mind. Face them is not our priority."
"Well, you brought us there for a valid reason," Chris pointed out.
"Fair enough," Zade replied bluntly. "So... How we can do that?"
Suddenly, a green blur fell in front of four demonic ponies, startling them a little bit. After its landing, they looked at it and became weirded out to see what it was. Its form was a humanoid one, except that is made of vines. It was holding a curved, red glowing crystal in its hands.
The creature turned to Kamahl and gave the crystal to him. As the marine-green stallion took it with its own root-like hands, the creature discomposed itself, becoming nothing more than pure vines.
"With this," Kamahl responded, pointing at the object.
"That weird crystal?" Zade looked confused.
"The damage that Twilegion has done in the Inquisition," Kamahl explained. "Has deformed the natural balance, changing every living organism. Residual traces of magic were left in her wake, engulfing grand part of this world. With the time, most of the magic had became solidified into crystals. They are so rare to be almost unobtainable. It was kind of a miracle to have found one."
"We are going to stop that legion... With this?" Jace looked unconvinced.
"This little thing is far more devastating than you can imagine," Kamahl explained. "Its a pure concentrate of unstable magic that, if released, can cause a magical shockwave that will drain the energy from every living creatures and neutralize their magic. In short, that thing is powerful enough to engulf the entire area and incapacitate Julius and his army."
"Wait, this thing is really this powerful?" Zade asked.
"I can feel a very tremendous amount of energy being emanated from it," Kamahl said with a serious tone. "So of course I can tell that."
"So we don't have to fight," Chris said half optimistic.
"There's one problem with that," Zade retorted. "The bridge leading to the other side of the cliff is destroyed. And even if we manage to get on the other side, charging toward them will be a big risk since they would prevent us from use it."
"That is why I brought you with me," Kamahl replied calmly. "I need that flaming teleport that you talked with Starlight to bring me on the other side of the cliff, right behind the enemy line, so that I can toss the crystal in the middle of their ranks and take them down."
What he said made the demonic ponies flinch, but also made them reflect. Chris and Sera were a little reluctant regarding that idea, having saw its explosive precedence. Even Jace was a little hesitant about that.
"You are seriously asking us to us Jace's flaming portal," Zade said. "Just to ambush Julius and his army, when they didn't expect."
"That is correct," Kamahl said with a half grin. "That is the only way that we have to put them into a hold. I know th-"
Kamahl didn't had the time to finish his sentence that the crystal suddenly disappeared from his root made hand. Before they could react to its disappearance, a luminous, black blur passed in front of the eyes of the demonic party and struck Kamahl, making him falling to the ground, with his axe flying away from his hand.
"Kamahl!" Zade shouted as he and the others rushed toward him.
Before they could get close to him, Zade perceived multiple presences raising from beneath him, getting closer to the surface. He was about to warn the others but it was too late.
In that point, multiple things emerged around them, raising through the ground. In a instant, Zade's group and Kamahl found themselves being blocked by about seventeen bronze armored unicorns, with mark of self-justified cruelty marking their faces.
"Now that is terribly ridiculous." Zade said nervously.
"Those bronze armored unicorns can travel underground!?" Jace demanded astounded. "Seriously!?"
"Let's seize them!" One of the bronze armored unicorn exclaimed as he glowed his horn and pointed it toward Zade's group, with the others following suit.
Upon seeing this, Zade and his companions were about counterattack. They were almost panicking for that ambush, except Sera, who simply pointed her hoof at the armored unicorns with calm fury.
The guards were about to unleash their magic when spectral, skeletal fists protruded from the ground beneath them, heavily hitting their stomach. They let out loud moans of pain, a moment before loosing their consciousness and collapsing to the ground, with their horns stopping their glowing. After having finished with them, the skeletal hands retreated inside the ground and disappeared.
Zade, Chris and Jace hesitantly turned toward Sera, being responsible for that. Her face was a very calmly yet intimidating one, but the crazed one that they saw being displayed by her during her psycho moments. Knowing that Sera was really fed-up with being unable to catch a real break since the beginning of this insanity, it wasn't a surprise for them if she gave the unicorns a real beat down, although she was actually holding back.
"Be happy that I'm not angered enough to make me want to reduce you into dust," Sera replied with calm anger. "Seriously, I have enough of any of you."
"... Even when you hold back, you still scary." Chris thought uncomfortably.
Jace took a step back from her, with his face contorting in pain like he felt almost sorry for his knocked out aggressors. "That... Was kind of brutal, actually."
"You want to join them?" Sera asked him, almost menacingly.
"Hell, no!" Jace muttered.
"Guys, we don't have time to fuck around." Zade reminded them as he pointed at Kamahl, who was laying nearby a tree. "We have to help him out!"
But before they could even get close to him, a sudden with explosion from nowhere struck them, hurling their bodies against the trees. The demonic ponies and Kamahl collapsed on the ground.
The world around them danced frantically, in the most confusing way possible. It like it had gone mad. But they soon realized that was the dizziness of being slammed to make this sick joke.
Battered and dazed, Zade was the first to react and tried to recover. Slowly rising in his legs, he felt his back hurting, but tried to ignore it. The first thing that he noticed were a few trees being destroyed by the explosion, having their upper parts being reduced into dust.
Before he could even ask what happened, he heard a few pained moans. Recognizing their voices, he turned toward the source and found his friends, who were laying on the grass, as battered as him.
"Guys, can you hear me?" Zade asked loudly, concerned. "Answer me!"
"Yeah... Sorta," Chris said with a weak tone as he slowly stood up, followed by Jace and Sera.
"I felt like being bombed or something," Sera muttered quietly. "What just happened!?"
"Yeah, what the hell was that!?" Jace screamed angered. "Did Julius just came here or something!?"
"No, it's not." Kamahl's voice said, getting their attention.
They turned to the source and became shocked to find a very beaten up Kamahl laying on the ground, a yard away from them. Zade opened his mouth to say something, but was then interrupted by a very arrogant voice echoing trough the forest.
"About time you got busted, Granite Hail!" The voice proclaimed.
Jace groaned frustrated. "Now what?"
"Its someone who is almost equally worse than Julius," Kamahl announced with an almost tired tone.
"Whoever he is... Is not alone," Zade warned, having perceived multiple presences around him. "There are others!"
True to his words, a multitude of black armored ponies, being alicorns, came from the behind the trees and gathered around them, blocking every possibility to escape. Zade and his friends became really nervous for the situation in which they are, feeling their panic lurking in their hearts.
As Zade and his companions studied them, they instantly noticed one of the alicorns holding the crystal. The only way that they had to save Starlight by the onslaught of Julius army was in the enemy's hand. Zade, Chris and Sera, doesn't know very much about what alicorns can do, which made his shock more justified.
"They seriously managed to take crystal before we could even realizing that?" Zade thought.
"And I thought that only Starlight can teleport items," Jace commented.
"Perfect..." Sera said sarcastically, before facehoofing in defeat. "We are screwed."
"This is the very first time I ever wanted the alicorns to get nerfed so badly," Jace complained quietly.
As that wasn't bad enough, a silver flash flashed in front of the demonic ponies and other four alicorns appeared, standing in between them and the injured marine-green stallion. They had the same multicolored stain-glass like wings and fang, but only two of them were wearing armors of different colors, in contrast to the other two wearing a black one.
One of them was a stallion with a sadistic face wearing a dark-red armor. The other one was a mare with a dark-green armor with a cold expression, yet grinning at them with pure malice like she was born with it.
The dark-red armored alicorn approached the black armored one holding the crystal and gestured him to leave. Getting the message, his subordinate flapped his wings and flew away with it. With that out of his way, the dark-red armored alicorn approached the battered Kamahl and looked down on him, staring gleefully at him with a glimpse of fury in his eyes. A grim smirk appeared in his face.
"Not so flawless now, huh," He mocked. "I mean, its a miracle. I never known that the day I would had finally caught you and crushed will be this one." His eyes went wide. "You had interfered with my job and humiliated me for the last time, Granite."
Kamahl lifted his head and glared back at him with a grin."Still arrogant and disgusting as always, Duskthorn Blaze. And you even brought Storm Hide with you."
"Better arrogant than hateful as you!" Duskthorn responded arrogantly before kicking Kamahl's head, causing him to moan in muted pain, and turning at the four demonic ponies, which sight instantly amused him. "Holy Twilegion... Ahahahahah, now this is funny, I never thought you are reduced to ask the help of those criminals."
"Great, as Julius alone wasn't hateful enough. " Jace whispered with a irritated tone. "Who the hell he think-"
"Silence!" The dark-green armored alicorn interrupted him harshly as she fired a stream of electricity from her horn. Literally shocked by it, Jace fell down, almost convulsing.
"JACE!" Sera shouted with horror.
"Such creatures like you has no right to speak." The dark-green armored unicorn said with zealous tone. "Left alone that to exist."
Sera glared at the mare, this time in serious yandere mode. "Excuse me?"
"Sera, don't do anything," Chris halted her. "We cannot possibly win against all of them."
Duskthorn walked toward the dark-green armored alicorn and then turned toward the battered and exhausted group with a cruel smile.
"So you tried to use this unstable crystal's power to stop Lord Fortem Virtue and our forces," The Duskthorn proclaimed arrogantly "The ponies who worked so hard to save this world... Good thing that its now under our custody. You and that hateful stallion over there should take not of this day. I will- ARGH!"
His sentence was put to a halt due to the dark-green armored alicorn shocking him with a minor electrical charge.
Duskthorn growled ferociously and then glared at the mare. "Storm Hide... What was THAT FOR!?"
"Capitain Duskthorn" Hide said coldly and impatiently. "Fortem Virtu doesn't accept that you waste your time pointlessly. You better hurry to carry out the execution of those creatures before they could escape."
"Always ruining my moments, eh, commander Storm Hide?!" Duskthorn muttered as he kicked Kamahl's head, knocking him out unconscious.
Without any indulge, Duskthorn and Hide walked away from Kamahl then turned their attention to the injured demonic ponies.
"Normally, I would had ordered my soldiers to destroy you with a mass attack." Duskthorn said calmly. "But this time... I'm going to deliver my justice with style!"
"Oh, really?" Sera said with a menacing tone as she glowed her horn with a dark violet aura.
Chris noticed that and realized what she was about to do. "Sera! Don't do it!"
"You won't have even the time!" Duskthorn said gleefully as he glowed his horn in a silver light, with jolts of lightnings and a black spire wrapping around it. "In the name of Harmony, YOU WILL BE PURGED!!"
But before Duskthorn could even do that, Zade suddenly felt another presence coming toward him. What followed was a chilling, spectral sound echoing through the forest, who startled the dark-armored alicorn, interrupting his channeling.
As the noise got closer, Zade and his companions slowly turned toward the source of that sound, only to find a enormous, flying black blur was coming toward them.
They didn't had the time to say anything that they were swallowed in its pure darkness and disappeared in front of the remaining horses.
Everything around them went dark and then went completely silent.
Yet they were still breathing.
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Do the Student Six appear in this story?
9289820
Unfortunately no. This story is set in alternate universe after all. Maybe I will consider to include one of all of them, but for now I don't have any inspiration whatsoever.
As for this chapter, I have to rewrite some parts since I found some of those dialogues and others being kind of redundant or inconsistent. It is the case. But don't worry, you don't have to read it again.
As I progress with the story, I wonder what went wrong.
Good chapter.
9291802
Good that you liked that... Because the original test was a pretty flawed one. Now, about the main characters, some reader will point down, as usual, that the main characters seemed too stupid to cower in fear or not doing anything when their enemies were beating the crap out of them, despite them having their powers. But they forget that before being ponyfied in pseudo villain-like badasses, they are still teenagers and, further more, inexperienced.
I think you know that already, so don't take that too seriously since is just my opinion.
In the next chapter, I will make sure to be cautious regarding the developments. But keep in mind, I have also the other works written to follow. Also, The only fear is that the story wouldn't become too slow or just exposition centered, because sometimes action and tension are both needed.
Aaaand I can't make it past the first three paragraphs... Sorry dude, I'm ducking out.
9311843
Is the pacing or even the way I made the narrative structure being screwed up? Dude, I apologize for this difficulty, but whatever it is, I will probably take note of this for both a possible fix of this chapter and when I have to wrote the next one.
9311905
It's the grammar... The grammar is making me cringe to much and too hard... I'm sorry, Rei, but I can't...
9311909
And I thought to had gone through that already... Ok, I will see what I can do.