Chapter 36: Blades and Brains
The scyther charged, bladed arms moving with incredible speed. I parried and countered, slashing at its legs. It flew up just as the sneezy leaped at me from beneath it.
I reversed direction, trying to strike the little feline with the pommel, but it flipped and kicked off my paw, dodging to the side.
Either one of them alone would have been an annoyance but not really a threat. Together, though, they were quite dangerous. They understood teamwork quite well.
I tried to remember what Leo said about pokemon in this world. She said they were summoned using special rituals and that they used their Japanese names.
That didn't exactly help me, though.
I was forced to dodge a quick double slash. I leaped to the left, right into the sneezy's lunge. Its claws tore into my thigh. Luckily, it wasn't too deep, but it was painful and bled more than I liked.
I kicked out with my other leg. It brought its arms up in a guard and was forced to take it.
I tried to remember what else Leo said while fending off the scyther.
Right, she said if they take too much damage, they disappear, I recalled. So, I just need to wound them.
I decided to take out the sneezy, first. Its hit and run tactics were making it hard to deal with the scyther. Plus, it was probably the squishier of the two.
I decided to leave a trap. I purposely left myself slightly open on my rear left, making it seem as if my injury was causing more trouble than it was.
The scyther struck at me with a powerful over head chop. As soon as I moved to defend, the sneezy attacked exactly as I wanted it to.
I parried the scyther, spun on my heels, put my blades together and formed the classic bone rush staff, and struck the sneezy with a powerful upward swing, launching the cat-thing into the air.
I struck the scyther in the knee with a quick kick to keep him off balance and charged a compressed aura sphere.
With no way to dodge, the sneezy had no chance of dodging the attack, and the look in its face as I launched it told me it knew that, too.
To my surprise, though, the scyther flew up at surprising speed, grabbing the sneezy and knocking them out of the way.
Still, that wasn't a normal aura sphere, but a compressed aura sphere. As it passed them, I squeezed on the connection I had with the sphere, detonating it. The blast sent both the scyther and sneezy slamming into the ground.
"Now we're even," I said as the pair painfully got to their feet, ready for more.
Ember was starting to get pissed. This annoying creature just wouldn't stay still long enough for Ember to shove its own spoons down its throat.
With every shot, spell, and punch sent its way the thing would vanish and reappear somewhere else, all the while hitting her with weird attacks she couldn't see.
The earth erupted beneath the annoying creature in a burst of stone spears, but the creature just teleported away. Ember grunted as an invisible force slammed into her gut.
Damnit! I need to find a way to keep it from disappearing, Ember thought. I just need to keep him from dodging, but how?
Another attack struck her as she thought, knocking her back.
"Damnit," she wheezed. "Stupid invisible attacks. How the heck am I supposed to defend against something I can't..."
She trailed off as the idea came to her. If she couldn't defend against something she couldn't see, then that teleporting asshole probably couldn't, either.
Except, she didn't know how to make an unseen attack. The closest she had was shooting something from the ground beneath it, but it had already proven it could avoid those.
"Where is Luke when I need him?"
I could have really used Ember’s help right then.
The duo had shifted tactics, a bit. The sneezy still came at me from a blind side, making me have to stretch my aura sense, but it also started creating strong, icy winds that cut through to the bone whenever its partner wouldn't be caught by it.
Those attacks had a major effect on me. Maybe it was the metal bones, but it chilled me through so thoroughly that I became sluggish, allowing the scyther to land a few hits. Thankfully, none of them were deep, but they were still painful.
After taking a few hits, I began to notice something. I wasn't sure why but it felt like I was getting quicker despite the chill. Not only that, but my blows felt like they were getting stronger.
That was something to ask Leo or one of her friends, later. At the moment, I had to focus on the fight.
I had to take out one of these guys. I knew if I could do that, the other would fall easily.
Suddenly, an idea came to me. I smirked, as once again, I found myself turning to the Jedi for the answer. I just hoped it would work.
The scyther blitzed, coming from my left. I pivoted, bringing my swords up to meet his.
As soon as they touched, though, I retracted them. With no resistance, the scyther's blades fell forward. The unexpected lack of opposition made the scyther stumble forward.
I resummoned my swords, one piercing its neck, the other its torso.
In a flash of light, the scyther vanished, and a cry of rage sounded behind me.
The sneezy pounced, large claws poised to strike, but I didn't let it get close. I channeled my aura into a large aura sphere and fired.
The sphere slammed the sneezy into a tree, and I followed up with my swords, severing its head before it, too, vanished.
With my battle over, I let my swords disappear, and collapsed onto my knees.
"Fuck!" I hissed as I finally realized the pain I was in. I had several cuts all over, two of them deep enough to be concerning.
I took a deep breath, trying to will the pain away. I needed to fight past it and get to Ember. I could deal with the cuts later.
I felt a tingling warmth spread through me. The feeling pulsed with my heartbeat, my wounds glowing faintly with each pulse. Each time it did, I saw my wounds close a little more until after a couple minutes only the gashes remained, but even then they had stopped bleeding.
"Well... that's handy," I said as I rose. I swooned, suddenly light headed. "Okay, not an ablility to abuse, then. Holy shit."
I grabbed a tree to catch my breath. I needed a minute to rest. I just hoped Ember wasn't in trouble.
Ember was in trouble. She wasn't really hurt, as the thing's attacks weren't very strong, but it was persistent.
She threw fireballs, lightning bolts, acid arrows, and ice knives, just to name a few. Even those magic homing missile things that never missed before just hit the thing's shield.
No matter what she threw at it, it either teleported away or blocked it with a shield. It's counter attacks weren't very strong, but they knocked her back and pissed her off.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way, she thought and promptly rolled her eyes. Obviously I am. If I wasn't, I would have beaten this guy already. Time for a new approach. None of my attacks are working, so maybe I shouldn't be attacking. Magic can do a lot more than attack, after all.
But what could she do? Most of the spells she learned were attacking spells, or what Luke referred to as 'utility spells'. She only had a couple of what he called 'buff spells' and none that would be of much use.
Welp, looks like it's experiment time, Ember thought.
She really didn't like the idea of having to experiment in the middle of a fight, but she didn't exactly have a lot of options.
Another invisible punch to the gut forced her out of her planning.
"Fucking psychic bastard!" Ember growled. "Wait..."
She grinned. Lyra had told her once that there were spells that could imitate some psychic abilities. That meant she should be able to do the same.
She molded her magic, forming it into something she hoped was close to psychic energy. She molded it into an invisible spike and as soon as her opponent appeared she jammed the spike in its mind.
It recoiled slightly from the invisible attack and glared at Ember.
"Ha! How's that feel, ass hole?!" she yelled. It wasn't a powerful attack, but it was the first she landed.
Besides, the damage was only a cover for its real purpose.
The creature teleported again, but this time, as soon as it materialized an icicle was already flying toward it.
It had to hurriedly teleport again, only to once again find an attack already flying toward it.
It teleported again, only to find a blue fist already waiting to slam into his cheek, sending him crashing to the ground.
It teleported again, but it didn't matter. Ember had marked him. The psychic spell she hit him with was still there, buried in his mind like a beacon, showing her exactly where he was.
Thus, as he materialized again, he didn't have time to even notice the earthen spikes before they impaled him.
To Ember's surprise, though, the thing just smiled at her.
"Well played."
And then it vanished in motes of light.
It didn't take me too long to find where Ember was. I had heard distant explosions during my fight and figured that was where Ember was. Soon enough, I was in range to sense her.
I had just felt something else vanish a couple minutes before I arrived. I figured she must have had her own fight, probably with whatever teleported me.
"Ember!" I called out. "You okay?"
"Oh, now you show up?" she complained as I came around a tree to find her sitting on a fallen tree, catching her breath. "I could've used your help a few minutes ago. I was fighting some psychic cat thing with spoons."
I snorted in amusement. "Oh yeah? Well, I could've used your help. I had to fight a giant praying mantis with sword arms and a cat with giant claws and ice powers."
"I take it those were those summon things?" Ember guessed.
I just nodded.
Ember got to her feet and started toward the cave. "Alright. Let's go get Smolder back and beat the tar out of whatever took her."
"Agreed. Just remember, I can't sense them, so keep your eyes open."
We cautiously made our way through the cave. It was slow going. We were expecting a trap of some kind.
Instead, all we found was nothing. Either they were already gone, or they were waiting for us further in. The few rooms we peeked into looked like they were recently abandoned, making me think they might be gone. That thought made me worried we were too late, until I felt something.
"I feel two auras, both together," I said. "Be ready for a fight."
"I'm a dragon. I'm always ready for a fight," Ember replied, claws glowing with a readied spell.
I readied my swords and we burst into the room, prepared for an ambush. Instead, we were met with more nothing.
At least, nothing other than the two unconscious dragons.
"Garble?"
"Smolder? Smolder, wake up!" Ember said, worry thick in her voice.
I turned to the females and felt a pit form in my gut. Smolder's aura was more faint than it was just moments ago.
"Luke, something's wrong," Ember said, tears forming in her eyes.
"She's... dying," I said.
Ember looked at me, horror and denial written all over her face. "Wh-what?"
"Her aura's fading."
I forced myself to move, placing my paws on her and drawing up that power I used before, hoping it was something I could use on others. I felt my power flow, the pulses of healing energy flowing into Smolder, slowing her aura's decay.
Even with that, though, we were losing her.
"I don't think I can save her," I cried.
"N-no... no!" Ember screamed.
I felt power flood the room as Ember's claws glowed like the sun. She reached out, grabbing the very fabric of reality and tearing it asunder.
Panicked screams filled the chamber and distorted voices filtered through.
"Ember? Wh-what is this?" I recognized the voice.
"Please... help us," Ember pleaded.
I looked up to see the distorted visage of Princess Celestia, looking past Ember at me and Smolder, eyes widening in shock.
Her horn lit up. "I'll hold the rift. Come through, quickly!"
I picked Smolder up, passing her to Ember before going back for Garble. We passed through the rift and Celestia shouted orders.
"Sergeant, get them to the hospital ward and summon my sister," she shouted.
The sergeant motioned for another to guide us as he ran off, presumably to retrieve Luna.
I looked back at Celestia, still holding the rift with her magic.
"Don't worry about this," she said, giving me a smile. "I can get this closed. You see to your friends."
I nodded and followed after the guard, praying we weren't too late.
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I see someone's a fan of D&D's 5e Evocation spells. Now here's hoping it's not too late to save Smolder.
10450973
D&D is a major influence, here. Hell, I have character sheets for Ember, Luke, and Smolder I use as references when writing. Ember and Smolder are sorcerers, while Luke is a monk. Their subclasses are homebrews, but Luke's borrows a bit from Sun Soul.
It’s ironic that sneasel’s dark typing makes it weaker to fighting moves while scyther’s flying resists it. The bug is actually the less squishy of the two!
10450986
Sneasel is actually double weak against fighting. I don't think Scyther is specifically weak against anything Luke can do, though.
10451005
the Dark/Ice Typing is actually 4X weak to Fighting, but Luke was using a Ground Type attack with his modified Bone Rush. Ice is also weak to Steel, but i dont think Luke has Steel attacks yet...
10450986
10451005
That's why Sneasel was staying back and blind siding him.
10451078
You assume his modified bone rush retains the ground type
Seriously I'm really questioning how this is going to benefit the changelings as their only allowing something worse to make its appearance
10451249
its not, and thats the point really.
His power and speed grew during the fight? Does Luke have both Steadfast and Justified abilities?
10451182
technically, it would...
Damn fine chapter
This Wargod will have magic bending abilitys thanks to Smolder... Thst will be harsh to deal with.
great chapter!
10451375
Not if it's not even bone rush anymore. Remember what he forms them from, and the fact that it's already been established that the games weren't completely accurate.
10451078
Double weak is 4x - normal weak is only 2x.
10451342
I thought that was just the aura mechanic, like in Smash Bros.
10451486
potato...
and Celestia for the save. grate twist.
Someone is going to pay for nearly killing Smolder. I can't wait to see how that plays out.
10451604
I'm saying that not only is his blade rush is a completely new technique and isn't ground type, but his bone rush, being made of aura, isn't ground type, either.
Very nice. Nothing like somebody dying to give you enough motivation to tear the favric of reality. Hopefully it doesn't have any lasting effects.
10452290
So I wonder if the part of discord that's a dragon is what gives him his ability to rip reality a new one.
Well played indeed...
Let me get this straight the changelings did this to save them because of what there queen is thinking of doing but by doing this they made it way worse and if Smolder dies it's going to be war .
10466037
There's more to it than that.
10451594
Slightly less so than you'd expect; this is "only" one of the most powerful spells she could potentially have.
Oooh, forbidden technique. Even Siths won't use it : )