Kahli looked up at the ultra bone dragon circling overhead and summoned up a rock beside her big left foot. She turned to look at Unit 5a23, who was charging up his arm cannon.
"Oh? You're actually going to fight for us?" She sounded impressed.
"Not for us, Kahli. I am planning to fight on behalf of my own life. Not because I hold malice or malintent against you, or Sahdi, or indeed the dragon we're riding, but because fighting is against my principles of pacifism, and I will only do it if I absolutely must in order to survive."
Kahli rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Unit 5a23, I'm just glad you're helping. I guess."
"I'm going to charge up my [Robo-Blast] as much as I possibly can," said Unit 5a23 as he hunched down and started charging his laser. "Make sure the dragon doesn't hit me and I'll be able to land a killer shot. However, if I get hit, I'll have to start charging up all over again."
"Copy that," Kahli said. "Froufrou, wanna help out a bit with your [Wretched Reflex] [skill]?"
Froufrou squelched with affirmative, hopped out of Kahli's purse, and leapt onto Unit 5a23's robotic facade.
"This thing is quite strange, and is slightly impeding my vision," said Unit 5a23. "Make sure it knows to move out of the way once it's time for me to make my shot."
"I"ll make sure she moves out of the way," said Kahli with a side eye. Then, refocused herself as it seemed the ultra bone dragon was preparing to swoop down and attack! She wasn't sure that Froufrou would be able to parry a whole dragon strike, so she needed to act quickly. She kicked her rock far away from the dragon and watched it zoom through the air.
Down, down the dragon swooped. It opened its mighty, boney jaws and a deep roar rumbled through its skeletal form as it got closer and closer. Thankfully, Kahli's rock was already returning, and before the dragon got close enough to deal any damage, a rock slammed into its gaping maw and shattered to bits against its teeth. It howled and growled in agony, backing up a bit - it was gaining clarity and realizing that this fight wouldn't be as easy as it had seemed, from Kahli's perspective.
But that wasn't all that the dragon was doing. It opened its jaws against, and this time a glowing green energy welled up inside and blasted out at Kahli!
[You've been poisoned]
[You're taking damage]
Kahli watched as her whole body started glowing green. She'd been poisoned? What did that mean?
[Clarification: Poisoning will slowly but surely wean off bits of your HP.]
Great, Kahli thought. This was just what she needed during a fight - perpetual damage!
Only, as soon as she'd lit up with a green glow, it faded away!
[You are no longer poisoned]
"Hey, what happened?" asked Kahli.
"See, Kahli? It's good to have a healer around," said Sahdi with a smirk.
"Oh, thanks," Kahli smiled before summoning up another rock and kicking it away from the ultra bone dragon. As it zoom, zoom, zoomed away, the dragon roared and growled with frustration as it prepared to swoop down and attack her once again! This time, it was moving even faster - faster than Kahli's rock was!
[You've been critically wounded]
Kahli skidded across the scaly back of the water dragon as the ultra bone dragon's talons scraped into her and knocked her backwards! It looked like it was gearing up for another attack, but thankfully, Kahli's rock had just started to return to sender at twice the speed it had been kicked - and soon enough it caught an impressive blue flame!
The ultra bone dragon was just a breath away from connecting another terrible slash against Kahli, potentially sending her off G'athoong's back completely, when her rock returned and slammed into the side of the beast's head. It groaned and moaned in agony as a large crack shot through its malicious skull.
"Great job, Kahli!" said Unit 5a23. "I've almost finished charging up my [Robo-Blast] to its maximum capacity. You've only got to hold out for a few moments longer - you've got this!"
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Kahli summoned up a big rock, ready for another attack. Only, it seemed that this ultra bone dragon was not too shaken by the crack in its skull to keep from charging right at her! Before she could even kick the rock away, it landed a monstrous chomp on Kahli that send her tumbling to her side.
[Your right leg is damaged]
Kahli reeled as she felt a terrible pain shoot up her right leg. It felt partially numbed. She looked down to see three deep, jagged bite marks dug into her skin.
"Theseosus, protect me!" cried Kahli.
"I'm going to heal you, Kahli, as soon as my cooldown ends on my [skill]!" called out Sahdi. "Don't worry, it'll be fine! Just do your best to fight!"
Kahli didn't know if she could do much more fighting like this. She was in so much terrible pain, it was hard to focus...
"All charged!" cried out Unit 5a23.
"Froufrou! Come back to me!" said Kahli. Froufrou immediately hopped off Unit 5a23's face and latched onto Kahli's chest, prepared to do her best to parry away any and all attacks, threatening though the ultra bone dragon might've been as it was reeling up and charging forth for another malicious bout of slashing.
"Feast on this, you obnoxious excuse for a majestic undead lizard!" spat Unit 5a23 as he unleashed a brilliant blast of blue power that was so big and blinding that it was hard to see what was happening! It quickly absorbed into the ultra bone dragon and sent the beast barreling backwards and twirling through the air, bones rattling and falling off its amalgamated form, until the beast looked to be about a fourth as substantial as it had before. Its skull crack had grown and grown to the point that half of its face had in effect fallen off. This foe looked grisly, and ghastly, but thankfully, also much less intimidating.
"Nice job, Unit 5a23," said Kahli with a groan as she struggled to her feet and summoned up a rock, which she promptly kicked as far away from the dragon as possible. "It can't have much energy left."
"I'll do my best to distract it while your rock zooms back around," said Unit 5a23 as he powered up his canon again. "I won't wait for it to fully charge now, I'll just do the minimum without ruining my cooldown." Unit 5a23 then blasted, again after again, at the dragon. Each time, more and more bits of bone tumbled off its body, and it was obviously starting to feel a little shaky. Still, the dragon growled and raged and thrashed in the air maniacally.
"SCREEEEEEEEEE!" it bellowed with a monstrous aplomb. Then, Kahli and company watched in horror as its fallen and crackled bones quickly swirled back up into the air and spun around the dragon in a spinning, spherical matrix of a protective boundary.
"Wow," said Kahli. "This thing is a whole lot tougher than the mega bone dragon I fought back when I first got my system."
"Yes, ultra bone dragons don't mess around," replied Unit 5a23. "But I don't either!" He blasted out five more beams of light, but each one only dissolved on bone out of many that zoomed around the dragon. "Damn! This is going to be tough... Now I've got to deal with a long cooldown thanks to that concession of blasts!"
"That's okay, looks like my attack is about to land!" Kahli watched as her rock zoomed back around and then over towards the dragon as she ducked away, but when it slammed into the bone barrier it had conjured up, it exploded in a puff and only took out about a fourth of the existing bones.
"Wow," said Kahli. "This thing really doesn't want to lose."
Before she could say much else, the dragon's twirling bones raised up in the air in a line and, one by one, fired off at a breakneck speed towards Kahli, sharp ends pointed out. This thing was looking to kill! Thankfully enough, Froufrou's tendrils were ready for action, and for every projectile bone Froufrou parried it away with expert reflexes before it could connect with Kahli. All that said, even Froufrou was starting to look weary - and it seemed that, much like how Kahli's rock would always boomerang back around to her eventually if it wasn't at once destroyed, these bones seemed to be quickly reorienting themselves and zooming back to strike at Kahli again and again. It was as if she was being attacked by bloodthirsty vultures, and with each strike that Froufrou deflected the putrid, writhing creature became wearier and wearier. She was starting to get cuts on her tendrils from the vicious barrage of attacks!
"Froufrou! You're hurting yourself!" Kahli cried. Froufrou squelched defiantly, but it was clear enough to Kahli that she was getting seriously worn down by the flurry of attacking dragon bones. How were they going to get out of this mess? And why, exactly, hadn't her super helpful [Seismic Sense] kicked in by now? Usually, when things were getting messy, Kahli ended up in a [checkpoint] in time that allowed her to think through dire situations. What of now?
Unit 5a23 leapt over and started attacking the bones with his claws, slicing and grasping them as Froufrou parried. It was taking a lot of energy for him to destroy them, and he had to charge up his [Robo-Blast] each time for about thirty seconds in order to effectively break a bone. Sure, it was working, but it was taking too long, and the ultra bone dragon looked about ready to swoop down and attack all of them - which had the potential to do a serious amount of damage.
Finally, I have been able to recover from the ultra bone dragon's attacks! thought G'athoong with triumph in her voice. Quickly, she rose up to face the ultra bone dragon, her strong scales instantly crushing into the projectile bones and discombobulating both her enemy as well as Unit 5a23 and Froufrou, both of whom were no longer under fire. You all can stand down, recharge, and start to heal yourselves. I can finish off this beast on my own. All you need to do is watch from my back as I kick some ass!
Was it true? Was G'athoong able to take the beast down?
G'athoong opened her mighty jaws, which shook her scaly back and destabilized everyone a little bit. And then, she began to roar with such veracity that some of the other bones swirling around the ultra bone dragon shattered from the sound alone.
It is SO on! thought G'athoong with triumph.