D saw the four of them unfazed by the shadowflame as he ran and snatched his bulletblade lying on the ground and readied the latch. For some reason, he felt like he could just think about it and Drive 3 would activate, like he had another arm or something. D ignored that feeling and went for the switch on the inside of the weapon. That felt more real. Now that he had distance from Juro and Dwiffking, he could finally use Drive 3.
Castle Crusher. D felt he wouldn’t get another chance if he didn’t use it now. D flipped the switch. The already fractured bulletblade with pulsing green inside fragmented even more, turning into countless tiny shards which expanded and shot out covering the entire room. Nosebeard’s head twitched at the sight of the shards spreading like hail. He whirled his entire group out of the room, his beard extending across his entire body like armor. Nosebeard charging forth knocked D across the throne room with a beard clad smack. Nosebeard’s entire body is bigger now, looking at him it’s impossible to discern where the beard ends and his body begins. Above, the shards of the bulletblade kept extending, digging into the walls and the blue aura of ‘Penance’ humming around the throne room walls. Nosebeard yelled to his group outside of the throne room, his mouth hidden in his beard.
“Anti-Army! Fall back!”
There was a name for magic similar to Castle Crusher - Anti-Army. Although, it wasn’t limited to country-class weapons and armor at all, even powerful mages can use some of the weaker ones. Juro and Dwiffking couldn’t handle them, while Silva’s staff and Nosebeard could.
So Juro and Dwiffking hitched a shadowkin hippo ride to gain some distance to be safe. Silva summoned two of them, and Dwiffking and Juro wide-eyed each mounted onto one as the hippos bounded away through the halls of the castle. No amount of distance was good enough in these situations, if Silva’s staff’s barrier failed Dwiffking and Juro might die. Silva stayed with her staff, heading into the throne. The Vampire Lord watched as the bulletblade shards dug into her staff’s blue barrier. She looked to her staff, disgust on her face.
“You’re going to lose against a lowly weapon like that? What are these, even?” Silva picked up one of the shards digging into the ‘Penance’ aura like it was a needle. She observed it, then tossed it into a orb in the center of the floating staff. The staff’s orb glowed blue, analyzing the shard, describing the nature of the bulletblade to itself. It could think. It could think a lot. At that moment, all of the bulletblade shards bounced back off of the ‘Penance’ aura, collecting themselves and reforming around D’s bulletblade leaving him with a stunned face.
D adjusted himself, looking at girl in red clothing and the staff floating beside her, sheathing his bulletblade and catching his breath. D stood to face the dwiff covered entirely in beard. Nosebeard stood with his arms folded. D couldn’t tell, but Nosebeard was looking into D’s eyes, checking his intent.
Nosebeard couldn’t let D leave alive. That much was certain. He would occupy him for now. That weapon would be his as well.
“Silva, call Juro and Dwiffking back. False alarm.”
“Such a strange form…”
It was Silva’s first time seeing Nosebeard fighting. His beard armor appalled her and she had a desire to tell someone, but in her heart Silva couldn’t expose someone’s secret shame like that, when she had her own. Silva summoned a shadow hippo and lightly pet it, signaling to the shadow hippos that Juro and Dwiffking rode to return.
Nearby, another shadow, Genje, had been locked out the room by the ‘Penance’ ability of Silva’s staff. D melted the doors to the throne room earlier with his shadowflame, for some reason the barrier couldn’t protect them. Genje peeked out from her shadow at the scene, watching with Silva and reporting the new events in text. The book held in front of her, a long black side ponytail spread like a snake across the ground behind Silva. At no point did it occur to her ‘maybe I should get Laplas? D might need help!’. She’s not that sort of person. If you can call her a person. Most of the details Laplas so lovingly crafted for Genje to record in a blank book were sadly misinterpreted. Not that Laplas gave her any order like ‘tell me if D needs help!’ either. So, it ended up being a happy mistake that in Genje’s misunderstanding she left to report the events to Laplas. Genje wanted to discuss the shadow hippos but her conversation with Laplas naturally turned to ‘D’s fighting who?’ Once Genje explained that, Laplas felt she couldn’t leave D alone. Genje slinked away to report.
Nosebeard and D faced off in the throne room, exchanging blows. D activated Drive 4 Soulbreaker right away, aiming for Nosebeard who ignored the incoming blade as it slipped off the beard armor. A few strands of beard branched off from his body misdirecting the attack entirely. D marveled at the strange sight as his bulletblade retracted. For the first time, he raised his finger, attempting to address his attacker and perhaps come to an agreement of peace. Can’t we get along, if there is a dwiff in full beard before me? The hatred and revenge gone for that instant, Nosebeard sensed it and closed the distance before D could respond.
Heading towards D’s face, a spike made of swirling beard and a fist behind it came within a short distance before D grabbed the hair out of instinct to block. D’s hand started to bleed and cut, and with a strange fear he jumped back and fired the bulletblade rapidly to force Nosebeard back.
However, it’s useless. Nosebeard walked straight through the attacks, none of them even hitting him straight on, seeming to slide off the moment they hit. D sheathed the bulletblade, grimacing as he went toe to toe with Nosebeard with fists and took a strong hit from the start. A left. Then kick, a knee, and backhand, a beard lift, and a power bomb. Pain and crunching were about all D could understand, only the sheer power of his body alone and ‘Thighhigh Sky’ kept him alive. His head swooning, D attempted to reorient himself for another shadowflame but Nosebeard’s speed kept him stuck reacting to attacks. What little damage he could prevent D’s mitigated with his blocking arms.
Nosebeard ducked and laid into D, unleashing a torrent of physical hits without stopping. He drove D into the wall. Nosebeard pushed D against the blue aura of the throne room wall again and again. Each time, D took serious damage and his body broke, but each time ‘Thighhigh Sky’ healed him.
Nosebeard grew suspicious, thinking of what that meant as his frustration grew. Alchemy isn’t infinite, nothing is, unless it’s a Dragon using Dragon Drive. When he heard the rumor ‘Dragon boy’ he assumed it was just another failure of the warlocks. If there was an ability he was using, some sort of magic that allowed him to continue taking hits of Nosebeard’s level and healing without stopping-
It would have to be Dragon Drive. That means that the warlock- or worse yet, the witch to the north, succeeded. The chimera D is allied with one of their strongest enemies or allies in the world.
There’s good chimera’s were hunted down. Dragons came from alchemy in this world. All the Dragon’s were killed because the source of a Dragon’s power is Dragon Drive, infinite energy, infinite destruction. A dragon could fight without stopping. Cast magic without tiring. If the chimera in front of him had that ability, Nosebeard wouldn’t be enough to win. Although Nosebeard could tell D was lacking in skill from his attacks, with abilities like that nothing mattered. Nosebeard would need his family. Nosebeard’s hidden dynasty, the third true power behind the world.
This world is ruled between three forces, the witch of the north, the warlock, and Nosebeard’s dwiffking attendant dynasty. Nosebeard’s family waited, hidden in the shadows of the Dwiffkings of old, protecting ancient secrets and hunting down the chimera with the aid of the human Lords and the Troll Hero-King.
“If the dragons rose again, “ Nosebeard cursed and shut down that thought. He thought of asking his family for help and at that thought his insides burned. Within him, heat bubbled like magma in a volcano. “Show me a loss, dragon boy,” Nosebeard challenged the punching bag in front of him. He renewed his attacks with increased vigor as D pushed back ignoring his wounds. Despite D’s lack of speed an experience, his body could handle the attacks. D laid himself into each of Nosebeard’s punches and got himself away from the wall.
D fought hand to hand, struggling for each breath as Nosebeard outclassed him in the center of the throne room shaking D’s body with each strike. D didn’t understand Dragon Drive at all. The best he could gauge from the book is that alchemy doesn’t end. So he could cast really awesome magic. However, D was terrible at magic when Saten tried to teach him so-
D’s plan changed. D took the hits, waited his turn until Nosebeard went too far in with his punishments. D’s distended, his arm extended like a spring straight into Nosebeard’s nose. At that moment, Nosebeard stopped as if frozen, and D felt an intense wave of hatred. Although he couldn’t see Nosebeard’s eyes, it was as if some mystical line in the world that should not be broken was broken. Nosebeard grabbed D’s neck, hoisting him up.
“I didn’t want to do this, chimera,” growled the talking beard.
For the first time, one of his attackers talked to D. A brief moment of happiness spread in D’s heart, being acknowledged as a person. A moment later D felt racked with pain, his body felt like it was snapping again and again from the inside. With his face twisted, unable to see or understand what Nosebeard was doing to him. It’s not good in the least, D figured that much out from the suffering and inability to move.
D tried his last resort. A last ditch effort. He was unaware, but all of his dragon abilities counted as magic. Dragon Drive kept him alive through ‘Thighhigh Sky’, and it only could last so long because of Dragon Drive. If Saten were healing him with magic, D would have died at least a hundred times already. Dragon Drive and ‘Thighhigh Sky’ combined were the only reasons he survived this fight from the start. However, for the first time, he would turn the tables with his final, most confounding ability.
All of his abilities felt useless against these guys, so why not try everything? That was his thinking, in his pain, as he activated it.
D has two ‘treasures’. ‘Treasures’ are obtained through a difficult to explain process, but it could be said that they are earned through experience and connection to greater concepts. So, to D, he was able to understand Saten’s thighhighs. Beyond that, there was one more thing he could understand. Another concept, from another girl. Juno, the ‘Maiden Made’, her maid outfit. Now as to why he refused to use this-
It’s just a bunch of tiny catgirl maids.
However, he used it. In his pain and confusion, tired mentally from the fight and at his wits end trying to find anything that would work on them, he used it out of despair.
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“Dragon Hoard - ‘Maiden Made’!”
Under his beard, Nosebeard’s eye’s may have went wide in that moment as tiny catgirls rained down on him. Each of them wearing a perfectly sized maid outfit, all of them with white hair like Juno.
Silva looked on with amusement as Nosebeard released D and tried to peel the tiny catgirls off of him. However, they were muttering things:
“It’s too much, cut it~”
“The skin will dry out~”
“Here’s some scissors~”
“I wonder what style would be best~”
“This world, I’ll bring order and justice to it at any cost~”
Strange voices came from them, and Nosebeard in fear tried to swat them away as they rapidly cut his beard armor away. Scissors appeared in their hands inexplicably. Nosebeard couldn’t catch a single one, for pride alone staying silent as he danced a jig away from D. For some reason, they stopped when it returned to his normal state and jumped off en masse as one unit and bowed to Nosebeard in perfect spaced arrangement. A maid each diagonal to each other, smiles on their faces and the scissors gone. It was as if they practiced it for a performance.
“Thank you master~”
“Are you satisfied~”
The strange voices keep coming at Nosebeard as the tiny maids bowed to him in unison. D stared at the catgirls with equal shock, and in a moment of unexpected brotherhood both D and Nosebeard looked at each other. For that moment, the two felt they understood each other. A David and God reaching out for each other moment between Dragon Boy and Beard Dwiff spooled out like a light from Nosebeard’s nose to D’s nose.
Then the moment broke. Nosebeard went in for a normal punch, unable to overpower D but still knocking him back and the battle began again in earnest. The two fought and neither gained ground. Each of them now matched for the other, but only one of them tiring.
Nosebeard stalled and contemplated his next move. ‘Dwiffking and Juro should return, and then they could finish this. Now that the magic weapon is sheathed and Silva’s staff ‘understands’ it’s anti-army ability-’
“Do you want some help?” Silva called out, her hand at her mouth. Nosebeard ignored her as he uppercutted D. Below, one of the maids from their formation peeled off and trotted to Silva’s staff alone. Silva caught it’s movements and watched on fascinated at how real it looked.
“Amazing…”
The maid stopped in front of the floating staff. It was twice as tall as Silva, so to the tiny catgirl maid, it was a monolith. The maid bowed.
“Please disable the barrier~”
It said. It’s voice tiny, yet the staff responded in a deep booming tone.
“Sorry, Silva,” said the staff. The barrier went down. D looked over in surprise at the exchange before taking another hit on the cheek from Nosebeard, slapping his entire head to the side and deforming it.
Silva looked at the staff in disgust, rubbing her forehead with a red ruffled sleeve.
“Heraclitus…”
That was all she said to him. That was all she wanted to say to him, as she watched the maid retreat to the rest of the pack. All of them moved off to a corner and stood at attention, as if waiting for something.
Behind Silva, a bunny girl transformed space and appeared. A shadow girl behind her stood at attention. Laplas approached the vampire Lord, and with her watched D battling Nosebeard. Silva noticed, but this wasn’t the first time she met Laplas. Silva sighed, checking out Laplas’s condition. She smelled better than usual. Her eyes went to the shadow girl in curiosity, but Silva’s manners dictated that it would be improper to ask for an introduction. She really wanted to know, though.
“What are you doing here, Laplas?”
Laplas, without her anime girl pillow and dressed presentably, sighed as she looked on at the sky in the throne room.
“My attendant told me you were here, so I came to say hi. She told me my current Lord is fighting for his life too, but he looks fine. What’s that?”
Laplas pointed to the sky. Thighhighs drifted like clouds and Laplas smiled. Silva was surprised that Laplas even had a Lord in the first place. Communication wasn’t Laplas’s best quality.
“Well, he’s your Lord, isn’t he? Shouldn’t you know? You’ve always been the lazy one. Even with that ‘transform space’ spell you never visit,” Silva grumbled.
Laplas patted Silva’s head. Silva looked up at the smiling Laplas in surprise. Laplas looked at Silva in the eyes, a rare move for her.
“It’s got plenty of limits. Very complex. It deals with space. That’s very difficult,” Laplas gestured towards D. “Can I have ‘that’ back?”
“Laplas, are you sure? The other Lords won’t tolerate a chimera as a Lord, and if they find out you’re under him-” Silva sighed. “Whatever. I should have killed you long ago, if I was doing my duty anyways. Nosebeard!”
Nosebeard didn’t look away from the fight, but switched to D’s other side to get a good look at Silva to respond as he kneed D in the gut. D struggled with the wind knocked out of him as Nosebeard took in the bunny girl standing next to Silva. He knew who she was. What he didn’t know was that Silva and Laplas had a long relationship. Silva knew Laplas was a chimera, but she didn’t care. Nosebeard yelled out as he continued beating D.
“That’s the secret-class chimera, Silva! Activate Heraclitus’s full release and kill her!”
“I’m betraying you,” said Silva. Her tone was dismissive and casual. She knew he was busy, so she didn’t want to bother him much. That was the quickest way she thought she could get across the full message that:
‘Laplas and me have a secret friendship that I have no shame having despite my duty to slay chimeras. So now that she’s shown some interest in something I’m less interested than usual in this whole pact to hunt down chimeras and protect the world from alchemy than seeing where she’s going with this. Also, she made a friend? How is that possible, I need to know the truth!’
Those thoughts were not conveyed. But, the alliance between the Vampire Lord Silva who ruled a human town and the Kings wasn’t that strong anyways. That was more Silva’s fault than anything.
It was at that point that Juro and Dwiffking returned on their hippo shadowkin and swooped towards Laplas, taking the situation in at a glance. Standing outside the throne room were Silva, Laplas, Genje, and the staff Heraclitus. So, when Juro and Dwiffking returned and heard Silva say “I’m betraying you.” They realized they needed to act quickly, even if it was worthless. They wanted to test Silva’s response. For if she really was on the chimera’s side now, that was a troubling thought.
Silva watched as her shadowkin hippos without her command bucked off Juro and Dwiffking and charged them. They had a direct link to Silva’s will. Juro stabbed his former mount and Dwiffking punched his, both of them keeping their weapons at ready as they watched the hippo’s fall apart and dissolve into the ground. Juro laughed and addressed her.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Silva, what are you playing at? You know who that is, right?” Juro tapped his ice spear on his shoulder, smiling good naturedly. If Silva had turned sides, the battle was done. Moreover, he was afraid he’d get pulled into Dwiffking and Nosebeard’s nonsense if this continued. Chimera hunting? No, no, this alliance is for fighting a war for survival. Even though he knew the trouble chimeras posed, that didn’t matter to him.
Dwiffking looked at Juro. He knew exactly what Juro was thinking, and sighed, about to give up himself. Before that, he had to say something.
“Laplas! Fight me once for dwiff’s sake! Stop your damn teleporting away!” Dwiffking complained. Laplas looked away, intimidated, and Silva moved in front of Laplas protectively. Even though Laplas was nearly twice her size. Dwiffking upon seeing that sheathed his blade, giving Juro a look and a shrug as he entered the throne room. Dwiffking saw Laplas up close for the first time as he did, and nodded to her politely. Laplas barely noticed, trying not to meet his gaze.
“I’m serious, Juro,” Silva said to answer Juro’s question. “The alliance remains. The chimera hunting, well, since Laplas is a chimera, that’s out. As for D, he’s her Lord.”
“Her Lord? Two chimera working together? This is ridiculous. Nosebeard’s going to have a fit. I can’t wait to see that!” Juro bounded towards them, letting his ice weapons go and dissolve into the air leaving a fine mist. He wanted to see this no matter what. Laplas backed off instinctively, and Silva calmed her.
“Juro doesn’t care about killing chimera’s. It’s just part of maintaining good relations with the Dwiff kingdom. Now that I’m supporting you, and you’re supporting D, it would weaken the war effort. Especially since I’m the second strongest, well, with Heraclitus of course.”
Silva nodded to her staff. Laplas showed concern, looking into throne room.
“You don’t have to do this, Silva.”
“I am. Is there a problem?”
Laplas smiled.
“Thank you.”
“You in love with him?”
Laplas laughed, Juro gave her a snide look but Laplas ignored him.
“I was going to blow up the royal capital to see what he would do. He’s interesting. I want to see what he can do. And look at that,” she pointed to ‘Thighhigh Sky’. “It’s ridiculous. He’s ridiculous. Aren’t you interested?”
“Just seems like a brat to me. Poor choice, Laplas. Also, couldn’t you tell me next time you plan on destroying a city? Like old times?” Silva said. Although she said ‘poor choice’, the look on Laplas’s face and her behavior were more than enough to convince her that it wasn’t.
“Next time. I still haven’t decided if I’m not going to destroy the royal capital or not. Depends on the Lords.”
Both of them ignored Juro as he digested the information, trying to piece together what kind of relationship they had. Given Silva’s history-
His attention got stolen by the throne room, watching as Nosebeard approached D after Dwiffking stopped the fight. D sat down in the corner, noticing Laplas he gave himself a respite waiting for his attackers to sort out their differences when Dwiffking stepped in and got Nosebeard off of him. Maybe he would have a chance to talk it out? He wasn’t eager to keep fighting. D admired the ‘Thighhigh Sky’ as he noticed Nosebeard.
Nosebeard sighed, looking at D. With Silva’s betrayal, he’d have to fight Laplas, whoever her shadow friend was, and Silva with Juro and Dwiffking. He didn’t even include D. That wasn’t a winning fight.
“What do you know about what you are?” Nosebeard started.
“Chimera?” D said. He wanted to end this, and if Nosebeard wasn’t punching him that was enough.
“Good. Chimeras are hunted down and killed by Lords, you’re advertising for assassins by holding a public position. This won’t be the only time you’ll be ambushed by people out to kill you, if you don’t stop now. Quit your quest for Lordship. Dwiffking and I-”
“He’s a King?” D pointed at Dwiffking.
“Yes, and that troll over there is another King. The Troll Hero-King. If I could, I’d kill you right now, but that’s proven impossible. You are very dangerous, so listen-”
“Wait, so this whole fight was because I’m a chimera? What’s wrong with that?”
Nosebeard figured the best way to deal with this was education. So educate he did. D learned about the Dragon Drive that Nosebeard expected D to have and Nosebeard grimaced behind his beard as D shouted “oh I have that!”
“So. Quit your Lordship. You have no business ruling a human town. All the Lords will be against you. This war is not for you to fight,” Nosebeard said. He left out the part where he would be coming back to kill D with his family no matter what D did.
D pondered. Mulling it over, he had already made his decision, so he stood up, looking down at the beard dwiff.
“We’ll see. Thanks for telling me about alchemy. Why did you stop attacking?”
“Silva, the girl over there. She’s a Lord as well. She decided to support you, and opposing her at this point is foolish. May we never meet again,” Nosebeard said. He walked off with Dwiffking, infuriated that he couldn’t kill Laplas either. The sudden relationship between them confounded him to no end, but he had no choice but to retreat as he pulled Juro along.
D left in the throne room looked to Silva and Laplas in the doorway, the tiny catgirl maids in the corner and the ‘Thighhigh Sky’ above. He lumbered over to the throne.
A grand hall and a throne. In the blue sky thighhighs spread about like clouds, white light emitted from them eased his tension as his body fell into the throne. Black and twisted like an obese poisoned tree root, it had no cushioning but D was glad for the support under him. Red curtains framed the throne hung on the wall behind. Steps lead up to the throne, draped with a red and gold carpet. Silva and Laplas approached for an audience, tiny catgirl maids flanking them.