42 Prove Yourself
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGG!"
"Everyone get behind the warriors!" Kaal shouted towards his fleeing people, as he attempted to rally his troops into a defensive position.
The enemy appeared very quickly out of the forest and immediately began attacking Kaal's people.
The enemy in question?
Undead Monstrosities. Lots of them.
As the footprints that Alicia had found suggested, the undead are all different species of animals. Monkeys, wolves, bears and even some humanoid creatures in mixed…
"AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGG!"
Then there is the biggest and most dangerous of them all. An undead Ogre.
"Warriors! Spread out! Form a defensive perimeter around the non-combatants!" Kaal shouts as a feeling of sadness enters his heart when seeing a crying child, scared for its life once again after the earlier threat just days ago.
Kaal and his warriors had managed to push the initial attack back, though there was only a few of the monsters who took part in that attack. The quick ones out of the pack of undead monsters attacked first and did some damage to the Lizard peoples ranks.
Now that the initial attack had been dealt with, more monsters began to stream out of the forest with the undead ogre.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGG!"
The ogre lets out an ear shattering roar, which seems to signal the smaller monsters to begin charging.
"Damn it! Warriors focus on defense!" Kaal shouts, as he himself charges straight at the oncoming wave of monsters, unsheathing his two sabres' as he does and unleashing a skill…
"[Piercing Rain]!" As Kaal activates his skill, water droplets combine overhead and form a arrow like shape. They then begin raining down upon the monsters advancing on him.
"Screee!" (Undead Monster)
"AAAAAAAH!" (Undead Monster)
A few of them fall to his attack, though the rest that keep on advancing on Kaal meet a different end…
"ARFFFFF!" (Undead Wolf)
"Take this! HAAAAH!" Kaal moves to the right and dodges the undead wolf that pounces towards him, then swings down one of his sabres and decapitates it easily.
He then looks up to see a few more monsters that have him in their sights. Kaal does not hesitate in front of enemies that outnumber him and moves to eliminate them.
"[Body of Water]!" Kaal activates a skill that improves his agility and ability to evade oncoming attacks, then begins his assault on the first enemy that reaches him. An undead monkey.
"OOOOOOOAAAAAAA!" The monkey screeches as it swings a heavy fist towards Kaal's head which he ducks away from.
Kaal then slices the arm that swung at him, causing the monkey to try and retreat. Though Kaal will not let that happen and quickly swings his second sword to cut off the head of the monkey.
"HAAAAAAAAH!" Kaal shouts, the adrenaline flowing through his body as two come towards him at the same time.
This time it was a Large undead bird that could not fly and what looked like would have been a wild dog, though these enemies would last mere moments.
Kaal swings both his blades from the right side…
"ARRRRRR!"
Which cuts straight through the wild dog's body, its long dead organs flying everywhere as he does so. But the blades do not stop there. They carry on going after exiting the body and then claim the giant bird as a victim also…
"Screeee!"
The bird screeches as it dies, again, leading Kaal to think he may have a moment to catch his breath. But the screech blocks out the sound of the earth behind Kaal crumbling…
"Huh?" Kaal senses something behind him, but it is too late…
"Riiiiiiii!" An undead worker ant, with parts of its body mostly decayed away, jumps out of the ground and stabs its one intact scythe arm into Kaal's shoulder.
"Argh! Shit!" Kaal turns and swings one of his blades, chopping off the scythe arm before slicing the ant into three different pieces.
As the ant falls to pieces, Kaal rips the scythe out of his shoulder and takes a look around.
[Damn it, they are getting overwhelmed already…] Kaal thought to himself as he checked how his warriors were doing.
The battle had only just started, but the shear numbers of undead monsters were quickly causing problems. That is until…
"KAAL!" (Girl's voice)
"Huh?" (Kaal)
Kaal turns to see his fiery red headed Queen charging towards him with a concerned look on her face.
"Hey! You okay?!" Alicia says once she reaches him, peering at his shoulder which is bleeding quite badly.
"I'll be fine my Queen, but my people…" Kaal begins to say.
"Hmmm? Oh they will be fine." Alicia says as points over to them with her thumb.
Kaal looks over and is astonished by what he sees…
"Damn it! How dare you attack the people my Lady has given her protection too!" Vera yells as she wildly swings her two swords, slashing at any enemies that dare to come near her. She is also occasionally summoning shadow clones of herself, like she did when she was in wolf form, and they were currently running around the battlefield backing up the Lizard people.
"Vera calm down! You need to concentrate on what's around you! [Flame Enchantment] [Fireball]" (Ignis)
Ignis on the other hand was manifesting fireballs on each of her three tails and using her tails to then launch them at the undead monsters. Every time a monster manages to get close to her, she bashes them away with her shield and slices them with her sword, which also sets them on fire due to the fire enchantment she had cast on her sword and shield.
And then finally… There was Osha.
"La la la, Crush!" (Osha)
"…" Kaal is most astonished by the girl that is even smaller than Alicia.
She was currently running round the battlefield, punching the undead creatures with her bare fists. When her fists connected with the, the bodies seem to explode into pieces.
"Fufufu she is even better then I hoped she would be…" Alicia says with a dark smile spreading across her face, as the unknowing Osha happily swings her fists around.
When Alicia and Osha were walking through the forest together, before they met up with Vera and Ignis, Osha talked about how she used to go hunting with her parents and that she was proud of her strength despite being small.
Though Osha had to get used to having a humanoid body, she quickly did so by facing random feral monsters that appeared out of the forest to attack them.
"Fufufu… Excellent…" Alicia whispers to herself, almost drooling at the thought of having another friend she can spar and play fight with.
"hiiiiii…" (Osha)
"Whats wrong Osha?" Ignis yells over at her, seeing that she had stopped briefly.
"Ah! Nothing I just felt a slight shiver…" Osha says, not knowing what awaited her when she arrived with Alicia back at her home…
Kaal meanwhile moves away from Alicia and her happy/slightly creepy smile. Though he does it slowly, so Alicia does not catch on and become offended.
But Kaal soon regrets backing away, as he notices the ground crumble once more but this time in two places around Alicia…
"My Queen look out!" Kaal tries to warn her… But there is no need.
"Riiiiiii!" (Ant Undead)
*Schlick*
Kaal blinks for a second. And before he knows it, the two undead ants fall into two pieces. He looks at Alicia and saw she is in a motion that suggests she has just swung her arm across. Within her hand is the large scythe that he had seen her wield briefly before, looking way too big for her to swing it one handed. Yet she did.
"Hmmm? What is it Kaal?" Alicia looks over at Kaal, questioning why he shouted towards her.
Kaal looks at her and then back at the fallen ants she had easily bisected. He felt rather foolish for worrying that she could be hurt by such creatures when she has already proven how unbelievably strong she is.
"Haah… nothing my Queen." Kaal sighs and smiles to himself, thinking that there is no point in bringing up what he thought.
"Haha you're so weird." Alicia says with a giggle.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!" As Alicia says that the undead ogre gives a massive roar, possibly out of frustration.
Ignis, Vera and Osha have easily cleared away the attack by the smaller undead, which were now retreating back behind the ogre.
"Haha! Looks like the big ones finally ready for a fight!" Alicia shouts, her eyes ablaze with anticipation at fighting an ogre, a species she has yet to face even if it was an undead one.
Alicia begins to walk forward with purpose, swinging her scythe to get rid of the rotten ant blood on it. That is until…
"Alicia! Waaait!" Alicia looks over to see Ignis, Vera and Osha running over to her in a hurry. A determined look appears in their eyes as she glances at them with a confused expression.
"Alicia! Let us take care of the ogre!" Ignis says, with a tone that says it is not up for discussion.
"… Hah!?" Alicia does not react at first because she cannot believe what she is hearing. Once she realises Ignis is not joking, the shock becomes visible on her face.
"W-What do you mean 'Let us take care of it'! Why are you trying to take my battle from me!" Alicia shouts as a tantrum quickly begins to manifest itself.
Ignis' and the two others do not waver in the face of her tantrum though…
"Apologies my Lady… But we want to show you how much we have grown!" Vera says in a strong tone, which shocked Alicia as Vera was usually the one to back Alicia up or mediate when her and Ignis had a disagreement. This time however, she was in complete agreement with Ignis.
"Yeah! Yeah! I wonna show Big Sis how strong I can be!" Osha too begins to plead with Alicia to let them fight the ogre, looking up at her with desperate eyes that would be hard for most people to say no to…
[Urghhh… Why do these guys have to do this! This is a potential good fight, they know I can't go all out to often… Hmmmm... AH! Wait. If I watch them fight and they can show they have gotten stronger… Fufufu… Maybe they can withstand more serious sparring when we get back home…] Alicia thought to herself, planning some hellish training for when they get back…
"Kukuku… Ahem, very well then. I shall let you fight against the ogre this time! BUT! If it looks like you guys can't handle it, I am pulling you out!" Alicia says, warning the three of them.
"Of course, my Lady! I will not let you down!" (Vera)
"Woohooo! Gunna kick some ogre butt!" (Osha)
"…Hehe, Thanks Alicia." (Ignis)
The three of them were shocked that Alicia gave up her fight so easily, they were expecting to have to convince her more. But they were happy to have the chance to show their stuff, though none of them actually knew the reason that Alicia let them have it… And had they knew, they may have had second thoughts about taking this fight…
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGG!!!!" (Undead Ogre)
The roar of the undead ogre brings their attention back to coming fight. Ignis, Vera and Osha begin to approach the ogre…
*CREAK* *SNAP*
The ogre reaches behind him and begins to tear one of the massive tree's out of the ground. Once it does, it holds the tree in one hand like it weighs nothing.
"RAAAAAAAARGGGGG!" Now all of the monsters had retreated back into the forest, the ogre began to advance on the group of three.
*Thud, Thud, Thud*
It begins to run towards them waving the tree around as it does, clearly intending to use it as a massive club weapon.
Alicia activates her [Queens Command] skill, which had evolved from [Princesses Command] when she became Queen, which boosts their stats.
"RAAAAAARGGGGGG!" The monster roars and goes to slam down its tree club…
"Okay guys! Split!" Ignis shouts and the three of them dodge in separate directions. Ignis jumps backwards, while Vera goes right and Osha runs left.
The ogre looks around, not knowing which one to go after…
"Take this! [Triple Strength Fireball]" Ignis points her fluffy tails upwards and three fireball begin to form, getting bigger and bigger until they merge. Ignis then hits this massive fireball with her tails, sending it hurtling towards the ogre…
*BOOOOOOM*
The fireball makes a direct hit on the ogre. They are already considered a slow species but this one is even more so due to being undead, so it easily lands.
"URAAAAAAAARGGGG!" The ogre roars out in pain as it emerges from the smoke of the explosion, revealing a huge part of its face had been blown off.
The ogre waves it tree, dispersing the smoke and trying to find one of the three now that their positions had been obscured.
"Up we go!" (Childish Voice)
Just as it does though, a small silhouette jumps high out of the smokescreen and appears right in front of the ogres disformed face.
"Hehe! Take this! An Osha Power Punch!" Osha yells as she pulls her fist back, then unleashes it straight into the nose of the ogre.
Snapping and cracking noises can be heard as far back as where Alicia and Kaal are standing, as the ogre flies back slightly and takes a knee.
"Not done yet!" Osha appears again, this time behind the ogres back and sends a massive kick into its back, making it fall forward. Meanwhile Ignis bombarded it with a few more fireballs…
"RAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGG!" The ogre was now knelt down on both knee's and is taking significant fire damage as well as that already taken from Ignis' early big attack, and Osha's massive power punch and kick.
"I need to show Lady Alicia what I can do too!" Another person appears in front of the Ogre, Vera…
"[Shadow Clones]" Shadows disperse along the floor from Vera's and clones of her body entirely made of shadow mana come climbing out of them.
*SLAMMM*
The ogre wastes no time though as it slams down its club, that's still in its hand, crushing all the clones and seemingly Vera…
"VERA!" Alicia shouts in a panic, thinking that Vera would be greatly hurt by such a strike. But then Alicia noticed a figure climbing out of the ogre's shadow.
"So slow… [Shadow Lances]" Vera appears out of the shadow and quickly activates another skill.
Multiple large lances follow Vera out of its shadow and pierce straight through the ogre in multiple places. Arms, legs, torso, neck… they all had lances sticking through them. If this ogre was not an undead, it would have been killed by this attack.
However, it is an undead and it continued to struggle. The Lances eventually disappeared, and Vera retreated a bit due to low mana.
"Hyaaaaaah!" Osha gives one last kick to its side before she retreats as well…
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGG!" The ogre, almost completely falling apart by this point, lifts it head for a huge intimidating roar...
"I've got it from here guys!" Ignis jumps and hits the ground with her tails, giving her a lot of extra momentum, propeling herself above the ogre.
The ogre tries to reach up and grab Ignis as she falls down towards it, but it is too weak and misses, allowing Ignis to fall between its fingers.
Ignis lands sword first, piercing it into its forehead…
"Burn! [Flame Enchantment]" Ignis pours a ton of flame element mana into her weapon, which ignites her sword and then its head before jumping back to avoid any fire damage.
"RAAAARGG! ARAAAG! Raaaaa…" The ogre gives one last struggle, then succumbs to the flames. Collapsing into pieces.
"…" (Ignis, Vera and Osha)
The three just stand at first…
"We did it!" Then all three of them suddenly break out into a cheer, realising they had just defeated a strong opponent, the strongest they had faced. As they celebrate, they hear a shout echo…
"so…. SO AWESOME!"
They look to where the voice was coming from… and see a delighted Alicia running towards them, her smile radiating pride and pure joy.
And at that moment, all three thought the same thing upon seeing how happy she was…
[So worth it…]
