23 Undyne (Part 2)

"HUMAN," Her voice echoed oddly from inside her helm. "I see now that Papyrus was wrong. You are a coward." The water beneath her rose up to form a glowing spear in her hands. The weapon was longer than Frisk's entire body.

The shadows in the cave seemed to lengthen, and Frisk's soul shone on his chest.

"Says the Monster who's trying to kill me." The human pointed out while he started to gather JUSTICE in his hand. Luckily for him, Undyne seemed content to allow his weapon to be summoned. "I just thought we could skip the fighting and choose diplomacy. I'm not trying to harm you all or-"

Undyne stomped her armored foot, and Frisk was forced to bring his right arm up to block the spray of water that exploded from the shockwave. "Your words do matter, HUMAN! Our king, ASGORE DREEMUR, only needs one more soul to take back the world above and free us from this wretched prison." She ripped off her helmet, revealing her blue, scaly face and long red ponytail. "Your life is all that stands between our Freedom and Happiness! So I will end it here!"

A dark blue aura of magic bubbled out from beneath her gray armor. The water rippled around Undyne as her sheer power affected the surroundings. Her red hair whipped in the wind, and she readied her spear.

"Guess diplomacy is out of the window," Frisk muttered to himself. He closed his fist, and the electricity burst out from both sides of his hand. Bending to his will, the energy stopped and curved backward, forming the limbs of a bow. Finally, excess power arced from the tips of both limbs to form the bowstring.

Seeing his will to fight, Undyne's sharp teeth turned into a smile. "Here I come, HUMAN. For all Monsters in the UNDERGROUND!" She yelled out as the water beneath her feet deformed.

Only instinct allowed Frisk to sidestep the spear that seemed to appear where his chest used to be. He felt genuinely slow compared to his opponent for the first time in the Underground. Desperately, Frisk tried to blast the armored figure with JUSTICE, only to be immediately interrupted by their leg crashing into his Aura.

Frisk gasped as he felt a large portion of his Aura disappear instantly, and he was sent flying by the sheer force packed into the kick. Fortunately, Undyne seemed just as surprised by his resilience because she didn't follow up the blow.

Shakily stabilizing himself mid-air, Frisk brought both hands to his bow and drew on the magic. Lightning crackled and formed into a pseudo-arrow as he pulled his right hand back and let go. He sent two blasts of energy crashing into his armored foe before he was forced to try and land without killing himself.

As he crashed and rolled in the marsh's shallow water, he watched Undyne try to block his arrows with her water spear. The two magics collided, but neither came out on top. Much to the experienced fighter's surprise, his electricity dispersed into the spear's magic, using its elemental advantage to destroy the thing from the inside.

Frisk smirked as the second arrow hit her armor, only to be surprised when Undyne merely shook off its damage with a small grunt of pain. Unfortunately, he wasn't good enough to aim the arrow at her head; the Magic Weapon did help with accuracy a bit, but not sufficient to hit targets that precise.

Once again, the water beneath her formed into a new spear, though this time, yellow magic spread out from her hand and turned the spear a brilliant yellow. She seemed ready to charge again, and he wasn't exactly confident in his ability to dodge anymore. Trying to distract her, Frisk brought his bow back up and launched another volley of pseudo-arrows.

Undyne didn't bother to slow down. She easily deflected both attacks, knocking them aside with her newly powered JUSTICE spear. Knowing he couldn't dodge to the side and was at a disadvantage in the shallow water while she could somehow stand on it, Frisk dropped to the ground to barely avoid the glowing yellow spear.

Whipping around, he tried to capitalize on his new footwear by kicking her legs out from below. In a flash of dark blue, Frisk thought he had succeeded. Even if his enemy didn't have the resistance she should have, his weighted kick still knocked her legs aside.

Frisk realized next that instead of falling down, Undyne seemed to almost float there for a second, the blue Aura surrounding her flashing with power. Landing easily on all fours, the water beneath them seemed to froth before exploding into multiple spears that lanced out.

Still on the ground, Frisk had no defense as the water spears crashed into his chest and sent him flying again. However, he couldn't bring his bow to bear because, this time, he crashed into the rocky cave wall. His Aura flickered, and he realized one more shot like that would probably break it.

"Now, this is a fight!" Undyne flourished her spear. "For a cowardly HUMAN, you can certainly take a hit." The water deformed beneath her for a second time, and she exploded forward, aiming to pin him up against the wall.

She was correct; he could take a hit. Quickly, he stopped infusing his Aura with JUSTICE and ignited the growing fire of PERSEVERANCE inside himself. He brought his purple flame-covered arms up, and they deflected the yellow spear into the rock wall. "Wha-"

"HAH!" Taking advantage of her shock, Frisk pushed his PERSEVERANCE further and engulfed the area in front of him with a conflagration of purple flame. This time, the armored warrior was sent skidding back across the shallow marsh.

Taking the opportunity, Frisk reached into his pocket and ate the magical cinnamon bun. The bun's restorative effects didn't completely heal his Aura, but it wasn't as close to breaking now, especially when infused with his purple flames of PERSEVERANCE. But he knew that it wasn't enough to win this fight.

Somehow, he would need to figure out a way to run. Even if Undyne was faster than him, it was the only chance. Which meant he needed to slow her down somehow.

…That just might work.

"Interesting! What will you show me now?" Undyne said with excitement. She seemed to be enjoying the fight. The only visible damage he had done to her was burnt armor.

Gathering the purple flames into his right hand, Frisk charged toward his opponent.

Undyne plunged her hand into the water below, and it started frothing again. Though this time, it was glowing with the yellow light of her JUSTICE. Multiple long glowing spears exploded from the water and launched themselves at the charging human.

Forcing more flames into his Aura, Frisk tanked the damage from the spears and continued his charge. He was dialed in 100% because he would need immaculate control of both his magics for this next part.

Once close enough, Frisk jumped as high as possible, sailing over the next few spears. Flying through the air, he partially dismissed the flames and brought back his JUSTICE. Both eyes shone with ethereal power as he launched an ax kick accompanied by a flash of blue light.

Undyne brought both armored arms up to block the gravity-enhanced kick, but that was what Frisk was counting on. Instead of attacking full force, he abandoned the kick and landed on her arms. Using the force of his averted kick and Undyne's block, he launched himself toward dry land.

Concentrating hard while flying through the air, Frisk brought both traits to the forefront. He kept JUSTICE in his left hand and PERSEVERANCE in his right. Clapping both hands together mid-air, as soon as he landed, he pushed fire and lightning into the earth before dropping in a controlled roll and running away with boosted speed.

"COWARD!" He could hear Undyne's voice call out and knew she was getting close.

*BOOM* His idea worked, and the ground exploded underneath his pursuer.

Frisk knew that the combination of his fire and lightning was incredibly unstable and usually resulted in him exploding. Fortunately, he also knew there was a delay between the mixing and exploding. Which could be exploited to make improvised landmines.

As he ran, Frisk clapped his hands multiple times and planted as many mines as possible. Already, he could tell they were getting weaker. All of the fighting had reduced his magic stores significantly. Still, he dug deeper, and yellow lightning flickered across his body, boosting his speed further.

Hotland was close. Frisk could feel it. All he had to do was cross this giant lange bridge that seemed to cut through an underground lake. Large spikes jutted out from beneath the water, giving the place an ominous feel. Still, he could see the Hotland sign in the distance.

*BOOM* Explosions continued behind the human, but unfortunately, one happened a bit too close. Specifically, he failed to stop the JUSTICE wrapped around his body from mixing with the PERSEVERANCE on his hand. It was much smaller, but the detonation still threw him to the ground.

"Damn," he cursed. Frisk needed to practice that if it was going to be more useful in the future.

As he struggled to get up, the human saw something reflecting in the water. Looking up, Frisk watched as Undyne jumped across the large spikes in the water and completely ignored the path he had taken. He scrambled back just in time as Undyne did another three-point landing in front of him.

Though this time, he could tell Undyne was mad. "STOP RUNNING AWAY!!!" she shouted, thrusting her spear at Frisk.

Throughout this fight, his PERSEVERANCE had been getting stronger, even if it wasn't as quick because his goal was to get away. Frisk didn't know if he had enough to make his spear, but the human knew it was his only chance of blocking this attack.

Purple fire exploded from his right hand and coalesced into his Magic Weapon. The two spears collided, and both combatants skidded back. Knowing this was the last of his magic, Frisk went on the offensive, trying to overwhelm his enemy.

But it didn't work. It soon became apparent that Frisk was heavily outmatched in spear combat. Undyne had him beat in every measure of close-quarters combat, including skill. The Captain of the Royal Guard casually deflected one of his blows and bashed him with the haft of her spear.

His Aura flickered, and Frisk sailed off the bridge and into the much deeper water. His purple spear dissipated into the surrounding water, he no longer had the magic to sustain it.

That was the end of the fight. Under the water was Undyne's domain; while Frisk tried to swim to the surface, he was battered with blows coming from every direction. The Monster was almost like a missile cutting through the water and bombarding him with attacks.

"Gah!" He gasped as Undyne buried her fist into Frisk's stomach and shattered his Aura completely. The force of the blow sent the human hurtling out of the water and into the side of a large spike.

Frisk coughed out water as he desperately tried to get up, but it was impossible. Not because he couldn't force his body up but because Undyne was there holding her spear to his throat.

"Even if you were a coward, it was a good fight," Undyne said as she looked down at the fallen human. She was barely breathing hard, though her armor was scarred with battle damage. "But now, it's time to die." She said that but still didn't thrust her spear.

Opening his eyes, Frisk really looked at Undyne's face; he could tell she was conflicted. "Y-you don't have to." It was all he could choke out; it felt like he might pass out any minute.

Undyne's eyes focused on him, and they stared at each other for a few seconds. "No, I don't have to." She acknowledged. "But everyone is counting on me to bring back the seventh soul." Her spear moved closer to the yellow/purple heart on his chest. "That thing right there can free everyone in the Underground, and all I need to do is finish the job."

"Is that what everyone wants, to keep fighting each other until one of us dies?" Frisk tried to reason with her. "Until you kill all the humans, or we kill all of you?"

A growl grew in the back of her throat. "It was your kind who started this war! It was your kind who trapped us all in this cage! I'll ensure that your kind feels a fraction of this pain we've endured; once King Asgore gets your soul, he will become a god and make all of this possible!" She brought her spear back, ready to thrust.

"I-Is that what a hero would do?" She froze her spear still a few inches from Frisk's chest. "Is that what you want to do?"

The tip of her spear shook with indecision.

Maybe he was getting to her? "I don't want to hurt anyone-" something pierced through Frisk's chest. He felt his soul tearing apart and looked down to see it was a thorn.

"GOD! You people take forever to finish things." Flowey's demonic voice reverberated through the chasm. "So I took it upon myself to finish it."

"Wha-What have you done?" Frisk heard Undyne's demand before he sank into darkness.

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