Triple Trouble: Bark

"Locations of targets?"

"Check."

"Weapons?"

"Check."

"Sub-mind?"

"Check."

"Then... Looks like we're ready."

Three Decaynines discussed between each other on the top floor of the castle like prison. The tallest of the three with a black wolf head, Bark, was checking over their equipment. He grabbed his Light machine gun with a flame decal as he caled out to the other two. "Alright. Chew, you ready?"

The feminine white Jackal gave light laugh as she covered her mouth, the air getting colder as she readied herself for battle. "I'm as ready as ever, brother. Those idiots won't know what hit em!" She yelled with excitement as she grabbed a sword made of ice. 

"You could almost say she's... And ice cold killer?" The third Decaynine laughed as they held a frying pan that cackled with electricity. They moved some orange fur out of their eyes as they looked over at their siblings with a laugh. "Bite... Are you seriously making jokes on the day we might die?" Bark said in a flat tone.

"It wasn't even a good pun either..." Chew giggled. The three began to bicker between themselves over Bite's terrible and off timed puns, and as the tension faded over the situation, they all began to snicker between each other as they began descending the stairs.

"To Glory!"

"To Chains!"

"To Not Dying Today!"

"To think... Those two can still laugh after everything that's happened." Zamtika mumbled as she was swinging away at bars to distract herself from the thought of what happened to Vex. Ven sighed, staring at Avis and Vinea, who where now running around with Fox and Rat, breaking some chained themed decorations on the wall. 

"Ooh, ooh, smash that one!" Vinea yelled as she pointed to a mural of all the current domain leaders. Rat nodded and fired a beam of light from her hand, blowing it to pieces. The three cheered in minor victory.

"I suppose Rat has changed." Biz sighed as Tika had volunteered to carry her. "You'd think once she had a heart, she'd actually care about things." The oni replied with a laugh as the three were walking behind. 

"Wonder where Iyu and Nvr got off to?" Tika began wondered aloud, but Ven motioned for her to not bring the two up. He hadn't told anyone about what he saw at the spire, seeing it as needless drama. But in this moment, he realised he maybe sorta kinda shoulda... Told Zamtika that Biz lost her child to Iyu and Nvr.

"Well, whoever they are, they're clearly not reliable. Why haven't you found my Mercenaries? They surely would have been a massive help." Biz said with a dismissive wave of her stubbed arms as she leaned further into Tika's back. 

Ven looked up to see another mural, depicting Biz's Mercs, but Vinea saw something different, freezing in place as he mumbled to the others; "...Biz... Your guys are uh... There." He pointed a vine to the mural on the ceiling, depicting all the remaining 10 mercs, each of them depicted in chains.

"I... Suppose I should thank Peni for capturing me." She mumbled.

As everyone began finishing up their destructive acts, an explosion of flames emerged from the from the ceiling in front of the stairs. A black wolf headed Decaynine with minimal decay and more canine features emerged in a black combat uniform.

"On order of the warden, I have been tasked to take you down." He said with a cold, fiery tone as his hands became enveloped flames. Rat gave a sigh and motioned for the others to run ahead. "I'll deal with the hell hound. Hey Grey, since Chew is most likely on the next floor, can you deal with her?"

Grey sighed and ran off with everyone else as the flames began consuming the room. 

"So... The Rat has finally decided to fight for once?" He smirked as Rat calmly summoned her sword of light. "Yeah, and you still cling to your family like the dog ya are." She smirked before summoning pillars of light to leap on top off.

As Rat began ascending upwards, Bark fired shots of flames seemingly randomly at her, which she easily sliced away. "Is that all?" She laughed as she leaped off the last pillar, only for the ceiling to collapse and hit her to the floor.

"That was easy... Any last words, Rodent?" Bark said with a smirk, raising his LMG to Rat's head.

"Yeah... Nvr, Activate the heart!"

_______________

As Rat began ascending upwards, Bark fired shots of flames seemingly randomly at her, which she easily sliced away. "Don't play dirty, dog." She laughed, leaping off the last pillar, only to summon a ball of light around herself. Suddenly debris from the ceiling began falling, only to bounce off the dome as it crashed into Bark, knocking him back. 

"Crafty..." He smirked and pulled out his LMG. He took a deep breath and imbued his weapon with his heart ability, enveloping it in flames as he began opening fire. The bullets were each like many grenades, blowing apart the already ruined room. Rat began running around in her dome and dodging the shots, though it honestly looked like she was running in a giant hamster ball at this point.

"Can't even do this job right, can ya?" She laughed before snapping her fingers. The dome exploded into razor thin needles that fired out in every direction. And as Bark used a wall of flames to minimize the impact, he felt a piercing sensation from his right arm.

Rat had some how managed to close the distance in such a short time that he wasn't even aware what had happened. "What the-" He growled before seeing his arm fly up into the air. Rat stood behind him with a smug look as he could barely hold the heavy weapon.

"Any last words?" She smirked. "Yeah... I know you got backup." Rat seemed baffled that he had figured it out, as Bark used an ace up his sleeve, a flame forged arm emerging where his arm once was and quickly gave Rat a hard sucker punch to the throat. She struggled to breath for a moment and used her tail to fire off shots of piercing lights at the now retreating Decaynine. 

She tried to call out to someone, but still couldn't as her throat was singed beyond belief. "N...V...R..." She said in a raspy voice, coughing her lungs out as she looked around desperately for Nvr2b, who emerged from another hole in the wall with Iyu. 

Rat desperately grabbed Mollia's heart from Nvr's hand and used it on herself, seeming to heal her wound in an instant. "Looks like you lost." Iyu giggled along with Nvr as they watched Rat slowly regain her breath. 

"Shut up and go deal with Cerbi. This is all you two's fault anyway." 

"Well, you did ask Splice to make Panila some guards." Iyu said with her signature smile as they all began ascending to the next floor, hearing the sounds of fighting coming from above.

"I hate Decaynines..."