[center][h3]The Under - Dreams of Night[/h3]
Level 13 Ms Fortune (96/130)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Ganondorf’s [@Double], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1719[/center]

As she and her teammates sped toward their final showdown, streaking through the starlight sky of a dusky dreamscape, Nadia’s heart pounded in her chest. Her blood pumped through her veins. Once this was all over, she knew, all the fatigue of battling the infected, the Hollow Knight, and now the Radiance would catch up with her in one fell swoop, but as long as her adrenaline held out the catgirl felt like she could take on anything. Then again, the Guardian of the Underground quickly demonstrated that vanquishing it would take everything Nadia had.

Even the very first attacks from Absolute Radiance set the tone for this new phase of the fight. Starting with the rays of light, every one of her projectiles proved to be much trickier than before. Nadia veered away from the first laser and almost plowed right into a second, taken aback at the lack of delay between shots. When she misjudged another dodge a couple seconds later, the scorching lightbeam ripped a cry of pain from her throat as it floored her, body and mind alike seared by contact with the Radiance’s godlike emanations. She sprang up a moment later, freshly motivated to be more careful, but what came next wasn’t much better. 

Obscene quantities of silver swordblades hurled through the air in perfectly level planes and grids, leaving so little space between them that Nadia couldn’t always solve the pattern like before. Enormous, Seeker-seeking orbs left precious little room for escape, until the feral realized that she needed to dodge toward them rather than away. This unusual battlefield atop the Magikrab’s train offered very little room to move to begin with, but fields of razor-sharp spikes limited it even further, and they made for a brutal combination with sweeping light pillars. Nadia found herself forced to jump out over the spikes, then airdash back to safety just to avoid those brilliant pillars. For a good while, her feet barely touched the ground, and 2,700 Pounds of Justice sure didn’t make all that airtime any easier. And throughout all this time, she couldn’t strike back at the Radiance even if she got the opportunity.

As frustrating as this felt, the cat burglar kept a tight rein on her emotions. She couldn’t let frustration bog her down. She and her teammates had an ace in the hole, after all: the Koopa Troop. Working together, they’d set up one hell of an opening gambit at the front of the train, and despite the Radiance’s complete and utter pollution of the dreamscape’s airspace with projectiles, the train was still gaining on her. They just needed to hold out until they caught up. So Nadia weathered the storm alongside her companions. Scrapes, gashes, and burns piled up, even with the buffs from the Kamek clones, but the feral knew she could grin and bear it. Finally, after what felt like forever but was in truth only about thirty seconds, the incredible train caught up with the fleeing Radiance. Though still technically flying at incredible speeds, it now seemed to float just ahead and in front of the engine, and the Seekers could reach it at last. 

Right on cue, the Troop went to work. They bombarded the Radiance with iron spikes (giving her a taste of her own medicine), special shots that helped make her overwhelming output a little more manageable, and an unhealthy amount of darkness. Just as Kamek hoped, his clones’ dark beams worked wonders, and with the dark magic from both Sectonia and Primrose added in, the Seekers dished out a big helping of the Radiance’s least favorite food. Once the Troop doled out all the punishment their opening had to offer they disengaged in dramatic fashion. After that, it was Nadia’s turn. The cover provided by Sectonia tempted her, but without any reliable means of long-ranged attack, she wasn’t going to get anywhere by hunkering down. Moving in, she threaded the needle through the blizzard of swords. By diving forward like a pouncing predator, ears and tails tucked back, she could squeeze through the walls of evenly-spaced blades with just inches to spare at best, and a few fresh slices at worst. But what were a couple cuts to the likes of her? When much bigger attacks flew her way, Nadia busted out some emergency maneuvers. She could launch herself way up high with jets of pressurized blood, then use Charge to zip back down before she lost her inertia, gaining some ground in the process.

It wasn’t long before Nadia reached the front of the train, singed, scarred, and very eager to exact repayment. Again and again, she dodged one of the Radiance’s attacks, jumped up to land a quick air combo, then backed off before her foe could blast her. Now that she was here, blocking on the ground wasn’t the worst option, but if she got caught and forced to block in the air she would be pushed back into the blender. This wasn’t easy; even just being this close to the Radiance seemed to passively scorch her. It felt like a bad sunburn, offsetting her regeneration from the Life Gem. This was a ruthless game of give and take, but at least Nadia wasn’t alone. Despite his slow speed and unwieldy size, Ganondorf had reached the Guardian as well, and he used everything at his disposal to make the Radiance hurt. Still, there was no telling who’d win this war of attrition–until the Seekers’ resident warlord made one crucial call.

After mustering up all the strength he had for a magnificent Warlock Punch that knocked the Radiance downward, Ganondorf coordinated with the conductor to drive the train itself directly into their foe. Taken by surprise by the clever maneuver, the Guardian found herself unable to fly, and therefore, pinned against the train. All of a sudden, Nadia could see the Radiance eye to eye. Sure, her beams of light could now blaze across the entire length of the train, but now hitting her would be a breeze. “Hell yeah, Big G!” she cheered, dashing forward as the Radiance’s bullet hell resumed. “You got me all full of en-dorf-ins!”

From there, though, it only got better. At Ganondorf’s bidding, Magikrab steered the train back down toward the abyss, throwing off the Guardian’s aim in the process. Nadia threw herself into a Cat Slide down the sloped roof of the train, hopping the gaps between cars, one hardened claw held behind her to steer in a shower of sparks. A moment later the locomotive leveled out, dragging the Radiance through the surface of the abyss as it chugged along the surface. Immediately, serrated tentacles and limbs still more horrible reached out from the churning, writhing darkness to slash and saw into the Radiance as she passed, trying to drag her down. 

Full of glee, Nadia closed the last bit of distance, and the sight of Primrose’s amped-up Moonlight Waltz blowing up in the Radiance’s face only elated her further. She and Ganondorf unleashed a close-combat beatdown, joined by anyone else to managed to make the journey. As the pummeling mounted, the Guardian became less and less able to fight back. “Hope you don’t mind me callin’ you a light snack,” she taunted, flipping into the air with a spurt of blood to bring down a transformed leg in a Fluffy Soft empowered axe kick–El Tigre. “‘Cause you’re about to dim sum!” As if that wasn’t enough, her mighty kick slash triggered New Moon, becoming a silver arc that left the Radiance reeling.

 In the end, though, it wasn’t any of the Seekers that finished off the Radiance. As they beat her down, the train slowed up, and the writhing Abyss below could get a better grip. Tentacles lashed around her, and claws dug into her body, grasping tighter and piercing deeper. By the time the train came to a stop, the Guardian wasn’t pinned to the front of the train any longer, but any chance of escape was long gone. The hands of some nameless horror reached from the stygian blackness and gouged at her face, ripping it open so that its brethren could squeeze her light out. Nadia watched, more than a little horrified, as the Void dragged the Radiance down, motes of light flooding from the hole where her face had been. Unable to fight back, unable to flee, the entity began to scream. Her cries became shorter and more frantic, resounding through the dreamscape like the peals of some otherworldly bell, until with a final wrench the darkness dragged her under. A handful of light motes burst up from beneath, carrying with them the dazzling boss spirit of the Radiance, which alighted softly on the train engine’s roof.

With her passing, the dream world dimmed yet further, becoming knight. The clouds began to sweep in, burying the Void beneath them as the darkness receded, satiated. High overhead, the stars had ceased to move, but they hung over the Seekers in all their splendor. Nadia sagged down to the roof of the train, panting as her adrenaline faded. “It’s over,” she gasped, looking around at the others. “Right?”

“Seems that way.” Magikrab crawled up onto the roof, staring at the Seekers with his one red eye. “In a way, it’s kind of like the archangels. As long as someone’s around to remember her, she might not be gone for good. But she’s gone for now, and that’s what matters. The infection will follow suit.” After thinking for a moment, he gave the heroes who’d vanquished the Radiance a bow. “The Stagmer-line is grateful. Thank you for your help. If you meet the other archangels, I doubt they’ll be very friendly, but the lines will always be open to you.”

The idea that Robin Goodfellow’s brethren might still try to kill her got a chuckle out of Nadia. “Oh. Well. It’s something, I guess.”

Magikrab turned, staring off into the night. “With the Radiance gone, the dreams of the Underground are back where they belong. With the dreamers. Theirs to give shape, and theirs to make real, if they can.” He paused. “You’ll be going soon, I guess. But if you get a chance, come back and visit. Dreams…are a wonderful thing.”

With that, the unreal world faded away.

[hider=Results][b]Party:[/b] Bowser, Bowser Jr, Kamek, Rika, Sectonia, Ms Fortune, Jesse, Primrose, Therion, Ganondorf
[b]Boss Reward:[/b] Free Level Upgrade, Radiance Spirit[/hider]

[hr]

The Seekers reappeared inside the Black Egg in a massive burst of dream particles, the effulgent motes fading away as quickly as they appeared. Already, the atmosphere here seemed less heavy, not quite as laden with death and decay. All around, the glowing threads and pustules of orange mold had begun to turn gray, fossilizing en masse. Fortunately for them, the inhabitants of the Under, and possibly the whole world, it really did look like the death of the Radiance meant the end of the infection. But even more importantly, the prize the Seekers seized from the dreamscape hadn’t evaporated when they reentered the waking world. The Guardian’s spirit remained, painfully bright. Just as with Geralt and the spirit of the Orphan of Kos, the time had come for the Seekers to seal it, inside of one of them.

Nadia quickly realized that the Seekers weren’t alone. Her ears swiveled toward a gasping sound, and when she looked she found the Hollow Knight, doubled over near the back of the Black Egg’s interior. It seemed to be in bad shape, heavily wounded, but it gave no signs of hostility. A huge amount of noxious orange ichor had poured from its haunted eyes, leaving nothing but absolute blackness behind. It reminded Nadia of the squirming void in the dream, and she shivered. As she stared at the Hollow Knight, though, she wondered. With the dying of the light that screamed out from the afflicted one’s eyes, had it, too, been freed?

The next moment, however, a ring of white bullets appeared around the Hollow Knight. Before Nadia really processed what was going on, the bullets collapsed inward, striking the corrupted vessel. With a jolt, the Hollow Knight crumpled and died, disintegrating into ash.

A purple flash went off next to the dissolving corpse, and Consul F appeared amidst the particles.

“See? I never betrayed you! It was all a trick, see? I was waiting to kill him for you! You just needed the resolve to destroy the infection. Someone to push you forward! Those others, they were dead anyway. Not my fault! I don’t even care about the Guardians, or Galeem. I'm helpful, I can be useful to you. Keep the others off your back, you know? I promise I won't get in your way. I can help... I can... I can…”

F fell to his knees, his hands clasped. Beneath his sun-shaped mask, his eyes were wide with terror. “Please don't kill me.”