[center][h3]Trial of Desire[/h3]
[b]Party:[/b] Peach, Bowser, Junior, Link, Blazermate
[b]Word Count:[/b] 8099 (+9)

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d8JWq0N-r4&ab_channel=BooGhostie][img]https://i.imgur.com/eS6maka.png[/img][/url][/center]

If being Peach came with any perks, it was that she knew she could count on Bowser to come after her, no matter what the situation. Less a tendency or a trend and more a fact, it came as a curse back in the Mushroom Kingdom she hailed from, but in this world she counted it as a blessing. As the Koopa King stomped up behind her to back her up, she couldn’t avoid a split second spent marveling at just how much they had changed. Nobody could look at her as she was now, a different woman from head to toe, and recognize the dainty princess who filled her days with parties, golf, and tennis rather than leadership. It had been just days since the heroes arrived to rescue her from captivity yet again, but since then she’d become someone who could negotiate with foreign powers, skate on water, and manipulate the soul itself. And for Bowser the changes had been even more drastic–suffice to say, he was an entirely different beast. As the Beguiling Siren arrived, so too did the other fighters who’d joined her little division. Junior’s gadgets and minion hordes would provide a tactical edge, Blazermate could support her team through both healing and the use of her zombies as fodder, and Link…having seen him in action before, what could Peach say that might do the ageless hero justice?

This monster would be dead before it knew what hit her.

“Let’s do this!” There was no time to waste. This wasn’t just a fight, but a race, and one in which losing wasn’t an option. While Bowser called for a power-up from his absent mage, Link charged forward with Blazermate aloft behind him, boosting his vitality beyond its limits. Peach launched forward as well, scatterboom held tight. Despite the risk to herself, she planned to jam the barrel of her shotgun right into this freak’s bulbous face and let ‘er rip. The Beguiling Siren did not flinch as the two moved in with vicious weapons at the ready, but blew into the ruddy, spiked conch shell that she clutched between webbed fingers. On high alert, Peach watched some sort of aura shimmer around her, momentarily causing her form to shimmer and sway like a desert mirage, but no attacks flew toward her, and no hexes befell her. With Link a good few strides ahead of her Peach couldn’t see his front, but he seemed fine, too. [i]A shield, maybe?[/i] she conjectured, remembering Master Hand’s barrier, which only appeared when struck. Well, whatever. She spotted Junior flying in, and the pound of heavy feet behind her told her that Bowser was on his way, and in just a second his long stride would bring her past Peach. This hideous fish couldn’t possibly withstand them all

Despite the allies at his back, Link seemed determined to end the fight in one stroke. He channeled both his full momentum and newfound strength through the jet-black shaft of his ebony battle axe and into its wicked blade, ready to cleave the Siren from clavicle to sacrum. Then Bowser’s giant mitt closed around his armored shoulder, its claws catching hold, and the hero of time found himself yanked bodily backwards mid-swing. Peach yelled in surprise as the burly boy hurled her way at high speed, powerless to do anything before he slammed into her and sent both to the stone floor in a painful, concussive impact. [i]What[/i] in the world just happened?! When Peach’s head stopped spinning, she refocused her vision to see Bowser, and though he stood in front of the Siren, he was facing her, Link, Blazermate and Junior. “What the shit are you doing?!” she exploded, staggering to her feet. “Are you out of your mind?” On closer inspection, however, the glaze over his eyes told her that he might very well be. Two more monsters, summoned by the Siren as additional meatshields, fanned out on either side of him: a barnacle-crusted [url=https://i.imgur.com/JheodJk.png]Uca Major[/url] and the terrifying [url=https://i.imgur.com/zGvnDL7.png]Uca General[/url]. Peach grit her teeth and began to move. This just got a lot more complicated.

Link kipped up a moment later, rubbing his shoulder and staring at Bower. In confusion, at first, and then dawning horror as he realized what was happening. 


Blazermate saw what was going on with Bowser almost immediately as there were Medabots that did this exact same thing, a bit of mind control which she wasn’t surprised Bowser was weak against all things considered. Although these often had massive drawbacks from her experience. Commanding her Murloc zombies to keep the koopa king busy by limiting his movement, covering his eyes, that whole thing, Blazermate zoomed to put herself behind the Siren and activated her projectile shield with the Siren inside it, electrocuting the creature with the high intensity plasma. An audible sizzling sound could be heard all around as she was being cooked alive, but only for a brief instant. The moment the pain struck the Siren she dodged out of it, sliding across the watery floor toward the Uca Champion for protection. As she came to a stop she placed her conch to her lips and [url=https://i.imgur.com/PAqkS4Y.png]trilled[/url] a sharp note. From the bottom of the shell extruded a flurry of fleshy, fang-toothed tendrils, as long and lithe as mangrove roots, to strike across a wide area. Blazermate wasn’t that deterred however, as she flew above the siren to keep the shield on her as best as she could, tentacles having a difficult time getting through the shield as she used the slow the shield gave to make the Uca Champion’s life hell.

Blazermate’s assumption of Bowser being weak to mind control was confirmed a moment later when his son shouted [color=SpringGreen]”Aw come on dad, not again!”[/color] as what had happened to Bowser as the king turned to face them instead of the fish, his eyes blank but not vacant. This was no fury Bowser, he was entirely in control and smart enough to think, even if that wasn’t his strong point.

[color=FD0000]”Showtime!”[/color] he roared, before retracting into his shell and spinning on the ground while firing his back spikes up into the air. Little fins and propellers deployed from the backs of the spike as they rose up, and caused them to swiftly turn and rain down on the team of four, spikes primed to spear into body or ground alike, at which point they started pulsing ominously.

“Behind!” Link shouted, jumping back and holding up the arm upon which rested his [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/runescape2/images/f/f5/Fremennik_shield_detail.png]new shield[/url]. As the spikes came falling at them he judged their speed, did some swift assessment, and swung his shield arm at the last possible moment. He managed to parry a fair few of them, sending them flying back toward the Koopa King and the crab monsters that flanked him. Not all though, as more left gouges in Link’s breastplate as they bounced off and clattered to the ground around him. He was thrown off balance, and a few remaining spikes would have buried themselves in his arms and exposed legs were it not for the combined efforts of Tidehunter’s hardiness and Blazermate’s surplus of healing energy. It still felt like being shot with a Lynel’s arrows though, and when he regained his footing he couldn't help but notice the pulsing of the spikes at his feet. “Move!” He called, trying to dodge to the side before the spikes did whatever they were going to do. Peach, no stranger to this technique, hastened to flee as well despite fresh stab wounds.

[color=SpringGreen]”Way ahead of you!”[/color] the prince shouted over the sound of tires splashing through water as he raced away from the spike-peppered area on kart wheels deployed from his clown car, speeding towards the side of the bulwark of shelled toughs the siren had put between herself and them.

[color=FD0000]”Two can play that game!”[/color] Bowser barked as the parried spikes came his way, deploying his little mecha mit energy shield and slapping towards the returned volly and preparing to copy cat Link’s move. Lacking basically any of the finesse of the hero however, the king’s scally arm did most of the work, batting some of the spikes away from his face at the cost of grazes and bruises while a pair still struck his shell mostly harmlessly, before falling to the ground. Ignorant of the spikes blinking rapidly at his feet the king laughed [color=FD0000]”That’s right! Run fairy boy, run! Ghahahaha!”[/color]

Blazermate didn’t have to move much to guard herself, although she did have an instinct to guard the others, she knew that’d bring her into range of a giant mind controlled bowser, and that wouldn’t end well. So though she wanted to keep her projectile shield on Siren to cook her, but since her barrier didn’t cover all angles, she needed to divert it to block any of Bowser’s spikes that headed Blazermate’s way. They just fizzled when they hit her projectile shield, the explosions finding that her blue energy wall was impassible. Of course Dell was working in the background, but his ability to upgrade the sentry was hampered by Bowser’s spike rain. The blasts that hit him not only caused him to disappear and leave the weapon isolated, but also dealt an equal amount of damage to Blazermate herself. With the Siren’s minions in the way the little level 1 gun plunked away at the nearest target, that being Bowser. Meanwhile, Blazermate herself needed to stay close to the ground to be able to use her shield offensively, which put her in harm’s way when the Uca Major aimed to smash her with its giant claw. This forced Blazermate to fly out of the way, her shield getting slightly scratched by the claw as she flew up, her shield not having much time to contact the siren. When in the sky, she oversaw what everyone else was doing, and yelled. [color=0072bc]”Oy, ignore the mind controlled guy and just focus the boss down. We don’t have time to waste. Put yourself between Bowser and the siren and just dodge Bowser’s attacks, he’ll hit the siren that way.”[/color]

Once clear of Bowser’s spikes, Peach took a different approach. Whether on the dealing end or the receiving end, she didn’t want to fight the big lug period. Instead she went wide and took to the water, taking a few moments to flank the danger zone whereas Blazermate had flown straight overhead. The medabot’s bravery appeared to be meeting with mixed results, since the Siren turned out to be a lot more mobile than she looked, and her Ucas weren’t about to just let Blazermate float there and pull off her fish fry. Skirting across the water, Peach hurled a grenaduck to disrupt the enemy cluster, then rushed in to fire off a long-overdue, point-blank scatterboom. As she approached she spotted the Uca Champion turn to address the threat. It pulled knives from its back and hurled them at the inbound princess, and though she managed to swerve past them, the hideous crab would be in her way before she could get into close quarters. With a grunt of frustration Peach fired her scatterboom early to deal both monsters a moderate blow, then wheeled away for another pass.before she could overextend herself. With so many big enemies on the field, getting close enough to deal real damage would be an issue. As precious seconds ticked away, Peach wracked her brain to think of something.

Jr’s method of dealing with the big guys was to use the fact that the arena was big, big enough to fit piles of ruined buildings inside, to just go around the big guys. Sparks flared from the tires of his clown car in kart form as he drifted in a wide circle around to the left with motorized speed, before ending the drift and gaining a speed boost for his efforts, which he used to race back into the fight from a flanking angle.

[color=SpringGreen]”Mimi, electroball!”[/color] Jr commanded, getting a “mi mi” from his shoulder sitting mon minion as she quickly charged up and then a “kyuuuu!” as she hurled the ball of lightning forwards ahead of them. It struck the Uca Champion and jolted through its body to the ground in a respectable bit of damage. If that was all he was going to do, however, then jr could have just kept circling. Instead the bunny-hopped his car up into the air, keeping his momentum as he ascended and deployed a wrecking ball out of one side with which he aimed to use to perform a fly-by smash against the fishy freak who had ensnared his father. Focused on Peach, the Siren didn’t notice the attack in time to dodge it, and got brained right in the head.

Speaking of his father, the king was in the midst of having his feet exploded on as the timers on his spike torpedoes reached their end and sent a wave of explosions rocking across the hero’s side of the battlefield and then the two he was standing next to also went off.

[color=FD0000]”Gahahaha”[/color] he roared, followed by an [color=FD0000]”Ow! Ow! Ow!”[/color] of pain as he got plinked by the infuriating sentry gun. Once steady he brought up his mecha mit shield up to block the fire just as he had done when the sentry builder had been encountered, and then proceeded to burn half his summons.

[color=FD0000]”Heel, heal me! Hammer bros, wreck that turret! Marie, scrap that stupid flying bot!”[/color] he commanded before declaring [color=FD0000]”I’m going to kill me a hero!”[/color] 

The same magic controlling the king’s mind and spirit rolled up through his connections to his strikers, causing them to accept his targets without questioning why they were shooting former allies.

The Hammer Bro’s let loose their arching building tools, hailing the sentry with indirect fire, and with the Engineer still on cooldown they ran into no trouble scrapping the thing for an easy win.

Above the battlefield Marie hovered into the air opposite Blazermate and emotionlessly flicked a hand, sending a barrage of skulls towards her, before also pointing down below her feet and bringing up a gang of skeleton mobsters behind her who tried to gun her down with their tommyguns. A two pronged assault designed to counter her directional shield, and one that would leave her a sitting duck for the Uca Major.

Finally the enthralled king himself was restored to full HP by the Rabbid Supporter Heel, and once patched up he drew the pair of bloody shears Link had found by scrounging only a few minutes earlier. Leaving the Rabbid to heal up the Siren and her minions, the king started bounding his way over towards the hero in a series of deceptively swift leaps with scissor sword and mecha shield in hand like some oversized mockery of the sword and board man’s art.

His final landing sent a fiery shockwave circling out around the impact site, and then the King guarded himself with the mitt’s little shield while he began trying to unskillfully smash the hero of Hyrule over the head with the pair of shears (or stab or snip him if the angle presented itself, but smashing very much was the name of the game here). Meanwhile his many tentacles darted down in a rolling barrage of strikes, each in turn trying to nab him with their poisonous touch. If the hero didn't stand and try to deal with this and instead opted to run, the king would blast him with a razor shoals inflicting hydro pump, possibly knocking him over and even if not, the soaking would make running away feel like trying to sprint through a sea of ghastly knives.

Blazermate was forced to fly yet even higher as Bowser summoned the old skullgirl to deal with the medabot, the skullgirl attacking her from two different angles forcing her to fly higher to get the shield to block the skulls and machine gun fire, but being able to do basically nothing else. Dell meanwhile was forced yet again to abandon his building or get crushed by Bowser’s attack, but this attack destroyed the almost built sentry, forcing him to start from scratch once again. Hopefully this mind control would end soon, as Blazermate’s shield was starting to flicker signifying it was about to end.

Link had turned back when he heard the last of the explosions, taking the short moment to catch his breath as the King laid out his orders and the strikers appeared to go about their work. He started to circle around the side like the others, trying not to battle with the king for both of their sakes, but Bowser saw fit to bring the fight to him. Link managed to leap the fiery shockwave as Bowser landed, but in only a moment the king was upon him and bringing his many limbs upon him. They found only ice, as Link had taken the Slate and fired the Cryonis Rune under him in mid air. As Bowser went low, Link went high. The ice pillar was smashed to pieces, but by that time Link had already taken a flying leap from his perch that carried him over Bowser’s head. 

While airborne he swapped to his bow and took aim at the rabbit he had seen healing the King in the aftermath of the explosions. The same rabbit that now remained behind with their true enemies. Time slowed down, which he knew would cut into his stamina and ability to avoid Bowser, but they couldn't afford to let any of the damage they had inflicted be undone. He let loose with an arrow at Heel, hopefully before it got an heal off on the Siren, then time resumed it’s normal flow. The arrow flew true, striking the rabbid in his snow-white noggin, and despite Link’s best intentions the puncture wound carried through to Bowser’s head as well.

He landed with a roll behind Bowser, then took off directly toward the enemy in a series of short bursts of speed. Behind him Bowser turned, unleashing a pair of water blasts after him, but in the hero's wake Cia appeared with a scowl on her face and the gate of souls above her head. Four Dark Link’s flipped out of it in rapid succession, charging forward and being blasted in the real Link's place. As the clump of dark clones was scattered by the blast and vanished the sorceress wagged her finger at him before vanishing herself.

As Link closed in on his target, the Siren turned to face him, still holding her head where Junior’s wrecking ball struck her. She released a garbled cry for help, then put her conch to her lips to use Devour again. For the second time a flurry of vile tentacles surged forth to attack the hero, these ones tipped with snakelike jaws to pierce and bite his flesh, but the attack came more out of desperation than calculation and Link knew it. The Uca Champion turned to help the Siren, raising its arms to come in with a massive wallop, but allied reinforcement arrived just then, too. “Hey, eyes on me!” Peach cried, sliding in with Chao Ho’s giant fan in hand. Despite the monster’s immense strength she managed to turn its attack in an impressive parry. As the behemoth floundered, Peach deployed a heel torpedo to launch herself upward in an explosive flash kick. At the apex of her jump she brought out her scatterboom once more and blasted the monster in the face. Her attack gave Link the chance he needed to close the rest of the distance.

Close he did with one final burst of speed. He couldn't parry or side jump the Siren’s wide ranging attack, so he raised his shield to protect his face and neck as he dove forward into the maws. He felt the bites of the snakelike tendrils, hot pinpricks of pain all over his legs and right arm, but he didn't stop. Though without the power of Blazermate’s Kritz he swung forward with the ebony battleaxe again to make good on his interrupted attack from earlier. 

While the Link attacked the siren from below, Jr swung around and attacked from above, swooping down in his clown car, its boxing glove arms deployed and the right one drawn back to deliver the first of a flurry of punches to the fishy femme fatal’s fugly face.

[color=FD0000]”Princess look out!”[/color] came a cry of alarm from behind them as the out of position Bowser saw what was happening to his enthraller. He’d put himself exactly where Blazermate suggested they get him, with the heroes in between him and the siren, preventing him from firing off his various projectiles for fear of striking her. Unfortunately, he had one new trick up his sleeves. He leapt into the air, roaring [color=FD0000]”Scylla!”[/color] and summoning the giant oceanic guard dog in the gap between him and the core of the battle. 

The titan, in her prime rather than the rotten near corpse he had killed, materialized right behind Peach and Link’s position, raising herself up on her forearms to take a pose similar to the siren’s. This let her grasping and spearing tentacles to arch up and then lance downwards in precise near vertical strikes that didn’t risk harming her summoner’s allies. The king meanwhile landed on her tail, but found himself stumbling rather than racing forwards more, the summoning of the titan having taken the wind out of him at just the wrong moment. Link heard the monster appear suddenly behind him, but more than that he felt it as it displaced the air. He glanced back, jumping to the side as the monster's tentacle slammed down where he’d once been, and decided to keep up the pressure on the Siren.

Blazermate’s shield ran out around this point, forcing her to use her mobility to dodge all the stuff Marie was throwing her way. If they survived this Blazermate was going to give Bowser a piece of her mind, he didn’t know how to deal with being mind controlled! Instead he just went all in with everything he had all at once like an idiot… But that last thing he summoned did give Blazermate an idea. A risky idea, but an idea.

Using her suffering shield, she commanded any undead in the area to attack Marie. Now this didn’t have much of an effect on her skeletal gangsters, only causing a mild bit of confusion, but it did get her to have to focus on the murlocs now running at her. Meanwhile Blazermate moved over to the giant tentacle monster Bowser had summoned and, while she took a few hits in the process, Blazermate used this monster to generate more Ubercharge thanks to its large size and ease of hitting. She then used this ubercharge to fire a Medaforce beam at the Siren while she was preoccupied with Link.

The stamina depletion incurred by the manifestation of Scylla, along with the accumulated damage inflicted on all the other Strikers, combined to put Bowser in such a state of exhaustion that he could barely move, let alone sustain all of his summons. Scylla, Marie, and the rest disappeared, and as the battlefield’s chaos reduced to more manageable levels, Bowser fell flat on his stomach, too tired to continue and of no more use. The charm that muddled his mind faded away.

The Siren, however, had her own problems. Though slippery as an eel and much more clever, she couldn’t dodge Link’s overwhelming onslaught, and repeated cleaves from his axe were taking their toll. When Junior arrived to cut off her escape with a flurry of fisticuffs, things went from bad to worse, leaving the Siren with just one option. She screeched out a desperate call for aid, prompting the Uca Major to charge straight for her. It grabbed its master with its claw, putting itself directly in harms way, and hurled her toward safety at the cost of its own life. It melted away in the Medaforce Beam meant for its master, but it's sacrifice bought the Siren enough time to unleash her Song of Desire once more. At least Blazermate was healed back up thanks to her medaforce beam.

Recognizing the eldritch melody, Peach rushed to plug her ears. For a moment she stood still on the water’s edge, teeth clenched as she concentrated as hard as she could in hopes of resisting the spell. Her focus came to an abrupt end when two undead murlocs jumped at her, gurgling hideously as they swung their ghoulish weapons. A reflexive blast of her scatterboom reduced one to smithereens, and Peach blocked the other’s swing with her shotgun. The bone bludgeon bounced off, and she followed up with a shove that staggered the thing long enough for it to meet its maker in a second spray of obliteration. Knowing what this must mean, Peach turned to find the Siren happy as a clam on the receiving end of Blazermate’s medibeam, the Medabot now under the menace’s control.

[color=SpringGreen]”Aw goomba shoes, that ain't good”[/color] was Jr’s very frank assessment of how things were going. His papa was down for the count and all their hard work was getting undone right before their eyes [color=SpringGreen]”We need to get Blazermate away from that fish!”[/color]

“Here. Let me get that for you” came the electronic salesman voice of the sentient meat hook, right before it whipped out of jr’s clown car’s mouth and hurtled towards Blazermate, aiming to whip around her and bind her arms and waist in a loop of chain before linking to that chain as well, forming a metal lasso loop around her.

[color=SpringGreen]”Koopa Corps, get ready to pull!”[/color] Jr commanded, as he landed on the ground, kart wheels deployed, and summoned a squad of koopa troopa strikers, who would, if/when Blazer was hooked, grab onto the chain. Then together they would all run/drive in the opposite direction from the fishy tyrant, pulling her newly acquired healer bot away from her side without hurting her like the team had hurt Bowser.

While Junior did his best to restrain the medabot, Link continued after the Siren in order to try and stem the tide of healing that was rolling in. This time she was ready, and with a harsh blow of her conch unleashed a Pressure Crash. The foul magic slapped Link like a breaking wave, dealing damage not to his body but his mental state, in hopes that the hero would be forestalled long enough for Blazermate to heal the Siren back to full as she fought with all her might against Junior’s tether. The pressure wave struck him, sending him swaying back as the vibrations compounded the trembling of his mind and blood was pushed from the bite wounds across his body. Shaking his head, he took another step forward.

Blazermate struggled in her chains, trying to fly with no avail. She had already used basically all of her abilities before, so there wasn’t too much she could do other than call her murlocs to her side, mutating them with her suffering shield to be much larger, and more dangerous, aquatic zombie fish men with odd protrusions everywhere, one of them becoming less of a murloc, and more like an eldritch horror. Her shield, in an attempt to get free, then did something she hadn’t used it for before, letting out a loud scream that hurt the ears of anyone nearby. The worst hit by this was Link, who was buffeted and brought to a halt as Blazermate echoed her new allies' attack.. Her murlocs seemed unaffected, but just stood there waiting for a command. Eventually one came, as they all began to charge Jr.

[color=SpringGreen]”Two can play at that game! Murlock marines, counter charge!”[/color] Jr commanded, bringing out a swarm of murlock strikers that, as commanded, rushed their undead kin for some fish on fish fighting action. Added to Jr’s side of things was Mimi, who, unable to really help with the pulling, instead snuck her shadow down into the drawl and used it to swipe away at unsuspecting zombilocs. 

Link shook off his daze and, looking back at the Murloc battle, took a moment to think. Blazermate had been successfully yanked out of healing range, and the minions she sent at Junior meant they weren't harassing Peach anymore. Bowser was [i]down[/i], which he didn't understand at all and the sight of it sent another wave of trembles through his mind. One crab bodyguard was down already, but when Junior’s striker army vanished he was going to get dogpiled by Murlocs and they would be down two. He checked his hand. Three minutes left. 

He broke off his pursuit of the Siren and turned to head for Junior, steel sword in hand. As the mutant murlocs of Blazermate focused on the enemy in front of them his sword flashed and Link spun into their backline, unleashing a sweeping cleave through their undead flesh, before setting to work on the little beasts. As he fought his hand shot out, taking the chain of the talking hook in hand and yanking it down with his new muscles. 

Blazermate wasn’t too worried about her murlocs getting cut down by the enemy team, after all, she could just make more of them. But this did limit the amount of shields in front of her, and her current allies were kind of poor shields and looking at the battlefield again her team was starting to get extremely outnumbered. Things weren’t going so well, she couldn’t move in this chain, her allies weren’t letting her out nor coming near her to get healed… It was almost like this team wasn’t her actual team, they functioned like a low rank not even ameture medabot team! Blazermate mumbled about her situation while she was trying to break free of her chains.

While her allies fought to get the murloc squad out of the picture, Peach continued her battle against the Uca Champion solo. As if it sensed her intense desire to get around it and start whittling the Siren back down, the behemoth obstructed her at every turn, scuttling back and forth to intercept her grenades and scatterblasts while the wily Siren kept wriggling behind it. She couldn’t change her momentum as fast as it could, and though Peach saw her damage visible accumulate across the Uca’s flesh and shell, she doubted she’d be able to chew through it with enough time to spare. It was infuriating, and to make matters worse she couldn’t goad the two away from the shore into the water where she’d have the mobility advantage, despite her best efforts. The seconds drained away like so much sand in an hourglass, growing ever closer to bottoming out. It became harder and harder for Peach to keep her screams of frustration internal. They’d gotten [i]so close[/i], until Blazermate went undid everyone’s hard work. The fact that it wasn’t the Medabot’s fault just made it harder to deal with. After coming away bloody from another failed strafing run she backed off, trying to think. If only this wretched crustacean wasn’t so bulky.

[i]Wait.[/i] She was being a fool. So far she’d been targeting its head, reasoning that the classic weak spot held true for all beasts, great and small. But now that she looked at the Uca all over, all that bulk was being supported by those four little legs. They allowed the creature to scuttle around with surprising agility, but how strong could they possibly be? Peach dropped a torpedo into the water, then approached once more. She waited until the explosive struck one the monster’s knees before unleashing a scatterboom shot into the same joint at close range. The Princess took a knife slash below her collarbone for her efforts, but as the giant crab’s leg fell into the water and it rocked unsteadily, she knew she’d made the right choice. Trying to ignore the bleeding, she retreated and prepared to go again. 

She might not have to, as Bowser moved into her peripheral vision as she fell back. The Koopa had a noticeably cracked scale on his forehead and scratches on his lower body inherited from his strikers, but though winded and not likely to be doing any more jumping around for the foreseeable future, he’d picked himself up and gotten back in the fight. 

[color=FD0000]”I got this Princess”[/color] he told her in a strained voice, before gesturing to the crab monster with his scissors and telling it [color=FD0000]”First you, then your witch of a friend!”[/color] The king wasn't smart enough to pick up on what Peach had been doing, but he did have a trick for this kind of thing up his sleeve. First brought his cannons to bear and pumped a spray of armor consuming acid all over the crab like beast.  

Then he growled [color=FD0000]”That should soften you up a bit, now eat this!''[/color] at it while stomping in closer and trying to stab the oversized scissors into any cracks he could find in it’s armor, while using his mecah mit shield and the shell armor of his turrets to try and block any retaliation coming in from those big meaty claws. If he did get a good stab in he’d try using the blades in the opposite way from intended, trying to pull the handles/blades apart in order to use the backs of the blades to pry open its shell to expose the meat inside for roasting. His efforts bore immediate fruit; with the Uca softened up both its earlier injuries and the acid, and Bowser susceptible to neither its daggers nor blunt force, it could only delay the inevitable. This was a monster best suited for fighting men–not creatures still more dreadful than itself. Bowser doggedly pushed through its attacks to lay the hurting down, and soon the air was filled with myriad crackles and sizzles as the Uca Champion met its match.

[color=SpringGreen]”Dad’s ok!”[/color] Jr cheered as he saw Bowser rejoin the fight, before noting how beat up and tired his old man was and adding [color=SpringGreen]”Well. Kinda ok”[/color] and then shouting [color=SpringGreen]”Hurry up and snap out of it so you can heal papa, you dumb bot!”[/color] at Blazermate.

The prince himself could likely do with a touch up too, because while his murlocs were in the midst of taking down the last undead ones, with a fair bit of help from Link and a touch from Mimi, it hadn’t been a bloodless victory on their side. Light marks of battle had scratched and battered the boy, despite him not being personally touched by the conflict, attested to that. Not that that stopped him sending out more minions to help their cause.

[color=SpringGreen]”Primid party! Go gut that fish while we’ve got her buddies busy!”[/color] he commanded, summoning a team of the subspace army’s foot troops, all geared up with crude [url=https://ssb.wiki.gallery/images/5/5f/Sword_Primid_-_Brawl_Trophy.png]beam swords[/url].

They charged forwards under/past blazermate and to attack the siren herself, some doing [url=https://ssb.wiki.gallery/images/8/82/SwordPrimidDashSpin.jpg]spinning dash attacks[/url] to close the last bit of the gap while others hopped over the heads of their fellows and used [url=https://ssb.wiki.gallery/images/a/af/SwordPrimidJumpSlash.jpg] wide overhead slashes[/url] to try and cut her upper torso.

Link tried to back up the primid assault by pulling out his bow and firing off some arrows at the Siren, the chain he had grabbed now wrapped around his arm to keep Blazermate from returning to her side even after the koopa troopas vanished. The medabot’s jet-powered struggle against his grip, however, tugged on his limb to such a degree that the hero couldn’t aim for the life of him. She summoned the Engineer to run at her captor with his shotgun upheld, intent on pumping Link full of buckshot. He brought up his shield to try and defend himself, the shotgun blasting ragged holes in the wood and stray buckshot piercing his body.

Still, it was a bad time to be the Siren. Once she found herself mobbed, slashed and hacked at by Junior’s gang of primids, she hurried to summon more backup for herself. Fresh murlocs sprang from the water to fight on her behalf, their fishbone weapons doing the damage that she herself could not. The wounds dealt to the Primids manifested as little more than scratches and punctures on Junior himself, and though her Devour and Pressure Crash struck the whole squad at once, neither packed the punch she needed. The assault kept the Siren’s focus toward the shore, perhaps assuming that her Uca Champion would protect her, but with Bowser overwhelming it bit by bit nothing stood in Peach’s way any longer. With a cry the princess cruised in to deliver a close-range scatterboom blast, delaying the trigger pull until the predictable pelagic reflexively dodged to the side. Then her weapon blazed forth, punching an array of fiery holes into the monster’s back and side.

A shriek resounded through the cave. Burned and bleeding, the Siren turned in a flurry of summoned tentacles to strike back, but Peach stood firm as she hurled her last Grenaduck. The princess took a snaggle-toothed beating, but her explosive sailed on through. It bounced off the Siren and exploded in her face, cracking the conch shell the pelagic held so dear. All the while, the Siren was open from the front to anyone who could brave the murloc swarm.

And as the Siren reeled back, Blazermate’s mind control expired, the Medabot stopping her resistance to Link holding onto her chains and swapping her healing beam back on her real team. Some were hurt, others were worse than others, but overall they were doing far better than that Siren. She took her time healing everyone who needed it, building that wonderful, wonderful ubercharge, ready to hit someone with a Kritz, well, whoever charged through that murloc horde…

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh sweet, you're back!”[/color] Jr cheered [color=SpringGreen]”Hook let her go!”[/color]

“On it boss. Please remember to rate 5-5 stars on [error no net connection]” the sentient meat hook replied chipperly as it unreeled it's chain enough to slip off of blazermate and then quickly reeled back to the prince’s clown car. 

The prince then took back to the skies using the vehicle, which meant he didn’t even need to brave the swarm to get in on the action, leaving Link as the best and only option for Blazermate’s support, as Bowser was presently in the middle of shoving the Uca to the ground and stomping its broken and burnt body into crab paste to make sure it wasn’t going to get in the other’s way.

As his dad finished off that beast, Jr flew to help finish off the main event. Up and up he went, making sure he was clear of the murlocs, at which point he summoned the quartet of chef bros. The culinary combatants hung off the side of his clown car with one hand while started pelting the murlocs with pots and pans using the other Meanwhile Jr and mimi joined in by raining down balls of fire and lightning respectively, all of this to help clear the way for one critically empowered hero of the wilds so he could do as heroes do and strike true win the day. 

Link held up a hand as small wounds on his body began to close up all over his body under the ministrations of Blazermates beam. “That’s enough. Wait to see who she ensnares next.” With that he took off, charging into the horde of Murlocs and swinging his sword wide to try and sweep them away from the Princess. “Fall back!” He said as he continued forward, trying to cut his way through the horde to get at the Siren. 

[color=0072bc]”Once we figure out who gets mind controlled, a nice push with a few buffs should finish the job!”[/color] Blazermate said, keeping her healing beam on the advancing Link. Hopefully she didn’t control someone who would be difficult to deal with like Bowser again so Blazermate could help someone finish this fight. 

With Blazermate undoing the damage inflicted by both lucky murlocs and Junior’s widespread bombardment Link carved through the rabble like wheat during a harvest, barely even slowing down as he bore down on his prize. At the same time, Peach continued her assault from the water in a frenzy of red-hot buckshot and miniature torpedoes. Despite her wounds, the SIren managed to dodge a good chunk of damage, and though the hero of the wild would soon be upon her she had one final swan song left to play. The creature lifted her cracked conch to her lips and began to play. “She’s-!” Peach cried, but suddenly the words wouldn’t come. She knew she needed to charge in and stop the Song of Desire, but all of a sudden she found herself quite unable to. A piercing, unnatural sensation flooded her senses.

[color=FD0000]”Oh no you dont!''[/color] Bowser roared from where standing over the spirit of the Uca. Then he exhaled shallowly before breathing in deep and using his vacuum breath, creating a vortex of air directed at the siren and her conch, the king trying to use unrelenting suction to rip the implement from her fishy grip.

His efforts paid off, as the shell flew from the pelagic horror’s clammy grip and straight into the Koopa King’s wide-open gullet. His shout of jubilation mixed with coughs and chokes as the eldritch essence inside the foreign object disagreed with him, but the fact of the matter remained that the hated Siren now stood without a weapon with which to channel her oceanic magicks. When he looked to Peach, however, he found glassy blue eyes staring his way beneath brows furrowed in anger, and a tight grip on her trusty scatterboom as she began to pick up speed–the charm that had befallen her quite indifferent of the catalyst used to cast it, or likely the Siren herself, for that matter. The team would have to deal with her, one way or another.

As far as Link was concerned the source of the charm spell that turned ally against ally was right in front of him. The third time was the charm, he closed with the Siren again and unleashed another mighty blow with his ebony axe. Seeing that her little channel thing was now on Peach, who frankly wasn’t nearly the offensive powerhouse of Bowser, Blazermate hit the Kritz, amping up Link’s damage quite a bit. She did make sure to keep an eye on Peach though, just in case that mind control caused some… self sacrifice issues that Blazermate would have to interfere with. “HYAAAAAA!” Link bellowed as he brought the axe down, energy sparking around him.

Peach moved to do something, and with startling unity the remaining murlocs rushed their master’s way, but it was too late. The Siren failed to evade in time, and Link’s axeblade fell upon her wretched head like an executioner’s guillotine. On its own it would have spelled out a death sentence, but with Blazermate’s uncannily well-timed Kritz pushing the hero beyond his limits, his weapon cleaved through warped flesh as if it were butter. He split the Siren in twain with such swiftness that she couldn’t even shriek; the only sound she made was the gurgling hiss of gases escaping ruptured organs as her gooey halves split apart, and began to dissolve. In the gunk lay the heroes’ prize, one of the three spirits the Master Hand demanded in order to forestall the Seekers’ doom.

The moment of victory was, however, short lived. A vengeful cry tore itself free from Peach’s lips, and the princess charged her former allies with her scatterboom in hand. It would be some time before she, like the others, freed herself of the charm’s eldritch control. Time, however, was not on the heroes’ side. A minute and thirty-five seconds remained to them.

Link reached down and scooped the Siren’s spirit from the gunk and ash slurry it had landed in before looking up. “Junior!” He yelled, rearing back and tossing their prize up to the Prince. “Go!”

[color=SpringGreen]”I got it, I got it!”[/color] Jr called back, swooping down and snatching the spirit out of the air, and then continuing onwards in the downloads dive till he was low to the ground, whereupon he deployed his car’s kart wheels and raced back towards the start line. Perched on his shoulder Mimi was ready turned to face the murloc remnants, ready to cover his retreat double dash style.

The prince’s actual doubles partner for that particular tournament meanwhile got no relief from the Siren’s death, as her conch, severed from her spirit, did not go down with her. Instead it would be up to bowser’s [url=https://i.redd.it/lzarlu7cjsq51.jpg]Goombules[/url] and other oddly koopa troop minion shaped internal defences to fight of that eldritch implement’s lingering corruption. [color=FD0000]”Grah, bleh, urg that’s a rotten meal''[/color] was what he had to say on the matter.

Still, a bit of indigestion wasn't going to keep the king down, especially when he had a very familiar job to do. He cracked his knuckles and declared[color=FD0000]”Alright princess, your coming with me!''[/color] then paused for a moment and added [color=FD0000]”Till you feel better''[/color] and then realized she was running away and shouted [color=FD0000]”Hey wait come back here!''[/color] before taking off after her.

Shield up, Link closed in on the Princess from the opposite direction. There was no weapon in his hand, the battle axe shattering into pieces and vanishing in the aftermath of the killing stroke. He didn't arm himself with any replacement. She would come to her senses in time if they were just able to restrain her. 

While Link and Bowser were trying to be a bit more tender with Peach, Blazermate wasn’t going to deal with this sort of stuff with time running out and while Link approached a bit more cautiously to grab her, Blazermate soared over everyone and went to pin Peach to the ground face down so she wouldn’t do anything stupid while waiting for either Bowser to come around and help as he was want to do, or until her mind control wore off. [color=0072bc]”We don’t have time for this!”[/color] Blazermate said, zooming in to hold Peach down, blocking her reactionary shotgun blast with her suffering shield which wasn’t a fan of being shot at all, before making her move to pin the princess down.

As Junior fled, his teammates converged on the rogue princess. She fought back with everything at her disposal, including a surprise parry from Chao Ho’s fan, but though nobody escaped unscathed, she could only do so much once everyone’s dogpile robbed her of her weapons. Neither could she get a grasp on anyone long enough to draw out their spirits. 

Eventually after much wrangling the princess had been put into a familiar position, namely hauled over Bowser’s shoulder, although with the added addition of tendrils binding her to prevent her from using her newly acquired weapons and powers.

[color=FD0000]”You know, usually this isn't as much of a hassle''[/color] he informed the others before telling Peach [color=FD0000]”Alright princess, you sit tight while we catch up with Jr''[/color] and then directing the gang back towards the entrance, following in the wake of the racing prince.