[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,341  (+3) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (139/120)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (29/120)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (25/120)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (12/70)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - Ash Lake
[/center]

Tea time turned out to be very informative, as, much to Kamek’s relief, the others did not share Bowser’s disinterest in examining things more deeply, and asked their host some deep questions and the man, reluctantly at first, agreed to fill them in.

And what a thing to fill them in on. A deep dark truth of the world, a world that had been burning though lives to fuel other lives for who knew how long. It was such a revelation that even Bowser found himself gripped by the tale. But while the rest of the troop where overwhelmed by the cruelty of the system, at the end of the take he simply stood cracked his knuckles and said:

[color=FD0000]”Kamek? Juice me up. We’ve got a clock to punch”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I… Sire? Did you not hear what he said? Even these legendary weapons we don’t seem to be able to wield could not scratch it!”[/color] Kamek said, shaken out of melancholy by his king’s bold words.

[color=FD0000]”Legendary weapons? Ha! I’m more legendary than any pointy stick laying around collecting dust!”[/color] The King jabbed a thumb at himself, before seeming to give it a moment of consideration and saying [color=FD0000]”But you know what, you have something of a point … so let’s give it our all! No half measures!”[/color]

[color=FD0000]”Rubick, you can copy him right? And Jr, you can get Mimi to do that too?”[/color] he checked, getting nods in return to his question [color=FD0000]”Good. Then let’s break this thing”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Yeah, if anyone can do it, you can Papa!”[/color] [color=Aqua]”Go for it Bowser, smash that thing to bits!”[/color] the youngsters cheered as the mage and his two copycats prepared to cast, and the koopa king marched into the center of the titanic tree.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Alright then, here goes nothing”[/color] Kamek said, sighing to himself and yet at the same time smiling with just a hint of pride.

Three wands rose, and the mage began to chant

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Hear me flaming clock
Its time to give your last tock
O Digger of the grave
We’ll break your spade
With this move so slick
We’ll end your tick
With the determination of a king
Who’ll make sure you never ring!”[/color]

And the king grew. And grew. And grew. The mountain of ash quaked and all was pushed aside as the titan filled up all the space there was to take, forcing everyone outside to the entrance.

[color=FD0000]”Urg. Cramped”[/color] a booming voice complained, followed by cracks as the king rolled his neck and stretched to limber up. Finally, with glacial slowness, a fist was pulled back, fingers were curled into a fist … and the kinetic strike module now hulking in its own right, slammed into the active position.

Asgore blinked. “N-now, hold your horses just a second, that won’t…”

[color=FD0000]”Eat it!”[/color] the king suddenly roared, only for the world to be filled with the sound of fire and fury as the kinetic strike module fired its boosters and with the force of a space shuttle launch the king’s fist blazed from one end of the burnt out tree to the other in a fraction of the time it had taken to wind it back as the kind delivered the mother off all right hooks to the flame clock.

Yet for all that power, the King of Koopas failed to leave a scratch. At least, on the Flame Clock itself. Its surface refused to yield even an inch beneath Bowser’s strength, but the same could not be said for the bark of the hollow itself into which the Clock was placed. One hundred percent of the force carried through the giant artifice and into the tree husk, fracturing the Clock’s housing, and with the support sufficiently damaged the device’s impressive weight did the rest. It bent backward with a tremendous creak, as if earth itself were groaning in protest, and splashed down into the water behind the tree where it began to sink.

Asgore deflated a little, rubbing his face. “...Now it’s going to be way harder to see how much is left.”

[color=FD0000]”Ak! What! How!”[/color] Bowser tossed his arms up in disbelief, before panickedly declaring [color=FD0000]”Wait, I can fix this!”[/color] in response to his actions making Asgore's life worse. He summoned a giant monster of a striker in his hand, holding it like a cat by the scruff of its neck, then pointed his other hand’s finger after the clock and yelled [color=FD0000]”Scylla, fetch!”[/color] before tossing the [url=https://imgur.com/RlmRksJ]mass of tentacles[/url] into the sea after it. Unfortunately, it would take longer than the striker could exist in order to drag the massive, weighty machine back up, but the monster could at least stop its runaway descent down the underwater slope.

This did however give Bowser time to awkwardly step over the ash mountain without disturbing it, and then clambering out of the tree and go after it himself. The titan of a king then proceeds to wade into the water fish around for the clock like someone who had dropped their watch into a river, aided by the fact that Scylla dragged the clock towards his searching hand, and Jr hovering around his dad’s submerged head in his clown car acting as a secondary spotter.

In the end he had to go down into the depths himself, which was fine seeing as he could breath water after the whole pirate ambush debacle, but it did mean that when he burst form the water, flame clock triumphantly in hand, he was left dripping wet and with a drenched suit.

Again.

He stomped back to land, plonked the clock down in the middle of the altars, and then let himself get shrunk back down to normal size outside rather than try and climb back in again. At least jogging around the outside of the tree dried him off somewhat.

While he was at it the others had time to inspect the clock up close and do some more thinking

[color=SpringGreen]”Yeesh, not even a dent”[/color] Jr noted, tapping a knuckle against it before wondering out loud [color=SpringGreen]”What is this even made of?”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Who knows, but it looks like dealing with this end of the problem is a bust”[/color] Kamek was forced to admit with a sigh, before apologizing [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’m sorry for the trouble my king has caused you, Asgore but once he gets an idea in his head he is very difficult to dissuade”[/color]

Rika, having joined Jr in his prodding of the clock, then came up with an alternative option [color=Aqua]”I mean … couldn't we just, I dunno, move it somewhere else? Where no one lives? And then it can't leech off of people anymore?”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Wait, so, what, like, dump it to the bottom of the actual ocean or something? Huh, I mean, maybe?”[/color] jr thought, before asking [color=SpringGreen]”You think that’d work? Or put it somewhere else where you can more easily farm experience or something at least? Like the dead zo- no wait someone blew that up uh…”[/color] the child scratch his head as he wondered where else might be ok to get exp from that wasn’t just putting the problem on some other poor group.

“No, no, no!” Asgore insisted, a little too terrified for someone of his stature. “You’ve got it the wrong way around. It doesn’t leech off people. It’s more accurate to say that folks leech off it. The lifelight [i]they[/i] need is kept inside it.” He waved his hands, trying to stop the Koopa Troop. “Look, I appreciate you all trying to help, but just forget about it. Unless you can destroy the clock, doing anything fidgety with it’ll only cause more harm than good. I don’t need to be near it to harvest life anyhow, so I’m not stuck here or anything anyway.”

[color=Aqua]”Aw. I thought I was being clever”[/color] Rika bemoaned, but she, along with the rest of the troop, took his advice on the matter in the end. If there were clever solutions to be found, the troop’s fixation on the clock itself was not letting them see them.