Reality Chronicles Ch.9 Book 2

“Dammit!” I slammed my fist into the ground angrily. This is the second time he’s corrupted a world to his own twisted goal; I had a suspicion he was behind this but to see I was right just pisses me off more than I expected.
“Who was that guy?” Glitch’s voice tore me from my anger; he was still in the dark about this situation.
“That was…were not sure.” Even after all our encounters we still couldn’t figure out who he was or what his end goal was in recruiting travelers, “But what we do know is that he’s dangerous, he will say whatever he wants to get you on his side.”
“He’s done it once.” Alice interjected.
“Twice.”
“Twice!?”
“Me and Glitch ran into a shapeshifter type person. I have to assume he’s working with the guy, I can’t remember any instance of a shapeshifter humanoid in this world.”
“So…he’s our villain?” Glitch asked; I raised my eyebrow at his question.
“Yeah?”
“So we have to take him down?” So that’s what he’s driving at!
“Glitch no! Trust me he’s too dangerous, me and Alice barely survived a fight with him. In all honesty…he let us live.” I watched Glitch take a step back in fear, “We should avoid him if we can, for now all we need to do is find Mario and take care of Bowser.” He gave me a shaky nod and looked over to the body of the koopa.
“What about this?”
“If we get to the final castle we can at least keep the blame off the Mushroom kingdom for this.” But if we were going to do that then we’re going to need to double time it to the end, “First, let’s grab some supplies from the armory at this castle and then head out.” We jumped down and found the toad at the end. When he saw us he gave us a big smile. After thanking us for saving him he led us to the nearby hidden armory and gave us free reign to look around. I grabbed two longsword off of a nearby bench of weapons and slung one around my waist and the other under my coat; it was smart to carry a back-up just in case. I looked over and saw Glitch grabbing survival supplies such as rations and lanterns and stuffing them into his belt pouch; Alice was looking over the wide range of different blades and seemed to be contemplating what to pick up, “Why not stay with the sword you’re using?” I asked her making her jump in surprise.
“It’s balanced but I want to do more strikes instead of doing more damage.”
“How about the rapier?” It was good for quick strikes.
“It relies more on thrusts while I do more slashing than thrusting.” That’s a predicament.
“How about a katana then?” She raised her eyebrow at my suggestion and then grabbed a katana off the weapon bench. She swung it around for a minute getting her bearings and then started to experiment with her unique way of fighting; when she was done she smiled and sheathed the blade slinging it on her waist.
“Good choice.” She walked away heading to the supplies picking up different supplies. I looked over to see Glitch was waiting at the entrance.
“Hey Glitch, do you want to switch out your weapon?” I asked and he gave me a cocky smile.
“I’m good with my battle ax!” He motioned to the double edged ax slung over his back, it was still in fairly good condition; he must not have used it very much before. I felt Alice tap my shoulder and turned to her; she was wearing her basic white t-shirt with her green short sleeved jacket and now had a metal breastplate with small steel gauntlets, steel knee-high boots and wore a steel skirt… it didn’t look half bad on her. She handed me a few basic supplies and I placed them in my belt.
“Why are we getting weapons? Aren’t we going to avoid killing any of Bowser’s men?”
“We’re not only dealing with them but the guy and his shapeshifter…and possibly Lissa.”
“Did you see her?”
“No but we can’t rule her out, she could be farther in.” Alice gave me a nod.
“True…but first off…” She looked me up and down, “Why aren’t wearing some form of armor?”
“I’m wearing arm-guards.”
“That’s not enough!” She gave me an angry look; somehow I had a knack for pissing her off, “Me and Glitch are at least wearing a few pieces of metal armor.” I looked over at Glitch and she was right; even if it was patchy he still wore more armor than I ever have…and he seemed to grab a red jacket when I wasn’t looking, “Come with me!” She grabbed me by the back of my collar and dragged me over to the armor area and started looking over pieces of armor I could wear. It was like I was shopping with my mom for new clothes.

    After half an hour I was now equipped with shoulder guards and a breastplate as well as steel boots and knee guards; she let me keep the arm guards but they were now steel and the inside of my black jacket now had a light layer of chain-mail. Luckily with my new mushroom strength it didn’t weigh me down and I added a layer of cotton so the metal wouldn’t cause any noise as I moved.
“Happy?” I asked giving Alice a glare.
“Very.” She replied proudly making me laugh.
“Can we get moving?” Glitch asked tapping an imaginary watch. We wasted a lot of time on this so we better get moving.

We moved out quickly into the third area and looked out to see it was covered in storm clouds and littered with enemies all over the area. We kept to the high areas and sped through the area grabbing any of the mushrooms we could find whether they were 1-ups or power mushrooms. With our united work we made it to the end quickly enough and tore the flag off of its pole as Glitch attached his own symbol. We didn’t waste any time and kept up with our pace into the next area; when I looked out I saw as it was filled with Koppas and Goombas with no upper platforms for us to run across.
“Why are there so many troops this early in?” Alice asked annoyed.
“We’re getting closer to the leader. The troops are becoming more frequent.” Glitch pointed out.
“But were not even half way there. This seems extreme for this early in.” She was right, this was too early for this many troops…or maybe there are tougher troops farther in.
“These troops can be counted as scouts. When we get farther in I’m guessing we’ll run into more experienced troops.”
“Yeah, like hammer bros, bullet bills, buzzy beetles, lakitus and spinies.” Glitch said almost naturally.
“Kind of an expert at this game huh?” I said nudging him.
“This game is my bread and butter. It’s the only game I play.” He replied with a smile…only game?
“You don’t play any other game?” I watched his smile fade slowly and he looked down.
“…Yeah…let’s just keep moving.” He started moving ahead of us and Alice and I looked at each other; we both know what that meant. That fact was connected to his main problem; we caught up with him and we jumped over the enemies dodging them as they rammed at us and swooped down to get to us. Once we made it through we looked up to get an idea of what time in the day it was. The sky was too covered in storm clouds for us to get an idea of what time in the day it was; without the sun we couldn’t even tell if it was midday or near dusk, “If we’re going to get an idea of what time to stop we’re going to need to get to the next area. The skies will be clear enough for us to tell the suns position.” If that was what we needed to do then we had better keep moving.

We moved into the next area and as we looked out I felt something wet hit my face, it was starting to rain; we bundled up our collective coats and took a better look at the area. It was a multi-platform area with only a few koopas in the area; they didn’t seem much for battle as they withdrew into their shells to avoid the rain, this was going to be easy. As we approached the first platform we watched as a fog began to pool into the area from out in the distance; maybe this wasn’t going to be so easy. We moved as fast as we could to avoid being consumed by the fog, it wouldn’t be ideal to try jumping from platform to platform without being able to see the next platform. As we jumped onto the next platform we moved over a koopa and as I moved over it I felt something pull at my leg and I fell to the ground as Alice and Glitch kept moving. When I looked down I saw the koopa deform into a black mass and reform into the slick haired boy I met before.
“You!” I stood up and pulled out my sword as he looked at me calmly.
“That wouldn’t be smart here.” He waved his finger at me and I looked around at my surroundings; moving from side to side was definitely out of the question, “At least, not for you.” He suddenly re-formed into a gryphon and then back laughing.
“What do you want?”
“I figure it would have been easy to figure out by now, I want you dead and the boy on our side. Basic stuff really.” He spoke so calmly it almost pissed me off.
“You won’t have any luck with that here you know. I mean, it’s just you and me here.”
“You think I didn’t plan this?” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, “Convincing the dolt would be simple but with you around I can’t count on him not betraying us. In case you haven’t noticed our main enemy in our plans is trust. When there is trust between people then they become harder to control, we don’t need partners we need dogs.” He spoke so meticulously, as though he had everything in place. There was no hint of hesitation or uncontrollable emotion in his voice like with Lissa, “As long as he even has the smallest hint of trust for you then you stand as a roadblock to our plans.”
“Why do you need Glitch?” He just laughed at me when I said that.
“We don’t need him, he’s just a smaller piece of a larger puzzle and like any piece to a puzzle there are hundreds more to be found to take its place.” He looked at me and gave me an intense glare that made my body hair stand on end, “But you set us back by stopping our recruiting and we don’t want to see that again.” He pulled a short sword out of his arm and rushed at me. I blocked his attack and pushed him back as he slid back smoothly as though the push did nothing, “The boss will probably reprimand me for killing you but I think it’ll serve us well in the long run.” He rushed at me again swinging wildly as I blocked his hits, he kept striking at my sword causing me to slid back slightly; I couldn’t retaliate with his quick blows continuing to barrage me. I felt my back foot slide off and felt myself tumble backwards off of the platform, I quickly grabbed the ledge and tried lifting myself up with all my strength. Pull-ups were never my strong suit but I had a chance! I pulled myself up and swung at his feet causing him to back step giving me enough room to stand, “He said you wouldn’t be easy to kill.”
“Why did you impersonate Mario? It doesn’t make any sense to impersonate the hero and keep heading to your end goal.”
“You miss the big part Soren. Tell me, what could you gain from impersonating someone? And to clarify, money and power are off the table.” Reasons to impersonate someone beyond power and money…
“You have the trust of everyone who trusts that person and you can control their credibility.”
“Same thing in this case but you are correct. I impersonated the plumber to gain the trust of those around him and crush it into a pulp.” But if the rumors I’ve heard are true then…
“You’ve been impersonating Mario since before this all started!?”
“That’s right. I brought the plumbers world crumbling around him by being him, I raised the rumors you’ve heard and harassed the goombas to bring this war.” He caused all this?
“Why would you do that!? What could you gain from creating a war?”
“This isn’t a war yet, we still have a bit before it becomes a war but I’ve said too much already.” He pulled out a second short sword in his other hand and rushed at me swinging both weapons causing me to work double time as I dodged and blocked in a rapid succession. When I dodged another move I swiftly kicked him in the side sending him to the ground, he laughed again as he stood, “They weren’t wrong, you’re skilled but I have yet to see your strength.” As he came at me again I sent my brain into overdrive and looked for an opening to disarm him of one of his swords. As he thrusted I moved out of the way of the blow by twirling to the side on one foot and grabbed his wrist digging into it with my nails making him drop the sword. I kicked the blade off the platform watching it disappear into the fog; when I looked back over I saw him look at me in disbelief, “Not what I was expecting here, but that’s what back up is for.” He snapped his fingers and I watched as a figure flew in on wings towards our destination, when it approached I saw a red headed woman flying with bat wings on her back, it was Lissa!

When she landed she looked at me and gave a surprised gasp and looked at the boy.
“Damien you’re fighting him!?” So his name is Damien.
“You should have known that Lissa.”
“I expected a different traveler…not Soren.” She looked at me sadly, “I…I can’t fight him.”
“You’re going to let this deal end then. We all have a reason for being here, if you don’t fight then that deal is void.” I saw her eyes widen in fear and she shed a single tear.
“…okay…” I watched as she widened her hands and out of thin air she summoned two large knives and gripped them, “I’m sorry Soren, but this is where you will die!” She rushed at me to quickly to dodge and sliced me along the chest being stopped by the breastplate, going to have to thank Alice for that. I kicked her backwards causing her to skid and then extend her wings and fly at me slicing at me; luckily I was expecting that and moved to avoid most of her hits getting sliced along the face and any other exposed areas. When she finally stopped I stood back panting and felt someone on my left prompting me to block finding Damien striking at me with his short sword; it was two on one and the odds were against me with Lissa’s two knives and Damien’s quick short sword. Time to take some risks!

I moved back and jumped off the platform into open air hoping that there was another platform for me to land on; luckily I landed on another one and kept running forward towards whatever was next. I could hear as Damien and Lissa chased after me with Damien’s footsteps being heard in the distance as well as Lissa’s wing beats. As I landed on the next platform I didn’t hear the crunch of grass but the thud of brick and found myself standing in front of the third castle even if I couldn’t see it, I ran up the stairs and jumped down to see Alice and Glitch looking at me with surprise and then relief.
“What happened to you!? We were worried sick!”
“Yeah, we made it over the pole and I saw my flag next to the Bowser flag meaning you hadn’t torn it off. By that point we had lost track of you.” I looked up to see Glitch’s and Bowser’s flag waving side by side.
“Wait, you’re covered in cuts.” Alice grabbed my face and looked at the cut lines caused by Lissa, “These are weapon cuts!”
“Did you run into the cloaked guy?” Glitch asked with worry in his voice.
“No, I ran into the black haired guy Damien and Lissa.”
“She’s here!?” Alice asked shocked and angry.
“Yeah, I was fighting them when I decided to run and catch up to you guys.” She gave a sigh and let go of my face.
“That was smart at least.”
“We don’t have time to waste!” They looked at me confused, “If they’re behind us then that means that the cloaked man is just ahead.” They gave a surprised look coming to the realization and we moved into the castle rushing past any obstacles to get to the bridge.

When we made it to the end we saw as the cloaked man was raising a yellow fist over the giant buzzy beetle. As we rushed to stop him the giant fist crushed the shell of the creature and flattened it causing the blood of it to spray out in a gruesome fashion. He slid his hand across the remains pushing it into the lava and turned to us washing the blood of the creatures off his face.
“I’m afraid you’re too late again.” Dammit! We were to late again! Why can’t we stop him! I rushed forward to take a slice at him and he extended his gigantic hand swatting me backwards, “Gutsman really had a lot of strength, how he lost to Megaman is beyond me.” Megaman; another power he has, it was insane to see the plethora of power he attained from so many games. Alice and Glitch helped me up and pulled out their respective weapons, “Three on one won’t help you anymore than you think it will.” He gave us a deadly look and I felt the aura he exuded. It was over powering and almost made me fall to my knees. I looked behind us to see Lissa and Damien had caught up and they were blocking the other end of the bridge. We weren’t outnumbered but we were out powered with the boss here and I don’t think he was going to sit this fight out.