“You will never see her again, bawk! Consider it an honor that she could be the stepping-stone to my corporeality, bawk!”
“Baaawk?! That ain’t happening, bawk! Give me back my momma!”
“Kokoru, we need to get that necklace off of her!”
“Gotcha, bawk!”
“Bahahawk! I do not fear a man who has no ultimate, bawk! Prepare yourself, bawk, for annihilation! Come, my monsters!”
“Grooooan!”
“Growrrr!”
“Kshaaah!”
“Skreeeee!”
Heeding his call, droves of monsters forced their way into the lobby. Every exit was blocked!
“Bawk?! That’s a lotta baddies, bawk! Pops brought way too many home with him!”
“Good intentions gone wrong, huh? What’s the plan, buddy?”
“Let’s get back on the eagle, bawk! We can buy time until you get your ultimate back, bawk!”
“Good idea!”
The Frost Eagle let us on again and took flight.
“You will not escape me, bawk!”
Kokoru’s possessed mother started casting and unleashed magic.
“Shadow Phoenix!”
A giant bird made of black flames chased after us. It was a guided missile—and faster than the Frost Eagle! The eagle tried desperately to avoid it, but in the end, it was struck.
“Caaaaw!”
Its feathers scorched, the Frost Eagle fell to the floor—and us along with it.
Ren took 300 damage from the fall!
Kokoru took 300 damage from the fall!
Falling from too high a height led to insta-death, so I was glad to get away with a small amount of damage.
“Oh no, Frost Eagle! Buddy, you can go home, bawk! Come to me, Infernal Armor! Combine, bawk!”
A second Infernal Armor appeared.
“Kokoru, you don’t have you-know-who?!”
I’d been hoping to see the expensive-to-hire, perfect-for-a-trump-card, wide-ranged destroyer!
“The Deadly King, bawk?! No, I don’t! It’s too hard for me to go that deep into the dungeon again, bawk!”
“I see. Well, we’ll just have to live without him!”
“I’ll buy us time, bawk! Just cover me!”
Fullmetal Kokoru stood before me, staring down the monsters.
“Come at me, bawk!”
All at once, the monsters did just that. To support him, I changed my gear and activated a dark circle.
“Elemental Circle! Draco, stay close to Kokoru!”
This would help Kokoru recover his HP. However, as it drained his MP with each attack of his, if the Infernal Armor ran out of MP, he was done for. In other words, it could only buy us time.
We needed another breakthrough. My Final Strike still had three minutes left on its cooldown. Could we make it that long? Even if we did, would one ultimate be enough to get us through this?
To win this, I would have to smack Kokoru’s mother—or at least, the necklace controlling her—with enough damage in only one ultimate. What was its HP? Could I do this with one ult?!
“Bawk, bawk, bawk, baaaaawk!”
Fullmetal Kokoru controlled the Infernal Armor’s fists, showering the enemies in front of him with punches. He was so much more skilled than before; his moves were more agile and frequent. Was Kokoru getting used to the Infernal Armor? Either way, he was doing a fantastic job as a tank right now.
By using too many moves in a row, though, he would blow through his MP bar fast.
“Hey, Kokoru! Instead of going for quantity, go for quality! Hit them with one strong blow to save up MP!”
Ideally, he would only attack each time he took 60 damage to maintain his health with the least number of attacks. But this brawl wasn’t the time for careful calculation; he would just have to watch out for it as best he could.
“Heheh! Don’t worry, Ren; I’ve got this, bawk!”
Kokoru whipped out a yellow bottle that bore a logo with a chicken’s silhouette on the front.
“It’s Vitamin Bawk! The perfect nutritional drink for chickenfolk like us, bawk!”
He popped the top and chugged it down in seconds. Then, his MP started to recover at about a rate of 20-30 per second. I was in awe.
“My family brewed up this product, bawk! That makes it free! In a tough spot like this, I’ll use everything I can, bawk!”
“Woo! Nice job, Kokoru! We ought to be able to make it to my cooldown now!”
“Rich parents are all you need, bawk!”
The Infernal Armor battered foes with even more vigor. Occasionally, I used my shoulder charge to finish off any near dead enemies. Ever so slowly, I racked up kills. I had to contribute wherever I could, after all.
“Do not think you’ve won yet, bawk! Shadow Phoenix!”
Watching from afar, Veld-slash-Kokoru’s mom cast the same spell as before.
“Ugh! That again, bawk?!”
Kokoru raised his guard and took the attack. A pillar of flame shot up, engulfing him.
Bwooom!
He was still standing when it faded, but he had lost 60% of his health bar. If he took that much damage while guarding, then that magic was hella strong!
“That smarts, bawk! But I can still heal, bawk!”
Kokoru tried to loose a flurry of blows on the mob of monsters.
“Nice try, bawk! Fall back!”
At Veld’s order, the monsters distanced themselves from Kokoru.
“Grr! Get back over here, bawk!”
“I will not let you heal yourself! Now, you die! Shadow Phoenix!”
More of the same magic came our way.
“Bawk?!”
“Run, Kokoru! It might fade while you do!”
“Okay, baaaawk!”
Kokoru ran in circles while the Shadow Phoenix tailed him. Now that I was shorthanded, the monsters came at me.
“Oh, I see. Now you wanna come?”
I still had two ways of dealing damage: my dumb shoulder charges and the extra effects of my dark circles. With all the AP I had stocked up, I could also use Windmill, my acrobatic flaming uppercut, several times. It wouldn’t deal damage due to my lack of DEX, but it would let me leap above enemies, evade attacks, and more. This was my key to holding out!
As all the enemies plunged in at once, I used Windmill to dodge upward. The plan was to land next to an enemy with low HP, where I could shoulder-charge them to death!
Ren attacked.
Dealt 81 damage to Demonic Knight!
Ren attacked.
Dealt 60 damage to Demonic Knight!
Ren recovered 60 HP.
Ren has defeated Demonic Knight.
One down! Who’s next?!
Just then, I heard Draco’s voice.
“Chirp! Ren, something happen!”
My pet dragon was enveloped in a sublime light.
Ooh, he’s learning a skill mid-battle! Thank you, Draco!
“C’mere, boy! What’s your next skill?!”
I tried to look at the words displayed in the system window, but the monsters wouldn’t stop charging at me!