Dreamcrash

Thirty One: No Holding Back

Patch looked at Seed and flicked his head towards me. Seed nodded. Patch teleported behind me and I whipped around, using my bow to block him. I felt Seed's aura behind me and quickly set up a barrier between us, expecting to block his move as well. Instead, he brings his first sword down right through the barrier,  then the second right towards me. I teleport out of the way, only to find Patch above me, bringing his knives down hard. I block one but the other slashes my arm, sending a bolt of pain through me. I'm not given any time to stop though, because I can tell Seed's coming towards me. I do the first thing my head processes and create a small aura marble in my hand, throwing it at Seed while moving away. He stumbled back, confused, and I swung my bow at him. It hit him in the chest and he hit the ground. A sudden pain hits my legs and I collapse. Patch walks over, pulls his knife out of my leg, and stabs it through my arm. Seed flicks his hand and one of his swords pins down the other.

"Could use some improvement. Come on, get up, and Seed heal him," Patch says, pulling the two weapons off my arms. Seed flicks some green pellets at me, healing me, as the two discuss what they want to do next. They end up teaching me a few techniques I can use with my bow and arrows, along with having me train up my magic endurance and strength. Over the next few days, it was almost nonstop training, with no attacks from the Destroyers. Patch and Seed taught me how to react faster, attack stronger, and be a bit more unpredictable. They trained me up until I could take them on, one at a time, then tried both.  After a few tries, I managed to beat them both, and they seemed pretty satisfied. I only had a day left by then, so they decided to let me rest. Pen, however, had other plans.

"Night. Get up," Pen said, shaking me awake. I was exhausted and bit grumpy about getting woken up, but trusting him, I got up and followed him. He grabbed my arm and teleported me to the Antivoid.

"What are we doing here?"

He doesn't respond, only takes off his purple jacket and drops it on the ground next to him, followed by his scarf. I see, for the first time, just how skinny and malnourished he looks. There are marks running up and down his arm that look almost like scars. I had an idea what he was doing, but I was too distracted by how unhealthy he looked. 

I open my mouth to ask again what we were doing, but he gave me a shush motion. Pen grabbed his blue and brown pouch, opened one of the zippers, and pulled out two pens, one yellow and one green. He jabbed them into his arm, up by his shoulder instead of his wrist, one on each arm. His left eyelight turned to a teardrop, while the right went to a square. He then placed the bag down on his jacket and swiped his hand to the side. A shield made of green ink appeared, hovering over his arm, and a circle of yellow bullets appeared in the other. I summoned an arrow and my bow.

"Just reminding you that I can't feel real emotions. So I can't go easy on you and I won't care if I hurt you," Pen says. "So no holding back."

"No holding back," I repeat. He nods.

"Let's see how good you've gotten."

I move first, throwing an arrow at him. He ducks and dissolves into a puddle of ink, appearing in front of me and whacking me with his shield. I'm thrown back but catch my balance quickly, in time to dodge his next attack and throw an arrow at him. He blocks with no effort and leaps at me again, summoning a Gaster Blaster. I dodge and teleport onto the blaster, attacking him from above. He slips out of the way and traps me in a cage of bones, which I destroy using an arrow and block his attack with my bow. We go on for how long, I don't know, blacking and dodging and attacking each other, pushing ourselves to the limit. I remember Patch saying something a while back that my stats were better than Pen's, and this was certainly proving it.

After a bit, I could feel both Pen and myself wearing out. I threw everything I had at him, and him to me, but we couldn't seem to knock each other down. However, it soon became clear that Pen had more endurance, as I started slowing down more. He began landing hits on me, making me frustrated. I still had trouble hitting him. Hit after hit I tried to block and dodge, but more kept coming. It didn't really hurt, dealing minimum damage with each blow, but something about it made it hurt so much more. And it made me mad, mad that I couldn't keep going. Mad that I couldn't land a hit.

Mad that you aren't good enough.

Mad that you can't do this.

I paused for a moment, trying to catch my breath. I could feel the anger inside me threatening to boil over.

Pen landed one more hit.

I lashed out without thinking. I heard a gasp of pain from Pen and almost grinned. I felt him stop moving and was about to attack him again when I froze. Sharp bones were surrounding me, preventing me from moving.

"Heh, when I heard you had some magic like your original, this was... not what I thought..."

I turned around and my eyes widened. Pen was standing there, a tendril pointed at his throat, another one stabbed through his palm. I gasped.

"Oh gosh, Pen, I'm so-"

"Don't be. I said no holding back." He grins and the bones around me disappeared. I calmed down and the tendrils around him retracted. "That's impressive. I honestly thought it wouldn't be that strong. It almost felt like Nightmare's tendrils."

"You've been stabbed by him?"

"Multiple times. But that's beside the point. Night, I brought you to do this because I knew you've been holding back. If that's more comfortable for you, then whatever. I don't care. But if you want to survive, you've got to stop holding back. Stop being afraid, or you could get yourself killed." He laughed bitterly. "But I guess that doesn't mean much coming from an emotionless skeleton who couldn't give a damn if you died or not."

"No, it means a lot. Thank you," I say. He looks surprised then a small smile appears. 

"Alright. Let's get you back to the Art Dome. You're leaving soon, so you need to heal. I'll get Seed to heal you, then you should head out." He grabs me and we teleport back. Patch is standing there, nervous, but once he sees us, calms down.

"Last minute training? How'd it go?" 

"I won. Easily," Pen states. I give him a look.

"Fine. It was a tie, but if I hadn't pushed you, I would have won. Is Seed here?"

"Heard my name?" Seed walks over and looks at Pen and I, then flicks a finger at me. Green pellets fly out and fully heal me.

"Good luck. And while you're there, beat the hell out of them for me," Pen says.

"I will."

Seed and Patch wish me good luck then I walk away. Three said I would know where to go, but I'm still not sure. So I walk, away from the Protectors, trying to figure out. 

And then it comes to me. I don't know how, it just does. 

I close my eyes and take a step forward. I feel chills as I teleport away, not sure where I would end up yet fully confident. My feet hit the ground and a familiar aura appears by me.

"Welcome back, Night. Glad you decided to take my offer."