Unfortunately, as soon as all of the water filled up the inside of the submarine to the brim, the stand took its chance and attacked Polnareff. It disguised itself as the scuba gear! Damn it! Why didn't we think to check that first?!
The High Priestess then bit his lip, and forcefully entered his mouth, burrowing deeper into his throat. I grimaced at the awkward feeling in my throat as well.
"Joseph, Nori, one of you grab the stand before it goes even deeper into his throat!" The words came from my stand's mouth since we couldn't necessarily speak underwater.
Both of them swiftly complied and released their respective stands, with Hierophant grabbing the right side of the stand with its tentacles, and Hermit Purple grabbing the left with its vines. With a stroke of teamwork, they effectively managed to pull the nasty stand out.
I rushed to Polnareff's side and produced an oxygen tank for him to at least get a few breaths in after being deprived of oxygen for a good few seconds from that attack.
"T-thank you." Polnareff's words came from Silver Chariot's mouth as he kept a tight grip on his throat, slightly shivering from that awful experience.
Hierophant Green and Hermit Purple attempted to keep a tight grip on the rabid stand but the thing transformed itself...INTO A SPEARGUN?! Wait, why the hell am I even surprised at this point? It can literally turn itself into anything inorganic!
"Crap, watch out!" Jojo yelled as the speargun steadied itself and quickly shot itself into our direction, Polnareff made Silver Chariot battle the sharp point of the harpoon gun using its excellent swordsmanship skills.
"Quick, we gotta get out now, before it reloads!" I yelled as I pushed myself out of the exit door that led to the outside ocean. Everyone gave a nod in agreement and quickly followed suit, me and Jojo helped get everyone out by pulling them outside of the submarine.
Star Platinum then quickly shut the door tight, before the harpoon had a chance to reload. "Remember the plan." I reminded everyone as we slowly ascended upwards away from the rocks.
Looking down at the submarine as we ascended towards the surface, I was confused to see that the stand was showing no more signs of resistance, personally, I thought it would wreck the boat in a frenzy after being unable to catch us...It must have a dirty trick up its sleeve.
As the sunlight got brighter and brighter, a hand finally pulled me out of the water, from the dark blue ocean. I was met with the bright blue sky and yellow sands scattering along the course of the wind...it honestly feels as if I just had been reborn.
"Thanks," I told my helper, Jojo, who only gave a grumble in return. I took off the air tank and scuba suit I was wearing and realized that the fight wasn't over yet. We might have held back the stand for now, but this is where the real fight begins. Was it the Midler as Avdol called them? Whoever it is we have to stay on our guard.
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"Haha." A voice cackled in the distance from where we were standing. The stand user must have been controlling The High Priestess from somewhere around here.
A woman of average height appeared before us. She had medium-length hair that was quite frizzy and wore a transparent veil that concealed her face slightly. Her outfit looked like something a belly dancer would wear, with most of the color palette being yellow and having small hints of blue.
She put a hand on her hip confidently and eyed me with a sense of disgust, clicking her tongue she muttered, "So you managed to escape the submarine, how wonderful."
"I'm assuming you're the one they call the Midler?" Avdol viewed her form, which appeared to become angrier every second for some reason.
"Midler, Rose, I go by many names. But you all have no use for that information now, the only one leaving here alive is that girl." She glared and sported an undeniable wicked grin, "My end of the deal was that if I kill the girl, that's fine. But if I capture her, that's even better!"
Just great...First I was the highest priority to be killed for some reason, and now they wanna capture me alive?! Make it make sense!
Jojo pushed me to the side behind him after hearing her remarks. It seems like he just didn't want to take the risk. Meanwhile, I looked on and saw The High Priestess returning to The Midler's side like a pathetic little puppy, damn it! How are we going to fight it on land?!
"You're not taking our Y/N or anybody for that matter!" Polnareff grit his teeth.
"Don't underestimate us. We already know what abilities you have!" Joseph warned but she remained unfazed by the threats.
"You may know my abilities but do you know how to counter against them?!" She cackled once more and her stand flew into the air like a rabid animal. Before the blink of an eye, it snuck into the sand! No...the sand is inorganic! Which means...
"QUICK SANDD!!!" Polnareff screamed as the sand underneath him caved in and he began to fall into the sand, and so did everyone else.
The damn stand turned itself into literal sand! And we can't even move because it will make us fall in faster!
"Old man, can you grab a hold of anything with Hermit Purple and pull yourself out?" Jojo asked Joseph who made Hermit Purple appear. He tried to grab onto a very dead and withered bush on the very side, but the second his vines clung onto the branches, it snapped and ricocheted back to him like a rubber band.
"SON OF A BITCH!" He yelled angrily in response.
I slightly shivered at the cold, and slightly damp, grainy sand going into my shoes and shorts as I sunk deeper and deeper. This was bad...the guys were slightly well off since they're built taller, but as for me, I'm somebody who is about average height, maybe even a bit on the shorter side. But this only meant that I sunk faster than everyone else.
To confirm my suspicions, the sand that was a few seconds up to my abdomen, was now close to my neck. I began to swallow and spit out mouthfuls of sand from my mouth. Half&Half couldn't do anything but only try and pull me out, nothing was working. I took in a deep breath before I closed my eyes and went under.
"Y/N!" Noriaki looked on with concern after seeing what just unfolded. Jojo, who was right next to Y/N stuck his hand into the sand in search of her, he was praying he would be fast enough to pull her out, but shock and horror slashed across his face when he realized that he felt nothing.
Not even a hand to grab and pull her out from, he knew he had to stop. The more he moved the more he went into the sand as well.
"Hey, Kakyoin! Use Hierophant and pull her out! You have a long-range right?! So what are you waiting for man?!" Polnareff shouted and in response, he immediately summoned Hierophant and dug into the sand in search.
It's been a good few seconds, but how the hell am I going to get out of this mess?! I see nothing, I feel nothing, and I can't even breathe! Wait, did I just feel something touch my leg?! No...that feeling, I recognize it, it's got to be Heirophant Green!
Something wrapped around my legs and arms and slowly pulled me out against the sand. I could finally feel the warm sunshine on my face. Coughing up a bit of sand, I heard Nori exclaim "I got her!" In the distance.
"Nice work." Jojo grinned slightly
Rubbing the sand out of my eyes I realized Heirophant was still holding onto me with its tentacles. So my situation was slightly good, but for the others...yea not so great. Although with their big stature, quite some time had passed and they began to fall under the sand as well.
"Listen-" Noriaki spit sand from his mouth, "I can hold up all of you so you don't fall in, but I can't hold up myself unless I have a stable surface. For now, that surface is the sand. Defeat The Midler as fast as you can!"
"But you're the only one with a long range! We can't possibly fight her without touching the sand!" Joseph commented.
The Midler grumbled in annoyance on the sidelines, "And just as I was about to grab the girl...y'all are really a stubborn bunch aren't ya?"
I thought long and hard about what we could do, and a light bulb appeared over my head.
"Nori, this is gonna sound crazy, but I want you to throw me straight at The Midler," I said. He looked surprised and blatantly refused saying, "I thought you promised me you wouldn't get into any dangerous situations from now on!"
"Now is not the time!" I grumbled back, "I have a plan."
"Fine," He finally gave in and I felt Hierophant swing back to catch some momentum, and then swung forward like a baseball star and threw me in the air, straight at the stand user.
I needed to act fast if I wanted to defeat her as fast as possible, Nori only had a few seconds before he would go under!
Half&Half was right by my side and swung with all of its might, and sent a barrage of "DURARARARARA-RA's!" Straight at The Midler, but to my shock, she dodged all of the attacks.
Jumping back after dodging the punches, she merely gave a taunting smirk before boasting, "You little girl really think that your puny little punches can seriously affect me? Time is running out..." She pointed at Noriaki who already went under the sand.
"Kakyoin!" Polnareff yelled out his name in worry, but no response was given. Instead of trying to save himself he only kept Heirophant's grip on the others even tighter. He didn't want to lose them.
I sent another barrage of punches and kicks to which The Midler only responded by jumping away and dodging each attack. She was very light on her feet. I was pretty worn out by the amount and intensity I was sending my attacks at, producing something would be useless right now, at such a range the only thing that would work is close combat.
"You idiot, I thought you said you had a plan!" Jojo grumbled in the distance at me.
"You're an uttermost fool you hear me? All those rumors about you being a little smartie pants were wrong after all. Can't you see that you can't even lay a finger on me? Not even after getting stuck in quicksand again." She cooed mockingly and pointed out me sinking into the sand again.
They're wrong. I have a plan, oh trust me I do. After reflecting on that fight with Yellow Temperance, once again, the stand may not have a definitive weakness, but the user themself isn't indestructible. I'm trying to catch her off guard by doing something that seems careless, reckless even, but I'm sure it will work.
Half&Half sent another punch again to which this time, The Midler responded by sneaking an attack and punching me in the stomach using her own fists. I could only sport a wicked smile the second that she hit me.
"Gotcha." I chuckled before I pounced at her and swung my own fists giving her a sucker punch in her face. She was caught severely off-guard and yelled "What are you doin-" but was cut off as I latched onto her and didn't let go. If I'm drowning in this quicksand, I'm taking this bitch with me.
The Midler growled in anger and tried her best to push me off, but I only kept an iron grip. I wasn't letting go.
She couldn't call out her stand to her side because it was the one creating the quicksand itself. And she didn't want to remove the quicksand either because she was so close to drowning Noriaki.
"Get off me, you vile girl! Who do you think you are?! Let me go!" She screamed in desperation and started to hit me repeatedly so I would let go of her but to no avail. The sand was up to our necks now.
"Your call," I told her, "I'm fighting fire with fire, if I'm going down you're coming with me."
The sand now up to our mouth, led to her only screaming from fury as she realized she had no choice. She wasn't ready to sacrifice herself just yet, she was probably only in it for the money like everyone else. To confirm that, I felt the sand start to dissipate and recede and could finally no longer feel the sand in my shoes.
I nearly cried happy tears, I did it! Which means Nori is alright as well! I sneaked a glance at where he was and could see him coughing up sand. He looked a bit roughened up, but for the most part, he seemed okay.
I let go of The Midler and was about to go over to where the gang was but felt something zoom past me, it felt like it went at the speed of light.
I turned around to see a purple fist making contact with The Midler's face as she fell to her knees, and dropped a knife to the ground. Shit! Why was I so careless!? She was planning to stab me in the back when I wasn't looking right?! Either way, I'm glad Jojo got my back. Literally.
"Y/NNN!!!!" Polnareff squealed, "I was so worried about you!" He ruffled my hair playfully as I looked at Nori and asked, "You okay?" To which he responded by spitting out the remaining sand from his mouth, giving a slight chuckle, and nodding yes.
"That was certainly, unexpected." Avdol coughed, referencing the sucker punch I gave the stand user.
"Yea...I kinda just thought of that at the top of my head. I call it, operation take her off guard!"
"Uhh" Joseph grimaced in the distance at the sight of a knocked-out Midler, "More like operation get some new teeth...Jojo! Did you have to hit a lady so hard?!"
"I don't hold back for anybody." He replied crossing his arms as he did so.
"That's kinda rude, but in this case, I have to thank you." I met his eyes and said, "Thanks for having my back, back there. Pun not intended."
He gave the slightest chuckle before replying, "Anytime."
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