A blood-red fireball shot forth, which accelerated straight towards William.
He leapt upwards to dodge it, but he had been too slow. He was hit by Calamitas's blast as it exploded on the ground, losing all momentum in the air and crashing down to the ground. He cried out as red flames danced across his body with shoes made from nails.
Robyn echoed his shriek, only one thing going through her mind – to save him. She fired arrows up at Calamitas, but she just erected a bright red force field around herself, causing her arrows to have no effect. In fact... they started bouncing straight back.
She cried out as she jumped to avoid the hailstorm of her own arrows coming her way, running towards William, but Calamitas just landed in front of him and threw a red fireball at her.
She was able to jump just in time, but a second, even faster fireball hit her in mid-air, sending her falling to the ground at Calamitas's feet, less than a heart of her health remaining.
"Do you enjoy going through hell?" Calamitas asked as she began to cackle, her demeanour reminding Robyn of a witch. She raised an arm and casted a fireball around her fist. Her laughs began feeling like they were coming directly from inside Robyn's brain, echoing between her ears, with increasing pressure and intensity. It made her want to scream.
This... this witch was just too powerful, and Robyn was sure she was going to die.
That was when shots began peppering the witch's force field.
Robyn craned her neck to see three of the citizens. The Tavernkeep, Cyborg and Party Girl.
"You are not from this world, are you?" Paddy asked. "I can sense it, for I too am not of this world. Your soldiers are falling, and soon it will be just you. Leave us, and never return, and we will spare you. Nobody else needs to die today."
Robyn breathed haggardly, too afraid to move with such low health.
"Wrong," she heard the witch mutter under her breath, then she shouted the word again louder. "Wrong! Wrong, wrong wrong, you will die!"
A massive fireball was launched at the Tavernkeep, but he just voluntarily fell backwards, the fireball passing over his body.
The Party Girl and Cyborg both attacked, launching explosive rockets straight at Calamitas. The Cyborg's erupted in fire while the Party Girl's threw out sparkles and colour, but neither seemed to make a dent against Calamitas's shield. For a second she just seemed to stand there, Robyn too unsure and insecure to know what to do. Almost feeling like she couldn't move, even if she wanted to.
The witch raised a hand, and suddenly the Cyborg was jerked into the air.
"You're part machine, aren't you?" Calamitas spoke. "That will be your undoing."
He cried out, his arms and legs stretching behind him, as though invisible people were pulling on them from behind while someone else held him from the front. Then, impossibly, his machine parts began to crumple and fling themselves away. His arms, his knees, his chest, and the portion of his head that contained his eyes. They all tore off, leaving an empty body that fell limply to the ground.
All that was left was his machine parts, but without his body, the cyan lights on them began to blink off one by one, his eyes the last to go down.
The Party Girl didn't fare much better. She too was jerked into the air, dropping her Celebration Mk2, and was thrust straight towards Calamitas. She screamed as her body was brought into contact with the witch's shield, its energy grinding away at her health, before the shield morphed the eyes and mouth of a skull that swallowed her whole.
The Tavernkeep summoned an array of his sentries, a line of ballista and flameburst towers, but Calamitas just thrust out a plume of red gas that swept across the towers, changing their colour schemes to red and black. They turned to their master.
Not even a second later the Tavernkeep fell dead, riddled with giant arrows sticking through his body and burning from red flames.
Then Robyn felt herself be jerked upwards, her body turning to face Calamitas.
"Are you just going to let me kill you?" the witch asked, the faintest edges of her face visible beneath her cloak. "Or would you like to at least try going down fighting?"
Robyn just gulped, choked, but not from Calamitas's power.
It was from her presence.
"You're weak, and you always have been," the witch spoke, tightening her fingers together. "Your death will be doing the world a favour."
That was when the voice of someone who disagreed with that statement echoed through the air.
"Robyyynnn!" William cried.
His whirlwind of Zenith blades cascaded into Calamitas's shield. Robyn felt her magical grip lessen, causing her to fall to the ground coughing, and she watched as William kept up the onslaught, clearly not going to stop swinging until he had cut all the way through Calamitas's shield.
But that was when a gold-armoured figure suddenly appeared in front of Calamitas.
Holding a massive black-and-gold sword in front of his face.
Every single one of the Zenith blades slammed into his sword and different points of his armour, but stopped. As though they were trying to continue to slice forward, but just couldn't slice into their target.
"I'll take those," Yharim said, reaching out his other hand. The Zenith blades all coalesced into one.
Now in the hands of their enemy.
He did not just do that, Robyn thought, now panicking.
Yharim faced her, only just holding the Zenith up and slinging it onto his back.
"You have no idea what's possible," he said, replying to her unspoken words.
That was when a magenta fireball slammed into Yharim. Robyn looked just in time to see Meg swooping down, more fireballs shooting from her hands. She landed on the ground and begun to sling more fireballs at Yharim, who effortlessly blocked each subsequent shot with his black blade.
"Get William out of here!" Meg shouted. "I'll deal with Yharim!"
"That's Lord Yharim to you," the tyrannical foe said.
Robyn sprang to her feet and ran for William, Frostspark Boots propelling her across the ground. Now with no weapon, he was completely defenceless. She ran to his side and grabbed his hand.
"Come on!"
She saw Sid landing near them to help Meg, but Calamitas just turned her attacks upon him. Sid summoned some Deadly Spheres in the path of her fireballs to take the hits while his Stardust Dragon shot forward and rammed straight into Calamitas, knocking her back a bit, while his Stardust Guardian followed it up with a flurry of punches against her shield.
Sid kept an eye on Meg as she kept on attacking Yharim, not stopping her onslaught of fireballs so that Yharim wouldn't get a chance to collect himself and attack. In her other hand he saw her get out her Last Prism. An aurora of multicoloured beams began to coalesce, all aiming at Yharim, but he was ready, holding another crystal and aiming another beam in return, these ones orange. Sid had seen this attack – it had obliterated his Stardust Dragon!
As the beams of Meg's Last Prism and Yharim's crystal converged into one, they began to repel against each other in mid-air, both pushing each other backwards and forwards. But Yharim's weapon was winning. Sid could see mana potion after mana potion being magically fed into Meg thanks to her Mana Cloak, but the potions were taking their toll on her. She was quickly becoming fatigued in ways other than mana.
Sid ran forward, his Stardust Guardian behind him, and the two of them slammed into Meg. They pushed her out of the way and behind a house. He cried out as a tick of Yharim's beam grazed his armour, but at least now Meg was out of that battle she could not win.
It's not just she who can't win this.
We can't win this.
"We need to get out of here!" Sid cried. "Yharim is too powerful for us!"
Meg huffed, patting down her Nebula Armour. "I fear you may be right."
"But where do we go?"
"The Ocean Village. The Red Pearl can serve as both a getaway vehicle and as a fortress."
"The Red Pearl? What even is that?"
Meg rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you don't know? You'll be thanking Red Beard when you get there."
"Okay. Fine. We don't have any time to argue anyway, otherwise we all die."
Meg nodded. "On three. One... two... RUN!"
She and Sid flew up into the sky. He glanced down, spotting Robyn and William getting chased by the force-fielded Calamitas. William looked up, making eye contact. He grabbed Robyn's hand, and they both flew upwards.
The two of them reached Meg and Sid in the air.
"Ocean Village," Sid said. "Go!"
Their sudden escape had seemed to have left Yharim and his army bewildered enough to not immediately follow them, but Sid doubted they would stay that long.
The Red Pearl was their only hope.
Those NPC deaths were grim. Maybe clicking the vote button will help you feel better?