"How are the others doing?", Yugo looked down to the ground far below them, trying to catch a glimpse of his friends, while also redirecting his thoughts away from Qilby. If everything was going according to their plan, the remaining lot of the brotherhood would be busy keeping the mechasms away. "Let's go look for them.", Amalia locked eyes with Yugo, searching for any sign that he was not ready, but there was none.
The three of them then got off the gigantic mechasm, aware that he would have the highest priority, once they had found their remaining friends.
"There you are!", Eva was the first to spot them taking a few steps in their direction:"Did everything work out?" Evangeline was only somewhat concerned, since seeing all three of them well, was already a good sign to her.
"Everything worked just as planned!", Adamai was enthusiastic, happy that they had succeeded. "It's all taken care of.", Yugo stated, trying to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes, but to no avail.
"How's the situation down here?", Amalia asked, using her plants to strangle one of the beings that was headed her way, before it could latch onto her. "We're managing, although I think the giant in front of us is the bigger problem right now.", Eva was staring right at the issue at hand, and none of them could deny that it was a pretty big issue.
Not even the iop of the group dared to argue with that:"It sure is gonna be something. "Nevertheless, he straightened himself, holding his sword high. "Well, let's take it on then!", the Eliatrope was filled with eagerness, despite how dire the situation looked for them. Because Yugo knew, that if it would not work, they would have to get back to their last resort.
He did not miss the skeptical look Adamai threw the rest of the brotherhood, at the duo's determination to fight this monster. So he avoided their stares:"Come on, what are we waiting for?" The eliatrope dashed off, only leaving a trace of Wakfu behind." His brother shook his head, sighing out loud:"It's always the same with him." Then the dragon followed his brother.
"We are really gonna try and fight that thing?", Ruel was more than critical. He was already convinced that they had no chance at all. The cra shrugged:"Seems like it." Reluctantly, the rest of the brotherhood followed the twins, Amalia taking all of them with her on her vines.
"Yugo!", Evangeline yelled, as soon as they all reached the head of the mechasm, their enemy's steps thundering right below their feet:"What's the plan?" The blue-hatted boy hesitated. What their plan was? He has barely even had time to think about that, a vague emptiness occupied his mind:"I..." His voice stuttered as much as his thoughts did:"We can just try to do what we did back in Bonta."
Evangeline signed, looking at her friends for guidance. Ruel was everything but convinced, but besides that, he was too distracted by the height he currently found himself at, helplessly clinging to the vine below him. Her husband didn't seem to care all too much, as long as he got a piece of the cake as well. Amalia and Adamai seemed to already have expected exactly this behavior from him.
"Let's just try it, once.", Adamai told her, once Yugo was out of hearing range. So she complied because if even the dragon gave in to his brother, she definitely would not have a chance to keep the eliatrope from going through with his plan.
So they went about the strategy in a similar way as the last time, except this time, Amalia would be the one moving Evangeline around the battlefield, so she didn't have to move through the portals for the third time in a day.
"Get me up there!", Dally pointed to the top of the giant's head, not even considering no for an answer. Amalia looked over to Eva both of them knowing he wouldn't budge unless he got a part in that fight:"Sure, iop head." "I told you to stop calling me that Amalia, I am still an honorable ShuShu knight!", He said, tipsy on his feet, while he was waiting for her to move upwards.
"Yeah, Yeah.", she sighed again, before sending her vines upward and dropping off the orange-haired man. He jumped onto the metal being's head as soon as he could, and prepared to hand out strikes to wherever he could crack its shell.
This mechasm didn't seem to care about all of the fuzz going on around it, very unlike the one they had fought in Bonta. Or it simply didn't see then. Whichever it was, it was good for them and meant that they did not have to worry about being chased around like last time, and Evangeline did not have to worry about being focused by their adversary.
"If it doesn't care about us, that means we won't need your ice arrows, right?", Ruel asked the cra, but Eva shook her head:"Last time it didn't just help with immobilizing him, although that was the main intention. It also corroded the metal, so Yugo and Dally had an easier time breaking through his shell. But despite that, I would also want to keep him from getting closer to the tree of life."
"Then let's get you in a good position.", Amalia was ready to go, waiting for the Cras instructions. "First, get me down to his ankle.", Eva nodded:"A little higher than that." Both Yugo and Adamai carefully watched the girls' movements, ready to initiate their follow-up.
The moment, the cra's arrow hit, and the ice spread all across the robot's ankle, the twins dashed ahead. Adamai tried to hit the weakened metal with all of his force, while Yugo struck it with his sword over and over, coming out of a different portal every time. At the end of their first attack though, the metal shell hardly suffered more than a dent.
The ice soon crumbled under the robot's unstoppable and continuous movements. "My ice won't be enough to stop them.", Evangeline said, as soon as she saw Yugo approaching them. He didn't seem to fully grasp the issue at hand:"Can you just shoot more of them at him? We'll get it then, for sure." Before she could argue with him, the eliatrop rushed off again, only leaving a quick:"Thank you, Eva."
She sighed turning to her Sadida friend:"What are we even doing here?" The sadida didn't reply, and instead just got the cra back into position. The archer decided to comply, using even more of her arrows to try to be more successful this time. Although it soon became clear, that this was not going to bear any fruit either.
Yugo stopped on top of the mechasm, his brother landing right next to him. None of the three on the vine were close enough to understand what was being said, but what was very clear to them, even at this distance was that both of them were breathing heavily, their bodies already heaving from fatigue.
Then Adamai straightened up, waving around his arms. "What do you think he's saying?", Amalia turned halfway to Eva and Ruel. Ruel shrugged:"He's probably trying to talk some sense into the boy." "From what it looks like without much success.", Eva noted, as the three of them saw Adamai turn away from his brother, in what was seemingly a loose wave of frustration. Yet once again, there was compliance.
This time the twins went ahead with their attack without giving the rest of the group another heads up. "It's always the same with them.", Amalia said, the three of them doing their best to support the twins in their endeavor. Yugo's sword only minorly scratched the mechasm's shell, sweat already gathering on his forehead, as he started piercing the mechasm's head again and again, still not achieving anything of worth.
Amalia directed her vine to the spot where Yugo kneeled, and his brother headed toward, the desperation written on his face. He halted, no longer aimlessly ramming his sword into the ground below him, and instead letting the blade disappear into thin air, looking up to the sky.
It ached Amalia to see Yugo standing in front of her like this, panting and out of breath, with both of his hands on his knees in an attempt to gather himself. She knew how much he wanted, - no needed - this to work, but she knew that no amount of praying or desperation was enough to change the unchangeable.
The dragon stopped his brother from dashing off again, grabbing him by the arm. It was hopeless. "Yugo.", Adamai warned his brother:"We can't fight this thing! We need the dofus." "We can do this. We beat the one in Bonta too, we just all have to work together!" His stare was serious, fixated on the dragon in front of him.
"This thing is at least four times the mechasms we fought in Bonta! And we barely beat that one.", Eva tried to convince him. The Eliatrope didn't back down, although he knew the cra was right:"But we haven't even tried it hard enough! I mean- what if there's some super obvious weakpoint we just haven't looked for yet?"
"Yugo.", His Sadida friend took him by both of his shoulders:"We need you to use the dofus. We need you to do this for my home, for your home. And for the home of every single person in the world of the twelve." "But I don't know if I can.", His voice broke, as his eyes fixed onto hers. And although he was way taller and more grown than he used to be, right now he felt smaller than ever.
In his mind, he could still see Oropo, standing in front of him, and showing him all of the awful things he had caused with his actions. He could still remember their faces very well, they haunted him in his nightmares way too often.
Adamai already wanted to say something, trying to convince his brother but held back as he noticed that Amalia seemed to be able to handle the situation on her own:"I know you can. And we will all be right here, by your side." Yugo looked up from the floor, seeing all his friends looking at him, trying to show their support.
Although this did not make his fear disappear, - in fact, the reality was very far from that - it did help him to clear his head enough to properly think about the situation. He closed his eyes, trying to convince himself, that he was capable of doing what he had done before, but this time without the horrid consequences:"Where are the dofus?"
Everyone in the group seemed to simultaneously be more at ease, the tension resolving just the slightest bit. "We already have them here, Ruel?", Eva looked back at the old man, the enutrof then proceeded to reach deep into his havenbag:"Almost got them, just one second..." The old man pulled the dofus out, one after another.
"I don't want to put pressure on you Ruel my friend, but you should probably hurry up a bit.", all of them looked up to where the iop was staring, only to see another wave of mechasms approach them. They hadn't even been able to clear the last wave out properly, since they had mostly focussed on the giant mechasm in front of them, a new wave of those robot-like creatures would simply be too much for them.
"Got it! This is the last one.", he said, as he took a ebony-colored dofus out of the bag, and handed it to Adamai, who was already carrying one of the other six dofus. The group moved to a saver place, further back, where they could still observe the giant, - which wasn't too hard considering its enormous size. Every single one of his steps shook the ground a little, even from the considerable distance they were at.
"Okay, just... Put them down, and we should be able to do the rest.", Yugo constantly skipped back and forth between trying to recall the steps he took the last time he used them, and keeping an eye on the continuously approaching being of metal:"Adamai, I am gonna need your help."
The dragon already knew what for, after all, he had needed Chibis and Grugal's help to open a portal before as well. He kneeled down beside the six colorful objects and waited for Yugo to start. The Eliatrope flexed his shoulders in a desperate attempt to loosen up, but the anxiety he felt wouldn't stop nagging him.
"Let's go, brother.", Adamai nudged his twin, getting Yugo to sit down on the floor by lightly dragging his wrist. The eliatrope complied and sat cross-legged on the floor. The Wakfu and Stasis inside of him were clashing against each other in a disharmony, that he desperately tried to calm. His brother sat right across from him, the dofus and Eliacube in between them. Both of them nodded to the other one, to signal that they were ready.
Yugo tried to push all of the Stasis inside of his body down, giving instead only his and his brothers Wakfu to the Eliacube and the dofus. But with the doubt flaring up inside him, so did the Stasis, the eliacube shooting back a stinging pain to both of the twins, almost like an electric shock. "Ouch!", Adamai yelled out, the pain catching him off guard.
"Sorry.", Yugo winced, rubbing his wrists in an attempt to get rid of the faint feeling of numbness the sting left in his hands. "What was that?", the dragon asked. Yugo didn't meet his eye, embarrassed to admit the truth:"I wasn't focused enough."
"Not to push you two, but it would be beneficial if you could hurry.", Eva knew that it was bad timing to stress either of them, but since the mechasm got closer and closer to the tree of life, with every second they wasted, it seemed like a necessity. Another loud thud shook the earth below them. The gigants steps had almost become rhythmic at this point, but no less threatening.
He was ready to go for another attempt but hesitated before finally extending his arms again. But his hesitation didn't go unnoticed. Without saying a word, Amalia kneeled down by his side, putting her hand on his back in support. In response, Yugo drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes again, before focussing on his Wakfu once more.
In his head, he had already mapped out the exact position he would need to place the portal. Using his Wakfu vision, he pinpointed the location where the mechasm's next step would land. Then he took his hands and carefully motioned the outline of a portal.
Said outline then manifested right under the giant's foot, like a gaping abyss, ready to consume anything in its way. The Wakfu that formed the portal's frame was bright, almost blinding, and although the mechasm seemed to notice the blue shine, it was already too late for it. It loses its balance, dangerously swaying, before it tilts over, right into the pit that leads to the ShuShu realm.
Then the cyan pool of Wakfu closed, swallowing the mechasm deep inside, no longer posing a threat. Yugo pushed a wave of air out of his body, his shoulders shaking from the relief and simultaneous exhaustion. Amalia inevitably had to smile, the two of them had done it, and her home was safe. Her first instinct was to go over to his friend and hug him, but she held herself back, instead just giving him a thankful stare, well aware that they weren't done yet.
He closed his hands to fists, trying to stop them from trembling. The amount of Wakfu he had to use made him feel a little lightheaded, although this time, - thanks to Adamai, and the smaller size of the portal - it was not as bad as the last time he had to open a portal to the Shushu realm.
Unfortunately, despite Yugo's exhaustion, there was still more work ahead of him. This mechasm surely wasn't the only one of his size, since there had already been reports of another gigant in Bonta when they had left there a few hours ago. Yugo shook his head, trying to shake some of the tiredness he experienced with it. He had to keep going, or it would all be for nothing.
He felt something brush his hand, before taking it. When he looked over to his side, to see who had reached out for him, he stared right into Amalia's eyes:"Are you okay?" His cheeks felt warm. She seemed genuinely concerned. Although he couldn't blame her for it with all of the situations he had gotten himself into over the past few months. And while he felt sorry that she had to worry so much about him, something inside of him felt so unbelievably comforted at the prospect of Amalia caring about him like that. No matter what he had been doing over the past weeks, he couldn't get his mind off his best friend, but this was really not the time.
"Yeah...", he pushed his thoughts aside for now:"I am just a little exhausted." She nodded, as if she had already expected that response:"Then don't use your portals unless you have to. I can just take you to Bonta with my plants like I take the rest of the brotherhood." Yugo knew better than to argue, simply nodding instead:"Thank you, Amalia." He gave her a smile, that left her flustered before they all headed toward Bonta.
Finding all of the mechasms that they could impossibly beat and had to bring into the Shushu realm instead, was not the hard task. Reports went in from all over the world of twelve, in total they summed up to 14. The truly hard part was to open all of the portals, to escort the gigantic beings out of their world. It was a tough endeavor, but despite all of his fears, Yugo was now certain, that with his brother's help and his friends by his side to support him, they could do it.
___________
Authors Notes:
I really hope this chapter wasn't too anti-climactic? I really don't know, it feels a little bit like that, but I'll let you be the judge for that.
This chapter took me about two weeks to write, and it was the last chapter of this fanfiction that I still had to finish (there are still two more Chapters, but I already finished writing them). So if
this chapter wasn't that great, I am really sorry, but at this point, I was just happy I got something onto the page.