AND WE'RE BACK WITH MORE.
I needed some inspiration, so I have the Summoner's War Cinematic Trailer and the Breaking the Barrier commercial open and playing on repeat at the same time! whAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I'M TOTALLY SANE –
I've actually started an alt account on a different server, and don't you all worry, I've got goals! Some of those goals are: Get Roid (mah boi) to be one of my best monsters and also fuse Veromos before I did on my main account. If you all want to friend me on that account (and maybe give me a couple of reps to use), I'm on the Asia server, and my username, like always, is AwesomeTrinket.
Did you guys know that I legitimately call people out on swear words in public? evenifidosaytheminprivatebutshhhhdon'ttellanyone
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Summary: Artamiel appears in a turn of events, weaknesses are discovered, and Charlotte finds an unlikely friend who turns out to be a lot like her in more than just appearance.
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Vivian's jaw dropped at the appearance of Artamiel. It was all normal for me, though. I was used to seeing him around a lot – my best friend did summon him, after all. He recognized me, and I waved. Before I could even say a greeting, the shouting from the twins began.
"Wait what wait WHAT WAIT WHAT SINCE WHEN DID YOU BECOME BEST FRIENDS WITH AN ARTAMIEL?!" She screamed over the wind blowing in our faces.
"I always thought he was a myth, like-like-like a god or something, never in a million years would I have thought that I would see the day Artamiel came and now it's finally here and –" I cut Sapphire off.
"Now will you just calm yourself, Sapphire? You have his dark brother, I have his wind, and your twin has water and fire, why are you freaking out over the light Archangel?" We had an important mission on our hands, and I was not in the mood for it to be forgotten just because Artamiel was there. Charlotte and Eladriel seemed to be lost in thought at the sudden appearance of Artamiel. I didn't care at the moment, though.
"You and Tanuki were sent out here to clean up anomalies, too?" I shouted to him.
"Yep. I was told that I'd be fighting alongside an old friend and some new ones. Never expected to see you here!" I shrugged, probably said something wise like 'Life is unpredictable, dear Artamiel' and changed the subject to the mission on our hands.
"Alright, first up is the Giant. I'm told that there's going to be a few portals to Trial of Ascension stages and that multiple people are going to be fighting with us in Giants' Keep." Artamiel nodded. The clouds above our heads grew darker the further we flew, and soon enough, a bolt of lightning jumped from one side of the cloud to another. The thunder almost deafened us all.
"I think we're almost here!" I yelled. Galleon responded by shouting in anger.
"Oh, bloody hell!" I turned to Zerath, where I quickly saw Galleon trying to keep his distance away from Frigate without actually falling off. The latter's head was turned away from me, so it took me a second to realize the unholy noises somehow managing to rip its way out of his throat. Within a second of seeing and hearing this, his shoulders lurched and he retched once before he released a horrific cocktail of alcohol, stomach acid and whatever else Frigate managed to drunkenly consume through his mouth. I blinked once, twice, thrice, and then I myself vommed. Just kidding, but I still blinked a few times to register the fact that Frigate threw up over the side of a Zerath while we were quite the height up. Galleon was swearing like a sailor. I can't blame him; number one, he is a sailor technically and number two I'd probably do the same thing in his situation.
"Can I throw him off, Sara? Please?" Our eyes locked, and we stared deep into each other's souls. I saw a hurt, disgusted soul in Galleon, and I don't know what he saw in me, but I just hope it's a glimpse of my life with Frigate. For a second, we bonded over our disgust over Frigate, in silent understanding of each other's problems and we became better friends over it.
Either that or I just stared at him like an idiot.
All I know is that I had to tell him that no, we couldn't throw him off, because even though he's drunk 90% of the time, when he actually makes a logical decision once in a while, it was probably the main deciding factors of whether we won or not.
"This is literally the coolest thing ever!" Yeonhong whooped, pumping her fist into the air. Her and Chasun's braids were billowing out behind each other.
"Damn right it is! Ain't every day you get to fly up in the sky unless you're an archangel!" The grin on Yeonhong's face dissolved all of a sudden. I realized why – it was Lushen who said that.
"On second thought, nevermind. Lushen's next to me."
"Oh, for the love of god, that was over two months ago! Besides, you know that Chasun was the one who broke up with him, not the other way around!" Yeonhong was nowhere close to forgiving Lushen. The grudge had not yet subsided, and she hated everything about him.
"What happened, Sara?" Tanuki looked up. His little staff's bell jingled as he asked; a sign of curiosity.
"Too long; didn't read: Chasun dated Lushen for a bit, broke up with him because Verdehile contacted her, he moved on to Charlotte and things happened and now Yeon hates him and Charlotte." Artamiel probably shook his head. I know Charlotte looked away, her typical shyness kicking in.
Grogen landed all of a sudden, and I came to the conclusion we had arrived at my town. To say things looked bad was an understatement. The clouds swirled around, and a lightning bolt flashed. The giant was in the distance, and a crowd of people and monsters had gathered around. Some had their electronic devices in their hand, and others were just staring and pointing in pure shock. It took a second for the archangels to land, but when they did they quickly saw the situation unfolding before their eyes.
"I don't know what to expect, so I can't say to prepare yourselves for –"
WHUMP.
At least, that's my best description of whatever noise rang out. The double doors in front of me (that I hadn't noticed until that minute) slammed open. A long, daunting hallway showed itself. The stones were an almost pure white, and it seemed to be collapsing in on itself. A pillar crumbled, the fragments landing on the pathway. I knew, just from looking at it, that that was the portal to the Giant, the only way we'd be able to get to him and fight him off enough to close up an anomaly.
"No time to waste! Let's go!" With that, the three of us, our monsters and a couple of other Summoners rushed in. The doors shut behind us, effectively trapping everyone until we won or died. Spider web-like cracks were forming all over the walls. A stone fell from the wall next to me and shattered into a million shards. I jumped, naturally and tightened my grip on my tablet.
Within the first five minutes upon encountering the first wave of golems and crystals, three monsters died. None of them were ours, though, and surprisingly, I was doing steady. My team had invincibility, an increase of defense, immunity, and all members were at fairly high HP. That was when the ruckus started.
"I can't revive my monsters!"
"Me neither!"
"Was there a Raki anywhere?"
"No!" I realized that once the monsters died, they wouldn't be able to be revived again, at least during the battle, I hoped.
"There's nothing we can do but be extra careful; now. We cannot revive any fallen monsters until further notice." Eladriel shouted, his calm voice carrying through the nonexistent wind and reaching everyone's ears.
"Second wave incoming!" With that, we fought. The golems were more resilient than the last wave – more times than not, they resisted Charlotte's stuns, even though she was on her best Despair runes, and it seemed like every time a monster's turn ended, they all attacked. I counted two more monsters dying by the ten-minute mark. Only half of the golems had died, and it seemed like they were all going to win against a crowd of about five people and countless monsters. The only ones who had dismounted from the dragons had been our monsters.
"Zaiross!" Sapphire shouted. "Rain of Fire!" Her arm shot out towards her enemies, hand extended out like a star. The lava that eternally boiled inside of Zaiross was released in bursts of energy. Every golem was incinerated alive, their HP having gone down enough that multiple hits from a Zaiross would have been all that it took to destroy them. It even burned through the ground beneath us, perfect circles where the mouthfuls of lava had been spat out by the fire Dragon. It was beautiful, yet horrifying at the same time.
Stage three was up next, the one with Groggo. Surprisingly, my 170 speed Frigate managed to get the first turn somehow. I checked his stats. He had Bombardment and Full Speed Ahead available.
"Frigate!" I shouted from Grogen. "Full Speed Ahead!" He hesitated for five seconds, and as I got ready to shout at him again, do you know what happened? Bombardment happened.
No one was stunned.
"Oh, come on, Frigate! We talked about this!" I snarled. Galleon really looked like he was about to murder Frigate.
"You son of a –"
"Language, Galleon!" I cut him off. "There are kids around here, yo!" The pure light from the candles glowered and was suddenly gone, right in the middle of fighting the main Groggo in front of us. All lights had been extinguished at the exact same time, leaving everyone in the dark.
"Well good job, Galleon! You managed to want to swear so badly the lights didn't want to be around you!" I was in a bad enough mood that I could be sarcastic. The darkness was quickly broken, though, by the glow of the archangels' swords. Upon looking back on this, I realize the swords totally improbable. In fact, according to all known laws of sword wielding, there is no way an archangel should be able to lift their sword. They're not built enough to get a sword the size of them off the ground. The archangel, of course, wields it anyway because archangels don't care what humans think is impossible.
Yes, I did just make a Bee Movie joke.
Sue me.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the lights. As their swords all lit up in the colors respective to their elements, the golems started on us. The main Groggo went first, activating "Iron Defense" and his two minions blasted at Chloe and Charlotte. With a thump of her staff, Fanatic had been cast, giving us all invincibility for a set amount of time. Charlotte, however, had been hit during before being buffed by one of the smaller golems.
She had taken some serious damage, going from 70% HP to just under 20%. My eyes widened as I checked my two healers, Eladriel and Chloe. Both had their healing skills on cooldown, and I was still working on building Belladeon. Charlotte stumbled and her shield wore off, leaving her to the mercy of the golems. It seemed like it was the end of the line for Charlotte, until...
"Girl's Prayer!" A girl slid in front of Charlotte as a blue glow surrounded all monsters and healed them all, all harmful effects removed. She threw her teddy bear up into the air and grabbed it as it fell to the ground. Although sleepy with messy bed hair, the blue-eyed girl had determination in her eyes. Groggo charged up a ball of magic and fired at her. She took some damage, but she had obviously been built to be a tank, as her HP didn't drop that low.
"Water Guardian Angel!" A creature that seemed almost human, but it had wings rose from the ground. A swirling blue mist surrounded the three Golems and bashed into them three times. The golems crumbled away, and the sleepy little girl turned to Charlotte and extended her hand towards her to help her up as her guardian angel faded away.
"Are you alright?" Charlotte frantically nodded and grabbed onto her hand, standing up. The two of them were the exact same height.
"Name's Anavel! I'm guessing you're Charlotte?" Charlotte nodded again and Eladriel floated towards the two girls.
"Thank you for saving my sister. I am forever grateful to you." He said. Anavel shrugged.
"Hey, it's alright, you both seem like nice monsters, and besides, bro n' I do more than this every day!" Charlotte looked intrigued.
"You have a brother?" Anavel nodded.
"Yeah! He's actually my cousin, but we have the relationship of brother-and-sister." She turned to the monster crowd and waved. I saw Ariel wave back and my eyes widened. Charlotte had that "I have found my people" look on her face. We started towards the fourth stage, but the entrance collapsed in on itself. A girl I don't know groaned. Artamiel perked up.
"Do not lose hope. I know this dungeon by heart, and there is a secret entrance around here that will lead us to the giant. Follow me." With a flap of his wings, he took off to the chorus of screaming fangirls.
With a swing of his sword, one of the walls crumbled away to reveal to what looked like the entrance of a cave. The ominous opening looked like a mouth, ready to swallow us all. The swords of the archangels lit up even brighter and Artamiel led the way.
"To all monsters with wings, watch them. This cave is narrow and the rocks could tear them." Sapphire nodded and shouted at all her dragons still flying.
"Zaiross, Verad, Grogen, Jamire, to the ground." I felt the simultaneous rumbling of four dragons landing at once and the sound of their wings closing at once. Eladriel noticed a light and dark scroll tucked away somewhere. Eladriel threw the scroll towards me, telling me to catch. I did so and there was slight applause. Vivian piped up from Jamire.
"Maybe now you'll get a Mr. Steal Yo Girl!" I shrugged.
"I already have one and his name is Frigate."
"I mean Artamiel." I turned my neck in an almost 180° angle slowly and gave her a "u w0t m90" glare. In the darkness of the cave, barely illuminated by the light of the archangels' swords, coupled with a look of pure, blood-boiling hatred with no movement from my mouth, making it all the more terrifying, I could practically hear Vivian's heart thump in fear.
"Okay calm down, don't glare at me like that." I don't know how Artamiel reacted, but frankly I don't care.
"Ah, don't worry about it, Viv. Sara does her murder glares all the time. You'll get used to it eventually." Orion laughed. I turned away from the curly blonde girl as light filled the area. I blinked ferociously as my eyes were assaulted by the unstoppable burning that can only happen when you're in a dark room for a long time and someone flicks on the lights.
We had come to the heart of my town, where the golem was wreaking havoc. With a sweep of one arm, one of the previous Summoners who tried to challenge him was knocked out of the arena my town had become. All of his monsters were gone, so he was defenseless. My eyes had recovered enough that I could actually see this. I turned back to the crowed behind us, where I nodded.
"Don't let any of your monsters die!" With that, the battle against the boss began.