#bramblethecacturne

(part 3 of mission 5!)

Blood

Thats all Bluey could smell wafting around her as massive black claws wrapped around her tiny body and ripped her from the ground and flew off with her. But it wasn’t her blood that she smelled, it wasn’t even fresh blood or just one persons, but very very old yet several very familiar scents.

While the claws that held her were covered in fresh blood by some unsuspecting victim she couldn’t make out if she knew or not the raggedy faded shawl brown from dried blood that dangled in her face held smells she knew. She could smell her mother, her father, her grandparents…and so many more who stained that shawl. When Bluey looked up all she saw was the frenzied face of a Yamask with its eyes laser focused ahead of it as it raced away from Bastion and Jenga who were hot on this ghosts tail. As Bluey looked down towards the others, she managed to get a look at the golden mask attached to the tail of the Yamask.

While it was impossible to not know who a Yamask was in the past due to their golden mask that was a resemblance of their once living face, it was almost impossible to make out the face on this mask as it had been clawed at and scratched away. The scattered direction and depth of the gouges in the gold made it clear it was done out of sheer anger and hatred. Did She do this to herself? What made her hate her own face? It was questions Bluey was certain she knew the answer to, some part of this Yamask had to have hated what it did.

“Let her go, Scarlet!” Jenga barked as he flung a stone that ricocheted off the mask with a loud clang. In response to the sudden pain the Yamask let out a gargled scream and dropped Bluey as her focused shifted from stealing the Pawniard, to mauling whoever dare strike her.

Bluey let off a shriek as she fell towards the ground, clenching her eyes shut she braced for impact but instead was only slightly winded as she felt herself impact against Bastion’s chest after the massive Bisharp leapt to catch her before she hit the floor.

“N-Nice save again, Bash!” Bluey said shakily feeling a bit week in her legs having fallen several feet, “That was a close one…heh…heh.”

While Bluey steadied herself Bastion caught sight of the Yamask slamming into his grandfather, sending the old Sableye clattering to the ground, breaking off one of the gem shards on his back with a swift rake of her massive claws. Bastion hissed at the sight and charged into the Yamask sending her through a tree with a swift backhand. Sending shards of the dead burnt trunks scattering around the clearing from the impact.

“I forgot she followed me here from Sands.” Jenga winced as he sat up looking at the ruined remains of one of his gems with disdain like someone kicked his favorite dog, “She’s been nothing but a menace since reawakening. Sometimes I think she still has fragments of memory, but she always reminds me she’s just a beast now.”

“Wait so that Yamask is my mother? She came back and she’s still like this?!” Bluey exclaimed.

“Death and Undeath doesn’t seem to be a cure for it either I am afraid. I made the mistake thinking she may have been snapped out of it when I saw her climb out of her grave, especially when she was so keen of slowly following me, I thought she might of remembered me but every time I let her get too close, she never hesitated to attack me.”

The trio watched Yamask fling herself from the splintered trunk towards bastion and was once again sent careening through another tree sending more shards of wood splintering into the clearing.

“Physical attacks like that aren’t gonna do anything to her Bastion! You are only pissing her off!” Jenga said as Scarlet picked herself up again. Bastion shook his head at Jenga in a way of showing him that injuring her wasn’t his intent.

“Bastion if you gotta knock her out just do it cause she’s only gonna keep coming at us!” Bluey barked, “I know you may not wanna, cause she’s what’s left of my mom, but she not my mom anymore, she’s just like any other feral!”

Bastion looked at her hesitantly but nodded and the third time she lunged at them a thin dark sheen came over Bastion’s arm before he hit her hard with ‘Metal Claw’ which combined with Bluey using ‘Assurance’ sent Scarlet careening across the clearing and into the door of the library with a loud thud, leaving the Yamask crumpled to the ground from the super effective move.

“What brute’s making a mess of my library” A strange voice echoed from around them, “You’ve overstayed your welcome.”

“Wh-what was that?” Bluey said as she and Bastion looked around but saw no sign of where the voice came from.

“One of the guardians…It’s Azelf.” Jenga whispered and tried to make himself look smaller, “We’ve made too much of a ruckus.”

“Some guardian! A coward hiding in the woods, if you wanna fight just come out and do it! Or are you chicken?!” Bluey yelled into the forest only for a giggle to ring back.

“Why would I dirty my hands on a lower lifeform like you when I have a far more perfect specimen to do it for me? I’ll see to it that you destroy each other!”

A ripple of a white mystic fire rang through the forest like a tidal wave, it made Bluey shutter as the energy rippled over her, but the pained scream that came from bastion as he clung to his head and dropped to his knees, whipped Bluey’s attention from the voice to her partner.

“Bash, yo Bash are you okay?!” She called and ran over to him, “Whats wrong, bud are y-”

CLANG

Before Bluey could even finish her sentence she was sent clattering to the ground as she was smacked away with all the force Bastion could muster. She winced and pulled herself off the ground, “What the hell, Bastion?! What’s wrong with-”

But instead of Bluey’s red eyes meeting Bastion’s blue eyes, they were met with eyes that had a dull pink glow as this strange white and blue alien-esque creature slithered its long tendril like tails around his neck. For a moment Bastion seemed to react and looked at his hand in horror before looking back at Bluey and before he could say anything or respond in anyway the tails tightened and all expression except for sheer hatred was drained from Bastion’s face. He glared down at Bluey and for the first time in her life she was actually a bit frightened of him.

“What did you do to Bastion?!”

“I’m just borrowing him. I’ve watched how defensive you are of each other, so I’ll see to it you rip each other apart. If you wish to get into my Library you’ll have to get past me. But I’ll be honest the only way you will leave this forest is in a body bag.” Azelf sneered before with a flick of its tails the shine in Bastion’s eyes got brighter and he charged her.

Bluey had little time to react as she was slammed with a hard swipe of Bastion’s metal claw his size and strength having no issue sending the tiny Pawniard flying several feet and clattering with the loud scrap and groan of her metal against the rocks in front of the Library.

“Bluey?! Are you ok?” Percy shouted as he spotted her impact with the stone and her roll to a halt, “What did that?”

“Bastion” Bluey groaned as Bramble helped her up. Both brothers looked at her with shock

“Bastion did this? Why would Bastion ever hit you?”

“He’s…uhg…he-he’s been…bewitched by whatever took over…Drauzen! B-but I don’t know if anyone else has been bewitched.” She whined and shook the dirt and rubble from her dented metal, “As if this day couldn’t get worse.”

“Wait bewitched? Like what happened in Sandstone and Onyx city?”

“Yeah, exactly like that.”

What can we do to help?”

“I can handle Bastion; He might hit like a rockslide, but he won’t kill me. Just catch me if he throws me a third time.”

“Third time! He hit you twice and your still stand-” But before Percy could finish his sentence Bastion exploded from the tree line and made a B-line for them.

Bramble didn’t hesitate to launch ‘Pin Needles’ at Bastion which made the large Bisharp wince but he didn’t steer away from his target as he lowered himself and barreled full force with iron head into Bluey, as he mowed over her Azelf had grown board of just watching and placing itself in the middle of the group, cackled and let off a blast of horrible light from what must have been the use of ‘Signal Beam’.

Bramble and Percy winced from the sting of bright light, and Bluey barely managed to stand back up. Every part of her stung with a dull throbbing pain as she looked at Bastion who for a moment shook Azelf’s will off and he looked at Bluey with both confusion and seeing just how bruised and dented she was, horror as she charged at him, he didn’t even notice at first that her eyes were pink and not red.

The sharp pain of Bluey’s ‘Fury Swipes’ made Bastion grit his teeth as he tried to back away from her shaking his head in disbelief that she was attacking him. Why? Why was she attacking him? And why was she so injured?

And after she slashed at him several times she stopped and shook her head as if snapping out of a trance, “B-Bastion? Wait you snapped out of it thank the great mother!” She exclaimed before looking at his bleeding cuts, “Wait did…did I hit you? I-I’m sorry I’d never!”

“Uhg, that little one is so boring!” Azelf yawned, “She’s a durable little thing but does such little damage. The big one is far more fun.”

Bastion reached his hand out to gesture that he was fine but before he could respond again, he grabbed at his head and slashed at Bluey throwing her through a tree nearby.

“Bastion stop!” Percy shouted at him to get his attention off of Bluey, “What’s wrong with you?”

But Bastion didn’t respond and merely stood glaring at the other Bisharp and with the way he stood reminding the other how much bigger he truly was. With a flick of Azelf’s tail Bastion charged at Percy and the two Bisharp locked blades with a violent flash of light that must have been from the sparks of colliding metal.

“W-Woah! Easy Bastion, look I don’t wanna fight you. But you are really not giving me much of a choice man!” Percy grunted as he did his best to keep Bastion locked in place, damn he was heavy.

Azelf laughed, “You lot are so easy to move like pawns of a chess board! This is too eas- AH!” it yelped as Bramble filled its back with needles.

“That hurt you little brat!” Azelf shrieked as it let loose another Signal Beam that for a moment blinded the three ‘mon around it long enough for Bastion to break away from Percy, “Deal with that brat!”

Bastion lunged for Bramble but before his blades made contact with Bramble’s throat there was a flash of light followed by the loud shriek of metal on metal as Bastions blades were locked with another’s.

“Thats Enough!” Bluey shouted into his face, Making the Bisharp halt for a moment.

“I was hoping that last hit had killed you.”Azelf frowned before sneering, “Well second times the charm.”

Bluey buckled a bit under the new force of weight coming from Bastion pressing his blades full force into her own, running out of options given her already weakened state she groaned, “I’m sorry buddy please understand this is for your own good!”

With that she focused all the energy she could into what she was about to do, positioning herself just right, she slammed her leg will all the force she could muster between the Bisharps legs. The pain that radiated through Bastion made him give a high-pitched gasp of a whine while through the shared link with Azelf even the mythical nearly collapsed from the pain as the Bisharp collapsed at Bluey’s legs curled in a fetal position with his hands between his legs while Bramble and Percy both winced having witnessed it.

“Bastion would never turn his blades on his family or his friends! And I’ll die before I ever let a bastard like you make him take the life of anyone he cares about! And for your sheer audacity of forcing him to live through that you’re gonna be the one leaving this forest in a hearse!” Bluey screamed as she charged the Azelf who was still reeling from the pain it experienced through Bastion.

Before the Azelf could react to what was happening it felt the horrible burning sting of Bluey’s blades against its chest as she left a deep X shape gash. The pain from the super effective move was anguishing and as Azelf glared at Bluey, it shrieked again this time as Percy slammed it int he back with his own ‘Assurance’ and Bramble wasted no time peppering it with ‘Pin Needle’ after ‘Pin Needle’.

Seeing as it was vastly outnumbered as losing control over the situation and several other ‘mon it had taken control of Azelf hissed at the group and attempted to stand its ground, but little did it know it had done the most foolish thing possible. It had struck the metaphorical hornet’s nest and as it tried to gain a better vantage point it was snatched from the air by the rake of Bluey’s ‘Night Slash.’

As Azelf hit the ground it tried to let out another Signal Beam but had failed, why had it failed? Then it realized the anguish it was feeling it should have gone away already, but it handn’t, it wasn’t just from the link to the Bisharp. Azelf whirled and looked over at Bastion who was shakily standing up.

“YOU! You used Torment on me?!” Azelf screamed as it was slashed this time by Percy.

“Serves you right!” Bluey barked.

Azelf let off a blast of psychic energy but watched to its own horror as the energy reflected off Bluey’s metal hide.

“Those tricks won’t work on any of us.” Bluey growled as she moved closer to the Azelf with her focus steel set on ripping it apart with her own claws.

Azelf was bristling from the rage it felt and having focused too hard on this small group it had quickly lost all control over the situation as it couldn’t keep its influence spread far enough if it continued to focus solely on them. Its injuries were also severe enough it would be foolish to attempt to take on this group now that they’d figured out a way to break its hold. Finally, having concluded its best strategy for the situation it waited until the four charged it again and with a snarl followed by a flash of light vanished as Bluey’s claws sliced the ground where it once stood.

She reeled back with a growl seeing that it got away. Taking a moment to scan the area for it and seeing it was long gone she sighed, “C’mon we have to help the others.”

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Team Sworddance’s entry for Mission 5 part 1: Mountain climbing

Bluey and Bastion make their way up the Dragonspire alongside many other guild teams. But there is more than just snow and bitter cold waiting for them in this sea of white.

story below the read more (Word Count 2,433)

Characters cameoed: 

Group NPC’S: Percy & Bramble

Members from other teams: Chess, Hana, and Zion