I didn't fully appreciate how hard it was to take this all in on one sitting until I reread it in preparation for this archive.

Still, I'm proud of the quality here, especially for how fast I turned it out!

 
Infestation part 4 of 5

 
The so called Kingslayer Sir Fumblie Falanges, also known as the co leader of newest unnamed faction Sir Fumblies, watched the new arrivals with a bit of amusement. He recognized Zed Shinestone, who went by the adventurous name of Shadowrun. Although he didn't recognize the four elves accompanying Zed, they were obviously from wherever Aleena was from. Either way, it would certainly turn the tide against those who would kidnap the brash living spirit of the holiday, Father Crimbo.

This was a dangerous spot. Backup had arrived and it would be easy to dismiss the threat and yet Fumblies knew that despite their clownish appearance they were still quite potentially dangerous warriors. Given their earlier antics, Sir Fumblies wondered if he might somehow use their own extravagant personalities against them.

"My dahling, you've come back!" the Queen of Hate called out, her eyes landing on Zed.

Zed starred. "Oh.. great."

Konall looked from Zed to her and back. "You date some real weirdos."

Zed glared at him. "We weren't exactly dating. She wanted to drag me to Hey Daze for eternity."

"So what, marriage?" Konall asked. Zed just intensified his glare.

"Ohh, playing hard to get are you?!" The Queen of Hate pointed at Zed. "Destroy them, my cards!"

"You really need to call off your minions," Jen said, giving them one last option. "And surrender peacefully."

"Where's the fun in that?" Konall asked, rushing in to fight Hunk. Hunk, however, rushed past him and slammed his fist into the ground, sending a massive shockwave at the space elves. Worse, the shockwaves sent large chunks of land which slammed into the grounded and airbound elves as well as anyone near them.

Zed managed to roll out of the way and quickly maneuvered himself behind Hunk. He quickly attacked Hunk with his polearm, wisely choosing to avoid fighting the cards after his last encounter had sapped his vitality when he had to engage them in combat. Konall also engaged Hunk as the elves regrouped and the Knob Goblin brutes went after Dr. Darth. Unfortunately, Zed could still feel the life sapping effects as he moved in, futilely trying to pick Hunk's leg to take him off his feet.

"Oh, right," he said, backing off. "They're from Hey Daze, too."

"So let's send them back!" Konall said, rushing in to nail Hunk with his best shot. Hunk simply absorbed the blow, smiled maliciously, and brushed Konall aside with a meaty forearm. Fahari was faring slightly better. She had managed to keep Dr. Darth off balance using a stained steel seal clubbing staff which she'd picked up at the outpost and I neglected to mention previously. Especially effective was when she slammed it into the side of Darth's helmet. Against a normal helmet, it would have knocked him unconscious. Maybe even been a lethal blow.

Right then, the princesses each let out a scream or cry for help. Zed and Fumblies turned to leave the battle to the others and investigate the problem. They saw Zedika Dark, the otherworldly version of Sebastian Dash, trying to drag an unconscious Father Crimbo away. Along with Dark were four furries whom Dash recognized.

"Vixen, Lapine, how can you work with him?!" the brave knight Fumblies demanded to know. The two looked conflicted but stood by both Dark and their own Mirrorworld counterparts, Runic and Bandit.

"You fools seek to interfere with the plans of Zedika Dark?!" he replied.

"Let Crimbo go, punk," Konall said.

"Excuse me, how rude of you," Dark said angrily. "I asked you a question. You didn't answer it."

"Ahh, yes," Konall said. "We're here to stop you."

"I thought that was kind of obvious," Fumblies said. "But I guess the people in Mirrorworld aren't too bright."

"How dare you?!" Dark roared.

"How dare me?! How dare you?" Fumblies answered, finding his dopey, thuggish attitude amusing.

"Oh, shut up," Dark ordered. "Kill them, my pets!"

"You got it!" Bandit pulled a baseball bat out and rushed at Konall, but Princess Zeala nailed her with a magic bolt. Lapine's rabbit like ears pointed straight up in the air as she engaged Zeala in a magic to magic battle. Vixen charged at Zeala, but the half ogre princess took the opportunity to attack Vixen with her spiked chain. Meanwhile, Scaros and Lady Goblin teamed up to attack the baseball wielding fox, Bandit.

Fumblies looked over to see the space elves and the rest of his army busy with Darthbot Troopers and various animated cards when something which Hunk had said clicked in his mind. He quickly found Fahari and told her, "It's a longshot, but I think I might have a plan on how to stop this."

 
Be Free or Die part 3 of 4
Note: mild cursing

 
The fight against the slaver invasion had been going well ever since Sebastian Dash showed up. Of course, the simultaneous arrival of a small Feline Empire army helped as well. Unfortunately for those opposing the slavers, they'd brought in backup. Specifically, several of their thugs had ambushed the heroes riding large four legged beasts.

Becky yelled for the others to scatter and they did. Wasn't much of a choice under the circumstances. They managed to avoid the initial charge but it left the slaver extract unit scattered. Being especially skilled at the art of dodging, Dash managed to come up in the perfect position to counter attack. He drove his broadsword Bad Beats into the legs of one of the beasts. It hardly had an effect. As a nearby beast came to a halt so it could turn to attack again, Daisuke slammed his mammoth frame into the creature's leg, causing it to stumble and knocking it off balance.

Todd strummed an especially intense death metal chorus intended to weaken both the beasts and their insidious riders. They charged again but this time the opposition was ready for them.

"You assholes should know better to mess with me!" Daisuke roared as he sliced his claws into another slaver.

"Remember!" Davrom called out. "No killing. They're mine to deal with how I see fit, as per our agreement."

"I said I wouldn't kill them if I could help it," Daisuke roared. For emphasis, he took the slaver by the head and hurled his unconscious body into the rider of the closest beast. They both crashed to the ground. Kadlin took a similar approach, attacking the riders with her magic blasts.

"Don't forget our deal as well," she reminded Daisuke, who simply nodded, roared and attacked with more ferocity. Even with nearly a dozen great beasts, the slavers knew they were in for an uphill fight. Slit used his time magic quite effectively. Snow White threw endless waves of thorns and vines at them, seeking to entrap the beasts' legs to send them crashing. Davrom tried to lure the beasts to sleep with his own magic, but the beasts seemed resilient to all of the attacks.

One of the biggest, slimier slavers suddenly smiled sinisterly. "Last chance! Give yourselves up and we'll make death easy on you!"

"Nope, you give up!" Becky said, snowing a snowball with a chunk of ice in the middle at his head. His head snapped to the side and he glared at her, making Becky cower behind Dash.

"Bitch, that was your only warning," he said. "Time to break out our own mages."

And with that, a pillar of flames erupted, blasting our heroes, who dove to the side to avoid being incinerated. Cattaras saw a fire mage de-cloak and rushed at him, only to be nailed by several small darts. He felt the effects of the poison immediately. Both Dash and Daisuke attacked, only to be charred and tossed backwards by an invisible force.

The head slaver pulled a long, bloodstained knife out of seemingly nowhere. "Time to break you freaklovers in two!"

Meanwhile, Wildfall and Summer found themselves in serious trouble, surrounded by some of the tougher slavers. Summers sliced at them with her twin knives, knowing that she could throw them at the enemy but then she'd have to give up one or both weapons. Wildfall slammed his wooden shillelagh into the midsection of a thug, but the thug still managed to send Wildfall sprawling with a massive fist.

"Leave him alone!" Summer ordered, turning her attention to the one who'd attacked her friend. The one who suddenly found himself covered in pythons and smaller snakes. The others jumped back in surprise.

"Need some help?" Summer recognized Sassy Snake although it took her a minute to recall it was from the Mirrorworld. "You're fighting the same thugs Mr. Dash is, right?"

"Yeah," Wildfall said, pushing himself to his feet. "Got that right."

"Yay teamwork!" Becky said, attacking the still stunned thugs with hunks of ice. Sassy nodded and the two went about helping Summer and Wildfall battle against the other minor thugs, leaving the main action to Sebastian and the others.

They had their work cut out for them as the slavers had brought in a second wave of their major players into the field. Slit desperately wove time and space in an attempt to avoid a relentless assault of fire magic from the enemy who'd seemed to appear and vanish at will. Cattaras, meanwhile, was brought to his knees by a handful of poison darts. Sebastian Dash stood and tried to determine what had nailed him out of nowhere. Dash was trained to the point he could conceivably avoid nearly any attack thrown at him, but whatever hit him this threat was invisible. It slammed into Dash again, taking him off his feet for a second time. He rolled with the momentum and glanced around but he had no idea where the attacks were coming from.

Meanwhile, Snow White continued to command vines into action against the great beasts, hoping to ensnare each one and dismount the riders so she could ensure they suffered a slow and painful death. This was interrupted when one of the beasts snuck up behind her and attacked her with its elephant like trunk. She turned and rolled out of the way of its charge, pulled a handful of highly toxic thorns from the ground and threw them at the rider. Unfortunately, the rider was too high in the air and moving too fast. Even so, she only missed by mere inches.

Although Kadlin would have liked to settle matters with Snow White, she'd promised Daisuke they would work together towards the goal of destroying the slavers, and she still held honor in her heart. Besides, he'd made promises to her as well. Promises she would ensure he kept. The firemancer seemed to be the most dangerous. Although the firemancer focused his attacks on both Kadlin and Slit, presumably hoping to neutralize the spell casters, he was sending out massive amounts of fire and flames which would prove to be a problem for anyone on the field.

Worse still, many of the surviving masses of other slavers were starting to recover from the beating they'd taken. It was obvious they were here to settle this issue. It was a matter of pride to them more than it was about capturing some escaped slavers. They would fight on until they were crushed or victorious. At the moment, Kadlin wasn't sure which was more likely.

The slavers had Todd Blackpaws surrounded. Lalucia was desperately heading up the attempts to keep most of the slavers busy, but even with help, she was starting to lose the fight, and she knew Daisuke took the slaver situation far too personally to back off.

Not that Kadlin would back down from a fight, even one this desperate.

 
Infestation part 5 of 5

 
Fahari starred at Fumblies, wondering if he was serious. The look on his face told her he was. So she nodded, and started to sniff around. As much of a longshot as it seemed, if it worked it would bring this fight to a satisfying end.

Scaros and the princesses were busy engaging Zedika Dark's pets, including the two traitors, Vixen and Lapine. Hunk and Dr. Darth battled the space elves. Already, Raven had fallen to a massive double team attack, blasted by Darth while in the massive grips of Hunk. Meanwhile, Glyn took out multiple cards with his energy bow, aided by Tarvel who used fewer but more powerful shots from her arm cannon. Tarvel then turned and ducked under Hunk's arm, nailing him with several kicks before Hunk was able to swat her away. Jen snuck up behind Hunk and tried to sink her twin blades into his back but she was shoved away at the last moment by I and his Adventurer suit. Fortunately, Konall was there to take up the slack, engaging Hunk in a one on one battle.

Fumblies and Fahari continued their plot in hopes of using the enemy's own oddities against them. Fahari turned to see Zedika Dark down, obviously thanks to Konall, but he rose up. Fahari pounced at him, hoping to finish the job off, at least for the moment. The princesses were doing a surprisingly admirable job dealing with Bandit, Lapine, Runic and Vixen but sooner or later, they'd be in trouble if they didn't get backup. Probably sooner, considering how dangerous Lapine and Vixen could be.

Fahari slammed the claws of her feet at Dark, who was somehow able to roll to the side, dodging the attack. He had every bit the speed and agility of Sebastian Dash from the looks of it. Fumblies then attacked Dark from behind, telling Fahari to focus on her task.

Fahari sniffed and quickly found what she was looking for. She moved to one of the younger fighters, promising to explain later, and borrowed the young fighter's backpack to her surprise. Fahari ignored her and tossed the backpack to Sir Fumblies, who fished out a handful of boxes of fatty, greasy, delicious looking snack cakes in various hues of golden, black and red.

Hunk and I the Mouse immediately stopped fighting, just as Fumblies predicted. Hunk started drooling while tiny hearts appeared over the head of I the Mouse.

"Aah-ahh-a-are t-those.." I the Mouse stuttered. "It can't be!"

"Mostless (tm) Smack cakes!" Hunk proudly proclaimed. "The most fat with the least nutritional value! Just what Hunk love!"

"Yes, we would do anything for them," I said. "Wait, did I just say that aloud? Hmm. I probably lost a lot of negotiating room there."

"Hunk would do anything to get hands on Mostless (tm)! Let scary clown escape warehouse! Roll up skateboarders with pavement!" Hunk said, falling to one knee.

"Then destroy them and steal it, you clod!" Queen of Hate ordered, but Hunk just backslapped her into unconsciousness.

HUNK would EVEN stop borrowing things AND turning PEOPLE into CHAIRS!"

"You traitors!" Dr. Darth yelled. But I the Mouse turned and attacked him, distracting him long enough for Jen to infect him with a virus which shut his armor's defenses down, allowing Konall and Zed to attack him and take him out.

"Ho-ho-here's an idea," Father Crimbo said. He then used an ultra rare to open a dimension to Hey Daze. "Instead of having a bunch of demons come out of the Hel gate, I'll just use my magic..."

With that, showing an inexplicable power that explains much about Crimbo Season, Father Crimbo used a bit of life energy to multiply the snacks into the hundreds if not thousands. Konall, Fumblies, Fahari and the space elves, without knowing why, then shoved a big portion of them into the dimensional rift. Hunk and I the Mouse grabbed the Queen of Hate and Dr. Darth and jumped through the gate, with their various minions abandoning the fight to follow their leaders, so to speak. The portal quickly sealed itself.

"That.." Father Crimbo paused and then bowed. "That was your idea, good Sir Fumblies?"

Fumblies nodded. "Crazy, I know. But it worked."

"Crazy, maybe," Fahari said. "But genius."

"Couldn't have done it without you," Fumblies said.

"And thanks to holiday magic," Father Crimbo said. "We've got leftover magically created Mostless (tm) Snack Cakes to suck through straws!"

There was much cheering for a moment - until Sir Fumblies reminded them to "Save the snacks for later. We've got some slaves to free."

And with that (and much grumbling), the march towards the fight far to the south was on.

 
Be Free or Die part 4 of 4
Note: mild cursing

 
And indeed, far to the south, the battle was raging on relentlessly. Kadlin Bearsmasher threw up several magic shields to protect herself and her comrades but the heat was still scorching. She couldn't imagine where these dirty, amateur slavers dug up the mage but his power was beyond measure. The fact he was invisible so often made the situation even worse. Could he also be behind the invisible force attacks she'd seen nail Dash and the others?

Moments ago it seemed like even the masses and masses of slavers were in over their heads now that Dash and the Feline Empire had arrived, but the slavers' reinforcements had thrown an exploding monkeybar into that. Kadlin glanced over at Dash, who stood perfectly still in a defensive position.

As Kadlin resumed her counterattacks on the slaver fire mage, Dash forced himself into an almost serene calm. Whereas a bezerker focused his rage when he wanted to use it into an inferno force that could plow through any obstacle, a roguish paladin like Sebastian Dash relied on controlling his emotions like water. Survival meant showing a cold calculation. Flowing around obstacles, or smashing through them like an iceberg. The situation called for a cold assessment.

In this case, Sebastian would focus not on fighting or even resisting the force, although he braced for the impact that never came. Hmm.. that was odd. Minutes passed and the fight continued. If a slaver came to engage Dash, he would take them out as swiftly and efficiently as possible and return to his observations of the battlefield. He winced when Sassy Snake took a brutal blow. Since Wildfall and Summer fell to her side to defend her, he didn't break his focus off observation.

Oddly, the invisible force didn't strike him again during this time, though it did strike others. Cattaras, especially, seemed the main target of the force, but there was a pattern here. Dash assessed and ran different scenarios in his mind. An area of effect targeted on Cattaras was a possibility, but the attacks were narrower than even that.

Dash quickly broke into movement, hailing down Cattaras when the big tiger came to a stop. Dash knew he'd been nailed by poison darts but was fighting them off admirably.

"Catt, look over there." Dash pointed in the distance to a seemingly empty field.

"What are you talking about?!" Cattaras said. "I'm a lil busy here."

"Trust me here!" Dash said. "Just look. I think I know what's going on with the invisible force thing."

"Oh?" Cattaras gave a glance, then focused his eyes on something. "Ahh, so that's the figure behind the attacks. I'm on it."

Dash tried to warm him off but Cattaras was gone in the blink of an eye, skillfully dodging around the unseen attacks on him. As Sebastian Dash turned his attention back to battling, the snow attack on the enemies suddenly stopped. Not far away, Becky Joy fell to her knees, panting. Sassy, Wildfall and Summer were being cut off from the others.

Sensing the danger the four were in, Dash rushed in to attack the thugs, but that allowed the firemancer to get a gazing shot in against Dash. Dash turned to fight the enemy, who suddenly found himself face to face with Slit. Slit smiled and tried to slice the thug's throat. As fast as moved, the firemancer reacted faster, causing his hand to burst into flames. Slit slipped away for the moment, screaming, to recover. The firemancer then surrounded himself in an intense wall of heat. It was enough to keep both Davrom and Dash from getting too close.

Todd Blackpaws, however, started strumming his own offense, a spell designed to sap the firemancer of his endurance. It worked in short order, allowing Dash and Davrom to finish him off. Dash briefly embraced Todd's arm. "There you are. I was hoping we could rely on your music here, my friend."

"You know how it is," Todd said, tail flickering as he turned towards Becky, Summer, Sassy and Wildfall, strumming some music to empower them and weaken and distract their enemies. "Someone had to get the wounded out."

"Wounded?" Dash asked. "Freed slaves?"

"A few of their saviors too, Dash," Todd said. "Those slavers might be scumbags, but they're no joke. Let's finish this."

"Agreed," Lalucia said, standing by their side, giving the moment a bit of an action pose feel, if only for a second. "I think its due time we end this."

She turned towards Daisuke. "Are you with us? If we strike as one..."

Daisuke blinked, unable to believe he was about to agree to work with a small child. "Yeah, sure. I'm sick of these slaver assholes in my kingdom! Let's go!"

With that, they threw themselves into the fight. Only, the slavers turned their attention towards their rear guard, and moved that way. Cattaras zipped in between Dash and Daisuke. "We're not going to let them get away that easily."

"Use your nose," Daisuke said, wiggling his. "They've got more problems than just us right now."

"Who?" Dash asked.

"Sir Fumblies," Cattaras said with a growl, which then turned into a smile. "And Fahari!"

Dash smiled. It was hardly a dozen seconds later when the kingslayer Sir Fumblies came into view, leading the charge. He blasted his way through the stunned and now surrounded slavers. Sebastian Dash lead the charge from the rear and the slavers knew they needed to escape. Not that heroes like Fahari or Todd Blackpaws would let them get away without getting a few last licks in. Fahari attacked them without mercy while Todd tripped up the firemancer.

Inspired, Zed was next into the fight, using his polearm to trip up and otherwise attack the slavers, both powered and otherwise. Meanwhile, Lalucia whispered something to Kadlin. Kadlin nodded and turned towards the slavers who were still on top of the beasts, using her magic in the most dramatic way. It worked; they reared up, throwing their riders off, and trampled off away from the magic.

Konall and Cattaras glared at each other, then nodded. There were more pressing enemies to fight today.

Tarvel and Glen turned from the fight to inspect the wounded, starting with Becky Joy and Sassy Snake, who were quite beaten from the run in with the slavers! Wildfall and Summer continued to fight, joined by Raven.

"Thanks for the assist," Dash said to Konall later on, after the slavers had either fled, been killed off or taken prisoner by either the Feline Empire or Third Faction. No doubt they'd fight over who'd take possession of which slaves later on but for now, there were more pressing matters to attend to.

"Yeah," Konall admitted. "We would have been here a lot sooner but we had to deal with a few demonic bosses out to kidnap Crimbo. Plus your otherwordly dark side."

"Zedika Dark?" Dash frowned. "In our world? I take it you took care of him, though?"

"Thanks to people like Fumblies, Fahari, and Zed," Konall bragged. "Among others. So, you got the slavers free?"

"No," Dash admitted. "The Feline Empire and I arrived- separately- for the big fight. I'm guessing we owe this seemingly young one and her allies for the actual saving."

Dash pointed to Lalucia, who was helping the wounded.

"To Fumblies leadership, then," Dash said with a smile.

Fumblies nodded and replied, "And yours as well, as I do not imagine it was easy organizing this group into a fighting unit."

Dash turned to Todd. "I guess that's the last of the slavers, then."

Kadlin joined them. "For their sake, I hope so."

Dash nodded in agreement with her statement but couldn't shake the feeling they'd be back again in the future, someday. And if not them, there were plenty of other reasons to assume dark days were still ahead.

Meanwhile, Daisuke glanced at Slit, Davrom and Snow White, figuring all three would be potentially useful allies, but it was Snow White who interested him the most. Davrom was too demanding and Slit too impatient for the position Daisuke had to offer.

He approached her and quickly made her an interesting offer.

To be continued.

See? Told ya it was an epic ending.

After this mission, we did "Konall's Grudge" and then moved on to "Guild Warriors II: Machines and Soul," our eight mission of the season which sees both the Hey Daze bosses and the slavers returning in separate quests.

This is very likely to go down as the biggest mission in AiL history although hopefully the Season 2 finale, when it hits, will properly challenge this. I'd never gotten a chance to work with so many player characters (plus NPC's and enemies) in a single Finale. Especially without having to make them up for the Finale, which is how the Hey Daze bosses originally came into play. So this was a treat for me.

I hope I did it justice!