As the Elite 7 battles the Elite 8 in Degrassi Knoll, several of the other heroes tackle Kadlin Bearsmasher and her tower!

This part of the story is basically that, but far more complex than is implied by those a single sentence. Another epic piece in our amazing Grand Finale story!!

 
By Dash

 
As strange as Todd Blackpaws' time in the Kingdom and Aldara, this might have topped the list in terms of sheer weirdness. Most of the adventurers would be focused on Kadlin's threat to the Kingdom and the rest of the world (and maybe beyond). Todd and a few others were left to deal with Kadlin's Elite 8 in Degrassi.

Well that wasn't quite accurate. Prince Blahking had formed his "Elite Seven" to handle the Eight while the others dealt with the rest of Degrassi. Todd hadn't expected much resistance but just in case he had Sassy Snake, Wildfall, and a small Knob Goblin army lead by Brutus, a Knob Goblin brute under the command of Sir Fumblies; Fumblies was off dealing with Kadlin's threat.

Todd also hadn't expected to run into Becky Joy, who'd come with Jen of the space elves and Cattaras. In an odd turn of timing, the space elf Glyn and the insane whatever-he-was Jay also joined the party, inflating it even further. Good thing, too, as a Kadlin loyalist, a Knob Goblin likely altered by Kadlin herself, had shown up and opened a couple portals. Waves and waves of enemies poured through before their summoner collapsed, likely dead from a heart attack from the strain of the summon.

As they were fighting though said enemies, with more pouring in, a small airship approached, dropping off an odd party from some foreign lands. They looked like the final incarnations of a fantasy story to Wildfall, who continued to battle up, even as Todd used his bard magic to dole out damage and boost his allies.

Whoever they were, they were talented fighters. Wildfall wasn't sure how he could tell but the scrawny one (not that Wildfall had much room to talk!) seemed to be the leader. The hero of the story. This.. protagonist.. had a blade that looked too big for even Cattaras to wield effectively, but that's what he was doing, mowing down one dark beast after another.

A young ninja fought at the side of the spiky haired blond kid. Even Becky could sense this one was royalty. A king maybe? Well at his age, probably a prince. Whatever he was, he moved fast. Not like Cattaras where he could cover a dozen yards in the blink of an eyebrow, but faster than pretty much anything else Becky had ever seen! He had a ninja knife and a bunch of throwing stars, and sometimes he'd use a smoke bomb to confuse all the enemies, and there were a lot of them!

Todd's music focused Becky into action as she remembered she could take down baddies herself with her ice magic! She pulled her focusing device, a toy yeti with light blue braids in its hair (a new addition, cause she decided it was a boy yeti) into the air, summoning up the fiercest of ice storms.

The protagonist had brought six allies. One looked like the archetype for red mages, feathered cap and all. He stood back, throwing black magic spells and occasionally healing his allies. Most of his allies fought up close, battling with twin blades and the sidekick's gun arm and the mechanic's exploding sticks. They were joined at the front lines by such capable fighters as Cattaras Whiteclaw, Vixen and Fahari.

Wildfall took out a couple more thugs with his oak shillelagh then took a moment to enjoy the pause in the fighting. "Looks like we finally have them on the run."

Todd nodded, still strumming tunes to his "fierce allies" song. "Yeah.. even rats know when a tornado hits, you get the hell out."

Wildfall laughed. Tus mowed through a handful of Kadiln's support demons. They were nothing compared to the Goblin Brute.

"Yahoooo!" the strange thief-hero with the monkey tail yelled as he dove into a group of Knob Goblins and came out unscratched, carrying several of their purse-strings in his hands as they tried in vain to figure out where he was.

"That is one weird fella," the explosions effort, a snow hair older guy said as he used his cigar to light up a stick of dynamite and threw it into a group of beasts. It took them all out with a dramatic explosion.

That's the point where several dark beasts rushed up to surround the heroes, gathered and then melted together, forming a near thirty foot tall dog looking thing. It barked menacingly and dove at our heroes, who quickly scattered.

----------------

Vixen threw her paws up in frustration as she looked around. The attacks had torn up the land around them, and the battle had barely begun. Bullets were flying, but fortunately, it wasn't a wide open battle field. Especially after several attacks had distorted the lands. Fumblies had lead them to an area further away from the tower, insisting it would be the closest spot they could use the wateria to activate the glaive.

The plan was simple. Use the wateria to power up the sword which Zedika Dark had used to travel between dimensions. Between Lapine, Runic, Sir Fumblies, and any other mages they could scrape up, Vixen figured getting to the tower would be the easy part. Unfortunately, getting the wateria to actually work with Zedika Dark's blade proved to be a hassle. As they were getting close, the group found themselves under attack from a new source - Zedika Dark himself.

Vixen & Bandit, Catrina, Kyomi & Asami, Zed Shinestone and the pirates had been guarding the others' attempts to set up the mystical teleportation. If the chaos raging around them had any upside at all, the fact that it kept the process going relatively unnoticed was it. Relatively being the keyword. Moments after they'd started, they'd found themselves under an attack from Hey Daze demons, led by an even greater threat- the aforementioned Zedika.

Dark didn't engage. He simply laughed darkly as the demons' sudden attack scattered the heroes. The demons came in all sizes and forms, but one thing was consistent; they attacked with an unearthly aggression, striking with barbed fists and claws and primitive weapons. While some looked almost humanlike and others looked like animals, many either seemed to be a combination of the two or defied description altogether.

Even before Vixen could get to her feet, Catrina, Kyomi, Asami and the old rat (Sliver, right?) were all recovered, launching a counterattack against the demons. Of course, Vixen knew the real trouble would be the devious Zedika Dark and his new allies.

"Great.." Vixen sighed as she took note of his companions. "He's got help. I've been in the Kingdom long enough to recognize the Scream Queen, Linnea. And that looks like the mirrorworld Konall, the geek one. Numberscanner?"

"Konall Numbercruncher, ma'am," Runic explained. "Kwadln's number one lackey."

Sir Fumblies paused from blasting demons with fire and shouting orders at his still-loyal brutes to join the conversation. He raised an eyebrow, obviously amused at and surprised by Dark's entourage. "That would be the one although I think he goes by the name of Philler now. I'm guessing the extremely familiar girl along with him is his sister."

Despite his words, Sir Fumblies couldn't believe what he was seeing. It looked like a brunette Kadlin but from years earlier. She even dressed like 'our' Kadlin used to, which is to say plenty of skin but in an almost innocent way. A bit like Becky Joy but more .. Viking.

Catrina growled loudly as she caught scent of the next one. "Do you think your stupid little fake version is going to work, Dark?"

She said this as she stared into a very familiar looking furry. Although her colors were all.. wrong.. and the real thing never went for such a bondage inspired look (unfortunately for Amrus!), there was no mistaking the otherworldly version of Feena, who stood by- well, kneeled submissively behind- Zedika Dark.

"Oh," Dark said, a dark smile highlighting the creases and scars on his face. "She'll kill you just fine. I believe you have something of mine. I'd like it back so I can use it to kill you all."

Dark seemed like he might have said more, except a baseball bat to the back of his skull shut him up. Bandit stood over him, glaring but with a maniacal smile. Dark looked up and immediately shielded himself from repeated blows from Bandit's baseball bat as she sang "I've been working on the railroad."

The others watched, emotions ranging from stunned silence to amusement, for a couple verses, when Dark's version of Feena promptly blasted Bandit with a major ray of disgraceful commentary, scorching Bandit with pure sleaze energy and launching her several feet into the air. Catrina immediately launched through the air to catch her as the fight between the Dark minions and the Fumblies command broke out in earnest!

----------------

By Dash, assisted by Catrina

Bones did his best to ignore the chaos and focus on the spell. Unfortunately, it was designed to be used by seven, not one. Still, he'd gained much power under the guidance of Philler. Even the chaos around him wouldn't stop him.

The arrival of Prince Blahking disrupted the ceremony, mutating the entire area of Degrassi Knoll into a battle area. Daisuke was off brawling with their King, MTiger, who fought to stay alive. No surprise. As vicious as Daisuke has always been, the cursed hockey mask Kadlin had instructed by affixed to his face made him more dangerous, more vicious, faster and stronger than ever. As an added side effect, it had also made him more subservient, replacing his obnoxious, forceful personality with something resembling obedience.

Meanwhile, while Grillhamo fenced with Blake Cutler and as Amrus and Samus XTreme attempted to deal with the inhuman speed of the Trinity and Slit, Fluffy Hamster ran up one of the many vines that seemed to appear out of nowhere, carefully avoiding the thorns, which no doubt contained some nasty poisons. Fluffy leapt off at the top of the vine and sneezed hellfire on Snow White. As she commanded a vine to pull her out of the way, several thick, sap filled plants sprung to her defense, snuffing most of the fire out.

Fluffy kept after her with his magic attack as King MTiger found himself on the defense against Daisuke. He aimed his rifle on a string at Daisuke, who quickly knocked it from his hands. MTiger frowned. Brute was faster than he imagined.

Daisuke rushed at Mtiger, who dodged the attack and brought his sword up to counter.

The big cat turned and growled. He then paused, placing his paws against the mask, shaking his head violently, then glaring at M'tiger. "These... your claws now... tiger?" It sounder from his panting like it took all he had to just say those five words.

MTiger parried Daisuke's attack, each one forcing him a sliver of a step back. "Though sword and claws serve well for me, beware not faded claws but experience, treachery."

Daisuke roared louder and more feral than he ever had, charging at MTiger, intending to eviscerate him then and there- but the head of the KOKOL proved why he'd been around for so long by dodging the blow- and the next to follow. As Daisuke regained his balance, MTiger slammed his shoulder into the masked beast, sending him flying back.

Shamus fired off crossbolts in sets of three, four, even five to six at a time, but the Muri-Dan cleverly and easily avoided every shot. Mortimer only avoided the shots, still showing a nasty limp from his encounter with Glyn, Wildfall and the Third Faction members earlier. The one where Wildfall had clipped the Muri Dan's leg with Wildfall's trademark thick oak shillelagh.

The other two moved with deadly intent. One second Jerome was standing in front of Shamus, staring him down. Not even a millisecond later, he was standing behind Shamus, choking the life out of him. Shamus twisted and turned, trying to get free. No luck. Meanwhile, Amrus focused his inner bunny spirit, remaining idle. Showing uncanny predictive abilities, he lashed out with his foot just in time to catch Stewie, who'd rushed in to attack. The force send both the muri-dan and the rabbit ninja down. However, as soon as Amrus was back on his hind legs, he found himself having to dodge several thrown knives, courtesy of the thyme mage Slit.

Fortunately, Amras had plenty of training at avoiding ranged projectile attacks, magical or otherwise. Still, it was Slit's control over time which made him such a deadly warrior. Amrus tried to get a counterattack against Slit, but how do you counter someone who can move almost as fast as you can think?

Slit reigned down several blows on Amras, who struggled to block them. Likewise, Snow White struggled to ride out the unrelenting offense of Fluffy Hamster who was pulling out all the stops with his powerful elemental attacks. She summoned several plants and vines to protect her while throwing even more at Fluffy, hoping a poisonous thorn would put an end to his troublesome magics. Fluffy managed to defend himself and press the offense, but he couldn't seem to land a blow on Snow White. Every time he'd fire off an attack, either a vine would slam into him and knock his aim off or sweep her out of the line of attack, or sometimes a large plant would just block the blast.

Then an oversized flytrap plant trapped Fluffy in its jaws. That was certainly a novel counter.

Nearby, Raw Hide's unrelenting offense crashed into the seemingly unmovable badassium armor of the Black Paladin. It was an odd sight, with Raw Hide being shirtless, having nothing but thick animal hide trousers and leather boots, compared to Black Paladin, who was covered head to toe in both armor and weapons. Nevertheless, Raw Hide was holding his own for the moment. Course, he had his own assortment of weapons. It made for an epic battle between the two. Raw Hide, however, had the advantage of having Inu and MTiger's bodyguard trying to help him break through the evil Paladin's defenses in order to get to Bones.

Inu turned towards MTiger. "We should go help."

The clockwork plexiglass ninja pirate zombie robot turned to aid its master but Mtiger valiantly called out, "Nay, cease not your pursuit of the wicked summoner. Hold true his total defeat as your one and only goal. Disregard me, this fight is as of now, of no concern to either of you!"

"AHHH!!! Fine!" Inu pulled out a random item from her bag and threw it into her mouth, only realizing as she swallowed it that she was swallowing a strange large watch. "Eep, what's a decamatrix watch doing in there?!"

She shrugged, transforming into a small humanoid figure, something resembling a young male adventurer with a cap, jacket, jeans and generally futuristic dress. All the logos on the green and black jacket were blurred out for copyright reasons.

She (well currently he) slammed the decamatrix dramatically in a burst of green light, but this was a little different. Only the color of Inu's clothes changed - to red- as he started growing claws and hurling fire, screaming "Its quarter past hero time!"

Nevertheless, MTiger was losing grounds, desperately fighting to stay alive against Daisuke's slaughterhouse offense. And although Cutler and Grillhamo seemed evenly matched, Shamus and Amras were having as much problems with the speed of their opponents. Fluffy was having trying to get past Snow White's demented garden defense.

If things didn't change soon, Blahking realized, his team was going to start losing members and quickly end up obliterated.

----------------

By Cameron and Dash

(Inside the tower)

Sebastian Dash quickly sized up the opposition, starting with the ten foot tall ..creature? Oh, right. Dash had studied ancient Jicklonion mythology - that was most likely a Tyrannosaurus Tex. Legend had it they had roamed Lone Star back before - oh no time for a history lesson now! The legend also said their jaws could snap a pink corvette in half. Judging from the creature's look, that was about the size of it.

While the space elf Sylenia squared off against the meat golem, the ram immediately headbutted Konall while the giant mosquito zipped around his head, poking the Viking legend with its long stinger.

The goat rammed Konall from behind, knocking him down long enough for the mosquito to drain a couple quarts of blood. As the mosquito started to buzz off, Konall caught it in his hand and crushed it. "Haven't seen one this size since I left my homeland. Kinda small." And then he fell over from the combined weight of his injuries and recent blood loss.

That left the goat. Meanwhile, Sylenia danced around the meat golem. "None of my attacks are even phasing it."

"Just don't let it eat you," Dash suggested, dodging another swipe of the Tyrannosaurus's tail. "Speaking of which.."

Dash avoided its charge at well. The meat golem didn't and was quickly devoured. The Tyrannosaurus Tax chucked it down in one bite and then spun around.. "Tarnation.. I don't feel well. Ate me a hunka hunka hunka bad meat... Anyone got an aspirin?"

Dash turned towards Sylenia and shrugged. "Shall we?"

She merely nodded, leaping into the air with a graceful flying kick to Tex's head, which Dash complimented with a broadsword assisted uppercut to the creature's midsection. It was enough to drop the creature. Dash watched the beast's hat floating to the floor. "If it wasn't for the hat and the lack of a white suit, I'd swear it was really a Tyrannosaurus Tennessee Lee.."

Sylenia shrugged, confused. "If you say so."

The goat rammed Konall in the stomach again as he tried to get up. It was a creature that was prone to rage, like him. That meant the best means of defeating it would be something small and annoying, like the mosquito he had smashed earlier. If only, "Dum, duh duh dummm!" said Spaz, flying in through a window. "Hi Konall."

"That goat," shouted Konall, "get it." Spaz nodded, and immediately flew around the caprinid, getting its goat by poking it with his tiny pitchfork. Each jab caused the goat to let out an angry bleat and futilely try to bash the agile and petite Spaz. The demon flew over to grab the rex's fallen cowboy hat and twirled it over his head, angering the goat and causing it to charge yet again. Spaz taunted it from the windowsill and dodged out of the way when it leapt at him through the open window. The demon flew after it as it fell, jumping on its back and riding it, cowboy hat held up in triumph as he drowned out its bleats of fear with a "Yeeeeeeeeehaw!"

As Konall heard the satisfying thump of a goat exploding upon contact with solid ground after a long fall, he let out a smile. "And that's how Vikings do it when-"

Whatever he was said was interrupted as an unexpected wave of energy crashed into him, sending the Viking flying back. Similar waves crashed into Dash, Spaz and Sylenia, sending them crashing against the wall. A steady stream of more waves of energy followed. Dash and Konall tried to adjust to the relentless pounding. No doubt assisted by her cysuit, Sylenia quickly avoided one of the waves, and then another. Dash sliced some of the waves, cutting them in half, while rolling to dodge and duck under other waves of energy.

"Need a hand, Konall?" Dash asked between waves. "You're starting to look a little pale. Er, more than usual. I don't recall you bleeding or limping so much before."

"I..." Konall started. "I'll sit this one out." He rolled to take pressure off of fractures and sprains and leave it just on bruises. "I still need to face my sister, and I don't have much left."

"How are you avoiding my - AHHHH!" The Sorceress - the origin of the attacks- had tried to aim at Sylenia, drawing her attention away from Konall and Dash. Konall wasn't able to do much- but it left her open for Dash to slip a bit of flash paper free, igniting it with Dash's inherent magic. Dash caught the Sorceress's face with it mid sentence. Sylenia dropped the Sorceress with a roundhouse kick, sending her to her knees.

Dash glanced at Konall, worried. "Konall, I've got some island herbs that might help. Here." As Dash turned towards Konall, a blast of pure darkness caught him from behind, dropping Dash.

Smoke and centipedes streaked from the shadows in a whirling cloud that coalesced into Kadlin's vampiric form. Sylenia turned to face the new intruder in time to be hurled through a window by a combination of vampiric strength and a blast of magical force. The NS threw a bolt of dark magic at Kadlin. Kadlin ate it.

The pastamancer smirked. "Thank you all for weakening each other. I would have done it myself, but it was more fun to see you fighting each other." The real reason she'd hung back was she couldn't regenerate magical energy now that she was dead, and had to ration what she was able to steal from others.

The NS brought up the glaive, but Kadlin held out a hand and motioned, and the glaive teleported to its rightful owner. "That's Mine," Kadlin says, "and the universe recognizes it as such."

The NS charged, claws ready to tear apart this vampiric intruder, but they tore through smoke. Immediately after the sauceress had passed through her, Kadlin reformed and grabbed the witch from behind, draining her blood and with it her magical energy. Loads and loads of sweet magical energy from a truly powerful being. A sharp pain erupted through Kadlin's body as she felt her grip loosening. Something protruded through her chest. She realized it was Dash's mirrorsword, impaling her. Dash removed the sword as Kadlin fell to her knees. "Sorry, Kadlin. I couldn't let you kill anyone else. I guess we could consider the day.. saved.."

Dash stopped himself as he realized Kadlin was still on her knees.

Kadlin snickered. "Stabbing me through the heart. How cliche. I guess I have to return the triteness, and say something like 'I have no heart.' I saved this day for my own triumph. It's time to reshape this world. I'm going to offer you a chance to be part of something magnificent. Am I to assume you'll reject this offer and I have to kill you?"

Dash sighed, shrugged, and prepared himself for whatever Kadlin had in mind.

----------------

By Dash and Catrina

After Catrina untangled from catching Bandit she growled at the bunny bitch who had thrown the spell. "You have no right to wear that face, bitch!" She roared, and then flashed forward to deliver the hardest bitchslap she'd ever done while moving. Okay- the only bitchslap she'd ever done while moving!

Faux Feena wiped her jaw with a furry paw and declared, "Well that was rude."

Catrina gave her the time, wary of her spells and fighting urges she'd never had with a Sentient. She wanted to kill this bunny, she could see herself glorying in the preykill... she shook herself and pushed away from the idea. Obviously the fact that she lost her Feena because of this mess with the Dark Ones was driving her rage, and it was a rage she knew Feena would never approve of.

However she could still use that rage in more...creative ways. "When I'm through with you bitch you're gonna think that was just a love tap!" She then pounced- the catfight was on! Not too far away, Sliver's sharp ears picked up on Catrina's language.

Dark smirked when he felt the blush the Muri-dan master gave off. "What's the matter, old man?"

Sliver quickly steeled himself. "Nothing- just an old pupil being a bit loose with her tongue is all."

Dark glanced over at the cat/bunnyfight currently going on and chuckled. "Yeah, and if she's anything like the bitch I got back home her tongue ain't the only thing that's 'loose' if you get my meaning?"

Sliver started to respond but Zedika Dark cut him off. "Kill the rat and his whores, my pets!"

As the flip version of Kadlin battled Sir Fumblies in the background, Sliver deftly avoided the clumsy attacks of the dark beasts, tended to by his allies, Kyomi & Asami.

Suddenly Miyako showed up flashing in as the three- then four- formed up back to back defensively. Sliver smirked. "Where have you been, beautiful one?"

Miyako was silent, but her blush told Sliver plenty- which was confirmed by her mistress with a giggle. "Dear Miyako has entered her season, and wanted to relieve herself of that before coming here so as not to distract that cute bard from his duties."

Sliver couldn't help but smile. "He's not here, my flower. But I'm sure your caution was appreciated by some todd out there." He then smirked at the Dark One in front of him- and motioned him in.

Dark wasn't the only one content to let minions do the battling. Linnea had brought ghuols with her (misspelled ghouls from the cemetary) while Konall Numbercruncher had forsaken his now-broken mind cruncher device in order to lead some familiar looking monsters from the flipworld. Hordes of oversized mosquitoes and dozens of hovering goats wearing sombreros. He even had a crimbo elfing holding a Jill-O-Lantern, assisted by a Baby Yeti with wax lips wearing a lucky Tam O'Shanter and March Hat. Fancy!

Vixen, Lapine and Fahari had problems of their own. Namely, they had to contend with the hordes of demon beasts seemingly under control of either Dark or Numbercruncher. Fortunately, Fahari was well suited to dealing with the dark creatures. Her limbs glowed with an ever increasing amount of holy energy as she flew (well pounced) into action, decimating the dark beasts with a monk's speed. Unfortunately, they quickly adjusted to said speed, becoming harder and harder to strike. The demons suddenly moved quicker as well.

Linnea's scream threw Zed Shinestone off balance (and earned confused stares from several of the other combatants) as well, but Zed's training helped him deal with such unexpected and unconventional distractions. He swept at Linnea's legs, using his spear to take her feet out from under her. She fell on her ass with another ear piercing scream, but was immediately surrounded by ghosts and goblins. "Ahhh, it's good being scream queen. Ayieeeeeeeee!"

Zed covered one of his ears with his free hand. "Gods, will you STOP that obnoxious screaming, woman?!"

"I can't help it!" she whined. "It's part of who I am! Don't hate me for who I am!"

Zed didn't have a proper response to that, so he swung at her eerie nightmaring bodyguards instead, picking them off one at a time.

"Give it up, geek!" Vixen yelled as she swatted Konall Numberscruncher with her walking stick, knocking him on his behind. Lapine held a spell, ready to blast him with it.

"That was certainly uncalled for," the other world's Konall responded. Vixen pounded him a few times before being distracted by Lapine's cries for help. Lapine was trying to blast off the beasts but they had her surrounded.

"Hold on, Lapine.." Vixen called out. "I'll be there in a.. eep!"

She'd just barely seen it in time to dodge back to avoid it; Numberscruncher had thrown a nasty looking blade at her head. A second later her mind exploded in agony as Konall's eyes glowed.

"You're quick," Konall Numberscruncher admitted. "But with my psychic powers, I'm as quick as thought itself."

Catrina had the otherwordly Feena pinned under her weight, ready to finish her off with one fell swoop. Unfortunately, she hesitated. The resemblance to the Feena Catrina knew was downright- and unsurprisingly- eerie. After all, she was her world's version of Feena. Maybe something had gone wrong. Still, she was with... A jolt of lightning interrupted Catrina's thoughts. She fell off the evil bondage Feena who followed it up with a frigid blast that chilled Catrina past the fur to the bone.

Zed held his ears, waiting until the latest scream stopped. "You know, if all you're going to do is scream at me, this is going to be a short fight. Are you sure you wouldn't rather get out so I can deal with actual threats?"

"Oh don't worry," Linnea promised in a high pitched voice. "I always bring a party with me." With a clap of her hands, several vampires appeared around her including the rare gift wrapping vampire and the ultra rare Count Bakula.

Meanwhile, Sir Fumblies assessed the situation as he rolled to the ground, dodging between this fake Kadlin's fire blast and her ice attacks. Although fake probably wasn't the right word as she was as much Kadlin in her world as the even more evil Kadlin was here but nevermind that. She had downed some dark red looking potion earlier that smelled of fresh tomatoes and goo. It had made this Kadlin that much more powerful and thus that much more dangerous. That was okay, Fumblies had a potion of his own, and from the looks of things he would definitely need it.

Sliver and his allies looked to be in trouble against Dark and his pets. Zed was almost drowning in vampires at the moment, doing his best to play keep away. Fumblies avoided a blast even as some feet away, a fire blast from the otherworld's Feena which took Catrina out of the air!

This was getting ridiculous. Kadlin's potion was making her way too dangerous but fortunately, Fumblies had an answer for that although it would be incredibly risky to him. Nevertheless, he had to try it, so he cast a growth spell on himself, pressing the spell further than he ever had. Within a minute, he'd doubled in size and kept growing. He could feel the magic straining as his body grew and kept growing. By the time the growth stopped, he'd become slightly more than three times his original size and easily dispatched of Kadlin.

He wasn't the only one undergoing an amazing transformation. Fahari had gotten desperate under the wave of demon beasts. She'd desperately pleaded for help from above- and was quickly granted a boon in the form of gauntlets and armor glowing with a holy colorless light with the intensity of a sun.

Though it would be impossible for most to discern the difference, Sliver moved far faster than even Catrina in spite of the old rat's age. He moved in controlled, short bursts, cutting between the dark beasts. His students - Kyomi, Asami and Miyako - helped him dispatch the shadowy minions of Zedika Dark quite quickly. Zedika himself watched dispassionately at first before throwing a well placed smoke bomb between the warrior furs. Blinded by the sudden burst of acidic smoke, Kyomi and Asami slammed into each other, sending both backwards, unconscious from the impact. Without thought, Miyako rushed at Dark who seemed prepared for her superior speed. He dodged to the side, using his ninja blade to trip her. She fell in a heap, body skidding through the bloodstained grounds as she came to an unconscious halt, a deep wound already showing on her leg from contact with the blade.

Dark went into action, somehow able to react to even Sliver's superior speed. Sliver avoided the array of poison darts even as Dark threw down multiple smoke bombs. Sliver struck and found home repeatedly. Dark seemed to be falling under the assault. Good. Sliver moved in to finish Zedika off.

Zedika somehow managed to avoid the supersonic follow-up attack, defying all logic. Before Sliver could orient himself, Dark's blade was across his throat. Dark had no more need to explain himself so he simply started to slide Sliver's head off.

Catrina caught sight of it, dropping the otherworldly Feena, who fell to her knees, instantly blasting Catirna with a blast of hot sauce. The bloodied and battered Feena mumbled to herself, "I.. will not.. give up! There's too much on the line!"

Before Zedika could do any damage with the ninja blade, a blast of frigid air caught him from behind, enveloping both bodies in the blast. Dark looked up to see a well over twenty feet tall Fumbles who grabbed him and slammed him to the ground, ending the fight and likely breaking bones.

"Feena" blasted the larger Fumbles repeatedly, screaming. "I'm not afraid of you! I don't care how powerful you are! I don't care how big you are, I..."

Fumbles yawned and blasted her with a ray of dark energy, taking her out of the fight as well. He smirked. "You should have cared."

Fahari quickly dealt with not just the demons attacking her but those dealing with Lapine and those attacking the pirates as well. As the pirates turned to fight off the newest tide of invaders- thugs from Adrule and Honorburg- Lapine turned towards that idiot Konall Numberscruncher. Oh crap. That psychopath telepath had Vixen trapped, probably using that mental thing of his. She tried to blast the flipworld version of Konall but he reacted to her very intent at the speed of thought, dropping her with a mental blast.

Fortunately for Fahari, she moved quicker than he thought and dropped the 'imposter' easily.

As she turned to deal with the last of Numbercruncher's pets (the crimbo elfing and its pimped out Baby Yeti), Zed Shinestone removed his spear from Count Bakula's chest. The others wouldn't be a problem at this point. Except maybe Linnea. Zed could count on her to have more tricks.. up.. her.

Actually, as he was thinking that, Catrina rushed into action, dropping Linnea almost faster than Zed's eyes could follow (and he was no slowpoke himself).

“Works for me,” said Zed.

----------------

By Dash

The young swordsman and his allies tore through the Knob Goblin resistance. Really, it wasn't much of a resistance faction, even with the superior numbers. Kadlin didn't inspire a great deal of loyalty even in those who were still on her side. The original red mage watched passively as his allies finished off the enemies, aided by eight of this world's champions.

The red mage knew the names of these new allies already, of course. He always knew. The young ice mage's mastery of magic approached the red mage's own magic if not exceeded it- although his magic was more versatile in the elemental sense. Her carefree attitude was a closer match to the monkey-tailed hero, the ninja prince or even the strange fox bard while the red mage considered himself more serious minded like the goblin brute, the catlike male warrior, or especially the gunarm brute.

Along with the bardonic music of the girl with the snake eyes and the fox bard, they had melee well covered with the redeemed paladin, the tigerlike catman, the strange Irish looking thug and of course the leader of red mage's faction, the gun toting young blond. The elves were ranged fighters of course but fought with either magic or technology beyond the red mage's recognition - and since the red mage's knowledge on the inner workings of magic was near limitless, he guessed technology.

The most unpredictable fighters on their side must have been the chain-smoking explosion expert, the aforementioned ice mage, and the strange yet surprisingly well endowed young flame swordsman and his pet demon.

The redeemed paladin's sword and catman's claws finished off the last few enemies.

"Well, that's that," the protagonist declared.

Cattaras kept his claws ready in case he had to pick a fight. "Yup. So who are you, why are you here and why should we trust you?"

The monkey-tailed thief threw his arms behind his head casually. "For fun."

Becky giggled. "That's funny, you're funny, I like you."

As the thief blushed, gun armed sidekick stepped up to Cattaras. "Something you wanna say? I don't like the looks you're giving me."

Cattaras growled. "I could think of a few things, meatbag."

"Enough!" the ninja prince yelled. "We're here to help with the end of the world crisis."

"You know about that?" Glyn asked. "Although come to think of it, it would be pretty hard to miss."

"Tell us what you know," Jen commanded.

"Our enemy, the evil Shinpire," answered the redeemed paladin, who seemed to be older than his allies, except of course for the explosion expert. "They've managed to steal our penultimate airship. We suspect they want to use the chaos in order to engage and defeat the Chrono Dragon while he's still weak. Normally, attacking a dragon with control over time would be, at best, insane, and likely suicidal. However, with the dragon's weakened state, they're obviously feeling confident and ignoring the fact they're more likely to ignite the Gia spirit than to harm the dragon."

The normally shy and reserved Sassy Snake found herself drawn into the conversation and convinced herself to speak up. "So if you don't mind a few questions here, what is the Gia spirit and why would it harm the dragon? Is it dangerous to us as well? Does it have something to do with all the chaos we seem to be experiencing right now?"

Cattaras growled. "Do we really have time for this?"

The redeemed paladin ignored Cattaras. "No, the fear isn't for the dragon. At least, the danger isn't just to the dragon. We fear if the Gia spirit- the living spirit of the earth and all who live on it- could be.. ignited.. if engaged against the Chrono dragon. Setting the skies afire and bringing a new dark era to the world. Prophecies are unclear on why."

"So why- - " Sassy started to ask only to be interrupted by a rather loud growl from Cattaras, who continued speaking in a low voice. "Enough why's. I think 'stop the skies from burning' is good enough. Let's get on with the saving the world from multiple disasters business.. Besides.." Cattaras sniffed the air. "I think we've got somewhere to be."

----------------

Also by Dash

In spite of his opponent's overwhelming advantage in strength, youth and ferocity, MTiger's experience had allowed him to counter Daisuke's physical superiority, putting him in that perfect position for King MTiger to go for the kill shot with his sniper gun on a string. Daisuke moved just in time to avoid a lethal wound but it still glazed his shoulder. He rushed forward, knocking the gun out of Mtiger's grasp with his good arm.

Fluffy had to dodge, duck and weave for the last several minutes to avoid Snow White's deadly plant based offense. Deadly and relentless. It kept Fluffy on the defense for a while but eventually he was able to twist his way into position to blast Snow White with a tiny lightning zap. Not much but enough to disrupt her concentration. That gave Fluffy a split second to hit her with a fire blast. That was enough to put Snow White on the defense.

Grillhamo continued to battle Cutler and the two continued to be quite evenly matched. Cutler's advanced speed and cunning was negated by Grillhamo's expertise and skill.

Shamus stumbled after taking dozens of blows from Gerome and the ever-vicious Stewart in the span of a few seconds. They stopped to laugh and point and Shamus stumbled backwards and tripped, by pure random chance firing off a crossbolt aimed directly at Stewart's head.

Of course, Stewart dodged it effortlessly. Amrus deflected it with a bunny paw. Fighting Mortimer and Slit, he wasn't faring much better than Shamus in his fight, although Amrus's brains and ninja style skills were a definite help. Reacting before there was anything to react to, he held his shortstaff at an angle to the ground. When Gerome rushed toward in the very same split second, his momentum carried him directly over the staff, which tripped him up and send him flying into Slit, sending both to the ground.

Amras glanced over at Shamus. "I'll help you in a second. Then we can try to figure out a way to stop that summoning spell."

"Don't bother," Bones said as the portal glowed brightly. "I'm already done. I think I'll summon an unliving army to help celebrate our new allies."

The portal glowed brightly as Bones started summoning up hordes of the undead. Through the portal from the depths of hell poured Hunk, I the Mouse, Dr. Darth and the Queen of Hate.

Hunk slammed into the ground as he landed, taking Amras and Shamus off their feet with the shockwave. "Bout time you brought in management to.. negotiate."

----------------

By Cameron and Dash

Kadlin sighed, which was odd since she no longer had need for breath. "I was hoping to save this for later if I needed it. Oh well. HABRODAXUS, I HAVE NEED OF YOU! FULFILL OUR BARGAIN." And with that she tapped the glaive to the ground and it split, opening a portal to the underworld.

A dark handed reached out of the portal, claws gripping the firm stone tile of the tower. It pulled behind it a demonic body coated in the dark energies of Kadlin's magic. The anatomy strained the sanity of those that viewed it, defying physics and Euclidean geometry as it entered this world.

Kadlin smiled. "Oh, Habro, you said you can summon those dark ones you spoke of into our world if you were here. You may do so now."

"Even now, the shield holds! And yet, I can draw the weakest of the dark one's minions, enough to destroy this world and beyond!"

As Sebastian Dash rushed forward to take Kadlin's head off, a portal appeared in the far corner of the room. Kadlin turned to look at the portal, and then the spinning room as Dash's sword cut through her neck, sending her head tumbling. "That's annoying," she said, moving over to pick up her head. Dash, however, sliced off her arm as she did.

"Enough, Kadlin," Dash said. "Stop now. It isn't too late to fix this, but it will be soon!"

"Fix what?" Kadlin asked, reattaching her head and then her other arm. "I am fixing this world, reshaping it according to my will. Why do you have to stop me?" She readied her glaive for attack.

"You're not saving anything," Dash said, sounding desperate. He wanted to continue, but Kadlin's glaive headed straight for his heart, powered by vampiric strength and swiftness. Even with Dash's decades of training and near inhuman reflexes, he was barely able to avoid it. The glaive cut Dash's shoulder deep. Dash immediately felt colder than he'd ever been in his life, falling to the ground, barely able to move. Kadlin kicked him twenty feet to the wall and strolled away, other business distracting her. The first two figures through the portal - Fahari and Catrina- stared her down.

Catrina smiled. "There you are, bitch. You know, you've really let yourself go since I last saw you.."

"I find the living impaired look suits my needs at the moment. I figure I will need to render you as dead as I am?"

"Yeah, right.." Vixen was next out, followed by Bandit, Runic and Lapine. The room was quickly filling with furries.

Kadlin moved to attack them, but thought better. "Habrodaxus, please kill them for me. I have a ritual to complete." She then leapt out the window and fluttered to the ground below.

The demon turned and swatted aside the four new furries. Catrina and Fahari were quick enough to dodge it but their attacks on the demon seemed to be doing no good.

"This isn't good," Sylenia said to herself as she prepared to attack.

"No!" Konall commanded her. "The demon's a serious threat to our reality, but I need to get to my sister. I'm the only one that can stop her."

Sylenia wanted to protest but just nodded, commanding the nanites of her suit into large battle armor, glider wings and all. She grabbed Konall and leapt through the window, leaving a larger hole behind her. As she started to glide to the ground, a tentacle ripped her away from Konall, dragging her back into the tower.

Konall fell, landing on a nearby evergreen and tumbling to the ground, grasping and failing to maintain a hold on branch after branch. He landed on hard ground, the wind knocked out of him.

See? Both massive and epic.

The piece really does speak for itself but I will say with the stakes for this Finale being so high - and it being a Series finale- keeping track of all those different huge fights was an epic and sometimes painful task. I think I pulled it off okay.

We won't see any more of the Bearsmasher siblings in the next piece- which is probably the biggest AIL piece ever or very close- but we will see pretty much everyone else in it. It is 1) huge 2) epic and 3) next.