Chapter 25

Nobody's P.O.V

The massive crocodile-like mutant towered over the wall that protected the survivors within. The creature of earth peered down at all the terrified humans and monsters.

"I think we know where King ended up." Hate said.

"He's huge..." Lucid exclaimed. "How are we suppose to fight that?"

"You won't be." Error stepped forward, summoning his strings from the tear marks on his face. "You'll be staying here where it's safe."

"No way!" Moon protested. "We wanna fight too!"

"Stay here, kiddo," Nightmare smirked. "Let the experts handle this."

As the adults all jumped into Ink's paint puddle, Moon yelled the words "Damn you, Dad!". The adults appeared on top of the wall, staring the mutant dead in the eyes.

"Do we actually have a plan?" Sci asked.

"Wing it." Error answer.

Horror grabbed his axe and leaped off the wall this it above his head, roaring some sort of battle cry. He swung the axe down on the mutant's snout but the blade barely made a scratch.

"Well shit." Horror muttered.

The mutant shook it's head from side to side quickly and Horror was thrown off. Error grabbed Horror with his strings and pulled him back, but Horror smashed into the wall instead.

"Sorry!" Error called out.

"I think the hole in my skull just got bigger!" Horror yelled back.

"We can't get through it's skin," Dream said. "We need to find a weak spot."

"Stating the obvious." FC commented.

Everyone looked at FC.

"What?" she asked.

"What're you doing here?" Nightmare yelled.

"You said 'let the experts handle this'."

"I meant the adults, dammit!"

The mutant raised a fist and slammed it down on the group. Everyone split up in different directions and ran. The mutant's fist tore through the metal wall like it was nothing.

"Everyone to the ground!" Cross ordered. "We have to make sure it's attention is away from the wall!"

"Roger that!" Error grabbed everyone with his strings and lowered them down to the forest floor. The mutant's fist swung to the side and smashed into Error, knocking him away like a bat to a baseball. A jet of black mist shot up and caught Error, bringing him safely to the ground with everyone else.

"Hate, I told you to stay with the others." FC said.

"I'm an adult too!" Hate argued.

"They specifically said 'experts'."

The mutant turned. It lifted it's foot into the air then stomped it back down. A wave of earth spikes shot out of the ground towards the group. A wall of paint formed in seconds and blocked the attack.

"Great job, Ink!" Error cheered.

"I didn't do that." Ink said.

The warrior's children and FC's companions appeared out of the paint. They all had a determined look on their face.

"Why do kids never listen?" Nightmare mumbled to himself.

Dream opened his mouth to speak, but Lucid interrupted him.

"Some of us may be injured, but this is our home and we're not letting anyone take it away from us again." Lucid smiled. "We're stronger then you think, you know."

Dream sighed and looked at Cross for an answer.

Cross shrugged. "They're not going to listen to us anyway."

Dream rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine."

"Bring it on!" Yelled Sage, taking out several flasks from his jacket.

Everyone prepared their magic and weapons. The mutant roared and threw both it's fisted at them. Palette's paint washed over everyone and teleported them somewhere else. Sage threw a vial and it exploded into a big panther made of red powder. He jumped onto the panther, chuckling to himself as he heard Raven freaking out, and held on tight. The panther bounded up the mutant's leg, it's claws digging into the rock skin.

Hate locked at Lucid. "Hey kid."

Lucid glanced at Hate. "I'm not a kid."

"Great, then you won't mind if I do this."

Hate became a jet of black mist and grabbed Lucid and flew into the sky. Lucid yelped with surprise as Hate dropped him onto the mutant's snout.

"Thanks!" Lucid yelled halfheartedly.

"No problem! Now find a weak spot!" Hate called.

"Wait, Dream," Ink looked at Dream. "Don't we need to destroy the mutant's heart to kill it?"

Dream nodded. "Yes. But we can't get past it's skin."

Fresh grinned. "I can solve this problem, brah. Jammy, shall we?"

"We shall." PJ agreed.

Ink opened his mouth to protest but PJ had already summoned a large hand made of paint. The paint hand grabbed Fresh and threw him up into the air. Fresh took several bombs out of his jacket then unpinned them and tossed them at the mutant's chest. The bombs exploded and the mutant howled in pain as it's stone chest cracked, but didn't shatter. The paint hand caught Fresh when he fell back down.

"You carry bombs with you?" Ink exclaimed.

"Of course, brah!"

"PJ, you're dating a maniac!"

"Are you're married to a skeleton who brags about being the best at hauling things." PJ retaliated.

The mutant lifted another foot and slammed it down. Faith and Cross took their knives and swung through the earth spikes that burst from the ground. They sliced through the spikes, as did Reaper and Goth with their scythes. Sage reached the mutant's cracked chest, he was struggling to hold onto the panther at such a steep angle. He opened a vial full of a black power and emptied it into some of the cracks.

Sage held on tight as the panther jumped off the mutant. He took one vial and threw it at the black powder. The vial smashed and the black powder exploded upon reacting with the new substance. The cracks opened up more and several pieces of rock fell to the ground. The mutant let out a great groan of pain.

Lucid gripped his spear as he found a weak spot on the mutant. It's body may be made of stone, but it's five glassy eyes were completely unprotected. Just five squishy balls waiting to be sliced to pieces. Lucid charged at one of the eyes and swung his spear. He struck the eye perfectly and the mutant howled. But the mutant threw it's head up which resulted in Lucid being thrown high into the sky.

The mutant's jaws opened wide and Lucid was on a oneway trip into at toothy, bad-breathed doom, and he couldn't do anything to save himself. He couldn't help but cry out in fear. Luckily, Hate flew towards him and caught him in his arms, just barely getting out of the snap of the jaws. Lucid stared at Hate as if he were his hero. Which, in a way, he was. Cute, Hate thought, I'm gonna keep him. Hate landed on the ground and put Lucid down.

"Lucid found a weak spot," he said. "The mutant's eyes have no protection."

"Excellent," FC congratulated. "Since you're the only one who can fly two feet higher then the ground, how about to go ahead and blind the massive terrifying mutant?"

Hate groaned. "Gross...Fine."

Hate took flight again. Meanwhile, Sage climbed up the mutant's chest a second time.

"Come on, Moon!" Sage shouted. "This would go much faster if I had some help!"

Moon huffed. "Alright, fine."

Moon swung an arm and his goopy hand shot out, gripping on of the cracked edges of the mutant's chest and hauling himself up. Moon pulled hard on the cracked edge and snapped it off, he did the same to many other rocky pieces. Sage spread more black powder over the open cracks. But before he could leap and set it off, some smaller mutants made of smelly green blood crawled out from between the cracks and grabbed him.

The smaller mutants tried to drag Sage inside, but Moon wrapped his arms around Sage and ripped him out of their grip. They leaped off the chest and Sage through another vial that set off the explosion. The mutant's shrieks echoed in the forest, it's chest was not open and a constant supply of green blood flowed out.

The smaller mutants formed out of the blood and they dripped to the ground, snarling at the large group. One caught Gradient and Bluescreen by surprise. It tackled Gradient to the ground and bit his shoulder and refused to let go. Gradient's scream alerted Bluescreen

"G-Gradient...!" Bluescreen muttered.

He grabbed the nearest branch he could find and whacked the smaller mutant off Gradient. Gradient got to his knees, sighing with relief. He smiled softly when Bluescreen took Gradient's hand, showing a look of concern.

"I'm alright, thank you." Gradient said.

Killer and Horror sliced down most of the other smaller mutants.

Geno pointed up at the large open wound on the mutant's chest. "Look! You can see it's heart!"

Everyone looked at the pulsing form of the disgusting heart.

"Bleh." Nightmare spat.

"Who what's to get dirty?" Error asked.

"Horror," Cross said. "This is your chance to be yourself again."

"Hell yeah!" Horror cheered. "Somebody throw me up there!"

Hate flew back down to the ground, looking a bit disgusted. "Alright, this thing has no more eyes. Now what?"

"Throw Horror up there." FC pointed at the mutant's heart.

Hate looked as if he was going to throw up. "Oh god...why me?"

"Come on, we don't have all day!" Horror said impatiently.

But before Hate could do so, the mutant crocodile slammed it's massive tail into the ground. The earth shook and split open. Raven happened to be distracted at the time as he fought one of the smaller mutants. He was shoved backwards where the earth split into a seemingly bottomless pit. Blueprint threw his knife at the smaller mutant, killing it, and quickly grabbed Raven by his hands. Blueprint struggled to keep Raven from falling.

"R-Raven, do you know how to t-teleport?" Blueprint asked.

"I do, but-"

"I can't hold on to you, you have to teleport!"
"But I can't use magic, it's painful!"

"It'll only last a moment, I promise."

Raven glanced down for a moment. The short seconds of fear was enough to convince Raven to teleport. He appeared just behind Blueprint, whimpering with pain and clutching his shoulder wound, which seemed to have grown. Blueprint wrapped his arms around Raven in an attempt to sooth him.

"Throw me now!" Horror ordered.

"Alright, be patient!" Hate grabbed Horror and flew into the air.

Hate spun in circles to build momentum, then let go of Horror. Horror held his axe above his head and swung down with all his might. The heart was pierced and the mutant shrieked it's last shriek. It's body completely froze up solid, then begun falling apart on top of everyone.

"Everyone run!" Cross yelled.

And everyone ran. With each piece of rock that fell, the ground trembled. One piece almost crushed Bluescreen, but Gradient scooped Bluescreen in his arms and ran out of range. Bluescreen glitched madly, but his panic subsided quickly and he clung onto Gradient. Goth slashed a large rock with his scythe, protecting Palette. Many more protected each other, ensuring that everyone got through it alive. But soon, everything fell silent.

The battle was over. The warriors, young and old, had come out victorious.