Asterion peeked around a mushroom tree stem. The mollie soldiers popped out of the ground and waited. Like their underground counterparts, they wore hoodies and wielded huge claws. They were equipped with shaded goggles and body armor beneath the hoodie. The minotaur, as well as the princess and shellie, remained still. With no vibrations, one of the soldiers yelled, "Stop making so much racket!"
It lowered into its burrow. Persica counted ten seconds on her fingers, and then stepped out. The mollies were truly gone.
"That was too close for comfort," Persica sighed and leaned against a tree.
"Good thinking with that springboard super," Minnie said to Asterion. They looked to the top of the mushroom tree's head, which was only fifteen feet up. The yosauri leaned their heads over the sides. Asterion tossed them up, right along with the cart, to save them from any mollie malice. Minnie praised, "Their fluttering and your strength saved us."
"Glad I could help. I used all my super meter to make it happen, though," Asterion explained. "Now I have to wait a hot minute until my gauge is full again."
"Let's go find Gamer," Minnie said to Persica.
"Are you ordering me, Minnie?" Persica snapped a glare at the shellie.
"Please, princess, it would behoove us to stay together," Asterion added.
"Daddy called me princess," Persica turned away and concealed her face with her hands. Minnie and Asterion shared a thumbs up behind her back.
A crowing, elderly voice silenced the wildlife around them, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the loser princess and her stupid lackeys!"
The voice came from above. On a broom, wearing a magenta, form-fitting dress and witch's hat, and a gnarly staff of rotten wood in hand, was a shellie mage. Her appearance was strikingly similar to Cammy. She pointed the staff at Asterion and accused, "I knew you would try to come through the forest on your quest to hunt Lord Shellie down. You must be the whippersnapper known as Gamer!"
Asterion ignored the mix up, "And you must be Cammy."
"No! I'm Kammy, with a K!"
"She's Cammy's sister," Minnie explained.
"That won't be konfusing," Asterion quipped.
Persica declared, "Stand down, shellie mage. I wish to speak with Lord Shellie and bring our conflict to an end. I am certain that I can..."
"Shaddup, ninny!" Kammy cawed. Persica went aghast, and the mage smirked, "Lord Shellie instructed me to capture you and bring you back unharmed. He, too, wishes to see you in good health."
"H-He does?" Persica's heart fluttered.
"But that's a bunch of bologna, if you ask me!" Kammy spat. "You're nothing but a money grubbing, eyesore of a whore! Our lord can do much better! I'll just say you ran into a wild bear or something. Beheheh!"
"Hsss, grandma's got teeth," Asterion felt the sting of her words towards the princess. They weakened her countenance and cast her gaze to the ground.
With more base in her voice, Persica said to Asterion, "Strangle her."
"Try if you might! My sister informed me of your shenaniganary. Her transmutation magic may have failed her, but my necromantic magic cannot be rivaled!" Kammy held up her rotten staff.
The clouds above coalesced and shrouded the forest in sheer darkness. Dusk came early, and the trio felt more vibrations in the ground. As mounds rose and the crust broke, they believed they would see the mollies return. Instead, skeletal hands and arms with rotten flesh pulled up the ancient corpses of the dead.
A small army of skeleton shellies and human zombies rose up all throughout the forest. The necromancer cackled like a witch as lightning and thunder dominated the skies.
"And I just spent my Supers," Asterion was bummed. This is why you save resources for boss battles.
"Devour, my braindead minions!" Kammy commanded.
The army lumbered towards the group. Persica's nerves were frozen, grossed out by the empty eye sockets and peeling flesh. Asterion stepped in front of her as a wall, "Stay back, princess."
"Very well..." Persica shrunk behind Asterion.
The first row of skeleton shellies shambled towards them. A number of zombies stumbled behind the row. Asterion said, "I may not have my Super, but I can at least use some dynasty moves."
Asterion twisted at the hips and then flipped forward. He corkscrewed his body and used the spin for momentum. He stuck both his legs out like helicopter blades. The helicopter kicks drove over the undead. Their bodies broke apart at the speed and weight of the minotaur.
He flipped to his feet at the end of his rotations. The carnage left behind dwindled the necromantic army. More rumbling came from beneath, but it was indeed the mollies this time. They popped up and were ready to knock some knees. One mollie soldier threatened, "That's it! We're sick and tired of you disrespectful..."
The undead piled onto the mole people, and made many of them retreat. The chaos grew louder and louder, especially when the mollies struck back and created pitfalls that sunk the undead under the crust. Kammy cackled while death and misery spread.
A few zombies headed for Minnie, who was just as frozen with terror as Persica. She blankly stared at her undead ancestors. The scary campfires stories the shellies would tell creeped into her psyche. Before they could reach her, she bolted away. She disappeared past some thickets with undead following after her.
"Traitors deserve death. A shellie without a shell is just a lie," Kammy leered.
"Minnie!" Asterion started to give chase, but the undead he demolished started to stir. The bones magically reformed the skeleton shellies, and the sinew stitched together for the zombies. Each enemy Asterion downed became whole again.
"The dead do not tire, Gamer," Kammy bestowed a dark grimace.
"Son of a..." Asterion glared at the renewed army. He made a split decision and abandoned fighting a relentless army. He used his horns and head to batter aside the undead between him and Persica, "Go!"
Persica and Asterion dashed back through the forest, more blind than ever with the new darkness. Kammy watched them flee, and became giddy as her army pressed in after them. Her cackles echoed alongside the roaring storm, "Where's everybody going? Uno?"