Ninety nine dirt covered garden gnomes charged together with their stubby feet clacking against the cobblestones. Behind them, Petal Gravewhistle, Steward of Sun and Shade, and the one hundredth Gnomish Warrior to complete the company, yanked his trowel out of the ground and strolled after his company while rolling his shoulders.

Britanii howled in rage as the Gnome brigade launched themselves through the air. Garden lasers zapped her swollen, black eyes while acidic mud splashed and sizzled against her warped flesh, and one guy was just on fire while clinging desperately to her limb.

Emilio's [Hiss Lightning] cracked from the ceiling in a rolling storm. When a gnome was struck and blessed by their leader, their Cores sang in fury. Soon enough, Britanii was being hacked and stabbed from all angles as she flailed and sent already chipped bodies to shatter across the ground. Alex and the others watched the gnomes fearlessly cover Britanii like unrelenting, wild hornets. They charged, and though some fell, none could shake the grit of a gnomish brigade born of dirt and thunder.

"Master!" Petal Gravewhistle bellowed while turning his walk to a sprint over the chaos of screaming gnomes and a howling Britanii. "HIT ME!"

The lightning ripping across the room stopped as a deep growl reverberated from Emilio's chest. Every single piece of fur stood straight up, and then Emilio released the Skill just as Gravewhistle snarled and leapt into the air.

Lightning ripped out of Emilio's open mouth with an enraged "MEOW!", and arced into Gravewhistle's muscular arm as he flew. The gnome's trowel ignited midair as he swung down with a roar. His blazing trowel slammed into Britanii's neck with a detonation of light and metal, sending shockwaves through her frame.

Electricity danced across her body as she screamed and writhed while black, miasmatic blood geysered from the wound. Gravewhistle tore the trowel free, slashed once more across her flesh, and then kicked off. He tumbled through the air and shouted, "FALL BACK!"

Britanii shuddered from the strike as lightning coursed through her, making her twisted links jerk while black smoke poured from the gash in her neck. The gnomes peeled off. Some tumbled, others cartwheeled through the air. A few weren't fast enough and got smashed into the floor. They rolled and sprinted back to regroup into a muddy battalion away from Britanii.

Petal landed hard next to the gang with a sparking trowel. He looked over Snu cradling a limping Giat, a wounded Alex, then at Beepy and Zippy waiting, and finally Mary and Jemin. The gnome gritted his tiny teeth, sucked a big belly full of air, and thrust his trowel into the air just in time for Britanii to howl again.

"FIRE!" he bellowed with fury.

From their pockets, the gnomes quickly pulled out tiny slingshots made from wishbones and toothbrush handles and loaded them with pebbles. The brigade unleashed and a storm of projectiles pelted out to slam into Britanii's face and torso. Holes tore in her flesh, and the ones that missed went straight for the Krushers fighting the Dungeon Monsters.

Britanii shrieked as holes ripped open in her body. Then the pebbles stopped. She stood there twitching as blood leaked out of the wound Gravewhistle left in her neck.

"That's all?" she said while gurgling. "That's the best you can do?" One of her twisted hands yanked on Loopy's leash. The Dungeon Boss flew backwards and crashed onto the ground. Everyone watched in horror as Britanii seemed to do something through the leash.

The familiarized Dungeon Boss screamed in pain as his mouth stretched open far too wide and hundreds of sopping wet plushies spewed out. They were every single colour, ragged, and stitched back together as if by a child's hands. Rather than landing onto the ground, the plushies snarled as they floated around Loopy and then Britanii. In their hands were rusty scissors, giant needles, or twisted metal was sewn into their fur paws. Before long, a cloud of dripping and rotten toys growled at the gang.

Britanii's skeletal, multi-jointed arm flew forward, and her arm tore wide open as she screamed a command in a tongue Alex didn't understand. The plushies then screeched together and charged.

A giant cluster charged forward with rusty tools and zeroed in on the gnome brigade. Another clump went straight for Snu and Giat, while Mary, Jemin, and the bots were chased down by a few dozen.

"Form up!" Gravewhistle shouted.

The gnomes met them in the air. A dozen porcelain bodies leapt and spun to split their assaulters apart. A particularly filthy gnome stabbed one out of the air straight into the ground with a sharpened spade.

Gravewhistle himself leapt closer to Emilio just as a pack of plushies rushed the cat. The Steward spun with his blazing trowel, and battered three away with a brutal thwack that crushed whatever made the plushies work.

"NOT THE CAT, YOU MONSTERS!" he roared and fought alongside Emilio.

Emilio raked claws of lightning through plushies. Each strike left behind burning plastic fur and charred thread as the feline warrior cut everything apart with ease. Across the room, Snu's eyes lit up in a violet light.

The nearest plushie near her and Giat exploded mid air, ripped in half by a force Alex couldn't see. Snu cradled Giat protectively as every single plushie that came within ten feet snapped apart into an unraveled mess that slumped to the Dungeon room floor. Giat, to her credit, followed her sister, and though Alex could tell she was hurt, the titaness carved through plushies in a similar way to her 'sister'.

Mary stood infront of Jemin and beat the flying plushies with her knuckle dusters. The Relic had some sort of buff to them, as every time she made contact the attacking plushie would explode backwards. Alex watched his roommate backhand one so hard it clapped into another and punched a hole through its fabric.

Beepy did his best. On little feet, he'd pose, and fire off a [Volt Whip] around a plushie's neck. The caught plushie would squeal as Beepy yanked and severed its head with a small explosion of sparks. Alex saw one head bounce and roll towards Emilio, who regarded it before zapping it to charred dust for good measure.

Zippy dove into a clump and spun like a drill. His paring knife on the end of his pincers, he rotated through the plushie cloud and sent instantly spliced limbs flying in every direction. Rainbow stuffing rained down like snow from the flying bots efforts.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Catch this!" Jemin shouted as he lobbed a [Void Grenade] through the air that went for a dense cluster of plushies. There wasn't an explosion. But there was a sudden crunch as a sphere of perfect blackness exploded out in a tight circle, engulfed a few, and then snapped back tightly. Every plushie inside the explosion was simply gone, unmade by the Relic's magic.

And Alex? A wall of plushies hurtled toward him, but slower than the others. He prepared to launch himself out of the way while hopefully landing a slash on one. That was until he saw what Britanii was doing behind the plushie fog.

She stood hunched over and shaking. The wound on her neck still leaked miasma and smoke, but her hands were raised high. A second storm was beginning to boil above her head, and it was denser, darker, and writhed like living tar. It appeared that Britanii was using the storming plushie from Loopy as both an attack and a distraction.

"Ah crap." Alex said and began to shamble forward toward the plushie posse that was coming to turn him into soup.

His arm was broken, limp, and useless at his side. Every wheezing breath came with a stab of pain as blood leaked from his gash down his chest. The plushie swarm was almost on him, and it was a cloud of half melted sopping toys swinging butcher knives and sharpened ice cream scoops like demented serial killers. The one with a little meat cleaver rushed ahead while letting out a fluffing drooled screech. So he clenched his eyes shut.

And reappeared ten feet ahead. The cleaver wielding plushing slammed its weapon into the floor where he'd just been and let out a squeal. Alex forced himself to keep going and locked his eyes onto the leash connecting Britanii to Loopy.

"ZIPPY!" he yelled over the battlefield while barely dodging a murderous walrus toy who divebombed with a needle. "'BOUT TIME, BUDDY!"

As soon as he yelled, Britanii's head snapped onto his position, and he locked eyes with his frothing ex.

"Oh boy. Here we fucking go." He said as he fired off [Illusory Copy] and shuffled faster as the cloud grew so dark it became it started dripping steaming miasma over her bleeding scalp.

___

Clusterfuck. Zippy knew it was a bad word and he shouldn't think it. But Beepy had taught him it, and that's what it was.

He just kept spinning, and the knife kept hacking the evil soft little battle bots apart. The [Ancient Paring Knife] he injected a little Essence into with his even smaller core cut them off of the System. And since the Relic from Neuronium's hadn't changed him and Beepy yet, he just kept on spinning and slicing.

Mary, his creator, was punching the stuffing out of the things. Zippy made sure to keep his head stable while his body twirled, so she could always see. Beepy was being amazing, chopping baddies with his new Skill. Zippy wanted a Skill too.

The little buggers were the enemy. The big scary yelling one leaking pus too. She was controlling it all. The bots, the big Dungeon Boss that cried on the floor, and the strange data lines coming that kept the plushies floating and slashing. So when he cut them apart, their bodies fell limp like he yanked the plug. A spatula nearly thwacked his frame, but he spun fast, cut it in two, and zipped away just in time to hear Alex's yell.

"ZIPPY! 'BOUT TIME, BUDDY!"

Zippy almost stopped spinning his body as pride and panic filled him. He was the buddy Alex had given the knife too. The one that all his friends believed in.

He juked left and slashed a plushie wielding a soup ladle while sending some Essence through the knife. Through its torso and then it dropped like a sac of potatoes. That was how it worked, right? Essence into knife, believe, cut, bye bye connection to the System.

Zippy zeroed in on the big scary lady. She was tracking not one but two Alex's. One of them looked real bad, and it barely stood, while the other danced through plushies like it was a game. Zippy didn't get Illusions, but he knew Alex.

He could always tell which one was his friend. It was the one that laughed when Zippy did loop-de-loops and stole Mary's stuff as a joke. So when that Alex vanished and reappeared where the cooler looking copy was, Zippy didn't fret. That's just how his friend moved sometimes.

But above the scary lady's head, something big and black and spooky floated. It was a cloud that wasn't a cloud. It leaked bad code smell like cheap glue and didn't feel good.

TIME TO SHOW MY FRIENDS HOW COOL AND BRAVE I AM.

He zipped low and weaved through the baddies. One swung a knife, so he dipped and rolled while slicing across its belly before boosting as fast as he could straight toward the scary lady and that awful mean leash. He knew what he needed to do with the knife. He was going for that damn leash and then he was going for her.

I'M THE RIGHT BUDDY FOR THE JOB.

And in the back of his mind, he could hear his brother Beepy cheering him onward.

___

Alex's belly hurt worse than his shoulder. Each heaving breath moved his broken collar bone, and the warmth running down his side told him he was running out of steam for good.

Lord Loop laid on the ground, heaving up more and more plushies forcibly by Britanii. Plushies kept spilling out like a horrible clown car. The black cloud above her head had doubled in size and seemed to suck the light in it like it was about to detonate. Above all the screeching, he could hear Mary fighting, Jemin's grenades, Emilio hissing, the gnomes battling, and Snu fighting back the onslaught of toys that whittled her down.

Britanii was charging something horrible. Some horrible Skill that no one else could deal with right now. Alex vanished again with another [Phantom Step] to save himself from a plushie wiedling a giant garlic press, but the Skill sent a little fracture through his core that made him curse out in pain.

He was out of Essence, and any Skill scraped the bottom, which was him. If he kept pushing, it would splinter apart his Core and take his life force, hurt worse than anything, and begin to shatter his Skills apart.

If I can just hold on for a second longer, maybe a miracle will happen, he thought as a wall of plushies zeroed in on him. So Alex did the only thing he could think of to distract Britanii for just a little longer. He taunted the raging Britanii.

"Britanii!" Alex croaked, "If this is you, then damn. I get it! You weren't just cursed. You were unwanted! Still will be! No matter what Skill you use or who you control! You'll always be alone! No one's EVER going to love something that ugly, inside or out!"

Her howl stopped mid screech. And then Alex heard the most beautiful sound in the world.

"TADA!!!~~~~" Zippy blurted through his speaker over the battle, the music, the screams, and the cries.

The little robot came streaking down from above with the [Ancient Paring Knife] extended. Zippy dodged, dipped, twirled, and juked a wave of plushies. Faster than Alex could follow, than Britanii could follow too, the Relic from ages past sliced neatly through the [Cursed Familiar Leash] dangling between Britanii and Loopy with no resistence. Its split chain began to fall to the ground, but before it could clatter, Zippy arced, dodged a flailing claw of Britanii, and stabbed her right in the stomach.

From somewhere amidst the chaos, Beepy's voice rang out with an extreme amount of dramatic enthusiasm.

"GET DICED, BOBEANIE."

Something crunched, then cracked, then shattered. A blinding white light exploded out of Britanii and washed over the Dungeon room and her scream tore out a moment later.

Alex didn't have time to register anything before the light slammed into him like a truck. He, alongside mostly everyone else in the room, dropped onto the Dungeon floor and promptly passed out.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.