He's Got This

Scene: Realm of Fish, bottom of Fish Tower. Sose and company have the tower surrounded by a cylindrical wall of rotating flame, and Shugaru and Dandan have reached the ground-floor of the tower.

"There's the exit, Dandan" Shugaru says as he approaches the handle to the door.

"Yow!" he yelps as he touches the handle, "too hot to handle, Dandan. Hold on, we have to bust our way out."

"Aw yeah brother! Let's do it!" Dandan happily agrees as he remains clutched onto Shugaru's back.

Shugaru backs up a bit and then draws his icy longsword. "By Duff's sword, I will get you to safety my brother."

Shugaru then starts shouting as he aims his head toward the door and begins to sprint; an icy shell forming around him and Dandan as they make contact. The door splinters under the force of the two cats as they tumble out onto the clearing outside the tower; the icy shell dematerializing from around them as they roll along the ground before coming to a stop.

Meanwhile, from above:

"Alright" Sose says to his men, "you guys keep this spire going. How's your mana burn doing?"

"I could go a-a-all night, baby!" says one of the phoenix soldiers as the other cheers him on.

"Eh. Just stay focused will you? I'm going down alone to get Dandan. I don't know who this other cat is with him, but if he has magic that can create portals to the Spirit Realm then he must be a high-ranking knight for the Ice Dragon. It is possible I could be slain, but nevertheless I want you guys to keep this spire going for as long as you can, understand?"

"Hell yeah, Sose! There is no way that guy's going to kill you though; you're the best!"

"Gods damn it, stay focused; only yes or no answers here."

"Yes, sir!" the phoenixes say in tandem.

Sose then turns to the lone owl in the party, "Lopez, I have a special request for you. This is plan B. I need you to head for the natural portal to the Squirrel Realm and keep watch. If we fail here and Dandan crosses into that realm, then I need you to follow him for me. Take this."

Sose reaches into his pack and tosses a necklace with a small stone on it to the owl, who deftly catches it. Sose begins to brief him on the basic operation of the tool, "This is your very own seer stone that has been modified to use the United Realms of Eden's communication network: Tele-elf. Unlike the ones that use the Federation's Sage-net, this one will only work in Earth and Water realms. Please keep this in mind."

"Hey I understand how seer stones work, man. You don't have to worry about a thing, Sose" Lopez says as he puts the stone around his neck, "but I take it you'd have a point person in one of these realms that I could contact regularly? You know, just in case this turns into a long-term engagement."

"Yes: Dr. Gukaba. He has been fully involved in the project to secure Dandan, and he's currently residing at the Flaming Empire's embassy in the Realm of Elves. Remember: all you have to do is will the seer stone to open a communication channel to Dr. Gukaba. The operators working for Tele-elf will patch you through."

"There you go again re-hashing the basics. This isn't my first time doing a reconnaissance mission you know" Lopez says as he flies up into the sky, pauses, and looks back to Sose as he delivers his phrase, "Sose… I GOT this!"

"Heh, that is correct. I must apologize, Lopez the Owl, for your reputation indeed precedes you; I have full faith in you to carry this out."

The plucky owl throws Sose a wink and then takes off into the horizon, and Sose's men start to complain, "Sose, it burns! I can't hold it for much longer!"

"Useless! It's only been two minutes! No matter… keep that flame wall up, you two. I'm going down!"

Sose flies over top of the flaming wall that surrounds the Tower of Fish and peers down inside,

"There they are" he says to himself as he dive-bombs downward, "I call upon the Great Fire Pool, lend me your mana as I summon: Armour of Jotunara!"

As Sose descends along the tower toward the ground, molten metal begins to form around his entire body, seemingly morphing between liquid and solid state. Shugaru and Dandan take notice of the phoenix as he hurtles toward them from above.

"Dandan, get behind me and keep your distance, this is going to be a tough fight I think" Shugaru says as he picks his icy longsword up off the ground and holds it in front of him, "I call upon the Great Pool of Water, lend me your mana as I summon: Ice Wall!"

Shugaru looks over his shoulder to Dandan to confirm his mana weaving was on point. Indeed: Dandan was surrounded by a shell of ice.

"If he breaks that shell, just keep your distance from us. I'm going to try and prevent him from-"

While Shugaru is instructing Dandan from over his shoulder, Sose makes his impact directly into Shugaru's chest, slamming him down to the ground as they both rip a crater into the turf before coming to a stop.

"Brother!!!" yells Dandan, his voice muffled by the icy shell.

Sose picks himself up off the ground and stands over Shugaru, who lies silently in the ground with his eyes closed, before taking a glance over at Dandan in the ice shell.

"Ptsh, an ice shell?"

Sose walks over to Dandan and bends down to peer through the ice and into his large, frightened eyes.

"You belong to the Flaming Empire now, cat" he says as he stands up and holds his molten metal gauntlets above the shell. They begin to glow as Sose wills the molten metal to morph into liquid form. Dandan's ears go back as he nudges his pudgy body against the far side of the shell and Sose brings his white-hot gauntlets down on to the surface and screams. Steam explodes out from around his hands and before long the ice starts to melt and two holes open up; just big enough for Sose to reach his hands through, which he promptly does.

While he manages to evade the first few grab attempts, Dandan's flub proves to be his downfall as the phoenix manages to grab hold, and a tug-of-war between the two begins.

Meanwhile, a few feet away in the crater, Shugaru rouses to consciousness, quickly picks up his icy longsword and climbs out to survey the battlefield.

"Dandan!" he thinks to himself as he notices the struggle.

Shugaru slowly sneaks up behind Sose and tries to look for a gap in his armour, however the shifting and morphing nature of the molten metal makes this difficult for him. Nevertheless, with no time left to think Shugaru desperately drives his icy longsword into the center of Sose's back with all of his might, causing a tremendous amount of steam to explode outward. However, despite the violent spectacle caused by the reaction between powerful fire and water mana, the strike did not penetrate far into Shugaru's target.

"What the-"

Sose lets go of Dandan, pulls his hands out from the ice shell, and turns to face his attacker.

"Dandan, get out of that shell NOW!" shouts Shugaru, completely ignoring Sose who immediately grabs hold of his throat with one hand, lifting him up off of the ground. Dandan obeys his brother's orders and jumps into one of the holes in the shell, getting half-way out before the remainder of his mass gets stuck. As Dandan fights to maneuver his flub, Sose brings the knight up to his face, and begins to will the molten gauntlet clutching Shugaru's throat to turn white-hot. The pain on Shugaru's face can be seen for miles, but he does not break his gaze with the phoenix.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but you have some nerve trying to stab me in the back like a coward. For this act, I'll see to it that you die right here."

Shugaru tries to will an enchantment into play that may help the burn, but the pain is too great; he cannot focus long enough to engage even the simplest magic. The world slowly begins to fade from his eyes.

"Shugaru… no, no… I have to save my love!" thinks Dandan as ¾ of his body is dangling from the hole in the ice shell. The rest of him finally plops out and he looks around frantically, trying to think of a plan.

"What do I do? Oh no, I can't warp, I can't use magic. I'm no good at fighting; that is what brother Shugaru does for me… but if I don't do something Sose is going to kill him! No, I can't let my brother die! But how can I stop him-"

Suddenly, as if the realms aligned just perfectly, a bolt of clarity strikes Dandan's mind as his eyes fixate on Sose: "Wait a minute… that's right: you can't see with molten eyes! His eyes can't be covered in armour!"

Dandan immediately sprints like lightning up Sose's back and up to the back of his head, and extends both of his claws.

"Leave my love alone, you bastard!!"

Dandan proceeds to gouge out Sose's eyes from their sockets with great ferocity, causing the great phoenix to scream and drop Shugaru to the ground while he flails about.

Meanwhile, up above:

"Pupu… I don't feel so good. The mana burn is too great; I think I'm going to pass-out."

"Pupa, keep it together! Sose needs us to keep this flame spire going; we can't let him down"

"I—"

Pupa's eyes close and he falls out of the sky, crashing to the ground. The flame spire noticeably weakens in both intensity and coverage.

"Pupa! SHIT!"

Meanwhile, back down below:

"AHHHH!! You've blinded me!? ARGH the PAIN!"

Sose frantically reaches around his neck and grabs a hold of his seer stone and begins to will it to respond, however this takes him some time.

Dandan seizes the moment to run over to Shugaru, who is laying on the ground, and starts licking his face while talking to him.

"Brother! My beautiful, strong brother! Please say something!"

"Ugh, Dandan? Are you okay?"

"Yes, brother! You should've seen it, I blinded Sose!"

"Sose? What… where…" Shugaru has trouble getting grips with reality "OH!"

Shugaru looks around and spots Sose flailing to use his seer stone, and then notices that the flame spire begins to fade, until it dissipates completely.

"Quick, we've got an opportunity to escape, Dandan. Let's run. Get on my…"

Dandan leaps onto Shugaru's back and latches on, licking his neck with passion. Shugaru sighs, rolls his eyes, and sprints away from the tower and towards the Squirrel Realm. Sose, unaware of their escape, finally focuses long enough to will a message through the seer stone. He then kneels down to the ground, unsheathes his tanto, and disembowels himself; his body being engulfed in flames once he dies.

Meanwhile, near the Squirrel Portal, Lopez is just arriving as his seer stone begins to glow. He stops on a tree branch and grabs the stone, willing the information out of it:

"Lopez the Owl, we've got a message for you from a Sose the Phoenix:

'Lopez, I was bested in my fight against the knight protecting Dandan. I've no doubt that Pupa and Pupu will not be able to keep them contained for much longer, so they will most likely pass through to the Squirrel Realm. By the time you get this message, I will have been reincarnated in the Realm of Flames, and will have alerted Lord Buddy of the situation. We will most likely be sending a small force to gain control of the Realm of Fish, but as we discussed, it is imperative that you follow Dandan. The Empire is counting on you, Lopez."