Of Soulmates and Bonds - Errorink

16. What goes up must go down

Dear readers, you're amazing! We reached 1K read, I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd have 1K read over an UTMV fanfiction in 2022. I almost feel bad for what I wrote in this chapter! Almost.

The targets were going toward elevator L1.

Sans obviously knew their destination, they had to go to the Barrier if they wanted to get out of this empty AU, but he was waiting for the right moment to attack. He used the opportunity to further study the enemy.

He already knew that the blue one, unoriginally named Blue, wasn't much of a threat: to be able to bring Nightmare to the Omega Timeline, Sans had to spend a couple of weeks inside, to gain CORE's trust and obtain the "code" that would let him enter on his own, and had met the other a couple of times. He was an inferior copy of himself, a decent fighter who crippled himself with morals and mercy; someone who would hesitate and never land a killing blow.

Still, ignoring him would just be moronic: there's no harmless enemy but a dead one. It would be better to pit Horror against him to give the brute something to hit, and keep them both out of the way.

The Destroyer, Error, was much more troubling: Sans had seen him when he attacked the Omega Timeline, and it was clear from his fighting that the other was an experienced warrior and killer. His magic was powerful, and his blue strings were especially dangerous, as they had an extremely long range. He had asked Dust about what happened after Nightmare used his powers, as he had been caught in the Guardian's attack like most of the army, and the sheer number of souls that had been trapped in Error's web was frankly disturbing.

On the other hand, that meant that a close-quarter combat against a fighter quick on their feet was the most effective opponent for the Destroyer: Killer and his knife were the best choice.

However, that wasn't what was stopping him.

The Creator, Ink, was a wild card, and Sans wasn't about to take his chances; Nightmare liked to present himself as all-powerful, but all of his army knew that he couldn't best his twin in a one-on-one fight, though the opposite was true as well. The two Guardians were evenly matched, and Sans strongly suspected the same was true for the Destroyer and the Creator; Ink's fighting style being unknown put them all at a strong disadvantage.

The only thing he could guess was that the enormous paintbrush strapped on his back was some sort of club-like weapon, and that meant fighting from a distance: Dust was the only one of the trio that liked to use bone attacks and gaster blasters, so he'd be the Creator's opponent.

Sans sighed a bit; he had already explained his plan to the others, and they, unsurprisingly, didn't offer any suggestions or criticism. There wasn't any point in delaying the fight now, and the open space wasn't a bad battleground anyway. It wasn't like the three thugs would bother with stealth.

"Go!"

They charged, while Sans remained hidden behind the boulder from where he was watching the targets: he had always been a good sniper.

===============

"Go!"

Sans quickly turned toward the voice, feeling confused and alarmed. There wasn't supposed to be anyone inside but them, and the AU had been destroyed before they arrived, so who...

Sans barely dodged a sharp bone that whizzed past his head, and saw three skeletons charging at them. They were under attack!

He readied two long bones in his hands, and saw that Error shot his strings at them immediately, but the others dodged.
"Other people!" Ink didn't seem to realize the danger they were in, and though it was understandable, it really wasn't the time.

"ιŇ𝕂, t𝓱Ｅ𝕪'яＥ ᵇＡ𝓭 ｐＥσｐ𝔩Ｅ!(Ink, they're bad people!)" Error yelled.
"Really?"
"үＥş, ⓌＥ 𝓱ＡѶＥ tσ ⓕ𝐢Ｇ𝓱t! รtＡ𝕪 ᵇＥ𝓱-(Yes, we have to fight! Stay beh-)"
"Alright!"
"ιภķ!(INK!)"

Ink had charged ahead, taking Broomie out of his holster and holding him like a club, so Sans ran after him to protect him, with Error at his side.

The enemies were vaguely familiar, but Sans didn't have time to wonder where he had seen them before, because an axe came into view and tried to slice his right side: the Royal Guard trainee jerked to the left, realizing a moment too late that the move was made with the intent to separate him from Error; his friend was now engaged in combat with someone armed with a knife, who was slashing madly and not giving the Destroyer a chance to do anything other than dodge.

He could only glimpse his friend for a moment, before he had to turn all his attention to his own opponent: the owner of the axe, a skeleton about twice his size with a hole in his skull and madness in his eyes. With a deranged smile, the other had already brought down his axe again, and Sans crossed both the bones in his hands over his skull to intercept his swing in midair.

It was taking all of his strength to block the attack, and he could feel himself trembling. He glared at the other, to show him he was not afraid, and he only let out a gravelly laugh that sent shivers down Sans' spine.
"...Little Blue...looks tasty..."

The giant started putting more pressure on the axe, so Sans braced himself and rolled out of the way, letting the weapon hit the ground; as soon as he stopped rolling, Sans held his hand forward and created a cage of blue attacks, effectively blocking the axe maniac. He let out a sigh and he got up, and then had to quickly move his foot, because a stray bone had almost impaled it. Luckily, it would take more than a simple distraction for him to lose control of his magic: the cage was still in place, and the other was still inside, though he didn't seem bothered, and kept chuckling.

Sans quickly looked around.
Error was still stuck against the knife wielder, and every time he managed to put a little distance between them the other quickly caught up: it was clear that Error couldn't use any bone attacks or gaster blasters without also hitting himself, and he didn't have enough space to use his strings either.

Sans, however, knew he could handle himself (he had fought against an army, for goodness' sake) and searched for Ink instead, afraid that his naive friend had gotten hurt.

The Creator was fighting against a hooded figure, who kept shooting blasters and bone attacks from a distance; by all accounts, Ink should have been hit, or maybe tripped, or gotten distracted, but instead was twirling and dodging gracefully, light on his feet.
He almost looked like he was dancing.
Suddenly, numerous bones came toward Ink, who couldn't avoid them all and instead swung his brush in a horizontal sweep, leaving black ink in midair to act as a shield: the bones who made contact with the ink were absorbed, and then the ink came crashing down, disappearing when it touched the ground.
Mid-twirl, his face could be seen: his expression was completely serious, his pupils two green squares.

Sans was stunned. It was easy to forget, with his childish behaviour, that Ink was actually god-like: he could make things appear out of thin air, rebuild entire worlds, didn't even need to sleep and who knows what else.
Right now though, while fighting, he seemed every bit the powerful entity he was.

But he wasn't omniscient, so he couldn't see the bone flying toward him at an alarming speed; Sans tried to warn him.
"Ink duck!"
And Ink, naive and literal Ink, turned around smiling and asked: "Where?", just as the bone impaled his skull with a crunch.

See you on Tuesday :)