The Battle

As Mel watched in utter confusion, two of the monstrous clones pulled their hands out from the rippling air; the third let out a shriek, withdrawing its own hand. He was startled to see that two of them were bleeding greenish liquid.

In their fists, the first two were each holding something, though he was having trouble seeing what- but on one of the hands was what looked to be some sort of lizard with metallic limbs, plunging a slender sword into the creature. With an angry cry, the monster in question flung him aside, forcing him to withdraw his blade with a slick fleshy noise, and in doing so it also hurled someone else it had been holding in its fist, what looked to be a muscular dragon. Both men cried out as they sailed across the throne room, before both grunting as they collided with and slid across the floor.

Mel had followed their arc with his gaze, blinking dumbly for a moment- before the second of the monsters let out a shriek. He whirled to look at it, seeing that it in turn was looking at its injured partner; it quickly dropped what it was holding, which fell to the floor. Again, the king's eye was drawn to it- "it" soon revealing itself to be a cat-racoon hybrid, who looked to be frozen rigid and unable to move.

But before he could process this, the ceiling erupted in lilac light, a circle of it forming- and from that plunged two more figures, a husky and a Samoyed. The former landed gracefully on the floor; the latter less so, swearing as he slowly, painfully got to his feet.

"Oh, more invaders, how delightful!" the darkness groaned.

Mel's gaze darted between the assorted new arrivals, baffled- until he got a better look at the husky, noticing his outfit and glasses. "Wait... Ars?!"

"You know them?" the shadow inquired.

Mel scowled. "I know him, at any rate. And I'm guessing he knows that one." He gestured vaguely at the other dog, covered in cuts and with jagged bone spurs jutting from his limbs.

"Ugh, an infestation..."

"Listen!" Mel hissed. "They can help us deal with this!"

There was a pregnant pause, during which roars from the monster intermingled with the various cries and exclamations of the new arrivals- before the figure finally let out an irritated sigh. "Do you vow to send them away once they-?"

"Why would I keep them here longer?!" Mel demanded, incredulity and venom bubbling from every syllable.

"Mind your tongue!" the shadow shot back... then sighed heavily, this time with weary resignation. "Fine, fine- just get rid of the pest and be done with it!"

Mel didn't bother with a verbal acknowledgement, immediately pelting for his friend. "ARS!" he cried, waving his arms.

The husky's head snapped to him, and he seemed to sigh with relief before running over to meet him. "Good, you're safe!" he exulted.

Mel scowled. "'Safe' is a relative term right now..." He jerked his head toward the flying creatures. "Something's wrong with Dion."

Ars looked quickly at where he'd indicated, recoiling in shock. "Why... are there three of him?!"

"It's his astral clone ability, I assume- he has the power to make illusory copies, used it in when we fought earlier. Not now!" he said and held up a hand as Ars opened his mouth. "Look- we need to hold him down. Once he's restrained, we can work on trying to reverse... whatever this is."

"Thaaaaaat's gonna be tricky," the white dog remarked as he joined them. "I can't really handle long-range."

Mel looked at him. "And you are...?"