Inkwhumptobertale 2024

Day Six

Hyperspeed - No-Holds-Barred Beatdown (I don't actually know what this means, but it has something to do with fighting, I think, right?)

Trigger warnings: fight-related violence.

I have been playing a lot of Hollow Knight recently. This may or may not be evident here. And if you're interested, I listened to "Decisive Battle" from the Hollow Knight OST while writing most of this. I actually fought the boss with that theme today, and I loved it a lot, hehe! 

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

It started as a normal day. Well, normal enough, anyway - no day was really normal when one was a multiversal hero. On this normal-enough day, Dream and the other Star Sanses had gone to face off against their enemies: Nightmare's gang, consisting of an emotional guardian and four alternate versions of the same person. The fight had gone as it usually did for quite a while, with everyone facing off against someone else (oftentimes multiple enemies, for Dream's side); Dream was once again fighting against his brother, as per usual. 

Nightmare and Dream rarely landed their attacks on eachother, and the citizens of the multiverse liked to speculate whether that was because of their unwillingness to really damage eachother or because of pure skill. Dream couldn't speak for Nightmare, but for him, it was definitely the latter. Once, a long time ago, Dream had been hesitant to do anything to his sibling, but he had long since learned that landing a hit was sometimes the deciding factor of a battle, and he held back far less as a result. He didn't attack his brother blindly out of nowhere, but when he was in the midst of a fight, he knew better than to try to talk things out. He didn't know why Nightmare didn't always take his chances to disable Dream, though; that answer had always eluded him. 

Dream let out a sharp exhale as he dodged a tentacle, and for some reason, he felt as if today's battle would be a little different. He split his staff into golden twin daggers as his brother narrowed his eyesocket, and silently, a message was sent and understood between them: today was a day to fight. Not because of any obligation or special event - it just felt..right. 

And so they did.

Dream ran forwards, moving to slash with his blades, but Nightmare grabbed his wrist - not a problem. Dream desummoned his daggers as he lept up into the air, taking hold of Nightmare's forearm as he did. He cartwheeled himself over Nightmare too fast for his brother to react (that wouldn't be possible again this fight), and as he landed, he used his momentum and his hold to take Nightmare down with him he forced himself to hop to his feet as soon as he hit the ground; Nightmare wouldn't be defeated so easily today!

As the negative guardian hit the ground, he disappeared into the shadows, melting into the ground instead of taking the hit. Dream revived his twin daggers in an instant, but he formed them into a staff the next second, and he thrust it into the dry earth beneath him, bringing about a bright flash of light in the area - Nightmare couldn't hide in shadows that weren't there! Once the flash had begun, Dream took advantage of the cover to form his daggers - he had a feeling his bow wouldn't be of much use right now. The first thing Dream saw as the light cleared was a black circle-

A dark goopy tentacle was headed straight for his face, and he dropped to avoid it, but he did not drop his guard - he sliced through the tendril on its return trip to grab him. Dream got back to his feet quickly, not wanting to leave himself in such an unguarded position for long. Nightmare had stalked off to play a long-distance game, likely waiting for the positive light to fully dissipate before he would dare return, and Dream was his target. The dark guardian shot his tendrils into the ground, using his attack magic to give them more range than before; the ground beneath Dream started to tremble. Preparing to move quickly, Dream watched the ground to determine the danger zones; they wouldn't be too obvious, knowing Nightmare's tactics. Dream felt the earth beneath him lose its stability, and he darted backwards just in time, but he stopped just short of a rising tentacle - four had shot out of the ground simultaneously. Gritting his teeth, Dream chanced a glance over to Nightmare, who smirked; this was how he was going to play his game, then.

After the moment of eye contact, Nightmare's tentacles retreated into the ground, and Dream treaded lightly; Nightmare wouldn't hold back now. Dream evaded Nightmare's tentacles when they fired up out of the ground again, but he failed to slice through one of them before they slithered back down for another round. Two seconds later, they came up again, and they went down again before Dream could enact a counter-attack. Then one and a half seconds before the next wave, then one, getting faster and faster. Dream sidestepped on the unstable ground, dodging out of the way of the tentacles as they shot up and down, and he felt as if he were playing a life-sized game of whack-a-mole - except this was faster, and his life was at stake. His feet moved on instinct, traversing the crumbling ground beneath him and attempting to avoid the growing and multiplying ankle-breaking holes in the landscape. Dream needed to turn this game in his favor. He tossed his daggers into the air to form his bow in the middle of a dodge, and he caught the bow's riser as he enacted a second evasion, gripping it tightly as he prepared his escape from this one-sided attack. He gathered some positive energy in his right hand, forming it into the shape of an arrow and nocking his bow in a couple seconds' time. Once he was ready, he aimed his bow at the ground beneath him, and the positivity surged through the earth, forcing Nightmare's extra limbs to retreat back to him. 

As soon as the tentacles stopped coming, Dream rose his aim and fired at Nightmare, who sidestepped his arrow with ease; Dream would need something better than that today. Nightmare disappeared into the shadows once more, coming out somewhere out of Dream's sight-

Nightmare utilized something he only very rarely used in the same way Dream did: his emotion-based attack magic. He appeared roughly twenty feet behind Dream, sending a barrage of negatively-charged magic constructs (orbs, today) at his brother, who responded with a positive protective barrier. As soon as the last orb hit, the barrier dissipated from the opposition, and Dream sprinted towards Nightmare, who welcomed the charge. The negative guardian slipped away again, leaving more dark spheres in his wake. They circled Dream, but the positive guardian didn't wait before slicing through them with his daggers - he needed to force Nightmare back into this fight, not waste time on dealing with his brother's attacks. Dream located Nightmare behind him once more, and he threw one of his daggers at him, forcing Nightmare to dodge; the dagger immediately exploded into a field of positive energy which would prevent Nightmare's easy escape as Dream drew closer. 

Dream closed the gap, slashing at his brother, and Nightmare responded with a sidestep and a counter-attack, swinging a tentacle at Dream. The positive guardian ducked under the tendril, and he used his position to slice at Nightmare's shins: a hit, at which Nightmare responded with a hiss and shot his tentacles out at Dream to act as an offensive shield for any extra attacks. After a roll to get himself out of harm's way and a jump to his feet, Dream grinned confidently at his brother, who let out a long exhale. The positive energy in the air still lingered, and that slice across his legs wouldn't aid him in escaping easily - he'd have to use his limited supply of tentacles to move about for the time being if he wished to continue.

Nightmare let out a hum, his sign of a withdrawal, and Dream let him go, watching as his brother carried himself away from today's battle.

That had been fun.