Mushroom Kingdom Anew - Book 1

Chapter Six

"Oh my god... this desert is so. Fucking. HOT!" Terry whined loudly as she dragged her feet through the dry yellow sand. A hot and unpleasant desert wind blew between the heroes, causing them all to tense up. Terry was right; it was hot.

"I can agree... I'd take anything to escape this awful heat... " Xavier groaned, fanning himself with his shirt hem. Ace sighed heavily and swiped at his sweaty brow. "Well, we've been walking in the desert for a few hours. If one thing's for sure, we should find shelter before it gets dark. Deserts are cold at night."

"How the hell are we gonna find shelter?!" Terry screeched, gesturing broadly to the area they were currently standing in. "It's a desert wasteland! There's probably nothing 500 miles out in any direction!"

"Well, all except for the Oasis I'm currently looking at." Xavier said, pointing to what looked like a convenient looking pond of fresh water. Palm trees jutted out of the ground in several areas, casting shade over certain parts of the Oasis. Terry said nothing as she dashed off to the pond to cool off. Ace and Xavier looked between each other, smirked, and ran after her.

The three wasted no time even stripping down as they dove headfirst into the cool, refreshing water. Ace came up and floated on his back, spewing water out of his mouth. Terry and Xavier had gotten into a splash fight, laughing as they took turns attacking each other with small waves of water.

"'Ey, wha's goin' on! Dis ain't right, dis is our Oasis!" A grumpy voice said from underneath one of the palm trees. The heroes stopped what they were doing to look up and see a few weird looking Koopa making their way to the edge of the water from under the shade of the trees. But something was off. Upon closer inspection, they actually weren't Koopa at all, but rather skeletons of Koopa. And they were moving! And talking!

"Woah, Halloween came early." Terry chukled. She was then suddenly socked in the nose by what looked like a bone, coming from one of the three figures on the shoreline. The blonde went crashing into the water, and the bone that was thrown went back to one of the three Skeletons. Xavier was now pissed, shooting out of the water and landing a couple metres away from their adversaries. His raccoon ears quivered in annoyance as he glared the skeletal figures down.

"Oi, why'd you do that?!" He questioned aggressively. The skeletons chuckled. "Because, dumbass. We're the Dry Bones unit belonging to our lord Vincent, and we were tasked with ending you where you stand."

The other two Dry Bones cackled at that, which only made Xavier angrier. "Actually, we were just about to leave our little paradise to go lookin' for you's, but then you's just come and mosey along right into our bony hands. This couldn't be more perfect." The left one continued. The right one looked up at the left one confused. "But we can't swim, so how perfect is this? Aren't we at a disadvan-" The center just shushed them both, smirking confidently at the angry warrior before them.

Xavier clenched his fists and got into his offensive pose, glaring the skeletons down. "Bastards. You won't let us catch a single break, will you?" "Of course not, we're trying to kill you. But man! That blonde bitch went down easily. I thought you three were gonna be a challenge."

The mention of his friend was the last straw. The teenager flew at top speed, aiming for the center dry bones. The other two were fast, launching bones at the boy the second he took off from the ground. By the time Xavier actually collided with the Dry Bones, he more so threw his entire body against him rather than centered a kick. This was because of the bony projectiles thrown by the skeleton's compatriots, which forced him to raise his guard mid-attack. He went tumbling to the ground, the head of the creature rolling up beside him. He exhaled, thinking about how easy that actually was. But before he could open his mouth to say some smart remark about his easy victory, the center dry bones' body meandered up to the head and bent down to grab it. The brunette watched in horror as the Dry Bones placed his head gingerly back onto his neck, smirking cruely.