Of monsters and men

[Undyne]

After having crossed the overgrown gate that came closest to the one leading to Camelot Undyne was in for a pleasant surprise: they had come out into an enormous forest! For some odd reason crossing the gate turned their Tetsumas into living, breathing horses, but Undyne didn't bother trying to understand what was going on. There probably was some underlying magic rule that did not permit for mechanical mounts around here? Hell if she knew. But, she was digressing... the forest. It extended all around them, much like it did around the Snowdin region although it was a little more varied in terms of vegetation and there was no snow. Actually, quite the opposite: it was a little warm, the air was humid and there were occasional breezes. She found that she liked Snowdin better.

Jeremy perked his ears and listened to the sounds all around them. "This place is rather lively", he said. "I can hear animals and insects all around us."

"Well, you ARE a feline and your ears are half the size of your head, so no surprise there", Undyne remarked as she summoned a spear. "Hey, you know how to handle one of these?"

"No..."

"Well, that's too bad." She tossed it towards him and summoned a new one while Jeremy nearly fell out of the saddle as he tried to catch the thrown one and then hold onto it without cutting himself or the horse to shreds in the process. "I'm not your babysitter so you better get used to one. I'll summon a solid one so that yours doesn't break."

"I'll hurt myself more than anything that comes at me", the feline remarked while taking a few tentative stabs, adjusting to the spear in his hand to hold it properly. “I’d rather...” He blinked and stopped, his ears perking up and catching a sound that Undyne could not hear. “We may get company soon. There’s a pair of people coming our way.”

Undyne grinned broadly and patted his back. “See! I knew that you’d be able to make yourself useful. Now, just try to poke the spear at whatever gets too close to you. If they don’t jerk back, poke harder and yell for me to come help you.”

“And hope that I’m not dead by the time you are there”, he replied with a resigned sigh. “They’re coming that way... probably along this path. Three... no, four people, sounds like they are wearing metal armor. I hear clanking.”

“Armor, eh? Well then, see if I can’t match them. Just yell when they’re coming close.” She sat down and visualized her own suit, which wasn’t very hard. She had worn it for very long times after all, polished every surface, greased every joint and checked every leather piece. Jeremy meanwhile continued to listen, gripping the humming energy spear tighter and closely eyeing the footpath. But, whoever was coming that way, they were taking their sweet time. Undyne was able to conjure her armor and put everything on with time to spare. “Jeremy, withdraw for now”, she said as she fixated the helmet in place and took the horse’s reins to keep it close. “Don’t come out unless I tell you so.”

“What’s the matter?” he asked as he had his horse back up and turned to get off the path.

“My armor hides who I am but you’re exposed. We need to be careful.”

Shortly after a group of three men and a woman on foot came into view from behind a group of closely clumped-up trees, and followed the path towards her. When they noticed, they accelerated their steps. She noticed that they were wearing chainmail and leather armor, and maces. Good job, Jeremy, she thought to herself.

“Hoi, traveler!” the leader of the group spoke with a raised voice. “What’s someone like you doing this far from civilization?”

“Greetings, strangers, and I could be asking you the same thing”, Undyne replied. “I’ve actually just arrived through the Nexus Gate and am trying to get myself situated.”

“You’d best head the way we came from, then”, the man remarked. “Yggdrasil lies that way. Other’n that, there isn’t much to be found in this jungle.” While speaking he motioned to his comrades who started to move around Undyne. They tried to make it look like they were getting around her to continue their trek but she felt suspicious almost immediately. For now she just played along.

“Any path I should avoid?”

“You’d best not head south, that’s where the monsters have nested in.” He spat on the ground. “Ambrosians. At least all those freaks are clumped up in one place that way.”

Undyne snickered. “Monsters, you say? What sort of?”

“Freaks from Cinnabar, half-humans, bipedal animals... that sort of thing.”

“What about Boss monsters? White-furred and with goat-like horns and ears.”

“Hell if I know, stranger!” the other traveler said. “I’ve never set foot in there. You hunting one or something?”

“I might be. What’s it to you?”

“A traveling bounty-hunter then.” He grinned. “Your kind carry a lot of cash on you, don’t you?” Two of the travelers suddenly walked left and right of Undyne, seemingly casual as they did so, but she could also sense the fourth one directly behind her. They were trapping her. “And there I was unhappy that we’ll have to return to Scar saying that the elves found us out and we couldn’t snag any loot in the raid. At least we won’t come back empty-handed.” He reached for the sword hilt on his back.

“Don’t draw it. You’re making a big mistake.”

“The only mistake that can be made here is you not surrendering your armor and what’s in your pockets to us.”

Undyne chuckled and removed her helmet, revealing her fish features to the group leader, whose face reflected big surprise. “I’m not going to do any such thing. Now move along.”

“It’s a freak!” one of the other men yelled, the woman chiming in with a disgusted shriek and pulling a club from where it was attached to her waist. In the meantime, the group leader drew his sword and stepped forward to deliver a brutal slash at her unprotected head with a battlecry.

Her helmet, thrown with gusto, hit him straight in the face and sent him tumbling back, his broken nose sputtering blood over his clothes. The others cursed and attacked her simultaneously from three sides. It was too bad that they were dealing with an experienced combatant. Undyne blocked the axe hit from one side using the toughened steel of her left glove while summoning a spear into her right hand. The woman on her right side got in a hit with her club but she had aimed too low and instead of striking Undyne’s head hit the back of her torso-protecting armor, causing a loud clank and a dent. The third was preparing their bow and wasn’t a concern to her... yet.

“Humans are more pitiful than I thought. Even Frisk was more skilled than you!” Granted, Frisk had blocked her attacks and run away from her at the first chance instead of actually attacking her, but had she actually attacked the fight would have taken a very interesting turn. While toppling over the man whose strike she had blocked she blocked a second hit from the woman with the bottom of her spear, then grabbed the man before her by the shoulder just as he was regaining his balance and skewered him with the spear. The energy tip penetrated the crude chainmail, went straight through his body and broke through the back, covered in blood. His eyes widened and he spattered blood as Undyne tossed him back and snatched the axe from his hand before it could fall to the ground. One down, three to go.

“You monster! You killed Frank!” the woman yelled as she swung the club only to have it deflected by the axe, her momentum carrying her past the armored fish. She barely dodged a blow that would have split her in half.

“Shut up, Sapphire! You know you’re not supposed to use our real names!” yelled the man with the bow while hastily putting an arrow on the string and taking aim. “Keep her busy! I’ll kill this freak!”

With a rage-filled scream, the woman launched herself at Undyne once more. She kept her eyes on the axe when readying to swing her club and in the process missed her opponent shifting her weight until it was too late. Undyne’s armored boot hit her arm from below, forcing her to drop her club to move along to the motion if she didn’t want to break it. She cursed as she stumbled back, but her task had been accomplished: the fish-woman had stood still for long enough.

The bowman let go of the string of his bow and the arrow darted through the air. Only luck kept Undyne from having her head pierced, instead the arrow grazed her cheek, leaving a deep cut. But no blood poured out as she was still a monster... monsters don’t bleed. The woman’s eyes widened a bit as she realized that their plan had failed, before Undyne brought the axe down on her head, splitting her skull with the sickeningly sound of bones breaking and metal digging into brain mass. She left the weapon lodged in there and turned to the bowman who was drawing his dagger with shaky hands. “You’d better look behind you”, she said.

“Do you think I’m stupid or wha-” was all that he could respond before her summoned spear pierced his neck from behind. He could only sputter an incoherent word along with a splatter of blood before toppling forward and dying with his face on the ground.

The only one left was the group leader. Undyne summoned a new spear as she stepped towards him, knocking aside the sword that he stabbed at her. “I thought humans were stronger than that. All the monsters of the underground make up for one of you guys in soul power? How pathetic.”

“Wait! We have hostages! If you... if we don’t return to our lair, the boss will kill one for each of us that doesn’t-”

Undyne cut his plea short by stabbing him between the eyes, piercing his skull. He was dead instantly. Disgusted, she let the spear vanish again. “At least they will die knowing that you’re not walking this earth anymore. JEREMY!”

“I’m right here”, the feline replied with a wide-eyed smile that couldn’t hide his terror.

“I’ll extract their souls. You stand guard.” She gathered the bloodied bodies and laid them next to each other, then closed her eyes and focused. She had never extracted a human soul before, but she imagined that it had to be something like visualizing their essence and sucking it out. Unbeknownst to herself, what she actually did was Omnilium extraction instead, taking slightly over five minutes for each body. They vanished entirely. When she was finished with the first, she barely felt any stronger... not in the same way as had been told by the plaques in Waterfall. “These humans are exceptionally weak compared to what the legend has us believe. They didn’t even use magic.”

“And extracting a soul would leave the physical body unharmed”, noted Jeremy. “Does that mean that this is something else?”

“I’ve no idea, but in this Ambrosia place we may find more answers.” She finished the extracction, leaving only discarded weapons and a few splatters of blood on the path, then mounted back onto her horse. “Let’s get going. The human said southwards...”

“And what’s south?”

“Hang on, I remember that human history – I mean anime... they said that the sun rises east and descends west. So south has to be...” She checked the sun’s current position then pointed in a direction. “That way. Let’s get going.”

Jeremy shuddered as he lit a joint. He’d heard the stories of Undyne. But seeing the carnage was a whole different thing.

[Undyne]

Twenty minutes of travel, that felt like two hours to Undyne. Twenty minutes before the settlement came into view among the trees, starting with enormous fields of farmland, and the dirt path evolved into a stone road with buildings on either side. It was a rather chaotic amalgamation but Undyne liked Ambrosia almost immediately.

Jeremy was rolling a joint but didn't get to lighting it when he saw the village that they were entering - the stunned looks on his face hinted at why that was. "Woah", he said simply. "This place looks amazing."

"Doesn't it? I bet that we'll find the others here. Asgore, Toriel, Frisk... Alphys." The leather on her gloves creaked as she balled her fists thinking of her. She had to be here. "Maybe even the Nice Cream guy", she added with a grin.

"Or Mettaton", Jeremy replied while lighting the joint and smiling that smile that Undyne hated. Someone who had given up on his life. "Well, maybe we should ask someone."

"Sure. Pardon, Sir?" she asked, dismounting and with her helmet hanging from her belt to make herself look less threatening. The individual she had addressed, a mansized nutcracker that was somehow able to move and speak, stopped and eyed Undyne from black dots that were his painted-on eyes. "Is this Ambrosia?"

"It is quite indeed, M'lady", the nutcracker replied. The motions of his jaw rising and lowering itself made a very comical contrast to his gentlemanly manner of speech. "If I may be so bold and ask, are you new here?"

"We are. I'm looking for a few friends of ours... ever heard of a man named Asgore? Tall, white-furred, goat horns and ears?"

"Hmm, I must sincerely apologize, but I have to answer your question with a "no". There is no individual to my knowledge that matches this description."

"What about someone named Alphys? She's a short yellow-scaled drake with glasses and socially awkward?"

"I am so sorry, but that question too I cannot answer positively. And Ambrosia, as I am certain your companion and yourself have noticed, is a community of modest size, where most people know one another. I cannot pride myself in knowing everyone who lives here, but individuals as the ones you describe would be quite likely to become noticed. Are you quite certain that they have journeyed to the Tangled Green?"

Undyne sighed and shook her head. "I suppose that a community composed of monsters would be the most likely to recieve them. But I'll give it a last shot... Papyrus and Sans. They're two living skeletons, boith guys. Sans is a little taller than a kid and Papyrus is about as tall as me. Papyrus has likely made an impression if he's come through here. He has quite the ego."

"Hmm, we do have one reanimated skeleton living in Ambrosia but he's a bit withdrawn. Do either of these gentlemen have a gray beard, perhaps?"

"... not unless Sans somehow learned to grow hair on his exposed bones", Undyne murmured. "Well, so much for that then... thank you for your aid, Sir."

"Oh! If you could spare me just another minute, M'lady?"

"What is it?"

"You could ask around in Pokute Palace. You see, the one who created Ambrosia, Princess Guu, is a Prime who has lived here in the Omniverse for many years now, and has many connections. She may be able to shed further light on the whereabouts of your friends."

Undyne's face lit back up and she smiled brightly. "Alright, that sounds better! Okay, we should head there then and-"

"M'lady, I am direly sorry to interrupt you, but... the Princess is currently absent. There are other matters that she must tend to. You will not be able to speak to her today."

"Ahh, damn... any idea when she's coming back?"

"It would be too much of me to say that I know the Princess's whereabouts, let alone her plans. You may obtain further information by asking at the palace."

"Got it." She climbed back into the saddle of her horse. "I'll see if anyone can tell me more... in the meantime I'll just have to find some place to work at."

"Just a moment..." Jeremy asked as he brought his horse around to look at the nutcracker. "One last question... uh, Sir. Is there..." He stopped speaking, visibly uneasy, but Undyne gave him a strong pat on the back and he blurted out: "Is there anyone here called Mettaton? Either a big rectangular robot or a human-shaped one, with a love for TV shows and for dancing?"

"We have a great many robots and cyborgs living in Ambrosia, Sir", the nutcracker replied. "But none of them are in show business."

"... thank god", Jeremy said with a relieved sigh. He leant back on his horse and Undyne laughed as the nutcracker patiently waited.

"That would be everything, but thank you very much for your help, Sir", Undyne said. "We should be on our way, and I don't want to take any more of your time."

"Oh, please! It has been a pleasure! I wish you the best of luck on your search, M'lady and Sir." With that he began walking away with his wooden legs moving in an elegant fashion.

"Well, that settles that", Undyne said as she spurred the horse on to a slow pace. "Let's ask around at this Pokute Palace next."

[Undyne]

Undyne's feelings about leaving Jeremy behind were very mixed. Of course, without him she was much faster on her horse, she would reach this Coruscant place sooner and take on that flower without him to worry about - with all honestly, he was a MTT-Brand Burger Emporium employee, not a fighter, and would have held her back more than helped her in the fight. But at the same time, he had been nice company, and now she was alone on the road once again. And she had been able to get some of his cynic, pessimistic outlook on life beaten out of him. She could only hope that he didn't fall back to his old ways in her absence. Because if he did... well, her threat of beating him up wasn't an empty one. She held her promises.

Swiftly, her horse left Ambrosia behind, while Undyne summoned her armor back onto her body - except for the helmet, which she had appear into her hand, and put on manually. She wished she had thought of doing that before departing. The dramatic gesture would have been a lot better if there had been people to witness it. She felt more comfortable riding through this dense forest, even if there was a good path, with some protection on. Since it was unknown territory and Jeremy and her had encountered bandits on their way here, why might that not be the case on the way back too? She thought back to the group she had killed on their way here, with Jeremy hiding. Yes, it had been a good idea not to bring him along. The fight she was headed towards would be far more dangerous than the one he had seen.

... no, she'd better not think of that for now. She had to focus on the road ahead.

And as if the Tangled Green was mocking Undyne, behind the next turn she spotted the now rotting remains of her previous battle: the spots of blood soaking the ground, the broken arrow on the ground and the weapons. Well, not all of them. The axe and the bow and arrow were missing, apparently those had been found and been taken away by someone. But the sword belonging to the bandit leader still was where she had left it when she checked, hidden among a few bushes where it had fallen. Hmm... she grasped it by the hilt, shook off the dirt and leaves that had gathered on top of it and gave it a tentative swing. Come to think of it, why not? She remembered the anime characters wielding enormous swords, up to five times the size of their own body, and using it to slay mighty foes. Swords in general were something seen frequently in anime. This one was no katana, but perhaps with the same powers that she had conjured her armor with she would be able to turn this measly toothpick into a blade worthy of a Knight of King Asgore? If nothing else, it would make for a fabulous tool to chop that flower down to size.

She climbed back onto her horse, placed the sword across her lap and held it by its handle as she began to focus. Let's see how big five times her own size was... if it was too big she'd just have to go adjusting it downwards in steps, to find a sweet spot. It would be a nice distraction while she let her mount find its way back to that white expanse.