Take Two

That Genova fellow (the evil fireplace, remember?), perhaps furious from its defeat in another timeline I actually don't know about was a huge pain in the butt this time, spamming traps like Angela spammed Holy Whateverspell. So we ran out of Revive-O-Grails right quick. And there was still one more boss fight to go.

Billandben knocked me out almost right away, leaving Duran and Angela to shove chocos down their throats pretty much every time they were hit. They couldn't take any chances, after all. Of course, I couldn't let them think it was okay to eat my chocolate without my permission, so I made sure to give them a piece of my mind once they woke me up. And all that was left for healing... I love sugar and similar sweeteners as much as the next guy, but having to chug a flask of honey... ugh. But then, It sure beat actual healing potions, especially that Tide brand. And then I just take a few dozen points of puking damage and need another heal.

Anyway, turns out the town at the bottom of the mountain looted some great weapons and armor from the ninjas. Even though they only used knives, the armory had all of our weapons of choice. And, yes, armors in our exact fit. Frankly, I don't remember seeing any ninjas with my stature, but there you go. While I'm thinking of it, I don't remember when I started wearing armor, either.

Guess what else went better in this timeline? I found an item shop on the ghost ship. Run by... geez, I don't know what to call it. Some kind of zombie-ghost-zombie. I mean, wait. What timeline am I comparing this one to?

So. A room with a suspicious dead end. A note on the wall giving a list of books. Books whose titles were in the suspicious dead end room. I took the note and took a closer look at the books in question.

Why was one book listed twice, I tried to ask when I realized I had pulled out a book a second time, but then the wall to the right completely disappeared. I chose to stay still, all bemused. Duran decided to act the brains and walk right into the trap, picking up the book on the table. He read aloud. "Captain's log: Die die die die die die die... die... hm."

Suddenly a ghost appeared, apparently excited about the fact. "Hey guys I'm a /ghost!/" Well, I was genre savvy enough for this. He was either a creepy creep who was going to try to kill us, or--

"I found the ghost ship! Isn't this great? But I think I want to leave now. So here's a curse. Bye!"

And Duran promptly turned transparent, the ghost man vanishing without a trace. I glanced at a Revive-O-Grail, but decided it wasn't worth it.

Just then, the Exposition Faerie appeared. "Looks like you can't leave while the curse is on you."

"All right," I said. "No problem, then. All we need to do is whack the boss in charge, right? Of course, that seems a little redundant."

"All right," said Duran. "Can't I just pass it on to someone else like the last guy?"

I laughed. "Yyyeah, bye." Angela in tow, I took off for the door we hadn't farmed past yet.

Wouldn't you know it.

BOSS FIGHT
VERSUS... OH GEEZ. UM, IT STARTED WITH A G, I THINK. MAYBE WITH A V IN IT.

This man liked to stay tantalizingly out of reach. Of course, the response to that is to cast Holy Ball, which Angela was spamming anyway. Of course, then he revealed some new attacks. Silence! That was a new status effect. Honestly, I was too stingy to ever buy status healers, and Angela was too frail to switch to melee, but I did think of a way around it. I simply stopped tossing her heal candies. She couldn't argue; she was silenced. I don't think she caught on to my tactics until the holy grail revived her to perfect condition.

So, yeah, with those extra mana points, he went down kind of disappointingly.

VICTORY

Duran ran up the stairs to meet us, and in unrelated news, a vaguely bat-shaped shadow flew out of nowhere, yelling, "I'm free!"

"Shade!" said Faerie. "So you're on the ghost ship? Lucky we met up. Is the Mana Stone of Darkness here, then?"

"Oh. Uh, no," said the bat signal. "That was destroyed in that ancient struggle for control of the Mana Stones."

"Oh no," said Angela. "You don't mean--"

"I do. The Mana Beast of Darkness ravaged the lands before suddenly disappearing and nobody knows where it ended up."

"Gosh," I said, knocked on my behind from the sheer shock. "When did the plot show up?"

"Weren't you there when we talked to the Priest of Light?" said Duran.

"Oh, yeah."

"Speaking of oh, yeah," said Shade. "Now that I'm free, the entire ship is gonna blow."

"Say wha--"

DOOM.


SHADE GET