Midgardsormr slashed at the giant floating pumpkin while screaming wildly. Other heroes blasted it, a few threw bombs. All the while, Spirit of Halloween seemed to be having fun.
Midgardsormr yelled, “I’ll give you something to laugh at!” And grabbed the enemy, then threw him across the arboretum. After that, he led a massive charge of heroes toward the thrown villain.
At the same time, The Wizard blasted apart a recreation of Frankenstein’s monster and then blocked a fire blast from a demonic-looking firebird. He jumped over another hero and cast a spell that sent the firebird away.
“We have to do something. This is endless!” Wizard yelled.
Creepshow smiled from under his mask. “Don’t know bout you, but this is kinda fun.” The black clad hero held out his arm and clothes-lined a rampaging demon-clown as it ran by chasing Furious Squirrel. Furious skidded to a stop and shot the clown with one of his pistols.
The Wizard came up close to Creepshow, and the pair fought back to back against more of these demonic creations. “I don’t get it!”
Creepshow kicked a screaming doll, “What?”
“No one has been hurt!”
Creepshow shoved The Wizard back as he caught a dive bombing skeletal bird. He thrust it down and used his knee to shatter the empty skull. “Sure. We’re just too good.”
“I’d love to believe that. But, statistically, we shouldn’t be doing this well. I think Spirit is just toying with us.”
Creepshow grabbed a crazed, bloodstained dog by the throat and threw it across the arboretum. “What do you suggest?”
“If you...” The Wizard blasted a bolt of electricity at a demon-tomato, blowing it apart. “If you can get Midgardsormr to direct Spirit to the middle of the room, I might be able to deal with this.”
“If you think you can, I’m willing to give it a go.” Creepshow jumped over a puddle of monster ooze and then tumbled through the grass.
He ran hard toward the thick of this combat, bypassing opportunities to kill more of these strange illusions. Even he had to admit it seemed odd how well the heroes were doing. These images of horror were ugly, scary, and bloodthirsty, but they were rather easy to defeat.
Just then a man with mechanical wings landed right next to him and shot a pair of lasers at a rampaging ax-wielding snowman.
“Hotwings!” Creepshow yelled.
“What?”
“Get Midgardsormr to direct the attack toward the center of the room!”
Hotwings blasted the still moving head of the mostly melted snowman. “What? Like I can get that loudmouth to follow orders.”
“Just try, will ya? Wizard has an idea, and right now I’m willing to try anything to take this guy down.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Hotwings jumped and then blasted off.
The Wizard cast a wide swath of electricity and decimated a swarm of terrorizing ravens. He dodged heroes and jumped over fallen horror illusions. More than once he had to move extra quick not to be caught in the crossfire of other heroes battling their demons.
He saw his objective and raced harder. EB threw eggs with incredible speed as he pelted Spirit from afar. The Wizard slid across the ground like a baseball player stealing a base. “EB!”
“BUSY!” EB yelled and then lobbed several eggs at Spirit, missing him as he flew by.
“I have an idea!”
EB finally stopped fighting long enough to ask, “What?”
“We need to open a cross-dimensional portal.”
“A dimensional portal? Spirit is too smart to be caught in that kinda trap. WATCH IT!” He threw an egg and blew apart a flaming pumpkin.
“Normally, Spirit wouldn’t. But I can sense his use of magic is taxing him. He’s fighting hundreds of heroes while spreading that fear fog all the way to the planet. This might make him susceptible.”
“I don’t know. But I’m willing to try it.”
The Wizard got to his feet and quickly cast a shield to stop another flaming pumpkin from reaching them. “Find Krystal, tell her to get to the third point, I’ll start it. When they get Spirit in the center, we open the portal.”
“Right away!” EB blast off, dashing under the feet of both allies and enemies.
Midgardsormr, now three stories tall, punched Spirit, slamming him against the glass dome. Several other heroes swarmed around, firing rapidly at the enemy.
“SURRENDER!” Midgardsormr bellowed.
Spirit laughed and then became translucent, fazing through the terrible serpent. “And end the best Halloween party ever. Hardly.” He flew beyond them, cackling in glee.
Midardsormr growled and raced after his enemy, his fury growing every second.
Even translucent, Spirit wasn’t impervious to the power thrown at him. He dodged fire and was hit a few times. It appeared weaker, but no less joyful in this battle.
Hotwings swooped up and waved at Midgardsormr, “Hey!”
“NOT NOW!” Midgardsormr slapped Hotwings away.
Hotwings nearly hit the ground and then zoomed back around the stomping hero. “Watch the hands! You just about did me in.”
“Don’t care.” Midgardsormr caught Spirit by the stem on the top of his head and threw him.
Hotwings flew up in front of Midgardsormr again. “STOP FOR A MOMENT AND LISTEN!”
“WHAT!!” It appeared the giant serpent was about to destroy one of his allies at this moment.
“Get Spirit into the middle of the room.”
“WHY?”
“I don’t know. Some heroes have a plan. Just do it!”
“I don’t listen to puny mortals. I can deal with this little pest myself! MOVE!” He shoved Hotwings away.
Hotwings blasted him in the face. “JUST DO IT! If it fails, then you can have him all to yourself!”
“FINE! Once their little plan fails, I FINISH HIM!” Midgardsormr roared and went for his enemy.
By now, the rest of the heroes fighting alongside Midgardsormr were just about defeated in battle with Spirit. Midgardsormr punched Spirit and then bellowed, “GET TO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM, YOU PATHETIC SPECK!”
The others caught on quickly and used their fight to direct Spirit toward the middle of the room.
Spirit was flung through the air, blasted a few times, and punched hard. He laughed and said, “What little trick are you to play on me? Oh, what joy will this be?”
Suddenly three beams of light created a triangle that filled the arboretum. The Wizard, Krystal Fae, and EB each held the corners of this triangle, emitting the light from their hands. In the middle, a swirling vortex of energy formed.
“What...what is this!” Spirit finally stopped laughing.
Midgardsormr now was the one laughing, “your end.” He slammed his fist down on top of Spirit. More than one hero blasted their weapons on top. Finally, Hotwings flew directly down and shoved Spirit into the vortex.
“But...I haven’t….” Spirit called out as they thrust him out of this dimension.
The moment he sunk into the portal, his orange fog inside and outside vanished. The horrific creations instantly faded away. Heroes stood still, breathlessly waiting for what horror they would face next. After a few moments of calm, the tired warriors slowly cheered. It was finally over.
Director Nova stood with his back to a corner, Dr. Hostetter tightly held behind him.
“Sir...what...do we do now?”
Nova took aim as the shadow of the chupacabra came around the corner. “I don’t know. I’ve hit that thing twelve times, and it’s still coming.”
“Are we going to die?” Dr. Hostetter asked.
“Not today. Just...stay still.” Nova waited with his gun.
The growling, hissing, huffing sounds of this legendary goat-eater announced its presence. The gnarly, oily, wiry-haired creature turned the corner and looked at them with its beady red eyes, and gloppy drool spilling across the deck plating.
“Say adios.” Nova took aim for its skull.
Suddenly the creature vanished in an orange puff of smoke.
Nova stood there, his gun still ready. “What...just happened?”
“Did you kill it?” Dr. Hostetter asked.
“I don’t think so. I don’t know what happened.” He pulled out his comm, “anyone read?” There was nothing but the same fuzz that had been coming through since he arrived. “I don’t know what’s going on. But, optimistically, this is over. I need to get back and check on things. You need to head to a safe place. Head for deck twelve, one deck down. Look for the room marked with a red triangular symbol. That is a safe place.”
“Don’t have to ask me twice. Do me a favor, if my wife asks what I’ve been up to here, tell her nothing about this.” With that, Dr. Hostetter rushed off.
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