XII - Shoguness Kirina

With Enshiron positioned behind Mivangeline, Shien, and Elysia, the small party waited for the Dynastiotron Shoguness to appear. They looked around in silence. Nothing was happening.

"Where is the boss?" Shien blinked.

"Not sure, but stay alert," Mivangeline warned.

The party of four walked further into the room. Enshiron's fox ears twitched.

"I may have heard something," The Vulpi archer drew an arrow.

Shien listened. "I don't hear anything."

"Wait," Elysia's fox ears also twitched. "I think I heard it too."

Mivangeline observed the empty room, uncertain what her Vulpi friends were referring to.

"Enshiron!" Elysia yelled.

It was too late. Invisible palm strikes attacked Enshiron, damaging him until Elysia slashed her poison machete at where the hands should be. After the stealth strike, the cloaking device shut off temporarily, revealing the stealthy Shoguness boss.

Shien, Mivangeline, Elysia, and Enshiron stared at the Dynastiotron boss face-to-face. The Shoguness was a large cyborg lamia about the same size as Dosigma. The half-serpentine Shoguness had white hair and wore night vision goggles and an armored hakama.

"Cyber Shoguness Kirina, Level 500 with 500,000 HP," Mivangeline reported the Shoguness' HP and stats. "And this boss has a cloaking device."

"Sorry, we couldn't hear, Enshiron!" Shien gave the Vulpi archer a healing potion.

"No worries! Now, my dear comrades, let's slay the dragon!" Enshiron winked.

The Shoguness slithered toward the party, attacking with palm strikes.

"Avian Form: Woodpecker Beak Strikes!" Shien countered Kirina with beak-shaped palms.

"Attack from the sides!" Mivangeline ordered Elysia. "Enshiron! Support from afar!"

With Shien and the boss exchanging rolling punches, Mivangeline and Elysia sliced Kirina's serpentine body from the sides. Enshiron rained wind arrows to damage Kirina from afar as Elysia's poison sapped her HP.

"Avian Form: Shoebill Thunderforce!" Shien hurled a tough fist at the lamia.

Kirina clawed her palm into a tiger claw strike that lit with blue fire. She pushed against Shien's fist, sending him flying and dividing his HP by half into the yellow zone. Mivangeline and Elysia were also sent flying when Kirina hit them with tiger claws.

"Ow! What was that?" Shien complained.

"That tiger claw halves our HP for every hit!" Mivangeline drank a healing potion, restoring her HP to the green zone. "We need to be careful!"

Shoguness Kirina turned invisible again before Enshiron could fire another arrow. The four friends panicked, uncertain of what to do. Elysia and Enshiron's fox ears twitched, hearing Kirina's scuffling movement that their human friends couldn't hear.

"Behind you, Shien!" Enshiron shouted.

Shien blinked behind him, but wasn't fast enough to block the stealthy palm strikes. He struggled to parry the invisible hands until Mivangeline slashed into the air, estimating where the enemy was. With a successful sword strike, Kirina's cloaking device fizzled.

"So every time Kirina gets hit in stealth, her cloaking device shuts down," Mivangeline understood.

The four friends then noticed the Shoguness open her palms, which released green light onto herself. They gasped, knowing Kirina was healing HP with powers similar to Phoenicia.

"Shien! Anti-Heal!" Mivangeline ordered.

"Got it!" Shien struck Kirina with finger strikes. "Avian Form: Pitohui Stinger Strikes!"

With Shien's gloves, the lamia was struck by Anti-Heal. Even with Phoenicia's powers, Kirina was unable to heal. The Shoguness' armored hakama opened to show an unconscious Phoenicia attached by wires and machinery before closing again. Phoenicia's green HP bar revealed itself before the hakama closed.

"Give Phoenicia back!" Elysia slashed the boss with her machete.

"Avian Form: Flamingo's Talon!" Shien kicked Kirina with his two feet, pushing her back.

"Why would the boss show us Phoenicia?" Mivangeline observed the Shoguness. "Was Phoenicia's HP revealed for a reason?"

She then made the dire realization when Enshiron's arrows and Elysia's poison damaged Kirina. As Shien parried against the lamia's rolling punches, Phoenicia's HP was hurt by Elysia's poison and Enshiron's wind attacks, but not by Shien's Avian Form. Although Kirina's HP was half within the yellow zone, so was Phoenicia's.

"Shoot! Enshiron, cease fire!" Mivangeline lowered Enshiron's violin bow. "Elysia! Stop attacking!"

"Wait, what?" Shien and the Vulpi friends panicked until Kirina's blue, flaming tiger claws sent them flying into Mivangeline.

The four friends tumbled onto each other with their HP halved for every tiger claw. They healed with their potions, recovering their HP from the red zone into the green. However, they were out of healing items.

"Those tiger claws are trouble!" Shien huffed.

"Orders, dear Commander?" Enshiron asked.

"Listen very carefully, the boss is holding Phoenicia hostage," Mivangeline swiped a tab to put away her katana. "Enshiron. Elysia. Your wind and poison are being redirected to Phoenicia."

"No way! How can we stop the boss?" Elysia stammered. "Phoenicia is locked within the armor!"

"By martial arts. Shien's attacks are the only ones not affecting Phoenicia."

The friends jumped away from Kirina's tiger claw strikes that crushed the ground. Shien protected his friends, striking his palms at the Shoguness' wrists to deflect the tiger claw strikes.

"If we strike the wrists, we're safe!" Shien advised before pushing the boss back with an elbow strike. "Avian Form: Toucan's Mace!"

The friends watched Shien's attack damage Kirina without hurting Phoenicia's HP.

"I'll help you, Shien! This is a martial arts duel!" Mivangeline nodded to him. "Keep using your Anti-Heal to stop Kirina from healing!"

"What about us, fair maiden?" Enshiron twitched his fox ears.

"And not to mention, the boss does have a cloaking device. How do we counter the stealth strikes?" Elysia huffed.

Mivangeline took a deep breath. "You and Enshiron can hear the boss, yes?"

"Yes, we can."

"You two are Vulpi! Your hearing is better than ours. You and Enshiron can guide me and Shien!"

"My fair maiden, yes, we can do that. But Kirina strikes like lightning!" Enshiron warned.

"We react to it, like Shien taught me how to react to the opponent."

Shien nodded. "Wow, you remembered, Mivange! I'm proud of you!"

Kirina cloaked in invisibility, ready to strike the party with stealth strikes.

"Elysia! Enshiron! Guide us! Just tell us which direction you hear the boss, and we'll counter!" Mivangeline positioned her elbows. "Shien! Let's make sure Kirina doesn't hurt our Vulpi friends!"

"Yes, Commander!" The friends saluted.

Shien and Mivangeline surrounded Enshiron and Elysia, making sure Kirina wouldn't hurt them. The two Vulpi listened carefully with their fox ears, hearing the Shoguness' scuffling movement.

"Commander! Left side!" Elysia shouted.

"Avian Form: Chickadee's Touch!" Mivangeline aimed two fingers, estimating where the boss would be.

The deadly finger strike paralyzed Kirina's invisible palms, and her cloaking ability fizzled.

"Avian Form: Hummingbird's Tongue!" The commander's curled index finger strike greatly damaged Kirina, making her scream.

Frustrated, the boss attacked Shien and Mivangeline with tiger claw strikes burning with blue flames. Deadly tiger claws that reduce HP by half for every strike.

"Redirect, Mivange! Don't take them head-on!" Shien palm-struck Kirina's wrists and arms, careful not to make contact with the blue fiery claw strikes.

Mivangeline applied Shien's teaching, redirecting the tiger claws by palm-striking Kirina's wrists. Shien kept punching Kirina's arms, inflicting Anti-Heal to prevent Kirina from healing. The two martial artists held their ground until Kirina cloaked again. Enshiron and Elysia listened carefully once again with their fox ears.

"Shien! Right side!" Enshiron warned.

"Avian Form: Wryneck Scythe!" Shien slashed his palm like a sword to cut Kirina's hand.

When the Shoguness' cloaking device shut off, Mivangeline jumped at Kirina with a deadly kick. "Avian Form: Parotia's Guillotine!"

Although the beheading kick didn't knock Kirina's head off, it was enough to make the lamia dizzy. The Shoguness' HP was within the red zone.

"Let's finish this, Shien!" Mivangeline ordered.

"Avian Form: Ostrich Buster!" Shien stood on his hands, repeatedly kicking Kirina's serpentine body.

Kirina hissed in fury, smashing flaming tiger claws into the ground to halve Shien's HP. Although Shien was pushed back, Mivangeline jumped up high to aim a downswing kick at the lamia's head.

"Avian Form: Kingfisher's Axe!" Mivangeline's kick hurled Kirina's head into the ground.

With the Shoguness' HP less than a thousand, she cloaked into invisibility. The boss scuffled around Shien and Mivangeline, zig-zagging in different directions to confuse Enshiron and Elysia's hearing.

"It's moving too fast!" Elysia breathed heavily as Enshiron struggled to maintain his focus.

"We trust you two!" Shien shouted.

"One strike, and it's game! We can do it!" Mivangeline smiled at the Vulpi friends.

Enshiron and Elysia closed their eyes in focus, narrowing their attention only to their fox ears. The invisible Shoguness moved with tricky feint moves that pretended to strike Shien or Mivangeline but didn't. The lamia was circling the four friends, making it unclear who she would strike.

"Shien! In front of-" Elysia gasped when the boss sounded like it had changed its mind to attack Enshiron. "Shoot! Behind Enshiron!"

"Avian Form: Roadrunner Blitz!" Shien bashed his head into where Kirina should be, but fell to the floor and missed the boss. "Ow, my head!"

Enshiron heard the Shoguness scuffle away, changing her mind to attack Elysia at the last second. "Above Elysia!"

"Avian Form: Riflebird's Wingbeat!" Mivangeline flapped her arms like wings to juggle the lamia with a windstorm.

Although not a direct contact, the gust was enough to blow Kirina away. The boss made a final squeal and faceplanted with zero HP left. With the Shoguness defeated, a message tab acknowledged their victory with a written congratulations.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Shien and Mivangeline high-fived each other before hugging Enshiron and Elysia with tight squeezes.

"Ack! Stop squeezing me, tiny!" Elysia struggled to push Shien off as Enshiron gave everyone a bear hug.

"Thank you both, we couldn't have done it without you two," Mivangeline rubbed Elysia and Enshiron's fox ears. "Thank you, God."

As Shoguness Kirina's body disintegrated, Phoenicia's body lay. The party ran to attend to their long-lost friend. With two bosses down, one remained.