{And here it is! The long (but not very long) awaited follow up!
Shorter than my other chapters, but I hope it's worth it}
***
As his mind was fully immersed in the serenity of his Leafeon form Kevin, wasted no time in spreading his influence through every tree, vine, and flower throughout the entire Harpy Village. He felt as if he was one with the forest itself, and that he could command all of its plants to do his bidding.
Unfortunately for the harpies, despite the calm state of mind he was granted in this form, he still wasn't happy with being forced to stay there. The transformation did give him the clarity to infuse his sealing powers in all of the flora under his control, but that's about it when it came to restraint. With a single mental command, the forest attacked the harpies.
Screams of surprise and pain could be heard from outside the throne room, causing Lucretia to dash for her open door. Once outside, she was treated to a scene of chaos. Vines lashed out at every harpy to come close to them, some wrapping around their victims, while others cracked against their exposed skill like whips. The trees themselves seemed to come to life, their branches crushing the treehouses a sometimes piercing through the bodies of both the harpies and the human men around them.
Even the flowers were somehow releasing a variety of pollens and powders that seeped into the villagers' bodies, to varying effects. One of them made the victims pass out, even if they were mid-flight; another seemed to partially paralyze its victims, make escape from the other plants nearly impossible; and yet another burrowing into its victims bodies and draining the energy they needed to run away.
The only cold comforts that the Queen Harpy could take away from this one-sided massacre of her people was were that the plants weren't going after the children, and that any adult who was 'killed' by them didn't actually die, but was sealed in a smaller form. For the harpies it was the forms of small birds, while for the men they shrunk down to the height of dwarves. That, and anyone who was sealed was free to flee the village.
Lucretia turned to look at the boy, now transformed and giving off power equal to one of the Four Spirits. He showed her a serene smile, even as he destroyed the village she had helped build over the course of several decades. Even Reina was shocked that the boy she kidnapped was not only this powerful, but this cruel as well.
"Stop this at once!" the Queen shouted at him.
Kevin shook his head gently. "I don't think I will. I want to leave, and they are standing in my way. I take no pleasure in doing this, but it must be done."
"They have nothing to do with this!"
"Actually, they do."
"HOW!?"
The Leafeon's smile turned sad. "You told me yourself that If I tried to leave, every able-bodied harpy would be obligated to stop my escape. You're the one who put targets on their backs; I just took aim and fired."
The worst part was, she knew he was right. She had tried using the strength of her people as a deterrent, but instead had essentially thrown them into the jaws of a lion. The boy now saw them all as obstacles keeping him from leaving, so he did what any logical person would do: get rid of them.
Reina, now cowering in fear, had tears streaming down her cheeks. 'This is all my fault,' she thought in despair. 'If I hadn't taken him here, none of this would have happened! I shouldn't have left today at all. I shouldn't have attacked that boy. Why was I so impatient to get a husband?'
Ignorant to the thoughts of the younger harpy, Kevin continued to speak to Lucretia. "This all could have been avoided if you had let me go."
Gritting her teeth as the sounds of her subjects' pain and panic kept hammering at her ears, she glared at him. "Fine! If you want to go so badly, then just go! You aren't wanted or welcome here anymore!"
After a beat of silence, she received a reply she definitely wasn't expecting. "No."
Her heart almost stopped. "What?"
"I said no," Kevin stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "A Queen's word isn't something to take lightly, and I recall you telling me "no" when I asked if there was anything I could say or do to make you reconsider. This counts as me doing something, so by your own word it isn't enough to force you to change your mind."
Her heart dropped into her stomach as her own words were once again thrown in her face. Yes, she had said that, but how was she supposed to know that something like this would happen as a result? Sure, she'd felt a bit of restrained power within the monster boy, but she never could've anticipated that it was this immense, nor that he had this much control over it.
"As I stated previously, I take no joy in this," Kevin stated solemnly. "But you forced my hand on the matter, and I am not one to back down. I promise you that I will leave when every man, woman, and child is out of the village, but not before that."
At that, Lucretia's mind switched from drowning in despair, to burning with rage. Before giving in to it, though, she turned to the only other harpy in the room. "Reina, inform everyone that we are evacuating the village. I want everyone as far away from the hostile plants as possible."
"B-but my Q-Queen," the harpy stuttered.
"Go now before we lose any more able bodied men and women," she commanded with an air of authority. "I'll stay and take care of him."
A moment of hesitation later, Reina bowed. "Yes, my Queen." She then left and took off to carry out her orders.
"You put your people's wellbeing above your own. I can respect that," he commended her. "However, we don't have to fight. It's obvious that both of us could destroy this forest at full power, and I would very much like to avoid such an eventuality. It's such a beautiful place, after all."
Like Alice before her, the Queen noticed how the boy's personality seemed to have changed with this transformation. Whereas before he was abrasive and argumentative, now he showed nothing but calmness and serenity. It didn't help that he maintained this attitude while simultaneously attacking her village.
"It is," she agreed, changing her stance to a slightly more aggressive one. "And I would love nothing more than to avoid a battle with you; but it would be disgraceful for me as the Queen to just let you go after such a blatant attack on my subjects."
Kevin sighed. "I would like to reiterate that the only reason I attacked was because you forced my hand."
Lucretia nodded. "I understand. Despite how sorry I am for doing so, I will not hold back against you."
"Then I hope you won't mind if I slip into something more…appropriate for this fight," he said.
Two bright flashes of light assaulted the Queen's eyes in rapid succession. The first resulted in the boy returning to his original short form, which was a bit of a relief for the brief moment that it was visible. That relief was then killed upon the next flash, in which he appeared in a brand new form.
In this evolution, Kevin was only a few inches taller than his base form. His jacket, cargo pants, and shoes all turned pure yellow, while his undershirt became white. Spikey blonde hair replaced the previous brunette mess atop his head. Covering his eyes were a pair of black-rimmed racing goggles, though they were just clear enough to see his shockingly blue eyes.
[Name: Kevin]
[Age: 17]
[Form: Jolteon]
[Type: Electric]
[Ability: Volt Absorb/Quick Feet]
[Weapon: None]
From what Kevin could feel, his Jolteon form was definitely the most energetic so far. He could feel the need to walk, run, fight, or do ANYTHING to get expend the boundless energy that filled him. It even seemed to have supercharged his emotions, shifting them from the solemn acceptance of the inevitable battle he felt as a Leafeon, to excited anticipation.
A bright grin made its way to his face. "Let's do this!" he shouted.
He immediately followed his exclamation with the activation of a Move that sent him crashing into her and through both the Queen's throne and the wall behind it.
[Zippy-Zap – Electric Type Move]
[Description: The user attacks the target with bursts of electricity at high speed. This Move always goes first and results in a critical hit.]
Needless to say, the pain brought on by the arcs of lightning surging through her body was immense. However, as monster who survived under the previous Harpy Queen's reign and went on to take her place, it wasn't enough to stop her from retaliating.
She twisted herself mid-air using her powerful wind magic so that Kevin was below her. A powerful flap of her wings sent a rush of air into him, rocketing his body into the forest floor. The earth shook and an explosion of dirt and grass was kicked up as he hit the ground at the speed of a train.
Lucretia wasn't foolish enough to think that that was enough to finish him off, though. She could still sense his life force within the cloud of dirt and debris falling around him, after all, and the amount of energy within him hadn't gone done at all. On the contrary it seemed to be charging up.
Feeling pure electricity coursing through his veins was a rush the boy never new he needed until now. Managing to land on his feet as the ground cratered around him. The force of it hurt his legs a bit, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. His mind was already racing to what his next action should be, and the one after that, and the one after that.
Wanting to mix things up instead spamming the same Move, Kevin didn't immediately launch himself back up in her direction. Instead, he leaped at one of the trees across from him, landing feet first before launching himself at another. He continued to do this, gradually picking up speed until he was nothing but a blur of yellow in the harpy's eyes.
She took a few seconds to adjust to his tactics, but was quickly able to determine a pattern to the seemingly random jumps she moved to intercept him with a scything sweep of her left wing. She was intent on using his momentum against him, but had underestimated how many steps ahead of her he was right now with the speed his mind was working at.
Rather than flying headfirst into her wing, he rapidly readjusted himself mid-flight so that his arms were stretched out toward her. It wasn't the arms themselves that were dangerous, though, but what he had formed between them while he was pinballing off the trees: it was a net made entirely of lightning.
[Electroweb – Electric Type Move]
[Description: The user attacks and captures opposing enemies using an electric net. This lowers the enemy's speed]
Lucretia had no time to react as she was wrapped up in a net that singed her feathers and tossed to the side through the wall of a random treehouse. It was relatively easy for her to break free of it when she'd overcome her surprise. But that didn't make the damage it dealt any less real.
'What's going on,' she internally wondered as she pried herself out of the shattered home and took to the sky again. 'I've been struck by actual lightning before, and hurt a hell of a lot less than this.' She leveled a glare at Kevin as he hopped excitedly in place, waiting for her to get back into the fight. 'It must be his doing.'
Flying higher, she made a good bit of distance from him before violently crossing both her wings. From them came not only hundreds of feathers infused with magic to make them razor sharp, but also a massive gust of wind to propel them at speeds rivaling bullets. If Kevin had been a normal man, there wouldn't have been enough of him left afterwards to fit in a shoebox.
Seeing the oncoming rain of death, he grinned even wider in excitement. Electricity burst forth from his body in all directions, disintegrating the majority of the feathers and some of the surrounding environment.
[Discharge – Electric Type Move]
[Description: The user strikes everything around them by letting loose a flare of electricity. This may also cause paralysis.]
He didn't come away completely unscathed, though, as seven of the projectiles had lodged themselves in his torso, arms, and legs. "That's more like it!" he exclaimed in adrenaline-infused glee as he crouched and launched himself at the queen again.
This time, rather than wait to come within arm's reach of her to unleash an attack, he opened his mouth a fired a bolt of lightning that struck the Queen in the chest. Oddly enough, it didn't cause her any damage, leading her to think that it was a dud.
Not wanting to give him enough time to prepare another attack, she flipped forward and attempted to rake both of her talons across his face. To her temporary surprise, he didn't even try to avoid them, even keeping that annoyingly joyful smile in place. When they dug into his skin, she was even more shocked by what happened.
[Electrify – Electric Type Move]
[Description: If the target is electrified before they attack, the target's attack with become an Electric Type attack]
Kevin had tricked her into attacking him with electricity, which ended up pushing out the feathers still imbedded in his flesh and healing his wounds due to his Volt Absorb ability. He wasn't done yet, though. While the Queen was reeling from the fact that she had somehow healed her opponent, he rose slightly higher in the air than her, raised his arms, balled his hands into fists, and unleashed another Move.
[Plasma Fists – Electric Type Move]
[Description – The user attacks with electrically charged fists. This move changes Normal Type attacks into Electric Type attacks.]
Their positions from earlier were reversed as Kevin brought his fists down on Lucretia, was sending her hurtling toward the ground. The resulting shockwave and crater she formed upon landing were larger than the one he created, and she definitely looked slightly worse for wear.
Once again, it didn't take her long to recover, pealing herself off the ground. It was when she did, that she noticed the pain in her right leg, and the knowledge that it was fractured in multiple spots. Meanwhile, the boy falling toward her was back to full health, albeit with a few holes in his clothes.
It was that that point that she realized she really couldn't win, even if she did try. After all, how could she defeat an enemy that simultaneously hit harder than her, and also forced her to heal his wounds for him at the same time? It was a loss no matter which way she looked at it.
Before she could make any major decisions on what to do next, a voice cut through the battlefield. It was one that was definitely feminine, with a not-so-subtle hint of irritation woven into it. "What the hell are you doing, you moron?"
Kevin looked to the side and was absolutely delighted by what he saw. It was Alice! She came to save him! Well, he obviously didn't need saving at this point, but it was the thought that counted!
Seeing no point in not answering, he cheerfully replied. "Hey Alice! How have you been today? I've been having the time of my life! Did you know that the Harpy Queen here is really strong and fun to fight? I found out after driving every man and harpy out of the village when they refused to let me leave! We've been having such a fun fight to the death, haven't we Lucretia?!"
The Harpy Queen was a little too shocked by the sudden appearance of the incredibly strong lamia to answer the boy. If she wasn't mistaken, the woman slithering towards them was the Monster Lord. What was she doing there? Had she heard about how Lucretia's actions were harming the nearby human village? More importantly, why was the blonde boy acting so friendly with her.
"I noticed," Alice deadpanned, mentally noting yet another personality change with his newest transformation. "I passed the few men and harpies capable of moving on their own on the way here."
Kevin laughed loudly at that. "That's good! I was hoping they'd make it out safely."
The Monster Lord nodded. "Oh, they were definitely alright. So alright, in fact, that they begged me to come save their Queen from the violent monster that had invaded their village. Some were even heading to Happiness Village to beg for either help, shelter, or both."
Hearing that her own subjects were going to the human village for reinforcements made a pit form in the Harpy Queen's stomach. If they hadn't been bleeding those women dry by taking all of the working men away, they might have had a small chance of gaining their assistance, albeit infinitesimal at best. It was almost guaranteed that they would be rejected.
"Oh really?! Then let's go over there and see how they are getting along!" Kevin shouted before bolting off in then direction of the village-
-and slamming face-first in to a tree with enough force to make an indent in it.
"Could you please transform back to normal?" Alice sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "If I have to walk all the way there with you spazzing out like a child on sugar, I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from breaking your legs."
A cracking sound echoes through their surroundings as he pulled his head out of the bark. "Yes ma'am."
***
{Author's Note: Not gonna lie, I had a lot of fun writing Kevin's Jolteon form here
For those of you not keeping track of the personality changes:
Leafeon = Relaxed and Serene
Flareon = Irritated and Angry
Glaceon = Cold and Merciless
Jolteon = Happy and Hyperactive
Let me know what you think!}