“Bowser!” Luigi and Yoshi gasped in unison.
“Like no other,” the Koopa King said, as if to confirm their assumption.
The silence dragged eerily. It was hot, considering Bowser’s kastilyo had a reputation for being in a rather volcanic atmosphere. But despite the heat, and the constant surge of lava that occurred around the castle’s outside walls every now and then, the eerie silence made the whole scene seem rather…chilly for the heroes.
Bowser grinned evilly at the green plumber, causing Luigi to blink and suddenly shrink from the pose of where he stood.
“Hello, Luigi, I’ll have you know that your brother’s having a blast in my slumber party,” Bowser began.
Hearing the Koopa King’s mention of Mario was like having boiling water poured out into his ears. Luigi stood straight from the once-shrunken form he’d just done and seethed at Bowser with narrowed eyes.
“What have you done to Mario, you…you FIEND?” Luigi snarled viciously.
Bowser laughed, and mock-trembled as if oblivious to Luigi’s anger and Yoshi’s dagger stares at him. “Ooh, I’m so scared!”
Luigi growled. Yoshi kept his dagger eyes locked on Bowser, fuming silently.
“Easy now, Luigi,” Yoshi cautioned at Luigi, so quietly that Bowser couldn’t have heard it. “It just might be Bowser’s plan—he’ll probably torture us till we fall apart to pieces.”
Luigi nodded at Yoshi’s words, and settled to control his fury as well as the overwhelming urge to wring the Koopa King’s neck.
Bowser laughed a hard, scathing laugh—the kind that could be accompanied with a malicious sneer. “Just look at you two! You’ve come so far, yet here you guys go—all up and ready to DIE!”
Yoshi huffed in irritation, as if he were tired of all Bowser’s spouting nonsense. So unlike him to actually hold his bravado for so long. Usually he’d say only a handful of words and rush straight away into attack mode. Less words, and no games. But…why was he still talking? Could this be a part of his new strategy? Could he actually want to toy with them?
Luigi didn’t look like he’d be falling into any of Bowser’s smooth-talking “traps” anytime soon. Yoshi’s warnings were madami than enough to prevent him from falling victim to his own temper.
“Get straight to the fucking point, Bowser,” Luigi snarled. “I’ve gone through battling a key-eye monster in Yoshi’s Island, falling to the doom of my own desires in World Seven, and on tuktok of that, I was forced to battle my own best friend in the Mansion! I’ve had it with your words—you can tell us where they are, or, if you won’t…”
“…we’ll kick your ass, come and rescue them,” Yoshi continued. It was easy to see into the green dinosaur’s eyes that he was just about as fed up as Luigi with all the obstacles they’d gone through to rescue their captured friends.
“It appears that all the clues I’d led you guys to have turned you two into a couple of don’t-mess-with-me figures.” Bowser sighed. “Too bad—you two aren’t fun to play with anymore.”
“We’re through with your games, Bowser,” Luigi seethed.
“You can do it the easy way and give up or tell us where our mga kaibigan are,” Yoshi suggested coldly.
Bowser grinned harshly, took two steps back and sinabi only one simple sentence:
“Two heads, five tiles off and three corners out.”
Luigi and Yoshi’s anger and hatred toward Bowser disappeared all of a sudden—which was ironic considering how slowly it had built up. They looked at each other with mystification, then they stared at the Koopa King with wide, confused eyes. Then they sinabi in unison:
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Now go get them, hotshots,” Bowser mocked.
“H-hold on,” Luigi said. He frowned at Bowser. “None of any of what you were saying made any sense! What did you mean sa pamamagitan ng ‘two heads, five tiles off and three corners out’?”
Bowser crossed his arms. “What I sinabi is what I said.”
“Ugh, quit talking in riddles!” Yoshi complained; half of the immense anger that had grown in him before Bowser’s sentence had returned. “I don’t get you at all!”
“It’s okay, lizard—you two won’t stick around long enough to figure it out,” Bowser said, and then he snapped his fingers.
A segundo after the sound of his fingersnap, a battalion of Koopas emerged, followed sa pamamagitan ng the Parakoopas, then came the Hammer Bros, the Lakitus, and then the Dry Bones…
The entire ground of Bowser’s lawn had been filled up with everything his minions could possibly come off as.
“I congratulate you morons for figuring out the clue, but now I’ll make sure you won’t be sorting out that lone riddle I gave—at least, not when you’ve got plenty to deal with here in my kastilyo grounds!” Bowser guffawed.
Luigi flinched.
“Where’d your toughness just now go, huh?” Bowser taunted. “Your eyes were red with anger just minutos ago—you guys off to back out now?”
Yoshi shook his head—not in denial but in shock. What an abnormally huge number of enemies.
“Really—you motherfuckers dealt with a soil creature with a multitude of regenerating eyes, the illusion of your own mga kaibigan and lightning-quick attacks with an unlimited supply of Spiny eggs, a mass of ghosts and, as you’ve said, Luigi, the agony of battling your own possessed best friend, and now you guys are shirking off? How offensive!” Bowser sniffed disdainfully.
Luigi and Yoshi narrowed their eyes at the massive amount of Bowser’s minions filling the puwang of his kastilyo grounds. Could they even hope to win? The regenerating key-eyes, the Spiny eggs from Lakithunder, and the ghosts from Luigi’s Mansion were nothing compared from the minions Bowser had summoned to where they stood.
Bowser stifled a yawn. “Anyway, I’m off—my minions will let me know when it’s time for your funeral.”
Luigi blanched.
“Okay, everyone,” Bowser addressed to his minions, “no holding back, and be sure to make them feel sorry that their mothers’ abortions failed.”
Yoshi could easily translate that. Make them regret they ever lived.
Bowser turned to leave.
The moment Bowser disappeared out of eyeshot, Yoshi whispered to Luigi, “What now? How can we deal with all this?”
“We need to fight,” Luigi answered. “Our friends’ lives are on the line.”
“Well now ours is, too,” Yoshi muttered.
“It doesn’t matter. No turning back, remember?” Luigi reminded him. “For Mario, I will keep fighting.”
Yoshi blinked at Luigi’s words. So, since the very beginning, it was all for his friends—for his brother, most especially. Luigi’s mind had been that made up since the beginning of their journey together.
“I’ll keep fighting, too,” Yoshi said, and squared his shoulders. “I joined you in this quest, I even convinced you to start it, and you won’t end it—alive or not—without me.”
Luigi cringed. “I didn’t expect you to die with me, pal.”
The multitude of Bowser’s minions tensed and armed themselves, ready to attack.
“It goes without saying—we’re here for each other, we stand alone together.”
Luigi swallowed the emotional lump in his throat, then he nodded. “Together,” he agreed.
The Koopas motioned forward, and the two readied themselves to fight.
“For everyone,” Yoshi said.
And for Mario, Luigi added.
“Hold on, you two,” a familiar voice called. “Need some help?”