Chapter 14: Bat Wrestling and Nose Fencing.

Both Batbat and the blur rushed at Lofan and his party. Hammer plucked his head off and tossed it, while Dookie raised a bubble around them. Hammer exploded his head which was outside the bubble. Batbat simply protected his body with his leathery wings, but the blur hit him away.

The blur sped right though the bubble which popped.

“THE NOSE” Dookie cried before the blur, now visible swiped at her with a clawed scaly hand. Hammer however beat it back with his empty hoopstick, and the doublebat returned, grappling the denizen sending them tumbling feet over heads away.

The blur was an apuce. Which made the state the other bats had been found in make a lot of sense.

The most striking part of an apuce is the head, a yellow round flat thing, with a uncomfortably pointy nose rising out from it. Circular glowing white eyes stare out from their face. Their ears sweep back from their head, twisting into horns. Then there is the mischievous smile their kind have with uncomfortably pointy triangular teeth. Few elconic denizens or indeed the dwellers of a number of other places like opening a wardrobe or a cupboard and seeing the face of an apuce. It is however the kind of thing apuce do. They love to prank and unnerve.

Their slightly dumpy body looks more like a bundle of purply brown fur shavings than anything else. All of the scaley skin of an apuce is yellow, though given how rare it is to see their hands, some do wonder if that is true. Apuce conceal their clawed hands, rope, rocks, stuff they stole and basically anything they feel like inside their odd fur.

Their bird-like legs however are quite exposed. While some could get quite wicked in their pranks apuce are generally harmless unless provoked, like a number of elconic denizens really. They tend not to live openly where ever they choose to settle, as their antics often get them run out of a settlement if the dwellers of the settlement can find them, after all, one can only take so much of having your breakfast eggs replaced with well sculpted and painted rocks.

The rocks tended not to like the situation much either.

“Ehkekekeke” The apuce laughed as he tumbled with the burly BatBat, who was twice his size.

BatBat was a giant in bat terms.

Hammer set his head into his hoopstick and began scratching behind Madog’s ears and rubbing her belly to get a pill out of her.

“focus your attacks on the apuce” Lofan commanded “i’ll deal with batbat“

With that Lofan hopped his way down from Dookie and vanished into the snowdrift and rimegrass.

Dookie dropped her bubble and Hammer charged at the wrestling apuce and BatBat. The doublebat was getting the advantage over the apuce, as he finally had the slippery trickster within the grasp of his wings.

Hammer swung at the apuce, but the canny creature slipped downwards and BabBat got a face full of glowing brown hammer instead. BatBat reeled back and the apuce sprang free. Hammer growled and pushed his assault on the apuce who ducked, bobbed and weaved like his legs were springs. The apuce however snatched up Madog. Halting his attack.

Dookie however was having to deal with BatBat who decided he needed to take down an easier looking target. His judgement was however lacking, Dookie was not an easy target. As BatBat swooped down on her she made a bubble and rapidly pushed it outwards, bouncing BatBat away. She spun to attack the apuce but Dookie was not nearly cold hearted enough to attack while the apuce held Madog.

“Not cool dude! Give Madog back!” Hammer cried, before getting divebombed by BatBat.

“Ehkekeke I’m just borrowing this pilldog, borrowing!” the apuce replied.

Then he proceeded to mercilessly tickle Madog.

BatBat had grabbed both ends of Hammer, and appeared to be tying to break him in half.

“What do you think you are doing dude? Giving me a massage?” Hammer mocked.

The unnerving creaking noise from Hammer’s body confirmed that BatBat did in fact know what he was doing and had the required absurd strength to harm Hammer. Hammer of course panicked at this and exploded his head, Dookie helped him, stuffing a bubble between him and the doublebat. BatBat staggered back once more, but he was made of sterner stuff than what a few explosions would take down.

The apuce meanwhile had finally coaxed a pill out of Madog, he gulped it down. Nothing happened at first.

The apuce’s nose began to glow a blinding white hot. “Ehkekeeke!, this nose of my burns with an awesome power!” He started dashing around, and launched himself at the general area of BatBat and Hammer.

Hammer, though a bit shaken was on the ball, and managed to catch the apuce’s nose in his hoopstick. Hammer spun around and flung the apuce away, unfortunately in the direction of Dookie. She however was prepared and exploded a bubble before the apuce came too near. She continued to do this bouncing and exploding the apuce towards BatBat, who was recovering from his bout with Hammer and Dookie’s panicked attack.

He prepared to strike the apuce before him, but it was in this moment that Lofan was in position and willing to act. Lofan had climbed between the two heads of BatBat, he quickly struck them both with his shimmering black mindblade, rendering the doublebat unconscious. He tried to hit the apuce as he slammed into BatBat, but somehow the creature parried Lofan’s mindblade with its nose.

Not that the apuce’s skill in nose-fencery was of much use, as at the end of rolling about with the BatBat‘s limp body he ended up trapped beneath it.

“ooofph”

“Haha! We did it!” Hammer yelled.

“Errr” Dookie began.

Lofan and Hammer turned to her.

Coiled around her was a light chocolate brown snake with a single large dagger like fang.

“Right, anyone moves and the blokkit getsss it! Now I want you to… wait Hammer? That you?”