Casino Cups/Lil Lucifer HTTYD Au (Fallen Mike Scenario)
Casino Cups/Lil Lucifer belongs to @camodiel (can also be found on @camodielsart)
The bars were forced apart by a pair of clawed scaly hands before the cell door was even completely open.
A horned creature with a long serpents tail and fire in its eyes slithered out, hissing and sputtering and rattling it’s tail. It was like a centaur but the bottom half was a huge snake tail instead of a horse body. It’s entire body was covered in woody brown scales, and it’s horns, claws, and belly were the color of slate.
It’s unimaginably long tail began to cover most of the ground around them, threatening to entangle all therein
Some darted off in a random direction, as long as that direction was getting the hell out of dodge, some’s legs failed them and they stumbled to the ground. Before Cuphead could formulate his own reaction he was met with the force of his brother crashing into him and knocking him to the ground.
He opened his eyes, his head resting against the cold stone floor, to find his brother knelt over him, shaking him by the shoulders, and yelling hysterically. Cuphead however, could barely make out what he was saying as he felt a ringing in his ears. That ringing quickly faded out with the sound of the screeches of the serpentine demon.
He jolted to sitting upright, nearly head-butting his brother in the process, and they both glanced to Cuphead’s right. At the monster weaving around the arena and whipping it’s tail around with wild abandon, at their coworkers scurrying around with their new weapons seemingly trying to regain their wits and come up with a plan, and then to their left, at their horned boss standing on the sidelines.
He only stared back with a stern expression. When his eyes met Cuphead’s, he just looked away, refusing to even acknowledge him.
The brothers looked back at each other in disbelief, but we’re quickly interrupted.
‘I- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to knock you ove- NO!!!’ Mugman cried as he grabbed onto Cuphead, pulled him close to his chest and did a sort of backwards lunge to avoid the end of a scaly tail crashing down on them both. It wasn’t done with them yet though…
Mugman grabbed Cuphead by the arm and practically dragged him across the arena sprinting full speed ahead as the tail swung back in their direction. Cuphead was still trying to come to his senses, his head must have hit the ground a bit harder than he thought.
As he looked around he could see Wheezy out to the left putting his own flaming head on the creature’s tail, but only getting it wrapped around his neck. To the right he saw Mangosteen managing to avoid being constricted due to his slipperiness and round shape, but not doing much in terms of fighting back. In the center he saw Pirouletta who was skillfully dodging the whip-like tail with ballerina-like grace, but clearly not great with a knife. How to put this gently?
‘Welp, not a great start.’ He thought to himself, still half delirious. He’d always thought of his coworkers as capable fighters, he had seen and felt what they could do first hand, but maybe even they had not seen what Hell was really all about. Cuphead’s attention was then grabbed by the sound of the previously silent duke’s voice ranging out
‘UM- I- OK LETS ASSESS THE SITUATION! OUR OBJECTIVE HERE WOULD BE TO DOWN IT BY AIMING FOR ITS WEAKEST POINT! NOW HOW WOULD WE GO ABOUT ACHIEVING THAT?!’ Before she had exuded all the poise and authority of a general commanding her soldiers, now her tone had shifted to more resemble a kindergarten teacher desperately trying to mitigate a chaotic classroom. This really wasn’t a good start. And he had never even went to kindergarten.
Everyone seemed too preoccupied with not getting crushed or strangled or both to care for what the Duke had to say, but then, to his surprise, Cuphead heard a response to her question, from very close by.
‘Um- uh- AIM FOR THE VITAL ORGANS?!’
It was Mugman who had spoken up. The others had even stopped what they were doing to do a double take of what they’d just heard come out of the mouth of the sweet bashful mug who could scarcely be found speaking up in groups at all, let alone saying something so gruesome.
They didn’t have to time to address it however, as the Duke did not know better than to question his behavior and carried on with the ‘lesson’
‘Yes! That’s an actual answer! Now what you’ll need is to find or create an opening to strike! What obstacles are in the way?’ She asked
‘HRK- THE TAIL?!’ Wheezy replied, still being strangled
‘The hard scales?’ Phear responded
‘Hic- thAt fUcKiNG thiiiiiNG???’ Ethan gurgled pointing at the rattle at the end of the snake’s tail
Rumulus retorted him ‘Ethan, it hasn’t done anything but make noise…’
‘It fUCKing freEEAAaks mE oUt MAn hic-’ Ethan attempted to convey through his slurring tongue
The Duke paused for a moment as if to be attempting to process this, and then spoke again
‘Ok! Ignoring whatever that last one was, yes! Very good! The long constricting tail and the scaly armor are both strengths it possesses!’ She was somewhat rushing through her sentences given the circumstances, but seemed to be attempting to regain her composure.
‘You will need to find a way to weave past the it’s tail and strike the head and torso in the middle. Those sabers you’ve been given, they have a dual use against this creature.’
As the Duke paused, Cuphead’s attention briefly turned back to the frantic shouts of the others. In the direction he happened to be looking in, he could see Chips holding Mangs under his arm as he desperately tried to fight back with the copper knife he had recieved. Chips had a look that Cuphead had never seen on his face before, one that encompassed true fear for his life and doubt in his abilities. He felt a pang of concern for his favorite coworkers pierce his gut. But he was promptly called back into the moment as his brother’s voice and gained his focus once again
‘Wh-what?!’ Cuphead just realized he hadn’t said a word since they got there, unusual for him
‘MY KNIFE! I THINK I DROPPED IT!’ Mugs exclaimed, panicked
Upon processing that sentence, Cuphead’s eyes began darting all over the floor for some sign of a silver glint. He need not search for long however, he caught sight of it in the very spot where they’d both originally hit the ground. The end of the demon’s tail was still roughly in that same spot, pounding itself against the ground, right where the silver-blue blade lay.
‘THERE’ he shouted pointing
‘IM GONNA- I…’ Mugman hesitated as he too caught a glimpse of the hazard that waited for him if he was to attempt to retrieve his weapon.
He hesitated. Frozen in place.
But then… it was replaced by something else… some kind of spark in his eyes…
Mugman inhaled sharply and shut his eyes tight
‘Mugman…?’ Cupehad peeped
Mugman left Cuphead’s side and took off towards his knife, eyes shut, arms flailing, yelling at the top of his lungs.
Just narrowly dodging the massive snake’s tail his legs fell under him and he dove for it, and by some miracle it found its way into the grip of his hand. He seemed to breathe a small sigh of relief upon seeing this, but was promptly made aware of the sound of a nearby rattle, and a long shadow growing over him. As he turned around, eyes widening, it seemed to be already too late.
Cuphead felt a second pang of worry for another’s safety
This time it clenched his gut like an iron grip crushing a paper cup
‘LOOK OUT- MUGMAAAN!!!’ He desperately cried, he could feel a small fleck of moisture forming in the corner of his eye
Others caught sight of this too, as similar shouts for Mugman came from other voices. One of them… he could’ve sworn was the voice of the devil…
Cuphead could feel not just him, but the entire arena floor collectively brace themselves for the sound of ceramic being crunched
But that is not what they heard
They instead heard the sound of metal striking, something hard cracking, and a pained scream not from Mugman, but from the reptilian beast. Mugman was now firmly fixing his blade into the tail that had been set on course to crush him. Where his blow had landed, a handful of scales crumbled off the snake’s tail.
They all went silent, but the Duke spoke, with unexpected levity in her voice
‘Well… someone’s ahead of me already!’
Mugman’s expression went from fearful to awed ‘You… you can’t stab or slash it… you- YOU HAVE TO HIT IT DIAGONALLY! TO GET UNDER THE SCALES!’
The dukes expression shifted to something never before seen until now, pride.
A second metallic clang followed by a shriek from the demonic adversary came, followed by the voice of Chips, who Cuphead could now see was proudly wedging his copper into its skin
‘Well! You heard him! GO TO TOWN!’.
‘Horray!!!’ yelled Mangs still under Chips’s arm
A frenzy broke out, the reptilian demon found itself being relentlessly stripped of its scales by the staff of Inkwell Hell Casino. Cuphead had since fallen back on the ground from the terror that had taken hold of him just moments prior. He looked up to see Chips approaching him, with his signature confident grin back on his face, bent down and extended his hand to him ‘Cmon partner! Don’t tell me you’re gonna just stay parked there?!’
Cuphead felt his previous fear wash away as he felt the kind gazes of both Chips and Mangs, and was quickly overtaken by adrenaline as he joined them in charging at the beast knives out. They climbed over the entanglement of a scaly tail which had now gone considerably more still, and as a group they were inching closer to their target
This high however, would be short lived.
The others, including Mugman, we’re making quick work of loosing if the demons scales, but Cuphead was struggling with it a bit. Precision was never his forte and he was beginning to become frustrated with himself. And not just that. While weakened, the demon still possessed an immense amount of strength. Pain seemed to only enrage it
It writhed in some sort of outburst and pushed most of them off of itself like insects. Most of them landed on their feet just fine and continued fighting, but wouldn’t you know it, Cuphead was the only one that lost his balance, landing on his side. The serpent took notice, and it lunged forward head first.
In a short moment he found himself back on the floor being held down by his shoulders
‘Haha… I gotta stop getting myself in this situation…’ he thought to himself, attempting to provide himself a little comic relief.
The snake’s jaws opened wide over Cuphead’s awaiting face, but all the noise was cut through by a familiar voice
It was their boss’s voice…
I think that’s enough for today…’
Note: this is probably the longest chapter I’ve ever done I’ve never written a battle scene before. But HERE IT IS. AT LAST.
