“Unbelievable,” Luigi huffed under his breath. “It’s a-like we were kicked back at the very start of our trip to rescue Mario and the others….”
“Kinda like the whole point of us being ‘sent back’ to Yoshi’s Island, then to World Seven and finally Luigi’s Mansion,” Yoshi replied flatly, knowing that, as Kamek had pointed out, he’d already given hints about the foes they were set to face and they had been too slow to figure it all out.
“You seriously didn’t see through my little hints?” Kamek said tauntingly, as if giving confirmation to Yoshi’s silent assumption.
Luigi narrowed his eyes and stared, seething, toward Bowser’s right-hand Koopa. Likewise, and in a similar fashion, Yoshi just kept silent as he glared daggers toward Kamek.
“Oh, how scary,” Kamek mocked. “I’m practically shaking on my broomstick.” Then he laughed boisterously. “Playtime’s over, fools, let’s get to it, or are you standing there to give me the sign that you surrender?”
“Surrender?” Luigi said suddenly, in spite of himself. “Not likely, turtle mage.”
Even though Yoshi found it quite odd to see Luigi suddenly snap back and be able to answer to Kamek’s mean cracks aimed toward them, he spoke up with the green plumber. “Exactly what he said—we went so far to rescue our friends, and we’re not letting you, or any of your shadow clones of our previous foes, get in the way of what he originally came here for!”
Kamek smirked. “Now that’s more like it! Hopefully this isn’t a goddamn bluff, eh?”
“Bluff my ass!” Luigi spat, leaning forward. His expression made it clear that he was really going to go through with it.
Kamek smiled sweetly, seemingly unaffected by the hostility that was directed at him, hovered higher up in the air, and stabbed his wand toward the duo’s direction. “Get them!”
At that, the shadow clones of their foes came rushing toward them.
The shadow doppelganger of the soil monster from Yoshi’s Island unleashed a multitude of flying eyes aimed the exact same way he original had done to them.
Luigi and Yoshi tensed—they had fought with it before, so it wouldn’t be too hard for them to deal with it now. Or at least they were sure of it.
Luigi extended his arm toward the closest eye, ready to grab it and throw it right back—
Yet, it suddenly disappeared like black-tinted smoke the moment the green plumber’s hands clenched at it.
Yoshi, who saw all that from the corner of his eye, stared after the whole scene with a disbelieving look. How could that suddenly have been ineffective when that was basically how they had defeated it before?
Then, just to test it out for himself, he threw an egg toward another eye, yet it did exactly as the first one had to Luigi—all that replaced it now was nothing but a bunch of black smoke.
“No way,” Yoshi breathed. “Th-that’s impossible….”
“It’s possible, all right,” Kamek called from up above. Then, very conspicuously, he gave out a huge yawn and continued in a bored tone, “You know, seeing you assholes struggle there has actually proven me wrong—I kinda expected that I might actually break a sweat trying to stop you two here right on your tracks, but, surprisingly, you two are so ridiculously easy that I don’t even have to move a muscle to even lift my wand by a fraction of an inch. Whatever, to quote my king’s words—my minions will wake me up when it’s time for your funeral.”
“Don’t think you can just—,” Luigi started to say, but he was interrupted by Lakithunder’s lightning bolts aimed at him; the moment he caught wind of it by the corner of his eye, he quickly ran to the side to dodge it, albeit only barely.
“Whoa, that was a-real as you can get,” Luigi gasped, looking down to see that the blackened ground that was a result of Lakithunder’s bolts.
“Y-you said it,” Yoshi squeaked, trying to break free from all the eyes that had somehow surrounded him and were now going to him on a tight constrict.
Luigi quickly ran to help his friend, but was struck upright by something black that flashed against him.
“What was that?” Luigi wondered, struggling his way up after being knocked to the ground with such force. He looked up to see that it had been King Boo’s shadow clone.
“N-no way.” Luigi gritted his teeth. He got up and moved quickly enough to aim a kick right at King Boo, only to receive the same result of black-tinted smoke. He shook his head angrily, wondering how in the world would they ever be able to beat any of Kamek’s underlings the way things were going.
“Ugh, we can’t hit them, yet they can actually be capable of smacking us,” Yoshi said in a strained voice, given the fact that he had barely gotten free from the constraints of the soil monster’s eyes and had now only gotten twice the number in return to surround him.
Luigi panted from another flurry of King Boo’s shadowed punches; apparently and unfortunately it was actually capable of materializing itself after fading out into smoke. He was now only barely on his knees, due to the apparent barrage of King Boo’s punches he had to deal with.
Luigi and Yoshi looked at each other; they were each greeted with a sight they could hardly handle—Luigi saw his friend being trapped in a straitjacket composed purely of the shadowed fiend’s eyes; likewise, Yoshi saw his plumber partner unable to get up due to all the blows from King Boo’s shadow clone he had to deal with.
Then they both looked up to see the shadow clone of Lakithunder raise a hand, ready to blast another round of bolts. Both the thin Mario brother and the green dinosaur braced themselves, since both were clearly in no condition to even be able to dodge what was sure to come their way.
Lakithunder released the bolts, which split to two directions, one aimed at each of the two.
Luigi and Yoshi screamed in pain as the charges ran throughout their bodies. They writhed in pain, and even at the agonizing second they could see Kamek smile with smug satisfaction.
The duo lay there, free from the eyes and with no sight of King Boo near, yet somehow on their last legs if the saying could ever be applied to the pain they felt right now. Neither was sure if he even had the energy left to get up, much less fight back, though even if he could the inevitable would happen—their shadowed foes would just dematerialize and rematerialize as they wish to avoid getting hit at all. And neither had even landed a blow.
Luigi gritted his teeth as he struggled to make his way up. He could see himself and his friend surrounded by Kamek’s shadow underlings; even if Kamek had pit only one against them, they could hardly stand a chance given that they could fade as if they weren’t there. Now it was like facing the multitude of Bowser’s minions back outside the castle all over again. Their journey rescuing Mario—which took them from Yoshi’s Island, to World Seven, to Luigi’s Mansion, and finally which led them to solve the labyrinth of Bowser’s Castle—had not anticipated them for this.
Or had it?
Something stirred within Luigi, which caused him to suddenly jolt upright and gain the energy to get up in spite of his exhaustion and weariness.
The ones they were facing were shadows of the foes they had fought to get to where they were now, and the whole fight was nothing but a shadow of their entire journey.
Because from Yoshi’s Island to World Seven to Luigi’s Mansion, and then to solving the riddle of the labyrinth of Bowser’s Castle, there was actually one thing they all had in common.
Yoshi got up a little to see his friend back on his feet, with a knowing smile on his face. He could tell the green plumber got everything figured out.