Shank A Bitch 3 Day Six: The Handsman Cometh (10/71 Alive)

Dragon Fogel slams onto the stage from above, leaping off the lofty heights of the S.S. Whalenaught's conning tower. The noise of his landing rivals the flukeslap that began the conference, and as he steps up to the podium darkness falls, a single spotlight shadowing his face. In a low voice, he begins...

The Whale Dimension was a terrifying place, even more than most mortals would imagine.

For those who enter are immediately greeted with the sight of the Whalemother, the whale from which all whales spring forth. She is majestic, beautiful, and larger than any known planet, and to gaze upon her form is to invite madness.

Among the ten assembled combatants, nine had the strength of will to behold her and still stand. But yd12k was immediately reduced to a sobbing heap at the Whalemother's unparalleled cetacean beauty.
Seeing a helpless opponent, the others all acted swiftly. This was a chance to score the first kill of the match, and establish superiority swiftly.

And so, within moments, yd12k collapsed, stabbed by seven knives all at once. Only two combatants had ignored the easy prey - the two rivals whose fierce determination had caught the Whalemother's attention in the first place.

For Fogel and Pharmacy, the others were a mere diversion. The true battle was between them, and any who tried to stand in their way would meet a swift end.

And indeed, both soon demonstrated their skill. Both had been training for this moment all their lives - to them, the Whale Dimension was merely another ocean, albeit a far larger one than most humans could even imagine. Both instinctively knew how to call out to it, to summon forth whales to their cause. In moments, Pharmacy had called forth a pod of ferocious orcas, while Fogel had summoned a school of enormous blue whales.

At first, it looked as though Fogel's whales would have the edge; though smaller in number, each easily had enough mass to fend off a dozen orcas. But Pharmacy had one additional trick up her sleeve.
She had helicopters.

No one was sure exactly where they came from, or how the orcas could operate them with such skill. But they soon established themselves as the dominant force in the fight, raining down a hail bullets and dodging counterattacks easily. In mere minutes, Fogel's blue troops were whittled down to half their number, and Granolaman had been grievously wounded by the bullets Fogel was deflecting with him.

The various internal rivalries between the contestants took a backseat to stopping Pharmacy at all costs. Scoffles was the first to strike, but the moment he stepped within stabbing distance, two helicopters swooped in from both sides. Before he could react, he was crushed between them, becoming the second casualty of the fight.

His ignominious defeat made it clear that Pharmacy's orcas were not merely a fierce offense, but a near-impregnable defense as well. They could not be ignored.

Yet strangely, despite his rival's apparent advantage, Fogel seemed oddly disinterested in the fight. Aside from swatting away bullets, and swinging Granolaman at Seedy once or twice as she sought an opportunistic strike, he made no move, and merely sat upon his blue whale steed as it swam through the infinite ocean.

But most fighters were too occupied with Pharmacy's forces to contemplate her rival's objectives. The turning point came when Palamedes called in a pod of pilot whales, who rushed straight for the helicopters and dragged them, orca and all, towards the bottom of the sea, unconcerned for their own safety.

Pharmacy was vulnerable, and Pala was the first to strike. Unfortunately for him, this meant he was also the first to fall to her narwhal-blade - though her orca perimiter had been taken down, she was still far from defenseless.

That was when Fogel made his move. First, he flung Granolaman at Seedy, knocking both assailant and immortal weapon towards the ocean floor. He rushed to the tail of his mount, and gently grabbed it.

As he touched the blue whale, it began to change.

It was clear to the others now what he had been doing - all this time, he had been communing with the whale, helping it to realize its true power. It changed its form to match the hidden power within its spirit - the power of a giant robot energy lightning mace.

He swam towards Pharmacy at full speed, only pausing to swat Sruixan out of his way. Sruix screamed as the lightning coursed through his body, but that noise was soon drowned out by the water rushing past him as Fogel continued to dive.

Desperately, Pharmacy parried the mace with her narwhal. It was a valiant effort, but before long the narwhal's horn broke, and Fogel pinned his rival under two hundred tons of robotic blubber.

But in his determination to strike down his rival, Fogel had forgotten to watch his back. Seeing a chance to take down two mighty opponents, Schazer had grabbed hold of a beluga and begun to swim in circles at high speeds, creating a massive whirlpool. She send it towards the rivals, hoping to claim them both.

The whirlpool tore through them, even as they continued their struggle. But when it finally passed, only Pharmacy remained, exhausted yet intact.
Schazer grinned. Victory was at hand. She only needed to deal with the exhausted Pharmacy and the enigmatic Truegreen... wait, where was Truegreen?

A massive blast soon answered that question, as Truegreen emerged, seemingly from nowhere, riding a humpback with an enormous cannon in its mouth. The shot knocked Schazer from her beluga, giving Pharmacy a chance to flee and recoup.

From that point on, the battle grew ever fiercer, with all three sides building massive armies. Yet none of the three seemed able to gain an advantage; Pharmacy could command the mightiest whales, but Schazer was able to exploit her knowledge of whale biology to fend off most attackers, and Truegreen seemed to have an ever-increasing array of equipment for his forces. Perhaps it was acquired from the same plane of existence as Pharmacy's lost helicopters.

It was clear to Pharmacy that she could not defeat both opponents, not in her weakened state. And so she made an uneasy peace with Truegreen, agreeing that neither would attack the other until Schazer was defeated.

The Marinara Trench was the dividing line - were either side to cross it, that would be a breach of the agreement.

Schazer was hardly worried, however. She could hold out well enough against both opponents, and she knew the truce would not last; both sides were building up their forces around the Marinara, no doubt waiting for an opportunity.

And all Schazer had to do was create that opportunity. By taking strategic losses at the Ranch Trench and the Worcestershire Trench, she could make her defeat look worse than it actually was. That, no doubt, would be enough to break the peace.

And she was right. Not long after a sentry tower fell, Pharmacy turned half of her attention to Truegreen, and before long that half turned to two-thirds. All the while, Schazer was preparing for her final strike, retreating forces to minimize her losses and retain as many troops as she could.

In time, Pharmacy and Truegreen whittled each other down enough to take a chance. Schazer rode forth on her beluga, surrounded by every troop she had left. Desperately, the other two generals agreed on a last-minute truce, but both realized it might not be enough - they had overestimated Schazer's losses.

But just before the battle began, a noise echoed through the ocean.

No, not a noise - a song. A choir of thousands of whales, singing a song that no human could understand.

But then a pillar of light appeared in the middle of the battlefield, and all became clear.

Fogel had not been defeated by the whirlpool. He had, instead, ascended.

He appeared in the form of a winged beluga in the center of the beam, and as he swam out, the bones of the fallen whales rose from the ocean floor and came towards him.

No one wanted to see what happened next. Schazer charged towards him, Pharmacy raised her now-healed narwhal, and Truegreen began aiming his cannonwhale.

But Fogel fought them all off with only his whaleknife, as he began tying the bones together. Before long, he had crafted a massive, terrifying serpentine creature, and climbed on its back.

Of his three remaining opponents, only Pharmacy, his eternal rival, realized the full meaning of what had just happened.

Fogel had created the Dragonwhale, a creature of legends, said to only respond to a true master of the whales. He had surpassed her, surpassed them all.

The survivors of the three armies were soon torn apart, and their bones integrated into the Dragonwhale, making it even more powerful and horrifying to behold. As it reached its full power, it simply swallowed all three in one gulp.

There was another flash of light as the whale power left Fogel's body and the Dragonwhale collapsed into bones.

The battle was over. Fogel had won.

He was now the undisputed Prince of Whales.

What little light remains is completely extinguished as Fogel concludes his account. When they flood back on, he's vanished into the night. The only sign he'd ever been there is the chills rolling down every viewer's back.

The Herald takes a minute to compose itself enough to proceed with the conference.

It's the one! The only! Granolaman!