Ch. 13 - Time To Shine

As the Tiger King circled the two incapacitated bodies lying helplessly, he let out a wild roar that reverberated in the depth of his territory. A dank breeze swayed the branches of trees along with the tall, bent bamboos that shot from the ground. Another roar came, this time to signal the execution of the intruders.

“That’s the second roar.” Magina mopped the blood under his nose with the back of his hand.

The wizard lay prone, desperately pretending to be dead. He knew that their adversary could count every beat of his heart. “Ok, what exactly does that mean?”

“Uh, he’s going to tear us apart. And what would remain of us, well, he’s going to leave it for smaller animals to feed on,” Magina answered.

“Seriously?”

“Dead serious. How do you feel about that?”

“Sad, of course! This is sad, baby. Is this our limit? Is this as far as we go? I mean, is this all we’ve got?”

“Hahaha! Mr. Tiger is about to kill us and you’re sad about it? Look at me, baby.” Magina flashed a smirk.

“You think this is funny? You think dying is fun? Look at how fucked up we are right now, you dumb fuck!” Gray-hair tightened the pressure on his belly.

The Tiger King neared them. He gently raised his mighty paw to hammer down his victims one by one. He didn’t choose to use his jaws. An instant kill felt more appropriate. The paw began to descend straight down at the wizard’s head.

Magina summoned his last remaining strength to push Ash away from the point of impact.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooom!

“Why did you save me? You should’ve let him do it. Let it end!” Ash yelled.

“Listen,” Magina hissed as he waited for the Tiger King’s next blow. “Death is fun, because I trust our friends so much that they wouldn’t let us die a boring death.”

“Don’t tell me…” Even with every part of his body shaking in pain, Ash staggered to look around. He caught a glimpse of a pair of bellicose shadows. The one on the left wore crossed blades on his back, just like him. Definitely a wizard. He couldn’t tell much about the man on the right except that he had a clean shaven head and his hands clasped a long piece of metal. Definitely a monk.

“Mykee? Morpheuz?”

Magina welcomed the callous paw of the Tiger King that was coming down for the second time with a crushing force. He had no energy left to spend, nor the desperation to welcome a tragic death. He didn’t need to say the words.

A thick crust of ice crept quickly over the Tiger King’s body. By the time it got to his head, the enormous creature came to a complete stillness as though time itself had been frozen. The assassin felt a total relief.

Mykee unfurled all ten of his fingers gracefully. “Isn’t that sweet? I’ve been practicing waterbending too! #8 Hey Baldy, go get them out of there. It’s our time to shine.”