Ch. 19 - How to Use the Teleport Stone

"Errr, so you took advantage of the whole situation and actually came here with a personal vendetta," Mykee recounted as he checked the Chief Aborigine's pulse. The wizard, who also was a student of a health-related course, shook his head after a few seconds to imply that the body he was tending to had passed on.

"Not really," the assassin Lust addressed Mykee's statement. "I knew ever since that my father felt guilty for instigating the avalanche that extinguished the Wild Mules. When he set off to 'sacrifice himself', my mother and I couldn't stop him. He merely told me to grow up without making a similar grave mistake. And I just wanted to hear it straight from this aborigine guy that my dad's a goddamn hero."

Mykee let go of the dead body and rose to his feet. He concentrated on his friend. "But you just learned that yo' father died for nothing. The Chief even called him... foolish? Hmm, it must be shitty for you to hear that. Anyways, why don't you look at the brighter side? The aborigine's face is now a total wreck. There's a snapshot of it  in my cellphone already. I'm gonna upload it for you."

"I love you dude."

"But what about Chaty?!" Morph and Ash asked as they transported the deceased fairy after withdrawing it from the altar.

"Chill!" Lust answered exuberantly. "Just wait you guys..."

"Huh?"

Through a haze of fatigue the assassin quickly initiated a puzzling countdown. "5...4...3...2..."

POOF!

"Holy mother mama! Chaty's body vanished!" Morphed exclaimed as he stumbled away in awe.

"What the ef!" Ash and Mykee's faces were struck with confusion. The bunny on the ground squealed too.

"What're you so frantic about?" Lust rolled his eyes. "That's what we call an auto-resu. Wahahaha!"

"That was a dirty trick you played on us, Lust. I dunno what's gotten into you these past few hours," said Mykee.

The assassin took a hurried sweep around the place then announced: "Lets get the hell out of here by using our teleport stones. The ghosts will be here anytime soon."

Teleport Stone

The teleport stone was a special kind of stone issued to all character classes before starting their journey in Green Scarp. It was relatively easy to use, just a little rub with the fingers, and poof, the bearer would be teleported to his return spot. Return stands, found in every town or city, served as return spots. To activate a return stand, the inscription on it should be copied to the teleport stone using a whiteboard marker. Why whiteboard marker? Because whiteboard marks weren't permanent, thus were easy to smear and remove. 

Teleport Stand

For example, the text "cnongbesprenmo" was engraved on Stone City's return stand. If someone desired to set Stone City as a return spot via the return stand, he just needed to write "cnongbesprenmo" on his teleport stone using the approved marker. All teleport stones came with a user manual. Here's an important part of it:

'Please be guided that the codes which appear on each of the return stands change every 24 hours so keep yourself updated. This is to prevent the abuse of the service through making a list that contains the codes for all the existing towns/cities. The use of the service is limited to only once every 60 minutes. And most importantly, when using the teleport stone, please make sure that you don't rub the wrong place. The writings may be smudged, resulting to an error or a malfunction. Anyone who rubs a blank teleport stone will be teleported to the default return spot, HELL itself (never to return again). So be careful!

The wizards had moved out already, leaving Lust, Morph and the bunny behind. Morph couldn't find his teleport stone while Lust, being the one who assumed responsibility, intended to be the last to exit.

"W-wait! How about Magina? He's still cursed," the monk asked, still searching his pockets and bag compartments for the stone.

"Secure him inside your bag. Be careful out there, Morph. We're still fugitives."

"All because of you." Morpheuz had already retrieved his tele stone, and by that time had also packed up his bunnified friend. As he began to rub he rattled off: "But don't think about that too much."

"Tell me why?"

"Think about how much time passed. Our PK values should be at zero by now." With that said, Morph popped away like a bubble.

Beneath the thin brown fabric mask, the assassin curved his lips into a smile. The rescue mission was a success. He only had to make sure that Chaty was killed by the aborigines so she'd respawn somewhere. Had the chief decided to keep their friend alive to turn to a sex slave, that would be a nastier problem.

Lust felt the small, rectangular piece of flat wood where the word "FamouS" was delicately carved. It was attached to his silver necklace. Soiled fingers started to slip back and forth along the smooth surface of the guild token. After 10 seconds, Lust slowly evaporated into nothingness. It was time to get that well-deserved rest.

Ch. 18 - A Futile Endeavor

In Bamboo Cave, a nightly chill accompanied the air, the sky was dull and the only sources of radiance were the candles that stood flickering at the corners of the rectangular altar. A figure remained partly hidden beside Chaty’s ‘dead’ body. Lust believed the figure belonged to the Aborigine Chief, and even in a poorly lighted environment, Lust could make out a smile on the Chief’s shadowy face.

“I swear to God I will make you suffer!” Lust was trembling in anger, his hands tightened their grips around the dagger handles.

“Uh-oh. Too late,” The aborigine replied. “The Ancient City Evil Ghosts are feasting upon this fairy’s soul. There’s nothing you can do about it. Bwahahahaha! I admire Chaty for having spirited friends like you, though.”

Chief Aborigine was a tall guy. The muscular frame, ebony skin, and deep pair of eyes all conformed to his virile but clear voice. The Chief was the highest rank for an aborigine. Secondary to that were Officers; the aborigines who had completed the tough-guy training.

“Ancient City Evil Ghosts? Mykee verified. “So you worship those apparitions now?”

“What the heck Mykee, you know about the City Ghosts?” the Pokemon hunter Ash inquired.

“Well, yes. I saw pictures of them once in a paranormal show on Discovery Channel.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! You don’t believe me, do you? The Ancient City Ghosts are always found in ruins. According to experts, they are souls of men who had sweated blood in the development of their civilization. They were so obsessed with their craft that even in death, they couldn’t abandon their worldly masterpiece: the city.”

“Very good.” The aborigine confirmed Mykee’s elucidation. “In exchange for allowing us to live here, we offer the ghosts human sacrifices,” he added.

“Like a rent or something? You pay for your settlement rights with people’s lives? Is that what you’re trying to tell us?” Magina’s voice raised, his pulse quickening and his heart pumping harder in his chest.

“I guess.” The aborigine shrugged nonchalantly. Then he continued, “You should go home. Don’t worry I won’t do anything to you. But if you decide to attack me, then you’re welcome to die trying.”

“Hopeless psycho!” Magina blurted. The enraged assassin scampered towards the nigga to give him exactly what he needed: a nice, fat slit in the throat. However, before Magina could even touch his target, Lust barricaded the path and yelled: ‘Nooooo!’ Truth was, Lust wanted to slaughter the chief personally. Yet, despite all his efforts to hold the Anti-Mage back, the latter escaped him and closed in on the aborigine. Meanwhile the chief was chanting: abayga…gopalako… Everyone was appalled when Magina turned into a random critter!

“He got hexed! Hahaha! Lust lol’d.

“Faaaaak! Is he gonna be okay?” Morphed asked with a dead-worried look.

“Uh-huh. Hex lasts for 5 minutes at the most. Hahahaah! Look at him!” Lust pointed at Magina who was changed into a cuddly little blue bunny. It kinda squealed.

“Cute!” Mykee quipped.

And then Lust, without warning, rush fainted and planted his daggers up to the hilt on the aborigine’s body. The daggers were extorted from the chief’s firm muscles with a squelching sound. As a result, blood gushed right out of the deep stab wounds. When the Chief finally fell dying, the assassin looked down on him and muttered, “What happened to Ralph Allan?”

The expiring aborigine managed a response: “…You mean the foolish old man who offered himself as a sacrifice to stop the attacks of the Wild Mules? Haha… W-what a futile endeavor. Not even for 1 second did the mules take a break from dining on humans. Hahahaahah!... But there was this family that he spoke of: a wife and a son. Hmmm.”

Lust was dumbfounded by the Chief’s words. He took a deep breath then let out a long sigh. With a patched up composure, he said in a low voice, “I am the son, by the way.”

The pair of Soul Recall Daggers in his hands swooped down and tore through flesh and bones. Lust relished every second of the blood bath. It was all personal to him, and this time’s sweeter, because nobody showed up to steal the kill.

Ch. 17 - Agreement To Die Young

Empress curled beneath the quilt on her luxuriously tender bed. The tamer’s cozy bedroom involved an AC unit, a 40-inch-or-so LCD flatscreen television, an antique dresser stuffed with every design of corselets available at the market, and a pink wallpaper with Barbie signatures all over it. Empress was already wide-awake, but still too lazy to get up and out. When the alarm clock on her bedside table rang, she crawled out of her comforter and decided it was time to start another day of being the leader of InfiniteDreamers. Her hand found a button on the alarm clock then pushed it. The digital display indicated the current time of the day: 8:30 am.

The level 54 tamer was in white pajamas randomly dotted with Blue’s paw prints, or Blue’s Clues =P. Even in medium-fitting garments, the tamer’s curvy figure was distinct. She had quite the assets; hence the issue with all the bad boys wanting her required no further discussion. Empress approached her desk by the window laden with stacks of pocketbooks to get hold of the mobile phone which contained her to-do list. She managed a smile on her face knowing that the day for the two new additions to her growing empire, Ash and Mykee, had come. Both of those wizards were no doubt competent, and from what she’d learned from her peers, they also had that Korean heartthrob charms. Her heart almost giggled at the idea. And all she had to do at that juncture was to fire up her cell phone and forward the guild invitation messages to the wizards.

After fixing up some minor messes in her den, the tamer changed into her regular Blue Snipe Battle Corslet, stringed her bow, then stepped out thru the front door. Screw breakfast, she thought. There’s a place just around Stone City where healthy meals were served on traditional Japanese dishes. If time permitted, maybe Empress would grab a bite or two, since she fancied herself being in the early stages of anorexia. She called for her Divine Tiger then made her way to a secret destination where her guild members awaited her for a significant meeting.

. . .

“Depart this building through the west gate, and then you will reach the remnants of a supposedly ‘temple of the gods’. Once you’re in there the altar will not be difficult to spot as the building’s layout is very, very obvious. And one more thing: do not be deceived by the Chief. He may act beefy but he’s only human like the rest of us.” At last, the Aborigine Captain talked generously. The assassin Lust showed a bit of satisfaction and even let the aborigine go after making him swear he’d never work for the Chief again. He eyed his friends and made the signal that meant let’s go. The western stairway that led up to the temple was in wait for them.

“We better hurry. We do not know yet what kind of an ass that Chief Aborigine is. God knows that chief could be one of those country pervs and might be doing ‘things’ to Chaty by now!” Morpheuz hastened ahead of the others.

Gomu gomu no... pistoraaaaah! Mykee's phone played its message alarm. When Mykee opened the text message, the display read: Good day! This is InfiniteDreamers Guild Leader, Empress. It is with utmost respect that I am inviting you to join the InfiniteDreamers Organization. Please reply with a YES or a NO. Signed, Empress. P.S. Looking forward to working with you. ^_~

"Ash! My invite's here already. How about yours?" Mykee brought his mobile phone up for Ash to see.

"I got it too. Thanks for asking. We just have to reply with a YES and wait for the confirmation," the Pokemon hunter answered while typing the word 'yes' in his own cellphone.

"Yo Ash." Magina joined the conversation. "The cigarettes. Where are they."

"The monk is keeping it."

"Here." Morpheuz produced the nearly depleted pack of cigarettes then pitched it to the Anti-Mage.

"Tsk. You smoke a lot!" Mykee commented casually as he turned his face to Magina.

"Duh. You're not even in place to tell me that! Nyahaha!" The assassin retorted.

"You'll be diagnosed with cancer at what, 40 or 50 years old?"

"Hahaha, I'm thinking a bit sooner. Like, 30 years old. Bah, I don't even want to reach 30. >:)"

"Yeah," Ash cut in. "You see, Magina and I had talked about this. We came up with an agreement to die young because it happened that both of us hate to see our own old faces," he continued.

"...Alright?" Mykee sounded troubled. "T-tell me more?"

"And since Morph doesn't want to keep up with us, then I guess Ash and I would be in heaven to watch that monk grow old and ugly or suffer from lung cancer. Eww!" Magina supplied.

At that Morpheuz reacted and confronted Ash and Magina. "W-what? He--Heaven? Look at you idiots. Retards like you aren't even allowed in hell."

 

 "How dare you tell us that? Who smokes the most, huh?" Ash asked in an attempt to corner Morpheuz.

"Me..." the monk murmured. "But--"

"Ooops. There you again with your buts. No buts!"

"Everybody quiet down!" Lust spoke for the first time. They had reached the temple. It was quite a tiring climb up, but it was all worth it. The array of broken pillars described the temple's layout. The altar's location was indeed easy to identify, and on top of that slab was a nude and limp female body. Chaty.

Ch. 16 - Let's Talk About This

Up until then, Magina the assassin had never imagined how much of a hassle spellcasting was for wizards. With brows slightly raised he followed Ash and Mykee's hand motions and formations then wondered: were those really necessary? In the worldwide anime-manga sensation Naruto, the shinobis performed rituals called hand seals to use certain abilities. In order for those techniques to work, the proper set of hand seals must be done since each technique or jutsu corresponded to a unique combination of hand seals. And Magina was very well aware of all that. He'd been a Naruto fanatic from the day he was born. Back to the wizards, it was obvious that Ash and Mykee were just dancing weirdly, which of course was something you'd never expect from ninjas. But at the end of the day, they were magicians. Masters of the elements. Another stuff that worried the assassin was the annoying fact that wizards needed an exceptionally high intelligence only to be applied in an odd-looking style of manipulating ice and water. It's so uncool yet that was out of the question. A more important matter needed to be taken care of.

"Where's Chaty?" Magina greeted the Aborigine Captain with a threatening gaze.

The aborigine territory immersed itself within the ruins of an ancient civilization that was built in a wide pit below ground level. The only things that connected it to the world above were stairways of stone located at each of the four main directions of the excavation. A round performance platform or more appropriately a theater settled in the midst of an encompassing ring of audience seats. The bottom of the structure was layered with no more than sand, and perhaps due to its age, the original flooring had been buried and forgotten.  It was on that level where the aborigines reared up their queer little cottages. Lust and his team were there, and so was the aborigine who called himself the captain.

"I don't see why I have to tell you anything," the captain answered dryly.

Morpheuz walked up and constricted the man's neck with his long, sturdy fingers. "You're a hard nut to crack!"

"Go ahead. Kill me!" The aborigine spat. "Nyahahaahahaha!"

"No, no! Stop it, Morph. You're gonna kill him! We need him to talk, ya hear?" Magina removed Morph's hand from the aborigine's neck. "Doesn't work that way. Let's leave this to Lust."

Lust, the guy with the highest level, strode forward holding a GW Chain Scimitar. "Strip him naked," he told his buddies.

"W-wait...what are you up to???" the aborigine demanded.

"Nothing invasive, actually. I'll just have to stick this scimitar's handle up your poophole." Lust pretended to measure the handle's dimensions. "Hmm... 8 inches long, 3 inches wide. Oh god. I hope this doesn't hurt you."

"Please! Let's talk about this!"

"Then start talking already!"

Ch. 15 - Battle at Bamboo Cave

"Now that we have the coordinates, it is important that we get a move on without any delay. But in our current status, it's going to be a major headache if you try to drag our crippled asses along. Go ahead. Magina and I can take care of ourselves." Ash voiced out, laboring to get into a sitting position.

"Chill out. Have a smoke." Morpheuz inserted a cigar between Ash's dry lips, obtained a blue Cricket lighter from his pocket and flamed the tip of the cigarette stick. "I knew you were craving for one.:)"

"There's no way we're leaving you guys up here. Right, Morph?" Mykee said.

"Ab-so-lute-ly," the monk agreed. "Though there is something that's bothering me. We can't carry them on our backs. Their bodies are too fragile because of their injuries." Then he turned to Ash. "Just stay put OK? We'll think of a way to get out of here together... in one piece."

"In that case," Magina seemed to have regained his consciousness. The shock that his spine had absorbed a while ago had made him collapse. He tried to reach for his backpack but his weak arms prevented him. "P-please get that Fit'n'Right bottle for me. It's in my bag."

"Fit and what? What on earth do you need that stupid fag drink for?" Morph's blood rushed to his head. So he just calmed his nerves and hooked Magina's backpack by the straps then brought out a plastic bottle filled with red liquid.

Mykee got driven mad by thirst when he saw the container in Morph's hand. "Wa! That's my favorite watermelon flavor! Gimme some!"

"No!" The assassin barked. "That's my rapid healing potion! Hurry up and let Ash drink some."

At first Ash hesitated. "Is this thing safe? I mean... I know Magina's a devoted botanist and alchemist but he'd killed Harry Potter with just a shotglass of this... rapid...healing potion, as you call it."

"Yeah, yeah. We all know that your buddy's a 100% HP hater. No need for you telling us that. Now drink up! C'mon baby!" Morph squeezed the disabled wizard's cheeks to force him to open his mouth.

Ash gagged, then he cackled: "Nyahahaha! Screw HP! LotR's still the best! Wahahaha! So let's see how rapid this potion of yours could--"

"What the ef! Your wounds vanished! Holy shit!" Mykee and Morpheuz shouted in disbelief.

"Reminds me of idiot number one and idiot number two from the David Blaine Street Magic parody on youtube. What a pair of assholes," Magina remarked, then he took the bottle and drank what was left of the potion.

All refreshed and geared up, the group trailed the footway downhill to follow Lust's coordinates. There's no autopath function in BC so let's just hope our team of cuties would make it there safely.

. . .

"Alert! Alert! Medusa's boyfriend is on the loose! He's escaping!" An aborigine alarmed in a radio report to his mates.

"I'm not her boyfriend. And I'm not escaping." Lust slipped behind the aborigine and severed his head with a dagger.

"Come out, folks! I'm right here!"

Several aborigine rangers with bows appeared from the trees and started shooting poison arrows at the provoking assassin. But those were only deflected by Lust's Greedy Wolf Armguard +6. Subsequently, the rangers were slain systematically by the warmongering sin.

"Is that it? You're not even trying!!!" Lust's lust for war was insatiable.

Then a group of Aborigine Magicians arrived into the scene. They were good for nothing with their absurd casting time though, and Lust deleted them from his target list with a single Adrenaline Rush and a series of hard-hitting Poison Bashes. All their heads were split open like coconuts.

Next up were the Aborigine Spearmen, the Chief's basic units of warfare. The pawns. And moreover, they were Chaty's abductors. Their captain moved forward and said something to Lust.

"Still in the mood for fighting huh, Lust? It's too late to save your fairy. She's pro'bly on the altar now, waiting for the ritual to commence. To be honest, I had decided not to kill you in hopes that I could take you here to witness the sacrificial ceremony first-hand. But after realizing that you have caused a lot more trouble than I expected, I guess I am left with no choice. So before I send you to the afterlife, tell me, how did you survive my poison so easily?"

Lust couldn't explain about that either, although there's a single theory that had touched his mind: the venom intake when he consumed his own son had granted him extraordinary resistance to negative buffs. He opted not to disclose that information to the aborigine. Instead he just threw another provoking statement.

"You oily-headed jerks are all talks. Now, either you tell me where the altar is and that would be the end of it of course, or... I will beat you up so badly that your mothers are gonna sue me."

The Spearmen's Captain squinted at the outrage and ordered his troop. "Get him! Git-that-braaattt!!!"

Five strong spear-wielding aborigines charged with their spearheads pointed to the awaiting assassin.

"Yaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Lust understood that they were too many for him to take on at once so he backed away a bit and clutched the Dragon Roc dangling from his belt. The support weapon released a terrifying squawk that caused the aborigines to lose their concentration.

E E E E E E K K K K!

"Now you're dead ^_^," Lust affirmed. As he adjusted to deliver his fatal slices, the loamy surface where his enemies remained began to vibrate and thunder. His back-up was already there.

"Heheheeh! Ash and Mykee. You're kill-stealing from me again!" He waved at the wizards. Morph and Magina, too.

The wizzes stood ground in an unseen corner, with hands crossed and blades rotating like the hands of a clock, but in opposite directions. After a few seconds, hundreds of hard crystalline spikes grew forcefully from the floor, dismembering and disemboweling everything in their wake.

Ch. 14 - Plan B

Seeing his friends' body worn-out from the devastation wrought by the enemy, the monk Morpheuz hurriedly but carefully pulled them out of harm's way. Mykee's Ice Crust had rendered the Tiger King immobile but it wouldn't be for long. Such a battle-hardened monster like that could crack the rime in minutes. Morph secured Ash and Magina against a big rock that overlooked the misty ravine. When everything was where he thought they should be, he went for his staff and assumed an offensive stance.

Finally, the Tiger King broke free from the crystal coating. His growl was thunder-like. Things weren't the way they used to be however, because his new opponents showed no signs of apprehension. But who cares? He pushed the floor with his muscular legs and launched himself fiercely, widening his jaws to once again have a taste of human flesh.

The monk exhausted a white form of energy that repelled the animal's assault. Buddha Shield. For a moment he was engulfed in a blinding brightness. Maybe it was the secret to the Buddha Shield's impregnability; you couldn't look at it directly. And being unable to see the enemy simply meant a frail defense. When the TK averted his eyes, Morph took the chance to whack his brains out with a flaming staff.

"Take this, you son of a whore! Yahhh!"

Seeing the monk in a state of frenzy, Mykee  drew out every last bit of his chakra to discharge an earth-shaking Tide Spout.

"Get back, Morph!"

Before the TK could react to retreat or maybe even strike back, Morph was already out of the field. The land grumbled. A small portion of it was shoved skywards by a narrow water jet stream. It missed the tiger's head by inches. A second spout followed, but rather than a burst of water, this time it was a solid ice spear that was shot forth from the earth. More spouts came, one by one at first, then gained the rhythm of a Gatling gun. One long, pointed piece of frozen water impaled the TK through the jaw and up the skull where a chunk of his brain was dislodged. His abdomen seemed to have undergone an acupuncture treatment. The dense piercings caused his skin to tear, freeing his stomach, gastric juices and all, his liver, his lungs, his kidneys, digestive tracts and shit. The whole place was painted red.

Mykee's Water Gears stopped spinning. The earrings pinned to both of his earlobes calmed from vibrating, too.

"Hmm.." He grinned as he savored his glorious moment.

"Holy cow... That's the best brick-shitting and mindfucking Tide Spout I ever saw," the awestruck monk uttered.

"Bwahahahahaahahahahaah!" The meek grin was converted to a deafening blast of an imperious evil laugh.

Lightning began to strike. Shadowy clouds drifted softly in the heavens. The moon that had cast luminosity for the past hours was then only a blur of gray somber light behind a patch of cloud. The wind hushed, and not a thing could be felt, except for the magical aura of frost that the wizard had with him: friendly and comic, but ruthless.

. . .

Lust came to his senses when his eyesight gradually cleared. A flashback of recent events returned to him, especially the part when he had failed to avoid the paralyzing dart that found its way to his neck. Miraculously, it seemed that the poison's effect was already dispersing for he could then control his movements as sharply as before. It could be that something was wrong with the aborigines' alchemy. It didn't last the desired duration. Though Lust found himself captive and his hands firmly bound behind his back, he never felt bad about their original plan. That was only Plan A after all. He simply considered his current situation the beginning of his Plan B. The place where the aborigines had decided to keep him was one of those traditional straw-sheltered huts with walls made of dried mud. It had no windows, only a 6-feet-tall doorless entrance.The room was round and a fireplace dotted its center. Lust took a hurried peek outside and acquired the fact that two heavyweight aborigine guards were on watch just outside the cottage. When he was convinced that nobody was looking, his hand rummaged inside the dagger sheath's false bottom and extracted a cellphone. He typed a text message comprising a series of numbers that somewhat appeared to be coordinates. The message was sent to his friends. All four of them.

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.”