Whew! Another chapter finished…sorry for the late post. I had a dress rehearsal this weekend. I'm in a figure skating exhibition next Saturday. Wish me luck. Some more action is this chapter so I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 12: Mandarin's Scheme
The skirmish was more of a slaughter of lower level Formless. The team never even broke a sweat. They were about to move across the antechamber and make their way to Skeleton King's 'throne room' when a dissonance of clambering feet reached their ears. It seemed as though some more friends were alerted to their presence. As soon as they thought this, a large group of higher level Formless appeared brandishing weapons the teams had never seen Formless bearing before. The bane of their existence, Mandarin, came out from amidst the crowd of Formless. He was smiling at them victoriously, as though he had already squashed the team.
"Ah my brethren and insolent boy, so lovely for you to come to us to surrender" cackled Mandarin.
"No way we'd surrender to you!" shouted Chiro. "We are going to defeat you and your master once and for all!"
"I'd like to see you try, you furless monkey!" shouted Mandarin, his expression quickly shifting from victory to one of anger. Saying this, Mandarin ordered the Formless to attack. Some of the Formless ran towards the team firing off energy beams from the hands. Others pulled out bony sword-like appendages and ran towards the Hyper Force. Still others raised up the new weapons they saw earlier. The new weapons looked like old-style blow dart guns.
"Hyper Force Go!" shouted Chiro, dodging an energy beam. The team dodged the arms of the Formless that reached them first and pulled out all the stops. Gibson began to use his tail for devastating, low-sweeping attacks to trip the Formless into his drills. Antauri dodged energy beams in the air while using small bullet-like pellets that Xan had made for him to perform really helpful aerial attacks. Nova used her speed to dodge attacks and then pivot around to the side and punch. Sprx would slide under the Formless and kick them rapidly using his strong feet. Otto, who was good with his hands would block the attacks with his hands then use swirl their arms around his arm and then attack with one of his saws when the Formless tried to pry its hand loose. Chiro's tri-combos where hitting the Formless with devastating accuracy while Xan used his Essence Sword with all the skill of an ancient samurai daimyo.
Mandarin growled and then smirked evilly. "Fire the Skele-darts!' The Formless holding the blow-dart guns blew into them and shot a volley of darts. It was then that Chiro found out the flaw in his tri-combos. He couldn't move out of the way quick enough to get dodge the attack completely.
"Ouch!" One of the darts grazed his leg. It wasn't deep so Chiro stood up quickly saying "Is that all you got Mandarin?!"
Mandarin began to laugh maniacally. "Foolish boy! My Master has graciously allowed me to explore the possibility of poison effects on our enemies. Even a tiny cut allows a highly toxic poison to be released into the body! My research also shows that it is a slow-acting, extremely painful poison."
"What?!" shouted Nova, panicked at the possibility of Chiro dying a slow and painful death.
"Where's the antidote?" growled Sprx trying to reign in his temper.
Mandarin laughed even harder at this. "I haven't had time to concoct an antidote my brother!"
"What?!" the team yelled as one, except Xan who went over to Chiro and projected a shield around the two of them.
"Young Chiro, may I see the wound?" asked Xan
"Uh, sure" said Chiro, a little confused and then he remembered the all-purpose antidote. "Wait! Are you using the antidote?"
"Yes" stated Xan calmly as he looked at the wound and reached into his pouch to pull out the crystal clear vial.
"But what if someone else gets hit?" asked Chiro not wanting him to waste the antidote on him when the others could be in trouble.
"No one else on the team will get hit" stated Xan. Chiro hissed in pain as Xan opened the wound more and poured the antidote into the cut. "I'm going to destroy the blow dart guns the Formless are using. Tell the team to get behind the shield until I get back." Xan wrapped the wound in a piece of material he ripped off of his sleeve.
Chiro searched the man's eyes. Seeing determination and confidence in them he nodded. "Team, get behind the shield with me."
"Chiro, are you alright?" asked Antauri, who had seen Xan use the antidote on their young leader.
"Yeah, stay here with me while Xan goes and destroys the dart-blowers."
"Are you sure you can do it" asked Otto, who had become quite attached to the man.
Xan nodded and then slunk out from behind the shield. He began flying towards the group of Formless. Mandarin noticed the man finally and, though confused as to who this was, ordered the blow-dart Formless to aim it for the man. Xan dodged the darts by swerving towards the wall, wincing as he felt something bony graze his stomach. He then landed and proceeded to open up a can of whoop-ass on the Formless holding the dart blowers. Xan then lowered the shield around the team and proceeded to help them corral the remaining Formless and Mandarin into the middle of the antechamber.
"You will not defeat me or my Master!" shrieked Mandarin as he realized that he would not win this battle.
Chiro calmly walked up to Mandarin, leaving the Formless for the rest of them and said "Yes we will. Monkey Fu!" He let loose a large burst of Power Primate. Xan started, having never seen this attack before. It was really strong, stronger than any of his attacks.
And with that blast, Mandarin was no more.
daimyo - ancient samurai warlord…could be obtained by lineage, prowess in battle, or appointment by a high-level daimyo or the ruling leader of the time.