Shantae: Clash of Arms

by IllusoryNomad

Following her latest defeat, the notorious Risky Boots hatches yet another dastardly scheme to annihilate Sequin Land as we know it. Only this time, she's managed to pilfer an extensive collection of military-grade weapons from another world! With the threat of Risky's conquest more perilous than ever, Half-Genie Hero Shantae and an unlikely ally must join forces to stop her!

18. Cacophonous Last Stand

Chapter 10, Pt. 3: Cacophonous Last Stand

And without fail, folks, we have returned to your regularly scheduled program! Hope you don't hate me for having to break this catastrophic two-for-one journey of our heroes into three parts instead of the usual one or two. I… ALMOST promise not to to it again. I swear. Almost. Sort of. Not really. You get what I mean. Anyway, where were we…? Let's see… um… shoot, I lost my bookmark. Looks like we'll have to start from the very beginning all over aga—Just kidding! Lucky you, I have photographic memory. Well, as close to it as possible. But enough of me bragging about my incomparable talents. We were at the part where our heroes were nearing the end of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth. More specifically, the part where one of said heroes was forcibly lured into the end of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth, unwillingly enchanted by the melodious tune of someone's mysterious singing… and all things considered about what anyone singing in these forsaken catacombs meant, let's just say it was probably the farthest thing from a good sign. Nevertheless, I will not continue to prattle on about the general synopsis while you hang at the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting the juicy, intricate details. So, let's dive on in, shall we?

LOCATION: TOMB OF LADY RADIYAH, SIREN'S REQUIEM LABYRINTH, UNDER THE SEA, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: SEPTEMBER 25TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 1926 HOURS

"Agh… I… still… can't… control… myself…!" Tayshan uttered, straining with all his might as his body carried itself all the way down the dark, wet corridor from which he'd been hearing a woman's hypnotic singing. As you might imagine, the singing grew progressively louder with the further down the hall he unwillingly traversed. Likewise, the singing grew louder… and louder… and louder to the point where Tay's hearing was entirely overwhelmed. The maddeningly somber tune threatened to drive the unfortunate serviceman out of his mind as he remained unable to even move his hands to cover his ears. As he reached the glowing blue light at the end of the tunnel, the singing permeated the air waves like the voice's owner (if she was even there) was yelling into five microphones hooked into their own speakers. Tay, through his inability to control his body as he inadvertently dashed right into the wide, spacious mega dome of a tomb, swore that he would go deaf if he was subjected to such auditory torture for a second longer.

As he ran into the final area of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth, he noticed that, for as enormous as the room was, there was surprisingly little in it. Immediately noticeable were the blue-flamed, wall-mounted torches lined around the perimeter that shed some much-needed light into the unfamiliar landscape. At the center of the tomb, he saw only a fancily decorated moss-covered marble altar, on which an open glass casket rested. Articles of jewelry, gold pieces, wilted flower petals, and miscellaneous tribute items surrounded and decorated the shining coffin. Accompanying the casket atop the altar were two giant lanterns that nearly rivaled household garages in size and contained massive, raging blue flames that could've possibly lit up the entirety of the tomb, were it not for the plethora of torches surrounding the area. Though he found himself unable to turn his head, Tay was also able to notice a portion of the golden-hued mural on the walls, which appeared to depict sirens, mermaids, Nagas, and archers alike frolicking freely on cloudy surfaces without a care in the world.

What caught the soldier's eye most, however, was the stunning sight of the winged, magenta-skinned woman that stood in front of the open casket with her back turned to him. She hadn't yet noticed him as she continued to serenade none other than herself as she spread her gigantic, feathery black wings that compared to those of a raven in their sleekness. Her humongous, scaly tail, comparable to a python in length and shape, swayed side to side, brushing along the surface of the altar as she freely and pendulously swung her hips. Meanwhile, this mysterious creature was raising her slender, human-like arms in the air as though she were performing a ritual. Tay found himself unable to stop and ask who this woman was, however, as he was still inadvertently approaching her. The pitter-patter of his footsteps, accompanied by a *sploosh* of him stepping in a puddle, tipped the woman off to his presence. As such, she stopped singing and swiftly turned to inspect the noise.

"Who dares disturb my final resting place!?" the woman, who veritably appeared to be Siren in species, yelled in a sudden, hot anger as she glared in the soldier's direction. Tay, finally able to control himself due to the woman in question ceasing her singing, brought himself to a screeching halt before flexing his fingers to test that he was in control of himself once more. Within a few seconds, he brought his gaze upward to the woman standing on the mile-high altar as she straightened her stance and rested her hands on her hips. This mysterious siren's attire left very little to the imagination. Her scaly pink skin was revealed at almost every inch, save for the scanty, shiny teal bikini top she wore in addition to what appeared to be a matching, form-fitting, torn miniskirt that cut off halfway down her thighs.

"Huh… This… I don't feel so good about this…" Tay murmured, holding his position as he took up a wary, defensive stance while this siren stared him down.

"How in the…? A… a slovenly human male!? In MY temple!?" she irritably shouted, evidently offended by the very presence of the soldier. "What is the meaning of this!? How could such a repulsive creature find their way down here, much less reach my tomb!?" she ranted, angrily marching herself toward the cautious young man as he remained still. Growing angrier with not having received an answer from him, the siren quickened her pace as she growled in immense frustration. Just as soon as she got close enough to jump at Tay, the young man stepped back and remained vigilant. At that, the siren, who stood at least a couple feet taller than him (huge surprise, I know), stopped before him as she stared him down. Her menacing, snake-like eyes, which featured deep, dark orange sclera and piercing green irises found themselves locked on him. Her long, wavy, damp silvery white hair hung over her shoulders and cheeks, emphasizing the intimidation factor she'd been exuding as she continued glaring at Tayshan like he were a bug that needed squashing. "I demand an answer, you insolent wretch! How did you get here!?"

"I made it here on my own two feet," he rather vaguely answered, looking up to meet her gaze. It certainly didn't help him that he had to look up at this angry chimeric lady, but he did his best not to acknowledge it while answering her question. "With some help."

"On your own two feet with help? Preposterous! I am in no mood for your games, human!" she shouted at him, reaching down and wrapping the fingers of one hand tightly around his neck. Before he realized it, she leaned downward and forcefully drew him toward her, to where they were nearly nose-to-nose. Immediately, Tay grabbed at her wrist as he gagged, taken aback by the strength of the siren's chokehold on him. "You will not make a mockery of me! I do not take kindly to… Wait…" she trailed off, her rage suddenly subsiding as she studied the intruder's face. As she did so, Tay gripped her wrist with both hands, squeezing his fingers into it and twisting one way before suddenly twisting the other way to wrest himself from her airtight grasp. "Ow!" the woman shouted in pain as Tay twisted her wrist into an uncomfortable spot. Once he was free, however, he stumbled back a couple steps while clutching his throat. Silently, he glared back at her as he prepared for the worst. The woman, however, did not immediately take up a stance of battle. "Hmm… I sense something within you…"

"Sense somethin'…?" Tay asked, thrown off by her statement as he straightened himself up and assumed another stance of preparation for battle.

"Something… macabre and malicious in nature… yet, oddly familiar…" she pondered, studying the human up and down, though she appeared not to be able to point her finger on what she meant.

"Malicious?" he repeated, surprised that she would judge him as such by merely looking at him. "If you're worried I'm evil or have ulterior motives here, I-!"

"Yet, there also exists… something else… warm and delicate… also familiar… strange…" she continued to ruminate, officially losing the soldier as he went silent. Meanwhile she continued to stare at him, her disdainful glare never fading as she did so. "Stranger still that, for a human, one of your eyes has a warm brown hue while the other is such a chilling shade of silver…" she mentioned, throwing him for yet another loop. "Such a sharp contrast…"

"…Wait, what!?" he bellowed in complete astonishment, uncertain of where she was getting her information from as he brought a hand to one of his eyes. What did she mean one of his eyes was silver? As far as he recalled, his eyes were brown. Exclusively. Both of them. No other color should've been present. Did she get a good enough glimpse of him? Did she possibly suffer from some form of eye problem?

"I do not like the feeling I'm getting from this…"

"I… n-now, I'm confu-!"

"Either you are a servant of that despicable Pirate Master, or you are of that equally detestable genie breed," she assumed, her unwarranted ire returning full swing as she scowled at him again. "That must be it. No pathetic human could ever stumble their way this far under the sea and come close to surviving the trip, much less escaping the wrath of my faithful minions… which, as I also notice, none of them have heeded my call. What is the meaning of this?"

"Hey, look," Tay attempted to reason, ignoring his initial displeasure at this siren's unsavory comments. "I don't really know what's goin' on here, or who you are, but-!" he started before being cut off again. The disgruntled creature took in a long, sharp inhale and let out a boisterous, melodic musical note that shook the very walls of the tomb she and her unwelcome guest were standing in. Immediately, Tay found every one of his limbs paralyzed as though someone had suddenly chained him to a wall. "…Agh, aaaaaaagh…!" he groaned in a mix of incredible pain and unrelenting shock as the woman's musical tone rattled his eardrums like a pair of maracas. The siren's note carried throughout the tomb and, as it sounded, throughout the entirety of the labyrinth. Her note continued to reverberate off the walls of the corridor behind the soldier and beyond, as it could be heard repeating on what seemed to be a continuous loop. Once the sound was low enough that it stopped tormenting the young man's ears, he immediately shook off the paralysis and pressed his index fingers into his ear canals in an attempt to stop the incessant ringing caused by the siren's singing. A few seconds passed by, however, and after this, the atmosphere went silent once more. In the wake of the crushing silence, the siren's mood saw a sudden change.

"…They are gone…" she whispered, the shock and disbelief written all over her face. "I cannot detect a single one of my servants anywhere… Instead, I only sense this abominable creature standing before me and two other entities with similar wavelength signatures somewhere within the underground dungeon maze… and… the presence of at least five other unfamiliar individuals that seem to be leaving?"

"Two signatures like mine…? And… Five other signatures…?" Tay murmured, presuming that distraught bird-lizard-woman hybrid had somehow managed to sniff out the locations of Shantae and Aashiq, amongst others... maybe Tinkerbats?

"Yet, not a single one of my minions is detectable," she lamented, her dread turning to vindictive anger as she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "You!" she shouted, pointing at Tayshan. "You must be responsible for this! The only way you would be able to make it to my tomb would have been to destroy all my minions while evading all of the traps carefully set up throughout the labyrinth!"

"What!? Wait, no, hold on!" Tay pleaded in a sudden influx of situational apprehension as he mentally prepared himself for anything she may have had in store for him. "I didn't do that! Those Tinkerbats did!"

"Tinkerbats!? There were TINKERBATS in my temple!? That disgusting pirate fiend dares to send his filthy cronies into my tomb after already killing me and sinking this entire temple into the depths of the Sequin Land Sea!?" she screamed, going from irritated to outright furious as she let loose a voluminous flap of her wings to emphasize her utter dissatisfaction with the news she'd received.

"Whoa… You're… You're dead?"

"Don't insult me, you lamp-dwelling wretch!" she shouted, evidently taking much offense to his question while making a disparaging remark about his presumed species.

"Lamp-dwellin'...? Uh, I... I'm not a genie," he corrected her.

"You will not deceive me, intruder! You must be in collusion with that fiend, using your genie magic to further his agenda! Just when I thought you genies couldn't possibly become more reprehensible…"

"No, not at all," he answered again. "I am NOT a genie! An' as far as I understand, that pirate guy's-!"

"Enough!" she interrupted him yet again, making sure that Tay would never get a chance to clear his name. "You miserable genies and those pirate marauders are no different! Your senseless war cost me my home, my life, and now all of my servants! What more will you attempt to take!? At what point do your kind draw the line!?"

"I keep tellin' you, woman, I am NOT a gen-!"

"This is precisely why I set out to destroy you lot before. Left unchecked, you become a blight not only on siren kind, but a dangerous threat to all living creatures aside from those pitiful humans! Now that I have arisen from my eternal slumber, I will see to it that the world is rid of both the Pirate Master's influence AND the menace of genie-kind. After that, I will resume my plans to eradicate humanity and reestablish a monster-oriented rule with me at the helm!" she proclaimed, flaring her wings again as she became enveloped in an unsettling rose gold aura. She also lifted her tail high as she took flight, seeming to prepare herself for battle. "Only, now I have to figure out how I plan to rule with no siren underlings… I must also find my revitalization item to complete the ritual before I do anything else to reclaim my status…"

"Darn it, looks like I'm gonna have t' shape up an' dig in…" Tay murmured, reaching for his handgun before realizing that he did not have it. "Oh, right… I never got the chance t' pick my gun back up." With that, he dug around in his inventory and managed to find a handful of weapons; not the least of which was a carbine rifle he'd only barely remembered acquiring during his magic-fueled rampage in the previous room. He was also uncertain of if the few guns he carried had any ammunition in them. "I don't know how long I can hold out before I completely run out of ammo, because I've only got a couple guns an' a knife on me. I'm also not quite at 100% after that last brawl earlier… Gotta do what I can here, regardless…"

"A smart male would lie down and submit," the adversarial woman advised, noticing her target readying himself. "Oh, who am I kidding? There ARE no smart males in this world! Least of all, one who foolishly dares to challenge Lady Radiyah, Warrior Queen of the Sirens, to a fight!"

"I had a feelin' that's who you were," Tay shared, stretching through sporadic jolts of fatigue and pain as he pulled out the rifle and checked its magazine to see it had just a few magic marbles shy of a full magazine. Hiding his fleeting relief, he reloaded and aimed it at the now-identified Lady Radiyah. "One o' your minions warned me about you before she died…"

"You mean before you killed her," Lady Radiyah presumed, her anger growing further as she contemplated her first move.

"No. She met her end at the hands of a group o' Tinkerbats when they ambushed her. I only happened t' find her in her final moments, at which point she warned me about the threat you pose t' the world outside. Not that it matters t' you, if your idea is t' take your anger out on me before goin' on a genocidal rampage once you got out o' this place," Tay explained, tightening his focus. "Mind you, we don't have t' fight. Isn't there some other goal you'd wanna accomplish that doesn't involve wipin' out entire populations of innocent people t' take over the world? Somethin' more… uh… peaceful?"

"Your pathetic attempt at swaying me to your naïve, misguided line of thought is laughable. Although, you are correct in that we don't have to fight."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked, appearing pleasantly surprised that Lady Radiyah agreed with him.

"Yes. All you'd have to do is surrender and willingly remove yourself from my presence, so that I may continue with my plan to eradicate the surface-dwellers," she clarified, thereby shooting down any anticipation Tay may have had for convincing her not to become a threat to Sequin Land. "Otherwise, I'll tear you apart, and then continue unhindered. It hardly matters to me either way, but the big difference for you is whether you are dead or alive by the end of our encounter. And trust me; you would be VERY lucky to make it out of this alive, no matter your choice…"

"Ah, I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up… Darn…! Worth a shot…" he lamented, seeing that there would be no easy way out of this. "Then, whatever it takes, Siren Queen, I'm puttin' you back t' sleep before anyone else has t' suffer."

"Hah!" the self-proclaimed matriarch laughed, amused by the fact that such a pitiful creature (especially in his state of dishevelment) would think to oppose her. "You really are dumber than you look, boy. You are aware that-!"

"Sirens can sing songs that paralyze an' manipulate anybody o' the opposite gender, I know," he flatly interrupted, already trying to drum up some way, shape, or form of counter to what obviously made this woman more dangerous than any he'd faced before.

"So you're informed enough to know you can't win, yet you still intend on challenging me to a battle?" she incredulously asked, almost baffled at her opponent's ill-informed decision. At that, she merely sighed with contempt. "See, this is why I don't care for men. You're all so stupid, it makes me want to puke. Honestly, a world without you parasites is a dream almost too good to come true, were it not for the necessity of your kind for reproduction. Regardless, I'm almost ashamed I have the power to ensnare your kind with just my voice."

"…One quick, hard strike t' your throat should fix that problem right quick…!" he murmured, tempering his burgeoning disgust with Radiyah's bigoted comments as he stared her down with the intent to figure out a weak spot. "Not that I wanna push this that far, but I need a way t' even this out. Just a matter o' how t' get that close without her singin' me int' submission… Hmm…" he pondered further. "I wonder…"

"It seems you're ready to earn yourself a grave in this place, so I suppose I shouldn't prattle on. If you insist on me sullying my hands with garbage like you, then I shall do the magnanimous thing and grant you your death wish. I am, after all, an understanding supreme ruler."

"Most ironic thing I've heard all day," he shot back with a sneer, causing Radiyah to scowl at him as she opened her mouth. At that point, Tay waited no longer. He aimed his rifle and fired three rounds, each startling *POP* of the rifle's discharges nearly overwhelming Radiyah's sense of awareness before she got the idea to hover backward to avoid the gunshots.

"Vile, opportunistic creature! You will suffer for such a brazen attempt to get the drop on me!" Radiyah threatened, ascending to a safe altitude within the confines of her tomb as she took in a deep breath.

"Oh, no you don't!" Tay shouted in anticipation of her attempt to sing, dashing forward after her and firing a few more rounds from the rifle. Three of the rounds struck the undead siren across her chest, causing her to flinch in pain as she fought to keep herself afloat. Tay, seeing this as a chance to gain a small advantage, got in close and fired another small burst aimed at one of his enemy's wings. If he could eliminate her aerial advantage early on, he figured it would serve as one of the key factors in allowing him to get close enough to possibly disable her ability to sing. However, Radiyah recovered with just enough time to swoop out of the way of the incoming fire. She quickly entered a nosedive toward the soldier, who'd come to a halt at the sight of her aggressive approach.

"Haaah!" Radiyah roared, barreling in close and zooming past Tayshan with a *SCHWING* of her jagged, razor-sharp claw-like fingernails. She barely missed, as Tay took the initiative to hop backward to avoid being gashed by the malevolent entity. "You are worthy of harsh condemnation, genie scum!" she cursed, using her momentum to regain her altitude as she dodged an incoming volley of glowing marbles by spinning past them.

"For the last time, I am not a genie!" Tay corrected, batting her assertion aside as he continued to pursue her, firing short, controlled bursts of rounds at her. "An' for somebody who was so sure she could take me down without breakin' a sweat, you've got a lot t' prove so far!"

"Oh, so you figure an insignificant modicum of momentum swinging your way warrants you to spout such haughty rubbish at me!? You have all but sealed your fate! Have at you!" Lady Radiyah challenged as she levitated toward the ground while glaring a hot, unforgiving anger at her enemy.

"Ready when you are, Siren Queen…" Tay shot back, staring her down just as intently. All but a mere few intense, pulse-pounding seconds passed by, each of the opponents watching the other intently. However, Tay knew that giving this gargantuan siren any opportunity to breathe meant giving her the opportunity to utilize her deadliest weapon against him. As such, he was sure to make the first move once again. And thus, we commence the Boss Battle.

LADY RADIYAH: REGAL RESURRECTION-SEEKING REVENANT!

As Tay dashed forward, rifle at the ready, Radiyah made her own move. She started by pointing an aura-infused finger toward the ground directly beneath her. At that exact spot, a small, glowing magenta-hued circle formed. Without warning, Radiyah, lifted her tail and jabbed it toward the spot faster than the blink of an eye. With a rocky *plack*, her tail penetrated the surface of the battleground. Tay, paying little heed to this, kept dashing toward her to close the distance. However, within the next couple of seconds, another magic circle formed right in front of him. Before he could realize what was happening, the sudden burst of a long, scaly object from the ground caught him by surprise, the *THWACK* of an impact of the object against his chest stopping his advance dead.

"Dohagh…!" Tay grunted in unprecedented pain, staggering back as he nearly dropped his weapon. "Agh…! Hah… Wasn't expectin' you t' be able t' do that…" he acknowledged, rubbing his chest where Radiyah's sneak attack had struck him. Meanwhile, Lady Radiyah, retracted her tail from the holes she created and, paying no heed to her enemy's comment, opened her mouth to take in another deep breath. Seeing her preparing to sing again was more than enough for Tay to make another move. "I won't let you!" he challenged, continuing his advance as he fired a couple more shots that caused Radiyah to attempt to move out of the way. She was struck by one of the rounds as she, with a flap of her enormous wings, flew backward while repeating the same maneuver as before. Growing wise to this quickly, Tay prepared himself as he gave chase. As expected, she magically created another hole in the ground and rammed her tail through it. Tay made sure to be on high alert, scanning the immediate area for the emergence area of her tail. Sure enough, it appeared right behind him. Acting on impulse, Tay spun to the side just as Radiyah's tail rocketed out of the second ground hole toward him.

"Darn it, this creature adapts quickly…!" Radiyah cursed again, hurrying to retract her tail from the ground. "He may think he has the upper hand now, but the minute I can so much as hum a single note, he is doomed."

"Good luck tryin' it, lady, because I won't even let you BREATHE long enough t' do it!" Tay dared, opting to bolt toward her at full speed while she was pulling her tail out of the ground. Alarmed, Lady Radiyah hastened her effort to recover from her second sneak attack. But then, by the time she pulled her tail out, Tay already found himself right in her face as he put away his rifle and lunged at her. "Hwaaaah!" he shouted, diving toward her and tackling her to the ground with a massive, feathery *THUD*, where the two immediately entered a messy, mossy entanglement of limbs as they clamored over one another to get an advantage.

"You dare besmirch my incomparable beauty with your filthy mits!? I-! Aaaarrgh!" the outraged siren roared as Tay slipped behind her while they were on the ground and initiated a rear naked choke. He wrapped one arm around her neck while he pressed his opposing hand into the back of her head. He upped the ante by locking his legs around her torso to secure his position. "Haah…! You disgusting creep…!"

"I gotcha right where I need you t' be!" Tay proclaimed as Lady Radiyah squirmed and flailed in a violent effort to fling him off her. Tay immediately found it incredibly difficult to keep his grip on her. His strength, already having been sapped throughout the course of his journey through the labyrinth, was only growing weaker by the minute. His magic glow hadn't even activated, and his attempts to gather more power only caused him jolts of stabbing pain throughout limbs. Knowing he had to go all out on nothing but his remaining human willpower, Tay gave it his all as Radiyah grew increasingly frustrated with the fact that he was trying to choke her out.

"That's it…!" she eked out as she, with a great deal of effort, managed to flip onto her hands and knees while flaring her wings. "You want to go for a ride…? Then… you'd… better be prepared for a wild one…!" And with that threat, Lady Radiyah began flapping her wings as she pushed herself off the ground. She'd managed to take flight despite her breathing being restricted, after which she used her position to begin hovering toward the ceiling. She was forced to accommodate for Tayshan's added weight, but she proved strong enough to lift both of them into the air. Tay, quickly running out of time, put every last bit of strength he could muster into squeezing Radiyah's windpipes shut as he clung to her back like a serpent squeezing the life out of its next meal. He pushed it a step further by burrowing his head into the back of her neck as he tightened his grip. "Anh…!" Radiyah grunted, feeling the soldier's ragged breaths on the back of her neck through her silvery locks of hair.

"I… I'm takin' you down… before you get the chance t' even step foot outside this cave…!" Tay proclaimed, trying his hardest to keep his grip as Radiyah began very slowly losing altitude.

"Ah… Hmm…! Genie or not… You… you men are such a frisky bunch…! Hah…" she breathlessly commented, though her wording required further speculation. "Pah…! How scandalous…!"

"If that's what you wanna call it, then be my guest…! But if you don't wanna get hurt yourself, you'll give up right now…!"

"What…? And sacrifice my dignity for such a lascivious man who… ah… c-can't keep his hands off me…?" Radiyah defied, digging her claws into his forearm as her feet touched the ground.

"Agh…! Awwaaagh…!" Tay grunted in pain, steadily losing his grip on her as she contiuned to dig her long, jagged nails into the skin of his bare arm. At this point, he realized that he would not last much longer if this kept up. He was burning out… and fast. He tried to redouble his efforts to make Lady Radiyah submit, but the harder he tried, the worse the pain in his limbs became. Feeling his grip loosening, the Siren Queen bolstered her own strength and managed to pull his arm farther away from her neck as she dug her claws deeper into his forearm. "Wah! Gaaaaaaaaagh!" he yelled, completely losing his focus as the pain of her piercing grip became too great to bear. He lost his grip, thereby being forced to try and escape to think up another strategy. The only issue with this was that, as he let go to try and create some distance, Lady Radiyah held onto his arm. As soon as she felt him beginning to drop, she clenched her fingers harder into his arm, causing him unspeakable agony. "Aaaaaaagh! Let…! Let go…!"

"After you got your deplorable hands on me and shamed me by trying to dominate me in my own lair!? Not a chance, boy!" she denied his desperate request, squeezing his arm harder.

"Aaagh! Ahaaaagh!" Tay hollered some more as he began to kick and twist to try and break free from her grasp. Instead of fazing her, however, the sadistic siren cackled in amusement.

"Hmm, yes… The tortured screams of a man... A man about to be taught a very personal lesson in what happens when you don't treat a lady of my stature with proper respect…" she commented, grinning wide with nothing but malevolent intent as she continued to hold him by the arm. "Oh, how I missed this exhilarating feeling… Oh, yeah…" she added, thus tipping us off that she may have had a disturbing thing for inflicting pain on others. "And the desperate cries of one as young and foolish as you especially excite me…"

"Gagh! K-keep your dirty thoughts to yourself!" Tay protested, still trying to break free, though he could not find the leverage to do so. In that moment, however, he suddenly felt himself lift high into the air and over Radiyah's head like a bean bag.

"Scream for me, boy! Hrrraaah!" Radiyah commanded as she, with considerable strength, flung Tayshan over her head and viciously slammed him with a sickening wet *THUD* of his back on the ground.

"Gwaaaaaagh!" the unfortunate young man shouted, feeling the impact in every inch of his tired body the very second he hit the ground.

"Yes! That is it! The pain… the torment… the anguish in your helpless cries…" Radiyah gushed, her twisted grin widening as she clenched her fists in excitement. "It… invigorates me. I desire more!"

"Ahagh…!" Tay coughed, slowly but surely picking himself back up as he staggered back to a weary stand. "Hah…!"

"Oh, and you get back up with the full knowledge of what is going to happen to you? Interesting…"

"It's gonna… take more than that t' do me in…! One way or another, I will beat you!"

"Delude yourself as you wish, but know that you do so at your own peril. And trust me, I plan to take my time finding the very limits of your pain tolerance before I end your miserable existence. Much as I venomously despise your kind, I must admit that I take quite a vested interest in making you suffer…"

"As if I hadn't picked up on that by now…" Tay griped as he stretched the jolts of pain out of his back before straightening himself up as best as he could. "You're a weird one, I see."

"Now now, you mustn't berate me for my… personal interests," Radiyah sarcastically remarked, feigning offense. "Besides, as my new practice dummy, you no longer reserve the right to object. Yes… You will be a perfect test subject."

"Like heck, I will!" Tay angrily protested, growing more uncomfortable and disgusted by Lady Radiyah as he attempted to pull his rifle back out. Seeing this, Lady Radiyah took a deep breath, and…

"Laaaaaaaaaa~!" she sang an impeccable musical note; the exact thing Tay was hoping to avoid.

"Waaaaagh!" he bellowed in a sudden, intense agony as he felt his entire body lock up before he could even grasp his weapon as Radiyah held the note. Without warning and without his consent, his body straightened itself to where he was standing tall, hands stuck at his sides as he struggled to regain control of himself. Unfortunately, the longer Radiyah sang that incorrigible, yet beautiful vocal tune, the longer her effect on him lasted. Just as Radiyah stopped humming her note, however, she ran in close, wrapping her tail around Tay's arms and torso to ensnare him.

"Oh my, how quickly our lovely little ballad has turned against you," she joked, sneering at him as she pressed her forehead against his. "And after all that effort you put forth, too. For shame…"

"Hurgh! Ah…! Darn it…!" Tay cursed, realizing that he was in just about the worst possible spot he could be in as he struggled to escape. As though she couldn't wait to do so, Lady Radiyah took flight, hovering just a few feet above the ground with Tayshan still wrapped up in the thick, scaly coils of her tail. And, without an inkling of a warning, Radiyah rocketed upward, performing a backward somersault as she gained height. And, with a sudden *SNAP* of her tail against the wind, she spiked the helpless soldier to the ground, where his body collided with yet another disturbing *THUMP* against the lukewarm, rocky surface on his side. "Guhagh…!" he uttered as the wind was knocked completely out of him. For the next minute or so, he writhed on the ground in such helpless, horrible, breathless agony as he attempted to refill his lungs with air. As Lady Radiyah absorbed the serviceman's suffering at her hands, she burst into a fit of raucous laughter as she enjoyed every second of the harm she'd caused.

"Ah, yes! Now, this is breathing new excitement into my existence!" she proclaimed (which I at least hope was not a pun aimed at the fact she just knocked the wind out of Tayshan). "Hmm…~ Your despair is music to my ears."

"Hagh…!" Tay choked out, trying to take deep, coordinated breaths inward through his nose and outward through his mouth to regulate his breathing as he climbed back to his feet once more. He was hunched over and breathing like his lungs were constricted from the inside, but he rose again. "You… are gonna regret this…!" he managed to threaten, though he continued to struggle to breathe.

"Again, you return to a stand? Hmm… Now, I am REALLY curious about how much punishment you can take…"

"Ergh…! Ah…! I… I can't… an' I won't… lose…!" he valiantly challenged, though it quickly became difficult for him to remain on his feet.

"Hmph. So be it, then," Radiyah acknowledged with a shrug before taking another deep breath. "Doooooo~!" she sang once more, causing Tayshan to freeze in place, his knees nearly buckling under him as he suddenly felt the weight of a thousand bricks pressing on his back. And again, as he attempted to resist the effects of the siren's song, another surge of maddening pain coursed through his body.

"Duraagh! Aaahhaaagh…!" he grunted and groaned, the debilitating agony relentlessly pulsing through him. Quick to follow up, Radiyah took flight, hovering backward at least a couple feet before bulleting toward the hapless soldier.

"Hoooowah!" she hollered as she used her aerial momentum to deliver a brutal punt that collided with the soldier's chest. The cringe-inducing *THWACK* of her foot against his bare chest sent him rocketing across the room, crashing back-first into the wall with a *BOOM* of an impact before he fell to the ground, slumping over as more and more strength left him.

"Aghaaaaah!" Tay cried out in despair once more, only fueling this deranged siren's dark desires as she reveled in her continued torture of him. Unable to find the strength right away, he remained crumbled on the ground as Radiyah landed and sauntered her way over to him, smiling with sadistic glee.

"Had enough yet?" she disparagingly asked, growing more excited with the longer he remained conscious. "Because I am only getting started breaking you down before I REALLY whip you into shape. I will say, however, that if you submit now, your demise will be as quick and painless as I see fit." Hearing that statement both frightened and infuriated the soldier. He was indeed afraid that she would kill him right here in this tomb. However, what he could not stand was the idea of her having her way with him until she saw fit to dispose of him. As such, Tay slowly picked himself up off the ground yet again, this time having to use the wall for leverage as he did so. "Oh, my… Such resilience…"

"Ah…!" Tay choked out through labored breaths as he brought himself to a hunched stand, his knees wobbling under the weight they barely had the strength to carry. Nevertheless, Tay turned and glared at Radiyah with every bit of contempt and anger that he could muster. "If… if you're gonna kill me here… then you'd better make it quick…" he demanded, seeming to have lost his sense of reason as one of his eyes began to glow a bright, haunting silver and his skin began to burn. "…because if you don't, you are REALLY not gonna like what might happen next…!" he warned through a low, bone-chilling growl, his voice suddenly sounding almost entirely unlike it usually did. Realizing this, Tay immediately took a series of hurried deep breaths to keep himself under control. Seeming to know for himself what it would mean if he did not at least try to keep it together, he did his best to maintain some level of composure as he tiredly clung to the wall behind him.

"Is that a fact? Or is it just you trying to scare me as a means to hide your secret enjoyment of the special treatment you're getting? Filthy creature…" Radiyah teased, folding her arms behind her back and bending forward toward him. Expecting the worst, Tay tensed up in anticipation for what brutal methods of torture she would subject him to next. However, Radiyah appeared to have other plans. As she leaned forward in a most purposeful and entirely lewd show of taunting the young man she deemed her prey, she rhythmically swayed her upper body side to side as she inched herself closer to distract him; a tactic that unfortunately saw success, as Tay's eyes were instinctively drawn downward toward her chest as his body grew warm with nervousness. Fully expecting this, Radiyah stretched her tail forward and used the tip of it to lift her opponent's chin up. "Eyes up here, you lecherous male scum," she further teased with another salacious grin.

"What… is your deal, lady…?" Tay felt all but compelled to ask, certifiably thrown off by her rather hot-and-cold performance while also trying to think of ways to escape the predicament alive.

"Naughty boy…~" she tantalized again, shaking her shoulders an additional time as she giggled, holding her advantaged position as she slithered her tail around the back of his neck. "You are of a special breed, I can tell. Not many men have taken as much of a beating as you have and had the will to continue uselessly attempting to defy me," she informed him with another menacing chuckle. "You must be a real glutton for punishment! Of the very few things I like about men, that is one of my favorites…" Put off by her unusually playful comment, Tay gathered just enough strength to reach up and grab the tip of Radiyah's tail to keep her from potentially wrapping it all the way around his neck.

"Belittle me all you want, lady, but… Hagh…! I ain't givin' up…" he valiantly challenged, moving to try and slip out of the corner she backed him into. Radiyah would grant him no room to do so, as she quickly extended the fingers on one hand and plunged her appendage forward. The sudden *Sksh* of her nails piercing the soldier's abdomen nearly caused him to freeze in place. However, what really caused him to halt was the unbelievable, horrendous physical shock of something stabbing into him. "Gwaaagh…!" he barely managed to utter in a new and excruciating wave of acute anguish, letting go of her tail as his body processed the sensation of something digging hard into him with no intent to pull back out. Glancing downward, he caught sight of the malicious siren's claws plunging into his gut; a sight that utterly floored him as his eyes tried to process the fact that he'd been just been stabbed again.

"Hurts, does it not?" Radiyah taunted, tearing her claws out of him and causing him another burst of crippling pain as he fell to his knees, doubled over and clutching his wound. "Lucky you, I did not dig deep enough injure you too severely… probably."

"Ahagh…! Hah…! Aaaaagh!" Tay continued to wail in agony as his skin grew hotter and the burning in his very nerves grew steadily more intense.

"Yes, that is it… Sing your irresistible hymns of anguish loud enough for me to relish in your torment!" Radiyah triumphantly declared as she stood tall, cackling with glee. "At this rate, I may not dispose of you after all; at least, not yet. Much as I despise you brutish males, such hatred is just barely outweighed by my nigh-insatiable enjoyment of making you suffer, just as you have done my daughters."

"I… Is that what this is about…? You takin' your frustrations out on me for somethin' other people did…?" Tay asked, his voice strained as he, against all forms of sensible judgment, rose to his feet while clutching his stomach.

"Do not generalize my sentiments in such myopic ways, you pathetic male!" the Siren Queen angrily demanded, lashing out at him again with a mighty whip of her tail. The *SMACK* of her tail against the unfortunate young man's face sent him hurtling a few feet across the tomb before he fell with another *THUD* face-down into a puddle of moss. "You could never understand the pain I feel, losing all of my daughters, my pets, and my life to the despicable existential filth that are the genies and the Pirate Master! For a worthless cur like you to judge me is intolerable!"

"Uwagh…! Ergh…!" he grumbled, hurriedly trying to pick himself back up as his adrenaline kicked in. At this point, he knew that if he did not mount an offensive of some kind, and quickly, this demented undead siren would undeniably bring about his end. However, he also acknowledged that if he did not act carefully, he could potentially succumb to the influence of that evil entity that enveloped him earlier. Heck, he had already been seeing indigo-colored fumes rising from his arm as he planted it on the ground. He'd also noticed that same irritating, all-encompassing stinging sensation washing over every inch of his body as he struggled to keep it together. The hotly stinging ache of the claw wound in his stomach was doing him no favors.

"Laaaaaaaa~!" Radiyah sang out once more, completely paralyzing Tayshan just as he climbed to his knees and one hand.

"Araaaawaaagh!" he screamed again, just the sound of her voice bouncing off the walls of the dome-like room in conjunction with its effect on him driving him mad as he found himself completely unable to move. Radiyah saw the man's suffering and continued humming notes as she hungrily sashayed her way over to him like a cougar about to have a feast. Once she found herself standing right behind him, she quickly lashed her tail out, striking him across the back with a wet *THWACK*. "Haaaagh!" Tay cried out in distress, much to Radiyah's delight.

"Yes, give me more! More anguish! More torment! More agonized whimpering! The ramifications of your kind's innumerable transgressions against my people will be shouldered exclusively by you! You have earned this! Now submit to me, fool! Miiiiiii, Reeeeee, Faaaaaa, Soooooo, Doooooo~!" Growing enamored with his suffering, Radiyah repeated her heinous attack on the defenseless soldier at least a dozen more times, relishing every grunt, shout, and groan he was forced to utter. Mind you, she was whipping away at him while humming and singing an indescribable melodic tune that kept him from moving. She only stopped slapping him with her tail when she noticed that Tay had remained on his hand and knees, suddenly enshrouded in a dark aura. Curious, she reached her tail over toward his neck, wrapping it tightly around him and squeezing hard enough to almost completely cut off his circulation.

"Huack! Aaccck…!" he again eked out, suffocating under the pressure of the sadistic siren's scaly tail squeezing his windpipes shut.

"Interesting…" Radiyah observed, having halted her singing only to study the ominous glow surrounding the soldier's form as she lifted him up using only her tail. "Your body… It is responding to my treatment in a way I did not expect… What is this?"

"Guuwaaaaaaccck…!" Tay managed to utter, despite being in the process of getting strangled as a rush of unprecedented energy overtook him in the last possible moment. He'd begun kicking and wriggling to wrest himself out of Radiyah's grasp, though she had no trouble keeping him in place as she dangled him high in the air with her tail.

"My… Such tenacity, even after you'd taken such a thorough beating…" she remarked, drawing him slightly closer as she continued to watch the aura surrounding the young man as it grew denser, thicker… and dare she say, hotter in her grasp as it soon began to feel like she'd been dipping her tail in molten lava. "And such resolve to survive… No other man I've conquered in battle has shown such drive. Hmm… I wonder… Maybe I shouldn't let such potential go to waste, if you can continue to fight. Perhaps you will be a suitable candidate for the proliferation of my-!" she was about to ponder before Tay found a window of opportunity to make his next move.

"Haaaaaarrraaagh!" Tay roared out, his voice changing yet again as he hurriedly reached for his belt, fumbling through its various compartments as he continued struggling to breathe. He had very little time to work with, but it hardly seemed to matter anymore. Finding the correct compartment, he gripped on his chosen item and pulled it out. The weapon? That same Combat Knife he'd previously used to destroy a handful of Tinkerbats in his previous life-or-death struggle. The dark aura around his body completely took form, signifying something terrible had happened all over again. Surprised by the sudden burst of rage exhibited by the soldier, Radiyah instinctively squeezed her tail around his neck tighter as she took a deep breath to hum another note to subdue him. Just as she was about to sing, however, a sudden *SKRSH* of a metal object embedding itself in her tail cut her off.

"Gwaaaaaagh!" Radiyah cried out in incredible pain as Tay dug his knife into her tail and twisted it as hard as he could manage. Injured and enraged, Radiyah lifted the serviceman high before slamming him to the ground as hard as she could with her tail, the crashing impact making her certain she'd knocked him out. Hurriedly, she unwrapped her tail from his neck to inspect the damage. "Ah…! That miserable…!" she murmured, wincing as she brought the affected area to her attention to notice a big, sharp, black metal object stuck deep in her appendage. However, this would certainly prove to be the least of her concerns.

"I sure hope you was satisfied with your singin' performance, because I'm about t' make sure it was your last!" Tay threatened, his voice lower and doubled once more as he quickly hopped back to his feet and began charging at Radiyah. She took her eyes off her tail to meet his eyes as he dashed toward her with reckless abandon. It was then that she saw it for herself… The dark aura pouring from his ragged form… His brightly glowing silver eyes… And that bloodthirsty sneer he shot at her as he lunged forward with such blistering speed that she hardly had time to react. She tried her hardest to, nevertheless. She quickly ripped the knife from her tail and flung it away, despite the excruciating pain such a hasty maneuver caused. Afterward, she dropped her tail and moved it behind her as she bared her claws, flared her wings to prepare to take to the air, and took in another deep breath to utter a note that would certainly incapacitate him. Unfortunately for her, it was all in vain.

The very instant she set up to begin singing, the evil-possessed Tay was already up in her face… literally. Leaping high off the ground before she even got the chance to slash at him with even one of her claws, the ill-intentioned soldier thrust his fist upward into the siren's chin, forcibly shutting her mouth with a vicious jumping uppercut as she was sent reeling back from the *POP* of an impact of his knuckles against her jaw. As she lost her balance and fell backward in total astonishment, however, Tay took total advantage of the opportunity. He hovered over her as though the two combatants were moving in slow motion, with his other hand cocked as far back as he could manage as he aimed his next strike. Radiyah, stunned by the sudden maneuver, had been stumbling backward with her chin pointed at the ceiling.

"Hrrrraaaah! Take THIS!" he shouted as he prepared to deliver the blow without even noticing that his striking arm had suddenly been enveloped in a heavy concentration of whatever vile, ghastly energy had overtaken him. And, without a shred of consideration, Tay straightened his hand and swung it downward with deliberate, aggressive, merciless force. With a sudden, shocking, echoing *THRASH*, Tay brutally hammered Radiyah directly in the throat right when she was most vulnerable.

"Guahagh…!" Radiyah choked out in a mix of total shock and unbearable agony as she was sent tumbling backward, falling with a *BOOM* flat on her back as she clutched her throat with both her hands. Tay followed suit, unceremoniously tumbling forward on the ground behind her before pulling himself up to a knee as he clutched his aching head.

"Duuraaagh…! N-no…! I… I can't… lose control…" he murmured to himself, suddenly engaging himself in another impromptu session of taking deep, coordinated breaths to reel himself back in. Trembling with a mix of anxiety, anger, and anguish, Tay put forth his best effort to keep his sanity in check while he had the chance. During this time, Radiyah did not rise from her agonized state, seeming to be severely injured by her opponent's surprise attack as she massaged her hotly aching neck where he'd struck her. After a few moments, the dark energy that surrounded Tay's form rapidly began to dissipate as he managed to calm himself down. His trembling had reduced, though his hands still shook like he'd been standing in the cold of Yarnball Heights. Composing himself nonetheless, he gingerly rose to his feet, nearly falling back down as he staggered back a few steps. "Darn it…! Why… Why is that happenin'…? What's wrong with me…?" he frightfully questioned himself, though his thought process was interrupted by the sound of his enemy rising to her feet. Knowing the battle was not yet over, he immediately turned his attention to Radiyah as she climbed to her feet, facing him.

"…Impressive," Radiyah spoke, though hardly above a whisper as she continued holding her neck with a hand. "Very impressive…"

"You're still up…? Hah… Darn…" Tay cursed as he prepared himself for another grueling round. Another pang of stinging pain coursed through his stomach, however, causing him to wince as he covered the tender area with a hand. "Agh… She… she got me good…" he noted, not even bothering to look at the wound. He remained focused on Radyiah, though the agony continued to plague him.

"No one has ever been able to get close enough to me to strike me in such a malicious and appalling manner…" she continued to speak, though it immediately became evident that she'd been having much trouble keeping her voice up. Also noticeable was the glassiness of her eyes as tears ran down one of her cheeks. "Furious as I am, and as much as my desire to exterminate you has been amplified… I…" she paused to let loose a series of pain-induced, hacking coughs that basically let Tay know he'd struck her PRETTY hard.

"Jeez… I… I didn't mean t' hit you like that…" he murmured, briefly glancing at his hands in contemplation of what he'd just done. Despite her rampant and sadistic efforts to torture him, Tay took no pleasure in dealing back the same level of harm to Radiyah that she'd dealt him. If anything, he felt… almost ashamed to have been brought to the level of attacking Radiyah as ferociously as he felt he did. Not fully understanding what came over him, he clenched his hands into fists before looking back at Radiyah's choking form as she cleared her injured throat.

"…I must… commend you, though it comes with a HEAVY price…" she simultaneously complimented and warned as she again attempted to clear her throat. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to sing another note. "…Lllllaaa…" All that came out, however, was a weak, squeaky, croaky remnant of her normal singing voice as she doubled over in another short fit of violent coughing. She recovered as quickly as she could, no less, glaring at the astonished soldier as he watched on, anticipating her next move.

"Hm… I can take solace in knowin' you can't sing anymore, I guess…" he pondered, still feeling less than proud of the pain he'd caused her while feeling relieved he'd eliminated her most powerful tool against him.

"…You play just as rough as I do…" Radiyah commented, shooting him a most unexpected grin as she began walking toward him, seductively swinging her hips as she did so. Put on high alert, Tay fumbled around in his inventory to hurriedly pull out his rifle… only to have Radiyah lash her tail forward and tear it out of his hands before flinging it to the other side of the room. "…and that excites me more than anything else…~"

"…Aw man, I don't like the sound o' that…" he commented, standing as tall as he could as he prepared to defend himself without a weapon. Radiyah menacingly strolled toward him, causing him to instinctively back up before she flung her tail forward once more and wrapped it around his ankle to ensure that he could not escape. "Wha? N-no…!"

"You aren't going anywhere…" she taunted, grinning wider as she closed the distance between them, bending over once more to get right up in his face. "After what you did to me, you're going to be held accountable. And now that I think of it, it'd certainly be an easy out for you if I simply killed you here. Far too easy…"

"You think after all you put me through, that I'd just lay down an' let you have your way with me…?" he dared to question as he attempted to pull his leg free from her grasp, only for her to squeeze it tighter in her tail. "Ah, awaaagh! Ow…!" he grunted in intense discomfort, feeling his ankle contort under the pressure of Radiyah's tail.

"Nrgh…! My tail…" she murmured, suddenly loosening the pressure a bit as a result of her own torment in the form of the gash in her tail. "Ah… R-regardless, you entered my lair uninvited, aided in the extinction of my race, and sprung this situation on yourself. The least you could do is have the common decency to take responsibility for your bull-headed actions. You have also certainly proven yourself to be quite the nuisance. In doing so, however, you also prove yourself the perfect specimen to help me reestablish my dominance across the globe once I'm through beating you into submission as punishment for your insolence…"

"Uh… An' by that, you mean…?" Tay dared to question as he froze, for some reason very unsettled by the implications of her suggestion.

"Rather than do away with you like I originally intended—and you have to know by now that I could very well kill you the instant I felt like it—you will instead be responsible for helping me to spawn a new generation of sirens. My new spawn will require the genes of a mighty warrior that can withstand even the most grueling of circumstances. What really intrigued me about you was that sudden burst of raw, unprecedented power you displayed at your weakest, most vulnerable moment. Just when I was ready to break your neck and be done with you forever, that mysterious energy burst forth from deep within you. It appears to me that all it took was a little… tender physical motivation from yours truly to get you all hot and bothered for me…~"

"…Nooooo… No, we're really not goin' there, are we…?" Tay remarked, unbelievably disquieted by his enemy's statement.

"I now realize that this is an opportunity much too auspicious to cast to the wayside. You will do perfectly… I would like to see more of that immense, fascinating vigor of yours to be absolutely sure, though I am certain I am making the right decision…"

"…No. No, no, no, no, no. I won't-!"

"Oh, but you will… and in case you think it isn't possible, sirens share much of the same DNA that you genies and even humans do, which-!"

"No! I'm not listenin' to another second of your gross, crazy copulation nonsense!" Tay protested, for some reason repulsed by Radiyah's proposition. "I'd very much prefer that you continue tryin' t' kill me, please!"

"Ohh, but that can no longer be the case. You see, my entire race has basically ceased to exist before my very eyes, thanks to you genie lot and those meddlesome pirate cretins… and with the last vestiges of my sirens in this labyrinth having been vanquished, in addition to my being technically dead with only a little time to work with before I either complete my resurrection ritual or eventually lose my irresistible corporeal form, I have no choice but to make such a sacrifice to ensure the survival of siren kind. It disgusts and pains me to no end… or maybe it doesn't, but either way, but it must be done. And boy, you will get no choice in the matter," she threatened, reaching out a claw to grasp at his neck once again as his contempt turned to a mix of shock and disgust as he redoubled his efforts to tear his leg out of the grasp of her tail while grabbing her wrist to keep her from strangling him again.

"Absolutely not!" he protested as he displayed some trouble with freeing himself from Lady Radiyah's clutches. "Are you hearin' yourself right now? You're insane if you think I'd just go along with that! I wasn't responsible for your race goin' extinct, so it doesn't make a lick o' sense t' torture me for somethin' I had nothin' t' do with! An' whatever sirens I did have t' fight t' get here, they attacked me first!"

"It matters not who did what!" Radiyah capriciously yelled (or at least, tried to yell) at him as she reached forward with her other arm and grabbed Tay's wrist as he continued to struggle to escape, forcing him to let go of her wrist that he'd previously grabbed. "The fact is, I need a suitable candidate to serve as the patriarch of the next generation of sirens before it is too late! Sirens are born exclusively female, and if it were possible to simply multiply by some silly concept like cell division, then believe me, we would! So long as that is not the case, the proliferation of siren kind requires humanoid assistance. It is an honor and a privilege to you that I, the undisputed and illustrious Queen of all Sirens, bestow the task of… well, assisting me with repopulation to a lowly genie like yourself…" she matter-of-factly informed him, though she appeared to grow a tad sheepish toward the end of her statement. "Only after we complete the task, may I be able to bolster my chances of success when it comes time to conquer this world and establish sirens as the true dominant force in all the land. I must do so before I run out of time."

"Argh! I…! I said no!" the 'genie' in question protested even harder, as desperate to get away from the Siren Queen as he was eager to cease all communication related to her unwelcome solicitation of his… er, 'assistance.' Finding no luck in simply ripping himself away, Tay suddenly employed the tried-and-true drastic measure of opening his mouth, pulling the arm being held by Radiyah toward him and… well, taking his chances. As such, he pulled her hand just close enough to take a *CHOMP* out of it with as much force as he deemed necessary.

"OWW!" Radiyah screamed… or rather, tried to scream through her raspy, damaged voice before being sent into another uncontrollable coughing fit as she pulled her hands away from the soldier to inspect the damage. Using the opportunity, Tay followed up by pulling out the first leftover weapon he could find in his inventory; the worn-out M9 that he'd obtained from Risky Boots during his time in the Kitschy Quilt Desert. Though disappointed by his situational luck (or lack thereof), he aimed and fired a single shot at Radiyah's tail. With a startling *POW*, the soldier's round struck its mark. "Agh…!" she grunted again, though more out of rapidly growing anger than out of pain as she unwillingly loosened her tail just enough for him to pull his leg free. Stumbling back, the weary serviceman focused on creating distance as he hopped back a few paces. He would get just about no time to actually get any substantial advantages, however, as Raidyah quickly recovered from Tay's last-ditch counterattack and took flight. Bulleting toward him, she quickly grasped him by the neck before he could move to defend himself. Holding him firm for the entire ride, she slammed him onto the damp, slippery cavern floor with a gross *PLOP* flat on his back.

"Guhuagh!" Tay grunted in yet another of many cries of intolerable pain as he found himself even more disadvantaged than he was a moment earlier. Radiyah, wanting to ensure he would not attempt to escape again, sat on top of him, her full weight pressing down on his lower body as she wrapped her fingers around his throat. "Ack…!"

"Feisty, aren't you? I can feel it…" she taunted as she straddled him, thoroughly enjoying his feeble attempts at resisting her. "Hmm, yes~! I am thoroughly enjoying your futile efforts to slip from my grasp. This would be too easy if you simply caved in. I love a good challenge before we get down to it…"

"Oh, yeah…!? Well, how do you like this…?" Tay struggled to speak up, pointing his nearly empty pistol at Radiyah as hastily as he could before firing a shot. With yet another *BANG*, he'd managed to strike her in the chest, causing her to flinch and wince in pain as she straightened up, clutching the affected area with both hands. Following up on the tiny window of opportunity, Tay used what little strength he had to dig his elbows into the floor and pull himself from under her. "Oogah…!" he grunted with considerable effort as he clamored back to his feet and scurried backward while aiming his pistol at Radiyah. Scowling at him, she rose to her feet once more before spreading her wings to take flight in preparation to attack him again. Soon enough, however, that angry scowl turned into a ghoulish grin as she spread her arms and bared her claws.

"You're starting to grow on me, you know," she raspily confessed, smilingly licking her lips. "Never have I had someone resist me so fervently as you. The thrill of the chase is an exhilarating one that I simply cannot get enough of. It makes me feel so alive! Even so, you will learn soon enough to accept what's coming for you…~!" she very creepily warned him with an ominous chuckle as she sized his beaten, tired form up and down as he did his best to hold his ground.

"Darn it…! I can't go down here... Not... like this... Agh…! At this point, I don't have a choice but t' keep fightin', but it looks like I at least made some progress. I just hope I can figure somethin' out t' take her down before it's too late…" Tay murmured, his determination to survive growing as he tightened his focus and dug his heels in to prepare for the next pulse-pounding round against Lady Radiyah.

Meanwhile…

"Finally, we made it back… about four rooms behind where we were before we fell down that pit," Sequin Land's (presumable) one and only half-genie discovered as she and her adventuring partner emerged from a hole in the floor of yet another of many dark, sopping wet, smelly hallways where they had evidently already been. "Darn... and here I was, hoping this would lead us to the other end of this temple. I wonder, though…" she pondered, cupping her chin with a hand as she thought about what to do to speed up their search.

"Fret not, darling," Aash offered a vote of confidence as he climbed out of the hole after Shantae. "At the very least, we have returned to the main path. I immediately recognize the azure-highlighted pathway from earlier. From here, it is simply a matter of remembering which paths we had taken to get as far as we did," he further surmised, though Shantae had not been paying attention. Instead, she perked up, snapping her fingers in realization of something.

"Actually, I've got an idea, but I'm not sure how well it'll work," she posed, catching her partner's attention.

"What idea?"

"I could try to use my Warp Dance to see if I can teleport us closer to either Tay or at least a little closer to the end of this maze," Shantae suggested, rubbing a hand across her chin once more as she momentarily looked upward at the damp, dingy ceiling.

"Warp Dance? You also possess the ability to teleport at will, kanafeh?"

"Yeah," she casually confirmed with a nod, turning her attention back toward Aashiq, who'd been unable to help but shoot her a look of perplexity. "As long as I've been to any given area before, I can always use my Warp Dance to zip right to it without the hassle of repetitively navigating through all the hazards of any place I've already been to if I'm looking to collect Key Items or treasure."

"Really, now?" Aash asked, seeming to be drumming up a hypothesis in his mind that I'm all but positive you're probably also entertaining right now. However, Shantae noticed the look on her boyfriend's face and responded accordingly.

"If you're going to ask me why I didn't use the Warp Dance the very instant we fell into that giant maze, Aash, it's because recently, it's only ever been able to send me forward in any given environment, not backward. I don't get that much choice in exactly where I warp to, as I've been experiencing."

"Erm… Huh… Well, yes, that was my question, but your answer has given me another one to ask…"

"And to answer THAT question, my rebuttal is that I also need to be familiar enough with the environment to make the dance useful. Like I said, I can't teleport to places I haven't already been."

"Okay, but then… What would have happened if you tried it while we were down there?"

"Nothing," she matter-of-factly answered with a shrug. "I didn't know exactly where we were in that maze, so the Warp Dance would've done us no good. What I can say now, though, is that because we're back here, and we're familiar enough with where we are, I can possibly use the Warp Dance to send us forward to the room we were in before we went underground."

"…I-I see…" Aash pretended to understand, scratching his head as he temporarily aimed his gaze downward. "I think…"

"Don't think too hard about it," she advised him as she walked beside him and patted him on the back. "I don't really understand it either. This dance hasn't been very consistent for me since I learned how to use it. It's like it changes its effects with every adventure I go on without warning, which is super inconvenient. Once upon a time, I used to be able to teleport between different towns, as long as I knew where they were. Ever since I regained my powers, I can barely manage to zip between different sections of a stage."

"Ah… Indeed, kanafeh. I am… simply hoping your ability works in our favor," he offered his vote of encouragement as he attempted to avoid busting a blood vessel in his brain from the massive number of questions he had about the convenience and functionality of Shantae's dance technique.

"We're about to find out right now," the half-genie informed, stretching her arms to her sides and quickly beginning a motion of gyrating and swiveling her hips. "Haaaaaah…!" she breathed deeply, focusing her energy as she immediately began to increase the speed of her hip rotations before switching to a motion of rocking them side to side.

"Hm… You never cease to amaze me, my love…" Aash murmured in awe, taking in the full sight of Shantae gathering energy as she rocked and sashayed her hips in that same characteristically mesmerizing manner as she always did.

"Ready! Grab my hand, hon!" she requested, a slight blush creeping onto her face as she smilingly extended her digits to him.

"Without hesitation!" Aash hurriedly obeyed, taking hold of the dancing young lady's hand in such a way that he'd interlocked his fingers with hers. "Okay, I am set!"

"Good! Now then…" Shantae prepared herself, closing her eyes as she rocked her hips a few more times before… "Warp Dance!" she announced. With that statement and a *POOF*, the duo instantly vanished to parts… that we definitely knew, but like, kinda-sorta unknown, depending on the context. Hopefully, that much was made clear to you, because even I had my doubts about how well this would've worked. But then…

One Warp Dance Later…

With another *POOF*, Shantae and Aashiq found themselves officially warped into a large, spacious room that housed only one path entrance on one side and three other path entrances on the other. Their main clue as to where they were came in the form of them recognizing the orange light on one of the doorways.

"Looks like we're back in the room we were in when those Tinkerbats first attacked us," Shantae observed, scanning the vicinity and noticing the host of torn red clothing fabrics on the ground.

"How do you know?" Aash asked, anxious to know if they were truly back on track after such an extended period of being lost. "We have fought so many of those insufferable creatures in so many different areas of this place."

"Remember how you said we should land-mark to keep track?"

"Yes."

"Well… Turns out, I may have done that a little," she explained with a giggle, pointing toward the webbing on the ceiling that she'd left when she and the rest of the team were engaged by the group of Tinkerbats they defeated following a Claymore-related ambush to proceed. "Plus, I remember that after we were done, we went through a pathway whose frame had an orange light on it. The other ones had either green or purple lights on them," she added, also pointing him toward the doorways at the far end of the chamber. As she did so, however, she immediately began to feel… strangely uneasy about what was ahead.

"Ohh, I see!" Aash excitedly exclaimed, finding much relief in his lady-friend's explanation. "You are most clever, kanafeh!" he further cheered, clasping her hand between his own and hopping with excitement. This moment of celebration would be short-lived, however. As he noticed Shantae not hopping with him, he quickly ceased before taking a look at the half-genie. Once again, she'd been staring with the same mix of dread and fright that froze her stiff earlier. Only this time, she'd been staring directly at the orange-hued pathway. Reading her speechless discomfort, Aashiq's own stomach began to turn with apprehension. "…Shantae, are you… are you sensing that Tayshan is in danger?"

"Yes… A-and… it's… this feeling… it's much worse than I felt earlier…" she shakily alerted him, instinctively squeezing his hand tightly in hers as she continued trying to register the enigmatic sense of terror and dismay that suddenly welled up inside her like she'd been dealing with it for the past week. "I… W-we need to go wherever he is… and quickly…!" Her statement, as one might've guessed, sent a wave of dread down the young Hypnotist's spine as his heart sank into his gut. Before he was able to say anything else, however, Shantae took off at full speed, holding Aash's hand like a vice. Though initially surprised by her sudden take-off, he adjusted as quickly as he could as the two of them burst into a sprint into the orange-lighted corridor. As the duo kicked it into high gear, they noticed a… rather disturbing lack of noise within the damp, dark, leaky, foggy hallway aside from their own footsteps and breathing. Shantae's dread grew rapidly more noticeable as she and Aashiq dashed through the empty hall, running right past a series of abandoned firearms and red bandanas. Conversely, the eerie environment was not a contributing factor in her increasing worry as she sped up and took her teammate along with her.

"Kanafeh, wait! You are moving too fast!" Aash called out, barely able to keep his balance as Shantae practically dragged him along, pulling him behind her like he was a carriage attached to her. "I understand we must hurry, but may we please do so in a manner…?" Aash was about to continue to suggest before the concerned half-genie came to a screeching halt the instant they entered the next room. "Huh? Shantae? Why… Why did you stop so suddenly?"

"Ah…! What… What happened here…?" Shantae quietly asked herself in a mix of anxiety and astonishment as she took in the view of the gigantic mess that greeted her. Shattered, shambled remnants of statues and piles of rubble abound… accompanied by a sea of red clothing fabrics littered all across the cracked, puddle-covered, mossy floor… feathers, scales, and other remnants of creatures that no longer inhabited the area… and yet, what drew her attention most was the presence of the tattered remains of a gray tank top lying near one of the statues. "Oh, no…!" she murmured, her anticipation intensifying as she let go of Aash's hand and rushed toward it. Paying no heed to the wet ground, she took a knee and quickly picked up the shirt to examine it. It took little more than two seconds to identify the person it belonged to. "Tayshan…!" she worriedly murmured, her hands beginning to tremble as her mind began to race with thoughts of what might have happened to him. "No…! Was… A-are we too late…? And all these red cloths all over the place… Did Risky's men get the drop on him…?"

"My goodness… This is so surreal…" Aash observed he also took part in the impromptu investigation of the whereabouts of their teammate. On his end, he wandered through the room, also scanning the environment while growing very uneasy very quickly. Whereas Shantae had been focused solely on finding their teammate with the hope that he was at least still alive, Aashiq absorbed the eerie, deafening silence that filled the room. He also absorbed the massively unsettling sight of all the guns, feathers, disembodied shards of what looked like teeth and claws, and red cloths scattered along the room… the busted statues… the burn marks all over the ground and walls… If he didn't know better, it almost looked like either an ambush or an incredibly violent skirmish took place shortly before they'd arrived there. And whatever way that skirmish went down, the aftermath alone illustrated the level of brutality that must've been exhibited by all sides of the battle. This room was too badly damaged for it to have been a sign of simple wear and tear. There were too many weapons and other remains strewn about the room for it to have been a simple coincidence. The atmosphere was too… dare he say, heavy with ghastly overtones, for him to presume nothing had happened here. As he wandered toward the center of the chamber, however, he stumbled upon a shiny object lying on the ground near a puddle. His curiosity piqued, the young magician approached it and, upon further inspection, identified the object. "Kanafeh! I have found something!" he called to her. However, she did not reply. When he turned to look at her, he saw her still kneeling down, tightly clutching the shredded wet gray tank top and staring at it in silent distress. "Kanafeh! Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Shantae responded, snapping out of a trance she'd apparently found herself in as she hastily rose back to her feet and turned to him. Despite the fact that she couldn't shake the growing sense of fear for Tayshan's safety, she did her best to recollect herself as she stashed the Torn Tank Top in her inventory and ran toward Aash. "What'd you find?" she asked as she approached him.

"It is a firearm not quite like the others that are scattered throughout this… this warzone," Aashiq answered, picking up the foreign firearm and handing it to his partner. The mere sight of it nearly sent the half-genie into a panic as her eyes grew wider than pizza pans. Nevertheless, she got Tayshan's Desert Eagle from Aashiq, though she stared at it in her hands as though it were going to sprout legs and start tap dancing in the next five seconds.

"This… This is his gun…!" she deciphered, though the revelation only amplified her fear that something truly awful had happened to him. "He… He'd never leave it behind. No… No, no, no…! Tayshan… What… happened to you…!?" she asked herself, a lump developing in her throat as she found herself involuntarily drawing the conclusion that he… met a terrible fate before they could save him. Aashiq, growing equally as concerned as he watched Shantae try her hardest to fight back her grief at the presumed demise of their teammate, began to reach a hand toward her to comfort her. He, too, had become wracked with grief as he took a deep, shaky breath and choked back his own tears of regret for not being there for their mutual friend. This moment of silent bereavement would not last long, however…

"Ghuuwaahaagh…!" a sudden shout coming from one of the two pathways echoed from its walls, frightening both Shantae and Aashiq out of their grief-stricken stupors. They immediately spun toward the probable source of the scream and deciphered right away whose voice it may have been. "You…! I aint' done yet…! Hrrrraaah…!" the voice spoke again, seeming to be strained and weary, but it was all the confirmation the half-genie and the magician needed to identify who it was and where the voice was coming from.

"He's still alive!" Shantae announced, wasting no time dashing past all the loose firearms and broken statues to climb the small flight of stairs leading to the twin corridors. Aash, though alarmed by the burst of speed exhibited by Shantae, perked up and followed suit as fast as he could. "But it sounds like he's in serious danger…!" she guessed, rushing down the red-lighted corridor after picking up some additional *thumps* and *crashes* in the distance as soon as she got close to it. "Here we come, Tay… Just hang on…!" she urged as she and Aash sprinted into and through the last long, opaque stretch of the labyrinth in hopes of rescuing their endangered comrade.

During the Battle….

Back in the tomb of the recently and mysteriously revived Siren Queen, Tayshan had continued to be locked in heated combat with Lady Radiyah as he relied solely on his waning strength and willpower to keep himself on his feet. While I wish I could say his extensive, weary, borderline insanity-laced efforts to stay alive long enough to outlast the Siren Queen were granting him some semblance of an advantage in the battle… well, if you remember where we left off last time, you'll know that I'd be lying to you if I did.

"Hah! Orrah!" Tay shouted, throwing a two-punch combo at his adversary as they remained tangled in the heat of battle. His fists were met with thin air as Radiyah dodged the first attack and hopped back to avoid the second. As Tay rallied to establish some form of pressure, Radiyah countered by propelling herself back with her wings while hopping backward. Immediately after, she landed, jabbing her tail into the ground, where it extended and burrowed underneath.

"Agh…!" she grunted, seeming to be pained as she dug her tail into the tomb floor. Nevertheless, her extra appendage almost instantly found itself an underground path from which to emerge at the right moment. As Tay watched her stick her tail underground, he halted himself just long enough to watch the Siren Queen's weaponized limb shoot from the ground with a *CRUNCH* of the rocks that scattered away as her tail emerged. "Darn you, you miserable cretin…!" she cursed, still incapable of speaking above a pained whisper as a result of the brutal throat strike he'd landed on her previously. Nevertheless, Radiyah would grant her prey no opportunity to gain another advantage. Expecting him to dash in and attempt to fight her up close as he had been, she very swiftly withdrew her tail from the ground while simultaneously lunging forth with a fist cocked back. With another flap of her enormous wings, Radiyah propelled herself forward, much to Tayshan's surprise.

"Dah…! Shoot!" he cursed, noticing her coming in hot with a vengeance. Faced with no other option, Tay put his forearms up in front of his face while huddling in to block the lightning-quick cross that Radiyah threw at him. The *SMACK* of her fist against his arms sent such a burst of agony through them that he was sent stumbling back in a mix of surprise and unprecedented pain. "Ooh…! Gahh, it figures she also hits like a truck…!" he complained, glancing at his aching forearms to see if they were still even attached to his body. In that tiny frame of time, however, Radiyah pressed on, pressuring Tay to stay on the defensive.

"Have another taste of these, peon…!" she threatened, swiping the claws on her other hand at him, forcing him to crouch under it. She ripped through the air with a sharp *SCHWING*, basically notifying the solider that he narrowly missed being sliced into chunks by her malevolent technique. Radiyah wasn't done, however. As soon as she saw Tay duck to avoid her claw swipe, she flapped her wings once more to take flight, backing up before propelling herself forward with a foot cocked back. "Harrah…!" she grunted, aiming to punt the soldier as hard as she could… or so she would have him believe. Tay, seeing her gearing up to blast him into yet another dimension with all the power in her leg, preemptively dived to the side and rolled onto the ground once to avoid the attack. "Perfect…!" Radiyah gloated, immediately exiting her kicking position and jabbing her tail into the ground again while Tay was in the middle of rolling out of the way of an attack that never came. The only thing that tipped him off to this ruse was the *CRACK* of the stony ground as Radiyah burrowed her tail into it again.

"No way…!" he worriedly murmured as he recoiled from his dive roll, only to hear another burst of rubble scattering behind him as he rose to his feet. Before he could do anything about it, he felt something long, cold, and scaly wrap itself around his neck and yank him backward. "Gwack…!" he uttered as he felt the sheer force of Radiyah's tail as she began strangling him with it again.

"I have you now…! This battle is over…!" she declared, pulling him downward using her tail. Unable to resist, Tay was flung downward, where his back met the ground with a harsh *THUD* while Radiyah's tail remained coiled around his neck. Ready to finally draw the battle to a close, Radiyah bared her claws and retracted her tail from the soldier's neck, pulling it back out of the ground. Wasting not another second to make her move, Radiyah cocked a hand back, claws fully extended, and thrust it downward with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm to her opponent. Tay, doing his best to read the situation for what it was, gathered his strength and rolled onto his side at the last possible second. Radiyah's claws met with the ground with a *PLINK* that sounded like she pierced through it. Seeing just the slightest shining light of a chance, Tay rolled back around and wrapped his arm tightly around her wrist before she got the opportunity to pull it back up. Immediately after, he pressed his other hand against her forearm and twisted toward the side of his body he'd pinned Radiyah's hand to. "Guh…! Graaaagh!" she groaned in agony as she was drawn in, trying to wrest her arm free before this despicable genie attempted to break it. In that moment, she also readied her free hand to deal the decisive strike that would draw this battle to a close.

"Now I gotcha…!" Tay announced, hurriedly scooting backward and flinging his leg upward as soon as Radiyah was roped in by her arm. With no time to waste, he used his advantage to deliver a swift kick to the Siren Queen's chin. The sudden *PLOCK* of his boot against her jaw stunned the unfortunate chimera just enough to where Tay pulled her just an inch closer as she pulled back with as much strength as she could muster in her position. Seeing his next opportunity arising, no less, the desperate serviceman flung his legs upward, wrapping one of them around her neck while the other one found itself locking itself over his opposing foot with her arm clamped next to her head with said leg. "Let's see you pull yourself out o' this…!" he challenged, putting the finishing touches on his last-ditch effort by repositioning her arm to where it was stretched out across his chest, allowing him just the leverage he needed to squeeze his legs down on her as hard as he could.

"Ackk…! You dirty, conniving…! Grraaaagh…! How dare you…!?" Radiyah complained as she suddenly found herself brought to her knees as Tayshan subjected her to the tightest triangle choke he could find the power to initiate. Immensely frustrated, Radiyah immediately tried twisting and pulling herself out of his grasp, which proved to be of no use as Tay tightened his grip.

"Only way you're gettin' out o' this is when you pass out…!" he warned, giving it everything he had to restrict the ornery Siren Queen's already compromised air ways. He wasn't keen on using such a brutal maneuver on anyone if he didn't have to, but… considering the context, he understood he had no better choices. He was aware that if he could not pull this off and take this belligerent monster woman down at this moment, he was not sure he'd get another golden goose egg of an opportunity to try again. He needed not even imagine what she could potentially do to him if she broke free. "Haah…!" He effortfully grunted, pouring what he felt was the remainder of his strength into the chokehold with the intent to incapacitate Radiyah before the fight dragged on any longer.

"Ack…! Ergh…! You are… quite the skilled tactician…!" Radiyah acknowledged as she continued pulling herself back in her effort to break herself out of Tayshan's last-ditch submission technique. "I underestimated you…! But, I will…! Augh…! I will have you know that, despite your best efforts… Hah…! You merely… delay the inevitable…! Haaaa…!" she warned, struggling even harder as she grasped at Tay's leg, squeezing it tight and attempting to rip him off her to keep him from taking complete control of the situation. Try as she might, however, his twists, turns, and merciless application of extreme pressure caused her to lose any form of advantage she may have been able to gain in this predicament. Surely, stabbing him again would've gotten him off immediately, but he appeared just as aware of that as she was. This must've been why he'd been trying so hard to keep her from lifting herself up enough to attempt it. It certainly didn't help that, as she remained locked in his grasp, she'd found herself quickly losing coordination and awareness of her surroundings as she grew incredibly lightheaded. He could very well choke her out if she didn't break his grip. Already knowing she had other tools in case her brute strength or straight-up brutality didn't work out right away however, Radiyah desperately maneuvered her tail to where it found itself prodding the soldier's side. After she identified the contact point, Radiyah stiffened her tail and poked Tay with it.

"Gah! H-hey, don't do that…!" he protested, feeling a wave of discomfort washing through his body as he tried to remain focused. Doing the exact opposite of heeding his request, Radiyah poked him again a couple more times in the same spot. "Gahah! Hey! Stop that!" he complained again, his grip nearly slipping as a result of her underhanded tactic. His reactions, however, clued her in.

"Ticklish, are we…? Perfect… In that case…" Radiyah observed with a sinister grin, taking full advantage of the newly discovered weakness in her opponent. While trapped in his submission hold, Radiyah initiated an entirely unfair rush of rapid pokes, prods, and nudges of her tail against Tayshan's vulnerable side, causing him to flinch and spasm involuntarily as he tried his hardest not to lose sight of his goal of defeating her. Instinctively, he tightened his grip even more, thereby cutting off so much circulation that if Radiyah spent just a few more seconds of time in his clutches, she may very well have lost consciousness. As such, she redoubled her efforts in poking the living daylights out of her opponent as she began flapping her wings to gain an advantage. The results of her counterattack proved fruitful right away, as Tay continued to grunt, flinch, and shudder with every time she lightly dug the tip of her tail into his side. "Yes, that's it…!"

"Gah! Guwah! Ahagh!" Tay frequently grunted and shouted in questionable despair as Radiyah subjected him to a most heinous tickle torture. As she had intended, his grip and his focus began to slip with the more she kept jabbing away at him with her tail. His loosened grip allowed her with enough space and breathing room to increase the intensity of her wing flaps, allowing for her to slowly lift herself into the air with him urgently trying to maintain his hold. Before long, however, it was too late. With just a couple more critical digs of her tail into his side and a couple heavy flaps of her wings, Tay was forced off of her as he fell back to the ground. Finally free, Radiyah fluttered away a couple feet, hovering as she caught her breath and massaged her aching throat.

"Gah…! Hah…! Ah… Mmh… You dirty boy…" she griped, none too happy about his most recent attempt to defy her.

"No...! That was my last shot…!" Tay regretfully muttered, picking himself up while he had the chance. As he tried to stretch to a full stand however, his abdomen was hit with a sudden surge of inconceivable pain. "Gagh…!" he grunted, taking in air through his clenched teeth as he brought a hand to the tender area. When he did, however, he felt something unusual… wet… lukewarm… and slightly sticky in texture. Alarmed by the sensation, Tay glanced down and took his hand off the wound. The very sight of the phenomenon shocked him stiff as he processed just what he was seeing. "N-no… No way… Is… this…?" he was about to ask before he was interrupted.

"You will pay dearly for this humiliation…! Hrrraaah…!" Radiyah threatened once again, soaring toward him to try slashing at him with her claws.

"Whoa…!" Tay reactively grunted, weaving backward to avoid the vicious claw slash before being forced to dodge another one by hopping backward. He could tell she meant business at this point, but he could barely process everything that was happening as that nagging pain in his gut made itself more apparent.

"Take this…!" Radiyah shouted as loud as she could manage as she spun around, whipping her tail at him as hard as she could. To her satisfaction, she landed a direct hit, striking the soldier across the face with a debilitating *THWACK*, knocking him off-kilter as he struggled to keep his balance. Making the best of the scenario as it played out, Radiyah followed up by landing on the ground, rushing up to him, and baring her claws again to try swinging them down at him. Much to her surprise, however, Tay caught her wrist with a hand before she could tear into him again. Thinking of nothing but survival at this point, Tay tried to throw a punch to counter her, though she caught his wrist with her other hand. Angered further, Radiyah followed up by pulling the soldier's arms upward before cocking a leg back and delivering a fierce, unforgiving knee to his gut, the *THRASH* of an impact knocking him for a loop.

"Gaahaaaagh…!" he groaned in a mix of breathlessness and horrible agony as he was sent flying at least a yard backward before hitting the ground with a dense *THUD*. He was additionally sent rolling across the arena floor like a tumbleweed, practically dusting the filthy floor with his body as he slid across the arena. "Gruh…! Agh…! Hah… That hurt…" he complained, though he still found some extraordinary, inexplicable ability to pick himself up as he stretched to abate the stiffness in his aching joints. Panting in a mix of soreness, fatigue, and slight disorientation as he did so, Tay brought himself to a stand, hunched over and clutching his abdomen as he glared at his cold-hearted adversary.

"After all that, you still have the ability to stand…?" Radiyah remarked in moderate surprise, expecting him to stay down. "Hmm… Either I have lost my touch, or you really are a true glutton for punishment… And trust me, I hope it is the latter," she remarked, strolling toward him with a noticeable switch in her hips as she approached and adjusted her top. As she slowly closed the distance between herself and him, the unsettling grin on her face grew wide with dark, dastardly glee. "Either way, I must know what makes a man like you tick. You are not quite like all the others…"

"Does that really matter t' you…?" he rebutted, still panting through thresholds of pain as he stood his ground as best as he could. "For somebody who hates men, you sure are showin' a lot o' signs that… agh… that tell me otherwise…"

"Such impudence…!" she retorted, chuckling at his observation as she continued her stroll toward him. "…especially in the presence of your new Queen… For shame."

"Whatever it is you plan on doin', lady… you better just go ahead an' do it instead o' playin' around with me… I told you that already," he warned, trying not to lose hope in his situation as it began to sink in that his chances of winning the battle were dwindling… and quickly.

"As if you could do possibly do anything else to me in your pathetic state; broken, weary, disheveled, and just about on your knees at my mercy… Seriously, I've never witnessed such foolishness in all my years. How sad…"

"Sad? Did you not just get chopped in the throat a few minutes ago because you kept tryin' t' drag this out?" he dared to question, pointing out a massive flaw in her attack strategy. "The way you sound when you're talkin' right now should remind you enough as it is… Soundin' like you swallowed a wet rucksack full o' glass an' gravel…"

"You dare mock me?" she tried to yell, though it came out raspy and strained as she immediately clutched her throat and massaged it. "Agh… I will make you suffer tenfold for this… Yet, I still remain curious about how you could remain so obnoxiously confident in your current condition…"

"Well… since you're so curious about what makes me tick, I'll tell you one thing… hah…"

"Oh? And what, might I demand to know, is that?"

"I… As long as I can still breathe… I-I can still fight… an' believe me," he advised, fighting through a swirling tornado of pain to straighten himself up and enter the best fighting stance he could muster as he put up his dukes and stood tall. "…I have too much t' fight for t' give up… So keep this up… You will not break me, no matter how hard you try!" At that, Radiyah chuckled again.

"I'm not sure what you mean. I do no such thing…" she playfully denied, knowing full well that she was doing exactly what he accused her of. "I am merely grooming you for a newer, much more fulfilling life of subservience under my soon-to-be undisputed rule. It would certainly be a much more fitting position for you. Otherwise, you'd just become another crimson stain on my nails. Besides, I already told you I no longer plan on killing you… despite the fact that you look like you are more than halfway there. I will warn you that I am not above reneging on my word, however. Just acknowledge that it would be more your fault for your idiotic, typical male 'stand tall through it all 'till I fall' ideology than it would be mine at this point. I only wonder how you men continue to exist with such primitive motivations…"

"Says the dead siren with the extinct species to the livin' soldier she's tryin' t' force int' slavery based on restorin' her race…" he remarked with a sneer, unappreciative of her derisive remark. "Don't choke on that heapin' dose of irony, now. Your throat seems sore enough as it is…"

"Ooh, such a slick tongue you have… My, you are something else…" she acknowledged with a shake of her head. "Of course, I will have to instruct you on how to put that tongue to better use by making you eat those words… among other things soon after, my new pet~," she shot back, glaring at him with a frighteningly toothy grin as she finally reached him. She stood over him, triumphant and confident while he did his best to hold his ground despite his numerous injuries.

"Hm… Well if that's how it's gotta be, then come on… Do your worst," he remarked, beginning to quake a bit as he absorbed the possibility that he might actually die right here in this tomb at the hands of a malevolent undead siren with a lifelong grudge. He knew, however, that there was no turning back. He was waist-deep… no, shoulder-deep in it with no way out. At this point, it was all or nothing. And, as he said, if he could still breathe… then he could still fight… even if that meant he may not survive. He figured that maybe, just maybe… if he at least held her off long enough, then he technically won by way of softening her up for Shantae if and when she eventually crossed paths with Lady Radiyah. And… and even if he didn't live long enough to see that fight play out… well… he would be okay, knowing that she would have a better handle on it than he did. And knowing Shantae, she would beat this siren into the ground without breaking a sweat, so long as he paved the way for her. As such, he took another deep, pain-laden breath, ignored the massive knot in his aching stomach, and prepared himself for the remainder of what may have been his final battle when…

"Tayshan!" a familiar voice called from behind. Before he could properly register whose voice it was, he turned to see a sapphire-clad, jewelry-adorned, purple-ponytailed half-genie dashing toward him from the lone pathway exit with nothing but utmost worry in her eyes. "Finally, we found you!"

"Jeez… I was wonderin' if she'd ever find her way over here…" Tay murmured in a mix of ire and relief as he turned to face her, quickly noticing a young, long-haired young man wearing tattered clothes of most flamboyant colors dashing in behind her. "Him, too…" he further acknowledged.

"Who…? How did…?" Radiyah tried to ask, stunned by the fact that, right before her eyes, there appeared two more insufferable humanoid creatures that should not have been here. Calling back to her previous scan of the labyrinth, however, she found herself answering her own question before it was asked. "I see… These must've been sources of the other two unusual signatures I detected…"

"You! Get away from him! Haah!" Shantae warned, charging a fireball in her hand and flinging it at an ill-prepared Radiyah.

"Gagh…!" the Siren Queen panicked, hastily trying to prepare herself to block the attack. With a heated *PWOPH*, Radiyah was sent hurtling back, though she regained control of herself by flaring out her wings before landing safely on her feet. "Hmm… Such power… and such… My word…" she murmured, taking a moment to study the beautiful young woman who attacked her. The pointy ears, the alluring outfit, the copious amounts of jewelry… To her, there was no doubt about it; another genie had entered the fray to protect her kin. The way she saw it, if there was one genie in the vicinity, there was almost certainly bound to be others lurking nearby. Yet, she'd never known genies to be so… so… dare she say, adorable. Equally as astonishing to Radiyah was the insanely attractive young lady this purple-haired interloper brought with her. Her lush, wavy onyx hair, her incredibly curves, her soft, gorgeous face… The girls' combined cuteness nearly overwhelmed the siren queen as she took the opportunity to get herself a full, appreciative view of the women as they approached their injured male comrade. "Hmmm… Captivating…"

"Tay! Are you…? Oh, no…!" Shantae was about to ask the soldier as she and Aashiq approached, though she stopped when she got a good look at him. As he wearily stood before her, the first thing she noticed was the series of wounds littering the man's torso; not the least of which was four disturbing puncture marks lined across one side of his abdomen.

"Long time, no see, homegirl…" Tay greeted, though she paid no heed to it in the wake of her running up to him and worriedly laying a hand on his stomach.

"You… You're bleeding…!" she quickly and worriedly deduced, noticing that the wounds in his stomach appeared to have been leaking with a sticky dark red fluid. Caught off-guard by her revelation, he instinctively covered the wounds with a hand, prompting her to look up at him with such tangible concern in her eyes that he immediately felt a wave of apprehension wash over him.

"Only a little bit…" he replied, uncertain of the level of concern his team leader had been showing. "It ain't that big a deal. I barely feel it."

"Tay, this is the first time you've bled since you got here… isn't it?" she asked, causing the young man to flash back to every other point at which he'd been cut, stabbed, or otherwise wounded in battle during his time in Sequin Land. "I mean, every time I've seen you get cut, this never happened; not even when you got stabbed with that knife while we were on that raft earlier."

"…Huh… You… you have a point," he realized, remembering the event in question and wondering what that meant for his body's retention of magic at this point… in addition to what that meant for his susceptibility to injury. "This really IS the first time…" he further pondered, his eyes flicking toward the wounds in his abdomen.

"Habibi… Have… you been okay?" Aash spoke up as he approached, also scanning his comrade's condition as he noticed the same fluid staining his chin from one side of his mouth, in addition to other scrapes across his torso and on parts of his legs that were visible through the tears in his pants. The both of them gawked in combined worry at his battle-damaged form, additionally noticing the dirt and moss smears all over his arms.

"Not… particularly recently, but I'm still here…" he uneasily replied, uncomfortable with the way they'd been staring at him.

"Oh, dear… Have you perhaps run out of magic?" Aash asked again, growing exponentially more distraught at the soldier's disheveled state. "And if so, do you think it reasonable to take a much-needed break while Shantae and I defend you from this siren woman?"

"Uh… I think that-!"

"What happened to you, Tay?" Shantae asked right after Aash, also growing increasingly worried as she continued to examine her teammate up and down. "How badly are you hurt? We found your gun and your shirt in the other room, and we thought you were… Wait… Your eyes…" she trailed off, doing nothing to help her extraterrestrial partner's swirling mix of confusion and discomfort with them hammering him with question after question before giving him time to answer them.

"Er… I… um…" he stammered, unable to get a word in before Shantae instinctively reached upward and clasped her hands on his face. "Ah, w-wait. What are you-?"

"Come here," she softly beckoned, pulling his head downward and toward her; much to the serviceman's dismay as he grew even more nervous at her frantic inspection of his condition. Nevertheless, he offered minimal resistance as Shantae brought his face to her eye level and stared directly into his soul… or so it felt. Either way, she needed only to glance at him close-up to see something was amiss.

"What… what, is there somethin' on my face that I should know about?" Tay asked, none the wiser to her concerns as his eyes darted around the area. "Because these scars were already-!"

"One of your eyes… The iris is this bright, icy gray color now… but the other one is still brown…" she pointed out, throwing him for the loop of a lifetime as he reeled back from her grasp and brought a hand to his eye as he rose back to a full stand.

"What…? No, that… that can't be…" he murmured, unable to understand how it could be possible that he'd come down with a sudden case of heterochromia. Hearing such news from Radiyah was one thing. Hearing it from Shantae? It made him question it for himself as he looked back at her while she shot him another worried expression. "That's exactly what this siren said earlier… You're serious? How…?"

"That's something even I couldn't answer… unless…" she paused, thinking back to those horrible gut feelings she'd been getting while she and Aashiq were traversing through the dungeon maze. "Tayshan…?" she hesitantly asked, a pit forming in her stomach as she thought about what exactly it was she planned to ask him.

"Y-yeah?"

"Did… Did you by any chance… come under any influence of D-?" she was prepared to inquire.

"My, what a mostly-unwelcome turn of events this is…" Radiyah spoke up as she slowly strolled toward her enemies, interrupting the doctor visit of a reunion between them. "I sensed that there were more of you vermin in my labyrinth earlier, and it pains me to see I was right… Though, I must say, I am… quite enamored by the sheer, unadulterated beauty my eyes behold. That almost makes up for your brazen intrusion," she added, looking specifically at the half-genie. Reading her mannerisms as threatening, Shantae glared at Radiyah and stepped forward to protect her friend.

"You! Who are you?" she demanded to know, ready for a fight. Aash, wanting to protect Tay and offer his assistance, stood beside her as he joined her in standing between Radiyah and the injured serviceman. "And what did you do to my friend!?"

"My, such cute looks you're giving me…" the Siren Queen remarked with a smirk as she halted her approach. "The attention I'm getting has me wanting to burst with excitement~! I only wonder what you girls will be capable of," she further remarked, though the comment threw Aashiq off. "If your 'friend' is any indication, I presume you'll show a gorgeous lady like myself a good time…"

"Wait… girls?" Aashiq asked, uncertain of what the gigantic winged woman meant. "As in, plural?"

"I am Lady Radiyah, Warrior Queen of the Sirens," she boldly introduced herself through her raspy voice. Unable to project her voice correctly, she angrily cleared her throat to no avail before sighing away some of her frustration. "Your friend foolishly tried to defy me and suffered the consequences for his transgressions against me. If you wish to suffer similar fates to him, then be my guests."

"So that's who you are. In that case, we'd better not pull any punches. We were warned about you," Shantae informed her newest adversary as she tightened her stance.

"That does not surprise me…" Radiyah proudly proclaimed. "My reputation precedes me. I suppose I can skip most of the verbal flexing and tell you that crossing me is a fatal error… especially if your heritage involves affiliation with genies…"

"Oh, so you're not a fan of us genies?" the young maiden flatly asked, less than pleased to hear that she'd found yet another individual who unjustly cast genies in an undesirable light.

"Absolutely not," she venomously confirmed. "Genies are a crude and arrogant bunch, and just thinking about them riles me up to no end. Your kind are the most offensive, virulent curse this world has ever known, next to the likes of that horrid Pirate Master and his horde of filthy bat bandits. And even then, that is only because the Pirate Master is responsible for my demise and my temple being sunken so deep underwater that returning to the surface is nearly impossible in my current state."

"Whoa! You were around at the time of the big battle between the genies and the Pirate Master?" Shantae asked, shocked to find out that her enemy had been around long enough to possibly bear witness to the catastrophic conflict that, as legends spoke, had the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance. "And you said he-?" she was about to quiz before being cut off.

"You are just lucky you are so unbelievably pretty; elsewise, I would not waste my breath trying to keep your attention," she professed, throwing Shantae off for a moment.

"Uh… Ooookay…? W-well, I can assure you, Radiyah, your reign of terror ends here!" Shantae heroically proclaimed, pointing a finger at her adversary while shaking off the awkwardness of the siren's statement. "I'll make you pay for hurting Tayshan!"

"You? Make me pay for justifiably punishing that despicable man, who is the sole reason I sound like I have been gargling boiling oil and wooden splinters?" she incredulously asked, mildly offended. "Preposterous…! Must I notify you that he struck me so hard in the throat before you got here that I am worried I will never be able to speak clearly, much less sing again?"

"Ohh, so that's why you sound like that… I just thought it was a natural thing, considering how evil the raspiness in your voice makes you sound," the young heroine plainly presumed, much to Radiyah's chagrin.

"My, what a convenient twist," Aash remarked with a sigh of relief before turning his head toward Tay, who'd been clutching his aching side as he watched on. "Habibi, how did you manage to get close enough to her to disable her singing? It must not have been easy…"

"Long story, homie…" he rather dismissively explained, uncertain of his willingness to share the intricate details. "All I can say is that I almost died doin' it…"

"I can certainly imagine. Never fear, however. We have your back."

"Hm… If you say so, but I hope you don't expect me t' just lay down an' let y'all fight the rest o' this battle without me," he clarified, stretching through another wave of abdominal pain before moving to prepare himself for the imminent battle.

"Bah…! Such maddening impertinence… For that, you will all suffer," Radiyah threatened, stretching to limber herself up before brandishing her claws and flaring her wings in preparation. "And soon, you will all learn your rightful places at my feet like the playthings you will all become…"

"The only thing here that's gonna get played is you!" Shantae cleverly (read: awkwardly) countered, sizing up her opponent as she tightened her ponytail. "Er, by which I mean, your unavoidable defeat will… uh, be played out! Like a… a thing! Yeah!"

"Hm… Your heroic phrasin' still needs work, homegirl…" Tay whispered while trying not to chuckle, somehow not convinced that Shantae's statement came across as intimidating like she wanted it to.

"Hush, Tay. I'm trying to defend you from evil here. Now's not the time to be a critic," she whispered back to him.

"Point taken," he acknowledged. "Let's play this thing out, then," he quipped, hoping she wouldn't catch it. However, the side-eyed, deadpan glare she momentarily shot him communicated otherwise.

"Your threats will do nothing to deter us from protecting our loved one, madwoman!" Aash declared, wanting to join in on the verbal jousting. "Our amorous bond is unbreakable!"

"…Jeez…" Tay murmured with a sigh, just a tad embarrassed by Aashiq's well-intentioned input. "You two are so embarrassin'…"

"So, now it's three on one?" Radiyah questioned, seeming undeterred by the fact that she was outnumbered. "So be it. It might actually make this a fair fight now. Although, I would certainly hate to besmirch such exquisite feminine beauty, ladies. I may be more inclined to take it easier on you if you treat me right…~" she seductively suggested with a smiling wink aimed directly at Shantae that mildly unnerved the half-genie.

"…I'm starting to pick up a vibe I'm not too sure I'm comfortable with…" she remarked, resisting the urge to cringe.

"Chances are, your hunch is right…" Tay commented, supporting his partner's assertion.

"Why does she keep referring to you in the plural sense, kanafeh?" Aash asked, growing more confused as Radiyah continued to assert that there were more female warriors opposing her than the half-genie.

"Beats me," Shantae answered with a shrug before turning toward Radiyah. "Um… You are aware that I'm the only girl of the three of us, right?"

"What? How can that be?" Radiyah questioned, taken aback by the half-genie's revelation. "Do not pull my leg. Is that not an adorable young woman standing next to you?" she asked, much to Aashiq's ire and dissatisfaction. Shantae, struck speechless by the mistake, took a moment to process the question as she glanced at the disgruntled Hypnotist magician. Tay, trying not to be rude, covered his mouth with a hand to avoid being seen smirking.

"What!?" Aash yelled, offended by the Siren Queen's honest and understandable mistake. "How could you possibly mistake me for a woman?"

"The more appropriate question is how you could possibly mistake yourself for a man," she shot back, still unable to catch on as she unknowingly delivered a most vicious stinger of an insult. "That luscious hair, that angelic voice, those enrapturing sparkling eyes… Not to mention those unbelievable hips of yours… Ooh, I certainly hope you're single," she hinted with all the subtlety of a flaming car full of screaming clowns smashing full speed through a crowded office building. "You should be proud of what you've got, honey. Embrace your unrivaled femininity as I have mine…! Women are powerful…! Women are wonderful…! Women… are forever the most valuable asset to this world…! Though you may be of that deplorable genie breed, you must understand that your femininity is a gift…! Do not let the wicked ways of men lead you astray…! After I have defeated you, I will give you some… intense personal lessons on how to truly embrace the gift of being a real woman…~" As though it needed to be said, Aash… was… mortified.

"Ah…! But… I am… not… Er… Uh…" he stammered, so thrown off by Radiyah mistaking him for being female that his brain became a whirlwind of jumbled pieces of his attempt to correct the Siren Queen. Never had he been so lambasted with accusations of him being the opposite gender. Or rather, it had been happening pretty frequently recently, he had to admit, but it was never this bad.

"…Well, then… This is… just about the exact personification of awkward…" Tay commented, though it fell on deaf ears. "Wow…"

"Hey! Back off!" Shantae fervently took her stance, moving to stand in front of Aash with her arms outstretched. "That's my boyfriend you're talking about! Leave him alone!" she announced, much to the shock of Radiyah… and even MORE to the shock (because somehow, THAT was possible) of Tayshan.

"Boyfriend…!? What…!?" he questioned, shooting the two of them a look of such confusion that it pretty much nonverbally communicated that they had some 'splaining to do. At that, Shantae realized just the sheer, unmitigated massiveness of the bombshell she dropped in her preemptive measures to protect her relationship with Aashiq. As such, she dropped her stance and turned toward the immensely confused serviceman with a slightly guilty look on her face. Aash more or less mirrored her motion as he tried to dispel the noticeable blush on his face.

"Uh… Y-yeah…" she worriedly admitted, tensing up as she laid her hands on her significant other's shoulders. "Aash and I… We're… um…"

"After all that talk about at least one o' y'all not wantin' a relationship? Y'all just went an' changed your minds?" he asked, though he remembered previously witnessing the two long-lost friends-turned-lovers growing progressively closer as they traversed through the labyrinth. His shock was tempered as a result, though he remained at least a tiny bit baffled that they actually went through with it. "An' in here of all places?"

"Indeed, habibi," Aash admitted, nervously playing with his hair as the awkwardness between the three of them grew like weeds on fast-forward. "During our time here, Shantae and I reconnected. And, while we were unwillingly separated from you, we… in a sense, rekindled our old friendship, which led to a discussion… which… led to us bonding, which… well… led to us… becoming a couple," he explained.

"That's… just about it in a nutshell," Shantae corroborated, feeling equally as anxious about telling him. Ah, who am I kidding? She was at least five times as anxious. She hadn't planned on telling him so soon, as she considered how he might feel. The vexed expression on his face told it all, causing her to frown with a mix of worry and guilt at the development. "S-sorry, Tay… I wanted to wait until later to tell you, but…"

"Hm. Well, congrats, I guess," he offered, though he remained confused… and for some odd reason, slightly (read: very) irritated by the news as he just barely resisted the urge to sneer at his friends. "I just hope that wasn't the reason y'all took so long t' get here…"

"No, no way!" she denied, though she felt a guilty pang in her stomach at the assertion that gave her the conflicting idea that maybe he was right. "We just got lost in this winding underground maze until I started getting these vibes that led me to where you were! I swear!"

"…Hm. It is what it is, then," he dismissed with a sigh and a shrug after a moment of reading the disquieted looks on their faces, growing just uncomfortable enough with the conversation that he chose to cease digging into his teammates about their sudden(ish) budding romance. His internal acknowledgement of the agitation he felt seemed only to agitate him further, though he breathed another sigh to try and dispel it.

"Hold on… you're seriously telling me that… what I thought was a perfect specimen of pure feminine charm… is actually, factually MALE…!?" Radiyah whisper-shouted, apparently outraged by the revelation for entirely different reasons. "That… is… disgusting…! Now they defiantly attempt to encroach upon feminine territory by masquerading as women…!? Unforgivable, I say…! Unforgivable!" she rasped loudly enough to where all three of her enemies heard her and turned around in anticipation for a possible attack. The blood-chilling, furious glare she shot at the three of them as she crouched low with her claws at the ready.

"I am not masquerading as a woman! I am comfortable as a male! And regardless of I did identify with the fairer gender or not, your rampant castigation against me is unwelcome and wholly discriminatory!" Aash spoke up in defense of himself.

"Quiet, impostor…!" She screamed at him. "You are worse than the man standing behind you…! Never would I imagine such… such a hideous betrayal of womanly values ever taking form before my eyes…! It is heathens like you that drive my belief in exterminating all men in this world…! You all do nothing but take, take, take… and when the world itself isn't enough, you then extend your repulsive tendrils everywhere else…! It infuriates me to no end…!"

"Okay, what's her deal?" Shantae dared to ask Tay as she turned to look at him.

"In a nutshell, she hates men, genies, an' anything havin' t' do with that Pirate Master dude with a burnin' passion," he plainly answered, though his focus remained on Radiyah as she continued to ready herself for an attack. "Not sure why, but she's made that painfully apparent since I ran int' her. Her plan is t' destroy us, escape from here, an' then use her siren powers t' take over the world by wipin' out all males an' establishin' a worldwide siren dominion, like the Giga Mermaid said."

"Oh. Well, that's just about as evil as evil gets," Shantae acknowledged, seeing the explanation as more than enough reason to stop Lady Radiyah at all costs. "Looks like we're all in her warpath, by that logic."

"Now now, you needn't worry about me killing you, boy," she threatened with a malicious grin aimed at Tayshan. "How many times must I tell you? Lest you forget that you have earned yourself an important role as my population regeneration source… A key factor in my plan to foster a utopian society ruled exclusively by sirens and whatever non-siren females I deem fit to have a place in my world. Virile men like you, however brutish, are certain to provide me with VERY healthy offspring."

"Ugh…" the unfortunate serviceman groaned, put off by the 'proposition.' "Right, I forgot t' mention THAT pleasant detail…"

"Whoa, whoa, what!?" Shantae questioned, an expression of confusion and unadulterated disgust plastering itself on her face. "Ooh, that doesn't sound good at all…"

"And you, my lavender-haired lovely…" the Siren Queen continued, turning her attention to Shantae.

"…Oh, no…"

"You may be a genie, but I recognize impeccable, stunning, youthful exquisiteness when I see it."

"…Ah, I don't think I need to hear where you're going with-!"

"I would offer you the chance to surrender without a fight, but your association with these foolish men necessitates your punishment alongside them."

"Oh. W-well in that case, I'll protect-!"

"It would also be a waste to dispose of you, no less. You are a strong, beautiful woman like myself, and I realize that we must come together. Plus, I find myself rather intrigued by your innocent, spunky demeanor. It is that sort of carefree, magnetic energy I'd prefer in a woman whose company and companionship I would personally treasure. Once I am through with you, I will take you as my bride…~" she professed, creeping everyone out as they cringed at the suggestion. "Together as wives, you and I shall hold an undisputed, dominant shared power over my utopia. The Queen of the Sirens and her stunning genie love partner… complete with a breeding male to provide us with an entire generation's worth of all-powerful ultra siren-genie hybrids to lovingly nurture into fine warriors that would extend our legacy to the stars above… Oh, it is too tempting an idea not to pursue~! I must have you!"

"…Aaaaaand there it is…" she remarked, taken aback to the point of shuddering at the unwarranted invitation as she tried her hardest not to let her mind wander into the specifics of such a ludicrous idea. "Not knocking you for your preferences, but it isn't okay to force yourself or your ideas on people. If you want a relationship, then you have to go about it in a way where you and the other person agree to be together. Forcing me to marry you won't get you there. Plus, like I said, I'm taken. Also, forcing Tayshan to… do whatever it is you plan on doing with him won't make you happy either. Just saying," she preached, making an excellent point. "It also might help you on finding love if you stopped hating everyone that wasn't just like you. Everybody in this world is different."

"An impetuous pup like you has no right to lecture or judge me…! And you know nothing about me or my culture…! You should be honored that I offer such prestigious opportunities for you. If I must show you the error of your ways, however, then I am not above getting my hands dirty... Well, dirtier. Now prepare yourselves, genies…!"

"Genies…? As in, plural?"

"She also can't seem t' tell the difference between a human an' a genie," Tay clarified. "She has spent this entire time completely shootin' down my attempts t' correct her."

"Interesting…"

"This woman has lost her marbles," Aash chimed in, growing more perturbed and confused with the longer this discussion carried on. "Are we ready to do battle, friends? It appears this Lady Radiyah will not wait any longer."

"You bet I am," Shantae assured before getting the idea to pull Tay's pistol out of her inventory and hand it to him. "Here ya go, Tay."

"Oh, thank goodness. I can't appreciate you enough," he expressed as he happily got Desert Eagle from Shantae. "I… I don't know how much more I can contribute like this, but I'll keep givin' it everything I've got." Hearing this worried the young heroine greatly as she turned and looked at him one more time.

"Tayshan… I… Are you sure? You've been hurt enough as it is. Why don't you hang back and let Aashiq and me take it from here? You deserve a break."

"I'll take a break once we all finish cleanin' up this mess, or when I'm dead. I gave my word that I wouldn't run from a fight, an' I won't pick today t' start goin' back on it," he remarked with a furrowed brow, refusing to back down despite his incredible weariness. Shantae reeled back in mild shock, for some reason frightened by his assertion that he'd rather die fighting than take it easy and let her handle things herself. After a few seconds of silence and seeing that his statement bothered her, he relaxed his expression and breathed. "Besides… What kind o' sidekick would I be t' only soften up the big bad for you an' not help you take her the rest o' the way down? You know I can't leave y'all hangin' like that," he further asserted with a thumbs-up and a wan smile that communicated both his determination and his fatigue.

"Tay…" she began, though she soon lost her words as she took in the sight of him… beaten, haggard, bleeding from multiple wounds across his body, and all around tore up from the floor up… yet still willing to go the distance with her to complete their quest. While she still remained highly concerned with his condition, she found it in her to return his smile and thumbs-up. "Thank you so much. I… I'll do everything in my power to make it up to you for not getting here sooner. Just… make sure to keep yourself safe. I'd like it if my best friend made it out alive, at least."

"Heh, well I don't plan on bitin' the dust here, so I'll take your word. As for you makin' it up t' me, I wouldn't worry about it. Let's just finish this," he proposed, aiming his gun at Radiyah as she hovered in the air, her wings beating against the thick, musty atmosphere while she searched for a moment to strike.

"Right," Shantae nodded, her own determination boosted as she turned and readied herself for the incoming scuffle.

"The connection between you two…" Aashiq murmured, losing his focus on Radiyah just long enough to watch his comrades converse with one another. "It is… awe-inspiring…"

"It appears you unfortunate upstarts are ready to accept your fates…" Radiyah observed, straightening herself up and taking flight. "Now then… Here I come, genies!" she called out, blasting off at such an alarming speed that she potentially rivaled a fighter jet toward her targets. Her claws were bared, her creepy grin was loaded with unadulterated malevolence, and her intentions were as impure as she'd already let the three teenaged heroes know. Losing her voice was a moderate setback, sure, but that did not mean these foolhardy travelers stood a chance against her. After all, they were way out of their element; and she intended to prove it. "I'll start with you, impostor! Hrrraaah…!" she roared, aiming to slice Aashiq to ribbons as she closed in on him. Hearing her disparaging comment loud and clear, Aash nearly froze, uncertain of what to do on such short notice.

"Ah! Uh, I-!" Aash stammered, uncertain of what to do on such short notice.

"Get out o' the way, yo!" Tay barked, grabbing his stunned comrade by the hand and pulling him out of the line of fire while he dashed a few paces out of the Siren Queen's path. Radiyah had arrived just in time to unleash a vicious *SLASH* of her claw against the air, managing only to cut off a couple strands of her target's hair before sliding across the ground on her hands and feet as a measure to stop the momentum of her opening attack.

"Oh… W-wow… Thank you, habibi," Aash expressed, clutching his chest with a hand as he took a couple deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Be on your guard, homie. This lady will kill us if we give her the chance; no matter what she says," Tay warned, focusing all of his attention on Radiyah as he aimed his trusty pistol and fired a couple of rounds while Radiyah appeared to be preparing her next attempt to assault the Hypnotist apprentice. Radiyah dodged the shots as she took flight and geared up to attack again.

"You are right. I will be more mindful," Aash acknowledged as he quickly committed to thinking of ways to contribute to the cause. "But then, with her being so mobile, how do I…?" he pondered looking up at the ceiling to notice that some of the structures on it flickered with an unusual white light. "That might work… but, after such a short break, can I muster up the energy...?" he further contemplated, taking a deep breath as he internalized the danger he and his allies were in. With very little time to work with, Aash closed his eyes for a moment and took an incredibly deep breath. "Haaaaaaaah...!" he grunted, stretching his hands outward as he concentrated as hard as he could. And, within a few painful seconds, he managed to summon up a small, but steady, crackling flow of his magic. "Agh...! Hm, it hurts...! But I must do what I can to contribute...!" And with that, Hypno Baron's apprentice made his preparations.

"You got lucky that time, but this next strike will cut you down to size…!" Radiyah warned Aashiq as she targeted him again.

"Oh, no you don't!" Shantae challenged, running full speed toward Radiyah while clashing her wristbands twice to activate her Icy Hair Whip. The half-genie would not give Radiyah another chance to catch her or her allies off-guard if she could help it.

"Take this!" the Siren Queen shouted, engaging in a full-circle spin to try and swat the young woman away with her tail. Shantae, thinking on her feet, ducked under the lightning-quick attack, rushing in harder to try and strike her adversary with her freezing hair attack to at least slow her down. Radiyah reacted quickly, however. After missing her tail whip, she flew up high just as the *THWICK* of the half-genie's ponytail slapped against the air near her.

"Nice try, darling, but you'd have to be insane to think I'd let you get anywhere near me without-!" Radiyah tried to taunt before being struck over the head from above with a stony *CRACK* that sent her hurtling to the ground with a damp *THUD*. "Uhagh…! What in the…?" she murmured, fighting through a burst of pain to slowly climb back to her feet. She flared her wings to rid herself of any additional debris that might've been stuck to her. "Ow…! My wings…!" she complained, her flight-granting appendages suddenly sore as a result of the attack she'd been subjected to. Stretching to at least numb the pain a little, she looked toward the ground and noticed a few chunks of the stone that hit her glowing a bright orange.

"Your defeat is certain, wicked chimera!" Aash declared, his hand highlighted in the same aura as he ran toward Shantae to further assist her.

"Now I've gotcha!" Shantae announced as she closed the distance and began whipping away at Radiyah with her hair, each freezing *THWACK* encasing a part of Radiyah's body in ice. "Haaah!" she continued, whipping Radiyah a good three or four times before the angered Siren Queen pushed herself up and swiped at the half-genie with one of her ice-covered claws. "Yikes!" the young heroine shouted as she weaved backward to avoid getting her face sliced. Taking the opportunity to escape the pressure her enemies were putting her under, Radiyah flew high once more, hurriedly moving herself out of the corner she'd found herself in and toward the center of the dark, dank arena over the decorative altar. Just as she thought she was in the clear, however, a trio of *BANG* noises coming from below alerted her to the persistent danger she was in. Just as she looked in the direction of the startling noises, she'd been struck twice.

"Gaaarrgh…!" she hollered out in pain, one of the wayward projectiles hitting her in the back while another hit her in the shoulder. Despite the sudden, sharp sting of the attacks she'd been subjected to, she recovered quickly enough to turn and notice that insolent, shirtless throat chopper taking aim at her with yet another of those insufferable projectile arm cannons. "You…!"

"She moves quick, but as long as we keep her under wraps, we can win," Tay muttered to himself as he fired another shot at her. Radiyah saw the flashing marble headed toward her and hovered to the side to dodge it. Just then, she heard another rumbling *CRACKLE* coming from above. Curious, she peered upward to see that some of the stalactites on the ceiling had been glowing orange as they had moments earlier.

"Not this time…!" she muttered, soaring out of harm's way just as the rock formations were jarred loose by an arcane force. Narrowly missing her, the weaponized masses crashed into the altar, destroying the casket and scattering the offerings around the immediate area while doing nothing to damage the gigantic lanterns. Noticing right away what that meant, however, Radiyah turned and noticed that despicable impostor appearing to utilize magic that glowed the same color as the rocks that almost crashed on her. "So that is your plan? Attempt to crush me under the weight of my own lair…?" she rhetorically asked, catching on quick to Aash's attack plan. "Let's see you try it again when I do this, then…!" she warned as she, in another incredible burst of speed, turned and raced downward toward Tayshan with the full intent of ensnaring him to keep Aashiq from trying to crush her further.

"Tay, look out!" Shantae warned as she and Aash hurried toward him to keep him from getting hurt.

"Aimin' at me this time, huh? Okay, then…" Tay noticed, seeming to half-expect her to try assaulting him next as a result of him being the closest to her. Though time was extremely limited, he did his best to adapt. Seeing her swooping in with her arms extended to try and grab him, Tay quickly went prone on the ground as late as he possibly could before she got close enough to grab him. His success in avoiding Radiyah could only be measured by the intensity of the *WHOOSH* of wind passing over him as a result of her missing her chance to snatch him up.

"Darn it…! Crafty little beast…!" the enraged chimera cursed as she directed her flight upward once more to keep herself at a safe distance. However, safety would continue to evade her as another rumbling *CRACK* could be heard from directly above her.

"Tay! I've got you covered! Get out of there!" Shantae warned, running toward Radiyah as Aash stayed a safe distance back while maneuvering the stalactites with his magic. Hearing this, the soldier peered up to see Shantae staring Radiyah down as the Siren Queen turned to see more chunks of her tomb's ceiling beginning to rain down on her.

"Copy!" Tay called out in agreement as he climbed to his feet and ran to a safe distance.

"You will not escape me that easily!" Radiyah threatened, diving downward and away just as the rocks above were jarred loose. Immediately, she bulleted toward Tay as he thought he'd just gotten away. Noticing quickly that he was still not in the clear, he gasped.

"Shoot, you're quick…!" he acknowledged as Radiyah closed the distance.

"No!" Shantae called out, sprinting toward her ally as fast as she could. However, she wasn't quick enough to catch the malevolent winged monster woman before she launched her next attack.

"You will serve more than one use here!" Radiyah oh-so angrily informed the panicked serviceman as she furiously swiped at him again.

"Whoa!" he yelled, bobbing to the side to miss being hit. The *CLASH* of her claws against the floor rang out loud enough that its echo filled the atmosphere. Though his ears were filled with noises coming from all around, Tay reacted almost entirely on instinct. Cocking his hand back while holding his pistol, he attempted a full-range, sideways swing aimed at the Siren Queen's face with the intent to at least stun her long enough to get away. However, when he unleashed his strike, he was met with thin air as Radiyah ducked under it. "Gah! No…!"

"That brazen attack will cost you a leg!" Radiyah threatened, already stretching her other arm back as she aimed her next attack at Tay's lower appendages. Tay, stricken with a sudden burst of residual pain, found it difficult to move fast enough to keep from being victimized by the sudden move.

"Stop right there!" Shantae called out, reaching her enemy just in time to grab hold of her wrist and pull on it to keep her from following through.

"What the…!? Unhand me this instant…!" Radiyah demanded, struggling against the half-genie's airtight grip as she was forced to turn her attention away from her intended target.

"Not on my watch! Don't you dare put your hands on him again!" Shantae demanded, refusing to stand idly by and let her teammate suffer any further damage. However, her efforts, while valiant, proved only to be a momentary distraction.

"Oh, so you want me to reconsider which of you I take my anger out on? So be it, then…!" she threatened, turning and lifting her arm high with Shantae still hanging on.

"Whoawhoawhoa!" Shantae bellowed, caught by complete surprise at the undead siren's uncanny physical strength. Before she could let go, Radiyah pulled the half-genie in and ensnared her in a tight, suffocating bear hug to ensure she could not escape. "Gwaagh…! Hey…!" the immobilized maiden called out, her voice strained as she writhed and wriggled to try and free herself.

"So wonderful of you to come so close to me. Let's get to know one another… intimately while I have you~," Radiyah teased as she nuzzled the unfortunate half-genie into her chest. "Hope you aren't afraid of heights, sweetie pie, because I am about to grant you entry into the mile-high club…!" she added, again taking to the air with a tightly-restrained Shantae in tow. Ignoring the nagging aches in her wings, Radiyah ascended slowly as Shantae wriggled and squirmed in her arms.

"Not if I have somethin' t' say about-!" Tay was about to interject as he aimed his gun at one of Radiyah's wings in an attempt to hopefully disable her ability to fly before she got the chance to take his teammate away.

"Release her, wicked siren!" Aash called, racing in with figurative fire under his feet in a desperate bid to save his girlfriend from certain doom. "I will make you regret harming her!"

"Just as I expected…!" she remarked with a sinister grin as she cut her eyes toward the furious young magician; a red flag picked up by both Shantae and Tayshan.

"Aash, no…! Stay back…!" she tried to call, though she found it difficult when Radiyah was pressing the poor girl hard into her chest like her favorite stuffed animal.

"Aashiq, wait!" Tay called, dropping his position to try and stop him from walking into Radiyah's trap. However, as Tay took a mere couple of steps in Aash's direction, Radiyah interfered by raising one of her arms while the other remained tightly clamped on Shantae.

"Tay…! Agh…! Six o' clock…!" Shantae choked out in her compromised position, though Tay heard it. As such, he turned back around to see Radiyah suddenly descending upon him while in mid-swing of one hand speedily swinging in his direction. The alarmed soldier tried to leap backward, but the *SCHWING* of Radiyah's attack as she angled it downward, still caught him off-guard.

"Agh, shoot!" he cried out as the Siren Queen's attack clipped his leg from under him while he was in midair. Unable to land correctly as a result of Radiyah's sneak attack, Tay was forced to the ground as he fell flat on his side. "Ahuagh…! You no good, rotten…!" he grumbled, more unspeakable pain shooting through his entire body as he struggled to pick himself back up.

"Don't bother getting up, boy," Radiyah callously taunted, walking over and stomping on his abdomen as he rolled onto his back. Particularly, she stomped directly on the stab wounds he'd sustained from earlier in their battle. "This farce has gone on long enough, and I have both of you right where I want you…!"

"Guagh! Duuwaaaahaaagh!" Tay yelled in immeasurable pain once again as Radiyah applied additional pressure, grinding her heel into his stomach as she also continued to bear hug an immobile Shantae while letting out a gleefully deranged cackle at her moment of triumph.

"No…! Tayshan…!" Shantae tried to call, still heavily restrained as she redoubled her efforts to escape their enemy's death grip. "I swear, if it's the last thing I do, I'm gonna make you pay for that…! You hear me...!?" she vowed, utterly horrified and enraged at the sound of her friend screaming in despair at the mercy of this despicable, merciless Boss monster.

"Agh! Hah…! I-I swear we're gonna get you back for thi-! Haaagh! Hah…! Ow…!" Tay shouted, cut off mid-sentence by Radiyah pressing her foot into his abdomen once again. Desperate to escape, Tay hurriedly resorted to hammering away at the siren's leg with his pistol while trying to slip and slither his way out from under her heel.

"Habibi!" Aash called, greatly worried by his comrade's latest bout of suffering. "You… You will not get away with hurting them, you fiend!" he boldly challenged, doubling the pace of his mad dash as he charged a faint orange light into his hand.

"Aashiq, wait…! Don't…!" Tay warned as he squirmed under Radiyah's heel in his attempt to escape. However, his warning fell on deaf ears as Aash closed in and extended his aura-coated hand forward.

"Immobilize!" he announced, casting his spell with all the strength he could muster as he targeted Radiyah. In an instant, the Siren Queen found herself enveloped in the glow, suddenly stuck in place like a statue as she (and by extension, Shantae and Tayshan) both found it impossible to move even a muscle.

"Graagh…! Such a cowardly tactic…!" Radiyah groaned, a surge of paralyzing electric tingles bursting through her body as her entire form became enveloped in the same orange aura that coated the magician's hand.

"Owaaah! Ow!" Shantae shouted in immense pain as she found herself on the unintentional receiving end of Aashiq's telekinesis spell. She unfortunately felt the same never-ending waves of electric shocks that came with being subjected to the last-ditch attack.

"Gaaaargh!" Tay also shouted in unrelenting agony as he also found himself enveloped in Aash's magic.

"Oh, no…!" Aash murmured, realizing right away that he had unwillingly been hurting his friends by using his spell on Radiyah while they remained trapped in the siren's clutches. Despite her being held in place by Aash, however, Radiyah's hold on the unfortunate soldier remained strong, evidenced by him being unable summon up the energy to attempt to lift her off him. The same issue applied to Shantae, who'd still been unable to wring herself free from the Siren Queen's bear hug. Making matters worse, the poor young Hypnotist had just about reached his limit, as the magic coursing through his hand began to burn it as though he dipped his appendage in a cauldron full of boiling tar. "Ah…! Must… do something… before…!" he further attempted to urge himself as he grasped his aching wrist with his opposing hand. As he attempted to maintain focus, he dropped to a knee as his hand began to tremble with fatigue and searing pain. His magic began to waver and soon began to fade out of view, thus weakening his hold on Radiyah.

"Hrrraah…!" Radiyah grunted, feeling the effects of Aashiq's detainment spell weakening. Stepping backward and off of the incapacitated soldier, she inadvertently released him from the effect of the spell entirely while keeping the half-genie under wraps. Nevertheless, she took the opportunity to wrest herself free from its influence. Not long after, and with a mighty flap of her gigantic wings, the magic surrounding her had dissipated with a definitive *crackle* as orange sparks flew in every which way from her form. "Hahah… How pathetic…"

"Agh… N-no… My magic has run dry again…" Aash lamented, still kneeling with his trembling arm extended out in front of him. He would not get the opportunity to recover, however, as Radiyah was ready to make her next move. You can certainly bet she made sure to do it without warning, too. Before anyone could realize what was going on, Radiyah turned and whipped her tail toward Aashiq while he was distracted. "H-huh!?" he yelled as he tried to back away, but it was too late. Coiling her slimy appendage tightly around the rookie adventurer's arm, she followed up by immediately squeezing down on it. "Gah! Aaaahaagh!" he yelled in despair.

"I have you now, impostor…!" Radiyah gloated, lifting him by just his arm as he kicked and flailed in a desperate bid to escape. "Now, you will know true suffering for your unforgivable crimes…!"

"Aw, no…!" Tay worriedly muttered as he, while still on the ground, witnessed Aash being ensnared by his arm in the suffocating grip of Lady Radiyah's lizard tail. Seeing this, in conjunction with Shantae herself being stuck in Radiyah's arms, sent just enough of a burst of magic-induced adrenaline through his body that he managed to climb to his feet and aim his gun at her while she was busy torturing his comrades. "Gotta figure somethin' out before she-!" And just when Tay was about to encourage himself to think quickly, Radiyah did the unthinkable.

"Repent, heathen…!" she raspily commanded, lifting Aashiq as high as she could with her tail before whipping it (and her captive enemy) downward.

"Oh, no! Aashiq!" Tay called out, helplessly watching as his ally plummeted to the ground under the power of the diabolical Siren Queen's humongous tail. "No, wait! Stop! Don't do it!" he pleaded, though his request fell on deaf ears and a hard head. Within a literal second, an echoing *BOOM* rang out as dust kicked up from the area where she spiked the unfortunate young man.

"Gwaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaagh!" Aash hollered out in such indescribable pain that the mere sound of his anguish sent shockwaves through the room. The reverberations of his tortured cries off the walls of the arena only worsened the state of utter and total shock felt by his teammates as they watched on.

"Aash…! No…!" Shantae groaned, infuriated by just the thought of him being subjected to so much undeserved agony as she began to glow with magic determination to eacape. "I… will never forgive you! Get... off of me...! I'll make you regret that...!" she threatened, her rage growing as she bolstered her relentless efforts to break herself free. Meanwhile, Tay stared on, nearly catatonic with horror as he watched the smoke clear to reveal a badly injured, teary-eyed Aashiq writhing and whimpering in torment as he weakly tried to free his arm from Radiyah's cobra-like tail. Immediately consumed with burning anger that saw a momentary flicker of both white and dark purple energy swirl around him, Tay wasted no time taking aim at his enemy.

"No... No...! Grrrrgh! Ghhhrrrraaaaaah!" he wrathfully shouted, tightening his grip on his weapon and focusing as hard as he could before rapidly firing four rounds directly at the Siren Queen's legs while she'd been distracted trying to pin Shantae down, immediately followed by another barrage of five aimed at one of her wings in the span of time it took a person to say the word 'gunshot.' Each of the first four vindictive rounds ripped through the air, striking Radiyah around one of her knees. Not long after, three of the other five shots struck her right in the upper base of her wing while they were folded behind her back.

"Gaaahagh…!" the injured Siren Queen grunted, forced to loosen her grip on the half-genie as she nearly fell over in extreme anguish, falling on her hands and one knee while her other foot remained planted on the ground. "Agh…! My leg…!" she groaned as she clutched her aching limb. In that moment, Shantae had fallen out of her grasp, making sure to land safely on her feet. However, she would not celebrate being a free woman. No. She was much too consumed with explosive anger, evidenced by the bright blue glow of her magic surging all around her as she prepared to launch a vengeful counterattack.

"I've had enough of you! Take this!" she screamed, leaping high like there were springs in her shoes with a foot cocked all the way back. Within a moment's glance, she let loose with a full-force jumping roundhouse kick that landed with a devastating, echoing *THRASH* against the Siren Queen's face that sent her toppling over to the ground with a satisfying *THUD*. "That was for Aash!" As Radiyah gingerly sat back up, rubbing her smarting cheek with her wrist while glaring at the half-genie standing before her, Tay pushed himself through the unyielding shocks of pain throughout his body to run toward Aash, who hadn't gotten up after he'd been spiked into the ground.

"Aashiq! Yo, are you alright?" the soldier asked, kneeling down next to the downed apprentice as he lay sprawled out on the hard, mossy floor with his eyes soaked in tears and squeezed shut as he wept in pain. Though distraught himself, Tayshan's eyes rapidly scanned his teammate's body up and down to inspect for injuries. Immediately noticeable to Tay was the unsettling, unnatural positioning of Aashiq's arm.

"T… Tayshan…?" Aash weakly called as he turned his head and opened his eyes just enough to see the unnerved serviceman kneeling next to him.

"I'm here, homie," Tay assured, still looking Aash over to see that he seemed to have suffered no other immediately visible injuries, but that his hair was frazzled, and his clothes and skin had been stained with dirt and moss residue. "Tell me, how do you feel?"

"My arm… it hurts…!" he informed, choking back additional tears as his shoulder pulsed and ached like Radiyah's tail was still wrapped around it. "I… can barely feel anything but excruciating pain across my body…! But my arm feels... so much worse than everywhere else..."

"Shoot…!" Tay cursed, feeling worse for Aash in his current state. "You… you didn't deserve t' have her do that t' you… Here, I'll try t' get you to a safe distance. I wanna at least take a closer look at that arm, first an' foremost," he advised, sheathing his gun and painstakingly moving to scoop the injured young man off the floor.

"Ahagh…! Waaah…!" Aash cried out in additional despair, every motion made by either him or Tay at that moment causing him to suffer more.

"Sorry," Tay apologized, lifting himself back to his feet with Aash in his arms via bridal carry. "Just… bear with me," he pleaded as he began tiredly cantering away from the immediate area where Radiyah and Shantae were located.

"I am not finished with you yet…!" Radiyah threatened, glaring past Shantae and directly at the serviceman trying to carry her intended target away. The Siren Queen flared her wings to take off after them, only to notice a significant stab of pain in her own shoulder as she took flight. "Agh…! Those miserable cretins wounded me to the point where even flying hurts me… For that, you shall both suffer the consequences…!" Despite the jolt of pain that shot through her back with every time she flapped her wings. This would not deter her thirst for revenge, however, as she still took flight and began dashing past Shantae and toward her two male targets.

"Not a chance!" Shantae challenged, refusing to even consider the idea of either of her friends getting hurt further in the scuffle. Her anger at an all-time high, she sprinted after the weakened Siren Queen, clashing her wristbands together once more to turn her hair electric blonde. Thinking quickly, she whipped Radiyah on the tip of her tail as she zoomed by the furious heroine.

"Garahhaah!" Radiyah howled as a raging surge of hair-related electricity ripped through her tail, temporarily immobilizing her. She recovered quickly enough, however, that she continued her belligerent attack as though she hadn't been hit. "Nothing will stop me from getting my revenge…!" she rasped, swinging her tail at Shantae and forcing the half-genie to dodge by jumping backward. Immediately following this, Radiyah raised a claw as she pushed through the constant pain in her wings to race toward her male targets. Alarmed, Shantae wasted no time chasing after her. At the rate the two were going, Shantae was roughly equal to Radiyah in terms of speed… which was only possible at this point because the siren matriarch had suffered a colossal level of damage throughout her entanglement with her lair's intruders. As such, it appeared Radiyah would have her way despite her injuries. Seeing no way to catch her before it was too late, Shantae felt her energy turn up to full blast.

"Six o' clock, Tayshan!" she frantically called out as she hurried after Radiyah, immediately alerting him to the imminent danger he was in.

"Figures…!" he murmured, glancing back to see Radiyah hot on his tail. Hurriedly yet carefully, he set the ailing Aashiq down, followed up by him standing and turning around to see the Siren Queen, claw at the ready, basically right in his face. Immediately, she swung both her down at him with all her might, ready to tear him open. Faced with no other choice, Tay extended his hands, meeting her claws with a *SMACK* of her hands against his. The weight of her attack, factored in with his lack of energy, forced Tay down to one knee as he resisted her homicidal ambush with all the strength he had left. In that moment, however, a faint, almost undetectable white vapor began to emanate off his form as he gave it everything he had in him to protect his comrade. "Grrgh…! Attack me while my guard's down after you injured my friend…? You coward…!"

"I have nothing else to say to you at this moment, my insubordinate pet…!" she spat, swiftly drawing her tail forward and wrapping it around his neck. Within a moment, she tightened her grip with the full intent of closing his airways.

"Gwaaackk…! Ack…! Awgh…!" Tay was forced to groan, his breathing almost completely restricted by Radiyah's relentlessly cruel attack as he grasped at her tail.

"You force my hand further and further with each passing moment, and by now, you would be lucky to survive long enough to-!" she was about to castigate as she strangled the soldier, readying her claws for her next malicious strike.

"GET OFF HIM! NOW!" Shantae screamed at the top of her lungs, even more incensed by the sight of her allies being subjected to such needless torture. As she approached, however, Radiyah turned and slashed a claw at her, forcing Shantae to jump back to narrowly avoid being cut up herself.

"Foolish girl," Radiyah taunted. "There is no saving them from the punishment they rightfully deserve… Your little friend here will-!" she again attempted to taunt before a sudden *BANG* rang out. Feeling a sharp, stabbing pain in her shoulder that came equipped with a startling *POCK* of an impact, she reeled back as she turned to face the soldier, who'd been aiming a weapon at her. "Aaahaagh…!" she groaned, though it would not end there. As it turned out, her distraction granted the choking serviceman just enough time to pull his pistol back out and fire an uncoordinated series of rounds in her general direction while she was suffocating him. Though his shots were unfocused and haphazard, he did his best to fire enough of them to at least get the unruly siren to stop strangling him. Radiyah was hit a good four out of the seven additional times Tay's handgun was fired, causing her enough damage that her grip on his throat had faltered. She unwillingly lowered him to the ground, though she still had her tail coiled around his throat while he attempted to slip free. Hot with pained anger, she attempted to redouble her effort to squeeze the life out of him before a sudden electric *THWACK* struck her wing from behind. "Gaarraahahaagh…!" she cried out, afflicted by a sudden, immobilizing feeling of an electric current running through one side of her back.

"I won't tell you again…!" Shantae began, rushing past the incapacitated Radiyah to assist Tayshan with removing the siren's tail from his neck. Afterward, she gathered up a ton of energy, clasped her hands together, gyrated her hips, and with a *POOF*, morphed into her Elephant form. Wasting not even a millisecond, Elephant-Shantae blasted herself forth, a streaking blue aura enveloping her as she charged full speed at her enemy. The rapid beats of her feet against the ground were more than enough to notify Radiyah that she was in for quite the rude awakening. And before she could get the chance to avoid it, the Siren Queen was hit with a powerful, thrusting *BOOM* of an impact of Elephant-Shantae's lowered head against her stomach. Radiyah was sent hurtling across the arena, whereupon she hit the ground with a nasty *PLOP* before rolling farther across the gross, mossy floor. Immediately following this, Shantae transformed back to her humanoid self, still glaring at Radiyah as she did so. "Keep your hands and your tail away from him!"

"Agh… ah… hurgh…" Tay grunted, finding himself on his hands and knees as he did his best to recuperate from the latest attack that could've very well done him in. Hearing him struggling to breathe, Shantae turned to see him already trying to raise back to a stand. Bumping her wristbands together to return her hair to normal, she hurried toward Tayshan, helping him the rest of the way back to his feet. "Th-thanks for the save, homegirl…"

"No need to thank me, Tay. You know I'd never let her hurt you more than she already has. Are you alright?"

"I'm… about as good as I'm gonna get," he informed her, wincing as he pressed a hand to the wounds in his abdomen. "It's Aash who's really hurt, though," he added, turning to face the battle-damaged magician as he remained on his back, weeping as he tried to massage his arm.

"Aash…!" she gasped in horror, rushing over to him and kneeling beside him. Immediately following this, she bent downward to cradle his head into her torso, lifting him up to a seated position as she did so. "Aash, I'm so sorry…! I… I should've been-!"

"Now now, hon…" he mustered up the energy to console through his own tears of physical agony. "This was not your fault. I… merely let my guard down… but what hurts most is that I accidentally harmed you while I was meaning to attack Radiyah…"

"No, you did your absolute best," she tried to counter. "If you're talking about the spell you used when she was suffocating me, it didn't hurt me at all. I promise you, I-!"

"It is alright, Shantae," he interrupted, wincing as another jolt of misery shot through his arm before lifting his head up so that his wavering eyes would meet hers. "I paid for my carelessness in a big way… and to think I suffered so much damage after just one move from her… What we went through before this pales in comparison… Tayshan was right… I was not ready for this. But, as long as you are okay, that is all that matters to me…"

"Aashiq, no… You did great down here… It's my fault you're hurt. I should've…" she tried to further combat his idea, though he shakily lifted a hand to caress her face, silencing her as he lay, cradled in her arms.

"Shantae… Again, this was out of your control. It is alright. I would never blame you for what someone else did… What is important is that I am at least still alive," he informed her with as wide a smile as he could muster in his disheveled state as he managed to stop himself from crying further. "You and Tayshan have made sure of that. It is up to you to finish this battle now… for our sake," he further urged, not wanting her to tear herself up over him being injured.

"…R-right," she acknowledged, suddenly filled with determination to take Radiyah down; at the very least, to spare her boyfriend any additional suffering. "You have my word. I'll get her. For you."

"Thank you, my wonderful kanafeh, but such sentiments are not necessary. I just wish to see us succeed…" he whispered, wincing again as another jolt of pain shot through his arm.

"You bet we will. I won't let her hurt you anymore, Aash… I swear…" she affirmed with a sweet smile and a nod, never taking her eyes off him as she hugged him tighter. However, before Aashiq could find it in himself to try getting up, he found his face being lifted as Shantae lowered hers toward him while gently pressing a hand to his cheek. And, before anyone could've expected it, the half-genie kissed him once again, her lips entangling with his in an intense, pulse-pounding embrace packed to the brim with love and concern. Though surprised by the kiss, Aash fully accepted her affectionate sentiment as he raised his uninjured arm and gently rested his hand on the back of her neck, returning her embrace with just as much passion. Soon thereafter, they kissed once more, seeming to pay no heed to their surroundings.

"Uh… Huh…" Tay uncertainly, quietly murmured, his eyes wide with shock as he bore witness to his mentor getting intimate with the Hypnotist apprentice she'd declared to be her boyfriend moments ago. His eyes saw it, but his mind couldn't believe it. They… they were really a thing now; despite everything that was said during previous encounters, and despite what he'd been led to believe. He thought it wasn't possible. Of course, witnessing the two of them kissing was all the proof he needed that neither of them was lying when they said it; they were actually a couple. And that knowledge… for some reason, pained the soldier to realize as he watched on, his heart sinking for reasons he couldn't rightly explain. In one sense, he was glad to see the two of them finally being honest enough with one another about their feelings that they could share a moment like this so soon. Even though she said she wasn't interested in Aashiq anymore... or at least, she wasn't sure how she felt toward him, he had his suspicions that she may have still held on to some form of affection. And well… it was no secret Aash still had a thing for Shantae. It was cool that they got together; even if they picked a monumentally poor time to establish their connection. Either way, good on them. However, he couldn't shake this harrowing feeling of… disappointment, was it? Or was it dejection? Shame? He wasn't sure. He could only liken it to losing in a high-stakes sporting competition. Like, getting to the ultimate championship match and somehow winding up being completely blown out by the opposition without contest. It was a crushing feeling… but he was not sure where such negativity was coming from. The discomfort only confused him further as he scratched a sudden, nagging itch in his head. He would not get much time to ruminate over this feeling, however.

"Urgh… Grrr….!" A pained, raspy voice grumbled, causing Tay to turn and notice a weary, disoriented Radiyah slowly rising to her feet while glaring with boiling wrath at her adversaries.

"Looks like she's still got some fight left in her," the soldier murmured before turning to Shantae and Aashiq as they finished their display of affection. "We ain't quite done yet, y'all," he warned his two comrades, gesturing his thumb toward the infuriated Radiyah, who'd begun very slowly staggering toward them.

"I thought she'd be down just a little longer," Shantae lamented, glancing at Radiyah as Tay walked over toward them.

"If you're still up to it, homegirl, you feel like you can take point from here?" Tay requested, kneeling in front of Aash to inspect his limp, injured arm.

"Of course I will," she readily agreed. "What about you? You're both in pretty bad shape."

"Doesn't mean I'mma leave you hangin'," he assured, lifting Aashiq's arm slightly to get a scope of the damage he'd suffered from the Siren Queen's merciless slam. "Aash, I'm gonna do something for this arm, but I need you t' bear with me. Okay?" he warned, taking the magician's elbow into his hands as Shantae held him up.

"Ah…! Wh… what do you plan on-?"

"Don't ask. Just take a deep breath an' relax," he instructed, carefully positioning Aash's arm to where it was bent at a 90-degree angle while directed toward him.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow…!" Aash grunted and groaned, the mere movement of his arm causing inconceivable pain as he winced.

"Tay, stop! You're hurting him!" the half-genie protested.

"I said relax," he commanded, holding Aash's afflicted limb in one hand while massaging his shoulder with the other. "Remember what I said, homie. Just breathe while I do this. An' make sure not t' tense up. It'll be quick, but we have t' take our time t' fix this."

"O… O-okay, habibi," Aash did his best to comply, squeezing his eyes shut as he allowed Tayshan to employ his unusual technique. As Tay advised, Aash began taking long, slow, deep breaths as Tay kneaded his palm and fingers into the top of Aash's shoulder before moving his massaging hand toward the apprentice's outer shoulder.

"Good. Now, I'm gonna start repositionin' your arm. It's gonna hurt, but I still need you t' keep breathin'."

"I understand," he agreed. "Please, do what you must."

"Right. Okay. Now, relax your shoulders an' breathe…" Tay instructed, sliding his massaging hand down to the top of Aash's bicep to apply gentle pressure to it as he began slowly directing his patient's arm outward.

"Ah…! Ow, ow…! Mmph…!" Aash grunted in pain, though he continued doing his best to abide by the serviceman's instructions.

"Almost there," Tay informed as he directed Aash's forearm to where it was pointed outward with his upper arm still juxtaposed to his torso. Tay then positioned his hands to where one of them was holding the other young man's wrist while the other was positioned under Aash's elbow.

"What… are you doing, exactly?" Shantae asked, growing curious about the procedure.

"You'll see in a minute. Take a look at his shoulder for reference," he advised, prompting her to gaze with a mix of concern and intrigue at the arm Tay was maneuvering. The solider followed up by slowly, but surely directing Aash's arm forward while his forearm was still positioned away from his torso.

"Agh…! T-Tay…" Aash moaned in another jolt of pain.

"Just a little bit more…" he assured, just finishing with directing Aash's elbow forward before he began rotating the afflicted arm around to where it was facing forward. "Alright. So, if I did this right, then…" he trailed off, slowly directing Aash's arm as he held it in place. Suddenly, Aash felt a shocking shift in his shoulder, accompanied by the inspiring (read: disturbing) visual of something moving within it.

"Yow…!" Aashiq grunted, alarmed by the burst of agony that disappeared just as quickly as it manifested. Tay, being careful not to make any sudden moves, directed Aash's arm all the way to where it was resting across his abdomen before releasing his grasp.

"Alright, try touchin' your other shoulder with that hand." Wordlessly, Aashiq obeyed and was astonished to notice that the debilitating agony in his shoulder had suddenly numbed to a comparatively minor nagging ache.

"My… my word…! My shoulder… it no longer hurts! At least, not as much," he cheered, rotating it to test it out.

"Thank goodness…" Tay quietly rejoiced. "I'd still recommend not movin' it too much for right now. Your shoulder's gonna need t' rest after that."

"Whoa…! What… what just happened?" Shantae asked, equally as surprised as she helped Aash back to his feet. Tay independently joined them, though another stab of pain shot through the soldier's stomach as he did so. Ignoring it, he took a deep breath before answering his partner's question.

"His shoulder was dislocated, so I put it back in place," he explained, moving to pick the Hypnotist acolyte up into the bridal carry position once again.

"Whoa… Oh, my. Tayshan, you are quite strong…" Aash commented, surprised that the soldier would just go ahead and sweep him off his feet; literally.

"Dislocated?" she repeated, even more surprised to hear about the injury. "No way…! How did you know how to fix it? And… Oh, no…!" she gasped in shock as she noticed something distressing about her extraterrestrial teammate.

"I'd explain it, but now ain't exactly a good time," he answered through a wave of strain as he nudged his head over toward Radiyah, who'd been closing the distance between herself and them. "I'll hang back an' maybe try t' provide some long-distance support while I guard Aash…"

"That sounds good, but… Tay, your stomach… It's… it's smeared in-!"

"I know…! This ignorant bird lady stomped on me before she slammed Aash into the ground. I'm okay, though. Don't worry about me. I'll manage…! Agh…!" he tried to ensure with increasing strain as he turned to walk toward the wall at the far end of the tomb. "She looks like she's about out o' juice herself, so knock her out o' the park as fast as you can, homegirl…"

"You guys can count on it that I will," she agreed, a fire lit in her eyes as she turned and glared at Radiyah, who'd finally gotten close enough to her enemy that she was just outside of arm's length. "I'm surprised you're still standing."

"So the boys finally decide they've had enough and let the ladies handle all the important business, hm…?" Radiyah remarked with a contemptuous sneer, glancing at Tay and Aash before returning her enmity-laden glare to Shantae. "Hmph. What more could be expected of such cowardice…?"

"This battle's between you and me now," Shantae redirected, wanting to hear none of Radiyah's ridicule. "And they're not cowards. If anything, they're the opposite. They gave it their all against you, despite your relentless cruelty and aggression," she countered, growing angrier with the more she thought about the injuries she inflicted on her comrades. "Especially Tay… Whatever you did to him before I got here, he didn't deserve it. I can't even begin to think about what else you would've done if I didn't show up. I am going to make you regret ever putting your hands on him…! I can never forgive you for the harm you've caused!" she furiously challenged, entering a battle stance that communicated that she meant business. Radiyah, having heard more than enough, quickly went on the offensive, swiping and slashing at Shantae. Shantae reacted accordingly, jumping and dodging backward, causing Radiyah to begin aggressively chasing her around the arena in an attempt to score a decisive blow.

"The harm I'VE caused? This, coming from a member of a race jointly responsible for the destruction of my species? How dare you…!?" Radiyah countered, none too fond of Shantae's expressed determination to pay her back for bringing harm to her teammates. "You genies are so thickheaded that I'd bet your faces would serve better use as mallets. Your concubines over there have only experienced a minuscule sample of the pain I have been dealt. Not that you would understand what it is like for your entire species to disappear before your eyes…"

"Well newsflash; I DO know what that's like!" she shouted, blocking one of Radiyah's wild swings and countering with three strong whips of her lavender ponytail before Radiyah threw a punch that landed with a *THOCK* on the half-genie's cheek. Shaking it off, Shantae noticed Radiyah spinning around to strike her with her tail. She ducked low under it, charging a fireball in her hand. As soon as Radiyah turned all the way around, Shantae launched the projectile as fast as she could while aiming low, though Radiyah hopped over it. The Siren Matriarch countered by flapping her wings once to propel herself downward with a cocked hand.

"Hah…!" shouted (or rasped) Radiyah as she swung her claws down, prompting Shantae to perform a spinning backdash to avoid being struck. However, Radiyah followed up again by digging her tail into the ground behind her the instant she landed. "Ow…!" she grunted, further hinting that her tail had sustained damage on its own. It certainly didn't help that her knee had also been plaguing her, causing her to flinch in pain. Despite this, the disgruntled siren maiden burrowed the appendage under the ground, where it almost instantly shot up under her adversary's feet. Shantae was prepared, however, as she hopped backward again, clashing her bracelets to activate her fiery ponytail. Just as Radiyah was set to pull her tail back from the ground, Shantae noticed a long, swollen, purple, pulsating gash in it toward the tip. She'd additionally picked up on Radiyah expressing pain when she initiated her attack.

"A weakness… Perfect…!" she quietly, yet excitedly declared as she whipped at the retreating appendage a few times. The burning *THWACKs* of her flaming hair against her enemy emphasized her motivation to win the battle. "

"Gwaah…! Ow, ow ow, hot…! Hot…!" Radiyah complained, pulling her tail out of the floor as fast as she could, wincing in pain as she noticed the burn marks surrounding the gash in it from when the silver-eyed male stabbed her. Shantae would give her no breathing time, however, as she furiously rushed toward her. Radiyah was forced onto the defensive, resorting to dodging to the side and backward to avoid another fireball flung by her increasingly aggressive enemy. Before Shantae was granted another opportunity to unleash more of her wrath on her, Radiyah fought through a hurricane of excruciating pain to take flight. Though she winced again, she managed to pull herself just high enough to where Shantae couldn't reach her by simply jumping and whipping away at her. "Hah… Hah… You persistent little runt…!"

"Hey! Get back down here and let me finish teaching you a lesson!" the glowing half-genie complained, finding it just a tad unfair that her enemy had such an easy method of running away from her.

"Even to this very day, you genies prove to be the abominable savages your reputation holds you as… By now, I'm certain there must be an entire legion of you despicable creatures running amok…!" she spat at Shantae before turning her gaze elsewhere in contemplation. "…and if that is the case, I will have no choice but to lay low a little longer before I initiate my plan. I will need to collect my Miracle Lima Bean from my minion immediately… wherever her remains may rest, if my hunch is correct…" she further stated, hinting that one of her loyal servants possessed an item for which she had a special requirement.

"You might not know this because you've been down here for a long time, but there are no more genies left on the surface! At least, not full-fledged ones. I'm one of the last few in existence, as far as I know," Shantae corrected her, pausing the Siren Queen's train of thought as she processed the new information.

"What…? Impossible!" she rebuked. "That is an egregious lie!"

"It's true! After the Pirate Master was defeated, every full-blooded genie vanished into the Genie Realm with hardly a trace except the half-genie children they left behind. If any genies did hurt you, then I can only say sorry on their behalf. But what I won't tolerate is you taking your anger out on me and my friends! And you can forget about trying to take over the world!"

"The Pirate Master… DEFEATED?" she echoed, pausing her attack as she hovered in the air, registering Shantae's words.

"Yes. Twice. He's long gone, so now his Tinkerbat forces are under the command of his right-hand woman, Risky Boots."

"That fiend had his crew usurped by that loudmouthed upstart first mate of his…?" she asked in deeper surprise, hinting that she was aware of who Risky Boots was. "What an interesting turn of events this is…"

"It's not so much 'interesting' as it is incredibly dangerous for Sequin Land. She's even more ruthless and cold-hearted than he was in some ways."

"I'd bet she is. Although, I remain curious… You… You mentioned that you are only HALF genie?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"How can that be? If that is true, then you should only be a fraction as strong as you've proven to be… And yet, it seems like you alone exceed the power of many of your full-blooded kin that I have faced in battle… What is the other half?"

"Human."

"What…? Hm… I did not think it was also possible for genies to produce offspring with humans… I had thought only sirens were capable of such a feat…" Radiyah momentarily pondered, staring intently at the maiden standing below her. "Seems like I was beaten to that punch by a wide margin, having been dead for so long…"

"Yeah, well whatever your plan is with trying to forcibly repopulate your species to take over the world, I won't allow-!" she was about to challenge.

"And as far as I've seen, genies could never be so irresistibly beautiful on their own," Radiyah added, throwing the young heroine off her game yet again. "None that I have encountered, anyway. Some humans, for how weak and fragile they generally are as a species, tend to be quite appealing in more ways than I care to admit. That is part of why they make ideal mates, if nothing else…"

"Uh, I don't think that's necess-!"

"I must say, it appears you have hit the genetic jackpot. You have taken on all the strength of a genie, and then some, as well as the unrivaled attractiveness of a gorgeous human woman. Yes, I can see the exquisite blend of traits in you now, once I study hard enough… You have truly gotten the best of both worlds."

"Stop that!" she protested as she covered herself, understandably creeped out as she witnessed the Siren Queen ogling her from above. "Are we going to finish this fight or what?"

"Trust me, I have every intention of putting you in your place before you and I are eternally and romantically united as wives. However, you have just bolstered my interest in taking your genie concubine with the silver eye as my… or rather, OUR breeding source."

"Okay, One: EW! Two: He's not my concubine, he's my friend. And Three: He's human, as far as I know, not a genie. All genies and half-genies are girls the same way sirens and most monster species are, in case you didn't know," she revealed, throwing Radiyah for at least fifteen more loops.

"They are? Then… how did the genies come into existence with no males in their species? Did they go extinct? Also, is it possible for genies to produce full-blooded offspring? Or was there just one generation of full-blooded members, whose heritage would wind up being diluted out as generations pass…?"

"I don't have a clue, but that's irrelevant now. The fact is, neither Tayshan nor Aashiq are genies. They're both human. Tayshan is also from a parallel universe."

"…You are throwing quite a lot at me, but… are you serious? With all that I have witnessed of that man's unprecedented power, his startling use of what I presume to be Dark Magic, and his baffling level of resilience, you expect me to believe he is a mere HUMAN…?"

"From a parallel universe, or something like that, like I said, but as far as I'm aware, yes. He's full-on human," she confirmed, though she took a second to register what was said to her. "Wait a sec… What was that about him using Dark Magi-?

"Parallel… universe? Humans exist in…? No, no, I am getting far too sidetracked for this…! It makes my head hurt…" she grumbled, shaking her head before she got too lost in the sauce of the situational knowledge bomb Shantae dropped on her. "Anyway, that… actually might sweeten this arrangement, if you are not lying…"

"What!?"

"If that man is truly human and from an alternate world, then that level of strength and ability presents an opportunity much too valuable to squander. If I could start my next generation with his genes, then my new siren daughters would be nigh-unstoppable…! I would say that his capabilities are out of this world, but it would appear I'd be speaking quite literally in this context… Most intriguing… Only thing that would have made it better was if he were a woman that could also fulfill that same role…~ Ah, how the universe eternally teases me…"

"No! No, no, no, not in a million years, no way, no how!" Shantae ranted. "Never! There is no chance in the Village of Lost Souls that I would ever allow you to do anything related to taking over the world, much less doing it by forcing my friend to be your… your…! Y-your baby factory!"

"You will do nothing to stop me, honey," Radiyah countered, stretching before readying herself for battle while still hovering above her opponent. "Besides, I am not opposed to sharing once you are made to see things my way… Regardless, you are the only thing standing between me and global domination, and no matter how stunning you are, I will not be hindered by the half-breed offspring of a genie…!"

"Finally, we can move on… but now, I feel like I'd better go all-out. I'm low on magic and out of Potions, so if I don't take her down soon, we might be in trouble…" she reminded herself, taking a deep breath and focusing her energy as she locked her eyes on her target.

"By the end of this battle, you and your 'friend' will submit to me…!" Radiyah threatened, raising her arms up high and, much to her opponent's surprise, began charging an electric sphere of a menacing magenta as she levitated a little higher.

"So you had another trick up your sleeve… I knew it…!" Shantae murmured, summoning a fireball into her hand as she carefully watched Radiyah's rapidly growing energy ball. However, Radiyah had no intention of using it on Shantae, as the sinister siren quickly turned her attention to the side, where Tayshan and Aashiq were spotted resting against a wall on the far side of the cavern. Noticing Radiyah's change in attention, Shantae followed her enemy's eyes and instantly knew what would potentially happen next. "Oh, no you don't!"

"The impostor, I'm afraid, has no place in my utopia…! Say your goodbyes to-! Wait, is that my… my Miracle Lima Bean…!?" she asked as loud as she could, apparently quite visibly angered by the sight of a certain soldier pulling a shining, jewelry-colored legume from his pocket and preparing to feed it to his comrade, who'd been restfully sitting on the ground. "Hey…! Don't you dare feed that thing to that filthy impersonator…!" she hotly demanded… or at least, she tried before suddenly beginning a fit of coughing and wheezing like she'd swallowed a hair ball the size of a cat. "I will destroy you both if you let him eat that sacred, irreplaceable bean…!" she coughed out.

"Huh? What is she…?" Tay was about to ask, freezing before putting the bean in Aashiq's open mouth to notice Radiyah hovering in midair, holding what looked like a gigantic energy ball, and glaring directly at him. He'd barely heard her, but he did at least make out the word 'bean.' That, and something about it being important.

"It appears that she may have been looking for this odd golden Lima Bean you were about to feed me," Aash pointed out, also noticing the danger they were in as he refrained from eating the Miracle Lima Bean. "And it appears we are once again in her sights, habibi…"

"Aw, shoot… Here we go again…" he groaned, pocketing the food item as he watched on in tightly-contained horror at what might happen next.

"What's the big deal about that bean?" Shantae dared to ask as she also caught a glimpse of the highly-coveted object in the soldier's hand.

"I need that bean to fully revitalize my body before I disappear forever…! My revival and conquest of the living world will not be hindered by two bumbling males and their foolish half-genie ringleader…! Surrender that bean or die…!" she threatened, cocking her arms all the way back above her head as she conjured more energy into the giant, glowing death ball she'd been holding.

"No, wait! Stop! Don't you dare!" Shantae demanded, engulfed with a mix of anger and dread that nearly overwhelmed her.

"Let this be a lesson to you three on why you should never have crossed the likes of Radiyah, Queen of the Sirens…!" Radiyah raspily roared, flinging the energy ball as hard as she could. Wrought with panic, Shantae turned and bolted toward her allies, desperately needing to save them.

"No, no, no…! Tayshan! Aash! Get out of there!" she warned as she mustered up all the energy she could to make a desperate mad dash toward them to protect them. Luckily for her, the gigantic energy ball was slow moving, allowing her just enough time to potentially swoop in and save them. Not so luckily for her, Radiyah quickly made her next move by descending upon Shantae and lashing her tail forward as she chased after her. Radiyah snagged Shantae by the ankle, wrapping her tail around the half-genie's leg and pulling back. Shantae hit the ground face-first with a wet *THUD*, though she immediately committed to kicking and clawing away to try and escape. "Hey! Let me go!"

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, darling," Radiyah teased with a malicious wink. "You and I will instead get to watch the fireworks together. If we are lucky, the silver-eyed menace will survive, at least. I find myself having faith in his insatiable desire for punishment~!"

"This isn't a game, and this isn't funny! Get off me!" Shantae continued to demand, growing more frustrated as she used her free foot to repeatedly kick at Radiyah's tail, in addition to striking it with fiery hair whips.

"My, you're quite the feisty one…!" Radiyah commented, wincing as she did her best to endure the frequent bursts of burning pain that came with her allowing her tail to be tenderized while struggling to keep her grip on Shantae's ankle as she brought herself to the ground. Shantae, growing increasingly angry at Radiyah for attempting to maim her friends, met the descending Siren Queen with a kick to her knee. "Ow…! Oh, that is it…! You have been long overdue for punishment yourself, you naughty girl…!" she warned, swiping one hand downward to strike Shantae, only for the young heroine to block the attack by catching her wrist with one hand.

"I said let go!" Shantae barked, raising her foot to try and kick Radiyah's tail again, but Radiyah used her free hand to grab her ankle. The half-genie followed up by charging up a fireball with her remaining hand and flinging it as hard as she could manage. The *PWOSH* of the pyrokinetic projectile against the boss monster's face sent her reeling back, falling backward onto the ground as she let go of Shantae's limbs, save for her tail that was still wrapped around her leg.

"Gaarraaaagh…! My face…! My beautiful face…! Aaaahaagh…!" Seeing her opportunity, Shantae quickly scanned Radiyah's tail and spotted the swollen wound on it. Wasting no time at all, Shantae clashed her bracelets together three times to return her hair to its normal state before delivering a most vindictive hair whip at the weak spot. The *THWAP* of the young lady's furious follicles on her adversary's tail caused said adversary to howl in pain yet again. As a bonus, Radiyah retracted her tail, allowing Shantae to escape. Hurriedly, she climbed to her feet and began to run toward Tay and Aash, though by the time she did so, it was already too late.

"Oh, no… No, no, no, this can't be happening…!" she quietly pleaded, freezing stiff as the energy ball got way too close for her to do anything about it. Meanwhile, her friends did their best to try to protect themselves.

"Darn it, this woman is unbelievable…!" Tay complained as he took in the full sight of the impending attack, in addition to Shantae getting all nice and tangled up with Radiyah. "Come on, we need t' mov-! Gaahagh…!" he tried to warn as a sudden, intense stab of pain in his stomach nearly froze him in place.

"Habibi! Oh, no…!" Aash observed in worry, watching the injured serviceman doubling over in pain, clutching his abdomen as he failed to bring himself to a stand. Aash quickly climbed to his feet in the few seconds they had before Radiyah's underhanded attack collided with them. "Here, I will assist you," he offered, extending a hand to his ally.

"No need…! Save yourself…!" Tay rebuffed, still trying to bring himself to a stand. Aash took the initiative to try and tuck himself under one of the ailing serviceman's shoulders and lift him up, so he could support him just long enough for them to escape as the energy ball drew near.

"I will not abandon you, habi-! Wait, what are you-?" Aash attempted to ask, feeling Tayshan rip his arm from his grasp. Tay followed up by planting one hand on the magician-in-training's back while he grabbed a handful of the hem of Aash's pants with the other. In one fluid motion, Tay rose to his feet through a burst of excruciating pain, stepped forward, and launched Aashiq off to the side and out of the way of the attack just as it was maybe a foot and a half away. Aash hit the ground face-down with a *PLOP*, though he was quick to turn around and take in the sight of Tayshan turning toward the energy attack and crouching while crossing his arms over himself. "Tayshan!" Aash screamed at the top of his lungs before his ears were filled with the deafening, crackling *BOOM* of the attack as it exploded upon direct impact with its target. Tay was flung back as the energy ball went up in an enormous cloud of pinkish-purple lightning-surrounded smoke. He hit the wall behind him with a terrifying *THUMP* at a speed no human being would ever want to be traveling at while on a collision course with solid rock. Upon impact, another surge of inconceivable agony shot through his entire body as he fell to his knees before falling forward, meeting the ground with another *THUD*.

"Agh…! Ow…! Urgh…" he groaned, his every sense overwhelmed as he almost completely lost awareness of his surroundings. He lay on the ground, sprawled out with his arms burning like someone had been barbecuing them, and breathing heavily as though he'd done fifteen nonstop laps around the perimeter of the expansive tomb/arena.

"NO! Tayshan!" Shantae hollered in utter horror, a burst of energy coursing through her as she finally gained the nerve to run the rest of the way over to her comrade. As soon as she got to him, she knelt beside him, planting a hand on his back as he continued panting. "Tay, speak to me! Are you alright!? Please tell me you're okay!" she begged, growing more concerned as the soldier remained motionless. Scanning his weary body, she immediately noticed a gigantic bruise on his upper back that gave her just enough of an idea on how hard her comrade hit the wall that she gasped in extreme horror. Hearing him gasping for air and not moving did nothing to ease her immeasurable sadness and worry about her friend, who'd been harmed time and time again by this unforgivable Boss monster. Nevertheless, her worries would receive some consolation, as Tay slowly and shakily raised an arm and gave a thumbs-up to signify that he could at least hear her. Meanwhile, Aash picked himself up off the ground and approached before kneeling beside his and Shantae's ally.

"Habibi… Why… why did you do that?" he asked, saddened and confused by the unfortunate turn of events. "We could have avoided the blast together… I… I do not understand… I could have helped you. You did not need to throw me out of the way…"

"I… I kinda did…" Tay managed to choke out, much to both Shantae's and Aashiq's collective surprise. "No offense… but you… wouldn't have been able t' lift me fast enough… t' pull me out o' the way… an' I figured I'd help you out instead, so you didn't have t' get hurt worse than you already have been…"

"What…?" Aash barely found the courage to ask, shocked by the confession.

"I'll be fine…" he tried to assure, lifting his head up to look at Aash. "I think… An' after the fifth or seventeenth time… I lost count, so forgive me... Either way, attacks like that stop hurtin' quite as much after a few times… if that makes you feel better…"

"I… I still do not understand…" he repeated, growing sadder as tears began to form in his eyes as he watched Tay struggle to recuperate. "You should not have been the one…"

"Tay…" Shantae called to him, still pressing her hand to his back as she also took in the sight of him lying on the ground and panting as he slowly shifted his arms under his torso. "I… I can't believe you did that… I mean… Thanks for saving Aash, but…"

"Well believe it, homegirl…" he countered, propping himself up with his arms before painstakingly flipping himself over onto his back. "It's… somethin' you should be used to seein' me do by now… Agh…!" he groaned, the feel of the gravel on his aching back doing him not even the slightest of favors.

"I know, and that's what worries me most about you when we're out here in situations like this…"

"This… is at least the third time you have so bravely jumped into harm's way to protect one of us… and gotten hurt in the process… I…" Aash stammered as a knot of guilt formed in his throat. In that moment, he remembered the other occurrences of his teammate throwing himself into danger for the sake of his friends as he squeezed his eyes shut to hold back his tears.

"Yeah…" Tay confirmed, his breathing steadily calming down. "An' at this rate… this probably won't be the last time… so long as I can help it…"

"Yeah, well if I can help it, there won't be any more need for you to sacrifice yourself; especially not like this, Tay," Shantae assured, her unhappiness with the sight of her sidekick in such poor condition nearly bringing her to tears as well before she took a deep breath and laid a hand on his chest. "I can't stand to see either of you in pain, and this… This gets me so mad that she did this to you…!" she practically growled as she glanced at her comrade's messy stab wounds. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to just barely hold back her own empathetic tears, Shantae took a deep, shaky breath to maintain her composure. After wiping her eyes, she soon turned and glared at Radiyah, who'd been in the midst of picking herself up off the ground, rubbing a most disfiguring scorch mark on her face. Resolving to avenge her incapacitated friend, she turned back to Tay as she relaxed her facial expression. "It's worse that I didn't stop her…"

"You genies prove yourselves time and again to be such dishonorable tricksters…" Radiyah angrily spat, glaring at her enemies as she continued rubbing her aching face. "You better hope this clears up by the time I'm done with you, because there will be severe consequences for disgracing, assaulting, and humiliating me as you all have…!" she warned, limping her way over toward them, showing clear signs of fatigue as feathers began to fall out of her wings in clumps with each haggard step she took. "Hand over that bean, and I may consider going easy on you…"

"I'M the trickster?" Shantae yelled in offense, rising to a stand and marching over toward Radiyah to meet her halfway to protect her friends from further harm. "YOU'RE the one who just tried attacking two defenseless people on the sidelines in the middle of a fight between you and me, and you even went the extra step to hold me back so your dirty sneak attack would work! If anything, you're the one who's pulling out all the stops! And you can forget about anyone handing you any magic revive beans!" she further challenged, standing up to the battle-damaged Siren Queen as the two squared off once more.

"You do not understand…" Radiyah began, growing angrier at her adversary for standing in her way. "If I do not consume that bean, then I will deteriorate and lose my physical form…! And if that happens, this whole temple will die with me… Surely, you have come into contact with the protective barrier that surrounds this oasis…"

"What about it?"

"It only exists because my minions were preserving my body and preparing to fully resurrect me… The final step to completing my resurrection was feeding me that bean as soon as I awoke. Depriving me of my only means of revival would undo the years-long process and cause me to die all over again…! And if that happens, everything I have ever lived for would vanish…!"

"And you expect us to let you take that bean and revive with it, just so you can kill my boyfriend, take me and my best friend—who you tortured mercilessly—hostage and force him to help you repopulate your race while you force me to marry you? Not only that, you expect us to also let you lead an army of human-siren hybrids on an endless, catastrophic crusade to take over the world by exterminating anyone that isn't a girl or a guy you deem fitting enough to prey upon to make more evil siren hybrids?" Shantae asked, making her stance very clear without even needing to take a breath until after she finished her very wordy cross-examination. "Absolutely not!"

"I do not remember asking your permission to take what is rightfully mine, genie girl…!" Radiyah rasped, her temper reaching its boiling point as she began to march forward to step past Shantae. Refusing to let her have her way, the half-genie blocked her path, daring her to make a move. "Even if I have to give up my original plan by destroying you all, I will regain my life…! Standing in my way only delays the inevitable…!" she warned, stepping closer to Shantae, who immediately reacted by striking Radiyah in the chest with a *THWAP* of her ponytail. "Gargh…! Get out of my way…!" Radiyah commanded, raising a hand and swiping her claws at the heroine, who somersaulted backward to avoid being struck before charging forward to engage Radiyah in another heated round of combat. The two women began trading heavy blows and dodging each other's attacks while Radiyah tried to figure out a method to duck past Shantae and take her Lima bean from the soldier and the 'impostor.'

"Take this!" Shantae shouted, delivering a swift thrust kick to Radiyah's abdomen after avoiding a downward claw swipe. With a startling *CRACK*, Radiyah was sent stumbling back, wincing in unprecedented pain as she clutched her stomach with a hand. "Haaah!" the young ponytailed adventurer hollered as she clashed her vambraces together twice to freeze up her ponytail as it turned vibrant, frigid blue. "I'm putting you on ice!" Shantae oh-so cleverly punned (because we hadn't had one of those in a while) as she began hammering away at the weakened Siren Queen with *THWAP* after icy, crackling *THWAP*, causing Radiyah a mix of immense pain and unbelievable temperature-related discomfort as she was pushed back further.

"You… are… so… ow…! Obnoxious…!" Radiyah rasped as she attempted to block Shantae's attacks, only for every part of her body that Shantae's ponytail hit to momentarily be encased in ice. This unfavorable phenomenon slowed Radiyah's reaction times considerably, but she still held her own by dodging at least some of her enemy's frosty hair attacks. Before long, she saw an opportunity as she leapt back an inch or two, waiting for Shantae to come closer. Without fail, the half-genie lunged forward and attempted another hair whip, which missed. Radiyah reacted accordingly by reaching her free arm across her body and, with her claws extended, letting it rip as hard as she could muster. With a *SMACK* of pure, unadulterated frustration and impatience, Radiyah struck Shantae across the face while she was recovering from her last missed hair whip, knocking her to the ground with another squelching *THUD* into a slimy collection of moss and water.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow…!" Shantae complained, gingerly rising and rubbing her cheek to feel a series of light scrapes stretching across it. Radiyah added to the change in momentum by attempting to wrap her tail around Shantae's leg again. "Oh! Not happening!" the half-genie boasted, rolling over and whipping Radiyah's tail right in its weak spot.

"Groaaah…!" the wounded siren groaned, growing frustrated and pulling out another stop by charging a small concentration of energy into her hand and firing it at Shantae, who rolled out of the way to just barely dodge it. The blast hit the ground with a *POW*, sending pebbles and droplets of water scattering around the nearby area. "Agh…! Using any form of magic decreases the amount of time I have left…! I must obtain that bean by any means necessary…!" she complained, shaking the excruciating pain out of the hand she used to fire her blast as she fought through her fatigue to run toward Tayshan and Aashiq. She attempted to fly, but one flap of her wings sent a host of feathers fluttering out all over the place while also causing her another surge of extreme agony. "Uwaagh…!" she grunted, growing desperate as she raced toward them on foot.

"Hey! Get back here!" Shantae commanded, quickly clamoring to her feet to give chase. As far as she saw it, Radiyah could not get another chance to harm her friends, and she would do anything in her power to protect them.

"Oh, no…! Here she comes…!" Aash worriedly murmured as he found an unusual seat on top of the motionless Tay, straddled over him while the magician's hand glowed a bright, luminescent pink. As it turned out, Aash had taken up the task of trying to heal the soldier while the opportunity seemed fresh. Aashiq's hand was pressed directly on the wounds Tay sustained from being stabbed by Radiyah. "I do not know how much I am able to heal you in my current state, habibi, but I-!"

"Hey…!" Tay called to him, also noticing Radiyah's aggressive efforts to get ahold of that Miracle Lima Bean. "Bean… In my right pocket… Take it an' run far away…" he suggested, stunning the Hypnotist acolyte in the process.

"And abandon you here? I will do no such thing!"

"Look, now's not the time t' argue…! She's on her way here, an' I can't do anything t' stop her… from attackin' you or gettin' this bean in my condition…!" he reasoned, still experiencing a great deal of pain. "Take the bean an' run with it, homeboy…!"

"No! I would sooner eat the blasted thing and stay by your side than let her potentially subject you to more suffering over not having it for herself," he dared to declare, still refusing all chances to run and give Radiyah any opportunity to harm him further.

"Gaahh…! Then do whatever you gotta do, Aashiq…!" Tay acquiesced, in no condition or mood to combat his teammate's refusal to run to safety. "Just make sure this lady doesn't get the bean, alright…? An' please don't do anything that could get you hurt…"

"You may count on me, Tayshan," Aash assured, hurriedly turning to pull open Tay's pocket and dig into it. Without struggle, he got Miracle Lima Bean and observed it in its small, but glorious golden… er, magical… glory(?) as he contemplated if he really wanted to eat it or not. He would get no time to really think about it, however, as Radiyah's footsteps grew closer.

"Unhand that bean, impostor…!" Radiyah harshly demanded, still staggering her way over toward them. Shantae caught up and attempted to grab Radiyah by the tail, only for the Siren Queen to pull the appendage out of the way and swat the half-genie back with it. The *THWACK* of her tail against Shantae's abdomen sent her flying back a bit before she landed flat on her back,

"Ghah…! Grr, I won't let you get away…!" the half-genie vowed through the surge of agony coursing through her stomach as she picked herself up again and continued playing her game of catch-up. By the time she had redoubled her efforts, however, Radiyah was already nearing a close enough range to lunge at the two boys.

"Oh, dear… She is coming…!" Aash warned again in worry, beginning to tremble in fear of what Radiyah would do to them. Swallowing his fear, however, Aash climbed off Tayshan and stood in between him and Radiyah with outstretched arms to prevent her from harming him.

"Give it to me…!" Radiyah demanded, still staggering her way toward her male adversaries. "Now…!"

"I will not allow you to harm my friend any further, wicked siren! You will have to get through me!"

"Your dear 'friend' is not my concern right now," she spat back at him. "In his condition, he is already mine for the taking after I have beaten you… It is that sacred, one-of-a-kind, priceless, very powerful bean you have enclosed in your fist that I aim for. Hand it over before I slice you to ribbons…!" she threatened, readying herself to attack him whether or not he complied with her demand.

"Not on your already-expired life!" he challenged, further infuriating Radiyah as she felt something snag her tail. Turning her head, she saw an angry Shantae pulling on it with both arms to prevent her from advancing on the lone magician and the downed soldier. Seeing no other option, Aash opened his mouth and moved his hand to where he was set to drop it in.

"Do anything rash with that bean, you disgusting, confused little freak, and I will rend your hide…!" Radiyah attempted to scream through her damaged voice as she struggled against Shantae's strength.

"That is it! I have had enough of your constant bullying!" Aash remarked, thoroughly displeased with her derisive comment. And, in the heat of a moment that very well may have cost him his life, Aash dropped the bean into his mouth, swallowing soon after while glaring Radiyah directly in the eye.

"No…! You… You IDIOT!" Radiyah roared with such a new and explosive, all-consuming rage that she actually managed to summon her real voice through her sore throat for a moment. In her sudden burst of inconsolable, burning fury, she twisted her body to the side, ripping her tail out of Shantae's grasp before the half-genie even knew what was happening. Though she still glared squarely at Aashiq, ready to murder him senseless for eating her only means of restoring her life, she violently swung her tail behind her in an attempt to knock out Shantae before she could interfere further.

"Whoa!" the half-genie yelled, ducking low to avoid the sharp, heavy *WHOOSH* of Lady Radiyah's gigantic lizard tail as it flew over her head. "Jeez, she could've taken my head off with that…! Oh, no! Aash!" she called, recovering to immediately be greeted with the sight of Radiyah racing toward her defenseless boyfriend as he attempted to stand his ground to protect the immobile Tayshan. Unfortunately for Aashiq, it seemed to be the case that he should have been more concerned with protecting himself, as he had been warned.

"Prepare to perish, you miserable cur…!" Radiyah forewarned, reaching her hand behind her as she dashed in low while charging another ball of energy into it. Aashiq, though frightened beyond his wits at the sight of the wrathful siren rushing him down with every last bit of hatred she contained within her gigantic chimeric form, did his best to try and defend himself. As Radiyah closed the distance, the young magician attempted to block her incoming attack by standing his ground and stretching his arms forward to potentially stop her. This method of defense proved all but ineffective, however, as his malevolent enemy ran past him, swinging her energy-encased hand low, fast, and as hard as she could manage in her weakened state. The terrifying, smoky *KABOOM* of a devastating impact sent shockwaves throughout the cavern as Radiyah rammed her hand right into Aashiq's gut.

"Gwaah…!" the poor young man croaked, having just about all the air knocked right out of his chest as he was sent hurtling back at the speed of a professionally-pitched baseball, where he met the wall with a mighty *PLACK* that nearly knocked him out of his wits. Before he could scream in pain, much less hit the ground, Radiyah rushed forward again, stretching out a hand and pinning the defenseless magician to the wall by his neck. "Gaacckk…! Ahck…!" Aash continued to choke, struggling to escape the unrelenting wrath of the Siren Queen.

"Aashiq!" Shantae called, utterly distraught at the sight of her ally being so brutally harmed as she raced toward them as fast as she could, soon grabbing Radiyah's tail and, after finding the wound on it, squeezed it tight as she pulled the appendage over her shoulder and leaned with all her might in the opposite direction to get her off of Aash. "Get off him!" Shantae's efforts seemed to hardly matter, however, as Radiyah pulled back her free hand, balled it into an energy-infused fist, and launched a most unmerciful and incredibly brutal strike to Aash's stomach once again. The dense, echoing *THWACK* alone sent Shantae into full panic mode as she, with an incredible burst of desperation and energy, pulled harder on Radiyah's tail to get her to budge enough to let go of Aash before the spiteful siren killed him.

"Ahagh… Hah… Ahhack…!" Aash continued to choke, struggling as he fought valiantly to free himself from Radiyah's death grip.

"If you know what is good for you, you will unswallow that Miracle Bean right now," Radiyah fervently and angrily demanded, having long since passed the point of no return for her ruthless aggression toward her guests. "Of course, I would certainly not object to tearing you open and digging around your innards myself until I have found it…!"

"Haaaaaraaaaah….!" Shantae grunted with all the effort she could muster, still trying her hardest to pull Radiyah away from her friends. It seemed at first that she was making no headway in even getting her to move. This was made painfully apparent to her by the fact that Radiyah was still choking the Hypnotist acolyte as he continued trying to wring himself out of her iron grip. Just the thought of what she would do to him… she couldn't bear to even entertain it. All she knew was that if she didn't do something, then Aashiq was as good as gone. "Come on…!" she urged herself, not even noticing the surge of bright white energy beginning to seep from her very pores as she tugged and squeezed on her enemy's tail.

"And to think your friend back there is trying her hardest to save you…" Radiyah acknowledged, smirking as she prepared to deliver a final, decisive strike to the incapacitated apprentice that would yield her any one of the following results: A. Force Aashiq to cough up the Miracle Lima Bean that she so desperately needed, B. Kill the young man, or C. All of the above. "A shame that such talent and power is going to waste on such a worthless excuse for a male pretending to be a woman… alas, this is where you die, impostor…! Hope your last few moments were full to the brim with regret…!" she spat, her smirk turning into a contemptuous sneer as she cocked her free arm back again, this time baring her claws in preparation to get that bean back by any means necessary.

"Argh…! That's why I told you t' worry about yourself first…!" Tay murmured, still lying on the ground directly under the thoroughly enraged undead amalgamate as he ignored the nagging pains in his body to reach toward his holster and pull out his Desert Eagle. As hurriedly as he could, he aimed it up toward Radiyah while she'd been readying up to finish Aashiq once and for all. "Hey! Down here!" he dared to speak up to intentionally draw attention to himself. Hearing his comment, Radiyah looked downward to see the soldier she'd thought had been beaten outright, lying flat on the ground with a weapon pointed at her. As soon as their eyes met, Tay fired off three rounds in rapid succession, though he wasn't even able to properly aim his shots in his state. The deafening *BANGs* alone were thankfully enough to startle Radiyah into releasing Aashiq as she tried moving back. Even luckier, one of the three rounds struck her in the neck, causing her to flinch and stumble back in a sharp, pinching burst of agony. Radiyah's troubles would not end here, however.

"Haaaaaaaaarraaaaaaaaaaah!" Shantae, practically bursting with a luminous white aura, locked her grip on Radiyah's tail tighter than a crocodile jaw and, with all her power, began to twist. Just as the siren was stumbling back, she suddenly felt the shift in her weight caused by the half-genie's tireless efforts. As though she'd eaten a magical can of spinach (that reference might be just a LITTLE dated for some of you younger folks out there), Shantae suddenly gained enough power to begin pulling Radiyah around. Already off-kilter, Radiyah stumbled back more as Shantae's aura (and in relation, her raw power) grew exponentially. Before she even knew it, she had pulled Radiyah (who I might remind you was at least a foot taller than Tayshan and had many more contributing factors to her total… er, density, because 'weight' would be too offensive) off her feet and initiated a full-power spin while the Siren Queen started off dragging along the ground on her side.

"Ah! H-hey…! What madness is this…! Unhand me this instant…!" she complained, trying to dig her nails into the ground to resist her opponent's attack. Her efforts proved futile, however, as she soon found herself being lifted just a couple inches off the ground as she was also whirled around like an Olympic hammer. "Whoaaawaaah…! Let me go…!"

"I'm about to! Rrrrraaah!" Shantae most respectfully complied as she, after performing two intensely effortful spins, launched Radiyah as hard as she could, falling forward and landing on her hands and knees after letting go. Meanwhile, Radiyah was sent hurtling with unbelievable speed toward her already-destroyed glass coffin located on the altar at the center of the tomb. Within a few seconds, the Siren Queen met with her former resting place with an eardrum-shattering, echoing *CRASH* that sent shards of glass, as well as bits of trinkets and treasure, flying in every which way. The unfortunate chimera herself had smashed through the remainder of her tomb, even hitting one of the lanterns with another voluminous *SMASH* that knocked it over and sent it tumbling down the altar as it shattered to pieces. Afterward, Radiyah fell and landed with a harsh *THUD* on the altar itself before rolling off and sliding onto the frigid, wet ground nearby.

"Ah…! Haah…! Haah…! Argh…! Hah…!" Shantae panted, the aura around her dissipating almost as suddenly as it appeared as she remained on all fours trying to recuperate. "Hah…! I… told you not… to put your hands on him anymore…! But you didn't listen…! Ergh… Ow… I don't know how I did that, but… whatever that was, it used up all the magic I had left…! Hah…"

"Grrrrrrrr…!" Radiyah growled as she rose from the rubble and debris, wearily shaking herself off as she stretched through her numerous injuries. "Hagh…! That is how you want to play it, huh…? Fine, then…" she further acknowledged, though it became much clearer as to why she had been so desperate to hurry up and claim that bean. By this point, her feathers had all but completely fallen off her wings, leaving unsightly, membranous, bony shells of their former selves. Her hair was ruffled and out of sorts. Her clothes were torn, soaking wet, and dusty. Worse yet for her, her skin and hair grew dull as though she were losing all the pigmentation in her body. Even her eyes had gone from a vibrant orange-green combination to her sclera turning a dark foggy gray and her irises became a listless, chilling shade of dim white. "If… If I must eliminate you… just to save my own life at this point, then… so be it…! And if that does not happen… then at the very least, I will take you fools with me when my time has run out…!" Radiyah tiredly spat, seeming to be losing her coordination as she slowly staggered her way back over to Shantae, who'd still been on one knee and in a ton of magic-related pain.

"Agh… Darn it, even I managed to overdo it here… Everything hurts…!" she complained, gripping her shoulder with her opposing hand as she painfully brought herself to a trembling stand. "Yet, this zombie siren lady is still trying to take us down… I… I don't know if I have enough in me to keep going… Makes me glad I at least found those two extra Heart Holders while we were here… a little extra health made all the difference…" she expressed, revealing that she'd apparently collected a power-up or two while I wasn't paying attention. I promise you; I'd have told you if I knew that myself. Anyway… "No matter what, though… I HAVE to try…!" she vowed.

"Shantae…" a weary, croaky voice beckoned her from behind. Recognizing it immediately, the half-genie turned toward it and responded.

"Aash?" she called to her defeated comrade/lover, observing him slowly propping himself up with his arms as he sat, straddled on top of Tayshan, who'd also been almost completely still as he remained face-up on the ground. "Aash, you're still awake…! Oh, thank goodness…!" she praised in relief, pushing through rapid surges of pain to walk over to her teammates before kneeling down to hug him. "Are you two alright?" she asked as she remained latched onto the magician, who'd returned her hug by wrapping one arm around her.

"I… I will manage," Aashiq replied, wincing as he struggled to maintain his position after being viciously hammered in the stomach twice. As he and Shantae separated, she noticed a circular scorch mark on his abdomen about the size of a soccer ball where Radiyah had struck him. She gasped at the sight of the wound, though Aash was quick to lay his hand on her shoulder as he looked her directly in the eye. "That… horrid creature can attempt to break us all she wants… but in the end, she is no match for us…"

"Definitely, Aash! I like the way you-!"

"…at least, that is what I would have liked to say, had it not been for her incapacitating both me and Tayshan…"

"Oh… Well, that almost sounded motivational," she acknowledged with slight disappointment that did nothing to ease her concern for her partners. "Don't worry, though. She looks like she's getting weaker by the second, so I'll do my best to take her down as fast as I can. Only thing is that I'm out of magic, which might make it a bit more of a challenge… but I don't plan on giving up. When there's a will, there's a way."

"In that case, I wonder if this would help you," Aash pondered as he maneuvered his tongue and stuck it out to reveal the Miracle Lima Bean that Radiyah had been trying to beat out of him.

"What the-!? Aashiq, are you serious!?" she remarked, reeling back in shock at the fact that he had not actually ingested the bean as he'd led us all to believe. "Why didn't you actually swallow it!? She could've wound up getting it for herself if she forced you to spit it out!"

"Because I wanted to share it with you to give you a strength boost," he reasoned as he took the shiny legume out of his mouth and glanced ahead to see Radiyah continuing to shamble toward them like the zombie she'd apparently been turning into. "There is not much time to discuss it, however. Please, take it and eat it," he urged, handing her the bean. Of course, Shantae showed just the tiniest bit of hesitation, tightening herself up as she stared with uncertainty at her boyfriend. "What?"

"Aash, honey… That was just in your mouth," she had to point out. "After it was in Tayshan's pocket, no less. I uh… I'm not feeling too hungry for that thing, considering where it's been. Actually, Tay… Where did this bean come from?"

"Melody…" the soldier groaned, still motionless on the ground with his limbs splayed out. "When she died, this bean popped up where her body disappeared…"

"Oh, dear… Even Melody is…?" Aash asked, his heart dropping at the news.

"Yeah… Tinkerbats got her before I had the chance t' save her…" he glumly confirmed. "I don't know what that thing does, but if Her Craziness over there is t' be believed, it does somethin' for healin' or resurrection… Either way, y'all better figure somethin' out if even you're out o' magic, Shantae… I hate t' admit it, but… I'm all tapped out…"

"I know…" she understood, saddened by her partner's confession as she observed him tiredly looking up at her with one eye closed… and, to add to her concern, the eye he was using to look at her was the one that had mysteriously turned silver. As she looked at him and momentarily shifted her gaze toward Aashiq, she pondered on how much of a sacrifice it would be for her to eat the Miracle Lima Bean herself. "Why don't you two share it? If it heals, then you'd both benefit from the effect."

"You would be our best candidate to receive its benefits, kanafeh," Aash answered.

"An' would you seriously expect me t' agree t' indirectly kiss your boyfriend after he slobbered all over that thing…? No thanks. Trust me, I'm VERY good waitin' until we get back home t' heal… You have the best shot takin' that zombie siren witch down at this point…"

"I… can't say I blame you, Tayshan. I really can't…" Shantae agreed with a pensive sigh.

"Hey…!" Aash complained, apparently offended that Tayshan didn't want to kiss him. "What exactly is wrong with-?"

"If you want a kiss from me, homeboy, you're either gonna have t' earn it, steal it from me, or be in a real specific form o' danger that would force me t' give you one…" he retorted in anticipation of what Aash was about to ask, subtly hinting at er… certain previous situations in which he was made to kiss someone. Evidently, it happened more often than he cared to acknowledge.

"Oh! Oh, my…" was all the young magician could reply with, as he was taken by surprise to the point of blushing inappropriately.

"…Alright, fine…" Shantae conceded, her face contorting into an expression of mild disgust as she extended a hand to Aash. Acknowledging the gesture, Aash promptly handed Shantae the fabled healing item. "Okay… Down the hatch…!" she reluctantly encouraged herself, hurriedly putting the Miracle Lima Bean and swallowing it whole before she even got the chance to taste it. The soggy, warm texture of the legume did nothing to soothe her stomach as it turned. She got it down, no less. I just felt bad for her because she didn't at least have a bottle of mouthwash or at least a lemon wedge to cleanse the taste with. "Ugh…" she retched, clearly not enjoying her meal. Regardless, the effect immediately made itself apparent… by giving her a small boost in energy. "That was hardly even worth it… I'm still out of magic, and I only got a tiny bit of a health boost. Worse, it tasted like grass, sweat, and the inside of your mouth, Aash…" she just HAD to describe, making sure I would be okay not eating for the next three days.

"Aw, that's just nasty…" Tay complained, also wanting to hear none of that vivid illustration.

"My apologies, dear… I… probably should have thought to just hide it from that siren than pretend to eat it… but I did not know what she would have done had I not deprived her access to it."

"Good point, though I don't really understand what the big deal was about-!"

"You fool…!" Radiyah shouted through her gradually worsening laryngitis, having witnessed the whole exchange as she stopped in her tracks while trying to hold herself together. "That bean… was not meant to be eaten by a living person…!" she angrily informed them.

"What?" Shantae dared to ask as she stepped in front of her friends in preparation to protect them. "What's gonna happen?" she asked further, fearing that she may have been potentially subjected to poisoning all over again.

"A living being will feel almost no benefit from eating a Miracle Lima Bean…! It is effectively useless… I told you morons over and over again that I required that bean to not only complete my resurrection, but to also revitalize my body…! Its most coveted effect only works on undead beings who had recently arose from the grave…!"

"You're kidding…!" Shantae gasped in shock, immediately thinking about a certain friend of hers she could've saved it for. Seemed as though this friend would have to wait for another time to possibly be resurrected. "Dang. I wonder if Rottytops would've tried it if I'd saved it for her... That… that bean had that kind of power!?"

"Yes…! And that was the last one in all the known land…! You… You…! You MISERABLE PESTS!" she screamed, breaking through her throat injury once more in her unforgiving rage as she clenched her fists and glared with an incredible burning rage at them. The sound of her voluminous, booming voice shook the temple's walls as it startled all three of the Siren Queen's unwelcome guests that had cost her the one tool she needed to gain a second shot at life. "Your presence in this underwater temple was not even supposed to be possible! Yet, you peons somehow made it down here and wiped out all of my minions…! You even allowed the likes of that wretched Pirate Master's sycophantic little goons to sully, besmirch, and utterly defile my lair…! And even after all of that, in addition to you running me ragged as I tried so hard and so long to rebuild the life I lost… It could've at least been partially forgiven, had you not just made the final mistake of your lives by deceiving me and consuming that bean…!" she ranted, a sinister purple aura enveloping her form as her entire body appeared to drain of color simultaneously.

"Seems like she REALLY means business now," Shantae acknowledged, momentarily turning toward her friends and walking over to them. "I don't know if taking her head-on in my current state is the best of ideas, so I hope you don't mind me borrowing this again, Tay…" she spoke to the serviceman as she got Desert Eagle from his hand.

"Hey, what are you…?" Tay was about to ask as she walked back to her original position and watched as Radiyah appeared to burst with energy.

"I know this thing isn't the best with accuracy, but since I'm out of magic, I'm gonna need your gun as an extra means to attack if I can't get close enough to her to use my hair," she explained, examining the weapon as she breathed to assure herself that she could do this. "I'll give it back. Promise."

"Hm… In that case, go for it, homegirl…" Tay approved, seeing no better alternative.

"I'll win this. For us," she assured as she stepped forth, bearing witness to Radiyah channeling energy through her entire body, roaring with rage as she did so.

"I believe in you, sweetheart," Aash offered his vote of confidence as he shot her a thumbs-up and a most heartwarming smile as he remained seated on top of their other teammate. "We will be rooting for you. I know you can do it, baby," Aash additionally and lovingly added. Shantae couldn't help but grow a tad embarrassed as the grin on her face grew wide as she looked back at him. In that moment, however, she grew even more determined to protect him as she turned forward once more while changing her grin into a stern, focused, non-smiling facial expression. Even if it meant risking it all, she would certainly do it to protect him.

"Yo… You uh… you plan on gettin' off me at some point…?" Tay asked Aashiq, appearing to grow uncomfortable with having the magician sitting on top of him as he had been. "This is startin' t' get kinda weird…"

"Oh! M-my apologies, habibi," Aash apologized, evidently having been distracted with Shantae before Tay called his attention downward toward him. He had not moved to climb off Tay, however. "I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. However, I must tend to you as best as I can while we have the opportunity," he explained, scooting himself downward off the soldier's stomach and sitting back down.

"H-hey, hold up. You're movin' too l-!" Tay was about to object, before Aashiq made his next move. Immediately after readjusting his position, Aash firmly pressed both hands onto Tay's bare abdomen, causing the poor soldier to flinch in pain before instinctively raising up just enough to grasp Aash by his hips. "Ow…! That hurt…!" he complained, wincing in agony, though Aash did not remove his hands.

"Sorry… I hope it is alright, Tayshan," he posed, the concern in his tone evident as he looked the soldier in the eye as he remained seated on top of him. "I owe you quite a lot for all you have done for us. And… after all I have done to get in your way, the very least I could do for you is make you feel better."

"Uh… Sure?" he hesitantly agreed, though he took a second to ponder just what was being said to him. "I mean… I don't really know about you 'gettin' in my way,' but the help's appreciated. But then, what about you? You're in just as bad a condition as I am, ain't you?"

"I assure you; I am a-okay. I am a tad achy, but thanks to you and Shantae, I was not harmed too severely, barring the bruise on my stomach and the residual ache from my shoulder. However, I cannot help but take responsibility for what happened to you. We did not arrive soon enough, and you were almost… you were almost… done away with as a result…" Aash confessed, his expression growing morose as he scanned his friend's injured form once more.

"Bro, it's okay. I can forgive y'all for not gettin' here that fast after I get some time t' think," Tay assured, though his statement hinted that he might have still held some secret resentment toward his allies. "Either way, I could've found a method t' keep this zombie siren monster woman under wraps if I had t' keep fightin' her alone. Only reason she even got the chance t' stab me an' rough me up like she did was because right after I got separated from y'all, I got ambushed by a squad of about forty Tinkerbats with guns an' explosives," he revealed, much to Aash's total surprise. "The same ones that killed Melody an' a huge chunk of all the monsters in here… It took me everything I had… an' then some t' clear 'em out on my own, but then Radiyah the Queen o' Creepy lured me in here t' fight her as soon as I beat the last one of the Tinkerbats. You can… see how well that was goin' for me before y'all showed up. I could've done somethin' t' improvise, no less."

"Tayshan, I am incredibly sorry…!" Aash apologized, an almost overwhelming sense of guilt gripping at his very core as he appeared to realize how much danger Tay was in while he and Shantae were busy themselves. "I… I had so little idea… Shantae said she had sensed you were in peril, but I did not realize how great the danger was… While you were fighting for your life, Shantae and I… I-I… uh…" he trailed off before sighing. "How could we be so passive? How could I be so oblivious to your torment that I wound up slowing things down…? And yet, even after we arrived to protect you, you continued to battle with all the strength you had left… and you even fixed my arm and saved my life twice… I was not prepared for any of this, and it shows… We… we should have…" he trailed off again, trying to figure out how to properly word his apology while he thought about everything he and his partner-turned-girlfriend had been through in comparison to what horrors he could only imagine Tayshan as having suffered… in addition to the horrors he actually DID witness the serviceman suffering at the hands of Lady Radiyah.

"It's fine, Aashiq," Tay impatiently offered his vote of confidence. "Now, are you gonna get off me or what?"

"I must take care of you," Aash replied, thereby denying Tayshan's humble request as he did his best to summon some vestige of rose-hued magic into his hands. Afterward, he pressed a little firmer on the serviceman's stomach. "Now then, allow me to relieve you of your physical burdens."

"Oh. I-I mean, go for it, if you can handle it… That magic touch o' yours did a good job before. But could you maybe not do it so rough? And do you have t' be sittin' on me t' do it?"

"Fret not, habibi. I will be gentle. Also, yes. This position offers the best angle at which to focus. Either way, I at least hope to perform this technique well enough for you," he further explained, strengthening the pink aura into his hands as much as he could to commence the process. Though the Hypnotist apprentice's arms burned like he'd stuck them in a broiler as a result of him already overdoing it with his magic, he remained determined to fix up his friend. As such, a radiating warmth began to transfer from the magician's hands to the soldier's abdomen.

"Ah…! Hah… H-hey, that… that feels good… Ah… at least, in the sense that it doesn't hurt as much now," Tay sighed through pained breaths as he loosened his grip on his impromptu doctor as the two of them basically switched roles.

"Does it, habibi? That is pleasing to hear… I am glad… now, lie back and relax. I will take the lead and make you feel good," Aash tenderly urged Tayshan as he scooted back just a bit more and applied just a little more pressure onto his stomach. "Hah… Hm…!" Aash also grunted, the strain from utilizing his questionable healing technique already getting to him as his breaths grew deep and heavy with fatigue. "I may not be able to do very much, but I at least hope…. Hah… to make it up to you… Hum…"

Meanwhile, Shantae had been sizing up Radiyah as she enveloped her decomposing form in a raging purple aura. With her sidekick's signature weapon at the ready, she carefully approached the infuriated entity that appeared to be powering up as her entire body became enshrouded in a curtain of rushing purple and blue flames with pupil-less golden eyes.

"Well, here we are," Radiyah spoke, her voice distorted and doubled as she stood tall and glared at her adversary. "I had hoped not to have to do this, because it will invariably cost me my chance at revival… which is gone anyway, thanks to you. With what little strength I have left, I am going to obliterate you, and then destroy your friends before the candle in the wind that is my life force goes out along with my temple and everything in it…!"

"It didn't have to go this way," Shantae urged, growing concerned with the hopeless tone of her enemy as she prepared herself for battle. "I'm sorry we got in the way of your revival, but you forced our hands. You almost killed my friends, threatened to enslave me and one of them, and you were about to try to take over the world and turn it into your own siren-dominated utopian world order. Letting you go would've spelled disaster for everyone outside of this sunken dungeon. Regardless, we don't have to fight anymore. If you're going to wind up running out of time anyway, why don't we spend the time you have left making peace instead?"

"You dare judge me on my motives? Hmph. There is no use reasoning with such a foolish, short-sighted creature as a genie. A shame those dazzling looks of yours go to waste on such a pathetic simpleton…"

"Hey!"

"We have done far more than enough bantering, genie. Prepare to either fall by my hand or drown when the force field around this temple disappears," the fire-bathed Radiyah challenged, hunching forward and flaring her phoenix-like wings in preparation to attack.

"If that's how you wanna play, then so be it. We'll survive, no matter what you throw at us," Shantae defiantly argued back, glancing at the Desert Eagle before using both hands to aim it at the fiery Siren Queen. "Whatever it's gonna take to bring you down, you'd better believe I've got it! Now, come on!" And with that, the brawl to end them all had hit its final phase. Radiyah started off by flapping her wings to unleash a spray of embers that specifically targeted Shantae as they hovered through the air. Right away, the half-genie sprinted to the side to avoid the airborne flames, only to notice that they had been homing in on her. Not at all worried, Shantae instinctively clapped her bracelets once to reactivate her fire whip and began a dance of whipping some of the embers out of the way while dodging others. Radiyah, seeing an opportunity to gain an early lead, sprinted toward the distracted heroine with the intent to destroy her.

"Prepare to meet your maker, creature!" Radiyah roared once again, leaping into the air with a cocked fist before descending upon her target with a merciless fury.

"Nice try!" Shantae defiantly retorted, leaping out of the way as Radiyah's flaming fist smashed into the ground with a frightening *CRACK* of the stone beneath her fist. Shantae rolled backward, landing back on her feet before aiming her protégé's weapon. "Now have some of this!" she shouted as she pulled the trigger. The pistol let out a jarring *BANG*, nearly slipping out of Shantae's hands as the round fired from it made a speedy, one-track course into the flame-bathed siren's shoulder.

"Gahagh…! Darn you…!" Radiyah cursed at Shantae, pulling her fist from the ground and charging at her once again. Shantae fired one more shot, managing to strike her enemy in the abdomen. However, Radiyah did not stop. She powered through the round, running right in to try and punt Shantae across the arena.

"Whoa!" Shantae yelled in astonishment as she pulled off an incredible spin that would see her narrowly avoid being struck. While Radiyah was recovering, Shantae took the initiative to whip at her with her hair, only to hear the discouraging *plink* sound that symbolized nothing but frustration. "Darn it, my fire whip won't work on her while she's already on fire…" she theorized, narrowly avoiding a vicious claw swipe from Radiyah before dashing backward and clapping her bracelets again to 'cool things down' a bit. Immediately, Radiyah continued her offensive. Using her flaming wings to propel herself, Radiyah raced forward and threw a nasty haymaker that met Shantae's cheek with a *THWACK* that sent her reeling. Though somewhat disoriented, she shook off her pain and somersaulted back onto her feet before firing another voluminous gunshot that Radiyah dodged by jumping high into the air.

"You may try to resist the inevitable all you want, sweetheart, but just know that it will not make a difference when I destroy you all the same!" Radiyah challenged, swooping downward with her claw at the ready. The fire-bathed woman's attack came in hard, too. The streaks of burning wind could be seen radiating from her incoming attack as she blasted herself toward her half-genie adversary. Not one to be done in quite so easily, however, Shantae spun out of the way at the last second, forcing Radiyah to narrowly miss. Her next offensive maneuver wasn't complete, however. As the fiery siren raced past Shantae, a barrage of tiny fireballs came bulleting at Shantae with extreme prejudice.

"No way…!" she complained, committing to either hopping, bobbing, weaving, or ducking under the aggressive embers as they came raining down on her. The sheer speed and unbearable frequency of them forced our heroine to take sporadic hits, as some of the fireballs would either strike some part of her body directly or scorch her as they whizzed by before breaking apart on the ground like pebbles. It was to the point where Shantae had to resort to smacking some of the projectiles out of path with her icy hair whip. "Hah! Wow, you're really going all out…!" she observed, whipping one more fireball out of the way before gracefully spinning out of the way of another. Radiyah, far beyond the point of dignifying her enemy's comment with a reply, turned full circle, wrathfully swinging her tail at Shantae while she was distracted. Barely seeing it coming, Shantae put up her arm to block, the hot, scaly *plack* of the appendage on her bracelet nearly knocking her over.

"Gah…! You're a stubborn one…!" Radiyah complained, withdrawing her tail as she rushed in and began swinging her claws at the half-genie.

"You're one to talk!" the icy-haired young woman shot back, ducking under one of Radiyah's hasty, haphazard claw swipes and retaliating by whipping her with her hair. Unfortunately, all that sounded was another disheartening *plink* that caused Shantae nothing but grief. "Darn it, ice won't work at all, either?" she asked herself as she performed a spinning backdash to avoid another claw swipe and create some distance. Radiyah would not have it that way, however. Immediately, she dashed forward, spinning around to swing her tail again. With a *THWACK* of her tail against the half-genie's ankle, the malevolent siren swept her adversary's feet right from under her. Shantae fell, landing in a puddle with a hard, watery *PLOP*. "Ow…! Not good…!" she acknowledged as she motioned to get back up.

"No, you don't!" Radiyah forbade, leaping forward with an energy-wielding hand held high. Within the next second, she descended upon her ostensibly defenseless opponent with the full intent to punch a hole in her while she was down.

"Yikes!" Shantae yelled, twisting herself to narrowly avoid eating a fatal knuckle sandwich as Radiyah's fist crashed into the ground with another crackling *THUMP*. Adapting quickly, the Siren Queen swiped at Shantae with her free hand, scratching her across the face and shoulder as she tried to get back up. "Waahah!" the poor young woman yelled, a searing agony coursing through her body as she winced. Already seeing a need to escape, Shantae did her best to try and climb out from under her enemy. However, Radiyah stretched her tail forward, wrapping it tightly around the young adventurer's ankle. "Owah! Ow, ow, ouch!"

"I have you now, darling…! Now then, perish in a watery grave!" threatened Radiyah as she raised her free hand once more, summoning more energy into it.

"I'm not done yet!" Shantae challenged, hastily aiming her weapon up toward Radiyah and firing a good five rounds in the flame-woman's direction. Three of them struck her in the face and chest, causing her to flinch and grunt in agony. However, her grip on the half-genie's leg remained strong.

"That arm cannon will not save you from my wrath, genie!"

"This might be a shot in the dark to say, but I disagree!" And with that (miserable) pun, Shantae aimed toward her tail and fired three more rounds at the siren. Of her rapid and uncoordinated potshots, two of them hit their mark, immediately causing Radiyah unbearable agony as she recoiled.

"Gwaaah! Argh…!" Radiyah choked out, stepping backward as she released Shantae from her grasp and checked her tail for further injury. "So even in this form, my tail remains damaged… Agh… I'm fading faster by the minute…"

"Hah!" Shantae shouted, hopping back to her feet and clashing her braces together once more to go Super Genie blonde before running forward with reckless abandon toward her enemy. "I think you need to lightning up!" she punned once more, getting progressively more pumped about the one-on-one battle (which also apparently meant she would become increasingly more likely to come up with horrible battle-related puns) as she got in close and lashed her lightning-bathed ponytail at Radiyah.

"You and these insufferable pu-! Whoa!" Radiyah as about to justifiably reprimand before being forced to jump backward and out of the way of the *CRACK* of the half-genie's hair against the air. Not one to back down after one failed attempt, however, Shantae rushed after Radiyah again, this time opting to unleash a barrage of gunshots at her to distract her. "Hey!" the Siren Queen yelled, taking to the air and unleashing another spray of airborne embers to avoid the rounds speeding toward her. Her wing-crafted fireballs quickly began raining down toward the young heroine, who'd initiated yet another graceful dance number to pirouette, juke, and cartwheel her way through them. "Agh…!" Radiyah further grunted, being forced to land as her wings burned (not quite literally, but kinda literally) in searing (not literal) agony. "D-darn it…! The damage my wings have suffered is too great…! I cannot fly…!"

"Come back here!" Shantae demanded, having mostly avoided the fireball barrage in a fully determined effort to defeat Radiyah. Alarmed, Radiyah, hopped backward and swing her tail at Shantae, who'd jumped to avoid being swept off her feet again. As she retreated to the other side of the arena, she'd also summoned energy spheres into both her hands and launched them as hard as she could. Shantae slid and rolled under the first, but she found herself forced to block the second by crossing her arms over her front. The explosive *POW* of an impact sent her stumbling back a couple feet, but she quickly retaliated by dashing forward and firing off another barrage of rounds at a thoroughly astonished Radiyah.

"Hagh…! This one does not give up…!" the exhausted Siren Queen noted, swatting her tail at Shantae once more while being forced to dodge the incoming gunshots as she continued trying to create some distance. Glancing behind her, she could see that she was losing ground as Shantae continued her hyper-aggressive approach. "I just need to throw her off long enough to where I can devise a more appropriate strategy…!" and with that, she tried out her next idea. Summoning up another energy sphere, she raised her hand high with the intent to spike it toward the ground to create a diversion. She stopped in her tracks and patiently waited for Shantae to come in close.

"Now I've gotcha!" the half-genie confidently proclaimed as she picked up the pace of her full-speed sprint once she saw an opportunity to attack up close. Yet, without a moment's notice, Radiyah threw the projectile downward as hard as she could. The resulting *BOOM* of an impact with the ground, followed by an eruption of smoke, moss, and chunks of stone shook the arena once more. In the next few following seconds, it appeared that her maneuver worked. Scanning the immediate vicinity, it appeared that the beautiful, yet dangerous half-genie menace had either been done away with or otherwise incapacitated in the wake of the clearing smoke.

"Hah… F-finally…!" Radiyah remarked in relief, taking a moment to breathe as she focused on recuperating. She glanced down at her body to notice that the flames engulfing her form had already died down significantly, which coincided with her lack of ability to properly catch her breath. "N-no…! I… I cannot believe this… I am… already just about out of…" she was about to lament before the twin *BANGs* of a weapon shook her out of her fatigue-riddled daze. "Gaahaaagh!" Radiyah cried out in pain, nearly toppling over as she was struck two more times. Meanwhile, a golden blur shot out from the smoke, soon taking off toward Radiyah with no form of restraint. "After you took such a powerful attack at close range…! How could you-!?"

"You're going down, lady! Hyaaah!" Shantae, newly coated in a mix of dirt, moss, and fresh scratches across her body (not to mention the appearance of rips and tears all over her outfit), challenged again as she bulleted toward her adversary and, with all her might, whipped Radiyah's weakening form with her Electro-Whip. The startling *CRACKLE* of an impact of the angered half-genie's follicles against body echoed through the battlefield as Radiyah suddenly found herself becoming a living lightning rod. With electricity zipping through her body, Radiyah found herself almost entirely immobile, her body blinking and flashing like lights on a police car as Shantae landed whip after electrocuting whip. This was it. The half-genie had the flaming woman right where she wanted her. All she needed to do was keep hammering away at her until that gloriously relieving moment Radiyah spontaneously ignited in that conclusive series of Boss-Battle explosions. She was so close to victory that she could practically taste it more and more with every successive *THWACK* of her hair. However, just as she was about to land her umpteenth strike…

"Hraaaah!" Radiyah screamed, the fire surrounding her body suddenly bursting with vigor. Just as Shantae was about to land her next hair strike, the infuriated siren queen leaned out of the way. In another swift, last-ditch move, Radiyah wrapped the fingers of one hand around the Elemental Hair Tie Shantae was wearing and pulled her in close.

"What the-!? Hey! Let go!" the half-genie complained, trying to pull herself out of Radiyah's grasp to no avail. Overflowing with such frustration and indignation that you could say she was burning with it, the Siren Queen exerted a considerable effort to lift her adversary high with one hand firmly grasping the hair tie. As she did so, the tie itself began to smoke and deteriorate in her searing grasp, at which point Shantae's hair began to fluctuate in color between gold and purple.

"So, you are able to weaponize your hair, hm?" Radiyah asked, her tone laced with contempt as she shook her arm to pull harder on the disadvantaged half-genie's hair. Shantae continued to kick and struggle to break away, almost entirely distracted by the monumentally unpleasant sensation of someone tugging so ferociously on her hair. "In that case, I think it's time you got a trim…!" Radiyah further threatened, tightening her grip on the hair tie as she raised her other hand with her claws at the ready to strike her down. However, our heroine would not be made to taste defeat so easily. Though she found herself in incredible pain from having her hair pulled in such a callous and malicious manner, she maintained just enough of her focus that she aimed her handgun directly at Radiyah, who'd immediately noticed and tried to move to stop her from shooting.

"I said LET GO!" Shantae very angrily demanded, firing four more voluminous gunshots at Radiyah, who'd been in the midst of reaching for the weapon. In doing so, however, Radiyah found her face entirely vulnerable. Two of the rounds hit their targets; one of which grazed her cheek while the other hit her right in the eye.

"Gaaaaaaagh! Arrrraaaaaagh!" she hollered in unbelievable torment from having just been shot in the eye, hurriedly tossing Shantae a fair distance away.

"Wah!" Shantae cried out in panic before she met the ground with a *THUD* shortly after. While the fall and impact with the ground hurt like nobody's business, the young lavender-haired maiden rushed to pick herself back up and shake it off. However, as she recovered, she noticed that her long, silky, dirt-spattered locks had fallen and hung around her cheeks and back. Frightened by the sensation, she reached a hand up toward her head to find that all her hair was still attached to it. In spite of her relief that she hadn't lost any of her hair, she also found herself quite disappointed to find out that her Elemental Hair Tie was nowhere to be found. Scanning the area, she looked toward the ailing Radiyah to see a familiar object engulfed in purple-hued flames on the ground near her. "No…! My hair tie…!" she lamented, horrified to see that the super-powered hair accessory was no more. "Darn it! That was my favorite new power-up, too!"

"That is it…!" Radiyah growled, the fire around her form quickly waning and withering away as she forced herself to a stand. As she did so, however, it was revealed that the eye Shantae had shot was squeezed shut. She'd also been breathing even heavier than she was moments earlier. Her once-glorious wings had been reduced to skeletal shells of their former selves again. The flames coating her tail had all but extinguished, revealing a decrepit, wrinkly husk of a limb. At this point, it appeared to only be a matter of seconds before Radiyah's time ran out; and she knew it. "Hah… Urgh… If it is the last thing I do, I will at least make sure you perish with me, you horrid, detestable spawn of a genie…!" she vowed, looking past Shantae to see her allies stationary on the other side. "Or rather, I'll cause you twice as much despair as you have caused me by executing your concubines…! And then after I have left this world, you will join me soon after, knowing nothing but misery before the shield around this temple disappears with me…" she further threatened, using the last of her energy to begin a malevolent mad dash toward Tayshan and Aashiq.

"Oh, no you-! Gah!" Shantae tried to challenge before Radiyah sprinted directly into her. The dying Siren Queen made absolutely sure to ram into Shantae full-force to knock her over, minimizing her chances of saving her friends. Hitting the ground once more with another harsh, goopy *THUD*, Shantae hurriedly climbed back to her feet, Desert Eagle in hand, and immediately noticed Radiyah sprinting toward the boys with her claws out and ready to rip and tear them to ribbons. "No, no, no, no, no! I won't let you hurt them! Get back here!" Shantae roared in a desperate rage, using all the strength she could muster to sprint after her while firing an endless fusillade of glowing marbles from the Desert Eagle in hopes of striking Radiyah down.

"Oh, no! Sh-she is headed right for us!" Aash called out in a frightened panic, notified by the sloshy stomps of the Siren Queen's feet on the ground growing louder by the second. He needed only glance up toward her to see she was ready to destroy him and his partner, who'd still been lying flat under him.

"Shoot…!" Tay cursed, looking upward from his position to see (upside-down) that, as Aashiq had indicated, Radiyah was preparing to end them both. Try as he might to move a muscle to get up and attempt to defend himself, he could not find the strength to move quickly enough. Even with Aash's efforts to heal him, Tay still found himself almost entirely burnt out. "Come on…! We can't go out like this…!" In that moment, Aash stretched himself across the soldier, wrapping his arms around the back of his neck and cradling him.

"It appears that we may not survive…" Aash lamented, hugging the soldier tight as he squeezed his eyes shut. "However, I will do my best to prevent her from harming you…"

"Ack…! Aashiq…! Let go…!" Tay complained, attempting to break free from his partner's grip as Radiyah closed the distance.

"You have only yourselves and your master to blame for your fates, you worthless humans!" Radiyah exclaimed, leaping high while cocking an arm back, aiming to descend upon her unfortunate, vulnerable male targets with every last bit of wrath her decomposing body could contain. "Prepare to die!"

"Not today, they don't!" Shantae valiantly called out, never giving up her chase as she continued firing shot after shot after shot (after shot after shot, and so on…), trying her hardest to accommodate for her overwhelming lack of experience with her partner's weapon. Unfortunately, distance proved to be quite the obstacle, as Shantae's shots seemed to go everywhere except where she wanted them to go. It also didn't help that she'd been firing on the run, which caused her accuracy to suffer further. "Darn it, come on! Just let me hit her once…!" she complained before remembering a key piece of advice she'd previously received about how to utilize the handgun. In that moment, she took as calm a breath as she could in the closing seconds before her friends found themselves on the business end of Radiyah's murderous attack and fired just three more rounds under the mounting pressure. As Radiyah descended and prepared to strike, two of Shantae's rounds barely missed, just whizzing past Radiyah or sailing above her as she grew closer and closer to Tay and Aashiq. However, as if by a stroke of utterly unfathomable luck, one round caught Radiyah on the exact part of her wrinkly tail where that hideous, pulsating wound still existed. The instant the *pock* of the round sounded out on impact, Radiyah froze in midair, maybe a foot (or less) away from enacting her last-ditch revenge effort.

"No… No! Nooooooooo!" Radiyah hollered out in a mix of despair and pain as, much to everyone's relieve, a *BOOM* could be heard as a detonation made itself apparent on her shoulder. This was followed by another one on her leg. And then another on her arm. And another elsewhere. And then another, followed by a series of other explosions that ripped across her body as she began to glow like sunlight had been emerging from within her. And before long, the final, flash-causing *KABOOOOOM* rang out, momentarily illuminating the entire tomb. Once it dissipated, however, Radiyah was nowhere to be seen. In her place had been a series of glittering embers that faded within a few seconds while a small, unusual glowing object fell on Tay's forehead, thus certifying that he got it without even needing to pick it up himself. The item vanished into his inventory before he even had the chance to acknowledge it.

"Hah… Hah… Hah… Gosh, that… that was WAY too close…" Shantae murmured, completely out of breath as she staggered her way over toward her teammates, who'd also been in the process of taking it in for themselves.

"She did it…" Aash remarked, looking around as she sat up on top of Tay to see that the Siren Queen was no more. He soon looked ahead to also take in the encapsulating sight of his beloved girlfriend, her hair down and draped all around her, tiredly walking toward him. "My dear, sweet kanafeh, you did it!" he cheered, filled to the brim with relief, admiration, and excitement.

"Yeah… I-I did…!" Shantae proudly acknowledged, giving a fatigued thumbs-up as she stashed her partner's gun in her inventory and closed the distance between herself and her comrades. "I'm just glad you two are safe. Man, what a nightmare that was… Hardest Boss battle I've had to do in a long time..."

"Indeed, sweetheart," Aash agreed, barely resisting the urge to go and show her his undying appreciation for her in the aftermath of her saving his life for at least the second time. "Just as you always do, you saved the day!"

"If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times; you can always count on me, guys…" she assured, though she soon became distracted with the… unusual image that greeted her once she got close enough to really get a good look. "Uh… Wow, this uh… you boys certainly look comfy," she acknowledged, trying not to blush at the sight of Aashiq, firmly planted on top of Tayshan, straddling him in a most… compromising position with his hands pressed to the soldier's stomach. Meanwhile, Tay had his hands clasped on Aash's hips. "Was… there something I missed…?"

"Hm? I am not sure what you…?" Aash asked back with a cocked eyebrow, following the half-genie's gaze to see what she meant. "Oh. Ohh. Ohhhhhh… Oh, dear…" Aash remarked, blushing himself as he realized how… embarrassing they must have looked. Tay, who found himself far less amused by his mentor's observation, merely looked up at her with an expression of disapproval as he removed his hands from Aash's person. "Kanafeh, I-I assure you, this is not what it looks like."

"It would probably help our case if you got up off me, homie," Tay politely suggested as he turned back to Aash, understandably displeased with their position.

"Right! O-of course…" Aash complied, pushing off the other young man to climb to his feet. Tay, feeling every bit of the momentary pressure of the Hypnotist apprentice's hands in his stomach before he got up, winced in pain, but resisted the urge to shout. Nevertheless, Aashiq rose to a full stand, carefully stepping over Tay and running toward a mildly flustered Shantae. The two lovebirds immediately met by way of Aash practically tackling the young woman in an affectionate hug, which she enthusiastically returned with a cheerful giggle. "Oh, thank the stars that you are alright, baby doll!"

"Yeah, of course! Like I've been saying, I'm always here when you need me," Shantae assured, nuzzling into her special friend for a moment before she raised her head while the two continued to affectionately hold one another.

"I know, but it is just… so wonderful to have seen you in action up close," Aash gushed, squeezing her a bit tighter as he tried to contain his excitement. After a moment, however, he took a breath and relaxed just enough to clear his thoughts. "I only hope I was not too much of a burden, kanafeh… Our time down here was quite perilous…"

"Nonsense, sweetie! This was your first adventure of the—hopefully—many that we'll be embarking on together. I'd be crazy to think you'd be prepared for every little thing that came our way. Your stomach, though…" she pointed out, momentarily flicking her eyes toward the scorch mark on his exposed abdomen. "Are you okay? She hit you pretty hard…"

"I believe this is nothing to worry about," he confirmed with a smiling nod. "As I mentioned earlier, she did not harm me as much as she may have intended to. I am just thankful she did not attempt to stab me…"

"Don't even bring up the thought," she frightfully dismissed. "Between that and your arm, I was afraid she would really hurt you if we let her. My adventures usually aren't this grueling, Aash. I promise. I have to admit, this was a pretty busy one…"

"I have no doubts that you are correct, my love. I suppose will take that statement to mean this adventure was more taxing than usual, by your standard?"

"Y-yeah… but difficult or not, my quests are almost always a ton of fun once you get the hang of it. The more time we spend together, the easier it'll get. Trust me," she explained, still smiling at him with glee. Aash, touched by her words, returned the same mesmerized stare, though he couldn't help but feel a sudden sense of… dare he say, immobilizing fright at the idea of embarking on another quest if anything like what he'd witnessed in the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth was taken into consideration on every trip. Not to say he didn't want to go on another trip anytime soon, buuuuut… He definitely felt as though he could use an extended break after nearly dying about fifteen times in an underwater labyrinth that existed miles upon miles below surface level. He admired Shatntae's resolve, nonetheless.

"Shantae… You are simply incredible," he found the courage to speak, his heart beginning to race as he took in the uniquely enchanting beauty of the young lady he'd been hugging. The way her long, lush, vibrant hair draped so perfectly over her adorable beaming visage… the kindness that radiated off her form like an ethereal energy… It was almost too much for him to bear. He was, however, reminded of something when he noticed her hair. "Hmm… At what point did you remove your hair tie? I mean, you look absolutely gorgeous with your hair down like this, but I figured you favored your hair in ponytail form, considering its practical use."

"Aw, Aash~!" Shantae excitedly remarked as she internally resisted the urge to just explode with ecstasy at his kind, warm words. "T-thanks… Heh… But uh… that Siren lady got ahold of me and burned it off in the middle of our battle. Unfortunately, that basically means no more Fire, Ice, or Lightning hair attacks unless I find another hair tie like that one," she answered, expressing her disappointment. "And considering where I found that last one, it's pretty unlikely I'll come across another Elemental Hair Tie anytime soon…"

"Ohh… My apologies, kanafeh… You seemed to be really making good use of those techniques, too…"

"It's fine. I'm just glad she didn't actually burn into my hair. Plus, I'm much more relieved that you weren't hurt any worse than you already were. Are you sure you're alright?" she caringly asked, her smile fading as she focused her gaze on his eyes.

"As long as I am breathing and in your arms, Shantae, I am always more than okay," he assured with a brighter smile, gently laying a hand on her cheek. The gesture almost shocked the half-genie out of her wits as her heart began to pound loud enough that it practically echoed through the cavern.

"Aash…" was all she could think to say as the two continued to embrace one another. Each of them appeared all but entangled in one another's eyes as they shared an intense, yet quiet moment of nonverbally communicating their mutual appreciation of one another in that moment. It was then that the world around them seemed to melt out of existence as the two teens' breathing collectively grew heavier. It wasn't long before either of them acted on their growing affection for each other… by which I mean they both began slowly closing the distance between themselves to give physical form to their connection to one another. Meanwhile…

"Oogh…! Hurgh… Hah…" Tay groaned, fighting through a tidal wave of torment as he flipped himself over to pick himself back up. Careful not to overexert himself in the wake of being exhausted, he pushed himself up to his hands and knees, panting heavily as he did so. His abdomen practically pulsed with sharp, stabbing pain, as did his back. His every limb felt like one sudden move would cause any one of them to fall off. However, he was thankful to at least be alive to be so uncomfortable. All things considered about how they'd even reached this point in their journey, he was glad to be alive at all. Quietly wincing in pain, he brought himself to one knee, hunching over with a hand planted on the ground as he looked up to catch the sight of Shantae and Aash hugging one another. However uncomfortable the sight of the two of them displaying their affection after such an arduous boss battle was, what unsettled him most was the fact that, as it seemed like they were about to kiss again, Shantae glanced from the side of her eye to notice him. The instant Shantae and Tay made eye contact, Tay felt a rush of… something… frustration? More discomfort? Embarrassment? Whatever it was, it caused his chest to tighten up to the point where he instinctively broke eye contact with her and shot his pained gaze back toward the ground as he remained planted on one knee. This did not go unnoticed, however…

Shantae, upon locking eyes with the injured soldier, felt her heart sink harder than the very temple they were standing in; even harder when he looked downward almost immediately after. Though it was only a span of a few seconds, the next few seconds felt like hours as she contemplated everything the three of them had gone through just to get to this point. Hers and Aash's time plowing through room after room in the dungeon area of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth and barely making it out safely while rekindling their bond (and then some) in the process was exhausting enough, she acknowledged. Conversely, as she thought harder about their circumstances, she could only imagine what her sidekick had gone through all by himself. She hadn't gotten the full scoop for herself, but she called back to the ominous feelings she'd been getting while they were separated… which also caused her to think about what she'd seen in the chamber that preceded Radiyah's tomb. Whatever it was, she could only guess that it must've taken him everything he had in him to survive the encounter long enough for her to eventually come to his rescue.

In his current state, he looked so… dare she say, hurt, as though he'd really been run through the ringer since they arrived in the underwater temple. Or rather, it didn't seem quite so apparent until she got a good look at him wincing, kneeling, and trying to catch his breath. That idea combined with that image caused her to frown as she grew immeasurably worried about him. She also briefly flashed back to some of their conversations as they traversed through the cavern and soon began to wonder if maybe they still needed to address their previous disagreements, too. Worse, she couldn't shake the chill she got from looking at his discolored eye… which, for some reason, reminded her all over again of what the late Lady Radiyah mentioned of her encounter with him before the half-genie arrived on the scene. A whirlpool of concerning thoughts swirled through her head as she almost completely forgot what was happening around her until she looked back toward her boyfriend while they remained in each other's arms. As Aash was closing in, eyes shut, to plant a loving kiss on her, she spoke up.

"Aashiq, wait," she requested, pressing her hands to his shoulders as a signal for him to stop. Aash, caught off-guard by her sudden hesitation, opened his eyes to be greeted with the saddened look on her face. Taken by surprise, he gasped in concern.

"Shantae, are you okay? You seem upset… Are we moving too quickly again? If so, I-!"

"No, it's not that," she assured him, backing away and prompting him to release her. "I just… don't think that now… is an appropriate time…" she hesitantly followed up, her eyes instinctively darting in the direction of their third teammate. Aash, silently following her gaze, turned in the same direction to notice why she'd chosen not to continue with their embrace.

"Oh! You are right," he agreed, feeling some of the discomfort himself as he thought about how… unkind it would've been to kiss her in front of their teammate. "My apologies, habi…" he was about to speak to Tay before he noticed Shantae wordlessly approach the soldier while he was still down on one knee. Not long after approaching him, Shantae carefully laid a hand on Tayshan's cheek as she stood before him. Tay, shaken out of his stupor by the touch, began to reply as he found himself irritated.

"Hey, man, look," Tay began, laying a hand on the one pressed to his cheek. "I appreciate you healin' me again, but don't you think we've had enough physical conta-?" he was about to reprimand, assuming Aashiq was the one to approach him. When he caught sight of the blue eyes and long lavender hair on the person approaching him, he froze in surprise. As he met the gaze of the young genie woman standing before him, he took in her sad, worried expression and nearly found himself speechless as he removed his hand from hers. "Oh…"

"Are… you alright, Tayshan?" she asked, uncertain of how to address his concerns in that moment while knowing that she did not want to alienate him. Tay, however, did not immediately answer her question; not because he didn't want to, of course. He just didn't know how. He, too, thought about everything they'd gone through since they began their trip down to the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth once he had a moment, and, suffice to say, he felt as though there wasn't much to be said right then and there. As such, Tay broke eye contact again, turning his head away from Shantae's hand; much to her dismay as she felt worse about how their interactions had gone.

"I'm good, homegirl," he eventually answered, trying to push off the ground to climb back to his feet, though the sudden burst of agony shooting through his abdomen would communicate a different message. "Agh…! Or, maybe I'm not as good as I thought… Darn it…"

"Don't force yourself," she advised, moving again to keep him from falling over. Once she was sure he wouldn't collapse from his injuries, Shantae placed her hand back on the soldier's cheek while also placing her other hand on his other cheek to direct his gaze toward her. "I'm here for you."

"I'll be fine," he assured, unwilling to take her sympathy as he looked away again. "This ain't nothin' I can't handle…"

"Tayshan… I don't think you need to hear it from me, but you did a wonderful job down here," she confessed, which was oddly surprising enough for him to stop trying to avert his gaze as he looked back at her in confusion.

"What…?"

"I mean it. I… I know things haven't been the easiest for you since we made it down here, but… you pulled through. I'm sorry for not getting back up here sooner, or else you wouldn't have been hurt so badly…" she explained as he continued to focus on her while she held his face in her hands, even moving to press her thumb to his chin and rub off a stain she spotted. "I… I also get it if you're upset with how things played out… um…"

"Hm. Don't worry about it," he dismissed, understanding that she was trying to apologize. However, as he and Shantae exchanged glances, he noticed that she seemed awfully fixated on his eye. Though thrown off at first, he soon realized why. "Don't ask me what happened t' make my eye this color, either," he preemptively responded, growing just a tiny bit uncomfortable with her prolonged period of staring at him in their position. "I don't have a clue what caused it, an' I didn't even know it was a thing until Radiyah pointed it out," he informed her as he moved to try and get up again. Shantae had other plans, however, as she suddenly pulled him toward herself and hugged him around his head while he was still kneeling. "Hey! Uh… What the… what are you…?"

"I know this wasn't the easiest trip for any of us to take, Tay, but I… I want to make sure we're still… well… that no one is… um… I-I mean…" she stammered, seeming to lose her nerve as she continued to hug his face.

"Whatever it is you're worried about, I'm sure we can talk about it," he assured, pressing his hands to her hips to keep his own balance. "But I ain't gonna be able t' talk if you suffocate me in your chest before we get the chance," he further remarked through a muffled voice, causing her to flinch in shock before pulling his face back out and shooting him a sour, pouty look.

"Are you kidding me?" she scolded, unhappy with the nature of his remark and the fact that he disrupted the somber mood of their interaction. "First Giga Mermaid, and now me. Jeez, don't you know it's rude to make dirty jokes like that to a girl?"

"I wasn't jokin', an' I meant because you were squeezin' me too tight. But now that you mention it… uh, this position probably wouldn't help if your goal wasn't t' smother me…" he shyly murmured, his face growing hot as he once again attempted to shoot his gaze elsewhere. At that, she deadpanned for a moment before shaking her head and sighing.

"Wow… Gosh, you can be so annoying sometimes, Tay. I hope you know that," she remarked with a giggle at his sudden change in demeanor.

"Yeah, well I'm just sayin'; We're already in somebody's tomb, an' I feel like I've been strangled and asphyxiated more than enough by now. I'm only humbly requestin' that you not give this place more reason to exist, if you catch my drift," he shot back with a smirk as he returned his flustered gaze back to her.

"Request denied, soldier!" she teased, tightly hugging his face once again in jubilation stemming from him seeming not to be upset (at least, not that upset) with her after all that had happened. "Besides, maybe a good headlock will keep you from making more bad jokes and puns like you'd been doing earlier today!"

"Ack! Hey…! Those puns were that mermaid's fault, not mine…!" he joked, choking out a chuckle himself as he tried to escape her death grip of a headlock. "Besides… If this is what you call a headlock, then I've got a surprise for you…! Huu… Rah!" he further remarked, shifting to wrap his arms around her waist and hair before pushing off his planted foot to rise to a stand with the half-genie in tow.

"Wah! H-hey!" she shouted in surprise, giggling with glee along the way. "I thought you didn't have any strength left!"

"Let's just call this a second wind, brought on by my next boss battle…!" he quipped, resisting the urge to grunt as a result of him aggravating his injury by picking her up the way he did. Nevertheless, he took in the moment by firmly hugging his team leader as she let go of his head and planted her hands on his shoulders. He soon found himself joining her in a brief stint of mutually relieving laughter.

"Okay, okay! Put me down before your second wind runs out!" she laughingly retorted, lightly slapping him on his shoulders. "It's better to save it for a more threatening enemy than little ol' me!"

"Oh, alright. MAYBE you have a point," he 'acquiesced,' chuckling some more as he gently set her back down on the ground. "Hagh…! Ah…!" he winced, unable to hide his physical discomfort as another fierce wave of pain coursed through him and abruptly ended his laughter. Shantae had also stopped laughing once she saw him straighten his back while clutching the scars left on him by Radiyah.

"Ohh… Are you alright?" Shantae asked again, worried that maybe their roughhousing went too far. "Sorry… I probably should've realized how much it would still hurt…"

"Not your fault," he assured her as he took a couple of deep breaths to process the residual aching in his stomach. "An' Aash helped a bunch while you was busy, so it doesn't hurt as much as it did earlier," he further informed her.

"Oh, that's a relief… Is that why you two were all snuggled up together with him on top of you when I came back over here?" she asked, turning toward Aash, who'd merely been watching his teammates interact with one another before being snapped out of his daydream by her rather impertinent question. As you can imagine, however, Tay found himself utterly appalled by such a ludicrous inquiry.

"Er, y-yes, kanafeh," he sheepishly replied, mildly flustered by the question.

"Ah! You mean 'no, not at all ever,' bro," Tay hastily corrected. "Don't let her put such outrageous thoughts in your head."

"Er, i-indeed," Aash appeared to agree… with an emphasis on 'appeared.'

"There's nothing 'outrageous' about two handsome boys sharing an intimate moment, Tay. Come on, don't be so self-conscious about it," Shantae teased with a snicker as Tay grew more uncomfortable.

"Hardy-Har, homegirl. You two are already a couple, as far as y'all have let me know. Y'all may as well take pride in that. Aashiq, I implore you not t' give her reason t' think about what it would look like if you and I were in a relationship."

"Tay!" Shantae yelled, pouting at him as her cheeks grew red.

"That is true, Tayshan, but… I mean… she sort of has a point," he disagreed, much to Tay's lack of surprise, in contrast to Shantae's surplus of it. "I do not see the harm in spurring our beloved young lady's imagination, if that is what she not-so-subtly desires," Aash teased, even more to everyone else's chagrin as he joined in and hinted to Tay that he was well aware of Shantae's… bad seacraft-related ideas. "And maybe we can spur ours, too?" At that, Shantae let out an instinctive chuckle that came more out of complete shock at Aash's mostly unexpected rebuttal.

"…Aaaand I give up," Tay very quickly conceded with a sigh after just barely recovering from the… low level of shock he experienced from Aashiq's suggestion. "I can see now what draws you two to each other. If you wanna pretend we're boyfriends for her sake, then go right ahead. I will not participate or contribute t' that, but I will warn you that you should be careful what you wish for," he dismissively replied, crossing his arms and turning away.

"Pretend for her sake, you say?" Aash coyly asked. "I am not sure, habibi. At this rate, and with Shantae's permission, we could remove the 'pretending' aspect of it while still keeping her at the forefront of our focus," he further joked, winking at Shantae, who flinched in massive embarrassment.

"Aash! No, st-stop that!" she complained, lightly shoving him as a polite way to tell him to shut his face. In response, the young man mirthfully giggled at her reaction. "I do not grant you permission to do anything of the sort! You're MY boyfriend!"

"Hmph. The offer is acknowledged, but even if I was remotely interested, I just don't think that'd be a comfortable fit for me. I feel enough like a third wheel as it is. An' barrin' the fact that she an' I are strictly friends, the lady has spoken. You really think she'd share you with me after y'all just got together? Your chances would be higher if we were both still single. Not by much, granted, so don't go runnin' away with that."

"Oh, my gosh…" she exhaled, her ears not believing what they were receiving in terms of this very unusual bit of banter between her male cohorts.

"Would they now? You tease me with that statement, sir, but you raise an excellent point. In that case, we should ask Shantae," he laughingly acknowledged, turning toward the flustered young woman. "Kanafeh, what do you think?"

"Right now, I think you two are the weirdest guys I've ever hung out with…" Shantae blushingly murmured, shaking her head in disbelief while possibly maybe trying to keep her imagination under control. "Separately, you're both awesome. Together? I don't know if I could handle it; especially if THIS is what you'd be talking about most of the time…"

"Takes weird t' know weird, homegirl," Tay responded with a nonchalant shrug and a sly, winking smirk. "May as well embrace it. That's what you taught me t' do by this point."

"Yeah, sure," she dismissively replied with another chuckle before changing gears. "Let's all 'embrace' it after we find a way out of here."

"Nice subject change," Tay congratulated, thankful that they could finally move on. "Much needed, too. Anyway, y'all think we'll have time t' gather up at least some o' those weapons in the other rooms before-?" he was about to suggest, scanning the empty cavern for a possible method of escape when a sudden, distant *Boom* rang out from no particular direction. "Uh-oh… That didn't sound good."

"No kidding," Shantae agreed before another *Boom* filled the atmosphere, putting all three of our adventurers on high alert as they looked around to find out where the commotion was coming from. "It sounds like something's collapsing…" she mentioned as yet another, louder *Boom* hit their ears.

"I also hear it…" Aash mentioned as a much closer *BOOM* shook all three of them nearly stiff, causing them all to look upward to see that pieces of the ceiling had begun to rain down. A couple of giant, jagged stalactites, in addition to a few other massive chunks of stone, began to fall like raindrops onto the ground below. "Goodness, this place appears to be rapidly falling into disrepair as we remain inside it."

"Shoot! That Siren lady wasn't lying!" Shantae realized as she noticed the heavily damaged area where Radiyah's coffin used to be, glowing brightly in a manner that it hadn't previously after it had been struck by one of the boulders. She grabbed her friends by their hands and dashing toward the center of the Siren Queen's tomb. "This must mean this temple is going down with her, like she said! We've gotta get out of here!" she strongly advised, pulling both of them to the side to avoid a boulder and a spray of pebbles that fell from directly above them. The deafening, stony *CRASH* of the boulder and its resulting tremors nearly shook our heroes off their feet as they took it upon themselves to make a collective mad dash toward the mysterious glowing point before it was too late. Thankfully, their trip was not a long one, as the three of them were quick to spot a shining, glowing platform hidden within the glass shards and rubble on the altar. Within a second of them stepping on it, they were warped out with a glittery *POOF* into the deep blue yonder…

About ten seconds later…

…by which I meant they all teleported outside to the entrance of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth. The sense of urgency still prevalent in them, Shantae and company immediately ran out from under the titanic, towering temple as it continued to crumble and quake like it had been stuck with a barrage of wrecking balls. As they all scurried away from the self-destructing labyrinth, they also spotted Giga Mermaid outside of the bubble. She appeared to be utilizing some form of magic to mend an extensive series of cracks and tears in the protective air pocket that originally shielded the temple from the elements and the intense atmospheric pressure that came along with it.

"Giga Mermaid!" Shantae called out, noticing the gargantuan sea woman straining hard, sending visible pulses of her energy into the waning shield as the cracks rapidly grew larger and wider. It had quickly gotten to the point where sprays of water began to penetrate the cracks in too many different spots to count.

"You are all still alive! Good…! Hrugh…! Now, you must escape using that platform that appeared shortly before you arrived back here…!" Giga Mermaid urgently advised, nudging her head toward the Stage Clear platform positioned right at the edge of the entrance as she momentarily turned her attention to them, her hands pressed hard against the barrier that threatened to drown her passengers if they did not act quickly. Another *CRACK* rang out from an undisclosed area on the giant bubble like a windshield being hit with a speeding rock, sending waves of dread through everyone present. "Oh, no…! This temple is doomed if I cannot fix this…!"

"A-are you sure?" Aash asked, highly concerned for Giga Mermaid's wellbeing in the wake of her trying to keep her allies from meeting an early, very watery end. "Is there nothing we can-?" he committed to asking before another huge *CRACK* from above silenced him. Looking upward, the three land-dwelling travelers noticed a heavy stream of water beginning to leak from the top of the air pocket as a huge chunk of the temple went and basically imploded. Its residue struck the bottom of the barrier, doing further damage to it as Giga Mermaid was forced to exert even more force just to keep the bubble stable.

"Hurry! There isn't much time! Agh…! This barrier will not last much longer…!" she warned again, giving it absolutely everything she had to keep the sphere present. "At this point, my strength will give out any second…!"

"Come on, guys! We need to clear out before this bubble pops!" Shantae hurriedly urged, again grabbing her teammates by the hands and pulling them to the Stage Clear platform. "Giga Mermaid, meet us at the lighthouse on the western outskirts of Scuttle Town to check in!"

"Yes…! Now go!"

"Roger!" the half-genie hurriedly acknowledged, hopping onto the platform alongside her partners.

"All those weapons…! An' all those monsters... Man, this is lookin' so bad…" Tay lamented as he stood with Shantae and Aashiq on the Stage Clear platform, lamenting the heavy, HEAVY losses suffered by way of either them, Risky's minions, or the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth collapsing into rubble.

"All Clear!" Shantae announced as she struck her signature victory pose while Tay performed his usual salute. Aash celebrated their journey's completion by taking a poised, mannerly bow with one arm extended outward while the other was folded under his abdomen. And then, with a much-needed *POOF*, they were gone. And just as they vanished to safety, the protective sphere burst with a largely subdued *WHOOM* as it shattered like glass on a brick wall. Giga Mermaid was sent hurtling back from the sheer force of the underwater explosion, though she was soon able to reorient herself enough to watch the remains of the temple instantly crumble up into a smoky mass of debris and rocky chunks that sank further into the depths of the ocean. Forced to swim far away from the remains of the temple lest she breathe in the presumably toxic material that almost resembled oil in its consistency, Giga Mermaid lamented the loss of yet another timeless monument to an era past. She took one last, sorrowful look at the temple remains before turning to swm her way back up to the Sequin Land Sea's wavy surface. It wasn't long before she emerged with a mighty *SPLOOSH* of the ocean's deep blue, salty waters to be greeted by the moonlit night sky above.

"Hm… I suppose I should be glad Shantae and company managed to accomplish the task of ridding the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth of the pirates that invaded it…" the gigantic sea woman pondered, peering into the expansive, almost infinite darkness surrounding her as she waded through the ocean toward home. "I only wish the labyrinth itself hadn't been gone along with them… and it certainly worries me that some of those devious little creatures escaped before I had the chance to stop them…" she further mentioned, hinting (or in this case, confirming) that maybe the job of clearing out all the Tinkerbats in the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth wasn't as complete as we had hoped. . "At the very least, I managed to grant the three of them enough time to complete their mission and escape to safety. Of course, I am made to wonder just what happened… The barrier's disintegration and the resulting collapse of the labyrinth could only mean that its inhabitants, including its ruler, were…" she theorized, though she could hardly bear to think about the the circumstances. She knew painfully well that the temple's collapse likely meant the ultimate downfall of the Siren Queen and her subjects. Putting that thought into words was too harrowing a task for her to accept, however. Giga Mermaid let out a despondent sigh, shaking her head as she ruminated on the loss of the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth. And with that, Giga Mermaid silently swam through the ocean, having a specific destination in mind as she powered herself through the turbulent tides.

And there you have it, folks. Another day in the life of Sequin Land's most enthusiastic adventurers, and another quest to be crossed off the list… only, with some very unsettling implications for the future, based on what we'd witnessed. Wouldn't you say? Ah, who am I kidding? Of course you'll say. As we dive deeper and deeper (no pun intended) into the escapades of our heroes and the tribulations they brave through, it seems like things are only growing more daunting as they continue in their efforts to save Sequin Land from any and all who threaten it… even those who they'd have otherwise never known about, if a certain late Siren Queen is taken into account. Regardless, stick around for the next thrilling installment, as we've still got plenty to experience before this wild ride is over!