The girls had made it to the pathway to where the Calamity Box might have landed. Sasha, Amity and Luz were walking up the knee with the girlfriends were dressed in their snow gear while Sasha was shivering since she decided it would be a good idea to not bring any winter clothing. Which was a stupid decision. While Amity was carrying her Palisman, Ghost the cat.
Amity smirked at Sasha. "Regret not bringing any winter clothing?"
Sasha shivered while narrowing her eyes at the cotton candy haired witch. "Shut up. It means nothing to me. I've been cold plenty of times."
"But you don't get any snow in LA, how can you?" Luz asked.
"I have been trained by Grime to resist pain and sword combat." Sasha explained before continuing to shiver. "I mean, if you throw snow at me, it will mean nothing."
Amity shrugged her shoulders and formed an abomination behind Sasha's back. The magic purple goop monster formed a huge snowball that it threw at Sasha.
But the human toad Lieutenant ducked and the giant snowball hit Amity instead. Luz heard the sound and turned around to see what it was and panicked when she saw her girlfriend covered in snow.
"Amity! What happened?!" Luz asked.
Amity took a deep breath to keep her calm composure. "It was just a prank gone wrong."
Sasha then walked up to Luz with a smug smile. "Hmm, actually, I think I'll take some winter clothing. A lot chillier than I expected it to be."
Amity narrowed her eyes at Sasha while Luz happily reached into a sack and pulled out a folded up coat, some gloves, a hat and a scarf that Sasha quickly put on.
"Now come on companions, we have a quest to continue." Sasha declared as she continued to walk.
Amity gritted her teeth in anger as she kept pulling that smug face. Boy did she really hate that human?
But Luz just pulled Amity up and dusted her off. "You're quite soaked Cariño." Luz remarked. "Do you want the spares I brought along?"
"I'm fine." Amity replied. "I just….Really don't trust her."
"I know you don't." Luz sighed. "But, if she really is a friend of Anne and hasn't betrayed her then we need to take that into account." Luz and Amity started walking while holding each other's hands. "Listen Amity, I am taking the fact that she might betray us into account but I think we might need to take the fact that she could be telling the truth into account. So, I'm being nice to her so there will be less hostility. You think you can try and be a bit nicer, for me?" Luz gave her girlfriend pouty puppy eyes.
"Luz….." Amity narrowed her eyes at Luz. "….Don't give me that face." Luz moved in closer, causing Amity chortle. "Don't make me….Stop using that face." Amity then couldn't contain herself and laughed. "Okay, I'll try my best."
"Thanks a bunch, babe." Luz then kissed Amity on the cheek, causing the witch to turn red in the face.
Then they heard Sasha laughing. "Oh my gosh! You two are so adorable. So, are we gonna keep moving are you gonna try and make me barf?"
The couple smiled at Sasha's little quip. "Yeah, we're coming." Amity replied while giving a friendly smile to Sasha.
While the smile seemed friendly, it was more of a warning to Sasha that Amity had an eye on her whether she liked it or not. While Sasha's friendly smile towards Amity was more intimidating, at least that's what Sasha was attempting.
They continued to walk up the knee hoping that no one will stand in their way to retrieve the box.
But unbeknownst to them, turns out that they weren't alone. The Emperor's soldiers lead by the two Golden Guards, Malsacc and Hunter were patrolling the area in search of the box.
"If one of you fails to find me the box, then I will use my powers to find out what dirty secrets you hide and expose them to Penstagram!" Malsacc exclaimed.
"They'll never find anything, you'll just have to expose their thoughts." Hunter said.
"Patience." Malsacc replied. "We don't want them to find out about your little friend, do we?"
"No sir." Hunter replied as he hid Lil' Rascal up his sleeve.
"Hunter, walk with me." Malsacc requested. "And you guys better keep looking. If one of you finds anything of interest, I will not punish you but I will punish the ones who haven't."
Once Malsacc and Hunter were out of earshot, the soldiers continued to search for whatever they could find.
Just then, one of the soldiers lifted something from the snow and gasp with surprise. "Hey guys, I think I found something!"
"Get him!" The soldiers then started tackling the soldier.
"I don't want my Penstagram search history to be exposed!"
"I don't want my private life outside of my home to be exposed!"
"I don't want my…collection to be exposed!"
While the soldiers continued to bicker over whatever that soldier found, Malsacc lead Hunter to the edge of a cliff where he admired the view of the skeletal remains of the Titan, laying in the boiling seas.
"Isn't that a beaut?" Malsacc asked.
"Yeah. My uncle is doing everything to appease his master no matter the risks." Hunter replied.
"Belos is a brave man." Malsaac remarked. "I don't know what we'd do if he wasn't around. The Isles would probably fall."
"What are you about to tell me?" Hunter asked. "Some kind of anecdote?"
"Oh no, I'm not that wise." Malsacc replied. "Do you wanna know how it felt to be let go of my title?"
"What is this about?" Hunter asked. "And why are you telling me at the edge of a cliff?"
"Atmosphere." Malsacc replied. "Listen Hunter, I was let go of being Golden Guard simply because I failed to catch a target. They were a wild witch, they used a brand of magic that I hadn't seen and Belos wanted that power. A witch with six fingers and formed energy tentacles from their back. It was like they were part demon. But as I got close to that witch, they suddenly fell off this cliff right before I could catch them. And because of my one mistake, I was let go by Belos. Then, 12 years later I found out I was replaced by his scrawny nephew."
"And this is meant to…."
"It's meant to make you realise you don't deserve the title." Malsacc interjected. "I made one mistake and suddenly, I was gone and you make lots of mistakes and the only reason he is even letting you off is because you're apparently family."
"He….Says the Titan knows I have great things coming." Hunter replied.
"Titan knows I have great things coming." Malsacc responded in a childish mimicking fashion. "What does the Titan actually know? You're Uncle has told me that you have failed him multiple times and yet here you are holding my title with all those stupid propaganda photos of you plastered everywhere encouraging the simpletons to join the Emperor's Coven. You think you're so great do you? You may think you're great, but in actuality you're just an insecure teenager trying way too hard to impress their uncle. Hiding it underneath an overconfident and egotistical attitude. I knew what being a Golden Guard was; loyalty and perfection. Yet, you treat it as something to break the rules."
Hunter took off his helmet and to stare at his predecessor with an angry expression. "You know what I go through, you went through my memories without permission. So this scolding seems pointless. I think you're just hiding that you're jealous because you failed one mission!"
Malsacc then grabbed Hunter by the shoulders and appeared like he was going to do something he might regret. "Uh….I guess you're right. People make a lot of mistakes and I get you have problems, I have problems. But there is one thing that I find about you being the Golden Guard….." Malsacc then turned Hunter so he could face the Titan and see the beauty in itself. "…..You."
Hunter was at first confused, wondering what the witch meant. But his question was answered when Malsacc pushed him off the cliff and quickly snatched away his helmet off of him as he fell.
The young boy fell into the misty fog below as he screamed while Malsaac just watched on, not caring about the teen potentially falling to his death.
"Oh I hope someone spots him on his Palisman. I can't wait for his Uncle to suck Lil' Rascal's life force." Malsacc said to himself. "Now, I just have to hope no one heard me talking to myself. Because, there can only be one Golden Guard."
The witch then placed the helmet on his head to know what it's like wearing the helmet. But he quickly took it off when he lowered it to his forehead. "Too tight."
Malsacc then pulled what appeared to be an object the size of a bread crumb. Then he made a magic circle and the object grew into a battered helmet that looked similar to Hunter's helmet, but older and worn out.
The former golden guard placed it on his head and glared at the skeletal remains of the Titan into the distance. "I'm the real Golden Guard, not him." Malsacc turned around to see if his soldiers have found something.
But was Hunter dead? Turns out, he Malsacc was right, Hunter turns out to have survived his fall thanks to Lil Rascal turning into a staff just in time.
Hunter narrowed his eyes upwards, knowing what he meant instantly. He had just been betrayed by his predecessor. "I don't want to risk it, Lil' Rascal." Hunter said to his Palisman. "I don't wish to risk it to expose your existence." The Palisman tweeted at him while lowering himself. "Because if they see you, they'll send you to my uncle and I won't have you anymore. Because you'll be dead." The Palisman tweeted back. "All I need is to find a way to inform my uncle about his treachery. Perhaps I might need to appear dead in order for Malsacc to play his game." The Palisman lowered himself to the bottom where unbeknown to Hunter, Luz, Amity and Sasha were right behind him. "The only thing that could stop me is that stupid human. If I ever see her again I will definitely gut her. Or better, maybe I can have Belos petrify her and when she is, I will have her in my room as a trophy."
The current Golden Guard threatening her girlfriend had Amity ready to form her abomination, but Sasha motioned her to not to. Wanting to see his reaction when he realised that Luz is standing right behind him.
Hunter got off his Palisman, which turned itself back into bird form and hid in Hunter's pocket. The current Golden Guard turned around to see Amity folding her arms, Luz doing a smug wave and Sasha shaking her head. The mere sight of them, made Hunter freeze.
"Listen dude, I've been in your situation before. Word of advice: Check if that person is behind you before you bad mouth them." Sasha advised him.
Hunter quickly started to make a run for it until he suddenly got wrapped in Abomination goop thanks to Amity. The Golden Guard fell into the snow and sighed. "Great, not again."
The girls walked up towards to Hunter with Sasha aiming her sword at his throat just in case he tried to do something funny.
"Sasha, allow me to introduce the Golden Guard." Amity said.
Sasha smirked. "Wow, he looks scrawnier in person."
"And you look like a human and I already hate you." Hunter retorted.
"What are you doing out here?" Luz asked him, trying to be a little friendly.
"None of your business." Hunter replied. "Why is there another human here?"
"That is none of your business as well." Sasha replied as she placed her sword to Hunter's throat.
"So, what are we going to do with him?" Luz asked.
"We could leave him out in the cold." Sasha replied. "Let the wolves take him."
"Actually, there are no wolves." Luz replied. "But there are wolf beetles."
"Oh…..Uh, then leave him out for the wolf beetles."
"No. It'll be too risky." Amity said. "I'm lucky he hasn't told his emperor about my involvement at Eclipse Lake because I would have been at the Conformatorium right now. Or worse, the Cleanatorium."
"So, we're just going to keep him around?!" Sasha asked.
"Besides what Amity said, I can't leave him out in the cold." Luz replied.
"I would." Sasha retorted, causing Hunter to glare at her. "What? You'd do the same if it was me."
"Good point." Hunter said.
"Wait Luz, what if he's looking for the box?" Amity asked.
"What makes you think I'm looking for the Calamity Box?" Hunter asked.
Sasha, Luz and Amity narrowed their eyes at Hunter, since he just proper screwed himself up. "Dude, we didn't say anything about it being the Calamity Box." Sasha informed him.
"Well….I only assumed." Hunter said.
"Nice assumption." Amity remarked. "It was correct."
"If Hunter's here then it means one thing, that means the Emperor's soldiers are here." Luz declared.
"You know, you're actually correct." Hunter stated.
"Why aren't you calling your forces then?" Sasha asked. "Because, if I had an army and I was captured by a cotton candy haired elf…." Amity rolled her eyes. "….then I'd call my team to rescue me. You're obviously bluffing."
"I wish I was." Hunter replied. "Because I was betrayed."
"Liar." Amity retorted. "Why should we believe you?"
"Because I know that there are 29 soldiers and the original Golden Guard, the one that betrayed me, are patrolling the knee in search of the box." Hunter replied.
"There was an original Golden Guard?" Luz asked.
"There was." Amity replied.
"Listen, I'll help you get the box." Hunter declared. "I know I appear I don't, but if I'm gonna be betrayed by my own crew then I might as well betray them back."
"As much as we wish for help, I don't know if we should trust you a third time." Luz replied.
"You don't know who you're dealing with, but I do." Hunter replied. "Malsacc knows about my Palisman and he's possibly planning to expose me. So, what choice do you have? You know you want to help me."
Luz was very hesitant to trust Hunter but she couldn't turn down someone who looked like was in dire need. "Amity, release him."
"Luz?!" Amity exclaimed.
"Aww what?!" Sasha exclaimed as well. "This walking talking angst machine is just going to betray us!"
"I'm right here." Hunter retorted.
"And I'm gonna be cautious about it." Luz assured them. "If he gets out of line, then we keep him trapped in the Abomination. Just release him."
Amity sighed. "Alright, if you betray us then I might let Sasha chop your head off."
Sasha smirked at Amity. "You're already starting to trust me, aren't you?"
"For now." Amity retorted before removing the Abomination from Hunter.
"Thank you, now-" Sasha then punched Hunter in the face before he could finish.
"This is a warning just in case you betray us." Sasha said. "I may not know you, but judging how these two react towards you, you are definitely bad news."
Hunter wiped away the blood coming from his mouth and narrowed his eyes at Sasha. "And I already hate you too."
"Come on." Amity said. "We have to find that box before the Coven or someone else finds it."
Meanwhile, Yunan and her soldiers were walking up the snowy knee. Yunan's arm was being frozen due to the cold climate. She quickly smashed the ice before it could freeze her entire body.
"Uh…..Darn cold." Yunan grumbled.
"Message incoming." One of the robots said before projecting a holographic image of King Andrias.
"Hey Yunan, how are ya?" Andrias asked.
"About to be frozen in a block of ice." Yunan replied. "But I've trained to combat it."
"Anyway, how goes the search?"
"Still looking. But I have your army beside me." Yunan replied.
"Great. Just a heads up, we have a new enemy. Actually we might have a ton." Andrias said. "I recently talked to the leader of this Demon Realm and he wants the Calamity Box himself and has decided to send out his cronies to do his job. I mean, how lazy is that?"
Yunan rolled her eyes. "Yes, how lazy."
"Anyway, he might have sent out some of his goons so keep an eye out for them." Andrias informed his general.
"Will do." Yunan saluted her king.
"Thanks! By the way, your boot is frozen." Andrias informed his general before disappearing.
Yunan looked down and indeed saw that her feet were frozen. She gritted her teeth pulled them out of the ice like she was slipping out of some comfy slippers.
"Uh….I better find the box soon." Yunan grumbled.
Meanwhile, Malsacc was continuing to look for the box with his goons at his side. None of the guards even questioned whether Malsacc's claim about Hunter dying were true, they just continued their job.
"Hurry up now!" Malsacc yelled. "The Emperor could be getting impatient! And also, find the body of the Golden Guard."
"But aren't you the Golden Guard again?" One of the soldiers asked.
"I am but I'm referring to my successor who is also my predecessor which saying in that sentence makes it really confusing." Malsacc explained.
Unbeknownst to the Coven, the girls and Hunter were watching the events unfold. Luz and Amity looked at the old Golden Guard in fear, feeling intimidated by his tall appearance and the way he delivered his commands, it was quite scary.
"That's the guy." Hunter said while pointing to Malsacc.
"Oh please!" Sasha blew a raspberry. "He doesn't seem scary."
"Did I mention he can read your mind just by touching your forehead?" Hunter asked.
"If he was so powerful, why didn't the Emperor keep him on?" Sasha asked. "Was he compensating for something?" Sasha chuckled while Amity and Hunter stared at Sasha for being immature. Luz didn't quite get what she was implying.
"I don't get it." Luz replied. "And if it's something disgusting please don't tell me. I'd like my childlike brain to be untouched for a few more years."
"So….Do we have a plan?" Hunter asked.
"I didn't think we'd be surrounded by this many soldiers." Luz replied.
"What Luz, why don't we use one of your invisibility glyphs?" Sasha suggested.
"Oh yeah, that's a great idea." Amity sarcastically replied. "Let's use invisibility glyphs to sneak round them and leave footprints in the snow." Sasha narrowed her eyes at the witch as a response.
"No, I think we'll need to walk around them." Hunter replied. "One of us might need to throw something into the distance to keep them distracted and then we will walk around them so we won't get spotted."
Then, the sound of armour clanging was heard as well as robotic sounds. "What's that?" Luz asked.
"Oh no." Sasha said.
They looked to the right while Malsacc and his soldiers looked the same direction. The strangers that were approaching Malsaac and his soldiers was General Yunan and her army.
Yunan lifted up her arm to reveal her arm frozen once again. She groaned and smashed it on her chest to shatter the ice. "I should have brought a scarf."
"And who might you be?" Malsacc asked General Yunan.
"Oh boy, get ready to yawn." Sasha whispered.
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian Army!" Yunan exclaimed.
"Wow, you were right, that is annoying." Luz remarked to Sasha.
"It gets worst when you hear it a million times." Sasha said.
Malsaac just smiled. "Good for you. And what brings you out here?"
"I wish for the Calamity Box." Yunan replied. "Might I inquire something Mr….."
"It's Malsaac." Malsacc replied. "Loyal subject to Emperor Belos, Hunter of Palisman, and the true Golden Guard."
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! So, I assume you're looking for my master's box?" Yunan asked.
"It will be my master's soon." Malsacc retorted.
"Malsaac, this army I have beside me is under my control." Yunan motioned to her wrist device. "Thanks to Alador Blight, my new ally."
Amity cringed while Sasha narrowed her eyes at Amity. "Please tell me that isn't a relative."
"Well, at least it wasn't my Mom." Amity said.
"Husband of the very humble, Odalia Blight!" The mention of her mother made Amity sulk.
"Do you think the mere mention of the Emperor's biggest followers will make me lower my defences?" Malsacc asked. "So Yunan, take your long stout elsewhere whilst me and soldiers do things on our own."
Yunan clenched her fists, causing her wrist blades to appear. "Malsacc, we can do this both ways. I can make the snow a little warmer by your presence or perhaps, I can make it colder."
Malsacc smirked while the guards looked at each other, trying to understand what the quote meant.
"Uh…Did one of them mean you'll let him live and did the other mean you'll kill him?" One of the guards asked.
Yunan groaned. "At least the robots are a lot smarter."
"Enough!" Malsacc demanded. "If you want to stop me from gaining the box…." Malsacc then unsheathed a sword and aimed it at the general. "….come claim it."
Yunan clenched her teeth and screamed, charging towards Malsaac with fury. "ATTACK!"
The robots listened and activated their misses and started blasting. Some of the soldiers dodged the incoming missiles while others were blown away.
Some of the soldiers charged at the robots casting spells like shooting fire and trapping them in vines.
While Yunan and Malsacc clashed each of their blades together while snarling at each other.
The battle ensued as Luz, Amity, Sasha and Hunter watched the battle with surprised expressions. They did not anticipate this whatsoever.
"Well, that was easy." Luz remarked.
"Let's sneak around while they're distracted." Sasha said before she and her gang snuck around to make sure they weren't seen.
Once the four got out of sight, they went back on track to try and find the box.
"Hey Sash, should we be worried about Yunan?" Luz asked.
"Nah. She's way too overconfident so it'll be easy to defeat her." Sasha replied.
"Wish it were the same for others." Amity said while leering at Hunter, something that Sasha took notice of.
"Well, at least she's stopped with me for now." Sasha whispered to herself.
"Hold on, does anyone smell burning?" Hunter asked.
The gang followed the smell of burning to a trail of what looked like some kind of meteor that crashed there. But there was no crater, only a box shaped print in the snow that looked to have been there for a number of hours.
"It was there." Sasha declared.
"It might have been another box." Hunter's theory made the girls narrow their eyes at him. But the Golden Guard just shrugged his shoulders. "It might be possible."
"But where is it?" Luz asked.
Amity looked to what was in front of the print, it was some kind of cave that had a keep out sign written in what appeared to be blood. This made Amity raise her eyebrow in worry as if she knew what this place was.
"Oh no." Amity said.
"What is it Amity?" Luz asked her girlfriend.
"I know where the box is." Amity replied.
"Where?" Sasha asked.
"In that cave." Amity replied. "The Sanguisor Cave."
Sasha then looked away for a second and unsheathed her sword, something that made Luz raise an eyebrow.
"Sash, what are you doing?" Luz asked.
"Luz you did mention there were vampires on the Boiling Isles, right?" Sasha asked.
"That's what Eda told me." Luz replied. "Why?"
"I never paid attention in Latin class but I know that Sanguisor is Latin for blood sucker." Sasha replied.
"Wait, humans speak more languages other than Spanish and English?" Amity asked.
"I'll explain later, Cariño." Luz replied.
The gang slowly entered the cave with Sasha clutching on to her sword just in case, Hunter had Lil's Rascal perched on his shoulder, Luz had her light glyph as a torch while Amity was prepping her Abomination just in case.
"So…..do the vampires here have the same weakness?" Sasha asked. "As in, garlic, silver, wooden steal to the heart and sunlight?"
"They do hate silver and sunlight." Amity replied. "I didn't know they hated garlic."
"I thought they would have hated onions for a second." Sasha replied.
"What's an onion?"
Sasha then turned to Luz. "How have you survived for the last few months?"
"Finding the right food to digest isn't easy but I eventually find them." Luz replied.
"Humans, since you have an idea about what the vampires are and you have a lack weaknesses to use against them, it's clearly obvious that we need to be careful." Hunter said.
"Says the guy who might betray us." Amity muttered.
"If I was going to betray you, I would have let you walk in the cave to die whilst I stayed out." Hunter retorted.
"He has a point." Luz said.
"I don't know…."
"Amity, it's not like he set a trap for us." Luz assured her girlfriend.
But once again, fate had a sense of humour because Amity and Sasha fell through a trap door. "Amity!" Luz screamed.
But she couldn't save them because the trap door closed on them before Luz and Hunter could have had a chance to rescue them.
"No!" Luz exclaimed. "Amity!"
"They might be okay." Hunter theorised. "Come on, we have to find the box before someone else does. And we'll find your girlfriend."
"And Sasha." Luz reminded him.
Hunter sighed. "And that other human. Sure, why not. Because one human for this world wasn't enough."
"Okay." Luz responded while eyeing him. "Once again, it's just us and the truce."
"Yeah." Hunter responded while eyeing Luz.
Meanwhile, Amity and Sasha had landed in a deeper area of the cave thanks to the trapdoor they fell down. Sasha thankfully hadn't broken anything while Amity felt dizzy.
"Uh…You okay?" Sasha asked.
"Uh…." Amity groaned.
"Yeah, you're fine." Sasha said as she pulled herself up before noticing a random white cat in front of her. "And how about you Ghost?" Ghost just scratched themselves before moving to licking their paw.
"On the bright side, at least we can see." Amity remarked while placing her surpassingly un-scratched Palisman.
"Yeah…..Kind of strange." Sasha remarked before noticing some pretty rainbow covered crystals right beside them. Something that made Sasha disgusted. "Uh….Too pretty."
"Yeah, I'd stay to admire it but…mission." Amity said before pulling out her cat phone.
"What is that?" Sasha asked.
"Something to contact Luz with." Amity replied. "I'd use my scroll but Luz doesn't have one since Eda won't trust her with one. Eda says a lot of people use these."
"Used." Sasha retorted. "I mean, nobody uses these things anymore. That's something my own Mom and Dad used before they got married….." Sasha then looked to the ground after the mere mention of her parents. "…..Anyway, don't wish to talk about my parents and their marriage troubles."
The two started walking while Amity messaged her girlfriend to let her know that she was okay. But unbeknownst to them, something was crawling above them while hissing at them sinisterly.
Meanwhile, Luz had managed to get the message from Amity and smiled knowing that she was okay. "Esa es mi novia increíble."
Hunter stared at Luz, not understanding the words that were coming out of her mouth but he still continued to follow her.
"What if the box isn't in here?" Hunter asked.
"Then we keep looking." Luz replied before her torch went out. "Oh Titan." Luz then pulled out a another light glyph and lit it. Once she lit it, she screamed.
"What?!" Hunter yelled as he pulled Lil' Rascal out of his pocket.
"Sorry." Luz chuckled. "I expected something to be there. Like some stupid jump scare horror movie."
"Well, thanks for making me paranoid." Hunter said.
"Let's keep moving." Luz said.
"And scream when something actually comes at us from the dark." Hunter said while staring at Luz like he was intending something for her.
Meanwhile, Malsacc's forces and Yunan's forces continued to duel. Around 19 robots were destroyed by either the Emperor's soldiers or Malsacc or Yunan inadvertently. While many of the soldiers were injured due to either Yunan kicking them really hard or the robots.
Many of the robots were still fighting the Emperor's soldiers without getting tired, while many of the soldiers were either hiding, trying to surrender or trying to figure out a plan.
But Yunan and a tired Malsacc were still continued their duel with each of them, deflecting each other's hits.
"You need to give up at some point." Malsacc said with a smirk.
"I will not give up." Yunan protested. "I have trained myself to never give up."
"So you've trained yourself to be a perfect soldier?" Malsacc remarked.
"Ha! Perfect is too much of a small word! Flawless is more like it!" Yunan said.
"So, you've trained yourself to have a pleasant conversation while fighting an opponent?"
"Only when said enemy is getting tired." Yunan replied.
"So at some point, you wouldn't stop….." Then without warning, Malsacc placed his thumb on Yunan's head. This caused both of their pupils to dilate as Malsacc started to see every one of Yunan's memories. This included seeing Yunan being a violent child, Yunan clawing her way out of a beast when she was four, Yunan giving a young Lady Olivia a wedgie, training to become a soldier, being ranked to general by King Andrias, fighting Sasha and Grime, facing her biggest fear, watching Marcy being possessed by the Core, being tortured by Andrias for her treachery and finally, drinking tea aggressively with Odalia Blight. The mind reading witch removed his thumb and smiled. "…..This."
Yunan was horrified by what the witch had done that she was sweating. "What was that?!"
"I read your memories." Malsacc replied smugly. "It appears you're looking for another human who has arrived in this realm. Sasha, wasn't it?"
"Yeah." Yunan replied.
"My condolences to what happened to Marcy." Malsacc said. "I….." the Golden Guard then turned to his soldiers. "Listen, if you tell your soldiers to back down, my soldiers will back down."
"Back down men!" Yunan commanded, making her robots lower their weapons.
"Same for you guys!" Malsacc requested. "I'm having a conversation. Look, condolences for what happened to Marcy. A girl like her should not go through such trauma like that. But, she isn't my concern at the moment, my concern and your concern are the box. I want that box, you want that box and someone is trying to stop us from gaining it. So for now, how's about we call a truce? Once Sasha and Grime are dealt with, we'll have the box. Who will end up having it though, will be up to us to decide. So, what do you say Yunan?" Malsaac offered his hand out for Yunan to shake.
The newt general seemed reluctant since she wasn't so sure if he'll just betray her. But, she knew the battle will continued if there is no truce. "You have yourself a truce." She offered him her hand but she realised it was frozen, startling her and Malsaac.
"Uh…"
"Uh, cold climate!" Yunan then smashed the ice on her chest and wiped the snow off her armour. "Least I can just pull myself out."
"Men, I have an important announcement!" Malsacc yelled. "Me and General Yunan have agreed to a truce. We are going to be hunting a human named Sasha Waybright and Captain Grime before they can get their hands on the box. Who will end up with the box will be up to us to decide. So, respect her army and the general herself or otherwise, I will bathe in your dirty memories. Do you understand?!"
"Yes sir!" The Soldiers yelled.
"Good." Malsacc responded. "So, where do we start Yunan?"
Just then, one of the soldiers ran up to them. "Sir, we found some prints in the snow."
The soldier lead the two leaders to the spot where Sasha, Hunter, Amity and Luz were watching, but they didn't know. Yunan got down on knee to analyse their tracks.
"You're a tracker, what is it?" Malsacc asked.
"Two of them belong to humans. One definitely Sasha. Then, there's two I'm not familiar with." Yunan then looked at Malsaac and analysed him. "Possibly similar to you, but they're younger. One being rather scrawny."
"Oh, he lives." Malsacc whispered.
"Sorry?"
"Where are they?" Malsacc asked.
"Follow those footprints." Yunan replied before she, Malsacc and their respective soldiers started following her.
Meanwhile, Luz and Hunter were walking deeper in the cave to hopefully find anything that resembled the box, but they haven't found anything. They had been walking deeper for who knows how long but they knew they had to find it at some point.
Luz was quickly running out of light glyphs while Hunter was getting tired from all the walking. "Uh…."
"My Mama used to say, groaning won't get you anywhere faster." Luz retorted.
"How are you patient?" Hunter asked.
"I'm not." Luz replied. "I'm tired of walking, I'm almost out of glyphs to light our way. I just hope Amity's doing okay."
"So, you didn't dump your girlfriend?" Hunter asked. "I thought you would have dumped her after she didn't return with the Titan blood and lost the key."
Luz narrowed her eyes at Hunter. "No. I wouldn't do that to her. She's an awesome girlfriend whether she fails me or not."
"What?!" Hunter asked.
"Look, I don't know how relationships work where you're at but with me it's about trust and honesty." Luz explained. "I don't care if she fails me, I only care for her safety. I bet your boss won't care if you're dead."
"He probably won't." Hunter said shamefully. "He wasn't even proud of me for retrieving the key. He just locked in my room after tense scolding. It was probably because of that little crack that was on the key which appear to have some of the blood missing."
"I used it already." Luz replied. "Didn't work so…Wait, why does Belos want the Titan blood for?"
"That's classified." Hunter replied.
Luz narrowed her eyes at Hunter, knowing he wasn't being honest. "Yeah….."
"Why do you want the key?" Hunter asked.
"I just wanna get home."
"Uh huh." Hunter motioned her to continue.
"But I never got there. I ended up in a realm in-between where I could only communicate through the reflection." Luz looked sad as she remembered the promise she had to make. The look on Luz's face never went unnoticed by Hunter.
"You didn't like seeing your mother again?" Hunter queried.
"It wasn't like that!" Luz replied. "I just….We just had a conversation that was…A little tense. I said some things, there were tears…."
"There was a promise." Luz froze when Hunter mentioned promise. "Human, don't fool me. I know a look on someone's face when I see one. You've made a promise that you can't keep. Or perhaps, you made a promise, you just haven't told anyone about it." This made Hunter smile. "You haven't even told her." Luz was already getting angry at Hunter for perfectly predicting what was going on through Luz's mind right now. "And I thought being in a relationship was about trust and honesty."
"You're stepping over a line." Luz said while readying a glyph to throw at Hunter.
"Am I?" Hunter asked. "Do you even wanna go home? Or do you wish to stay here? You know deep down you wish to stay here to be at Hexside and to make out with your girlfriend 24/7. But on the other hand, you did make a promise to someone about being in a place you don't wish to be. But you know, if you take one of those options you'll be breaking someone's hearts. And I thought you were selfless. But no matter what decision you make, someone will see you as spiteful."
Just then, the light glyph went out at the perfect moment. Since Luz had tears falling from her face and she didn't want that stupid golden guard to see it. Once she was sure the tears were gone, she pulled out another light glyph and activated it. The light shone as it turned out that there was now a vampire in front of her. This sight caused Luz to scream and fell.
The vampire was pale, had pointy ears, sharp fangs, pale eyes, a small nose, sharp claws on their hands and feet. It hissed as more vampires started crawling on the ceiling above Hunter and Luz.
But before Hunter could pull out Lil' Rascal, one of the vampires quickly grabbed the Palisman. Then a number of vampires pounced on Hunter, rendering him helpless while doing the same to Luz.
"Ah! Please don't suck our blood!" Luz pleaded.
"Suck her's!" Hunter suggested.
"That will be up to the Queen to decide." The vampire hissed. "Queen Vlad, will decide."
"We mean no trouble." The terrified Luz said. "We only came for a box."
"That will be up to the Queen to decide." The vampire reminded her. "Now move."
The vampires pulled Luz and Hunter up and started to shove them deeper into their lair to meet their leader.
"Come on Amity." Luz whispered to herself. "Where are you?"
Meanwhile, Amity was texting Luz on the cat phone but she wasn't responding for whatever reason. Sasha had her hand on her sword just in case any vampires came their way. Even with the essence of light beside them, she was sure that the vampires would pop out of nowhere and try to suck their blood.
"Come on Luz, where are you?" Amity asked. "Answer me. I'm getting worried!"
"Hey Amity, do you mind?" Sasha whispered. "We don't know if we'll wake the vampires."
"Good point." Amity agreed.
"Hey, we're stuck together." Sasha remarked. "And not once have you actually been suspicious of me."
"I can't be suspicious of you right now since my girlfriend is stuck with one of the worst people I have ever met." Amity said. "If he has laid a finger on her then I will tear him apart! I almost killed him once so I won't be afraid to do it."
Sasha was amazed by this info. "Wow, love the commitment. A girlfriend who'd kill to protect the one she loves. Shame none of my exes were like that. All they wanted was to impress me by sucking up to me no matter what I do."
"Wow, sounds rather toxic." Amity replied.
"Yeah, no wonder Anne doesn't want to be my friend anymore." Sasha said sadly. "She probably won't forgive me. She probably hates me. I mean, I wish I was forced to be awful to be my friends."
Amity sighed. "Sasha, that won't help. It's equally bad. But look on the bright side: You're willing to change and maybe Anne will understand."
"Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen." Sasha replied.
"Hey, maybe it won't happen right away." Amity mused. "Maybe, it'll take time for a relationship like yours to be fixed. I mean, it took time for me and Willow to fix things but it worked. So, I do think you'll eventually fix things with Anne."
"Least you think so." Sasha replied. "When I get back to Earth. I am going to try and fix things with Anne. Hey, Luz hasn't mentioned about what happened to her at the human realm. Did things go well between her and her mom?"
Amity sighed. "She….Hasn't. She hasn't told me, Eda, King or Hooty about what had happened."
"Oh." Sasha responded. "Any reason?"
"I don't know." Amity admitted. "I told her that she should take her time and I will be there when she tells me. But, every time I bring it up she just seems uncomfortable. I mean, honesty is important in a relationship and I thought Luz knew that."
"Could it be that it's something she is worried would hurt you?" Sasha theorised.
"What makes you say that?" Amity asked.
"It seems likely, but I hope it's not true." Sasha replied. "Same thing happened between me, Anne and Marcy. She didn't tell us she knew about the music box because she didn't want to lose me or Anne. Maybe she doesn't want to tell you about what happened in the realm because she is scared that you'd be hurt."
Amity started pondering whether Sasha was right about her girlfriend. "What happened there?" Amity asked herself. But before she continued to think, vampires pounced off of the ceiling.
Amity readied her Abominations while Sasha pulled her sword out while the vampires quickly surrounded them.
"Well, that happened." Sasha remarked.
"Do you have a plan of escape?" Amity asked.
"Well, I was planning to use my sword. Then I realised it wasn't silver. Do you have a plan B?"
Before Amity could reply, the wall exploded revealing sunlight that blinded the girls. While the girls were blinded, the vampires were not so lucky since the sun itself had burnt them all into nothing but skeletal remains.
The girls got a look at their rescuers and it turned out to be none other than King Andrias' robot solders, the Emperor's soldiers, Malsacc and General Yunan.
The two reluctant allies smiled sinisterly at their targets with Yunan activating her wrist blades and aiming them at the girls. "Hello there." Yunan greeted.
Sasha turned to Amity and whispered, "Do you have another plan B?"