Lanayru
AN: Still not done in spite of me saying it would be done last chapter. Check. Been working on this for the past three months. Still not entirely happy with how it turned out.
[1]
"Lee?"
"Yeah?"
"I've been wondering something."
It was January and Lee had gotten back from her tour just a week ago. The two of them were in bed. Their apartment was on the outskirts of Peach Creek. The bedroom alone was half the size of their old ass trailer.
"What's that, Eddy?" Lee asked, taking the covers out from her breasts and letting her tits show.
"I remember when we met in your trailer way back when we were kids."
"What about it?"
"You and your sisters liked us from the start, right?"
Lee looked at him. "You're bringing that up now?"
Eddy smirked. "Double D's the smart one. I didn't think of it until now."
"Yeah, me and my sisters liked you guys from the start."
"I guess what I'm trying to say is why pick us at all? There are hundreds of guys in Peach Creek."
Lee just stared at him, making Eddy sweat a little. He'd gone too far and fucked up somehow. Her left arm, like Marie's right, was covered in tattoos.
"You've met my mama, right?" she asked.
"What're you talking about? Of course I have."
"When did you first meet her? When was that?"
"I dunno. Four years ago or something. No…fuck that. It was a few days after I started dating you for the first time."
"Who was she with at the time?" Lee asked. "Do you remember?"
"What? Yeah, of course I remember."
Except he had no fucking clue.
"I think his name was Gareth." Eddy said finally. "No, it was Tooles. No...Dune?"
"Keep trying, baby."
Lee, what does this shit have to do—"
"His name was Byron, and he was a fucking punk bitch. All those names you said just now, some of them felt…kinda like the right answer; right?" Lee asked.
"Yeah." Eddy said.
"That's because those were all names of one boyfriend or another. She's been through so many of them that I'm starting to forget most of them too. All of mama's boyfriends were punk bitches and they always will be. She dates bad boys because she thinks they're fun. Then they hit her, cheated on her, or stole her money to buy drugs. Then she finds out, dumps them, and bitches about all men being brain-dead pigs. Then she finds a new boyfriend and we're off to the fucking races again.
"Me and my sisters, we didn't want any of that. Then we met you three."
Lee giggled at the memory. Eddy couldn't help but smirk too.
"We knew you guys were outcasts. Ed reeked and he was a few bullets shy of a full magazine. Double D was a geek and a killjoy. And we can't forget you." Lee pinched his cheek hard.
"Ouch."
"Always running your mouth and trying to scam people. It pissed those kids off and got you clobbered more than a few times. I always liked the ones where you sold them 'food,' but it turned out it was just baseballs dipped in pink paint, or fucking rubber tires you cut up into burgers. I mean, c'mon, Eddy. How stupid did you think a 10-year-old was?"
Eddy didn't answer but just laughed.
Lee said: "You yelled at us…but then you guys tried to say sorry. Mama's boyfriends couldn't admit they were wrong about something if it meant the fucking firing squad. Yeah, the three of us would gang up on any one of you, but we always had favorites."
"No shit."
"None. Marie always talked about how she liked guys who were slobs and cheaters, but it was a fucking lie and I knew it even then. She really wanted a guy like Double D. Always trying to make sense out of nonsense, order out of chaos, always trying to make the right decision even when it wasn't easy or the cool thing to do. Sockhead being so fucking smart was just a bonus.
"May liked Ed because he was a sweetheart and so damn kooky. All that weird shit he would always say, every time she laughed? That shit wasn't fake, Eddy. She always thought he was funny. Those late night B-movies and those cheap sci-fi horror comics, not to mention all those video games he likes? She likes all that stuff too. A guy like Ed would never call somebody stupid or look down on them. Him being so fucking cut was just a bonus."
"What about me?" Eddy said.
Lee turned in the bed, looking directly at him. "You? That's an easy one. You're a leader. No matter what Double D and Ed, wanted to do, you were the one calling the shots 99 times out of a 100."
"Yeah, it was. And I fucked things up all the time."
Lee shook her head. "No, you didn't. A lot of times it was because Ed broke something or Double D's invention just wasn't built too last. Those two liked to pretend that it was all on you, but they always helped you, time and time again."
Eddy laughed. "You noticed that too?"
Lee smiled broadly, showing the silver tooth where her rotting blue one had been. "Yeah, I did. You all wanted the same thing back then: money for jawbreakers. Deep down, they wanted to help you even if they didn't know it, and then eventually they knew it too. I think that's what makes a great leader."
Eddy was genuinely touched.
"You being so short was just a bonus."
He cackled. "Fuck you, Lee."
"In a minute—but back to my point. Back then, I knew you were pissed off all the time. That you felt alone. Look at you now. 25 and you're one of the three managers at the factory. You're a leader and you're going to be something. You'll be running things at that factory before long…whether you want to admit it or not. All three of you were so fucking gorgeous, that we just couldn't help it a lot of the time."
"You don't have to apologize for that anymore." he said. "I already told you that."
"You three were beautiful because you were everything mama's boyfriends would never ever be. Thank you."
"Oh, shit, Lee." Eddy turned away so she wouldn't see his red face. "You're making me break out in a rash."
Lee whispered in his ear: "I'll break more than that."
They made love for the second time that night.
"What about Ed and May?" Eddy asked when they were done. "They're still trapped in that shitty VR game. According to the news, a dozen more people fucking died just this week."
"I dunno." Lee said honestly. "But I think they'll make it. The two of them are good at those kinds of games. Better than the rest of us."
"Yeah, for sure." he said. "I just wish Sockhead was a hacker with the CIA right now, instead of trying to be a surgeon."
"I wonder if they'll find each other in there." Lee said. But deep down, she thought she already knew the answer. She had Eddy to thank for that.
[2]
She was in a forest of giant trees and was already down to half health.
"Oh, crap." May said. "This ain't good."
The demons in front of her were anthromorphic monkeys with bloodshot, red eyes. They wore tattered and shredded monk garments covered with dried blood. They were called Wu Kongs, and they were vicious.
She encountered the first one and killed it after losing 50 percent of her life. Before it died, it screamed, drawing two more assholes for her to deal with.
The first one did a flying tackle, but she spaced properly and it just hit the ground in front of her. But instead of standing upright, it did a somersault on the ground and kicked at her with both feet. May blocked but the attack deleted her entire stamina bar in one hit. A guard crush! Damn! It would've been better just to dodge, or even tank the hit.
Being guard crushed meant the same thing here that it did in Dark Souls. May's hands were flung into the air and she tilted back, as if losing her balance. She was stuck in this animation for two whole seconds—a damn lifetime. The Wu Kong rolled onto its hands and launched itself into the air, flipping and kicking both feet into May's chest.
"Shit!"
She went flying back and crashed into a tree with a thunderous boom, making the whole thing shiver and shake. May fell to her knees, looked up. The first Wu Kong was racing towards her, but the second wasn't moving. She couldn't fully make it out from this distance, but there was a large ball of demon energy charging at shoulder-level and everyone knew what that meant.
The Demon Gun lanced through the gloom of the forest. May's stamina was about 30 percent, so she used it to roll out of the way.
Behind her, the giant tree exploded like a dropped glass ball, sending burnt wood chips everywhere. Advanced as the game was, with its destructible environments, they could not do damage—even if a tree fell right on top of someone's head. So May was merely blown off to the side instead of into a million pieces.
The explosion of the high-level Demon Gun was a different story. So when May was face-down on the ground, she quickly saw that she had only 15 health points. Just one more hit would do it.
The closer Wu Kong jumped high into the air. May rolled out of the way of its heavy stomp, which cracked the ground, and swept its legs out. It fell onto its back and but immediately bounced up. It looked at her…only to be looking at a knee rushing toward it like a freight train.
It popped up into the air, losing a fourth of its life with one attack. The second Wu Kong shot another Demon Gun her way. May jumped high, avoiding the shot, and did an aerial grab on the first Wu Kong. The animation played out: May grabbed its legs, spun around like an avenging whirlwind and let go. The demon slammed into another tree, cracking it in half vertically and the thing still wasn't dead. It's life bar was a sliver and it made her grind her teeth in frustration.
May landed neatly on the ground, looked around for harsh red light, saw it and ducked. The Demon Gun passed bare inches above her head. She charged spirit energy into her finger.
"Fire!"
The Spirit Gun sent the second Wu Kong tumbling across the ground but didn't do much damage. A fourth of May's spirit gauge was used, which gave her just enough for one more shot. She fired again, this time at the first Wu Kong. It had fallen from the tree and was slowly getting up. It tried to dodge by jumping in the air.
It might have made it but jumped too late. May's Spirit Gun also had AOE and the blast clipped the demon's legs and tail. Only 20 points of damage but it was enough. The bastard immediately died and ragdolled, spinning through the air, flipping over and over as it began to disintegrate.
"One more to go." May said. But that was easier said than done. It had taken some damage from the Spirit Gun but that still left 100 points of damage she still needed to give it.
That's when she realized she was glowing with red, demonic energy. She glanced down. Black, tattoos of eldritch design were spreading all over her body. A slow grin spread across her face. She had leveled up. She had reached level 25 and discovered her demonic power.
[3]
The Wu Kong was still charging toward her. But she knew how to assign points on the fly.
When it was done, her stats were this:
Vitality: 250 LP
Strength: 70.
Speed: 45
Defense: 59.
Balance: 62
Demon (formerly Spirit): 350 SP.
Focus: 45.
Harmony: 60
Purity: 30
Melting: 55
Particle: 72
Soul: Chaotic Neutral.
Not the most balanced spread. Her Spirit Defense was jacked so high because she knew for a fact that high-level enemies had Spirit attacks that could kill a player in one hit. Spirit regen was also high thanks to the rarity of Arcane Talismans even after three patches. Purity was a different story. Antidotes were dropped like confetti, and the "item use" animation for that one was pretty quick anyway. Strength was obvious. Some people said that it negatively scaled with Balance but she wasn't convinced. She hated getting staggered by anything that wasn't a charged heavy attack, so high Balance too.
[4]
It was a pleasant surprise, but she wasn't in the clear by any stretch.
The Wu Kong was charging at her from long distance. Enemy bots had Spirit Gauges too, and their Spirit regen left all player characters completely in the dust, even the lucky few who were full demons. That left May with perhaps a minute to defeat this guy before it could get another Demon Gun off on her.
When it closed the gap, the Wu Kong tried a jump kick. May dove to one side, and immediately attacked once she was on her feet. Dodge-attacks took the form of a lunge, in her case a lunge kick.
The kick knocked the Wu Kong on its ass. It immediately bounced back up, screaming at her.
"Sure, champ." she whispered, low and deadly. "Whatever you say."
Her stamina was at 70 percent or so. She wanted to get it increase to 80 percent, but the Wu Kong was having none of it. It did a flying spin kick. May ducked and did a spin kick of her own, catching it in the balls…if mutated monkey demons had balls.
It seemed like they didn't. The Wu Kong slammed into the ground, rolling over, but it got right back up again. It had 55 health points left.
May glanced around. No new hostiles.
A scream from in front of her as the fucker charged again. This time, it threw punches. Fast, quick, balanced punches that didn't throw it off balance, which was the case with lower-level enemies. Bone Conscripts did that kind of thing a LOT, and people made games getting Conscripts to lunge-swing themselves off of cliffs.
May spaced the Wu Kong's first three punches. She kicked at its torso. The kick was grabbed. The Wu Kong swung her around once and let go. She tumbled across the ground. Once she got right side-up, she saw the demon in the air, doing an elbow drop.
She had 60 stamina. Enough to roll out of the way. There was a cracking blast as another large crater was put in the ground.
She immediately scrambled to her feet but the Wu Kong made it first. It did three kicks. She spaced them, and jumped over the final leg sweep with a spinning jump kick that caught the demon in the face. It somersaulted into the ground.
It had 35 health points left.
"C'mon." she breathed. "C'mon you little little turd. Show me what you got."
It flipped back onto its feet. It back flipped away from her. There was a brief red flash in its eyes, and everyone knew what that meant. May thought she would have more time.
"Damn it!" she yelled and raced toward it.
The Wu Kong stuck the landing and raised its fingers in the gun gesture. Demon energy pulsed on its pointing finger.
May made it in time to grab the arms for a forward throw. The demon gun charge up was negated as the throw animation played out—May kneed the Wu Kong twice in the gut, making it buckle over only to get a knee to the forehead. It fell on its ass again. It began to rise slowly, meaning it was running out of health.
May dashed toward it and did her dash attack, a flying double kick. Her feet planted directly in the bastard's chest while it was still standing up.
The Wu Kong flew into a tree, cracking it but not breaking it. It fell to the ground. It stood up, stumbled around in a daze, coughed up a river of blood and then fell over, turning to ash.
[5]
She looked around, half-dazed her own damn self. Nothing else around her. She put on squad chat.
"Red? You there?"
No response from BigRedGun. She'd gotten separated from everyone.
"BigRed. Are you there?! Vodka? Hello?!"
All too late, opened up the squad menu in the top left, and checked squad health.
BigRedGun's health bar was depleted. So was WhittakerFlightVodka..
They were gone.
May crumbled to her knees.
"Damn it!" she cried out, tears welling in her eyes. "Shit!"
She pounded the ground uselessly. Pounded until her hand hurt and she started taking scratch damage.
[6]
"See anything?" Bates asked. He was a short human with bald hair, and an orange gi, so that he looked as much like Krillin from DBZ as he could.
The two of them were at Ruto Hill, which overlooked Lanaryu Castle from the west.
"You've got your own scope, Bates." May finally answered.
"It's more fun like this." Bates answered.
"Shut up, Bates."
MasterBates247 laughed at that, but it wasn't funny. Red and Vodka had been dead for weeks, and she still wasn't okay with it.
Bates saw she was near tears. "Okay, Love. I'm sorry."
"It's fine." May said, even though it really wasn't.
"Now for God's sakes, can you just tell me what you see?"
She looked through the scope again.
"Soulless Snipers sittin' on the castle walls."
"Fuck those guys."
"Yeah."
Soulless Snipers had a human-like body, but with armed scales instead of skin. They had nothing below the waist, so they moved around on their long-ass arms when passive. When they spotted someone, they took to the air with their large, feathered wings. They were a huge pain in the ass to fight. They almost never landed, which meant you either needed a ranged weapon yourself (which were very rare) or enough Spirit to take them down.
Their sight range was freakin' stupid too. The closest one was about 80 yards away. It saw them anyway and took flight. The demon had a massive, tattooed eye on its chest. It glowed bright red, and fired a large Demon Cannon at them.
Bates stepped forward, put his hands up and said, "Shield!"
A blue dome barrier surrounded them. The Demon Cannon crashed into it and bounced into the sky. At the same time, the barrier was shattered immediately, throwing Bates into the ground.
May threw a stamina potion at him to get him up faster. Then they fled.
[7]
(Weeks later)
"We got the plan, people?" the full demon asked.
Everyone nodded. DragonFiteClub sat in a large circle around a campfire. The fire was blue. It had Soylent Divine Incense thrown in it. SD Incense made an invisible bubble around the campfire, so that no enemy NPCs could walk through. Their energy attacks couldn't penetrate the bubble either. After 12 hours of game-time, the incense was all burned up and the fire would turn red again.
"Let's run through it again, just to be sure." the demon said.
Everybody groaned. There were a few scattered "C'mon, Dragon" and "Give me a fucking break."
"Don't give me that shit!" AngryDragon50k said. "You know what's gonna happen if we fuck this up. So people, what's the game plan?"
"Me, Hare and Aphro are on defense." Bates said. PullMyHare10x, Aphr0dite and MasterBates had the highest Particle stats of the group. Their Demon Barriers (or Spirit Barrier in Bates' case) would last the longest, which was still none too long. Hare was a tall Korean woman with a silver cloak. Aphro was a black woman with…an afro as well as leather armor.
"Hornet and me…as well as you, Dragon, are on the attack." Nine said. SuperHornetPill, 9NiceFacials, and AngryDragon were full demons, so they were naturally the heaviest hitters. They had more than a passing resemblance to the Annabelle Demon with black scales and horns. Their horns were so big, they might as well have been antlers. Thanks to Tumor and his "anti-illusion spell" their faces didn't have the bony ridges or pointy nose that they should have had. Instead it was their normal, human features and even their skin color. All three of them were white. Nine had a blind eye that looked off in some wonky direction.
"LoveMachine and I are gonna take out the Soulless Snipers." Mommy said. I_ll_be_yourmommy was a Japanese guy from Michigan with dreadlocks. He wore purple clothes from the Rag Tag set, making him look like Piccolo. Mommy and May were the best shots on the team. Mommy was a full human. In the six months she'd known him, May had seen him make ridiculous shots with his Spirit Gun. His Melting stat was very good too, at 82.
"So it's all straight then." Dragon said.
"At least as far as the entrance." Nine said. "We have no idea what happens after."
"It ain't gonna be good." May said. "We gotta stick together. No matter what."
"It would be a little easier if you guys were all half-demons." Hornet said.
Mommy waved his hand in disgust. "Oh, shut that shit up, asshole. You've been fucking saying that since I got here."
"I never hear the end of it either." Bates said angrily. "Because we were apparently supposed to know that we'd be stuck here."
"You should have known that the devs were lying about Sacred Energy." Hornet said.
"Guys…" Dragon muttered, rubbing his horned head with one clawed hand.
"It's not a lie, douchebag!" Mommy said. "We just haven't seen it yet!"
"Guys!"
Hornet just smirked at them. "What level are you guys, huh? 40 on both of you, right? Halfies get their demon energy by now."
"Enough!" Dragon's eyes glowed red. When he shouted, his voice was booming. "We are NOT going to start fucking fighting before we're even through the fucking front door. This is serious shit, and if you all are going to screw it up, lemme know! I'll fucking kill you and take your shit and build another team! FUCK WITH ME AND SEE IF I'M LYING!"
He could too. He was 10 full levels higher than any of them. Hornet and Nine were too.
That shut everyone up. They ate food in silence, getting their health up. Then slept.
They woke up, destroyed the campfire, then started walking.
[8]
On the way there, they encountered another group. These poor fools were all humans and called themselves the Psychonauts. They must have been siblings or family members or something, because they had a ridiculous theme naming thing going on. One guy was named DSThing1; the other, DSThing2. The leader was CatInAHat. None of them saw FiteClub coming.
May protested like she usually did. Nobody listened like they usually did. After all, CatInAHat had a pretty nice bo staff on his back. It shined with spiritual energy.
And after all, how did they know for sure if people were dying from this game on the outside? It wasn't like they had any contact with the outside world.
This whole fiasco would be a year old in a week and two days. 5,000 people had already died and if they were really dead on the outside as well, then that made Xe Tang Le, the developer, a serial killer. If people found him, he would be given a guaranteed life sentence at the very least. It just didn't make sense that a developer would do something like that. Sacred Fist had taken off like a rocket ship. Why not just take the money and get the bitches?
Of course, the whole issue of dead people never respawning back in the world could be easily explained. It was like that sci-fi choose-your-own-adventure book Dragon had read when he was a kid. In it, some brat gets this mysterious cartridge game at a pawn shop or something. When the brat turned it on, he's briefed by mission control that he has only a few hours to save Earth from a world-buster or something like that. One of the choices in the book has the brat going off with his mother to get groceries. The brat comes back from the store, turns the game back on, and he's greeted with nothing but an exploding Earth. Every time he turns the game back on, that exploding Earth is the only thing he sees. There's only one chance to beat the game and the kid blew it. This game was like that. Most likely, the people were just ejected back into consciousness again, and their $400 Synapse Gear was now an expensive brick. Nothing else.
Few of the Fite Club members believed him. May saw it in their eyes. Probably Dragon saw it too. It didn't matter. He was still the boss. He was still in charge.
So FiteClub took them down. All three of them. They begged for their lives. Dragon wasn't interested in any of it. This wasn't Skyrim. There was no sneaking, no illusion charms, no stealth mode and stealing mechanic. Anything a player had was bound to them, and you could not take it from them until they were dead.
May watched. A single tear ran down her eye.
"How did they even make it so far?" Aphro asked.
"It doesn't matter." Nine said. "We need all the loot we can get." But she still sounded sad about the whole thing. She always did.
"Fucking full-humans." Hornet grunted. "Where's your Sacred Energy now, huh?"
Mommy and Bates said nothing in response.
"That's enough." Dragon said distantly. "Grab their shit."
Hare took it.
[9]
Castle Lanayru was a lot like many castles in movies and video games: it was surrounded by a moat. The moat itself was Red Water, which was toxic. If you got knocked in, you had maybe 10 seconds before your life bar was completely gone.
A person with mermaid armor and multiple items that stacked poison resist could probably travel up the waterfall on the west wall. A person could glide from the Impa Cliffs north of the castle if they had a divine cloak.
Fite Club had none of that. Fortunately, the front of the castle had a sturdy stone bridge with fencing.
The entrance to Castle Lanayru was guarded by Wu Kongs. Together, FiteClub took them out with few issues, although a couple health potions were used. The bodies were looted, giving them a few health potions.
"Okay." Nine breathed. "We're doing fine. We're doing just fine."
The only thing in front of them now was the front door to the main grounds of the castle.
"Remember the plan." Dragon said.
"Dragon, we remember the plan for the millionth fucking time." Mommy said.
They opened the door.
[10]
Three minutes later, May was up against a wall and she had only 30 health points left.
"Mary and Joseph." she slurred.
A strong attack from a Ronin Ogre had knocked her against one of the castle walls. Which meant she would be dazed for three whole fucking seconds.
Her eyes cleared. In front of her, the castle grounds were a charred landscape. And it turned out she didn't have much to worry about because the three Ronin Ogres on the field were too busy murdering the rest of her team. They were nine feet tall. Their green samurai armor was rusted and cracking and falling off in places…which didn't make it any less durable. Their eyes were small red dots in their sunken faces.
It was like a grotesque slasher film was playing out in front of her.
May watched as Aphro was completely sliced in two by a massive downward swing. She was able to scream once before turning into dust.
"No." May whispered.
On her right, the second Ronin Ogre was crushing Nine into the ground with its feet. She didn't have a chance to scream at all.
Hornet was killed when the third Ogre kicked him into the wall hard enough to make a crater.
"No."
Mommy tried firing a Spirit Gun at the third Ogre. It answered back by opening its mouth and firing a Demon Cannon. It wasn't even close. The beams didn't collide. The red beam swallowed up the blue one. Mommy's face was a still image of horror. Then he was consumed in an explosion.
"No!" May screamed, standing up now.
Hare attacked the third Ogre from behind with the bo staff. She did a powerful thrust right into its butt. The Ogre was staggered…for all of one single second. It spun around—so much faster than it had any right to be—and did a massive swing with its changdao at the same time.
Hare blocked with the staff, and her guard was immediately crushed. The Ogre wasn't done. It slung its two-hander over its shoulder with one hand and grabbed Hare with the other.
May screamed: "My God, no!" She charged a Demon Gun. But the light at the tip of her pointer finger was so damned tiny.
She saw that the Demon meter wasn't just low but completely empty. Not even a hint of red was in that bar. She'd spent it all getting rid of the four Snipers that had surrounded them a minute ago. Quite a few misses, and she had no Spirit Flasks to spare now.
May tried anyway. "Fire!"
Nothing happened. Of course.
She screamed the words again and again. "Fire, God damn it!"
But she could scream it for another three hours and it wouldn't matter.
The Ogre raised Hare up high. She screamed for mercy. The Ogre slammed her into the ground hard enough to make a small earthquake. Hare didn't just turn into dust. She exploded.
May felt helpless. She felt useless. All the punching and kicking and martial arts shit she had done. All the level-grinding and training. All the time she spent here. None of it mattered. None of it mattered at all. This wasn't a game. This was just like real life. Oh yeah, she was a real good fighter when beating up those wimps who used to live in the cul-de-sac.
But then push comes to shove and something really bad happens. A nutcase older brother beats his little brother into the ground. One of Mama's boyfriends gives her a black eye. And everyone else is fighting and getting hurt, while May just stands there with…not just a thumb in her ass, or two thumbs, but the whole fucking hand.
Why couldn't she do this? Why couldn't she freaking help?!
Dragon was now fighting the first Ogre, flipping through the air once and planting both feet into its chest. He was down to half health and the same now went for the Ogre he just kicked.
"Love!" Bates called out. He dashed toward her, sliding under a Demon Cannon shot. "We gotta get out of here!"
"Huh?" May said. She felt somewhat dazed. Like she was in a nightmare. The Ogre that killed Hare was marching towards them.
"We are leaving!" Bates shouted. Sweat ran down his frantic face. "Dragon's gonna hold them off, give us time to bounce outta here!"
He grabbed her by the wrist. "Let's go!"
They ran towards the gate. A great rushing sound came towards them. They looked, expecting to see a charging Ogre. What they got instead was Dragon being thrown at them, going as fast as a jetliner.
Bates and May said "Shit" and then they were thrown against one of the walls. May took 20 damage from Dragon crashing into her and another from hitting the wall.
Five points left. She wasn't even hanging by a thread. She was hanging by an atom. Bates had only 14 health points before, and now he turned to dust before her eyes.
"No!" she cried.
Just her and Dragon left and he was flat on his face.
May slowly got up. The Ronin Ogres were nearly on top of her. They would attack long before she or Dragon were back in neutral stance. His rising animation hadn't even started yet.
A beam of golden light struck the first Ogre. It blew a massive hole in the demon, which then went catapulted through the air.
May looked around. She didn't see anyone else in the castle grounds.
Another gold beam killed the second Ogre. It plainly came from beyond the entrance doorway they were next to. She couldn't see the shooter from this angle.
He came walking through the doorway, glowing with golden Spirit energy May had never seen before.
