The mutated pirate captain leaped off of his ship, teleporting to various places over the water before reaching the shoreline where the heroes stood. The beast was hovering a foot off the ground.
"Jeez, settle down," Sonic said. "I need that World Ring of yours!"
Shahra used her magic to scan the creature. "The source of its power is the horns on its head. Try to see if you can pull them out somehow"
Without warning, Bemoth charged the hero head first.
The speedster sighed. "Some guys just never learn…" Strapping a machine that fired an artificial adhesive to his wrist—the same one he had used in the Dinosaur Jungle to save himself from a fatal fall—Sonic side-flipped over the djinn. Pressing the trigger, the glowing cord shot out and snagged the beast's rear horn.
Sonic yanked on the cable of light, bringing Bemoth to a stop. The beast was thrashing around like a fish on a line, struggling to get free. The speedster took note of that.
"Whoa-ho! Landed me a big one!" he joked.
With one final effort, Bemoth barrel rolled, breaking loose, but causing its bony protrusion to be uprooted in the process. It growled in pain as it turned around to charge Sonic again.
"Well, that did the trick," Sonic noted, staring at the blue strand of light in his hands.
Bemoth charged again.
Sonic strapped a second device to his free wrist and fired both at the mutated captain.
The substance covered the djinn's eyes, blinding the monster.
Seizing the chance, the blue streak shot a glowing cable at each of the horns on the sides of Bemoth's head. Backpedaling quickly, he tore the ensnared horns out of the captain's skull.
Unleashing a furious roar of pain and frustration, the pirate commander ripped the adhesive from his eyes and took off flying down the dirt trail.
"Oh, no you don't!" Sonic shot another strand at the monster's final horn. But the place where he stood was covered in moss. His traction weak, his feet slipped and he was dragged along like a fisherman yanked out of a boat by a marlin.
The djinn tore down the path trying to evade its assailant. It wasn't about to be defeated by a scrawny teenager.
Sonic wasn't about to give up either. Sorry, bub, but I need that World Ring! And you are just getting in my way, he thought as he was dragged through the air by his own cable.
The beast turned around, facing its enemy. Its arms had been covering its hideous face for most of the time, making it take on a diamond shape. But, Bemoth spread its limbs out as it began charging up power from the stolen World Ring.
Sonic saw the face behind the monster's arms and it was not pretty or easy to look at. This thing made even the Sand Scorpion look cuddly. The beard of fleshy appendages, the crooked teeth, the deformed face… It looked more like a mutated sea slug than a pirate captain.
He shuddered as he gripped the glowing cable tightly, cringing. "Holy—! Dude, you are ugly! And not just ugly, like Biblical ugly! Like, 'you could model for death threats' ugly!"
With a wave of its fleshy, deformed, blue arm, the monster shot a massive wall of water at its enemy. It was trying to force him off the rope.
The wave hit Sonic, causing his grip to fumble, putting him a yard from the end of the web strand. He tightened his grip and looked toward the mutated commander. "Come on, Bemoth! Is that all you got?"
The captain swept its other arm forward, launching another hydrokinetic attack at the speedster.
Sonic kicked himself for being an idiot. "I had to say that…"
The second water wall struck him even harder than the first.
Sonic now found himself holding on for dear life at the cable's literal end. "Me and my big mouth," he sputtered, coughing up water. "I've been fried, battered, waterlogged, and impaled by a magic dart today! I am in serious need of down time…" The nearly-drowned teenager looked up.
The beast raised both of its arms. Clearly, this last wave was intended to be twice the ferocity of the last two.
"Okay, that's it! I am sick and tired of being target practice!" Gripping the strand with both hands, Sonic yanked on it, sailing higher into the air as the deformed djinn unleashed the final wave. The top of the water wall barely grazed Sonic's sneakers as he dove for the monster's head.
The speedster landed on the beast's face as it growled in discomfort.
Sonic crinkled his nose, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the air. "Oh, yikes! Can you say halitosis?"
Clambering on the top of the spirit's head, the blue blur grabbed the last horn with both hands as he planted his feet firmly onto the commander's face. Pulling with all the strength he had left, he managed to uproot the final horn as the djinn sent him flying off by intentionally slamming into a rocky wall.
Sonic crashed into the ground head-first, taking a tumble. The sharp rocks protruding from the trail and the loose gravel shredded his skin and clothes. Finally, he ended up face down, about twenty yards from where the pirate was.
With all four horns gone, Captain Bemoth let out a final screech of anguish as it perished in an explosion of electricity and Arabic text.
On the ground, Sonic propped himself up on one arm to watch his enemy's demise. Bedeviled and bedraggled, the speedster had just enough energy to crack a last joke before everything faded to black. "Hey, cheer up… The horns will grow back. Eventually…"
A female voice was faintly heard. "Soooniiiic…" The speedster slowly opened his eyes.
Everything was white.
The voice was heard again, louder this time. "Soooniiic…"
Slowly, dark colors started seeping in. He felt cold, like someone had just thrown an unending bucket of water on him. His vision was still blurry as his name was called again with that same ghostly sound. The form of a human body was hovering over him.
A familiar female face, concerned and scared, faded into view. Shahra.
Shahra shouted his name one last time as he finally came to. "Sonic!"
"…Shahra?"
The genie breathed a sigh of relief.
Sonic now remembered why he felt cold. Torrential rain had been pounding at his skin for some time now.
Shahra helped her master up. He had a large, bleeding gash on his head from the tumble he took. His arms were in no better condition. The lower halves of his pant legs were tattered and his shirt had fresh tears in it from the crash. The genie quickly set to work on healing his wounds with her magic as she propped him up against a rock wall.
"Don't you scare me like that!" she scolded.
Sonic weakly smiled at her. "What? I did what needed to be done."
"I know, but still…"
Sonic stood up as his injuries finished healing. In the spot where Bemoth met his end was a large, glowing sky blue band.
"That's another of the seven rings," Shahra confirmed, floating over. "The Water Blue Ring. I still can't even touch the ring…"
"Looks like I'm the only one who can touch them," the blue streak stated, walking towards the glowing band. "I betcha it's because I'm not from this world. Does that mean these rings aren't from this world, either?" He picked up the Ring of Water. As expected, there was a surge of power, but this one had less of a kick than the other three did, and by now, Sonic was becoming adjusted to the pain from the jolt. A wave of satisfaction and pleasure washed over him as he held the ring in his hand, breathing a sigh of relief that one of his tasks was over.
Still concerned, Shahra flew beside her master. "Sonic…?"
"I'm fine. This has to be the ring Sinbad was telling us about before. Now, let's go back and defeat that, um… whatchamacallit."
"The Ifrit, the Great Spirit of Fire."
Ali Baba flew down from above using the rotors on his back, waving at them through the downpour of rain. He pointed a finger in the direction of the Evil Foundry.
"There's smoke coming from the castle," he yelled through the tempest. "It looks like the Ifrit's power to burn the world away is getting stronger!"
Sonic tossed the World Ring into the air, catching it again with a confident smirk on his face. "Okay, I'm ready!" Turning in the direction of the Evil Foundry, he began the long trek back to the fortress of flame and iron. "I hope you're ready for this, genie!"
Thirty minutes later, Sonic burst into the place where he last saw the Ifrit, followed by Shahra. The mechanical menace was still there, wreathed in flame.
The aerokinetic skidded to a stop as he faced the giant spirit once more. "Sorry to keep you waiting!"
The Ifrit simply let out another threatening growl.
"I didn't mean to leave you hanging earlier," Sonic taunted. "You're not still mad at me, are you? You really need to learn to be more patient, you know." Lifting the Water Blue Ring into the air, the speedster shouted a hydrokinetic command, unusual for him. "Now, Ring of Water, bring forth a mighty storm!"
The band's glow intensified as storm clouds formed over the Spirit of Fire. A thunderclap was heard as torrents of rain doused the iron djinn.
The Ifrit roared in discomfort and agony as its flames were extinguished.
"Sonic, look! The Ifrit is growing weaker!" Shahra pointed.
"Okay! Now let's finish it off!"
The once-flaming giant turned to face the teenager.
Sonic couldn't resist throwing another quip in. "You know, I've let you play around more than enough for one day!" The band on his finger glowed as the Water Blue World Ring dissipated into it.
Shahra chided him as she scanned the creature for a visible weak point. "Sonic, be careful. The Ifrit is no child!" Looking to the upper half of the djinn, she noticed a tall glass dome protruding out of the top of the monster's head. "I sense a strong power coming from the light on the Ifrit's head! Smash that and you can destroy it!"
"Compared to the tough time Captain Bemoth gave me, this ought to be easy."
Shahra was shocked at his take on the situation. "Are you kidding me? Do you realize this thing is at least twenty times your size?! He's got enough power in one arm to level a building with one hit!"
Sonic zoomed out of the way of a second attempt by the monster to crush him with its iron fist. "Yeah, he is massive, I'll give him that. Big boy may also be strong, but there's one thing he isn't—" Sonic rapidly zigzagged on the circular pathway while avoiding a barrage of fireballs thrown by the Ifrit from the magma lake below. Sonic stopped on a dime, instantly bolting in the opposite direction as he finished his sentence. "—Speedy!"
"And you know what they say…" The blue streak spin-dashed into one of the Ifrit's arms, breaking a bolt and causing it to partially sink into the pool of fire below. "…the bigger they are…" In one final sprint, Sonic bolted for the other arm, ran up it like a ramp, and leaped into the air. Aiming for the glass dome, he performed three Homing Attacks on the core, destroying it completely as he completed his train of thought. "…the harder they fall."
The Ifrit growled as it began to vaporize.
Sonic looked down at his pants. Parts of it were singed and damaged even further than before. His shirt was in no better condition. "Now I see why they tell you not to play with fire…"
As the Ifrit dissipated, a small iron sphere, about the size of a softball, flew out of the flames. A red, intermittent glow pulsed out of large cracks in the orb.
"What is this thing?" Sonic asked. "Is something… about to hatch?"
Shahra put an ear close to the strange object at their feet. A faint thumping noise could be heard, perfectly in synchronization with the pulsing light.
"I can hear… I can hear something like… a heartbeat," she reported.
The speedster's expression changed from curiosity to fear. "Uh, Shahra, I think that might be some sort of time bomb!"
The genie shot straight up. "It's beating faster!"
"Oh, no! This can't be good! We have to get out of here! This thing has to explode out in the open!"
"You're right!"
The two needed to get out of the castle within minutes. If not, they'd be buried alive.
Running in a panic, the blue blur saw the exit as he finally made it out of the long, fire-filled corridor. "Come on! We're almost there!"
The beating of the metal ball was now very rapid.
Bolting out the iron gates, Sonic kicked the orb like a soccer ball, sending it flying.
The small bomb detonated just seconds after being booted away.
Sonic wiped his forehead. Whew! Just made it!
A red glowing band flew out of the explosion, landing on the ground nearby.
Sonic watched the object sail through the air. "Huh? Hey, look at this."
Shahra looked at the band lying in the dirt. "Is that what I think it is?"
The speedster walked over to it. "Yep. Another one of the seven World Rings."
"I wonder if it was inside the Ifrit this whole time."
The aerokinetic picked it up. The surge of power caused him the expected pain, but in addition, Sonic realized the reason for the Ifrit's fiery anger. "I… feel… rage! All that rage must have been sealed up inside of him!"
Shahra was surprised. "Rage?"
The jolting stopped as Sonic finally started putting the pieces together. "These rings must somehow seal in various emotions, too. The power of rage…"
Shahra paused to think as the ring's effect wore off on her master.
Sonic turned to his friend and companion. "So, then, what's next?"
An idea dawned on the young genie. She pointed south. "Let's go meet with King Solomon. King Solomon is the one who sealed away the evil spirits long ago. These strange occurrences must connect back to him somehow…"
Storing the Ring of Rage away, Sonic's trademark smirk returned to his face as he began tearing up the turf once more. "Okay, then! Off to our next adventure!"
Five down, two more to go!