Ah, realization comes like the welcome light of dawn. Lo Pan must have worn the shape of Dragon Prince and sent you! He has gone too far!" Master Hong Bao said as he saw our faces. "Lo Pan has sent violence into the world... it is his karma to receive it. Take back the Alabaster Horn Lo Pan used for his magic! Return to me when Lo Pan is punished."
"Let's go!" Emma said as she cracked her knuckles menacingly, and we returned to the Santo Oro to sail for the Paths of Penance. Walking up the snowy trail, we arrived at the courtyard of the Temple of the West Wind, where Dragon Prince, or rather, Lo Pan was waiting for us. "Where are my father's relics?"
Lo Pan was answered with a blast of energy that struck him in the stomach, and as Nikolai blew away the smoke coming from the bottom of his staff, Monkey King said, "The jig is up, Lo Pan! The monks of the Crimson Lotus send their regards!"
Lo Pan groaned as he stepped out from the smoke that covered him as his disguise fizzled out, and I saw that he was a demonic-looking Goat wearing a tall hat, and his hands glowed green as he stepped towards us, hooves clacking on the stone courtyard. "Who are these people, friends of yours? This really infuriates me to no end! Minions, finish them!"
Suddenly, the sides of the large clay pottery lying around began to break as skeletons emerged from them like hatching animals. Nikolai pointed his finger at Lo Pan and snapped them, creating a glowing white magic circle on the ground with both of them inside it. "Matt, take care of the small fries! This is a wizard's duel!"
As I parried a skeleton's sword, I saw that Lo Pan had made the first move in the wizard's duel. As a blast of green energy flew towards Nikolai, the thirteen-year old contemptuously flicked it away with the back of his hand as he aimed his staff. "Extraordinary Stormzilla!"
Knocking a skeleton's skull off his neck, I saw Lo Pan step backwards as a giant electric lizard like the one we had fought in the Valley of the Titans loomed over him, crushing little bits eggshell beneath its feet as it blasted him with a bolt of lightning from its mouth.
Lo Pan smirked as he got up from the Stormzilla's attack. "Now you only have one power pip for your spells! Wraith!"
A hooded wraith armed with a deadly-looking scythe then appeared in front of Nikolai, who didn't even flinch as he threw up a gray, translucent shield, which shattered as the wraith struck it. "Locust Swarm!"
A swarm of flying insects then emerged from the tip of Nikolai's staff, and Lo Pan was soon enveloped in the swarm, trying to swat them away. I had my own fight to deal with, of course, and I took on another skeleton. As it lunged towards me, I parried its strike before shooting him in between the eye sockets with my pistol.
I suddenly felt bony arms wrap around my neck, and I found myself being choked by another skeleton. A gunshot later, the skeleton's choke slackened, and I heard its bones clatter onto the stone courtyard. "Thanks, Emma!"
Emma grinned as she gave me a thumbs-up from atop the head of the giant, stone Ki-Rin statue in the center of the courtyard, and I saw Monkey King jab at a skeleton's skull with his golden staff, and Temeraire had eagerly lunged at a skeleton to tear it into individual bones with his fangs and claws.
As I ran to help them, something slammed into the stone next to me like a cannonball, and peering inside the resulting crater, I saw that it was Lo Pan's robes. Nikolai landed next to me, and I saw that he held a curved horn that was as white as snow. "We have the Alabaster Horn. We should return to Master Hong Bao."
"Let's be about it, then." I agreed, and we turned to head back for the Santo Oro and to Wai No Shrine, where Master Hong Bao was waiting for us. "The Wheel of Life has turned, and Lo Pan has paid the price for his evil ways. If you wish to earn Dragon Prince's esteem, you must first free him from his curse. Lo Pan turned him into a Wind Horse, a Ki-Rin."