Assault on the Ancient Temple!

Divide and Conquer

"Aya!" shouted Melody as she woke up and search around the tent. Rochelle, May, and Ash all quickly came running in.

"What's the matter?" asked May as she immediately searched the room trying to find the problem.

"Shi is in the tent with me!"

"Thanks," said Shi as he rubbed his eyes clean, "I wasn't bothering you or nothing."

"Isn't he…she your partner?" asked May.

"Yeah!" said Melody, "but that doesn't mean we should sleep in the same tent!"

"Don't you guys say a house back home?" asked Rochelle.

"Yeah! A house!" said Melody, "with me upstairs and Shi downstairs. With about three locked doors between us."

"Huh, three locked doors?" asked Ash, "isn't that a little drastic?"

"When we first moved in together there was six," said Shi, "ooh, and Melody slept with a baseball bat under her bed. I got whacked a couple of times with it."

"SIX!" shouted Ash taken back. He and Xander definitely weren't the best of friends, but he would never put six locked doors in between them. It was just a huge number to be separated from your meister or weapon in case of an emergency.

"Well," said Rochelle, "now we know. From now on Melody and May can sleep together and Michael and Shi can sleep together."

"Melody and May," said Shi imagining the two of them together in the same tent. "I think it'd be better if I slept with those two. You know as a sort of body guard."

"Somehow I think you are more interested in the body then the guard part," said May, "but, yeah, I'm fine with that. Could be nice to have a change for once."

"I feel kind of bad for Michael, though," said Melody, "He's going to be stuck with Shi."

"HEY!" shouted Shi, "why is that a bad thing? I'm a great guy! Where is Michael, anyways?"

"Same place as Xander," said Ash, "they are patrolling the area around here. Neither of them could sit still long enough to wait for Melody and Shi to wake up. Saul, on the other hand, is probably still in his tent sleeping."

"He is really our best hope here?" asked May, "I can't believe we'd get stuck with such an incompetent loser."

"Who is Saul?" asked Melody.

"Oh, right," said May, "you were knocked out when that happened. Let me explain…" May went on to explain how they met Saul and Rochelle, decided to set up camp, and the rest of yesterday's activities.

"Great," said Melody sarcastically, "another person on this team who I'd rather not be with."

"Calm down," said Shi, "we are less then an hour's walk away from the Prison Jar now. It's almost within our reach." Just then both Michael and Xander burst into the tent panting.

"Witches!" shouted Xander panting heavily, "they are…flying…due north…there's about…

"There's about thirteen of them," said Michael calmly, "we've got to move out now if we want to get to the Prison Jar first."

"Why aren't…you tired?" asked Xander.

"No body, no fatigue," said Michael, "May, come on. We'll go on ahead, wake-up Saul, and forget about packing up the camp." May's body disappeared into a similar green color and morphed into Michael's hand in the shape of a bow. Michael twisted out of the tent and back onto the earthy soil floor and was off.

Shi sat there pouting, "why did he just leave us? Come on, Melody let's go catch up to them!"

"Wait!" shouted Melody, "I think…I think it would be better if me and Miss Rochelle went after them."

"What!" shouted Shi, "its not my fault we slept together in the same tent. I think I'm good enough to take down a witch! Besides! I WANT TO FIGHT A WITCH!"

"Its not that," said Melody, "its just that…the witches are flying. Micheal and May have the long ranged capabilities that allow them to shoot at them, me and you don't. Rochelle not only has longer range then, but she is also a Death Scythe, we need to put our strongest player into play as fast as possible." Rochelle nodded in agreement. Rochelle shifted into her large tan boomerang form. Melody grabbed a hold of it and dashed off and out the door.

"Have fun with Saul, Shi!" laughed Xander as he disappeared out of the door. Ash was waiting outside. Xander morphed into the arm blade and wrapped around Ash's hand. They were soon off as well.

Shi sat in the tent for a couple more seconds considering the possibilities. It shrugged. "I always had a thing for older guys."

(-at the temple-)

"Michael," said May with a slight shiver. The soul wavelength was extremely intense even this far away from the temple. "I think we better wait for back-up from Rochelle." Not to mention the fact that there was close to five people wandering around the temple.

Michael looked back at the temple. There was a large gathering of witches' souls in there. He could count five in there. They were gathered together sitting around and waiting near the center. At least it would be an easy guess as to where the Prison Jar was. "Yeah," said Michael as he sat down, "I think back-up would be the best idea." He kept his eyes trained on the souls. He ran the colors through his head, their sizes, everything about them. There was a soul with a twisted expression written over it, a grey one, a purple one with a black wing, a green one, and…one of them was gone. "Crap." He felt relieved and annoyed. Now there was only four of them, but the fifth one was gone. Why?

"Let's go!" shouted Melody as she bust out from the bushes behind Michael and down the cliff side charging towards the temple "Go Rochelle!" Melody twisted her body around and sent Rochelle spiraling through the skies and at the temple. The large tan boomerang slammed into one of the people standing guard. The person was sent to the ground sprawling.

"Looks like our back-up has arrived," said May. Michael nodded in agreement as he brought her up and into the air. He pulled the bowstring back and fired a quick round at another person. The person winced as the arrow slammed into her body. Michael stood up and began trudging down the cliff side.

"Hey, Michael," said May, "I don't think that that witch is dead. You missed all of her vital points."

"I know," said Michael, "she's not witch. She's more like a brain-controlled human. Witches probably put a spell on her or the strong Soul Wavelength here might've affected her mind and made her come here to stand guard."

Ash appeared next to him in an instant. "Let me and Ash have some fun, will you two?" said Xander with a chuckle. "We should be able to finish them off easily."

Ash jumped from his place and brought the side of his elbow around and into the person's head sending him twisting off of the ground only to come spiraling back into it and probably dislocating something, "Now is not the time for fun, Xander. We got witches to kill."

"You certainly seem braver this time then when we ran into a witch on our mission," said Xander, "What brought it on? Trying to impress Melody or May?"

"What? No!"

"Michael?"

"NO! I've told you, I'm straight!"

"For some reason I don't believe you, its probably the pajamas I saw you in last night."

"My mom bought me those for the last time!"

"Now is not the time to be fighting," said Michael as he strode past them and into the temple after Melody and Rochelle.

"He's right, Ash," said Xander, "stop getting side-tracked and go in after them."

"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be getting side-tracked at all," complained Ash as he turned around and headed straight into the temple. As soon as he set foot in there he was faced with a dilemma. "Crap." The room had four separate hallways. One was, of course, the way he came.

"Pick a path," said Xander.

"I'm trying to," shouted Ash, "the freakin' Soul Wavelength oozing out of the Prison Jar is messing with my Soul Perception. I can't see anyone else's souls. Michael's, Melody's, the witches', all of them gone in a big blurry haze of an extreme soul."

"Let's be honest," said Xander, "we know Melody would probably ignore the fact that she couldn't sense the souls and charged straight in."

"Why's that?" asked Ash.

"She's holding a Death Scythe," said Xander. "When a weapon and meister are in contact with each other they share their soul's strength, right? Well, Melody just went from Shi to a Death Scythe. She's probably supercharged right now. She's a wind-up toy with a 1000 horsepower engine attached, she's not in her right of mind."

"Great," said Ash, "now I'm going to be worried that she'll do something stupid."

"Let's go left," said Xander. "If we run into Michael and May, we'll be considered lucky. If we run into just May, I'll be considered lucky."

"Shut up, Xander," said Ash. "Last time I followed your direction I got lost and attacked by a witch, remember? This time I'm going to do the exact opposite of what you say and go right." Ash turned around and headed down the right corridor.

"You know," started Xander, "some people created elaborate mazes in their temples to trick grave robbers. There were traps, beasts, hidden rooms, the whole deal. What if we were in one of those?"

"Xander," said Ash with a shake of his head, "you are describing Egyptian pyramids. Last time I checked, this wasn't Egypt and this wasn't a pyramid." Ash put a foot down onto the ground and felt the tile beneath his foot give way. The ground around him opened up. "I hate it when you are…" Ash screamed as he fell down in to the pitfall trap beneath him."

(-With May and Michael-)

"Wait Michael," said May, "I think someone just screamed."

"I think it was Melody," said Michael as he looked around another corner scanning the area, "it sounded like a girl. Besides, you really should keep it down here."

"Shouldn't we go back and check up on them?" asked May, "I mean, they could probably use our help, right?"

"We just avoided who know how many traps to get here," said Michael, "not to mention the fact that we don't even know which way they went. They could've gone straight or right at the turn." Michael pulled back on May's bowstring again and generated another arrow. He sent it whizzing through the air to check for any possible airborne traps or sensors. Nothing went off. Michael continued to trudge through the maze. "You'd think Lord Death would be nice enough to give us map on how to get through here, huh?"

May's reflection in the bow shrugged, "I think Lord Death just has an unusual amount of faith in us. I mean, we were sent here to hunt down the Prison Jar with only one Death Scythe here to help. I think he just believes in us."

"Or he wants us to fail," said Michael as he tapped the ground in front of him lightly with his foot.

"Hey, Lord Death has complete and total faith in us," said May.

"You mean Lord Death has faith in Shi, a perverted yo-yo, Ash, a clean freak, Xander, and Melody?" asked Michael, "Melody and Shi blew themselves up during their last mission, I got beheaded during ours, not to mention that Xander and Ash are just an unstable pair."

"Hey!" said May, "have a little faith in our teammates. In times like these you got to believe."

"No, in times like these you got to prepare for the worst," said Michael.

"Oh, really," said May, "Mr. Pessimistic, what is the worst?"

"The worst is that we make it to the Prison Jar, fight the four witches there, and lose," said Michael, "then we are taken hostage and experimented on with some kind of new black blood or something silly like that."

"Don't joke about stuff like that," shrieked May, " we can do and you know we can!"

A large huff of air could be heard straight in front of them. "Correction," said Michael, "the worst is that your shrieking set off a wild animal and we are killed by that." The narrow hallway was soon filled up with a gigantic boar. Its tusks were the size of swords and its hooves as big as pie plates.

"Yeah," said May, "I think we shouldn't waste time talking and shoot that beast!"

(-with Melody and Rochelle-)

"This is great," said Melody as she lifted Rochelle into the air, "that was what the second giant boar we killed today! This is what a Death Scythe feels like, huh? So much energy!"

"Yeah, well," said Rochelle with a smile, "we, Death Scythes are pretty awesome. But you are pretty good with a boomerang as a weapon! I didn't expect you to be this good already."

"I'm a quick learner," said Melody as she charged through the hallway. Another tile gave way under her foot. Small holes in the wall opened up and unleashed a quick blast of arrows from both sides. Melody twisted around and brought Rochelle in front of one of the walls. The arrows slammed into Rochelle's body and bounced off due to her weapon's density. Melody ducked down low and let the arrows graze by her head and body.

Once the arrows stopped, Melody stood back up. "Let's see," she said as she scanned the area, "the witches souls…are right ahead! I thought that the Prison Jar would be giving off interference and I wouldn't be able to see any souls at all, looks like I was wrong. Going straight was the right thing to do."

(-With Saul and Shi-)

Saul just walked into the temple and was confronted with the crossroads. Shi was in his yo-yo form hanging from Saul's left hand. "Pop Quiz! We are at the beginning of a temple. We are given three options A) Straight B) Left or C) Right. Which is the correct path to take?"

"C!" shouted Shi, "C is always the correct answer!"

"Wrong," said Saul, "we are going straight."

"What? Why?" asked Shi.

"Because," said Saul, "A is the correct answer."

"WHAT!" shouted Shi, "how do you know that A is the correct answer?"

"A hunch," said Saul.

"JUST A HUNCH!" shouted Shi, "DO YOU HAVE ANY REAL EVIDENCE?"

"Nope," said Saul, "just a hunch."

"I don't trust your hunch!" shouted Shi as its yo-yo form unraveled and jumped to another hallway. "I say we go right!"

"That's all the more reason we should go my way," said Saul, "you are going left."

"No, I am not!" shouted Shi, "I'm going right! Its your sense of direction that is messed up! This is clearly right."

"Listen, kid," said Saul, "the sun sets on the right and rises in the left. So, therefore since the sun was rising in the direction you are heading, you are going left."

"That's not true!" shouted Shi, "the sun rises in the West and sets in the East!"

"I know," said Saul, "I just didn't think that you knew. By the way you are wrong. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West."

"I AM RIGHT!" shouted Shi.

Of course you are right Shi, you are always right. Problems seem to be abundant for a crew. A pitfall trap got Xander and Ash, a wild boar attacked Michael and May, Melody is currently on a...soul high I guess, and Shi and Saul seem to be in a bit of arugementative phase. Let's hope it all works out on the next chapter of Unsound Body!