The dust settles and reveals the shadowy figure. Feral immediately recognizes him.
“Old man! What are you doin’ here?”
“You stupid fools! I am no ordinary old man; I am the leader of the Knirds. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Janga, a demon whose power you puny mortals can’t begin to comprehend! I was hoping my minions would be enough to dispose of you, that’s why I lured you down here. It appears, however, I’ll have to do it myself.
“Demon? Don’t give me that!” Feral steps in front on Jael and Thaelia, who are still on the ground, in order to protect them. “You just look like some old man!”
“Looks can be deceiving you little prick!” Janga folds his arms together and begins to hover above the ground. A bright aura surrounds him causing a transformation into his true form; a hideous, dark-ogre demon with a bloodstained sword at his side. Feral looks up at Janga, then looks behind his own feet to see Jael and Thaelia still unconscious on the ground.
“Tina, Blasto, Phaedra, keep him busy. I’m gonna stay here with them.”
Feral kneels over his vulnerable friends and places his hands on each of their heads while his friends go to work. Blasto draws his sword. Flames erupt from the handle and engulf the blade.
“Man, not even a chance to rest…eh, oh well. DIE!”
Blasto charges Janga and runs his blade through Janga’s stomach.
“OW! Oh, I think I’m a goner! Is that what you want me to say?”
Janga unfolds his arms and opens his fist right in front of Blasto’s head.
A powerful beam of energy shoots from his hand and hits Blasto at point blank range, sending him flying back past Tina and Phaedra, blowing their hair back in the process. He lands in the rock wall behind him, 10 feet deep into the wall to be exact, and then falls face first into the ground. Tina and Phaedra look back, horrified at what they just saw. Tina turns back towards Janga and opens one hand wide. She conjures and magical sword in that hand and holds her staff in her other.
“Visara, go!”
Visara rushes up to Janga from where she was waiting and leaps into the air, crashing down on Janga with a crushing punch and a roundhouse kick to the face. Tina follows, leaping over Visara and landing a thunderous blow with her staff and a slice across Janga’s chest with her magic sword. Janga stands dazed as Tina and Visara execute a double-team punch into Janga’s chest, sending him flying backwards. Then, Tina and Visara combine their magic power and form a giant energy ball, hurling it towards Janga. As Janga flies backwards through the air, a mild laughing is heard. Janga flips around and flies back towards Tina and Visara, deflecting their energy ball with little effort and sending a return ball of his own. Tina and Visara can only watch the ball hurtles towards them and explodes, sending Visara back to her own dimension and leaving Tina in a heap. Phaedra really doesn’t know what to do. She looks back at Feral, who is desperately trying to awaken Jael and Thaelia, and realizes that she too must at least try. Anime, Odin, and Ifrit, who are still around from the previous battle, leap into action, but they are easily cast aside by Janga. Mad and frustrated, Phaedra rushes Janga and attempts to punch him, be he grabs her fist and lifts her off her feet.
“Wow, you guys are pathetic. I haven’t even had to draw my sword.”
He gives Phaedra a hellacious kick in the stomach, and then drops her, leaving her in a motionless pile. Feral looks helplessly as his last friend has fallen.
“Damn, this guy isn’t fooling around.” He looks down at Jael and Thaelia, “And they haven’t even moved yet. I guess I can only do one thing.”
He turns around and faces Janga, draws his sword, and plants his feet firmly in the ground in front of Jael and Thaelia.
“Awwww, how sweet. Little Mr. Hero is gonna protect his friends.”
“You’re damn right I will!”
Feral holds his sword steady as Janga slowly walks closer and closer to him. Finally, when Janga is roughly ten yards away he stops.
“Look at you, you can’t even touch me. Why don’t you just let me kill you and your little friends behind you and I’ll promise I’ll make it quick and painless.”
“IN YOUR DREAMS!!”
Feral rushes Janga and plunges his sword into Janga’s chest.
“I thought we went over this, that doesn’t OOF!”
Feral follows his sword attack with a leaping thrust kick, catching Janga on the chin and, for the fist time, knocking him down. Feral takes his fighting stance yet again and waits for Janga’s return attack. Janga slowly rises and looks at Feral, blood flowing from his mouth.
“All right you little bitch, a slow and painful death it is!” He draws his sword and charges Feral. His heavy sword comes down straight at Feral’s head, but Feral raises his sword and blocks it. Janga tries for the legs, but Feral blocks it too.
“AHHHHHHHH!”
Blow after blow, Janga tries to slice Feral with his sword, but Feral blocks him each time. Sparks fly every time the two blades clash. After many blocks and strikes by both combatants, Janga is forced to the ground, with Feral’s sword pointed right at his throat.
“Now, Janga, unstoppable demon, you shall DIE!”
“Oh no, your friends are awake now!”
Feral looks behind him w/o thinking of what Janga is actually doing. He sees Jael and Thaelia still lying on the ground. Suddenly, it clicks. He turns around just in time to see Janga’s blade coming straight for his heart, but Feral deftly dodges the blow…most of it. The blade cuts Feral’s arm, leaving a gaping wound. Feral grabs his arm and drops to one knee.
“Damn, I should have known better than to fall for that.”
Janga rises from the ground and stands over Feral.
“Hahaha, winning is winning boy, by any means necessary.”
Janga raises his sword to deliver the final blow, and all Feral can do is lower his and close his eyes. His sword-hand is incapacitated and his strength is failing him. He waits for the feeling of that final blow, but he doesn’t feel anything. He raises his head and opens his eyes to see that Janga is frozen solid in a block of ice.
“Wait a minute, then that means…”
He turns around and finds Jael standing behind him with her hand open, still showing signs of the ice beam she fired. Behind her, Thaelia too is rising from the ground.
“Jael! Thank you…but I can’t use my good arm.”
“Don’t worry; I’ll just spray some cold spray on it to numb it.”
Jael helps Feral up while Thaelia checks on the others.
“These guys are in pretty bad shape, what happened?”
”That happened” says Feral as he points to the frozen statue of Janga.
“How long will he stay frozen?”
”Not too much longer, we need to finish him off.”
Feral calls over to Thaelia.
“Hey give me a blast of lava.”
“WHAT? Are you crazy?”
“Just do it. Jael, when she hits me with the lava, give me the coldest ice beam you got.”
“All right.”
Thaelia fires a beam of lava aimed straight at Feral, and at that same time, Jael fires her ice beam. Feral holds his sword out and lets the two attacks hit it. The magic blade absorbs the power of the attacks and glows with a steam brimming of pure power. By this time, Janga has thawed out and is realizing what is happening.
“What are you puny people doing? You can’t beat me!”
“We’ll see about that, you little bitch!”
Feral leaps into the high into the air and comes crashing down on Janga. His puts his sword up to block it…and he does! As seconds seems like eons, both blades give off a shower of sparks, neither giving an inch. All off a sudden, Feral seems to gain inhuman strength. He looks over to his side to see Tina casting a spell on him to make Feral superhuman strong. Then, he hears another clash of sword on sword. Blasto has leaped beside Feral, his sword glowing with a fiery red, and has joined Feral’s blade in combating Janga’s evil blade. As Janga is slowly lowered to one knee, his sword shows sign of wear, but not breakage.
Suddenly Phaedra appears from nowhere, and uttering one of her many hexes, curses Janga’s sword, causing it to shatter. Feral’s sword, the Legendary Cletus, and Blasto’s sword, the Almighty Deathwish, penetrate Janga’s body, evaporating his very being from existence. The battle is over. The side of good has prevailed. Where each of them failed individually, they succeeded through the power of their friendship. Using various methods, they climb out of the hole and back to the light, to the town of Fiziks.
“Hey Feral,” asks Phaedra, “Did we ever go shopping?”
“No. No, we didn’t. Let’s do that.”
“But wait,” interjects Blasto, “we have no money. That job was supposed to be worth 1 million dollars.”
“Oh, but it was”, responds Thaelia, as she reveals a sack that had been tucked behind her back. She opens it and out pours 1 million dollars in gold coins!
“Yeah, I got it from Janga just before he was evaporated.”
“But, I didn’t even see you there, and I was right there.”
“I guess I’m just that good.”
“Hold on,” says Feral. “What exactly was a demon doin’ with 1 million dollars?”
They all look puzzled at each other. Jael goes over a slaps Feral on the arm.
“Feel my mad ninja-skillz!” And the subject was never brought up again.
TO BE CONTINUED…