Vacinay and I stroll beside him.

I'm the first to speak, “So… we’re cool, right?”

He doesn’t reply. Darn it.

Vacinay places her arm around his shoulder. “You aren’t mad at me, right? Right??”

He stops and looks at her with bloodshot eyes.

She withdraws her arm and says, “Okay, what we did was wrong. No apology can change that. I am sorry.”

“Yeah, me too,” I add.

He clicks his tongue and shrugs. “Whatever, that’s all in the past, and another world too.”

“Y-yeah!” I stammer.

“Exactly! Dwelling on the past is for the weak! The present and future are the only things that matter!” Vacinay declares with a cocky expression.

His eyes twitch. “However… I haven’t forgotten that you two stole my kills…”

Vacinay hugs him. “Okay. Now… that surely—”

“If you think pressing your breast against me is going to suddenly make me forget what you did, you’ve clearly got something wrong with your brain.”

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“Don’t care.”

She steps back and smirks. “To be fair, I don’t have to do anything for you to forget. I give it 10 minutes max, you’ll be interacting with me like normal.”

He grabs her shoulders with angry hands, wearing an exasperated expression. “You infuriate me so much it’s insane.”

“And make you happy, I do that a lot too.”

“Rarely.”

“That’s a lie.”

“I don’t lie.”

“Liar, liar.”

I ignore them and was about to go deeper into the tunnel, but I remember we need Vacinay’s nose and Ghomas’s clones. We also have to recharge our EP.

After about twenty minutes, I turn towards them and say, “Yo Ghomas, it’s clone time, pal.”

He is lying on the ground and glares at me. “Weren’t you encouraging Vacinay to kill me?”

Vacinay hears and sighs, slumping. “What’s with you guys and living in the past! That was… about 2 minutes ago.”

He bares his teeth like an angry dog. “When I rip your organs out, I hope you’ll be saying that!”

“If by some luck you are capable of that, then good for you.” She shrugs. “You can try though. It would be fun.”

Ghomas gets up and grunts as he walks forth, creating a single clone, the fast one. “When I get the right power-up, I’m going to make you eat those words.”

“You can do it!” she cheers, doing a cheerleader dance or something like it.

Hessien grabs her hand, stopping her dance, and they walk forward.

“Alright, alright. Cat mode.” She transforms into a small cat, hops on his shoulder, then hops down and walks behind Ghomas’s clone.

As we move deeper into the tunnel we notice the soil and rocks are becoming redder. It doesn’t look like blood, though.

Then I start to hear the sounds of metal hitting against the ground, so we stop.

Ghomas’s clone returns to him.

Vacinay returns to normal and summons her blue firefly. It buzzes but, unlike before, it doesn’t emit a blue light. What’s the point of it?

It flies high over them like a spy. Could it relay its senses to her?

After a minute, it returns to her and buzzes by her ears.

I ask, “You can communicate with them? Where did you get the skill points for that?”

“It’s the passive skill of it,” she replies.

Ah…

She continues, “Anyway, there are about 55 of them. And obviously, I can’t read their levels.”

That’s a lot…

Time to use the full power of time freeze then.

I crack my knuckles as I tell them, “Get near to me. I will use time freeze, but make you all unfrozen in frozen time. With that, we would take them out one by one. Since I can’t change the state of things frozen in time except for positions, I would have to unfreeze them one by one too.”

Hessien asks, “Wouldn’t that be extra taxing on your EP? That amount of constant unfreeze in frozen time has to use EP.”

… Oh. I hadn’t thought about that.

I think hard, then an idea comes to me.

“Using time freeze and fire is a bit too difficult for me to use at the same time. I think I did it, kind of? But I did it after I used the skill. For example, if I drop a fireball, I no longer need to control it. Which means I can easily switch to time freeze.”

“Get to the point,” Hessien requests.

“I want to experiment with something,” I reply, turning towards Ghomas. “After I do it, I want you to take them out using your lightning bolts.”

“Wait, what’s the ‘it’—”

Before he can finish, I manifest over a dozen basketball-sized fireballs and dash forth to get a clear view of the setting. The light immediately gives me away, but it doesn’t matter much. I leap high into the air and direct the fireballs at the edges around them—front, back, right, left. That’s four, but to lessen the distances, I use the remaining fireballs.

“What the hell!” they exclaim.

They appear to be levels 24-27, with only two at levels 26-27.

Anyway, they are now surrounded by fire. One of them rushes forth and grabs the ground, building a massive cannon which locks onto me. I glare at it. I want to test something out…

The cannon comes for me. I stretch my hands out, and as soon as I feel the weight of something on them, I use isolated time freeze on it.

It hurts like hell, though!

The one that launches it is left stunned.

Now, now, now!

I grab the time-frozen canon while descending. Of course, if I can move the positions of those stuck in time, why wouldn’t it apply to isolated frozen objects!?

And even better, it wouldn't consume as much EP, compared if I froze the entire world.

I spin the cannonball in the air and lock it onto the same person. As soon as it leaves my hands, they hold their breath and run away from its trajectory.

But nothing happens. The cannon doesn't move. It remains suspended in the air.

Vacinay’s mouth drops in disappointment. “That’s all…?”

“Believe in me!” I say and then hit the ground.

As soon as I do, over 50 giant spider legs zone in on me.

Ghomas moves fast.

“Time to push it to the boundary!” He raises his hand up, lightning crackling around them.

Then, with a flash, the lightning flies forward, not as a single bolt, but like normal lightning. It branches like roots and hits all the spider legs and those near it. Even better, it is stunning all those nearby!

I clasp my hands, commanding the flames to form a fireball in the center. They obey. The fire balls deform and move to the center in the form of a stream.

The streams of flames burn all those in their way.

“Kill the fire user!” a huge lizard half-man shouts. He generates a metal spear from thin air and throws it at me.

Vacinay moves in front of me and swings her hand towards it. Her hand quickly transforms into a rat’s claws, but a giant version of it. It hits the spear, and the claws crack but deflect it.

Vacinay yells in pain but transforms her other hand into another giant rat claw to deflect another spear. She's also constantly self-repairs the damage.

The lizard man throws more, hoping to overwhelm her.

Sweating and groaning in pain, she shouts, “Hurry up! Self-repair is very taxing!”

“Got it, ma queen!” I reply as I accelerate my progress.

Even if I can’t see them because Vacinay claws are blocking my vision I have a general idea of what is happening because I can ‘feel’ my flames. I make all the flames that are burning the half-men gather into the center fireball instantly. I make it rise and then send it to the ground at blurring speeds, causing an explosion.

But to stop it from spreading to us, I quickly use fire-ball, which causes the hungry flames to gather up again. A second later and the flames would have roasted my friends.

I am quite skilled with this ability.

Hessien gasps for air. “I thought I was about to be burned for a second because of the flames…”

“Really now?!” One of the half-men leaps from the flames, burnt, and points his finger at Vacinay.

It glows black and the darkness shoots forward in the form of a giant ant.

Get… hit!

I focus on creating a fireball right where his head is, directing the already existing flames there. But I am not fast enough.

Vacinay kicks back and grabs me, then transforms into a tiger. She clamps her jaws around my hair and leaps to the side, just as the darkness attack utterly devastates the spot where we had been.

Fortunately, my focus isn’t completely broken, so the flames do hit his head.

He is the level 27 guy. No matter, fire is still fire. There is no way—

The giant ant turns towards him and extends its mouth, biting his head off. Huh…

His body drops to the ground with a thud, darkness suddenly erupts from his head, and he manifests a darkness-cockroach head.

Vacinay nudges me as she turns back to human. “Did you see… that?”

“Yeah…”

Ghomas runs back, now low on EP.

Hessien activates his mist. “Okay, what’s the plan now?!”

Ghomas mentions, “Because of Lumine fire, when I was shocking them, I got like… 8 kills, I think. Anyway, I am level 22 now.”

They are pretty strong. If I have to guess, his electricity also causes nervous system issues in them, which contributed to their death.

Something huge lands near us.

“What’s it?!” I ask Ghomas.

“Can you get a stronger skill?” I hurriedly ask.

“Yeah, but I am not going to. Since I gained about 10 skill points… Even though it should be 8, I can level up strength and speed clones, both cost 3.”

Above our head, a massive snake tail composed of darkness comes crashing into us

“I am going to kill you all!” the half-man screams.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

If that doesn’t make matters bad enough, the mist in front of Vacinay suddenly parts ways, and a sonic scream hits her, sending her into a wall with a resounding thud.

“'Tis… nothing but a scratch…” She mutters, her face contorting in pain.

“Ghomas, what’s the idea?!”

Time freeze is strong, but because those I want to affect need to have the state of their bodies unfrozen, it isn’t too OP for assault. For example, I face the issue of their defense being too high for a casual neck slice—risking me getting hit faster than I can escape their attack via time freeze. That isn’t a random fear either, Ghomas did that twice. The first time, I was being childish with it. The second time, I was serious.

Ghomas extends his hand and starts generating a clone at an astonishing speed. But this isn’t just any clone—it is the strong variation, but instead of looking like they are on steroids… they look like white-skinned hulks.

Standing at 8 feet tall, and probably weighing over 600 pounds is a single strong clone of Ghomas.

He shouts, “I upgraded it twice, it’s now level 3! And that’s it without me trying to push its limits!”

Oh…

From behind me, drilling sounds come fast.

All my fiery trickery consumes a bunch of energy points, but I still have over 25.

I jump to the side, dodging the half-man who looks like a regular man but with a hammer for a head. Although, half of his body is badly burnt.

Around his hand are drills made out of his energy. Quite the brutal skill.

“Come back here, ya bitch!” He shouts as he closes on me at ridiculous speeds.

Fire skin!

As the drill tears through my head, the fire spreads like wind extinguishing a campfire. To my surprise, though, I don’t die from it.

Fire skin turns more than my skin to fi—

Ghomas shouts, “I upgraded it twice, it’s now level 3—”

Oh hell no! I die!

I shut him up. “Nice job! Now, make a bunch of them and use all your EP for it!”

“Got it!”

He does so, making over three 18-foot-tall hulks. The issue is… They are too big for the tunnel! They are on their knees, making them easy shots.

The drill guy launches at one, but they aren’t one-shotting them. I guess they make good defenses.

“Ghomas, make them form a wall!” I shout.

He does so, acknowledging they can’t do much to fight here. With a swing of one of their hands, they bat away those that try to get to us. Then the clones lay on their side, forming a barrier.

Ghomas, exhausted, regroups with us. Vacinay has also healed up, but not all her damage.

Hessien asks, “What’s the plan? A real plan.”

The clones are getting brutally torn apart, but still remain as a wall.

I suggest something. They look at each other and nod. After two seconds, we are ready.

I turn my hand's skin into fire. Hessien touches it while touching the closest Ghomas’s giant clone. I out the fire and start a new one. He touches my arm again, but while touching his chest.

I ask, “You feel okay?”

He nods with a smile. “Yeah, don’t worry.”

Vacinay crouches in a cat-like stance, her eyes locked on the Ghomas clone's head, from which a drilling sound is emanating. She calls to me, “Do me too. Give me the burning skin—just not the Hessien’s version.”

I go over and activate fire skin on her and sets her ablaze. She isn’t harmed by it… But begins coughing harshly, which makes me remove it.

She gasps. “Shit… it burns up all the air.”

Perhaps fire skin worked better on me? I could have my oxygen burned if I used fire, but nowhere as fast as others I guess. Reason? Perhaps the desire affecting skills theory I have.

Ghomas’s clone's head burst open. Five individuals stand in it, with more burned skin, thanks to Hessien’s state changing trick.

I didn't want to set it ablaze with actual flames because it would make them know what’s happening and it would burn away the clone.

It seems everyone else is close to death since I didn’t get a level up. Which means… I could probably try that trick.

Time freezes. With time frozen, all those affected by isolated time freeze are now in my 'domain'. Which means… they will most likely be in my reach when I do this.

Unfreeze.

The ground suddenly shakes and a loud sound came from where all the burned half-men are.

It worked.

Against the giant half-men, I experienced not being able to use isolated time freeze while having time frozen.

So… I made that failure useful!

The darkness animal summoner guy asks, confused and horrified, “What did you do?!”

I grin as the pop-up comes.

Level: 25.

"I froze a cannon with insane momentum in time, then unfroze it, killing the already half-dead comrades of yours with it. It seems it exploded upon contact, nice."

Wait. I didn't simply gain four skill points… I gained 13?!

Ghomas also mentioned getting an extra skill point than he should have. And there is the fact Vacinay has more skills than she should have had for her level before she fought the snake.

Sure, I know her skills would be cheaper than mine, but it couldn’t be that cheap!

Simple maths, she was level 12 when she had self-repair and the monkey form. It cost a total of 7 points for both. If she gained each skill point normally, she used all the points gained from levels 5 to 12. When she killed the snake, she reached 17, gaining 3 levels from it. So... reduced 3 from 17; she was level 14.

Yet... she obtained 3 different skills which surely cost more than 2 skill points.

I know there has to be a reason for it, but whatever it is, it doesn’t matter now.

They come charging at us. Vacinay takes on the maned spike tiger form.

And me? Did I mess with fire? Now now. Don’t be silly… I control time.

There is a skill I didn’t plan on getting, but ah what the hell!

I spend the entire 13 points on my new skill.

They come charging in. Follow the same plan? Hell no. We improvise.

With a yell, I proclaim, “Fear me, mortals!” From me, a weird cracking barrier is erected. And suddenly, everyone in its movement slows down by half.

I could do better… I could push it even more…

I make a smaller barrier in it, around me, doubling my speed.

The barrier clashes are sending my head in hell, but I don’t care. I take a step and notice my movement is regular. The slow barrier must have been canceling out the fast one. Increase speed by 4…

“Now I win.” I dash forward with the knife in hand, moving like a jet compared to them.

The world feels so weird in my perspective. They are now moving so slowly. It’s as if I am running at full speed, while they are jogging.

“Why… is she so…” Before the drill guy can finish his words, his neck is slit open by me.

Holding onto his neck with my nails, I dash to the other one.

The darkness cockroach guy is surprisingly fast.

His speed kicks up, keeping up with me on some level. He brings his foot down on me, but I catch it. With a grunt, I realize my momentum isn’t buffed. Not too surprising. It is simply time modulation. Despite that, I lift him up and send him wailing into the walls.

He hits with a loud thud.

A shadow covers me. A half-man with green, liquid, acidic hands, tries to catch me.

Vacinay swiftly wraps her extremely long, metallic, spiked tiger tail around his arm and throws him into the air. I dash forward, grabbing Vacinay’s sword along the way. As soon as he hits the ground, I drive the sword into his throat.

My head is pounding…

Suddenly the barrier disappears, another half-man spits a barrel's worth of acidic juices at me. I leap back, but the spit condenses into a fine line and hits me directly in the—

“Got you!” A rough hand moves me to the side.

The person gets hit by the line of acid which instantly melts some of the right side of his body. His arm and shoulder are gone.

Hessien groans as he cusses out loud.

How did he…

Damn it! I was careless with my energy points! I should have stuck to the plan!

I have no time to be regretful. The creature is trying to tear Hessien in half, but as soon as he makes contact with him, they immediately exchange spaces.

A new skill…?

Wait, but… I turn back to look at the drill guy I had thought I killed. There is another hole on the side of his neck.

I see, when he was near death, Hessien must have been fast to take the kill. I need to do something!

But my mind feels incredibly sluggish; the curse of 0 EP.

Vacinay is lifted off the ground and body slammed. The impact cracks the ground like a spider web.

She screams out in pain as blood erupts from her mouth. Ghomas, who is defenseless, gets punched so hard that he immediately loses consciousness.

The force sends him into the wall. It doesn't end with one punch, it is an onslaught.

The darkness animal user exhales and turns to look at us.

Hessien tries to do something, but the acid guy upchucks all of its acid on him.

"No way… If… I am out of EP… doesn’t that mean, I… can’t fix this?!"

My heart hammers against my chest as regrets spiral out of control in my head.

messed up. I messed up.

What the heck was I thinking…?

The darkness guy picks up Vacinay by the feet, dangling her. “This one, I like her power. I think she will be a great wife for my son. The child's skill card will be interesting."

He looks at me. “Space warping of some sort, I assume? Hm. It’s not really compatible with our skill cards. I guess she would be a good sacrifice?”

The acid guy looks at me angrily. “Ah, what about a torture doll? She would be good to be used to test new skills on.”

I have gained 1.75 energy points. That should be enough.

“Hello, hello.”

A familiar voice echoes from beneath the acid. The acidic drips cascade from the black wings as they slowly shake off, revealing a figure emerging from the murky mess.

Tanya…

With a smug look and Hessien beneath her, she makes a speech, “Even if you all are barely considered flowmen, I will enjoy killing you all. For two reasons… harming Hessien, which harms me! You know, it’s one thing to feel head-bursting pain. I can try to suppress that. But melting off an entire arm? Do you all know how much that hurts?!”

She rants off, visibly frustrated. “Anyway! Second reason, prejudice.”

Hessien doesn’t seem to be in pain or agony. Even the melted part of his arm seems somewhat… repaired. It is replaced with something completely white. It reminds me of her mouth beam.

With her hand on her waist, she floats up.

They all are baffled. “Wait… An evil manifestation? What is another one doing there!”

She raises an eyebrow. “Huh? Another one of my kind?! Where!”

They step back. Even the big darkness guy. “Um…”

Then she looks up and becomes gloomy. “That amount of chaotic negative energy. I am guessing they were turned into some device meant to disrupt skills.”

They run, but instead of pursuing them, she raises her finger and fires a white beam directly at one of their heads. The beam strikes with precision, instantly killing the acid guy.

She then turns her mouth toward the darkness guy, and within seconds, a white beam erupts from her, vaporizing his entire body.

Any others that were alive, she kills with ease.

Right… She makes Yamanda look like an amateur in a fight. Of course, she is that strong.

With a smug look, she turns towards us, “Now that wasn’t so depressing, now was it!”

I don’t know what to say, really.

I just ask, “Can you heal Vacinay and Ghomas?”

“Nah. I couldn't even heal my dear dear bound partner!” she seems frustrated as she swirls around Hessien who seems relaxed.

Is that sarcasm?

He turns towards me and asks, “You okay, right?”

I want to say something, but I feel too ashamed.

Tears form in my eyes as I say, “I… am sorry…” I try to hold it back.

After all, I am the one who suffers the least. I don’t have the right to cry.

“Ugh…” He gets up.

As he walks towards me, he directs Tanya, “The others should be in your range. Please use your energy to keep them alive, especially Vacinay. Once she is recovered, she can heal Ghomas.”

“Commanding me around, eh…” she flies towards them and touches them.

Hessien throws himself near me, exhausted.

I gaze at his new ‘arm’.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “It doesn’t even hurt. Tanya is crazy, but it’s a good thing she is on our side.”

“I should have stuck to the plan,” I say.

“Hm. I mean, I don’t think it would have turned out very differently. The acid guy had that long-range acid spit which would have spoiled things.”

“Yeah… but…”

“It’s in the past. Perhaps tell us why you are going to do something completely different next time. That way, we can know how to act.”

“Yeah…” I try to wipe the tears from my face.

Using his energy hand, he wipes my tears. “Damn, you really are a softie behind that mean demeanor.”

I glare at him and stand up with shaky legs. It seems the stress really did a number on me.

“I wasn’t even crying, really. It was just my brain doing what it wants. But you wouldn’t understand that.” I go on talking while averting my eyes from him, trying to damn the tears that still come. “Unsurprising that you can’t grasp the intricacies of the human brain. I’ve always been the smarter one. Far superior… I… I am sorry...”

He wraps his arms around my shoulders. “Alright, let’s move.”

We approach Vacinay, who is wincing in pain. Ghomas is blankly staring at the ceiling.

“Just so you’re aware, I’m giving you a level-up loan,” Tanya informs Hessien.

His eyes widen in surprise. “What? You’re giving me skill energy?”

“Being composed of pure negative skill energy, I need that energy to maintain my form. I simply transferred all the skill energy I absorbed from these guys to you via our binding chain. Don’t worry, it’s not pure negative skill energy, it’s a balanced mix of negative and positive, the usual stuff.”

If I had to guess, she could also absorb positive skill energy but had to expel it. Similar to how the human body eliminates toxins to maintain purity.

“Much appreciated!”

“I said it’s a loan,” she reminds him.

“Wait, you’re not suggesting I kill people to pay you back, right?”

“Sort of.” She glances at the ceiling. “I want at least half of the skill energy, obviously the negative part, from that scum up there.”

Hessien grins. “Deal. You’re going to help with the fight?”

“No. I’ll only assist when things are dire or when I feel like it. If I’m always bailing you out, you’ll stay weak and pathetic. That’s a no-go.”

Hessien sighs but accepts. “Fair enough.”

He then turns to Vacinay, who is deep in thought.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” I ask.

“Which one? My body or my pride?”

“Both, I’m guessing.”

“Then no. My shattered pride hurts far more than my body! It’s so painful, I can’t even feel my physical pain! That jerk beat me and I couldn’t even get my revenge! And after all that trash talk? I’m so furious right now, I wish I had time powers to reverse it and kill him. But oh well, I guess I can just find his son and kill him! He was talking about me being his son’s wife. What if I wait for his son to get married and have a child? Then I’ll wipe them all out! How about that, huh?!”

She pushes herself off the ground, grunting. “I’m so pissed…”

Then she meets Hessien’s eyes and looks at his new arm.

She smiles weakly. “Damn… they took the hand you used to beat your dick off with. Time to learn to use your left hand, eh?”

He sighs. “You’re so irritating… but I’m glad you’re okay.”

She hugs him, then lifts him, causing him to panic, “Put me down! Are you crazy! I can’t be seen as a child, I’m a man, put me down!”

“Nope, I thought you were dead! I wasn’t too worried because we have Lumine, but it was still pretty scary.”

He clicks his tongue. “All this depressing stuff is going to drive me insane. I was too worried about you. If you weren’t in my life, it would be pretty… empty.”

Vacinay, who is holding him up, smiles deeply and tears form in her eyes. “Aw! Just admit you’re in love with me!”

“Ha… Whatever, put me down.”

For a moment, I notice her smile slowly fading.

“Fine.” She puts him down.

Tanya seems lost in thought. “Ah… intense emotions are shared too. No matter,” she floats up and taps the ceiling. “We are going to meet the shit head right away.”

“By the way, my legs hurt, “Vacinay says as she bumps her head on his back.

“I am suspecting that you just really like the feeling of my shoulders.”

She rubs her chin deep in thought. “Or maybe… I am lazy and want to take advantage of you.”

He presents his back to her, which she uses as a ladder to climb up and settle onto his shoulders. “I like it here."

"Lazy ass.”

Tanya pulls back her fist before punching the ceiling, unleashing an incredibly piercing wave of energy. The force shoots upwards until light streams through the massive hole that is created.

She points upwards. “Good luck surviving. At most, he seems to be level 40.”

I ask, “How… do we survive?”

“Because I lied and ended up helping. I hit him with a blast that should reduce his overall physical capabilities by about half.”

We all nod in understanding. Vacinay is about to hop off Hessien, but he tightens his grip on her knees. “I thought your legs were hurting you?”

“Yeah, but can you climb up there with me on you?”

“Yup! The level up Yamanda gave me from those kills she took has brought me to level 25.”

I bet he has more skill points, not just from the level up, but also from that strange phenomenon where we get extra ones. Also, I think he has to upgrade his legendary card to keep it more advanced than his secondary, since they both are at two skills.

Vacinay grins as Hessien creates a very dense… cloud below our feet.

He jumps on the cloud, which supports his weight.

Everyone follows suit except Tanya. Once Hessien sees we are on, it begins lifting quickly.

Vacinay sighs. “I was expecting something cooler. Like—”

She is cut off as Hessien dashes up, hopping from wall to wall in the new tunnel.

“Hahahaahaa This is fun!” she laughs.

They are alerting the enemies of our presence, but… the hole and beam probably already did that.

Tanya is near me, floating. Then suddenly she says, “Try to keep that fool safe. Ignoring the fact I need him alive to keep me alive, I find him interesting; very interesting.”

“Do you have some evil master plan going on?” I ask

“No. His ridiculous nature is entertaining. I suppose I enjoy how comforting he is to you all. It reminds me of certain stories about individuals that I read a long time ago.”

Then she flies up towards Hessien, “Wait for me! The damn chain tugs me roughly!”

Then after a minute, we exit the hole. And all around us are… different hues of fire with weird statues around them.

There are many bodies in the fire, but in a corner are a bunch of men and women, all tied up.

However, near us is a… normal man in agony. A man with white hair.

We all look at him, getting ready.

Fire skin.

My armor burns away as my entire body is set ablaze.

Ghomas summons two 8-foot-tall hulked clones. Vacinay gets off Hessien’s back and summons two giant two-headed dogs while transforming into a massive green tiger.

Hessien’s body shifts a little, becoming slightly mist-like.

The man looks at us with a maddening gaze. “You are trying to stop the great sacrifice? You fools! How will I stop the next mutant meteorite?!”

We move around him.

I say as I grip my knives, fire spreading to them too, “Don’t worry about that. That’s our job.”