Sentenza and Bakade stared at each other. Neither of them budged. Sentenza with his gun trained at Bakade's heart, and Bakade with her claws held open towards him. It was a standoff, and Sentenza's had a lot more experience with those. Although he seemed to be waiting on her to make a move, which could be just enough of an edge for Bakade to take advantage of.

"Just walk away dang it!" Sentenza finally said with a tinge of pleading underlying his voice. "This isn't your problem."

Bakade stood firm as another drop of water dripped from her eye socket.

"Tsk, if I ever get my hands on that bird, I'll wring her scrawny..." Narissa climbed up the basement stairs. She was covered in scratches and red beak marks. When she saw the two of them in a stand-off, she froze and cut herself off. "You know what, I think I came at a bad time. Why don't I just come up later?"

Bakade and Sentenza were both stunned a moment, but as she started to move away, Sentenza moved fast as lightning. He drew his second pistol, aimed it at Bakade and pointed his first one at Narissa. "Hold it right there. I've been meaning to..."

Sentenza cut his sentence short as in the confusion, Bakade lunged towards him. Immediately he fired both of his guns. It seemed that Narissa's arrival was exactly the spark needed to set off the powder keg of tension. The bullet reached Bakade first. It ricocheted off of the side of her skull and into her antler, knocking off another chunk and leaving a small crack on the side of her head. His other bullet flew right to a startled Narissa, and grazed her leg, which caused her to yelp in pain.

Despite being shot, Narissa continued to move her hand onto her broach where she pricked her thumb against the pin holding it in place. As the second two shots rang out, and Bakade's claws raised up to tear through Sentenza, a purple wall, that was nearly opaque like fogged glass, appeared between Sentenza and Bakade. With a loud thump the gangly girl's antlers slammed against the wall as the assassin's bullets bounced back.

"Idiot," winced Narissa as she put a hand against her wounded thigh. "Forcing me to show off early."

Bakade slammed against the wall, but it wouldn't budge. On the other side, Sentenza eyed the wall cautiously before reloading both of his guns. It was impressive. He tossed one into the air while he slid out the chamber of the other and slid in a fresh bullet before switching. He then grabbed the one from the air behind his back as he tossed up the freshly reloaded gun. It was only a brief moment, and both of his revolvers were fully loaded again.

"Ooooopppppeeeeennnnnn iiiittttt!" commanded Bakade as she turned to glare at Narissa.

"Oh of course. I just love being attacked by a trained killer." Narissa remarked as she rolled her eyes.

On the other side of the wall, Sentenza could only hear muffled noises. He paced back and forth before he finally moved close to the wall and tapped against it in various places with the butt of one of his revolvers.

Bakade snarled as she slammed her claw with all her force against the wall. Then another claw. Again and again, she started to wail on the wall as water started to drip from her eye sockets and pool beneath her.

"Hey! Stop that," warned Narissa as she ripped off her sleeve and wrapped the fabric around her leg wound. "He has the look of a man ready to kill. My poor husband had that same look on him when he came at me with his sword. My sweet buffoon, he really did force my hand."

CRACK!

"Whoa! Seriously, stop it!" Narissa's voice grew more frazzled as one of Bakade's blows finally sent a small crack through the wall. "Do you want him to kill us both?"

Bakade didn't reply, and just kept banging on the magical wall as it started to splinter more and more.

Sentenza took notice of the cracks and traced them with his eyes as they appeared. He crouched down slightly and let out a small plume of smoke from his cigarillo as his eyes turned to stare right at Narissa. "Come on. Focus. Focus." he chanted to himself.

"You're crazy, but fine! Do whatever you like, but I'm not sticking around to get blown away with you." Narissa complained before she limped her way back down the stairs.

Bakade ignored Narissa and instead put everything she had into breaking through the wall. Then it happened. Sentenza pointed a gun up and fired at the wall right as Bakade's fist slammed into it. Then, it shattered into a million pieces that quickly disappeared. The force of Bakade's blow made her fall forward, but she twisted her body to attack Sentenza. The trouble was he was prepared for the wall to break just then and leaped past her towards the stairs to the basement. He did not escape unscathed though, as Bakade managed to scratch the side of his face.

Sentenza made no noise when he got hurt. He kept moving forward and slipped down the stairs as Bakade stumbled onto the ground.

"No point in hiding Narissa." Sentenza said calmly as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "You know something you shouldn't, and it's time we talked about it."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Narissa was running as fast as she could now. She glanced back over her shoulder periodically as she gritted her teeth each time her wounded leg slammed against the ground. He eyes grew wide as she saw Sentenza running after her. His left eye was closed with a claw mark covering it and the side of his face. Even with that he had a calm look on his face covering with raging fury buried just under the surface.

"Why does this always happen to me," bemoaned Narissa quietly as she found the strength to push herself even more and picked up her pace.

Bakade roared as she looked at the stairs down. She leaped towards it, but for the first time in The Oasis, the way through was too small for her. She had always gotten through every other door without any trouble, but it seemed that the basement was locked off for her. She twisted and turned her head this way and that, but even when she turned around and tried to go feet first, her hips were somehow too wide. She roared in frustration and tried to claw through the floor, but she didn't even leave a scratch.

Both Sentenza and Narissa could hear Bakade's howling behind them.

"Hear that? Just...just give up! She'll be on us soon." gulped Narissa.

"Don't make me shoot your other leg," Sentenza sighed as he continued to chase after her. "But no, she's not coming. I think we both know that."

Narissa bit her lip. "Fine, what do you want?"

Sentenza let out a plume of smoke from his cigarillo. "To be blunt. You're going to tell me what I want to know, and then I'm going to kill you."

"Wha...why would you tell me that last part?" Narissa seemed stunned and slowed down after hearing such a blunt statement.

"Because you knowing doesn't make any difference one way or the other." Sentenza explained as he made sure to keep a decent amount of distance between the two of them.

"But I'm just a harmless girl. Why are you bullying me?" she pouted as she came to a stop and turned to face him.

Sentenza stopped when she did. "You're no more helpless than a rattlesnake without their rattler." He said as he slid one of his pistols back into its holster and finally touched his fresh wounds. He winced as his fingers came into contact with them, but he persisted in prodding at each of them. "I could've killed you already. I want you to remember that. Every second you're still alive is a gift from me to you."

"Oh, I'm just so grateful." she sneered as she saw her attempts at empathy were hopeless.

Sentenza brought his hand down from his face as he shook his head. "That chicken gave you away. Now show me where it is."

"Where what is?" Narissa played dumb, as she knew full well what he must be after.

"You really want to do this? Fine." Sentenza pointed his gun at her chest.

Narissa held her hands up and started to say, "Now hold on a moment, you don't have to..."

BANG!

With the precision of an expert marksman, he shot of a pouch on her waist. As it hit the ground, it opened up, and spilled out almost a dozen pebbles. Narissa's face reddened slightly as she looked down at the scattered stones.

"Maybe you shouldn't act so innocent when you've got the loot in plain sight." he motioned with his smoking gun towards the pebbles as he added, "Now pick them up. Then you can take me to it, and we can have a real talk."

"What's wrong with you!" snapped Narissa. "If you want to kill me, just do it! But making those crazy trick shots when you've got one eye closed? You're insane!"

Sentenza just motioned to the stones with his gun. "Go on, pick them up."

She scowled at him but knelt over and daintily put each pebble back. Before she could stand up, Sentenza held out his hand and motioned for her to give them to him. She rolled her eyes and grumbled but stopped right before she tossed them his way.

"You know," she said as she looked at his gun. "We could always work together? You clearly have a goal in mind, and I doubt it will conflict with what I want to do."

"We may be on the same path, but we got here different ways. I took what I needed, and you were given it." replied Sentenza coldly. "And it's awfully hard to trust someone else's puppet."

Narissa scowled as she glared back at him. "I'm no one's puppet! I just do whatever I need to so I can climb up to where I belong." She pulled out a small dagger from her hip and pointed it towards him as she added, "Imply I work for anyone other than myself again, and I'll cut out your tongue, feed it to you, then sew your ugly mouth shut."

Sentenza smirked as he lowered his gun. "Now that's the kind of motivation I can understand. Toss me the bag, and I'm sure we can figure some kind of partnership out."

Narissa looked shocked and suspicious, but most of all, she was still angry. "How about I hold onto them until we get there?" she suggested as she kept the knife between them and clutched the bag against her chest.

Sentenza chuckled and shook his head slightly as he raised his gun at her again. His face turned stern as he pulled back the hammer with his thumb and said, "Not on your life."

----------------------------------------

"I shall carry her to bed."

"I wonder what happened."

Ted and Trizel looked down at Bakade. She was passed out on the ground by the basement stairs with a faint pooling of water on the floor near her skull. Trizel put down a barrel that made a sloshing noise as he walked over and picked her up. He quickly noticed the dried blood on her claw and her cracked skull.

"I think we should be careful. It seems she was in some sort of fight," Trizel said as he started to make his way towards the stairs up. "Let us hope that we do not have a new visitor that has already picked off Narissa and fought off Bakade."

"Maybe she should sleep down where we can keep an eye on her," suggested Ted.

Trizel shook his head. "No, she seems exhausted. Like a warrior after a day of training. She needs a good bed more than she needs our protection."

Ted caught something out of the corner of his eye and picked up a chunk of antler. He held it up to Trizel. "Are you still sure she needs comfort more?"

The former warrior king paused a moment. Then he nodded. "Yes. If there is such a risk here, we need her at full strength, which means a good rest and delicious meal when she awakes."

"Alright, I guess I'll trust your fighting expertise over mine. Let's meet back at the drinking table when you're done with her, and we can try and figure things out from there." sighed Ted as he kept the chunk of antler in his hand.

The two of them went their separate ways, with Trizel carrying her gangly body upstairs while Ted tossed the antler chunk onto the table and plopped into a chair with a sigh.

Why the long face?

"Hmm? Ah, just seems something happened while we were messing with that beer." He pointed to the antler. "Bakade seems to have gotten into a fight, and that's really all we know. We haven't seen Narissa in a little while either, so I just don't know what's happening."

Eh, I wouldn't worry about it bro.

"Hmm? Well, why not?" asked Ted.

Everyone's got to die. Just a matter of time, right? I mean, unless we get some necromancer to show up, then once you guys all go, we could be a real skeleton crew!

"ha ha," Ted said dryly.

Oh come on, that was a good one.

"It was not." sighed Trizel as he approached the table. "But how far does your...voice...reach? I was upstairs and could hear you plain as day."

I don't know. Far as I want it to, I guess.

"So you could talk to any of the others here? Maybe check in on their whereabout?" Trizel suggested excitedly.

Uh...maybe not that far. I definitely can't reach the woods, or like anywhere in the basement.

"Hmm, so it is a short-ranged thing, like regular talking then?" Ted pointed out.

I mean, this is regular talking to me man.

"Fair enough, I just..."

The door to The Oasis flew open, as Sid stumbled through.

"Food. Need calories, and...nutrients..." Sid groaned out as he stumbled and fell to his knees.

Trizel rushed over to grab him and help him up. "What happened to you Sid?"

"Repair stalled due...to lack of nutrients in storage..." he groaned.

Someone get this man a sandwich! Death stood up and walked over to inspect Sid as Trizel helped him to a chair. He's not dying though. Trust me, I'd be able to tell.

"I'm on it," said Ted as he headed towards the kitchen. "Keep an eye on him. With Bakade and Sid in such bad shape. I think it's clear someone has shown up and is causing trouble. After he eats, we need to focus on finding this new guy and stopping them before they hurt someone else."