Blood and sweat coated the floor. The air was heavy with the scent of perspiration and body odor. Trizel was holding his side as his chest rose and fell with his deep, ragged breaths. Sid's arm was hanging loosely at his side. Ted was leaning back against a table as he stuffed a napkin into his swollen nose to staunch the flow of blood.

Yeah, I don't get it. Death said with a shrug. He turned to Bakade, who shrugged back at him.

"It is vitally important," panted Trizel. "But now it seems it is time we finished this. One more run, and that should do it."

Sid shook his head and let out a slow breath of air as he visibly relaxed. He twisted his body towards his drooping arm and then slowly back the opposite way. He let out a small grunt and lifted both of his arms up and then around in small circles. "I regret pulling you into this," he whispered to Ted.

Ted shook his head. "It's weird, I don't...it doesn't really hurt as bad as I thought it would."

Sid nodded. "Same as our last attempt?"

Ted shook his head as they both stared at the smiling Trizel. "Sounds good to me." he whispered contrary to what his body language was saying.

The two of them rushed Trizel who moved his hand away from his side as he let out an uproarious laugh. The three of them clashed one final time. Sid flipped forward and used gravity to send his foot down towards Trizel's shoulder. While Ted cocked his right arm back and sent a wide hook towards the giant's side. Both hits landed with a wet slap that caused Trizel to spit up small bits of blood, but he stood strong.

In response, Trizel grabbed Sid by the neck with his left hand and pulled him closer as he sent a right jab into his face hard enough to send Sid flying from his hand. As Ted tried to recover, Trizel pulled his foot back. With both hands, he grabbed Ted's shoulders and yanked him closer while kneeing up into his chest. Ted was also knocked back by the force of the blow and stayed on the ground as he coughed and sputtered.

Trizel took a knee as he let out a sigh of relief. "Man, I needed that."

I thought you were worried about being attacked? How is beating each other silly going to help with that? Death's words held genuine confusion.

"Hhhhheeeee'ssss rrriiiiggghhhtttt," nodded Bakade. "Iiiiitttt ssseeeeemmmssss cccooouuunnntteeerriiinnnttuuuiiittiiivveee."

Nugget was still standing there watching, and she shook her head. "Ba-kaw," she added as she ruffled her feathers. "Bawk ba. Bakaw."

Trizel looked at Sid and Ted who were both splayed out on the ground with Ted making various pained noises. "It is important to fight. To physically fight." Trizel explained. "To put it simply, it is easy for frustrations to grow, and without an outlet, they will only get worse. Letting out your negative emotions towards someone through your literal fists is the best way to let them go."

Nah, sounds like some crazy cult thing honestly.

Trizel shook his head as he put his hands on top of his head to keep his arms raised higher than his heart. "It is just something that works. I used it quite often with my military. When someone was frustrated with me for a decision or how I was ruling, a fight would be arranged. Nothing would be decided by the outcome, but it gave them a chance to let out everything and convince me with their fists."

Trizel walked over towards Sid and offered a hand. "You know what they say," he said as Sid reluctantly placed his skeletal hand in Trizel's. The giant lifted up the AI and patted him on the back as he continued. "Negative emotions fester in the dark. Only when they are let out into the light can they truly be cleansed."

"And you must let them out through physical violence?" Sid coughed out as he tried to adjust his jaw.

Trizel nodded as he moved over to Ted. "I find words don't always do enough to release frustrations." He didn't offer a hand to Ted, but instead grabbed him by his shirt, and lifted him onto his feet.

"Then why wait until now to do this?" Ted wheezed as the napkin fell from his nose. "You've been frustrated plenty of times."

Trizel shook his head as he let out a laugh. "I mistakenly figured I could deal with it on my own. Who knows, maybe now we can make this a weekly thing!"

"I shall have to abstain from that," interjected Sid.

"Yeah, count me out too," groaned Ted in agreement.

Though it was odd. Physically everything was hurting, and slowly getting worse as his adrenaline faded; but he felt better. Like a weight had been lifted from his chest. He didn't feel the least bit frustrated with Trizel, or even Sid now. Maybe getting his head knocked around made it harder to hold onto anything too firmly right now. But it did seem like Trizel was right. That physically releasing his frustrations seemed to actually sap them away from him. He was physically exhausted, but a lot of his fear seemed to have drained away with his energy.

Trizel just let out another laugh as he pulled Ted's arms up and put them on top of his head. "Keep your arms up. It'll help with blood flow and make your cool down easier."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Eh, why not. I'll fight if you need someone else there.

"Ba Bakaw!"

"Nnnnnnoooottttt mmmmmeeeeee."

"Though it seems I have delayed your plans for our suicidal excursion. We should heal up for a night at least," suggested Trizel as he walked towards the kitchen. "I know there is not enough ice for a proper bath, but hopefully there is enough to go around."

Sid nodded. "Yes. Going now would be inadvisable. It would be better to wait for us at our full strength. There is only a slight risk of waiting too long to act."

"What risk?" asked Ted.

Sid chose his words carefully. "Something may come up that interrupts our plans further. To prevent us from ever properly investigating the edge itself, and what lies beyond. A small distraction here, another disaster there."

Ted started to feel the weight of what he had done. It started with a small ache that quickly twisted his body into feeling like he was trying to move through freshly poured cement with every small movement. All his muscles seemed to be tensing up and felt like they were old wooden boards pressed to their limits, and ready to snap. He moved to sit down in a chair, but Sid stopped him.

"Trizel is right. Standing right now will be better for you. Sitting now will only exacerbate things." Sid explained.

Dang. Sucks to have all those muscles that can get sore. That's why you should just go with my necromancer idea and throw away that silly flesh suit. Death said as he pointed finger guns at Ted. Nothing can get sore if you're made of pure calcium enriched bones!

"Surely you need something to keep you going," suggested Sid. "Nothing can run without energy being put into it. Did you perhaps feed on the souls you escorted?"

Bakade looked down and rubbed her stomach at the mention of food. But there was no growl of hunger from it, or any noise at all. She tiled her head down to look at it, which made her antlers bonk Death on the top of his head.

Whoa! Where did that come from?

"Aaahhh. Sssooooorrryyy," she said quietly as she quickly snapped her head back up.

Death put his hands all over his skull. Ah no worries. Everything seems cool from what I can tell. Just surprised me is all.

Trizel strolled back in with two hand towels wrapped around chunks of ice. "Alright, seems we can start with the treatment! Which of you wants to go first?"

"My body will recover with food." Sid explained. "Thus, I do not need any rustic treatment for my swelling."

"Uh, I mean..." gulped Ted as despite his increasingly sore muscles, the ice looked far too ominous for his liking.

Trizel smiled at Ted as he slowly approached him.

"Wait, no I think I'm doing better. I just need...."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold!"

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

"Am I supposed to feel like I just fell in a pile of cow pies?"

Narissa held a hand over her mouth to conceal her smile. "Why, it's dirty business dealing with demons dear. You can't expect it to feel like a bundle of roses."

Sentenza looked at his ratty outfit and tried to shake off the nonexistent filth he felt on it. "I'd gotten real used to taking daily baths here. I might have to have an extra-long one after all of this."

"Hey, not that this isn't a riveting conversation, but would you mind letting me down from here?" Og'drimun was expertly tied up in layers of string as he hung from a hook over the firepit. His small furry body slowly twisted around as he hung there.

"Wish we could, but," Sentenza lifted up his freshly bandaged hand. "You've shown we can't really trust you, can we?"

"What? But you're the boss now, you both are!" he whined.

"Lotta good that's done me for keeping you under control." Narissa shrugged. "Besides, we just need you for information and that little boost you give me. Not like you running around is going to be much help."

"That's not fair!" he said as he twisted his little body back and forth, which caused him to rock around precariously like a toddler on a swing set. "I did everything you guys wanted! I even told you about Tthngrll and her twin sister! You didn't need to know that. I was just being nice."

"Yes, this whole situation does seem more complicated the deeper we dig," Narissa sighed as she shook her head.

"Doesn't matter." shrugged Sentenza as he pulled out a bullet from the bandoleer around his waist. He fidgeted with the hunk of metal between his fingers as he looked down at it. "I don't need to go to the top or the bottom. No, to get what I want, I don't need to know much more than I already do."

Og'drimun rolled his eyes. "That's just asking for trouble. Like ripping a fresco from a wall without regards for anything else. You're more likely to destroy what you want and bring down more of the building onto your head than anything else."

Sentenza glanced over at Og'drimun and flicked the bullet at him. It hit the tiny creature with a thud and sent him spinning around even faster.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"You really are a simple man, aren't you?" Narissa said as she grabbed the back of Og'drimun to stop his spinning. Then, she walked over and washed her hands in a basin of water.

Sentenza nodded as he scratched his neck. "I don't trust him, but if he gets caught Trizel or Bakade will kill him, Sid will dissect him for sure, Ted will want to give him a beer, and I'm not too sure how Death will act." He turned to look at Narissa and shrugged. "I don't outright need him now that we have his information. So, I'll leave it up to you. You can keep him locked up down here or let him run free. Heck, you could drown him out in the rain for all I care."

"Uh, I'm a perfectly independent being," pouted Og'drimun as his head spun around. "Why don't I get any say in what happens to me?"

Narissa rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to regret this."

"I mean, think of all the good times we've had! All the fun spells I taught you. That time we sent that witch's eyes to the plane of eternal darkness, remember? She stumbled around looking for a light for ages!" Og'drimun tried to smile, but with his overbite, and strange face, it looked more like a sneer.

Narissa shook her head. "You're not really helping your case, you know?"

"Then just imagine I said whatever would've helped you want to free me the most?" he suggested.

Sentenza groaned as he walked over to the slide. He rubbed his neck as he looked up the steep slope.

"Ah! I can help us get up faster!"

"And survive the trip?" asked Narissa as she crossed her arms.

"Uh...define survive." Og'drimun chuckled dryly.

Narissa pulled the knife from her belt and cut the string holding Og'drimun. This sent him falling towards the glowing portal, which he realized after a second, and a look of shock quickly filled his strange face. At the last minute, Narissa grabbed the edge of the string still connected to him and pulled him away from the firepit and towards the ground. She set her knife carefully against the remaining bits of string binding him and cut through them.

As his bonds fell away, Og'drimun let out a cry of glee and sped around the room. His movement was reminiscent of a rat scurrying around, but the exceptionally long ears helped make him look distinct from a regular rodent.

"So, think you can still climb it?" Sentenza asked no one in particular as he continued to stare up the smooth surface.

Narissa sneered at the back of his head as she said, "It wouldn't be too bad, except someone saw fit to shoot my leg. It's made it a bit difficult to move around, let alone climb something like that."

Sentenza showed no remorse, but simply nodded his head as he kicked a few pieces of broken wood away from his feet. He narrowed his eyes as he saw a few chicken scratches in the dust beneath it.

"Uh, I think you're forgetting something," smirked Og'drimun as he flew up in the air near Sentenza's head. "Now that I'm not being held prisoner, I can actually do some magic to help out."

"Without killing us." Narissa threw in.

"Yeah, without killing us, sure." he replied dismissively. "So, what do you say Bossman? Want to see what I can really do?"

Sentenza tilted up the brim of his hat as he looked over at the smiling demon. "We don't need anything fancy but turning this into stairs up or something like that sure would be helpful."

"Stairs? Hah!" scoffed Og'drimun. "How beneath me. No, let me show you what I can really do!"

The air in the room started to grow heavy as Og'drimun began to chant in a strange language. His words grew in intensity as a low red glow began to fill the room. Finally, there was a blinding light. Sentenza and Narissa had both covered their eyes, and when they lowered their hands, they could see the grand abilities of the King under the mountain.

"Uh, I can explain," he squeaked.

The wood on the ground had squeezed together to form a long lizard with bug eyes pointing different directions and its tongue hanging out from between its lips. It was very round. There wasn't a sharp corner on it anywhere. Even its teeth, hidden in its closed mouth were all perfectly rounded. It was almost twenty feet long, but besides its head, it barely went past Sentenza's ankles.