"Sleeping on the job? Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. We can't have that."

Cloaked in shadows, the mysterious man who seemed to be nothing more than a smile knelt in front of the hollow king. His hand gripped the face of the monstrosity. He roughly turned it back and forth, as he inspected his face before squeezing his cheeks to force his mouth open.

The smiling man grinned as he peered inside. "Still missing? What? Couldn't do one simple thing? How tragic. Though your face. This decoration is a vast improvement on your normal looks. Quite realistic too."

The mysterious man stood up at his full height and stuffed his hands into his pockets. As he went to walk away, a glint of something shiny caught his eye. He looked over, and it seemed to be a metal rose sticking out of the ground. Slowly, he walked over to it and bent down. He gently cupped the metal rose in his hand and knelt close as if he was going to smell it. But the hollow king's hand leaped out and grabbed the hilt as soon as the smiling man touched it.

The hollow king let out a small hiss of air as he sprung to life again. His ghostly body springing forth while his myriad of eyes opened wide to stare at the smiling man.

"Well well. Seems you're awake now at least." chuckled the mysterious man. "Care to tell me how many you've gotten rid of?"

Silence was his only reply as the hollow king flipped his sword into the air and tried to bring it down on top of the mysterious man. For his part, the only thing that moved was his smile, which only grew as he was attacked. The sword came crashing down, but as it fell, it seemed to move out of the way of the smiling man and landed to his side. The shockwaves from the blow made his worn suit ripple in the wind, but other than that seemed to do nothing.

As the hollow king moved to lift the sword again, the smiling man scolded him. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Not too bright, are you? Maybe I should save everyone some trouble and put you down like the disobedient dog you are?"

As the sword came down towards him this time, the smiling man lifted his hand up and grabbed the sword by the blade. As soon as it made contact, the sword's swing stopped completely. A small drop of black ooze slid down the blade, and that seemed to make the smiling man's grin all the more malicious looking.

"Heh heh...hahahah...HAHAHAHAHAHA!" His laugh was unnerving as he tightened his grip on the sword. The blade struggled under the force of his hand as cracks started to spread out before it shattered.

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The hollow king stumbled back as his sword was destroyed. But even breaking, he still had a good two feet of blade attached to the hilt.

The smiling man stood in place as a strange wind seemed to spring up around him. His clothes flapped as the fog started to get blown away. "Naughty, naughty. Biting the hand that feeds you? For shame. I brought you hear to fix things, not cause me problems. Tell me that you at least accomplished something, and haven't just been lying down on the job all this time?"

The hollow king held the sword up. It seemed to finally be light enough that he could actually carry it. His eyeless face turned towards the smiling man and scowled. Slowly, he lifted his right arm, and pointed the eye on his palm directly at the man who shattered his sword.

"I wouldn't if I were you." he grinned.

The hollow man didn't heed the warning, and as his eye pointed at the man, the pupil began to shake. Then, blood began to drip from the ornate seal around it, before blood vessels in the eye itself began to pop, turning its white sclera deep red. The hollow king's entire arm began to shake before he finally pulled his arm back and closed his fist over his now bloody eye.

"I tried to warn you," scolded the smiling man as a hint of drool appeared at the corner of his lips. He stuck his tongue out and licked around his lips and teeth as his eyes were kept obscured by shadows under his hat. "But you just wouldn't listen to your better."

The hollow king snarled as he grit his crooked teeth. Blood still dripped from his right hand as he suddenly used it to grasp his broken sword. He held the stunted blade out in front of him as his breathing started to get heavier and heavier.

The smiling man clicked his tongue. "Oh, stop it you. You're going to make my blood boil with that defiant attitude of yours."

The hollow king took a step forward, and the smiling man disappeared. In a brief second, he had appeared right above the hollow king, and grabbed his skull with his bare hand. With a cruel giggle, he pulled the hollow king down, and slammed his skull against the ground. It landed with a wet thud as the ground cracked beneath the force.

The smiling man kept his hand gripping the hollow king's skull as he knelt down beside him to whisper in his ear. "Feel free to keep up your pathetic resistance. I just love putting my lesser's back in their place, until they finally realize just how pointless all their struggling really was."

The hollow king stayed defiant, and he thrust his broken blade towards the smiling man's ribs. It seemed like a perfect strike, but as it should have pierced through his clothes, he was suddenly just to the side of the strike, making him miss entirely.

The smiling man let out a condescending chuckle. "How cute," he cooed as he lifted the hollow king by his head. With a flick of his wrist, he threw him into the side of The Oasis. The force of the blow made the entire building shake, and put a small crack when the desiccated body slammed against it.

The hollow king stabbed his sword into the ground, and he tried to use it like a cane to pull himself back to his feet, but his legs were struggling to even hold his weight. His ghostly visage had started to fade away as he fought against collapsing.

"Oh, I see it now." he laughed mockingly. "You actually think you can take what I have? You think I'm as pathetic as a trivial force of nature like death? That you can bend me to your will as well?" HIs smile shrunk as he continued to laugh. "Oh, that's so sad it's actually managed to ruin my mood. I enjoy putting losers back in their place, but there are limits you know."

The hollow king only snarled in response as he tried to step forward, but only managed to stumble and fall back down to his knees. He was breathing heavily and lifted his head up to scowl at the smiling man as the last of his spectral body faded away.

"Goodnight sweet prince. I wish I could say that I'll miss you, but really you've been nothing but a disappointment in every conceivable way." The smiling man lifted his foot and brought it down onto the hollow king's face. This sent him back into The Oasis again, where he crumbled onto the ground with his back against the wall.

The smiling man let out a sigh and shook his head. "You had so much potential, but if you can't take that potential and come out on top, well then it's worse than if you were always completely worthless, now, isn't it?"