The lance tip flew off, revealing a firearms chamber, around an inch in diameter. Three silver metallic cannonballs were fired, exploding in the air, releasing a massive amount of smoke. My eyes watered and it took two minutes before everything turned clear. Shan’s masked opponent hopped back as the gravity manipulator swung his bo staff at him. The end of his weapon missed the opponent by centimeters. However, with a small thrust forward, Shan’s staff extended and smashed into the center of his enemy’s mask. The impact resulted in a minor crack, millimeters in length at first, before expanding into ten additional fractures. Despite the damage, his opponent’s mask remained intact and on their face.
“That’s some tough material. They really don’t want anyone seeing their face,” Champ said.
“Really? I’m more interested in Shan’s weapon. I’ve seen Kisai use something similar,” I pointed out.
“A bo staff, believed to be one of mankind’s first weapons. It shows up in Xi You Ji, a weapon wielded by the infamous Sun Wukong. Shan’s version appears to resemble the one in the tale, able to contract and expand,” Champ explained, looking at us with excitement.
“You sure know a lot, Champ. Yuki, was Jin able to do that with his staff too?” Jen questioned.
“Not sure, Kisai beats enemies so fast that I have no idea what he’s really capable of. Knowing him, he definitely could do it if he wants to,” I replied.
Shan slammed his bo staff down, aiming for the mask again. However, his armored opponent parried with his lance, pushing the hero back. The gravity manipulator yanked his weapon backwards as it contracted to half of its original size. The lance user charged at him and I expected Shan to just repel him like last time. However, the lance pierced his right shoulder and upper chest. What was going on? This was my first time witnessing the hero sustain so much damage and unable to block an attack.
“Already figured it out, huh? You’ve really grown, Orbi,” Shan said, extending his staff and swept his opponent’s leg.
Despite it being a simple attack, Orbi crashed into the ground hard. This was finally enough to crack their mask, revealing a male humanoid with a broken horn in the center of his forehead. An oni? Shan followed up with multiple strikes to the opponent’s knees, breaking his leg armor. Orbi grabbed his lance, firing off five heavy shots at the hero. Shan knocked away three of the cannonballs but was struck in the stomach by the remaining two. I anticipated the gravity manipulator flying into a wall but he remained standing.
“Orbi, who sent you?” Shan clutched his stomach, grimacing in pain.
“Doesn’t matter. I can’t let you get to that switch,” he responded, standing up.
“Champ, do your thing!” Shan shouted.
Champ nodded and entered the battle area. I didn’t notice until now but Shan was chipping away at the barrier preventing us from interfering with the battle. Champ pinned bookmarks to Orbi’s body as Shan pinned the opponent down with his powers. When Orbi broke free, Champ retreated behind Shan and clapped his hands. Rust appeared on the man’s armor and then all of it turned into a fine dust, leaving him exposed. Shan jammed his knee into Orbi’s stomach before he whipped his staff into the man’s forehead, knocking him unconscious.
“Let’s go. Long and Jin are probably tired of waiting for us,” Shan said, walking ahead.
“Right. You sure you want to just leave him there?” I caught up with the man.
“He’s gonna be out for awhile. Not much I can do for him,” Shan answered, shaking his head.
“Hang on, Shan. What’s the deal between you and Orbi? You know him from Za’ard, I can tell that much from the way you two talked,” I pressed him for more information.
“I’m gonna pull a Tess and tell you to look it up in the archives. It’ll take too long to give you the entire story. Best way to put it, he’s a former co-worker, helped me and Darryl out on a couple of missions when we were involved in peace talks between the orcs and the Za’ard government. Last time I saw him, he was still working for the orcs, looks like he’s working for someone else now,” Shan explained.
“Damn, I honestly thought you were going to b******* me and not give me anything. Fine, I’ll stop for now but if I find anything interesting, you won’t mind if I start asking more questions, right?” I waited for Champ and Jen to catch up.
“Yeah, works for me,” Shan agreed.
The gravity manipulator handed me the communicator and requested I update Kisai and Zhuyu on our current situation. I pressed the on button and heard Kisai’s voice.
“Damn, lost already? Come on, can’t let Yuki down like that,” he said.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Kisai, but it’s me. We ran into a little issue but Shan dealt with it. We’re getting close to the switch so I’ll let you know once we’re there. How long have you been waiting?” I took up the rear as Champ and Jen passed me.
“Probably been around thirty minutes now, not that time really matters in this place. Long, you still awake?” Kisai asked.
“Yeah. Take your time, Yuki. Better to be careful than just rush in,” Zhuyu replied.
“Well, you heard him. We’ll talk again once you get there,” Kisai said before ending the transmission.
We traversed through a winding metallic staircase before arriving at a door. A pulsating red line was positioned in the center and two parallel green lines were on its left and right. How were we suppose to unlock this? Shan peered at the lines before placing his hand on the door. Ten seconds later, the lines stopped moving as the hero adjusted their movement.
“There we go,” Shan said as all three lines turned green.
The door opened up, revealing a blinking light on a control panel in the middle of the room. Champ scanned the room for threats but found nothing. Shan inspected the switches on the control panel before flicking on and off individual ones. I returned the communicator to him as he pressed buttons.
“You ready, Shigetzu?” Kisai questioned.
“Just finished setting things up. You two already flipped yours on, right?” Shan answered.
“Yep, it’s all you, Shigetzu,” Kisai confirmed.
The gravity manipulator yanked the switch and a portion of the wall slid open, revealing a new pathway. Once he stepped away from the control panel, the ground around it rumbled and the device descended into the ground.
“Everything good on your side, Jin and Long?” Shan took one step into the unlocked space before retreating backwards.
“Yeah,” both men confirmed.
After confirming no traps in the immediate vicinity of the new area, we entered through the opening. When the last person stepped in, the wall behind us closed, no going back now.
“They really don’t want us backtracking. Makes things easier for us at least,” Shan commented, tapping the wall with his knuckle.
“These walls are weird. I can’t even tell what material they’re constructed out of. I really need to learn more about magic. Hey Shan, you think Kisai would be willing to teach me?” Champ stared at the wall.
“Probably, if you’re willing to put up with him making fun of you. Not everyone can, you know,” Shan replied, glancing in my direction.
“Shigetzu, don’t make fun of Yuki too much. I’m sure she’s tired of dealing with everyone’s nonsense all the time,” Jen defended.
“Uh, I wasn’t trying to say Yuki couldn’t handle Jin. More like she’s actually pretty good at dealing with him and making sure he doesn’t go off-topic too much,” Shan complimented me.
“I’m pretty used to stuff like that hanging out with Ichizen. Honestly, some of the s*** he pulled off doesn’t even come close to what any of you have done yet,” I revealed.
“Oh, I get it. Sorry for assuming that you were making fun of Yuki,” Jen apologized.
“Don’t worry about it, Jen. To be honest, I was actually talking about Darryl earlier. Jin’s pretty good at getting him all riled up. I guess I’m guilty of doing that too though,” Shan admitted.
“So you do have a heart after all, Shan,” I remarked.
“Wow, save those words for Long. Wait, do you guys hear that?” Shan raised his right hand in the air.
It was faint at first but there was an annoying squeak that grew louder. I suspected something of mechanical origin. However, as the sound increased in volume, my initial guess was incorrect. This was more of an organic noise which meant a potential enemy.
“One person, no, that’s not quite it. This is a humanoid like what we saw before. It has a tail and whiskers,” Champ reported, stretching his left hand out.
“Wait, could it be someone from Lionel’s dimension?” I summoned Mirror’s Rend.
“Maybe, there’s a bunch of things that have a tail and whisker though,” Shan replied, getting into a fighting stance.
A bipedal mouse emerged from around the corner. He wore a round leather cap with a two protruding straps. The creature was around three feet in height and carried a small sword strapped to his belt. He wore a faded cloak, multiple fabric patches on it, above his green tunic. Walking closer to us, the mouse raised his hands in the air and showed no outward hostility towards us.
“Greetings. I seek the one known as Tomo Yuki. I am Martim, a warrior hired by the ones who created this fortress. I hold no ill will towards any of you but I will fulfill my contract,” the mouse introduced himself with a slight bow.
“That’s me. You’re the one in our way before we can get to the control panel. Just you?” I stepped forward, pointing the tip of my blade toward him.
“Martim, the famous mouse warrior from that book? No, couldn’t be,” Champ muttered.
“There are no other combatants besides me. If you win, you are allowed to pass with everyone else. However, if you lose then I am afraid I must take all of you into custody,” Martim replied.
“I’m fine with that. Let’s get this over with,” I agreed as the artificial battle dimension formed around me and him.
