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“What the Hell are you?” Peg asked.
Denny, the silver spewing knight had elongated his neck high to the ceiling after the uppercut from Lunagi. Lunagi backed away to get close to Peg, but kept his eyes on him.
“He’s one of the Knight Commanders, a high class for the Knights of the Ministry.” Lunagi explained. “He isn’t just adorned in silver with a blade like the others, his body has been changed allowing him to do freakish feats such as what you’re seeing now..”
“How dare you call me a freak, you mangy animal.” Commander Denny sneered, twisting his neck down to better look at the two of them. “But you’re right, I’m not like the other knights currently ripping the rest of your kind to shreds.”
“What!?” Peg replied, eyes widening.
“We don’t know which of you monsters tried to murder the Prime Minister but you’ve hurt many innocent lives out there and we will get to the bottom of it. By cutting each of you down until you admit to your crimes.”
“I told you! None of us know what you’re-”
Lunagi raised his hand, stopping Peg from continuing. “It’s no use, Peg. They have no interest in finding who did this.”
Lunagi smirked, cracking his knuckles. “Besides, I think we both know a beastling didn’t cause any of the chaos out there.”
Denny’s frowning face twisted into a sick grin. “Maybe you’re smarter than you look, fur ball.”
The Knight Commander’s other limbs began to stretch until they were like long tendrils and they shot in Peg & Lunagi’s direction. They both dodged the best they could but the attacks didn’t end. His thin sharp silvery points bounced around the room following them. Soon Peg and Lunagi ran out of space to dodge.
“Shit!” Peg yelled, fumbling into her pocket and dropping seeds.
Lunagi luckily knocked away the silver attacks, causing Denny to retract his extended body parts, including his neck. Back into a non-stretched body he sighed, hands on his hips and squinting as he focused on Lunagi.
“Long ears, why aren’t you suffering like the rest of the petting zoo?” Denny asked.
Lunagi once again smiled, brushing at his gi.
“Simple, you’re not as strong as you think.”
Denny frowned, not happy with Lunagi’s games as his right hand twisted and morphed into a silver scythe. He screamed, rushing towards Lunagi who ran to meet him. They clashed in the middle of the room, trading attacks but Lunagi dodged each of Denny’s slashes with ease.
Peg watched the fight unfold and while Denny’s ability to twist and contort his body was impressive what shocked her more was Lunagi. His fighting style was not much different than what she saw in his match with Josie but his hair seemed to have a glow to it.
Each time Denny landed an attack they seemed to bounce off his fur, being repelled like oil to water. Denny continued to be frustrated and his attacks became more and more erratic. Lunagi took advantage of this and eventually landed a strike square in Denny’s face.
“Damn it!” Denny yelled, grabbing at his nose..
“Peg! Get out of here, now!” Lunagi called out.
Her eyes darted to the door, no longer guarded by Denny and she leapt to her feet and rushed towards the exit. Through his fingers Denny saw Peg try to make her escape.
“Like Hell you are!” Denny spat.
His body began to liquify, twisting into a pool of aqueous silver before bursting in all directions. Peg tripped, unable to reach the door. Moments later the entire room was now coated in silver and the door & windows were nowhere to be seen.
Lunagi jumped to Peg’s side, now back to back as the sound of laughter resonated from the walls. The two of them looked around unable to find the source as the laughter grew louder and louder.
“Father said my biggest weakness was playing too much with my food. Maybe he’s right.” Denny’s voice called out. “As much as I’d like to play, we have a very important mission to complete.”
“Do your worst, you can’t lay a finger on me you silver coated monster.” Lunagi taunted.
The walls shimmered and shook as Denny’s laughter continued.
“I don’t know how you’re blocking my attacks but how can you protect yourself and her if I attack…from all directions!?”
The walls twisted and turned until metal spikes erupted from every angle. Transfixed into the middle of the room where Peg and Lunagi stood. Lunagi panicked, trying to think of a way to protect them both but was out of options.
Moments before the spikes skewered them they stopped, mere inches from their bodies. Lunagi looked around and couldn’t believe the sight until he realized that Peg wasn’t worried at all. Not even dropping a bead of sweat. Before Lunagi asked for an explanation he heard Denny scream in agony.
“What the Hell did you do rabbit?” Denny asked.
“The rabbit didn’t do anything.” Peg said with a smile. “Those weren’t just any seeds I dropped, have you ever heard of cruel orchid Denny?”
“That’s Sir Denny!” He hissed, still groaning in pain as his spikes stayed frozen in space.
“Well, if you haven't, it's a pretty toxic plant. If it gets into your bloodstream it can cause terrible pain. Trust me, a friend of mine dealt with it a few months ago.”
Peg tapped at the silver coated ground. “You see? When I first came in here days ago I noticed that there were cracks in the tile, leading into the dirt below this place. A perfect place for a harvest don’t you think?”
Denny was silent and Lunagi looked on with awe.
“But…how did you…”
“Get it into your bloodstream?” Peg interrupted. “Great question, you see it’d be rather difficult without direct contact. But once you spread your body across the room I just had to let these babies grow. Through the floor, threw the walls, all inside of you.”
“You think this will be enough to hold me?” Denny said. “You still can’t escape!”
“True, holding you isn’t enough. Luckily they aren’t fully grown, yet.”
Peg snapped her fingers and right before her and Lunagi’s eyes, vines and red buds filled the walls and lined the silver spikes Denny made. They rapidly grew and wrapped themselves around the silver, sprouting into deep red flowers and once they reached full bloom Denny hollered in pain.
The silver quickly melted away, uncovering the room and the other beastling competitors who fell victim from his original attack. Denny’s body was then revealed, laying near the door naked and covered in deep red rashes as his body twisted and convulsed.
“Peg…” Lunagi spoke, looking down at the defeated Denny. “How did you do this?”
“No time!” Peg said, grabbing Lunagi by the arm and running to the door. “We need to find Josie and get the Hell out of this place!’
Peg and Lunagi made it to the main field of the arena. At this point the stands were practically empty, with the only remains being the destroyed seats and blood from attacked Beastlings. Near the ring however was a different site. Many beastlings had been wrangled down towards the ring with Silver Knights screaming and attacking them. They weren’t taking these attacks lying down especially with one beastling leading the charge to fight back.
Claus, still in his Tyranosaurus Rex form, continued to swipe, bite and tackle as many of the Silver Knights as possible. His body covered in bruises and cuts and even filled with blades did not falter as he roared and continued to keep the other beastling’s engaged in the fight.
Peg and Lunagi looked at each other, nodding before entering the fray. Rescuing Josie was a priority but they weren’t getting much farther until they helped stopped the carnage right before them. Lunagi rushed into the fray, striking at every knight he could while Peg panted her hands on the ground growing and contorting the grass below to help topple the armor clad army.
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In a dark room Josie’s eyes slowly opened. Her body was still a bit weak but she was slowly able to get out of bed. Once she did a light flicked on and her body tensed. Looking around she saw that she was in some type of medical ofice and in the corner someone was whipping something together on a table.
“Where am I? Where’s Peg?”
The person turned, carrying a tray with pills and a random assortment of finger foods and snacks. As they approached Josie’s eyes adjusted and saw that it was Lester carrying the tray.
“You’re the announcer guy!” Josie said, her eyes focusing on the food as her growling stomach did more of the speaking for her.
“There’s no time, please eat up and take this medicine we need your full strength. This is all I could grab from the infirmary before taking you here.”
“Is the tournament over? Did I win?” Josie asked, shoveling in handfuls of cheeses, fruits and small sandwiches.
"None of that matters now.” Lester replied, fluttering over to a window covered in blinds, peeking through them. “There’s a slaughter happening and if we don’t get you out there to stop it everyone is going to die.”
Josie, was concerned by Lester’s words but couldn’t help to keep stuffing her face. “Slaughter? I thought that Minister dude had brought knights to help.”
Lester gripped at the blinds, sighing as he turned to face Josie. “Look, it’s a long story but those knights are the problem and I know you can stop them.”
Josie cleaned the plate of it’s food, leaving the medicine untouched as Lester looked at her.
“You really don’t recognize me, do you kid?” Lester asked.
“Of course I do, you’re the announcer guy. Leslie, Leland…um…”
“Lester!” He replied. “And I don’t mean just this tournament! I know about you! I know what you can do! Ever since I saw you take down Tezuka.”
Josie tilted her head for a moment before her eyes widened in shock. “Wait a minute. You were at Tezuka park?!’
Lester nodded. “Sure was, and now I need you to complete another miracle.”
To Be Continued…