When Darkness Turns to Light

Cold-Hearted Snake

Recap: Unflinching, Hikari shoved him into the wall with the snakes. She wiped saliva from her chin on the back of her hand from when he had used his Lion Combo, and looked up at him. At some point, she had lost her hat. "I didn't come here to fight. I came here to talk to you."

He glowered. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

She snorted lightly. "I don't see how you have a choice in the matter, given your position." She flipped her hair back without moving her hands. "You'll listen."

Chapter Forty-four: Cold-Hearted Snake

The first thing Donald did from the roulette wheel was cast Thundaga. A great quantity of lightning bolts rained on Oogie Boogie's level, directly hitting him as well as his Heartless companions. The latter took evident damage whereas the former appeared to be unaffected.

Sora jumped high and casted Blizzara. Although much of the ice passed through the bars and struck his adversary, the bug bag felt only a slight chill.

Next Jack tried Firaga and Red XIII used Graviga; the latter, whose large area consumed both Oogie and the Gargoyles, flattened the Heartless and claimed their lives, but the Boogie Man stood tall.

"Oh, stop it! That tickles!" he laughed.

"He's immune to our magic," observed Red XIII.

Goofy threw his shield, but the bars deflected it. "How are we supposed to get up there and fight him?"

Unshaken by the loss of his Heartless henchmen-though he had no reason to care-the Boogie Man produced a pair of dice. He threw them into the roulette wheel. "Let's get this party started!"

The dice expanded as they fell and resembled small ottomans when they rolled on the ground; Sora dodged one when it nearly fell on him. Together, when the dice stopped rolling, they read six.

Now what? wondered the brunette.

Jack's attention was diverted to three anthropic machines wearing cowboy hats atop their noggins and bearing slots on their chests when they suddenly moved. Their eyes lit red, and their arms-like the levers of a slot machine-cranked down. At the end of the rod, they each held a gun.

"Look out!"

The machines shot once, and Team Sora along with Jack scurried out of the bullets' paths. One bullet grazed the Pumpkin King's arm, since he had been standing closest, but the damage was minimal.

Oogie Boogie threw another pair of dice, and this time he rolled nine. Toward the sound of mechanical release, the gang looked overhead and watched a giant, three-bladed contraption fall almost in a snap. The center of the contraption lined up with the middle of the roulette wheel, and the blades extended to the full radius, so there was no escaping its reach.

The contraption touched the ground and separated the group, initially missing everyone. Then, it bounced up, rotated around the center, and swiftly came down again. The fivesome ran around the circle to avoid the trap until it returned to the ceiling.

Once again, Oogie threw more dice and they landed directly in front of Donald and Goofy. "Snake eyes" stared back at them, and the dice exploded; they yelped.

"Heal!" Sora cast Cura on his friends, absolving them of the brunt of the damage.

"Buzzsaw~!" Oogie sang, and he threw in more dice. Now they read ten.

Although Oogie's control over the dice was dubious, he guessed correctly. At a time when all of the gang was scattered because of the three-bladed device, Sora heard a loud buzzing almost directly behind him and turned to find a circular blue-and-yellow saw sweep across the floor.