The Beast and the Sword Book 2: The Changes

Page 30: Fifty-Two Cut Up

Gooden and the other captains wasted no time as they moved throughout the capital towards the main square. They kept to the skies as they could see the corpses down below wandering the streets and within buildings.

Gooden only sighed as she said "My gods. This is insane."

"Don't worry--" Yami said, "--Once we kick this guy's ass then all of this will stop."

"But what if they're more of them?" Gooden asked, "Not corpses I mean but--Other Mages."

"Then we'll just beat them up too." Yami replied casually, "Now just stay focused."

"Hey---!" Theodore said as he had been riding on Yami's shoulder, "--I see it Mr. Gorilla!"

The three of them took notice of the area as they took cover on top of a building that had been nearby. They quickly had gotten low to the ground as they started to survey the situation. They noticed Nolan had been in the center of it all with Zeus, as they could see the mage that had been terrorizing other people and mages he had captured as he looked to be on the move.

"That's him!" Theodore said, "That's the Puppetmaster I was telling you about!"

"It's just one man controlling all of these corpses?!" Gooden said, "Just how much mana does this guy have?!"

"KEKE--It doesn't matter the numbers!" Jack said with his usual smile, "--I'LL CHOP THE BASTARD INTO MINCEMEAT!"

"Cool it stringbean!" Yami said as he pulled him back, "We need to figure out how we're going to do this."

"I thought the plan was to attack him from above." Gooden said.

"It still is but we need to strategize and come up with a contingency in case things go south." Yami said, "If one thing goes wrong--He might kill the old man and the dog."

Gooden and even Jack looked shocked by this sort of thing. "What?" Yami asked, noticing the looks they gave.

"N-Nothing it's just that you never say something like that!" Gooden said, "You usually just charge in without thinking about it too much unless--" It soon hit Gooden as this time Yami flinched, "--Are you worried about making Prism cry if this goes south?"

"N-No!" Yami exclaimed before he said, "WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT?!"

"KEKE--Getting soft, Sukihero?" Jack asked

"OH LIKE YOUR ONE TO TALK!!" Yami yelled with a glare.

"WHAT WAS THAT MEATHEAD!?" Jack yelled.

"Can we focus on the task at hand?" Gooden asked in an annoyed tone, "But seriously, are you that worried about hurting Prism?"

Yami only sighed as he slapped himself before replying, "Okay fine maybe a little bit. The kid doesn't have her parents like the sword boy to help her through all the hard stuff. Sure she had those three to look after her for those six months, but she didn't have her role models to basically you know--As the old man down there would put it, see her teenage years. Now she finally has a part of her family back and if something ends up happening, she'll be the depressed princess instead of being the happy-go-lucky girl."

"Yami..." Gooden said before she smiled, "... Sounds like Prism really changed you since she came to the Capital."

Yami flinched at this as he said, "S-shut up."

"I'm serious here, it's good that she has that impact on you." Gooden said, "But if she trusts you to save Nolan, then that means your relationship with each other is pretty strong. We couldn't be more proud of you for taking the role as well someone she can look up to as a parent."