Twisted Wonderland: Welcome to the Villain's World

Chapter 13: Egos Clashing

Deuce caught sight of the pickaxe coming down on him and he braced himself for impact. Within the next second, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and a force shoving his body forward and onto the hard ground. It took the dark-haired boy a second to register what just happened and if he was alive or not. When his vision cleared, he looked over to see that Auvilan had shoved him out of the way.
   "Auvilan, are you all right?" he asked, quickly getting to his feet.
   Auvilan groaned a little as his body complained from the sudden impact of the ground. "I'm fine. I should be asking you, but we don't have time for that." He hastily stood up, despite the lingering soreness.
   "Ah, shit, this thing got loosey-Deucey in a bind. Not on my watch!" Ace exclaimed as he waved his pen and shot a gust of wind at the giant monster.
   The ink monster bellowed: "Begone!" Then swung its lamp and struck Ace, knocking him off of his feet. Grim whimpered as he shot a wave of fire, which was seemingly ineffective. None of the magic that they had been casting was doing a whole lot of damage.
   Suddenly, Auvilan noticed a flash of light at the opening that the monster was blocking. "Did you guys see that?" he questioned. "Behind the monster! I saw something sparkle in the mineshaft."
   "Could that have been a magic stone?" Deuce wondered.
   Auvilan was tempted to check it out, but the monster surged toward him when he tried to sneak by. He felt someone grab his wrist and yank his body backward, avoiding the giant pickaxe that smashed the ground. "Auvilan, that thing is going crush us! We gotta get out of here!" Ace said.
   As much as the brunet didn't want to leave, he knew Ace was right, for once. "All right, let's retreat!"
   The group fled from the cave altogether and retreated to where the cottage was. Now they stood, heaving and trying to catch their breaths. "Owww...what was that thing? No one said there'd be anything like that," Ace complained as he rubbed his shoulder to ease some of the pain.
   "That was no normal ghost, that's for sure," Deuce added.
   "That didn't even look like a ghost at all. Whatever it was, it was a completely different being," Auvilan remarked.
   Ace groaned as he stretched his arms above his head, feeling the pain grasping at him again. "Well, whatever. Forget this, we should just give up and go home. There's no point in risking our lives for one little stone. I'd rather face expulsion than that thing."
   "Why, you lowly coward. We're already this close to obtaining a magic stone and you just want to give up? You're pitiful!" Deuce spat. "I'd rather die than get expelled from Night Raven."
   "Tch. Tough talk for someone who isn't even half the mage that I am. You want that stone so bad? Get it, yourself, I'm out."
   That comment appeared to be the last straw for Deuce as he stepped closer to Ace and audibly cracked his knuckles. An enraged glint flashed in his peacock-green eyes as he glared at the ginger. If looks could kill, then Ace would've been done for at that moment. "Oh, yeah? Fine, then go back to your coop, you overgrown chicken!" he snapped, his tone more low and gruff with a growl laced in his words.
   Ace didn't back down and instead moved closer so he was a few inches away from the infuriated boy. "Who're you calling a chicken, huh?" Clearly, he wasn't that concerned by the fact he could easily get his lights knocked out.
   "Is it just me, or did Deuce become a completely different person?" Grim asked Auvilan, who also found it a bit surprising to see such a side from Deuce. The boy was definitely the serious type, but Auvilan didn't figure he'd be one to bring out a more violent, confrontational personality.
   Once Deuce realized what he was doing, he backed up and coughed, acting as if none of that had happened, and denied what Grim and Auvilan observed. He simply stated that he lost his cool and left it at that.
   "Now what? Is there anything you guys can do with magic?" Auvilan asked, not fully understanding how the laws of magic worked in this world.
   Ace and Deuce explained that magic has its limits as Crowley previously stated. Magic itself is formulated through strong visualization and using different types, or more advanced spells, takes a lot of training to perfect; hence, the magical academies.
   "I see. I thought you guys could naturally cast spells like Grim," Auvilan pointed out. Then again, he did notice that Grim seemed to only be able to use fire magic.
   "If a certain type of magic is your specialty, you can use it more intuitively," explained Ace.
   Deuce set this topic aside and addressed the elephant in the room, or forest. They needed to figure out a way to defeat that monster and obtain the magic stone it was guarding. Ace rolled his eyes and jabbed Deuce for his last failed plan that broke the chandelier.
   The two proceeded to get into another heated argument, with Grim staying out of it this time. The constant yelling between the two made a headache form for Auvilan and he rubbed his head a little. His own temper was starting to bubble and he was losing his patience real quick. "Would you both knock it off already?!" he shouted at the two, catching their attention instantly. "We're not getting anywhere with this useless arguing. Just give me a damn second and I might have a plan. However, you guys are going to have to cooperate."
   Hearing that comment about cooperation made the three groan, and they immediately stated that they refused to work with each other.
Ace commented that it was the "lamest thing ever."
   "And getting your asses expelled on the first day for dumb mistakes is pretty 'lame' too, isn't it?" Auvilan retorted, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at the others. That certainly made them fall silent. None of them had any smart remark or comeback after that, and they reluctantly agreed to hear him out when he mentioned that he did think of a plan.
   Auvilan couldn't entirely blame them for not wanting to work together; even he was having the same thoughts himself. He barely trusted any of these troublemakers, but at the same time, cooperating with everyone was the only way they could all, hopefully, avoid expulsion.