Twisted Wonderland: Welcome to the Villain's World

Chapter 15: An Endless Night

Luckily, it didn't take too long to finish off the giant ink monster, since it was too weak. Auvilan didn't have magic, but he refused to merely stand there and do nothing. Instead, he managed to pick up a few large rocks and proceeded to launch them, aiming for the monster's weakest spots on the body. A couple of times, he directed the others on when to dodge or where they could hit the monster. Thankfully, nobody objected or argued when he directed their attacks.
   On the last leg of the fight, Auvilan found one more large stone he could use and stepped back from the others. He planned to try and hit the head again, and so he took a second to aim carefully. With a quick swing of his arm, he released the rock from his hand and heard a loud crack.
   The monster dropped its pickaxe and lamp before bellowing out a pained wail whilst holding its head as the glass soon shattered into pieces. Dark swirls appeared and flowed off into the atmosphere as the creature slowly dissolved into nothing but black flakes. Bits of remaining ink droplets stained the grass, and the lamp and pickaxe both rotted away into the ground.
   Once it was all over, the group glanced at each other whilst trying to catch their breaths and recover from the adrenaline rush. "Is it...over?" Ace questioned slowly.
   "I think...we've won," Auvilan said to the others. They all paused before taking a second to celebrate. The brunet watched as the three gave each other a group high-five.
   "We did it!" they exclaimed in unison. The sight of those three actually getting along and sharing the victory drew an amused chuckle from Auvilan.
   "Shared adversity sure brings people together, huh?" he pointed out. The troublesome trio immediately backed away from each other and denied anything of the implications of actual teamwork. Auvilan could only roll his eyes as the others denied liking this arrangement of working together. Of course, they're too proud to admit it.
   "Ugh, spare us the clichés, Auvi," Ace groaned.
   "Yeah, we all clearly won because of me!" Grim announced proudly.
   "Well, I hate to admit it...but this all worked out because of your plan," Ace somewhat complimented; albeit, a little uncomfortable as he spoke.
   "Agreed, if you hadn't managed to keep your cool and direct us on what to do, we would've never gotten this magic stone," Deuce added, flashing a faint smile. Despite his pride, he didn't seem to feel as uncomfortable with admitting this, unlike Ace. "And now we won't have to get expelled. That's a huge relief."
   "We won because we worked together. As much as I don't want to admit it myself..." Auvilan said with a weak smile. It felt different working with them. Despite the bumpy start, things turned out all right in the end. He had a hard time admitting that this truly worked because of team cooperation. After all, he's had to rely on only himself. If you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself; at least, that was the mindset he grew up with. However, that started to change a little as he managed to experience actual teamwork. This felt...kind of nice.
   Even though it was nice to work with others, deep down, Auvilan reminded himself that this was just a temporary arrangement. He was sure they'd go their separate ways once this was over. Besides, he still couldn't bring himself to truly trust any of them either. The trio seemed all right, but in the end, they were still nothing more than acquaintances to Auvilan.
   "All right, we got what we came for. Now can we go home? I'm beat," Ace complained while Grim groaned about being hungry. That was until he spotted something on the ground. It looked like a magic stone, except it was as black as a piece of coal.
   Much to Auvilan's surprise, Grim said it smelled good and figured it must be some sort of candy or treat. Without a second thought, Grim plopped the stone into his mouth. "Grim, what the heck? Did you seriously just eat that?" Auvilan carefully stepped over, wondering if the little beast was okay. After all, practically inhaling a rock would usually make anyone sick.
   A startled look suddenly morphed onto Grim's face as he stood in silence.
   "Hey, you okay, Grim?" Deuce questioned with concern.
   Ace grumbled and rolled his eyes, muttering, "That's what he gets for eating practical garbage off of the ground."
   Auvilan almost wanted to smack Ace upside the head for his insensitivity. While he did partially agree that Grim shouldn't have done that, he was concerned about him getting sick.
   "Oooh...that was amazing!" Grim suddenly exclaimed with a big grin. He went on rambling about what the taste was like, comparing it to a whole meadow of fragrant flowers. The unexpected reaction certainly didn't fail to surprise the three boys. "Ha! Don't worry about me. I don't have a weak stomach like you pathetic humans do," he bragged.
   "Yeah, sure. We'll see how smug you are when you get sick later tonight," Ace remarked.
   "Okay, okay, let's pull ourselves together. We've gotta hurry back to the headmage," Deuce pointed out before gripping his magic pen. With the flick of his wrist, the red gem started to glow and the world flashed white. Once his vision cleared, Auvilan found himself and the others back at the Mirror Chamber.