Cast Out (Book 1 Done; Book 2 In-Progress)

Chapter 3: Part 3

Misa straightened up and brushed off some of the soot that the wind had blown onto her.

"Oy! Where the hell do you think you're sending that stuff to? Keep it up and you might find yourself enjoying a nice 10 hours watching yourself reform from mist." Zhang threatened.

She wasn't worried. She knew that he was actually pretty happy right now, considering that they'd just destroyed the monkeys that had humiliated them in the past and sh*t on his armor. Still, she did move back a few steps so that the soot and ash she brushed off wouldn't land on him anymore. With Zhang, you'd never know what could set off his ridiculous determination to do something.

As she moved back, Zhang stood up and stretched out his arms towards the sky, his bones cracking in an oddly refreshing way. Looking around and seeing the destruction that was outside their small circle, he whistled appreciatively. "Damn! We really did it this time, right Misa?"

            Looking over to her, he whistled sharply to get her attention. "Hey, what do you think the odds are that those two are still alive?"

            She furrowed her eyebrows in a cute way as she gave it some thought. "I don't know. I want to say that she and the NPC died already, but I swear sometimes she's better at surviving than a cockroach. I'd say it's a toss-up, it could've gone either way." Her face lit up as if she had just thought of a great idea. "Let's bet on it. What do you say? The odds are 50-50 that they died. How about it? 50 gold says that we find their bodies off somewhere in the direction that they ran off."

            Zhang scoffed. "50 gold? What, are we betting on the little league's baseball tournament at a community park?" He paused. "Make it 200 gold and I'm in."

            "Wooow! 200 gold?!" She said in a slow, sarcastic way. "You must be real confident if you're betting you're pizza money!" She teased. "Alright, let's put it this way. 500 gold says that she and the NPC's bodies are so badly burnt that we'll barely be able to recognize them when we find them. Deal?" She stuck her hand out.

            After a moment's thought, Zhang shook it. "Deal. But if they are alive, you better not "accidentally" burn them up before I see them! I don't want you ruining my chances of getting whatever the hell quest that NPC will give us."

            Misa gave him a weird look. "If you were worried about him that much, why'd you want me to go and let out a [Helios Flare] when they're close by? You know once I use it, I'll have to go meditate under full sunlight or some other BS like that for a full day before I can use it again."

            Their hands dropped back to their sides as Misa asked the question.

            Zhang shook his head while wagging his finger in front of her face in an all-knowing manner. "Misa, misa, misa. I can't believe you haven't realized it yet. That spell of yours might be good against small-fry like Bambi and all his little woodland creature friends," He sneered, "but how is it going to stand up against a Gorgon? Or a Griffin? Or hell, even a Treant?! Those freaking stick-figure-like trees are a hell of a lot bigger than the ones your spell uprooted. All it'll have to do is have one of its big-a** acorns fall on us before you finish your spell and we'd be dead. It's best to use it now, where at least it had some effect before we go deeper in."

            He walked off in the direction that Alexa had dragged Wahshi towards. "Besides," he called out over his shoulder, "I might want that quest that the NPC might give us, but I'm not THAT interested in it. All we're doing now is letting him tag along with us. We needed a meat-shield anyway right? If he becomes too much of a deadweight, we'll just let him die off in some dark corner somewhere."