The Fallen Empath - Welcome to the Villain's World

Chapter Eighteen: An Endless Hunt

 "Are you kiddin' me?! It's still coming! It pushed off all that weight!" Ace looks behind us as we run.

"Giiive it baaaaack...!" It's definitely weaker than it was before.

"It's too fast! It's about to catch us!" Deuce shouts.

"It should be quite weakened by now! Let's try to end this once and for all!" I stop running and so do the others.

Ace groans. "Fine! Let's just smash the thing. Try not to wet yourself, Deucy!"

"Same to you Ace!"

"I'm gonna show ya why they call me Grim the Great!" Grim lights the area up with blue fire.

The monster lets out a mighty roar. Deuce gives me the stone seeing as I'm staying back to watch for weaknesses and warn them of oncoming attacks.

They keep hitting it's ink-like body with strong magic spells, but it isn't doing much of anything.

"Deuce! It's going to swing at your legs!" I shout.

Deuce jumps and fires a grass spell at its face, making it stumble back.

It's stunned for a moment as it grabs its, would-be, face. It gives me an idea.

"Grim! Climb up my arm!"

Grim runs up my body to my arm.

"I'm going to throw you above the monster, okay?"

"Ya got a plan here?" Grim looks at me, nerovus.

I nod. "Trust me."

Grim nods back. "I trust you human!"

I toss Grim with as much strength as I can. "Grim! Blue Lotus!"

"Myaaaaaah!" Grim blows a consistent stream of fire down onto the monster's head.

The monster screams as its vial-like head starts to crack even more until it shatters. The monster falls over, turning to ink and leaking into the ground.

"Is it...over?" Ace looks at where the monster once stood.

"I think...we won? I think we did it!" Grim cheers.

"Alright!" Deuce yells in victory as we all cheer together.

"Give me a victory high five!" Grim says and we all high-five.

"You guys did it, and together too!" I smile brightly.

They are all very quick to shoot that down.

"Uh... I don't think that had anything to do with it." Deuce flinches.

"Yeah! Spare us the cliches, Yuna!" Ace glares.

"There's no 'together' here! We won 'cause of me! This is all from me bein' a magical genius." Grim smirks.

We all laugh.

"Y'know... I hate to admit it, but... We mostly won because of your plan." Ace rubs his neck as he smiles at me.

"Yeah... If you hadn't managed to keep your cool and tell us all what to do, we never would have gotten this magestone." Deuce comes over to pat my shoulder. "Now we won't get expelled. And wow, is THAT a relief!"

"I don't deserve all the credit. We won because you all put your differences aside and worked together."

"Yeah, yeah, lessons were learned, et cetera. Can we just go home already? I'm wiped." Ace starts to walk to the mirror in a tree.

"Usin' all that magic made me hungry!" Grim wines. "Huh? What's this?"

We all look at a black stone on the ground.

"Is that a part of the monster we just defeated?" Deuce asks. "It looks like...a magestone? But it's black as coal! I've never seen one like that before."

Grim sniffs the stone. "What IS this? It smells amazing!"

"Are you insane?" Ace looks at Grim.

"Must be some kinda fancy monster candy that it was hidin' from us! If this tastes half as good as it smells..."

"Grim, I doubt it's— Grim!" I watch Grim put the rock in his mouth and eat it. "Spit it out!" I squat next to him and grab his cheeks, shaking him slightly.

Grim's face contorts.

"Are you okay?!" Deuce looks at Grim wide-eyed.

"That's what you get for eating trash!" Ace reprimands.

"That...was AMAZING!" Grim shouts with glee.

"What?!" Ace, Deuce, and I look at Grim surprised.

"Rich in flavor and full-bodied... Like, sweet, fragrant flowers burstin' into bloom on my tongue. A whole field of 'em right in my mouth!"

"Gross. Monsters must have real weird tastes." Ace gags.

"You might be onto something there... Most humans don't take random stuff they find on the ground and just pop it into their mouths." Deuce shakes his head,

"Are you sure you're okay?" I look at Grim worriedly.

"Man, that was great!" Grim laughs. "Don't worry about me. I don't got a weak stomach like you humans do."

"Hmph, We'll see if you're still so smug when you're sick later tonight." Ace teases.

"Okay, let's pull ourselves together. We need to get this magestone to the headmage!" Deuce walks to the mirror.

As we walk Ace looks at me. "By the way, what was that 'blue lotas' thing you shouted during the fight?"

"Hm? Oh, Grim and I had to fend off some ghosts back at our dorm. He used a really powerful move, and I thought it would be a good idea to name moves like that so if we had to fight again it would be easier to communicate." I explain.

"Yeah, I'm so cool that my magic gets cool names like that!" Grim puffs his chest out proudly, making me giggle.

"Better communication in fights, huh? Maybe we should do that too." Deuce thinks out loud.

"What, why?" Ace questions.

"It might not be a bad idea if we need to fight together again." I agree with Deuce.

"Hey, only I get cool magic names!" Grim whines.

I pet Grim's head, who is sitting on my shoulder. "That move you and Ace did could be helpful again."

Ace sighs. "Alright, alright, got any ideas?" He tries to sound annoyed, but I think he secretly likes it.

"Well, it was a big fireball." I think.

"It kinda looked like a small sun." Deuce points out.

"That's true...how about something like shooting sun?" I suggest.

"Works for me." Ace puts his hands behind his head.

"Sounds acceptable for my greatness." Grim nods.

"Shooting sun it is." Deuce says. "Let's get back to campus now."

I nod and we all step through the mirror embedded into a tree.