"Sneeze? Really? Hey, I won't judge. There's a reason for everything." Sneeze wasn't really sure what the strange man meant by this, but he found it ironic that the guy who seemingly fell from the sky in a ball of light was talking about his nickname being silly. Regardless, it bought them both more time to figure out a plan to stop General Stone and the band of Inferno Corps soldiers. "Hey, how did you do that anyways? The whole shooting star bit?" Sneeze questioned the weirdly unworried man out of haste. "Oh that, right. I'll explain that after we're finished here. Have you got any fighting experience?" This answer had a lot of confidence that was unnerving, but admirable. "Yeah, I worked for these guys as a mercenary since I was 10, and watch out for the lady in the hands of the chunky one, please. The weird man cracked his neck and nodded. "How about I keep down the smaller ones, and leave you to him." Sneeze nodded. "Deal."
As the man engaged in combat with 6-7 of the foot soldiers, Sneeze approached General Stone, who had set down his mother to pick up a gargantuan club, just barely smaller than Sneeze himself. It didn't matter. He only needed one thing to win. Pulling out 2 daggers from his belt, he knew that they were just long enough to kill Stone, if used on the right spot. In an instant, he bolted towards the foe, hoping to draw out an evadable attack from the monstrous club. In that moment, Stone let out a battle cry, and swung his weapon horizontally, in an attempt to kill Sneeze from the left. Having seen this attack coming, He quickly slid to the ground, narrowly missing his head. The club smashed into the side of a wooden house, getting lodged in the side. Seeing his opportunity, Sneeze got up and ran up the side of his enemy's arm, which was holding onto the club. As he ran up to the head of the beast, he raised his daggers high and leaped through the air in a heroic fashion to land on top of Stone's massive head. With one dagger he plunged into Stone's right eyeball, with the other he attempted to penetrate the neck, but couldn't get past the thick skin of his enemy. Stone let out a bellowing scream, as his eye was now gouged out and bleeding from the socket. In this fit of rage, Sneeze lost his balance and fell off Stone's shoulder, nearly dropping his weapons as he hit the ground painfully. Before he could think of getting up, he was punted across the street by a blood lusted titan of a man.
Flying through the air, the only thing breaking his fall was a pile of sticks from a fallen building, which he landed in with a loud CRASH. The man he had teamed up with had seemingly defeated the weaker soldiers in hand-to-hand combat noticed this. "HEY! KID! Are you still breathing!?" Everything on Sneeze was scattered across the dirt. His money, daggers, and even the odd fruit he had pocketed at the market was in a mess around him. As he crawled out of the wreckage dizzily, the most he was able to muster was, "I'm... fine" groggily. As the man was going to respond in relief, he noticed Sneeze's belongings, and the odd fruit that stood out from the rest. "Hey, is that... Do you know what that is? Dazed and dizzy, Sneeze responded. "Wh-what, that? I picked it th-this morning..." He noticed the man was clearly interested in it. "Here's the thing, you have to eat it! If you don't then you'll die in that spot!" Not sure if he was lying or not, Sneeze wanted to get to the strange fruit. The only problem was, it was about 10 feet away, and his legs were broken. Not only that, But General Stone was out of his fit of pain from losing an eye, and headed towards Sneeze, dragging his club wearily behind him.
"Boy... you're about to be turned into jelly... you goddamn rodent..." Stone was closing in fast, and all Sneeze could do was crawl to the mysterious fruit at a slow pace, his only hope of survival. Stone closed the gap, stepping on Sneeze's arm, crushing it as he raised his club over his head, causing a whoosh of wind as he winded up to finish off his prey. "Don't worry, you'll see your mother shortly... and you can rot together beyond the grave." He then brought down his club with the force of a small meteor, as Sneeze closed his eyes ready for his end. However, in a moment faster than the blink of an eye, a loud slam combined with a sparkle noise formed just over his head. He looks up to see the man towering overtop his body, holding up the club with both hands, and only a flat yellow disk between each hand and the iron weapon. "G-get it! Hurry!" The man shakily stated, struggling to keep the beast from crushing them both. Sneeze took his chance, reaching out his left arm, being his last non-broken limb, to grab the fruit from under the man, bring it into his face, and take a large bite out of the side of it. It tasted disgusting. It was like 7 different exotic spices all at once, but he swallowed it. Immediately, the fruit shriveled up. Despite the horrific taste, Sneeze noticed something different. His bones were healed, all of them. His body felt light and his energy was regained.
Realizing he was practically healed, Sneeze got up and jumped back quickly. Noticing this, the man who had saved his life slid out from under the club with a short yell, landing next to him. "A-are you good?" He questioned. "Yeah, I feel amazing! What was that?" "You have a lot to learn, but I'll need to tell you later. We have more company." Sneeze looked past General Stone, only to his dismay as he watched a small army of 50+ soldiers with swords, pistols, and more charging up the dirt road. He felt the man grab his arm and start running in the opposite direction, towards the water. "Wait! My mom! we can't leave her there!" Sneeze shouted. "They won't kill her with you out of their control, since you just made yourself a wanted man. Trust me." He knew the man was right. As he slowly watched the weak state of his mother disappear from view, he shouted: "EVEN IF IT TEARS THE FLESH FROM MY BONES, I WILL SAVE YOU MOM!!"
And with that, they made a mad dash for the docks.
