The True Sixth Monkey

Chapter 18

No one moved for a couple of minutes, the air around them full of tension as the groups continued to glare at one another.

Sparks and Nova saw the formless give subtle twitches as they both  prepared to rush at the three simians The formless quickly rushed  towards their group, causing Nova and Sparks to face off the panther and  snake respectively.

While the others were fighting Mandarin and Vallina continued to  stare each other off. Vallina sent a smirk towards the orange monkey,  before she rushed towards him. Mandarin quickly dodged to the side,  activating his shield as Vallina swiped at him with her tail. Before she  could send another attack Mandarin returned her attack with a slash of  his sword. Vallina jumped to the side before releasing a small hiss of  pain as she turned to look at her tail. A glare over took her face as  she saw a deep wound towards the tip of her tail.

She turned towards the orange monkey as a growl escaped her throat  which Mandarin returned with a glare of his own, bringing his weapons up  to counter any of Vallina's attacks.

Nova and Sparks stood back to back as the panther and snake surrounded them, both covered in scratches.

"Any ideas?" Sparks asked, not taking his eyes off of the formless.

Nova looked around them hoping to come up with something. Out of the  corner of her eye she saw Mandarin and Vallina had run towards one  another again, Vallina's claws causing sparks to shoot off of Mandarin's  shield as he pushed her back. She looked back towards the formless as  they began to slowly move closer to the two monkeys. An idea quickly  came to her mind as she once again glanced towards the other two  monkeys, where Mandarin was able to somehow get Vallina to face her back  towards them.

"I've got an idea." she said. "When I give the word I want you to start running towards Mandarin and Vallina."

"Are you insane?" Sparks replied in exasperation. "I'm not going to leave you to fight these two formless alone!"

"You have to trust me and believe that I know what I'm doing." she quickly answered back.

Sparks didn't say anything for a couple of seconds before sighing.

"Fine, but don't do anything stupid, that's my department." he said  as he gave her a quick grin, which she returned with her own.

Nova quickly looked back at the formless to see that they were preparing to pounce at the two of them.

"NOW!"

Sparks quickly ran towards the other two monkeys, only giving Nova a  quick glance. The panther formless quickly followed after him as the  snake lunged at Nova. She quickly jumped into the air, pushing herself  forwards as she used the snake as a jump board. The snake was quick to  turn around and wrap itself around her body. Nova gave a quick gasp as  it began to constrict around her.

Glancing over to Sparks she saw that he had almost made it to the  other two monkeys. She began to squirm, trying o get at least one of her  arms free. The formless continued to adjust its grip, causing Nova to  let out a growl. She quickly sent heat towards her hands, causing the  snake to hiss in discomfort as it's body began to melt at the places  that were in contact with her hands. Using this to her advantage she  began to quicken her squirming, now able to release her arms as the  snake struggled to keep its grip on her and avoid her hands. Nova  quickly grabbed a hold of the snake as her hands now became engulfed in  flames. The snake quickly began to have small flames spread around its  body close to her and began to melt even faster as it finally lost its  grip on her.

"SPARKS! GET DOWN!"

Without even waiting to see if Sparks had heard her she tossed the  snake in his direction. Sparks briefly looked back and saw what she was  doing as he dived to the side. Just as the panther began to pounce at  him the snake hit it, causing it to also produce small flames on its  body. The momentum of the snake carried it to stumble and hit Vallina,  knocker her to the ground, before the two formless dissolved back into  liquid.

Sparks and Nova quickly ran to Mandarin's side as Vallina pushed  herself back up, glaring at them. She turned to face them, her claws  clenched into fists and surrounded by dark energy. The other three  raised their respective weapons as they returned Vallina's glare with  their own.

Vallina let out a growl as she shot a blast of dark energy at them.  Mandarin quickly activated his shield as he stepped forward, blocking  the attack from the others. He let out a small grunt as the force of the  attack jostled his injuries, butt he refused to stand down. Sparks and  Nova gave each other short glances before running forward and shot their  team attacks, electro vibra force and sting ring, at Vallina, who was  focused on getting her attack through Mandarin's shield. The combined  attack hit her, causing her own attack to falter as she was knocked back  into one of the trees stunned.

A small beep caught Sparks' attention to his wrist, where he saw that  the band was once again activated. He turned to the other two who were  looking at him.

"Lets hurry and get out of here." he said as he sent them a grin.

They returned his smile as he activated the band. Almost instantly  the portal opened behind them and they began to run towards it.

They were almost to the portal when Mandarin let out a yell of pain.  The other two turned to him as he fell to the ground unconscious. They  turned to look at Vallina who was sending them the strongest glare they  had seen from her, residual dark energy leaving her claw.

"I won't let you three escape." she growled at them.

Sparks quickly ran to Mandarin, throwing his arm over his shoulder as  he rushed to Nova who stood just outside of the portal. Vallina ran  towards them, gathering dark energy again. When Sparks was close enough  Nova grabbed Mandarin's other arm and helped the other two into the  portal. Vallina shot a ray of dark energy just as the portal closed,  causing her attack to miss and hit a nearby tree. A low growl escaped  her lips before she let out a scream of rage.