Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 19 | Death is Fake

"Agent 34!" Ismara cried, jumping off after him.

Isoma shot after the elf, Barjual shooting after the skeleton. His passengers wrapped their arms around the grey spikes sticking out of his back.

The dragon rammed himself into the skeleton and ended his attempt at going after Agent 34

"You idiot!" Isoma cried. "You killed him! He's gonna die!"

"That's the point!" Barjual said. "If we can't have him, neither can you,"

Isoma growled and raised his arm up towards him again. He stuttered as he shot back down after the elf, still hoping he could catch him somehow.

Here, Paöminar shot a message to Barjual.

Go down close to the water and catch Agent 34 in your mouth and Ismara on your back, Barjual commanded.

Paöminar realized they were falling and agreed. He began to fly down towards the water.

We are taking his death, Barjual explained to the brown dragon.

Good, was all the dragon replied back.

Isoma pursued Agent 34, the distance between them getting smaller and smaller, and so was the distance from the water that would kill him if he impacted it at that current speed.

Isoma passed the female elf falling after Agent 34, pursuing on his main target. The water was getting ever so closer, his time to catch the elf running out.

Suddenly, a brown dragon flew by and caught his target in his mouth. The female elf landed on the dragon's back, Isoma stopping himself from colliding with it.

Isoma was too confused to pursue after it. Eventually he came to the conclusion that it was a wild dragon looking for food and had found some. He had concluded that Agent 34 had been eaten alive.

"Damn it!" Isoma roared, thrashing his fists in the air. "Damn you all!" He shouted up towards the black dragon who hovered in the air a couple hundred feet above him. "You'll rot for all eternity in the afterlife because of this!" Isoma shook his fist at him before raising upwards and flying back towards Braunick's floating island.

~ ~ ~

Play dead, Paöminar told Agent 34 as he struggled uncomfortably in the dragon's mouth. His feet and head stuck out of the teeth, the dragon unable to fit all of Agent 34 in his mouth. If the dragon had applied any pressure at all on the elf in his mouth, his head would snap off and he would die immediately.

We are faking your death, Paöminar explained. Braunick will assume you are dead and stop pursuing the Zena. It no longer has anything he wants.

Okay, Agent 34 said back to him.

We are going to where you said the gem's clue was at, Paöminar told both Ismara and Agent 34 this time.

The Ar'gual's old civilization? Ismara shot them a mental message.

Yes, He replied.

How did you get here in time to break our falls? Agent 34 asked.

Barjual asked for backup and I flew here not a second after he sent the message. When I was nearly here he told me to catch you both.

Neither of them responded after that and Agent 34 rode the entire way uncomfortably in Paöminar's mouth to avoid suspicion.

~ ~ ~

"So we don't tell Thad?" Sercon asked.

"No," Barjual explained. "Tell no one that Agent 34 is alive. We tell them that Agent 34 and Ismara were killed by Isoma and Paöminar came for backup but was also killed later in the battle,"

Barjual was worried about Vrängr, being in his current state of mind, slipping up and telling them about Agent 34 like he did with Isoma.

Either way, they would eventually reveal to at least Thad himself that Agent 34 wasn't dead. It gave them the upper hand if everyone thought that Agent 34 was dead, even the Zena.

~ ~ ~

"I didn't get him," Isoma told Braunick. "He—a wild dragon flew by and caught him in his mouth and ate him,"

Braunick looked down in both grievance and disappointment.

"I'm sorry, my lord," Isoma bowed down to the leader of Renya in fear.

"I thought you were trustworthy," Braunick stated, quickly removing the skeleton's colored glow that surrounded his body and gave him the ability of flight. Isoma saw this and knew something was about to happen to him.

Braunick also removed his Black Magic, rendering him weak and useless. Isoma began to shake, already knowing his fate.

Braunick took two steps towards the failed bounty hunter. "You are a pathetic excuse for a skeleton. I shouldn't have hired you,"

"I'm sorry, m-my lord," was all Isoma could tell him.

"You aren't sorry," Braunick said. "but you will be. You deserve something far worse than death,"

Isoma flinched at the thought of what Braunick could conjure up to torture him for all eternity.

Braunick began walking towards him at an increasing speed, his hand raised with a black fireball sitting in it.

Isoma shut his eyes and prepared for eternal torture.