WHOOOSSH! BOOOOOM!

The beam arrived at a nearby mountain, and then exploded, causing bits and pieces of wood, sand and stones, to start raining from the sky. The Beast King, which was standing at the base of the mountain, was unfazed by the explosion. It kept on standing in the same position, with a wide grin on its scary face. On its right side was the nine-tailed bear and on the left was the nine-tailed fox. It turned to the fox and then asked, “Do I have to go down and do this myself?”

The fox replied, “Of course not, your majesty. Is that not why we are here?” It then looked at the bear, and they both started moving towards the cottage.

Myra appeared under the purple vortex before it disappeared completely. He was garbed in an orange robe, with his bamboo hat, while wielding two purple swords, all made of ki. He looked in the direction of the mountain base, without uttering a single word. At the same time he looked at the mountain base, a fresh wave of tailed beasts arrived, led by the nine-tailed fox and the nine-tailed bear. Ryan, Rose, Gonin and Hezron came by Myra’s side. They were all drenched in blood, with the exception of Hezron of course.

“Where have you been?” asked Ryan, looking at Myra.

Myra remained silent, while looking at the base of the mountain. Ryan was about to shout when Gonin stopped him.

“Let it be, we have more pressing issues to deal with”, spoke Gonin, in a grave voice.

“What pressing issues?”

“Can’t you see them?” asked Gonin, pointing at the beasts which were arriving.

“Uh oh. How are we going to fight them? They are so many!” said Ryan, his voice shaking with fear.

“Any suggestions?” asked Rose.

“We could always run”, said Ryan, shrugging his shoulders.

“Not everyone is as fast as you, dumbass!” yelled Rose.

“Who are you calling a dumbass?” Ryan yelled back.

Rose glared at Ryan, who glared back at her. After what seemed like ages, but was only two minutes in reality, Ryan asked, “Any smart ideas then?”

Everyone turned to look at Myra, who was still looking in the direction of the mountain, where the Beast King was. He looked completely oblivious to the fact that everyone was looking at him. At this moment, the leading tailed beasts were approaching, and while it seemed they were approaching slowly, they were actually moving quite fast. In a matter of moments, the nine-tailed fox and the nine-tailed beasts were standing in front of them.

“Human, are you betraying the King?” asked the fox, as it looked at Hezron.

“N-no! It’s not what you think!” yelled Hezron, as he hurried to correct the fox.

Everyone turned to look at Hezron, with looks of astonishment and surprise written all over their faces. No one had understood what the tailed beast had said ; they only had growling sounds. However, the surprising thing was that Hezron had answered as if he had understood something. Only Myra remained unperturbed.

“If you are not betraying the King, leave and we will not follow you, or try to eat you! If you choose to stay, even your flute will not save you!” barked the fox.

“B-but--”

“Are you going or not?” barked the fox again, this time louder.

Everyone kept staring at Hezron, who was conflicted. He didn’t want the same thing that happened to the villagers to happen again. He took out his flute, and then began to rub it gently. The nine-tailed fox’s face turned even uglier. The bear simply stood by, watching with growing interest. It never changed its facial expression, while the humans’ faces had surprises written all over. It was quite evident that Hezron could somehow communicate with the beasts!

“Kill them all!” roared the nine-tailed fox.

All the other tailed beasts roared and then started attacking! There were very few humans left, after the first wave of beasts had swept through. As for the robots they had brought, it was safe to say only metal scraps were remaining. Only a few tailed beasts had died, and these were killed mostly by Ryan, Gonin and Rose. Hezron looked sideways, before he started playing his flute. As the melody from the flute started to flow, all the other tailed beasts stopped moving. Only the nine-tailed beasts were not affected. The melody he was playing was ‘The Calm Sea’.

The eyes of the tailed beasts turned from red to a clear white. The others were baffled by the new development. Only Myra was undisturbed by the turn of events. He kept on looking at the base of the mountain.

ROAAARRRR! ROOOAAARRR!

Loud roars sounded, as the nine-tailed beasts were thoroughly enraged. The bear was the first to pounce on Hezron, who was so busy playing the flute that he didn’t notice. Myra was the first to react! He dashed towards the pouncing bear and unleashed a fist strike that shook the heavens!

BANG!! BANG!!

The bear flew backwards and crashed into a tree some distance away. However, it got up again, apparently unharmed! The nine-tailed fox opened its mouth and unleashed a purplish blast aimed at Myra, who vanished before appearing behind the fox. The blast missed its target, but managed to hit the trees that were behind him. All the trees were reduced to splinters in the blink of an eye!

“We need to leave! We cannot fight against so many of them by ourselves!” reasoned Rose.

“Now we’re running? How are you people supposed to run away while protecting Hezron?” asked Ryan, getting a little angry.

“Shut up, will you!” retorted Rose. She continued, “We have to come up with a plan!”

“Only the Sacred Immortal can save us from this situation!” yelled Gonin.

“He’s quite tied up, so I don’t think that’s an option!” replied Ryan.

“So what do we do then?” asked Rose.

Gonin produced a golden talisman, which was slightly larger than all the others he had been using all along. As he produced the talisman, Rose’s face turned quite pale.

“T-that’s--”

“We have no other option! When the Sacred Abbot gave me this talisman, he said I should use it only when there is no other option. It does not look like we have any option currently, does it?” replied Gonin, with another question.

“Won’t that ruin your body? You’re not yet strong enough to use it!” spoke Rose.

“I am strong enough to use it for thirty minutes at most”, replied Gonin.

Ryan turned to look at Hezron, who was so busy playing the flute that, he didn’t realize the danger they were in currently. He sighed deeply, while scratching his head, trying to think of something. However, nothing useful came to mind.

ROOOOOAAARRRR!! ROOOOOOOARRRR!

More roars filled the air, and this time, they broke whatever was influencing the other beasts’ minds. The clear white eyes turned into a crimson color, filled with extreme rage and violence! They started moving again, towards the others with speed.

“Uh oh!” exclaimed Ryan, as he activated the roc chasing the wind movement technique. He appeared to have vanished, before appearing in front of a tailed beast. The beast was a giant gorilla with four arms and three tails. He punched directly, but the beast punched out as well, with its four fists! There’s an ancient saying spoken by the old wise sages. It goes like this: Two hands cannot defeat four fists! However, something unexpected happened!

Kakakaka

As the five arms met, there were cracking sounds! Ryan edged backwards, as he inspected his arm. The beast gave a loud howl filled with pain. The bone cracking sounds were coming from the beast’s bones. Ryan attacked again, this time he punched in the head!

BANG!

The beast retreated backwards for a couple of steps, before falling over, dead! Another beast pounced on Ryan, and this time it was a tiger with two tails. The tiger jumped up and then swiped with its right paw. Ryan edged backwards, before launching the movement technique again. The tiger swiped through the air, and before it reached the ground, there was a loud bang!

Thud!

There was a loud sound as the tiger fell over, as Ryan appeared right in front of it, with his fist glowing. Rose shook Hezron, who awoke from his not really a trance.

“What happened?” he asked.

“We have to leave, now!” she shouted.

Myra was still fighting against the nine-tailed beasts. The fox opened its gigantic mouth, with the intention to devour Myra alive! Myra vanished in a split second, and when he appeared, he was right behind the bear. He punched again, but this time, the bear dodged the punch! Even with its weight, it appeared to be incredibly agile, which was quite weird. Myra was surprised, but it didn’t show on his face. Instead, he simply edged backwards.

The fox unleashed another purple blast, and this time, before Myra could dodge it, an orange beam appeared from nowhere and exploded!

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The fox and the bear turned to look at the base of the mountain, where the Beast King was looking back, mouth exuding orange smoke.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAR!

It gave an awe-inspiring, heaven-shaking, earth-rending roar that caused everyone’s spines to tingle so hard they almost exploded! From the rubble created by the explosion, Myra rose up, quite unharmed. He dusted himself, which caused the other beasts to roar with rage! This was undermining their king!

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAR!

The Beast King joined the fray of roars, but its roar was so heaven-defying it caused all the other beasts to go quiet! The fox and the bear joined up once more, and unleashed blasts that were directed at Myra! A purple vortex opened up in front of him, and it swallowed the blasts, before closing. Some minutes later, it re-opened, and ejected the blasts it had swallowed!

WHOOOOOOSH! KABOOOOOOOOM!

The blasts exploded when they reached the duo. The duo rose up from the dust, with scratches evident on their fur. The fox was breathing heavily, while the bear was standing still, its eyes shining with a strange light.

“Interesting! What are you?” asked the bear.

Myra remained silent. Hezron, however, answered, “I told you humans were stronger!”

“Silence! Traitor!” yelled the fox.

“I’m not a traitor! I didn’t betray anyone!” shouted Hezron.

“Kill them! Leave none alive!” shouted the fox, ordering the tailed beasts that were surrounding Ryan, Rose, Gonin and Hezron. Apart from those four, all other humans had been killed. The surrounding beasts started attacking again, with renewed fervor. Ryan and Rose were now tired, and Gonin hadn’t used his golden talisman yet. Hezron... well... was being Hezron, with his flute.

The sun was now higher up, scorching those down below it. A soft wind started to blow across the terrain. The soft wind started kicking up a storm, and the cause of this wind was an army of robots flying across the green plains. Leading this army was an oval shaped robot.

“You better own up to the agreement once this is done!” declared a voice, speaking through a speaker from a drone hovering on the side.

The oval shaped robot unleashed a terrible maniacal laughter that killed appetites before answering, “I always own up to my agreements. You people however...”