“You think we’ll double cross you, right?” asked another voice, being projected from a drone.

“I can’t be blamed for thinking that, can I?” asked the oval shaped robot.

“Don’t forget, you’re the one who was preaching to us about holding your cards close and whatnot!”

“Of course, I said that. Either way, let’s finish this transaction without hitches. If this goes according to plan, we might do another transaction.”

“Fair enough. How long will it take to get to the spot?”

“A few more minutes”, replied another voice.

“You’re sure this technology of yours works perfectly? I don’t want my consciousness stuck in a metal lump!” complained the first voice.

“My technology works perfectly! Besides, with this technology, you’ll be immortal!”

“Hmpff!” complained the second voice.

There was a period of silence, which was disturbed by the whirring sounds being produced from the drones. A couple of minutes of silence, the mountain range started becoming visible.

“So we’re sticking to the plan right?” asked the first voice.

The oval shaped robot did not respond. As they continued, only the whirring sounds were audible.

“As long as you remember the plan, everything will work out alright. Remember, what we’re after is the King of Beasts! Kill all the other beasts. We have no use for them!”

“Agreed!” spoke three voices in unison.

Meanwhile, the battle being fought at the cottage was getting more and more ferocious. Myra was busy killing tailed beasts, like it was nobody’s business. The nine-tailed beasts could not pin him in one location. He could appear at one end of the battlefield, and massacre tailed beasts, and the vanish. He would appear at another and carry out another massacre, and this kept on going on. Whenever the nine-tailed beasts tried to intercept him, he’d vanish and then appear in another corner.

ROOOOOAARRRR!

The nine-tailed fox gave a roar of frustration, as Myra kept killing the low-level tailed beasts. He was wielding dual blades made of purple ki.

WHOOOSHH!

Myra dashed forward, and then slashed one blade! A head flew up, followed by blood which splattered everywhere. The nine-tailed bear was so furious it jumped up and then pounced on Ryan!

“Ryan! Look out!” shouted Rose.

Ryan didn’t even turn to look. He activated the Roc chasing the wind technique, to his maximum potential! The funny thing was he was still wearing the weights placed on his legs by Myra. He appeared 10 meters away from where he was initially.

BOOOOOM!

When the bear landed, the earth quaked, and a lot of crevices opened, creating snake-like formations that meandered in every direction. It then turned to look at Ryan, and then opened its mouth.

“Uh-oh!” spoke Ryan.

The mouth of the bear started glowing with an orange color, and within a few seconds, it unleashed a blast that caused a large amount of heat to dissipate outwards! Before the blast reached it’s intended target, it was generating so much heat that the other beasts were getting burnt visibly!

WHOOOOOOOOSH! KABOOOOM!!

The blast arrived and exploded, before Ryan had the time to launch his movement technique. Since the blast occurred without warning, the beasts surrounding Ryan didn’t have time to move away and were reduced to ashes in a split second! The bear looked at the place Ryan was supposed to be, and then grinned, while looking at Myra, who was no longer fighting, but standing there, motionless. It was a bit puzzled when it noticed that Myra had not moved at all. When it turned again, it realized something was wrong! Ryan stood up, somewhat unhurt. However, his clothes could not withstand the blast and were incinerated! So, there he was, standing naked.

Rose realized that she was staring at him, and then subconsciously, she turned sideways, to avoid his gaze. Ryan looked down at himself, and then realized something...

“I’m alive!” he shouted, jumping for joy.

“I think you should be more concerned about your clothes...” spoke Gonin, while everyone turned pink.

“Oh! Right!” he responded, with his palm hitting his forehead. He launched the roc chasing the wind technique, and then vanished from view. As he vanished, the nine-tailed bear was perplexed. It had attacked in order to frustrate Myra, and distract him, so that the nine-tailed fox would then finish him off. One thing was actually clear, that plan had failed.

ROOOOOOOAAAR! ROOOOOOOOAAARR!

It roared twice, in frustration and anger. Ryan was apparently unharmed, and Myra was still standing... Completely unfazed by everything that had happened. After the bear had roared twice, the remaining beasts gathered to fight some more. Earlier, they had been scattered by the blast but now they were ready to fight again. Only a few had been caught unaware and incinerated, and these were mainly surrounding Ryan.

Another fresh wave of tailed beasts arrived, and it looked like they had answered the call of the bear. This time though, the army was made up of beasts with four tails! Leading the pack was a white dire wolf, with a grey mane. The wolf had a single white horn, and five bushy tails.

AWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AWOOOOOOOOOO!

It looked up and then howled, summoning even more dire wolves! These dire wolves were different from the white one in that none of them had a horn, and they had four tails.

Gonin sighed as he saw this scene. They kept getting outnumbered! At first they could handle the volumes, but now, with their stamina almost depleted, they were done for. Well, unless someone interfered, they were done for. However, it looked like no one was coming to their rescue. What they didn’t know was that up in the sky, a good distance away from the battle field, an army of drones and robots was approaching. Only Myra was undisturbed, well, it looked like he was undisturbed. He had just scanned the entire area with his divine sense, and he could see the robot army, the beast king, and even more approaching tailed beasts!

Hezron looked at his flute, and then started playing a tune. This was the same tune that he had used when he made a pact with the beast king. Its name was called The Rage Within, and at first, nothing happened, but then suddenly, the leading wolf howled!

AWWWOOOOOOOO! AWOOOOOO!

AWOOOOOOOOO! AWOOOOOOOO!

The white wolf’s eyes turned crimson and then it started attacking the nine-tailed fox! All the other four-tailed dire wolves started attacking the other tailed beasts! Hezron was elated when he saw this development.

“What’s going on?” asked Ryan, as he re-appeared wearing a red tracksuit. No one knew where he had obtained it.

“Hezron seems to have done something to the wolves”, replied Rose. Her breathing was uneven; she was clearly exhausted and running out of talismans. Considering what they were up against, it was a surprise that she had made it this far. The reason? She was not as strong as the rest, with the exception of Hezron of course.

It was in this moment that whirring sounds echoed through the air, as the army of robots arrived at the battlefield.

“Robots? They’re here to help us!” declared Ryan, jumping up with joy.

Myra vanished from where he was standing and appeared next to Ryan and the others.

“We need to leave! There even more tailed beasts hiding behind the mountain!” spoke Myra, slowly.

“But with more robots, we can win this war, right?” asked Ryan.

“I do not think so”, replied Myra.

“What! How many beasts are there?” asked Rose, as her knees became weaker.

“There are a lot of them! What you are seeing here is less than half of the ones behind the mountain. This was only a pincer attack meant to check our power! They were trying to probe our defences!” declared Myra.

“How can we win then?”

“We cannot!”

Everyone looked down with sullen faces. What they had been told was the worst news and they were not expecting it.

KABOOOOOM! KABOOOOM! KABOOOM!

As the robots arrived, they started launching missiles right off the bat! There were over a thousand robots, and five hundred drones. The beast army began to take more damage, as the robots started attacking. There were three robots that were not participating in the attack. One of them was an oval shaped robot, while the other two were humanoid shaped robots that were red and green in colour. They remained floating up in the sky while the others were attacking the tailed beasts.

KABOOOOOM! KABOOM! KABOOOOM!

More and more explosions ensued as the robots attacked ferociously. The sun was fully up, and it was quite hot. Adding to the sun’s heat was the heat generated by the explosions. Currently, the tailed beasts were getting their behinds kicked by the robot army. A camouflage green robot transformed its hand, into a plasma rifle and then opened fire on a three tailed tiger. The shots went through the tiger’s head, and then it died miserably. The robot continued to shoot at another beast. This beast was a six-foot chameleon, which had a very tough hide. At first it appeared as if the plasma bolts were not being effective, as the chameleon slashed with one of its three tails. The robot dodged the tail, and then kept firing on its stomach.

After some minutes of back and forth fighting, injuries began to mount up on the chameleon. The robot didn’t even appear to be running out of energy. It kept on firing plasma bolts on the chameleon, which due to its size, could not dodge, but stay and take hits. Finally, after some time of getting blasted with plasma bolts, the chameleon succumbed to its injuries. It fell and died, while the robot moved onto its next target.

It appeared as if the tailed beasts were done for. On one end, they were fighting amongst themselves, while on another end, they were fighting against the robots and drones. Myra, Ryan, Rose and Gonin stood watching with interest. Well, not so much interest, but they wanted to escape during the confusion. Hezron was busy playing his flute, which apparently was causing the infighting among the tailed beasts. A purple portal appeared beside them.

However, before anyone could move, there was a loud roar that caused every spine to tingle so hard it almost exploded!

ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!

The roar caused a wind to spring up, and the weather changed significantly. It was hot, with the sun up, but suddenly, clouds started to roll and cover the clear sky. A slight chill crept up all the humans who were watching.

“This might not be good…” spoke Myra, as looked up at the sky.