When Pak’s hand quickly moved to his wristboard so did Bold’s. A second later another giant tail emerged from Pak’s back. This time in the shape of a human spine. And dozens of blades were attached to the spine instead of ribs. Bold looked at the shagai that appeared on his left hand. It was a horse form. He had to perfectly time it.

Emma flicked her finger and the golden sphere charged at the man. However, the tails slid and knocked the sphere away. Emma swung her hand with utmost force and the sphere following her command, attacked again and again but each time the tails effortlessly hit it back.

“Silly girl. Don’t you have any other moves? I take that you’re pretty. But I’m not fond of dumb women”

NOW

Bold aimed his hand and nailed the shagai at him. It bulleted towards Pak but the man had the reflexes fast enough to duck and the shagai missed his head by a hair.

“Oh, that was a close one”.

But the attack was more than enough of a distraction for the sphere to ascend into the air above the two tails and rocket down directly at Pak. But before a contact was made, the tails swiftly crushed the orb between itselves and with the orb’s destruction total darkness consumed the area.

Bold took a few panicky steps backward but he almost stumbled on a rock so he stopped.
And when the light finally turned back on he faced a dreadful realization that Pak was standing right in front of him. At that moment his eyes contacted Pak’s icy blue irises. All life went away from Bold’s face, the hairs on his body shriveled up. Only one thought crossed his skull.

This man, his eyes. They are ice cold! 

His body did not move. It did not move when Pak slammed a punch into his jaws and certainly did not as well when the spine like tail slid from the side and stabbed its blades unto his chest. A cry of anguish and pain left his throat and the impact of the tail hurled him into the air. Soon enough he crashed into the ground and laid there dead. He waited for Pak to finish him off with a broken spirit. But he did not come towards Bold. Instead, his eyes were on Emma.

She tried to hide her fear and panic behind a furious face and fangs but the gentle smile that formed on Pak’s face proved her attempt was all futile. But Emma had a secret plan. The sphere flew over Pak and attacked him from behind. But even without its master’s eyes, the tails managed to knock the sphere away again, almost as if they had a mind of their own. Tears started to appear in her eyes as every ounce of her effort to defeat him proved to be useless while the devil itself was approaching her step by step with a sinister smile on his face.

She had enough. She wouldn’t just stand there waiting for her demise. When she typed the codes for her ‘head knockers’ on her wristboard a yellow light emerged from the palm of her left hand and she rushed towards the enemy with a battle cry. With speed she flung her arm towards Pak’s head but the man swiftly ducked and landed a straight punch on her stomach.

It felt like he stabbed into her very being and she let out a vomit. Her vision became blurry and her head started to hurt. And when she was only starting to get the grasp of what was going on Pak dealt a devastating spinning wheel kick to her head and she fell to the ground straight on her face.

“Yahoo”

Pak jumped and sat on her back with joy. The scorpion tail dived and stabbed her back. She let out a painful cry and aimed to struggle but her body could not move. Pak got up, turned her body over and grabbed hold of her cheek with his cold hands.

“Game set and match, my love”.

As a last-ditch effort, she tried to bite his hand but he saw it coming and retracted his arm in time to dodge.

“Hahaha, you’re going to act like that? Well, I don’t think you’ll keep that up, if I do this”.

He brought a dagger out of his bag and stabbed it on her leg. Emma threw out a panicky yell and Pak gave a maniacal laugh in return. All this mockery and humiliation Bold looked with a straight eye. Strangely enough, he did not feel anything. Was it because of the eye contact he made with Pak?

No, not really. It was to be expected. Ever since he looked at the mouth of the dungeon he knew that something like this would happen. He was powerless, he had always been like this. Nothing changed. If anything, things have become worse for him. All he could do was just lie down.

“Bold, please. Save Emma. I beg of you”

He shifted his eyes towards Mei whose body was paralyzed but her eyes burned with fire. She looked at him kindly and beggingly but soon, as if to become angry at his dazed reaction, her brows knitted and her skin tightened.

“Goddamn it. Move it Bold! If you don’t, I’ll curse you for all of eternity”.

Snapping out of the hypnosis Bold rose to his feet and typed on his wristboard. A moment later his horse appeared next to him. He quickly got up on top of his horse and rode it towards the tunnel they had previously discovered. But he wasn’t going there alone. He dug his bag and pulled out a piece of paper.

“Assembly summon Emma!”

With a spark of light Emma who helplessly lied under Pak’s weight vanished and within a moment she appeared on the back of the horse. Bold ordered his horse to go as fast as it possibly could. He did not look behind. He didn’t need to. He just has to run away, as he always did.

Was she happy with the decision I made? Nah, maybe she is secretly mad that I left her behind… Damn it.