‘You know, I just realized something.’

   ‘What is it? Do I have to remind you that we have to be quiet so as not to alert him?’

   ‘If you could smell him even if both of you are miles apart from each other, can’t he do the same?’

   ‘I suppose so.’

   ‘Then isn’t this being quiet thing pointless?’

   Curruid stops for a second, then continues to walk.

   ‘You are right.’ he agrees.

   ‘Yup. Thought so. Does that mean we can chat again?’

   ‘No.’

   ‘Aww. Why not?’

   ‘We have nothing to talk about, and I do not wish to talk to you.’

   ‘This again? It’s not cute when a guy is being a tsundere, you know?’

   ‘What even is that?’

   ‘It’s when someone is trying to act cold when he actually cares, or a cold person who’s warming up to those around him.’

   ‘You humans and your weird terms.’

   ‘So you’re admitting that you’re a tsundere?’

   ‘No!’

   ‘Well, you totally are.’

   ‘Can we just drop this?’

   ‘Only if you answer me one question.’

   He sighs. ‘Fine. What is it?’

   ‘Will you promise me that you won’t lash out in a fit of rage once we encounter Coinchenn?’

   ‘What is this all of a sudden?’

   ‘Just tell me. Will you promise me or not? I can’t have you endangering the both of us over your revenge. I promise that we’ll defeat him, but not with you losing your cool.’

   He grits his teeth.

   ‘Very well. I promise.’ he tells me grudgingly.

   ‘Good. Now lead on.’

   After walking for five more minutes, we reach the base of a tall mountain. A man is sitting cross-legged on top of a huge boulder right in front of the mountain.

   He’s wearing a tunic, a pair of pants and a kilt just like Lady Scáthach. The only difference is that the material on those clothes seems to be made of some sort of material that reflects the sunlight. I could also see scales on them. Also, he’s not wearing any shoes.

   Similar to Curruid, the man’s skin is also pale. His black hair is cut short and doesn’t even reach until his ears. He has no bangs, so I could see his forehead clearly. Lastly, he is quite scrawny. He’s not just skin and bones but he sure is close to that level.

   ‘Is that him?’ I whisper.

   ‘Indeed. That is Coinchenn in his human form.’ Curruid answers.

   We walk closer. All this while, Coinchenn did not move an inch. All he’s doing is stare at us with his gray eyes. When we’re just a few fee away from him, only then he opens his mouth.

   ‘Well, the two of you sure took your time.’ he says to us.

   Contrary to Curruid’s crude and guttural tone, Coinchenn’s voice is silvery and quite pleasant to listen to. And then I remembered that I’ve heard similar voices from conman who tried to swindle me to buy some worthless products.

   ‘How I have waited for this day…’ Curruid growls.

   I sneak a glance at him. He looks so angry his veins are actually bulging. True to his word, he’s not charging towards Coinchenn, even though he looks like he has a hard time controlling himself.

   Coinchenn grins at Curruid even though the latter is straight up being hostile.

   ‘It’s been too long Curruid. So that’s what you look like in human form? Man, you look hideous. You look even worse than your fish form.’

   Curruid grits his teeth. ‘Silence, vermin.’

   ‘Is why why you always hide yourself in a dark place whenever I dive inside my head to talk to you?’ I ask Curruid.

   Coinchenn snickers. ‘He actually did that? Figures, considering how much he cares about his looks.’

   ‘Enough about my looks.’

   ‘What exactly does he looks like in his real form?’ I ask Curruid curiously.

   ‘Hmm, where do I even start? There’s his face, of course. Man, that’s one face not even a mother could love.’

   ‘Can you be more specific? Like is he an amalgamation of a few species of fishes and animals?’ I request.

   ‘He sure is. Try imagining a creature with crocodile snout, a badger’s face, the neck of a goose, the body of a lion fish and the tail of a peacock.’

   ‘Wow, whoever that created him must be drunk.’

   ‘I know, right?’

   ‘I said enough about my looks!’ Curruid shouts.

   ‘Come on Curruid, don’t be rude. He’s still talking, you know?’ I chide.

   ‘Whose side are you on?’

   Coinchenn cackles loudly. ‘Oh man, and here I thought the second wielder of Curruid’s bone is someone boring again! Looks like you and I could get along well!’

   I shrug. ‘Sure. After I beat you up for all the things you did to those innocent villagers and their home.’

   He stops cackling at once. He also narrowed his eyes.

   ‘I take back what I said. You’re boring too.’

   ‘What do I care about your opinion of me? Let’s just do this already.’

   ‘Sure, if that’s what you want. Now then, let’s play a game-’

   He didn’t get to finish as a giant skeleton of a whale shark appear on top of him and chomps the boulder into two. Unfortunately, the same thing didn’t happen to him as he manages to dodge the attack.

   ‘Didn’t you just chide Curruid for interrupting me?’ he reminds me.

   ‘Oh yeah, I guess I did told him that.’

   ‘Are you saying that it’s fine if you’re the one who said it?’ he demands.

   ‘Nope. I just don’t have time for your games.’

   The whale shark turns towards him and continues its vicious attack. Every time it charges forward, it barely missed Coinchenn. The latter is dodging the shark’s attack extremely well. It’s as if he was used to his human body.

   ‘Are you sure it’s fine to ignore my challenge?’ he asks loudly while continuing with his dodging. ‘My minions are on a tight schedule to attack the villages near the shores of Ireland. Even as we speak, more and more villages are getting attacked.’

   I shrug. ‘Why should we bother? If we defeat you, those minions of yours will stop attacking, right? Besides, I have faith in my comrades back over there. They’ll definitely do something about your minions.’

   Coinchenn gives the shark skeleton an uppercut with his fist. The impact was so strong the shark’s entire body fly upwards for a few feet. Looks like he’s much stronger than he looks.

   ‘Fine! This is how you want to do it, is it? I’ll send all of my minions to attack each and every villages around, near the sea or no! Let’s see your “comrades” defending all of them!’

   ‘Can I go fight him now?’ Curruid demands.

   ‘Sure thing. Go for it.’

   Upon getting my permission, Curruid charges forward to attack Coinchenn. Unfortunately for Curruid, he’s not really used to moving around in his human form like Curruid. As a result, his movements are very stiff.

   Curruid tries to land a punch on Coinchenn’s face. Coinchenn saw it coming from miles away and slaps the punch away effortlessly. Curruid tries a kick next. All Coinchenn did was jump one step backwards and the kick misses.

   ‘Is that the best you can do? Even an anchovy can move faster than you!’ Coinchenn taunts.

   ‘You are going to suffer once my attack connects.’ Curruid growls.

   ‘You actually think that I’ll give you that much time?’

   A tail made of water grows out of Coinchenn’s behind. He does a spin so that the tail can slap Curruid away. His plan was foiled when my whale shark chomps down the tail.

   ‘I’m still here, you know.’ I remind Coinchenn.

   ‘Oh look Curruid! Your human master just saved you!’ Coinchenn cackles.

   Curruid glares at me.

   ‘Do not meddle in our fight!’ he demands.

   ‘You’re welcome.’ I mumble drily.

   The tail made of water disappears from Coinchenn’s back, and my whale shark ends up chomping thin air with a loud snap.

   I decide to join in the fight. Curruid will definitely object, but we don’t have time for this. We need to take down Coinchenn as soon as possible.

   I aim my spear at Coinchenn’s side. As he was about to punch my whale shark again, I charge forward. Coinchenn saw me coming and dodges my thrust with a somersault.

   ‘I believe I told you to-’

   ‘Go to one side and get used to move around in that form of yours. You can join the fight again once you’re done with that.’ I tell Curruid before he could say anything more.

   ‘...Very well.’ he agrees reluctantly. ‘I shall make it quick.’

   ‘Yeah. I believe in you.’

   Coinchenn leisurely watches as his nemesis(?) heads to a spot further away from us.

   ‘Look at you. Treating a sea monster like he’s your pet. You must be very proud of yourself.’ he tells me.

   He doesn’t sound angry at all, but sarcastic and playful. And he’s making sure that Curruid can hear every words that he said by being loud enough. It’s like he’s trying to taunt my partner to come back and fight him in a fit of rage before he’s ready.

   I shrug. ‘Like I told him, you’ll be fighting me until he’s ready.’

   ‘Fair enough. Let’s see what you got.’

   He does a flying kick at me. I tried to block his kick with my spear, but I was almost blown away from the impact of the kick. As I’m regaining my form, he wastes no time in trying to punch me in the face. I dodge the punch by tilting my head, then counters with another thrust with my spear. He slaps my spear away with his hand, then gives me a kick to the stomach. Before his kick could hit, I slam the butt of my spear to the ground. He ends up kicking the shaft.

   ‘Ow.’ he says with a flat tone.

   He pulls back his leg and goes for another punch, once again to my face. I dodge it by lowering my head. At the same time, I aim a kick to his stomach.

   The good news is the kick connects. The bad news is that it’s like I’m kicking a brick wall. My leg is actually numbed from the kick. As a result, I almost got my face hit by his palm strike. Thankfully, I manage to dodge it on time. I return the favor by having my whale shark to attack him.

   Curruid reacts by snapping his fingers and make a sea serpent made of water appear out of thin air. The serpent proceeds to coil around my whale shark. As I watch, the serpent spins it tail and propel itself towards the sky like a very elastic blimp.

   ‘Come on, play fair!’ he chides me. ‘I went through all these troubles just to make sure that the two of us can fight on equal grounds! The least you could do is respect that!’

   ‘And it would be fair if he teams up with me?’ I say while jabbing my thumb backwards toward Curruid.

   ‘Well he obviously doesn’t count, does he? At the rate that he’s going, it would be winter by the time he gets used to that new body of his.’

   ‘True.’

   ‘Hey!’

   I set my whale shark to auto-pilot mode so that I don’t have to control it as it fights the serpent. I guess I could summon a battalion of fishmen and skeleton fishes, but he would just summon just as many minions as well. Guess I’ll have to fight him one-on-one until Curruid is ready.

   I aim two consecutive thrusts towards Coinchenn’s head. He blocks the first one with his right hand and kicks away my spear to deflect the second thrust. As he was just done doing that, I aim another kick using my sole towards his head. The kick connects. His head and neck are temporarily bent backwards from the kick, but he quickly twists the back.

   ‘Wow, you’re pretty good at this.’ he tells me. ‘Not as good as me, but still.’

   While he’s talking, he’s also doing a punch-and-kick combo. A punch to my solar plexus. A kick to my face. Another punch to my ribs, then a roundhouse kick. I parry all his attacks with my spear. The more I parry, the more my hands get numb as his attacks are really strong. Even though my kick just now found its target, he wasn’t fazed by it at all and kept on attacking like it hasn’t happened.

   ‘I’ve been practising.’

   ‘How modest. For a human, you’re doing much better than Curruid.’

   Again, he’s being loud enough so that Curruid can hear him. Speaking of Curruid, I’ve been hearing some grunting sounds coming from his directions since just now. I can’t see what he’s doing since I have to concentrate on Coinchenn, but it’s probably something related to controlling his human body.

   ‘You’re still doing poorly compared to the Hound, though.’ he informs me as he tries to land another punch.

   I dodge the punch by sliding my body sideways.

   ‘You knew him?’ I ask him as I try to stab him with the tip of my spear.

   ‘We’ve never met each other directly, but I’ve taken my time to observe him after he obtained that spear you’re holding.’ he answers while dodging the thrust by slightly twisting his body. ‘He was doing well until he let his honour as a warrior got him killed.’

   Knowing that my punches and kicks won’t work and would just make things work for me, I’ve been solely using my spear to attack Coinchenn. However, he could dodge every single attacks with laser precision. I’ve realized this for a while now, but I’m pretty sure he had gotten used to be in his human form for a long, long time to be this nimble.

   I shrug. ‘It happens to the best of us. And I see that you’ve observed him just like you observed me.’

   ‘Curruid probably told you this, but I have a habit of observing my target before I actually fight them.’

   He tries to claw my chest with his hands full of knife-sharp finger nails. I aim a knee kick at his hand. His clawing misses as a result.

   ‘Did you ever got to fight the Hound?’ I ask.

   ‘Nope. After I got enough of observing him, I did tried to lure him out by causing trouble like I did now, but he never came out.’

   ‘When exactly did you do that?’

   He thinks long and hard about it, but wasn’t distracted enough. I tried to stab his face once again with my spear, but he swats it away with his hand without even looking.

   ‘Um, I think it was four to five days before he kicked it.’ he eventually says.

   ‘Well you chose a bad time then. It was during around that time the sorcerer’s kids that Cúchulainn killed used the same strategy you used and tried to draw him out as well. His king didn’t want to take the chance of losing his best fighter, so he had him distracted with parties and feasts, even going so far as to bring him to a place called the Valley of the Deaf.’ I recall.

   ‘Seriously? No wonder he never appeared! To think I even wrecked more than ten villages. I’ve totally wasted my efforts. Oh well. At least it was my minions who did all the work, not me.’

   He gives me a vicious grin.

   ‘Compared to him, you’re much easier to lure out.’ he says to me. ‘I did the same thing as I did before, but now that I think about it, it was better and faster if I attacked your home country instead.Or more specific, those women you treasure so much.’

   I know what he’s playing at. He’s trying to make me lose my cool so that I would be reckless and predictable. If he did it to a typical shounen series protagonist, he might have pulled it off. Unfortunately for him, I’m not a shounen series protagonist. I’m just a mob who can control his temper better than most characters out there.

   I shrug. ‘You can try. But let me warn you. They’re much stronger than I am. They could defeat your minions with one hand tied behind their back. And with their eyes closed.’

   He immediately gives me a disappointed look.

   ‘Does anything ever fazes you?’ he asks.

   ‘I guess there’s one thing.’

   ‘Oh, is that so? You can tell me about it. No need to be shy. I have a very tight lips. I won’t tell anyone.’

   He’s purring while he was saying the second part of his sentences. His voice is smooth and very convincing. If he was a human, I seriously think that he’ll be an excellent salesman. Or a conman. Definitely a conman.

   ‘By seeing your brain exploding. That would make me retch for the whole day.’

   He chuckles. ‘My apologies, but you need to be better than that if you want me to commit suicide.’

   ‘At least I tried.’

   I may be speaking leisurely with him right now, but we’re in fact still fighting each other. I don’t know about him, but my stamina is starting to drop after all these chats and exchanging blows. And I’m nowhere near defeating him. If this keeps up, I myself, Curruid and everyone back at the world where we came from is in a lot of trouble.

   All of a sudden, someone pulls my collar from behind and yanks me backwards. The pull was so strong I end up landing on my behind at the cold, hard ground.

   ‘Move. You are in my way.’

   Naturally, it was Curruid who spoke. While glaring at Coinchenn, he proceeds to crack his fists.

   ‘Now then, shall we begin Round 2?’