Gatta, Bruto, Freccia, and Mago vanished in flashes of dark green light, and suddenly—
BOOM!
They reappeared right in front of Kenji, Olorun, and Tony—each one radiating a twisted aura of corrupted nature magic.
"Uh… okay, so… who's picking who here?" Tony said, slowly lifting his bony hands like he was weighing invisible melons.
Kenji crossed his arms, eyes narrowing as he stared at the four enemies.
"Hm… I think Olorun should fight the wizard."
"THE HELL YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Olorun grabbed Kenji by the collar, eyes bulging.
Their foreheads collided in a loud BONK, lightning bolts and angry veins popping around their heads.
"ARE YOU INSANE?! HE'S A WIZARD, KENJI! A FULL-BLOWN SPELL-CASTING, MAGIC-DOING, ROBE-WEARING WIZARD!"
Kenji didn't even flinch, staring back just as hard.
"IDIOT. YOU HAVE MAGIC TOO. YOU JUST FRIED A PLANT WITH LIGHTNING LIKE YOU WERE GRILLIN' VEGETABLES."
"BITCH, I CAN ONLY USE LIGHTNING! I AIN'T GOT A MAGIC BOOK OR A STAFF! I'M A ASSASSIN, NOT A DAMN SORCERER!!"
Kenji shrugged. "Sounds like a you problem."
Tony held up a bony finger and casually pointed at Freccia, the sleek archer whose arrows glowed green.
"Welp. I call dibs on the arrows guy over there. Probably got some cool toys I can break."
Bruto, the towering brute with bark-like armor and fists the size of tree trunks, stepped forward.
Kenji cracked his neck and walked toward him.
"I'll handle the big guy."
Olorun's eye twitched, looking around in a panic.
"Wait, WAIT—who's fighting the damn cat girl?!"
All three of them turned in unison, slowly, cartoonishly—
toward Timmy, who was still peeking from behind the lodge.
"Oh hell no," Timmy whispered.
"Hey TIMMY!" Olorun yelled, pointing dramatically. "Get your leafy little butt over here and HELP OUT!"
"I-I can't fight!" Timmy squeaked, waving his arms.
Kenji, dead serious: "You can hop on my head. That kinda means you're in the battle."
"But—"
"JUST DO IT, TIMMY," Tony barked.
"Ughhh!" Timmy whined like a toddler being forced to eat veggies, but then he sprinted over with his tiny legs and hopped onto Kenji's head like a squirrel climbing a statue.
"…Wow," Timmy said, blinking. "Kenji, you really do have nice blue hair."
Kenji's brow twitched.
"Shut. Up."
They all took formation—Kenji and Timmy, Olorun with sparks crackling around his fingers, and Tony spinning his arm like a lasso, cackling.
Across from them, Gatta licked her clawed hands like a bored cat, Bruto cracked his knuckles, Mago's eyes glowed under his wide hat, and Freccia nocked an arrow with a sly grin.
The stage was set.
"Alright," Olorun said, glancing at Kenji, "try not to screw up, Cyclops."
Kenji rolled his eyes.
"Don't cry when you lose, Thunder Gremlin."
They both leaned in again—BONK!—foreheads clashing mid-glare, sparks and cartoon smoke puffing between them.
Tony clapped. "Aww, you two are like an old married couple."
"SHUT UP, TONY!!"
Both shouted in unison.
The moment the others vanished in flashes of energy, only Olorun and Mago remained on the battlefield.
The sky above shimmered with heat, tension thick as smoke.
Olorun dusted his knuckles and smirked.
"Welp… guess it's just you and me. Give me your best shot, fire boy."
Mago tilted his wide-brimmed hat back, revealing a sly grin.
"Are you sure, kid?"
"Yeah." Olorun cracked his neck. "I got this."
"FIRE BURST!"
Mago's hands lit up instantly, forming a glowing glyph in front of his chest. A spiraling torrent of flame exploded from his palms like a jet engine, turning the ground into scorched glass.
Olorun's smirk didn't falter.
He bent his knees.
"SUPER JUMP!"
BOOM.
The earth cracked under his feet as he launched into the air like a lightning bolt.
From high above, Olorun locked eyes with Mago.
"Now hold this—LIGHTNING SPAR!!"
A jagged bolt of electricity zigzagged downward with erratic speed, cracking through the sky like a serpent of pure plasma.
Mago calmly side-stepped.
"Tch."
He spun around and launched three rapid-fire fireballs with perfect timing. They swirled through the air like burning meteors, arcing toward Olorun's predicted landing zone.
But the second Olorun's boots touched the ground—
ZIP.
He vanished.
"INSTANT MOVEMENT."
—He reappeared directly behind Mago, like a ghost phasing through dimensions.
"FINGER KNIFE!"
His pinky struck like a surgeon with a scalpel—precise, rapid jabs aimed at Mago's ribs, throat, and spine.
Mago's magic shield appeared just in time—a crystalline dome pulsing with glowing red runes.
"You'll have to try harder than that," Mago said, barely flinching.
"Damn it, you wizard bastard!"
Olorun backflipped away, skidding across the battlefield.
He growled, tapping his forehead with that same pinky.
Think, Olorun… think…
Then—his eyes lit up.
"Oh that's it."
Electricity sparked violently from his finger as he whispered:
"FINGER KNIFE—ENHANCED."
He blurred forward and began a furious lightning-infused barrage, his pinky now a blur of motion as he hammered the shield like a jackhammer, each strike exploding in sparks. Mago squinted as his barrier cracked slightly under the onslaught.
But then—
FLASH.
Mago teleported away, reappearing behind Olorun. Multiple flashes followed, each one forming a perfect clone, until there were eight Mago's fanned out in a circle.
Each clone readied a fireball in sync.
Olorun stepped back, eyes wide.
"Oh REALLY?! Alright, bet."
He took a deep breath, slouched into a crouch, and whispered:
"AFTERIMAGE STEP."
In a blur of motion, ten Oloruns suddenly appeared—moving in and out of phase, phantoms left behind by his extreme-speed movement. Each copy twitched, flickered, and shifted, making it impossible to tell who was real.
"Yo, Mago!" Olorun called from somewhere in the confusion.
"It's a damn army of me!"
Mago's eyes narrowed.
"Hm… Shichishini. Now I understand."
"Oh?" Olorun's voice echoed from multiple directions.
"You're using the elite assassination martial art. I've seen this before."
Olorun blinked mid-move.
"You've seen it?"
"Of course," Mago said, forming a glowing flame circle under his feet. "I once fought the man who created it."
Olorun froze mid-dash, his illusions rippling and flickering.
"WAIT—WHAT?!"
Mago casually held up one hand, index finger glowing.
"Back when I was only twenty. Let's see… that would've been around… sixty years ago?"
"SIXTY?!"
Olorun slipped and crashed into one of his own afterimages.
"BRO. WHAT ARE YOU, A FOSSIL?!"
Mago laughed and snapped his fingers.
"Let me show you what experience looks like."
Suddenly all eight clones lunged forward at once, flame daggers in their hands, moving in terrifying unison.
Olorun's real body barely managed to duck under the first two, slide-kick past the third, and pivot-flip over the fourth.
Explosions erupted in every direction as fake and real attacks collided in a fiery storm.
Olorun skidded into a crouch, breathing hard, smoke rising from his sleeves.
With a flash of flame, Mago teleports behind Olorun, his cloak fluttering in embers.
"Too slow," he mutters, a sinister smirk on his lips.
Olorun senses the heat—spins around just in time—arms up to block as Mago thrusts both palms forward, conjuring a swirling vortex of fire.
FWOOM! The flames detonate point-blank, but Olorun's guard holds.
"You think fire's enough to stop me?"
But Mago's already moving. In the smoke, he appears beside Olorun and slashes with a glowing fireblade, slicing across Olorun's arm—BZZZT!
"GAAH—!"
The cut burns deep, and Olorun is blasted backwards, crashing through the trees as flames trail off his body.
Meanwhile...
BOOM!
Kenji rolls just under Bruto's earth-shattering slam, narrowly avoiding the crater.
Timmy, clinging to his shoulder, screams:
"OH MY GOD I'M GONNA DIEEEE!"
Kenji grits his teeth.
"You're not dying, you're just dramatic—hang on tight!"
He flips back, lands in a low stance, and slashes forward—
"KEN-SLASH!!"
A crescent wave of compressed air launches from his blade, slicing toward Bruto like a reaper's scythe.
Bruto raises a stone-covered arm, blocking the wave, but his heels skid slightly.
"Tch. You'll have to try harder than that," Bruto growls.
Suddenly—!
"Cat Slash!"
Gatta appears from the flank, her claws like glowing blades, slashing in rapid arcs at Kenji.
Kenji backflips mid-air, barely dodging the barrage.
"Oh so it's a 2-on-1 now?"
He lands in a crouch, swords crossed.
Gatta winks.
"Well who else am I supposed to be fighting? That bunny?"
Timmy yanks Kenji's hair.
"Hey! I am helping!"
Kenji winces.
"Yeah, no, you're doing amazing, little guy. Super helpful."
Gatta surges forward, claws slashing again.
Kenji blocks with both swords—CLANG! SPARK!
She swipes left—he parries. Right—he ducks. Her speed increases.
Kenji's thoughts race.
"Damn—she's fast. If I blink, I'm done."
He shoves her back with a kick—
BOOM!
—but before he can reset his stance—
Bruto appears out of nowhere.
"HAH!"
His fist blurs.
Kenji blocks—but the impact sends him flying, smashing through a wall of rubble.
Timmy nearly falls off.
"AHHHH! I'M GONNA DIE AGAIN!"
Kenji, mid-tumble:
"STOP SAYING THAT!"
He hits the ground, rolls, just as Gatta flips in front of him.
"Cat Combo!"
She unleashes a flurry of spinning kicks—
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!
Kenji blocks most, counters with a slash, but Gatta hops back, tail swaying.
Kenji pants, bruised but not broken.
"You're fast… but I'm not slowing down."
Gatta rushes again.
Kenji jumps into the air to evade—
But—
Gatta jumps higher, eyes gleaming.
"CAT SONIC!"
She claps her claws together—Sonic Boom unleashed!
A compressed wave of sound blasts downward—
Kenji and Timmy are CRASHED into the ground, the earth rippling outward.
Kenji coughs hard, barely getting to his knees.
"Damn it—"
Then—
Bruto jumps high, arms raised.
"SONIC CLAP!"
Kenji looks up—eyes widen.
"Timmy—GO!"
He throws Timmy aside with all his might just as Bruto's gigantic sonic clap slams into him like thunder.
BOOOOOOM!
Kenji is flattened into the ground, dust spiraling for miles, blood trailing from his mouth.