Chapter 45: Joe and Sasha vs Sen and Alga

Chapter 45: Joe and Sasha vs Sen and Alga

Zeth, Sasha, Joe, and Kurt rush into a square-shaped room that has exits on all sides. Alga leans against the wall, rubbing her wounded shoulder.

“Too fast!” Alga mutters, as she runs through the exit on the left.

“I recognize her!” Sasha shouts, pointing toward the exit Alga took. “I’m going after her!”

“Wait!” Joe urges. “We should go in groups of two. It would be bad if we went individually and got cornered by multiple poachers.”

“Great idea, Joe,” Zeth says. “You go with Sasha. Kurt and I will head through one of the other paths.”

“Just be careful,” Kurt adds.

Sasha and Joe nod with determination before heading off to chase after Alga. With Sasha and Joe chasing Alga, Zeth and Kurt head through the exit straight ahead.

Sasha and Joe follow a trail of blood drops on the floor. Just ahead is a 90-degree turn. Sasha turns first. However, Alga tackles her to the ground, trying to thrust a screwdriver straight into her right eye. Sasha grips her arm, trying to resist.

“You shouldn’t have come here!” Alga screeches with rage.

“Sasha!” Joe yells as he forms electricity around his hands. “Get off her!”

He tries to slam his fist into Alga, but Sen dashes from around the corner and punches him in the face, knocking him back.

Sen glares at Joe with his usual scowl while smoking a cigar. “Don’t feel left out. I’ve got you covered, kid.”

“Out of the way!” Joe yells as he charges magic energy into his hands and thrusts them forward to unleash a tube-shaped force of straight-line winds. “Derecho!!”

The winds slam into Sen and knock him back into Alga, both crashing against the wall.

Sasha stands up, charging her own magic. “Shade Punch!” she screams as she thrusts her now-shadowy fist straight into Sen and Alga, who are clumped together against the wall still. Upon contact, Sasha’s fist unleashes a short burst of shadowy energy, damaging both of them, but less to Alga than Sen.

“Enough!” Alga screams as a magic barrier forms around her, further reducing the impact of Sasha’s attack.

“Back away, Sasha!” Joe shouts as he stands to their side and unleashes another Derecho attack, blasting Alga and Sen down the next hall and into the room full of gas canisters. Alga quickly stands up, having taken minimal damage, but Sen lies on his back, grunting as he tries to sit up.

“Put out that damn cigar!” Alga yells.

“And put it where exactly?” Sen retorts. “There’s no safer place for it to be than between my teeth.”

Sasha and Joe arrive in the room, ready to continue the battle.

“It looks like we have the upper hand here,” Joe says with a grin.

“So give and release the captives!” Sasha demands.

Glaring back at them with a scowl look, Sen raises one arm as magic energy forms around it, taking the shape of a transparent chainsaw. “It seems you kids are just full of yourselves. The adults in the room will need to put you in your place… Maybe remove a few limbs while we’re at it.”

He turns his head to glance at Alga. “Keep them still while I saw them into pieces.”

Alga nods, smirking. “I can do that.”

She launches forward as Joe forms a lightning bolt in each hand. “Oh no you don’t!”

He throws the bolts of lightning. They make contact with Alga but don’t even cause her to flinch, allowing her to grab him by the neck before slamming him down to the floor.

Sen revs up his magic chainsaw. “Let’s get this started.”

“No!!” Sasha screams as she grabs ahold of Alga and pulls her away from Joe, causing both of them to tumble away close to a window.

Now freed, Joe forms a piece of razor-sharp hail in his hand and throws it forward at Sen before he can lunge forward to use his chainsaw. The Razor Hail piece pierces into Sen’s abdomen, lodging in place. He winces in pain, his shirt becoming tinted with blood around the piece of Razor Hail.

“Damn brat!” Sen mutters.

By the window, Alga stands and grabs Sasha by her neck, trying to strangle her.

“My magic may be entirely defensive but I’m still strong enough to strangle you to death,” Alga says with an annoyed growl.

Sasha winces, using her hands to grip Alga’s arms, trying to force them off.

Sasha thinks urgently, “It’s no use! I can’t overpower her like this!”

Suddenly, a bullet smashes through the window diagonally from low to high, piercing into the side of Alga’s jaw.

Outside, Emily stands on a different tree branch than before. She pulls back the bolt handle to insert a new round. She says to herself, “You should have known better than to stand by a window when you’re being sniped.”

Back inside, Alga lets go of Sasha, pressing her own hands against her now-bloody jaw. “This outside sniper is infuriating!!” she screams in a mix of frustration and pain.

Sasha quickly charges her magic and punches Alga with a Shade Punch, knocking her back against the gas canisters.

Meanwhile, Joe dives out of the way to avoid Sen’s vertical chainsaw attack.

“Hold still, you damn brat!” Sen yells.

“Kiss my ass!” Joe yells back, thrusting his electricity-covered hand straight into Sen’s gut. The attack cuts away a section of his shirt and tears into his skin, further exasperating the damage he has already taken from the singular Razor Hail. He coughs out his cigar, which Joe instinctively catches.

“Kind of gross but I know what to do!” Joe shouts before kicking Sen back against the gas canisters. “Sasha, run!!”

“Right!” Sasha shouts back as she runs back into the hallway.

Joe jumps back to the entrance. He looks over his shoulder back at the injured poachers, who are still lying on the gas canisters. “Oh, maybe I should give this back to you.”

He flicks the cigar back toward the gas canisters. Alga and Sen open their eyes wide as both scream in unison, “Nooooo!!!!!”

Once the lit end of the cigar touches a gas canister, they all explode, combining into one massive explosion that completely obliterates that section of the base and launches debris in all directions.

Outside, Emily watches as debris from that section of the base falls to the ground. “I hope they’re alright…”

“Yeah, I hope Sen and Alga made it out safely,” someone else adds.

Emily replies, “Why would we care about— Wait, what?!” Her eyes widen as their focus drifts leftward. Shotsteed stands right next to her on the branch, his eyes focused on her with a bizarre trance-like expression.

“Aahh!!” Emily screams frightened as she jumps off the tree branch, trying to shoot him with her rifle, but she misses the shot.

Shotsteed’s right hand turns into an elongating rope that wraps around Emily’s rifle and yanks it out of her hands.

“Hey! That’s not yours!”

Once the rifle is in his hand, he changes both hands into rectangular steel pressers, which he uses to smash the rifle in between them, rendering it completely smashed in. He drops it to the ground.

“I’m glad we can finally become acquainted. My name is Shotsteed. It’s nice to meet you.”

Joe and Sasha have defeated Sen and Alga, but now Emily finds herself confronted by Shotsteed! What exactly is the magic this bizarre person uses?! Four poachers remain.

Chapter 45 END

To be Continued in Chapter 46: Emily vs Shotsteed. The Strongest Poacher!