Objects smashed, screams pierced the air, Shadow Knight stood triumphantly in the middle of it all. I could just make out Joel's figure on the ground next to me through the blazing red light. The heat was intense, I felt like my eyebrows were searing off. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
After what seemed like a few minutes of Shadow Knight's supernova, the light died down and the heat fizzled out. Joel was out cold and for a terrible moment I thought he was dead. Then he mumbled "food" and I relaxed.
Kira and Ella were knocked out too. That meant that only three members of The Crime Lords were left conscious. I stood up, ignoring the pain in my leg, and ran over to Estella. She wasn't in too much pain (that was a relief) so she got up without difficulty.
"Where's MadMex?" She asked. "And what happened to Green Arrow?"
I turned around and saw Wills duelling Shadow Knight shotgun to axe. He dodged Shadow Knight's attacks with ease and responded with a kick or a shoulder barge. His expression was one of pure determination, nothing was going to stop him. He kept looking for an opportunity to shoot but Shadow Knight was moving too quick.
"MadMex is over there." I said, pointing to the duel. "Hang on, what did you say about Green Arrow?"
Estella nodded to a puddle of blood now surrounding Joel. He was still only half-conscious, but that wouldn't stay last for long. I started sprinting over to him, Estella at my side. Please be alright, please be alright, I repeated in my head.
"Not so fast!" I felt something hard whack me in the head.
My vision went blurry for a second and when it stopped, Black Jack stood between Joel and I. He raised his staff, which crackled with electric energy, and took a few steps towards me.
"You both need a reality check." Catgirl snapped, placing a clawed boot on Estella's chest. "Because everyone knows that cats prey on birds."
Estella groaned from down on the ground as catgirl's claws dug into her costume. She hissed through her teeth and struggled to get a quill from her belt. Black Jack on the other hand struck the ground in front of me, sending electric sparks flying up at me. They stung like wasp stings and I put my hands up to block them. Unfortunately, that gave Black Jack an opportunity to sweep my legs out from underneath me and send me crashing down next to Estella. Jack pressed his staff, electric side down, into my chest and I arched my back in pain. It was like being thrown into a boiling hot bath without getting used to it first, only the water was acid and I was slowly disintegrating. Next to me, Estella screamed and then winced in pain. The claws must've dug deeper.
"That's a good bird." Catgirl crooned in a voice you could only describe as bitchy. "Stay in your nest and wait to by fried."
The electricity stopped but the burning remained. I could only see red when I opened my eyes, which was funny because I was expecting black. I heard metal clashing with metal and my heart skipped a beat. I had gone and left Estella facing Black Jack and Catgirl on her own!
I pushed myself into a crouch, relieved that the two enemies had turned their attention to Estella instead of me, but frightened of the same fact. Estella was holding her own though. She dodged Catgirl's claws and slashed back with a quill in each hand. Black Jack advanced from the back with his staff raised like a spear but Estella was ready. She dodged a dangerous swipe from Catgirl and locked her arm in a hold. Then she shoved her straight into Black Jack's staff and the cat flailed helplessly as the metal in her claws and boots amplified the shock. Black Jack jumped three feet back in alarm as his teammate collapsed in a heap in front of him.
By then, I could feel my body again. I stood up and took a gun from my belt. Estella saw the moment and slowly moved to the opposite side of our opponent, raising a quill above her shoulder. Black Jack looked frantically between the two of us with a wild expression. I held my guard, not knowing when he would strike. Eventually, he lunged at me with lightning speed and knocked the gun from my hand with his staff before I could react. He then tried to poke me but I leaned back to dodge the staff and while balancing on one leg I kicked him in the face with the other. In the distraction, Estella took Black Jack's staff from his hands and used it to knock him out before he could recover. Black Jack wobbled a little bit before falling over on top of Catgirl, defeated.
"Woohoo!" I cheered. "That went well!"
Estella laughed and came over to hug me. "I'm sorry for not acting sooner, I could've saved you from being electrocuted."
"Hey." I said, hugging her back. "It's not your fault. Neither of us could've reacted as quickly as he can, but we still beat him, right?"
She released me and looked down on our previous opponents. "Yeah, we did. That's the most intense thing I've ever done."
I chuckled. "I've had worse, but for your first time against two assassins, you did really well."
"Thank you." She said, her face turning red at the cheeks. "Now let's help Joel."
We rushed to his side and quickly searched for the source of the bleeding. Estella found it first, and I'm glad she did, I would've lost my lunch. The source was a shard of wood sticking straight out of his thigh. It went all the way through too. That's when I noticed the many shards of wood and string surrounding Joel on the floor and I gasped in shock. Joel's bow had shattered in Shadow Knight's blast and the biggest shard had stabbed him in the leg.
I didn't know what to do. All I knew was that we needed to get Joel
back to HQ so Kira could tend to the wound. Surely she had some sort of cream or powder that could heal it.
"You stay here." Estella said quickly. "I'll check on the girls."
She ran off toward the two unconscious figures on the other side of the room, making sure to stay well away from the duel of the bosses. Which, fortunately, was going in MadMex's favour. Shadow Knight had used up most of his power and was now simply blocking his opponents fierce attacks. Joel moaned loudly which scared the living daylights out of me and rolled over to touch the shard in his leg.
"Is it bad?" He asked, still half conscious.
I nodded. "I'm not gonna lie, it's bad. You'll need Toxic and MadMex to check it out when we get back."
It was almost as if he had no idea that he was in the middle of a battle. He shot up to a sitting position and scanned the room with panicked eyes. "Is everyone ok? What did I miss?"
I explained the blast, the girls' undetermined injuries and the battle with Black Jack and Catgirl.
"Glad to know that bitch has been given what she deserves." Joel chuckled when he heard that news.
I bowed my head. "You're welcome."
Suddenly, the lights in the room shut off and the only source left was a red glow across the room. It was a little disturbing to realise that the glow was emanating from Shadow Knight's eyes. MadMex acted quickly, lashing out at Shadow Knight with a knife but he dodged it and shoved Wills aside. Then he sprinted over to his defeated teammates and picked them both up.
"You may have one this time, Crime Lords." He shouted in a booming voice that echoed off the walls like a bass drum. "But there will come a day when darkness fills your lungs and drags you down into hell. I will make sure of it, mark my words!"
Then the whole room erupted in the same bright red light as before for a second or two and all three samurai vanished completely. The lights flickered back on and I was standing in a circle with my team in the centre of the room. We all looked around at each other, confused.
"I don't know what just happened," Joel said, "but I'm bleeding to death, so..."
Wills scooped him up in his arms like a damsel in distress and started jogging toward the exit. "Team, head back to base. Mission complete!"
Mission complete. Those words echoed in my mind all the way back through the bush. We had won the day. We beat the samurai, something I didn't think was possible! I could've felt excited, happy, triumphant or even cocky, but the only feeling I felt was absolute relief.