Madame Naga brushed aside her maiden black hair as she carefully eyed both Sana and Rey, who were both getting ready to fight. Neil stood aside along with Runa and Heer, holding onto Heer as she was heavily injured herself. Sana and Rey turned to each other.
“You okay?” Rey asked Sana.
“I think so. How about you?”
“You know me! I’m ready for this! We can take snake lady on with no problem.”
“Don’t be overconfident. Remember what Aiden said. She’s more dangerous than Droh. That means she’ll be a much bigger challenge.”
“That just makes this more fun. As long as you trust me, we’ll be fine.”
“I know. I trust you, Rey. Just be careful.”
“Please…please don’t do anything,” Runa tried to talk to Madame Naga.
“Runa, it’s okay,” Neil told Runa as he tried to bring her aside with him and Heer. “This is their battle now. It’s best you stay here with me for your protection.”
Runa nodded as she went towards Neil, holding onto him as she looked at Heer, who was resting her head on Neil’s shoulder. I hope Sana and Rey know what they’re doing. This woman looks like she can kill anyone, Neil thought.
Rey gave a thumbs up to Sana as he transformed into his beast form. “I’m ready,” Madame Naga said as she transformed into her dark beast form. She took on the form of a dark-colored anaconda. Her large size and intimidating appearance stunned Sana.
“Whoah,” Neil said, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“She looks scary. But I think we can take her on,” Sana told Rey. “Right?”
Rey nodded in agreement.
“All right! Rey, let’s start off with a direct attack!” Sana ordered. Rey leaped forward towards Madame Naga, pouncing on her to the ground.
“Good! Now use your Ember Claw move!” Sana commanded. Rey raised his paw upward as his claws started to give off a fiery burn. As he tried to hit Madame Naga, she used her tail to hit Rey’s paw, which made the attack hit him instead. Rey landed on the ground in pain as the ember had gotten into his eyes.
“Rey! Are you okay?!” Sana asked Rey. As Rey managed to get up, Madame Naga launched a dark energy beam attack from her mouth, hitting Rey directly into the wall.
“Rey!” Sana called out.
That’s it. I just have to weaken him a bit more before I can put him in the right spot…and then unleash the real blow, Madame Naga thought.
Sana rushed over to Rey as he slowly tried to get up. “Are you all right?” Sana asked Rey as he slowly got up.
Rey nodded. Sana turned to see Madame Naga launch another energy beam attack at them. Sana immediately drew out her wand, tapping it to turn it into her trishula and then used it to deflect the energy beam back at Madame Naga, hitting her directly.
“Nice one, Sana!” Neil called out.
Insolent brat! Madame Naga thought.
“Okay, Rey! Use a fireball attack now!” Sana ordered.
Rey let out a mighty roar, which emitted a fireball attack directly towards Madame Naga. Madame Naga dodged the attack and quickly slithered her way towards Rey. And that was when she finally tied her anaconda body around Rey, tying him up in a tight squeeze.
“Rey!” Sana called out, scared.
Rey struggled to breathe as he tried to move out of Madame Naga’s grasp. But it was so tight that he couldn’t move. Now I have you where I want you! Madame Naga smirked. She opened her mouth and bit her fangs right onto Rey’s neck. The pain was so unbearable that Rey let out a scream in the form of a roar. Sana looked on in horror as Madame Naga let go of Rey, leaving him to lie on the ground. She transformed back into her human form, watching Rey in pain.
“Rey! Get up now! Come on!” Sana shouted at Rey. But Rey could not get up. He had transformed back into human form, lying on the ground helpless as the bite from Madame Naga had left a black scar on his neck, bleeding rapidly.
“What was that?!” Neil asked. “That woman…What…what is she?!”
Sana ran towards Rey, holding him as she kept calling out, “Rey! Rey, can you hear me?! Rey, say something! Rey!” Sana could feel the tears coming down her face as Rey wouldn’t answer.
“What did you do to him?! Tell me!” Sana yelled at Madame Naga.
Madame Naga smirked. “It’s called Venom Fang. I simply bit my fangs into his neck, allowing my special venom to go into his body. And now he’s helpless,” Madame Naga said. “Just as I wanted.”
Sana looked down at Rey’s unconscious face as her tears became uncontrollable. He’s not breathing. This is all my fault! I should’ve done something! Sana thought. Sana put Rey back down on the ground. She got up and looked at Madame Naga, furious.
“You’ll pay for this!” Sana yelled as she drew out her trishula. “Ember Fury!”
Sana plunged her trishula into the ground, releasing an ember attack towards Madame Naga. Madame Naga deflected it with a dark energy beam, hitting Sana at her abdomen.
“This isn’t looking good!” Neil said as Heer slowly got up.
“We have to do something. Otherwise she’ll kill them,” Heer said.
Sana tried to get up. But as she did, she was struck by another one of Madame Naga’s energy beam attacks, which hit her in the face. As she fell to the ground, Madame Naga transformed into her dark beast form and tied Sana up with her tail, tightening her grasp on her. No matter how much you try to fight me, little girl…you can’t reverse what I’ve done, Madame Naga thought as she continued to squeeze Sana’s body to the point where she had trouble breathing. I’ve already done what I needed to with Rey. Now only time will tell when my plans will be complete.
Madame Naga gave Sana one last tight squeeze with her tail, making Sana cough up blood onto the floor. As she let her go, Sana was bleeding on her face and arms as she fell to the ground.
Sana passed out on the ground next to Rey. Madame Naga transformed back into her human form. She took pleasure in seeing the scared looks on Neil, Heer, and Runa’s faces.
“Now that those two are down, I’ll go ahead and kill you three for the thrill of it,” Madame Naga said.
“Neil…we have to do the equilibrium move,” Heer told Neil.
“What?! How can we?!” Neil asked. “We just learned about it. And you’re still injured.”
“But as long as our energy levels stay in sync, we’ll be fine. It comes naturally if we are in it together. We have to do this for Sana and Rey’s sake,” Heer told Neil.
“Are you sure?” Neil asked.
“Yes! Just go for it!” Heer told Neil and then transformed into her beast form.
“Go ahead! Just try it!” Madame Naga cackled.
“You asked for it!” Neil said as he drew out his bow and arrow.
As Neil held his bow and arrow, a sudden array of icy crystals began to form around Neil and Heer. The crystals aligned in circular motion before Neil and Heer, combining to form a powerful arrow which replaced Neil’s standard arrow. At that same time, Heer was able to form a powerful ice energy beam from her mouth.
“Ice Blast!” Neil called out the attack as he released the arrow, combining it with Heer’s ice energy beam.
As the attack made its way towards Madame Naga, she suddenly disappeared in a puff of black smoke before it could even hit her. And at that same time, she had even dropped her duplicate key to the floor. Heer transformed back into human form.
“How could she just get away like that?!” Neil shouted.
“Calm down, Neil,” Heer told Neil. “We have other things to worry about. Like Sana and Rey.”
Then, Headmaster Devil, Aiden, Krystal, and Prince came into the center hallway, coming towards Neil, Heer, and Runa.
“What happened here?” Aiden asked.
“Madame Naga came and took out both Sana and Rey,” Heer told Aiden.
“What?!” Headmaster Devil said, surprised.
“Sana! Rey!” Krystal exclaimed as she and Prince went up to Sana and Rey, seeing their unconscious bodies.
“Where is Madame Naga?” Aiden asked.
“She disappeared,” Heer said, holding up the duplicate key. “But she left the key behind.”
“It looked like she did it on purpose though, Heer,” Neil told Heer.
“Krystal, did you and Prince take out Droh?” Headmaster Devil asked Krystal.
“We did!” Krystal replied.
“But we didn’t get someone to take him to lockup,” Prince said.
“Damn it! That means he could’ve gotten away!” Krystal cried. “But then…I have his key!”
“Forget about that for now,” Aiden said. “We have to take Sana and Rey for first aid treatment now!”
“Right!” Krystal and Prince said as they helped Sana and Rey up and rushed them down the hall while Headmaster Devil, Aiden, Neil, Heer, and Runa followed.
***
And the battle was over. Krystal, Prince, Neil, and Heer went ahead and released the students and faculty from the ballroom. Runa was left in the care of the school nurse while Heer and Sana were being treated there as well. However, Sana didn’t know that Rey was being treated in the intensive care unit. Outside of the intensive care unit, Headmaster Devil and Aiden were waiting outside.
“So, this proves it,” Headmaster Devil said. “This whole idea of getting the Shakti Orb was a setup.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Why else would Madame Naga leave the premises without taking the orb? She even left the key behind on purpose. That means she had other reasons for setting this up.”
“Neil and Heer witnessed everything. Did they say anything?”
“Once Madame Naga had attacked Rey, she simply finished off Sana. That means something.”
“What?”
“It means she was after Rey this whole time. This means you were right all along, Aiden.”
“But for what purpose did she go through all of this just to get to him?”
“I don’t know. Only she can answer that.”
“What about that girl, Runa? It was quite brave of Heer to show some compassion to her.”
“Agreed. We have to keep a close watch on her. She is after all a dark beast still.”
“But sir, dark beasts have pure negative energy within them. Now that she has forsaken the darkness that once prevailed her, is it possible she may no longer be a dark beast?”
“Perhaps. We can only tell after some time. At this moment, my concern is towards Rey. That scar has done more damage to his body than any mere attack could. It only makes me wonder what comes next after this.”
***
Back in the mountain tower of Daredevil City, Madame Naga was sitting at her chair, while Droh stood before her. “You could’ve had your shot at taking the orb as well!” Droh shouted at Madame Naga. “Why waste your time on that boy?!”
“The orb can wait. You knew this setup had to work in order for my plan to go as I wanted. And it did. The first step is complete. The Venom Fang has spread its venom into Rey’s body.”
“What about Runa and the others?”
“That traitor can rot in hell with those kids! They won’t live for long once my plans are complete. As for Stallion and Fida, they’ll get out soon.”
“Are you sure this is how things should go?”
“Of course! It’s only a matter of time before everything falls into place. Just wait and see.”
Copyright © 2021 Meryl T
All rights reserved. All illustrations created by Meryl T.
The Ringmasters Society 