Truffle led the kids towards the cliff, near the penguin, like the Pied Piper. The children followed him, many of them looking dazed and barely present as they held each other’s hands in a single file line.

  As they approached, gun fire erupted from the cliff face just ahead. Truffle recognised that sound, like a chainsaw cutting through a stone wall. Grandma Agnes was up there. He hoped Boss would be there too, but even if not at least he’d found a more adulty adult to help him with the children.

  He, after all, was still a child himself.

  A resounding crash sounded out as the kids were nearly knocked from their feet by the resulting earth shuddering quake as The Emperor fell onto the cliff.

  “Wait here,” Truffle commanded as he trotted off up the hill.

  As he reached the crest he spotted John, Agnes, The Captain, that weird guard guy, and…

  “WHAT IS THAT LADY DOING TO THE PENGUIN!” He squealed in shock as his eyes were glued to the horrifying scene that played out before him. “SOMEONE CALL ANIMAL SERVICES!”

  ***

  Hearing his faithful companion’s voice, John tore his gaze away from the odd scene to see the horrified pig gazing in terror at the penguin. As per John’s plan, Selina was kissing The Emperor on its exposed beak.

  Red eyes faded and began to glaze as the effect of her Vampire’s Kiss card power began to take hold. It seemed that she’d told John the truth about back when he’d asked her in her cell. All that was left was for her to keep the penguin subdued whilst John got into place.

  Of course, that meant that he would get the killing shot, but no one else had anything powerful enough to do the trick. Not since The Captain had used his weekly rocket propelled grenade to bring it down.

  He’d expected some resentment from that aspect of his plan but no one had brought it up. In all honestly, at this point, he wasn’t even bothered who got the shards. He just needed that thing taken out of action and he wasn’t so stupid as to fail to recognise that the entire reason the quest only gave one person a reward was to try and divide them and create infighting.

  “I’ve got it,” Selina called, out of breath.

  “Good job, I’ll just finish it off and-”

  “I don’t think so,” she replied with an evil grin, interrupting John. “Pingu, be a dear and fire a laser beam at that crusty old captain over there.”

  “I saw that coming,” The Captain sighed, summoning his shotgun. “I mean seriously, did anyone really think we could trust this psycho.”

  The Emperor’s eyes began glowing red once again and Agnes activated her rockets, propelling her chair towards Truffle and the kids who were stood at the bottom of the hill leading to the clifftop.

  Skidding to a halt, she performed a perfectly executed handbrake turn, her chair facing the kaiju and Selina. Hurriedly, she began fiddling with her gatling guns. They had a cooldown on the reload and she’d just used up all of her loaded ammunition on the penguin’s leg.

  John, of course, had seen this coming and had already factored in a plan b, just in case. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst – a moto that had stuck with him throughout most of his career.

  Jumping into action, he zipped across the battlefield towards the giant penguin, guns akimbo.

  “Stop him Horatio!” Selina squawked, panic edging her voice as she pointed a painted nail towards the duster-clad man.

  Horati-OH levelled his crossbow at John, eyes still glazed, and began to squeeze the trigger.

  Shit, John swore in his head, he didn’t have time to dodge and the thrall had him right in his sights. Spinning suddenly, he began to fall to the side as he raised his revolver towards the guard.

  There’s not enough time, he’s going to hit me before I can take him out.

  “I don’t think so!” Truffle squealed, activating his Pig Squeal skill and sending an ear-splitting metalcore shriek in Horati-OH’s direction. “RHEEEE!”

  In an instant the enthralled man flew across the battlefield like a shopping bag in a hurricane. He fired off a stream of automatic crossbow bolts but the first one went wide and the others were caught up in the torrent of air created by Truffle’s squeal.

  “I thought I told you not to take the first power you found!” John shouted.

  “The correct response is to say thank you!”

  Without hesitation, he jumped up from the ground and continued towards The Emperor whose eyes were glowing a menacing crimson. It was about to unleash its laser beam attack at any moment.

  There was no time to follow the original plan, John needed to improvise. Flicking the cylinder of his second revolver he drew on his locate weakness skill and the new trick shooting skill and fired off a dragon’s breath round at the eye closest to them.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  As the penguin’s face was angled mostly towards Selina, and John and The Captain were to The Emperor’s right, he shot at the right eye and prayed.

  The shell exploded from the barrel, splitting into a wide arc as there was still some distance between John and the penguin. It splattered the right side of the kaiju’s face which burst into flames as it screamed a horrifyingly, agonised low-pitched scream.

  Somehow the noise was even more deafening than Truffle’s ability, though it didn’t have the same effect.

  Magnesium pellets embedded themselves into the beast’s right eye and it popped with a loud crack like a balloon, splattering viscous, clear eye fluid and runny, light orange blood all over Selina.

  Despite the damage to the right eye, there was no preventing the left eye’s laser beam from firing. The world seemed to go dark as John’s vision was filled with nothing but a powerful cylinder of dark red. It scorched the cliff, narrowly missing The Captain, but splitting the cliff face in two.

  With a shocked yelp, he fell into the sea followed by a pebble dash of large, jagged pieces of rock.

  “Field Marshall!” Truffle yelled in concern. “Boss, we need to help him.”

  “One thing at a time,” John shouted back. Though he too, hoped The Captain was alright. He’d grown quite fond of him over the past few days. “I need thirty seconds!”

  “On it deary,” Agnes shouted back as her gatling guns roared to life and Selina dived out of the way of the hail of bullets which crashed mercilessly into the penguin’s face.

  Its beak took the brunt of the damage and that thing was like pure adamantium armour, but it was the distraction John needed most.

  Skidding to a halt, he reached down and grabbed Selina by the collar, pulling her up but keeping her at arm’s length lest he open himself up to a Vampire’s Kiss.

  “Keep that thing still and when I say so, order it to open its beak.”

  “Fuck you!”

  John cast Adamantite-lite on his index finger and swiftly jabbed her in the base of her throat. She coughed and spluttered, eyes watering.

  “Open its beak!”

  “Ok, ok,” she gasped, tears leaking from her eyes and a look of pure terror on her face. “I got what I wanted anyway; you don’t need to hurt me. We can work together on this. The Captain is dead.”

  “Just do what I ask and we’ll sort the rest out later.”

  She nodded weakly, likely knowing that he had no intention of working with her… or letting her live.

  John could feel the effects of her Sweaty Aphrodisiac card tickling at his senses. He felt oddly aroused around her, but it wasn’t enough to make him sympathetic to her plight. It must have been because he was aware of it. She had said that it only worked on people who didn’t see her as a threat, and right now that was exactly what she was. The biggest threat to his plan, the biggest threat to all of them, other than The Emperor.

  Checking his interface, John saw that his cooldown time was about to be up.

  “Do it now!” He shouted and Grandma ceased firing.

  “Open your beak for mommy Pingu,” Selina said in a sickeningly sweat voice, the kind that lonely old people used when speaking to their designer pets which they never seemed to train and treated like spoiled newborn babies.

  As commanded, The Emperor opened its beak and John let go of Selina.

  “Keep him still,” he said in a low, threatening voice. “Betray me and I won’t hesitate to kill you, got it?”

  She nodded, but John still didn’t trust her. He may have been the one with an acting skill but she was the real pro and he knew it. Grabbing her hand, he forced her to come with him. He couldn’t trust her being out of his sights.

  As long as this works, it won’t matter.

  Running off, John jumped inside the penguin’s open beak, Selina protesting and struggling as she stood halfway in, hallway out. One leg inside the mouth. John dropped her hand and flashed her a stern look. She stayed completely still.

  The penguin’s mouth stank of rotten fish and sticky saliva dripped down onto him. Strands of the thick fluid ran slowly down his hat, danglingly off the brim like semi-transparent rope.

  He tried to breathe through his mouth, the smell making him nauseous, but that was a mistake. Its breath was thick and John gagged on the revolting feeling as it entered his lungs, heavy and rancid.

  Here goes nothing.

  Lifting both revolvers above his head, he placed the barrels on the fleshy underside of the roof of its throat. If his predictions were correct, on the other side of that flesh was the monster’s brain.

  Flicking both cylinders to dragon’s breath, he fired.

  Sound rang out throughout the penguin’s mouth deafening John as fire licked at the beast and flashed backwards through the wound, smacking John in the face with a powerful blast.

  His eyes popped like jelly from the pressure and horrendous pain slashed through him. It was the kind of pain which no one should ever feel. He’d hoped that this wouldn’t happen, he’d prayed, but he knew that there was always a chance, even a slim one, that the pellets wouldn’t pierce the inside of the skull and would instead bounce backwards like a backdraft in a house fire.

  He’d had no idea of the force with which they’d do it though.

  I’m gonna die, he thought.

  Though he was blinded, he felt his body soaring through the air, wind lashing at his skin and rippling his duster. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch as he felt bones crack and more pain coursing through him.

  He could barely think. His mind was a jumble. Pain took over everything, every sense, every memory, every feeling. There was only pain.

  There had only ever been pain.

  I’m gonna die.

  He thought back to his wife. That innocent and determined smile she’d given him through bleary, tear stained eyes as she pushed him through the torii gate.

  I’m gonna die.

  The pain was overwhelming. Agonising. Even his trauma nullification skill couldn’t help to dull it. He could barely breathe. His lungs felt ruptured, every breath akin to blowing up a balloon that was ridden with holes. Every gasp a gargle as the tangy taste of iron filled his scorched throat.

  I don’t want to die.

  His mind flashed. He saw his parents, his father’s fist raised in the living room whilst a young John cowered in the corner. His mum’s bruises, her body in the open casket, hairless. He saw Anne on their wedding day in her bright red dress. He’d been sceptical at first, but she was adamant that a white dress wouldn’t suit her. She’d never been so right.

  He saw Truffle the first day they’d met. After arriving home from work he’d kicked his shoes off and gone to flop onto the couch, stopped only by a tiny, happy squeal. It had caused quite the argument, he’d slept on that very couch the same night, the piglet curled up under his chin.

  I can’t die, he needs me.

  Quest Completed:

  The Emperor Strikes Back.

  Objective:

  Kill The Emperor (penguin) 1/1

  Reward:

  X300 shards (this reward will only be given to the person who strikes the killing blow).

  Hidden Reward:

  Berserker’s Curse – accepting this card will heal you completely, however it will come with a price.

  Warning: Your body has taken too much damage. You will die in 0.2 Earth seconds. Do you want to accept Berserker’s Curse?

  Y/N

  I have to live, John thought, YES!