…
Tom rubbed his head a bit when he finally got back on his feet. He knew that taking on a job of a savior technically meant some workplace hazard, and that bump on his head seemed to have become the first proof of that fact. 
<It won’t affect your real body,> Kage stated. 
“Oh, really?...Well it still hurts.”
He saw the monster, looking very much incapacitated. Still, Tom acted careful around it, checking on everything that was laying around, from bunch of books to Chester’s motionless body. 
“Oh geez, what just happened?” Tom exclaimed.
<Check on him,> Kage replied. 
“Right!”
Tom checked on every part of Chester’s body, who looked uninjured. Kage did say nothing will carry over, so at least that was good. He was alive too, by the way, as Tom realized in relief, but looked out of it.
“Tom!” Tom looked to see who called, it being Flora. “Where’ve you been? What’s wrong with Chester? Is he okay?” She ran up to both of them.
“I got rid of cocoon, and checked the school to find you guys. He seems to be asleep. And I think he’s okay,” Tom answered to all of the questions, as he usually does.
“Oh, good.” Flora gave out a big sigh. Tom noted that she looked exhausted. Geez, I really took a long time to get here, did I? 
She turned to Torque, when her face dropped in disappointment.
“I thought it should’ve finished it? Did I miss?” She said and bit her lip. She then rolled her eyes. “Look, I like silver linings too, this doesn’t mean much at the end of the day. I should just stick the arrow into it just to be safe.” 
In the end, she seemed very sour, which Tom couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
“The way I see it, that was an extremely powerful attack you did there, Madam!”
“Tom, just call me Flora,” she told him.
“Oh, okay. You really won’t mind?”
“I think it’s about time we worry about bigger problems.” 
She stood up and gazed straight at the forest. Tom turned to it too, but then was about to ask what she was looking for-
A loud “BANG” echoed in the air, and Tom fell backwards onto the ground. The boy in panic checked all over his body, but was surprised to see himself normal.
“Mister Kage…where’s..?!”
Flora quickly moved right in front of Tom. She raised her bow, and quietly watched, as the general slowly come from within the forest. In his hand a rifle, which made Flora just realized she had been missing it from her person. 
<He had likely seized it while we were in the air,> Rose assumed. 
He strode forward, with a cocky smile across his face. And yet behind it, were a pair of fiery, angry eyes like she hadn’t seen before.  Both she and Rose agreed to themselves, he was about to stop holding back on them. Worse off, with everyone out but her, she won’t come out of it in one piece.
“I’ve wasted so many bullets,” the general started rambling, steadily walking closer despite Flora’s arrows being pointed right at him, “so much time, so much effort on this stupid task, ALL because of you and that stupid thing of yours called ‘stubborness’.” The last part came out sarcastically.
Flora checked around herself, and found nothing behind her. Nowhere to hide and shield herself with, only a small, trembling body of the orange cat and the barely wobbling one of Chester. At this point, the most logical course of action, for her specifically, was to abandon everyone and run. Rose said that she and Azure considered it likely that they were trying to capture them, based on the powers of the rifle. Sadly, she couldn’t destroy it in time, so her only recourse was to save herself. They will still try to come after her, but she could always rescue them. 
She could stop trying now and work it out for later.
<Flora..?> Rose resounded in her head, as her bow slowly lowered itself. She could hear Tom whimper behind her.
“What now, feeling scared now?” The general asked, looking straight at her. She bit her lip and looked away. “FINALLY!!!” he yelled, clearly happy. To him, he had won this fight, whatever they do, he will always come back, and that was his biggest strength. They couldn’t get rid of him. “Alright then, little coward, so how about we-“
He dodged right out of the way of the arrow. He stared straight at Flora, bow raised. Fury started growing in them again.
Flora, which she didn’t see, looked like she was about to panic. What did I do?, she thought. Am I insane!? The opportunity is right there, and instead I am making him MORE MAD!!?
And yet she wouldn’t budge. Her legs stood still, and her bow pointed to the man.
WHY AM I PUTTING MYSELF IN DANGER!!?
<Because they are you friends, Flora! And they need you!!!>
The phrase emanated in her head. Her feelings of loneliness, despair, anger, confusion, pity, hatred, love, anxiety, panic, and apathy. She hated when no one was there for her, and she would hate herself more than anything else in the world if she wasn’t there for them.
That’s what she was gonna do. Even if it kills her.
“So…still stubborn,” the general said, with a frown.
Yes, I will. For all of them. Chester, Tom, Barbie, Abigail…This is for you!
She then heard someone make noise behind her. 
“Oof, my head…” Chester muttered.
It was barely a second that passed when the general was gone from her sight. Quickly realizing it, she spun around, only to find the guy right above lying Chester, rifle pointed right at the blue warrior’s torso.
“CHESTER!” 
She tried to shoot, but the arrow was knocked before it could get even a centimeter from her hand.
“Let me go on a record,” the general started talking, “you brats have been the most annoying bunch of kids I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. And I gotta respect you for it.”
He aimed the thing right at the boy’s torso and pulled the trigger.
“Sadly, you gotta go.”
The BANG from the rifle was the loudest Flora had ever heard. She saw Chester’s body slide across the ground and then tumble backwards, as the boy was making some weird noises. Finally he was able to breathe, and got on knees, still in warrior form, and exclaim,
“Holy FRIGGING HURTS MAN!” 
He then folded into himself, clutching his chest. Flora watched it, trying to figure out what just happened. Didn’t he get shot?
The general looked confused just as much. The boy kept wiggling around his feet, while he stood there gazing.
“But I…shot you…” he muttered slowly. He wasn’t sure if he did, really.
Clavat saw from the corner of his eye a pair of arrows come right at him, which he knocked away with the swing of the rifle. The blue warrior got up on all fours and started moving away, as Clavat, non-plussed, followed him.
“Too slow…” He said.
He then noticed that the boy was coming after his sword, which was just laying on the ground by them. The latter then assumed a defensive stance, sword out and ready. But Clavat had already disappeared from his view, to his shock.
I just want to be done here, Clavat thought to himself. He already got tired of being around the mortals, and all of these new tricks just shaved away all tolerance for this. These guys were extremely luck so far, might as well go ahead and kick them down. And so, he used his powers to get right behind the blue warrior, and throw a kick to the guy’s head.
But then the kick got blocked, the warrior still standing firm.
“…Wait…” Clavat just realized what happened.
“Has anyone ever told you, young man, about being too repetitive?” The blue warrior said. His voice was cold and arrogant.
The general slithered downwards and went for a sweep. The warrior jumped timely off of the ground before that could hit. Clavat launched forward, head-first, and collided with Chester’s hands, which guarded the boy’s torso.
This caused the warrior to take off into the air, but land safely on his feet. Clavat, low to the ground, lunged at him like an animal would. 
“Get ready to say goodbye to your jaw!” He screamed from his lungs. There was some form of fire burning in him, and he wasn’t sure why. But it fueled the monstrous body of the general.
Clavat thus was flying right at him. This would’ve led to a further fight, only for Chester to choose to suddenly jump and bend to the side. Clavat watched closely, still in the air, as the blue warrior’s face molded to show horror, while small silver glimmer shone in the air right next to him. Unable to stop himself from following the arc, Clavat ended up touching the glimmer, which was in fact a moth.
“Oh……shi-“
His curse got cut short until he got released from that form.
…
It was few minutes later, an explosion of blue colored sparks rained down to draw a large circle which Chester stood at the center.
Flora approached Chester from behind and so did Tom, both of them watching of what was left of the rifle. The thing sliced and broken into fours, a sight that gave Chester the biggest of reliefs. Finally giving out his biggest “Phew!”, he sat down on the ground, letting all admire his handiwork. Tom, meanwhile, continued to move on to get to the book, which originally was of the form of the general.
“Why did he just..?” Tom asked the two. He cautiously looked at it from an angle, afraid to even try to touch it. 
The blue warrior walked up behind him and picked the book up.
“I don’t think it’s the monster’s doing,” Chester said. He then started flipping the book to see its contents.
It was odd compared to others, since it seemed to be divided into two parts. That said, one part barely said much, while the other looked like it was made in whole other language. It was like flipping between trying to read a book given by someone who spent time scribbling on it, and then add another unrelated book on top of it.
He turned to Tom.
“Does Kage know about this?” He pointed to the book, to mean the transformation. “You did say you destroyed a…cocoon?”
Tom scratched his head, looking away awkwardly. “I think he said something along the lines of creature to look out…but nothing else. That maybe its just one thing here?”
“So that means we have one other thing to deal with?” Flora said. She was holding a green and pink book that was probably Barbie. “Geez, this really put a damper on my day.” 
“Sorry about your ceremony thing,” Chester told her. She just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
“Who cares about that? I was going to get soaked anyway by those three. I just…really hoped it wouldn’t really end like that…” Her tone seemed unfocused.
At the back of his head, Chester wondered, if she was feeling okay with this. What is she really going to do now? Will she still try to go back to the city? Will she still want to help her with that goal? Maybe better not to ask.
“Geez, I guess it must suck since you can’t be seeing someone you wanted in the city,” Tom said out-loud.
“…Who told you about that?”
“Barbie, why?” Tom looked back and forth, acting as if he was about to confess to a crime.
Flora looked at Chester. He in return, froze in place. What was he supposed to say!?
<I’m afraid the proper response shall allude us.>
Not now Azure!!!
Then, a monstrous growl came out near them. The trio huddled together holding the books away, as the Torque had already gotten up on its feet. Its appearance was at best disheveled, doors barely held by hinges and the mask cracking in all direction. The explosion basically did a big number on it.
“I’ll finish with this one.” Chester raised his sword.
It waddled unevenly, and roared too, unevenly. Filling the blade with energy, Chester lunged at it with a book in one hand. The monster swung, but it barely grazed and he landed a solid hit across the eyes. The crack formed on it, and it had finally grown big enough to tear apart and burst into energy.
And suddenly Chester saw a card fall his way.
The whole area got filled with combination of smoke and blue light. Chester coughed and tried to wave it away, but he had no clue what was going on now.
“Flora!? Tom!?” He tried to reach out to either.
He assumed a defensive stance and waited to see someone come at him. The book of general was tight in his hands and the sword gripped just as much. He listened for some footsteps or other, and yet nothing came out.
Soon he saw a silver glimmer again, it was the moth from before. His eyes went wide and he instinctively jumped back.
“GET OUT ALREADY!” He screamed in a high pitched voice and swung his sword.
The moth was swatted with ease, going out in a small spark.
Suddenly, the fog started clearing out. Chester checked around himself. Once it lifted, he found that the area was filled with people lying on the ground, as Tom and Flora, who was holding Barbie, ran up to him.
It took a second for him to realize that he lost the book.
…