Let’s rewind to when Joshua and Sarah were still battling Triangular and dive back into the fight between Heptagon and Dennis. The last time we checked, Heptagon let out a loud cackle and said, “It’s going to be sooo rewarding after I defeat you. Now, dance to this.” He then formed large, thick icicles—sharp at both ends and deadly enough to pierce a human—from the mist above Dennis. Those icicles began to rain down on him, but Dennis dodged them thanks to his Muta?mode abilities.

  “You can’t keep avoiding my icicles for long. You’ll get exhausted, and when you do, the icicles will end your life,” Heptagon taunted.

  He’s trying to make me panic, Dennis thought as he twisted out of the way. I have to stay calm and find a way to stop this villain.

  Heptagon hurled knives at Dennis, disappearing and reappearing on the other side to catch and throw them again. The icicles kept falling, and knives flew from every direction as Heptagon repeated the cycle.

  “Give up already—you’re just delaying the inevitable,” he cackled.

  Dennis smirked. “You… pant… talk too much… pant.”

  After some time, while still dodging knives and icicles, Dennis thought, This is it. I’m running out of steam. My Muta mode will end in a few seconds.

  Heptagon launched another volley of knives and vanished, reappearing to retrieve them. This time, several blades sank deep into Dennis’s back. Almost immediately, more wounds followed as icicles rained down from above. With his body pierced by knives and icicles, Dennis collapsed to the ground.

  Seeing this, Heptagon halted the icicle rain, dispersed the mist he had created, and strode toward him. “You shouldn’t have bothered dodging my attacks—you should have accepted defeat from the start. All you accomplished was wasting my time, and for that you will pay dearly.”

  When he reached Dennis, Heptagon drew a dagger from one of the many pockets on his belt and prepared to deliver the final blow. “Any last words?” he asked.

  No response came. “As I thought—you can’t even speak,” he sneered, raising the dagger.

  “Cough… cough… you talk too much,” Dennis rasped.

  The moment Dennis finished speaking, every dagger and icicle embedded in his body tore free and hurtled toward Heptagon, propelled by Dennis’s gravitational powers. “AAAHHH!” Heptagon screamed as the blades and shards pierced him. Wracked with pain, he fell to his knees, still howling. He instantly conjured a mist around them and vanished; as soon as he disappeared, the icicles and daggers clattered to the floor with a loud THUNG.

  Still lying on the ground, Dennis heard a voice—its source unclear—snarl, “You will suffer for your defiance.” Immediately afterward, both of them heard another cry: “Big bro!”

  “That sounded like?Tri. Did something happen to him?” Heptagon wondered.

  He reappeared, dispelled the mist, and—despite the pain—raced toward the source of the shout. Ahead, a body lay sprawled on the ground, ringed by small fires, while a lone figure stood a short distance away. As he drew closer, he realized the fallen figure was Triangular. In a burst of rage, he summoned another veil of mist, enclosing himself, Triangular, and Sharank—the figure near the body.

  Heptagon materialized beside Triangular’s unconscious form and murmured, “What have they done to you?” He considered attacking Sharank, but Triangular still clung to life and needed immediate care, and Heptagon’s own stab wounds left him too weak to finish the fight quickly. Gathering Triangular in his arms, he vanished into the mist he had just conjured. As they fled, the fog slowly thinned and dispersed.

  “What was that mist?” Sharank wondered. It was probably from that other battle with Dennis; he must have used that smoke to rescue his loser brother and disappear, he thought.

  Sharank turned and saw Sarah struggling to stand. He walked toward her, and as he drew near, she said, “Thanks, Sharank—you saved us,” still trying to get to her feet.

  “You’d better be grateful. The weak should always thank the strong; that’s how the world works,” he replied.

  “Ah… okay,” Sarah said once she finally managed to stand upright.

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  After steadying herself, she walked over to Joshua, who lay face-down on the ground, still dazed from the explosion. She knelt beside him and gently nudged his back.

  “Joshua, Joshua, are you all right?”

  “Nngh… ’m?all?r’ght,” came his muffled reply.

  “Oh, I didn’t realize you were already conscious—I thought I’d have to wake you,” Sarah said.

  “I just came to,” Joshua replied, turning his face toward her. “I guess I wasn’t injured too badly, thanks to the student armour we put on before the mission—and the wall you partially created.”

  Sarah straightened and helped Joshua to his feet, steadying him with an arm.

  Sharank strolled closer. “Always needing someone’s help. I’m still surprised the Principal let someone as useless as you go on a mission—let alone one like this.”

  “While I’m very thankful for your help, it’s still not nice to say things like that,” Sarah answered.

  “Zip it, golden locks. I’m not gonna take a lecture from anybody unless they’re stronger than me,” said Sharank, shutting Sarah down.

  “That’s rude,” Sarah replied, annoyed. “Wait—how is Dennis doing? He fought Heptagon alone.” She immediately started walking toward the area where the mist had originated, with Joshua and Sharank following her.

  As she drew closer, she saw a body lying on the ground, almost lifeless, and quickened her pace. "Are you okay, Dennis?" she asked when she got to him.

  “I’m… cough… cough… fine… cough… Sarah,” Dennis replied.

  Seeing Dennis’s condition, Sarah said, “You’re covered with stab wounds. You need medical treatment immediately.”

  Dennis managed a smile and asked, “Are all of you okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine. We were almost killed by Triangular, but Sharank saved us by appearing at the last minute,” Sarah replied.

  Dennis looked at Sharank, who stood a little behind Sarah and Joshua, and said, “Thank you for saving my team, Sharank.”

  “That’s what the strong are for,” Sharank said, flicking an imaginary speck of dust from his sleeve and tilting his chin upward in a smug half-smile. “I’m surprised the Principal sent you when you couldn’t even defeat your opponent. He should have chosen someone stronger.”

  “You have to respect your elders, mis— cough, cough—Mister,” Dennis replied.

  “I don’t think you should talk much, Dennis. You’re weak. Let’s get you medical care right away.”

  Joshua and Sarah lifted him from the ground, draping his arms over their shoulders.

  “Let me call the Garyvagum,” Dennis said, reaching into his pocket for something.

  Suddenly Sharank blurted out, “Guys, I can’t move. Something weird is happening.”

  “What—what do you mean? Are you paralyzed?” Sarah asked.

  A photon slash streaked toward the three of them. Sarah instantly made Joshua hold onto Dennis and raised a metal wall several paces ahead as a shield. The barrier absorbed the attack but shattered completely when the slash made contact.

  “Golden Locks, put up the barrier again!” shouted Sharank.

  Sarah immediately raised the barrier again, but this time two photon slashes streaked toward them. The first one shattered completely, and the second was still heading their way.

  “I can’t move,” Sarah said nervously.

  “But I can!” Sharank replied sternly, turning his body into photon energy and blasting a photon beam toward the photon slash. The photon beam and photon slash cancelled each other out.

  Suddenly, a man with a sword and an eye patch covering his left eye appeared near Sharank and slashed at him. Sharank dodged it, but after his sword strike missed, instead of attacking Sharank again, the man jumped and ran toward Sarah, who was still immobilized. The man got near Sarah and was moving his sword at her, but before he could slash her Joshua landed his Fire Punch on him, pushing him back.

  “Ouch, that actually hurt,” said the man while smiling.

  “That... that’s Vicker of—” But while Dennis was talking, Sharank launched a photon blast at Vicker, which Vicker countered by slashing it with his sword. “—Vicker of Tiche,” finished Dennis, now lying on the ground.

  “Is that the same Vicker from Lempika’s Most Wanted?” asked Sarah.

  “Ye... yes,” said Dennis weakly.

  “Joshua, I’m able to move now, let’s help Sharank out,” said Sarah with panache.

  “Okay,” replied Joshua.

  Joshua then launched fireballs at Vicker, which Vicker slashed aside with his sword while staring at Sharank, who was standing still as if he were frozen. Sarah put her hands on the ground to create huge, sharp, spike-like metallic structures to stab Vicker, but before she could create them, Vicker slashed Sharank with his sword, causing him to fall unconscious.

  “What did you do to him?” screamed Sarah, launching the spikes from the ground. As the spikes started to appear, Vicker slashed all of them away with his sword.

  Vicker then turned toward both Sarah and Joshua and started running toward them. While he was charging, he launched a photon slash. Sarah created a metal wall from the ground to block it; it did block the attack, but was destroyed in the process. Expecting this, Vicker launched several photon slashes in quick succession. Sarah didn’t have enough strength left to create enough walls to block all of them, so she tried to move aside to dodge them, but she couldn’t move. As the photon slashes approached them, an explosion occurred near them, throwing them to the ground. As Joshua’s eyes fluttered, he saw Vicker carrying Sharank and heading into a forested area, and then Joshua closed his eyes and became unconscious.