After some time, both Sarah and Joshua woke up and got to their feet.

  “It’s a good thing you quickly made those metallic walls just before the photon slashes reached you. That helped soften the blows a bit,” said Dennis to both Sarah and Joshua, standing behind them and limping toward them in pain.

  “How long were we unconscious? ” asked Joshua while staring at Dennis

  “Probably around 5 minutes,” replied Dennis.

  Joshua then anxiously said, “He kidnapped Sharank. We have to go after him, we have to save him!”

  Dennis then furiously said, “Look at our current state, you moro—” I have to be professional, thought Dennis, and then he continued, “I hope your sharp eyes can see that we are not in a good state, so your brilliant brain must have comprehended that we can’t do anything now to stop Vicker. So the only solution is to go back and get some backup. They can take care of Vicker and help rescue Sharank.”

  Joshua then said, “Yeah, but before the backup can arrive, who knows what he will do to Sharank? It could be too late to even save him.”

  Joshua paused, then said with a slightly serious expression, “We can fight Vicker to stall him until backup arrives. That way, we can ensure that Sharank will be safe until backup arrives.”

  Dennis then got annoyed but controlled his anger and said, “We can’t fight Vicker, not even just to stall him, in our state. In our current state, there's a high chance of failure. Doing something while knowing that we will not succeed is foolishness—that’s something a loser would do, and I hope you aren’t a loser.”

  There was a moment of silence, and then Joshua’s expression became a little more serious. He said, “We might not have a high chance of success, but we still have a chance. It’s the right thing to do. If doing the right thing makes me a loser, then I’ll happily be one.”

  Dennis was a bit shocked after he heard Joshua say this. He then said annoyingly, “Fine, if you’re that foolish, you can go alone and fight him. Sarah and I will go back to Lempika and send backup.”

  “Sarah, will you not join me?” asked Joshua.

  “I’m sorry, Joshua, no offence, but Dennis does have a point,” replied Sarah.

  “Ok, I understand,” said Joshua, a bit disappointed. “I’ll go and stall Vicker. You guys can go and call for backup. I’ll send a signal once I reach there. Together, we can rescue Sharank,” he continued.

  “Joshua, wait, are you sure you can fight Vicker?” asked Sarah.

  Joshua then smiled a bit and said, “Sarah, you’re being kind, and thank you for that, but I know that you think I’m too weak—and that’s understandable. But don’t worry, I won’t fight him to the death; I’ll just stall him to waste time until backup arrives. Besides, I’ve trained hard. I think I’ll be able to stall him.”

  Sarah said, still with a little worry on her face, “Ok, be careful.”

  Joshua then replied, “Ok, see you guys later,” and turned his body toward the forest Vicker had escaped into. He started moving toward it, but then he heard, “Joshua, wait,” said Sarah.

  Joshua then turned around toward her.

  “Here, catch,” continued Sarah, throwing a small device.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Joshua caught the device, and while he was wondering what it was, Sarah continued,

  “It’s a tracker. There is a small tag attached to the top—try getting that tag onto Vicker. You can then track his every movement. Make sure you attach the tag from a far distance; if you get too close, he might realize you’re chasing him.

  When Vicker becomes visible from afar, activate the camera on the tracker, lock onto Vicker, and press the release-tag button. The tag will then automatically lock onto Vicker and land on him carefully without missing.”

  “Ok, thank you for it,” said Joshua with a nervous smile, and he rushed into the forest.

  While Sarah and Dennis were heading toward the Garyvagum, Sarah thought,

  “There’s no way Joshua can stand a chance against him right now. It’s a good thing I gave him that tracker. I put a tag from my own tracker on it so I can track his every movement, and it also has a video camera that I can use to see what’s happening. I can also use the shocker feature to give him a shock just strong enough to make him unconscious, to prevent him from moving further into any danger.

  I just have to activate it with my tracker before he reaches Vicker and everything will be okay. Once he puts his tag on Vicker, I can start to track Vicker through my own tracker as well. Then, judging by the distance, I can activate the shock feature to prevent Joshua from moving any nearer to Vicker.

  I knew arguing with him would be useless. I’m sorry for being dishonest with you, Joshua, but this was the only solution I could think of to keep you safe. The quickest way to rescue both Joshua and Sharank is for Dennis and me to call for backup.”

  After Dennis and Sarah got into the Garyvagum and were traveling back to Lempika, Sarah felt dizzy and thought to herself, “I think making several metallic walls so quickly has really taken a toll on me. I’m still feeling quite lightheaded.” The dizziness started to increase even more, and Sarah suddenly fainted. Upon seeing her faint, Dennis shouted, “Sarah, are you alright?”

  Once Joshua entered the forest, he used a fire blast to thrust himself to the top of a tree. Then he kept using his fire blasts to propel himself from one tree to another so he could move faster.

  “It hasn’t been long since he left. I’m pretty sure I can catch up to him if I speed up. He won’t even see me, since I’ll be on top, completely out of his sight,” thought Joshua while quickly hopping from one tree to another.

  While he was still hopping from tree to tree to get closer to Vicker, Joshua started to think to himself, “I know Sharank has been rude to me, but I still need to help him when he’s in trouble. I’ve been helped by people I was rude to—like Sarah, who treated me very kindly even though I was rude to her when I was younger.”

  After hopping from tree to tree at a quick pace for some time, Joshua could see a figure running on the ground in the distance, carrying someone. “That’s Vicker!” thought Joshua. “Okay, before I start attacking him, I should first get this tracker on him. Even if he escapes, I’ll still be able to find him,” he continued in his head.

  Joshua then took out the tracker Sarah had given him, which he had kept inside his superhero suit pocket, and activated the camera. After locking onto Vicker and pressing the release-tag button, the small tag on top quickly flew toward Vicker, carefully landed on him, and turned invisible. Joshua could now track Vicker’s location on his tracker.

  Joshua could hear some noise and feel intense heat behind him. What’s that heat and noise? he thought, stopping to figure out what was happening.

  “Oh no!” Joshua thought as he turned around and saw a forest fire. This forest fire was probably caused by my fire thrusts, he realized.

  “I messed up again, as usual,” Joshua thought in frustration. Why does this always happen to me? Maybe my parents were right. I’m a hopeless failure. Maybe they did the right thing… he continued, as his frustration turned into sadness.

  No, don’t think like that, Joshua. The results don’t matter. What matters is working hard to do the right thing, and I should never give up on that, Joshua thought, clenching his fists.

  “Okay, I’ll first stop this forest fire before it spreads and affects a nearby village or town. I have to absorb the fire,” thought Joshua. “I’ve practiced it before, but I’ve never mastered it… but I don’t have any other option now,” he continued in his head.

  He stretched out his hands and faced his palms toward the forest fire that was rapidly approaching him. Small flames began to glow in each of his palms as he tried to absorb the flames. Some of the fire started moving toward his hands and getting absorbed, but most of it wasn’t.

  “I need to absorb the flames before they reach me. My hands might be fireproof, but my body isn’t,” thought Joshua, focusing harder to absorb the fire—but still, only a small portion was being absorbed.

  “Oh no,” Joshua thought as the flames finally engulfed him. The tree branch he was standing on burned through and broke, and he fell to the ground, still covered in flames.

  “I mustn’t give up. If I can’t even stop these mere flames, there’s no way I can help save Sharank. I have to stop this fire,” Joshua said to himself, gritting his teeth through the pain.

  Joshua then focused all his fire power into his palms and started absorbing the flames. “Ahhhhhh!” he screamed as he pulled the fire into his palms. “I have to do this,” he thought—and this time, he finally managed to absorb every flame and ember from the forest fire, effectively stopping it.

  “I did it… I actually pulled it off.” thought Joshua, his knees still on the ground.

  He let his palms ignite with flame and thought, I actually feel like my fire power got stronger after absorbing the fire. I thought it would drain my fire power—that’s why I started out with small flames, since I needed some fire power left to stall Vicker. Thankfully, my suit prevented me from getting any major burns, or I would have been in real trouble.

  Joshua then got to his feet and took out his tracker from his suit pocket. It looks like nothing happened to it. Thank You, Lord Jesus, he thought.

  He activated the tracker and began to trace Vicker’s location. Now it’s time to catch up with Vicker and help save Sharank, Joshua resolved, after which he started running toward Vicker’s direction—this time without using any fire thrust.