Chime.
It was the beginning of the day again, and Tiff and I had just hit the road after breaking down our simple campsite. The Goddess of Death sat astride her mare with a straight back and chin lifted in pride, but I had to tell her what lay ahead, even if it spoiled her good mood.
“Hey, Tiff, hold up,” I said as I trotted up beside her. “We need to talk.”
“Okay…” Tiff flashed me a confused look. “You’re acting weird, what’s going on?”
“There’s something coming today,” I said. “A monster attack.”
“How do you know?” Tiff narrowed her emerald eyes in suspicion. “Is this something you planned?”
“I don’t have anything to do with it,” I said. “But I know it’s coming.”
“But how?” Tiff pressed. “Are you a fortune teller or something?”
“You could say that.” I smirked. “Chalk it up to my godly abilities.”
The emerald eyes of the goddess flashed with curiosity, but she bit her tongue as we rode down the road a ways. I didn’t know if she believed me or not, but she would have to face the truth soon enough. We needed a plan for how to deal with the monsters, and in order to do that, we needed to work together.
“So, you’re telling me that you can see into the future?” Tiff persisted. “Do you get visions or dreams or something?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I said. “Maybe someday you’ll understand, but for right now, you just have to trust me. We need to face these monsters as a team, or things could go south really fast.”
“Fine, whatever.” Tiff rolled her eyes before she turned her attention back to the road. “Keep your secrets.”
“How should we handle the monsters?” I asked in an effort to redirect the topic back to the matter at hand.
“Well, what kind were they?” Tiff asked. “I won’t know how to deal with them until I know what they are.”
“They were like a mixture of spiders and horses with a touch of nightmare thrown in for spice,” I said. “I’m sure they have a
weakness. Everything does.”
“Maybe.” Tiff didn’t sound convinced.
“Do you know what they are?” I asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Your description doesn’t ring a bell, but I haven’t seen everything in this world.” She cast a sideways glance at me, and a small smile tugged on the corners of her lips. “Not yet, anyway.”
The hint of innuendo in her tone had heat rising to my cheeks, but I cleared my throat and returned my attention to the task ahead of us. With the goddess and the dragon at my side, I was sure we could make quick work of our weird enemies, but I wouldn’t know until we tried.
Tiff pushed the question about my future knowledge, but I remained adamant that I would explain everything eventually. For the moment, there was no reason to show the goddess my full hand.
There was still the possibility that this whole quest was just a ruse to gain my trust before betraying me, but I wasn’t going to be an easy mark to con.
“Why don’t you just wait and see for yourself if I’m right or not,”
I said with an air of finality that I hoped would shut down the question
for good.
Tiff dropped the subject rather reluctantly, but after we rode in silence for a while, the conversation picked back up again in regards to the nature of our enemy. I didn’t know the answers to a lot of her questions, but she brought up some good points. If the monsters were part spider, they could potentially be weak to fire, but with the horse aspect, mud could be more effective at immobilizing them. I pushed aside the image of Artax sinking into the mud pit in The NeverEnding Story, and I prepared myself for the fight ahead of us.
The day continued, and I began to feel more and more tension as the battle ahead drew ever closer. I watched the sun arch overhead with some trepidation, but I knew I could always keep the upper hand thanks to my abilities to reset time. Whatever happened with these monsters, I would be able to find their weakness, and I could prove to Tiff that I was capable of protecting her at the same time.
“Bash,” Tiff suddenly gasped as she pulled her mare to a halt.
“Did you see that?”
The time for the monsters was almost upon us, and I cast a quick glance around at the shadows of the forest. I didn’t see anything beneath the trees, but I had a strong feeling of being
watched. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I swallowed hard as I prepared myself for what was to come.
Then a blue-skinned creature suddenly lunged out of the undergrowth, and Tiff stiffened as it came within her line of sight. The monster’s eight spindly legs were bony, and the skin was pulled taut over its frame. If it weren’t for the countless eyes covering its entire head, I might have felt sorry for the emaciated creature, but it was too creepy to have any sympathy for. Besides, I could tell its fangs were deadly enough, so perhaps there was another reason for its starved appearance.
“You were right,” Tiff admitted in a low voice as her mare slowly backed away from the monster. “How on Earth did you know?”
“Is that really the priority right now?” I asked as I pulled on Goliath’s reins until the stallion retreated with minimal reluctance.
“Shouldn’t we be focused on how we’re going to get through this?”
“Is the God of Time scared of some spidey-horses?” Tiff snickered. “Maybe you’re not as powerful as I thought you were.”
“I’m worried about your safety,” I said. “While I’ve seen you kill some plants, and I know you’re skilled with your daggers, I don’t know how you’ll face this challenge.”
“Aww, that’s cute.” Tiff smirked. “But don’t worry about me. I can handle a few weird-ass monsters.”
“That makes two of us,” I countered.
“Shall we?” Tiff flashed me a broad smile as she dismounted, and she was already crossing the distance to the monster before I could respond.
I hurried after her, but first, I gave Goliath the command to guard the mare. I wasn’t sure how much the stallion understood me, but the experienced warhorse always seemed to pick up on my meaning. He was naturally protective of anyone in his herd, and I’d seen him charge straight at danger multiple times. This time, however, I needed him to stay out of the way, so I hoped he got the message.
Nameless was nowhere to be seen, but I had a feeling he would show up once he heard sounds of a battle below him. The curious dragon could never resist sticking his nose into my fights, but so far, it had worked out in my favor.
I had my panabas in my fists before I caught up to Tiff, but by the time I reached her, she was already twirling daggers in her hands as she eyed the monster in front of us. She lunged faster than I
could blink, and the goddess darted forward to slash at one of the beast’s eight legs.
The hideous creature let out a shriek, and it snapped its jaw in Tiff’s direction, but the agile goddess was already rolling away out of its reach. I stepped into the opening her movement provided me, and I slashed at the same limb my companion had aimed at. My strong blow sliced through the bony appendage, and the howl of pain the beast emitted hurt my ears like a flash bang.
“You did it!” Tiff whooped out a victory call.
Before I could celebrate anything, I watched in horror as the monster’s leg regrew before my eyes. Its loud shrieking subsided slowly, and I worked the muscle in my jaw as my ears continued to ring from the high-pitched sound. If it could regrow limbs, then I wasn’t going to waste any time trying to amputate its legs, so I focused on its head instead. I swung my panabas through the air over my head, but the creature was wicked quick. The monster trampled around us in a circle, and it slammed into trees as it attempted to avoid the slashes of my blades.
Tiff stepped in to every spot I couldn’t cover, and together, we poked and prodded the beast off the road and into the forest. It was difficult to land any hits with it moving so quickly, but we’d taught it
some respect for our weapons. When I managed to cut through another leg, the pained scream of agony pierced the air like a foghorn.
Then I heard skittering and leaves crunching from the shadows beneath the trees, and a moment later, we were surrounded by a horde of the spider-horse monsters. Their jaws snapped at us, and their long fangs gleamed in the fading sunlight. With how weird they were, I assumed their bites were venomous, but I wasn’t aiming to experiment with my idea any time soon.
Tiff and I dodged what soon became countless monsters, and we rolled beneath their round bodies while we slashed at their legs.
We were in the middle of an entire swarm of these weird monsters, and in the distance, it seemed as though a steady stream of them were emerging from a hole in the ground.
“Looks like we’re outnumbered,” I panted as Tiff and I took shelter behind one of the few corpses we’d been able to create.
“Time to try something stronger than steel,” the Goddess of Death announced, and she jumped over our cover without another word.
I rushed to follow her into battle, and I was amazed at what I saw. Tiff darted in and out of the swarm of monsters faster than I could track, and it seemed like she became invisible at times. She would be in one spot one moment, and on the other side of the horde the next. She left a trail of their strange bluish blood in her wake, and soon, the screams of the spider-like monsters created a cacophony that put cicadas to shame.
I wasn’t about to let her have all the fun, but I was definitely curious about the magic she was using. Maybe I wasn’t the only one with speed enhanced footwear, but there could be another explanation for her mysterious speed. I followed her into the fray, and I twirled my blades in a figure eight as I carved a path through the insect-like herd of monsters.
The spider-horses skittered around the forest at impossibly high speeds, but Tiff and I were faster. I stomped my griffon feather dragonscale boots a few times as I zipped through the crowd causing severe damage and creating chaos in my wake. I knew the monsters would soon regrow their severed limbs, but maybe losing a few legs would keep them from attacking for a moment.
“There’s so many!” Tiff gasped as we took shelter again.
“Aren’t you going to do something?”
“Sure, I could swoop in and kill the entire horde in one move,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure it was true. “But where’s the fun in that? You seem to be holding your own just fine as it is.”
“Fine.” Tiff rolled her eyes. “I’ll handle it myself.”
“Cool,” I chuckled, but when she left the safety of our temporary shelter, I was only one step behind her.
There was no way I was going to let the Goddess of Death have all the fun.
I targeted my efforts at the hole in the ground where more of the monsters continued to flow, and I aimed the palms of my hands at the dark entrance. Fire burst from my hands in long streaks, and it scorched through the monsters until it struck the opening in the dirt.
It seemed like I was making a dent in their numbers, but the second I let my spell drop, the creatures erupted from the hole even more rapidly. It was like I’d hit a beehive with a baseball bat, and now the insects were swarming to the defense of their home.
We turned and ran away from the dense swarm of monsters coming at us, and I scanned the road and forest for our horses.
Maybe if we could outrun them, we could create a barricade or trap to lure them toward. There were too many to fight one at a time, and
their sheer size made it difficult to eliminate even a single one of them.
“Why are we running?” Tiff asked without slowing down, but she cast a worried glance at the oncoming horde behind us. “Do you really think we can outrun them?”
“I just need some space to work with,” I huffed between leg and arm pumps.
I spotted Goliath and the mare in my peripheral vision, but the two horses were obviously spooked and on the run. The white stallion kicked up dirt and debris in his wake as his hooves pounded into the soft ground, but the brown mare stuck close to his side, and a moment later, they were both out of sight.
Finding our horses again could prove to be a challenge, but I had more important things to take care of just then. I wasn’t about to let these weird insect monsters eat me or Tiff, but she was right, we couldn’t run forever.
When Tiff vanished before my eyes, I was more convinced than ever before that she had some sort of invisibility magic. It definitely explained a lot, like how she was able to stalk Zenda and me on our quest, and how she managed to sneak inside my castle
without any of us realizing it until she was directly above our heads.
Invisibility was powerful magic, and the only artifact with a shrouding buff I’d found, I used up long ago.
Was invisibility one of Tiff’s godly powers?
It didn’t seem to fit with the theme of death, so I was leaning toward the simpler explanation of magical artifacts. In any case, I was grateful she was using her ability to our advantage, and I kept close track of her path through the horde by following the pained cries the creatures emitted in her wake.
No matter how many of the monsters we killed, it seemed like there was always more right behind them. I knew there was a way to get the upper hand over these beasts, and once I figured it out, I could reset and show Tiff just how powerful I was. Then she’d see exactly whose side she needed to be on in the pending war of the gods.
I thought I caught a glimpse of shiny scales through the canopy of leaves above my head, but I didn’t have time to look away from the monster directly in front of me. Movement in the corner of my eye combined with the shrieks of the monsters indicated that Nameless had joined the fight, and I wore a proud grin as I fought back against the thundering legs and snapping jaws. A moment later,
the majority of the horde had refocused its attention on the flying lizard, and I was granted a reprieve from the constant stomping of spider-like legs.
Tiff barreled through the horde until she reached my side, and she flicked gore from her twin daggers as she tried to catch her breath. Her forehead was dappled in sweat, and her black hair clung to her neck, but her flushed face looked more happy than tired.
She was enjoying this.
The thought caused an instant reaction in my entire body, but I swallowed down the sudden rise of desire to keep my focus locked on our enemies. Even though Nameless had drawn them away from us for the moment, I knew the break would be short lived.
Still, I couldn’t help but notice how Tiff seemed to be holding back some of her power. If she’d been able to defeat gods and goddesses before, then she certainly had the ability to kill a horde of monsters, but it was almost like she was drawing it out until I handled it myself.
Was she trying to see what powers I possessed firsthand?
“You ready to kick some ass?” I asked as I flashed her a challenging grin. “I bet I can kill more than you.”
“Helm’s Deep style?” Tiff asked with an arched eyebrow. “I loved those books!”
The fact she knew about the Lord of the Rings enough to make a reference to the competition between Legolas and Gimli made my heart flutter in a way I couldn’t explain, and I failed to find the words to formulate a response. I nodded dumbly as I swallowed, but then I shook it off and refocused on the monster battle.
“There’s no holding back now,” I said as we prepared for another round of annihilation. “The faster we end this, the faster we can have dinner.”
“Loser cooks?” Tiff cast me a sideways smirk.
“Deal.” I laughed. “Let’s do this.”
The Goddess of Death and I squared off against the horde, but the monsters were still directing their full attention to the dragon swooping over their heads. Nameless blasted bolts of lightning into the gathered creatures whenever they grouped together in dense packs, and the iridescent dragon was killing the beasts off by the dozens. There were still plenty left for me and Tiff to have some healthy competition, though, so I lifted my chin with determination.
We exchanged a sideways glance, and I gave her a subtle nod. Then Tiff darted off to the left, and I veered to the right, but I made sure to keep her in my line of sight. The sound of the horde was nearly unbearable, and the combination of skittering legs and pained shrieks created a cacophony capable of damaging eardrums.
I began to maneuver through the herd, and I managed to avoid attracting the monsters’ attention for a while, but when they finally spotted me, it was too late. I was in the midst of the dense horde, and a sea of bluish creatures surrounded me. A beast hurtled toward me, but I waited until the last possible moment to react. Instead of jumping out of the way, I rolled forward between its eight legs, and the creature slammed into its companions on the other side.
I jumped to my feet and sprayed a jet of fire from the palms of my hands, and the screech of their deaths grew louder than the sizzling, crackling sound of their bodies burning. The instant the flames abated, I rushed into the opening to finish off the survivors, and I quickly took a head count.
“Six!” I shouted over the noise of the herd.
“Damn!” came the faraway sounding response, but the word was punctuated by the squelching sound of metal puncturing flesh.
“That’s eight!”
I shook my head in awe, but I wasn’t going to let her keep the lead for long. The God of Time was in total control of the outcome, so I just had to figure out the best way to use this situation to my advantage. When Tiff and I got through this, maybe she’d have a better idea of who I was, and that could lead her to joining my side.
With my panabas in hand, I chopped away at the edges of the hole I’d created inside the monster horde. There were several times when I sliced off all eight legs until the creature was left on its belly desperately attempting to regrow its limbs, but they received a blade through their skull instead.
The bodies began to pile up around me enough to create barriers between me and the rest of the horde, and I glanced around as I climbed on top of the spider-like corpses. There was still a sea of chittering, snapping spider-horses roaming the clearing, and I could see even more continuing to emerge from the hole in the ground. That was where the real action was, and if we didn’t eliminate the source of these creatures, we’d never win this fight.
Nameless received my mental image of the hole, and he let out a loud squawk as he flapped his wings to change direction. After a few key blasts of his lightning breath, a trail opened up for me that led to the monster-spewing hole. The dragon inhaled as he
backstroked in the air, but his next breath was so bright and powerful that it illuminated the entire forest despite the growing darkness.
Bodies catapulted into the air from the sheer force of the blast, and the vibrations of the lightning bolt crumbled the earth around the hole until it resembled a pile of shaking dirt. I inhaled deeply before I summoned vines with all my might, and the green tendrils burst from the ground to cover the remaining hole in a web of ivy. Once I was satisfied with the restriction on the monsters’ numbers, I turned my focus back to cleaning up.
The dragon continued to make laps above the hole, and any time one of the creatures managed to escape the net of vines, he blasted them until all that remained was a smoldering corpse. I wasn’t about to let Nameless have all the fun, though, so I amped up my efforts to a hundred.
My panabas swung upward in wide arcs, and I sliced throat after throat until a stream of bluish blood swirled across the ground around my feet. Once the monsters were injured, it was easy enough to pick them off one by one.
“That’s twenty!” I shouted.
“Nineteen!” Tiff called back, but it sounded like she was struggling a little.
I was concerned for her safety, so I started to work my way toward the sound of her voice. Several monsters were flung into their companions around me, and I had to jump and dodge their flying bodies to get across the distance between us. As I drew closer to Tiff’s location, I noticed many of the corpses appeared almost mummified.
Had she been using her powers?
I didn’t know how else to explain the condition of the monster remains, but there was still a lot I didn’t know about the raven-haired beauty. I managed to knock five more monsters out of existence, and by the time I reached Tiff’s side, I was nearing thirty kills.
I had to climb over a wall of mummified bodies to get to the Goddess of Death, and I tried my best to only breathe through my mouth as the stench of decay hit my nostrils. It smelled like these things had been dead for ages already, and I grimaced as I made my way over the barricade of corpses.
Tiff was standing in the middle of the piles of death with her hands on her knees, and she looked up at me with a tired smile.
Sweat dappled her forehead, but her eyes were still gleaming with a determined light.
“Fifty,” she announced in a proud voice.
“Holy shit.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise, but once I looked around at her protective circle, the numbers added up. It had obviously taken a lot of energy for her to get to this point, and I looked back at her with a concerned frown. “Are you okay?”
“I just need to breathe,” Tiff said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Carry on. Sounds like you’ve got some ground to cover if you want to enjoy delicacies prepared by yours truly.”
I was beginning to notice how the Goddess of Death used flippant and dismissive tactics to avoid any feelings she was experiencing, and I realized how terrified she really was of being alone. It was almost like she pushed everyone away before they could reject her, and I could only imagine how much sadness that approach had brought her.
“What if Nameless wins?” I asked in an effort to lighten the mood.
“Oh, hell!” Tiff laughed. “There’s no way I could keep up with him. We’d owe him a ribeye or something.”
“He never seems to be fazed, even when our enemies are weird freaky monsters.” I smirked proudly as I gazed up at the flying form of the dragon above our heads. “It wasn’t surprising when he developed a taste for the Vex, but he doesn’t seem very interested in eating these bug things.”
“I’ve never seen anything like these monsters before,” Tiff admitted. “It’s like an infestation.”
“Or a plague…” I added in a thoughtful tone, and we both turned to face each other with a look of realization.
“That fucking bastard.” Tiff worked the muscle in her jaw for a moment before she stomped away, and she was climbing over the corpse barricade an instant later.
I wasn’t about to let her win this competition even if she was pissed off at her supposed ally, so I got back to work on the horde.
Now that the hole was blocked off, their numbers began to dwindle drastically, so I didn’t have a lot of time left to get the upper hand.
It didn’t matter, though, since I could always reset to my save point if I lost.
The God of Winning never failed.
I used a combination of magic and steel as I continued to cut through the herd of insect-like creatures, but I kept tabs on Tiff in my peripheral vision. She was obviously enraged at the idea of her ally sending a plague of bug beasts after her, and she threw her daggers into the bodies ahead of her as she roared a battle cry.
“Time to win,” I said under my breath as I returned my focus to the monsters around me.
Tiff could handle herself just fine, and the trail of death in her wake was a clear reminder of her role as a goddess. There was still the possibility she would keep her alliance with the God of the Plague, but at least I would have learned a lot about her. She was easily triggered by her own raw emotion, and I realized it was probably because of how much she avoided feeling anything.
If Tiff continued to side with my enemy, then I would know how to get the upper hand against her, but if she joined me, I would be aware of exactly what she needed to work on to get stronger.
After ten more monsters died on my blades, I was starting to get into a flow state. The never-ending enemies only served as props in my deadly dance, and I landed lethal blows with every movement. Ten turned into twenty, then thirty, and soon I was staring around the battlefield in search of another target.
There was a group of insect-like monsters swarming around the hole, and they jumped up after Nameless with snapping jaws.
The dragon seemed to be playing some sort of game of keep away, and he dropped lower any time the creatures seemed to give up.
I smirked as I decided to eliminate them all at once, and after a quick head count, I knew the move would put me solidly in the lead.
There were close to a hundred monsters in the swarm around the hole, but I knew just what to do. I hadn’t used a lot of earth magic since I learned the methods of dirt wielding during the summit of nobility in Vallenwood, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to flex some seldom used mental muscles.
I envisioned what I wanted, took a deep breath, and then gestured with my hands as though I was lifting dirt with telekinesis.
The ground around the monsters opened up into a gaping hole as the rocks and soil rose into a wave-like wall around them, and as they tumbled into the opening, the earthy material returned to cover them completely. The ground shook for a moment before everything became still, but there were a few stragglers skittering away from the sinkhole.
“Fuck, yeah!” I whooped, and I turned to face Tiff with my arms raised in victory. “A hundred and fifty!”
“No way,” Tiff scoffed.
There were only a few of the monsters between us, but we were still outnumbered at least two to one. I’d killed a huge chunk of the horde, and I wondered if Tiff had something up her sleeve to restore her place in the lead.
Before I could prompt her into any action, another hole formed a short distance from the first, and even more monsters began to emerge from the depths of the earth.
The monsters must have underground tunnels.
I exchanged a look with Tiff as I steeled myself for another round of monster annihilation, and I watched as the flow of bluish creatures came right at me. If she was going to do something, it was now or never.
“Bash!” Tiff yelled out in warning. “Get out of the way!”
“Do something about it!” I called back.
“Are you really that dumb?” Tiff threw up her hands in exasperation, but she started to stomp over to me.
A couple of monsters noticed her movement, and they skittered in her direction. Tiff only paused long enough to grab one of their legs, and the creature began to shrivel up before my eyes.
Once the two monsters were dead, the Goddess of Death continued to approach me at a casual pace.
I shook my head in amusement at Tiff’s nonchalant demeanor, but I still had a feeling she wasn’t revealing her full power. She didn’t seem concerned for her own safety during this battle, and her cheerful but sarcastic attitude never faltered. There had to be something she wasn’t sharing with me, and I was determined to figure it out.
The monster horde emerging from the new hole drew even closer, and I cast Tiff a sideways glance to see what she would do if I remained motionless. The Goddess of Death wore a confident smirk as she stood with one hip cocked to the side, but she held her daggers loosely in her hands like they were extensions of her own limbs.
“They’re getting closer,” I pointed out in a low voice, and the ground under my feet began to shake from the force of the horde’s stampede toward us.
“I have eyes,” Tiff retorted.
Even Nameless seemed to pull back in order to watch what the Goddess of Death would do, and he hovered in the air over our
heads. He sent a feeling of urgency through our telepathic bond, but I responded with calmness, so he settled down.
“It might be time to run,” I said as the horde stampeding toward us came within a hundred yards.
“If that’s what you want to do.” Tiff shrugged. “I’d rather stand and face the fuckers.”
“How exactly do you plan to do that?” I pressed.
“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” Tiff smirked. “Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two if you pay attention.”
“I’d like to learn more about you,” I said. “So, why don’t you show me what you can do?”
The corners of Tiff’s lips twitched into a faint hint of a smile, and she cracked her knuckles before she shook out her arms. It was like she was preparing for a marathon, but it definitely filled me with expectant excitement. It was time to eliminate this plague of spider-horses once and for all, and I was eager to see how she managed to do so.
“Are you ready, Bashy?” Tiff spread her hands out in front of her with the palms facing the ground, and she closed her emerald eyes as she inhaled slowly.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a confused frown.
Nothing happened for a long moment, and the sound of the oncoming horde grew to an ear-ringing pitch. My heart thudded in my chest, and every nerve in my body screamed at me to move. I ignored my instincts to protect myself, and I placed all my faith in Tiff’s hands.
I hoped she stepped up.
When Tiff opened her eyes, they seemed to glow with an internal energy, and she stared blankly ahead like she was seeing into another dimension. The air crackled with power, and the dark tendrils of hair framing her pale face began to lift up.
“Holy shit,” I said as I watched the Goddess of Death invoke some strong magic.
Tiff suddenly lifted her hands up over her head, and she flung her head back to stare at the sky. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but we were running out of time. If she didn’t do something soon, I’d have to reset to my save point to figure out another way to eliminate the horde.
“Rise!” Tiff shouted in an eerie voice. “Rise for your master!”
I frowned as I looked around to see who she was talking to, but then I saw something that made my jaw fall open. The corpses of the monsters we’d already killed began to pull themselves to their feet, and they immediately started to create a barricade between us and the oncoming horde.
The sounds of pained shrieks filled the air a moment later, and the undead monsters drove the horde back into the hole inch by inch. It was almost like watching a football game, and I had the sudden craving for popcorn as I observed the rest of the battle from the sidelines.
When the area around us was empty of everything except the ghastly undead creatures and us, Tiff turned to me with a self-satisfied smile. Then she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, and all her risen beasts collapsed back into their previous lifeless states.
“Well, I guess that means you won the bet,” I said with a wry smile. “You earned it.”
“I look forward to seeing if you can put your money where your mouth is,” Tiff said. “I hope you can actually cook.”
“Let’s find out.” I grinned.
Even if I lost the bet, I still won in my own way. I got to see the full extent of Tiff’s powers, and fighting side by side strengthened the fledgling friendship.
The God of Time was on his way to winning the battle of the immortals.