Xavier pulled out his dagger from the chest of the Diabolic Imp and sighed. His chest piece had more claw marks in it and so did his face, but luckily it wasn't anything that wouldn't heal by end of day. Mickey picked up his shield and the two of them began carving out the monster stones from the seven monsters.
"I still think we should have used the guns. Chasing these guys around is exhausting." Mickey said as he stored the last monster stone in his shirt pocket. The battle had taken thirty minutes, much longer than it should have and the reason it took so long was because the monster's could fly.
"Huh." Xavier said and Mickey looked over at him
"What?" He asked with a frown
"It's nothing, I just find it a bit curious that we are worried about how inconvenient it is for us to fight these guys without a gun. While most other people would want to fight these guys with a gun to secure their survival. I mean, how many people here can actually fight these monsters like we can?" Xavier asked
"A few, namely the Warden and his crew. But from what I've seen, they probably can't do much without their guns, even if they have higher attributes." Mickey answered
"Exactly, does that mean we are the strongest prisoners here. Maybe we should start pushing our weight around." Xavier said with a smirk, as they walked and Mickey laughed
"Sure, bully the people who literally have nothing to offer. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not that kind of person." Mickey said
"Neither am I, but I'm open to beating the crap out of someone if they piss me off. Sorry bastard or no." Xavier said and Mickey smiled. The two of them continued moving through the forest, and they soon found another group, but this one only had three imps, and unlike last time, they didn't make their presence known.
"I'll sneak around and see if I can spot the Diabolic Imps, once you hear the sound of fighting, charge in." Xavier whispered, before unsheating his daggers and sneaking around the forest. There wasn't much cover, but he made due, moving from one tree shade to the next, looking for anything red hiding amongst the trees and sure enough he found them, three of them to be precise. Two in the trees and one sitting on the ground seemingly bored. The two in the trees had their backs towards him, but the one on the ground was facing his direction.
'You can do this.' Xavier thought, taking in deep breaths as he held the tip of his daggers. Jumping out from behind the tree, he threw his daggers at the two in the trees, striking one in the neck and the other in the upper back. The one sitting on the ground quickly spotted him and spewed flames from it's mouth and he grabbed the gun off his back, before putting it infront of him, blocking the flames from touching his face. His entire body felt like it was boiling, but he pushed through the flames and struck the Diabolic Imp across the face. He continued to hit the monster with the butt of the gun, causing it's face to quickly become bloody. A fireball suddenly struck him in the side, causing him to almost topple over, but he stayed on his feet.
He looked up and he could see the Diabolic Imp he hit in the back floating above with an angry look on it's face and blood on it's lips. It roared angrily, before creating more fireballs in it's hands, but before it could throw them, an iron shield struck it in the face. Mickey broke through the treeline with a roar and tackled the monster to the ground, and Xavier smiled before turning back to his opponent. The Diabolic Imp managed to get to it's feet, but it stood up unsteadily, and gathered flames in it's hand. Xavier quickly ran behind a tree as a stream of flames exited it's palms. He continued using the trees as cover, before throwing his gun at the monster, distracting it for a second, but that was all he needed. He kicked off the ground and grabbed onto a nearby branch, and looked at the Diabolic Imp down below. The monster looked around for him, and he knew it would not take it long to find him, so he quickly lunged towards it.
Both of them were knocked to the ground and he quickly scurried on top of it and delivered a flurry of punches to it's face. The monster's body erupted in orange flames and Xavier quickly jumped off it, and took up the partially melted gun. Just as he prepared to fight the injured Diabolic Imp once more, he could here loud screeches and he saw the three imps flying towards him, making him groan. He quickly rushed towards the injured Diabolic Imp who swung wildly at him, and he easily dodged, before smacking it with his gun, toppling it to the ground. He stabbed the muzzle of the gun into the creature's neck, ending it's life.
Screee
An imp shouted as it slashed his back, but the leather chest piece protected him. He grabbed the imp by the horn and slammed it's head onto the butt of the gun. He then threw it into a tree before running from the last two. He spotted the one of his daggers, which was inside the neck of one of the Diabolic Imps. He quickly grabbed it before turning towards the two imps following behind each other closely. He stabbed the first one in the chest, then spun around flicking off it's corpse, and switching his hold into a reverse grip, and stabbed the second one in the neck. He then walked towards the last imp, which was slowly getting up off the ground. Seeing him and it's dead companions, the imo screeched and tried to fly away but Xavier threw the dagger accurately into it's chest.
"Just one more then." Mickey said and Xavier turned around to see him panting heavily as he walked towards him.
"Actually." Xavier said, and took out the extra Diabolic Imp monster stone out of shirt pocket and Mickey's gaze became stern
"You were going to use that weren't you." Mickey said, glaring at Xavier
"...Yes." Xavier said in an apologetic tone and Mickey wanted to say more, but he decided not to
"Alright, we have the tax and the quota, let's head east then. I'm guessing we should take the north section where the slimes are. It would be quicker." Mickey said
"Actually, we have two more stops to make. I have to fill these water bottles and I also need a new gun." Xavier said and Mickey nodded his head