“My… My….” Anton looked up at Zeke, “Seems the little twerp really was telling the truth. How else would he have Zeke the freak under his employ?”

  “Yeah. That’s our Dark Lord hiding in the gopher tunnels,” Zeke said as he stared down Anton.

  “Not very strong of a dark lord is he?” Anton mocked.

  To this, Zeke said nothing.

  Anton squeezed his fists and pointed them right at Zeke, “Do we still have a problem? Or shall we call it square.”

  “Like a rectangle.” Said Zeke as he picked up Kip from the ground.

  “Wait, what?!” Kip asked.

  “Come on, Kip. He worked you over. Let's go home before we get hurt anymore.”

  “N-no!” Kip said, “They were making life even harder for the burrowlings! This is unacceptable!”

  Zeke held Kip over his shoulder as Zeke kept walking away. Kip could look back and see Anton and Aj’s smug faces as Aj waved bye to him.

  “That’s not my job.” Kip could see the panicked faces of the burrowlings half poking their heads out of their hidey-holes.

  “The burrowlings will-”

  “Before Anton showed up, it was just a kid kicking holes in.”

  Kip saw the burrowling with pigtails shaking as she watched AJ kicking dirt into her hole, “STTOOOooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOP!” Kip screamed.

  Zeke stopped moving.

  “Put me down!” Kip said angrily.

  “But Kip I-”

  "It’s not a request, it’s an order. Put me down!”

  Zeke held off for a minute, processing. He put Kip down. Kip stormed right back to the two Antons.

  “You two BULLIES need to understand exactly what kind of peril you cause in these critters’ hearts! Now! I want you to apologize for everything you’ve done and promise to not do it again!”

  “Doesn’t your keeper need you back at home?” Anton asked.

  “He is not my keeper. And these burrowlings are all under my protection and as such I advise you against messing with them lest you suffer the wrath of the Dark Lord and his army.

  “Fine. Let’s see what that suffering looks like," said Anton.

  Kip immediately turned back to Zeke, “Zeke! Please help me incur my wrath upon him.”

  Zeke jogged back to his place and mumbled, “You got it, buddy.”

  Anton punched Kip. The explosion went off in his face as Kip was sent flying. He bounced on the gravel and whizzed by Zeke who caught him mid air.

  “Well, we’re in it now!” Zeke said as he threw Kip right back at Anton.

  “WHAAAAA!” Kip went soaring back. Kip summoned his wings. As Anton readied his punch to catch Kip in mid air, Kip outstretched one of his wings. The draft caught the inside of it and spiraled him to the left. Anton missed and Kip was now behind him.

  One more pump of Kip’s wings and he cancelled the forward momentum. He reached out and with his claws, raked Anton’s back.

  "AHH!” Anton focused his attention on Kip. This was a tactical error. Zeke was now behind him.

  “Keep your eyes on me, little guy!” Zeke said as he placed together his palms and swung down to the ground. Anton jumped backward, looked up and placed his hands together to block, but when Zeke’s fists blotted out the sun, Anton thought better of it. He evaded and watched as the two fists destroyed a large rock that was right in front of him. Zeke winced as his body folding caused his wound to stir. He grabbed his bandages.

  “Bully, my boy!” Said Anton, “We’ve got quite the challenge! Zeke the Freak against The Fist Of The Ulmund Empire. You know how wanted you are by the Ulmun?”

  “Whatever it is, I promise I’m worth much more.”

  Zeke punched Anton. The force of the punch knocked him backward, his feet dug into the dirt as he slid along the trajectory of the punch so deep that the earth reached up to Anton’s ankles.

  “Get him dad!”

  “Pipe down!” Zeke said, “Tell your dork son to pipe down.”

  “Son! Get in here, son. Prove to me what a man you are.”

  “I will, dad! I’ll show you what a man I am!” AJ went straight for Kip.

  “Oh no, not the child.” Kip said.

  AJ jumped and tackled Kip to the ground, slapping at Kip’s face. The force caused Kip to fall back onto the ground. With Aj on top of him, Aj started slapping at Kip’s face. Kip attempted to cover himself as best he could but the slaps, while not difficult, came with the undying energy of a child.

  Meanwhile, Anton reached over and punched Zeke’s arm. The blast caused Zeke’s arm to fly back from a heavy shock, “You got some mean knockers on those shoulders, I’ll give you that.”

  “Thank you. It was in fact, my boon, that-”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Don’t care; get punched.” Zeke landed a shot on Anton’s chest. Anton let out a grimace of pain as his back collided into a tree. Anton grabbed Zeke’s oversized fist and pulled it off of him, “Strong.”

  “Too right.” Anton used his brute strength to pull the heavy weight of the fist off of him. When there was enough of a gap created, Anton slipped under and landed another punch right in the center of the forearm next to the bone. The pressure point immobilized Zeke’s arm for a moment. Anton then landed another punch on Zeke’s hip. Zeke angled his hip so Anton connected with bone. Zeke had to let go of everything and shift to defense. Anton’s flaming punch bounced off of Zeke as he absorbed the blast. The reverberations of his tough hide agitated the wound he’d incurred from the Ducervi on his belly. He reached to protect it and took a step back. Then another step back. He flailed his other hand, keeping it lengthy and unpredictable so Anton couldn’t close in.

  “Ahhhhh!” Said Anton as he languished the new information, “A big red button on your belly that says: Punch me’ for all to see. Fascinating.”

  “Kip! A little help!” Zeke yelled out.

  “Ah! I’m trying, Zeke! But I can’t seriously harm this kid can I?

  “Snap that little freak’s neck and get over here!” Called out Zeke.

  Kip managed to wrestle AJ so that he was on top. He grabbed AJ’s two hands so that he grabbed AJ’s wrists and pinned him down saying, “Please don’t do anything bad and I won’t hurt you!”

  AJ spit on Kip’s face and thrashed his body helplessly as he kept screaming, “Not fair, not fair!”

  Kip let out a deep breath. He lifted his head up and head butt AJ. AJ's nose bled but he did not stop thrashing, “Quit hurting me!”

  Kip headbutted AJ again, and this time he felt AJ’s hands go limp. With some of AJ’s blood still on Kip’s forehead, he turned to Zeke and said, “Coming Zeke!”

  “Well well,” Anton sr. said, “Seems I’ve raised a weakling. When I was his age, I was beating kobolds left and right. Everyone remembers their first level. My first miniboss was a mean old kobold by the name ole Grimmy One Eye. FInished him off with a sword to the neck.”

  “It sounds like you just beat and killed a disabled Kobold.”

  “All’s fair, as they say!” Said Anton as he reached down and punched the ground. The force of the launched him in the air as he somersaulted over Zeke’s large frame. Zeke looked up at him and swung his head so that his horn could pierce him in the air, but Anton was ready for that. He folded his body and shifted in the air, dodging the horn attack. He landed He landed behind Zeke and punched him square in the thigh, the tender flesh that was no quite hamstring. Zeke buckled and Anton released another deadly punch on Zeke’s belly.

  Though Zeke had his belly covered, Anton still punched at the hands covering it. The hands did little good as the explosion shocked through Zeke’s protective fingers and affected his current wound.

  Zeke wobbled back. He spit out blood and rubbed the blood off his maw. He took labored breaths as he stuck his fists up.

  Kip ran toward them and flapped his wings again, giving him a burst forward. He lifted his foot up and launched a flying kick at Anton.

  Anton slapped Kip out of the way with his large palm, “No time for children’s games!”

  Zeke pointed his head down and said, “Massive Attack!” He pummeled Anton into the earth, trapping Anton into the ground with his huge horns acting as a hold. Anton spit up blood, the force knocking the wind out of him as well as some of his fight.

  “Pinned me have you?” Anton asked.

  “Kip! While he’s pinned, scratch him up!”

  Kip lifted himself up, still a little stunned as he ran up to Anton. He leaned down and scratched Anton’s face, taking out plugs of hairs of his mustache.

  “Ahh! Dear me! Seems the moppet has some bite in him!”

  Anton craned his neck downward.

  “Don’t stop, Kip! Get mean!”

  “I’m scratching him! I’m getting mean!”

  “Meaner, Kip! Meaner!”

  Kip felt the disgusting feeling of flesh giving way to his sharpened claws. Kip closed his eyes as Anton pulled his head down and yanked it back up, whacking Kip in the nose.

  “Ahh!” Kip yelled. Anton leaned in and said, “I don’t have enough force to create an explosion. Looks like I’ll just have to..”

  Anton squeezed his muscles. His muscles were so large that this pushed Zeke’s horns out by a few second centimeters. Anton placed his feet flat on the ground and pushed himself out, launching his scratched bald head back into Kip’s nose, headbutting him once again.

  “Not again!”

  Anton was free. Zeke pulled his horns out of the earth, “I’m going to do it again, this time, I’m not going to hold back.”

  Zeke’s horns began to radiate energy as he began charging up his massive horn attack. Anton looked at Kip, who was still getting up. He saw Zeke charging up, and he turned to his son, who was now bested on the ground, just starting to grab his infantile head and get back up.

  “Impressive. You’ve won this round Zeke.”

  Zeke breathed deeply as he held his guts, “Sure feels that way.” He kept charging his horn up as Anton punched the ground, he once again flew across the field, grabbing his son and placing him over his shoulders. His son was riding piggyback. Anton turned and said, “I’ll be sure to tell the Ulmund Army all about your new dark Lord.”

  Zeke looked over to Kip who had stuffed some fabric from his hoodie into his two nasal cavities to subdue the bleeding. Anton held his fists, charging for one final attack and punched the ground once again, flying into the sky and away from the two.

  Kip rushed over to Zeke to help him, “Zeke! Zeke, please tell me you’re okay!”

  Zeke breathed deeply. He lifted his fingers and watched as some blood poured out, “I need to get to Azami. Just… just give me a second.”

  Zeke sat back down on a large sloped rock. He wheezed with every breath. Kip placed his hand on Zeke’s massive knee.

  “We did it, Zeke. We scared off Anton. The burrowlings are safe.”

  “Good. Good. The burrowlings. Just give me a second here, yeah, buddy?”

  Kip did, he let Zeke breath as he approached the burrowlings, “If they come back, we’ll deal with them.”

  The main burrowling, a wise old chipmunk with a wispy white stache said, “Thank you for your help, Dark Lord. We believe it best to just move.”

  “What?!” Kip asked.

  “If this is a fight between two kingdoms and we have laid roost on the border… even with your protection, more trouble is to come. For that… We do what we must to protect our people.”

  And with that, all the rest of them burrowed away. Kip waved at them as they went. He looked solemnly as they disappeared into the hole.

  Kip opened up his scroll, he looked at it. One by one, he saw the number of followers go down until all that was left was the one. Blademan.

  1/20

  Time remaining: 0 hours 1 minute 03 seconds.

  “I’m so sorry, Zeke.” Kip said, “All this and I failed. I failed and didn’t convert a single person. In fact… it’s even worse. I couldn’t protect them. It was like you… do you hear barking? Oinking? Meowing? Turtling?”

  “This way!” A boarish voice said as a stampede of animals approached, “This way to freedom!”

  Just then, emerging through the trees were the enchanteds and sapients as they all charged past Kip and Zeke through the forest. And then emerging behind them… was Sal riding Stormbristle.

  “SAL!” Kip said as he hugged the ran up to hug the boar and salamander.

  “The rest of the troupe are behind us! We did it, Kip! And we brought some new friends! All hail the Dark Lord!”

  “All hail the Dark Lord!” The animals said in unison.

  “How’s that for a welcome party? I’m going to get all of these folks on the property! I’ll talk more at home!”

  Kip stared in amazement as the party came back. But once his mind clicked, he reopened his scroll. The number told a different story.

  29 out of 20 Followers

  20 seconds remaining.

  “We… we did it, Zeke! I don’t know how but we did it! I’m about to achieve my first quest!!”

  “I’m really happy for you buddy,” Zeke said through continued deep breathing, he had moved from rock to laying against the ground on his back, his hand still gripping his wound, “Hey buddy?”

  “Yeah, Zeke?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Zeke.”

  “But I invoke the articles of succession. I challenge you to a duel.”

  Wow! You all don't cease to amaze me lol. I did not know we wanted to see Azami tend to her garden so bad. That definitely caught me off guard. Well! it's what the people want!

  Follow To Earn A Bonus Chapter:

  here