Two days went by, and Gobline finally started awakening for a few minutes. His voice was weak, and he had barely any strength. Leo fed him and gave him water when he was coherent. On the fourth day, Leo woke to see Goblin staring at him.
"Morning..." Goblin whispered.
"Nice to see to awake." Leo got up and walked over him. "Can you sit up?"
"Yeah...help me up."
Leo helped the beastman to sit up against the cave wall. They ate a bit of leftover dinner. Goblin ate only a few bites until he couldn't eat anymore. The beastman looked skinny and on the brink of death.
"Leo..."
"What is it?"
"I'm going to die soon."
"Don't talk like that. Just heal up. You will be fine."
"It is not my wounds that going to kill me. Its what I had to do to escape."
Goblin breathing became irregular, and he gave Leo a look that he was dying. Leo wanted to refute the truth, but he realized while treating Goblin his core, nerves, and veins were ruptured. With all of these wounds, Leo wondered how he managed to escape at all.
"What happened after they captured you?"
A silence fell upon the cave, and Goblin's hoarse voice eventually broke it.
"The soldiers that we were fighting and we were captured and taken to the frozen continent to the south. After having the enemy perform their copy technique on us, they used a crippling technique called Meridian Crushing. After they used it on the five of us, all of us were equivalent to Peak level tempered warriors."
Leo sat there listening. He was upset he couldn't rescue his friends when they needed him most, but he or shadow didn't know where they were taken to.
"After crippling us, we were chained and imprisoned. Every day a giant tortured us. He would break our limbs and beat us with whips. The day before I escaped he came upon smiling."
Leo looked at Goblin silhouette and knew he was pausing because of anger. Goblin started shaking and gritted his teeth. Leo reached over and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Goblin, please continue."
"The giant came in smiling....he told us that Mouse's copy died and there was no more use for her. He...he...he crushed her." Tears started to pour out of Goblin's eyes. "He killed her, Leo. He killed her."
"Mouse..."
"He enjoyed it. The bastard enjoyed it." Goblin swallowed and looked at Leo. "I had to escape, or I would meet the same fate. The next morning they came over with food, and I pretended to be unconscious. As soon as the guard came over, I used Feline Release to burn my life energy. I killed the guard and made a break for it. Many prisoners begged for me to help them escape, but I knew I didn't have time. I burned my life force until I made it to an airship. I flew the ship northward when I was attacked. I crashed the ship and tried to escape. That's when you found me in the jungle running for my life."
Feline Release was the main reason he didn't have much time left. Leo didn't even know what to say in this situation.
"Leo, please get revenge for us."
Leo looked at the beastman in pain and struggling to talk. "Of course."
"Thank you...I think I'm going to lay down for a bit."
"Get some rest, Goblin."
Leo stayed with Goblin until he passed in the middle of the night. Leo spent the next morning burying him on the surface. He made a tomb that said 'Globlin x Mouse.' Leo said his goodbyes.
The clouds started to rumble and rain begun to fall on the jungle. The raindrops fell upon Leo's face as he used Buffalo Three Steps to hurry back to Machu Pichu.
When Leo arrived at Machu Pichu the place was destroyed. Only ash and stone was left remaining.
"What happened here?"
A voice broke jolted Leo out of his surprise. "An enemy."
"Hello, Leo." A purple man walked over. "How do you like your village? With your protectors gone, the place was easy to destroy."
"How does this man know so much about Machu Pichu and me?" Leo asked himself.
"You ready to die, Leo." The purple man hands transformed into claws emitting a yin-like aura.
"Lunar Claws? Only Shadow, Goblin, and Mouse knows that technique. This must be..." Leo just realized that the man before him must be Goblin's copy. That was how he knew Leo would be returning here and all about him. Since Goblin died, he lost his physical form, but he did retain all of his memories.
The purple man charged at Leo with Shadow Walk. Leo wasted no time and executed his Buffalo Three Steps. The big difference between the two movement techniques was Leo's would increase his power while Shadow Walk increased the enemy's speed.
Leo pulled out his hammer and a simple mace he had forged. Using the two weapons, Leo deflected every claw attack. Leo was being pushed back by every attack. The enemies precision with his strikes amazed Leo. This new enemy had to have a surplus of weapon techniques which their people trained in.
Each claw strike was like a whip. The peggian would allow mana to flow through the entire arm and unleash the attack through its claws. This way the attacks were flexible but precise.
Leo clumsy mace and hammer movements could not keep up, and wounds started to appear all over Leo's body. Leo then activated Stone Statue, but the peggian kicked him off the ground. Stone Statue needed Leo to be touching the ground to gather the earth mana. Only Goblin and Mouse knew about this flaw from their training sessions.
The enemy followed up by slashing Leo's back. Leo channeled a lot of mana into the mace like a ballon. Using Metal Control, he threw and had it explode. The shards caught the peggian off guard and stabbed him in the eye.
"This is for Goblin!" Leo leaped forward holding the forging hammer with both hands. He smashed the heavy hammer into the enemy's skull crushing him in one fell swoop. The peggian fell over dead. Leo then began attacking the dead body to vent all of his frustrations. After pummeling the body into oblivion, Leo looked around and wondered what to do next.