Seeing Nidar act as he did with such precision was unprecedented.
Perhaps it was the military-style suit he was wearing? Fully decked out in bulletproof material with plenty of pockets, hooks, and latched for equipment. The equipment he didn't have.
He jumped up into the cockpit drilling Likho with a knockout blow, pulled the pilot out of his seat, and took the controls.
Likho vanished, and the co-piolet was left incapacitated.
Nidar was able to bring the chopper out of the spin and rose up back up to a safe flying level, steading the flight. Smiling, he looked back to Bada and me saying,
"Yes, I know what you are asking yourselves right now. You do not think that I would have no training in fighting or flying, do you? I actually have a high level of training in many aspects. I just choose not to display them unless I absolutely need to. That Likho spirit is still with us. Let us hope she does not try to take one of us!"
No sooner than his words were spat out, the pilot, who was dead, started to convulse!
"Nidar, I think you should see this!" Bada responded eyes and flesh in dragon mode.
I changed as well and held myself tightly waiting for the fight.
"My worse fear! She will take the bodies of the dead if she has to! I'm not sure why she attached to this chopper! It must have been when I landed in Belarus. If she comes back as a zombie, we are in for it! You two cannot use your powers in a small space in the air like this! We would either blow this helicopter up or waterlog it into a crash. To stop her, we need to evacuate! The parachutes! Quickly! We are abandoning ship!" Nidar said as he jumped up, stomped on the rising zombie's head a couple of times, then grabbed a parachute.
Bada and I had ours ready as the dead body rose, being possessed by the evil Likho!
With a blood-curdling screech, she advanced and met Bada's vicious kick to the face. The zombie fell against the far side of the chopper's wall but slowly rose again.
"Hang on!" Nidar yelled as he opened the door. The wind rushed in as Bada and I had our hands on the safety straps. The wind kept the possessed zombie from coming forward to us, and Nidar bailed immediately!
I had the feeling we wouldn't see him again for some time.
"Druk, take my hand! Let's go together! That way, we won't be separated!" Bada said.
We locked hands, gave an instance of a warm stare between our eyes, and then jumped!
Bada opened her chute after a short free-fall. It was strong enough to hold us both, and I had embraced her tightly, ready to pull mine in case we separated.
We saw the chopper crash and burn below.
While floating downward we could tell there was a mountain below us. The landing was not going to be easy.
Then came a swarm.
A swarm of small bug-like creatures.
I think we had seen this before.
They encircled us and started to carry off, slowing, towards the mountain peaks. Once we were set down, the bug moved away and formed into a man.
Ramesh Amand had returned.
"Welcome to India! We are in the Khangchengyao Mountains! I was contacted by Idhar who was in touch with Liba, who knew of your danger! After that little incident in your room back in Minsk, I have changed my ways. I no longer serve Shiver. In fact, I am living in my homeland again, and helping the people here. I was told to have you both stand on this mountain peak where we are right now. Soon, you will be taken back to Belarus." He addressed us.
"I see. I'm glad you have come to your senses. Thank you." I replied.
Bada remained quiet.
"I would like to introduce you both to the great, Apala!"
Around the bend came a man. A giant man. He at least looked like a man at first. Dressing in traditional Indian royalty and power style attire, having a bare chest bulging in muscles, a clean and honorable face, and the body, waist down, of a serpent, slithering over the rocks!
He was huge, standing the size of five men!
"I finally can meet those in my order! Younglings at that! Both of you seem grand! I am Apala, the leader of the Order of Dragons here in India. Never mind my human appearance, it is a good trait I have developed over time. I must tell you of danger, young Bada, in your homeland! For the evil Dragon, Zmei of Russia has invaded Korea through the border at the Tumen River in the northernmost part of your land."
"You mean, in North Korea? Why on earth?" Bada replied confused and frightened.
"Your land had been without a Dragon protector for some time now. You are next in line and still too young to take your proper place. I suggest that you and Druk go together to stop this menace before he destroys much of your home! It is his plan to bring the entire peninsula, from South to North to its knees with the destruction of millions of people who will see it as a natural disaster. He wants to add the land to his empire! He has been overly hungry since the fall of the Soviet Union and is acting now!"
"We will certainly go! How can we get there?" I asked the reverent humanoid creature.
"You must first go back to Belarus. Finish your mission there. Then, contact Bogatyr who lives in Russia not far from the border of Belarus. He can help you. It won't be easy to convince him though. Be careful! Contact your human helper, Idhar for more information. Ah, I sense you will be going about now! Farewell, and good luck!"
We vanished.
And reappeared in a microsecond later in the woods where we had been previously in Belarus.
Jacob was there! He, in fact, has teleported to us, then teleported all of us away instantaneously!
There was something different about him as well.
"Well, blokes! Such adventure we had, eh? That great and powerful monk restored me to full health fast! And my power is stronger than ever!"
Before either of us could answer, we vanished again.
Just Bada and myself.
Appearing in the woods as they looked when we met Leshy except for the graveyard in front of us! Not a standard graveyard, but a dumping ground for the dead!
"This must be Likho's doing! She's taking people at random and dumping them here when they're dead! I have a feeling we're in for a fight again! Are you alright, Bada?" I asked.
"No. I am not. We must finish this mission first and get to Idhar. I have to save my people! Wait, you were right, look!" she called out.
The bodies started shivering. One by one they stood. Some, looking more recently alive with grey skin and whitened eyes, and others who had been dead for some time with their rotting flesh falling from their bodies. The most frightening thing about the horror was the stench! The rotting, dead stench!
"I assumed she could only take one at a time!" Bada exclaimed.
"I think she must be able to leave a part of herself in each one, keeping them able to at least roam about to kill when someone is nearby. Likho could be in one of them! Let's burn them down!" I said as I thrust my hands forward, releasing a firestorm, setting each of the twenty or so zombies into an inferno of burning, rotting flesh!
They howled and screamed, and slowly fell, one by one. There was no Likho.
Then we saw him.
Lumbering through the woods.
Knocking over the spruce trees with one swipe of his giant hands.
Big Pinky!
This time, he wasn't pink. Dressed in disheveled attire of ripped jeans and a flannel shirt that didn't fit his torso and didn't button. He grabbed a tree, pulled it from its roots like a small flower, and swung it in our direction!
A second before, I could see his eyes. Or eye! One large eye in the middle of his elongated forehead. Likho! She had taken Big Pinky while he was alive and well! And he was now even uglier than before!
I was able to leap over the swinging tree trunk in time. Bada missed the chance just barely and was caught by her ankles and feet. She flipped over four or five times before crashing to the ground.
Red-eye centers? You bet!
This time, I was much more in control though. I used my fire-streams to pick up boulders on the ground, heating them up rapidly until they glowed orange and red, and hurled them at the big brute.
He swung the tree, catching two of them that burned through the trunk, snapping it in half while the third struck him the chest and knocked him to the ground.
With a screeching, feminine-sounding howl that made my skin crawl, he knocked the boulder from his chest and was left with a circular burn.
He wasn't done yet.
Uncharacteristically of Big Pinky, he flew towards me, off the ground at an alarming rate, and took me up in his grasp by the throat! He soared upward a few meters, then threw me down like an upset toddler tossing toys, and I crashed onto the ground and lost every bit of wind in my lungs.
I then felt his foot crush into my back as he was trying to grind me into the soil!
I couldn't aim any part of my hands or face to burn him away.
I let the body fires consume me and the big ape STILL didn't stop stomping as if he were suddenly impervious to the flames!
That, or possessed by an evil spirit?
At this point, I hoped that Bada could help.
Things were not going well at all.