Jackie looked up to finally see Kitsune heading back toward her. Jackie walked over and patted Kitsune on the head.
"Took you long enough," she said affectionately. Isaiah lay beside some rocks, snoring.
Jackie shook her head and sat down next to Kitsune.
"We'll get moving in a couple of minutes. Even I need to rest for a bit," she said, yawning.
Kitsune raised its head and looked around, sniffing the air. Jackie looked up.
"What's wrong?" she asked. Kitsune stared into the sky, looking at an asteroid that seemed to be getting closer.
It didn't take long for Jackie to realize that the asteroid was on a collision course with them. Jackie rushed over to Isaiah and shook him awake. "Isaiah, wake up, we need to go, now," she said urgently.
Isaiah opened his eyes and yawned. He stood up and stretched, asking, "What's the problem?" Jackie pointed to the asteroid that was moving towards them.
Isaiah stared for a second before saying, "That doesn't make any sense." Jackie raised an eyebrow before looking back at the asteroid.
The asteroid was beginning to pick up speed as it got closer and closer. "What part of that doesn't make any sense?" Jackie hissed.
"These asteroids don't have enough mass to pull on each other like this," Isaiah explained. "But the asteroids hold us down," Jackie said.
"That's true, however, we have a relatively small mass compared to these asteroids," Isaiah replied. He picked up his mace and pointed it at the asteroid.
"Someone is either pulling that toward us or pushing it toward us. Isaiah prepared himself before jumping at the asteroid and smashing it with his mace.
The asteroid cracked and shattered, revealing a mass of red flesh on the other side. Jackie looked at the red flesh before suddenly remembering what it was.
"Isaiah, get away from that flesh," she yelled. Kitsune immediately jumped toward Isaiah and knocked him back toward Jackie.
Isaiah landed and asked, "Why, what is it?" Before she could answer, Ephron came down from the debris field and landed in front of them.
The first thing Jackie noticed was that Ephron had four arms. Two that seemed to be extremely muscular, but normal.
The other two were gigantic. They were so long that they both reached the ground. "Awww, you guys aren't who I'm looking for," Ephron said, sighing. Kitsune growled at Ephron, who stared at the stand in disgust.
"Quiet that thing down," Ephron barked. Isaiah looked at Jackie, who was staring at Ephron with confusion on her face.
"I think he might have something wrong with him," Isaiah whispered. "I heard that!" Ephron yelled. Isaiah covered his mouth with his hand before turning back to face Ephron. "I'm looking for one of your little friends," Ephron explained. "And this concerns me in what way?" Jackie asked.
"Because if you tell me, I won't brutally murder you," Ephron explained in a threatening tone. Jackie whipped out her daggers. "You're threatening two people who just defeated your friends at the same time?"
Jackie asked, almost laughing. Ephron laughed. It was the first semi-normal thing that had escaped his throat. Monsters began to drop out of the sky.
They wielded weapons and had tentacles on their backs. "Are these the monsters you and Velena had to fight?" Isaiah asked.
"Yeah," Jackie said, "The only thing you have to worry about is their erratic nature." Isaiah nodded and raised his mace.
"I'll take care of the monsters, you focus on Ephron," Isaiah said. Jackie nodded and crouched down. "So are you going to tell me where your friend is or not?" Ephron asked in an impatient tone.
"Over my dead body," Jackie replied. "So be it," Ephron said, "God knows I could use some practice with these."
He raised his extra set of arms, showing them off. "Come and get some then," Jackie muttered under her breath. Jackie and Kitsune lunged, coming at Ephron from both his flanks.
Ephron nodded, sending the monsters toward Jackie in a frenzy of limbs and tentacles. Isaiah jumped into the air and swung his mace, unleashing a wave of antimatter that decimated the first few rows of monsters.
The ground was covered in fire, forcing Ephron to jump into the air to avoid being burned alive. Kitsune jumped into the air with Jackie close behind.
Ephron raised one massive arm and slapped kitsune back to the ground. Jackie managed to dodge the second swing and stabbed Ephron in the upper arm.
To Jackie's horror, the flesh encasing the arm quickly enveloped her dagger, pulling it out of her hand. Jackie used her foot to push off of Ephron. She flipped in the air and pointed her remaining dagger at him.
"Chroma dust!!" she yelled. Several chi blasts shot from the tip of the dagger and rained down on Ephron. He raised one massive arm to block the attacks.
The chi blasts could not penetrate the flesh surrounding his arm. Ephron caught one of the blasts in his other massive hand. He pulled back his arm like a pitcher and threw the chi at light speed.
Jackie dropped her dagger and caught the blast, only to look up and see Ephron right in front of her. Ephron pulled back a massive arm and punched Jackie in the gut. Jackie was blasted back, flying right under Isaiah.
Isaiah watched as Jackie hit a pile of rocks. Ephron jumped up to Isaiah, swinging a massive arm at him. Isaiah leaned to the right to dodge the blow, swinging his mace at Ephron's side.
The mace connected, sending Ephon flying. Isaiah flew after him, firing antimatter bombs to try and destroy his extra arms. Ephron raised both of his larger arms to block the explosions.
Isaiah flew up to him and swung his mace downwards. Ephron used his two normal arms to catch the mace mid-swing. Isaiah stared in shock as one of Ephron's larger arms hit him in the face.
Isaiah flew up into the air, leaving his mace in Ephron's hands. Ephron broke his fall with his giant hands. Isaiah stopped hurtling through the air and looked down.
"Nightfall!" Isaiah yelled. The mace released a blast of energy, causing Ephron to drop it and jump away.
Isaiah flew down and picked up his mace. Monsters began to gather around him when Jackie and Kitsune flew in from nowhere.
"Chi beam!!" Jackie yelled. Kitsune opened its mouth and fired a beam of chi at Ephron. Ephron jumped into the air to dodge it, leaving himself exposed to Jackie.
Jackie jumped off Kitsune's back, slashing at Ephron with her dagger. The slash sliced off one of Ephron's large arms.
The arm hit the ground and splattered into a pile of red flesh. Jackie didn't even try to hide her disgust. Ephron landed back on the ground.
The moment his feet hit the ground, the pile of red flesh slithered over him and reformed his massive arm. "Now you've made me angry," Ephron said.
"Should've gone for the head Jackie," Isaiah said, raising his mace.