"Almost... there." Blood Stalk said with determination.
"Ding!"
Suddenly I herd the ding of a microwave and know what is about to happen.
"BANG!"
An explosion of white smoke appears behind us destroying the back rest of the seat sending us to the ground.
"What happened! Are you ok." Rod and Njord said after we fell down.
"Yeh, were fine. It happens sometimes." I said back to them while Blood Stalk lets go of the skewer and grabs the thing behind us.
When they brought it out I was surprised that they got two things in our left hand.
the first thing was a blue bottle that had a slightly different appearance from the other's we had so far. Only the mold depicting the image itself was colored blue while the rest of the bottle was clear.
The other was a grey box with a lends and button that was on the top left.
"These is the camera we got from faiz and the camera bottle." I said surprised that both are in our hand.
How come it is appearing now rather when we got it the first time?
"Maybe we need the corresponding bottle to get the items from the other pages." I said to myself.
"What are those?" Rod asked after I literally just said what they were.
"I am not explaining it again. How about I show you?" I said with a little excitement and Blood Stalk nodded as well.
"Should I be nervous?" Njord asked a little worried about the explosion and items in our hands still smoking.
"Don't worry, I am just going to take a few pictures." I said back which didn't relieve the worry from his face. It only added confusion to it.
I grabed the camera with our right hand while the bottle stayed in our left.
"Lets put the bottle away for right now." I said to Blood Stalk and they seemed reluctant at first, but did so anyways.
"Ok, now let's turn this on." I said excitedly. With a flick of a switch, the camera turns on and a image appears on the small screen.
"Great, now can you to move closer together?" I asked them to move a little closer so they can both be in the shot.
"O-ok?" They said a bit reluctant but scooted a bit closer which was more than enough.
"Perfect. Now, you might see a flash but it will only be for a moment. Try not to close your eyes or we will need to take it again." I said trying to get my right hand over the right buttons to press.
It is hard doing this one handed.
"Alright, are you ready?" I asked them now that I had my fingers over the right buttons albeit in a uncomfortable looking way.
Before they responded I clicked the button and a white flash blinded both of them for a moment before disappearing.
"My eyes." Rod said dropping to the ground unable to see.
"What was the point of this?" Njord asked seemingly less affected by the camera flash.
"Its fine. It's only temporary and totally worth it. Look." I said showing Njord the picture while Rod was still complaining on the ground.
The image in the box below showed both men standing next to each other with the buildings in the background and chairs in the foreground.
"Oh my. This painting is so detailed. How did you do this so fast?" Njord asked completely impressed with the quality of the image.
"Thanks, I have no idea." I said since I don't know the internal mechanisms of a camera.
"You're not going to use that in our spar right?" Rod asked getting back on his feet.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I won't." I said thinking how this could technically become knuckle dusters and punching holes through concrete like nothing.
"Wait, when did I agree to spar with you?" I asked since I don't remember that happening.
"Just now. Thanks." Rod said getting up like nothing happened but a little winded and unstable.
"Are you sure you don't need to sit for a minute?" I asked concerned on how fast he got up from being on the ground.
"No I fine. I'm fine." He said still a little wobblily and mispronounced his sentence a little.
"You're not drunk. Why are you acting like that?" I am so confused. Does this thing have a 'make people stupid' flash or something.
Njord is laughing at this and pats Rod on the back a few times.
I look around and see the remains of the chair destroyed by the explosion and a lot of people are staring at us now.
"We should be carful about this in the future. I don't want to accidentally explode someone while we are in a line or something. " I said realizing that having an explosion happen without warning at random time's might be cause for concern.
"I think we are done here. How about we continue to look around the city for a while?" Njord said after making sure that Rod was ok.
"Ok, since I have this camera now I want to take some more pictures anyways, so let's hit some land marks." I said because I wanted to show my family some proof of this crazy adventure I am having.
"What... about the city of... Monsters." Blood Stalk asked with a strange cadence. One I couldn't tell the tone of.
"They said it's was only like 30 minuets away. We can head there after were done looking around. We might not come back here so lets enjoy this vacation as much as possible." I reasoned since we are so close to Blood Stalk's goal.
"...Fine..." They seemed reluctant but ultimately decided to go with the flow.
.
We walked around looking and taking pictures of the city and its residence.
There honestly wasn't much here in terms of unique buildings. But it was fun just going around doing nothing important.
Sometimes you need an off day to clear your head.
I kicked a bottle that was lying on the ground and it rolled a little bit away. We then went to pick it up.
"Not a lot of tourist traps here hun." I said a little disappointed at the lack of places to take pictures.
The only cool place was the docks where we arrived from. Still, it not the destination but the journey when it comes to having fun like this.
"How about we go spar in that open field." Rod said pointing to a field to our left. It had a fence post round it.
"Alright alright." I said since he is so encouraged by the idea.
"I want to test something first though if that is alright." I asked for permission
"Sure. What?" They both answered at the same time.
I put the bottle on one of the posts and walked away.
"Pleas stay behind me while we do this and try to protect your ears. I have no idea how loud it will be and it could be dangerous ." I said warning them briefly.
"Alright, lets test the new bottle. Trial one." I said while Blood Stalk got the new bottle and readied it into the gun.
"Camera!" The steam gun announced and glowed blue for a moment.
"Lets see what you can do." I said in anticipation.
I readied the gun and fired at the bottle on the post.
A blue ball shot out of the barrel and hit the bottle.
"Hun, nothing happened?" I said as I tilted our heads and then I notice something different about the bottle.
"No way." I said walking over to the bottle while Njord and Rod were confused as to what happened.
"Is this your weapon?" Njord asked in astonishment.
"When he used it before it took that shark apart. I saw it with my own eyes." Rod said wondering what we did, not understanding how our weapon worked.
"Here take a look." I said gesturing them over.
When they arrived the finally understood why happened. Though their eyes couldn't believe it.
The drinking bottle is now in a 2D frame an is practically invisible at some angles.
"How is this possible?" Rod said poking the bottle and the 2D frame broke, immediately shattering into pieces. The bottle turned back into 3D space but seemed to be cracked as well.
"Hey, carful you could cut yourself like that." I said worried about them.
"Sorry. Sorry." Rod said apologetically while Njord looked at the cracked bottle.
"From just a finger?" Njord questioned under his breath.
Blood Stalk put our left hand over our chin as if they were thinking about something.
.
"Yeah. Can I see your weapon?" Rod asked me and I turned to look at him along with Njord.
"Do you know how to use it?" I asked seriously.
"No?" He replied back hesitantly.
"Then that's your answer." I said simply.
"What? Why? I just want to look at it." Rod asked in protest.
"If you want I can teach you how to use it safely first, though it will be time consuming. Like an hour before you even touch it at least." I said to him while he looked shocked. Blood Stalk seemed to tilt our head as if they were confused as well.
"I already saw how you do it. I don't really think its that hard. I can swing a sword or an ax fine if you mean I an't strong enough." He said back with ignorance.
"Do you know how much it takes to kill a person?" I asked making the mood a bit heavy. Njord seemed put off a little by my question.
"No. What does that have to do with anything?" He asked me back confused.
"5 pounds of pressure. That's it, that's all it takes. 5 pounds to take a life." I say thinking about my mom first teaching me about how to use a gun. I was brutally long lectures and safety checks just to get an unloaded pistol in my hands.
"It means that even a child can have the power to kill if they have the will to." I say while looking at my brothers gun in our hand pointed away from everyone. Thinking back at how my brother and I needed to learn about guns and their mechanics inside and out. Though this steam gun is a special circumstance, it's purpose remained the same.
Blood Stalk seemed to do something but I didn't pay attention and continued.
"Unlike a sword or an ax which could be used to chop wood and other things. A gun doesn't have any other use other than to kill. It doesn't care what or who. It doesn't have a will of its own. It just does what it is tolled and nothing else. It needs complete respect and understanding to make sure you don't accidently kill yourself or anyone else." I say in a serious non-negotiable stance.
Rod seemed to understand a little and put one of his hands over his head.
"Sorry if I offended you. Maybe just the spar without weapons would be good." He said politely to which I agreed.
"Sure, No offence taken." I said in response with a lighter tone, lifting the mood up from the tense atmosphere.
I hate to be harsh on them since they have been helping us, but I don't think handing a gun with seemingly unlimited ammo and limitless destructive power to someone who has never seen or even known about gun's before is a good idea. I can't even turn it off for him to hold since it could miss fire and might accidently hurt someone.
We walked to opposite ends of the field, about ten steps or so from each other and readied ourselves.
"How do we decide who wins and looses." I asked for the rules of this spar.
"Let's see. I know. Who ever can't move or get up after 10 seconds." Rod said carefree and without much thought.
"Sounds good to me." I replied back a little nervous since I don't really fight hand to hand.
"Good..." Blood Stalk replied in a agitated tone.
I stretched a bit and Rod jumped up and down while shaking to loosen up, he then held a fighting stance I wasn't familiar with. His left arm was sideways while his right arm was down.
I took a boxer like stance with our right arm. Our left seemed to be at our side with the palm open.
Njord acted as the ref and held his hands in the air, ready to signal the start to the brawl.
"Alright. This match will begin when I drop my hands." Njord said to which we both nodded in agreement.
We were staring at each other waiting for the hands to drop with the sun above glowing yellow.
"Ready. Fight"