Helen grabbed it and smashed it against the steering wheel. The white light that sparkled within it surrounded Helen and Phazed her away. However, it seemed that when Helen was whisked away, the sparkling light then headed straight for Peter. Unfortunately Ulicoth had seen it, and he threw out the hands of his disposable body and the light was thrown back and vanished. The assassin's eyes changed yet again and were glowing purple.
Peter recognized them, though from where he could not say at first. Then it came to him; it was in a shadow that he had seen them before, the darkest shadow that he had ever seen. It was the very thing that had haunted his nightmares for as long as he could remember. He was now remembering other things, bits and pieces; however, two stood out from the others, two with long grey beards. The one who held a staff tightly in his hands drew the most attention. It seemed that he was fighting the shadow. Then in his memories, he heard the one with the staff shout a name. He saw the eyes again and knew that this was no dream. It was real.
"I remember you," Peter said to the assassin. "I know your name," he said.
"Pray tell."
"Ulicoth. Ulicoth is your name."
Ulicoth clapped his fake hands as hard as possible. "Very good memory you have, my young friend. I'm impressed."
Peter wasted no time; he attacked first, sending two spells and four energy balls rocketing at his enemy. But Ulicoth's new body had been built for this in mind, and he jumped, dodged, and weaved his way past them, and a hand-to-hand fight was soon in full swing.
Ulicoth's reason for not showing in person was because he did not know how powerful Peter had become, so he thought that this test might prove fruitful. For if he got his way and Peter was to die, great. If Peter were to win, he would still have the advantage of knowing his strength, speed, agility and most importantly, how powerful this supposed savior really was.
Like the first assassin that attacked Peter, the appearance of this one changed. Its hair shortened until it had all retracted into its scalp. Its legs became longer and thinner, as did its arms, body, and hands. Its fingers and thumbs also grew longer, but only by sharp bone, which sickeningly cut though the thin skin.
As Peter watched the creature's transformation, he hadn't noticed that he too had changed. Now it was Ulicoth who was completely surprised by Peter's new appearance. Peter's hair was again mostly blonde with small streaks of it dark brown. His brown eyes changed to green and then to blue, which stretched out and covered the very whites of his eyes. The pupils of his eyes were black vertical slits, and he had claws sticking out of the tops of his fingers and thumbs and fangs in his mouth. His ears had grown pointed again, though now with three notches out of his earlobes. There were now also two long golden horns curved out at either side of his forehead. Yet the most shocking thing was the appearance of a silver and black scaled tail that was swishing to-and-fro. Then there was the pure power that he unleashed that almost knocked his enemy clean off his feet.
Ulicoth was still avoiding spell after trying to get close enough to release his own strike. While part of Ulicoth's soul inhibited that body, he could not use magic powerful enough to be a match for the young Draga-Wizard-Elf. That body was not intended to be used for that purpose. It could only fight as the assassin that came before. However, as before, this assassin could not be destroyed except by a curtain spell that only the creator of the body would know. That would not stop Peter from trying to kill the thing.
Ulicoth finally got what he wanted. He worked his way past
the energy balls and spells. Then he attacked with his long sharp fingers, but he was to slow. Peter dodged the swipe and jumped up to kick him in the face with his right foot. Ulicoth, who had seen him, anticipated this and was ready for it and caught the boy's leg with ease. Before the monster could do anything, Peter's tail whipped round and sliced deep into the right side of the assassin's face. A second later, it was in its chest.
Peter was released immediately. Just before he landed on his feet, he spun round and threw an energy ball, which hit the creature on the left side of the head. The blow blew that whole side of its head away, and the assassin flopped onto the road like a boneless fish.
Peter also fell, for the blast of the energy ball threw him off his feet. He was lying at the back of the black sports car, and he did not care where he was as long as the thing was dead. It was then he noticed something dripping from the back of the car. It took a second or two to sink in before Peter realized that it was blood. He got to his feet and hoped he was wrong, even thought that he should leave it until the police arrived. However, he heard no sirens and saw no flashing lights. He looked to see where Helen was, but there was no sign of her.
Peter stood wondering whether to open the boot of the car and see for himself. After a short time, his curiosity got the better of him. After all, if there is someone in there they might be hurt or worse, he told himself. So he opened the door of the back compartment as slowly as he could, still hoping that it was not what he thought it was.
At first glance, Peter had no idea what it was, but he soon realized it had once been human, and that without a doubt it was certainly dead. It was a body for sure, or at least it would have been before Mr. Slice and Dice had gotten to it. He stepped backward, but his heel dragged and he stumbled and fell again, only this time he felt physically sick from the sight of mangled, blood drenched corpse. He rolled over and heaved most of the contents of his stomach on the road three times in a row. And as he picked himself up he saw the assassin standing, its head quickly healing.
"What's wrong child? Can't you stand a little art?" laughed Ulicoth.
"That was a person you mutilated, whoever it was, and you call it art? I thought you were mad before, now I know you're nuts," said Peter.
The fight was resumed with Ulicoth moving fast as lightening and grabbing Peter and slamming his head into a lamppost and throwing him further down the road. The young future King jumped to his feet and made his way back. He did not have to go far, as Ulicoth, not wanting to waste any time, ran toward him. As Peter ran, the horrors that he had seen in the back of the black car flashed through his mind once more. No matter what else he thought of in those seconds, he couldn't shake those terrible images.
"What the heck is that thing?" he asked himself. "What the hell am I?"
In truth, Peter did not know who he was more afraid of, this thing that attacked him and his mother or the thing that he himself had become. One thing was clear to him, these questions would have to wait, for he would have to get rid of whatever that thing was, or he might end up like that poor person in the boot of its car.
"I'll have to kill it. But how?" he asked himself. But it was too late to answer this new question; Ulicoth was upon him.
They met halfway; Peter jumped onto the assassin, pushed his feet against its chest and quickly curled his left hand around its throat. It crashed to the ground and him with it. As he sat on top of the creature in the middle of the road, Peter held on as tightly as possible. When the creature's head hit the ground it split open. Blue blood gushed from it, and Peter balled up his free hand into a fist and started to pummel its face over and over again.
"DIE! DIE!" the boy yelled as the awful mental pictures of the mutilated body leaped back into his head.
The assassin's face, not to mention Peter's fist, were completely covered in the thick, blue blood.
Ulicoth did the only thing he could do and slashed his long sharp fingers across Peter's stomach. The boy jumped back high into the air, did a flip and landed on his feet with such a force that the ground cracked with his landing. He saw the mess that was the assassin trying to crawl away, and already it had begun to heal, but he was not going to give it the chance.
"I think it's ready for another ass-kicking," he thought as he moved to catch it. However, the sparkling white light that had whisked Helen away had come back and brought five other people with it. Four of them wore the uniforms of the Ves-guards, and the fifth was none other than the Grand Wizard, Jaucal. Jaucal stepped to Peter and gently touched the boy's shoulder from behind in a bid to stop him. In pure reflex, Peter, who had no idea who or what had grabbed, took hold of the Grand Wizard's hand and twisted his wrist.
"Please, you wouldn't hurt an old man would you?"
"That depends. Are you an old man, or are you and your friend's reinforcements for that thing over there?"
The Ves-guards, who clearly were not ready for Peter's retraction, lifted their wands in retaliation and complete confusion.
Peter tightened his grip. The Grand Wizard flinched.
"Do not point your wands at King Drago, unless you wish to be lying on the ground next to that creature. Put them away quickly," said the old Wizard.