The wasp Queen looked at Kai, who was smiling brightly. Something told her that she could not trust the gnome completely, but she had no other choice.
The army she had gathered was going to die off in ten days, tops, and a siege would surely last longer than that. Her mana told her that there were living goblins still behind the seemingly ruined gates, but she could not afford to order a charge.
Not even an aerial force such as hers could make it safely pass the poison the wind elemental had placed around the village.
"Brave hero!" She began, even as she could feel a bad taste in her mind. Oh, that man was no hero. Just one playing at one.
An ostrich made a disgruntled noise. The former terror birds had never been fans of her.
"With the power vested in me by Karma himself," the Queen looked at the illusion, then back at Kai. They were both playing their roles, they knew. "I pronounce you as a Wasp Hero! To be met with honey and nectar in every nest you come across!"
Kai nodded, bowing his head. Oh, the title was just as empty as the lie he had said.
As the Queen gave him a golden ribbon, he blinked. Wait… did the Queen really have a mandate approved by Karma himself?
The wasps flew away as one, Kai was left with a stunned Lin and a smirking Leo by his side.
"This went well, eh, Amias?" Leo murmured, as he placed the core on the ground. "Let me just help you out, ok?"
Kai watched as Leo filled up the marble with mana, the mud elemental forming up right before their eyes.
"Why?" Amias asked, as he stared in Leo's eyes. The wind elemental owed him nothing. They had fought against one another.
So… why was Amias now healthy and whole? Why did he have Leo's mana replenishing his own?
"Someone loves you enough to give you a name," Leo said with a shrug. "Besides, Leo is a nice name. I thank you for it. See you later, alligator!"
Leo dispersed in thin air, returning to the dungeon he had come from. Amias stared at the fumes left behind for a whole minute before grinning.
Kai rubbed the back of his head. Even a wind elemental had managed to get his romance moving faster than him. The gnome looked at Lin, who was smiling from ear to ear.
"All is well when it ends well, eh?" the fairy asked.
"Amias! Amias! The pig is wounded!"
All three turned around to see Gog coming back with the flying pig in his arms. The poor thing's wings were all chewed up, and its eyes were closed.
"Oh, no," Amias said. If the flying pig died like this, then Karma would take vengeance! Even if it had dismissed the animal from his employee!
Lin saw the ghost of the flying pig chained to the being's corpse. It was too late, no warmth was left in the pig's body.
Or was it?
"I can bring it back," Lin's voice cut through the silence. Not even the birds dared to announce themselves.
Karma was surely watching, ready to punish all those who had made it so that his champion had, for lack of better words, given up the ghost.
"Do you even know what sort of sacrifice that will take?" Amias asked. He had hope in his heart for the poor animal, but he knew that the Grimm Reaper was just as vengeful as Karma himself.
The two beings forced the world into a giant tug of war every other century or so.
"I will use a tree! The flying pig is a nature spirit! It will work!" Lin did not wait for anyone to approve his plan.
The fairy flapped his wings, rushing to a big oak with a thick trunk. It would not give the pig eternity, but before they found something better, it would serve.
Lin pressed his tiny hand against the tree's bark.
"No! Not that tree!" Amias yelled, but it was too late.
The corpse of the dryad fell from the tree, it blackened, no longer being a protector for the goblins, but just a dead and scorched tree.
The flying pig opened its eyes, looked at the fallen dryad, and then gave out a terrified oink.
Karma was really going to let them have it this time!
The pig tried to run away, but it's chewed up wing was not strong enough to support it. It looked at the skies, oinking every so often.
It could hear the flapping of wings. Knew what was coming for them.
The flying cow charged at them from the heavens. Its horns at the ready, their points sharpened to perfection.
If the flying pig had just been a messenger, then the flying cow was an avenger. The product of Karma's impatience with the pig's lack of radical action.
The cow was getting closer and closer.
Battlepaws had enough.
With a terrifying growl, the kitten took to the skies. The flying pig letting it do so out of fear, its hopes being laid on the kitten's sharp claws.
Battlepaws dug a claw in the cow's eyes, tearing the eyeball out. It bit off the animal's tongue, as it screamed. In a rare show of mercy, it bit off its trachea as well.
"Good riddance," Battlepaws thought to himself, as the cow crashed to the ground. The kitten looked at the flying pig, whose wings had healed.
Ah, so Karma had taken it back in his employee? All the better!
In the way only animals could communicate, Battlepaws stated the price of his protection. It was a steep one.
All the treats he could eat, a bag of catnip every week, for he did not want for his health to decline for this simple pleasure.
The flying pig took one look at the flying cow, whose corpse was cooling near the dryad's.
The undead flying pig knew that it had no choice. Battlepaws was given a mandate from Karma himself, with set delivery times. It was a daylight robbery.
Karma did not dare show himself. This was a demonic murder muffin.
He did not want to die…