Chapter 42 The Goon Squad

"What now?" I said looking to the side seeing three silhouette walking up to us. The one in front had pointed ears along with a medieval sword and shield. The one on the left had some scars across their face and was holding two daggers, one in each hand. Then there was a much smaller one on the right with metallic gloves and a small dagger on their hip.

"You. Do you have any idea how much trouble you put us in?!" The long eared one yelled as they approached us.

"No? Who are you?" I asked as politely as possible while trying to organize my thoughts. Where did Sine go after disappearing like that. So far that devils popped out of nowhere, killed a bunch of monster and it just left without explaining anything.

"We were the ones forced to escort YOU to our precious-." The pointy ear may yelled before a hand grabed their face to cover their mouth.

"Wait wait wait. Are you sure this is the right guy? We can't let anything slip if it isn't." The one with the scar said quietly but because of the higher ceiling it echoed loudly.

The pointed ear person slapped the hand away from their mouth before speaking. "Don't touch me. You know I hate it when anyone touches me, and of course this is the jerk. Everyone of the waiters we interrogated said the guess was a red knight and had an emblem on his face. This guy has red armor with a weird face plate, like an emblem. Ergo, this is the guy we have to bring back." The pointed ear person said with an agitated face while gesturing to us. I 

"There could be more than one. We have to be carful since we can't let anyone know about our mistake. " The scar man reasons while backing away from the pointed ear man

"What's the point? Its already past breakfast. Our beloved must already know we failed our simple mission because of this nobody knight. At least this way we can redeem ourselves."

"Who in Orario would want to cover their face. That's the worst way to get recognize and would be so much harder to become a celebrity. Only people up to no good wear a mask like Ragnar." The shorter person said in the middle of their back and forth.

"Do you have any idea what their talking about Blood Stalk?" I asked for there elaborate commentary that they are known for telling. 

"I... don't care." The said back harshly while looking at the pointed ear person. I guess they didn't like whoever they were. Either that, or it because of that comment on our suit.

"THEY SEEM PRETTY DUM. but fun to watch." Another voice said which came from behind. 

"Sine?" I questioned quietly as to not interrupt the argument. after a few moments a translucent upper body appeared in front of us upside-down with its thumbs pointing at its face. The entire lower part replaced with a green energy tail that led behand us.

"The One And Only. why, you miss me." The devil said in a quiet to match, or maybe mock my speech.

"Where did you go? You just disappeared out of nowhere." I said to them trying to both yell at them while not looking suspicious in front of the three strangers lost in their own conversation.

"OH YEAH! that.. Our Contract An't Exactly Written Yet. So I can only take a physical form for a very short while until we get that sorted. Funny how life works like that." Sine said with with a tone that changed with every sentence. " You Need To Install Some Better Games In Here. There're only stupid button pressing ones with little bones everywhere and they are BORING! Wonder if there's a music player anywhere." The self proclaim demon complained with the sounds of things being thrown around in the background.

"Ok, how do we make one?" I asked since this demon should know where this contract is.

"Might be on my page?" Sine said with while mimicking my voice and demeanor but upside down holding a gem we collected.

.

Our body sat down as the conversation continued without us. Blood Stalk seemed tired after fighting all of those monsters.

I look at our left hand and see a hole in the suit. Blood was dripping out of it as a metallic liquid slowly started to repair both the skin and the sleeve itself. I then see pieces of the gigantic tree still burning with green fire all around us.

"Oh OH! Grab One Of Those Sticks. I could use them for something. Probably." Sine said with an excited tone distracting me.

"You just want something else to play with." I said as I slowly started to figure out what this devil wants.

"Got Me." The demon said not even trying to hide its intentions. Blood Stalk still grabed it and put the still burning wood behind us.

I open up the system and click the ReVice page to see if there was some kind of contract we need to complete in order to fix the devils problem. I click around the bathhouse until I hit the green stamp which caused a transition with flying yellow paper to cover the screen until only a single page remained with the stamp next to it.

"You just need to set some terms and conditions. like the cost of bringing us out and junk. these are some nice looking rocks you have here by the way." Sine said with a jovial sounding voice since it found something new to play with.

"Us?" I said with confusion.

"I told you. There Are More Being In Here Than Just Me. And some of them don't like that fact all to much. So write very carefully. WHO KNOWS! could be a matter of life and death." Sine finished its sentence with a cold tone before going silent.

"I thought that was a joke. There are actually other beings inside us besides you?" I said to which I didn't get a reply to.

'How am I supposed to know what to write?' I thought while looking at the page and deciding to hold it off until we get the other problem out of the way. I turn my attention back to the three men still arguing with each other and decide to interject.

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"Do we get a say in this?" I asked while raising our right hand since their conversation seemed to go nowhere.

"Shut you mouth. Your the reason were in this mess to begin with." The pointy ear one said while pointing at us while squatting. Why did you ask us then if you were just going to 

"We don't know that for certain." The scar faced one said while looking mentally tired.

"Were you the one that left the top floor of babel tower this morning?" The shorter one said. Now that I look at them closer they seemed to be a child.

"Dude, what did I just say." The scar face man started to yell at the small kid.

"You mean the skyscraper above us? Yah, that was us." I answered honestly to him since the kid seemed the most well mannered of the three, Ironically.

"SEE! they admitted to it. Your argument is no longer valid." The pointy ear man said with pride and an obnoxious sense of superiority.

"Fine. You win. So let just grab them and get out of here. I don't want to spend any more time down here."

"Great. After this I want to get something at the pub." The kid said which caused me a bit of concern about that.

"Its eleven in the morning man." The scar face man said with pity.

"I mean for the food man." The shot man said with a grumble. That makes a bit more sense.

"Sure, whatever you say." The scar faced man said back with a dead tone.

"Hold on, we haven't found my-" I was about to talk before getting interrupted again.

"You don't have a choice. So follow us back up or." The pointy ear person was talking before they stopped and turned to the other two. "Actually, because of all the trouble he caused us. What do you say we teach him a lessons about disrespect and wasting others time." The person said as a lightbulb lit up above their head.

"We could chuck it up to how we found them or special training I suppose, but keep it within reason. I don't want us to get into more trouble than we already are." The scar face man said with a sense that this was going to happen no matter what and just wanted it to be over soon.

"After all, what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon." The short one said with a grin while getting excited. I am starting to regret answering their question now.

The three readied their weapons at that moto and began to circle around us. I guess they didn't see our fight with the other monsters down here since they seem so confident. Either that or they just didn't care about the consciences anymore.

"Your definitely seem like a screamer so we'll try not to break any bones. I don't want to hear you crying all the way up from the 10th floor." The scar face man said while sharpening his knives on some rocks.

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"We should try and find an escape. Maybe a smoke screen with the octopus bottle." I said trying to make some suggestions.

"No... we fight." Blood Stalk said while raising the steam blade.

"Not this again. Fighting monsters and people are two completely different things and our track record for the peoples side is not the best." I said since I want to avoid killing anybody, a sentiment that Blood Stalk might lack.

"They want... to hurt us, so... we fight back." They said their reason for wanting to fight and I can see that their mind won't change.

"Fine, but we aren't going to kill anyone." I said while preparing to fight. I can't just shoot them 

"Hmm..." They replied back as if that was a disappointing answer.

"HAHAHA! this is going to be fun." Sine said with a shadow boxers stance.

"You should remember us since we might unfortunately be seeing each other often, My name is Alcazar, With these are my compatriots, Azure and Strixs." The pointed ear man said while pointing to the scar face man first and then the kid afterwards.

"You shouldn't tell him our names. Now I have to come up with another alibi." The Scar faced man said while looking more upset at that statement. I would be too if someone named me blue.

"He would have found out anyways. Its not like it really matters." The pretend kid whos name would be Strixs said while looking cocky.

"Enough talking, time for some revenge!" Alcazar yelled while charging at us with his shield up. We sidestepped out of the charge letting him pass us. 

I knife gets thrown towards our legs and Blood Stalk parries it with our own blade. The knife bonces upwards until it falls back into the hand of the scar faced man.

'These guys aren't going to kill us, they say after trying to stab our leg.' I thought as the pointed ear man turned around and tried to charge at us again. Is he dumb or does he think were dumb?

We try to side step again but this time we trip over something and fall onto our back. I look down and see the small man used their back to hit our legs, making us trip.

The scar man then kicks us in the head, making my vision blurry for a few seconds. The rest of them then started to kick us while we are down.

Sine throws a punch right into Azure forehead, but it just phases through. "Oh Right. intangible." Sine said with disappointment. Blood Stalk then turned the valve 

"Ice Steam!" The sound played as the ground beneath us froze beneath us. This made the three attackers back off for a moment, giving us some breathing room. As we move to the side Blood Stalk slashed at the sword in their hand causing them to drop it.

"They have a magic weapon." The pointy ear man said in anger as we moved further away.

"That Was A Pretty Bad Beating You Got. Maybe you should try, not that.'" Sine said while playing with our guitar ax whilst intangible.

"Stop playing with our stuff. Were in the middle of a fight." I said since the devil can somehow use stuff we are caring.

"Things Aren't Looking Good For You Two. Maybe you should use that one bottle you haven't tried yet to even the odds. Food For Thought." Sine said ignoring my statements with the the next item they pull out being the drumsticks.

"What bottle? " I said confused since I haven't used any bottle in this fight. 

"You Know. The one after you fought that bone whale in the cave. You didn't use that one yet." Sine said while making a shadow puppet of a whale with its hands and the sticks.

Blood Stalk pulls out a bottle that I feel like I've seen before but can't remember it well. It was a purple bottle with a four pointed star in the middle.

"I can't believe I forgot about this. Hopefully it can help us." I said as the three opponents start to line up behind us.

"Ninja!" The sound effect played as the bottle glowed purple. Three screens appeared again, one with a shuriken, one with a log and a smoke cloud, and lastly was an image of two silhouettes. 

I try to click on the first option, but then the scar face man launched another knife at us. Because of that I mist misclicked and instead hit the second option. The knife hits is in the back causing us to stager forwards.

"Hey Azure, we aren't suppose to kill him." The smaller one said with little care.

"Shut up. I hit them where their armor should normally be the strongest." The scar face man said looking a little shocked.

As they approached we suddenly disappeared in a puff of steam leaving only the flaming wood which now had the knife imbedded into it.

We then appeared behind them in another cloud of steam while kicking the scar faced man in the side of his head.

"What the? He can teleport?" The short man said in surprise at our sudden appearance.

The pointy ear man charged at us with his shield, trying to bash us away from his friend and into the wall. We kick the shield with our other leg as yellow and red lighting erupt from the impact. 

"Ha. Not so tough now that your the one with mud in your mouth." The pointy ear man said with vile in his voice. Like they had spoken from experience.

However when they looked at their shield, they noticed a kind of brand melted into the metal. It had a black and golden glow with spark of electricity slowly growing bigger. The shield started to get warmer and warmer as the symbol grew in intensity. The pointy ear man desperately tried to take the shield off after noticing that something was off. The shortest member took out his knife and cut the handle with and chucked the shield away before it was engulfed in flames, shattering into pieces.

"This guy's crazy." Alcazar said said as Azure started to get up. The three looked at us getting back up and seemed to get more nerves as they looked between each other.

"We just getting started." I said as Blood Stalk is struggling to get up again.

Just then a burst of wind rushed through and another person appeared holding a spear. They were tall and lean with a metal plate over one of their shoulders. they had grey hair and two wolf like ears above their head.

"I have to deal with another group of idiots trying to kill themselves." The mysterious spear guy appeared and kick the pointy ear man in the back, making him roll into the wall. "If you want to exit the dungeon alive then leave now." The 

"...Fine." The scar face man said while still dizzy from our last kick.

"Is that guy with you?" I asked since the new guy that appeared seemed to know them.

"I'd wish he wasn't. One of the biggest pricks in our familia. Allen Fromel." Alcazar said with a nasty tone while upside down. I guess they don't like each other that much.

"Guess that means we officially failed." Azure said while dusting himself of while ending his sentence with a defeated tone.

"Hope you don't die, knight." Was the last thing Strixs said before picking up Alcazar from the wall.

"Now, I got orders your going back up with me, and that I can break your bones if I have to. So come along quietly." Allen said while holding their spear up to point at our neck.

"I hate being popular."