Chapter 20: Lars vs Jeff Part 4

"Those damn kids!" Seymour groaned jumping through the forest of Nautica Valley. In the distance he saw Lars and Jeff squaring off with a group of kids behind them.

Landing in a set of bushes, he got a closer look at the situation.

"How…. how did that happen?" Lars asked "How did they kill Pb's parents?"

Seymour planted his feet ready to spring into action and break up the fight.

"This has gone on far enough-"

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" A voice yelled pulling Seymour back down.

Seymour turned to his right finding Grant sitting in the bushes watching the fight.

"Colonel! What are you doing her-"

"Can you quiet down, I'm in the middle of groundbreaking research here" Another voice said from behind him.

"OBrian!" Seymour said. "What even you MR. Bene? What are 3 Agents doing watching these kids fight! Someone could get hurt!"

"Is he always like this?" O'Brian asked General Grant.

"Heh thats Simone for yah, always going by the book." Grant answered.

"It's SEYMOUR!!!" Seymour yelled "Speaking of books! Where did you learn to read!"

"Did you hear that?" Lars said to Jeff.

"Hear what?" Jeff answered.

"Nevermind! Just tell me what happened to PBs parents!"

"What does it matter to you!" Jeff yelled angrily shaking his hands at Lars "You've got enough to worry about right now!"

Lars , realizing the small window of downtime he had, took a step back and rethought his position in the fight.

"I just don't get it.... I was I was able to knock out PB with that attack... A shield of liquorish should be no problem, how do I..." He thought

"YOU'RE TOO FAR AWAY" 6 yelled to him. "The farther away your attack is from your body the weaker it becomes! Over time, the amount you can control and the distance from yourself are directly correlated! You have to stick to hand to hand for now, you haven't mastered ether control yet!"

"I see," Lars said. "Well considering he can make licorice come out of any part of his body, approaching him isn't going to be easy!"

Lars stretched out his arms reaching out to draw the water towards him again.

"Thats right! I'm going to make it even harder for you to do that!" barked Jeff

The huge bands of liquorish expanded out into a giant whip homing in on Lars 's position.

"Shit!" Lars grunted

He dodged to the side, but the liquorish changed directions landing a strong blow on to his stomach.

"Got you!" Jeff yelled

Sticking the liquorish to Lars's belly, the strand smashed him into a nearby tree, splintering wood everywhere. Lars slammed through a tree, as he was dragged across the ground and thrown into a boulder, leaving a giant creator inside the rock.

"Baby Blue!" B yelled

"Cmon get up!" Reggie yelled

"Ax!" 6 yelled

Gasping for air, Lars struggled to convince himself he hadn't just been hit by a truck.

Before he could stand back up, he was knocked over again by a fist-sized licorice, slamming into his face, smashing him into another tree. One after another the thick strands delivered heavy blows to Lars's body, dragging him all over the battlefield. After at least a dozen blows Jeff stuck the liquorish to Lars's stomach once more.

"I'm not holding back!" Jeff yelled.

His liquorish dragged Lars through the forest crashing him through dozens of trees before bringing him into the sky.

"AXEELLLL!!!"

Booom!

In a devastating pin drop out of the air, Jeff smashed Lars down into the gorge of bushes before the strands finally returned to his head.

"Damnit!" Jeff said gritting his teeth "I smacked him too far away! Now I'm going to have to go in and find him!"

"Uhhh" Lars coughed, recovering from the barrage. "This isn't good. He has too much control over his strands on his head… and they are so heavy and violent." "Unlike the ones on his arm it seems these strands can extend much further without compromising power… as well as his ability to recall them back, which prevent him from having to wait for them to grow into place. I need just a little more time."

"Alright Ax! Come out of those bushes! Don't make me slice the whole thing apart with my sword!" Jeff said drawing out his licorice saber.

Lars rolled onto his stomach and knelt into a crouched position staying low into the bushes. As he came to his feet he noticed a strange feeling coming from the bottom of his leg like there was something stuck to it.

"You leave me no choice!" Jeff said slashing away a section of the bushes.

As Lars looked down to examine his pants more closely he realized that there were a bunch of licorish shards on the outside of his pants.

They weren't the sharp needles like shards they had been before, they were now bent and curved on his drenched pants. It looked as the hairs of a maroon colored cat had been grinding up against his leg.

"How are they on my leg? Have I gotten hit and yet didn't notice?" Lars thought "No... They would have penetrated the skin…."

"Come out Come out!" Jeff said drawing closer to Lars's position. It wouldn't be longer before he found where he was.

"Wait…. Maybe I was dragged on the ground and picked them up during that attack."

He looked back at the path he had been knocked around, finding that all the prickly liquorish from earlier was on the other side of the shore, meaning he hadn't been hit anytime soon, he must have been hit earlier.

"Wait a minute" Lars remarked. "It was at that time after I had blocked Jeff's attack… I splashed myself with water! That was when these shards must have gotten on my leg, but why aren't they hard?"

Lars picked up one of the shards, and drenched it in water. He watched as the shard slowly inflated and became floppy.

"Haha Bingo!" Lars said "I know how to win this fight!"