The Face: Tournament of Death, Chapter Twenty

"Ah, so that's what that diabolical fiend is up to!" I gasped, quite intrigued, while visually etching the verbal information into a sketchbook in my mind.

Devon Bowen had finished his story, and heavily breathed in the oxygen around in for his supply ran low, as blood continued to seep from his wound.

"Hey Hunteress!" I cried back over to the cell to the left of me. "Think you can break out of the roof with your unbridled brute strength?" I wondered.

"Very funny...but don't you think I would've tried that already? I need a recharge from one of my vials..." she answered.

I began to think, think of a way to somehow escape from my padded prison cell and save the others. After careful deliberation, I seemed to spot a very important factor. While the Hunteress' handcuffs were metal-clad and bound tight, my own hand restraints were made of rope, easily able to cut through, for they must have run out of metal cuffs.

Another important observation was the appearance of a gap between the floor and the wall between the cell. It was quite small, but large enough for a hand to fit through.

Quickly I mouthed to Hunteress, "Do you have your spear, anything sharp?" I asked her. Hunteress shook her head. "Don't you remember? They confiscated our weapons..." she replied.

Using my expert detection skills, I made another important discovery. "What about your necklace. The one around your neck? Are those some sort of teeth?" I asked, pointing to a ringed necklace upon the neck of the blond woman. She lowered her head to the position I pointed.

"Yes, those are tiger fangs. Fangs that I retrieved after defeating two lionesses." My eyes widened in intrigue. "Wow," I said, quite impressed. "I have an idea!" I said to her.

Carefully I whispered to her for her to lie on the ground so that her neck was as close as possible to the gap beneath the wall that separated our padded cells. I then proceeded to lean my back against the wall, with my tied hands behind my back, and lower myself into a sitting position upon the ground.

I reached as far as I could into the next cell, carefully feeling for the sharp fanged necklace, in hopes of retrieving it. With my gray gloves on, it was difficult to tell, but I had felt something very soft, thin, and grainy, and began to slightly feel more of it as I moved about. "That's my hair you dumbell," she said.

"Oh, sorry about that," I said, continuing to search for the necklace. Finally, after some trial and error, I grasped onto the sharp fang, and began to tug on it. "I only need one...maybe I could just..." I whispered, continuing to pull. I tried to pull harder, and perhaps rip the fang off, but to my dismay it would not work. I then heard coughing from behind me. "Quit choking me!" the Hunteress cried angrily from the other side. "Oh, right!" I said. I then hooked my finger through a piece of the loop of the necklace. Carefully, I attempted to pull it off.

After some struggle, I began to hear some sort of groaning noise behind me. "Hello! Still choking me!" she aggressively whispered. I, still grasping the necklace, replied, "Well, just maneuver your head! I almost have it!"

She did just that, and while on the ground, she turned herself vertically to the cell wall that separated us and I was then able to retrieve the necklace from her neck.

As best I could, I upturned one of the fangs on the necklace to point toward me, and slowly shifted it beneath the rope, and began slicing away. "This could take a while..." I said, busily at work.

Taoyu cautiously draged the wounded Kristy throughout the temple grounds until she reached the thick patch of bamboo poles, and a familiar face amongst it. There awaited Panda, who quickly drew near to her master to see what was wrong. She whispered to her faithful friend, "Listen, Panda, our friend here is hurt. We need to find her a safe place, and someone to treat her!" She explained. The young bear nodded in assumed understanding, and perched upon the ground on all fours to let the passengers on.

Carefully, Taoyu hoisted Kristy upon the mobile bear. But suddenly, a ruffling of leaves could be heard from within the bamboo. An asian head popped out from the small forest and peeked at the private party. "Hey, what's going on here!?" He wondered. "Hi-YA!" Came a loud cry from the pretentious little girl, with fist flying into the jaw of the unwelcomed visitor.

The martial artist, dressed in his white robe, clutched his mouth and began to whimper. "Ah...ah...I was just looking for people to hang out with...waaaah!" He whinnied, scampering away like a frightened rabbit.

She then hopped onto Panda and issued for their departure.

After what seemed hours, I finally was able to undo the rope that witheld my hands. "At last!" I cried in triumph, freeing my fists from restriction. I quickly turned my head and got up to inform the Hunteress, in the next cell, but was apalled to see her drowsily unconscious upon the floor.

I knocked on the clear windowed wall furiously to get her attention. "Don't go to sleep on me now!" I cried.

Hunteress, still on the ground, shook the sleepiness from her head, and looked up. "It took you long enough..." she said wearily. "Hurry now, get the vial from my left pocket," she directed me.

I attempted to do just that, as I reached below the lower, opaque part of the wall into her side. With her help, I was able to successfully retrieve the small vial filled with green chemical in my hand.

"Okay! Quick, give me a few drops!" she told me, still upon the ground. But then I had a wandering thought. "Hmmm," I examined the vial. It occurred to me that I could just as easily drink the substance, and come a super-strong heroic patriot myself at the flick of the bottle. "I have an idea, why don't I drink it?" I said, putting the inch and a half high vial up to my faceless face.

"No!" She screamed. "You wouldn't be able to handle it!" she warned. My mind began to drift off, considering such possibilities, but I decided it was not my style. "Ok, ok, fine Ms. Possessive," I said. "Just get ready for it," I told.

I then reached my hand down beneath the wall once again and slipped my vial-grasping hand through to give her the drink. "To the right!" She directed. I moved my arm to the right. "No, left! A little more. Wait go up! That's too up! Go down! Wait...that's no good, up-right! Hold on...down left!" She continued. My arm moved in fastidious motion as I began to become confused at the many directions she spoke. "Make a 360 degree motion, then stop, and move down 2 inches! Then pick your hand up, and swirl left!" By this point I was beginning to get annoyed. "Dagnabbit! I'm just gonna pour it!" I yelled.

Then I shifted the vial downward, outpouring the small batch of fluids that seeped below. I heard a girlish shriek pierce my ears as the substance made contact, but to where I was not sure.

"Argh! You idiot! You poured it into my eye!" She yelled. The Hunteress frantically tried to wisp away the chemicals that had mistakenly fallen into the sensitive areas of her pupils.

"Keep it down back there, can't a person be wounded in peace!" Shadow D said.

I quickly leapt to my feet, and looked over to the next cell to view the commotion. I saw the Hunteress swiping at her eyes to weed out the chemicals, all while her eyelid blinked furiously and it began to water.

"Ah, don't cry!" I said. She growled in anger, and she became emblazened with furiousness once again. "Don't worry!" I said. "I think some of the blood vessels in your eye have absorbed the chemicals! You should be up to speed now!" And I was truly on the mark on that notion.

Her strength had returned, and her revitalized energy enabled her to break free from her metal restraints, as her arms were held high in the air with broken cuffs on end. She then threw herself against the door to the cell, which flung wide open at her expense, and she proceeded to knock down the door to my cell.

"Whew, that wasn't too bad, was it now?" I asked her. But she did not answer. She instead stared with angry eyes, and grabbed my collar and whisked me into the other direction. I crashed against some large canisters and could feel brewing pain once again.

"Now let's not be too hasty!" I said, trying to calm her. Her finger pierced me. "Don't ever do that again!" She threatened.

I raised my arms in an apologetic gesture and said, "Judging the circumstances, I don't think I'd be doing that many times in the future..."

But without warning, the door flung wide open as we both turned our heads to see five guards rush in to see to the boisterous vexation.

Making no hesitation, the Hunteress leapt at her enemies, and seeing this, I charged behind her. With one swoop, she was able to take out one guard with a flying kick, then another with a sweep to the feet, and a third with a jab to the face. She ended her bout with a knife thrown at another young martial artist, who was pinned by his robe to the wall. The last one was left for me, as I charged with elbow forward into the guard's gut, and then jabbed at his face to knock him on his hind.

"Hmm, I wonder why these nameless guard villains are so easily defeated..." I wondered. "That's easy," Hunteress replied. "They're not credited cast memebers." She then stuck the wooden end of her spear into the gut of a fallen guard to make sure she was right.

But before restoration occurred, a brown, curly-haired man with a scar upon his cheek entered through the doorway stout in manner and viewing the untidy mess. "What have you done here?" he said in his majestic, los voice.

"Another one?" Natalie wondered. "This should be easy..." she then rushed forward with leapord-like lightning at the next guard with full force. But the guard stood resolutely, and commenced his stance, easily blocking a punch to the face with one hand, and grabbing the Hunteress' arm to subdue it. Not a second later, did he strike with the Hunteress sailing through the air backward past me and into the wall behind.

The man stood, with detrmination in his eyes as well as a strong will. "I am Huoreh, bodyguard of Master Shran. No one gets past me," he bellowed, pointing to himself.

I looked back to the stout, solid figure, and put a hand to my chin. "You know, I don't think I'm going to try anything just yet..." I wisely chose. After all, this wasn't one of those uncredited nameless guard villains that we so easily thrashed.

Hunteress slowly got up and rubbed her head to recover from the sudden blow. Huoreh eased his stance and perked up. "Hmm, I'm surprised you aren't dead, young woman. That was my touch of death, your life could have ended at that moment. You must not be any ordinary fighter."

She stood upright, as if she was fine. "You bet your curly-headed face I'm not," she replied. "By the way is that your face, or did your neck throw up?" She taunted, but soon fell limp upon the ground, putting a hand to her chest.

"Buahaha!" Huoreh cackled joyously. "So you did feel the detrimental effects of my touch of death. Fortunately for you, there's plenty more where that came from. And you'll never know when it truly strikes! Muahaha!"

After his eventful laughter, Huoreh held his hands up high, and planted his feet in his deadly stance; poised as a bull ready to charge furiously at his defenseless target...