Chapter 898 (1/2)

In a way, the slow advance of the flaming bear was quite a bit less scary than the sudden appearance of the obsidian man. This was a threat that Ed could see coming, after all. If he had a mind to, he could turn and run with a reasonable expectation of escaping.

In another way, this was much scarier. Whereas Ed didn’t have time to move before, now he had no idea what to do. There wasn’t even a single idea for how to handle this threat that came to his mind.

The flaming bear raised a paw and swung toward the spectral lobster, which was rapidly backing away. Grimacing, Regina stepped forward and conjured a barrier in front of the apparition. But the shield only slowed the bear’s swing by a split second. Instead of being ripped in two, the lobster simply lost one of its forelimbs. Keening sadly, it continued to retreat.

Growling, the burning bear took several steps toward Regina.

I should help, Ed thought idly. Almost distantly, like what was happening wasn’t occurring feet away from him.

But before he could move, two figures cut across the square, slamming into the flaming bear. Surprisingly, the bear reacted quickly; it sent out two quick swipes of its paws. The figures responded to this threat differently.

The first hopped upward, touching the top of the paw and then spinning up to the torso to inflict several long scratches against the flaming ribcage. The second individual simply smashed into the paw, taking the force on directly. The impact was so strong that even Ed stumbled.

Roaring, the bear could only stagger backward several steps in order to regain its balance.

“Ohoho…. Truly sir, how remarkable. That you were only a hair slower than I…” A rather muscular man with elaborate gloves said to the other new arrival, stroking a rather large mustache. A very… familiar mustache.

“Tut… tut… to think you would mistake my impeccable timing for lateness… I suppose your lack of vision isn’t your own fault, but a result of deficient talent… As a fellow owner of a cafe in this area, I am concerned about the state of the neighborhood.” The other man replied as he hopped away from the burning bear and considered the surroundings, using one of his long knives to stroke his entirely identical mustaches.

The burning bear roared, drawing the attention of both back to it. Without a word, both surged into motion. For all that they were borrowing Ed’s mustache, they certainly knew how to fight. If Ed didn’t know better… it almost seemed like these two were even more powerful than the spectral beasts.

When they struck, bones cracked and shuddered underneath the assault. Likely the burning bear could overpower them, but the bear continued to try and protect the winged serpent, which had appeared some distance away and was now rapidly drawing runes onto the ground.

As those two steadily drove the giant bear backward, Regina took that opening to close the distance to the obsidian man and land another short blow on his body. Now that the winged serpent was distracted, the wolf and the brontosaurus circled around him as well, launching attacks at the obsidian man from several angles.

Very quickly, the entire square was covered in movements too quick for Ed to follow. With a cry, the brontosaurus that had been already slowed by the patches of ice on its body was struck down by the obsidian man. Groaning, the spirit collapsed and dispersed. Ed took several steps backward and would have likely continued to retreat if not for the sudden hand on his shoulder.

“Ohoho… is this perhaps a neighborhood association meeting for our ‘Breakfast Quarter?’” Ed spun around and found his own mustache busily twitching on another person’s face. Mrs. Hamilton winked at Ed. “To think I, Mr. Greene, a founding member of such a quarter, was not invited… truly, you new arrivals have no respect.”

“Apologies, Mr. Greene.” The muscular man kicked sideways off the back of the flaming bear and landed next to the pair of Mrs. Hamilton and Ed with an immaculate bow. “I don’t believe we have been introduced. I am Don White. I use they/them pronouns.”

“Of course, Don White.” Mrs. Hamilton flicked her hand and a bolt of something that Ed couldn’t even recognize shot sideways and slammed into the bear. Its roars had become decidedly less fierce under the combined assault of the two arrivals, and Mrs. Hamilton’s interference pushed things over the edge.

“Damnit…!” The obsidian man roared, shooting out several spears toward Mrs. Hamilton. Then he brought both hands down in a hammer blow on the head of the wolf, stunning it briefly. To Ed’s surprise, Mrs. Hamilton simply plucked the spikes out of the air and returned fire with several sharp bolts of energy.

“Retreat?” The serpent asked as it summoned a wall of ice that separated the burning bear from the man with the long knives. After a split second of hesitation, the obsidian man nodded. The serpent then began to wiggle strangely. “Step back. Commencing transfer-”

With an impossible amount of dexterity, the man with long knives scrambled up the sheer face of the ice wall and reached the top in a flash. Then he flicked one of his knives, end over end, until it sank deeply into the right eye socket of the serpent, even as a wave of cobalt energy covered the three enemies.

Then, with a pop and an infuriated hiss, they disappeared.

The knife-wielding man hopped down off of the slowly melting ice wall and began to brush the soot and dust off of his leathers. “Mr. Moon, here. A pleasure to meet you all. I suppose we should get this Neighborhood association meeting started?”

“Wait!”

One of the tables that had been knocked into a haphazard pile of debris wobbled and then toppled forward, revealing a singed and bleeding Slugworth. He staggered forward, barely keeping his feet. But the entire while, he straightened his sport coat. “As Mr. Jones, a fellow cafe owner-”

“Please, Slugworth, this isn’t the time,” Mrs. Hamilton said curtly. Ed twitched and turned around, only to see that his mustache was gone from all three of the other people’s faces. They looked serious as if there hadn’t just been several jokes made here. But there was a distinct twinkle in Mrs. Hamilton’s eye...

But her face was creased with lines. She turned to Paolo and Kayle. “Did you speak to Alana?”

“Yes,” Kayle answered. “This was the distraction. Or they had multiple goals and this one stalled out when it encountered Regina. Thank you, by the way. We wouldn’t have been able to catch up otherwise.”

“No worries.” Regina’s face was pale, but she grinned at the other two. “After all, I couldn’t just let Ed get turned into roadkill, could I.”