38 Second (1/2)
The blinding light slowly fade away, like a gradually dying fire. Hermione squinted her eyes.
”Why is his head still on?”
Nick had come out looking as though he was still perfectly normal, albeit a bit paler than a ghost should be. In fact the only abnormal thing about him was his face. Nick wore a bright cheerful smile.
”It's alright! Actually, I am amazed!”
”Did your head come off?”
”No! It didn't!”
”Then why are you so excited?” Asked Hermione.
”Because-” Nick grabbed his left ear and pulled causing his head to fall off and dangle. ”I got the amount of skin still holding my neck together to reduce by half a millimeter!”
Arth frowned.
There was half a inch of skin remaining on Nick's neck. Half an inch was about thirteen millimeters. Thirteen divided point five is twenty six. Nick had to repeat the process twenty five more times. And by the sight of how tired Nick seemed to be, he wasn't going to finish in a long time.
”Hermione... plan B.”
”What?”
”I'm going to decapitate Nick.”
”What!”
”His head will fly off.”
”I know what you meant! Why?”
”It's inefficient to let Nick sever his head by himself. I'm going to help him.”
”You aren't going to let him cut his own head off?”
”He's going to take too long. I'll make it happen faster.”
Arth grabbed the pendant on his neck and stared at Nick like a lion stalking his prey. The pendant grew into a four foot long sword and the blade started to glow with a menacing glare.
”What is that!”
”It's polymorph metal. It can change into any shape I want it to.”
”That is classified as a weapon! That's against the rules! Where did you even get it?”
”It was a gift from my parents. Anyways, it's going to help a lot when I behead Nick.”
”Didn't you say there might be unknown consequences?”
”But then again, there might not be any.”
”Excuse me, may I offer my opinion? It is my head we are talking about after all.”
”Instead of a week of spending effort to get rid of half an inch, I can finish it today.”
”Arth! You aren't being yourself! Stop it now!”
”Nope, I'm perfectly fine. I'm just curious of what would happen if I did cut his head off though... it's never been done before. It's absolutely fantastic.”
”... never mind. You are Arth.”
”Ummm, can you not ignore me please?”
”So will you allow me to cut off his head? I'll show you my notes and you can compare.”
”!!!”
Hermione gave in.
Arth smirked before turning to face a somewhat scared Nick. He never knew there would be a time where he would see a ghost scared. They were dead after all.
”Now look here boy, you can't just go around cutting off other people's heads. It's very disrespectful-”
There was a flash of steel as Arth sheathed his blade in a nonexistent sheath.
”...wait a minute, why are you putting away your sword before you even swung it?” Exclaimed Nick with a received expression. ”I thought your were going to cut off my head-”