Arik hit the ground in a muddy thud as the explosion of water rained down upon him. On his back and looking up to the soft pink morning sky, he saw peacefully drifting clouds moving overhead, complete with a dark splotch quickly growing in size. Before Arik understood what he was looking at, the splotch came into focus as a person, landing accurately on Rupert's stomach. The shock of their velocity zeroed out into the mass of the husk's rubber flesh.

"Didn't think you could get away from me for long, did you?" Gnoll prodded, his jagged smile curling in sick pleasure. "Your guys' plan just made you a sitting duck. Can't hide behind Cyanide out here."

The man was no longer covered in the black armor of the DES from the waist up. Instead, a dense layer of short brown fur with black spots coated an athletic upper body that had suffered numerous wounds of past and present.

The mouth of Rupert snapped closed as Gnoll attempted to grab at Arik's face. Just as before, Arik's vision began to shift and adjust through Rupert's own. Now that he was able to move his body effectively, he smacked both of the bear's nubby arms together, violently sandwiching the hyena man on his chest like a pesky bug. The forearms of Gnoll flared out just in time to block the arms and protect him from the full force, but a metal spike from the fingerless and mace-like left arm of Rupert gored Gnoll's shoulder, slowly drawing a dark blood.

'No way. He just blocked an attack from Rupert?'

The two's arms struggled back and forth for a moment, the spike in Gnoll's shoulder never once seeming to faze him as they matched strength. Then, a thick smokey air began to draw into the foe's mouth as he inhaled and opened up his toothy maw. The effect was like a video of a man smoking being played backwards, yet there was no cigarette, and this was no video. Thusly, this could surely only be another echo.

In a snap of speed, Gnoll drove forward and Rupert's arms smacked together, their prey escaped. Before Arik even knew what was happening, Gnoll had sunk his teeth into the center of Rupert's throat like a ravenous lion choking out its prey. But instead of breaking through the rubber flesh or depriving it of air that it doesn't breathe, the husk began to fizzle and dissolve under the influences of the vaporous bite. In less time than it took to think up a contingency plan, Rupert's entire head had disintegrated and Arik's was back to being wide open.

"Why the surprised face?" Gnoll stood up with mirth to observe his work. "Surely you didn't think you were safe in there? You already saw that the bear isn't a match for me. No, not when I can just eat the echo with one of my own." He chuckled as smoke began to draw toward his mouth once again.

The body of Rupert continued to disintegrate further down the torso, revealing more and more of the defenseless Arik. Rupert was unresponsive, and therefore Arik was harnessed inside, held down like a sick coffin, unable to run if he even had the opportunity.

"Now how about them eyes, huh?" Gnoll glinted his long claws before each of their faces, drawing nearer with deadly intent.

"You don't have to do this," Arik pleaded.

"Actually, I d—"

Gnoll's words were sharply cut off as a plume of crashing fire fanned out from every angle of his outline. He flew forward off of Arik and skipped a dozen feet across the ground, ending motionless, wreathed in smoke and embers.

As Arik stared at Gnoll's body in awe, he saw that the man was quickly reverting to a typical human form. His face molded back to normal and his singed fur shrank down to nothing, revealing rather tanned skin covered in countless scars.

"I see the dogs are running amuck."

Arik's attention defensively snapped to Bellanode who was approaching gracefully and carefully through the mud.

"Boy. I'll ask one more time, then I'm cutting off body parts. Where is Cyanide?" As she casted her threat, she swung her arm outward, a long and slender blade rapidly elongating from her palm and slicing the ground between them.

A golden shield of energy sprung to life on Arik's forearm in response as his face was equal parts fear and stubborn bravery.

The shield was met with narrowed eyes of agitation, their pink hue seeming to grow in contrast.

A light shuffle sounded off from Gnoll's direction. "A bit rude, don't you think?" He teetered to his feet, clearly in pain. "Shooting a man in the back? Rather uncouth of a warrior princess such as yourself, oh majestic Bellanode."

"You know, your proclivity for not staying down has always been one of my least favorite things about you," she replied. "Unless you want to eat a couple more fireballs, playing dead or running for your life is the smartest thing for you right now. I just want the boy."

Gnoll cracked his neck and let out a creepy yet signature chuckle. "What's the matter, don't like hot dogs?"

She rolled her eyes in disgust. "And your banter is the one thing I hate more."

"Besides," he carried on as his body began to grow with unkempt hair, "I'm not going anywhere. I need the boy too. And with the DES in the area, I think you should be the one running." His face cracked and snapped into the original visage of the hyena-man hybrid that was sure to haunt Arik's dreams.

Another sword matching the previous one quickly sprouted from Bellanode's other hand. "Sorry welp, but those letters don't scare me anymore. Even after they caught me I still managed to escape. Besides, what was our score again? 3–0: me?" A smile finally showed itself through Bellanode's stern face, her black lipstick easily conveying even the slightest deviations.

Gnoll crouched down like a predator preparing to pounce on its unwary victim. As he did, his shadow that sprawled out beside him began to animate and waver, stretching up into the three dimensional world like inky tendrils of shady matter. They coiled and danced together up to Gnoll's hands before materializing and taking the form of two jagged, black short swords. A dark fog rolled off of the gnarly looking weapons, a dead give away of their supernatural nature.

"That score is hardly fair," he inserted. "My mission has always been to capture and contain. Yours is to kill and escape. We are not the same."

"Oh? Those sound like the words of a loser. Care to try again? If you beat me you can bag both of us. Maybe your boss will give you a promotion. Perhaps they will even take your collar and set you free." Her words carried a condescending sting.

Gnoll choked out another chortle, this one with a bit more rabid energy, perhaps even rage.

"I wear no collar. I simply have purpose; a purpose that I will share with you soon once you are corrected by the Deft Eye."

"I'd like to see you try, mutt."

Gnoll sprung to action at her contemptuous diatribe. In a blur of almost imperceptible movement, Gnoll leaped up to a tree canopy, throwing sod up from where he once stood like a departing rocket. Before Arik could even fully lay eyes on the man, Gnoll had zipped to another tree, breaking the branches and shaking the top of the tree he was on previously. Gnoll flew through the air so fast with the cover of the leaves that the only way to know his location was through the vigorous creaking of the trees he leaped from and the occasional trail of darkness left from the swords he wielded.

Bellanode stood straight and bracing. Her eyes flicked around the trees as her smile grew wider and wider at her enemy's display. She didn't seem at all surprised. Which was a stark contrast to Arik's reaction.

'Are you kidding me?' he thought. 'I can't even see this guy. And I don't believe he is invisible this time. This is some kind of speed enhancing echo. It has to be.'

Arik was confounded by the idea of how many echoes these people had, and just how strong each of them were. It felt as if every time a deathless would unveil a new echo on their enemy, it was an assured win. How could it not be? How does one react to a move such as this? How can—

The shrill clank of blades connecting reverberated at Bellanode, immediately followed by a heavy thud and the explosion of dirt. Gnoll stood center in the cloud of kicked up debris, a shadowy blade perpendicular with Bellanode's silver own.

'Impossible! She actually reacted?' Arik clamored.

"You've gotten faster," Bellanode purred.