Watching as the murderer just walked back into the darkness, the two were conflicted about their next course of action, either kill each other or walk into the home of the beasts and kill the boss monster while being on alert.
"Don't even try to kill me. Remember how easy it was to put a knife against your neck earlier."
The young master cautioned.
"Hey, I wasn't even thinking about that, besides I could have escaped earlier if I wanted to. You know, with my SKIP teleporting me and all" Tess countered.
"Right, if you say so. Besides how does your SKIP work. Do you like have to see where you teleport to. Can you teleport to the sky, or underground."
Seeing a genuine curiosity on his face, Tess decided to enlighten him about the details of the skill.
"Hmm. When I activate the skill it's like I see a gray image of my surroundings in my head. The locations I can teleport to are all gray and empty, sort of like the air, while the obstacles in my area are given a dark, featureless form. Also i always appear in the posture and style I was in pre-teleportation. "
"That's neat if I'm being honest. It literally covers all your blindspots. No one can sneak up on you again. Your basically an assassin's worst nightmare, with your RESISTANCE skill and all."
"Yeah I guess it's cool. Too bad both can't be active at the same time."
"Yeah. I mean can you imagine some deadly combo's that could be made."
"Speaking of skills, you never told me what your other one is."
"Oh. It's a simple skill which slows down the time within a specific range around me. Those caught in it don't feel slow, they only feel like I've gotten faster. Neat right."
"Yeah."
They soon found themselves at the mouth of the cave, and after a brief exchange of looks, they entered.
"Tess, do you think maybe you could use SKIP to scan our surroundings without actually teleporting."
The young master asked Tess since the cave had blocked the faint purple light being shed by the NIGHT sky.
"What. No way. That would leave me defenseless if I don't react in time. Better to stick with RESISTANCE for this one."
"Please Tess. The cave is dark and you are the only one with 'eyes' that can see. Besides I'll just drag you out of harm's way by either floating you around, or slowing time."
"Okay, but only under one, no two conditions."
"As long as it's in my power, I done see why not."
"Great. First I want your other katana since it seems like you're not going to use it, and I need to kill mosquitoes to refill my energy for the skills."
"Well that's seems fair. Just make sure not to cut yourself with it. I had it forged with some ancient techniques mixed with modern technology, so it's sharper than you think.:
"Okay Mr ninja. I'll make sure to keep your clan's ancient treasure safe", Tess said with a wink. "For my second request, I ask that you make me fly with your TELEKINESIS, just don't put me directly above you. Wouldn't want your pedophile tendencies to act up after seeing my body up close."
"Girl, you have a few screws loose. You're not a child and I'm not into children either. I'm also not into flat women so don't worry, you're safe. Unfortunately, flying you about would leave me vulnerable since I can't slow down time with my other skill."
"Well I guess we'll both be vulnerable then, and for the record, it's rude to call a woman flat, and also I'm not flat. Maybe you've just been around too many cows "
Ignoring her rant about his taste in women, the young master weighed the pros and cons about this partnership before agreeing to it.
It was better to move a bit slower but still see, than moving fast but blind.
Mentally wrapping his energy around Tess, he slowly lifted her up from the ground before gently swaying her from side to side, her excited screams lifting up the dreary mood of the cave.
"Woah, man this is cool. I'm flying, I'm actually flying. Charles why don't you come up here and join me."
"Unfortunately I can't. For some reason I can't wrap myself with the TELEKINETIC energy, hence I can't fly."
"Hehe, sucks to be you", teased Tess from the air.
"You know…, it's not really a good idea to tease the one keeping you afloat."
"Oh really. And what exactly can you do, huh."
"This", saying that, he made her fly to him upside down at full speed until they were only a few minutes away.
'Hmm, maybe she's not really flat after all.'
Taking an accidental peek at the twin hills, a holy site for most straight men.
After he had gotten his fill of apologies, he set her upright again and chose to ignore the 'big bully' that she had muttered.
"Let's get to work, Tess. There are slightly more than 3 hours and 30 minutes left on the timer."
And with that, they began their bug-hunt.
Their teamwork proved to be effective, Tess located the mosquitoes and he flew his katana in to kill them, leaving some injured for Tess to finish off and replenish her energy.
This dynamic kept going on for a while, no sign of Frederick at all and that really bothered the young master.
"Hey Tess, mind if we retrace our steps a bit, just wanna check something out."
"Sure boss."
His suspicions were confirmed after they visited each of the sites where they had killed mosquitoes and found nothing.
No dead bodies.
"F*ck. The bast*ard's using us to farm his strength."
"What are you talking about, Charles."
"Don't you see, Tess. He's absorbing the bodies of the mosquitoes with his SWALLOW and getting physical boosts from them."
"Sh*t that's bad. We're basically making him stronger so that he can kill us more easily. Sh*t, Charles what do we do."
"The only thing we can. That is to kill the boss as quickly as we can and wait for the timer to run out."
Accepting their situation, they turned back and returned to their hunt, not seeing the black helmet facing their direction from the wall on their right.