Later that night, a cold wind blew over The Orphanage.
Pepe sat alone on the roof and shivered. He stared up at the star-filled sky. He clutched the red scarf and felt a wave of loneliness wash over him. He missed his mother more than words could say, and he silently wept. Both of his parents were dead. With The Guild gone, he was the sole protector of The Sacred Forest.
"You're not alone. Look around you," Ursa's voice reminded him with her final words.
Pepe instinctively looked down and saw his siblings.
Hafen, Stark, and Matteo prepared to depart for the mancave.
Pepe wiped the tears from his eyes and climbed down the side of the building. Stepping closer, he asserted, "We need to find who did this to her. The cloaked figures." His gaze was intense, and a fire burned in his eyes.
Matteo, Stark, and Hafen turned to him and nodded at once.
"We'll help you, Pepe. We have a score to settle with them, too," Hafen remarked.
They were no longer just apprentices, but a team, a new generation of protectors for The Sacred Forest. The weight of their new responsibilities settled upon their young shoulders.
"Let's go report to our master," Stark urged.
Pepe nodded and signaled to the orphans. "Pepi, Pepoto, watch over the others while we're gone," he instructed.
Pepoto gave a thumbs-up. "We will. And you come back safe."
"Be careful," Pepi warned with a concerned expression. She cradled her younger baby brother, Otso Jr.
After a long walk from The Orphanage, Pepe, Hafen, Stark, and Matteo arrived at Old Man Marcus' Man Cave. They pushed through the heavy curtain of vines and entered the main chamber of the mancave.
"Master," Pepe called out with a determined look.
A moment later, Old Man Marcus emerged from the forge. His face was smudged with soot, and his wrinkles emphasized his grim, focused expression. He wiped his hands on a dirty rag. His gaze swept over them. He nodded with a flicker of approval. "I'm glad to see you're all alive," he commented and questioned while narrowing his eyes, "Did you succeed?"
"We defeated Baby Zombie Prince, Prince Kain," Stark declared with a confident smirk.
"And we've learned to use our elemental weapons more effectively," Hafen added with a subtle nod.
Old Man Marcus stroked his beard. "Excellent work," he complimented with a faint smile. Then, he turned to Pepe. "What about you, Pepe? Did you defeat the other one?"
"The other one," Matteo queried. He tilted his head and turned to Pepe with curiosity.
"Yes, there's another one. A female giant baby zombie. The sister," Old Man Marcus divulged.
Avoiding everyone's gaze, Pepe looked down at the floor, and his shoulders slumped. "I failed," he mumbled with shame and confessed, "I lost my elemental lance in the battle."
"You failed," Hafen blurted out in shock.
"You're stronger than us! How could you fail," Matteo interrogated, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
Pepe frowned and elaborated, "I would have succeeded if a zombie bigger than my target hadn't intervened. She swatted me into a nearby cliff just when I was about to deliver the finishing blow." He sighed in relief and muttered, "I was lucky enough to escape."
Matteo's eyes lit up in realization. "Prince Kain's mom! We saw her, too. She just abandoned Prince Kain and walked away with a smaller baby zombie," he attested.
Pepe looked up at Old Man Marcus with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Master. I've failed you and The Sacred Forest."
Old Man Marcus placed a firm hand on Pepe's shoulder. "We all fail sometimes, Pepe. What's important is that you learn from your mistakes," he consoled. His face hardened as he placed a hand on his chin. "So, the queen of the zombies herself made an appearance. This is more serious than I thought," he commented, and a deep frown framed his face. He paced for a moment before turning back to Matteo, Stark, and Hafen. "You fought well, boys. As a reward, I have something for you," he announced.
Matteo, Hafen, and Stark watched in wonder.
Old Man Marcus walked to a large chest in the corner of the room. He opened it and pulled out three unique guns. "These are elemental guns," he explained. He handed one to each of the new apprentices. "Just as you did with your elemental swords, learn to wield their power. Master them well. I'm giving you Pepe's mission. Defeat Baby Zombie Princess," he commanded.
"Yes, master," Hafen muttered. He bowed and accepted the mission.
Matteo smiled and turned to Pepe. "What about Pepe? Will he be coming with us," he queried.
"Pepe will stay here with me," Old Man Marcus answered. He turned to Pepe and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I have a special mission for both of us, Pepe. We will look for Cassandra and bring her back," he proclaimed.
Pepe nodded in agreement, and a flicker of hope returned to his eyes.
Stark held the radiating pistol with a wicked grin. "I'm ready. Let's go now," he urged with a determined look.
Hafen, Matteo, and Stark bid farewell to their master and Pepe. They exited the mancave and entered The Dark Depths.
"Finally, another mission," Stark declared with a confident smirk.
"This is our chance to test our new weapons," Matteo noted with a delighted expression.
"We have to be careful. The baby zombie princess may not be alone. The queen may be with her," Hafen cautioned and pulled out his elemental gun from its holster on his hip.
Deeper in the shadows, a foul stench filled their nostrils.
Hafen sniffed the air and scrunched up his nose. "Something's not right," he commented.
The remains of small monsters littered a clearing. The bodies were gnawed on and picked clean. Shreds of dried flesh clung to splintered bone.
"Who would do such a thing," Matteo wondered aloud with a stammer.
Hafen, Matteo, and Stark scanned the area with caution.
Just then, a rustle in the nearby bushes caught their attention.
From the shadows, a lone zombie emerged. He hunched over and chewed on a leg of a small monster. His clothes were in tatters, and his skin was pale.
"Let's take it down," Stark suggested and readied his elemental gun.
"There's something strange about him," Hafen asserted with a thoughtful frown.
The zombie, noticing them, let out a low, gurgling moan. His vacant eyes stared at them with a hunger that was more than just for flesh. He dropped the half-eaten leg and shambled towards them, reaching out with grasping hands. "Feast on all humans," he groaned with a raspy voice. His stomach was bloated and stretched tight over what looked like partially consumed prey.
A dark, foul liquid seeped from a tear in his abdomen.
"That's disgusting," Matteo commented with a grimace and a shiver.
The zombie let out a deafening roar and charged at them.
The brothers stood their ground.
Hafen raised his elemental gun and aimed at the approaching zombie. "Let's test this out," he whispered. He pulled the trigger. He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip.
A loud crack echoed as a bolt of lightning violently shot out. It struck a tree, the ground, and the zombie in the chest.
The zombie convulsed violently as electricity coursed through its body. Its hair frizzed, and its skin sizzled. With a final, strangled cry, it collapsed to the ground and went still.
"More," a faint, female whisper echoed through the trees.
Stark, Matteo, and Hafen exchanged glances. A drop of sweat trickled down their temples.
A rustle in the bushes ahead revealed another zombie, female and bloated to an even more grotesque degree. Her stomach stretched and revealed the dark shapes of half-digested creatures within. She lurched forward with a fresh trail of dark ichor seeping from her distended belly. "More. Must. Have. More," she rasped.
Matteo grimaced and nervously aimed his elemental gun. He placed one of the three devices that came with it on the barrel and pulled the trigger. His eyes widened, and he flew back.
His elemental gun had recoiled, and its attached device rotated. A gust of wind shot out and launched the female zombie away.
The female zombie rolled like a ball and crashed into a tree. She burst open in a shower of gore and innards. Dark, foul liquid sprayed all over the area.
"Gross," Matteo gagged and shielded his face as he slid to a halt.
Stark praised, "Nice shot." He raised his elemental gun and aimed at a third approaching zombie.He pulled the trigger. He groaned in struggle, and his arms trembled as they flexed.
His elemental pistol trembled and radiated energy. It fired a swift laser beam that missed a zombie. It tore through flora before dissipating.
Stark growled and fired again.
This time, the laser beam sliced cleanly through the zombie's head.
The headless zombie stumbled a few steps before it collapsed to the ground with a loud thud.
Hafen analyzed and noted, "These zombies are different. They're driven by an insatiable hunger." He spun the barrel and fired again.
This time, his elemental gun's barrel glowed red and shot a large plume of fire.
Hafen's eyes widened in surprise, and he braced for the recoil.
The plume of fire flailed around and burned down a massive, broken branch. It also hit a fourth zombie and engulfed it.
The zombie screeched in agony as the flames consumed its body. It thrashed wildly and stumbled back.
"This is easy," Stark huffed.
"Look! Over there! There are more of them," Matteo alerted and pointed.
On the far side of the clearing, a horde of zombies emerged from the forest. Their stomachs were bloated, and their eyes burned with a ravenous hunger.
"We must be getting close to our target," Hafen hypothesized.
"We can handle them," Stark reassured and readied his elemental gun.
Stark, Matteo, and Hafen exchanged glances and nodded. They stood back-to-back. With a unified battle cry, they prepared their new elemental weapons.
Hafen rotated the barrel to the next gear, and it glowed green.
Multiple sharp leaves shot out and sliced through the approaching horde.
The zombies fell one by one.
Matteo also fired.
A vortex of swirling wind formed and lifted a zombie into the air.
Then, Matteo switched devices and sent a shard of ice flying through the air. It struck the airborne zombie with a loud crack.
The zombie contorted and froze mid-air.
Stark aimed his elemental pistol and pulled the trigger.
The laser beam sliced through multiple zombies at once and carved a path of destruction through the forest.
Hafen looked at the devastation and noted, "These new elemental weapons are powerful." He turned the gear on his gun and shot a load of water from the barrel. He fell back on his bum due to the recoil.
The stream of water swept a cluster of zombies off their feet.
Matteo reloaded with the last device. He aimed and pulled the trigger.
Hot lava erupted from the gun and splashed onto a zombie.
The zombie melted into a pool of steaming sludge.
The lava slowly moved towards Matteo.
With a concerned grimace, Matteo backed away and demanded to know, "What is that? It's hot!"
"Matteo! Be careful! I think that's lava," Hafen alerted.
From a safe distance, Matteo gulped, "Lava?" He sighed and muttered, "Well, that's all of them."
"We're unstoppable," Stark goaded.
Hafen holstered his elemental gun and looked at the trail of destruction left by their target. "Let's keep moving," he urged.
What kind of monstrous powers will the Baby Zombie Princess possess? Will Stark, Matteo, and Hafen succeed in their mission, or will they fail like Pepe?