FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Meanwhile, Panja and Rinami were following the crowd of brainwashed people and trying to figure out what was going on.

"He said that they should go to the center of the mall, so we must head over there and see what they're planning to do," Rinami said as she was going through the horde of marching innocent mall consumers and workers, but she didn't get a response from Panja. She looked over at him and saw that he was totally absentminded. "Panja, are you all right?" she called out for him, but he didn't hear her. "Panja!" she called out louder and finally caught his attention.

"Huh? Wh-What?"

"Pull yourself together, Panja. I need you to focus with me here."

"I know, I am. But..." Panja muttered. He didn't like how he left things unsettled back there with Thorn, and he was especially worried about what was Hazard thinking of him now.

"I don't understand what happened, but now isn't the time to wallow about it! Innocent lives are in danger and we're the only one who can help them!" Rinami tried to reason with him, but that only agitated Panja more.

"No, you DON'T understand!" the white lion growled and punched the side of his fist at a nearby wall in frustration, taking the vixen aback. "How could I've let him do this to me? Making a big fucking fool out of me... I... I keep messing up. I keep letting Haz down... again..." Panja's words came out of his gritted teeth, so full of resentment at himself. He then felt Rinami's soft hand touching his cheek, and that somehow made him calm down and turn to her.

"Listen to me, Panja. I know we don't know each other that long and maybe we didn't have the smoothest of starts, but from what I can tell, you're a great friend and I believe that you would never hurt anyone knowingly, especially Hazard," Rinami encouragingly said to Panja, petting his face gently. "Whatever happened, you should believe in Hazard and know that he believes in you as well. Nothing that evil bastard would say can ruin what he thinks of you. At least not to me," she smiled at him, and surely enough, her words really made Panja feel a whole lot better, as he grabbed her small hand on his cheek with his bigger one.

"Yeah... You're right! Thanks, Rinami," Panja replied brightly. "Okay then! Let's get this over with and kick some demon ass! The sooner we do it, the sooner we can go back to Haz and help him beat the shit out of that fucker!" the white lion excitedly exclaimed, regaining his confidence.

"Yes! That's what I'm talking about!" Rinami cheerfully said and the two of them head over to the mall's center as fast as they could.

They soon arrive at the center of the mall, and there, they see a massive number of people grouped together in a giant circle. Just dozen and dozen of different kind of population standing there silently and doing nothing.

"Whoa, that was fast," Panja expressed in amazement, surprised to see this mass of crowd huddled together in one place in such a short time.

"Jale's voice power is terrifyingly incredible. I don't want to think of the horrible things he could do with it," Rinami shuddered at that thought.

"Well, what now? What are they planning to do with them all? And how the hell can we wake them up?" Panja wondered, not having a clue of what to do.

"There's nothing for you to do, my good fellows," Jale's voice suddenly answered, coming out from the mall's speakers.

"Fuck you! Come out here and face us, you spineless coward!" Panja yelled out, futilely, as Jale simple laughed.

"Oh no, no, no. That's not how I roll. Getting physical isn't my forte. But, that doesn't mean I don't play dirty. Hmmm, I wonder what I can have these nice people do... Maybe kill each other? Have the parents choke their own children to death? Oh, I know! I'll have them all attack you so YOU have to kill them, how about that?" Jale maliciously kept suggesting, making Rinami sick in her stomach.

"Don't you dare, you sick psycho!" Rinami warned, getting furious herself.

"Tsk, tsk, I wouldn't be so rude if I were you, missy. After all, you aren't in a position to antagonize me. Luckily for you guys, I'm ordered not to hard these mindless people. Well, to be frank, not with my own hands, at least," Jale stated and they could just feel him grinning deviously behind the mic. "By the way, I have to say, your good friend Hazard isn't doing so well," the crow then brought up as he was checking another monitor, aiming to lower their morale.

"Shut up! Haz can't be defeated!" Panja retorted.

"Not from where I'm sitting. At any rate, you should be worried more about yourselves," Jale stated ominously, as Panja and Rinami felt something dark and dangerous about to happen.

"Such dense... Maligna... Where is all this demonic miasma coming from?" Rinami muttered as she wrapped her arms around herself, sensing a huge collected amount of Maligna filling the air.

"Rina? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Panja asked her in concern, seeing her not looking too well. He didn't feel it as strongly as she did.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about it," Rinami shook her head as she answered. "Panja, look out! Here they come!" she suddenly shouted and brought his attention to the predictable appearance of demons, materializing into the real world from out of thin air. All kinds of demonic monsters were showing up from all over the place, kinds that they had seen before like Hellhounds and other kinds they hadn't. They all had one thing in mind- eat the innocent helpless people gathered together at the mall center and hypnotized not to move anywhere and stand still as they met their gruesome doom.

"Shit, this is getting ugly. Rina! You get that side and I'll handle this bunch! Don't let them near the crowd!" Panja told his foxy friend, readying himself to fend off the demons.

"Alright! You can count on me! Just be careful, Panja!" Rinami replied and nimbly bounced off to the other side, pulling out a kunai short sword that was strapped on her thigh under her skirt and cutting down one of the demons in two as she landed.

"Okay, get ready to get some, you ugly bitches!" Panja remarked bumped his fist into his other palm and flexed his muscled arms in preparation.

A loud commotion boomed from the part of the mall the left Hazard at, as Rinami got worried for her wolf. "Please, hang in there, Hazard."

Hazard, on the other hand, was having a hard time himself. Thorn's relentless attacks was tiring him out, as he kept dodging his powerful punches and body slams, wreaking havoc in the malls stores and destroying everything that was in the bull's way. The wolf didn't know what else to do, as nothing in his arsenal could make a dent on Thorn's super sturdy body.

"You just had to be a hero and face him by myself, didn't you, Haz? Dumbass," Hazard said to himself as hid behind a row of stairs, having second thoughts about making the other leave this hulk up to him.

"Oh, come on. You don't think you can hide from me, Slasher, do you?" Thorn said and suddenly appeared right next to the surprised wolf. For such a huge giant, Thorn was rather quick on his hooves than expected, as he threw his fist right at Hazard's guts and hit him hard, punching him away and up the high stairs, dropping him on the second floor.

"Eugh... shit, now that hurts..." Hazard groaned painfully as he was getting up, but he didn't have much time to recover as Thorn's shadow was getting smaller over him, coming down at him from above and trying to squash him under massive hooves. Hazard moved as fast as he his body could, though, and rolled backward to avoid the crashing bull, barely missing him as Thorn smashed though the second floor's ground and right back into the first floor, leaving a wide hole behind. "Fuck me..." Hazard gulped, not wanting to consider what would have happened to him if he didn't move out in time.

"Gang way!" Hazard heard Thorn yell out, as the wolf's ears perked up in alarm and he quick got up on his feet and got out of the way again before the ebony coated bull smashed through the floor from below, using his strong horn as his whole body went through and he landed. "Aww, is Hazzy getting scared? Don't disappoint me; I expected more from a legend such as you. You're not even trying. How long are you gonna keep running away?" Thorn said condescendingly, as Hazard glared back at him. The bull was right, though, Hazard thought. It had been a long time since he had faced someone that gave him such a hard time, and Thorn was dangerously taking the cake. How can he defeat something that couldn't be damaged in any way?

'Think, Hazard. Think. There got to be a way...' Hazard's thoughts kept his mind busy, trying to come up with a way, but it was difficult to simultaneously think deep and try to avoid getting killed by this unbreakable beast.

"Don't hurt your brains too much. I assure you, there's no way to crack this invincible body of mine," Thorn proudly stated, pounding his fist into his wide fist as it made a clear and strong clang.

"That's what you think," Hazard replied and moved in for a quick attack, jumping up in the air and slashing down his sword at the bull's head. Alas, it was futile, as his blade simply couldn't cut through the hard metallic skin, no matter how hard he tried.

"Heh, is that the best you can do?" Thorn rumbled as he looked back at Hazard while the sword was still pushing down on his skull, not feeling a thing. Thorn then snatched Hazard by the head and threw him forcefully into a jewelry store, smashing through the glass and into some display racks. Thorn walked in the wrecked store and grabbed the impaired wolf from his shirt, picking him up high till they were face to face. "Why don't you just give up? You're no match for me. You'll only get yourself killed at this rate, or badly hurt at the very least," Thorn said as he gripped on Hazard's shirt collar.

"Fuck you," Hazard muttered as he stared him back in the eyes.

"Oh, no need. Panja already did that," Thorn snickered and that made Hazard kick him between the legs with his foot, but that had no affect on the bull and only hurt Hazard instead.

"Ow, dammit!" Hazard yelped as he hit his own foot against Thorn's crotch of steel, but he didn't give up yet and rammed his head right against Thorn's forehead. That didn't do a thing either but give the wolf a pain on his head, literally. "Grah, fucking idiot!"

"Hah! I like your determination! But it can only get you so far," Thorn laughed, as Hazard retorted by spitting directly at one of his eyes. "Ugh, you dirty dipshit!" Thorn snarled in rage and punched Hazard on the face, sending him slamming against the wall with a deep groan. He didn't even fell down to the floor before Thorn lunged at him again and clutched him by his face, smashing the back of Hazard's head against the wall violently again, then dragging his body against the solid wall and slamming him hard into the ground ruthlessly. "I was ordered not to kill you, but they didn't tell me not to break you a bit," Thorn leered as he gripped Hazard's neck and pinned him into the ground, as Hazard struggled to break free, covered in bruises and bleeding wounds.

"Shit..." Hazard choked out, wondering how he would survive through this predicament.

To be Continued...