The Laughing Swordsman

Once the old man disappeared, Hex cut off his powers, stopping himself from emanating fear.

He reached up to his hood with a shaking black hand and slowly put it back over his head, covering his weak white hair. At the same time, Blackie removed himself from Hex, getting rid of the purple horns and reverting the color of Hex's clothes back to blue.

As for Hex himself, his face returned, but there were a few wrinkles on it. His hair returned back to being dark green, but the ends of his hair had become white.

Although the power of fear was terribly strong, it also had a great cost. This was the case for both the old man and Hex.

It caused them to age.

If the energy they had was not enough, they were required to trade years of their lifespan just to use the ability for a few seconds. It was a high price, but worthwhile depending on the situation.

Their engagement earlier only lasted for a few seconds, but that was when both of them lost the most. The old man was already weakened and wasn't willing to cripple himself any further, thus he escaped the situation.

The old man did not know if he could win, but even if he could, the price he would have to pay was too much for him right now.

And so, he fled.

Hex stumbled, then fell forward.

A black claw shot out, holding Hex up. Blackie had appeared next to him, looking rather concerned.

Hex turned to Blackie weakly, hardly even able to keep his eyes open.

"Me need... food."

Blackie nodded hastily.

Hex gave up on trying to keep his eyes open altogether and let out a few more words.

"Find fast... Blackie."

With that, he passed out. Blackie hurriedly put Hex onto his back before transforming into a fairly large shadow bird and taking to the skies.

And so, Blackie's journey of finding the 'food' Hex requested, began.

...

"Friend!"

"Fwend!"

Apollo rubbed his temple with his knuckle as he walked across the toxic wasteland with his two friendly companions, Layla, and a small light green insect.

In the back of his mind, he was still wondering why those dark green insects wanted him dead so bad when he didn't do anything, while Layla was completely ignored despite eating the dark green honey right in front of them.

Eventually, Apollo sighed, giving up on understanding altogether.

As for what actually happened, the dark green insects were under great pressure from their previous queen. For whatever reason, that queen had not only eaten far more of the dark green liquid than needed, but would even go as far as to damage the honeycombs for no real reason.

In short, the queen was just a big asshole.

As such, the insects were attempting to foster a new queen to replace their old one entirely. The queen had discovered this fact, thus it attempted to kill the prospective queen by smashing its arms onto the honeycomb, causing it to break into several pieces. 

However, the little green insect miraculously survived.

The aftermath of the queen's rampage meant that most of the dark green liquid had spilled onto the floor. There were only two relatively full hexagonal cells filled with the stuff that had survived.

Layla finished the first one while Apollo fought off the insects while Apollo consumed the entirety of the other one to restore his injuries.

After the light green insect made its presence known to the two, its attention shifted to what was left of the dark green liquid. The insect ate what little was left from the remaining shattered hexagonal cells, but did not even touch a drop of what had spilled onto the floor.

It seemed like this was an evolutionary instinct given how polluted the grounds were.

And so, Apollo, Layla, and an insect began walking aimlessly through the toxic wasteland.

The insect was to Apollo's left, while Layla was to his right. Both the insect and Layla would not stop talking. It made Apollo wonder why they decided to have him in the middle, when they could've been next to each other if they wanted to talk.

...It was almost like they wanted to annoy him.

Layla clapped noisily.

"Yayaya!"

The insect looked at Layla with its black beady eyes as it walked.

"Wawawa!"

Apollo took a deep breath, trying to pretend that nothing was happening.

Suddenly, there was a roar in the distance. It was quite loud, but to Apollo, it felt far too quiet compared to the incessant chatter around him. He turned to look at the source of the roar and saw something familiar.

It was the cougar that just wouldn't die earlier.

Apollo stopped, prompting Layla and the insect to turn around and look at him.

Layla put a finger on her chin.

"Is friend ok?"

The insect looked at Layla before imitating her, putting one of its tiny arms on its chin.

"Izz fwend okie?"

Apollo shot a glance at the two before looking back at the cougar.

"Just a minute. I want to try something."

He began walking towards the cougar that bolted towards them mercilessly.

A small smile formed on Apollo's face as he raised both his bokken and his outstretched free hand. Lightning began to crackle across his body, gathering towards his hand and the bokken.

"...Faster."

Apollo's eyes gradually widened as his walk became a full on sprint.

The cougar pounced forth, attempting to capture Apollo with its jaws. As for Apollo, he simply continued straight as though he had no intention of dodging. However, right before it hit, Apollo disappeared.

He reappeared to the side of the cougar, letting out numerous slashes with both his bokken and hand. The cougar received several black laceration marks that dug deep into its skin.

However, the cougar was still none the wiser. It thought that Apollo was the same as before. After all, it hadn't even been that long.

However, it would come to regret attacking Apollo.