Diwena rushed into the room where he saw a scientist holding a brain that looked like his kind. With his arm stretched out, he grabbed the scientist’s head and slammed it into the wall. He then quickly grabs the brain container the scientist was holding to make sure it doesn’t fall to the ground. He looks at the brain half conscious shaking with anger. One of the other scientists in the room takes a step back and the sound of this made Diwena turn his head and there he saw the big container. The container had a whole collection of brains. The scientists are frozen in fear because they know that an unchained Palindra is a danger that could kill them. Their eyes are fixated on the Palindra hoping that help will come to save them. Diwena can’t believe his eyes. What little consciousness he had left disappeared and now it’s all darkness.

Diwena releases a tribal scream that sends shockwaves through the whole lab. The scientists in the room with him all dropped what they were holding and tried to run away. But Diwena doesn’t give them a chance. He cuts one in half, rips off another’s head, and keeps killing everything that moves. He chases the last scientist out of the room. Diwena grabs the scientist’s head and squeezes it until it pops. From the corner of his eye, he can see a set of scientists down the hall running away. They came from a different room but heard what was going on and knew they had to escape.

Sachem knows he has to hurry and dashes towards Dewina leaving Demo and My-Ty on the ground. Demo shakes off the darkness that was closing in on his eyes.

“My-Ty you good?”

“Never felt this good.”

“I have an idea, but I’m going to need your help.”

Dewina seeing the white of their jackets was enough to let him know that they needed to die. Diwena rushes towards them when his instincts warn him that danger is about to strike. He ducks down to avoid whatever it is. Sachem’s strike aimed at Diwena’s head misses its mark. Diwena screams at Sachem and readies his sword to attack. Sachem calmly assesses the situation and can tell that this Palindra is lost in rage so as long as he calmly dissects the Palindra’s attacks, he should be able to handle this quickly.

Because Diwena is so angry his attacks are wide and predictable. Sachem calmly slips past the sword attack and tries to get in close to throw a combo. But even lost in rage and moving purely on instinct, Diwena is a warrior who has been in battle and has been training his whole life. His muscle memory immediately throws a punch to where Sachem is about to go.

Sachem doesn’t expect this and gets hit and is sent flying back closer to where Demo and My-Ty are. Both of which have gotten back up. Demo smiles as Sachem is sent back.

“Welcome back. Did you enjoy your trip?”

“I’m sure he did. But it seems he missed us more than he let on since he came back so fast.”

“Then we should make sure he feels welcome.”

Sachem looks back at the two who are back on their feet. Demo is in front standing in a fighting pose rearing to go. My-Ty is sitting on the ground in the lotus position doing breathing techniques to recover and calm his mind.

Demo starts jumping up and down like he saw Sachem do before. He lands and slightly turns his body to the side so that it’s not in a straight line facing Sachem. Sachem can tell that something is different. He has tried to ignore them before and it didn’t work, so this time he is going to have to finish them quickly so that he can stop Diwena.

Sachem wastes no time, he gets his guard up, lowers his core, and rushes toward Demo. Demo has seen this move before but he still can’t keep up with the speed. But he has seen it enough times to know where Sachem might strike. Sachem in the blink of an eye is in front of Demo and shifts his weight to the left. This puts Sachem in the perfect position to throw a left body hook, but Demo knows that a left hook is coming so he grits his teeth and throws a left hook of his own. Sachem being the faster of the two lands first and sends Demo flying but Demo’s fist is still able to hit Sachem on his guard.

Sachem looks at his fist, slightly surprised that Demo was able to connect. Demo lands and immediately charges back into the fight. Sachem throws a right straight to counter Demo’s advance but slips his head and rotates his body inwards to get close to Sachem and with one smooth motion, he throws a right leg kick that lands on Sachem’s thigh. And then uses the bounce back from his kick to help him rotate into a left hook that lands on Sachem’s elbow.

Sachem catches the punch on his guard and throws a chopping right that connects and forces Demo into the ground. Demo bounces off the ground but immediately dashes away to get some distance. Sachem looks at his elbow which is tingling from the pain. Demo looks at My-Ty.

“10 SECONDS!”

Sachem stayed on high alert because he knew that My-Ty could jump into the fray at any moment. So when My-TY suddenly jumped in Sachem was ready for it. While the two of them are fighting, Demo closes his eyes and quickly reviews the exchange he just had with Sachem and why he lost. He replays his actions and Sachem’s reactions to find the flaws. 10 seconds pass, Demo opens his eyes and starts running toward Sachem.

“SWITCH!”

My-Ty jumps to the side letting Demo come back into the fight. As the three of them engage in their fight, Bilicus is standing at the edge of the hole looking down. He can’t believe that Demo and My-Ty are able to fight with Sachem on equal grounds. But then Bilicus hears footsteps from behind him and he immediately checks. Braverte comes from out of the bushes and has his eyes fixed on Bilicus. Bilicus feels a tingle run down his spine as he breaks out in a cold sweat. He knows that words will have no effect at this point. So he turns back and jumps down into the lab. Braverte runs up to the edge and looks down to see Bilicus land and My-Ty and Demo fight Sachem.

From his vantage point he can then also see the rest of the laboratory. He sees the open bodies of the Palindra. And thinks to himself that this is how they did it. He hoped it wouldn’t be true and that this barbaric method was stopped when he killed that drug kingpin the most gruesome way to deter others from trying. Braverte then jumps down as well. Bilicus sees Braverte jumping down and knows that he has to get away or his life is forfeit.

Braverte lands and sees Bilicus running away. But he knows that Demo and My-Ty might be unable to beat Sachem alone.

“You two, can you handle him?”

My-Ty is resting and doing his breathing techniques while Demo is fighting so he answers.

“Not yet.”

“Once I kill Bilicus, I’ll help you with him. Stay standing till then.”

“We will do more than that.”

Braverte nods and starts running in the direction that Bilicus went.

Chapter 71