Chapter 4

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Day: 969

Days Left: 4511

Lives Saved: 5

Kai closed his eyes shut, prepared for the pain, but there was none. He had expected to be flung to another side of the forest, but when he opened his eyes, he saw that his goblin strength was keeping the stag at bay. Nevertheless, the creature struggled and pushed its front leg against Kai's hands, unrelenting.

However, Kai's strength was dwindling. Finally, he gritted his teeth, pushed the stag to the side, and dashed underneath the creature.

Confused, the stag spun around, dashing around in circles, trying to find the minuscule goblin that was hiding underneath it.

"Mister Kai!" Lili called out. "What are you doing! Get out of there!"

Kai continued to evade the stag's eyesight, occasionally punching the creature's legs tauntingly.

Lili watched on, uncertain how to proceed. Whatever Kai was doing was tiring the stag out as the creature stumbled and almost collapsed as its legs crossed over the others and lost balance.

There were approaching footsteps, and Lili glanced over to see Oscar and Sumit heading her way. They both were startled at seeing Lili in her tiger form for the first time, then looked on in horror at Kai and the giant stag.

"Where is Mister Calixte!" she hissed. "We need him!"

"He's catching up!" replied Oscar.

"Oh deer," Sumit began. "Is Kai-"

"You make another sodding pun, and I'll leave you as bait!" Lili snapped back; she then looked to Oscar. "Transform and slow it down!"

Oscar nodded.

Lili left them and went to Kai's aid, pouncing onto the back of the giant stag and sinking her teeth and claws into its thick neck. Blood oozed out, but the cut was not deep enough to disable the creature. The stag swung its neck wildly, attempting to knock Lili off but the tiger clasped hold with its claws.

Oscar's hand hesitantly reached for the mask on his face, his breath faltering.

"It's alright, you got this," Sumit said softly, placing a reassuring hand on Oscar's shoulder.

The two of them gazed into each other's eyes as if such a simple act calmed them down, and then Oscar was filled with confidence, his fear subsiding. Then, for the first time he could ever remember, Oscar activated his mask manually, a bright light shining briefly before his body shrunk in then widened out until standing before Sumit was not a human but a large humanoid toad stall, the cap red with white spots. Two black pin-prick eyes on the stalk blinked and glanced down at itself, then wiggled its stubby arms and legs.

"Aw," Sumit cooed. "I didn't think it would be so cute."

Oscar scowled, though, in his mushroom form, this made him look all the more adorable. "Am not!" He replied, his voice now high-pitched and squeaky.

"Now go and defeat that deer that is bullying Kai!"

The mushroom waddled towards the battle with a squeaky and quivering battle cry, then was immediately kicked and sent flying by one of the giant stag's legs.

"Oscar!" Sumit rushed over to the injured mushroom's side, finding a sizable squished dent in the toadstall cap. However, Oscar seemed completely fine, the both of them unsure of the endurability of the mushroom monster.

"I think it worked!" Oscar pointed a stubby hand over to the stag, where one of its legs had a singular red mushroom attached. Slowly another mushroom sprouted beside it.

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