"Excuse me?" She was taken aback by his response.
"Are you going to pay me for helping you rescue your mother? ’Cause that’s not in the contract. It says that I’m to deliver you to the magic tower, or wherever you need to go. It says nothing about helping you rescue your mom."
"B-But with your strength, it will be easy."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "And? I can do whatever I want with MY strength. If I want to use it for profit, I can; if I want to selflessly help people, I can; and if I want to do nothing, I can do that as well. So, tell me, will you be paying me for my services? If not, then our little adventure ends when I deliver you to your allies."
Okay, Kai was definitely not being serious. One glance at Abigail and he was already simping for her. But there was no way he would admit that, nor would he say yes to her pleas just because he wanted to smash.
He had to appear as if he were a businessman. As if he knew his own worth. Which he actually did, most of the time...or sometimes...maybe just a little.
His girls knew he was full of shit, though.
"H-How much would you accept?" She wondered.
"20 gold and a night with you." Kai lifted her chin and gave her a killer wink.
"G-Get your hands off the young lady!" Seaweed stepped between the two of them. He wasn’t going to allow his young lady to be charmed by someone like Kai, who was powerful, smart...kind of, and handsome.
"I-I can probably pay you 10 gold coins, but you’ll have to be okay with not spending the night with me." Though she said that, Abigail did consider it.
"That’s cool. We have a deal." Kai shook her hand.
’Doesn’t really matter what you want anyway. I’m a beast! A wild beast! When I hunger, I eat. When I’m tired, I sleep. And when I see a girl I want, she becomes mine.’
---
A few hours passed by as they made their way to Sharkfang Island. Seaweed thought it would take around three days to arrive there, but he was shocked when they were docking at the Sharkfang port in just five hours.
"What kind of ship is this? How is it so fast?"
Kai cleared his throat. "You see, my father is a..."
Gwen slapped him on the back of the head. "He built it himself using magic."
"Ow, why did you stop me?"
"Because you were going to say bullshit again. I just saved them from having their ears bleed."
He was hurt. "It’s not like I’m singing to them or anything. Why would their ears bleed from learning about my origin?"
"Because it’s false! Hearing that story hurts my ears."
"Oh yeah, well, your cooking hurts my stomach!"
She gasped. "You did not!"
"Oh yeah, I just did!"
The two of them started fighting like cartoon characters, rolling in a ball of dust and smoke.
"So, where to next?" Kyana asked, taking over for Kai since he was being stupid at the moment.
"Our rendezvous point is just at the bottom of SharkTail Mountain. We have a base there that the blue magic tower uses to test their magic on criminals." Seaweed explained
"Like, human experiments? I thought that was illegal." Kyana remembered Seaweed telling them that Carlito was punished for doing such a thing.
But he shook his head. "No, it’s for combat. The king allows for death row inmates to be used however mages see fit, since they are sentenced to death anyway. So, they could at least contribute to society by being tested on."
Kai held Gwen back with a finger as she tried to punch him, swinging at the air. "That’s actually pretty neat."
"Follow me, it’s a good distance from here."
"I got this." Kai touched Seaweed’s head, found the location, and teleported them to it.
They arrived in a large cave with hundreds of people talking among themselves and relaxing while a campfire warmed the place up.
The cave wasn’t just a standard cave; it was completely renovated with rooms, training areas, a dining hall, a kitchen, and more. It was obvious that someone had spent a lot of money renovating this place to make it like this.
Kai looked around the place, whistling because of how stunning the cave was. "Wow, this is one fancy cave. It’s better than some of the mansions I’ve been to."
"We need to get one like this." Amaya agreed
Just then, the sound of metal sliding off the stone ground and out of sheaths echoed through the air. Footsteps shook the cave as people surrounded Kai, his girls, and Seaweeds’ men.
"Who are you? How did you find this place?!" A woman asked, pointing her staff directly in Kai’s face.
"Whoa, there, beautiful. We’re not here to harm you. We’ve brought a present for you. Here, check it out yourself." Kai moved to the side and showed Abigail.
Everyone gasped. "Young lady! You’re here!"
"Nice to see you again, Selena. Is everything going well on your end?" She asked.
Selena sighed and took a seat. "No. We’ve attacked the tower two times during your absence. The first time was when we were just driven out. I gathered all of our people and retreated to this place. Once we did a head count and waited a few days to rest, we attacked."
"I’m assuming it ended in failure."
She sighed once again. "They both did. The first time, I understood why we lost. They were expecting us to fight back and were prepared for us. For the second time, we tried to trick Carlito. We acted as if we were headed to the Yellow Magic Tower, sending out ships there and having people wearing our outfits travel on foot there as well. It was the perfect cover. After waiting for a week, we attacked once again, but our defeat was more devastating than the first one. It’s as if he knew we were coming."
"Duh. Why wouldn’t he?" Kai chimed in.
"And who are you to speak up, outsider?" Selena aimed her staff at Kai again.
"It’s okay, these people helped us reach you all. Kai, explain what you mean."
"Seaweed over there said that this place was the property of the Blue Magic Tower. Carlito was originally going to be the master of the magic tower. So it wouldn’t be surprising if he knows about this place. Hell, he probably sent someone to spy on you all."
It was so simple. Selena cursed herself for not thinking of something like that.
"Call everyone, we need to have a meeting."
A/N" [Guess the title reference.]