"Brother Fu!!!"
When Mo Ni Qiong carried Lady Caspar out of the Deadwood Tower, he was greeted by a little girl's delighted cheer. He looked up and saw Princess Bridget, protected by Colonel Ron and the Blackflame Mercenaries, laughing as she charged toward him.
But just as Brother Fu put on a weary smile, ready to welcome the little girl who had finally escaped the disaster, she swerved and buried herself in the fluffy mane of the manticore beside him, who looked thoroughly disgusted. She hugged it like a giant stuffed toy and rubbed her face vigorously against Stinky Treasure's mane.
Astral manticores were very clean creatures, and the little princess's enthusiastic scritching made it furious.
Its dangerous scorpion-tail stinger rose upright. One light jab would be enough to make the audacious human child drop dead on the spot, but in the end, the stinger didn't come down. Instead, its tail coiled around Bridget like a snake, lifted her up, and tossed her to the nearby minotaur spirit warrior.
Big Black caught the princess that had been thrown at him, looking completely bewildered. Then, amid Bridget's shrieks, the manticore spread its wings and shot into the sky, heading off to bask in the sunlight and unwind after its hard-fought battle.
"Have some manners! Don't call me Brother Fu like they do. You can call me Mo Ni Qiong or Big Brother. No, wait, that's a terrible name.
"Forget it.
"Just call me by my name. Call me 'Young Master Zhou.'"
Brother Fu said this to the little princess, who was sitting on the armored shoulder of the minotaur spirit warrior beside him. She giggled, then turned to look at the strange elven woman Brother Fu had chained to his back.
Then the little princess spotted the terrible wounds on Lady