“Tao!”

“Hey…” Tao grunted, straining under Tiffany’s assault. “A little… help…?”

“Right!” Kris sped forward and appeared beside Tiffany in seconds. Tiffany noticed and evaded Kris’ punch by somersaulting away.

“Wind.” Tao said and began slashing the air. Wind-blades erupted from each slash. Tiffany, now a good ways away from Tao, had enough time to evade the unexpected long-range attack.

“That sword…” Tiffany said.

“Wow. How come you never used that back then at the robot base?” Kris asked.

“King just told me about it during my battle with the other robot. It’s got some pretty cool tricks.”

“I can see that.” He put a hand on Tao’s shoulder. “Are you okay, little brother?”

“Yeah…” Tao was breathing hard. “Why’d you ask?”

“You are obviously tired.” Luhan said from behind them. “We’ll take care of this. Now that she doesn’t have the power to control the room, we can easily take her out.”

“I second that.” Xiumin said, stepping forward.

“Yeah, Tao! Give us a little piece of action! That Strong Man bit wasn’t enough!” Chen said.

“That mermaid did almost get us, though.” Suho said. “Tao, you can take care of Lay while we finish this up.”

“I’ll stay with him. With no earth around, I won’t be able to do anything.” D.O said. The others nodded.

“By the way, where’s King?” Luhan asked.

“Oh, over there.” Tao pointed at Tiffany. Behind the robot, King was opening his jaws wide. Tiffany turned around and a ball of energy was racing towards her. She jumped to evade.

“You!” Tiffany snarled. King replied with a snarl of his own.

“Okay. I’ll fix Lay up with the sword. But I will join you after he’s okay.” Tao said.

“Okay.” Kris agreed. “Let’s go, guys.” Kris ran forward, together with everyone else. Tao hurried towards Lay and used the Rebirth mode of the sword to heal him.

“Attacking at the same time. How totally unprofessional.” Tiffany said to herself. She assessed her situation. King was charging from one side and the boys from the other.

King shot another energy ball at her while Chen shot an electric ball. She evaded by jumping high.

“You’re not going to win this!!” Tiffany screamed. She opened her arms wide and cannons appeared all around her.

“Everyone take cover!!” Kris shouted.

“HAHAHA!!” Tiffany let loose, showering the boys with energy cannon shots.

Tao and D.O looked at their comrades, concern obvious on their faces. Lay, being nursed back to health by the sword, opened his eyes.

“W-what’s… happening…? Tao…?” Lay said, still dazed. “Where’s the mermaid? Did we win?”

“Yes. Rest for a while longer. I’ll explain later.” D.O said.

“D.O, take care of Lay. I’ll go ahead and back them up.” Tao said, taking up the sword and running towards the battle.

“That should have taken care of you all.” Tiffany said, floating in the air. She could not see the result of her attack since the dust cloud that formed was thick.

“We’re not done yet!” came Suho’s voice. The dust cloud settled and all of them were still standing. Luhan had created a barrier around all of them.

“I’m slipping…” Luhan whispered. The barrier vanished and Luhan fainted. Kris caught him before he hit the floor.

“Poor boy.” Tiffany said in a sing-song voice. “Who’s going to protect you now?” She aimed her cannons once more but before she could fire, Tao’s sword came zooming towards her. She evaded it at the very last moment. The sword pierced the ceiling and stayed there. Tiffany laughed.

“What a stupid way to lose your weapon!” she remarked, laughing.

“Space.” Tao whispered. In a blink of an eye, he disappeared. Tiffany looked around but could not find him anywhere.

“Over here.” Tao had appeared beside his sword. He yanked it out of the ceiling and swung down hard at the robot. “Fire.”

The sword sliced off her arm and the fire imbued sword created an explosion, sending Tao and Tiffany down to the ground. Kris flew to Tao’s rescue, leaving Luhan in Suho’s care.

“That was impressive.” Kris said, Tao safe in his arms.

“Well…” Tao smiled shyly. Kris kissed him on the forehead. Tao could feel his face flush and just stared at the golden haired boy that was carrying him.

“Don’t do anything risky like that ever again, understand?” Kris said, showing Tao his rare smiles. Tao nodded, unable to speak.

“I’ll handle her!” Chen said, and then he ran off towards Tiffany, who was lying on the ground. Her severed arm was a few meters away from her.

“Why you… little…” she began to stand up but Chen had already reached her before she could recover.

“This is for making me wet my pants.” Chen said. He held out his hand and touched Tiffany’s head. He released a huge amount of electrical energy from his body. Tiffany screamed as her circuits were quickly fried. Her scream didn’t last three seconds until it came out as a static-like sound.

“Wow. Overkill.” Xiumin said.

“Better to make sure she stays down.” Suho whispered.

Kris and Tao had rejoined Suho, Xiumin and King. Chen was on his way back to them and so was Lay and D.O. Lay began working on Luhan as soon as he reached him. Soon enough, Luhan was back to full health.

“Thanks.” He said.

“Don’t mention it.” Lay replied.

“That’s two down.” D.O said.

“One last more to go.” Chen continued.

‘Good job, boys.’ King said. ‘I can smell out the location of the final opponent.’

“Great. Let’s head on over there and get this over with!” Xiumin said.

‘Follow me.’

King ran off and the boys followed.

“How did you get in here, anyway?” Kris asked Tao. “There were y traps and everything! Even we had a difficult time!”

“I’ll explain on the way.” Tao said and smiled.