I was about to leave, the spikes would eventually reach us after all.. eventually. I wonder if we were supposed to take longer. Sensei did say it was important to let the boss monologue, I had not done that. Anna however pointed us to a specific part of the wall. I walked over to it and she began to talk. “Okay Tama, this puzzle is a little complex but you need to…”

  Before she could finish I just cut a square into the wall with serenity and ripped it out, showing a hallway behind it. “Oh“ was all Anna said to that and we entered the hallway.

  The hallway was dark so I had Anna conjure the blue flame stuff and we made our way down. It was steep and there were lots of stairs. When we reached the bottom, it was a really big room. There were lots of dead people in different states of decay all over the place. Some on wall racks, some in cages. One was even on a bed looking thingy with rope tied to their ankles and wrists. They looked a little.. thin.

  I walked past all the corpses to the back of the room where a fountain of literally blood sat. I idly wondered what it tasted like. I want to try some but the moment I touched it, the whole thing shook and began going into the ground.

  There was the sound of clacking behind me. I turned and saw all the corpses I had passed getting up. Except the blood from the fountain was leaving it and entering them, they were turning to what I could only describe as blood golems. I grinned, this was going to be fun!

  I never got the chance to fight them though, as the blood suddenly made cracking noises and all the blood golems just.. collapsed. Then Anna spoke up “Blood magic is so pathetic, so is blood really. Be like me, bloodless and loving it!”

  I smirked at that, I had to agree. But I also liked my blood. I turned back to the now empty fountain. There was another lever inside. I pulled it excitedly and the fountain extended, stairs appeared where the fountain once stood.

  We made our way down the stairs and into an even bigger room. It was mostly empty except all the way on the other side was a bed and a piano next to it. I blinked to the bed. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in a very long time. “Anna, clean the bed so Tama can nap!” I said happily.

  “Tama, I don’t think now is the best time for a cat nap.” was Anna’s traitorous reply. It was always time for a cat nap, that or a fight!

  There was a clapping behind me and I turned to see a lone figure walking up to us. She was tall and skinny. She wore a robe of deep red and she was smiling and clapping at us. I tilted my head “Nya! Is this your bed?”

  “I see you have found my little Nekojin.” The skinny pale lady said as she continued walking towards me. “But your journey ends here, you will never defeat me. For I am…!”

  I tried, I really tried… but her rant was so long, maybe if she said something interesting. But she was one of those talkative people, I just knew it. I slashed Serenity to the side and cut her in half. She seemed shocked and said “You think that is enough to kill me, I will simply…“ She started to regenerate, so I cut her up lots all at once. I wonder if I made her into mist, would she regenerate from that? That would be so fun to watch!

  The red mist suddenly flew back around thirty or so feet and she reformed instantly. “Nya! That’s not fair! Tama wanted to watch you regenerate slowly!” I stomped my foot and my tail stood on end. My ears flattened in irritation.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The lady looked at me with a mix of horror and anger. “Do you know who I am, little girl! You will rue the day you have messed with me, The great and powerful!” She suddenly coughed, turned even paler. Fell to her knees as she held onto her throat. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell face first onto the ground not moving.

  Anna left the woman’s body and swam over to me “She tasted horrible!” She said in irritation.

  I nodded sagely, I had tried some of that blood from the blood fountain, it was not my style. “Nya, Time for loot!” I said excited as I looked around the almost entirely empty room.

  After searching the entire room I learned three things. The first and most disappointing, there was no loot. And the piano would not fit in my bag! The pillows, blankets, and sheet did though and Anna cleaned them before going in.

  The ladies dress was southbound for something, I couldn’t get it off. I thought Saki would have liked it. Then again, it didn’t reveal as much as Saki liked.

  The second was that the lady was originally meant to turn into a giant skeleton reaper looking thing with a scythe. I was pissed at myself. That's what I got for ignoring Sensei lessons!

  The third and final was that we still had another room to go in, a door next to the bed that had appeared after the lady died. But there was only a bunch of lost spirits behind it who thanked me for freeing them and then vanished, leaving another empty room.

  Making my way back to the surface, I reached the temple main floor right as the spikes reached the floor, they stopped and began moving back up. They were super slow, so I just walked on top of the back of them all the way to the other side, cut a hole and jumped through to leave.

  “Thank you Tama! You freed my people, I am forever in your debt!” Anna said as we left the temple. I smiled and said “Tama was happy to help, That’s what ninjas do!”

  I felt gratitude from my sentient gi and I hugged her back. Together, we made our way back to camp through the empty city. Though, I did notice all those spirits I freed were now everywhere in the city, talking to each other and exploring their ruined city. There were hundreds and at least.

  I ignored them even as they stared at me. I was still pissed there was no loot. I reached the edge of the lake and blinked across rapidly. I reached the other side and heard a voice “Thank you Tama, for everything.” I turned to see Reedril. He seemed happy, I wonder if he got loot!

  “Nya! It’s what ninja’s do!” I said as I turned and blinked back to camp. When I got there Saki, Tristy, and Paige were all looking at the spirits around them with a mixture of surprise, fear, and confusion.

  When Saki saw me she turned and said “What did you do this time Tama!”

  I was so happy Saki wanted to hear about my adventure, but first! I pulled out the pillows and blankets saying “Tada! Tama got these from the final boss. Sadly, she didn’t have any other loot. Only all these spirits. She did have a piano, but Tama couldn’t get it in the bag.”

  Saki stared at me for a long moment before sighing and saying “You know what, I just don’t care. Tristy wanted to know where you went.”

  As she said this, Tristy rushed up to me, and did her worship pose thing. “Sensei, Please forgive my weakness for earlier. I am ready to accept my punishment!” She didn’t even seem tense.

  “Nya! Tama is ready to train you more!” I walked over and picked up a single ruin wall. I handed it to her and said “Burn this rock to ash!”

  Saki looked at me puzzled but Tristy did what she was told instantly. A moment later the ruin wall rock was a pile of ash. I nodded and walked over to a ruined wall and pointed. “Burn to ash Nya!”

  Saki looked even more confused even as Tristy walked over and after a moment, used immense fire to turn the entire wall to ash. She then stands there panting slightly at the exertion. Saki was now utterly perplexed.

  “How does burning the wall down…” Before she could finish I held up a finger. Then it happened, the spirits all around us surrounded Tristy and they looked pissed. I gently leaned in and whispered “Blink little Tristy, if you don’t, you will die. Spirit death is not fun.”

  To Tristy’s credit, she did not waver and began to blink away, she even stopped, grabbed another ruin rock and burnt it to ash in front of more spirits before taking off. Saki stared in abject horror as dozens of spirits began chasing down Tristy with hatred in their eyes.