effective way he knew of. He found a spell from his newfound knowledge in that area and said a word in his mind. His swords now glowed yellow, and Balto knew that now one single hit from his swords, even if it normally wouldn’t be fatal, would now be fatal anyway. This was good because he would no longer have to be vulnerable when he knocked over an enemy and had to stab him on the ground so they wouldn’t get up behind him and plant a bullet in his back. 

Jenna was watching it all happen from above as she fired down at the attackers. She had not, however fired upon Steele. To her, he seemed to have gone somewhere when Kodi and Balto came charging at his army. She decided that she should now focus on any humans that might be a danger to Balto and Kodi. Steele would have to wait a while. She realized soon, fortunately, that there would be a time that she may run out of arrows. “Well,” she thought, “maybe that’s what my sword is for.”

The battle raged on, but in time, the number of humans dropped more and more. Soon, it was just Kodi, Balto, and two humans remaining. Balto went for the one nearest him. To his shock, he was armed with an automatic weapon. Balto raised his swords, knowing that his skills in blocking bullets would be put to the test now. The human opened fire, but Balto was able to block all of them and lean out of the way of the ones he couldn’t block. When the human was out of ammo, Balto wasted no time in running over to the human, upper cutting him and then stabbed him on the ground after he fell.

Kodi, meanwhile, was against a human with a knife. “This will be easy,” he thought. He ran at the person, who tried to lunge his knife out at Kodi, but he easily knocked it away and kicked him on his side, making him spin around. Kodi caught him as his back was turned, and slit his throat with both swords at the same time. He looked at his swords, and they were dripping with blood. He looked at Balto’s, and they were no different. He heard something, and turned around. There was Jenna walking towards them. Her arrows were all spent, but she was seemingly ready to fire again if she had any arrows left. “Where’s Steele?” she asked. Kodi replied, “I didn’t see him since I started to charge. The coward, he probably ran…” There was a scream, and it was coming from Nome.

“They’re going for Nome!” cried Balto. Steele had just distracted Balto, Kodi, and Jenna from his attack there. “Come, we need to save the city!” Balto led the others to the streets of Nome, where they saw the city being ransacked by Steele’s human force. Smoke was everywhere, and there was also the ever-present heat of fire. Fortunately for Balto, Jenna, and Kodi, none of the humans were facing towards them. This provided a surprise element for them, and Balto had an idea to exploit that opportunity. He whispered his plan into Jenna’s ear, and then Kodi’s. They both agreed that it would work.

Jenna hid in a small alleyway. Nobody was there, and nobody even bothered to look down there. It was the perfect place to take out the humans attacking the city without getting noticed. With her sword drawn, she crept closer to the corner of the wall. She reached out and grabbed the nearest person with her hand over his mouth, pulled him into the alleyway, and stabbed him. He wasn’t completely dead, but it wouldn’t be long until he was. She repeated this process until she heard the humans wondering where some of their own had gone. She didn’t want to blow her cover, so she ran to the other side of the alleyway.

This was Kodi’s signal. He activated the same spell on his swords that Balto had used earlier, and the swords were glowing yellow. He snuck over to the crowd and then began slicing away at it without warning. It was easier now that Jenna had taken out a good number of them already. Since Steele had not expected Balto, Jenna, and Kodi to realize the attack on Nome, there were fewer people there in the city than they expected. In time, the element of surprise in the crowd of armed raiders wore off, but it was too late to put up any resistance. There were only three who were aware that they were being attacked at that time. They all fell within the minute. “You like that?” he yelled out to those who he had just slain.

“No,” replied a hauntingly familiar voice. It was Steele. They all turned around, and saw he was holding a gun in his hands. Balto chuckled and said, “You never could play fair, could you?” A blast responded, and Kodi fell. Furious beyond any belief, he charged at Steele. He fired again, but it would have taken more than that to stop him. He slashed away at his chest, blood flew all over him, and Steele fell to the ground dead. Balto, still not completely satisfied, severed Steele’s head and threw it into a small fire nearby, where it became burned beyond recognition. Balto now was feeling the effects of the gunshot, and it became difficult to walk. He walked back to Kodi, still on the ground. He wept for him, for a long time. To make matters even worse, he saw the body of Jenna not too far away. Steele’s other victim. Overcome with despair, he fell to the ground and awaited death to take him. Darkness took them all, but the darkness was not death…

Kodi awoke with a start. He was in the street still, but as he tried to look at his chest, he realized he couldn’t. “What the…” he thought, but he then realized that he didn’t need to look at his chest. He was alive and felt like nothing happened to him. He also noticed that he no longer had the human qualities that he had not too long ago. Kodi was actually relieved. He wasn’t able to run as fast with his human qualities. He looked over at Balto, who was also recovering, and so was Jenna. The streets did not have the dead bodies from last night, but there was still evidence of the city being ransacked with burns on buildings, stray bullets on the ground and other such things.

As they all realized that their human qualities were no longer with them, they realized that they were extremely lucky. They all gathered together in that street and Balto said to all of them, “Let’s not get in the way of guns again. I doubt seriously that we will come back from the dead again like that. Let’s also avoid humans with guns when we can, as I’m sure all of us no longer has the knowledge we had last night.” “Understood,” replied Kodi. Balto then turned to Jenna, and asked her, “What happened with you last night?”

“Oh, that, well, Steele tried to run off with me after I ran back down that alleyway. I wouldn’t go with him so he stabbed me.” Jenna stopped abruptly. “Still, all that matters now is that we’re alive.” “At least now we won’t be hearing from Steele anymore,” replied Kodi. “Kodi, Balto,” said Jenna uneasily “I really don’t want to hear the name Steele ever again. After what happened last night, just the sound of his name scares me even more than it did.” “I can do that,” said Kodi. “As can I,” added Balto. “Come,” he said, changing the subject, “let’s go enjoy what we can do that Humans can’t do. I’m sure we learned what those are, right?” “You got that right!” exclaimed Kodi, and both of them, along with Jenna, ran off to the boat for a romp around outside. (The bodies there were gone too) Soon after, they were having so much fun with each other that the events last night had moved into the very backs of their memories, and they assured to themselves that Steele wouldn’t be causing any more trouble in Nome anymore.

Fortunately, they were right.

Steele did, however come back to life in his own dog form, but it was nowhere Nome that it happened. It happened in the middle of some woods some distance from Nome. The wolves there are never fond of outsiders, and an egomaniac like Steele is what they are least fond of. He was last seen unconscious and being dragged into the den of those wolves. His body has never again been seen, well, at least it hasn’t been seen in one piece again.