Quest for the Arcane Crown by Yajat Sharma (good inspirational books TXT) 📕

“Yes,” Ling took on from there. “So Arcane captured us and cursed us to serve the Joker forever. Only the prophesied children can open the trunk and take the sheep to the Joker.”

“But we are the prophesied children!” James exclaimed.

“Hah, liars,” Ming said. “You have no idea how many people have said that before. We called their bluff each time.”

The Scavenger drew his sword. “Then you leave us with no choice.” He charged at the two rangers, gesturing the children to take the trunk away.

“Wait!” shouted Matt. “Hey Ling and Ming, how about a small taste of the prophesied children?”

Matt raised his hands and powerful gusts of wind struck on Ming and Ling from all sides. Archer shot fireballs that blasted just near their feet. Daniel sent roots, tying their legs up, and James sprayed cold water over them.

The rangers were taken aback.

Ling shouted, “Elemental Powers, my God, the prophesied children are here. STOP. The trunk belongs to you.”

The children immediately stopped using their Powers. Ling and Ming bowed before them and gestured the children to move towards the trunk.

The sun was setting fast. They had barely half an hour.

Suddenly, Ming attacked the Scavenger with phenomenal speed. The rangers had tricked them.

The Scavenger gritted his teeth and snarled, “Backstabbing! That is not an art of a true warrior!”

The other ranger attacked again, with a punch straight at the Scavenger’s jaw. The Scavenger flew and struck a tree.

“Well, who said we were true warriors?” Ling said, grinning.

Ling and Ming attacked the Scavenger with full strength. Meanwhile, the children tried hard to open the trunk, but the lid just wouldn’t budge.

Ming lunged at the Scavenger and backhanded him across the already hurt jaw. The Scavenger howled in pain. Suddenly Ming laughed, seeing the children trying to open the trunk. “You cannot succeed! Only our touch can open the trunk!”

James ran to him. “You shouldn’t have told us that!”

Archer realized James’s plan and ran to help. Ming sprang up and jumped high. He caught hold of a branch and jeered, “You can’t catch me! Na-Na-Na-Na-Na!”

He jumped from one branch to the other, like a Tarzan with white hair.

Daniel put a quick end to his antics by raising his hand. The foliage of the jungle enveloped him, and soon he was wrapped like a mummy, covered with the jungle growth.

In the meantime, the Scavenger and Ling were involved in a fierce fight.

The time was slipping fast. Shifting his body weight to the left, the Scavenger carefully balanced himself and leapt at Ling in the attack great warriors knew as the ‘Defeater’.

The Scavenger’s hit caused Ling’s body to jerk to the left, but he did not fall. The Scavenger immediately hit again at Ling’s chest. Ling didn’t get up and groaned in pain.

The sun was setting as the children and the Scavenger dragged Ling closer to the trunk. Archer watched as the Scavenger put Ling’s hand on the lid.

Then, all at once, the sun went down, darkness fell, the lid opened, there was a blinding flash, and everyone disappeared.

14

Matt found himself in a small chamber that had a golden table in the centre. Other than that, there was nothing more, except the Joker, who was hanging from the ceiling; Matt couldn’t figure out how.

The Joker was dressed like a circus clown holding a long sword in one hand.

“Aww!” he cried, floating down on the ground. “Come on! You could have made it more interesting! First, your dialogues were lame. Second, you destroyed the monster too fast. Third, please, Ling and Ming were great warriors! You could have fought them longer! And… couldn’t you add some witty comments or something? Phew! Booriiiiing! And also…”

“Enough!” The Scavenger said. “We have passed two of your three tests. Give us the third test, fast.”

The Joker sighed, “Okay, okay. The third test is…” Then after a pause, he dramatically blurted, “Chess!”

“What?”

“Yes.” The Joker seemed excited. “You send one from your team to play chess with me. I win… bad luck for you. You will be fed to the animals or kept prisoner for my entertainment. I lose, you get the second piece, and I will not stop you. Agreed?”

“Yes,” the Scavenger conceded.

“Wonderful!” The Joker clapped his hands and two chairs along with a chessboard on a table appeared. The Joker rubbed his hands in glee. “Now choose your player.”

The children huddled around for a quick discussion. “James,” the Scavenger began, looking at James

Surprisingly, James shook his head. “This time, it won’t be me. You don’t know it, but Matt was a district champion in chess.”

Matt nodded. “Don’t worry, I will take him on.”

Matt and the Joker sat facing each other.

Chess pieces popped out from the air and placed themselves on the chessboard.

“You first,” the Joker grinned. Matt moved his pawn.

The Joker moved his knight.

Matt proceeded with another pawn. The Joker shifted his bishop.

The game progressed. The Scavenger couldn’t make any sense of the game and felt lost.

The Joker tried to demolish Matt’s soldiers. But Matt knew this trick. He lost two soldiers to convince the Joker that he was oblivious of this trick. Matt quickly moved his knight and killed his queen.

“NO!” The Joker was furious. He moved his bishop forward.

The Joker eliminated another two of Matt’s soldiers, but it was too late. Matt had knocked out the Joker’s queen, which was the most powerful. Now he was free to surround the king. But first, he had to make sure the Joker’s knight and bishop were out of the game too.

Matt suddenly saw a flaw in the Joker’s formation. Seizing this opportunity, he surrounded the knight.

Another two moves and the knight was gone. But the Joker killed Matt’s bishop too. It was turning out to be a neck-to-neck competition.

The Joker moved his bishop… and killed Matt’s knight. “Oh no!” Matt cried, banging his fist on the table.

The Joker knocked out Matt’s remaining two soldiers.

Matt found a big opening. He lost his rook but managed to kill two soldiers