Out of nowhere, something started laughing at them.
“What is this?” Sei asked the others, looking around.
“That´s the voice I heard in the cellar” Ryan said, slowly panicking to the disembodied voices laughter. Something didn´t bode right with it.
“Let´s get out of here. Whatever this is, it isn´t friendly” Mike suggested. Ryan quickly lifted the Johnny in front of him up before they all turned to move away.
But after only a couple of steps they all stopped moving, not having any control about it. “What´s happening? Why can´t we move?” Sei asked, now growing fearful along the others.
“I won´t let you run away, there is no fun in watching you run without a goal.” The voice said chuckling.
Before either could answer it, some kind of floating mask swept down from the ceiling, right in front of the group. “It will be fun watching you. Hahaha” it laughed again.
“W-what do you mean?” Johnny asked from all sixteen kobolds, unable to use only one.
“Hehe. Well of course watching them hunt you down, little kobold. Or better, little kobolds.” The mask said, chuckling evilly at them again.
“I won´t hunt my brother, you monster” Ryan said angry.
Still chuckling, the mask turned towards him. Something moved by him, and seconds later his basket with the water pinchers floated away. “Right, you won´t. You will be doomed to watch the others hunt them, unable to do anything against it. Hahaha.”
A sudden heaviness returned to Ryan as his eyes widened in fear. “Nooo… stop … this …” There wasn´t anything he could do, as he dried out again. His voice reduced to a whisper, only able to move his eyes.
“Ryan” his friends screamed, but couldn´t help him as they still couldn´t move.
“What have you done to him?” Sei screamed at the mask.
The mask turned towards them. A blast of air pushed around Sei´s and Mike´s body, and with many similar sounding screams, Johnny´s kobold bodies toppled down from their back and to the ground. “Oh, don´t worry “master”, you will know in a second.”
Before either could say anything, two metal necklaces with various gems flew towards their necks, wrapping around them like a collar. On Sei´s neck, just where his green scales crossed over into Mike´s yellow, his necklace sat, black metal, with royal blue sapphires in it. The same necklace was around Mike´s neck, on the same crossing spot than Sei´s, but it had blood red rubies on it.
The moment the necklaces closed around their necks, their eyes had clouded a bit, and both let out a simultaneous roar, as a new, more feral mind took their control from them. Then, in a more hissing voice than either Sei nor Mike had before, the dragon said: “Finally a fitting vessel.”
“Mike? Sei? What´s wrong?” Johnny asked fearfully, still from all sixteen kobolds.
The dragon´s heads turned towards the Johnny still in Ryan´s arms, now mostly trapped by his unmoving arms. “Good work, watcher, to capture my meal for me” It hissed. Johnny visible paled at that, while the mask laughed.
“You must snap out of it, Mike, Sei” Eric growled at them. Strangely, the other heads remained silent.
Now the dragon turned towards the Cerberus. “Silence, my pet. You help me hunt, no backtalk.”
“Right, master. I will collar him for you” the mask said, and three spiked collars floated towards Eric´s body. On the middle collar was a gem as well, a smaragd this time. They quickly wound around the three necks, and Eric was pushed back similar to Mike and Sei. A loud howl escaped all three heads at once, as a feral mind took control over the Cerberus. Its only loyalty towards his master, the dragon.
All eyes on the still trapped Johnny in Ryan´s arms, he asked with a trembling voice: “What have you done to them?”
The mask chuckled evilly. “I just released the spirits belonging to the bodies, and your friends can´t fight them off, little kobold. They will hunt you down as soon as I let them, and you will end as a snack for them soon. All to the watchful eyes of your brother. But right, even while he´s dried up, he is still in control technically, let´s fix that.”
Johnny watched helplessly as another kind of accessory, something resembling a diadem of sorts, completely made of stone, floated towards Ryan´s unmoving gargoyle head. It slipped onto his horns like a crown, covering a part of Ryan´s forehead. Right in its center was resting a bright yellow gem. Ryan lost what control he had the second it touched his forehead, now not even able to move his eyes or say anything. The gargoyle´s eyes looked down at the trapped Johnny coldly.