More Samus hilarity! I believe this is the first time Shamus takes on an Elite, and although the fighting could have had a bit more variety to it, I quite liked it.

Inu looks good here, and Shamus looks halfway competent for a change. It's a nice change of pace, actually and fits well into the heavy action oriented mission.

“GAHH!” Shamus Xtreme exclaimed, as he gripped the back of his head where Stewart, the Muri-dan who had totally gotten the jump on him and attacked him without being goaded to do so, had struck. “Don’t hit me when I’m mocking you!”

He started to rub the mark as he turned to his comma chameleon familiar, Inuyaustin. “He doesn’t seem too friendly, does he?”

Inuya shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t agree with the judge’s decision?”

“Nah, that can’t be the reason; he must be jealous of my unquestionable beauty.”

“Hey!” The large Muri-dan loudly exclaimed from the other side of the ally they were fighting in. “Stewart is much more pretty than you!” With that the large rodent threw of his tee-shirt to reveal his colossus abs.

“Oh lord!” Shamus covered Inuy’s eyes with his free hand, “There are some people who have never seen a man without his shirt on, degenerate!”

“I posses the physical capacity to kill you, you know.” Inuya said as she forcibly moved Shamus’s hand off her head.

“I’m just looking out for you, hunnybunch.” Shamus said as he moved his free hand onto the grip of his serpentine sword.

“I shall use that capacity to it’s fullest on you, soon.”

Shamus turned back to his enemy, or- Where his enemy should have been. The bounty hunter gave the alley in front of him a quick survey, before blinking a few times, looking puzzled. “Hey, Inuya, can rats turn invisible?”

“No, but they can run behind you really fast, apparently.” Inuya said as she pointed to a large white rodent standing behind Shamus.

Before he could turn around, Shamus could feel a sharp pain in his left kidney. He emitted a very unmanly screech has he tried to grip the source of the pain, before he suddenly felt the pain being evened as his right kidney was struck.

“Idiot needs to stop talking!” Stewart yelled as he wrapped his forearm around Shamus’s throat and pulled back.

Shamus began to wheeze, as he clawed at the rodent’s arm with his fingernails. The Muri-dan continued to tighten his forearm against his chest, hoping to suffocate the noisy hunter.

Well, this is an interesting death: asphyxiation by a large half-naked rodent in an alleyway. I hope Inuya doesn’t put that on my grave stone.

The large rat suddenly released its grip of Shamus, letting him fall onto the pavement. The hunter gasped for air desperately, before he lifted himself off the ground onto his right knee, unsheathing his sword before looking at his opponent. The Muri-dan was clutching its chest, a look of pain on its face.

“GRRGHH, why does idiot hunter have sharp crossbow on his back!?” Stewart said, as he removed his hand from his chest and clenched it. “Say, what is skinny, squishy, and red all over?”

“Is it me?” The hunter inquired, before the Muri-dan struck his chest, sending him flying down the alleyway into a large pile of crates.

“Good guess.”

Shamus tried to regain his senses, as the smoke from the impact cleared. There was a throbbing pain in his chest, and he thought he could feel blood from wounds induced by the jagged remains of the crates. He started to lift himself from the pile of large broken boxes, as Inuya scurried next to him.

“Well, that sucked more than usual.” She said, not offering her hand to him for support.

“Quiet, coward; I’m just about to unleash my ultimate sword attack of doo-” Shamus was cut off mid-sentence as he was struck again by the Muri-dan, who had just closed the gap in-between them in mere seconds.

Stewart grinned as he lifted the bounty hunter off the ground. The large rodent struck Shamus in the chest a few times, before appearing quite bored with this part of the game. Shamus then felt himself propelling upwards at an alarming speed.

After a few moments of very painful flying of at least a few stories, the hunter looked down towards the alley as he began to descend, seeing Inuy wave back at him cheerfully as she rummaged through her bag. He scanned the ground for the accursed rat, praying he could use it as a cushion for his fall, but instead felt a sharp pain in his spine as the Muri-dan struck from above.

“Stewart is done with this game; night-nigh-” The rodent was cut off mid-sentence by a blast of fire from below hitting his side and propelling him and the hunter away from each other. The blast caused Shamus’s descent to end on a very comfortable mattress, which stopped the force of his falling so it only caused severe injuries to his leg.

Shamus didn’t seem to realize he was in crippling pain, until he let out a loud, “GRRAGHHHHHH!!!- Shamus’s yell was then cut of by a much louder, “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” from the Muri-dan, who had landed on an empty bed frame. “Why doesn’t Stewart get mattress!?”

Inuya again scurried next to the hunter, steam rising from her skin. “You know, one day I won’t be able to shoot giant balls of flame from my skin towards you’re enemies to save you.” Inuya said, as she extended her hand to Shamus to help him up. “Actually, a lot of days I won’t be able to shoot giant balls of flame from my skin; flaming glowsticks are hard to come by, unsurprisingly.”

Shamus groaned, not listening to his familiar as he tried to raise himself off the ground using his crossbow. “Next time could you turn into something that doesn’t sear my skin, and crush my leg?”

“But, the fire signifies my burning love for you.”

“I hate you.” Shamus said as he steadied himself. “Is that giant rat finally dead?”

“No,” Inuy replied, “but’s he’s right behind you again, with a crazed look in his eye.”

“That’s not good-” Shamus began, before being silenced by the Muri-dan’s hands clenching around his neck.

“Stewart doesn’t like landing on metal! It’s feels very bad!” Stewart exclaimed, as he began to tighten his grip on the hunter.

Inuyautin began to radiate heat as sparks flew from her fingertips. “Don’t worry, I’ll sav-” The chameleon was cutoff mid sentence as the rodent released one his hand's grip for a moment to gave her a backhand, sending her flying into the side of a dumpster.

Shamus immediately grabbed the trigger of his crossbow, forgetting that’s what was keeping him standing. He fell on to his back with a slight thud as what air was remaining in his lungs was knocked out. He tried to inhale some precious oxygen, but was interrupted by hands once again clenching around his neck as the Muri-dan leaped onto his ribs.

The rat squeezed harder as the hunter’s eyes began to bulge out slightly, he was like a squeak toy, but the giant rodent was bored of this fight, and of this little toy, and decided it was probably time for him to find someone else to play with.

“Hey, person’bouttobestrangledtodeathbysayswhat?” Stewart grinned, un-tightening his grip on the hunter’s neck ever so slightly to hear the inevitable ‘What?’ before he finished him off.

“Bite me.” Shamus managed to spit out, as a loud *Tssk* noise was heard from his crossbow, now being tightly held in his right hand under his opponent’s body.

The Muri-dan blinked a few times, before looking down to see a bolt in the left side of his chest. He tried to say something, presumably another insult to the Bounty hunter’s intelligence, before his body suddenly released its grip, collapsing on top of Shamus.

The bounty hunter to begin to wheeze as the rodent’s body pushed his crossbow into his right shoulder, before he began to hear a loud clattering coming from his right. The Muri-dan was suddenly rammed off the top of him, as he gasped for air.

Inuyaustin just stared at him with anger on her horned head. “I also won’t always be here to ram naked rats off of you.”

Shamus again ignored her as he lay on the ground, exhausted. “S- Say,” He began weakly, “You think you could carry me for a little while? I don’t think I can walk on my leg.” The hunter finished as he looked at his chameleon-now-goat with puppy dog eyes.

Inuyaustin simply replied, “Absolutely not; I’m one-tenth the size of you. I’D DIE. Go use a phoenix down or something like you always do off-scree-“

“SSSSHHhh!” The hunter exclaimed, as he unsheathed his sword and began to raise himself off the ground with it, “No one must know my secret healing techniques. Besides, I don’t have the money to buy any more phoenix downs after that hobo incident; so I need to act frugally.”

“You have a closet full of them.”

“You never know what could happen.”

“I hate-” Inuya’s reply was cut short by a moaning coming from behind them. The duo turned around to see that the sound was coming from the large rodent, who was beginning to stir.

The only think Shamus could think to do in his current condition was, “I vote we run away before he wakes up, and strangles us to death using his bear hands.”

“Seconded.” Inuya replied as she began to clatter away from the Muri-dan, and Shamus began hopping on one foot, using his sword for balance, to follow her.

Finale is next!