He woke up to Mr. B and Alacard standing over him under a tree that he had been leaned against. He let out a groggy noise, trying to speak but struggling as his mouth was dry. Mr. B handed him a Magician’s Friend and a large water bottle.

“Drink, and eat,” he said.

Alacard looked like he was finishing up a bar himself, chugging away at his own huge water bottle in gigantic gulps.

Alacard let out a thirst-quenching sigh, rubbing his wet lips with the back of his hand.

“You may have stumbled and bumbled and fell down like a little chump,” he said in a less insulting and more friendly way than he usually did. “But you completed the task, so good on you, friend.”

Vincent glowered at him, chomping down on his Magician’s Friend as he thought about chomping down on Alacard’s stupid face. Alacard slapped Vincent on the shoulder while he was taking a chug of water, and it splashed all over him.

Vincent clenched his water bottle and snarled. “Would you stop being so obnoxious?” He then leaned back and downed half the thing in hungry chugs.

“Nah, I like me. If you can’t handle it, quit,” Alacard said.

Vincent let out his own noise of exhilaration from quenching his thirst.

“Never,” he said showing a toothy grin as the relief at completing the task bathed over him.

They both narrowed their eyes on one another, Alacard giving his own wide smirk. “Good.”

No insults, no comebacks? That was a first, Vincent thought. Still, he was so obnoxious.

“All right,” Mr. B said after they had eaten their bars and drank most of their water.

He turned and made a motion with his head.

“Now for the real challenge. Follow me, boys.”

He gave an enigmatic smile and leapt up to the roof in his human form.

Vincent and Alacard exchanged looks, wondering why they had to continue after putting in all that effort. Did he expect them to do that in their human form? They stared up at him with wide eyes as he leaned against the edge of the roof, hollering down at them.

“Come on, boys. Now’s not the time to slack off or show weakness.” He motioned with his arm and turned and moved away from the edge.

The two of them got up, shoving each other as their shoulders touched. They both readied themselves, let out sighs in unison, exchanging angry glances as if to tell each other to stop copying the other, and leapt into the air, landing on the roof in crouches, exchanging looks and smiles at the realization that they did it so easily, and then looked onward.

Mr. B stood with arms folded, an enigmatic and proud smile on his face.

“Good, good. You’ve both mastered jumping and a little bit of balance.”

And they had, without even realizing it. Their frustrations with all the work they had done for seemingly no reason to a point where they could jump in their human forms from the ground to the roof. It was… amazing.

“Now,” he said, leaning forward with an excited and eager smirk. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

And he transformed into his werewolf form and rushed them with the full intent of beating them to a pulp, or at least draining them to their final exhaustion.

.           .           .