The marshmallow-cube landed on its dark side.

"You are in," said Sweet-Face.

A stab of elation hit me, and Clang gripped my shoulder with excitement.

Flump!

Sweet-Face used his marshmallow-whip to draw back the cube, both of which he reabsorbed into his marshmallow forearm.

Sweet-Face turned to his men, all twenty-one of them plus the injured and unconscious that had been dragged away.

In a power-magnified voice, he said, "Do not interfere with d'is fight. It is between me, and d'is boy, and d'is one."

He gestured to Clang and me, and then said, "If d'ee other two try to interfere with d'ee fight, kill d'em all. If any of d'em try to run away, kill d'em."

And then Sweet-Face raised his arms, and all at once his men chanted his name.

As the chanting died down Sweet-Face walked away from where Marbelle, Miss Toontastic, Clang, and I were standing.

Clang moved off next, walking up the playground and then turning to face Sweet-Face who was standing several meters across from him further down the playground.

"Slip?" said a voice.

It was Snap's.

I looked back to see Miss Toontastic's toonish eyes were replaced with Snap's anime-style ones, which were flickering with concern.

Then, with a confidence I didn't really feel, I grinned.

Snap, seeing the grin, looked a little less afraid for me as a result.

I kicked off on the resin-board and glided forward several meters across the playground concrete.

I came to a stop and stepped off the resin-board, and then, deciding it could be useful during the fight, I placed the resin-staff at the center of the board, and in doing so combined the two. Doing this made a quarter of the resin-staff become a grip which had enough length for me to hold onto it with two hands.

I lifted the resin-board off the ground, and, since it had effectively become a huge resin-sword, I held it out in front of me like a sword with my hands firmly at the grip.

"We don't have to do this," I resonated.

Sweet-Face laughed, "Ca-ca-ca!"

"War does not wait for any man," said Sweet-Face, "It comes even for d'e innocent."

"But why fight for Lowem's Park? What good is it to you?" I resonated.

Sweet-Face cocked his head to one side and grinned.

"Land is power," he said, "But you cannot know d'is because you have not slept on soil drenched in the blood of your people."

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"So what?" I resonated, "This is some kind of revenge?"

"No," said Sweet-Face, "You are not my brothers, so d'at makes you my enemies. D'at is the way of t'ings."

"When do we start?" Clang's voice rang.

"Now," said Sweet-Face, "Attack, if you are ready to die."

"Tension!" Clang's voice rang, and his body radiated heat and let out fresh gushes of steam.

Two amber-coloured lengths of what looked like hard sugar-caramel grew out of Sweet-Face's marshmallow-hands. In a matter of seconds it looked as if Sweet-Face was wielding two giant amber-coloured candy canes.

Clang was the first to burst into action. A great rush of steam followed in his wake as he bounded with machine-like power off the playground concrete and quickly closed the distance between himself and Sweet-Face.

I bounded forwards with all the strength I could muster in my legs, holding the resin-sword off to the side and ready to swing.

Clang reached Sweet-Face, and quickly began to throw red-hot superhuman-powered punches.

Sweet-Face retreated from the punches, leaping backwards. With deft precision he either dodged the punches altogether, or struck them away with his candy-canes.

I kept up with the momentum of the fight, which was rapidly moving towards the bottommost back-end of the playground.

Sweet-Face attempted to dodge the full brunt of the haymaker punch Clang had just thrown himself into.

Sweet-Face successfully dodged the worst of the punch, but not without the right-side of his marshmallow-face being partially cooked from the searing heat of Clang's skin.

THRACK! CLANG!

Sweet-Face retaliated in the same movement by striking Clang hard across the face with both of his candy-canes.

Clang winced and rasped from the power behind the candy-canes which shattered from the immense impact.

In this time I had cleared the remaining distance and swung the huge resin-sword with as much power as I could muster.

Flump!

With one deft backwards leap Sweet-Face avoided being struck by the resin-sword entirely. I noticed Sweet-Face was using his marshmallow-clad feet to propel him away like a spring, similar to how Snap would blood-bend her own rubber-body to create sudden explosive elasticity.

But I had anticipated Sweet-Face dodging the resin-sword swing after observing just how efficiently and fast he was able to move when fighting Clang.

Pap! Pap!

Two chunks of the resin-sword burst, creating resin-threads which shot out at high speed and attached themselves to Sweet-Face's chest.

Got him! I thought.

Sweet-Face made the clumps of marshmallow adhered to the resin-threads melt off in thick white globs.

The resin-threads zipped back into the resin-sword, and the previously exploded chunks of the resin-sword regenerated.

It was then a sudden great rush of red-hot steam filled my field of vision. I felt fortunate to be wearing the resin-visor, because the heat from the steam was so intense I was sure I would have discovered what it felt like to have my eyes steam-cooked in an instant. My exposed mouth took a fraction of that heat as I yanked myself back and away from the steam.

The rush of steam stopped. Clang stood on the spot with his hands held out in front of him, with his wrists pressed together.

Sweet-Face had leapt away from the steam, but not without getting his marshmallow head severely cooked in the process.

Sweet-Face's marshmallow head was both burnt all over and melting. In turn, the melted away marshmallow exposed what lay beneath.

Sweet-Face's head was like a man made out of the same amber-hued sugar that had made the candy-canes.

Although somewhat harder to make out due to the sugary nature of his head, the African heritage of Sweet-Face was clear to see from his facial features. He looked to be a man in his early twenties.

In a matter of seconds however the marshmallow regrew out from the amber-hued sugar, and Sweet-Face's original marshmallow head with its burnt eyes and mouth returned.

"He's made himself a sugar-man," I resonated.

"Yeah," Clang's voice rang.

How much of Sweet-Face's body has been changed to sugar? I wondered. Like with myself, Snap, and Clang, I guessed there were likely still aspects of being flesh and blood left for Sweet-Face.

Did he completely make himself into this pseudo-sugar-man? I thought, because the implication if that were the case was that he wouldn't so easily be able to pass as human as a result.

"It's just another layer," I resonated, speaking to Clang, "His real skin and blood must be beneath. We just need to hit harder."

"Right," Clang's voice rang.

I noticed a line of silvery blood was leaking from the corner of Clang's mouth and down his chin.

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