By morning, they were already back on the trail. They'd only been traveling a few hours when, their valley began to turn into a damn swamp. Still the day had only just gotten started, there was a chance it would get better, that was until Kaito got his wish for something "eventful."
He sat atop the cart as usual, legs dangling over the edge. The road stretched quiet and dull ahead, until something caught his eye.
"Hey, guys…" He squinted at the horizon and pointed. "The dirt's flying."
Nanami popped her head out from inside the cart. At first she saw nothing, then the rising plume of earth, coming at them, fast and wild.
"Not good!" She grabbed the bulb and jerked them sideways, trying to veer off course.
The dirt cloud shifted.
It was heading straight for them.
"Monster attack!" Dante shouted.
Toni didn't hesitate. He leapt from the cart. "Abandon ship!"
Patty scrambled out after him.
Nanami stayed put, knuckles white around the orb. She had built this cart herself. She wasn't about to abandon one of her prized creations.
But Dante grabbed her around the waist and jumped.
"My baby!" Nanami screamed as the cart was swallowed in a violent explosion of dirt and splintering wood.
The ground trembled.
Kaito landed hard but rolled to his feet, blade already in hand. As the creature burst fully from the ground, a massive, burrowing beast with plated scales and a gaping, circular maw, he braced himself.
Then he noticed two figures sprinting from the treeline.
A boy in front, a little older than him, glanced back at the monster, then at them.
"RUN!" he shouted.
Kaito was ready to ignore him. Fight first, think later, that was usually his approach.
But the beast kept rising.
And rising.
Each thunderous step revealed more of its massive body. It wasn't just big.
It was colossal.
Kaito nodded once. Twice. Then he ran.
The two groups merged in full retreat, boots pounding against wet earth as the terrain shifted from firm soil to slick marshland.
The boy who'd shouted the warning waved breathlessly at Kaito while they ran. "Strange way to meet, but my name's Cher!"
"Kaito!" he shot back with a grin that didn't match the situation.
His friends, however, were in no mood for pleasantries.
Nanami's breathing turned ragged. "Of all… the places to get stuck running… it had to be a swamp…!"
Dante splashed beside her. "Hey, at least we haven't gotten stuck in any-"
His next step disappeared.
With a sickening slurp, the ground gave way beneath them.
They plunged waist-deep into a massive pool of mud.
Toni tilted his head toward the sky as the beast thundered closer, each step sending ripples through the swamp. "Gods… just be gentle with my soul. That's all I ask."
Cher struggled beside them, arms sinking deeper the more he fought. "Dang it! I can't go out like this!"
The monster loomed overhead.
SLASH.
The sound cut through the air like lightning. A clean line split its body from crown to tail. It collapsed in two massive halves, crashing into the swamp with a tidal wave of mud and murky water. A lone figure stood beyond the remains, blade lowered.
"We're saved!" Kaito cheered.
From the trees poured a tribe of ogres and goblins, crude weapons raised, yellow eyes gleaming.
Kaito's smile vanished. "We're not saved."
Several goblins hurled small clay pellets. They shattered against the group's faces in puffs of shimmering powder.
Kaito tried to hold his breath, too late. One by one, they collapsed into the mud as darkness swallowed them whole.
Kaito was the first to wake up. Looking around, he saw they had been thrown into a cage. They were on display in the center of what looked to be a camp of ogres and goblins. Sitting in front of the cage was a massive pot of boiling water.
He attempted to move his hands, but to no avail, they were tied. "For a bunch of monsters, they're kinda smart," Kaito complimented, though it wasn't hard to impress him intellectually.
The others quickly woke up, and Dante began shouting. "I just had to go and say something. I've gotta be cursed. Why does this always happen?!"
Nanami, still disheartened by the loss of her cart, looked grimly at him. "I'm not one to believe such things, but you must be cursed."
Kaito squinted at him suspiciously. "Dante…" he groaned.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Dante," Cher joined in, making the same expression as Kaito.
Dante was taken aback by the newcomers' reaction to him. "I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU!" he yelled.
"Doesn't matter, DANTE!" Cher groaned again.
"Booo," the other boy said unenthusiastically.
Nanami scanned the cage for any hint or idea of how to escape. She observed the enemy numbers, which didn't make her feel much better, since even if she did get out, there had to be at least hundreds of beasts in total.
Kaito, on the other hand, sat in the cage introducing himself to the other boy, whose name was Taka. He was less energetic than his counterpart.
Cher was vibrant. He had red hair with matching red eyes. Taka, on the other hand, had black hair, black eyes, and didn't seem to smile. Granted, they were currently in a cage, so that may have been a factor.
Patty had woken up too. She didn't add anything to the conversation other than yelling in fear.
Kaito looked around, noticing the absence of someone. "Where's Toni?"
Toni awoke on the other side of the goblin camp. The putrid scent and the blood on the walls indicated to him that he must've been inside a mess hall.
Seeing the goblins preparing to gut him, Toni jumped out of his skin. "I will not be goblin food! If I'm gonna die, it's gonna be to a dragon!" Toni yelled.
He took a deep breath. The shout that came after was amplified by his sound magic, and the goblins in the area collapsed from the noise. "Stupid goblins!" Toni rolled off the table and used one of the knives to cut the ropes binding his wrists. Ragged coughs escaped him, he'd never screamed so loudly before.
Toni sprinted outside the hut and was greeted by more goblins. They hadn't yet noticed him, so he quickly ducked behind cover. Scanning the area, he saw the others inside a cage next to the giant pot of boiling water.
He nodded, knowing what to do.
Toni didn't have much of a plan, so he sprinted out at full speed, gunning for the giant pot. He snatched a crude shield out of one of the goblins' hands and slammed his body into the pot.
Kaito began laughing at the sight. "That was awesome, Toni!"
Dante scurried to the other side of the cage. "Are you crazy?!" A polar opposite of Kaito's reaction.
Cher broke free from the ropes, Kaito quickly following, to Patty's dismay. "You could always do that?!" she asked.
Cher shook his head at her. "It's a regular rope. We're mages... you can do it too."
Nanami nodded, quickly doing the same. "I noticed before, we're also inside a wooden cage, so we were never really trapped, bu-"
"WHY DID WE NOT JUST ESCAPE?!" Patty blurted, cutting her off.
Taka looked at her, uninterested. "There are still hundreds of them, and we haven't seen the one that killed the monster we were running from. Stop yelling and use your head," he said in a dry, monotone voice.
Patty didn't say anything back. She was embarrassed.
Kaito and Cher began rushing toward the fight. "Bet I can beat more of them than you!" Cher challenged.
"You're on!" Kaito accepted.