Before walking through the enchanted door that Rhiannon made, Xinya and his friends closed their eyes. They all believed that as soon as they entered they would encounter the same blinding golden light and rollercoaster-like experience they had from before.
However, what they thought would happen, didn't much to Xinya's relief. Instead of a stomach-churning ride through the blinding tunnel, there was only a quick tug and almost instantly they were back in Brimree Grove in the same place where they left.
Hearing a loud roar close to him, Xinya opened his eyes to see that he was only centimeters away from the claw of the Covert Atranoch. Startled at the sight, Xinya tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
The large beast jumped at him and clawed at his chest, knocking him back against the tree.
[ -153 Hp]
Xinya grunted from the attack, he was glad that he had his pain settings on low because he knew he would have lost his composure and started screaming from the pain. Seeing the monster was about to attack him again, he went to grab a potion only to be stopped by Wei, who used a Blazing Bullet, knocking the monster back and away from him.
"Are you alright, Drifting Cloud?" Wei asked while cocking her guns, ready to shoot the creature again.
Taking a Flora Attack potion out of his item slot, he threw it at the monster. The first one didn't work, so he threw another one at it. As he watched the petals immobilize it, Xinya said, "Yeah I'm fine, but that was too close."
"What in the world is going on?!" Melting Snow asked. Gripping the ice blue swords that were in his hands, he was alert and ready for action. "Why is it still night, and why is that monster aggro still on us?"
"It's because we were probably only gone a minute, instead of hours like we all thought." Wandering Sound explained.
Giving the man a confused look, Melting Snow said, "What the heck does that mean?"
"Although I would like to know as well," Xinya began, cutting off the furry eared boy. "I think we should get out of here. My potion won't last for long.''
"We aren't going to fight it?" Wei asked.
"Let's discuss this from further away." Replied Xinya as he ran to the edge of the glade to the cover of trees.
After a slight hesitation, Wei, Melting Snow, and Wandering Sound quickly followed. Only when they were all safely hidden behind the foliage of the grove, did Xinya begin to speak again.
Looking towards the other's, Xinya asks, "Do you all really want to try to take down this monster?"
"I want to. I always wanted to kill a dragon, and this is close enough to one." Melting Snow stated excitedly.
Surprisingly Wandering Sound nodded his head in agreement, "I also want to give it a go, I want to see if my skills improved."
"Yeah, we can always run away if we can't take it down," Wei told him. "Do you not want to?"
"It's not that, it's just the monster is like five levels above us and a boss monster, if that's not bad enough it's also transformed. I feel like we are taking on more than we can chew." Explained Xinya.
Wei agreed with Xinya, fighting this monster would be hard, but she also had a reason to do so. "I know it will be hard, but it will also be our last battle together as a group. If we can't do it, we can run, but I want to try."
Feeling sidelined by the emotional onslaught of her words, Xinya inwardly sighed. He knew that she was right, this would be their last battle together for a while, and with it being against a transformed boss would make it very memorable.
"Alright, let's do it but we need a plan. We can't just go attacking this thing all half-assed." Xinya told them sternly.
Everyone hummed in agreement, Xinya was always making them a plan first before attacking dangerous monsters. They didn't expect any different this time either.
Wandering Sound looked over to Drifting Cloud who had his brows furrowed deep in thought, he was about to offer his assistance, but Melting Snow stopped him before he could with a question.
"Wandering Sound, what did you mean last time when you said that we were only in the fairy realm for a minute?" Questioned Melting Snow.
Amused, Wandering Sound just looked at the boy. "Don't you think we should be helping Drifting Cloud think up a plan, instead of thinking about trivial things like that?"
"I mean we could help him," started Melting Snow while turning to the green-haired man who was studying the now free monster inside of the glade with a slight smile on his face. "But I don't think that is necessary."
Wei, who was listening to Melting Snow and Wandering Sound's conversation, peaked at Xinya before inclining her head in consensus. "What Snow boy said is right, let Drifting Cloud think, we will offer our feedback later."
Although he still thought they should help Drifting Cloud instead of relying on him to think of the plans by himself all the time, he was outvoted 2 to 1. So all Wandering Sound could do was explain his theory of pocket dimensions inside the game where time isn't linear. Before he could go into more detail about it, Xinya began to speak.
"I got an idea on how we should handle this beast," Xinya told them, jumping up in excitement.
With an eager look in his eyes, Melting Snow exclaimed, "Tell us!"
"Well, first we need to…," As Xinya began to explain his idea to the group, he forgot that he was now out in the open and not in the cover of the trees anymore.
The Covert Atranoch who still hasn't left its aggroed state spotted him, letting out a murderous roar it began to charge towards him and his group.