"Sana...! Sana...! Sana...!"
One name is echoing in the middle of the unknown jungle. Meanwhile, the owner of that name is wandering around by herself. Sana's steps are jumpy. She's humming a random melody and sometimes strumming her lute along. She's enjoying the breeze she never felt in a long time. Finally, she's out here, doing her first mission as a field agent from CNR (Connect and Recruit) Department.
"Sana, where are you?"
While Sana is too busy with her own mind, Haeju is panicking because that bard was walking with her just now.
"Did you really not see her leaving?" Chaeyoung asks.
"I swear I don't know what happens! I'm pretty sure nothing's following us tho. Is she lost???" Haeju answers quickly.
"Was she angry or showing any expression before?" Chaeyoung asks again.
"No no, I don't think so. Quite the opposite, she looked much happier when she entered this jungle. Maybe she's looking for something?" Haeju says.
"No no, she hasn't been here before," Chaeyoung says.
"Funny, of all people, we lost someone who plays music all the time," Tzuyu says, "Can you detect any magic in this forest, Haeju? You're a witch, right?"
"Ah right right. I can do that but I need to concentrate. It's gonna take a while. I did hear that this jungle is indeed magical, if I'm not wrong," Haeju says.
"We can't leave you alone to do your magic while we're looking for Sana. Let's just try to find her first, the three of us, together," Chaeyoung says.
"I agree. Is there really no spell that you can use in this situation Haeju?" Tzuyu asks again.
"Uhh... Let me think, let me think. I don't know that many spells," Haeju answers.
"Sana plays music anyway, let's just try to focus to hear her. We have to stick together," Chaeyoung says.
"Okay," Tzuyu answers.
"I'm really sorry," Haeju says to both of them.
"Hey, that's okay," Tzuyu says calmly, but Haeju still feels guilty about it.
"Hmm?"
Sana stops humming as she sees something emerges from a swamp. A huge walrus-like creature comes out right in front of her. It's green, wet, and most of its body is covered by sort of moss from the swamp. It has two big fangs, a fin, and a pair of eyes that are staring at Sana. A few seconds later, another same creature comes out and immediately notices Sana who's standing there.
"He... He... Hello?"
Sana never sees something like that before, but she knows both of them pretty much will eat her alive. Sana takes the deepest breath she can do before she screams so loud but weirdly quiet melodic, "Heeeeeeeeeeelp!!!"
Those two creatures jump as Sana runs away from them. Chaeyoung, Tzuyu, and Haeju who hear that scream also immediately run towards it. Then they see Sana running in their direction. "Ruuuuun!!!" she screams. The three of them see two monsters following Sana not too far away, ready to attack all of them now.
Tzuyu takes out her shield. Chaeyoung takes out her sword, ready to attack. Haeju instinctively runs along with Sana.
As the first monster jumps out with a jaw open, Tzuyu steps in and takes the damage using her shield. Chaeyoung comes through between Tzuyu's legs and slices that creature's body.
The second monster jumps out and attacks Tzuyu, but misses. Haeju manages to reach Sana's hand and stops her, "Sana wait! We have to help them," Haeju says. Sana sees Tzuyu and Chaeyoung are fighting those monsters, "Okay," she says before both of them comes back for their teammates.
The monster that just sliced by Chaeyoung falls to the ground. Tzuyu takes out her club and hits that monster with it on its thick body. It doesn't seem like it hurts them that much. Chaeyoung runs towards the second monster and tries to slice it in the face, and it's a success. The monster groans in pain, leaving a scar diagonally from right under its eye to its bottom jaw.
Sana looks at that monster, focuses on it, strums her lute and sings, "AaaAaaAah~" and fire appears on the ground, right under its body. It groans again before it moves away from the bonfire that Sana makes.
Haeju sees the savageness of these monsters. They look so scary, with their dark green color and the plants surrounding the monsters'wet bodies. Unlike Sana, Haeju starts running away again, "Haeju, wait!" Chaeyoung yells but she ignores that. Chaeyoung turns her focus back to the monster in front of her. She attacks it again with the sword. This time her slice only manages to create a smaller wound. It seems like she's overwhelmed by the situation.
The first monster attacks Tzuyu again. Those two fangs hurt her but are not stabbed onto her body. "Ahh!" Tzuyu screams in pain. Sana looks at Tzuyu and walks towards her while singing another song. Accompanied by her lute, somehow her random 'lalala' gives Tzuyu a magical energy and makes the wound less painful than before.
The monster sees that and immediately attacks Sana. But she quickly rotates and perfectly dodges it like a ballerina. Tzuyu steps in, pulls out her shield, and puts it in front of Sana to protect them both.
Meanwhile, the second monster attacks the halfling herself. Chaeyoung falls to the ground. After that, when it's trying to attack her for the second time, suddenly a swirling huge ball of water appears and traps the monster inside it. That water is controlled by Haeju who appears from the direction where the monsters come from, the swamp. Sana screams, "Way to go!"
Haeju lifts that creature who can't control itself inside that water ball, "Hit it, now!" Chaeyoung takes out her crossbow and aims perfectly at that monster inside the water. The water turns red from that monster's own blood. Now it becomes hard to see what's inside that water.
Seeing that, Sana turns to Tzuyu who is protecting her. "Cover me," Sana says. She starts to play her guitar more intense. It sounds like a rock song this time. Suddenly, some dark clouds come above both of them and the monster. It strikes a really loud lightning towards the monster which makes Tzuyu amd Sana falls to the ground. They see if the monster survives that thunder. The monster definitely takes some damage, but unlike them, it's still standing strongly.
Meanwhile, Haeju can't hold her water ball. It falls to the ground, it melts, blood is everywhere. There's an arrow stuck on one of its front legs. It's still alive and it's more angry now than before.
Haeju feels so dizzy and falls to the ground, "Haeju!" Chaeyoung screams. Everyone now sees Haeju laying on the ground, including the monster that was just trapped by her water ball. Now it's ready to attack Haeju.
"ENOUGH!!!"
A loud and angry voice coming from where they're from. They look Mina comes with a serious-looking goblin with a pair of glasses on, following her. Mina is raising his arms. Her fingers are making a weird moves while she's whispering something that nobody can hear, although everybody can see a dark aura is emitting from her. It seems like she's casting a really dark magic.
Suddenly, two of the monsters calmed down. They stand still as if they're frozen. Not just them, but Sana, Tzuyu, and Chaeyoung are shivering looking at Mina's aura turns 180 degree from what they saw in the office back then.
Mina lowers her arms and then speaks with a changed voice, more hoarsed, "GO AWAY!" The charmed animals suddenly get up and run, just like they're commanded to, leaving all of them behind.
Sana murmurs, "What was that?" Tzuyu hears that and answers, "She's on another level".
Meanwhile, Haeju is too weak after casting her last spell, after running back and forth, seeing that amount of blood for the first time, and all the panic attacks she feels from her first mission in that jungle. She feels so weak.
"Haeju, are you okay?" Chaeyoung asks while already kneeing in front of her. Haeju's slowly closing her eyes.
She fainted.
(to be continued)
(a/n: This is just an experimental thing that I do. Please tell me if you want to read more of it. I really need your feedback, because if this is not working, than I won't commit to finish this particular story. Anyway, thank you guys for all of your supports that you've given to me so far!)
