Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 83: The Leaky Caverns (Part 8)

"We finally made it!" Richard exclaimed happily as, once they had passed three turns in the cave after the last puzzle door, the group found themselves above ground with the afternoon sun finally shining above their heads.

"The fresh air feel so nice." Christina added happily as well.

"Crystal-chan..." Koko continued to mope, causing both of her friends to sigh at the same time before Richard walked closer to her.

"Cheer up Koko. We still have all of the smaller crystals and raptor teeth that we gathered, don't we?" Richard attempted to comfort her.

"But if it's not enough to get two gold then all of this would have been pointless for me..." Koko replied miserably.

"I don't think that's true." Christina joined in the conversation. "If you hadn't needed the money then some normal adventurers that would probably have been weaker than us would have been sent to the dungeon. And seeing as I certainly wouldn't have made it out seeing as I had no idea how to solve the puzzle doors, do you really think that they would have fared any better than what we did?"

"So we might not get enough money but we at least possibly saved some lives." Koko nodded. "I guess I'll have to be content with that."

"Good, then now that that's settled, let's try to get back to the academy before nightfall." Christina said with a smile.

"Sure thing." Richard agreed. "But man, I sure am glad. If this were anything like the other dungeons that I've read about, then we would have found another boss monster at the end of it. Not that I'm complaining that there isn't one..."

"Dude, you do realize how big of a flag you just set, right?" Koko asked, and Richard immediately seemed concerned.

"W-we're out of the dungeon now, so it should be fine." He laughed nervously.

"Maybe, maybe not." Koko replied as she examined their surroundings. "Do you see that the surrounding rock makes it impossible for us to leave from the sides? We're either in a natural bowl or another room of the dungeon that's just on the outside."

"But I've never even heard about anything like that before." Christina seemed concerned now as well.

"It's possible, so let's just keep our guard up at least until we're back on the-" Koko was in the middle of saying before she stumbled forward slightly as her legs seemed to stop working beneath her. Though while her legs thankfully worked again after only a split second of unresponsiveness, Koko had to put her hands over her ears as a fierce ringing sound filled her mind.

"Koko?! Are you alright?!" Christina's panicked yet ghostly sounding voice asked, though Koko couldn't answer her as she doubled over and now held her stomach as well seeing as her earlier nausea had returned at nearly five times the intensity that it had been before. "Hang on, I'll heal you again!"

"I- I'm fine..." Koko lied in an attempt calm her friend, though unfortunately, this was when the dungeon decided to send its final hurdle at them.

"Guys? Something's rising out of the ground!" Richard warned them from the front, and both Koko and Christina managed to look at what he was talking about as a giant mound of earth was rising out of the ground right in front of the only exit of the natural bowl that they were in.

Slowly, two spikes emerged from the ground before the creature that they were attached to began to surface. And as all of them watched it, Koko recognized the monster instantly as a triceratops, only the dinosaur seemed to be mutated seeing as its back was completely covered in the same glowing crystals as the crystal crabs and its tail had two large bundles of quills on either side of it. And after completely freeing itself from the ground, Koko saw that its bottom jaw seemed to have been completely replaced by crystal as well, making what would already look like a fearsome opponent into one that she felt as if she needed to stay away from.

"Ronton the Burrower, level sixty-eight..." Christina explained before Ronton let our a deep roar that thankfully didn't hurt Koko's ears. Though whether that was because of the creature's volume or because of how all she could still hear was ringing, she didn't know.

"Koko, I-"

"Go ahead... I'll try to watch your backs." Koko winced as she slowly stood up again, fighting against the pain in her stomach before she finally managed to stand. However, once she was on her feet again, her vision doubled and everything around her started becoming bazaar to say the least.

As Christina and Richard both ran forward in order to confront the boss monster, both of their figures began slimming until they were nothing but stick figures. And while Koko watched their change with concern, her attention was soon distracted by... bicycles? Strangely enough, ten bright red bicycles jumped out of bushes from beside Ronton, standing up on their back wheels while their front wheels bent, making the spokes stick out from the dents until they formed a mouth with metal teeth. And if things weren't already strange enough, Ronton's figure now started to change as well, becoming almost translucent before nothing but a red outline of the monster remained. Though while its entire body seemed to become translucent, Koko let out a gasp as someone she hated with all of her being appeared inside of Ronton's outline. In other words, it was Magara, the villain that had ruined Ninja Clash 7 by killing all of the main characters.

"Magara! So you were the one behind the change in the dungeon!" Koko pointed an accusing finger at the floating man in front of her.

"What?" One of the stick figures that sounded almost like Richard asked.

"That's right, it was me all along!" Magara replied with a laugh. "But that's not all there is to it! First I ruined your favorite anime, then I followed you to this world and made sure that you didn't have any magic when born!"

"But why?!" Koko asked. "Why target me?!"

"To break you of course!" Magara replied. "So long as there are fans of the Ninja Clash series, I will forever be seen as the villain and my plots will never bear fruit! But if I destroy all of its fans, then I will finally be freed of the show's writing and I will finally be able to succeed!"

"You fiend! I'll never let your plans come to pass, not while I still hold the love for Ninja Clash in my heart!" Koko declared. "I'll defeat you here and now!"

"Christina, I think she's lost it." Richard's voice once again spoke out, through Christina's voice didn't answer before Magara started laughing maniacally.

"Then come, Blue Demon! Come and face a ninja god!" Magara shouted excitedly. "Come if you think that you can resist my power!"

In raising his hands, Magara did something to the world around Koko as everything turned from strange to just plain weird. The clouds transformed into sweet bowls, the distant mountains became gingerbread houses and even the sun turned into a massive, light-producing lemon.

"W-what did you just do?!" Koko asked in shock as she watched everything change.

"I transferred us to another dimension!" Magara laughed again. "Here we can fight without having to worry about anything interrupting us!"

"Then you just signed your own death warrant!" Koko replied before getting ready to charge towards her mortal enemy. "Get ready, Magara, because you're going down!"