The path forward has some fire slugs, which I slash them and use my shield to block the fire coming from them. I watch them wither and die. I continue walking and notice 2 goblins. I prepare myself as this is probably the closest humanoid thing I have ever fought so far. I run up to one and pierce its chest. The other one attempts to stab me but I block it. I then shield bash the goblin and then stab him to death. I attempt to do those cool swordsman thing where they just throw off the blood by slashing their sword. It doesn't really work.

I think to myself, it sure has been a while since I have been by myself. It's a niche feeling. It just doesn't feel suitable for adventuring though. Welp shrug nothing I can do about it. I continue the path, and I can hear some voices? It's around the corner.

"You son of a bitch... Why'd you do this?" an older man says

I peak over the corner and see black clothing and tan pants on the person holding the older man. Wait a second, its that mother fucker from my nightmare the other day. The only problem is, I don't know if I can take him on. I look next to him is also the other person with him. They appear to be near a large crystal thing.

"Are... you with the demon lords?" the older man asks

"Those dumb asses? Pfft hell no. I do what I believe is right." the man in black scoffs

"Then... why? why would you kill those people?" he askes

"Cause I have a job to do and your part of it." the man in black says

Even though I can't see his face... It's almost like he's smiling? I continue looking and I see his head tilt and look slightly to the left.

"I know your there. Who's it this time?" the man in blacks says as he drops the older man to the floor

Uhhhh... well shit nothing I can do but walkout. I past the corner and draw my sword and shield.

"Ah... I didn't think we would meet this quick. We weren't even post to meet yet." he says while laughing

"Why the hell are you laughing?" I ask

"Doesn't concern your pussy ass. At least I get to kill you." he says as he also draws a sword

"Ya know... I wasn't expecting our meeting to be like this." I tell him

He charges and slashes which I barely dodge.

"So you can still dodge? Well I already knew this so it doesn't matter does it." he mumbles

What? I have no idea what the fuck this guy is going on about. Listening to his voice reminds me of something... reminds me of my voice that's for sure but it's different. He slashes again which I block. I shield bash him. He backs off and readjusts his mask. Its a never ending creepy smile, half white and black. I look at the other person in the dress with a mask. They just stand there... watching. As I was distracting myself I get slashed at the shoulder. I back off.

"You should pay attention or you'll die. Though if you die it would be easier." he tells me

"So are you here just to make fun of me and kill me? Is that your mission? You're enjoying this huh you sick fucker." I tell him

"Pfffffft... If you saw what I have seen you would understand. But too bad, you'll never get to see why. And the reason why is because I'm going to eventually kill you to save everyone." he scoffs

W a t. I'll just ignore these for now. Maybe he's trying to screw with me... I slash at him but he blocks with his arm. It's bleeding but he continues swinging anyway. I slash again and we lock swords. The feeling of metal clashing gives me a cold chilly feeling. I continue ignoring these feelings as getting distracted now would get me killed. We continue slashing at each other and give each other cuts. He got more hits on me than I got hits on him which sucks. This is going on for too long, I'm getting tired.

"Getting tired huh?" he says

It feels like he's smirking. He casts something with dark magic and it takes the form of a sphere. He throws it at me. I block it with my shield, but once they collided it caused a mini explosion that knocked my shield out of my hand and injuring my left arm. The explosion also knocked me to the ground.

"Well well, looks like its game over Link Vang... Say hello to Angelina for me." he says as he starts to lift his sword

Wait... how does he know about Angelina? Shit... well I guess that's it huh. I tried, heh at least I get to apologize to Angelina. I close my eyes to embrace death. I could hear the sound of something flying through the air. I open my eyes only to see the masked man change directions to slash an ice shard.

"Tsk... they're here... I shouldn't have taken my time." he mumbles

I slowly get up, and I can see Destiny, Dalton, and Andr. Wow, I'm both relieved and stressed.

"LINK! Are you ok?" Destiny and Dalton say in a worried tone

This is an opening, now's my chance! I pick up my sword and slash at him. He dodges it.

"You got real lucky, you piece of shit." he says

"Your not getting away!" Andr says

Andr casts a light spear and throws it at the masked man. He cuts it in half causing it to split and hit the ground near him.

"Tsk... next time we meet I'll kill you! Melia, we need to head out." he yells at me

The other person with the mask nods. They seem to be disappearing. Also didn't he just mention the name of the younger princess that princess Rose told us about? Could she be doing terrorist actions against Plumeria? I won't think too hard about this...

"Also enjoy the small treat." he scoffs at us

Treat? What? The Dalton and Destiny runs over to me.

"You held yourself well... holy shit good thing we made it on time." Dalton tells me as he pats my shoulder

"Yea barely." I tell him

I look over at Andr and it seems she's healing the older man over there and the other survivors which there only seem to be two others alive. It wasn't a very strong heal but it was able to ease up the wound until they get proper treatment I guess. Destiny walks up to me and hugs me.

"Hey, you should wait until these wounds close or get healed. I'm bleeding here." I tell her

"I... I'm just glad your safe." she tells me

I scratch my head. Andr walks up to me and tells me to sit down so she can start healing my wounds. She's able to ease up the pain and heal the cuts and reduce the pain for my left arm. It still hurts like hell though, but it looks better at least. It seemed to strain her though.

"Hey you good there?" I ask Andr

"Yea... I'm fine, just a little tired." she says

After she finishes she tells me to not move to much as those wounds could reopen if I do that. The older man from earlier walks up to us.

"You four must be the adventurers I requested... Thank you for saving me and those that were still alive." he bows

"My name is Mozor. I am the mayor of the village." Mozor tells us

"No problem. I'm Dalton, other blonde is Destiny, blue hair is Andr, and the boy who saved you is Link." Dalton tells him

"Link... what you did was reckless, but your courage... it saved me I would like to thank you and give extra pay. Who knows if you four would have found me if not for you. That man closed the closest entrance to me so I thought we were goners." Mozor says while bowing and the other two survivors follow

"Courage? I wouldn't call it courage... he called me out. Had he not, I probably wouldn't have gone out there." I tell him

"You still showed courage though. You were scared but you stood up." Mozor assures me

"Uh... if you say so." I reply with a shrug

Mozor turns to the dead bodies.

"These weren't the only dead bodies we found... we need to clean these out and get funerals going..." Mozor says while praying

"Is he praying to pay respects or something?" I whisper

"Yes." Andr answers

Huh neat? I guess. As we were getting our stuff the ground started to shake again and that giant crystal thing from earlier emerged from the ground.

"What the fuck man." I say with a sigh

Well here we go again... we ready our weapons to fight again. The monster has the crystal as some time of shell as the other parts of his body are just covered in rocks. Inside the crystal, we can see the flesh of the monster.

"So what is that?" Dalton asks

"Never thought I would see these so close to the village. Those are Sax's. They also blow out fire like those slugs." Mozor answers

That's... a weird name for a monster but sure whatever. Mozor grabs a hammer and hands his comrade's pickaxes.

"That crystal like thing on its back is used to protect its flesh. We'll destroy it and you four kill it or something.

We all nod. The Sax monster gets up and has feet now too. Huh, great. Dalton runs in front of it distracting it. Destiny uses her ice to help stop the fire from the monster by throwing it into its mouth and breaking it and freezing it so the fire has to break through it. Andr is casting magic to help break the crystal part open. Mozor and his friends are chipping away at the crystal by climbing aboard and breaking it and jumping off when it gets too dangerous. I also charge into battle to only trip and fall. I'm too fucking tired to move because of the fight earlier... Sigh, guess I'm sitting this one out. I put away my weapons to conserve energy.

"Hey Link, you mind if I use your sword?" Dalton asks me

"Uh, sure I can't do anything anyway." I say as I throw sword over to him

He goes to retrieve it. Most of the crystal was destroyed during the meantime. Well, that was hella quick. Andr finishes off the rest of the crystals with an explosion spell it seems. Mozor and his friends back off and nod to Dalton. Dalton charges and climbs onto the monster and jumps on its back and starts stabbing it. He then unsheathes his fire sword and starts charging it with fire which causes the monster to also heat up. He sheathes his fire sword and grabs the two normal swords and shoves them into the flesh of the monster and Dalton jumps off it.

Destiny and Andr cast a giant icicle together and smash it into the flesh of the monster. It causes it to bleed from everywhere and eventually killing it. A bit brutal in a way but it works.

"Phew... we're done..." Dalton says

"It's best we get out of here for now." Mozor tells us

Phew... I'm tired myself and wanna rest. A shower would also be nice, to be honest. We all help each other out of the mines as we continue on the pathway out. We eventually reach the surface and see the night sky.

"I recommend you four go check out the hot springs for tonight. Go relax tonight. You four deserve it, and I'll tell the owner there to let you guys go for free." Mozor tells us as a suggestion

"Yea, we'll go check it out." Dalton replies

Mozor gives us a smile and waves as he gathers his men to go get the dead bodies and prepare funerals for tomorrow. Look's like we're off to the hot spring now. It's close enough to a shower so that's fine I guess. We head off once again but this time to drop our stuff off at an inn and go to the hot spring.