Stage II, Chapter IV: Rescue Mission
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On the west side of the stadium, were Tyrone and Lucas running through the stadium. They were now inside the Inner Corridor, running through the halls. 

"Hmm. Tell me if you sense any of the '☆' dummies, Tyrone." Lucas says as they run through the concrete floors, making loud noises with every step. Guess they never bothered to make this a covert operation, with all the noise they were making. "We'll blaze through this mission easy!" Tyrone woofs in response, the bark being a bit softer, as he was focused on sensing the dummies.

"Woof, Woof!" Tyrone warns Lucas as the brick wall beside them is destroyed, something big walking through. A minotaur, standing nine feet tall, with horns, magnificently standing up like the blade of a spear. The horns, curving to their respective sides, the left curving left, the right curving right, made it look like the two smaller prongs on the side of a trident. In the middle stood a horn, bigger than its peers, seeming sharper than the other two. On top of the minotaur's head, a '◇' sign was floating over his head.

The minotaur's body was riddled with muscles, looking like it'd swallow the best bodybuilder in Kenneth's old world. Still recovering from its dramatic entrance through the brick wall, the minotaur inhaled large amounts of air with every breath. Every exhale looked as if he was in cold weather. Finally seeing the two standing there in front of it, brandishing its double-sided battle-ax in anger.

"Are minotaurs always angry at everything? Hell, this guy is twice my size." Lucas backs off from the minotaur still crazily swinging its huge ax around. 

"Woof.." Tyrone, noticeably afraid of the monster, was shrinking back. 

"We got this, man. Don't let his huge ax scare you." Lucas pat the dog in reassurance. "Ready, Tyrone?"

"Woof!" The dog, somewhat not as scared as earlier about the minotaur's humongous ax, began preparing his Earth magic. 

As if on cue, the minotaur rushed toward them, raising its weapon over its head with its bulky arms. Prepared for the attack, the two of them retreated sideways, dodging the impact that caused a small crater to appear on the hall's concrete floors. The minotaur, now finished recovering, rushed towards them once more. Instead of retreating like last time, Lucas met the blade of gargantuan war ax with his gauntlets. The sudden strength of the swing brought Lucas immediately down to his knees, as he struggled to stop the minotaur's momentum.

"Gah, fuck! You're really strong, aren't you? Enhance Phys (M)." Channeling his mana into a spell, Lucas' body was filled with energy once more as he slowly, but surely began to repel the minotaur's weapon. 

The minotaur roared. Seeing its vast strength being pushed back by someone smaller than him, the minotaur's temper became increasingly mad. The minotaur pushed with all of its might, finally taking back the momentum that was stolen from him by the small man. The ax was once again only a few inches from crushing Lucas' skull in. 

"Man, chill out will you. I'm about to be crushed here." Lucas chanted another spell. "Enhance Power (S)". This spell not only enhanced Lucas' strength but also forcibly augmented his muscles, allowing it to exert more force. Soon the minotaur's ax was once again being pushed back towards the monster, but Lucas could still not match up to the overwhelming tenacity of the beast, and so his body was still pinned to the ground.

"Woof!" "Perfect timing!" Lucas, hearing Tyrone's signal, slid out from under the minotaur's body. The minotaur, unaware of the dog who wasn't joining the fight, had already nowhere to go as its legs were pierced by enhanced Earth spikes, tripping the monster. Unable to use its legs, the minotaur struggled around on the ground. 

"Sheesh. Thanks, Tyrone." "Woof!" The two-headed over to the still struggling minotaur. Conjuring more spikes, Tyrone impaled the arms of the monster onto the ground. Looking like he couldn't hold the spell for very long before it crumbled, Lucas hurried over to the raging bull, before mounting its bare chest, and unleashing a flurry of punches on the minotaur's face.

"Haha! Take this!" Another punch is landed on the bull's face injuring its skin. "Boy, stop struggling, will you. Here's another!" A few more punches are unleashed, almost sending the minotaur to La La Land. With a fragment of its consciousness, the minotaur made one more attempt at escaping, using all its remaining strength to release itself from the spikes. It didn't go so well, however, as the minotaur was killed by the next few punches.

Getting off the minotaur's body, Lucas wiped off all his accumulated sweat. The A.I, recognizing that the monster was now dead, made the corpse disappear into small particles before being removed completely, with only the stench of blood remaining, indicating that a fight had happened here.

"Huh, never knew that you could sweat in Virtual Reality. Never bothered to move around this much while inside the V.T.G. Should we head on now? Can you sense any dummies nearby, Tyrone?" A woof is heard, and they continue. 

Roaming around the halls, they soon find dummies, dressed in basic apparel, with a '☆' floating above their heads. 

"So this is what it looks like." Lucas places his hand on the head of the dummy and ran his mana through the lifeless body. The dummy disappears into particles like the minotaur from earlier, and a message is shown.

"Dummy '☆' found. Current number of '☆' dummies saved: 1 in west side, 3 in the east side, 0 in the north side, 1 in the south side." The A.I announces.

"If I remember, Lena was in the east side, Aurelia in the north, and Catalyn in the south side. Should we head on to the next ones, then? We got a lot more people to save." Lucas says, with Tyrone barking in response.

Over the next few minutes, Lucas, with the help of Tyrone's keen mana sense, we're able to save all the dummies on their side.

Over on the east side, Lena was currently fighting multiple numbers of Kanghas Spiders, with the webs blocking the main passageway, with the help of Kenneth. 

"Little bro, can't I just burn through the webs with Light Beam?" Lena asks Kenneth, receiving a no in response.

"No. You're welcome to try, but good luck trying to find that small window of time where you're able to chant your spell. Follow my lead, I'll try to confuse them for a bit. Instead of channeling your mana for Light Beam, use it for Blink instead. Conjure the longest distance Blink you've ever done, so we can get through the thick webs."

The '☆' dummies that were detected by Kenneth were all shown to be directly through the webs, but the sturdy webs couldn't be destroyed by anything else other than fire. Light Beam could induce combustion, but the Kanghas Spiders were constantly lashing out, and Lena had to focus most of her being on dodging the attacks. Many times the Spiders would attempt to ensnare her with their webs, occasionally getting a few of it stuck on the surface of her hoodie.

"Luckily I didn't dress very well, although this was my favorite hoodie..." (Lena)

"Stop with that and focus on dodging. The Spiders look like they're charging up for something big." And Kenneth was right, as the spiders began to surround Lena by forming a circle, pointing their backsides to her.

"Looks like they're going to attempt a web release at the same time. Better get started on charging up that Blink, I'll buy you some time. Confusion." Kenneth's spell induced the spiders to stop focusing, and the creation of the spider webs was stopped momentarily. This was enough for Lena, as she cast her spell and blinked through the thick layer of cobwebs. 

"We've got three, and looks like we have about ten dummies here. Let's get out of here after saving them." Kenneth beckons Lena's attention to a window. 

"You want me to jump off? Are you crazy?" (Lena)

"Well, no, but if you have any other plans, feel free to share." Kenneth receives a groan in response, but Lena agrees anyway.

"That's thirteen down, and there's seven left here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be helping Catalyn next. I'll still be with you, so call if you need anything."

Over on the south side.

Catalyn was roaming around the place. She had already quickly checked the seats outside and found only one dummy. Now she was walking around hoping to find a '☆'  dummy. When Kenneth came, her mood drastically improved.

"How are you doing, Catalyn?"

"Young master! I've only found.. one. I'm sorry." 

"Hey, no worries, we've still got like twenty minutes. I'll help you out. Have you checked the....." Kenneth began saying the names of various locations, to see if she had visited them and found anything.

"What about Parking A?" Kenneth receives a no in response, indicating she hadn't fully explored her side. Hearing this, they decided to go there next. Parking A was an underground parking lot, designed to admit all vehicles. Kenneth wasn't ecstatic about there being many dummies there, but it was one of the few places that weren't explored yet. 

Instantly they teleported there threw a portal. Appearing on top of a car, the illuminated area was soon shown, and on the rocky asphalt floor, where the '☆' dummies, all sprawled out on the floor. 

"Huh. The least expected area turned out to have the most dummies. Welp, time to save them. Channel your mana into your fingers. It's not necessary to put so much, so just give them a little touch."

Touching all the nineteen dummies lying lifeless on the floor, the A.I's voice immediately announced that the south side had no more '☆' dummies. Hearing this, Kenneth told Catalyn to head towards the other sides to help, and that'd he'd be there if she called.

At the same time, on the north side. 

"This is certainly tough to navigate, master. I had some of my rats help me look for the dummies, but they haven't found anything yet, and it's already been fifteen minutes since we started. I'm worried about not finding any. Oh, looks like one of my rats has found a dummy. They're in the storage room, master." 

"Great, hopefully, most of them are there. We don't have a lot of time left, so we better hurry." Aurelia runs faster, and in about five minutes, the concrete hallway soon stops and they reach a room.

"Watch out. I can sense a huge amount of mana building up inside. Better prepare before heading in. It's rising faster and faster as time goes by, so do be quick.

"I'm ready."

"Wait. Catalyn has notified me that she's done with her dummies. Give me a few seconds, we'll see if she can pick up Lena and Lucas on her way here."

"Alright then, master. I'll be here arranging my spells if you need me. I was worried since you said the man was rising so I was going to take a gamble..." (Aurelia)

"Curb your excitement, I just got word that Catalyn has already picked up Lena and is now heading towards Lucas and Tyrone." 

A few minutes later, a portal is conjured beside Aurelia, and the figure of Catalyn, Lena, Lucas, and Tyrone walk through.

"Nice. About time you guys got here. Mana is steadily rising inside the room, so there's something powerful inside, guarding the dummies. Get ready in a few, we'll be heading inside."

"Powerful, eh? I'm still fucking tired from running around, but hearing that word is already pumping me up." Lucas punches his fists together.

"Catch your breaths, especially you, big sis." Kenneth points towards Lena. "How was the window jumping? Exciting, right?"

"I hate you." (Lena)

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry... believe me though, it was the only way. (Kenneth)

Kenneth spent the break rekindling his relationship with Lena and apologizing. 

"Alright, you guys ready? Open the doors." (Kenneth)

The group gathered in front of the sturdy wooden door, the only thing separating them from the continuously rising mana inside, whatever it was.

Lucas, leading the front, stretched eagerly and pushed open the doors.

Inside, were the complete copies of them. Perfect doppelgangers, protecting the '☆' dummies at the back.

"Heh. Are we in a mirror or some shit, or do I see another handsome face that looks exactly like me?"

"You were never handsome in the first place, idiot. Heads up, they're rushing at you guys. Ready? Split!" The group simultaneously split up, with the originals taking on the doppelgangers, a perfect copy of themselves.

"Hello there, me." Lucas clashes with all his strength against the copy.

Meanwhile, outside the stadium, in the middle of the field, Kenneth was seen there, meditating.

Little did he know, hundreds of magic signatures were rapidly heading towards the baby.

 

 

 

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