• 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 •
Welcome to the Villains' World
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Hey, monster! Over here!!"
You yelled, your voice loud enough for the said monster from the mine to hear. Turning to your shouts, it spotted you and angrily moved forward. A low growl escaped it's non-existing mouth and on it's way to you to cause harm.
"Grr! There... thief too... Won't give... Mine. MINE!" It's own growls getting louder even more as it felt intimidated just seeing your brave figure and aura. Closing your distance to it, the monster raised it's blunt pickaxe and slammed it down on you. You, who barely escaped it in time.
"Ah?! That punch looks like a knockout if it lands!" Grim commented nervously but chose to ignore it, instead you glanced your eyes back behind you. And behind you was the monster trailing behind.
"Get it far from the tunnel as possible!!" You commanded, loudly enough for them to hear. Which the others did and readied themselves for the possible outcome.
"Go away! Go away!!"
"I-it's pretty far from the tunnel now..!" The overwhelmed Grim exclaimed turning quickly towards you and waited for your signal. Your eyes focused on the creature.
You huffed, "Right..." Staring at the sluggish monster you calmly sighed and finally set up the timing. Seeing that it was in the spot where you wanted it to stand. "Now!" You turned to Ace who already had his pen out to cast magic.
"Great Grim's [Fire Special]!" Grim exclaimed and began to blew out his flames from his mouth, hitting it directly to the monster.
"Alright, I got this! Let's go [Extra Large Tempest]!" With a wave of his pen and pointed it on the target, he chanted as the wind he casted was sent towards the monster. Who is now weakened from the fire-tornado attack.
"How's this!? I can even fan Grim's shoddy flames into an inferno!!"
"It's not shoddy..! Ugh! Every word out of your mouth just ticks me off!!"
While they were arguing again, you immediately turned to Deuce and shouted out your next words, "The monster is caught in the inferno, Deuce! Now's your chance!!"
Upon hearing his name, Deuce breathed slowly and even concentrated himself like what you've instructed him to do earlier. As he relaxed his muscles, the tension on him slowly fades away. His shoulders relaxed under the chill breeze.
"Calm down... Take aim... The biggest, and heaviest thing I know..." He extended his pen towards the monster with a determined glint in his eyes screaming for victory.
"...[Come forth, cauldron]!"
And something suddenly appeared out of thin air, a black cauldron immediately crushed the sluggish monster down but not without letting out a surprised grunt while it was pushed forcefully flat to the ground. You, and three other of your companions celebrated.
Grim cheered, "Pnah! Nice work everyone!" Then noticed something, more like experiencing Deja Vu and he began to snicker. Nudging your leg from below.
"Look, [m.name]! The monster looks flat as a pancake just like Ace was earlier! Hah!" His honest words made you snort a little, covering your mouth with your hand. Well, Grim was speaking facts.
"You don't have to bring that up again! Geez, today is just not my day." Ace complained with a defeated sigh, both of his shoulders slumped down. You smirked, "Not just you, my guy..."
"Now let's go and get the crystals while the monster can't move..." All of you agreed at Deuce's words, the reminder for yourselves about the new main mission at hand. Now it was the monster's turn to struggle, either to escape it's situation and pushing the heavy cauldrons off. Yelling in anger once again.
"WAIT!!" It called, watching the three of you entering the abandoned mines. While not noticing how the cauldrons nudged a bit from it's place. Nearly walked into the end of the mine, you can already see the crystals sparkling like glitter. It's rainbow colors reflected in your eyes. Picking up a similar pickaxe from earlier, you pointed it towards the crystals.
"Look! There it is, the magic crystals!" You beamed and it was clearly heard outside the Dwarf Mine, by none other than the monster itself.
"HANDS OFF!"
The whole mine shook ferociously, dust and pebbles now falling down showering your heads with dirt, some wood chunks or anything. As you turned your heads behind, at the entrance can be seen an angry and shouting monster, almost breaking free from the cauldron's weight.
You gasped, "You three! Fight it while it can't move! I'll get the crystals, okay!?" The other three nodded and began to sort something out, trusting your decision while you ran towards the sparkling crystals in a rush. Now raising the pickaxe, you slammed it down and picked up the crystals as fast as you can. Shoving it inside of the leather bag that you found at the cottage.
"Done!" You shouted after shoving the last crystals inside and ran back for the others, but keeping the pickaxe with you this time. Grim saw you coming back and nudged the Heartslabyul students.
"[m.name] got the crystals!! Let's go!"
"Roger!"
Having them crystals in your hands angered the monster more and more, letting out an ear piercing scream as the angry monster broke out of the pile of cauldrons atop of it and saw the four of you heading down the mountain. It then followed seeing that such small people like you took away the crystals.
Words such as mercy won't be allowed anymore.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"You're kidding?!? It knocked off all that cauldrons and it came after us!" Ace yelled in shock. Speaking of the devil, the monster was right behind them growling in rage and yelling to give what it's back.
"Shoot! It's gonna catch up to us!" Deuce exclaimed. Then you thought for a moment, the only option you need to do is fight back since the Dark Mirror was at the bottom and the monster was getting near.
"Tch! But it's weaker...! Now we might..." You turned to the duo Heartslabyul students in determination, giving them a solid nod. With zero hesitation.
Ace grunted, "Agh, fine! Let's finish it! Don't let me down, Mr. Serious!" Then he took out his pen, their familiar red color began to glow.
Deuce huffed, "You, too!" He did the same, the familiar red color of their wands glowed brightly for the magic. Grim, with his usual cat smirk stood beside them. "I'll show off my true power! Hehe!!"
Your hair swayed together as you stared at them with the utmost amazement, by how they combined the magic and how they attacked like some sort of a team. But, you need to help them because they needed you too.
Without them noticing, you stepped back from them and sneaked away so quietly like a mouse. Sneaking towards the bushes, you placed the leather satchel there to keep it hidden now holding the pickaxe you brought with you.
By the way you walk it was creepily quiet. No footsteps of yours can even be heard and combining well amongst all the bushes and trees like a humanoid camouflage. Before you knew, it you stood there behind the monster and was now ready to attack.
"Hey, monster!" You called out earning the monster's and your companions attention, seeing you holding a pickaxe tightly. And what's surprising was, you appeared without them knowing just out of thin air.
The monster growled lowly, seeing you in perfect shape and immediately launched forwards.
You smirked devilishly and moved your arms and feet as you swung the pickaxe on your hand like an helicopter's propeller. Then at the perfect angle, you let the pickaxe go and saw it spinning towards the monster. Directly hitting it's glassed head. Now shards of glass began to fly around everywhere while a small shard cut your cheek, creating a thin line with blood prickled down.
"UGH!" The monster grunted, black ink spurted out of it's head.
"Now finish it off!!" You commanded them once again, the other three nodded their heads. They began to cast magic one by one, until a time came where they combined their magic together. Finally defeating the monster that laid on the cold ground, helpless and it began to evaporate out of nowhere. With it's last grunt, it disappeared.
You all huffed in exhaustion, slightly processing of what had just happened. From the start till now. Especially you who was quite surprised, and baffled that everything had worked without every single one of you had died.
"We... did it??" Ace said, sounded so unsure.
"W-we won... We actually won..!" Grim excitedly said with relief.
"Hooray!!!" Deuce cheered happily, a fist on his chest with relief and began to celebrate on their victory.
You watched them in surprise, letting them interact with one another happily now forgetting the prideful attitudes or annoying fights they had in the beginning that you've witnessed. A soft smile immediately stretched it's way on your lips, watching them doing a victory high five as you finally let out a somewhat happy chuckle.
"Is this 'adversity brings people together'?" You snickered softly, and they suddenly stopped while they almost did a victory group hug. Their faces morphed into disbelief as they immediately kept their distance far.
"...Ah! N-no! This is nothing like that!"
"Y-yeah! Could you stop saying weird things??"
"W-we won thanks to my genius! It's not because we have pooled our strength!!"
You stared at their flustered and embarrassed state, for a moment until you suddenly let out a fit of dying laughter with small tears prickling the corner of your eyes. Them three stared at you laughing form in shock, finding your behavior uncomfortably amusing.
Oh my..! They're so cute! You thought while laughing, not noticing their stares at your face under the mountain's moonlight. You were walking towards a huge bush as you took out the satchel, while they watched.
It was weirdly refreshing just by seeing you smile happy or laugh freely like this rather than seeing your cold and grumpily strict personality, it was so new to them seeing you laugh so sincere. Though just imagining your colder self still gives them the chills.
When you finally calmed down after your laughter, Ace sighed, "...I guess making excuses is pretty lame. I hate to admit it, but we won thanks to your plan." Now, it's your turn to looked shock, your mouth agape.
Deuce finally spoke up, "True. We got the magic crystals because you gave us level headed instructions. That way, we can prevent our expulsion. I am so relieved..." He was really relieved that you were here to help them and if not, he couldn't even imagine.
"It's also thanks for your teamwork. But, I'm so glad that everyone's alright..." You softly said, crossing your arms together with a cheeky grin and heard Ace sigh probably because he's getting uncomfortable of you smiling or all getting thankful.
"Yeah, yeah. We're all relieved~! Seriously worn-out and battered. Let's go home..." He spoke and shook his head as exhausted as you and you hummed in agreement at what he had said. Your eyelids getting droopy but you went full awake when Grim rubbed his growling stomach and you watched him from below curiously.
"I'm starving from using so much magic... Hmm?? What's this?" He complained tiredly but notices something on the ground and picked it up with his paws. It was a rock with a beautiful black color and shone like a crystal.
"Remainings from that monster?" Deuce said, sounded a bit unsure. "A magic crystal? But I have never seen one such pitch-black like coal before." You raised a brow.
"Sniff, sniff... This thing smells really good." Grim sniffed the black rock, his stomach grumbled loudly again. You watched your partner of a cat sniff again but this time he was drooling over.
"No way!" Ace shrieked and stepped back in disgust while you stood there. Slightly unsure about what will Grim do to that rock, it might be poisonous and Grim might all get symptoms because of it.
"This has to be candy the monster was hiding! Ooh, I can't hold back! Time to dig in! Itadakimasu!"
You sighed, "Grim I don't think..." Grim grinned in delight and swallowed the rock whole, now munching it with his teeth. You grumbled under your breath.
"Uuhh...!"
"Hey, Grim! Spit it out, spit it out!" You shrieked and went right beside the cat, crouching down to it's smaller height while patting his back softly, "Grim, you alright!?!" Deuce asked in slight panic.
"Aah, that's why you don't eat things off the ground..." Ace sighed and turned to Grim who's the condition he did not expected to be. Grim, who stopped choking began smiling and licked it's lips.
"D... DELICIOUS!!"
"EH?!?!" You and the two Heartslabyul students exclaimed in shock, seeing the cat in a perfect and healthy condition as Grim grinned happily.
"It's full-bodied, but also rich with an aromatic sweetness that blooms in my mouth. Like a whole field of flowers in my mouth!" Grim exclaimed with lots of stars in his eyes, you can even see him imagine hopping in a flower field.
"Bleeeeegh. Monsters really do have different tastes than us..." Ace said in disgust, while Deuce beside him let out a hum. "I guess... But more than that, most people wouldn't even put an object in their mouth without a thought."
You sighed, "Monsters are omnivores, huh. I told you not to eat anything weird like that... As long as you don't hurt your stomach, I guess it's fine...?" Grim heard you and nods his head while again chanted at how tasty it is. While you couldn't help but worry.
"Don't come crawling to me when you get sick later." Ace stated with a smirk and Deuce nodded. "Switching gears, let's get this magic crystal to the headmaster!"
"Right, let's go!"