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~8~
What exactly lies ahead of us?
~8~
Third Person's POV
"So? Where do we go from here?" Loke asked, turning to Anthony. The said boy hummed and opened the map the guardian gave him earlier. "It actually depends on who are we going for first," Anthony said, his gaze still focuses on the map. "What key is the nearest to us?" Loke asked. Anthony went silent for a while as he scanned the map. "The nearest from here is the Earth Key, which was kept by the rock monster, Rocky Golem," Anthony answers, finally looking up from the map.
"Cool! Let's bust-up this big fella!" Ash cheered, pumping his fist up to the air. "Excited much, Ash?" Stacey asked, smiling in amusement seeing Ash's behavior. "Of course! This is so exciting! We get to go on an adventure, fight monsters, and, save the world!" Ash said his excitement unwavering.
"Well, I have to admit that I'm excited to see what will we discover along the way," Ben said, shrugging casually. "Despite the possibility of dying?" May asked playfully. "Yep!" Ash said determinedly.
"Hate to burst your bubbles," Anthony started, making them turned toward him. "but, we're not exactly here to have fun. This journey is a serious matter," Ash huffed in annoyance and turned away. "Geez...what a party pooper," He mutters loudly. Stacey giggles and shook her head.
"Well, it is true that this whole 'finding all six keys and saving this world' thing is a serious and dangerous business but, it won't hurt to take this thing slowly and grab the chance to learn more about this world along the way, right?" Stacey said, turning to Anthony with a sweet smile. Anthony stares at her for a bit before chuckling quietly, "Yeah, I guess you're right, Stacey," He said.
They continue to walk and take occasional breaks until the sky turned reddish color and the sun began to hide behind the horizon. "I think we should set our tents here and stay the night," Loke said, looking at the sky. They all nodded in agreement and began to assign jobs for each other. Ash and Ben will look for woods and branches to make a fire. Anthony and Loke will set up the tent, while Stacey and May are in charge of making dinner.
"Dinners' ready! Come and get it!" Stacey exclaimed not too loud. "Finally!" Ash said as he took a piece of flat wood they found as a plate and sit on a log near the fire. "Rubelle and Cook sure know how to prepare food," Ben commented as he eats his ration. "They sure are. I'd love to come to their place again sometimes," May said.
After dinner, they were off doing their own things. Anthony was reading one of the books he packed from the crystal palace. Loke was studying the map. May and Stacey were sleeping in their tent. Ash and Ben were chatting as they warm themselves near the fire.
"Hey, guys," Loke called, gaining their attention. "What's up, Lo?" Ben asked. "What do you think of this Rocky Golem we are going to face?" Loke asked. There was silence above them as they think.
"I expect him to be a bulky man because he is an earth element user. he should be super strong, right?" Ash said. "Well, you're not wrong," Loke said. "Whatever he is, we should be ready for whatever he has in store for us," Anthony said, turning back to his book.
"This book that I'm ready only states general information about the six elements users of Elemental Kingdom but, none of them potentially useful in fights," Anthony said as he flips the pages of the book on his lap. "What is it that you find?" Loke asked.
"Well, according to this book is that these elements users have achieved the highest level of magic in the whole kingdom. No mere human can defeat them in fights before. Weaknesses of their powers are not quite clear nor where did they get such powerful magic cores in the first place," Anthony told them, reciting everything he had read in the book.
"They make it sounds like it's impossible to fight them, it's so annoying!" Ash huffed as a frown appears on his face. "Don't be cocky. This book was written approximately hundreds of years ago and the writer was a strong mage in his time. If he can't even defeat them, then we most definitely can't," Anthony said as he waves the book he was holding around.
"Well, they may be stronger fighters but, they don't have to make it sounds like the most impossible thing to do in the whole world!" Ash snapped back. "Well, it might as well be for us, because we're just ordinary teenagers that fell into an unknown magical world, for God's sake!" Anthony retorted. "If you hadn't been so pessimistic through the whole jour-"
"Alright! Okay! Enough!" Loke interrupted them before they can argue more. There was silence for a moment before Loke started to talk again. "Alright, you two, you don't have to argue," Loke said.
"Ash, we don't know for sure what kind of creatures those elements users are nor did they have any weaknesses. We must not take them lightly." Loke said, turning to Ash, who huffed and look away, mumbling an audible 'Sorry' under his breath.
"And, Anthony, we all aware that we're next to nothing against them because we're just teenagers but, we don't know if we can until we try. We even had our training at the crystal palace for 3 years, we can train more along the way, so let's give it our best, okay?" Loke said, turning to Anthony. Anthony pondered for a bit before sighing and nodded. "Alright then," Anthony said.
"Let's just get into bed already. We have to continue our journey tomorrow," Ben, who had been silent through the whole thing, stands up and walk to Ash's and his tent. Loke nodded. "Okay then, good night, guys!" Loke said as he and Anthony walk to the tent they shared, audible 'good night's are what he gets before he enters the tent.
