Game 31: Treasure Hunting for a Second Chance at Life!!

“Can you remind me what we're doing out here?” Makoto asked Rita. The entire gang was speeding through the Badlands at rapid speed. With the addition of Sora to the team, they now had an additional speeder in their inventory, four in total now.

“Mac told me about some really rare items that could be useful for the whole Tower of Power thing,” Rita explained.

“Was it really something that needed all six of us to do?” Proteus asked.

“Let's just say there's a giant obstacle standing between us and those items,” Rita told him.

“Dragons,” Takeshi said.

“Dragons?” Proteus asked.

“It's dragons,” Takeshi answered. “I'd put money on it.”

“We're here,” Rita told them. A giant hole in the side of a mountain stood before them. “Let's go check it out.”

“Yep, definitely dragons,” Takeshi said.

•

The inside of the cave had walls covered floor to ceiling in various treasures: gold, sapphire, emerald, silver, and other crystals of all sorts. The gang had never seen such vast amounts of treasure before. But that was not what they were looking for. Deeper yet inside the cave was a room full of giant crystal chandelier-like structures. Hidden somewhere in this room was a treasure chest containing a set of extremely rare items, including two cans of a drink called Lifecore. Drinking a can of Lifecore would give a player a permanent +1 increase to their Life points. However, this could only be done once.

“The sooner we find this treasure, the sooner we can get out of here,” Rita quietly told the others.

“Why are we whispering?” Proteus asked very un-quietly.

Rita quickly moved to shush Proteus. “Do you want to get us all killed?!”

“Killed by what?” Proteus whispered.

“There are dragons in this cave,” Rita explained. “If we can stay quiet and stay sneaky, we might not have to fight them.”

“What if we do have to fight them?”

“That's why all six of us are here.”

•

Finally, they arrived at the treasure chest. Unfortunately, the treasure was guarded by small slime dragons.

“You have got to be kidding me…” Rita groaned.

“Aww… Those dragons look kinda cute…” Takeshi said as he tried to approach them.

“Takeshi…”

He went to pet one of the dragons. “Aww… who's a cute widdle guy…” But the dragon bit his hand, causing Takeshi to let out a very loud scream.

His scream was responded to by a loud gnarly roar.

“You idiot,” Rita scolded Takeshi.

“How was I supposed to know slime could hurt so much?” Takeshi asked as he cradled his bitten hand. His Life was reduced to three with the bite.

“Makoto, you're up!” Rita called out as the entire cave began to tremble.

“With pleasure,” Makoto replied. “Magic Art: Vulcan Burst!” A wave of fire rushed through the cavern, defeating the smaller slime dragons in one blast. Takeshi then ran to grab the treasure chest, stuffing the entire thing into an item cube.

Just in time, as well… The rumbling and the trembling grew louder and more intense as an enormous slime dragon approached them.

“Run…” Rita told the gang, all completely frozen in place.

“What was that?” Sora asked her.

“Run!!” Rita screamed.

•

The gang made their way through the endless caverns, retracing their steps on their way back to the cave. But the giant slime dragon continued to chase them, with several smaller dragons accompanying it. As the gang made their way to the entrance, the giant dragon lunged at them. It missed, or so the gang thought.

But it wasn't aiming for them.

The charge of dragons made their way out of the cave, heading for the nearest village, a sleepy little town called Sierra Valley.

“This can't be good…” Takeshi observed.

•

The gang arrived in Sierra Valley just in time to witness the beginning of the dragons’ attack. Being dragons made of slime, they weren't able to use attacks one might expect a dragon to use. However, despite being made out of slime, they had razor sharp claws and teeth which they could use to annihilate anything in sight.

Takeshi had a plan. He grabbed the white orb, calling out “Let's rocket!”, and granting himself the Brilliant Angel armor.

“My turn,” Rita said, as she pulled out the green orb. Chanting “Level Up!”, she granted herself the Mossy Sylvan cloak.

“Let's commence battle!” Sora called out. Sword in hand, he chanted “Henshin!”, granting him his shining knight armor.

Takeshi ran through the charge of dragons, quickly slicing each one he could find in half. Sora followed through with his own attacks, and Rita contributed with her Fire Arrows. However, their attacks were only slowing the dragons down. Being made of slime, they were able to reconstitute themselves with ease. Some were even able to merge together into larger multi-headed dragons.

“Makoto!” Takeshi called out. “We're gonna need a hand here!”

“Magic Art: Vulcan Burst!” Makoto unleashed another rush of flames, this one pointed at the sky so as to hit the dragons as they swooped down onto the village. “Can't risk causing more damage to the village!”

“Proteus! Can you shift into a distraction?” Takeshi asked him.

“Got it!” Proteus answered as he shifted into a four-winged pigeon.

Aisha launched a lightning attack at the dragons, providing additional temporary relief from the onslaught.

Overhead, the largest dragon, presumably the leader of the charge, circled the village. The gang thought it was waiting for the endgame so it could launch its own attack.

Back on the ground, the gang continued to make light work of the smaller dragons. With them becoming smaller and smaller as the battle progressed, the fighting seemed to only get easier from here.

“Great job, everyone!” Takeshi complimented the teamwork the gang had. Everyone was working together, almost like clockwork. Although they had only known each other for a short time, it was clear that they were growing closer together all the time.

However, it turned out their intuition was correct.

Defeating the smaller dragons was only the beginning.

The giant slime dragon landed on top of the village with the force of a small meteor, destroying buildings, shattering windows, and knocking people into the air.

“This is it, everyone!” Takeshi called out to the gang as they re-gathered themselves. “Give ‘em everything we got!”

The six of them combined were more than capable of taking on a force of nature like a giant slime dragon. It still took quite a bit of time, given the size of the creature, but they were finally able to drive it off after a while.

“We did it…” Proteus sighed in relief.

“Hey, Takeshi? Do you think we should go after that dragon?” Rita asked.

“Nah, we should be fine,” Takeshi answered. “It shouldn't be threatening any other villages any time soon.”

Takeshi then pulled out the item cube containing the treasure chest. Inside the treasure chest was rare armor, a fresh batch of arrows, one thousand libras, and two cans of Lifecore. Takeshi immediately grabbed one and instinctively drank from it. 

“How's it taste?” Makoto asked.

“Tastes better than a Heart Cookie, at least,” Takeshi answered. He then tapped his Life Counter, revealing that his Life increased to five. It worked. He then offered the other can to each of his friends. Rita and Sora both declined because Lifecore only works once. Aisha declined because she didn't think she needed it. Proteus declined because his Life Counter doesn't work properly anyways. Makoto happily accepted the can of Lifecore, increasing his Life to five as well.

Takeshi noticed one additional item inside the treasure chest. He wasn't sure what it was, other than it looked vaguely similar to the white and green orbs Takeshi and Rita owned.

“Does anyone know what this thing is?” Takeshi asked.

The other heroes nodded their heads no, except for Sora.

“That's an incredibly rare item called a Vendi Whirlwind,” Sora explained. “It only works once, but it can be used to swap places with anyone of your choosing.”

Rita took the item from Takeshi. “So I can use this to jump off a cliff and swap places with my worst enemy to make them take the fall instead?”

“Not quite,” Sora continued. “The other person has to be in your visual range in order for the item to work.”

“How do you know all of this?” Takeshi asked.

Sora lied, “I've heard stories.”

Takeshi then took the item from Rita. “This item seems really neat, but I don't think I'll ever use it.” He then put the item in his bag.

After the dragons were defeated, the townsfolk slowly emerged from the ruins of their village to thank these strange people for inexplicably appearing to help them.

As the gang made their way out of Sierra Valley, they encountered a strange knight holding two swords. His body glowed with a golden aura.

“Your teamwork disappoints me,” the knight told them. “The Game is about survival. To survive is to lie, to cheat, to betray, to steal, to do whatever is necessary in order to win.”