Expected Outcome

From the entrance it could be seen that cavern wasn’t illuminated at all, so group had to use other source of light to go through it.

„Hachi, can you summon the wisp?” Hiro asked.

„Yeah.” he answered reluctantly.

From the flames appeared a summoned wisp. In comparison to known wisps, this one had a more pleasant form of a fluffy bunny ball. Charming little face already had a favor of females.

„Cutee~”

After women’s approval they went into the cave. Hiro was leading the group while Hato stayed in the back. Tunnel to Lizard's place wasn’t long, after a minute walk they could see a light in further distance.

„We shouldn’t have a company already?” Hato asked.

On a way to boss two enemy goblins should appear somewhere and attack from behind. Why goblins in a Lizard's Cavern? No one knows.

„They will appear at some point.” Hiro answered and asked jokingly. „You’re worried of some small fries, Hato-san?”

„Nah, they just like to pop out from nowhere.”

In exactly same time they appeared from nowhere and tried to attack people in middle. Hato spotted them straight away and used his Wind Blast which get rid of them immediately. It happened so fast that when Hiro turned around they were already gone. No one besides Hato really knew what has happened.

„What a little punks, I hate them.” Hato said.

„I don’t even know what has happened.” Hotaru admitted as she saw only Hato using skill.

„Eh? They were there already?” Hiro asked slightly surprised, but one could notice disappointment in his voice as well.

„As I said, popped out from nowhere.”

„Then nothing will surprise us anymore.”

They continued to go to main room. Hotaru still had in her mind the situation from a moment ago. She didn’t know he could use normal magic. It made her wonder if she could have similar skill.

„I didn’t know you could use magic, Hato-san.”

„Ah, yeah. I don’t normally use it, but it was necessary at that time.”

„I see. Do you think I could use something like that too?”

„I guess so... ?”

‘She can use stuff that she shouldn’t be able to so...’

Eventually they went through the whole tunnel. A room of enormous size was in front of them and in this room a giant lizard was awaiting for a challenge.

„Here is The Ugly!” Hiro said out of sudden.

„The Ugly" was indeed a gigantic lizard and he fully deserved this title as it was ugly even for a lizard. It was around 20 meters tall and quite thick skin. The best it could do was swinging his tail in all direction, that’s why it wasn’t very challenging monster, but slight caution should be taken as its tail could hit hard.

„Ugly as ever.” Hato added.

„Nothing can help to fix it!” Hiro started laughing.

„So, what’s the plan?” Hotaru asked.

„As said before – I’ll take ugly on myself, just give me like 10 seconds and then you can start beat it. Hachi and Maya will stay somewhere behind and you’ll be with me on front line.”

„But on what I should focus?”

„I’ll take tail, so you can try hit its legs.” Hato answered.

„Okay.” Hotaru agreed for that.

„Alrighty then, everybody’s ready?” Hiro asked.

Everyone was ready. Hachi and Maya found a good spot for themselves and gave Hiro the sign that they’re ready.

„Okay, so give me 10-15 seconds and then you can go.”

„Sure.” Hato said.

After that Hiro went to the lizard. Hotaru had doubts of this plan. She knew nothing about this boss – no skills, special attacks, behaviour, weak spots. Everything seemed to be made in chaotic way. They didn’t have a detailed plan at all for that. She didn’t want to say anything as she didn’t want to end up as someone who will tell everyone what they need to do.

‘Maybe I was supposed to do it?’

Hato had similar feeling. He knew already that this approach will fail.

„We won’t make it.” he said.

„Uh?” she didn’t expect that from him.

„They’re treating it very lightly. They’re underestimating it and that’s why we will fail. You can’t even say that this is a plan.”

Those were harsh words, but they were very true and she knew that. Hato took out his weapon and slowly was going towards lizard.

„Just try to dodge its attacks and it should be okay. If you’ll need any help, just call me.”

„Alright, thank you.”

„Good luck.”

„Same to you.”

Both of them rushed to the boss. Meanwhile Hiro was keeping its attention, Hachi was targeting its head and other parts with his spells. Hato, as he said, focused on most problematic part which was a tail. He had an experience with fighting against such monsters, so such fart as The Ugly wouldn’t cause any problems to him. He was more worried how others will do, when probability of messing whole attempt was very high.

It was first time for Hotaru to actually fight a monster. Previously, she was controlling a character by mouse and keyboard, now, she is her character. It was a different experience to see such enormous monster from screen and by your own eyes.

Seeing that, starting to think how to effectively hit it, making your own arms to hit that thing, making your own legs to dodge its attacks – all of that was making her agitated. Forcing her to actually think twice before making a move, so she could hit and not get hit. The enhancements to increase attack and defense she has used before reaching lizard could come in handy.

Shortly after reptile’s HP dropped to 95%, which meant that very soon waves of monsters will appear behind it. One wave of 4 lizardmen from left and two, of 3 lizardmen each, from right. Another waves won’t appear till remaining monsters won’t be defeated.

At the same time, The Ugly decided to change his target to Hato, as he, even with a rusty weapon, was overdamaging it and Hiro’s taunts had no effect from this point.

„Hato-san! He’s on you right now!” Hiro screamed to him.

‘I knew it will end it like that. I just knew it...’ Hato said to himself.

Without any other option, Hato now took over the tank role. It wasn’t the best scenario for him. If he was alone, it wouldn’t be a problem as he wouldn’t have to worry about surroundings. In current situation he had to keep lizard in one position as long as possible, which was unfavourable for him.

Hiro was still trying to get it back on him, but it was pointless.

Very soon after, waves of monsters appeared. This was one of the crucial moments. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but since whole attempt was completely disorganised, reckless, it was a moment whether they should continue or flee.

Best possible scenario was to gather those lizardmen in one place and nuke them all at once with some strong magic spell. It sounds very simple and doable, but, in a complete confusion and chaos it was hard to execute even that.

Hotaru noticed upcoming monsters. Hato and Hiro were too focused on reptile to see that. She didn’t know a thing about lizards – how many of them were there and how many will be in general, but while she saw that Hiro wasn’t reacting to their appearing and Hato had to fight boss anyway, she decided she has to be one to go there. Without any clue whatsoever, she just went there.

At first it wasn’t that bad, since there were only 4 lizardmen, so she could somehow deal with them, but very quickly after, another wave was going. She knew she was already outnumbered, but seeing 6 more of them coming, it terrified her. She could deal with 4, but not with 10. She didn’t want to call Hato, but she had no other choice as she was already surrounded by them.

“Hato-san!” she screamed.

After hearing her, he was looking for her around the boss, but he couldn’t find her. Then he noticed that she was surrounded by lizardmen. And she was completely alone. Meanwhile Hiro was still near the boss.

‘Why the heck she’s there?! Why didn’t he go there?!’

He knew it was already over. There was no point of trying anymore.

Everyone was doing whatever they wanted. It was a complete chaos. It was time to get out of this place.

“Retreat!” he shouted and ran to help Hotaru.

Hiro didn’t know what was going on at first, but then he saw Hato rushing into Hotaru’s direction who was more and more crushed by surrounded monsters. Then he realized that it was really over. He believed that Hato didn’t need his help as he would be only a burden, so he rushed to the exit taking Hachi and Maya with him.

Hato rushed to the surrounded Hotaru and used his Wind Blast to pushed lizards a bit, to make a gap, so he could sneak inside and take her as she had no chance to escape by herself. While they made a gap, he took this opportunity. Quickly he put his weapon to the bag, grabbed her and rushed to the exit.

At first distracted, Hotaru was trying add 2 to 2 as things were changing in a blink of an eye.

“Hato-san, what’s going on?” she asked still in confusion.

“Told you it won’t work. We’re getting out of here.” he responded.

She sighed. ‘So there was no hope in saving this...’

As soon as they got into the tunnel, Hato slowed down as boss certainly won’t come through the hole. Same moment Hotaru became aware that he’s been carrying her the whole time. It made her very flustered as it was first time that anyone was holding her like that.

‘So this is the legendary princess-carrying?!’

After a moment of daydreaming she came down to earth, as she knew that he was doing that only because it was faster to carry her like that. Her character weighed almost nothing. Man got tired more from running than holding her.

Because of the whole situation she forgot to thank him for help.

“Hato-san?”

Even if it was quite dark there, she was able to see that he was looking at her then.

“Thank you.” she said kindly. “For help.”

“It’s fine.”

The rest of the way they’ve come in silence. Not long after they reached the exit to outside. Hachi, Maya and Hiro were already there waiting.

They were a bit surprised seeing Hato and Hotaru like that, especially Hachi. As soon as Hato caught his breath, he put girl on the ground. Right after that he took a deep breath.

„Are you alright?” Hiro asked.

„I’m fine, just need to catch my breath.” Hato responded.

„And you, Ayane-san?”

„I’m fine too. If not for Hato-san’s quick response, then, I guess, it would end up worse.”

After finally catching a breath, Hato turned to Hiro.

„Hiro-san, one question. Did you forget about those lizardmen at back?” he asked him with slight annoyance in his voice.

Hiro already knew he messed up completely with whole attempt. „Y-Yeah... Sorry. I thought we’ll be good. I completely forgot about them. My bad.” He was apologetic.

„We wouldn’t be. Lizard is braindead, but still it can hit hard. Plus,” he pointed to Ayane with his head. „she can’t hold a group of that size by herself. Not with this setup.”

He didn’t mean anything rude on mind. He wanted to point recklessness of it and putting Ayane in danger leaving unexperienced person by herself with such group of monsters. Hotaru hearing that had a feeling that he didn’t mean to attack her, but she felt a bit down as she couldn’t do anything else. She wasn’t prepared for that.

„Right...” Hiro sighed and turned to Ayane. „I’m sorry, Ayane-san.”

She felt a bit embarrassed by that and she wanted to reassure him that he didn’t have to do it, but Hato got ahead of her.

„So, what now?”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I want to try once more. Obviously, not right away.”

“If it’ll be the same thing, then I’m out.”

He agreed to help to find out whether Ayane will be a good choice or no. So far, she did nothing interesting. He had a feeling of wasting his time, but current situation could be good to provoke her to actually come up with something.

Everyone understood situation, without Hato it would be tougher to beat lizard as they were then.

“Nah, no more recklessness attempts. I’m not good at that stuff, so feel free to make a suggestion. I’ll be fine with anything.” Hiro admitted.

It seemed like no one had a plan while looking at the silence after Hiro said his thoughts. Hato actually had something in mind, but he would rather wait with that. Hotaru as well, but she had a same feeling as before, she didn’t want to impose. Hato noticed that she was looking as she wanted to say something. He had to push her.

“You have something, Ayane-san?”

She had no choice now as she was called out.

“I may have...” she said uncertainly. “But-”

“Anything will be good at this point.”

“Right... I’ll need something...”

She was looking for a stick to be able to draw in ground. There were plenty of them around, so it didn’t take long. Everyone was observing her as they had no idea what she wanted to do. She then found a spot to draw, bend and start to write the names of members of the group. Hato came up closer to her as he was interested with what she came up. Gradually, others were joining as well.

“Ok, so, I wrote down our names and I’ll put a role for each person. As for me – I'm more of a support DPS. Hato-san – melee DPS. Hachi – ranged DPS. Hiro-san – tank. And Maya-san – healer. Now, for the what we will fight against – here's the lizard, behind it more lizardmen spawns. The question is – under what circumstances they spawn, how much, how often...”

“At 90% of boss’ HP. They’re coming from two sides – one wave of 4 lizardmen and soon after, 2 waves of 3 lizardmen each. 10 in total.” Hato answered.

“Do they appear again after defeat?”

“If you get rid of all, then next ones will appear.”

“Right...” she noted the most important things on ground. “Anything else worth mentioning?”

“Just to mind the Ugly’s tail. It’s not that much challenging overall.”

“Okay...” she was sure she forgot about something, but quickly recalled that. “Hachi, do you have a spell that can nuke the lizardmen?”

Hachi thought for a few seconds. “I do.”

“What is the cooldown of it?”

“30 seconds, I believe.”

“I think it should be enough.”

With gaining the most crucial informations about teammates and enemies, she was certain that her strategy might work, but in the same time she had unexplainable doubts.

“So, here’s my plan: Hato-san will take boss on himself, while Hiro-san will be holding lizardmen. Hachi will focus on boss, but when Hiro-san will gather lizardmen in one place, he will nuke them with his spell. I’ll be helping with boss, but if something would happen, I can temporarily have lizardmen on myself.

Maya-san, do you have any healing servants?”

“I do.” she said; it was actually first time she spoke today.

“Perfect, that would help a lot. Hiro-san, if you have any skills that will instantly regenerate your HP, use it only in emergency. If something will happen, just let anyone know, so we will know what to do.”

Plan was very simple and clear to understand. There was no point to complicate it more. Hato had something similar in mind, so he was quite satisfied with what she presented. What also caught his attention was her way of thinking. She gathered information about members of group and enemies. Enviroment in this case didn’t matter. Group was small, so it was easier to deal with that. Enemies were not much of a trouble either.

It impressed him how she was explaining things step by step. Even with such basic plan as that, it gave him some idea of her. Most likely, with much more information, she would do same thing.

He was certain that it would work this time. He just had to see the effects of it, which were simply beating the boss, and then he could move on to next step. He already knew what he could ask her for in terms of his “payment”.

“Communication is always a key to success. Whatever will happen, just say so, then we can deal with a problem.” Hato said.

“So, what do you think of it?” Hotaru asked; everyone seemed to be favourable for her plan, but she wasn’t fully sure of it.

“For me it’s fine.” Hiro said.

“Same here.” Hachi joined.

Maya just nodded. That left only Hato.

“It should work.”

After receiving a positive feedback, Hotaru felt relieved. She had a faith in her plan, but she wasn’t sure if rest of the group would find it good.

She sighed. “Alright... If everybody’s content, then when do you want to do it?”

“We will rest for few more minutes and, I think, we’ll be good.” Hiro said.

“Whenever you’re ready.” Hato added.

Several minutes has passed and everyone rested enough to face The Ugly again. This time – with a plan.