"That's one load off my mind!" Yuu sighed in relief, "Thank goodness we formed a search party."
"You guys done yet? We need to get back before our clubs get disbanded." Leona called out to them as he stood before the path back to camp.
"AH! I completely forgot!" Sebek yelped in horror, "If we don't make it back to the cottage in time, all our hard work will have been for naught!"
As they began to trek back to the camp, Floyd paused as he noticed Ruggie was missing and looked back to find him unmoved from his spot and raised a brow upon seeing the scowl across his face, "Hm? What's with the scowl, Sharksucker?"
Ruggie remained motionless as Floyd smirked, "Aw, lemme guess: You don't wanna go back? You sad that camp's over?"
"Of course I don't wanna go back." Ruggie muttered before bursting out loud in frustration, "I've come this far. I just CAN'T leave without snagging some magestones!"
"So you'd be okay with your club getting shut down AND losing out on the prize?" Floyd looked to him in bewilderment.
"...Yeah, I could live with that." Ruggie responded after a brief thought about Floyd's threat, "Sure, our club might get disbanded, but if I dug up a decent number of magestones and sold 'em... My return would more than make up for it!"
Ace muttered in shock upon hearing this, "Wow, he really doesn't care about anything but his bottom line..."
"He'd actually be okay getting the Spelldrive Club abolished? Talk about scary." Deuce muttered in disbelief with the same shocked look across his face.
"How self-serving can you be?! We have no time to indulge your avaricious fantasies." Sebek scolded at his senior classmen angrily, "The rest of us are leaving!"
"But I can't just leave him after he came to rescue me..." Deuce intercepted hesitantly.
"Okay, now I'm annoyed." Floyd stated with a menacing glare, "We took down the monster. There's nothin' left to do. I'm tired of standin' around in this cramped, dingy cave. Hey, Sharksucker?"
"Yeah?" Ruggie looked up recognizing the nickname Floyd uses for him specifically.
"Remember when you said you'd do any one thing I asked?" Floyd reminded him of that deal Ruggie made shortly after the discovery of him swiping the magestones initially back at camp and pointed out, "I wanna get outta here. Give up the magestones."
"WHAT?!" Ruggie exclaimed in horror, "But that's not fair..."
"A deal's a deal, right?" Floyd sneered victoriously.
"Hahaha!" Sebek laughed a loud, "I don't see a problem! The request meets all your criteria!"
"Rrrrrgh..." Ruggie hesitated nervously before finally moping in defeat with his ears deflated, "Fine. I'll let it go this time. I just hope no one else finds this spot before I get a chance to come back."
A thought came to him as he quickly added, "We should block the back tunnels with a boulder. You guys'll help me with that much, right?!"
Leona looked to him in disbelief and rather in annoyance as he warned him, "You're seriously gonna come back here?"
"Okay, let's just get out of here before I really regret it." Ruggie shrugged as he gave up the idea rather quickly.
.....
Back at the camp, everyone was packed and ready to leave, but was waiting for the signal from both Coach Vargas and Headmaster Crowley who both seemed rather impatient as Crowley glanced at his watch once more, "The time is almost upon us, Coach Vargas."
"Yeah, and we're still a few students short." Vargas muttered impatiently, "They're probably goofing off somewhere..."
"We're here!" Ruggie called out rather depressed.
"Ah, at last. You made it right at the proverbial buzzer." Crowley sighed in relief.
"What took you all so long?" Vargas scolded them.
"Okay, get this... There was a monster!" Ruggie stated.
"A monster?" Vargas raised a brow.
"Yessir! For real!" Ruggie confirmed eagerly with hints of fear that was not there before.
"Deuce was still missing after all the ruckus, so we went into the mine to find him." Sebek explained, "There we were set upon by a strange creature."
"It just wouldn't go down." Floyd concluded impatiently, "Next thing we knew, two hours had just whizzed by."
"So you were held up battling a particularly persistent monster." Vargas scowled and scolded them, "THAT'S THE LOUSIEST EXCUSE I'VE EVER HEARD!"
"Bad enough that you were almost late, but to make up some outlandish lie about it? I'm not even mad! Just disappointed! And your muscles are sagging in disappointment too! Did you learn NOTHING from Camp Vargas?!" Vargas scolded them angrily.
"But what if what they said is true?"
Vargas stopped and turned to the owner of the voice with wide eyes, "Lotus?"
"Coach Vargas, Headmaster Crowley." Lotus bowed her head and added with a pleasant yet firm smile, "I understand the need to return to the school campus right away. But, if possible, would you be kind enough to have a private conversation with me? It wouldn't be long. Perhaps no longer than five minutes."
Coach Vargas frowned as Crowley also began to hum to himself in silence before responding with a nod, "Five minutes is not very long, now is it? Why not let us lend an ear to this pitiful child, coach Vargas?"
Coach Vargas hesitated but sighed in dismay and nodded, "Fine. But only for a few minutes."
"Thank you very much!" Lotus responded and quickly led the two away.
After a few minutes the two returned with a rather annoyed coach Vargas and the headmaster doing his best to quell his anger.
"Now, now, Coach Vargas." Crowley struggled to conclude the event, "Putting aside our students' prevarications, do not you see the look in their eyes? They carry the keen gaze of those who've fought for their lives and emerged on the other side. I believe your camp has achieved its intent. They've grown as individuals. I look forward to seeing what you accomplish at the next Camp Vargas."
Hearing this, Vargas's eyes lit up eagerly as he laughed whole heartedly, "Hah hah hah! Let's not get too ahead of ourselves! All right, boys. Everybody stick with their club. We're going back to school!"
Ruggie jumped up in disbelief, "Wait, you're not even gonna let us get a word in edgewise?! Why just Lotus? Coach, hear me out—"
"Don't bother, Ruggie." Leona sighed in disdain, "That musclehead wouldn't believe the sky was blue if he didn't see it himself."
"But—" Ruggie muttered in defeat as his ears drooped once again.
"It's a waste of time tryin' to argue with him." Leona intervened having none of his fit, "Our fate was sealed when we made the call not to tell him before setting out."
"Aww, come on..." Ruggie groaned in frustration.
Grim sighed, "Vargas is a real piece o' work."
"To be fair, that's a pretty normal reaction to someone telling you they saw a monster." Jack muttered, "I didn't believe Deuce at first either."
"Yeah, I get it." Deuce nodded in exasperation, "If anything, it's wild that I got attacked by that monster twice now."
"So where were you guys, really?" Jamil approached them with a look of disbelief and annoyance clearly not believing in their words.
"We just went through this!" Ace cried out in despair, "We really did run into a monster! Back me up here, Floyd!"
"That was the funnest fight I've had in ages. I'm startin' to think we ended it too fast." Floyd sighed with a look of nostalgia across his face, "But seriously, with stuff like that? Land camp is THE BEST. I wanna do this again. Maybe I'll tag along on one of Jade's mountain treks. Ooh, or maybe we could change up where we go for our next Basketball Club training camp..."
As Floyd went off track, Ace cursed his own situation pitifully, "You're not listening to me at all!"
"That must've been one tough monster, Sebek." Silver added with a glint of bewilerment in his eyes as the others approached them.
"Hmph! Not in the least. It was a complete and utter pushover." Sebek huffed proudly.
Silver's eyes widen in surprise before he thought aloud, "Oh, is that so? Then that would mean..."
"...you were exaggerating when you called it a monster, weren't you?" Riddle quickly intercepted hurriedly with a rather annoyed look played across his face, "'Monster' is quite a vague term. I couldn't help but notice your group failed to clarify what it was in your testimony."
"Well, that's because we don't actually know!" Sebek continued in dismay.
"What really happened? Were you attacked by wild boars?" Riddle concluded feigning a look of awe, "Fending off wild boars is an impressive feat in and of itself. You should be proud."
"No, that's not..." Sebek cried out in despair, "Rgh... It's clear that any explanatory effort on my part will be met with skepticism. I want to report back to Malleus and Lilia... THEY would give me the benefit of the doubt!"
"Maaan!" Ruggie groaned loudly, "The club prize just isn't as good as what could've been!"
"Are you STILL on about that?" Leona complained thought seemingly admired the tenacity that Ruggie also has.
"I had a prime opportunity to make bank, and it slipped through my fingers!" Ruggied ranted angrily, "I can't even keep the magestones we used... Jack and the others would be all like, "Blah blah blah, embezzlement's a crime," and tattle on me.This camp sucked. You get me, right, Epel?"
Turning to Epel, Ruggie eagerly awaited his affirmation only for Epel to open his mouth, "Actually, um... I rather enjoyed it."
"Dude, seriously?" Ruggie shouted in disbelief.
"I'd never spent so much time with you and the rest of the guys before." Epel nodded with a bright smile, "And I got to try a lot of new things. Overall, it was very educational."
"Educational, huh... Yeah, okay, I'll give you that." Ruggie relented in defeat, "I definitely learned one thing from Camp Vargas... If they ever try to send me to it again, I gotta do whatever it takes to get out of it!"
"Seriously..." Ace nodded with a heavy sigh before looking for Yuu in bewilderment, "Huh? Where's Yuu?"
"I believe I saw him go and find Lotus." Epel responded.
"Speaking of him, I wonder what he said to Coach Vargas and the headmaster earlier." Ruggie responded curiously, "I didn't think that Coach Vargas would calm down so much after that."
Leona pondered to himself as the others questioned their ideas to what she said when he noticed Riddle standing to the side with his gaze shifted intently to the side. Huh... What is he looking at? Following this gaze, he saw Yuu talking to Lotus at the side. Curious, Leona gazed back to Riddle before noticing the guy's hands curled up into tight fists. Seeing this, he grimaced in seeming frustration but he was also confused as he was overcome with annoyance and anger. He wanted to reach out and grab whatever he was seeing away... Or more specifically...
Her.