-Coral Forest-
On top of one of the coral trees, there was a man entangled with coral branches. That man had black hair, a grey tail and blue eyes and currently was having the biggest headache of his life. On another tree, there was another man with the same characteristics who was also entangled with more coral branches who was unconsious. Those two men were Charles and Viktor and the one awake was Charles with an annoyed expression. After a little while, Viktor also started to wake up slowly with a nasty headache as well.
"Uhhh... My head... Hey Charles? Where are we right now?" Viktor broke the silence between the two.
"Stuck between the branches of the trees after getting to experience the Home Run from the ball's perspective, or to translate that, we got smacked by an oversized crab at least 600 feet across the forest." Charles said with in a sarcastic manner.
"Giant crab? What do you mean?" Vik was still half-awake and had trouble believing Charles' words.
"Exactly what I just said. A giant crab sent us flying across the forest. Do you need any more explainations?" Charles said a bit angrily.
"What? But how? What happened Charles?" Vik asked in disbelief.
"While I was away gathering twigs, I heard some loud noises and came back to the camp, only to find you being grabbed and then thrown by a big claw. After that, I went to attack the monster that had thrown you, only for me to be knocked away with one swing and end up landing like this." Charles explained with a serious expression.
"Then, were you awake this entire time while we both entangled in this mess?" Viktor asked asked seriously.
"No, I did catch some Zs while- What did you expect me to do? Fall asleep in this kind of situation? I was awake this entire time hoping for someone to pass by and ask for help, but there was no one around. I did try waking you up by screaming as loudly as I could, but you clearly were in La-La-Land and didn't seem like you were going to come back anytime soon." Charles said a bit calmly before he exploded in anger.
'Uhhh... Great. Now Charles is in nagging mode and this time, it doesn't seem like he will be stopping anytime soon.' Viktor thought with an annoyed expression.
"Now, we are going to be stuck here for..." Charles at that point started rambling angrily while Charles felt like this was going to be his worst day ever. Thankfully for Viktor, Charles run out energy after 20 minutes before he decided to quiet down.
"So, now what? Don't expect me to wait for help in the middle of nowhere." Viktor asked with an annoyed expression.
"Well, the only thing we can do is wait. Unless of course you have the power to break out of that tangled mess." Charles said disdainfully.
Viktor tried to break out of the branches, but to no avail, he failed.
"No dice. These must be some thick branches." Viktor said a bit dejected.
"Anyways, what was that giant crab in the first place?" Viktor added.
"No clue to tell the truth. Whatever that was, it had power, speed, defence, reflexes. I'm not sure about its magic, but judging by that thing's power, it should be pretty high."
"So, whatever that crab was, it was clearly way out of our league. What a day it is."
"Keep your comments to yourself."
...
Both of them felt like there was no point in continuing this topic and decided to change it.
"Anyways, do you know if anything passed in this area at all?" Viktor asked curiously.
"Nothing. Not even a beast in the first place." Charles answered calmly.
"So what? Are we going to be stuck here until we starve or until we get eaten by whatever is out there?" Viktor asked a bit annoyed.
"Of course not. If there is a monster of that caliber in this forest, close to the city, the protocol says that the Sea Knights will comb through the entire area until they either drive away the beast, or until they kill it. So in the end, we are bound to be found." Charles explained seriously.
"So it's either being found half-dead, starved to death, or eaten to death. Uhhh... And I still haven't eaten any spicy ramen. Why do I have be so cursed?" Viktor felt like he was on the verge of tears.
*rustle* *rustle* *rustle*
"Shhhh..." Charles made the singal to quiet down.
...
-Crystalia City, East Gates-
Right now, there were quite a few adventurers that were entering the city, while there were also a lot of mermen with blue attires that were entering the forest. At that moment, Soren, Matt and Lavenza came out of the forest, with Lavenza still hugging Soren and saw the situation at the gates were both Soren and Lavenza were suprised by the situation.
"Wow, there are a lot of adventurers at gates. Thry must be in the hundreds at least." Soren was amazed by the image in front of him. At that moment, a man with a blue attire came in front of the trio and said forcefully:
"You two. Show me your IDs."
"Wha-" Just as Soren was about to say anything, he was suddenly stopped by Matt and whispered:
"If you value your life, you better do as the man says. Trust me."
*gulp* Soren felt pretty scared and decided to take out his adventurer's ID and show it to the man in blue. Matt took out his ID calmly as well.
The man checked the two IDs and gave them back to them and asked:
"Is the sea serpent wild or tamed?"
Soren was suprised by that question and answered a bit angrily:
"Hey, she is my partner and friend. What are you for if she is wild or tamed?"
The man was indifferent to Soren's anger and said:
"Tamed it is. You two will have to wait at the line to go back the city. The forest to the east is off-limits as of now and will remain so until further notice. Have a nice day." After that, he left the two of them.
"Honestly Soren, I don't know if you have lots of guts or lots of idiocy inside you. You should know that if you provoke those guys, the least of your worries would be your life. At least let's be glad that this is an emergency, otherwise we would be gone into who knows where." Matt said seriously with a hint of relief in his voice.
"Wait, who are these guys?" Soren asked curiously although he was a bit scared as well.
"The Sea Knights. That's who they are. They are a patroling team that take care of emergencies, such as King Geius. But they also have a nasty temper, so if you annoy them, well, let's say that they don't take kindly to threats." Matt answered seriously.
*gulp* "Scary bunch, that's for sure." Soren said a bit afraid.
"Then you better stay away from them at all costs." Matt said seriously.
After that encounter with the Sea Knight, the trio decided to wait on line so they can enter the city. Thankfully, the line is moving pretty quickly, so it wouldn't take long for them to enter the city. While they were waiting in the line, Soren sneaked a few glances at the Sea Kinghts and saw that quite a few of them were wearing some kind of vizor with an antenna on the side, while others were wearing blue helmets and there were some with both head accessories. There were also some that weren't wearing any of the head accessories and those were the ones that were speaking with the adventurers that were coming out of the forest.
After around fifteen minutes, the three of them reached the guard that was checking on the IDs and after showing their IDs, they entered the city. Near the gates, there were also four people who were just waving at them. Those four were Gore, Paul, Lily and Rohan who was looking pretty ragged.
The first one to speak was Matt and said:
"Well, we are back safe and sound. Wait until you hear the story man. You will be laughing by the end of it Rohan."
"Story? What happened guys? Did you encounter King Geius? Tsk." Rohan asked while he was in pain.
"Wait, more importantly, what happened to you Rohan? How did you get injured?" Soren asked with a worried expression.
"Long story. Let's talk about this later." Rohan dismissed the question.
"Anyways, we also have quite situation to report, so let's go to " The Hungry Clam" to eat. I'm starving." Matt said slightly happily.
"Matt, the food stalls are closed at this hour. If you wish to eat right now, go and make yourself your own meal." Rohan said seriously.
"Aw man. That sucks. Well, there is always another time. Oh well, let's get going guys. It's been a long day, so we all deserve to rest." Matt said a bit dejected before he cheered up.
"Gore, Paul, Lily. Thank you for helping me. I'll make sure to repay you guys." Rohan said happily.
"No need to repay us, we are friends after all. It's only natural." Gore was the one to speak first.
"Don't push yourself Rohan. Take your time to heal up." Paul spoke next.
"Don't overstrain yourself. Hope you get better." Lily spoke last.
"Thanks guys. Take care for now." Rohan said happily before the party of 3 left Rohan, Matt, Soren and Lavenza.
"Let's go and rest now. It's been a long day. Matt, tell me later what happened. Right now, I just want to rest and heal up." Rohan spoke seriously, although with a slightly tired voice.
"Come on guys. You probably are tired as well." Matt said a bit tired as well.
"But I don't feel-" Just as Soren said that, he was suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness. All the fatigue that had been building up throught the entire day, finally exploded once Soren got a chance to relax.
"Reny~." Lavenza was worried about Soren once she saw his tired expression.
"I guess... I really pushed myself." Soren said with a weak voice before he fell on the ground.
"Reny~!" Lavenza cried as she saw Soren fall on the ground.
"Soren!" Both Rohan and Matt said in complete shock.
*snore* *snore*
"Guess, we weren't the only who were tired. Someone had worked themselves down to their last scale. Haha." Matt said jokingly.
"Kyaaah~." Lavenza also fell down from fatigue on top of Soren.
*snore* *snore*
"I'll carry the two of them since I have the best condition out of the two of us." Maty said before he picked up both Soren and Lavenza from the ground and put them on his shoulders.
"At least the kid is light." Matt said with a relieved expression.
After that, the four of them left towards their house to call it a day, just as the light of the moon started to shine through the sea and bring the dawn of a new day, at least for the mermen it's the dawn of a new day.