Astra stayed on the ground for a while in tears, missing home and starting to rethink her goals of becoming the leader of the second master class team of all time and started to ask herself if she can even make it home to see her mom again.
She looked up but saw the forest she was in before.
'It looks ten times as scary now-' Astra thought to herself as the noises of the forest echoed in her head over and over.
She then remembered what the guy said to her just now before he went to fight the beast.
((maybe I should've just let you die .. but i don't think people should die like that.))
She got up and looked straight into the forest and took a deep breath.
and started to walk back inside
[meanwhile]
The guy was holding his own against the beast but eventually he slips up tripping over a branch falling backwards. still managing to keep the beast away the beast screeched and disappeared into the darkness.
"damn it!" The guy started to look around frantically for the beast.
it tried to attack him from behind but he barely rolled to the left to evade it
"THERE YOU ARE!" he shouted as the fire came from his palms and started to fire it rapidly at the beast making him feel kind of drained.
The attacks landed and the beast pulled back again to recover from its injuries not coming back for a while.
"oh come on!"
[with Astra]
She was slowly walking through the forest again looking for the guy that saved her.
her knees were shaking and she kept frantically looking around the place.
in the distance she heard something in the distance she looked in the direction of the noise but saw nothing.
Astra started to move faster and the beast came rushing at her from the left out of nowhere.
Astra couldn't respond in time but that guy from before cuts the beast's face forcing him to go back.
"you again?!" the guy looked at astra "what are you doing back here?"
"I- I want to help" astra stuttered from fear of almost dying again.
" oh my g-" the guy was interrupted by the beast roaring from the distance, he sighed"just stay back for a second."
Astra obeyed him and stood back as the guy from before awaited the next attack from the beast.
it was quiet for a uncomfortably long time
"can you use magic" he then asked after a long pause
Astra nodded and produced lightning magic to make a small ball of lightning lighting up the area.
"good so you're actually useful" he made a smart remark.
Astra instantly regret coming to help him
the monster tried to attack them out of desperation despite being seen but the guy quickly reacted and cut off one of its limbs
He then shot fire in its direction making him a bit more tired.
but it was worth it as the beast was hit and it went running back to its home so naturally the guy instantly chased after it.
"You're not getting away now!" he said as he chased the injured beast.
Astra quickly followed him with her magic still active, she struggled to keep up for a while but finally caught up to the guy dodging the desperate hits of the beast until he finally landed the final blow causing the beast to fall over.
Astra, seeing the beast dead, ran over to the chest to quickly open it but the guy pulled her back making her fall over.
"oh no you dont this is mine." the guy said as he went to open the chest.
"You can't own the souls of innocent people!" astra shouted at him as he struggled to open it.
He then looked at her confused.
"what?" he stared at her as she stared up at him "that's not what this is."
"what?.." Astra asked as she didnt hear him right.
"yeah... there are no souls in here, just gold and jewels" he opened the chest and what he said was there were in the chest.
"Wait, was that the reason you came here?" he started to laugh.
"you thought you'd be some hero or something giving the souls back to the people??" "Sorry but those souls are long gone you can't get them back." he continued laughing and stopped to see astra tearing up again.
"all that for nothing" Astra's voice cracking as she cried.
"jeez..do you ever stop crying-" the guy i asked as he stretched his hand to help her up.
Astra rubbed her eyes and sniffled.
the guy sighed "if it'll make you feel better ..I'll give you some of the treasure for your troubles."
Astra looks up at him and slowly nods as they both split the gold and jewelry 50/50.
as they were walking out astra spoke up.
"hey..." astra finally spoke, breaking the silence.."what's your name."
"why do you wanna know my name?" he asked
" Are you interested in me or something?" he teased her, smiling.
"no... I just want to know the name of the guy that saved me." astra explained.
"jeez you're all basic and chivalrous" the guy sighed "its kai."
astra nodded " ok kai" "wanna join my team?"
"what?"
"join my team."
"no-."
"why"
Kai stepped in front of her by a few steps.
"I'm a loner I don't work in teams."
"oh come on!" she ran to catch up "It'll be great to have someone like you" astra praised him
"I said no"
"please?"
"no"
"please"
"no"
Astra thought for a while and almost like a cartoon a light bulb appeared over her head.
"I'll give you 70% of all the treasures we find on our adventures." astra promised
kai thought about it for a while
"fine deal"
"But you're gonna need a staff if you're gonna lead a team," Kai told her.
"a staff?"
"mhm a staff."
"what's a staff gonna do-"