"Guess I'm really unlucky, there is no way of me surviving this" Natsu thought as he began giving up hope on survival.
As Natsu was going deeper, he realized that it became harder to go down.
It wasn't really about the thickness of the mud but the rope started becoming harder to stretch.
"This rope really took time to reach its limit" Natsu thought as he continued going deeper into the quicksand.
"Wait something is wrong, now that I think about it, a quicksand isn't this deep, which means, 'I'm in a swamp'!" Natsu thought as he felt more frustrated.
But as he was feeling bad, something unexpected happened.
He felt the swamp move like something was swimming inside.
"Please let it not be I'm fighting a beast, please let it not be I'm fighting a beast, please let it not be I'm fighting a beast!!!" Natsu thought hoping for the best.
Although he couldn't see, the beast moved around him for a little before stopping right in front of him.
The beast had a sturdy, elongated body, with a mixture of a mole's robust torso and an octopus's flexible, boneless structure. Its skin is thick, velvety, and water-repellent, with a mottled brown and grey coloration, allowing it to blend into its surroundings.
It had eight flexible, muscular arms protrude from the beasts shoulders, each covered with suckers similar to an octopus as the suckers are lined up with tiny, razor-sharp teeth, allowing the beast to grip and crawl through dense substances.
The beast also had powerful front legs, similar to a mole's with a mixture of both webby feets for swimming and long sharp claws for digging and excavating soil as its claws are tipped with a hard, keratin-based material, allowing them to withstand the rigors of digging, swimming and hunting.
The beast had a distinctive head, combining the mole's pointed snout with the octopus's bulbous, as its snout is highly sensitive, with a series of tentacle-like appendages that detect seismic vibrations and changes in its surroundings. It also had a pair of feathery, sensory tentacles on its head, similar to an octopus's antennae as its body is covered in tiny, bioluminescent spots, allowing it to communicate and navigate in dark environments.
This beast was a sight to behold as it exhibits both the ability of a mole and that of an octopus, and this creature was called a Moltopus.
Currently, as Natsu was trying to think positively, the beast opened its mouth and swallowed him and started going back to the bottom.
Natsu took a deep breath as he noticed that he was swallowed.
"Well I guess this is for the best, besides I can now breathe" Natsu thought.
But as he was breathing in, he began coughing since the smell wasn't pleasant.
"It stinks" Natsu shouted as he continued coughing.
"So how do I get out of here" Natsu thought as he began to look around.
"I can't see anything, it's also very dark in here, well my only hope of getting out of here is if the rope stops this beast or the beast decides to go upward to the land"
"I guess I'm a little bit lucky because if this rope wasn't on my waist, I might have been in its stomach getting digested" Natsu thought.
Suddenly the rope began vibrating as the rope was showing signs of reaching its limit, as the block holding the knife pulled out and went towards Natsu direction with lots of speed and force.
As the rock came in contact with the swamp, a very loud noise was heard as it echoed through out the forest.
Booommmm!!!!
Immediately the rock landed on the swamp, it caused the swamp to splash, as it looked like a large bomb exploding underwater, causing a big splash which made it to spread out.
The rock broke as the blade continued moving into the swamp heading towards Natsu.
The Moltopus felt the wave as it then shifted and dodged the blade.
When the beast dodged the blade, the blade still continued moving down, and as the swamp collided with each other, pressure was being applied to he bottom of the swamp.
The Moltopus senses were thrown into chaos as waves were coming from all directions.
The beast began moving forward, trying to get away from the waves to a calm place, so it would be easy to detect enemies.
The Moltopus increased its speed and continued increasing it.
Not long after, the Moltopus slowed down, since it noticed that the swamp was becoming calm, so it began going upwards to know what was happening.
Meanwhile, as all these things was happening, Natsu was suffering inside the beast mouth as he was screaming and flying up and down.
"It's finally over, I thought I was going to die" Natsu said as he was panting.
Natsu stood up and held the rope on his waist as he started following it.
"This is the best, I'll prefer doing this and moving slowly than just walking freely and entering it's throat, the last thing I want to do is cause this thing discomfort" Natsu said as he was walking slowly using the rope as guide.
Suddenly, Natsu legs started moving out of the ground as he started facing the direction of the rope, and before he knew it, the rope was the only thing holding him, since he was suspended in the air.
"What's going on now! Wait, could it be! Is it going towards the surface?" Natsu thought.
"This is amazing, I'm actually going to survive this!" Natsu said as he became filled with joy and excitement.
"Woohoo!!!" Natsu screamed out of excitement.
As the Moltopus came to the surface of the swamp, it first looked up while slowly bringing out it's head and looking around.
The beast didn't see anything odd, since it only saw trees surrounding the area, so it decided to go back into the swamp.
Just like how fishes, sharks and other animals enter into the water after coming out, the Moltopus bent down as its body became like a C.
Suddenly the Moltopus got hit on the neck by the same blade that it dodged, which caused its head to come out of the swamp, making it fall on its back.
Natsu on the other hand was already holding the edge of the rope on it's teeth, waiting for a chance so he would jump out.
As the beast was falling to its back, it opened its mouth as it coughed, allowing Natsu jump out.
"I did it, I'm free, I'm free!" Natsu said as he was excited that he had finally escaped.
"It's best I get out of here before this thing get up" Natsu thought as he landed on it.
But before he left, he remembered that his mission was to bring in strange beast.
"I've never seen this kind of beast before, but how would I carry it there?" Natsu thought.
He then remembered when there stage 2 examiner gave them the bag and told them the use of it.
"Okay, so how would I use it?" Natsu thought.
While he was thinking, the Moltopus was slowly sinking into the mud.
And as Natsu looked down when he was thinking, he noticed the mud moving upwards and covering the beast.
Natsu immediately started dragging the rope, as he tried to get to the place he tied his blade.
"I have to get out of here immediately, if not I'll just sink back down" Natsu said as he was dragging the rope very fast.
"Found it!" Natsu said as he saw his blade.
"Rope please be stiff and harden" Natsu said as he swung the rope and threw it towards a tree branch, not so far away from there.
At first it missed since the rope was in its original length, and wasn't long enough to reach the tree branch.
"Okay I would prefer if you became elastic back and stretch" Natsu said as he threw it the second time.
To his greatest surprise, the rope stretched out and reached the tree branch, wrapping itself around it.
He pulled it to make sure the rope and tree branch was strong, and if the rope wouldn't stretch.
"Okay rope, please just harden" Natsu said as he looked down and saw the mud getting closer to him.
"Ahhhhh, I don't have time for this" Natsu said as he went back and ran forward and jumped while holding the rope very tight.
He began trying to pull himself upward and to his greatest surprise the rope didn't stretch.
"Wait, the rope didn't stretch, is it possible that it uses a particular word or statement to activate its magical ability"
"Well I guess it's time to check out that theory" Natsu thought as he then said, "Return to your original size"
Suddenly, the rope draged him closer to the tree branch, although he was hanging over the tree, he was really excited.
"This is incredible" Natsu said as he began to climb the rope, trying to get to the branch the rope was tied to.
"Hmmm, I should test you one last time, just to be safe, so I'll know how to use you effectively in the future" Natsu said as he was climbing.
"Alright, here it goes, 'Stretch'!" Natsu said and immediately, the rope became elastic and he began to fall down.
"Harden!!!" Natsu shouted in fear and immediately the rope stopped stretching but still remained the same length.
"Nice!" Natsu said in excitement.
"Okay, last time I said 'Return to your original length', so what happens if I say a word in that statement" Natsu thought.
"Return" Natsu said, but surprisingly, the rope didn't just return to it's original length immediately, this time it was returning slowly to it's original length.
"Amazing! This is truly amazing, but, how do I make it stretch slowly?" Natsu thought.
"Hmmm, what about elongate? Yeah it should work, I guess, I won't know until I try" Natsu thought as he took a deep breath in.
"Okay here it goes, 'Elongate'!" Natsu said and suddenly the rope began to stretch slowly.
"It worked" Natsu said in excitement.
"Okay it's time to get serious, I don't have much time again, 'Return to Original Size'!" Natsu said as he started climbing the rope, trying to get to the branch it's tied on.
Unknowingly for Natsu the Moltopus was watching him in anger and decided to get close to the tree to kill him.