As Natsu was heading towards the branch, the Moltopus saw him and decided to close in on him.
Natsu finally got to the top of the branch as he untied the rope on his waist and tree branch.
Since Natsu wasn't sure which side is solid or swampy, he tied the other end of the rope to his other knife, as he then decided to swing on the trees instead of walking.
Suddenly the Moltopus hit the tree he was on, making it to shake.
Natsu Lost balance as he almost fell off, but he stabbed the branch in the nick of time which helped him not to fall.
As Natsu looked down, he saw the beast trying to climb the tree.
He immediately climbed the branch well using his knife and tried standing on it.
"It's now or never" Natsu said as he took a deep breath and then swung the rope, as he threw it shouting, "Stretch"
Immediately the rope wrapped itself around the tree branch, Natsu shouted, "Return to original size" which made the rope pull him towards the tree branch.
The Moltopus saw this and entered into the swamp, as it started chasing after Natsu.
When Natsu got to the branch, he untied the rope, but before he could swing, the Moltopus fell the tree down.
As the tree was falling, Natsu ran on the tree and threw the rope to another branch as he shouted, "Stretch!" But this time he didn't wait for it to wrap well, he immediately shouted, "Return to original size" which pulled him towards the branch.
"I have to think of a way to move fast through this trees, if not this thing would kill me" Natsu thought as he was heading to the other branch.
Immediately he arrived, he tried loosing the rope, and as he did, he didn't waste time to throw it and swing to another branch.
As he was swinging, he continued thinking of different ways to go fast.
"It takes me time to loose the rope, which means I have to find a way to swing through the trees without wrapping the rope around the branch" Natsu thought as he then climbed a tree branch and began loosing the rope, before throwing it and started swinging.
As Natsu was swinging, he was climbing the rope so that he could save more time, instead of waiting for himself to reach underneath the branch before climbing.
"Now that I think of it, I attached both of my blades on the edges of the rope"
"Yes that's it, I'll throw my knife to stab the tree and then swing on the tree, and when I feel it's the right time, I'll pull it out and throw the other end doing the same thing"
"Although there is a problem, how would I be able to make the knife go into the tree, in a way that it would allow me to be able to swing and still be able to pull it out" Natsu thought as he was arriving on a tree branch.
"There's no much time to think this carefully, I'll just have to do it and learn from my mistakes" Natsu said as he reached the branch and loosed the rope.
Normally Natsu spun the rope before throwing it to the next branch, but this time, he held his knife and threw it as hard as he can towards a tree branch.
This made the knife to go through the air, hitting the tree and entering into it.
Natsu then swung through the forest as he was throwing the knifes to the tree branches while shouting words that he used to control the rope.
As Natsu was swinging through the trees, the Moltopus continued chasing after him making him more anxious.
"What kind of creature is this, and why is it after me" Natsu asked himself.
"Hold up, when I came out of the beast, the rope wasn't far from reach"
"It's possible that the rope dragged it out of the swamp, and still pulled the rock towards it, making the rock to hit it" Natsu thought while trying to escape from it, by swinging from tree to tree.
"That's it, it's the only possible explanation, which means, this thing is out for revenge!"
"I'm way too far from the part of the forest where other contestants could be, which means I would have to fight it here alone"
Suddenly Natsu was hit on his back by a tree.
"What the hell is that?" Natsu said as he flew and landed on the ground.
Natsu immediately stood up and ran as he threw the rope towards a tree branch and shouted, "Stretch" and when the blade stabbed the branch he shouted, "Return to original length" making him head towards the branch.
Natsu began throwing the blades attached to the rope way faster as he started becoming used to it making himself swing like a monkey moving from vines to vines.
This time he didn't wait to get to another tree branch, as he would swing pass it and drag the rope while throwing the other side to another tree branch.
He realized that if he was just swinging straight forward through the trees, he would be an easy target.
So as he was swinging, he would also land on some trees and began to run, trying to hide himself in the leaves and change his direction, while he swug on them.
The Moltopus was following his movement since it was swimming very fast.
It then draged some trees and threw it towards Natsu.
As Natsu saw the tree heading towards him, he immediately threw his rope and said his normal controls of the rope as he swung out of there.
"That was close! So this thing is really trying to kill me, I guess I have to keep an eye on it" Natsu thought.
But as he was on the air, the Moltopus threw another tree to him.
Natsu saw this tree heading towards him so he was able to dodge it.
"Oh, shit" Natsu said when he saw the tree heading towards him and immediately shouted, "Stretch" which made him to fall.
As he went downwards, the tree hit the rope instead of him, as he immediately shouted harden, which made the rope become normal, bending him towards the direction of the monster.
Natsu then threw the other side of the rope to the tree that hit it and shouted, "Return to original size" which made him head towards the tree really fast and then shouted, "Elongate" as it made himself slow down and then shouted, "Return"
He then got to the tree and shouted, "Harden" and immediately pulled the rope, causing the blade attached to the other tree pull out, as he then shouted, "Return to original size" making the blade head towards him quickly.
While Natsu was pulling all his stunts and moves, the Moltopus threw lots of tree towards him.
"I did it" Natsu said as he looked towards the direction of the Moltopus.
"No no no no no no no!" Natsu shouted as he saw lots of trees heading towards him.
He immediately threw the blade and began swinging and dodging the trees while doing amazing stunts like back flip, sidewards rotation and so on.
As he was dodging and running on some of the tree he tried to make the ropes orders short as he was trying to reprogram it.
"Alright rope, instead of saying 'Stretch', I'll shout 'S'!" he said as he jumped towards another tree and began running on it.
"Instead of 'Harden', I'll shout 'H'. Instead of shouting 'Return', I'll shout 'R'. Instead of 'Elongate', I'll shout 'E'" Natsu said very quickly as he continued moving from tree to tree without using the ropes.
"And instead of shouting 'Return to original size', I'll shout 'ROS', got it!"
"Please I beg you for crying out loud 'S'!!!" Natsu said as he threw the rope towards a tree above himself while it shined golden.
The rope stretched as he said it and stabbed the tree.
Natsu was so happy as he then shouted, "ROS" and immediately the rope pulled him towards the tree.
"It worked, now it would be easier for me to move around more faster and smoothly" Natsu thought as he smiled.
He then continued dodging the trees heading towards him as he was shouting the magical words more quickly, making his movement amazing.
Unknowingly to Natsu, he was heading towards the Moltopus.
As Natsu escaped the barrage of trees, he got flogged on the head by the Moltopus sending him straight to the ground, as he crashed into the swamp.
"What the hell was that?" Natsu screamed.
"Ouch, my head! I was already in so much pain and where did that come from? I guess the beast already planned it. It just had to add more to pain" Natsu said as he tried to get up.
"Oh no, I'm sinking" Natsu said as he tried getting out.
Natsu managed to bring out his hands from the mud as he shouted, "S" and threw his blade towards a tree.
Natsu was surprised to see his blades stop on the air.
"What's going on? Why is it floating? Is there an invisible barrier there" Natsu thought as he didn't understand what he was seeing.
Suddenly the blade entered into the swamp.
"Oh no, don't tell me the beast could turn invisible. That explains why it appeared out of nowhere to hit me" Natsu thought as he saw what happened.
"Wait, I have two sides of the rope, I can throw the other side and use my hands to climb through the rope, guess the beast didn't think of that!" Natsu thought as he had hope of survival.
But as Natsu threw the other blade, it stopped in mid-air.
"What in the world is going on!" Natsu thought as he became confused, since the rope entered into the swamp like the other one.
Natsu gulped as he lost hope of survival.
"This is bad, no, this is chaotic! If I can't get out of this swamp, I'm as good as dead" Natsu thought as he saw the blade go into the swamp.
"What now? How the hell I'm I meant to leave this swamp!" Natsu screamed in frustration.
Once he said that, he began to feel the rope moving.
"What's going on" Natsu said as he felt the rope stretching as he began to wonder, "Is this beast dragging the rope to the bottom? Well if it is, I'm sorry for it, because this rope can stretch really well"
"Now that I think about it, if this beast continues, how would I fight it inside this mud, once the rope reaches its limit"
"The worst part is that I won't be able to control the rope if I entered into this mud, so what do I do?" Natsu asked himself as he began to think of a way to control the rope without speaking.
"I could try tapping the rope, nah, it won't work, what about twisting the rope, or should I drag it instead, maybe pulling it would be better"
"Ahhhhh!!!"
"What should I do?" Natsu said as he became confused.
"I need to think of a way to control this rope without speaking, but how do I tell the rope things without speaking"
"Hmmmm"
"Ahha, I'm so stupid, why didn't I think of this earlier" Natsu said as an idea came into his head.
"I can try speaking to it through different contact or signs, yes, that's the only way, but I have to make sure the signal I give it would match it's ability" Natsu thought.
"Let's see, I know, instead of shouting 'Stretch' or 'S', I could just drag the rope signifying it to do so"
"Yes, that's the best, and instead of shouting 'Return to original size' or 'ROS', I could pull it together"
"Yeah, I could also twist it instead of shouting 'Harden' or 'H'"
"I should also, no, I could try, no, wait, what sign should I give it for it to know when I want it to elongate or return?"
"Hmmm, I know, I should combine some of the signs to create them, which means I have to be very fast when I'm doing the two, if not the rope might miss interpret it"
"So what combinations should I use for them, I could use..., Nahh, what about, no that won't work, ahhhhh!! Come on think!"
"Ahha, I should twist the rope and drag it, yes, that way it would know that I want it to elongate"
"Yeah, I could also twist it then pull it for it to return"
"Hehehehehehehehehe, I'm a genius" Natsu said with joy.
"Alright, now that I got all the signals, how do I reprogram the rope to be able to do it" Natsu said, forgetting that he was sinking into the swamp.
As Natsu was thinking of a way to reprogram the rope, he raised his hands above his head, with the rope in his hands and said.
"I don't know if you can understand everything I say, but I'm about to enter into this swamp, which means i won't be able to speak to you, or tell you what to do"
"Therefore, I want to give you some signals that would tell you when I want you to either stretch, or do the other remaining tasks"
"So instead of shouting 'Stretch' or 'S', I'll just pull you like this" Natsu said as he pulled the rope apart to demonstrate and then continued speaking.
"Instead of shouting 'Return to original size' or 'ROS', I would pull you together like this"
"And instead of shouting 'Harden' or 'H', I'll just twist you like this"
"Oh and I'll just twist and drag you like this, instead of shouting elongate"
"And finally, I'll just twist and then pull you like this, instead of shouting 'Return' or 'R'"
As Natsu finished explaining and demonstrating to the rope, the rope began to glow as golding markings showed on it.
Natsu became speechless as he was astonished to see what was happening.
As the rope stopped glowing, it pulled Natsu into the swamp and towards the Moltopus, returning to its original size.
"Shittttttt!!!!! I wasn't prepared for this!!!" Natsu thought as he entered into the swamp.