-Chapter 4: VS King Crab-

After they had finished packing, Luke led the group through the dungeon. After finishing off more monsters and looting more chests, the Alastar caravan made it to a fork in the road.

"Which way Luke?" Yami asked.

"I guess left?" Luke asked the rest of the caravanners.

"You're the leader, make your choice." Lily said gruffly.

"Left it is," Luke said, leading the others down a path the led to a tunnel.

They came out into a place walled off by high ridges and a mountain. From the mountain shout out a huge clear waterfall that ended in a small lake.

"Where's the myrrh tree?" Ellanoir asked.

Gar pointed behind the waterfall and sure enough, despite being a while off, was the myrrh tree, its emerald 'leaves' glittering in the sun.

"Sweet," Raoul said, "We can go take it!"

As he said that, a large crab burst forth from the waterfall and landed in front of them. It had six legs and two claws; one large one with multiple weapons stuck in it and the other small, long and curved. It was an orange colour except for some parts of it which were black. It had globe shaped yellow eyes that had a cross-shaped pupils.

"What is that thing?!" Yami cried out fearfully, dropping the chalice.

"A King Crab," Ellanoir hissed under her breath.

The King Crab moved forward, lashing out at the caravanners. Luke blocked its attack with his shield while Raoul dashed to side of the monster, slashing its side. The beast cried out in pain and turned to face its assailant, but it was blasted by a barrage of arrows and fire spells. From where she was, Lily noticed that the arrows caught fire as they hit the King Crab in conjunction with the fire spells. But not in a bad way, somehow the fire wrapped around the arrows, causing them to cause small explosions on impact.

"Hey! Yami!" Lily called out. The Clavat was busy trying to cure Raoul who had been swatted away by the King Crab.

"Yes?" Yami called back.

"Can you cast a blizzard on the oversized orange beetle?" Lily yelled.

"Ummm… I think it's actually a crustacean," Yami shouted back, "But sure I can. Now?"

"Not yet," Lily yelled, running towards the King Crab, "When I give you the signal, do it!"

Lily was rapidly approaching the monster. Luckily for her, it did not notice her as it had to fend off Gar and Luke as well as block the fire spells and arrows that rained down on it. She darted towards the monster and when she was close enough, she cried out, "NOW YAMI!"

Yami released the spell she had been charging, its blue light arcing like an arrow as it flew towards its target. Lily swung her mallet at the spell, causing it to disperse. Then it gathered around her mallet, not as ice, but as magic.

"All right!" Lily yelled. Then she proceeded to slam her weapon into the King Crab with all her might. The mallet hit the beast with a sickening crunch. It cried out in agony as it was frozen by the blizzard magic.

"Nice one Lily!" Kim called out as she fired another volley of arrows into the King Crab.

"Luke," Gar said, motioning to the monster with his head.

"Yeah," Luke replied. The both of them sprinted towards the King Crab and attacked it. Gar smashed its small claw while Luke chopped off its larger one. The beast yelled in a mix of anguish and fury as its claws disappeared into the miasma. It glared angrily at the caravanners, but not for long as it was hit by a thundara spell from Azaroth. Ellanoir and Kim continued firing spells and arrows respectively at the King Crab, but it was wearing them down. The King Crab crouched low, seemingly preparing for something.

"What's it doing?" Azaroth asked, observing the creature.

Suddenly, it leapt up, almost as high as the waterfall it had come out from, threatening to crush anything beneath it.

"Watch out Yami!" Raoul cried out. Yami, heeded his warning and managed to just roll out of the way of the incoming attack.

"How do you even see with that bucket on your head?" Lily asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out," Raoul said, grinning slyly.

Lily rolled her eyes and dashed towards the King Crab, smashing its leg. The monster let out a bunch of turquoise bubbles from its mouth.

"Hey it's dying!" Lily cried out happily.

"Lily get away from those things!" Ellanoir shouted, "Those are slow bubbles!"

But it was too late, Lily got hit by a couple, slowing her down drastically. Yami cast a clear spell on Lily but the King Crab hit her with a thundara spell, Yami screamed in pain as the electricity coursed through her body, before falling on her side. The King Crab leapt into the air again, managing to avoid a thundara spell from Azaroth and threatening to land on Ellanoir and Kim. Gar managed to dash past, picking up the exhausted girls and moving them from harm's way. Lily ran up and bashed the monster's back but she was hit with a thundara spell.

"Gar! We need to end this!" Luke yelled out as he evaded another thundara spell.

"Right," Gar replied, his green eyes glinting with purpose.

The both of them dashed towards the King Crab but went different directions, when they reached it. Gar went around its right, bashing it with his racket. Luke went around its left, slashing it with his sword. The beast cried out in pain and began leaping into the air.

"Azaroth! Use gravity!" Luke yelled out.

"Already on it," Azaroth yelled back, releasing a gravity spell he had been charging up. It hit its mark, slamming the King Crab down on the ground. Luke and Gar leapt on top of the King Crab. The Selkie fired two shots at the beast's back carapace, cracking it. Luke brought his axe down heavily on the crack, breaking through it and sinking the axe deep into the wound. The King Crab cried out into pain as dark green blood spurted out of the wound. Luke twisted his axe, causing more blood to flow out. Raoul ran in through the front, slashing its eyes out and causing the monster to shudder violently and gurgle in pain. Gar was bashing in the King Crab's legs. The beast then stumbled backward and crashed on to the ground, vanishing into the miasma. Luke, Gar and Raoul walked over to his injured teammates where Azaroth was casting cure on them.

"Are they alright?" Luke asked, concern evident in his voice.

"Yeah, they're going to be fine for the most part," Azaroth said, standing up, "Though we should let them rest a bit before moving on."


After resting for a while, the caravanners went to the myrrh tree. Yami, the chalice bearer for this dungeon, reverently placed the chalice on the stone pedestal before the huge myrrh tree. The chalice shimmered, sending up a magical light to the myrrh tree whose leaves glittered. Then a drop of myrrh fell from one of the leaves, landing on the chalice's crystal and filling the chalice up one third.

"Your mail kupo!" A voice called out from behind them. They turned to see a moogle, like Stiltzkin, except with a mail bag running towards them. Lily and Kim had to restrain Yami from tackle-hugging the moogle as it gave out mail to each of the caravanners. Except Gar.

"Sorry kupo, I don't have any mail for you," The moogle said sadly.

"It's fine," Gar grunted, "Just be on your way."

The mail moogle waited for replies from all the caravanners that had received letters before running off into the miasma.

"I wanted to hug him too!" Yami complained, glaring at Kim and Lily.

"YOU need to stop hugging everything fuzzy you see!" Lily cried out exasperatedly.

"Well guys, that's one down," Luke said, casually leaning back on the pedestal, "Only two more to go."

"Well let's go then!" Kim exclaimed, hopping up and down excitedly, "I can't wait to see Mushroom forest!"


AN:

Hi guys! sorry for the late chapter, many of my projects are due so i couldn't update as fast as I would have liked.

Also I'm going overseas soon so I might not be able to post the next chapter for quite a while.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Remember to read, review and enjoy!