Chapter 3
Suddenly, someone teleported them to the Castle of Prontera. There, Tristan IV sat on his throne. Nova bowed and Rein knelt down on his left knee. The Xiaolin Dragons copied them.
"Please stand up. Iam sorry about the rough trip. I just wanted to welcome and congratulate Rune Midgard's warriors. Actually, I was the one who had to lead the warriors to change to their first job in the first place." said Tristan IV.
"No your highness, I didn't mind helping them." said Nova after returning to her original position.
"May God bless you, Priestess Nova, please guide them and help them out with all your skills." said Tristan IV.
"I will, Your Majesty." said Nova, bowed once more.
"And you, Knight Rein, I am giving you the authority to lead them on your journey. God will always be with you." said Tristan IV once again.
"Thank you, Your Highness." said Rein and he bowed. Then he continued, "If you don't mind, Your Highness, may I take our warriors to start their training?"
"Of course, good luck and be careful." said Tristan.
"We will, Your Highness." said Nova and Rein together.
Then, they exited the castle and formed a group.
"Let's go to Payon. It's the best place for beginners to train. The monsters there are perfect for fighting with." suggested Rein.
"Before that, I'd like to buy them some equipment." said Nova before casting 'Increase Agility' and running to the Item Mall. She bought a pair of Silettos for Raimundo, a Staff for Kimiko and a Chain for Omi. After putting all of it in her backpack, she casted 'Increase Agility' again and dashed back to Rein and the others.
"Here you go guys. As for Clay, he can use the Crimson Bolt I gave him and here, 2500 bullets for your gun." said Nova, handing everyone their things.
"Are we ready now?" asked Rein. Nova nodded.
They walked over to a Kafra staff and she teleported them to Payon. As usual, Payon was full of Merchants who want to vend.
"Has Payon always been like this from the beginning?" asked Clay
"Yes, crazy huh?" said Rein.
"You don't have to tell me twice," agreed Raimundo.
Then, they were all separated in the flood of humans. Kimiko accidentally hit someone. "Oops… sorry, are you okay?" asked Kimiko while helping the girl to stand up.
The girl stood up, picked up all of her fallen books and swept the dust off her robe. From her clothing, Kimiko knew that the girl was a Mage, "Yes, I'm fine," said the girl.
"Hey, aren't you Luna Scarlet? The one who helped me out with the machine during the Mage test?" asked Kimiko.
"Yes, I am, and you must be Kimiko Tohomiko, the foolish Novice who didn't know how to use the machine." insulted Luna.
Kimiko didn't mind her insult and grabbed her hand. "Would you like me to introduce you to my friends?" asked Kimiko.
"No thanks, I'm kind of busy with something." answered Luna coldly.
"Kimiko! Where are you?" asked Nova with the 'Whisper' system.
"Over here, Nova!" called Kimiko, waving her hands. Nova ran to Kimiko. "Nova, meet my friend, Luna Scarlet. She was the one who helped me in the Mage test." said Kimiko.
"Please to meet you, Miss Scarlet, my name is Nova Ceres. Thank you for helping Kimiko." said Nova with a smile and bowing a little bit.
"Just call me Luna." said Luna coldly.
"Kimiko! Nova! What are you doing here? We were looking all under for you." said Omi. He noticed Luna there so he greeted her. "Hello friend, my name is Omi."
Nova was going to introduce her but Luna was already introducing herself, "My... my name is Scarlet… no I mean Luna Scarlet."
Hmm… there's a change of atmosphere when Omi came… thought Nova.
Then, Raimundo came."Hey, who's that girl?" asked Raimundo.
"This is Luna Scarlet, my senior at the Mage community." said Kimiko.
"Hi, I'm Raimundo Pedrosa." said Raimundo.
"Luna Scarlet." said Luna coldly.
That's weird, the atmosphere changed again… thought Nova.
Then Rein and Clay walked over to them, "Luna, meet our other friends, Rein Silvlet and Clay Bailey." said Nova, pointing at the two.
"Are we ready to start the training yet?" asked Rein.
"What if Luna came with us?" asked Omi, making Luna's face blush.
"But Luna said that she was busy. Is it okay if you come with us?" asked Kimiko to Luna
"Fine, I'll come, my business is not that urgent anyway…" said Luna, still blushing.
"Great! Let's go now." said Kimiko enthusiastically.
They went to the north of Payon where the Archer Village was. In the middle, the road was split. To the right were the Archer community and the Archer guild, and to the left was a dark cave with undead monsters inside it.
"Are we going to the Archer community?" ask Nova.
"Of course not, we're going to Payon Cave!" said Rein.
"WHAT!!" screamed Nova and Luna together.
"What's wrong? You're well-armed against them−you can kill them with just one Heal skill…" said Rein.
"HEAL THEM?! What do you mean Heal them? That would just make them stronger!" asked Omi disbelievingly.
"Undead monsters' weakness is the Holy element, so Priests' Heal skill is very effective against them." explained Rein
Nova still couldn't calm down "But…but...but…"
"Oh, is that the cave?" asked Raimundo, making Nova and Luna more afraid.
"Yep, let's go already!" exclaimed Rein impatiently. Nova immediately took hold of Rein's back and Luna was still shaking with her books in her arms.
"Luna, I think it would be better if you put those books inside your bag." suggested Omi. Luna quickly put all her books in her bag and pulled out her Arc Wand from inside her robe. Nova took her Grand Cross.
"Why are you two readying your weapons?" asked Rein. "We haven't even entered the cave yet!"
"Shut up!" said Luna.
"Okay…okay…" said Rein, leading the way in.
Nova held Rein's arm tightly. Rein could felt that Nova's hand was shivering. "Relax, you could beat them" encouraged Rein. Unlike Nova, Omi, Kimiko, Raimundo and Clay couldn't wait to see what the undead monsters were like.
Payon Cave's Room 1 was where Zombies, Skeletons, Familiars and Poporings stayed. Nova hid behind Rein's back and Luna started walking backwards towards the room, trying not to see the undead monsters such as Zombies and Skeletons. They gathered only to beat the crazy bats called Familiars and green jelly-balls called Poporings.
"Nova! What do you think you're doing? Help Clay with those Zombies!" shouted Rein while he was struggling with a dozen of Zombies.
"But…" Nova tried to refuse.
"Come on, what are you waiting for?!" shouted Rein again.
"Heal!! Heal! Heal!" shouted Nova. 3 Zombies died because of that skill.
Clay shot the other Zombies with his Crimson Bolt. Raimundo use his double attack on a Skeleton. Kimiko casted 'Fire Wall' and the aggressive but foolish Zombies killed themselves by walking towards the Wall. Omi hit a Skeleton with his Chain. When all of the monsters that attacked them were gone, Rein shook his sword to clean it from the Zombies' green blood.
"Okay, let's go to Room 2." said Rein, putting his sword back into its scabbard.
"Nova, why is Rein so excited?" whispered Luna.
"He likes fighting monsters, I don't know why…" whispered Nova back.
"Okay, he's weird…" commented Luna.
"I am ready as always!" said Omi cheerfully.
They walked to the entrance of room two. But there were no Soldier Skeletons or Archer Skeletons in their way, so they just killed an Eggyra. They got a Pet Incubator and gave it to Luna because she had a Drops egg.
"I think we need to hunt in Room 3…" said Rein.
"Oh no…" said Nova quietly. They walked to room 3. It was exactly like Room 2, no monsters at all.
"Hey, where are all Bonguns, Munaks, Archer Skeletons and Soldier Skeletons?" asked Rein. Nova felt very relieved. She didn't need to see all those undead monsters anymore. However, Rein kept going. The others just followed him.
"Rein, where are we going?" asked Kimiko.
"Room 4, of course." said Rein
"WHAT!? NO!" screamed Nova and Luna together and their voices echoed through the whole cave. Suddenly, some male Chinese vampires called Bonguns gathered around them. Behind every Bongun was a female Chinese vampire called a Munak. The monsters circled them so they couldn't escape. The Bonguns and Munaks couldn't wait to drink their blood.
"No! Undead Monsters!!" screamed Luna and Nova. Nova felt her head spin and fell to the ground.
"Great, not now…" said Rein, exasperated. Rein carried Nova on his back, using one hand to support her. Now he had to fight with only one hand.
"Now what do we do?" asked Kimiko. They were all trying to protect each other.
"I'll clear the way, you guys get out of here." said Rein, readying his Claymore.
"I don't want to leave, I wanna help!" said Raimundo.
"No, you can't stay. What will King Tristan say if he knew that his warriors were dead?" insisted Rein.
"Raimundo, we have no choice. We must leave." said Omi.
"OK!! I'm going!" said Raimundo.
"Oh no… they're coming…" cried Kimiko. "What are we going to do?"
"Magnum Break!" shouted Rein.
A few hours later…
Nova opened her eyes. She realized that she was lying on a bed. Her head was still in pain.
"Hey, you're awake…" said someone beside her. She turned to see who had spoken to her and saw Rein sitting on a sofa next to her bed.
"Where are we?" asked Nova.
"Payon's Inn." said Rein promptly.
"Where are the others?" asked Nova.
"They're in the other room." replied Rein.
"What about Luna?" asked Nova again.
"She went back to her house near the inn." answered Rein. "Wow, that's strange. You're not asking 'What happened?' Instead, you're asking about the others."
"Fine. What happened, Rein Silvlet?" asked Nova sarcastically.
Rein just smiled a bit and said, "You fainted because we were surrounded by Bonguns and Munaks."
"I see…" said Nova. A bitter smile appeared on Nova's face.
"Something you didn't tell me?" asked Rein.
"I'm just afraid of undead monsters. That's all." said Nova still with her bitter smile.
Next door, Omi, Kimiko, Raimundo and Clay were sleeping in one room. Kimiko was still awake. She sat on a chair and saw the bright moon shining. She was shocked when a hand touched her shoulder. "Oh, it's you Rai," said Kimiko.
"Why aren't you asleep?" asked Raimundo.
"I was just wondering, how will we get out of this place and return to the temple?" asked Kimiko.
"We'll think about that later. This world needs our help and as Xiaolin Warriors we must help those in need." said Raimundo, sitting next to her.
"I wish I knew how the others are doing…" said Kimiko, laying her head on Raimundo's shoulder.
Raimundo looked up at the moon sadly. Kimiko knew that he was thinking about his family, Master Fung and Dojo too. Secretly, someone was eavesdropping on them behind the door.