In a flash, the leader burst into action, and revealed a long staff from his robes, and struck the ground around the entrance with a wave of magic. Stones rose up swiftly around the only gateway rendering all inside trapped. A Terramancer, of course… But they could beat him with ease right? There were so many of them.

The terramancer did not enter the rock dome. It became clear he wasn't what they were up against. He was just here to reap the spoils. No wonder he didn't need to select his own rewards from the monsters they fought before coming here, he planned to pick the very same collected valuables off here after the warriors were slain. Hinata sighed. He knew this wasn't a good idea from the start.

The water in the deeper trenched areas stirred and simmered. Something was coming, and the group was entirely ready for it. They weren't going down this easily.

A slick, filmy serpentine head broke the water's surface, and boy was it huge. It's pale yellow eyes blinked while it stirred, before tearing the bitter silence to shreds with an all-consuming roar barreling deep from it's belly. A tin fin made it's way down it's long dark grey neck, connecting to a reptilian torso that was lugged out of the warm water onto the shallower area of the pond by hulking clawed legs. It appeared similar to a aquatic brontosaurus, and a starved one at that.

Everyone sprung into action. Battle cries rang in the air, challenging the waterborne creature's own roars. It's slimy reptilian flesh certainly was going to prove a challenge to break through, but what other choice did they have but to fight?

Hinata gripped his dull blade, gathered whatever courage dwelled within him, and charged full speed. Komaeda frantically ran to put distance between himself and the colossal monster, figeting and scrambling to load his bow. Warriors by the dozens were simply crushed by four massive legs, swiped and sent flying against the stone walls surrounding the battlefield, or whisked away by a towering swish of a tail. This water creature was huge! Hinata had to stay alert to avoid all its enormous limbs' attacks.

The creature bellowed in seething anger as it's skin was broken by blade, by all the successful fighters. As for the unsuccessful ones, hunks of flesh already floated in the shallow pool, turning sections of the water an unsettling crimson. Hinata shuddered.

Nanami was mostly rendered useless herself, her fire magic barely able to even scrape a water-dwelling beast that's already soaked. However, she was able to conjure several explosions that knocked the beast to the side, throwing it off guard and enabling the melee fighters below to obtain extra chances at shots. An array of archers and other ranged-weapon users, including Komaeda, lined the outside of the battlefield, weapons ready and firing regularly and easily. The arrows broke skin slightly, and caused the beast to bleed, but didn't reach far deep into it's flesh, so only resulted in minimal damage to the monstrosity. The same applied to all swings and blows with melee weapons. Could they slay this thing?

Their population dwindled and dropped regularly as more and more of them were crushed, drowned or smashed into stone. Despite minor punctures of arrows and blades, the creature was barely hurt. More swamp green blood seeped from it's already present wounds, and Hinata seemed to notice a gaseous form seeping from the cuts.

"Get away, be careful!" Nanami shouted towards Hinata. "It has poisonous blood, don't breathe it in!" Hinata glanced around, seeing fighters in the thick of the gas dropping suddenly, and twitching strangely. Great, more things to make the fight even more dangerous. He rolled away from the already present wounds, hoping to avoid the deadly blood.

But Hinata didn't notice he rolled directly to the side of the astoundingly tremendous being, right in the line of it's swinging tail. Hinata was bashed to the side, and smashed into the ground.

He panicked. His head was underwater, and he was unable to breathe, but he felt as though his ribs were cracked, and he couldn't move or a lightning flash of extreme overwhelming agony zapped through his system like electricity. Was he doomed to drown? Wait, he remembered his health potions! Thank all things good and glorious they went and bought them. With every ounce of effort he had left in his system, he braced for the pain and forced his head over the surface, popped the cork and chugged the red liquid down into his body. He gasped. Immediately, the pain was smoothened over. It was a small potion, so it didn't entirely fix everything, but he could now stand, and therefore avoid drowning to death, which to be fair is all he really cared about doing right now.

"Hinata-kun, give me your sword… please." Nanami wa standing over him. He was reluctant, but he couldn't fight in this condition, so she would do better with it. "Do you have a plan or something?" He asked, forking over the blade.

"Yeah… I think." She turned to the beast, with it's attention turned to the warriors slashing at it's legs. "Thank you…" She turned, and ran back into the fray. He could only watch for now, and by god did he hope she was going to be successful in whatever sort of strange plan she had conjured.

Nanami made haste, heading straight for the archers, who were running startlingly low on arrows. "I have a plan everyone… but… I need you all to keep its attention away from the people around it.

The person leading the archers shrugged. "It's likely our only hope now." She thanked him as he gave new orders to shoot as firmly as possible, to make the archers seem like the main threat. As she made her way around the gargantuan being, it looked as though it worked. Tons of hoes were punctured in the beast's skin from the ongoing arrow storm above, and it seemed to notice.

Its olive blood seeped from the wounds, fizzing into it's deadly gas form, as the furious beast headed towards the ranged weapon uses. With attention away from the ground units, it stopped moving it's massive crushing tail, and thus Nanami approached it.

The beast bent its long snakelike neck, singular long fin rifling in the wind, and striked forward, biting down on a handful of archers, and swallowing them whole, still alive and screaming in horror. Nanami closed her eyes, and silently thanked them for their sacrifice. Then, without further hesitation, grabbed onto the beast's tail. It was tough to grip due to it being film-like and wet, but smooth scales were present, and possible to grip tightly. Being tough scales as well, the creature didn't seem to notice her intrusion on it's tail, and commenced taking out the rows of people before it.

She made her way swiftly up it's tail and along it's back, which is when it did in fact notice her. It tried to shake her off, which she responded to by casting an explosion on it's back, making it bellow loudly.

"No shaking, no explosions… deal?" She muttered, concentrating on staying on the creature's surface. Finally, she reached it's neck, where it's skin seemed significantly more soft and tender than it's scaled locations. She heated up Hinata's blade with fire, and prepared herself.

At the same time, The beast striked forward yet again, this nab containing Komaeda as well. His side was easily punctured by a fang like a hot knife through butter, and he cried out, while the beast prepared to swallow the victims in it's mouth. Komaeda began to slide down its gullet.

At that, Nanami hesitated no more, and swung with all the might she could muster to sever the being's neck. A shattering roar exploded through the air, and everyone shuddered and cringed, covering their ears, and… then silence. The head was cut clean off, and Nanami stepped back, avoiding the shower of poisonous blood seeping from the huge fatal wound. She leapt from the body, which crashed down making a humongous splash. All the survivors cheered in success and victory.

They would live! Hinata was astounded. Komaeda and a few other almost-to-be victims crawled out of the massive corpse's gaping maw. Nanami ran over and revealed some bandages from her satchel, and began wrapping up Komaeda's side wound from the huge bestial fangs. Each and every one of them would survive another day! Now, they simply needed a way out of here.

Hinata turned to the Terramancer, who would surely be running for his life. But he wasn't, nor was he even afraid or impressed. He still had… a cocky grin on his face. Wha…?

The decapitated beast seemed to start bleeding more and more. Toxic blood spewed in great amounts into the water. The flesh in the wound seemed to… move. It shuffled and squirmed. Hinata gasped in absolute horror and shock at the sight, as they emerged. Three more heads ruffled fresh out of the severed neck stump, coated in poison blood and dripping everywhere, All three roared again triumphantly, announcing that the battle was not over.

"This beast… is actually a hydra…" Nanami spoke in a blend of pure awe and terror.

This was not good.

Nanami grabbed Komaeda, as he was surprisingly light, and made haste across the field to Hinata. "We can't fight this… it's only stronger now, and there's so little of us left… I think." Nanami was completely right. This was outrageous. A hydra, of all things?

With very little left to devour, the hydra turned it's attention to the gathered group of 3, while its other heads bit and chomped down on anyone else nearby it.

"We need to get out of here… and now." Hinata downed his other health vial, while Komaeda did the same with one of his, his wound slightly closing, and bleeding no more.

"Mmm. Can you two move…?" Nanami asked with a tinge of urgency in her voice, as she watched the approaching beast.

"Yeah, I think I can run now…" Hinata commented, twisting his torso as if to test his condition. "I may be fine as well." Komaeda poked tentatively at the bloody rags on his side.

Nanami huffed impatiently. The hydra was approaching, as it's other heads were no longer holding back it's movements. "I don't want to risk it… I think." She closed her eyes softly, and summoned a small wisp of a flame of magic, and it headed towards Hinata and Komaeda. "Whoa, hey, what are you doing?" Wondered Hinata cautiously, thinking he was about to be burned.

"It's… not fire magic. I know a simple healing spell too… probably. I'd be a terrible traveling mage if I didn't have at least one..." She focused, and the bright flames twisted around them, bringing a feeling of relief and freedom from pain. Nanami sighed, exhausted, reached into a satchel swiftly, and revealed a larger potion that was a deep azure blue, popped the cap and drank deeply.

Hinata guessed it would restore her magical energy. She was probably getting low on magical power after all this.

"It's approaching, what should we do?!" Hinata warned his teammates. At that, Nanami spun around, pink threads of curled hair bobbing around, and launched another explosion, which didn't altogether harm the hydra, but certainly threw it off balance and slowed it down. That, and made it angrier.

"I have just enough magic… I think…" Nanami began preparing another spell immediately. This one looked like it needed time to charge up, however.

"Please… you two, distract it…" She handed over Hinata's blade back it's owner, and Komaeda prepared an arrow.

"I don't think you can do anything, Hinata-kun", Komaeda sighed, "The poisonous gas is completely forming a layer around the pond nearby it, you couldn't possibly get near it and survive.

Hinata grit his teeth. Was he really so useless in this situation? The arrows flew, stabbing deep into the hydra's new necks, causing more vile fluid to seep out. However, not deep enough to do any real damage. The hydra snapped and bit, attempting to bite down on the arrows as they came. This would slow it down for a bit, with hope. The thing roared with anger, and once again it's massive claws moved, and dragged the beast closer to the trio. They were running low on time.

Hinata turned to Nanami, who had swift embers weave around her arms, pouring like soup into an orb of energy. What was she going to do, when the hydra barely took any damage or distraction from the explosions previously released?

Time was ticking. There was only so much Komaeda could do alone to distract such a huge beast. Besides, it was swift to realize where the threat originated from, and was closing in on him.

"I… I'm ready. Get Komaeda over here too, Hinata-kun… and hurry." Nanami whispered, struggling to contain the flaming energy ball.

"Ah! You both don't need to save me, I'd gladly die if you two get to escape-" Hinata grabbed Komaeda's arm, blocking out his objections.

"What now, Nanami?" hinata shouted over the hydra's roar. It was only a few meters from them now.

"Grab onto me… I think." Especially now, why can't she be more sure of her answers?

Hinata gingerly took of her arm, unsure of the action as it was a little awkward. He didn't exactly go around grabbing people's limbs normally. It was a little weird.

"You're… going to want to hold on stronger than that." With that, Hinata took her word for it. and held as if his life depended on it. And in a situation like this one, it wasn't an exaggeration to say it probably did.

The hydra was definitely within range now. It's heads reeled back to strike. If they lingered for much longer, they'd be devoured in seconds.

"Uhh… Nanami? Can you do whatever you're doing soon, plea-"

BOOM

The orb of energy ignited, and a wave of exhausting heat overtook the three of them. Nanami tossed the orb to the floor, and it burst in a massive explosion creating a huge splash in the water, and thus launching the three people in the center of the combustion. Hinata coughed and choked on the smoke, before he realized the three of them were airborne, and panicked before realizing they had been successfully launched over the stone walls. "We… we did it!" He cheered, before he saw the rapidly approaching forest floor.

SLAM. Hinata landed on his side at an awkward angle, while Komaeda somehow landed luckily in a soft bush. Hinata scowled at his luck, and glanced around for Nanami.

PLOP. An object from the sky slammed into Hinata, knocking him back down. Said object laughed lightly a tad, and got up. "Sorry, Hinata-kun."

"Ughhh. There you are, Nanami…" He groaned. Not that it mattered, they had escaped, after all. Perhaps they would live another day after all.

Hinata stood, and brushed dirt and several small sticks off of himself, as the others got up behind him.

"Darn… I was looking forward to that terramancer's payout… I think." Nanami sighed, wearing an expression of disappointment.

"There's not much we can do about that, though, unless you want to go back and find him." Hinata shrugged. It wasn't likely they would find the mage that had tricked them. Who knows where he could be? In fact, Hinata wondered… where were they now, in the first place? He shivered.

"Uh… anyone have any clue how to get out of this forest…?" Sadly, Hinata was responded with pessimistic frowns and head shakes. Great.

"I guess… we'll just walk, and see where we end up…" Nanami's plan wasn't exactly solid, but what choice did they have? Komaeda looked stern. "We had best be careful, too, Hinata-kun. We could easily come across another troll, and this time with just the three of us, we might not be so successful. And also, I won't be of much more use for now on in fighting, since I'm running out of arrows… not that I wasn't useless to begin with! Ahaha!" Komaeda giggled, taking strange enjoyment in putting himself down.

Nanami tilted her head to the side. "But Komaeda-kun, what makes you say that? You've been a decent archer so far, and you've helped out a lot… probably." She yawned sleepily.

Hinata scowled. "Just ignore him, he always does that. But she's right, you know, Komaeda. You were a great help."

Komaeda looked to the ground. "If Hinata-kun says so."

Hinata rolled his eyes. "Hinata-kun does say so. Now grab your bow and remaining arrows, we have to get moving, alright?."

Komaeda nodded, and started walking with the other two. They had no clue as of where they were going, but they weren't about to get back to town by just standing here. Maybe if they're lucky they'd stumble upon the road, or some form of familiar landmark. Yet as they marched on, Hinata found himself unable to shake off a feeling weighing down on him as he carried on through the dense woods.

Nanami was the first to notice. "Ah… Hinata-kun, is something the matter? You seem… fidgety." Hinata sighed and came clean. "Yeah… it's just, that terramancer who lead us here, how dare he kill all those people without any care? Exploiting such a huge crowd just for their belongings like that, costing them their lives… it's just wrong, in every way possible."

Nanami nodded slowly, understandingly. "I know how you feel… I think. But logically, is there anything we can do about it? He's likely long gone… or in the pit gathering up valuables. He likely has some way to control the hydra so he doesn't get devoured himself… and we were lucky enough to escape, so it would be a bad idea to waste that luck and tempt fate again…"

Hinata sighed in a frustrated manner, but he knew she was right. There really wasn't much he could do like this. "It just… if it wasn't for you in the last second Nanami… when you severed the first head… I would have lost my best friend, you know."

Komaeda turned with a sudden look of surprise. "Best… friend?"

Hinata scratched the back of his head idly. "Well, that's kind of what we are, isn't it, Komaeda? We're teammates out here now, right?"

The white haired boy looked to the ground gingerly, looking awfully confused, yet with a sly smile he couldn't hide. "I never had a best friend before, Hinata-kun… and you surely deserve a better one than garbage like me…"

Hinata laughed. "Of course not, Komaeda. You're a better friend than anyone I've been around."

Komaeda looked hesitant. "Then… is it acceptable if I call you my best friend as well, Hinata-kun…?"

Hinata punched him softly on the shoulder playfully. "Of course, silly, that's what it means. We're the best team, trust me."

The pink-haired girl smiled at the two happily, as if enjoying watching the formed friendship between the pair. She laughed lightly as well. "The two of you certainly work well together… probably… I wish I could have friends like you two are to each other."

Komaeda grinned optimistically in response. "Well there's no issue with you joining our party, Nanami-san! That is, if Hinata-kun is alright with it."

She stepped back, looking startled. "Eh…? Permanently?"

At that, Hinata got flustered. "Well- it's fine if you don't want to of course-! It's just you said you didn't have any other goals, right-? Your magic skills would definitely be an asset to us. It's… it's just an offer…"

The pyromancer smiled, all look of shock from her face dissolving. "If you'll take me on your side… I'd love to… thank you, you two." She grinned kindly, looking proud to be a part of the group.

Hinata returned the smile. He was glad to have Nanami along with them on their quest. He brought his attention back to where they were walking, and to be quite honest, it didn't look any different from where they started. Due to the dense leaf coverage, Hinata couldn't tell if the sun was setting or not. He assumed it was getting late.

The forest only got darker as they proceeded, and once again, Nanami needed to conjure a levitating flame to lead them and light the path before the group. "I don't know… I think we're not going to get out before nightfall, Hinata-kun." Komaeda commented disdainfully, observing the sky in a rare hole in the thick canopy.

"Then we'd best find a place to set up camp…" Nanami yawned. For the past few hours of walking Hinata could have sworn she was sleepwalking.

They discovered a slight clearing in the large amount of trees, and decided upon settlement. Hinata bore his sword and sought out for firewood while the other two prepared the area for their overnight stay.

Nanami glanced up from creating a makeshift fireplace to see Hinata not only bearing firewood, but the body of a young boar. The sword-wielding brunette wore a confident grin on his face. "I found us dinner."

When the sticks were arranged, Nanami easily ignited a campfire, and Komaeda prepared some sort of spit to roast the boar meat on. It was tough and thick meat, and definitely a challenge to roast, but when it was done, all three ate heartily, especially after the battle with the hydra. Exhausted was an understatement for them.

"We wouldn't be alive now if it wasn't for you, Nanami-san." Komaeda grinned happily, and Nanami smiled modestly. "I believe… we all had a fair share of success. We needed all of our efforts… at least, that's what I think…" Hinata looked pleased at his new team member. Nanami wasn't a bad addition. Besides, it was a nice break from all the "I'm completely useless garbage" and "whatever Hinata-kun wants" sort of bullcrap he got delivered directly from Komaeda all the time.

"I guess so, after all- ooh!" Komaeda stumbled, tripping over a rock and falling quickly towards the roaring flame.

"Watch out, Komaeda!" Hinata burst into action, and shoved his friend out of the way, onto the dirt and away from scorching doom.

"Thank you, Hinata-kun, I- Ah, oh no!" Komaeda may have escaped falling into the flames, but his bow didn't. The dry white wood lit up like a christmas tree, and crumbled into ash before there was any hope of retrieving and saving the weapon. Komaeda and Hinata sighed collectively. Looks like they would be buying him yet another replacement bow when they got out of here.

Komaeda for one seemed almost not surprised, even. "That would be my luck… heheh…" he chuckled quietly. Hinata didn't quite understand the statement, but ignored it. He must've had a history of bad luck or something. It was more or less understandable, due to their adventures so far, but Hinata didn't really believe in luck, personally. He shrugged it off.

"It seemed... you seemed pretty fond of that bow" Nanami observed.

"Of course, Hinata-kun bought it for me... there's no way I could have gotten that myself. I really don't deserve such kindness...!" Komaeda laughed carefreely, while Hinata rolled his eyes and sighed. "Komaeda, we've already gone over this..."

The flame flickered and diminished slowly, until only a hazy thread of smoke lingered in the cool forest air. Nanami bore a small cinder to light the area while the group prepared to settle down for the night.

"Wait, so where are we sleeping?" Hinata inquired, puzzled. Komaeda grinned playfully at him and grabbed for a tree branch, hoisting himself upwards. Hinata narrowed his eyes in disdain. "Not in trees again..."

Much to Hinata's reluctance and whining (and there *was* a lot of whining) it appeared there was no better alternative. With woods like these it was far too dangerous to sleep on the ground after all. Especially in troll season. The hydra was enough excitement for one day. After a few additional grumbles, Hinata scampered up a tree that looked at least slightly comfortable, and while the final cinders of the flame died down, he fell asleep.