Chapter 35

*Drip, drip, drip*

*Drep, drep, drep*

*DRAP, DRAP, DRAP*

Diane's hear something got close, and her expression turned solemn. She quickly picked up the little bunny and entered the metal door. Magic Circle appears from Diane's staff as she used her magic to shut down the metal door tight. Davida and Duncan were startled. They watched Diane breathe a sigh of relief as a massive amount of sweat dripped from her face.

"What happened, Di?" Duncan concernedly asked. As soon as Duncan spoke, a loud boom reverberated inside the room. The large metal door was shaking while Diane's expression turned pale. "What the hell was that!?" Duncan blustered as he readied himself, gripping his sword tightly.

*Boom*

The metal gate budges a little as Diane moan in pain. Davida rushes out to Diane's side. She immediately raised her staff as she supported Diane's barrier. "Thanks, young miss", Diane's expressed her gratitude while Davida nodded. The door banged for over 2 minutes before it stopped. "Is it gone?" Diane asked, her voice low and her arms trembling. "I think so", Duncan replied doubtfully. Both Diane and Davida hold their barrier for a few seconds, and once they're sure the one banging the door has left, they let go of their magic and slump to the floor.

"Fuck me!" Davida cursed, "What the hell was that, Di?" Taken back by her young miss language, Diane forgot to answer for a moment. She looked at Davida's glared before remembering to answer her young miss question, "I don't know. I was playing with the little guy over here when I suddenly hear something fast approaching us" Diane shivers, "But thankfully…." Diane's lips smile wide, putting her hands at her hips, "Thanks to my, Diane Treeborn quick reflexes, we've got away scot-free!" she proudly said. The little bunny saw Diane's cocky pose and cutely copying her.

Duncan sighed while Davida's eyes rolled. "Do you know what creature that was?" Duncan asked. "No idea… But there are a few things that can make me trembled like that. One of them was spiders, and now that guy will be added to the list", informed Diane. Duncan rubbed his chin for a second, contemplating the situation. "This is serious", Duncan said, his face grim, "Diane's senses rarely wrong, except for spiders; her sense of danger was often spot on."

Davida nodded, "If it so, we might face another tough battle. It would be best for us to avoid that thing", she advised. All three of them nodded, "Yeah, we need to conserve our strength", Duncan added. "I agree. We don't know how long we'll be in this castle. Avoiding confrontations seemed to be our best move this time." Davida affirmed. "But how though? Is there an exit in this room?" Diane touch her lip with her finger, "Is there isn't? Doesn't that mean we eventually need to go back out?"

The room atmosphere became gloomy after Diane spoke. "What? So, there are none?" Diane asked with an innocent smile. For some reason, Davida gets a little pissed at Diane's face. "Ouch!" reeling from the pain of Davida's chop, Diane looked at her young miss with teary eyes, "What was that for, young miss?" Davida ignored Diane. She instead turned at Duncan, her eyes plead for a solution. Duncan smiled wryly, "I'm afraid I can't think anything for the moment, young miss. We don't have enough information about the creature outside, so coming with a concrete plan will be hard."

"Hmm", Davida pinch her forehead with her finger, pondering deeply, searching for a feasible plan. The dark room got quiet again. Then, a flash of inspiration hit Diane's head. "How about we face the creature head-on?" she suggested. Duncan shook his head, "If we did so, it would not be an act of conserving our strength. It will drain us of it instead. Besides, according to you, the creature outside gave you a bad feeling, and every time we encounter such things, either we ran away, or we'll be beaten severely."

"I know, but that's not exactly what I meant", Diane pouted. Davida's perked up, "What do you mean then?" she opened her eyes and used them to look at Diane intensely. "We don't have any information on the creature outside, right? We don't even know how it looks. So, how about we face it directly, gathering every kind of information we can. After, we would run away and recollect ourselves back in this room. At least with the metal door barring its path, we can be somewhat safe in this room." Diane gave her explanation. She added, "Although I do not like this room, this is all we've got. So, how about it?"

Davida and Duncan's eyes brighten up after hearing Diane's suggestion. Duncan nodded, "Yes, we can do that. While we're gathering information about the creature outside, we could also observe our surroundings for an exit point."

"Before we go out, though, we need to think about how we should approach this. To gather as much information about the creature, we need to create different kinds of scenarios and observe the creature outside on what it would do in those specific scenarios. Only then we could form a solid and concrete plan", Davida stressed.

"We also needed to strengthen this metal door. If we go out to collect data on that thing, we could run into a bad scenario where young miss's mana and Diane's mana were depleted. If that happens, at least we can count on the metal door to block a few of its attacks", Duncan added.

All three of them nodded at each other before beginning to seriously construct their plan and scenarios. The little bunny just sat in the corner, observing them with its big, cute eyes.

===

"Hooh…." The demon king stroke his chin, "I'm impressed. People these days are much brighter than back then. Not only their coordination is excellent, but they also used their brain too." I raised my eyebrow at his remark. Seeing my expression, the demon king scoffed. "Imagine being in a party with people who has no brains, who don't use their head. In a party with people who only knew how to use simple plans and rushed headlong into everyone and everything", he shook his head in exasperation.

"Look!" the demon king pointed at the screen, "Your friends are about to take action. Aren't you worried for your friends?" My forehead twitched. He was clearly doing this on purpose. I stubbornly closed my eyes but couldn't resist my mouth from moving, "I believe in them." The demon king clicked his tongue in annoyance, "What a boring kid", he said quietly.

===

"Young miss, over here!" Duncan extended his hand downwards. He saw his young miss, Davida La Palapa, was being chased by a giant lizard-like creature. This creature only had lizard shaped body. Its head was that of a lion, while its tail was that of a snake. The lion head had a single horn attached to its forehead, while its lizard-like body had fur covering them. Davida jumped with all her might, barely reaching Duncan's hand.

The creature rushes past Davida before crashing at the wall. It struggled to get up, but when it did, it continued to pursue Davida. If other people were here, they would've noticed that the creature will chase at either Davida or Diane but never Duncan. So, the whole time, Duncan acts as their safety bridge because he can hide himself from the creature. This is an advantage to Duncan, of course, as he was the best at observing something due to his job requirements.

Using those advantages, Duncan began noting everything that the creature do according to their scenarios. He etched it into his mind on how the creature move, how it attacks, how it defended, how it jumped, etc. Duncan made sure that no amount of information escape his eyes as he observes from the sideline. He also did not forget to look at the outline of the prison and a potential exit point.

"Final Scenario!" Davida shouted. Duncan nodded, positioning himself better while a magic circle appears below Diane's feet. An array of vines emerged from the magic circle. The vines formed a protective shield around Diane's body, surrounding her like an egg. Just as the vines were about to wrap Diane completely, Davida launched a giant fireball towards the creature's path, toppling it down. She then quickly and swiftly ran into Diane.

The vines wrap them both, covering them completely. Inside the egg, Davida and Diane did not move at all. They circulate their breath as to breathe more slowly. Outside the egg, Duncan stealthily moves, hiding behind a rubble created from an earlier fight. Although the creature couldn't sense him so far, he was not going to take chances. After a few seconds, Duncan peeked through the corner of the rubble. The creature got confused, then it rampaged for a minute before jumping to the ceiling. It moved away, somehow turning invisible.

Duncan slowly moved towards the metal gate. He took out a pin from his pocket, pressing it between his right thumb and right index finger. Inside the egg, Davida's pendant and Diane's bracelet glowed. This was a way to send a distress signal between the three of them. Diane released her magic, and alongside Davida, they move slowly towards Duncan while circulating their breath carefully.

Without hesitation, Diane closed the metal door quickly but quietly using her magic vines. Davida lights up her magic flashlight inside the dark laboratory, gathering Duncan and Diane into a circle. "So, what do you all got?"