Start Again

"There it is!"

A giant squid Outsider is in our front in the middle of the forest.

Base on reports, this huge Outsider just appears out of nowhere and starts attacking everything around it.

"Woah! That's a huge octopus.", Rick said.

"That's a squid."

"Let's take down that jellyfish!", Ernesta shouted.

"Ugh..."

This Outsider is so huge, it looks between twenty to twenty-five meters long.

The Outsider notices us.

"Oh no."

It leans upward using its mouth. After that, it spits some black ink towards us.

Even tho we're a hundred meters away from it, it reaches us.

"Dodge!"

All of us dodge it while Darius uses his barrier to block it.

"Ahh!!! My eyes!", Rick shouted.

"Dodge it you moron."

Rick wiped the black ink on his face and start complaining.

"Eww. Gross."

"Let's take down that one immediately."

"Okay! Let's kill that starfish!"

"It's not even a star shape!"

We run towards the Outsider.

The Outsider starts moving its tentacles towards us. One of them blocks my way.

I try to slice it with my sword but it didn't work.

"Huh?"

There's a blue line on its tentacles.

*That means I can't cut this?*

"Vinna, stop trying to cut those. Just climb to it instead.", Darius said while climbing on one of the tentacles.

I nodded to him and start climbing.

After I climb, I saw Greg slicing the tentacles into pieces, thanks to his amulet that attached to his katana.

Darius is already at the top of the tentacle and he starts running towards its head.

Some tentacles try to stop him but he uses his staff to smash them down.

He also uses his barrier to climb faster by casting it on his feet.

*Woah!*

Aside from him, there's also Ernesta who's climbing faster.

She's using her chain and creating some other metal to climb.

Lulu is with her who's being tied by Ernesta's chain.

Her eyes look like a dead fish.

I wish she's okay.

Barbara and Rick are on the same tentacle.

"Shoot them down! Hahaha!"

"I'm trying but this thing is so fast!"

Most of us are already close to the head.

*I have to move too.*

I run towards its head.

Thankfully there's no tentacle chasing me.

When we're are close to its head.

The Outsider shouted.

"Gyaaaa!!!"

"What the hell?"

The shout is too loud that makes us cover our ears.

After that, another two tentacles appear.

It's longer than the others.

"Ahhh guys, how many tentacles does a squid have?", I asked.

"Squid have eight arms and two tentacles. Those tentacles are longer than the arms."

"Wait! this thing that we're stepping in is its arms?"

"Who cares about that! Let's kill it already before it did something bad."

Before we can even make a move. The two tentacles start moving towards us.

It attacks Darius first.

Darius cast a barrier to himself to block the attack.

When the tentacles reach the barrier, they destroy immediately.

"What?!"

Thankfully Ernesta uses her chain to pull away Darius from the tentacles.

"That was close."

"It's so strong."

"Greg! We need your help."

Greg is still on the ground trying to cut some tentacles.

"It's pointless.", he said.

"What do you mean?"

"It regrows again immediately."

He cut one of the tentacles, after a few seconds, it regrows again completely.

"What the?"

"How can we even defeat this guy?"

"Let's aim to the head just like in the plan. Greg, follow us."

"Yes."

There are seven of us versus eight arms and two tentacles.

*This is not a fair fight.*

The arms of the squid start moving and attack us.

I try to block one of them but they were too strong.

They can even push me slightly whenever they attack me.

"This is hard."

"Let me help you with that."

"Huh?"

It's Barbara who's in the air.

She landed beside me.

She grabbed my hand and start running.

"Woah!"

She's so fast that my body can't keep up.

I almost trip so many times.

"There we go."

We already reach the head.

"Ha...haa... You don't have to do that!"

"Eh? But we won't reach the head if we didn't."

"I think you broke my arm."

"Hehe, my bad."

All of us are here now.

"Let's finish this."

But before even we can completely reach its head, the squid shakes itself.

"Woah!"

Most of us almost lost balance.

"What's going on?"

"I think it's trying to avoid getting killed."

After shaking its body, the squid lifts its head. After that, it pushes itself down while creating a black smoke that spread so fast.

"Dang it, I can't see a thing."

After that, it shakes its body again causing us to fall on the ground.

"Woah!"

"Ouch!"

"Ow, ow, ow."

Not just its shake its body but it moves in arms and tentacles anywhere now.

"This is getting serious."

"Okay, what should we do now?", I asked.

"If this thing hit us we're dead for sure."

"We need to attack in range.", Darius said.

"But how? Even with Rick's gun, it won't be enough to kill that thing."

When I look at the squid, I saw its eyes look at us.

"Guys... let's run."

"Eh?"

"What?"

When they notice that it's looking, all of us start running.

The squid uses its arms to attack us.

"Dodge, dodge, dodge!"

"We need a plan immediately or we're dead."

"Ernesta, do you have one?", Darius asked.

"Well... I have, but we're doing it right now."

"Wait! Running away is your plan?"

"Hehe."

The squid uses its tentacles to block our way.

"Oi, oi, oi! This is bad!"

"Greg."

"Got it."

Greg slice the tentacle into two.

We immediately pass through it before it regrows again.

I look at the squid behind. It's following us.

"Running away won't save us at all!"

One of the tentacles is coming from above.

"Wind!"

Darius cast a barrier on us.

"Then, Quicken."

The barrier spin so fast that makes the tentacle cut in half.

"Thanks for that."

"Don't worry, this barrier will stay to protect us."

I wonder how long we can run.

If we get exhausted, things are going to be bad but if we get passed through to some village, that would make it worst.

"Huh?"

Speaking of village, there's actually one.

"We have to stop this thing!"

"But how?"

"Let me try this one. Instant creation!"

Ernesta created shard metals below the giant squid.

The squid stop moving after that.

"Woah, it works Ernesta!"

"Hehe! No one can beat me."

After a few seconds, the squid was able to move again.

"No one can beat you huh."

"Geh!"

The squid is getting closer and closer to us.

"That guy is definitely cheating."

"I'll try to stop this. Wind: Expand then Quicken!"

Darius casts a barrier and expands it which blocks the Outsider's way.

The Outsider couldn't destroy the barrier immediately since it's slicing its tentacles and arms.

"It works!"

"Yeah, but only for a short time. We have to eliminate this thing immediately before it destroys my barrier."

The giant Outsider tries to destroy the barrier by smashing its tentacles and arms. Since it regrows again immediately, it does it repeatedly.

"How about we call some help from commander or A-2?", Rick suggested.

"It's impossible right now, the barrier might get destroyed before we can don't that."

"Ahhh jeez! I'm pissed off right now!"

"Ah... Ernesta."

"Let's try this. Instant Creation! Iron maiden!"

"Wait! Did she say iron maiden?"

The ground shakes for some reason.

"Woah!"

"What's going on."

"Ernesta! What did you do?"

"I'm just using fifty percent of my skill!"

"What do you mean by that!"

Something appeared from the ground.

A giant iron maiden appears.

"What the..."

It's bigger than this giant squid.

"Aha! Now, get that son of a bit-"

"Oi!"

"I mean, that Outsider!"

The huge iron maiden opens using the sharp huge spikes inside it.

There are so many chains that appear from the inside and are wrapped out to the squid's body.

The chain pulls the squid toward inside the iron maiden.

The Outsider try to escape but it couldn't.

"Wuahahaha! Taste my power, you giant idiot!", she said after laughing like a villain.

"We're not on the villain side...right?"

"I guess she's a villain that mistakenly places on our side."

The giant squid gets pulled inside. After that, the door closes.

The iron maiden shakes so much because the squid tries to escape.

Some giant swords appear on the ground. It pointed towards the iron maiden and then thrust to it.

After a few seconds, the shaking stops.

"Is it dead?"

"I don't think it would survive."

"Aha! Now you know who's the boss!"

"Is she still doing that?"

"Oi, stop it already."

"Shut up blondie! Know who's your boss!"

"Stop calling me that! And you're not my boss!"

"Ahhh, we're safe."

"Yeah."

It's been a month since Hiro quit.

*I wonder how's Hiro right now.*

After that, we came first to the near village and explain what happen for them not to be afraid before we went back to HQ.

"Ho! I'm pretty tired right now because of that mission."

"Same."

"Let's eat already then sleep."

"I don't like sleeping in the middle of the day."

"Ehhh..."

"Welcome back."

Commander appears from the kitchen.

She's wearing an apron while in her uniform.

Not gonna lie but she's so cute.

"How's the mission?", she asked.

"Aha! I defeated that squid!"

"I see."

"Just how times you're gonna say 'Aha' today?"

"You must be hungry, let's eat."

We sit at the table and commander place the food one by one.

Commander sits on the chair. Before we start eating, commander announced something.

"There's one person who will join us."

"New person? A visitor?"

"No, a new member. Well, I can't say new since he already become our member in the past. We can say that this is a comeback."

*No way. It can't be! Hir-!*

"Leo."

Leo walks towards us.

He's wearing the same uniform as us.

"Leo..."

"Yeah, sorry if I'm absent for many days. Could you still accept me?"

"Of course!", Ernesta shouted.

"Come here, buddy! Let's drink after this!"

"Ahh...who's that?", Barbara asked.

"He's one of the Polos warriors that help us before you came. Although all of them died except him."

"I see..."

That night, we have a party to celebrate Leo's coming back.

"Hey, how are you?", I asked.

The two of us talking from the outside sitting in front of the door.

"Well, I can't say I'm perfectly alright but I guess I'm okay right now."

"I see..."

"How about you."

"Well... I don't know."

"I heard from commander about Hiro."

"I see... is that the reason why you came back?"

"Of course not. I'm just...no strength to come back. I just gain some courage when I heard about that. Although, I don't blame Hiro for what happened. I know he's just trying to protect me."

"Yeah."

"I wonder how's Hiro right now?"

"Who knows."

"Want to search for him?"

"Well, I wanted to do that for one month. But Ernesta advice to let him be and wait for him to come back."

"I can't believe you can still wait from now."

"You're wrong, I really miss him."

To be honest, I actually sneak outside and try to find Hiro sometimes.

"I see..."

"Hey, you two! What are you doing there? The drinks are going to get warm!", Rick calls us.

"Eh? Why not just put some ice on it?"

"Just come here already!"

"Got it! We're coming!"

"I hear you two talking about Hiro.", Ernesta said waiting at the door.

"Yeah."

"I see... don't worry. We can start again without him while waiting for him."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Leaning my back on the wall.

I saw our new member and Cerex walking together.

Cerex stops and the girl is about to go outside.

"Hey, where are you going?", I asked.

"She's doing things that I order. A mission!", Cerex answered.

"I'm going too."

"Hm? How kind of you. Isn't great? Your comrade is worried about you."

"Yeah!"

"Shut up!"

I walk first outside then turn around.

"Let's go...Alicia."