"I might have bad luck," Lancelot muttered, fingertips pressed against his forehead.
"Forgive me, but I don't play with monkeys," he added.
The figure completely stood still. Lancelot stared deeply, the heavy quiet stretched between them, filling entire woods with an oppressive silence.
Although the figure didn't appear harmless from its appearance, Lancelot was no fool.
I don't know what this thing wants, but I won't let him attack me at any cost.
With that thought, from the left fist, Lancelot materialized his katana and gripped it firmly.
"Are you a deformed animal? An evolution perhaps?" Lancelot raised his katana towards the creature. "I do not feel fear at all."
The two of them stood, waiting to see who would move first, yet there was neither action nor response. A minute passed, and the creature left, walking away from the vicinity, slowly vanishing as it walked back to the forest.
What is that creatu—Nevermind. I should have expected this.
Lancelot moves forward into the dark and wide forest, each step screaming for a wild adventure.
...
In the near yet far forest, twenty-six students were tied up to each big trunk of trees. A heavy fog clouded Luxe's mind as he slowly woke up. His eyelids are heavy like lead, weighed down by the massive feast from the night before. As the grogginess cleared, a harsh reality came soon. He tried to rub his eyes, but he was strained by a coarse, rough rope that bit, tied around his arms and the trunk of a tree. He shakes his head, trying to clear something.
He looked far away, his eyes sizing down, trying to capture what was happening in front of him, and after a few seconds he saw eight figures wearing black robes, arms raised above their heads as if trying to call something. Luxe's eyes shifted position, looking down on the ground, and mildly saw white chalk written on it. The eight figures with their black robes started talking like phrases that were hard to understand, but to Luxe...
Are they singing?
Luxe felt fear. Is it because he never encountered anything like this? Or is it because it's odd? Neither is. It is simply just...
"Horrifying," he said as a cold shiver ran down his spine.
I want to escape, but then again I can't leave them here. What should I do?
Countless strategies flooded his mind, imagining the possibilities and endings, but in those countless scenarios he had imagined, none of them survived.
If I can't survive even in this imaginary scenario, then what could possibly be the chance of me surviving in real time?
An hour passed and he fell asleep. Then he woke up alongside the twenty-five students who were tied up to a loud screeching sound, a sound that he and others were unfamiliar with. He and the students stared; there they all saw a creature, a creature that was out of this place. All of them concluded the same thing, and it was...
A raccoon dog.
All of them were interrupted as the eight black-robed figures walked up to them, and as one moved much closer, the figure positioned himself in the center, symbolizing that it is the leader.
The figure in the center pulled down his hood, and the twenty-five students were shocked, but with the sole exception of Luxe, it was none other than Mr. Julio.
"What a fine day it is to be alive, and most importantly to you, Luxe," Julio said as a sarcastic remark.
"I never thought you would be this bad," Luxe said and let out a soft chuckle. "What is that creature?"
"Oh, that creature? That is what we call a mythure, a mythical creature that came from a different era and mythology, but the exciting part about this is that we can summon it."
"Why would you do it? What would you gain from it?" Luxe asked.
"We don't want anyone to suffer, most importantly outsiders. The only reason why we do this is to protect our village. We must give it what it needs, and we won't be eaten."
"How long has this started?"
"Quite long, I would say, even before the Dreamers imparted their traditions and history to us." Julio let out a sigh. "Well, that was fun; good luck."
Luxe went silent; a short thought came across his mind.
Although it has been a short time since I got here, it was fun, but I can't seem to accept just dying to a raccoon dog.
All the students closed their eyes, waiting for the final moment as the raccoon dog slowly walks up to them and ends their lives.
A second, minute passed by the raccoon dog, finally in front of its first target. Luxe opened his eyes, and there he saw the raccoon staring deeply at his face.
The raccoon dog raises its arm, and sharp claws emerge, but before the raccoon dog scratches Luxe's face, a katana pierces through the neck, and the raccoon dog slowly backs off.
He and the students turned and saw Lancelot, who wore a gray cotton coat, thick brown pants, and black boots.
"You came back!!" Luxe excitedly said.
"Not really... I was just passing by," Lancelot said, raising his left arm frontward with an open hand, and the katana that was pierced to the raccoon dog's neck came back to Lancelot.
"Untie me now," Luxe asked, shaking his body.
"Sure, sure." Lancelot cuts the rope with his katana, untying Luxe.
"What creature is that?" Lancelot questioned.
"They said that it is a Mythure whereas it is a creature from a different era and mythology, and they can summon it as well."
"What a name," Lancelot said.
The creature stood up, the claws emerged once again, the fang grows and the tail wags.
"What do you think about what era this creature is?" Luxe questioned.
"Japan."