“I knew something was off with these pillars.” Leonardo added.

  Ari moved Leonardo aside, “Are these Holy Trident coming for us? They used a voice command.” Ari stepped further forward retracting his shoulders and inhaling. “Hey guys! We’re going to come back home soon! We need to help our new friend find her friend. We promise we’ll be back!”

  “Ari! Stay close! Any nitwit that breathes can do a voice command.” Clementine whispered violently as she pulled Ari back.

  They began circling the main dojo in front of them searching for any audio queues. After looking around the second dojo, they meet back at the front door, but not going inside. Suddenly, Ari moved his head back slightly after hearing a whistle close to his left ear. What followed was a tear in the fan door to his right. Ari looked at the pillar it came from, as he is grazed by another whistle, and dodged the second he felt the impact on his head. He jumped forward, landing a flying kick on the pillar and making it slightly shake. A shinobi in all black appeared, falling upside down. Ari then landed a punch in the shinobi's chest just before he hit the ground, sending him to the pillar on the left and leaving him incapacitated.

  Clementine’s eyes rose up at Ari's strength but before she can comment a voice called out from the right,

  “Who are you, thieves!? You enter Rockylia so ignorantly? On top of that, taking our Artifact?” The voice said.

  Six more shinobi reveal themselves out of thin air. They're perched up on the surrounding stone pillars; some of them shared a pillar. The OTF Hunter badges shined on their blue headbands, but the main Shinobi leader is standing the center of attention with his red headband.

  The leader pointed his sword toward the Black Book Leonardo is holding, “What’s even more daunting is it seems to have paired with the four-eyed Holy Trident Dirt. Who are you monsters?” The leader asked.

  Clementine seemed to be embedding essence into her sword, and she smirks.

  “Want to find out why we’re the rightful owners?” Clementine taunted, putting her sword over her shoulder. Her other hand extended two fingers, gesturing the leader to advance.

  Ari quickly grabbed her shoulder, "What're you doing?" Ari asked with deep concern.

  "Just stay behind me, alright? I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt." Clementine whispered.

  "Yeah right, like we'll leave you alone." Ari said, looking back at the perspiring Leonardo who's avoiding eye contact and swallowing excess saliva.

  All Shinobi then unsheathed their katanas before gracefully landing on the gravel beneath their feet.

  Ari dashed to the left of their formation, three of the shinobi followed Ari immediately.

  Two more advance toward Leonardo, who summoned and gripped his staff even tighter than before.

  The remaining two, including the leader, took slow steps toward Clementine, who mimics them. Her hair began flickering a red hue but before it can fully transition, the leader quickly swung at her left side. Clementine stopped the blade with her own by pointing it downward to her left, supporting the block with her left forearm.

  “I can see it already, you’re a hunter too. You know that you're breaking the OTF law, right, little girl?” The leader asked, his nose scrunched up through the mask.

  “Don't call me that!” Clementine demanded as she engaged the second Shinobi. Her unique swordsmanship is shown as to how quickly her swings overpower the Shinobis' own. It took three slashes before Clementine finessed her arm into hitting the hilt of Rainbeaux to the shinobi's temple, incapacitating her. “Sorry Girlie!” She commented, holding her hand to her mouth briefly.

  The leader, who felt mocked, struck angrily at Clementine’s head. She predicted this swing, and went for a clash, but the leader's attack was feinted and he decided to go for a slash in the gut instead. As she attempted to block again, the real attack sliced her fingers, they were bleeding enough for her to be alarmed. She dropped her sword as the leader immediately caught Rainbeaux up by kicking it upward.

  The leader then threw the sword behind him as Clementine was holding her fingers. “You try so desperately, but a swordsman never drops their sword! Why don't you go back to your canyon to pretend to be a warrior.” The leader scolded.

  Clementine angrily, and for the first time without her sword, caused her hair and eyes instantly to glow red.

  The Shinobi's eyes widened. He takes not a second longer to go for the head swipe once again.

  Clementine was confident she could break the blade while her hair was glowing red, but oddly enough a water trail started following the leader's blade swipe. Her intuition to dodge was correct as he landed his sword on the ground, cutting the gravel 3 feet deep. She rolled to pick up her sword, clashing with the leader's next strike, which now had a water following it. They struggled for some time, prompting Clementine to spin around repeatedly, like a spin top, with her sword at her waist. The Shinobi blocked all of the slashes until his sword miraculously broke.

  "Ahh, so you're a dancer huh?" The Shinobi leader asked, while trying to regather the pieces of his sword using airborne water he produced.

  She kicked him down, leaving no room to be prepared. The leader backed up to the pillar behind.

  Clementine lowered her head, “I have my own way of being a warrior, okay?...” As she was talking she notices the leaders eyes are a yellow color with a black slit for a pupil, which he closed and began laughing.

  “Beating me was that easy for you!? Storm Ronin’s strength is more than us combined.” The leader statesd causing Clementine to move her head back.

  The Leader stood up, picking up his broken sword and his fallen comrade, “In the future, you’ll learn. Conceal!”

  As Clementine turned her head to search for her opponents, she hears the leader's voice once more,

  “Retreat everyone, these are monsters! Meet me at the wall!” He finished, but none of them follow.

  Clementine looked for the voice briefly before noticing Ari .dodging the sword swipes that are coming from his three opponents.

  One of the Shinobis swiped at Ari’s feet, who responded by jumping up and grabbing the Shinobi’s collar of his robes and pulling closer briefly,

  Ari looked into his opponents reptilian eyes with a new understanding before slamming him onto the ground harshly.

  So what Clementine said was true, Borns really are humans.

  Ari's other two opponents began swinging their katanas at him,

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  The fallen Shinobi exclaimed, “What was that you idiot? Why'd you pull me closer!?”

  The other two Shinobi stop moving even though it is against their way of fighting.

  Ari then ruthlessly uppercut the fallen Shinobi in the gut, projecting him upward 5 feet. Ari then vaulted himself up to kick him in the jaw, making him ragdoll into the pillar on the right.

  As the other two Shinobi moved advanced, “This Holy Trident kid is a demon.” One of them whispered.

  They swing their swords towards Ari which he simultaneously pinpointed where he could dodge and counter. Finding an opening, Ari punched the left Shinobi in the rib, with not nearly as much force. The Shinobi grabbed his ribcage as he backed up.

  The last Shinobi Ari faced ran up to him with very certain footwork. Ari stood still as he awaits the strike.

  The Shinobi with the broken rib knew this footwork very well, “No! Mel! Don’t waste it on him!”.

  The assassin summoned a water trail, like the leaders, that followed as he attempted to pierce Ari in his stomach. Ari swiftly moved to the left and lands a right hook to the Shinobi's face, his fist directing it into the ground. This caused a dent that spread three inches.

  Ari stood tall over his opponent, his face stern with his fists clenched.

  The Shinobi with the broken rib stared in fear at Ari, seeing only a blood-lusted demon who just demolished his friends. The same friends he trained with for over a decade in the way of the Mibishi-Water-Style.

  The shinobi stumbled back, his exposed throat from his torn robes was visibly glowing golden, “C-Conceal!”

  Ari breathed deeply as he looks over at Clementine, who's mouth hung open.

  Clementine tried searching for the right reaction, “Ari, that was...”.

  Ari's usual gleeful demeanor returned, “You impressed finally?! Woah, are your fingers alright?”

  Clementine wrapped a bandage she had from her backpack around her finger, “Yeah, I’ll be alright. I can’t believe I let it happen. I need to be better. Wait, where’s Leo?”

  Ari promptly activated his older brother protective mode, beginning the search for their frightened third member of their party.

  They both looked around for several minutes, finding themselves circling the three Dojo. The only other two people in view were the two incapacitated opponents Ari handled. Not even Leonardo’s opponents are in sight.

  “Did they kidnap him?” Ari asked, rubbing his hands over his head.

  They finally entered the third dojo, seeing and smelling steamed broccoli and Rice cooked with pork in the center, served and cooked over a pot. As hungry as these two were, they subconsciously agreed it would be difficult to enjoy themselves without their companion. They decided to circle again, their hope slipping away.

  “Leo wouldn’t get captured like that, right?” Ari muttered as he looks at the bottom of the third dojo.

  When Clementine and Ari meet again in the entrance, they looked at each other with a similar sense of dread. They start considering the possibility their friend might have either died or been kidnapped.

  Suddenly, before their eyes, a pitch-black portal opened above them. Followed by this was a voice screeching with fear, “Get out of here! We’ll handle it!”

  The skinny boy with spectacles immediately fell out of the portal, Which closed behind him. Leonardo got up to his knees, feeling the gravel ground beneath his knee caps, and began shaking his hands as he held the book, “I…I don’t know what happened! I just started channeling this new essence and we all got sent to this, pitch-black hell! It felt like forever, but we…we ended up fighting something huge!!” Leonardo couldn't control his fear and guilt, even his voice shook with him.

  Clementine tightens her bandages as she and Ari look at Leonardo in fear.

  Clementine approaches him first, “It’s okay, it’s over now. We’re glad to have you ba—“

  “Now those two are trapped there and it’s my fault! Paegon forgive me.” Leonardo began shedding tears,

  Ari walked forward leaning down and putting his hand on the sorrowful boy's shoulders, “If they didn't want to be trapped, they would’ve escaped with you, right?” He said.

  Leonardo looks at Ari “I, I guess you’re right. I don’t think I want to use this book again. There has to be a misunderstanding, I don't want any of this.” He then glanced down once again at the spirals that moved with his fingertips.

  "Well, let's use it one more time and see if we can get those shinobi out of there." Clementine suggested.

  Leonardo took a second to remember how to summon the portal before opening his fingertips.

  The Dark Portal returned above them, and the Shinobi immediately fall out. They stare at the three temporarily before dashing with rapid force away from the Dojos.

  Leonardo sighed deeply, and silence rung out for two minutes as everyone catches their breath. This also gave everyone time to think.

  “We need to go back to where I’m from. I’m thinking now Red might be there.” Clementine said as she closes her pouch, she looked up, having another plan in mind, “When we get there, we can look into this book. I agree that you shouldn’t use this book anymore as of now, but I know someone who would understand it better. If you want, I can get both of you in the orientation to be proper hunters.” Clementine suggested.

  Ari’s eyes lit up at that proclamation, “I’m so glad you said that! I didn’t want to be the one to ask, you know, that would be weird and forced. But now that you offered I think both of us ha—“

  “Don’t make me regret asking.” Clementine cut him off. “I know both of you have your hang-ups back home, so I don’t want to trample on that. You can turn back and I can go my own way, and there will be no bad feelings. Especially you, Ari. Since you have little sisters.”

  Ari and Leonardo take the time to ponder on that suggestion, but before Ari, who has an entire family back home, can even speak, Leonardo stepped forward,

  “I don’t have a family, and I..I now don’t want to go back. I have to find out who I am. I also want to know about the world before Terramyth.” Leaonardo declared, gripping the book tighter.

  Clementine nodded her head, as they both look at Ari.

  “I want to learn about Terramyth, but I really would like to be a hunter. Here's the thing, I love my family, but I can’t go back home. Not anymore.” Ari stated, removing the sleeves from his head and the bandaged from his now healed wounds, feeling the warm breeze graze him.

  Clementine nodded at the two boys before looking down, and continuing to walk forward. “That settles it, I know how to get back from here.”

  “Can we eat first?” Leonardo held his stomach as he wiped the dried tears from his face.

  “Oh, right.” Ari gets out of his head as they walk into the dojo.

  They wasted no time engaging in the prepared meal that was now lukewarm. As they prepare the bowls that they find scattered in the room, they decide to sit and eat on the peaks of three 30 ft. Pillars that surround them.

  Ari felt a bump coming from the bottom of his pillar.

  It’s another Turtle Golem, a registered Natureborn, but this one has scarring along its left eye. This is less hostile than the Borns who invaded the Holy Trident West. It seemed to have followed Ari’s scent the entire time from when they saw one of many Rockylia's herds.

  Ari jumped down to pet it a little longer and realized this one looked far different from the regular Turtle Golems. It also had a long white beard. Ari learned it's name: Grinjas. It then fell asleep right after Ari petted it for over 20 minutes. Ari scaled the top of his pillar again, it finally reached nighttime in their location.

  As they all look into the sky they notice the stars illuminating and closer than normal, they haven’t spoken since they’ve eaten. In a hazy state from drowsiness, the battle, and all of the traversing, they muster the energy to have one final discussion for the night.

  “I used to look at these all the time with my mom...What do you think of stars?” Clementine asked, turning his head toward his dear companions.

  “They're very pretty to see. Did you know that reaching the stars was the Holy Trident's original goal. It was one of the many crusades Paegon was apart of.” Leonardo answered.

  “I've heard that hundreds of times. I’ve always thought looking at stars with my sisters and trying to count them was a good way to put them to sleep.” Ari added.

  “You know, when we wake up tomorrow, it’ll be a new day. You guys have been supportive of me searching for Red. Let me return the favor and help you become hunters.” Clementine said earnestly.

  Suddenly, a shooting star came coursing in a quick flash, causing everyone to gasp temporarily. They celebrated and were inspired by the spectacle.

  Shortly after, Clementine faintly cried. This created respectful and awkward silence from the other two boys.

  Leonardo and Clementine eventually both fall asleep as Ari stares continuously at the stars.

  Ari puts his hands behind his head, a sense of joyful determination showed on his face. “It’s happening. I’m going to be a king.” Ari declared.

  He tried to be quiet, but this proclamation caused Leonardo and Clementine to jolt their heads immediately.

  "And be my boss? No way." Clementine uttered, before going back to sleep.