“How long is this person going to take?” Edward complained. He felt like he was waiting at the entrance to the city for hours, even if it realistically hadn’t been more than a couple dozen minutes.

  “Better early than late,” Auranna said, floating behind him. “It’s better to witness the issue than to actually be the issue.”

  “Okay, but was it worth losing sleep over it?” Ed asked. “If they aren’t even here then I could’ve gotten like, half an hour more.”

  “You were literally the last one to wake up. I could have woken you up far earlier to match you up to everyone else,” Auranna explained. “I’d say you got enough sleep. Don’t be greedy.”

  Ed rolled his eyes, then he noticed something in the distance. A very familiar cloaked girl with a hood covering her head walked towards them. It was normally a good disguise, but as she walked towards the entrance to the city, Ed could recognize her immediately.

  “Joyce?!”

  “Eh? Ed?”

  The two kids pointed at each other as their mouths were agape in shock at the sight of seeing each other again.

  “Wait, why are you surprised? I told you I was going to Lune,” Ed asked.

  “Well, I know, but I wasn’t expecting you to like… be here, or that I would be working with you… or… it’s just surprising after all…” Joyce said.

  “I mean, uh… it seems like we’re both together for this mission, so… uh…”

  Ed felt extremely awkward. Considering he just accused this girl of a crime not too long ago. The boy stumbled over his words, because he didn’t necessarily want to remind Joyce of the poor situation that he put her in.

  “Yeah, we’re… together… going to beat the armor together… you and me… ahah— nothing weird at all about this.”

  Ed immediately feels a harsh slap across his face. It seemed like Auranna had gotten sick of the boy’s fumbling over his words and tried to clear his mind.

  “We don’t have time to deal with your awkwardness,” Auranna complained. “We may have a rocky history with her, but doing our task is more important.”

  Ed rubbed his cheek, and he couldn’t exactly argue back to this invisible ghost. To Joyce, it looked like Ed had just gotten hit by nothing. However, he took a deep breath, and collected himself. This was awkward, but he needed to remain focused.

  “So, Joyce… I know things are weird, but we’re both here to do a job, right?”

  “Yeah. I guess… we are.”

  “Soooooo—” Ed began. “Lets just focus on the mission. Going to the armor and beating him up. I know you’re strong considering the uhh… tournament…” As soon as Ed mentioned that, he felt Auranna stare into the back of his skull. She was right, they were trying to smooth over the relationship. He needed to focus. “So! We can handle it!”

  “You’re… right. Let’s just go, don’t keep me down,” Joyce said. The girl began to walk off to the woods near the city, not looking back. Ed began to chase after her, as the two of them went off to complete their quest.

  The mines were dark, very dark. Glowing flowers didn’t grow underground, so the only light the two of them had were the orbs that Ed created. They provided a soft, orbiting light as they navigated through the dark caves.

  Joyce seemed to be navigating fine without the light, however. She was walking quite far ahead of Edward, silent but serious.

  “So…” Ed awkwardly looked at Joyce. “Once again, I’m sorry for what happened back at Pugna-”

  “Yeah, I get it,” Joyce said. “That’s behind us now. I got out of there before any real trouble happened.”

  “I shouldn’t have jumped to-”

  “You already apologized for this.”

  The conversation was very unproductive. Ed had this lingering feeling of guilt that he couldn’t shake off of him without hearing a proper acceptance. A non-exasperated one, at the very least. He figured he wasn’t going to get it though, so he decided to switch the topic.

  “Why are you going on this mission, anyways?” Ed asked. “Wasn’t it super dangerous?”

  “You know you could be asked the same thing,” Joyce said. “I did this mission because I figured it would give me some good rapport. I’d need that if I’m going to try asking around for favors.”

  “Oh. Well, I suppose I’m doing that too, yeah. Just… divinity, cause I think it can be earned through good deeds,” Ed said.

  “...really?” Joyce stopped to turn around. “Is that how it works?”

  “I mean, great heroes tend to have divinity. I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Ed shrugged.

  “Huh. Well, I suppose that’s one way to earn divinity—”

  “EDWARD. BEHIND HER!” Auranna suddenly shouted. Within the split second he had to react, grabbed Joyce’s arm and pulled her to the side. A powerful blade beam streaked through the crowded hallway, just barely missing the two.

  “What the—?” Joyce said. She immediately unsheathed her glowing sword and illuminated the hallway. A tall, menacing clank of metal hit the ground as a suit of black armor with a greatsword the size of their entire bodies walked towards them.

  “It seems like we found it,” Ed said. He put on his mask, and let Auranna’s power flow through his body. The creature began to run towards the two of them, confirming their presence.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “We need to get to a less cramped area,” Joyce said. She began to run directly towards the monster as it raised its sword once more. Ed ran behind her, creating a short blade ready to strike at any opening he saw.

  As the monster slammed down on the ground, a massive cut through the air appeared threatening to tear the two kids apart head-on. With the response of her own golden blade, Joyce released her own slice that collided directly with the monster, the forces cancelling each other out.

  With that, Joyce used it as cover to slide between the armor’s legs, and onto the other side. Ed followed suit, creating a glowing rope that wrapped around the monster to constrict it as he went under as well. As he did so he struck its heels with the blade. He then tightened the rope around the creature, and they got up on the other side as it slowly turned around.

  “That’s not going to slow it down for long, if at all,” Ed said.

  “Then let’s go, we need to find somewhere more open!” Joyce said, pulling Ed along deeper into the mines. “Perhaps there’s a bigger area we can go to!”

  “You’re right,” Ed nodded. The two of them immediately began to take off further into the mines, hearing the clanking of the armor chasing after them.

  The light of Joyce’s sword illuminated their path forwards as they ran. Behind them, they could see naught, but they could hear the sound of metal footsteps chasing after the two.

  Every so often, Ed would throw an orb of light and catch a glimpse of the armored monster’s empty form chasing towards them at a quickly approaching speed. The mines themselves were a maze, but the pair just could not seem to lose it.

  “It feels like it’s just going to chase us until the end of time!” Ed said.

  “Is there really no better place to fight?” Joyce responded.

  “I dunno! Maybe it was on a different path?”

  Joyce cursed the air in frustration before turning back. She drew her sword and cut into the ceiling, with a quick strike upwards, the roof collapsed in front of them. Leaving a pile of rubble, blocking out their chance of escape.

  “What are you doing?” Ed shouted. “How are we supposed to get out?”

  “We just need some time!” Joyce snapped back. “I figured if anything could slow it down, then we have more of a chance!”

  “Whatever, no choice now. Keep on moving.”

  The two of them turned back to keep on running down the dark mines. However, before they can make it any further, they hear the bursting of the rubble behind them and then the force of the blade landing just right in between the two.

  The armor had burst through the rubble, and just barely missed both Joyce and Edward, knocking them both to the side of the cramped wall.

  “AGH-”

  “OW!”

  Ed’s body tensed up from pain, as his vision cleared and he saw the armored menace standing between the two of them. It turned towards Joyce as it raised its blade above its head. In a quick moment, Joyce grabbed her sword of light with both arms and raised it above her head, just as the monster did the same. With a brutal clashing of metal and energy, the monster lowered its sword to strike at Joyce, who barely blocked the sheer power with her own blade.

  She was impressively holding her own, as the ground beneath her cracked. A shockwave blew Ed back into the walls of the tunnel, before he landed on the ground. He groaned and shook his head. He could still see Joyce holding on.

  With a crawl, Ed forced himself towards the back of the armor, and began to climb on top of it. The creature was too busy clashing with Joyce to notice the puny boy climbing up its back, and eventually he reached its helmet. With the creation of a glowing shortsword, he began to stab into the helmet multiple times. This forced the beast to act, taking one hand off of its shortsword, picking up Ed, and throwing him to the side onto the ground!

  “AGH!” Ed groaned as he tumbled downwards. However, in as he got up, he managed to see that his efforts had helped Joyce, just a little bit. She was pushing upwards, and even managed to begin standing again.

  However, the armor pushed harder, and the ground shattered underneath her feet again. She began to lose her grip, her balance.

  “Shoot! Ah… ah….!” She said, gritting her teeth from exertion and pain, as the sheer force of the blade pressed down on her… before… the sword came crashing down…

  And onto the ground, hitting nothing at all.

  Before Ed had even realized it, he had Joyce in his arms and was bolting down the mines at a speed that he couldn’t even react to.

  “Ed?” Joyce exclaimed.

  “I used my Accelero Crystal, I have no idea where we’re going—!” Ed explained. “I had to, you were going to get crushed!”

  “You had one too?” Joyce asked. “I mean, uh… thanks!”

  “I don’t know how long this will last, and I can’t even tell where I’m going. I’m just hoping—”

  SLAM!

  Ed couldn’t even finish his sentence before the two of them crashed straight on into a wall. They flattened into it like pancakes before falling backwards onto the ground. The crystal of speed finally wearing off.

  The two of them got up, clutching their heads in pain. They were still alive and well, at least. But, they looked around them, and realized something.

  “This is a dead end!” Ed said.

  “Shoot! Damn it, was there seriously nowhere else to go?” Joyce cursed. She took out her sword once again, and stared into the darkness.

  “That monster is going to be on our tail,” Ed replied. “I’m going to try and look for something.”

  “I’ll keep a look out,” Joyce said. “If you don’t find anything, we’re going to need to double-cross that thing again.”

  Ed nodded. He began to tap on each of the walls, but touching the stone itself did not necessarily lead to fantastic results. Instead, he decided to create a pickaxe in his hand. With a swing, then another, then another. He began chipping at the wall.

  For the first few hits, he didn’t feel anything substantial. However, eventually… he felt something… like his pickaxe was going through. There was something behind this wall!

  “Joyce! If we can bust down this wall, then we might get somewhere!” Ed shouted.

  “Wait, that’s great! Can you quickly do that—”

  Just as Ed was about to prepare a much stronger attack, he saw a massive blade beam launched forwards at Joyce. Luckily, the girl was able to just block it at the last second, digging her feet into the ground.

  She didn’t manage to completely disperse all of the energy, but she did manage to redirect it just enough to miss both her and Ed, and into the back wall!

  The wall exploded, and a glowing blue light shone through. The dust settled, as the two ran into the now opened cave. It was… very pretty.

  An ecosystem in the cave, there was an opening for an exit to the underground, the light of the moon shining through it. Water pools and rivers ran through the massive area, creating multiple glowing ponds with flowers and moss galore. It was freeing, much more spacious than the claustrophobic mines. Multiple cliffs stood at the opposing sides, as various small critters were running around the area.

  The depths themselves went deeper, and they could see the bottom beneath them. It was like a lake, that all of the water flowed into. Ed and Joyce stood on one of the cliffs, with natural paths leading to various different ponds.

  The two stopped to admire the beauty of the wild, as it caught their eyes immediately.

  “Amazing…” Ed said.

  “We’re out… of those mines…” Joyce sighed in relief.

  However, they were immediately snapped back into reality by the sound of clanking footsteps. The pair turned around, seeing the animated armor approach from the hole in the wall.

  Their fight was still not over.