Later, Shokei and her party are exploring further into the forest as they are seeking out the cave to where the pond is. Right now, the party is going deeper into the forest until they made it to the deepest part of the woods. The sun still shines above but it barely gives off sunlight for the party to navigate further into the forest. Naoko, with her night vision support, lead the party into the deepest area.

  "I don't like the looks of this forest..." Marie said, checking her surroundings as she walks onward.

  "Neither do I." Naoko added. "It's kind of scary around here."

  "We didn't come this far to back out on this task you two." Rei tells them. "I mean, c'mon! What's the worst that can happen?"

  "And you recall how I nearly died from drowning right?" Marie asked, reminding her of what happened.

  "Heads up. We're approaching another bridge." Shokei said.

  The party stops to see that there is a bridge ahead of them. The bridge looks long and narrow in width. However, there is a wide gap that seems endless, like a pit. The party can see that there are no holdings on both sides.

  "You think something bad might happens here?" Rei asked and turned to see Marie.

  "Ummm..." Marie did not respond, refusing to comment.

  "The coast looks as if it's clear." Mizuki said, inspecting the area. "But we can't be so sure...I still think that we can get across, but we need to remain cautious."

  "Understood." Shokei said. "Let's walk across."

  The party continues their journey by walking across the barrier-less bridge. Halfway to getting to the other side, the arch end of the bridge seals them off. Shokei and her party can see that there is a barrier surrounding the entrance to the other side. With both barriers blocking the way, the party is trapped in the middle of the bridge.

  "What the hell's going on?!" Rei asked, looking to see both sides are sealed with a barrier.

  "Oh no!" Marie said, worried. "It's another trap!"

  "Something tells me that this does not look good." Obsidian said.

  "Look! Over there!" Ferron said, looking into a direction.

  Just then, the party can see that there is someone standing right to where the entrance of the cave is. There appears a gnome that dons a necromancer's uniform.

  "Huh? Who the hell are you?" Shokei calls out to the gnome figure."

  The gnome, who wears a wizard's hat, looks up to reveal its face. The gnome has a mean looking face and appears to be creepy.

  "Fools!" The gnome speaks out to them. "I am Latoro, the wizard of this forest! Who are you?"

  "I bet you're the one that transformed that poor man into a troll I assume." Shokei said to him.

  "Of course, I did!" Latoro admitted. "I turned that poor man into a nice-looking Troll. Why, you ask? Because he was invading on my prosperity."

  "Wait, what?" Shokei asked.

  "I'll tell you all one thing." Latoro said. "I hate it when anyone comes across my turf. You have no right on walking here if I'm around. And speaking of invading, I assume that you are trying to get into this cave right behind me. Am I right?"

  "Well, we are on a lookout for a hidden pond that would be able to..." Marie tried to expin.

  "Quiet!!" Latoro interrupted her. "I know what you are about to say! I can tell that all of you are trying to go near the Pond of Spiritual Blessing."

  "So that's the name of the pond." Shokei said.

  "Whatever purpose you have with that pond, my duty is to protect that pond that lies inside this cave." Latoro said to them. "I would suggest that you all turn back now before I dealt with each and every one of you."

  "As if!" Rei said to the gnome, looking for a fight. "If you put it that way, we'll have to knock some sense into you then."

  "We came this far..." Shokei said, unsheathes her sword. "But we're not leaving here!"

  "Aha! Foolish beings...you want to fight me? Why didn't you say so?" The evil gnome asked evilly. "In fact, I have some toys that you people can py with!"

  The party watch as the gnome casts out a spell. The party can see that there are four flying drakes, two of each that appeared on both sides. The party can see that the road to where the pond is located is nothing more than a trap.

  "Dammit!" Rei said, pissed to see the drakes. She's all ready to act. "This gnome isn't kidding."

  "Kidding? Yeah...right..." Tamiko said, loading her crossbow quickly.

  "We'll have to fight our way out of this if we're going to get to that pond." Shokei said. "Come on everyone!"

  The party gets ready to fight the flying drakes as the flying monsters are prepared to swoop down to attack the party.

  The Drakes swoop down towards the party. Shokei and her party moves out of the way as all four drakes tried to attack them. The party was lucky enough to avoid being knocked over by the flying type monsters. Marie felt very lucky as she was able to save herself from falling down the gap, despite that there is no protective barriers on the bridge.

  The Drakes are flying in the sky as soon as they made an initial strike. Then, one of the Drakes swoops down to make another diving attack. Tamiko sees the opportunity to act, and she used her crossbow to make a charging strike against the enemy. She fired off rounds of her crossbow directly into the monster's face. The Drake lost its sight as it flies off bance, blinded by the attack that pierced through its vision.

  "There!" Tamiko said, looking at the downed Drake. "That should take care of one of them."

  With one of the Drake's taken down, another Drake swoops down in action to attack one of Shokei's party members. Sadako sees this and she makes her move.

  "Thunder Canon!"

  By casting out her spell, the Drake was struck by lightning as it takes damage from the striking bolt. Tamiko turns her attention to Sadako, and she assists by using her crossbow technique against the Drake. She fired off more bolt shots directly at the monster. The second Drake was taken out instantly as soona s it got dealt with heavy blows by Tamiko and Sadako.

  "Great work!" Tamiko said to Sadako.

  "Hmm, let's see if I can even out the score against these flying beasts." Rei said.

  Thinking on what to do, Rei waits for the remaining two Drakes to make a move. One of the Drakes swoops down to strike at Shokei's party. Rei makes a move, and she jumps on the flying monster. The Drake felt uncomfortable as it felt misguided by its target as Rei is on top of the monster.

  "Time to take you for a ride!" Rei said to the Drake as she rides on the monster's back.

  "Rei!" Shokei calls out to her and asked. "What are you doing?!"

  The Drake flies up into the air as Rei hangs on the monster by its neck. The Drake tries to shake Rei off, but its efforts failed. Rei did the thinkable and then makes a fist. Building up energy, Rei positions her fist and then gives the Drake an Assault Punching Bolt into the back of the monster. The jolt caused a connection on the bones into the monster's body. The surge of the lighting flows into the body of the Drake and then the monster died instantly. Rei immediately leaps off the Drake and then she makes her away to connect with the other Drake. She nds successfully onto the flying monster.

  "Rei?!" Shokei shouted out to her. "Are you crazy?!"

  "Rei!! It's dangerous!" Marie shouted out to her. "You'll fall into the gap below!"

  "Just rex you all..." Rei said, holding onto the Drake's neck. "I'll be down there in a sec."

  Rei immediately acts and just as she did with the third Drake, she delivered the Punching Bolt right into the body of the monster. The Drake felt the force of the bolt penetrated its body as it dies instantly. Rei can feel the weight giving in on the monster and then she quickly leaps off the monster and makes her way back to the bridge as she nds safely. The Drake flies downward as its body falls right into the gap in defeat.

  "Rei!" Shokei said to her and asked. "What were you thinking?"

  "Yeah Rei, what are you...insane enough to jump on those flying beasts?" Marie asked her.

  "What..." Rei replied back to them. "I thought it would be easier for me to finish off those flying freaks by getting on top of them."

  "Consider yourself lucky that you helped us out." Shokei tells her. "It was dangerous, but...don't scare me like that again."

  "Oh...all right..." Rei said. "At least I helped out the situation easily."

  Latoro saw that Shokei and her Party have defeated his flying Drakes. The gnome was mad and not pleased to see that his trap was being foiled. He leaves the area immediately, along with the barriers that have disappeared.

  "The barriers...they're gone..." Marie said, looking at both sides.

  "Even if the barriers are gone, the gnome could be defending the pond from us." Shokei said.

  "We should continue onward." Shokei said. "Let's go after him."

  Seeing that the coast is clear, Shokei and her party heads for the cave. As soon as they got inside, the ground felt rocky, and the party could hardly see what is ahead of them. From turn after turn, to the passage that they had to go through, along with walking up the steep hills, the whole cave felt like a maze.

  "Say, how long is this path to where the pond is?" Marie asked.

  "I don't know." Shokei replied. "This whole tunnel feels like a long way down to find that pond."

  "How far are we at this point?" Tamiko asked. "This is more of a travel to get to this location."

  "Looks like we..." Mizuki sees something ahead and points out. "Hey! Look!"

  The party can see that there is an opening up ahead which is allowing them to leave the cave. Once they stepped out, the party looks around to see that there is another area of the forest. Only that they are surrounded by a wall of mountains. The area that they are in is a wide circle and there is just one rock that stands out in the middle of the field.

  "What...is this?" Marie asked.

  "Is this Troll being truthful about finding this pond?" Rei asked. "Don't tell me we came here for nothing."

  "There is no pond around here." Saeko said.

  "Hmm?" Shokei looks up to see that there is another cave entrance that is on the other side. "There's an entrance on the other side. We should go further in order to find out."

  "Ok then..." Rei said.

  The party continues onward as they all went into the cave on the other side. As they went in, the party has to go through another maze-like area to navigate through their destination. Once the party has finally made it to the other side, Shokei looks to see that there is a straight path, leading up to a dead end of trees. She even notices that there is something that lies ahead. The party walks up and there they see that the sun's rays are sparkling onto something in the ground, giving off a sor radiation. The party looks ahead to see that there is a big pond on the spot.

  "A pond..." Sadako said.

  "I believe this is the pond that we're looking for." Beatrice said.

  "This..." Mizuki walks over to see the pond and touches it. "It feels...warm."

  "Really?" Shokei asked.

  "It is." Mizuki said. "I believe this is the pond that the Troll was talking about. The Pond of Spiritual Blessing."

  "Should we taste it to see if it's safe?" Marie asked.

  "Why don't you try it?" Rei asked her.

  "Me?" Marie asked. "But Mizuki said that its warm..."

  "Just try it out and see what happens." Rei said to her.

  "Oh, all right." Marie said, sighing as she went over to the pond.

  "Be careful..." Shokei said to her.

  Marie takes a handful of the water and drinks it. She swallows the water with one gulp.

  "Hmm...how is it?" Rei asked.

  "It feels sparkling..." Marie replied. "It has a special taste that felt sweet."

  "Not too warm. Right?" Rei asked.

  "Not at all..." Marie replied.

  The Pond is giving off a solid white aura. Mizuki takes out an empty bottle and uses it to collect the special water. Once the bottle is full, Mizuki seals the bottle and she and everyone can see that the light is glowing inside the bottle.

  "Wow..." Marie said, seeing the water in the bottle. "Shiny."

  "This isn't an illusion, is it?" Beatrice asked.

  "I wouldn't know Beatrice." Mizuki said. "But let's hope that this water would be the key into restoring that human trapped in a troll's body."

  "We got what we needed." Shokei said. "Let's go."

  Once the special water has been obtained, the party starts to leave the area and they head back to the cave. The party backtracks their way and as soon as they exit the cave, returning back to the wide-open field, the party stops to see that there is someone standing on the rock in the center of the wall-mountain area.

  "Fools!" Latoro calls out to them. "Didn't I tell you not to get near my Pond of Spiritual Blessing?"

  "Your pond?" Shokei asked him. "Excuse me, but you don't own any property to that pond."

  "That pond doesn't have your name on it." Rei said to him. "Besides, that pond is open for anyone, especially like us."

  "Leave us alone, or we'll have to deal with you ourselves." Shokei warned Latoro, looking for a fight.

  "And you'll regret for putting us in danger on that bridge a while ago!" Marie tells him.

  Latoro did not say anything. He is amused to see that Shokei and her party are ready to fight against him. No one knows what kind of power the necromancer has on him, but they remain alert to see what he is about to do next.

  "Hmmph!" Latoro smirked. "Since you all refused to listen to me, it's time I take my actions to a serious level. I'm going to summon my minions so that they can take a bite out of all of you. Kaaaa!!"

  Latoro uses his wizard's staff and then he casts out a necromantic spell. The party looks up to see that the enemy is casting an evocation symbol above him. The party looks to see that there are monsters appearing out of the evocation and then appeared to be wolf-like creatures touching the ground. There were about ten wolves, all of them appearing to be rger in size than a regur wolf. To everyone's eyes, they have never seen these strange types of wolves as they have bck fur with red eyes.

  "What the?" Shokei said, already having her sword out. "What kind of vicious wolves are they?"

  "My Banicrof wolves will take care of you beings." Latoro tells everyone. "These wolves are stronger than a normal wolf, and my beasts will shred you and everyone else to pieces. Heh heh heh."

  "You're kidding me, right?" Shokei asked.

  "Of course not! I have killed many travelers that dare come here. I made sure that my precious beasts have consumed my victims and it looks like they have their eyes on fresh meats which is all of you." Latoro said.

  "Dammit!" Rei said, raising her fists up. "Then it looks as if we'll have to fight our way out of this mess."

  "Us against a pack of wolves?" Obsidian said, taking his Cymore out. "Heh! This fight should be fun."

  "Really?" Latoro asked and said with an evil tone. "Then...I wouldn't happen to make things interesting like this!"

  The party looks to see that all ten of Latoro's wolf pack have magically disappeared.

  "Huh?!" Marie eyes widened.

  "What the?" Sadako said, seeing the scenario has changed.

  "All of you must think that you can face off against my vicious wolves that easily, eh?" Latoro tells them. "For as you can see that the Banicrofs are not just ordinary wolves. These wolves have the ability to become invisible. You won't feel so lucky if you were to figure out where my wolves are about to pounce on any of you."

  "This is not fair..." Marie said. "No, this is bad."

  "Let's split apart while we can." Shokei said to her party.

  The party splits up as they all move around the field in order to fight the wolves.

  Shokei, gripping her sword out, carefully looks around to see if any of the Banicrofs are nearby her. Saeko, holding out her nce, sticks by her side as she takes caution. Just then, the girls can sense that the wolves are close by them, and the sounds of footsteps are running up towards them.

  "Huh?" Shokei turns around and shouts. "Watch out!"

  Shokei and Saeko can see that there are two Banicrofs jumping and charging down at them. The girls dodged out of the way and Saeko tries to attack one of the wolves with her nce. The nce hits one of the Banicrof on the side of its body. The wolf counters by using its body to knock Saeko down. From the assault, both wolves vanished as they resume being invisible.

  The party continues to take extra precaution as the Banicrofs are hiding in invisibility. Rei and Lei are working together to defend themselves away from the wolves. Rei keeps a lookout in case a wolf appears to attack her as Lei felt something in her senses.

  "Rei!" Lei warned her. "There's a wolf right next to you on your right side, three o'clock!"

  "Eh?!" Rei turns and sees something that's coming near her.

  "Look out!" Lei warned her.

  Rei turned to see that one of the Banicrofs is about to attack her from above. Once the wolf has revealed itself from invisibility, Rei avoids the attack and Lei used her Psi attack against the Banicrof with telekinetic force, sending the wolf back to the wall. Rei can see that there is another Banicrof coming right for her, and she rushes up to make a jump kick towards the enemy, protecting Lei in time. The wolves recover from being damaged and then resume back to being invisible.

  "No way!" Lei said, feeling pissed. "They vetted back to being invisible!"

  "Stand on your ground." Rei advised her.

  Obsidian and Ferron take their time as they are carefully trying to attack the Banicrofs. Neither of them cannot tell if at least one of the wolves is close by. The wolves are fully invisible, and you cannot tell their movement upon looking on the grassy field. Ferron turns around to hear the wolf is coming after him once it emerged from hiding. He quickly dodged form the attack and tries to strike at the wolf. Ferron was caught off guard as another wolf attacks him with a rush attack.

  Obsidian can see that there is another Banicrof coming towards him. Immediately, he rolls out of the way of the monster's attack. The wolf missed and then made a leap to pounce on its target. Obsidian quickly used his sword to strike the wolf on the head, decapitating it completely. Once he successfully killed its target, another Banicrof appeared out of nowhere and pounced on Obsidian to the ground.

  "Ahh!" Obsidian cried out in pain as he got tackled over. He gets up and resumes fighting.

  The fight against the Banicrofs is proving to be difficult as the party tries to fight the remaining wolf-type monsters. The Banicrofs continue to attack as Shokei's party is proceeding with caution against magic wolves. During the fight, Mizuki observes what she sees so far and tries to think of a possible way in defeating the wolves.

  We can't see these wolves around us...but what would make us see them easily?

  Looking up at the sky, Mizuki sees that the sun is covered up with clouds.

  "That's it!" Mizuki said as she sees the opportunity. She lifts her arms up and casts out "Climate Storm!"

  By putting her geo spell out in action, the clouds developed a storm. The rain pours down into the field and then Shokei can see that the wet showers is coming in py. There, Shokei can see that the wolves are as the invisibility is no match for the rainy weather.

  "Hey! We can spot the wolves easily now!" Shokei said to her party.

  "Now's our chance!" Mizuki said to everyone.

  The party fought against the wolves. They all worked together to take out each wolf one by one as the situation against the vicious monsters makes the fight much easier to take them on. Latoro watches as he can see that his Banicrofs are being killed in his own eyes.

  "No!! Nooo!!!"

  Shokei used her sword and killed the st remaining wolf that was left. She pierced through the skull of the wolves head. Once all the Banicrofs have been taken care of, the party turns their attention back on the gnome.

  "You're next!" Shokei points out to Latoro. She points her sword directly at him.

  "Hmmph!" Latoro said, not amused of the result. "You successfully defeated each and every one of my wolves, eh? Very interesting, thanks to "someone" who cheated their way to search and destroy them all."

  "And that would be me." Mizuki tells him.

  "That doesn't matter to me anyways." Latoro said. "Then again, I do believe that I have more tricks up my sleeve. If you really want to defeat me, I can allow that to happen."

  Before anyone went after the gnome necromancer, Latoro used his staff and disappears. Shokei and her party looks to see that the enemy has escaped, but then the enemy reappears with clones of himself surrounding the party.

  "If any of you can find the actual me, you would have a good chance to defeat ME!" Latoro said and his clones said in unison.

  Shokei and her party looks around to see that there are about fifty clones of Latoro around the field.

  "Oh man..." Saeko said, looking around and asked. "Which one is the real one?"

  "I have no idea." Naoko said. "Every one of these clones look exactly like him."

  "We'll have to just go through his illusion to cut through the cloned ones until we strike the actual enemy." Shokei said to everyone.

  The party did as they fought against the clones of Latoro. For every strike they nd on a clone, it vanishes right in their eyes. As they fought their way through the clones, the real Latoro snaps his fingers to make his clones disappear. The party stops and there they see that the real enemy is from a far distance. The enemy charges a powerful spell as he generates a sphere-type spell which is in a form of electricity.

  "Dodge this!" Latoro tells the party.

  Latoro unleashes his attack as he throws the sphere-type spell into the ground. The party moves out of the way as the shockwave rips through the ground. The attack was powerful enough that it traced its way to the big rock, cracking and destroying the rock completely. Everyone has got out of the way from the attack as they were safe from the electro shockwave. Marie gets up and she immediately moves away from the static on the ground.

  "Woah!!" Marie said, feeling a bit of panic as she felt lucky to stay away from the shock.

  "You're kidding me, right?!" Rei asked. "This little bastard is not pying around here."

  "You bet I am!" Latoro tells her. "Don't think you can underestimate me and my magic!"

  Kichiro sees an opening as the enemy is distracted in talking to the party. He takes his axe and tries to strike at the enemy. Latoro senses the attack from behind and he vanishes instantly.

  "Dammit!" Kichiro said in frustration.

  "Where did he go?" Tamiko asked looking around.

  Suddenly, Latoro reappears back with another fifty clones of himself again.

  "This is going to be ridiculous." Shokei said. "I think we should have keen eyes to look out for the real enemy."

  "Try if you must, but you will never get your hands on me!" Latoro and his clones said as he ughed.

  The party continues to fend off against the clones. While the party fights through the enemy's trap, Lei used her mind senses to detect which of the clones is really the true Latoro. She can clearly see the false ones, as they are invisible to her. Then, she spots the enemy that is hiding in the far end of the field. Latoro stands there as he waits to make his next attack.

  "Rei..." Lei tells her.

  "What?" Rei asked her.

  "Follow me." Lei tells her.

  "What for?" Rei asked her.

  "Shh! You cannot let that creep to know that I found him, do you?" Lei said to her in a whisper.

  "Seriously?" Rei asked her.

  "Just follow me, ok?!" Lei tells her in a whisper.

  Rei follows Lei's lead. Lei quickly bypasses the fakes, and she is heading for the real Latoro. As the pair tries to get close, Latoro turns to see that two of Shokei's party members are coming after him.

  "What the?! No, I don't think so!" Latoro shouted.

  Latoro reacted quickly by using a fire spell against them. Lei sees the attack coming and she used her psychic assault to deflect the magic back at him. Latoro quickly teleports away from his own attack and reappears in a spot to where Ferron is standing by.

  "There!" Ferron said and swung his bde at the enemy.

  "Ack!!" Latoro cried out in a panic.

  With quick thinking, Latoro teleports away and reappears again. It was too te for him to make another move as Naoko jumps and attacks the gnome from behind. Latoro is sent to the ground as soon as he got hit. Once the enemy fell to the ground, the party members surround him.

  "Gahhh!!" Latoro cried out in fear as he was outnumbered.

  "Gotcha!" Saeko said, pointing her nce against the enemy's neck.

  "You won't get out that easily!" Shokei tells him.

  Latoro looks around to see that Shokei and her party have him trapped in a circle.

  "You might as well give up as you can." Shokei tells the enemy.

  "Accept defeat you little bastard!" Marie tells him.

  Latoro wanted to make another move. Instead, the enemy ughs as he smiled.

  "Heheh...you may have got me cornered." Latoro tells them and looks at Lei. "You should be lucky to find a way around my illusion technique. I will remember this."

  Latoro snaps his fingers and then he vanishes, leaving the area.

  "What?" Shokei said, surprised to see the gnome leaving on a short notice. "Damn! And we were this close in killing this bastard."

  "At least he cowered out in defeat." Rei tells her. "Never mind him. He's gone for good, and I bet one day, we'll encounter him next time."

  "It would have been better if that fiend was dead and not to be spared another day..." Shokei said. "Despite his annoyance, you're probably right Rei. It's best to let him go."

  "Now that creep is gone, we should head back to that Troll." Marie said to Shokei. "I think he's waiting for our return."

  "You're right." Shokei said. "I don't know if he's waiting impatiently, but let's head back to him right now."

  The party agrees and they all leave the area.