"Yeah, I've been fighting it alone. But it's weird. Even though I stabbed it and cut off parts of its body, the flesh just grows back," Rondo said.

  Tira was shocked. Her eyes went wide.

  After a few minutes of Tira using her healing magic on him, she stood up. The wounds on Rondo's body were slowly starting to close.

  "I'm going over there now to help Kenta. You want to catch up later?" Tira asked Rondo.

  "Yeah, I'll definitely catch up. Thanks for the help," Rondo answered, trying to get up slowly.

  "Alright then, I'm going first," Tira said, gripping her magic staff. She left Rondo behind.

  Rondo scanned his surroundings carefully. He was trying to find his sword that he lost earlier. Some leaves rustled nearby. Rondo tried to get closer. The closer he got... the clearer the sound became.

  Suddenly, a Shadow Boar jumped out, almost snapping at his face. Rondo tried to beat it with his bare hands. The Shadow Boar stared sharply at Rondo, and Rondo stared right back. Not long after, the boar tried to attack, but Rondo kicked it and punched it so hard it went flying back.

  Rondo immediately ran to get some distance from the monster. The Shadow Boar chased him, moving pretty fast. In the middle of running, Rondo tripped over something. His body slammed onto the ground, and the sound of metal being stepped on rang out loud. Rondo coughed from the dust flying around. He looked in front of him and saw the sword he had been looking for, Excalibur.

  He grabbed the sword and gripped it tight. Then, he turned around and ran back to chase the Shadow Boar. The boar turned and fled, terrified of Rondo. But suddenly...

  *Blast!

  Rondo snapped his head toward the direction where an energy shot came from.

  "You're recovered, right? You better help us now," Tira said, standing not far from him.

  "Alright," Rondo replied. Tira ran toward Giganoa, and Rondo followed close behind her.

  When Tira and Rondo arrived in front of Giganoa, who was raging at Kenta, Tira immediately called out to him. Kenta looked at her for a second, then turned his focus back to the monster.

  "Sorry, I'm a bit busy!" Kenta shouted while trying to shoot Giganoa's fingers with fire arrows. The fingers burned and vanished for a moment. But a few seconds later, they grew right back.

  Rondo watched Kenta fighting Giganoa with total focus.

  If his body regenerates that fast, small attacks won't work. So...

  Rondo thought to himself, studying Kenta's attacks on the giant.

  "Tira, can you cover me from a distance?" Rondo asked, turning his face to her.

  Tira looked at Rondo.

  "I can, but what are you planning? You going to do something reckless?" she asked back.

  "You could say that. Let's just hope it works," Rondo said, already sprinting toward Giganoa.

  "Hey wait—god, he just ran off like that. Dang, that alien... I hope his stupid idea actually works," Tira said, sounding annoyed. She watched Rondo running in the distance.

  Rondo tried to run and jump from one tree to a higher one. His feet almost slipped because his armor was so heavy. But he regained focus, running and leaping to the next high tree.

  The further Rondo ran and jumped, the closer he got to Giganoa. He stopped on a thick tree branch high up. He was panting hard. He looked ahead, there were no more branches to step on, only Giganoa's shoulder. From there, he tried to jump to reach the monster's shoulder.

  When his body was floating in the air with nothing to step on, Rondo quickly pulled the sword from his right pocket. He slammed the blade into Giganoa's shoulder. The monster screamed, whining in pain. Giganoa turned to look at Rondo and tried to grab him with its hand. But Tira immediately shot magic energy at the hand with her staff, stopping Giganoa from grabbing him.

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  "What do you think you're touching, huh?" Tira shouted arrogantly at the monster.

  Kenta lowered his bow, staring at Rondo who was standing on Giganoa's shoulder, pulling his stuck sword back out. He smiled a little seeing Rondo up there.

  A moment later, Rondo managed to pull his sword free.

  "Kenta, the eye!" Rondo yelled, staring at Kenta from above.

  Kenta immediately raised his bow again. His eyes locked onto Giganoa's eye.

  "Gotcha," Kenta said, launching a fire arrow. The arrow flew fast and stuck right into Giganoa's eye.

  The monster grimaced in pain, trying to rub its eye with its hand. But Tira stopped the hand again by shooting more magic energy. Giganoa winced in even more pain.

  Seeing the chance, Rondo immediately stabbed the monster's neck, then slashed quickly to the right. Giganoa's head fell, and when it hit the ground, it felt like an earthquake for a second. After chopping off the head, Rondo jumped down from the body. He ran toward Tira as fast as he could.

  When Rondo got to Tira, he was gasping for air.

  "Tira, now! Use your magic before his body regenerates again," Rondo begged, still panting.

  "Alright, I'll try," Tira replied, lifting her magic staff. She closed her eyes. Her mouth moved rapidly, reciting a spell.

  A few minutes later, she pointed her staff at Giganoa's body and head. Energy from the staff shot out, hitting the monster. The light was so bright Rondo couldn't even look at it. The heat was so intense that sweat started pouring down Tira's face.

  As the energy slowly faded, they saw Giganoa's body and head dissolving like dust in the wind.

  [Mission objective wave 3 successful!]

  [+600 Exp]

  Tira felt weak and collapsed.

  "Did... it... work?" Tira said, her feet finally flat on the ground. She smiled slowly.

  Kenta ran over to Tira and Rondo.

  "Hey, tell me that trick actually worked," Kenta said, looking at Rondo.

  "Yeah, looks like it worked," Rondo replied. His voice was a bit muffled by his iron helm.

  Rondo reached out his hand to Tira. She grabbed it and stood up, holding her staff in her right hand. The three of them put their arms around each other's shoulders. They smiled and laughed together for a few minutes.

  After breaking the hug, the two of them started talking.

  "We have to focus. Still 6 waves left," Kenta said.

  "Yeah, we shouldn't get too happy yet. But this little victory is worth celebrating a bit. It's all thanks to his crazy idea," Tira said, looking at Rondo.

  Rondo looked around, confused.

  "Me?" Rondo asked, pointing at himself.

  "Yeah, who else, alien?" Kenta said, laughing.

  "Well... he really is an alien, hahaha," Tira said, laughing along.

  "Guess the nickname alien isn't so bad after all, haha," Rondo said.

  A few minutes later, they tried to focus again on finishing the mission.

  [Next mission objective: defeat shadow army wave 4/10]

  [Mission objective wave 4 successful!]

  [+450 Exp]

  [Next mission objective: defeat shadow army wave 5/10]

  [Mission objective wave 5 successful!]

  [+500 Exp]

  [Next mission objective: defeat shadow army wave 6/10]

  [Mission objective wave 6 successful!]

  [+800 Exp]

  [Mission objective wave 7 successful!]

  [+600 Exp]

  [Mission objective wave 8 successful!]

  [+700 Exp]

  [Mission objective wave 9 successful!]

  [+1000 Exp]

  [Mission objective wave 10 successful!]

  [+2000 Exp]

  After taking a very long time and fighting through a super long battle, finally, the three of them worked together perfectly to finish the objectives smoothly without any issues. Some of their tools and abilities had upgraded significantly.

  Tira's magic staff was now lighter, and her magic effects were stronger. Rondo's sword was now the 'Sword of Bardian Himantium' type, and his armor was made of Himantium iron—light but super strong. Rondo also had a shield now, and Kenta's bow and arrows had various new powers.

  "Phew, finally done, haha. Time to go home, right?" Rondo said, handing an energy drink to Kenta, who was sitting down. Kenta took the drink and gulped it down.

  "Yeah, but that was so fun. Bro, it's a shame. These weapons are so cool, the air is fresh and cold... I kind of want to live here forever," Kenta said after finishing his drink.

  "Haha, true. To be honest... this is the only place where I can really be happy, even though fighting those shadow monsters is pretty tiring, right?" Rondo said with a small laugh. He drank his energy drink too.

  "Yeah, I agree. But this world is too real to be fiction. Too bad, huh? Just fiction," Kenta said, staring at the floor and touching the wall.

  "Well, what can we do? The reality is, the fictional world is much more fun than the real world, right? But how long are we going to stay in this fantasy?" Rondo said.

  "Until... we lose everything?" Kenta said with a slight laugh.

  "You mean your money, right?" Rondo replied, laughing.

  "RONDO! KENTA! HELPPP!!" Tira screamed from far away.

  Immediately, Rondo and Kenta stood up and ran fast, looking for where Tira's voice came from. As they ran around searching, the sky started getting darker. The darkness almost covered the whole environment around them.

  Finally, they saw Tira lying stiff on the ground in the distance. Behind her was a shadow figure and very tall and holding a huge sword. It turned to look at Rondo and Kenta. It walked slowly toward the two of them.

  A pop-up UI appeared in front of Rondo and Kenta.

  [Unexpected Boss appeared: Defeat Lord Shadow Master to save your teammate.]

  The Lord Shadow Master got closer to Rondo, right up to his face. It stared sharply at Rondo, and Rondo stared back just as sharply, ready to pull the sword from his right pocket.