Having snagged their first victory, the trio rode triumphantly through the Training Course. Some of them were hoping to snag more monsters to fight before this assignment would end, whereas one of them would count his blessings and hope for no more monsters, up to the one that was causing all of the problems around here. As far as he was concerned, the fewer monsters they had to fight, the better. This was training, but there was never a need to over-train yourself. That can end up being unhealthy.

They turned a corner and starting walking through the forest path, leading towards a ladder. After that first set of monsters, they hadn't seen any around. Hitoshi was carefully looking around the area, as he led them through it, and it was all very quiet. It was extremely quiet, in fact. They couldn't hear anything but the wind blowing. It was a blessing not to have any monsters trying to surprise-attack them, but something about all of this seemed off. They soon came to the ladder that led down to a waterfall and another forest path. Hitoshi took the lead and slowly descended the ladder, soon followed by Tarou, and then Sei.

As they reached the bottom, the three of them looked at one another. All of this was so confusing. The Training Course was never this quiet. Why? Could it have been that the monster, or person, or whatever was annihilating the normal population was nearby? None of them could be sure, at first. They began to ask one another about it, getting mixed responses from any of them. It made sense that the monster could be nearby and, if it was, would prove great for their mission. Come down, fight one batch of monsters, get rid of the big baddy, and then go right back up to Moriko.

The trio headed down, past the waterfall and across a bridge. Hidden behind the trees, the trio looked and saw something half-buried in the dirt. Hitoshi was the first to kneel down in front of it to see what it was. Perhaps it had something to do with whatever was around here. As he yanked, dirt flew everywhere as a backpack came out of the ground. They all looked at it and at each other. They figured that someone must have dropped it, while training. Hitoshi put it across his back as they turned around. As they did so, Tarou pointed back, towards the waterfall.

After a few moments of discussion and confusion, they went back and Tarou pointed out what he saw. He thought he'd heard some sort of screech over by the waterfall. Directly in front of the waterfall was a small patch of land, just big enough to fit a few people on, with rocks leading to it and away from it. Beyond the path of land, however, was a rising surge of foam. There was plenty of foam that came from the waterfall, but it wasn't where the falls hit the water. It was closer to that patch of land. Could someone or something be under the water right there?

Deciding it was worth checking out, the three of them hopped out to that land-mass and looked down at the foam. It definitely wasn't from the waterfall. They thought about tossing something into the water, where it was, but there was no need. From the moment that they'd reached their, the foam rose up into the sky, like a geiser. They all looked back at each other, confused, as they covered themselves with their arms, water raining down towards them. Within a moment, a loud, monstrous scream forced them all to draw their weapons. The geiser slowly disappeared and, in it's place, was a huge monster.

The monster, itself, was nothing any of them had ever seen before, in the Training Course. It was a huge scorpion-like monster. It's body was at least 15 feet across, not including it's tail. Apart from that, it looked like it's torso was covered in a steel-like black shell. It had pincers the size of their heads and size legs. It had a blue hint to it's skin and emerald-green eyes, staring at all of them as it lunged towards the small piece of land they were on.

Trying to move as fast as they could, the three jumped into the air, headed towards the rocks on either side of the land-mass. As Sei came back, he tossed his sword towards the monster. At the same time, Hitoshi came into the air and fell towards it for a quick Double-Cut. The two blades struck the beast, but it's body barely budged at all. Hitoshi had cut into it's tail, but the tail whipped around, shoving him off, landing him on the rock below, barely hanging onto it. The sword Sei had thrown had struck the beast, but was launched back at him. As he caught it in his hand, the force pushed him off, leaving him barely hanging onto a rock as well.

The monster looked at Tarou, who had just landed on his own rock. It lunged forward, snapping it's claws at him. He ducked and held his staff out in defense of the blow. A small, barrier-like shield appeared around him as the beast struck. He winced as he felt the pain of the blow, until the monster was repelled back to the water where it started. Tarou quickly turned to see that both Hitoshi and Sei were soaking wet and pulling themselves back onto the rocks where they landed.

This beast was formidable. It was no wonder that the normal monsters held here were being annihilated. This thing could hold it's own against three students of the academy. Tarou called out to the two of them, devising a strategy. They would have to use their combined efforts to destroy this thing. Hitoshi nodded in agreement, whereas Sei had already launched himself into the air.

“Let's see how quick you are after this! It's called...Jack the Ripper!”

The two of them watched as Sei flew through the air, his blade letting off a silver hue as he struck down into the creature's legs. It screamed out in pain as he took rapid slashed, one on each leg, cutting right into its body and severing the legs. As he jumped up, the monster screamed and fell on it's back, revealing a soft belly. Sei jumped away and yelled at the two of them. “Now, before it gets back up! Finish it!”

Hitoshi and Tarou didn't need to be told twice. Hitoshi launched a Double-Cut, slicing right into the belly of the monster. It let out a pain-filled screech as it was cut open. It's tail was swerving around, frantically. Hitoshi jumped, just missing the range of that tail, as clouds formed above the sky once again. Tarou called down a Thunderbolt, which was sent straight into the cut and severed that monster into a million pieces. As it sunk into the water, the three of them nearly collapsed, as they realized that it was gone. Well, except for Tarou, who had only defended himself and cast a spell.

No one said this mission was going to be easy, but at least they had taken care of the monster. Now, they could head back up to Moriko, and then the Beach...