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Description
Previously on Project MANA!
Our heroes had begun an attack on the Elemental extremists, but try as they might, their struggles were in vain as they were captured and imprisoned in separate cells throughout the dungeon in the enemy base. But Young Byaku was able to break free of his bonds using his fire magic and is now searching for his imprisoned team-mates.

“Alright, time to get to work” Byaku said as he snuck from his cell and began scouting the halls and corridors of the dungeon he and his team were captive in. As he crept through the dungeon, Byaku could see that the guards were patrolling the dungeon at timed intervals, something that Byaku could work around easily. When you grow up in a place called ‘Death City’, you pick up how to be sneaky very easily. “Hm…if these guys are smart, they’re holding Ame and Jett at opposite ends of the dungeon…now who do I bust out first…hm…” Byaku thought to himself as he made his way to what he thought would be the southern end of the dungeon. “…As useful as Ame’s wind magic is, Jett’s Rage Form is much more useful.”

Meanwhile, Gadget is passing up and down her cell, being unable to break out of her cell without using her Rage From was making her frustrated. Unfortunately, not frustrated enough to awaken the Rage Form. When suddenly she could hear a ‘psst!’ come from outside her cell, when she looked over, she could see Byaku hanging upside down from the ceiling grinning at her from under his mask. “Call a guard, I’ll take care of the rest.” Byaku whispered to this team-mate. Gadget nodded, then called “OI! Guard! I need somethin’!” Soon, an Earth Elemental walked around the corner and barked, “What? Meat-bag!” “…uh…I uh…need to tinkle…” She murmured to the guard, not thinking of what to say before calling the guard. “What? What the stone is a tinkle?” The guard would ask. Gadget then began trying to tell the guard in as less detail as possible what needing to tinkle was, all the while Byaku silently dropped from the ceiling and sneaking up behind the admittedly small elemental. Byaku then summoned a construct Revolver and tapped the guard on the shoulder. “Huh? Wha-oh…uh oh…”

“Say ‘ah’ dirt-bag!” Byaku said then blasted the elementals face off. Causing a small explosion. “Huh? That didn’t happen when I offed Rockzar.” Byaku said as he melted the lock on Gadgets cell. “Took ya long enough, and what does it matter? You shot it, things that get shot generally explode.” Gadget said as she stepped out of her cell, stretching her arms and legs. “So where’s Ame?” “We’re going to get him now, I figured we could use your ra-” “YOU DOLT! I can’t just turn it on-and-off!” Gadget said, cutting Byaku off with a bash to the head “Ouch! Alright, alright, so this is going to be harder than I thought. And don’t shout, the other guards will hear you, they’re patrolling every couple of minutes.” Byaku cried as he rubbed he head. “Well, then we’ll just have to make our way through and take out any elementals along the way, it’ll be 2 on 1 so we should be fine.” “…Fine, but we better be fast, I don’t want Ame to be kept waiting.” Gadget said as she grabbed her wrench from her pouch and extended it into its staff form. “Alright, won’t be needing this anymore.” Byaku said as he snapped his fingers, returning his combat suit back to normal. “Wait, what’s with the guns? 3 barrels? Isn’t that just a little excessive?” Gadget asked after seeing the construct revolvers Byaku had made, having 3 large barrels, making look more like a literal ‘hand-cannon’ then a gun. “I figured it would look cooler, and besides, 3 barrels are better then 1, and 6 are better than 3.” Byaku said, smirking at his creative design. “Alright, let’s get going.”

The two mages then began making their way through the dungeon, checking every cell to see if Ame was in any of them. Eventually, they came across a guard, thankfully it had its back turned to Byaku and Gadget. “Would you like the honours, Jett?” “Don’t mind if I do!” Gadget said, launching herself at the elemental, jamming her staff into its back, sending electricity through it. The elemental then exploded from the attack. “Woh! Now THAT was cool!” “Well yeah, it WAS me who did the killing this time.” Gadget said with a smirk. “Whatever, let me show you how a REAL mage kills some elementals!” Byaku said as he began running down the hall, which drew the attention of two guards who were standing around talking. Byaku began gathering his mana, then darted forward with a flurry of strikes with his scythes, completely shredding one guard, then Byaku stopped with his back turned to the other guard. The guard, snarling and about to charge with an attack, was shocked when Byaku spun around with two construct revolvers summoned and began blasting off chunks of the elemental, then finishing it off with a dual shot to the head, causing the elemental to explode.

“Ok, I’ll admit, that was kinda impressive, Yakate.” Gadget said as she walked up to Byaku, who was admiring his handy work, and by handy work I mean the chunks of dead elemental strewn around the floor (what a sadist!). “Done yet?” a familiar voice came from a nearby cell, overseeing the fighting Byaku and Gadget had just been doing. It was Ame, who was sitting in a meditative pose. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to come out now.” He said as he was getting up. “Hey! Ame! Alright, hang on a sec.” Byaku said as he melted the lock to the cell. “They probably know where we are now, so we’ll need to be quick if we don’t want to be outnumbered again.” Ame proposed as he exited his cell. “We’ve already killed at least a couple of them, what’s the big deal?” Byaku retorted, his confidence clearly showing. “He’s right, ya know. You’re just barmy if you want what happened last time.” Byaku grunted, and admitted that maybe they should let Ame take the lead for now. “So do you have anything in particular in mind, or…” Byaku began to ask, but was interrupted. “Wait...” Ame said silently, concentrating. What he was concentrating on was something Byaku was slightly confused about, but he decided to play along.

“7 up that way… 23 over there… just one over in that direction… there’s slight wind where he is too… the exit..? No, it’s a trap. Our only option..? Maybe…” Ame began contemplating the odds. The other two just stared blankly at him. “Alright, I’ve got it.” Ame said, calmly, but with a slight sense of urgency. “There’s 3 ways we can go from here to get out of this place. One way has about 7 elementals all grouped together along the way. It’s not the safest way, but it’s the shortest. Another has anywhere from 20 to 25 elementals, spread out pretty thinly. We attract any attention through there, we’re done. Lastly, there seems to be a path that leads to a large room. There’s only one elemental there, but…” he said, listing the choices to Byaku and gadget, but was interrupted. “I say we pick that one!” Byaku shouted and was then hushed by gadget. “Shut up! Do you want them to find us NOW?” Byaku calmed down as Ame began to continue. “That last path seems like it’s definitely the most dangerous. That elemental seems really strange, and he’s in a really large room. Really quite large. He’s… just waiting there. I don’t like it. But, it really does seem like it’s the best option we have. There’s a small draft coming from there, and there’s only one enemy.” He said, anxious at the prospect. “What do you two think?” he continued, making a cue for input from his teammates.

“I still think that last one’s best.” Said Byaku, certain that this option was the way to go. Gadget took a moment to think. “I’m tied between the first and last one. If we took the path with 7, it’d be the most certain, but we’d get attention. But if the last one was anywhere near the exit, we could just make a break for it. However, you said there’s a strange one just waiting there. This does look like a prison… the warden, maybe..?” she gave it another moment. “Alright, I think the last option’s the best, too. We get lucky, it’ll be a cinch!”

“Before we go, shouldn’t we get our things? Or was I the only one robbed of my swords?” Ame suggested, emphasizing how important they are to him. “Can’t you just get another pair? Sure, I’m gonna miss my hover board, but we don’t need to risk our lives over them.” Byaku retorted, not seeing the importance that Ame’s swords and Byaku’s hover board might have in this situation. “A swordsman’s sword is his life. It’s his soul, an extension of himself! Beyond even that, no, I can’t get another pair. They’re pretty unique. They were made for me, and nobody else.” Ame could have gone on, but Byaku gave up. “Okay, okay, we’ll get our stuff... So which way, oh fearless leader~?” Byaku asked grumpily. “Think I’ve got ya covered for that!” gadget exclaimed whilst smiling brightly.

Clearly, she’s excited about something. “Hang on just a second…~” she instructed as she got something out of her left pocket. A remote? It sure looked like it. “What’s that?” Ame inquired, curious of what she had in mind. “I said hang on!” gadget raised her voice ever so slightly as she grabbed a handful of small orb-like objects from her right pocket. She began to throw them in different directions, as leg-like protrusions popped out of them. The moment they landed, it looked as though they were scurrying away. “Seriously, what WAS that..?” Byaku asked, utterly puzzled by what he just witnessed. Gadget pulled just one more of them out and spread out her hand, the tiny orb springing to life in the middle of her palm. “I normally hate spiders, but these guys are pretty cool. I call ‘em CameraCrawlers! The survey the surroundings and make a map which shows up on here!” she pointed out the display on the device in her other hand. A kind of shape was forming and expanding slowly. “pretty cool, huh~?” she said, admiring her marvels of ingenuity as she turned her hand slowly, and the small spider-like entity crawled about in an attempt to stay upright. “That’s kinda weird, dude…” Byaku muttered, a little creeped out by them. Gadget rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Look, let’s just wait here a few minutes, and then we can go get our stuff! Look, they’ve already covered a lot of ground!” she said, pointing out the device in her hand again. The shape grew considerably. It became apparent this was a map of their surroundings. “If that’s a map, then we’re really lucky you brought that...” Ame said, at the very least a little bit bewildered at her invention. Gadget blushed lightly. “W-well, you see… I didn’t actually bring it before we came here...” Byaku’s eyes widened. “So, what, did you… make them..? Wait... Here?! ON THE SPOT?!” his jaw dropped to the floor at the realization. Ame was also quite surprised by this.

“Wow, that’s amazing…” gadget became a little embarrassed. “Oh, stop it…” she said. In an attempt to try and change the topic, she realized that there seemed to be a lot of dead ends starting to pop up on the map. “Before we start, we should probably go over this map a bit...” the two boys weren’t convinced at all by this blatant attempt to make them stop gawking at her resourcefulness; however she DID have a point. So they began to listen intently to her. “First thing’s first, the cant sense mana, so we can’t tell which way has the least or most guards.” Byaku and Ame nodded, urging her to continue. “That’s probably where you come in. I’m gonna need you to tell me how many guards there are nearby.” She continued, looking at Ame. “I can do that.” He said. “Okay. Next, we’re going to need to figure out how to get around without being noticed.” Gadget stated further. It had crossed Ame’s mind that these devices were actually visible. “That might be a problem…” he suggested, concerned. “We’ll be fine, just relax!” gadget bonked him on the head and let Ame continue. “These spiders can actually be seen, so it’s likely that with those crawling around, we’ve already been spotted, especially since that room was explored.” He explained, pointing out the large room on the map. “That’s the room I sensed the strange elemental from. The elementals are serious business enough, but that one’s so much more powerful than the rest, he’s definitely spotted it.”

Gadget realized the danger of that prospect. “Wait… so, he could know that we’re trying to escape..?!” Ame closed his eyes. “I’m betting he already knows that.” Ame just realized something possibly quite grave “that’s… that’s why he set it up the way he has!” Byaku began to grow concerned. “What do you mean ‘he set it up that way’?” he asked, afraid of what could be happening. “My guess is, he’s actually letting us confront of him. That aside… back when we got captured, it seemed endless, how many of the enemy there were… now there’s… what, 31 in this entire complex that I can see..? It’s some kind of trap, that much is obvious by now.” Gadget and Byaku both realized the gravity of what’s going on. “…so… he’s challenging us, then… that mean he thinks he can actually take us all on at once..?” gadget said, both intimidated and intrigued by this. “Sounds terrifying… I’m so bloody scared right now. I’m shaking in me boots... But somehow I’m excited too..!” she continued, anxiously waiting for this upcoming battle.

“Uh, gadget..? I really don’t think that’s how fear works…” said Byaku, with a slightly confused look on his face. “Yeah, its bollocks, I know, but that’s just how it is.” Gadget said. About a minute of silent thought passed before she decided to check on the map once more. “…EY! It’s finished!” she exclaimed, her eyes glued to the now complete map. “Over there looks like some sort of storage cabinet... Ame?” she said, and then cued for Ame to check for elementals. A couple moments of silence passed by. “…there’s no one…” he said, becoming worried. “Why do I get that’s a bad thing..?” inquired Byaku, growing concerned. “What I mean is, there’s absolutely nobody, except for the strange one in the room. The other 30 elementals I sensed just… disappeared…” after that, gadget became somewhat concerned. “Bugger it all, let’s just go. We get attention, it’s our own fault.” Byaku decided to go along with it, and, reluctantly, so did Ame. “c’mon, up this way!” said gadget, beginning to run up the hall, eyes glued to the map. The other two followed, scanning their surroundings for elementals as they travelled. A right here, a left there, the place seemed more and more like a massive, winding maze by the minute. Speaking of minutes, it took quite a few to actually find the place where their equipment. They began to investigate every nook and cranny.

“FOUND IT!” boomed Byaku, brandishing his hoverboard with endless pride and joy. “Good, that’s good…” said Ame, with a slightly forlorn look on his face. “Hey... Are you okay..?” gadget asked. “Um... Yeah, I’m fine... I just can’t find my swords anywhere...” he said, still searching for them. “Look, it’ll be fine... Just, relax a little, okay..?” she said, trying to console Ame. “I can’t. Not until I find them. I know you’re just trying to help, and I appreciate that, but like I said before, a swordsman’s sword is his life… his soul. Without my swords, I’m incomplete.” Gadget simply nodded. She got up, and she exclaimed aloud; “Right, well we need to find Ame’s swords. They’re pretty damn important so we can’t leave without ‘em.” Byaku nodded and began to search some more. “Hey, um, gadget? Do you mind if I have another look at that map?” inquired Ame, as he approached her again. “Sure, okay. “She said, passing him the device. “Okay, so that’s the map, there. Up in the corner, that’s a compass. The little dots moving about are the spiders, and the really thin lines are doors and such.” She explained. Ame thanked her and took a look. He discovered a room that looked similar to this on almost the opposite side of the building. “Is it okay if I checked over here?” he asked gadget, longing to see his swords again. “I’d advise against going alone, but if you really want to…” she said, knowing what he’d do anyway. He nodded. “…thank you.” He said silently, with a faint smile on his face. Without a first thought let alone a second, he rushed away and disappeared without a trace.

He dashed up the winding halls, darting around corners without any concern for himself. If it meant he would find his swords, he’d pay damn near any price. Meanwhile, Byaku was also looking for his swords, when he noticed Ame wasn’t around. “Uh… Jett? Where’s Ame..?” gadget was busy doing as she does with her inventions. “Ahem!” he added, in further attempt to get her attention. She looked up at Byaku. “Where’s Ame?” he repeated. “Oh, he went to go look for his swords.” She explained, going back to what she was doing. “What?! And neither of you at least told me that he was going to leave?!” he said as he began to grow worried. “Reeeelaaaaaax!” she said. “Ame only sensed one elemental, and he’s just sitting pretty. He’s got nothing to worry about, so just let ‘im be.” She continued. Byaku gave up. He let out a sigh, and sat down next to gadget. “So, what’re you doing?” asked Byaku, semi-curious. She glanced in his general direction and grunted.

At the same time, Ame was investigating room after room, looking frantically for his swords, when in one room, he spotted something most curious. He opened the door to find a slender, very human-like elemental in front of him. She seemed quite feminine, and she slowly approached the man, having a somewhat promiscuous air about her. “Hello, you must be the one who’s gonna finally give him a fight to remember. You look pretty strong, you know…~” it or, ‘she’, judging by appearances, said. “…who-...” Ame tried to speak, but the strange womanly figure pressed a finger against his lips. “Shhhh~… everything’s okay. I’ve been waiting for you.” She said in a soothing tone. She turned to pick something up that was behind her. “…My swor-…” Ame made a second attempt at speaking, but the strange figure hushed him with the press of a finger for a second time. “Just be quiet. Here, I looked after these while you were all pent up in that itty bitty cell…~” she said, putting Ame’s swords back the way they were for him. “Hey… I want you to do something for me, okay?” she whispered in his ear. Afraid to talk, he just nodded slightly. “Mop the floor with him.” She said. He then proceeded to nod gently again. “Okay, now get outta here. Your friends’re worried about you.” She said, gesturing for him to leave.

Without a word, he left, proceeding back the way he came, this time in a much less rushed fashion. It took a while for Ame to get that strange woman-like figure out of his head. Was she an elemental? Doubtful, she appeared too human, but she definitely wasn’t that either. And how come he couldn’t sense her? It was strange… Whoever she was though, she definitely wasn’t the enemy. With that in mind, he finally got back. The two were waiting anxiously for him; gadget was beginning to get worried, when Byaku already was. “What took you so long?! And couldn’t you at least have told me you were leaving?! JEEZ!!” Byaku carried on, clearly upset at Ame’s prolonged absence. “Sorry I’m late. I thought I’d only be a minute or two. But it was well worth it…” he apologized, then glanced down at is swords with a pleased look on your face. “It’s good to have you back. Gotta admit, I was kinda worried.” Gadget said, a little quietly compared to usual. “…sorry…” Ame replied, with a sincere tone. “No, no, it’s fine! Really.” Gadget said, trying to reassure Ame everything was alright. “Well, now that we’re all good and ready let’s go kick some elemental butt and get the heck outta here! Whaddya say, guys?” Byaku shouted heartily, clearly ready for some action.

Ame and gadget take a moment to collect themselves as they follow Byaku out the door, on the way to the heart of the enemy. They stride their way there, ready and revving at full throttle. They press onward, feeling ready to take on anything that might confront them, as though all the worries they had before had melted away. Trap or no, they will pull through. They WILL. Their lives and possibly many others count on it. It feels like an eternity before they actually get there, but they finally do. And they stop just before a pair of massive iron doors. “Alright guys, this’s it.” Said Byaku. The other two just nodded. They took this moment to get just that bit more pumped up before the potentially massive battle before them. Ame took a deep breath in. he walked at the doors at a slightly accelerated rate, and put his hands on them and blasted them right off their hinges as the trio enter the room.

“I’ve been… waiting for you.” A loud and mysterious voice, echoed across the room.

Who’s this unknown menace that stands before our three heroes? WILL they pull through? Seriously, are these things ever gonna be uploaded in a timely fashion ever again? Find out this, and more, in the next exiting chapter of... PROJECT MANA!!

Description
Previously on Project MANA!
Our heroes had begun an attack on the Elemental extremists, but try as they might, their struggles were in vain as they were captured and imprisoned in separate cells throughout the dungeon in the enemy base. But Young Byaku was able to break free of his bonds using his fire magic and is now searching for his imprisoned team-mates.

“Alright, time to get to work” Byaku said as he snuck from his cell and began scouting the halls and corridors of the dungeon he and his team were captive in. As he crept through the dungeon, Byaku could see that the guards were patrolling the dungeon at timed intervals, something that Byaku could work around easily. When you grow up in a place called ‘Death City’, you pick up how to be sneaky very easily. “Hm…if these guys are smart, they’re holding Ame and Jett at opposite ends of the dungeon…now who do I bust out first…hm…” Byaku thought to himself as he made his way to what he thought would be the southern end of the dungeon. “…As useful as Ame’s wind magic is, Jett’s Rage Form is much more useful.”

Meanwhile, Gadget is passing up and down her cell, being unable to break out of her cell without using her Rage From was making her frustrated. Unfortunately, not frustrated enough to awaken the Rage Form. When suddenly she could hear a ‘psst!’ come from outside her cell, when she looked over, she could see Byaku hanging upside down from the ceiling grinning at her from under his mask. “Call a guard, I’ll take care of the rest.” Byaku whispered to this team-mate. Gadget nodded, then called “OI! Guard! I need somethin’!” Soon, an Earth Elemental walked around the corner and barked, “What? Meat-bag!” “…uh…I uh…need to tinkle…” She murmured to the guard, not thinking of what to say before calling the guard. “What? What the stone is a tinkle?” The guard would ask. Gadget then began trying to tell the guard in as less detail as possible what needing to tinkle was, all the while Byaku silently dropped from the ceiling and sneaking up behind the admittedly small elemental. Byaku then summoned a construct Revolver and tapped the guard on the shoulder. “Huh? Wha-oh…uh oh…”

“Say ‘ah’ dirt-bag!” Byaku said then blasted the elementals face off. Causing a small explosion. “Huh? That didn’t happen when I offed Rockzar.” Byaku said as he melted the lock on Gadgets cell. “Took ya long enough, and what does it matter? You shot it, things that get shot generally explode.” Gadget said as she stepped out of her cell, stretching her arms and legs. “So where’s Ame?” “We’re going to get him now, I figured we could use your ra-” “YOU DOLT! I can’t just turn it on-and-off!” Gadget said, cutting Byaku off with a bash to the head “Ouch! Alright, alright, so this is going to be harder than I thought. And don’t shout, the other guards will hear you, they’re patrolling every couple of minutes.” Byaku cried as he rubbed he head. “Well, then we’ll just have to make our way through and take out any elementals along the way, it’ll be 2 on 1 so we should be fine.” “…Fine, but we better be fast, I don’t want Ame to be kept waiting.” Gadget said as she grabbed her wrench from her pouch and extended it into its staff form. “Alright, won’t be needing this anymore.” Byaku said as he snapped his fingers, returning his combat suit back to normal. “Wait, what’s with the guns? 3 barrels? Isn’t that just a little excessive?” Gadget asked after seeing the construct revolvers Byaku had made, having 3 large barrels, making look more like a literal ‘hand-cannon’ then a gun. “I figured it would look cooler, and besides, 3 barrels are better then 1, and 6 are better than 3.” Byaku said, smirking at his creative design. “Alright, let’s get going.”

The two mages then began making their way through the dungeon, checking every cell to see if Ame was in any of them. Eventually, they came across a guard, thankfully it had its back turned to Byaku and Gadget. “Would you like the honours, Jett?” “Don’t mind if I do!” Gadget said, launching herself at the elemental, jamming her staff into its back, sending electricity through it. The elemental then exploded from the attack. “Woh! Now THAT was cool!” “Well yeah, it WAS me who did the killing this time.” Gadget said with a smirk. “Whatever, let me show you how a REAL mage kills some elementals!” Byaku said as he began running down the hall, which drew the attention of two guards who were standing around talking. Byaku began gathering his mana, then darted forward with a flurry of strikes with his scythes, completely shredding one guard, then Byaku stopped with his back turned to the other guard. The guard, snarling and about to charge with an attack, was shocked when Byaku spun around with two construct revolvers summoned and began blasting off chunks of the elemental, then finishing it off with a dual shot to the head, causing the elemental to explode.

“Ok, I’ll admit, that was kinda impressive, Yakate.” Gadget said as she walked up to Byaku, who was admiring his handy work, and by handy work I mean the chunks of dead elemental strewn around the floor (what a sadist!). “Done yet?” a familiar voice came from a nearby cell, overseeing the fighting Byaku and Gadget had just been doing. It was Ame, who was sitting in a meditative pose. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to come out now.” He said as he was getting up. “Hey! Ame! Alright, hang on a sec.” Byaku said as he melted the lock to the cell. “They probably know where we are now, so we’ll need to be quick if we don’t want to be outnumbered again.” Ame proposed as he exited his cell. “We’ve already killed at least a couple of them, what’s the big deal?” Byaku retorted, his confidence clearly showing. “He’s right, ya know. You’re just barmy if you want what happened last time.” Byaku grunted, and admitted that maybe they should let Ame take the lead for now. “So do you have anything in particular in mind, or…” Byaku began to ask, but was interrupted. “Wait...” Ame said silently, concentrating. What he was concentrating on was something Byaku was slightly confused about, but he decided to play along.

“7 up that way… 23 over there… just one over in that direction… there’s slight wind where he is too… the exit..? No, it’s a trap. Our only option..? Maybe…” Ame began contemplating the odds. The other two just stared blankly at him. “Alright, I’ve got it.” Ame said, calmly, but with a slight sense of urgency. “There’s 3 ways we can go from here to get out of this place. One way has about 7 elementals all grouped together along the way. It’s not the safest way, but it’s the shortest. Another has anywhere from 20 to 25 elementals, spread out pretty thinly. We attract any attention through there, we’re done. Lastly, there seems to be a path that leads to a large room. There’s only one elemental there, but…” he said, listing the choices to Byaku and gadget, but was interrupted. “I say we pick that one!” Byaku shouted and was then hushed by gadget. “Shut up! Do you want them to find us NOW?” Byaku calmed down as Ame began to continue. “That last path seems like it’s definitely the most dangerous. That elemental seems really strange, and he’s in a really large room. Really quite large. He’s… just waiting there. I don’t like it. But, it really does seem like it’s the best option we have. There’s a small draft coming from there, and there’s only one enemy.” He said, anxious at the prospect. “What do you two think?” he continued, making a cue for input from his teammates.

“I still think that last one’s best.” Said Byaku, certain that this option was the way to go. Gadget took a moment to think. “I’m tied between the first and last one. If we took the path with 7, it’d be the most certain, but we’d get attention. But if the last one was anywhere near the exit, we could just make a break for it. However, you said there’s a strange one just waiting there. This does look like a prison… the warden, maybe..?” she gave it another moment. “Alright, I think the last option’s the best, too. We get lucky, it’ll be a cinch!”

“Before we go, shouldn’t we get our things? Or was I the only one robbed of my swords?” Ame suggested, emphasizing how important they are to him. “Can’t you just get another pair? Sure, I’m gonna miss my hover board, but we don’t need to risk our lives over them.” Byaku retorted, not seeing the importance that Ame’s swords and Byaku’s hover board might have in this situation. “A swordsman’s sword is his life. It’s his soul, an extension of himself! Beyond even that, no, I can’t get another pair. They’re pretty unique. They were made for me, and nobody else.” Ame could have gone on, but Byaku gave up. “Okay, okay, we’ll get our stuff... So which way, oh fearless leader~?” Byaku asked grumpily. “Think I’ve got ya covered for that!” gadget exclaimed whilst smiling brightly.

Clearly, she’s excited about something. “Hang on just a second…~” she instructed as she got something out of her left pocket. A remote? It sure looked like it. “What’s that?” Ame inquired, curious of what she had in mind. “I said hang on!” gadget raised her voice ever so slightly as she grabbed a handful of small orb-like objects from her right pocket. She began to throw them in different directions, as leg-like protrusions popped out of them. The moment they landed, it looked as though they were scurrying away. “Seriously, what WAS that..?” Byaku asked, utterly puzzled by what he just witnessed. Gadget pulled just one more of them out and spread out her hand, the tiny orb springing to life in the middle of her palm. “I normally hate spiders, but these guys are pretty cool. I call ‘em CameraCrawlers! The survey the surroundings and make a map which shows up on here!” she pointed out the display on the device in her other hand. A kind of shape was forming and expanding slowly. “pretty cool, huh~?” she said, admiring her marvels of ingenuity as she turned her hand slowly, and the small spider-like entity crawled about in an attempt to stay upright. “That’s kinda weird, dude…” Byaku muttered, a little creeped out by them. Gadget rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Look, let’s just wait here a few minutes, and then we can go get our stuff! Look, they’ve already covered a lot of ground!” she said, pointing out the device in her hand again. The shape grew considerably. It became apparent this was a map of their surroundings. “If that’s a map, then we’re really lucky you brought that...” Ame said, at the very least a little bit bewildered at her invention. Gadget blushed lightly. “W-well, you see… I didn’t actually bring it before we came here...” Byaku’s eyes widened. “So, what, did you… make them..? Wait... Here?! ON THE SPOT?!” his jaw dropped to the floor at the realization. Ame was also quite surprised by this.

“Wow, that’s amazing…” gadget became a little embarrassed. “Oh, stop it…” she said. In an attempt to try and change the topic, she realized that there seemed to be a lot of dead ends starting to pop up on the map. “Before we start, we should probably go over this map a bit...” the two boys weren’t convinced at all by this blatant attempt to make them stop gawking at her resourcefulness; however she DID have a point. So they began to listen intently to her. “First thing’s first, the cant sense mana, so we can’t tell which way has the least or most guards.” Byaku and Ame nodded, urging her to continue. “That’s probably where you come in. I’m gonna need you to tell me how many guards there are nearby.” She continued, looking at Ame. “I can do that.” He said. “Okay. Next, we’re going to need to figure out how to get around without being noticed.” Gadget stated further. It had crossed Ame’s mind that these devices were actually visible. “That might be a problem…” he suggested, concerned. “We’ll be fine, just relax!” gadget bonked him on the head and let Ame continue. “These spiders can actually be seen, so it’s likely that with those crawling around, we’ve already been spotted, especially since that room was explored.” He explained, pointing out the large room on the map. “That’s the room I sensed the strange elemental from. The elementals are serious business enough, but that one’s so much more powerful than the rest, he’s definitely spotted it.”

Gadget realized the danger of that prospect. “Wait… so, he could know that we’re trying to escape..?!” Ame closed his eyes. “I’m betting he already knows that.” Ame just realized something possibly quite grave “that’s… that’s why he set it up the way he has!” Byaku began to grow concerned. “What do you mean ‘he set it up that way’?” he asked, afraid of what could be happening. “My guess is, he’s actually letting us confront of him. That aside… back when we got captured, it seemed endless, how many of the enemy there were… now there’s… what, 31 in this entire complex that I can see..? It’s some kind of trap, that much is obvious by now.” Gadget and Byaku both realized the gravity of what’s going on. “…so… he’s challenging us, then… that mean he thinks he can actually take us all on at once..?” gadget said, both intimidated and intrigued by this. “Sounds terrifying… I’m so bloody scared right now. I’m shaking in me boots... But somehow I’m excited too..!” she continued, anxiously waiting for this upcoming battle.

“Uh, gadget..? I really don’t think that’s how fear works…” said Byaku, with a slightly confused look on his face. “Yeah, its bollocks, I know, but that’s just how it is.” Gadget said. About a minute of silent thought passed before she decided to check on the map once more. “…EY! It’s finished!” she exclaimed, her eyes glued to the now complete map. “Over there looks like some sort of storage cabinet... Ame?” she said, and then cued for Ame to check for elementals. A couple moments of silence passed by. “…there’s no one…” he said, becoming worried. “Why do I get that’s a bad thing..?” inquired Byaku, growing concerned. “What I mean is, there’s absolutely nobody, except for the strange one in the room. The other 30 elementals I sensed just… disappeared…” after that, gadget became somewhat concerned. “Bugger it all, let’s just go. We get attention, it’s our own fault.” Byaku decided to go along with it, and, reluctantly, so did Ame. “c’mon, up this way!” said gadget, beginning to run up the hall, eyes glued to the map. The other two followed, scanning their surroundings for elementals as they travelled. A right here, a left there, the place seemed more and more like a massive, winding maze by the minute. Speaking of minutes, it took quite a few to actually find the place where their equipment. They began to investigate every nook and cranny.

“FOUND IT!” boomed Byaku, brandishing his hoverboard with endless pride and joy. “Good, that’s good…” said Ame, with a slightly forlorn look on his face. “Hey... Are you okay..?” gadget asked. “Um... Yeah, I’m fine... I just can’t find my swords anywhere...” he said, still searching for them. “Look, it’ll be fine... Just, relax a little, okay..?” she said, trying to console Ame. “I can’t. Not until I find them. I know you’re just trying to help, and I appreciate that, but like I said before, a swordsman’s sword is his life… his soul. Without my swords, I’m incomplete.” Gadget simply nodded. She got up, and she exclaimed aloud; “Right, well we need to find Ame’s swords. They’re pretty damn important so we can’t leave without ‘em.” Byaku nodded and began to search some more. “Hey, um, gadget? Do you mind if I have another look at that map?” inquired Ame, as he approached her again. “Sure, okay. “She said, passing him the device. “Okay, so that’s the map, there. Up in the corner, that’s a compass. The little dots moving about are the spiders, and the really thin lines are doors and such.” She explained. Ame thanked her and took a look. He discovered a room that looked similar to this on almost the opposite side of the building. “Is it okay if I checked over here?” he asked gadget, longing to see his swords again. “I’d advise against going alone, but if you really want to…” she said, knowing what he’d do anyway. He nodded. “…thank you.” He said silently, with a faint smile on his face. Without a first thought let alone a second, he rushed away and disappeared without a trace.

He dashed up the winding halls, darting around corners without any concern for himself. If it meant he would find his swords, he’d pay damn near any price. Meanwhile, Byaku was also looking for his swords, when he noticed Ame wasn’t around. “Uh… Jett? Where’s Ame..?” gadget was busy doing as she does with her inventions. “Ahem!” he added, in further attempt to get her attention. She looked up at Byaku. “Where’s Ame?” he repeated. “Oh, he went to go look for his swords.” She explained, going back to what she was doing. “What?! And neither of you at least told me that he was going to leave?!” he said as he began to grow worried. “Reeeelaaaaaax!” she said. “Ame only sensed one elemental, and he’s just sitting pretty. He’s got nothing to worry about, so just let ‘im be.” She continued. Byaku gave up. He let out a sigh, and sat down next to gadget. “So, what’re you doing?” asked Byaku, semi-curious. She glanced in his general direction and grunted.

At the same time, Ame was investigating room after room, looking frantically for his swords, when in one room, he spotted something most curious. He opened the door to find a slender, very human-like elemental in front of him. She seemed quite feminine, and she slowly approached the man, having a somewhat promiscuous air about her. “Hello, you must be the one who’s gonna finally give him a fight to remember. You look pretty strong, you know…~” it or, ‘she’, judging by appearances, said. “…who-...” Ame tried to speak, but the strange womanly figure pressed a finger against his lips. “Shhhh~… everything’s okay. I’ve been waiting for you.” She said in a soothing tone. She turned to pick something up that was behind her. “…My swor-…” Ame made a second attempt at speaking, but the strange figure hushed him with the press of a finger for a second time. “Just be quiet. Here, I looked after these while you were all pent up in that itty bitty cell…~” she said, putting Ame’s swords back the way they were for him. “Hey… I want you to do something for me, okay?” she whispered in his ear. Afraid to talk, he just nodded slightly. “Mop the floor with him.” She said. He then proceeded to nod gently again. “Okay, now get outta here. Your friends’re worried about you.” She said, gesturing for him to leave.

Without a word, he left, proceeding back the way he came, this time in a much less rushed fashion. It took a while for Ame to get that strange woman-like figure out of his head. Was she an elemental? Doubtful, she appeared too human, but she definitely wasn’t that either. And how come he couldn’t sense her? It was strange… Whoever she was though, she definitely wasn’t the enemy. With that in mind, he finally got back. The two were waiting anxiously for him; gadget was beginning to get worried, when Byaku already was. “What took you so long?! And couldn’t you at least have told me you were leaving?! JEEZ!!” Byaku carried on, clearly upset at Ame’s prolonged absence. “Sorry I’m late. I thought I’d only be a minute or two. But it was well worth it…” he apologized, then glanced down at is swords with a pleased look on your face. “It’s good to have you back. Gotta admit, I was kinda worried.” Gadget said, a little quietly compared to usual. “…sorry…” Ame replied, with a sincere tone. “No, no, it’s fine! Really.” Gadget said, trying to reassure Ame everything was alright. “Well, now that we’re all good and ready let’s go kick some elemental butt and get the heck outta here! Whaddya say, guys?” Byaku shouted heartily, clearly ready for some action.

Ame and gadget take a moment to collect themselves as they follow Byaku out the door, on the way to the heart of the enemy. They stride their way there, ready and revving at full throttle. They press onward, feeling ready to take on anything that might confront them, as though all the worries they had before had melted away. Trap or no, they will pull through. They WILL. Their lives and possibly many others count on it. It feels like an eternity before they actually get there, but they finally do. And they stop just before a pair of massive iron doors. “Alright guys, this’s it.” Said Byaku. The other two just nodded. They took this moment to get just that bit more pumped up before the potentially massive battle before them. Ame took a deep breath in. he walked at the doors at a slightly accelerated rate, and put his hands on them and blasted them right off their hinges as the trio enter the room.

“I’ve been… waiting for you.” A loud and mysterious voice, echoed across the room.

Who’s this unknown menace that stands before our three heroes? WILL they pull through? Seriously, are these things ever gonna be uploaded in a timely fashion ever again? Find out this, and more, in the next exiting chapter of... PROJECT MANA!!