Always the Last

"STOP!" Everyone shouted at the same time. Too late, though. 

*Kabrum!*

Linfel already shot down a bolt of lightning!

Electric currents spread through the pond, also hitting the creature inside.

*ROAR!*

*Shua!*

The pond opened as the creature burst out of it. It was some kind of green serpent with slimy scales and a head covered in a helmet of bones. It immediately looked at Linfel, understanding it was the reason for its pain earlier.

*Zush!*

It immediately shot in Linfel's direction, trying to swallow him whole. Linfel immediately fell inside the creature's mouth as it once again dove into the water. Yet, the pond suddenly shined with even more lightning, shocking the onlookers.

Finally, Donfin came back to himself. "Run!" Linfel was distracted by the Level Four Magic Beast, so that was their chance to get away.

No one thought twice and quickly ran away... except Alvin and Felia. "I can't leave Linfel behind!"

However, it was then that a voice appeared on his side. "What are you talking about? I'm right here..."

Everyone's expressions froze as they looked to the side. There, Linfel floated as if nothing had happened. 

Linfel didn't waste time, though. He quickly used his Magic Energy and pulled Alvin back with him. "That's an interesting Magic Beast, but it will be best if we don't engage it now. None of us can defeat it. Let's go back before it realizes it got the wrong target."

Everyone was puzzled, but it didn't matter now. The priority was to run away as fast as possible. They quickly disappeared into the distance while the Magic Beast's sound echoed behind.

*Roar!*

It seemed it finally noticed it had been fooled. Yet, once it came out of the water, there was no one there anymore. It roared in rage but refused to leave the pond itself. In the end, it dove back into the pond and disappeared to the bottom.

Almost an hour later, everyone finally stopped, feeling tired. Usually, such a distance wouldn't be much for Maguses and Familiars, but the terror of a possible pursuit left everyone at their wit's end.

Linfel, however, seemed fine. "Quite a strong guy. Unfortunately, it is also half blind. It was quite easy to trick it, although it would hardly work twice. By the way, any of you know which kind of magic Beast is that?"

The group looked at Linfel with weird expressions. Finally, Donfin exploded. "Are you crazy! Why the hell would you provoke such a monster?! We could have died!"

Linfel turned to him, puzzled. "Because I wanted to see what it was. In the future, once we decide to come back to use the pond, we need to know what to expect, right? Or do you intend to never touch that pond again? Fine by me, though. More Magic Energy for me to use."

"It didn't need to be now!" Miranda complained. "You could have let it be; then we could come back another time when we were truly prepared."

Linfel pondered a bit. "Hum... that works too."

Everyone fell with their heads on the ground. "Alvin... just what kind of parameters you used in this Familiar of yours..."

Alvin bitterly smiled. "Let's just say it wasn't a very conventional approach."

Milia also calmed down. "Forget it, everyone. Linfel, just what happened back there? How come you suddenly appeared outside? We saw you being swallowed by the creature."

Indeed, their group saw the serpent taking him to the bottom. They thought Linfel was a goner at that point.

"Oh! That wasn't really me," Linfel explained. Right after, he used his Magic Energy and Lightning Began to form, taking a similar shape to himself. "I used a Lightning attack since that guy seemed to be compatible with water. After catching its attention, I made this copy."

"Since it was made of the same element that attacked the creature, the creature thought it was the culprit, especially since it couldn't see very well outside of water. It could only rely on its senses. It swallowed this copy of me and dove down. Naturally, the copy dispersed as the Lightning hit its inside, making it even more disorientated," Linfel concluded.

He then looked back, feeling impressed. "Still, even though I didn't use much Lightning, it barely got any damage at all, although it swallowed the copy. Truly, a very strong fella. We better avoid him for now."

Only now that they looked at it with calm did they see that the copy Linfel made with Lightning was indeed very bad. In a normal situation, they wouldn't be fooled by it. Nonetheless, the risk Linfel just took was ridiculous. "Just don't do something like that again, alright?"

Linfel nodded. "Alright. In any case, we didn't come out without anything. Look at where we are."

"Hum?" The group looked around. Yet, other than the walls of the cave, there was nothing. They ran quite far away, so they couldn't see the shining green rocks anymore either. "What is it?"

Linfel smiled. "Watch!"

Linfel circulated his Magic Energy once again and created another Fire Ball. Immediately, he shot it against a wall not too far away.

*Boom!*

The wall crumbled like the first one, showing the outside world. "You all followed me as we ran away from the pond, so I took another path that went in the opposite direction we came. By following the Magic Energy flow, I knew we would find another exit here. We should be much, much deeper into the Dark Cayons now."

Their group got up again and exited the cave. They were indeed back at the bottom of the Dark Cayons. It's just they couldn't exactly tell where they were at the moment. "Are we truly further in?"

Linfel nodded. "The Magic Energy flow here is what you would expect, considering the changes I experienced along the way. Take a look over there."

They once again turned their eyes into the distance, and there, they spotted another Flag. "It's... It's the Purple Flag! Then the place we are is..."

"Purple Flag?" Alvin and Felia asked at the same time. "Do you know where we are then?"

Milia, who seemed slightly excited as well, quickly nodded. "Yes. There had been exams that used Flags before. After all, we receive one Field Exam every week. Purple... is always the last flag."