Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Karra———

<2: 21 pm>

“So shouldn’t you be a bit more strict with the… guiding?” I asked as everyone ran in different directions while Rico took no effort in calling them all back. I know all of them are pretty strong and was given a ring to track their location just to be extra cautious, but she doesn’t even bother checking the tablet she has on her?

“It’ll be fine. It’s not like I can’t sense where all the strong enemies are. I know how to read magical energy.” She casually said.

“...By the way. Why are we all the way out in Texas?” That’s so far from Pennsylvania, and it’s not like there aren’t multiple of these Fantarban Realms per state.

“I’m not the one in charge of these things, how should I know? Maybe it had to do with the headlines or something.” She replied. I guess even she wouldn’t know everything.“Also, scram already. I’m not your personal babysitter.”

“Okay, fine. Just make sure no one dies.” I said before walking towards a nearby group.

Malk, Qyunda, and Seni. I did expect the first two to be together, but I’m surprised Seni isn’t with a larger crowd. She likes to get lost in those.

“The stronger monsters are probably on one of those mountains, so why don’t we see who can climb up there first? Go up there and hunt a monster.” Qyunda proposed a challenge.

“Fine by me. Like always, you’ll be the silver.” Malk confidently replied. “Seni, make sure to… Oh. Hi, Karra. Have any business with us?”

“Not really. It’s just that I don’t really have any plans? I’ll just stick with you guys if that’s cool.” I answered him. The place is quite pretty for a dry wilderness full of hills and mountains, but I don’t really feel like going anywhere specific. Didn’t really get a good look from above with the clouds everywhere.

“That’s fine. I guess you two will help keep track of our time. No need to fight or help out. Sounds good?” Qyunda give out an answer before he does.

“That’s fine with me. Say, how do you even do the race? It’s not like all these mountains and other high grounds are equal.” Honestly it looks like they’re gonna race each other on the same path more than anything. I’m pretty sure they already mapped out the closest mountain they can reach in their head. “Can’t you just do a normal race to the same place or something?”

“I-I think the initial idea is fine…” Seni suddenly spoke up. Rare for her to do that, so she probably has a good idea.

“Rare for you to comment. I guess that’s fine then. Just make sure to actually say where you’re going first. Don’t want you two to accidentally have the same idea.” It’s going to be really awkward if this just turns into a normal race. They might start accusing each other of sabotaging. “Alright. Show us where you two wanna go.”

…They’re pointing in the same direction, of fucking course they do…

“Okay, change of plan.” I said before either of them could speak up and cause a mess. “Malk, you go to… that mountain. Qyunda, you go to that one.”

“Wha- Why are you the one deciding everything all of a sudden?” Qyunda quickly complained.

“It’s called being impartial. Can’t have either of you be the one deciding the rules at this point. Looks like you two will share the same idea no matter what.” I pointed out. “Okay then. Seni, you have something to keep track of time, right?”

“Y-Yeah. We all got phones, right?” She said, still looking somewhat nervous. I don’t think she needs to be that worried. They’ll argue regardless of who wins, and the hows and whys.

“Alright, alright. Let’s get this over with. Go find and kill a large monster on the designated mountains. The timer ends when you kill your target, and we’ll meet back near the ship with the monster you killed. Good?” Obviously it’s not gonna be completely fair, but I’m sure we don’t want to waste all of our time here coming up with a ‘perfect plan’.

Both of them nodded without saying anything else. I guess we’re all in agreement then. Let’s get started then.

“Say, Seni. You can keep up with their pace, right? I know you don’t exert yourself too often.” I’m not doubting her strength, but I definitely doubt her experience. We need to leap around the mountain to chase after them and make sure no foul play happens. Of course these two would probably rather die than do that, but it’s for the sake of being thorough, they might accidentally cheat, for example. We don’t really have much of a rule in the first place, so they might end up doing something the other considers dishonest. Usually it’s just nitpicks that lead to more arguments, which I don’t think it’s the best thing to have in the middle of a monster habitat.

“I’m fine.” She calmly replied. Guess that means I don’t have to worry about her then. That’s good.

“Okay then. Let’s… Actually, give me your phone first. I’ll be the one to press the timer so it’s all in sync.” I explained and she gave me her phone. Let’s open the app… “Alright you two, get ready. Three… Two… One… Go!”

**Dash**

Both of them immediately start running towards their goal. They waste zero time on that.

“You go after him. Make sure to not lose sight, and end the timer the moment he killed a big strong monster. Whatever he chose.” I handed Seni back her phone and pointed her towards Malk. She nodded and ran towards him. At that pace she should be able to keep up. As for me. It’s time to go after Qyunda.

*Dash* *Leap* *Leap*

I ran up towards the mountain I sent her to. Jumping up and scaling the mountain with a lot of really high jumps to skip through actually climbing it. Thankfully with just a tiny bit of gravity manipulation I can jump up even on just even the slightly slanted walls.

There are smaller monsters roaming around the lower level of the mountain, they can’t really catch up or attack us at the speed at which we are moving.

*Dash* *Punch* *Kick*

It seems that Qyunda finally found the monster she was looking for. A giant lizard with a rather bulky body and long spikes on its back. She seems to be beating it pretty easily, but this lizard is very durable and doesn’t seem to be slowing down in its counter attacks even after she hits it a bunch of times. She is definitely not going easy on it, and yet the lizard continues to persist with no real sign of fatigue. She probably needs to hit it much harder. Like, really hard. If she has her swords then this battle might’ve already been over.

*Sizz* *Leap*

“Whoa!” It suddenly spewed out a large wave of fire which caused Qyunda to jump out of its way. It breathes out a large amount of fire and is probably visible to monsters and anyone else nearby.

*Grab* *Spin*

Qyunda landed behind it while it didn’t quite realize that she had dodged its large torrent of flames. Grabbing its rather stubby tail before swinging the giant lizard around. The monster quickly shut its mouth in surprise as it all happened.

*Throw* *Crash*

She threw it into a nearby tree, crashing into it and making the monster stagger.

*Slash* *Crack* *Grab*

She momentarily formed a blade out of earth magic and swung it toward its back in that window of time it was weakened and disoriented, causing a giant spike on it to break off, to which she quickly snatched it.

*Stab*

In a quick fashion, she uses the sharp spike to piece through its head with a lot of force behind it, piercing through its head and nailing its corpse to the ground. I made sure to stop the timer, of course. That was really fast, but is it faster than Malk?

“Hah! Not so tough now are ya?” She said to the dead monster while raising her tail high. I’m kind of the only one around here who can really respond to that. “So, what was my time?”

“Two minutes and twelve seconds. Mostly from traveling, it seems.” I commented. Her tail twitched a bit as she heard that. She sure can emote a lot with that. My horse tail is shorter and harder to move it around.

“Seriously? I thought it’d be less than that. Whatever.” She said, clearly disappointed. “Whatever. Let’s go back to the ship. That loser is probably nowhere near close to being back.”

“Sure.” She sure is feeling rather combative today. Did something happen between them before today or what? “Just make sure to carry the monster with you.”

**Leap** **Dash**

Both of us jumped down with Qyunda holding the giant lizard’s corpse. Thankfully the other monsters didn’t pursue us during our time descending down and getting back to the ship.

““Ah.”” The idiot couple made the same sound as both groups came back at around the same time. Malk’s monster is a giant butterfly which is kinda weird to be seeing in a rather dry place like this. There is fauna but it’s not exactly a lot. I spotted barely any flowers around here.

“Okay. Let’s look at the result. Seni, what time did he get?” I spoke up before the two could say anything. Need to take the initiative here if I want things to move along smoothly.

“Two minutes…” She starts recounting, and yeah, it’s gonna be close. That much is expected. “...and four seconds.”

“...And Qyunda’s is eight seconds longer.” I said while showing the time on the phone.

“Hah!” Malk said triumphantly, while Qyunda looked very irritated. Oh boy, I think they’re going to start another shouting contest.

“Let’s… give them some space.” I said to Seni, leading her away from their argument that’s clearly about to ensue. I don’t think she wants to hear that.

“What the heck is happening over there?” Rico walked over and asked, looking rather amused at the sight of the two star students of the school yelling at each other again.

“It’s a race between them to hunt a large monster. It doesn’t really have a clear rule so I’m pretty sure they’re arguing about it right now.” I explained the situation in a short summary. It’s impossible to make a completely fair contest in this kind of environment, so nothing I can really do about that even if I wanted to.

“So it’s one of those, is it now?” She said with a smirk. “...Well. I guess it’s to be expected when I let them roam around and do whatever for the time being.”

“Do you really not have any real plan for coming here?” I asked one more time.

“If there was, the school isn’t telling me.” She answered. Weird, is there seriously nothing? “Maybe because it’s the holidays, so they don’t feel like restricting the kids too much. Though I’d imagine for other classes there will be more restrictions in place.”

“Right…” I said, not really having much to say in that regard.

“By the way. Karra.” She called me by name, as if really wanting me to pay attention to what she has to say. “You feel that?”

“Feel what?” Like, an energy reading? I didn’t quite focus on anything since coming here. I guess I should do that and… “Are you talking about… that enormous magical energy reading?”

“Of course I am.” She said while looking at her phone, scrolling through texts on a social media platform. “Why don’t you go check it out with your buddies? Don’t look like they have anything better to do.”

“A better question is why is it honing in on us?” She can probably kill it no problem if she looked so calm. Does she want us to fight whatever that thing was?

“Beats me. Just know that this ship is how you all get back home. I’ll be relaxing on the deck.” Hey, she can’t just-!

*Leap*

“Dammit…” She probably will help out if we were super in trouble, but this is like leaving us in a den of wolves…

“Hey! You two! Stop arguing! Something is coming here!” I shouted loudly at the arguing couple, walking towards them with Seni following me close behind. “Something big is coming here, and Rico doesn’t feel like stepping in personally. Why don’t you two try killing it and see who’s better there, huh?”

“That’s such a hard metric to-

“Why the hell not. That challenge wasn’t even that hard anyway.” Qyunda interrupted him and dragged him along for whatever ride we’re about to be in.