Avoiding Death in an Otome Game

Hina’s POV:-

"I am sorry, I should have listened to you" Luna said to me with a tense expression as she gulped down at the sight of giant black skin earthworms surrounding us, four in total.

We have already encountered and defeated one blackskin earthworm when suddenly four more appeared.

*How did the situation become more dire than in the game!*

...

A while ago.

It all started fine when we first entered the forest. The plan was simple, scout the surroundings and wait for Lucian and others to catch up with us.

But.....

"Speed up girls, we need to find those emblems before anyone else!" Luna suddenly declared.

"Let’s go!" Candice chimed in with encouragement.

"Yes! We are going to take the first place!" Grusha also added to their rank.

*Honestly, what is going on here?*

"Wait!" Elena called out to the trio who have already started marching ahead. "Did you forget that we were supposed to just scout the area and regroup with the boys?"

"But that was when we were supposed to start at the same time. Now that we have a head start, shouldn’t we use it to get the first place?" Luna justified her reasoning.

"Luna, what are you saying? Did not I tell you already that this test is dangerous? We need to stay extra careful."

I told them. It’s better to completely avoid encountering those blackskin earthworms from the game or at least be completely prepared even if we encounter them.

"Hina you are thinking too much. This test happens every year, and there has been nothing dangerous." Luna reason back with her point.

"Yes. Luna is right, I have never heard anyone suffering any serious injury in this test before" Candice added with a supportive attitude.

*These girls. How do I explain it to them?*

"Don’t worry Hina, I don’t think it will be anything too dangerous. Besides our team is strong." Unexpectedly Lily also supported Luna’s stand.

"What do you say Elena?" Lily asked Elena who seems to be thinking about something.

"....Actually, I was inclined to Hina’s word but Luna is also not wrong either. It’s a test among the teams so we should definitely try to get the best result." Elena replied after thinking about it.

"Hehe, Hina I got the majority. Now let’s go get all those emblems." Luna said with all enthusiasm.

*Sigh.... It seems like I can’t convince them like this. But considering the event’s difficulty, our team should be able to handle it*

I thought to myself as I remember how it goes in the game. In the game we were in the team of five, and we encountered one blackskin earthworm and just when we defeated that one then two more appeared.

After defeating those two earthworms, a teacher appears to protect us sensing the abnormality near us. Already securing an emblem on the way, we passed the test so it was not something too intense or difficult to deal with given that I am stronger than in the game.

Or so I thought....

But why are so many more monsters are attacking us!

First we encountered a horde of poison slimes and now a gang of shadow spiders.

"My god, there are dozens of them!" Grusha exclaimed in shock as she launched her ice magic to freeze one of the spiders.

"Luna, support me!" I told Luna as I cast a defensive magic light barrier.

Luna heeding my words, also cast her magic as a mini shiny moon shape ball of white light appeared above her magic staff. The mini moon releases a blinding beam of light that landed on me, boosting my magic power.

Luna’s attribute ’Moon’ is a variation of light attribute and as opposed to the ’Sun’ attribute that focuses on the offensive aspect of light magic, Luna’s moon attribute is completely focused on auxiliary light magic and at a much higher level than the normal light attribute.

At the same time a strong dark colored hurricane of wind appeared, pushing back several shadow spiders. It was Elena’s magic ’Black Advent’.

*She’s really stronger than the game version*

"Go for it lady Elena! You are the coolest!" Candice chimed in with praise as she also cast ice magic. Both Candice and Grusha have ice attributes.

On another side, vines grow out of the ground and tie down two shadow spiders, the vines have sharp poisonous spikes that did in the skin of the spiders. It was Lily’s magic ’Poison Bind’ a restraint type spell.

"Good job Lily" Elena said as she raised her magic staff and the next moment, the darkness of the shadow below those spiders started moving unnaturally, then the darkness transformed into long and sharp spikes, piercing through the bodies of those spiders, ’Shadow Spikes’.

Their team work is impressive. Since Lily can’t use strong offensive magic, she restrains the target while Elena finishes them off with her powerful spells.

"Haha, we are almost don--" Candice laughed lightly, while looking at the remaining three spiders, one of which is already half injured. But before she could finish her sentence, we felt a faint tremor below our feet.

*It’s here!*

"Back down!" Elena shouted as she also held Candice’s arm and pulled her aside.

The very next moment, the spot where Candice was standing split apart as a more than five feet tall black creature with razor sharp teeth inside its mouth popped up from the ground.

"Did you have to jinx it?" Grusha said as she helps me to block a spider.

"S-sorry." Candice apologized like she really regretted saying those words before.

"But what’s that thing?" Luna exclaimed after seeing the creature as she casts supportive magic to Elena as well, knowing that the creature isn’t weak.

"It’s a blackskin earthworm. A mid rank monster that dwells underground and comes to the surface in winter." Lily quickly explained the creature’s characteristics. I didn’t know she was so knowledgeable.

Seeing the creature, I understood one thing, the event is happening ahead of time. Knowing that wasting time with these spiders will do no good I decided to cast a stronger offensive spell.

My magic staff shone, and numbers of golden arrows made of light were released from it, heading towards the remaining spiders ’Rain of Arrows’.

Taking down the spiders quickly, we turned around to help Elena’s group, but what we saw was...

The earthworm is tied in place by the ’poison bind’ and solid ice, while it’s body has some injured marks I assume from the shadow spikes, but what was really surprising was that Elena wasn’t on the ground.

Instead she was literally flying above the earthworm, with a pair of pure black wings made of darkness on her back.

*Is that her magic core ability?*

I thought as I look at the ability completely different from the one she had in the game.

Then I saw both her magic staff and her wings shining with black radiance and the next moment a rain of feathers formed from darkness was released from the wings, attacking the earthworm.

"Wow lady Elena! From today onwards you’re my idol!" Candice said with a look of admiration.

But knowing that the creature is still not completely dead and the event is still ongoing, I decided to finish it before more trouble arrives.

So I cast a spell and a sword composed of light appeared above the earthworm and landed on the creature piercing through its already trembling body, finally ending its life.

"Everyone stay careful! We don’t know how many of them are there." I told them as I am already aware that two more will be appearing soon.

And it seems like everyone already learned from the mistakes, they nodded in agreement and formed a circle with our backs against each other as we carefully looked at the surroundings.

"...it seems it was the only one." After a while of not seeing anymore monsters Luna spoke nervously.

"Don’t get careless, there are definitely more." Lily suddenly said as if she knew it for sure. "I can sense changes in the aura of plants, and there seems to be some monsters underground, disturbing their roots."

Then suddenly the ground started shaking, as cracks formed in all four directions. As if they know that their cover is blow apart, the earthworm has taken initiative to reveal themselves as ground in all four directions splits apart and giant blackskin earthworms popped out from each of the gaps.

*Gulp....why are there four instead of two?*

"Everyone quickly cast defensive spells!" Elena commanded as she herself cast a spell which caused darkness to gather in front of her, forming a black barrier that covers her.

I also immediately used a light barrier to guard the opposite side while Candice and Grusha created an ice barrier on the third side, leaving only one side open.

"We can’t fight them. Let’s clear one side and escape from it." I told them as this is the only thing we can do given the situation because even if we manage to somehow defeat these monsters, we don’t know what can come next.

"I am sorry, I should have listened to you" Luna said to me with a tense expression as she gulped down at the sight of giant black skin earthworms surrounding us from all directions.

*How did the situation become more dire than in the game!*