//------------------------------//
// Preparation 
// Story: The Adventures Begin 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

She keeps practicing spells to improve her spellcasting. When she practices, she thinks about a water spell. After training for a while, she stops practicing for her own spells and sits down to think. 

 "What are you thinking?" A white dragon lies on the ground and watches Sunset practice.

 "I am thinking of practicing water spells," Sunset is thinking as she placed her chin on her forehoof

  Whitty creates a water ball with his claw. "Well, I have some advice here. You should start with the water ball first. Everyone always starts with the basics, right?" He throws the water ball to Sunset. Sunset swings the staff to cut it. 

 "Fine, let's start from the beginning," Sunset sits down, plugs the staff on the ground, and starts meditating. Waterballs float around her as she forms them.

  Whitty sees that. After lying for so long, he decides to stand up, stretch his body, and see how Sunset is doing. The "Waterball" is floating around Sunset, then the "Waterball" becomes thinner and thinner until it becomes a plate-like shape. Witty laughs at this, making Sunset glare at him. 

 "Are you going to eat dinner with this thing?" Whitty rolls on the ground and keeps laughing, "I hope not because that will be more fun." Sunset throws a plate at Whitty, who dodges it without much effort. "Don't be like that, you will get the better spell."

 "Just don't disturb me, I feel like a hot pot here," Sunset says, creating another plate. "I just remember Sabrina's chakram." 

 "That's fine... "I would recommend you focus on your own, not another's." Whitty rubs his cheeks, "You might want to study someone else to learn about them, but you should be a reference, not a copycat." Sunset nods in agreement. 

 "You're right." Sunset returns to a meditation state. "I should focus on my own spell though because I am nearly at that level." 

 Whitty nods and turns his back on Sunset so she can concentrate. After sitting down, he reveals the bleeding cheek, "That spell... Is combined with a wind blade cover,... And it can penetrate my scale ..." He thinks about fighting Sunset again, but that will be very painful for her body. He sits down and starts to find a solution.

  Sunset keeps finding her own way to cast water spells. Despite trying many times, she still hasn't found her spell. Due to her fatigue, she is now lying on the ground. Sunset's front hooves are wrapped in water, which Whitty uses to drag her. Sunset sighed and just accepted being dragged. Whitty hugs Sunset after dragging her, much to Sunset's annoyance. 

  Sunset lies on Whitty's body as she asks, "Can you drag me something nicer? But anyway, I am still crafting another spell." 

 Whitty puts his head on Sunset's shoulders. "Create a spell does not happen in an hour or a day, it takes time. But for you, the fastest way is ... on the battlefield." 

 "Are you kidding me? How can you have something new in battle?" Sunset creates a fire dragon and plays with it. "If you distract in one second in battle, you're gone. How would I be able to create a new spell?"

 "Because it's like your nature," Whitty rubs Sunset's neck, making her purr, "How many times can you do the impossible thing that others can't do on the battlefield?" Sunset shakes her head in denial, "Really now?" Sunset nods, making Whitty deadpan.

 "Because that's not impossible, just some little way to use the resources I have," Sunset waves her hoof, "that's normal, right? That's something anyone could do." Whitty rubs his head, showing that he has a headache for Sunset. 

 "You should wake up now. It's already morning," Sunset nods and she closes her eyes to wake up

  Outside Sunset's body

 Sunset opens her eyes and sees that the others have already awoken. Stretching her body, she gets up. 

 Matt teases Sunset, "Hey, I thought you would sleep for a thousand nights." Sunset nods and goes to the campsite with the Team. They have cooked soup in the pot for breakfast

 Sunset rubs her head, "I feel like I have a headache about this." She asks, "How long have I been sleeping?".  

  "I don't know because.... we don't have a watch." Lance is eating soup, "Because we don't like to watch the time all day."

  "At least we're not military then," Sunset grabs a bowl and starts eating the soup, "Besides we don't need to be a soldier." 

  "Yep, and I have to train my magic more," Natalie is reading the book while eating, "I hate losing you, Sunset," 

 Sunset eats the soup, "Eh... at least you can support the team. Besides, you don't fight in melee like me." 

 Natalie says in a jealous tone, "But I feel that I'm losing you because you're so good at using the spell while I can't help anyone.". "I want to become stronger." 

 Sunset sighs, "Look, you don't need to be stronger," Natalie hears that and turns head to Sunset, "I just want you to be yourself," 

  "But... but..." Natalie gets cuts off by Sunset's front hoof. 

 "Hey, don't be like that Natalie," Matt pats Natalie's back, making her surprised, "You know Natalie, even if you are weaker than Sunset, you're still our teammate,"  then Matt points at Sunset, "Unless you want to be a daredevil like our pony teammate, you can learn some from her," 

  Sunset rejects, "I'm not like that" 

 Matt says, "No, you are that daredevil," with a wave of his hand. Sunset sighs, and the others laugh. Sunset soon joins in the fun.

 The Team heads to the tactic camp after breakfast. Some people around them murmur about them on the way to the camp, telling them that they are crazy to challenge the monster, but the Team ignores them. Finally, they arrive after walking for a while. 

  Tactic Tent

 The team enters the tent. Eldaro, Rose, and Sabrina are seated around a table with a map on it. They turn their heads toward the Team. 

 Sabrina put a chessman on the table, "We are waiting for you. Please take a seat and we will start discussing." The team nods and takes a seat around the table.

 Eldaro took out his walkie-talkie and asked, "So, what's your plan? I hope you have one because this is going to be a tough fight." Eldaro handed the walkie-talkie to Lance. 

 Lance taps his finger on the table, "Some smoke bombs will do."

 "I see, the smoke bombs reduce its vision. But... how can you see your own?" Eldaro pulls out some smoke bombs, "I hope you have some idea how to use these things.".
 
  "I forgot to mention, chili smoke bombs." Lance rubs his head, "the normal ones don't work when the Hydra can just blow them away."

 "I see. We have that kind of bomb in our military depot. So why don't you go get some, Valkyrie?" Eldaro hands them the key to their depot. Lance nods. "Oh, and the bombs are coded 09, don't forget that." 

 Lance and the team rush out of the tent, carrying the Team outside. Sabrina smiles at him when he does that, while Rose doesn't understand some of the odd words he says.

 Eldaro placed a bird chessman on a spot named "Kitten Ruin" on the map and is hoping that nothing goes wrong because these supplies are crucial for the campsite.

  Eldaro turns to Sabrina and asks, "How's our capital city? I have some suggestions."

 "I think the Lavita city is fine," Sabria says, looking at his eyes. "What do you have to suggest?"  

  Eldaro starts to discuss, "Can you please suggest to Leo these things? First, increase the defense for big cities? I am scared that this demon will be angry and send the swamp of monsters to attack our important cities." Sabrina nods, "Second, cancel the meeting with the king of Nathan country. Tell him that this is a very important time. We cannot let our relationship with them suffer." Sabrina is surprised by this. "And finally," Eldaro slams the table, "Please evacuate the people of small villages to the big cities for a while. I'm afraid that they will be their first victims. Also, recruit more soldiers to defend these cities." 

  Sabrina asks, "Why do you propose such measures? How can you be sure that demons will attack us?" She yells in anger, "The first one can be done because it does not have any harm. But the second and third one is very dangerous because it will decrease our goodwill to ally countries, plus the faith of the people to our kingdom will be decreased." Sabrina slams her hand to the table, "If Arkon doesn't attack, you will take heavy responsibility for this. You think you can bet your life like that?" Sabrina looks at Eldaro's eye and sees that he is very consistent about this.

"You know it hasn't been my first time placing a bet like this." Eldaro turns his head to the hourglass. "I am going to retire after this mission," Sabrina is enraged. He replied "I know that look, but please do it because it is important to our people,"

 Sabrina waves her hand in the air and replies, "Fine...Fine, I will do it. But if these things fail, I will take responsibility." Sabrina points at Eldaro, "What is your order now?"

  "Then you agree,"  Eldaro stands up, " And now this is my order. Sabrina, after you suggest these things for me, take a spot outside the gate with T-86. If the Team fails again, drag them out." Sabrina nods, and Eldaro turns to Rose, "Rose, you guard outside the Volcano to escort our reinforcement there to the camp. I will check our missiles to make sure that they work fine or not. Do you understand?" The girls nod, "Now go to our position." Then they go out to the camp in their position.


Meanwhile in Kitten Ruin

The reinforcement team is now at the campsite of the aborigines. Sammy is talking to a bird robot in the campsite, as they just protected them from the Gunslingers. 

  While the bird robot drinks some soup, she asks, "Why do you stay here, Sammy? Do you think this place is safe? I don't think this place is safe anymore." 

 "Honestly, Silver. I don't think we have a place to go." Silver still drinks her soup while hearing, "Because we can't go anywhere." Sammy sighs and Silver puts her left wing to her beak. 

 "Why don't you come with us to the campsite?" Sammy is surprised, "We will train you some battle skills, while we get supplies to the campsite?" 

 Sammy waves a hand to indicate he's unsure. "I...I think I can join, but what about the others?" 

 "Well, you can-" Silver gets cut off while hearing a man with black hair and a white robe rush towards her. "What happens?" 

 "Madam, we have a cliff blocking our way to the campsite."

 "I see... hop on my back and we will see the cliff," the man hops on Silver's back, Silver turns her head to Sammy, "I'll be right back, we will talk about this later. Think about my offer." Sammy nods.

Silver takes a fly to the cliff with the direction of the man. After two minutes, she sees the cliff and her team. In order to clearly see the cliff, she lands near it. 

 Silver turns to her team and says, "... that's a pretty big cliff. It will cause trouble if we just stand here. So, do you have any suggestions?"

  The team begins to think about the situation. A few of Silver's members have crazy ideas like equipping the propeller on the tank, using a shrinking spell... Silver sighs and puts her wings to her head. 

 "Fine, now get up," Silver's team began to stand. "I need all the mages to step aside." The mage starts to part ways with the team. "Good, here is my order. The mage team uses the earth spell to create a bridge to cross the cliff. The sniper team watches the area around, if there are monsters, take them out. Others, protect the mage to make sure that they can build the bridge. Understand?" Silver sees a hand raise up, "You have an idea?"

 Just a question. How long do you think this bridge will last?" 

 "Well, I'm not sure, but we must build it as soon as possible without problem." Silver points at the silver hair man, wearing heavy armor, "You, watch the team, make sure that they are working. If there is any problem, tell me." The man nods and Silver spread her wings  "I will ask the campsite to join us so we will have more men and supplies. Don't be lazy, ok?

  "Yes, madam." Silver flaps her wings and flies to Sammy's campsite.


Back to the Volcano

Having taken some equipment from the military depot, the Team is now preparing to engage in combat in front of the Gate. T-86 sits beside the gate and prepares to open it.

 "You guys ready? If you fail again, I am not sure I can drag you out again." T-86 warns the team to make sure that they are all ready. 

 "We know. That's why we are here," Lance points at the gate. "Open the gate and we will slay the Hydra." 

 "Good luck." T-86 opens the gate and the Team starts to go inside the gate. They hope to slay the Hydra because it irritated them when it defeated the team.