An aura of thick, hazy smoke began to veil the MC’s body. The MC’s sight was completely eclipsed with a pitch black as a choking feeling of trance began to overwhelm the Main Character’s mind.

“I can’t see crap,” Malideus spoke with a bemused tone.

“I think that’s the point-”

Suddenly, a feeling of disorientation overwhelmed the MC’s footing, causing him to stagger somewhat in a wobbly fashion.

“Hey- our vision is clearing,” the Summoner noted.

As the eyes of the MC began to normalize, the clear view of the beach’s scenery became clear. The stretch of ocean seemed to carry out for miles on end, its vastness frequented with the waves of water. The scent of sand, palm trees, and the salt from the sea was pervasive around the atmosphere. Around the golden sand beach were shells with spiral-like designs, laying up straight or recumbent.

The skies were as seamless as clear glass--the clouds were scarce and the blue canvas of the sky was easily perceptible.

“I like the beach,” the Summoner spoke with a certain type of cheer.

“I concur,” Ral stated.

“I concur. Do you concur?” The Fat Friar remarked, spinning an arm idly.

“I concur,” Ricky finished.

“Nice, now we need to find something Madileus likes.” Vaati chuckled.

“Those giant shells look decent,” Malideus pointed out using the Main Character’s arm. “In fact, the ones with the spines protruding off them look even better,” he spoke as he gestured once more to a nearby shell that was at least twice the length of the MC and was also mantled in spine-like protrusions that seemed razor sharp.

“They look metal,” Malideus let out a devious smile as he brought forth the MC’s hand, creating the iconic “Devil’s Horns” symbol with them.

“In fact, let’s put it in our inventory,” Malideus suggested, his eyes gleaming somewhat of a malicious stare. “Maybe they’ll end up as some sort of crafting ingredient-”

“Malideus,” Ral cut him off.

“Yes?”

“Please elaborate on how we’re going to carry a shell that is twofold our height? Along with the fact that we have nothing to store it in?” Ral asked.

“Easy!” Malideus pumped his head high skywards. “If we got to create this character through some character creation screen, I bet that we have game logic levels of inventory.”

“That would be convenient, now wouldn’t it?” Ral sighed. “Fine. Go poke at it or something. Maybe it’ll magically fit into our pockets.”

“I don’t need your permission!” Malideus let out a wayward war cry as he bolted towards the rather imposing shell.

Closing in on the distance between it and him, Malideus fired away his- the MC’s hand, poking it. The Main Character’s finger made contact with the shell. The shell’s somewhat warm surface permeated into the MC’s finger as it simply stood there.

“Ah… what a disappoint…” Malideus found himself questioning his- the Main Character’s vision as he swore he saw the shell starting to twitch somewhat violently, “...ment. Hey, guys. Am I the only one seeing the shell moving… weird?”

“You’re definitely not the only one, unfortunately,” the Summoner began to take control of the body, backing off from the turbulent shell with a few pensive steps.

“What are you waiting for?!” Ral shouted. “We need some distance! No idea what it can do!” Asserting control, Ral jumped backwards, placing several feet of ground between the MC and the shell.

The sand was upheaved as the shell suddenly sprouted several arachnid-like legs. With a fell growl, the shell began turning around, facing the Main Character. Rearing its beady eyes, it unsheathed its long mandibles as well as its claws.

“I think you shouldn’t have poked it like that!” the Summoner, in a frantic state, began to shift through the many pockets of the Main Character, retrieving Ral’s journal, igniting it in a dark sort of magic.

“I can see that I pissed it off, dumbass!” Malideus, with a flourish, began to brandish the Staff of Vodahmin, waving it in front of the hermit crab beast.

“Well… we came here to ‘train’ right?” Ral took control of a portion of the MC’s mind, silently citing incantations of runic, arcane properties. Lighting began to sizzle around the footing of the Main Character, sending out crackling embers of blue.

“So this is level grinding to us? I’m gonna go play the cliched RPG music then," Vaati spoke sitting on the back.

“Focus this time…” the Summoner muttered in a hush tone, well examining the hermit crab behemoth. “Guys, make sure you tell everyone what you’re planning to do. We don’t wanna end up flailing on the floor again.”

“Whatever!” Malideus snarled. “It comes!”

Gales began to warp around the hermit crab as it began to relentlessly charge, its thin, carapace-plated legs seemingly blurring as it ascended its claws, heaving it high.

“It’s open for a parry--go for it, you damned madman!” the Summoner stated a bit too hastily. suddenly, with a rebellious yell, Malideus swung his staff forward, and the tip exploded with red light, firing a beam of terrible energy at the crab, launching it several feet away.

"Woah..." Malideus mumbled, revelling in the stunned feel of his companions. "I told you guys this thing was awesome." He finished as the crab struggled to get up.

“Yes, I admit that was awesome but what exactly did it do?” Ral questioned, watching as the crab got back up, unharmed. “It didn’t do anything! It only knocked it down… Perhaps it has magic resistance? Intriguing, what if-”

“We can hypothesize about the crab later, right now we need to dodge!” Vaati shouted as they barely missed a claw that reached out towards them, barely managing to just slash through the air instead of their face.

“To be precise, it seems to be a rather large version of a hermit crab...” Ral added.

"I'm so sorry, Pinchy..." the Summoner muttered in a rather melancholic tone. "I'll have to kill your greatly distant cousins too..."

"Who the hell-" Sidestepping to the left absentmindedly, Malideus inquired, "-is Pinchy?"

"My pet hermit crab..." the Summoner spoke with a reminiscent tune to his words.

"Can we avoid talking about irrelevant topics while we are currently being accosted by a giant crab?!" Ral yelled.

"Yeah, I like that plan. The thing is immune to magic, though, so..." Malideus said, mentally looking at Audrey, Ricky, and The Overlord.

“Magics aren’t viable then?” the Summoner regarded the incoming, massive claw rapidly making its way towards the Main Character’s face. Sidestepping accordingly, the claw made its way through the now empty space, merely inches away from the MC’s face.

“Such…” the Summoner, marionetting the MC’s hand, he flourished the journal, grasping it tight. Aiming down the book vertically, the Summoner kindled dark energy into the book. Like a torrential wave of water, the pages from the journal began detaching themselves from the book and launching themselves at the hermit crab’s arm.

The pages tore through the appendage, sending out an emerald fluid-like blood in a constant spray as the limb gradually deterred. The crab beast shrieked out a tremor-causing cry as the constant volley of paper going about a couple thousand miles per second from Ral’s journal did not relent, cutting and scathing the leg further.

“Hey- I thought magic didn’t work?!” Malideus shouted.

“This isn’t magic--sorta!” The Summoner bit his lip, keeping a steady aim on the crab. “I’m just sending masses and masses of paper that’s going at about two thousand MPH at the crab thing! Of course it’s gonna cut it!”

“Dead by a thousand papercuts?” Ral mused, intrigued.

“Exactly-” the Summoner trailed off abruptly as the hermit crab leviathan suddenly withdrew into its shell in a mere split second. The pages simply deflected upon impact, scattering themselves towards multiple directions.

“Oh come on!” the Summoner yelled out, his arm still extended, directed at the giant crab. Unrelenting to stop the volley of pages, the Summoner cursed aloud as he deemed his attacks were nullified, “Dammit! That’s not…” a feeling of descent tugged on the Summoner’s--and everybody else’s--attention. Looking downwards, they all took notice of the ground seemingly swirling and apparently sucking them in, “...fair. Crap!”

Flailing wildly, the Summoner began to pull up, but the MC’s legs, half-devoured by the sand, were arrogant to budge.

“What is this!?” Malideus took control, motioning the MC’s eyes towards the crab once more, noticing something off-putting. Imprinted were magic runes that were emanating a red glow from the crab’s shell. It ran across the shell in many patterns--somewhat awe-inspiring had it not been overwhelmingly terrifying at the moment. “The damned crab knows how to use magic too?!”

“I have no words,” Ral commented.

“As a mage, I’m somewhat-”

The Summoner cut Vaati off, “Not now! We’re going to get suffocated by the sand below us!”

Suddenly, the shell began to shift and rumble about once more, scattering the sands around it slightly. Legs began to emerge from its crevice one more, taking itself up. Poking its head out, the crab let out a menacing glare as it began approaching the MC, claws poised wide apart from each other, indicating an attack of some sort .

“Oh shi-” before the Summoner could finish his profanity, the crab suddenly bolted towards the Main Character, its legs melding into the air as it was seemingly sprinting at a ridiculous speed. Closing the distance, being mere inches away, the crab brought forth its left claw, encompassing the Main Character as it began clenching it.

Cutting through the Main Character’s body with little to no effort as flesh began to sever, the Main Character spontaneously bursted into a display of flashy lights. Plopping down towards the ground as the crab instinctively let go, the Main Character staggered downwards.

“Gah-” Malideus began to regain control--albeit, their vessel was somewhat stiff on the controls as Malideus had trouble regaining their footing. “What- what the hell happened?” Malideus slightly tilted the MC’s head upwards, noticing a very small, subtle display screen. The display screen was written on with red font: “The Summoner’s Soul was disrupted!”

“Oh… I guess that what happens when our HP goes down to zero.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Ral questioned. “I can’t hear him anymore… and his presence is faint now.”

“He’ll be fine after we finish off this crab.” Malideus smirked. “Most RPG’s would do that if they had this ‘system’.”

The crab launched itself once more towards the Main Character. As it went airborne, it swung its claws overhead. Diving down onto the ground, it smashed the ground, the attack landing just a few feet off from the Main Character. A fissure came from where attack from the crab connected, sending out a tidal wave of sand.

Engulfed by the sandy tsunami, the Main Character was stifled and choked by the grainy bits of white as he was dragged away several meters away.

Spitting out the sand, Audrey promptly took control, wiping the sand of their face. “Okay… nobody, and I put much emphasis on ‘nobody’, makes Audrey bite the dust… literally.”

Swirling the Staff of Vodahmin around with a circular brandish, Audrey set her footing firmly, asserting her stance as she prepared a countering stance.

“Come on…” she peered into the hermit crab’s soul with a cold glare, “Do it now! Kill me! I’m here! Do it!” she shouted, her eyes widened and imbued with bloodlust.

As Audrey’s taunting reverberated throughout the vicinity, the hermit crab let out a growl, Audrey’s words seemingly getting into the crab’s head.

The crab began to bolt past through the sandy ground once more, its leg much like after images. Extending its right claw further back, it let out a piercing war cry. Lunging forth to bring down a crushing blow, the crab swung its claw to the right.

Audrey, through impeccable reflex, managed to jump and grasp onto the arm that was attached to the claw. Hanging by the arm with only two hands, she settled herself upon the arm, placing her footing onto the arm, she affirmed her hold by grasping the arm with her hand as well.

Thrashing about uncontrollably, the crab attempted to shake of the MC off its arm. Audrey was not shaken off, however, as she simply clenched her teeth against each other in tension as she held firmly onto the enraged arm.

Audrey raised the Staff of Vodahmin, preparing to sever the appendage of the crab. She smugly grinned, preparing to let the blow strike through, but she was interrupted before she could so.

“I think I’m gonna get sick…” Vaati commented

Shrugging it off, Audrey brought forth the lance-staff-thing into the extremity. The metal of the Staff sliced through the appendage with ease, dampening it with a coating of emerald blood.

The Main Character began falling down safely back to the ground with the now amputated arm. Stepping off from the still twitching appendage, Audrey yelled out in a triumphant manner, “Hell yeah! Now you’re screwed like hell, buddy!”

Seeing the crab being occupied convulsing in agony at the lost of its limb, Audrey adjusted her posture with the lance-staff, gripping the base of the Staff. Aiming down onto the crab’s head, Audrey inched the lance backwards a bit before launching it forwards, sending her arm ahead of her as she threw it with remarkable velocity.

Rending the air as it spiraled towards the crab’s face, the Staff began to emanate a red light due to the ridiculous amount of force behind its propulsion. Sickeningly making some sort of gory, crunching sound, the Staff impaled the head of the unfortunate crab.

The crab, under the presumably incomprehensible excruciation of having one’s head being stabbed very violently, writhed and flailed its arachnid-like limbs in a frenzy as they waved around desperately.

The Staff suddenly went aglow once more, letting out a fierce scarlet aura. Beginning to envelop the whole crab, it shone out as it let out a humming sound. Its red radiance becoming blindingly bright, it suddenly detonated, enshrouding the beach with a massive fireball of condensed energy.

As the explosion faded, the dissipating fires of magic gave a clear view of the morsel that was once a behemoth-sized crab. The corpse of the crab was entombed by glass as the explosion from the Staff had apparently soared through such temperature that it actually converted the sand below it into glass.

Currently agape and a bit taken aback at the whole spectacle before them, the Main Character began to stammer out a series of incomprehensible words.

“That explosion was pointless…” Ral Zarek let out a sigh. “It’s impervious to magic.”

“I can still see it struggling to cling to life,” Vaati spoke, narrowing the MC’s eyes to get a clear view through the settling flame, seeing the crab barely being able to move its limbs, trying to escape its sand-glass coffin.

“Aghh!” The Main Character began to swing his arms wildly as the Summoner was suddenly resurrected. “What the hell!? What happened?!”

“According to the display screen some time ago, your soul was ‘disrupted’.”

“What? What does that even mean?” the Summoner stammered. “Sorry- sorry. I still feel weirded out… I felt as if I died and was brought back to life so suddenly again...”