Chihiro shuddered as she dove out the way of a particularly sharp lance's swipe and winced. Geez, of all the scenarios she could get trapped in, she just had to get the massive war, didn't she? With another wince, she flung a card-created shield while the holographic Eon attempted to jab her with its lance.

"Don't try to escape, child!" the holographic Eon warned as it thrust its lance at Chihiro, and snarled as a shield intercepted it yet again. "That tower's gold will belong to my army by the end of this match, I swear by my sword!"

Chihiro didn't bother to entertain it with an answer; she just kept putting up her shield and prayed this would come to an end soon! After all, she burned through most of her cards, so what was she supposed to do now? Chihiro winced as she narrowly avoided another jab and ducked under the safety of her shield. However, that holographic Eon just wasn't going to give up! With every dodge, every dash, every duck she did, it just became furious and quicker to attack! Chihiro gasped, leaned away as the hologram swung for her once more, and fell to the ground as the holographic Eon dashed forward! She winced as she grappled for another shield, and…

"Somebody, please, help!"

Chihiro gasped as she turned towards the grassy fields beside her, which were thankfully free of combat. She was sure she heard a voice come from there just now, and it cried for help! She had to check it out! Well that is, if she could get out of here. Chihiro grabbed her shield, threw it up once more just before the holographic Eon could strike, and turned back around right as Gill Grunt and Terrafin blew each other away with a mighty cannon blast…

Which created an opening in the battlefield in the process! Yes, she had a chance!

So, Chihiro grabbed a card with an hourglass on it and rubbed it as it spiraled out of her hand. Its magic filtered through the air and painted everything in grayscale, all while the world around her became slower and slower in motion. Once everything finally drew to a cold stop, Chihiro grinned, whipped out another card and rubbed it. As it got ready to dissolve into magical mist, Chihiro dropped it on the ground, leaped off ahead and rolled underneath the clopping hooves of a horse. With the battlefield firmly behind her, she poked her head behind and caught her breath.

There, right in the place she once stood, sat a copy of her that was near identical save for its blank, dull eyes and the emotionless smile its face held. Hopefully that magical dummy would keep that creepy holograph occupied once this time spell let up. Chihiro chirped and lifted her head as faint, dull colors started to pop out from the foliage around, winced and jumped to her feet. Speaking of, she needed to get going—this time spell already started to let up! As Chihiro dashed into the forest and well away from battle's prying eyes, the world around her flickered back into full colors.

"Please, anyone!"

Yes, that was the voice she had heard earlier! Now that she thought about it, it kind of sounded like… Wrecking Ball? Chihiro frowned as she followed the voice's cries for help, and skidded short as she found that it was indeed Wrecking Ball himself! This time, he was dressed in old, kind of dirty-looking clothes that vaguely reminded Chihiro of the stuff peasants wore in her textbook's entries on medieval history, and he shook something awful as he paced back and forth in front of a cavern's entrance.

"Hey, it's alright! I'm here to help!" Chihiro shouted as she ran up to Wrecking Ball and knelt down. "What's wrong?"

Wrecking Ball gasped, shook his head and looked back at the caverns.

"When this big fight started, my friend Trig and I tried to get out of the battle, but then he tripped and rolled into the mines!" Wrecking Ball whimpered as tiny tears formed in his eyes. "I wanna go find him, but everyone says there's a big, scary monster in there! And nothing can hurt it, not even magic!"

Wait, Trig? Did he mean Trigger Happy? Ah, that was just like Trigger Happy, always getting himself into some kind of trouble. Chihiro's eyes went wide for a moment, but she shook her head and lifted it right as Wrecking Ball's whimpers and sniffles turned to full on sobs!

"I'm scared!" Wrecking Ball whimpered as his legs began to shake. "I should have never taken us to play here!"

Chihiro's own heartstrings started to tug as Wrecking Ball sobbed further—poor Wrecks, he was so worried! Heck, she was pretty worried about Trigger Happy herself, but she couldn't let that show, not when Wrecking Ball was this scared. It would only make him feel worse, after all! So, Chihiro knelt down wrapped him in a tight hug, and gently wiped away his tears and let go as he perked up.

"Don't worry, little guy!" Chihiro said as she gave him a thumbs up. "I'll go in there and get your friend back!"

Wrecking Ball gaspedand his frown turned to a smile almost instantly. "Really?"

Chihiro nodded, turned around and dashed into the cave without a moment's hesitation. Forget that battle, she had to save Trigger Happy before it was too late! The moment she stepped foot inside, everything turned cold and dark around her, all while low growls and snores just faintly echoed around the caverns—surely, that had to be whatever monster laid within the caves. She'd have to be as quiet as she could.

So, Chihiro tip-toed across the hard, stone cavern floors, all while the cold sent shudders through her entire body. She clenched her teeth to avoid chattering, just to be safe. If that monster really was immune to magic, she was screwed if it woke up, cards or no cards!

Speaking of cards, this cave was so dark that Chihiro could barely see a thing! As she tip-toed a few steps forward, Chihiro instinctively reached for her pocket, but just then, a flash of pink light stretched across her face! Chihiro pulled her head up, and beamed as her gaze fell on groups of colorful, glowing crystal formations that cropped up here and there across the path; they gave her enough light to navigate around! Talk about convenient.

Chihiro dropped her feet down on the ground and went to take another step, but the growing volume of snoring forced her back on her tip-toes. Now that she grew closer, surely Trigger Happy would be anywhere. Maybe she should try calling for him?

"Hey, Trig?" Chihiro whispered as she wandered through the caves. "Trig, where are you? I'm here to rescue you!"

Actually, that was no good. She could only barely hear her whispers as they echoed around the cavern walls, and even those made her flinch as they reached her ears! Can't take any chances and all. Chihiro sighed, and rubbed her hand against her chin as she tried to think of something else…

"Hello? Is someone there?" somebody else barely whispered back in a voice kind of shrill and young-sounding.

Wait, a voice! That wasn't here own, anyways! Chihiro grinned and turned around.

"Yes, I am! Your friend asked me to rescue you, Trig!" Chihiro shouted. "Now, where are you, buddy?"

A soft whimper echoed around the halls, and finally the tiny voice perked up just enough to be heard, but not enough to bring attention. "I'm behind these orange crystals!"

Chihiro frowned, and peered over towards a particularly tall pillar of orange crystals with a tiny shadow beside it that was just barely visible against all this darkness. She crept behind the crystal pillar, and sure enough, behind it was a cowering Trigger Happy dressed in medieval clothes! Though he shuddered for a moment, his eyes brightened the moment they fell on Chihiro!

"Chihiro!" Trigger Happy beamed as he hopped up and down. "Funny we'd find each other here again!”

"I know, right?" Chihiro whispered as she held out her hand. "Now, let's get out of here and get back to Wrecking Ball!"

Trig grinned as he leaped into Chihiro's arms, and with him safe in her grip, Chihiro crept out from behind the crystal pillar, but stumbled back as a flaming purple blast screeched forward and narrowly grazed her!

"Where did that come from?" Chihiro exclaimed as she whipped her head around before she gasped and slammed her hand over her mouth.

"So you thought you could sneak away, did you, child?"

Down in her arms, Trigger Happy whimpered and tugged on his ears while his eyes went wide, and Chihiro's own eyes went just as big! That voice, it couldn't be! Chihiro careened her head back around the crystal pillar she hid behind, and found that sure enough, that holographic Eon tailed her in! It seemed awfully angry as it glared her down, all while it held a firecracker-shaped wand that crackled with purple flames—wait, it threw that? Crap, it must not know about the monster!

"What are you talking about?" Chihiro whispered as she took a step back and squeezed Trigger Happy tighter. "I was getting Trig out of these mines!" Chihiro narrowed her eyes and gestured towards the wand. "And don't shoot that thing in here! There's a huge monster sleeping in these caves, and if you wake it up, we're all toast!"

"Likely story!" the holographic Eon hissed as it swung its wand around. "You and your little accomplice thought you were so clever, trying to sneak the gold out from under my nose!"

With every swing of the wand, the holographic Eon sent even more of those purple flame blasts her way! Chihiro gasped, rushed out of the way as one slammed into the crystal pillar she and Trigger Happy hid behind, and dove under another crystal pillar, but that one was blown to bits by another blast! As she and Trigger Happy flew off from the impact, Chihiro twisted herself around and grunted as she took the full force of the landing, yet grimaced as she pushed herself up with one hand.

"Dude, quit it!" Chihiro hissed as she sat up and wrapped an arm around a trembling Trigger Happy. "That monster's immune to magic too, you know! There's no way any of us could beat it if it wakes up, so knock it off with the fireworks!"

"Quit trying to deceive me, child!" the holographic Eon cried as it swiped its wand again. "On my honor as a portal master and guardian of Skylands, I will not let some snot-nosed brat pull the wool over my eyes!"

Right as Chihiro pushed herself back to her feet, another purple magic blast zoomed forward with its path set towards her! Luckily she jumped out of the way just in time, but it was clear she couldn't stay and bicker.

"Hold on, Trig," Chihiro said as she smiled at Trigger Happy, "we're gonna have to book it!"

However, Trigger Happy didn't seem nearly as enthusiastic about their great escape as she was! His eyes turned tiny as he blabbered out nonsense and jabbed behind her, all while his tiny body shuddered like a scared chihuahua!

Chihiro tilted her head, and shuddered herself as warm breath brushed against her back. The sound of low, guttural growling echoed around the cavern, and mixed with sounds that vaguely sounded like, slobbering? Wait, growling and slobbering? Warm breath against her back? Chihiro's blood turned cold as that warm breath crawled against her spine. Please don't let that mean what she thought it did!

Chihiro gulped as chills crept down her back, turned around and found… Flynn? Well, Flynn if he was a gigantic, hulking monster that was! His clothes were torn, his eyes were blank, and his paws were accented by sharp claws while gigantic fangs jutted out of a mouth rife with drool. He laid on all fours while his body turned bulky and muscular, and worse yet, he looked ready to kill!

Chihiro screamed as she narrowly dodged getting slashed by the monster, and she squeezed Trigger Happy as tight as she could as she dashed back down to the cavern's entrance! But, man, all this running around and fighting from earlier really took its toll on her, and now it was starting to show! Her whole body ached with exhaustion, as if taking even one more step further would make her burst! Her running slowed to a walk, next to a trudge, and finally Chihiro paused and caught her breath for a moment as she leaned against a wall.

But, a mighty roar from the monster scared her back into running! Chihiro winced as the monster made haste behind her, and dove her free hand into her pockets. Surely she probably has a good card or two to hold that monster off! As she shuffled her hand around, her hand touched nothing but fabric—she had no cards whatsoever! Dang it, she must have used them all in that battle earlier!

Chihiro just gulped and ran as fast as her aching feet could carry her, but as she passed the holographic Eon, however, she couldn't help but frown. It didn't seem nearly as concerned as she did, for rather it just raised its firecracker wand high and snarled!

"Didn't you hear me?" Chihiro exclaimed as she glared back at the holographic Eon. "That thing's immune to magic! You can't do anything against it!"

The holographic Eon, however, just scoffed and turned its attention back to the snarling monster.

"Halt, foul beast!" the holographic Eon cried as it readied another blast and fired. "TAKE THIS AND GO BACK TO THE LANDS FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!"

The magic blast burned as bright as the lights in the holograph's eyes as its blast hurtled towards the monster, but the monster just extinguished the magic blast with a smack of its massive paw!

"My magic! It didn't work?" The holographic Eon gasped as it stumbled backwards from shock. Its wand slipped out of its grip and disappeared, but the holographic Eon thought nothing of its loss as it clenched its teeth and whipped out another card! "Very well then, try this light spell one for size!"

With a simple rub from the holographic Eon, the card exploded into bursts of light that scattered in fifty different directions, and that included where Chihiro headed! Chihiro screamed and rolled behind a tall pillar of glowing green crystal with her grip around Trigger Happy tightened, and threw an arm over her eyes as the light spell exploded behind her.

A bright, burning white light encased the entire tunnel for seconds, and when it faded, the cave’s darkness was replaced by bright light that unveiled the massive amounts of warn brown stone shaped to look like a tunnel. That light spell definitely illuminated the world around, pun fully intended, but did it do anything about that monster?

A scream resounded through the tunnels and ran Chihiro's blood cold, so she peeked around the crystal, and her heart completely dropped. The holographic Eon fell to its knees and shook like a leaf as the monster loomed over it, and it screamed as the monster swatted it into the wall with one strike from a massive paw! The holographic Eon let out one last, pained cry as it slammed into the rocks, groaned and collapsed to the floor.

Chihiro gasped and trembled, for she almost couldn't believe what she saw. Even with the holographic-ness of it all, the holographic Eon just got smacked away like it was nothing! As the monster roared and hulked over the holographic Eon like it was about to strike again, Chihiro rushed over, grabbed the holographic Eon's hand with her free hand, and dashed off. She couldn't stand around here; she had to get going before they all became a monster meal!

"It's catching up!" Trigger Happy wailed as he looked behind them, squeaked and clung to Chihiro as the monster roared again. "Can't you do anything?"

Chihiro clenched her teeth as she looked around, for even if she couldn't use cards, surely there had to be another way to stop it. However, it didn't seem like there was anything here other than crystals, and rocks, and conspicuously loose-looking rocks and crystals just barely attached to the walls around. Wait, conspicuously loose rocks and crystals, that was it! Chihiro stopped over by a pile of crystals, dropped Trigger Happy and the holographic Eon off, and pulled a gigantic rock from the pile. She snarled as the monster ran forward and growled, and tossed the rock right at the monster's face!

The monster snarled as it rushed towards Chihiro, but its run cut short as the rock slammed it right in the face and tossed it backwards! It cried out as it stumbled down to the floor, and for a moment, Chihiro winced. It stung a bit, having to hurt Flynn like this, but she had no other options.

"Trig, pull as many rocks out from the walls as possible!" Chihiro shouted as she turned back to Trigger Happy. "I'll keep this dude occupied!"

Trigger Happy nodded, shook his head and dashed to the walls. For such a small little thing, he was incredibly fast as he pulled out every stone, every pebble, everything that he could possibly grab, even though some of them seemed way too heavy for such a small gremlin. Then again, he did heave a lot of heavy gold stuff around on a daily basis.

Chihiro tilted her head as she pondered just how strong Trigger Happy was for a moment, but a loud roar nearly blew her off her feet! She winced as she stomped down and turned back to the monster, which finally recovered and pulled itself back to full height. It heaved heavy breathes that shook its entire body as it scraped its paws against the cavern floor and kicked dust everywhere. Right as it charged, Chihiro kicked up a cloud of dust from the floors below and right into its face!

The dust flew into the monster's eyes and watered them so badly that it yowled and scratched at its face just to make it stop! That wasn't the end of Chihiro's attack, for while it reeled back and cried, she grabbed a bunch of crystals and rocks from the pile Trigger Happy accumulated and tossed them at the monster! It snarled and yelped in pain as each stone bonked it on the head in succession, but she wasn't going to let up! Not yet, at least!

Chihiro lifted up her arms and got ready to grab another rock, but before she could, the entire cave rumbled! She turned her head upwards, and the whole ceiling shuddered above her as crumbs of rock and dust rained down. Looks like Trigger Happy did it! Chihiro raced backed and sighed as she looked over the still-unconscious holographic Eon, and grabbed its holographic hand. She ran forward and yanked Trigger Happy out with her other free hand!

With one last stride, the three of them burst into the open just before the whole cave, well, caved in and sealed the entrance shut with rocks!

Chihiro and Trigger Happy paused and caught their breath as the monster growled and scratched at the other side, though all that fuss did little to actually break the monster free. Finally, the monster just let out a soft whimper paired with the faint thunk of heavy footsteps. Looks like they wouldn't be worrying about that guy anytime soon!

"Trig!" Wrecking Ball cried as he burst forward and nearly tackled down Trigger Happy. "You're alright!"

Trigger Happy gasped with glee as he jumped up, and he and Wrecking Ball burst into relieved laughing fits as they spun each other around all across the grassy plains. Thank goodness, everything worked out!

Chihiro breathed another sigh of relief, but scoffed as she watched as the unconscious holographic Eon lay on the grass. Served that dude right for causing all this mess! Chihiro clicked her tongue and shook her head, yet smiled as she looked back to Wrecking Ball and Trigger Happy.

"Thank you!" Wrecking Ball cried as he leaped into Chihiro's arms. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Oh, it's no problem!" Chihiro chirped as she gently put Wrecking Ball down on the ground and let him roll back up to Trigger Happy. "I'm just glad you're alright!"

Trigger Happy and Wrecking Ball both beamed, turned around and whispered something to each other in voices so faint Chihiro definitely couldn't hear them. As their conversation ended with a nod, Trigger Happy pulled something from his pocket and turned around.

"Here, take this!" Trigger Happy said as he presented Chihiro with a simple, clay charm shaped like a flower. "It's our greatest treasure!"

Chihiro gasped, and gently smiled as she took the charm from Trigger Happy and held it tight. "Thank you!" Chihiro replied as she pressed her hands against her heart. "I'll take good care of it!"

Trigger Happy and Wrecking Ball both beamed and waved to Chihiro before running off, and for a moment everything felt peaceful. That is, until the whole area washed away in a wave of golden light!

"SIMULATION… COMPLETE!"

Before Chihiro could even comprehend what happened, the treasure hunt ended and both she and the holographic Eon were back in the board game world, each as equally confused as the other!

"Did, did you win?" the holographic Eon sputtered as it sat on the board game's tile floor while its eyes spun around in its skull. Seems as though it hadn't fully come to yet.

"I guess?" Chihiro replied with a shrug.

The holographic Eon shook its head, and its eyes fluttered as it jumped up and took a step back. "How, how did you win the scenario? Wasn't the treasure the gold in the building itself?" The holographic Eon's face fell as its eyes gazed upon the clay charm in Chihiro's hands. "Don't tell me…"

"Uh, I don't really know, to be honest!" Chihiro smiled as she looked down at the charm and rubbed her thumb against its smooth surface. "I just helped them and they gave me this as thanks!" Chihiro looked aside and shrugged again. "I wasn't even looking for a reward, to be honest, I just wanted to help."

"So you did win?"

The holographic Eon gave Chihiro a discerning frown as she nodded, and its clenched brows let up slightly as it pursed its lips.

"But more importantly!" Chihiro huffed as she pointed a finger right between the holographic Eon's eyes. "What were you thinking, waking up that monster and taking it on like that? If I hadn't gotten lucky, that monster would've eaten us all alive!"

The holographic Eon gasped and drew backwards just a bit, while its mouth stammered from the sheer shock of Chihiro's outburst. "I, I had no idea there was a monster there, though!"

"That's why I tried to warn you!" Chihiro narrowed her eyes as she drew back her hand. "If you had just listened to me, this whole thing could have been avoided!" Chihiro scoffed and turned away as she placed her hands on her hips. "But you were so worried about getting the treasure that you put Trigger Happy in serious danger and nearly got him killed, not to mention what it would've done if it got loose! For someone who claims to be a protector of Skylands, you really didn't act like it!"

The holographic Eon pursed its lips, and for a moment, it seemed as though it went to retort once more. But, then it nodded and hung its head, all while something like shame resounded in its holographic eyes.

"You, are right. I was so worried about getting the treasure that I endangered an innocent life. It was uncouth of me as a protector of Skylands to act in such a manner." The dice manifested in the holographic Eon's hands, but instead of taking its roll, it pushed them into Chihiro's palms. "Why don't you roll first?"

Chihiro perked up as she rubbed her fingers against the dice, but then clasped them tight and nodded.

"Er, alright then," Chihiro said as she tossed the dice ahead, and grinned as they fell onto a sixteen. "Nice!"

Chihiro smiled and skipped along, but only for a few spaces before she paused and looked back at the holographic Eon, who in turn just looked it her with a kind of pensiveness in its eyes. Just what was it thinking? Well, it was no use lingering on it, so she turned around and went further ahead.