Inverse System

Reggie swiftly arrived at the entrance of the cave, looking around the beach to see if the others had come in sight. He waited at the entrance of the cave for a while, eventually seeing Clyde and Quint appear from the left side of the beach.

"Yooo! We're here!" Quint waved as they arrived, but upon seeing Reggie alone, he put his hands down and calmed his enthusiasm.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming so quickly," Reggie greeted, making Clyde and Quint raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"You're… Feeling better?" Clyde asked with an inclination in his voice.

"I'm not 100 percent myself yet… But I'm definitely feeling better," Reggie told as Quint smiled warmly, outstretching a closed fist in front of him.

"I'm guessin' Rein had something to do with it. That guy really is something, huh?" Quint sighed a breath of relief, once again feeling thankful to Rein, who made his close friend feel better.

"Yeah, I'm glad to be back Quint. And sorry for the way I acted before," Reggie bumped fists with Quint, Clyde smiling at their formal reunion.

They heard the sounds of footsteps emerging from their left, seeing Chloe and Xenia running along the shore in their direction.

"Heeeey!" Xenia waved as the 2 stopped in front of the group, breathing heavily in fatigue as they put their hands on their knees, leaning down to catch their breaths.

"Where's Rein?" Chloe posed to Reggie, who pointed to the inside of the cave.

"We need to get in there right this second. Clyde, it's the same goblin lord we fought in Ardulum," Reggie informed, to which Clyde's eyes widened, his calm face turning to shock.

"Does that mean… Was Marsa with him?" Clyde posed, trying to talk carefully to Reggie about the sensitive subject.

"No, apparently she somehow escaped, and the goblin lord was flying around the continent searching for her on the dragon," Reggie described, turning around and sternly facing the cave. "But we need to go in and help Rein. He's holding the goblin and the dragon off at the same time right now," Reggie furrowed his eyebrows and ran into the cavern, everyone running after him.

"Are these monsters strong? They must be if they've got you worried about Rein," Xenia queried as they sprinted through the dark cavern, Clyde and Reggie nodding at her question.

"Incredibly strong. The goblin lord alone was able to bring Sho, Reggie, and me to our knees," Clyde revealed, unease beginning to grow within the rest of the group.

"Hold up, how? It's just a goblin, there's no way it should've been able to beat all 3 of you," Quint added as they ran.

"No, it was similar to the large gorilla we fought yesterday. It had an ability that made it incredibly powerful," Clyde explained. "The gorilla's ability was iron skin. We were not able to break through points of its skin because of it, and as a result, we almost lost. This goblin lord however…" Clyde stopped talking, Reggie continuing what he was about to say.

"The goblin lord had the ability to halt the use of all other Springs in the area. That's the reason it was able to beat us," Reggie disclosed, the group gasping at his words.

"But if that's the case, how could you leave Rein to fight it alone?! Didn't you tell him about the ability?!" Chloe interjected, worried about Rein's lack of Spring.

"I told him, but he wouldn't listen! He kept telling me to go get you guys, I couldn't do anything but comply. I'm sorry," Reggie apologized earnestly, Chloe gritting her teeth and speeding up, using the wind to boost her movements as her worry grew, running ahead of the group at super speeds.

"We should hurry as well. We can discuss this matter later," Clyde suggested, the group nodding and beginning to sprint down the cave.

They eventually made it to a turn in the cave, seeing a light blue glow emerging from the other corner, Reggie recognizing it as the boss room.

"It's in here! Just around this corner," he stated, repeating a prayer of safety for Rein in his head.

"Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay…" He kept saying, his unrest stretching as he heard no sounds from the room.

As the group turned the corner, they saw Chloe, standing in the middle of the room with an astonished expression, her mouth gaped open at what she saw.

She saw the body of the largest goblin she'd ever seen, lifeless on the floor, its head decapitated, seeming as though it rolled away from its disconnected body. Alongside that, she saw the body of an enormous dragon lying dead on the ground, its scales losing their color as its energy faded away. Its body had several holes into them, through the neck and stomach, punctured fully through the cadaver.

However, sitting atop the dragon's lifeless remains was a white-haired boy, his knee up to his face as he rested his arm on it, his other leg dangling down from the large lizard's corpse.

"Hey guys. You're a bit late," Rein greeted them with a smile as he put his hand up and waved his palm.

"The hell? What happened here?" Quint spoke as he gazed upon the sight, Rein hopping down from the dragon's body, seemingly uninjured.

"These 2 wouldn't die for some reason, so I had to kill them. You know how it goes," Rein laughed, everyone not understanding the nonsensical statement he just made.

"But… How'd you win..? Reggie and Clyde said that the goblin can disable Springs…" Chloe asked, still in awe.

"Oh, that. I just inverted the goblin's Spring before he could use it on me. The rest was pretty simple honestly," he revealed.

"Of course, that's not actually what happened," Rein thought in his head. "The goblin's power had no effect on me since my system isn't a Spring," he subconsciously laughed.

Reggie walked over to the goblins dead body and stared at it with a gaze of hatred, turning back around with a stern expression, looking Rein in the eyes with a glimpse of determination.

"Thank you, Rein. You've given me newfound hope. I will find Marsa and bring her back to her village, that is my goal as a Ranger."