The kids all freefall down the canyon. Their screams disappear in the distance. Kaito acting quickly drags them all to him one by one.
With a shimmer, he summons a barrier. The barrier summon was made up of bouncy stuff. As it bounces them through the walls all the way into a river current, the powerful current thrashes them around, attempting to steer the bubble. The steering ends in failure, and they all fall into the water, knocked unconscious.
Kaito wakes up, who knows how long later, drenched in sweat. He looks around at all of his friends, all knocked out around him. "Guys?" he calls out, hoping someone can hear him.
One by one the others wake up and realize they've ended up in a desert. "What are you kidding me?!" Dante shouts.
Tips: Mages that are born from an element are more sensitive to certain conditions, such as here where Dante an ice mage ended up in a dessert where he is effectively useless.
The kids all sit around the dessert the sun beating down on them, the worst of it falling onto Dante who seems to be literally melting. "Are you alright Dante?" Nanami asks, her concern evident. Dante doesn't respond just smacks his lips.
Rika groans. "Its so hot!" She says as she blows wind on herself, "Does anyone have any water?"
Nanami rummages through her bag. "I've prepared for this." She says before pulling out four water bottles. Nanami hands them out to everyone and Dante gets straight to drinking, wasting little time.
"Thank you Nanami, what else do you have in there?" Kaito asks. Nanami shows off her bag, the kids see an assortment of various things, for various different problems that may arrive. "Cure for zombie virus?" Rika asks. Nanami pushes up her glasses. "I'm ready for all possibilities." Nanami says.
Kaito looks forward at the sand dunes in front of them. "This is way different, then the sandy place mom showed me!" He yells. He is upset about the lack of water, and the endless supply of heat!
The group travels forwards, regardless of the heat their goal unchanged. The heat made the journey harder but they couldn't afford to stop.
The sun hung like a vengeful god over an ocean of sand. Each dune looked identical to the last, and each step sank deeper into the desert's endless hunger.
"I am melting," Dante declared dramatically, slumping against a rock that radiated enough heat to bake bread. "Tell my mama... I loved her."
"You can tell her that later," Kaito replied without looking back. The amused tilt of his voice came through clearly.
"I would have," Dante said, "if this infernal wasteland hadn't vaporized every drop of magic I had left."
"I think I just saw a snowflake cry," Rika added cheerfully. The thief bounced across the sand like it didn't bother her at all, juggling three small stones. "Oh wait, no, that was Dante."
"Please bury me under one of those stones," Dante moaned.
Nanami, walked beside Kaito, calmly reading from a half-unrolled map that fluttered in the dry wind. "We're about two miles from a ruined watchtower. If we don't get there before sundown, we'll have to camp in the open."
"And become lizard snacks," Rika chirped.
"Can't we camp in Dante?" she added, winking. "He's got enough cold stored in those dramatic bones to chill a cave."
Dante attempted a spell—just a whisper of frost to cool his face—but it fizzled uselessly. "I have never been more useless in my entire magical career."
"Incorrect," Nanami said. "There was that time in the forest."
"That was not my fault," Dante snapped.
"Save your breath," Kaito said, picking up the pace. "You'll need it for the sprint."
Dante squinted ahead. "What sprint?"
"To the shade," Kaito called back.
Up ahead, a jagged ruin rose from the dunes like salvation itself.
"Oh god," Dante whispered. And then, despite himself, ran.
The shade of the ruined watchtower felt like divine mercy. Kaito dropped his pack and stretched like he'd just conquered the sun itself. "See? Told you we'd make it," he said proudly.
"You also told us the desert 'wasn't that bad,'" Nanami muttered, brushing sand from her notebook. "Two near heat strokes, one sand mirage, and a scorpion the size of a cat disagree."
Dante lay face-down in the shade, clothes soaked through, wheezing dramatically. "I saw snow once... I miss it... I would marry a snowbank..."
Rika landed in a crouch beside him, her scarf fluttering with a breeze she conjured from her fingertips. "Want me to make it snow for your funeral?" she grinned.
"Not funny," Dante mumbled into the stone. "The sand is trying to kill me."
"It's a desert, not an assassin," Nanami replied without looking up. "Though statistically, it might be both."
Then the sand shifted.
Nanami froze mid-note.
"...Did anyone else feel that?" she asked.
Rika's smile dropped. "That wasn't me."
Kaito had already drawn his sword. "Finally."
"What do you mean 'finally'?!" Dante yelped.
With a burst, the ground erupted—sand flying in all directions as something massive surged upward. A monstrous, burrowing horror of chitin and mandibles, hissing loud enough to shake the stones.
"Sandstriker!" Nanami shouted, diving behind a broken column.
"WHY IS IT ALWAYS WORMS OR THINGS WITH TOO MANY LEGS?!" Dante cried, scrambling to his feet, then immediately tripping again.
"Team?" Kaito yelled. "We beat it now, or it kills us later!"
"That's not a plan, that's a headline!" Nanami snapped.
Rika was already moving, a gust of wind lifting her effortlessly onto a high ledge. "I'll distract it—Dante, try not to freeze yourself this time!"
"That's an unfair accusation!" Dante shouted, backing away as the Sandstriker lunged at Kaito.
He dodged—barely—and slashed at one of its limbs. His blade scraped off the shell with a harsh screech.
"I think I made it mad," Kaito said, almost impressed.
"You think!?" Dante shrieked, firing a weak frost bolt that fizzled mid-air. "I am so dead!"
Rika whistled, wind swirling around her. With a flick of her hand, three shimmering illusions of herself appeared and charged the monster from different angles.
The beast snapped at one—missed—and got a face full of dust kicked up by another. Rika danced between them, real and fake blurring together.
"Nice trick!" Kaito shouted.
"Thanks! Let's hope it doesn't have magic eyesight or something!" She responded.
Dante backed against a boulder, hands trembling. He focused. Cold trickled back into his fingers, sluggish but real.
"Okay... okay... big spell. Big chill. Do something cool," he muttered to himself. "You've trained for this... kind of... sort of... no you didn't, you ran away from training, remember?!"
He clapped his hands, frost swirling around them.
The Sandstriker reared up, roaring.
"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" Dante screamed—and panicked. He fired a blast of cold air directly under it.
A huge patch of sand froze solid.
The creature slammed down... and slid, skidding awkwardly across the ice-slick surface and slamming into a ruined pillar with a crunch.
Kaito blinked. "That... actually worked!"
"I WAS AIMING FOR ITS FACE!" Dante yelled, shocked.
"New plan!" Nanami shouted. "Keep it sliding—Rika, blind it again! Kaito, go for the joints!"
"Got it!" Kaito sprinted forward, sword flashing. "Let's break this thing apart!"
Wind howled as Rika flung another gust, throwing sand into the beast's many eyes. It screeched and thrashed—just as Kaito's blade jammed deep between two armored plates.
It shrieked one final time before collapsing in a heap of twitching limbs and cracking shell.
Silence returned.
Dante collapsed again, gasping. "I'd like to go home now."
Rika floated down beside him, brushing sand off her sleeves. "You saved our butts, Frosty." Yet another ice pun lands.
"I did?" he blinked.
Nanami nodded, scribbling notes. "You slipped it on ice. It was either genius... or a full accident."
Dante blinked at his hands. "…I'll take it."
Kaito stabbed his sword into the ground triumphantly. "We lived! Let's loot something!"
"Why do I feel like that's not the last thing trying to kill us today?" Nanami muttered. "First the assassins, now this." She shakes her head.
Rika leans forwards focusing on something in the distance. "Guys!?" Rika shouts to them all. "What?" Dante meekly asks. "It's a town with an oasis!" She shouts.
The kids run happily to the town sprinting merrily.
Once they enter they fall to the floor happily confusing the inhabitants. "I'm gonna see if they have ice here, or anything cold." Dante weakly says, pulling himself from the ground. "I'm gonna clean some clothes and swim in the oasis." Rika says. Rika gets up, and Nanami follows behind her.
Kaito goes to follow them but a distant guitar catches his attention.