Chapter 14: Wild Ride

Wild Ride

Striding forward to stand in front of their group, Young-Ja conjured the ‘hose’ out of thin air as she raised her arm straight into the air. A long, flexible tube-like purple object materialized in her hand. It was connected to a purple box that slammed to the ground, landing with a muffled thud against the grass.

One of the Outworlders gaped and moved forward to have a better look. “Whoa, what is that?”

“Man, forget the magical girls—these middle-aged women look like they’ll have higher XP and better drops!” another Outworlder said to the rest of his party.

“We’ll kill them all,” the lead Outworlder declared, swinging his sword. “Let’s go, boys!”

Before the Outworlders could advance on their cozy gathering, Young-Ja’s voice boomed in the open air as she aimed the open end of her purple hose at them.

“We are the HOA Enforcement Squad! No pests are allowed on the grass, especially not Outworlder ones trying to kill living things here to ‘grind’. Begone, pests, or prepare to be hosed down!”

Still in Magical Girl Victoria mode, Victor snarfed down the rest of the soup in his bowl before the fight could officially break out. He mourned the rest of the gimbap remaining on the low-folding table as he got to his feet. His hand landed on the hilt of his sword, and instantly it resumed its shrieking inside his head of wanting the Outworlders dead. The only problem was how strong these Outworlders looked in their glowing neon armor.

They needed the semi-truck runes to stand a real chance at defeating them, even with their magical girl power buff.

Rose was already on her feet, holding up her crescent moon glowing wands. Her cheeks were stuffed with food, and her chewing looked laborious.

“Of all times to show up, they had to do it while we were having good food?” she muttered, her eyes narrowing into murderous slits.

Ornik had stood to block Princess Lataya from the Outworlders’ sight.

The Outworlder with blond hair blanched and recoiled. “The HOA Enforcement Squad?! Guys, maybe we should—”

“No, I’m sick of these power-tripping old hags!” their leader with angry red hair barked. “They were always on my case back on Earth too! Come on, we got pretty strong gear and weapons now.”

“Old?! I’ll have you know,” Myung-Sook exclaimed with an extremely offended look, “that I’m only in my forties! Get off our lawn, you whippersnappers!”

Young-Ja hefted the heavy-looking hose onto her shoulder and aimed.

Much to Victor’s amazement, the mana-liquid shooting out from it blasted the Outworlder clean off the ground and back into the dense woods his group had emerged from.

Looking furious, the leader stomped forward. “You—! Take out the woman with the hose first!”

Starting from him, Young-Ja methodically yeeted every single one of the Outworlders back into the woods. Their shrieks filled the air as they vanished from sight, a trail of mana sparkles following behind them.

“Good riddance to those hooligans,” Young-Ja said, raising the hose again to the sky and somehow making it dematerialize. “And stay off our residential zone!”

Victor whirled around, eyeing the rest of the HOA Enforcement Squad with renewed respect and a bucketload of fear. So this was what DuraSal had meant when he’d said even the Outworlders had to respect them.

Myung-Sook just huffed and scooped out more rice from the rice cooker, completely unfazed by what had just happened.

“Eat up,” Mrs. Kim urged, shoving another bowl of food into Victor’s hands. “Put some meat on those bones.”

“How did you do that?” Ornik asked. “We’ve been on a journey to find the solution to eliminating those Outworlders, but you’ve had the power to dispose of them the entire time.”

“Yeah!” Rose said eagerly, circling Young-Ja and looking her up and down. “You could join our party and kill all the Outworlders wreaking havoc in the kingdom!”

“Avenge King Dorin!” Ornik cried. “My toad instincts feel it! The time of our vengeance is near!”

Young-Ja harrumphed. “Dispose of them? We’re merely able to dispatch them from our territory. Outside of our HOA regulated zones, our weapons have no effect on them.”

She’d made a fair point; the mana-blast from her hose hadn’t seemed to kill them on impact. It had just knocked them all away.

The hope that had risen inside of Victor upon seeing their shocking powers was mercilessly crushed by his disappointment.

“I see. It can’t be helped, then.” Their search for the semi-truck runes would still have to go on.

After they’d had their fill of food—at the insistence of the Ahjummas—at the field, everyone returned to their magical-girl-yassified Tesla. Ardyn hopped onto her hover bike beside them. As the HOA Enforcement Squad sent them off with calls of goodbyes and reminders to eat well, they sped out of the area.

Once out of sight, Victor had DuraSal deactivate the Magical Girl effect, returning everyone, including the Tesla, to their original state. Princess Lataya had Tesla use the GPS to take them to the next world core leak location.

Eventually, they ended up in a forest, and Tesla drove over the forest floor between the trees.

After the tenth uncomfortable bump that had him ready to lose his lunch, Victor lost his patience and snapped, “Tesla, will you stop driving into trees!”

Princess Lataya, seated in the driver’s seat, looked fine while everyone else was slightly green in the face. At least she looked comfortable.

“I’m not driving into trees,” Tesla protested. “I just grazed them a little!”

Ornik looked unhappy. “A horse can avoid obstacles better than you.”

“Can’t carry all four of us on one, though,” Rose pointed out.

“They’re trees, not pebbles or underbrush that you can’t see,” Victor said. “They’re right there in front of you.”

“Yeah,” DuraSal said. “What’s so difficult about avoiding trees, Tesla? I thought you had sensors?”

“You can’t even get motion sickness from a bumpy car ride, DuraSal! You’re a literal battery now. Get off my back!”

Much bickering and frustration later, Tesla brought them straight to a large pool enclosed by vegetation. The tall waterfall leading into it roared. It didn’t slow down as it moved forward.

“Go straight,” the GPS’ female voice said. “Your destination is in 200 meters.”

“We’re going into water again?!” Princess Lataya exclaimed, bracing her hands against the dashboard in her excitement.

“No,” Tesla said. “We’re going behind the waterfall. There’s a hidden cave behind it.”

The car remained on the surface of the water this time, gliding forward smoothly straight towards the waterfall.

“Can this thing take the impact of the waterfall?” Victor asked warily.

“‘This thing?!’”

“Are we going to be crushed?” Rose looked out the car window at the waters surrounding them. “Should we jump out of here? I’m good at swimming, I guess.”

“I can’t swim,” Princess Lataya protested.

“You can take the princess to safety, Rose,” Victor said. “I’m not good at swimming, but I’ll try to help.”

“I think I’ll take my chances in here,” Ornik said, an anxious expression crossing his face as he looked out the window too. “Feel free to leave if you need to.”

“Wha—Can’t you swim?” Rose did a double take at him. “I would’ve thought you’d be a great swimmer …”

“I’m a toadman, not a frogman. Our bodies don’t move that well in the water.”

“We won’t really be crushed, will we?” Princess Lataya asked.

Seeing the excitement on her face falter and give way to worry, Victor reassured her, “I will protect you at all costs, princess.”

“If ‘this thing’ can find the right path,” the Tesla AI said in a very offended tone, “to your desired destination, it can most certainly take you there safely.”

Despite lacking a nose, DuraSal somehow managed to make a snorting sound. Then again, he also managed to speak without a mouth.

DuraSal replied, “I would believe you if it weren’t for the ridiculous number of times my car GPS told me I could take a particular route, only for me to get there and realize there was an obstacle it hadn’t registered on its map.”

“Maybe your car’s GPS did that, but I’m better than that,” Tesla said haughtily. “I’m a high-end model with numerous capabilities other run-of-the-mill cars can’t do.”

“What are you two yapping about?” Rose asked from the backseat with a scowl. “Do we need to get out of here or not?”

“Nothing,” DuraSal said. “It’s just Outworlder stuff.“

“You’re perfectly safe in here!” Tesla’s voice was bright and cheery. “Well, we’re going in!”

At the very last minute, Rose yelled, “Wait, what about Ardyn?!”

Victor clutched at the seatbelt strapped across his torso when the waterfall drew near enough to touch the front of the Tesla. The rushing of the water battering down had increased to a roaring crescendo all around them.

It was too late to think about jumping out now.

Princess Lataya squeaked. Ornik let out a faint croak. Rose said nothing.

With his eyes wide open and his heart at a standstill, Victor watched as the Tesla charged through the waterfall. The car shook tremendously, but it somehow withstood the sheer force and passed through the curtain of torrential water.

Their surroundings shifted from chaos into a quiet, dark cave, and the Tesla landed with an unceremonious clatter on hard ground.

“You have arrived at Aquabarrow Cave,” the female GPS voice said.

“See?” Tesla said triumphantly. “We made it safely! There was nothing to worry about! You should trust me and my driving more.”

The overwhelming sense of relief choked out any retort Victor could’ve mustered.

Instead, he turned to check on the others. While Princess Lataya was eagerly unbuckling her seatbelt, Rose was inhaling and exhaling deeply. Upon meeting Victor’s eyes, Ornik stopped clutching at his chest.

“Is everyone alright?” Victor asked.

“Yeah!” Princess Lataya chirped, her smile taking up half her face. “That was amazing!”

Ornik nodded. “Yes.”

“Never better,” Rose said after a beat.

Looking out the window on his side, Victor realized with a jolt that Ardyn was sitting on her hoverbike right next to their Tesla.

He got out of the car, hearing the others follow suit behind him. The unexpected chill in the air immediately enveloped his exposed face. Even his lungs felt like it’d been attacked by harsh winter air. He blinked a couple of times and shook his head.

The headlights from the Tesla provided a small amount of illumination of their otherwise dark surroundings.

“You made it in here,” he said to Ardyn.

“I was surprised when Tesla headed right for the waterfall, but,” she replied, patting her trusty hoverbike, “my trusty bike has a few tricks up its sleeve.”

“Oh, good,” Rose said, going around the car to approach them. “I thought maybe we’d left you stuck outside.”

Stepping up next to Victor, Princess Lataya hugged herself. “Wow, it’s cold in here.”

A shudder went through Ornik’s body. “Princess Lataya is right.”

“You should go back in. I was just checking on Ardyn. We need DuraSal and Tesla to lead us to the leak, anyway.” Victor turned back to Ardyn. “Can you take the cold? Do you need to ride with us?”

She waved him off. “I’m fine; my hoverbike has a warming function. I’ll be alongside you all. Besides, I’d rather not leave it here unattended.”

“Alright.”

Everyone else was about to get back into the Tesla, and Victor turned around as well. They were all about to step into the comfortable warmth of the car when a threatening, low growl from somewhere in the dark depths unlit by the headlights made them freeze in their tracks.