"A---. !?"
Rina dramatically, timidly glanced over as Doku put down his controller.
"Oh no~! Dokuuu!!" she faux-cried, transitioning to a laugh.


And without much delay, "...."

"---! ...Ah'p."
the boss slowly turned around to face the only threat remaining in his cave. "Ooo'hoo'hoo'hoo boy...! Here 'e COMES~...!"
Doku's post-death advice was heard as she frantically tried to avoid the ogre's rampaging attacks that transitioned to and from his enraged-status attacks, but she retracted her neck a bit as the smiled - and cringed. "H'Yeah! Lemme charge an Absolute Powerforce, real quick! .... Doku, I'm gonna die~...!" smiling at the scenario presented to her. "Meat-shield me! Meat-shield me!" jokingly, both nervous and amused by the downed rogue's withdrawal from battle.

Rina changed nothing about her tactic for the time being. Trying to keep herself distant with spaced out fireball blasts should work over time, she figured in theory. It was slow, but probably the safest way to get the job done. There was no chance of an up-close battle with the redhead; no way she'd risk that now that her partner was a rag doll against the cave wall. Nope, Rina had no plans to fight outside the box with this one.

However, going a bit faster would hopefully get the fighting over with in their favor, faster - assuming that the boss really is almost dead. Now that it's just her, the thought of not wanting to leave Doku waiting too long for victory entered her mind. She'd have to keep an eye on her MP if she wanted to speed things up. Going slower allowed her energy a chance to build up a bit, so she'd just have to make sure that she doesn't drop it too low to cause hiccups in her actions.

As the creature rampaged on, the mage fired a bit faster than before, and as accurately as she could, having to stop and take moments to dodge and run from attacks.
At one point, when she thought she was clear to start attacking again, the ogre lunged at the girl, catching her by surprise!
She messed up the pattern in her mind.
Her health dropped from 60% to 25%.

"Whoa~ bad...!"
"ROOOAR!"
Running~!
"Get OUTta thERE!"
Getting away to a safe distance again was the top priority, and the boss wasn't making it easy. But she couldn't afford to take another hit, more so than most. So with every fibre of her being, she ran and ran until there was a moment where the beast calmed down for a few seconds. Her adrenaline was pumping. Once she felt far enough away, practically against the furthest wall - which, in this case, was a boss zone barrier preventing her from leaving..., "I'm so gonna die, aren't I...?" she smirked as she started spamming her firiz until the monster made any meaningful twitches, at which point, she'd stop and run - or ready herself to do just that.
"I'm too young to die! MeAT ShIElD!"
After one such threat to her existence, she waited a second to eye her opponent's moves before starting up her firiz barrage again, not wanting to be caught off-guard one final time. Unfortunately, as her first firiz launched, the ogre shifted and launched itself into the air towards Rina just as her fireball hit its feet.
"Gyuh---!"

It came down as the screen faded to black and smashed the girl with its club off-screen! A non-violent way to show your character's death, huh.

With her controller in hand, she reeled back in disappointment, hearing the club connect. "Gy'augh~--- wait.... ...? Did---...?" She re-examined the scenario in her mind just as a cutscene played with the elite ogre collapsing to the ground.
"...I got 'im??"

Granted confirmation of the narrowest boss battle victory of her life, Rina exhaled, afforded the opportunity to relax. Once the cutscene ended and the victory fanfare played, Rina, too, noticed that their levels went up a whole two points. She learned two support skills 'Endran,' which steals a single enemy's MP energy for her own use, and 'Deneech,' which lowers the defense of a single enemy.

"Ooo, energy drain; nice." Then, seeing what Deneech does, "And we can lower enemy defense, now. ...I'd like to raise my own, game, but okay, I'll give it a whirl."

Rina followed after Doku once the two chests were unlocked. Rina opened and peered into the second chest as Doku went into the first. Just like him, Rina obtained better robes: 'Wayfarer's Clothes.'
Doku voiced his gripe. "I know, right? ...Though I wonder how much of a difference it'd make just for these few extra points in DEF. I'd bet we'd still get a beatdown - and you'd still get wiped out." ...Grinsville.
While she agreed with Doku on wishing she had this sooner, she was just glad to have her DEF stat raised at each opportunity: the level-ups and the gear. From this moment forward, the redhead would pay extra special attention to her DEF stat any time there was a chance to raise it.

"H'Insane? Dunno 'bout that one, chief." She stretched, with controller in hand. "That... was luck, right there. If that last shot missed, I 100% would've died," she said as she reached for more grapes. A moment away from popping one in her mouth, she added, "No doubt in my mind about that one; that would've been it and we'd...---" a realization occurred. "Yeah, we'd have to start over, right? ...There weren't any checkpoints, were there? I didn't notice any."

When Doku saved the game twice in a row, Rina couldn't help but laugh a little. "No fear! Let's go!"

Having collected the missing ring off of the elite ogre - what they needed for the quest - and gained new gear, they used their special item to return to the beginning of the cave. After seeing the old lady and handing over the ring, they were graciously rewarded with a small sum of gold currency and a fruit for each of them that cures poison. Bidding the elderly women farewell, Doku and Rina had a few cutscenes that informed them of where to go. However, out of habit, they curiously explored the map, turning over many a leaf and treasure chest to find various interesting and mundane things, alike. Through all of this, fighting some monsters and beasts, an early stop off with a travelling merchant, some more battles to raise their levels more, and some curiosity with something mountainous in the distance, the haphazard duo eventually found themselves at their current point of interest.

Doku had run up ahead a bit before Rina, further curious, told Doku she was going to pull up the world map. Their location was apparently called 'Bewafa's Volcano,' and it was quite the ways away from their original path. Rina noticed the red words while hovered over the volcano area:
"'Not recommended at this level'...."
"Huh..." she said aloud.
Rina's eyes narrowed a bit as she then began to wonder what the recommended level actually is.
Selecting the volcano area would bring up a detailed info screen with flavor text for the area, the enemies they defeated here - which are none, so far - and the recommended level for traversing the area.

"F'wha---! N-Ninety-si---! Level 96!?"
She quickly and nervously laughed, closing the map and turning to her gaming partner. "H'Um~, Doku~? ...So... 'No fear, let's go...' but...:" grinning all the while.
After clearing the Goblin Cave at Level 4 and gaining 4 more levels, since, respectively....
Rina added, sounding and looking a little like a nervous robot as she twitched her eyebrows upward and waved her arms childishly,
"Danger! 'Save' time! Danger! 'Save' time~!"
as Player 2 didn't have access to the save option.

They ded'd. Rina had a revival item, but as she cautiously got close to Doku's downed body, unable to leave the area of battle, the lava golem took her down, too, definitely taking more damage than the rogue - not that it would have mattered against a Level 96 opponent at this stage of their journeys. "Geheh...." a bead of sweat and a toothy grin... as her character collapsed in a heap and the duo was greeted with what amounted to a 'Game Over' message.

Afterward, they resumed from the last autosave checkpoint - thankfully.

Doku sighed and voiced his disappointment, nonetheless. Rina wasn't quite so disheartened, since it appeared that they hadn't lost too much, seeing the volcano area in the distance.
"We'll be back there," she said contrarily, wanting to explore it when they're ready for it. "Buck up, bucko; there there...." She leaned over and patted his shoulder. "We at least gained a new skill: 'Future Sense: Blahblah Volcano.' It lets us know that it's a dangerous place we should avoid. I think that's pretty neat, actually," she somewhat joked.

They were only 1 Level shy of what they had before dying, however, upon checking to verify, Rina realized that they had reverted back to the point before she had obtained a 'Silk Robe' armor item that she had gained with the help of Doku's Treasure Sense ability. They had found it along the way towards the volcano, still within a relatively safe Level area - at least by comparison to Bewafa's Volcano.

"Oh'p. .... I don't have my Silk Robe anymore," she stated plainly as she continued to check for anything that's different - aside from the obvious Gold that they had accrued. "...Are you missing anything, or are you good?" she asked Doku, unable to remember what he gained beyond this point - if anything.
(--IF-- the Treasure Sense ability was learned at Level 8, and not earlier, THAT would be something she'd definitely remember at the very least.)