I sit up slowly as I prepare to tell them my story, having recovered from my scare enough to talk.

“W-well.” I say, hiccuping and clearing my throat as I stop sniffling. “My mum was an adventurer, a-and she one day was sent out when a dungeon had overflowed, but it was too much for them, and the ducks swarmed the village. Mum tried to defend our house…”

I trailed off sadly, the memories popping up in my head. “But she was overrun by the amount, right in front of our house.”

I wiped the tears from my face as I continued my story. “That’s why my dad is always wanting me to be a scholar, and not an adventurer, cause he doesn’t want to lose me like he did with mum. I-I’m sorry, I probably should have told you guys…” I say, trailing off as I look down apologetically.

Taegan then suddenly wraps me in a hug. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” He says. “If someone can’t acknowledge that that fear was able to get you here, then they are just stupid.” He grabs me tight, as Shankhe joins in on the hug. “Yeah, we’re a team now, Dalyva, you can tell us as much or as little as you like.” I smile through my tears happily. “…Thanks guys.” I say appreciatively.

“Let’s go through these parts, and then we can have a treat I got as a special drop for dessert.” Taegan says, and I light up at that. He chuckles and then both help me to my feet as we start to walk to the next hammers.

The first one, easy as before. The second, also easy, but on the last one, I was getting a bit confident, and as Taegan yanked me across to the platform, he shook his head at me. “Don’t get too confident.” He says teasingly. I look at him. “I can care for myself!” I protest. “Yeah, care as in getting yeeted into the corruption liquid.” Shankhe butts in. “This is teaming!!!” I exclaim, and Taegan shakes his head as he chuckles and draws his blades. “Rigggghhht.” He drags out the word before rushing to one of the monsters, a corrupted hound.

“Shankhe, cover the right, and Dalyva, the middle.” I nod, and head to the middle of the platform, Shankhe to the right and Taegan to the left. We all get out our weapons, and I poke one of the hounds who comes close to me with the spear bit, but, of course, it doesn’t retreat.

So far I’ve been holding my halberd by the back of the shaft, and it’s been really hard and heavy to use and control.

Slipping a hand up the shaft and closer to the head, I feel more in control of the halberd, and manage to do some decent swings. One clipped the hounds neck, decently cutting into it. I push harder, applying more force, and the hound falls over dead.

Taegan and Shankhe are still fighting, just as humanoid creatures enter by the sides. Taegan looks up and yells immediately. “Scarecrows, monsters.” Just in case we confused them for humans.

Taegan was super cool, and so was Shankhe, with both of them having their weapons drawn, monsters surrounding them, and their respective specialisation surrounding them as it either floats around them or sticks to their arm, Shankhe and Taegan’s strategies respectfully.

Just as one of the scarecrows approaches Shankhe, his water starts to envelop the blade. I look at it curiously, wondering what he’s trying to do. He swings, and it seamlessly flies through the air, no resistance whatsoever and smoothly slicing the head off the scarecrow in one fell swoop.

I then look to Taegan, who has drawn his two jambiya daggers that have a 20cm blade, and a 10cm handle on both. He has his sand wrapped around his forearms, just above his wrists, and is wielding the daggers with expertise in a front hand grip. He swings at one of the scarecrows, and I frown. It’s too far from his target. But instead of stopping the strike, he continues it, as I notice sand unravels from his striking forearm, and as the jambiya aligns with the scarecrow, sand shoots out, looking like an extension of the blade as it slices the monster.

I looked at him aweingly. Amazed by his crazy yet effective idea.

Suddenly I yell out in pain. “Aaaggghhhhhh.” Heads immediately swivel in my direction. “Dalyva!” Says Shankhe worriedly. I shake my head.

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“Focus on your own.” I say as I look down to the hound who has got my right arm in a vice grip. It shakes its head, and I wince in pain. I drop my halberd, and then raise my non bitten left arm, chopping the hounds neck with all my strength.

At first, nothing happens, as my left is my weaker hand. Then I got an idea. Quickly, I punched its snout, directly on its soft nose. It lets go with a sharp whine. I grin, a weak spot. My arm is bleeding out, and I know I don’t have much time, but your girl gotta do what she gotta do. I reach down, and pick up my halberd, wincing as my arm hurts from the bite, but pushing through, I manage to swing at the hound, chopping mostly though its side, enough to kill it at least.

I collapse with exhaustion, and soon after Taegan and Shankhe arrive as I pass out.

I wake up on one of the roll ups and tent that we sleep in, bandages wrapped around my arm. “Oh, you’re awake.” Says Taegan as he notices my movement. “How’re you feeling?” I groan as I sit up, wincing as I feel the pain in my arm. “Hurt.” I say. He chuckles, and then says. “You know, if you start to practice your specialisation, you’ll heal a lot quicker, and it won't hurt as much when you get hurt.” He mentions. Shankhe walks in then with a stick that has chunks of cooked meat on it, a kebab. I look at it hungrily, and he smirks. “Want one?” I nod. “Of course.” I say, and he quickly ducks out and returns with two kebabs, handing one to Taegan and one to me.

I eat with my left hand, somewhat not used to having my left hand, but managing. Taegan gestures for Shankhe to sit down, and he does. “Dalyva.” He says once I’m done eating. I glance at him. “Try to imagine a stone inside of you, it's red, and glowing, and connects to all these little glowing red streams flowing into your body. Imagine one of these lines goes to your arm, which is hurt. Imagine the light mixing into your blood, healing the blood, tissue and skin.”

He directs, and I close my eyes as I envision it. It’s a bit tricky to envision, but eventually I manage to get a stone in my mind. It is smooth, and glows a soft red, many streams, or strands as I think of them interweave in my body, going all throughout. Finally, I managed to find the strand that leads to my hurt arm. Glowing darker red than the other strands, it was certainly different.

Imagining an ethereal hand, I reach out and touch it. Warmth floods my imaginary hand, almost like a healing pulse. I instinctively realise what I have to do. The red energy seeps out of the strand, and then enters the damaged parts of my arm, and as my real arm tingles, Taegan and Shankhe clap.

“You did it!” Shankhe cheers. As I get out of my meditation, I look at the bandages. Taegan gently removes them, and i see how the once terribly deep bite marks from when I had gotten bitten have developed into filled out scabs. My eyes widen, and a grin escapes me. “Alright!” I say, a genuine smile on my face as I lift my fists into the sky and shake them in celebration. Taegan looks at me with a nod. “First time as well.” He compliments. “We’ll get you into an instant healer in no time, and you’ll be a real force to be reckoned with.”

I nod at his comment, happy for my achievement. I then remembered something. “Before, you said something about dessert?” I ask eagerly. Taegan chuckles. “Wondered if you’d remember. Here.” He says, taking out a bottle. It read, cherry blossom ale. My eyes light up. “You got some ale?” I was surprised, not knowing how that could be a drop.

He smirked. “Set up the camp and I’ll pop the cork.” Me and Shankhe quickly rushed to set up, but Taegan blocked me. “You’re still hurt, we don’t want you damaging anything that didn’t heal.” He then went out of the tent. I went out as well, but true to his advice I didn’t help, and merely watched.

Soon it was set up, and we sat down in the camp, in front of the fire, where Taegan is cooking some meat. He hands out the cuts of meat once they’re cooked, and I hold mine by the corner, blowing on it before I switch to my other hand holding it and blow on that. It’s really hot, but soon it gets to a manageable heat. I gobble it up quickly, hungry from using my Mana. Eating a couple more pieces of meat, I’m soon full, and Taegan pulls out three cups. He looks at me. “You’re over 16, right?” He confirms before pouring. I nod, and he glances at Shankhe, just having to check. “Over?” And Shankhe nods as well.

He then pours the ale. He doesn’t pour much for us, and Shankhe looks at him with a glare. “Why are you getting more?” He asks. Taegan sighs. “It’s dwarven ale, and I don’t want you two getting hungover tomorrow.” Shankhe then replies. “Then why do you have more?” Taegan looked at him like ‘really?’ and said, “I lived in a dwarven village the last couple years, the exact village this came from, Shankhe.” Shankhe pouted, but still took his cup with some gratitude, happy to finally have something other than boring meat.

I took a sip, the tingly feeling of the ale going down my throat was funny, and it tasted good, like cherry juice, except a bit richer and with the tang of alcohol. I look at Shankhe and Taegan, who are gulping down their cups. Taegan slams his empty cup down with a satisfied breath. “That’s the good stuff.” He says happily. Shankhe finishes a couple seconds after Taegan, and nods. “It’s certainly good stuff.” I slowly sip mine, and finish it minutes after the two of them. I yawn as I finish. “I’m going to bed,” I say “night you two.” I get up, give my cup back to Taegan, and then head to my tent. “Night.” Replies Taegan. “Good night.” Says Shankhe.

The next morning, we have a simple breakfast of some of Shankhes trail mix, which is depleting quickly, and then start walking.

As I walk, I suddenly realise that Shankhe and Taegan are no longer next to me. “Shankhe? Taegan?” I yell out, trying to locate them as a fog encroaches. I look around desperately, not wanting to be left alone. The purple fog is soon over me, and it's cold. I shiver, rubbing my hands and trying to stay warm. Suddenly, out of the fog emerged my mum. “Mum?” I ask, stepping towards her hopefully, but I can’t move. I’m stuck, forced to watch as I see ducks coming behind her. Not purple like in this dungeon, no, normal ducks. “No, no, no, no.” I say, tears streaming down my face. “Stop, stop, STOP!” I yell, but it continues. My mum stands in front of me. “Sweetie.” She whispers. “Cover your eyes sweetie, and hide, okay?” She says, the exact words she said to me years ago. “Mum, no!” I cry out, wanting to stop this.

I fell to my knees. I’m unable to move from this spot, but I can move my body in this spot. I put my hands on my ears, trying to block out the sounds of my mum. Tears stream down my face, landing on my lap as I close them. Suddenly I hear a little voice in my head. “Wake up.” It whispers, slowly elevating its voice, “Wake up.” as it yells. “WAKE UP.” I snap out of my nightmare. I jolted up and almost whacked Taegan, who was leaning over me. “Oh, good. Dalyva, you were attacked by the nightmare hag.” He said. “You okay?” He checks. Shankhe is also looking at me worriedly. I nod. “Yeah, I’m good.” I say, still a bit shaken.