“8 hours!” Evelyn yelled out, her voice showing her fluster and anxiousness.

Adrith held his hand up as he shushed her, “Quiet, you’re gonna get us into a bad situation”.

Adrith turned as Evelyn seemed to realize what she did and took a gulp in as he continued, “Yes I suppose, 8 hours. We aren’t running. We don’t know what creatures are running around, so if we run around following this line then we may get out faster, but we could also lead more monsters up with us. Then we need to keep running, which then leads more creatures after us, and then we will eventually make a wave of monsters that will catch up to us and make our life getting out of here even harder”.

Evelyn shifted back as she slightly put her head down before she said, “You know you could have just said because we need to be safe”.

Adrith shook his head as he turned back around to continue forward. They had a path forward, so they ventured through the dark, following a strange carving through the stone as they began to wind and turn, it could have been minutes or hours, the only teller of time was within their minds.

Their path was safe and mostly pleasant all things considered, they had the occasional scare from the shadows, yet they never ran into a monster. It was not until they began to see the light flicker was when they became nervous. Yet that wasn’t what caused the duo's fears.

Both Adrith and Evelyn saw it in the immediate moment when they saw their lights beginning to flicker, they saw in front of them a large angular head like a reptile. Yet as it moved through the intersection they were about to meet, they saw its neck become impossibly long. A gasp came from Evelyn as the light began to fade. And the head of the Horror Dragon turned. With its nearly 30 red eyes that locked onto the both of them, it let out a roar, and the light then finally vanished.

And then, the screaming began.

Adrith let out a yell, “Do your spell!” yet it was nearly impossible to hear as the Horror Dragon let out a screeching roar that shook the both of them.

For Adrith, it felt as if from all sides his body was being hammered by the sound as it reverberated through the armor.

For Evelyn, she cried out in the darkness which was then followed by the screech. Her mind and body were both shaken so much it had left her completely disorientated. The darkness that was once fought back by their light was overwhelming, yet it was after the screeching that the true fear began to creep into Evelyn’s mind. The screeching was then followed by the sound of what could be described as hundreds of feet stampeding directly toward them.

Adrith couldn’t think of anything, he had no catalyst, and he couldn’t even think of looking back to see Evelyn because of the sheer darkness. Adrith could only feel the presence of the Horror Dragon come closer and closer. It was a monster that was somewhere nearly half of the corridor with its body alone, the additional appendages and spikes made the creature nearly take up all the available space the corridor provided, making it near impossible to dodge without it being forced to one side as far as possible. Adrith couldn’t think of anything, other than a suicide plan.

Adrith began to run from one wall to the other as he began to snap his fingers. The gauntlets made it impossible to truly snap them, however, the constant hitting made it a nice sound, a metallic almost clicking that was inaudible to the rushing horror that was the Horror Dragon. It took multiple attempts, but after enough, Adrith was able to form a small mote of light. The light lit up the darkness well enough to see the Horror Dragon was nearly upon them. With moments to spare the Horror Dragon saw the light and shifted as it aimed to attack Adrith and the only light source within the area.

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Evelyn, in all the confidence she could muster trying to ascend the Dungeon, never expected to be put into such a fearful state immediately. She now found herself on the ground, scrambling as the moment the yelling began, she had dropped her wand. She immediately dropped to her knees and began to fumble around trying to find the wand, her only defense, yet she couldn’t. The shaking from the screeching, from her nerves, and the pure terror of the dark. She was brought to tears from it all, and as if there could have been light at the end of the tunnel, she felt on the tip of her fingers was her wand. Yet in her haste, she accidentally hit it with her finger and knocked it further away.

It was in that moment of hopelessness, that she saw a light truly appear, it was a soft glow, something akin to a candle a child would carry in the dark. It was something so soft and small, yet something so precious, held in the fingers of Adrith. That simple moment however was taken away as the sharp and piercing screeching roared out from the darkness. Just within the corner of her vision, Evelyn could see the Horror Dragon had shifted and was now beaming right toward Adrith, and he had no time to move.

Evelyn let out a tiny squeak before she saw the light vanish and then the horrific sound of thousands of horns and spikes grinding against stone. The screeching became less audible as the creature was like a natural disaster constantly moving forward until it had reached some kind of dead end. Evelyn felt a heavy weight come over her, a dense fear that sunk her heart as she had seen the only person who was here with her die. Her voice couldn’t come out, no matter how many times she attempted, all she could was feel choked, like she was being surrounded by the dark around her.

Tears began to run down her face as she felt lost. The weight of the darkness felt as if it was crushing everything out of her, her tears felt like they were drawn from her, yet also forced to stop. Her hands wanted to move, yet all she could do was shake. Her knees had completely given out, her body felt as if she had the sea pressed against her. It was so heavy that all she wished for was a release, something to relieve her of this dread that had fallen over her.

Silence had fallen over the area, as the sound of metal clinking together was the only thing that could be heard. After a moment, Evelyn was brought out of the darkness by the light of a soft blue glow and the voice of the originator of the light, “Hey, you hurt?” Adrith asked as he kneeled to look at Evelyn, and all she could do was look at him curiously, ”H-how?”.

Adrith’s head tilted as he looked at her for a moment. His head flicked up and he tossed it towards the other wall, “Ah how I got out of that situation? That was easy I just jum-”,

Evelyn then cut him off quickly, “No, I mean how are you casting that light?”

Adrith looked to his hand as he shrugged, “Oh, well I’m unsure of that exactly. All I know is that I can do it. I’ve been able to do it since I was young, so I guess just a natural talent?”.

Evelyn looked at him amazed as she felt his hand shoot under her armpit and lift her with him haphazardly, She was jolted for that moment before she could say anything Adrith said just a few words, “Hey so how long does your modified light spell last?”

“The normal light would be about half a way, the modified is a bit less, why?” Evelyn answered with a curious look as if she was pulled and strung along from one emotion to the next.

Adrith however did not seem to bother with such things, as he just responded, “Well, we should be nearly to the next staircase”.

Evelyn was nearly flabbergasted, she tried to center herself quickly as she began to chant out her light spell once more, “Hear me, oh sparks of fire which light the night, answer me, Light”. Around her danced 8 small motes of light that began to swirl and move as she continued “Hear me, my starlight, enchant the night, answer me, Light”.

With the incantations completed, both Adrith and Evelyn had light once more. They continued forward, with each step they made, they felt as if they were closer to their goal, yet they also were filled with a new sense of dread as they knew the next floor could be worse. Yet the only way to prove that was for them to ascend to the 58th floor.