"What do we do?" Vastoria asked, "We don't have any equipment, our only weapon is a fork, and somehow we're supposed to fend off a large, human-sized cockroach bat."
If they at least had a sword or something a tad more lethal, fhen maybe they would've stood a better chance the first time around. Nonetheless though, it wouldn't have made too much of a difference because Energy was wounded. If they wanted to move past this beast, then they had to go about it another way.
"I got an idea." Energy thought about it, "The monster, which part of your body did it attack?"
"Which part?" She tilted her head, "Oh geez, I don't recall..."
It was her squeamish nature that made her close her Eyes to the world all too early. Having witnessed the gruesome demise of her new friend right in front of her, and knowing full well that she was next, in the end it just made her completely blank out in her final moments. Then again, since she couldn't remember, it also didn't disprove Energy's hypothesis, just as much as it didn't prove it.
"I have a feeling it feasts mostly on gilded parts." He knocked on his head, "After all, it really mauled my face before I could finally croak."
"Yuck, don't remind me of that moment..." She whimpered, "But if it eats golden parts..."
...Then it must have gone for Vastoria's chest, or rather, the heart of gold within it. This would make sense as well, since once she lost her heart, then she most probably didn't live long after that anyways. This was a very valid assumption by Energy, hence why his next plan seemed extra crazy in comparison.
"I'm gonna lure it with my golden threads." He undid his head again, "Once it's busy eating those, we can run right past it and continue on."
"Ah, don't..." Vastoria weakly tried to stop him from showing his brain again, "Sigh, even if what you said is true, then what will we do if we run into another gold eating monster?"
Of course, they only had one thread that was previously used to stich his head together, but there's no way this is the only monster they'll run into. To begin with, they have no clue how many more floors they'll have to endure, and this is only the 3rd anyways. It's best not to commit to too many self-sacrifices to make their way down the Shrine.
"I don't see you coming up with anything better." He pouted, "But don't worry, my plan doesn't involve us losing anything we currently possess."
"Guess there's no getting through to you..." She sighed, "Hm? Oh, I just realized."
"What? What now?"
"If it can sense our golden parts from within, then why would it ever go for a bit of thread when it can just beeline it to your brain?" She asked.
After a long pause shared between them, he eventually brushed Vastoria's worries off as he singlemindedly began walking down the stairs to the jungle layer. Though she wanted to call out to him, she was also too terrified of alerting the beasts that lurked just below. Timidly, she walked a step or two behind him, getting ready to run back up the stairs at any moment if something were to jump out at them.
"Hey, stand in front." He ordered.
"What the hell? No, it was your plan to begin with!" She shot back in a nervous whisper.
"You can see double what I can, and you can sure as hell run a lot faster." He tossed her the thread, "Look, all I'm gonna ask of you is to dangle the thread through the door while you peek out to see when it notices you."
"Isn't that the most dangerous part of the job, though!?" She yelped.
"Is it? Well lucky for me then." He chuckled, "You'll be happy to know I'll gladly take your spot in this plan, but then you're gonna have to be the one to kill it with the fork."
"...Come again?"
"Yep, I like it!" He smirked, "I'll lure it into the tight passage way we'll come from, and when it gets its cockroach head stuck inside, you impale its brains out with the fork. Heh, originally I wanted me to have to do it, but since you're so willing..."
"N-No, I'm good!" She immediately backpaddled, "You do it, please! I'll gladly be the bait!"
"Heh, thought so."
A few dozen steps later, and they could see the Green moss begin to show itself from around the corner. They had made it once more to the place where they previously died. This time would be different though, because this time they knew what was coming up. With a deep breath to steel her resolve, Vastoria just barely peeked out through the doorframe.
"Do you see it?" Energy whispered.
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"It's..." She gulped, "It's there. Hanging from the ceiling. Ugh, if that thing jumps at me, I'm screaming..."
"If my theory is right, it definitely shouldn't." He explained, "Until you show the thread, that is. The moment it even makes the tiniest of moves, you back off behind the wall, got it?"
"Okay-"
Grabbing her hand that held the threads carefully, Energy made sure to warn her once more for good measure. She was jumpy, shivering from the anxiety and fear, so he knew she probably didn't fully understand his advice.
"Listen to me carefully. The moment even a single muscle in that thing moves, you run the fuck back." He stated, "Don't wait until it starts flying, by then it'll be too late."
"Hmph!" She yanked her arm free, "I got it the first time. Just be sure to really dig that fork in deep. If it starts squirming and thrashing, I might fall unconscious."
"Wouldn't want that." He joked, "Good luck."
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Once more, she peeked her head out the doorway. Normally in these scenarios, one would expect a plot twist to the effect of "The monster was no longer there!" or something similar, but no—It remained firmly hanging from the ceiling up above. It had the body of a bat, of course, so it was to be expected that it wouldn't change places for no reason. Quickly, she held out the golden thread through the door frame before hiding back behind the wall.
"What are you doing?" Energy angrily whispered as he held the fork at the ready, "Quit fucking around and do what I told you to do."
"I-I'm scared!" She got all teary-Eyed, "I don't wanna do this, it's gonna swoop in and attack me!"
"That's the point, dammit." He groaned, "You're the bait, your job is to lure it in here with us."
"And if it gets me before then?"
"I guess we can try again." He shrugged.
"And what if-!?"
"Listen lady, as far as I'm concerned—We both died the first time it ate us a couple minutes ago!" He snapped, "Once someone dies, they don't usually ever get a do-over of this magnitude! If you keep worrying about all the what ifs, then you'll never last a day out in the wild! What if, what if... What if you do your job properly and we kill it with ease, huh!? Why didn't you ask yourself that!?"
A rather harsh lecture came from Energy, but it wasn't unjustified. Vastoria was not built for high risk plans and life-or-death situations, at least going off of her personality. She just wasn't that kind of person. Though it was regrettable, Energy was stuck with someone as gentle and skiddish as her for the duration of their Shrine exploration, so he at least had to make sure she did what was asked of her.
"Sniffle... got it." She decidedly nodded before peeking out her head once more, "Okay, it still hasn't moved."
"Take out the thread." He whispered to her the next order, "And don't pull it back immediately."
Again, she took the thread out and dangled it through the door frame. Her Eyes were fixated on nothing but the gruesome abomination hanging above her. The beast, however, still hadn't reacted.
"Hmm, maybe if I...?" She tried dangling it in just the right way for the sheen of the gold to hit its face, "Almost... there..."
"Vastoria, Vastoria what are you doing?" Energy called out to her in a panicked whisper, "Is it moving?"
"It's not... Ah!" She smiled, "It opened its-!"
-Eyes, she wanted to say as she got pulled back by the one footed survivor. It seems despite her doing well up until now to quell her fear, she still failed to completely enact his orders. Energy told her to back off the moment that thing moved, and not a second after. This was not without reason...
"Y...!" She shouted and screamed as the cockroach bat scurried through the tight passage they were in, "YAHHHH!!!"
"Run back upstairs!" Energy ordered as he stuck the fork into the top of the abomination's head.
"But what about you-!?"
"Just do it!" He said as he wrestled the thrashing beast.
Without being given much of a choice, Vastoria quickly ran back to the crystal layer above. While leaving her friend to face off against the thing alone did feel like a selfish and cowardly decision to choose, the fact remained that she didn't really bring anything useful to the table herself. At this point, she could only wait and see who would come up those stairs once the battle was over—Energy... or the cockroach bat."
"...Hmf!" She felt sick to her stomach the moment she stopped hearing any sounds of struggle from below.
Each second felt increasingly longer, and her head was chafing so much it felt like it was gonna explode. If she ran downstairs to check on the situation, there was a pretty likely chance that she would get eaten by the beast next. Likewise, standing here, powerless to do anything about the situation made her feel even more guilty. That's when she asked herself what Energy would do, and the answer was more than clear.
"Cowering alone up here won't do anything." She decided to take the first step back down the stairs, "In any case, I should make sure he's alr-AAAAAHHH!"
"Oh, there you are." An angel completely covered in bloody insect guts emerged from around the corner, "You can come down now, it's dead."
"E-Energy!?" She breathed a confused sigh of relief, "Ehh, don't scare me like that..."
"Sorry. Ah, but you're gonna need to wait a bit before we move on." He instructed her to follow him back down.
"Why? What's wron-?" She paused in horror the moment she saw it.
The lifeless, mutilated carcass of the abomination that previously killed and ate them. It's already disgusting head was unrecognizable, smeared onto the floor, walls and ceiling of the tight space. And the doorframe?
"Completely blocked by the body..." Energy chuckled annoyedly, "So yeah, we can totally move forward now, but as a heads up, it'll probably take me a while to push the body back out. Hope you don't mind me using the fork for that."
"N-No, please use whatever you can." She shivered once she saw all the brain bits still beating on its pointy prongs, "In fact, you don't have to return it to me until you get it cleaned off somewhere."
"Eh? You're afraid of a little gore?" He made fun of her, "Come on, this much is nothing!"
It was at this moment that Vastoria fully realized just how horrible this man's living conditions were while he was alive. She was thankful that she had someone who didn't at all mind getting dirty for their sakes, but she also couldn't even begin to fathom why he had that childish grin on his face. Just for good measure, she reckoned, it'd be better if she stayed upstairs to wait until he's cleared a proper path for them.