After an arduous trek down the second floor, the senior/junior duo made their way down the stairs to the jungle layer. By this point, Migu and Energy were just about to finish fighting against that humongous horde of bat roaches.
"Ohh, light!" Hats excitedly rushed down the stairs.
"Hey, hold it." Elegy grabbed his shoulder, "Remember, Migu and Energy could be right around the corner. We should be wary if he decides to ambush us."
"O-Oh right! Saving Migu, I remember now!"
"E-Eh? So you totally forgot the entire point behind this trip...?"
"I didn't, I just told you I remember!"
Hats was a strong fighter, and his body had the ability to even bend border bars, yet due to his mental age, he was quite prone to getting frightened. If this were to occur in the middle of a heated battle, Elegy was afraid of what would become of them. He had his blade with him, but even then there was a chance it wouldn't be enough. For this rescue mission to work, he wagered, he'd need Hats' support.
"Hats, did we ever tell you anything about the third floor?"
"No, I don't think so?"
"In that case, it might be best to give you a few pointers." He reasoned, "We might run into a... beast, let's just say."
The Shrine's layout was pretty much completely linear from start to finish. In other words, if they hadn't run into Migu nor Energy yet, that means they're either still in front of them, or the two had never even entered the Shrine in the first place. Elegy didn't really want to think about the latter option at all, meaning Energy had already probably killed most of the bat roaches on the third floor by now.
"What kind of beasts?" Hats tilted his head.
"Uhhh... Bat roaches?" Elegy tried to explain the gruesome appearance without scaring him too much, "Like, body of a bat, head of a roach."
"What!? That's so yucky!"
Not off to a good start.
"No no, I assure you it's nothing bad!" Elegy chuckled, "In fact, their bug heads are easy to squish, so they're not scary at all!"
"I never said that was scary, I said it was yucky!" Hats retorted, "I don't wanna have to get near such a thing, much less s-squish its head!"
"Ah, then I guess I should mention they're constantly hungry for your golden parts."
"M-My arm!?" He worried, "But I already lost one!"
"Yep, and if you don't wanna have to squish their heads like water balloons, then you're gonna have to say goodbye to the other as well."
"Ohhh...!"
It was a tough pill to swallow for him. Most kids would be deathly terrified of any creepy crawly with more than 6 legs on it, so having one that could both fly, had an invincible body and the head of the most disgusting bug of all was very much horrifying to hear for poor Hats. That being the case, he really had no other alternatives.
"Sigh, I wouldn't worry your head too much, though." Elegy reassured him, "That guy Energy probably dealt with most of them by now. Look, if we do happen to encounter one, you just run away and I'll handle it!"
"Will you manage?"
"Ah, the naive brutality of a child's honest fears..." Elegy slumped forward, "I will, okay!? I've got this epic sword, and I'm the best goddamn swordsman we have!"
"Aren't you the only swordsman as well?"
"That too!" Elegy grinned, "Besides, I already have prior experience with this Shrine, so we'll be fine!"
The thing is, though—Elegy was indeed in the Shrine once before, but back then there weren't nearly as many bat roaches as there was this time. It was a simple mistake which even Energy and Migu made on their end as well. The bad part about this dangerous assumption is that Elegy doesn't even predict them to run into one bat roach, much less a few hundred.
"At best, we'll run into one or two." He estimated, "Maaaybe three if we're unlucky."
Having explained the plan to Hats, he led him out of the safety of the staircase's doorway. The two walked barely even a few meters before a large, blinding flash briefly stole away their vision.
"Gah! The hell is that!?" Hats was panicking.
"Run back!" Elegy took out his sword, "I got a bad feeling about this...!"
That flash was precisely one of the many Flashes Migu set off after she and Energy got cornered by the horde of bat roaches. Neither Hats nor Elegy hailed from an era where Flashers were a thing however, so they had expected it to be the work of another powerful beast.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"Hats, I got my sight back!" Elegy commented, "It seems like whatever that Flash was probably works on proximity, hence why I got it back so fast!"
"Y-Yeah! My vision's coming back slowly as well." He blinked a few times at Elegy's direction, "Watch out!"
Flashers cause immediate death to bat roaches when they're activated point blank, but they scare off the ones further away. This is the exact thing that happened with Migu, which led to a stray bat roach zooming all the way over to Hats and Elegy. Had it not been for Hats' warning just now, Elegy—who had his back turned to the beast—would have most definitely died right where he stood.
"Tchah!" He instead parried the lunge, "Thanks for that, kid! Boy, this one's a lot feistier than its predecessors!"
"What's a predecessor?!" Hats yelped.
"I'll tell ya' later." Elegy returned a confident smirk to the foe before him, "For now, I gotta deal with bug-Eyes over here!"
----------------------------------------
***
----------------------------------------
As stated before, bat roaches have a tendency to evolve with each consecutive iteration. Generations upon generations of fighting cause their offspring to develop pre-programmed understandings of their parents' opponents' fighting style. Seeing as this was far from the first time the Shrine had encountered a challenger, bat roaches have by this point achieved a very high difficulty rating when it comes to killing them. Elegy, however, was up to the task.
"Bzzt!"
"Hyop! Calm down there, sucker! You'll get dizzy from all that movement!" He jeered.
Ducking, dodging, weaving and turning, Elegy was seemingly taking as much time to annoy the beast before even thinking of counterattacking. He was forcing out large movements and huge leaps out of it just by barely moving aside from its narrow area of attack, the perfect way to wear it out without doing much yourself. Alas, this bat roach didn't seem to let up no matter how long he kept at it, eventually leading to even him getting winded.
"Hah, what do you think, kid?" He called out to Hats, "Do I finish it off now, or should I keep going?"
"You still haven't killed it!?" Hats whined, hidden behind the doorway with his Eyes covered, "What the hell are you doing!"
"Kids these days, so impatient..." Elegy shook his head, finally raising his sword against the bat roach, "Sigh, I suppose we don't have all day. Migu might be in deep trouble, after all. Then, foul beast, have at thee!"
"BzZZZZzt!"
Grabbing hold of the safe slit of the blade on the serrated backside of it, Elegy used this unusual grip that was unique only to this sword to fully block the oncoming attack. Despite this, however, he still slid back a meter or two, his boots digging into the jungle grass below him. The force at which this ungodly amalgamation was striking with was nothing to scoff at—and yet—he couldn't get enough of it. It wasn't at all tired from Elegy's earlier shenanigans, but it 'was' frustrated. This was exactly what he was waiting for, because it made the bat roach's movements all the more predictable.
"Snap, crackle...!" Elegy twisted the blade counter-clockwise, "Pop!"
Breaking off both of its mandibles at the same time, the beast recoiled in pain, only to get clocked in the face a second after. Internally, Elegy prayed this much wouldn't kill it already. He was raring for a show.
"Come on, big guy!" He danced around it, "Don't run away now! When a man starts a fight, he better be ready to finish it—regardless of the outcome."
"Byahhhh!"
Understanding from his body language that Elegy wasn't going to let him escape, the bat roach used its wings to fly to the ceiling where he couldn't reach it. Sticking to its new safe spot, it had almost mocked the feeble wingless angel standing just below it. This was where Hats came into play.
"Kid, gimme a boost!" Elegy smirked.
"Fueh!? But what if it flies over to me!" He worried.
"I'll squash it before that happens, don't you worry!"
A few seconds of indecisiveness later and Hats was sprinting full speed towards his senior. Interlocking his fingers, he waited for Elegy to take the step up before getting launched straight up.
"Byahh!?"
"Night night, don't let the bed-Elegies bite!"
Just then, the beast surprised everyone by letting go of the ceiling just before getting impaled by the sword. The switch up was incredibly precise, and though Elegy managed to slice off its wing, he had now gotten his sword stuck on the ceiling above, with him dangling by the handle as well. As for the frightful boy standing down below...
"I trusted youuu...!" He cried out, desperately running away from the giant insect/animal hybrid.
"Hm, that's bad, right?" Elegy looked down on the two of them playing together, "Well, not like it'll ever catch up to him. Without wings to fly with, it's barely slower than a regular angel's running speed."
In the end, he leveraged himself upside down, planting his feet firmly on the ceiling with both hands on the handle. With all his might, he pulled out the legendary sword from the stone before pivoting right back into a freefall state. The timing was a bit off, however, since by this point the beast was already way too far to cushion the impact of the landing. He had to improvise.
"To think this little piggy would eventually save my life." He smiled at his golden pinky finger, "Do or die, sink or swim—that's the way of the...! Wait, how'd the saying go again?"
Just as the White parts of an angel's biology are fundamentally numb to any pain or damage on the surface, the interior of the Shrine has this curious effect to swap the effects with one's golden parts. For some, like Nerys, this is barely noticeable, but for a man like Elegy who only has a few scrapes and a pinkie, the Shrine is a very risky place to be in. Though, risky to him doesn't suggest a low survival rate, but rather the fact that the chances of living are non-zero.
"Oop!" He let out a yelp as the golden digit bent in an odd way, "Yikes, had that happened to any other finger, I'd probably be screaming louder than Hats."
"Save mee~!" Hats begged behind him, "Elegy, pleaseeee~!"
"Alright, alright! Hup!"
He turned around, picking up his blade before chucking it like a javelin at the bat roach. His aim was without flaw, and he had even accurately calculated the speed the beast was chasing Hats at so as to hit the moving target whilst simultaneously avoiding injuring his own teammate. The bat roach's head popped just like a balloon, spewing bloody gore all over the area. Thankfully, Hats wasn't near when this happened, as he continued running for a while after that.
"...Golly." Hats finally stood next to his guardian.
"Holy heck does that date you." Elegy snickered, "Damn, now I'm super curious what kind of era you come from where THAT'S your reaction to seeing a bug head get blown off!"
One beast down, and it only took a few near death experiences. Of course, this was all just Elegy having a bit of fun and not taking the fight seriously, but even that was only the case because he believed this would be all the fighting he'd have to do until they're done with the jungle layer. A mistake that will surely cost him in the not so distant future...