Aralen could still hear the combat from the other side of the rubble, loud cracks of Rylei’s war pick against the crab’s chitin and of the giant claws against what Aralen hoped was just the stone walls of the tunnel. He wanted to get back to them to help, but a loud yelp from Penora grabbed his attention. Turning around, he saw several more mud men approaching from the other side of the hallway. It wasn’t quite as many as were in the other group, but it was still at least more than ten.
He readied his spear, and to his surprise, Penora stood beside him as well, her body shimmering for a moment before her multitude of vines broke the illusion and appeared, outstretched towards the grunts. While she did look somewhat conflicted to have to fight the grunts, she also showed a level of determination that Aralen was thankful for as the mob of foes approached slowly.
The first mud man that got within range was met with a slash of his spear, the thick consistency of its body slowing the weapon slightly, but not enough to stop him from cleaving it in two. The second grunt was luckier, though, as Aralen’s spear failed to cut all the way through, allowing it to wind up a swing.
A swing that never happened, as several vines lashed out at the stone weapon, halting it in the air and leaving the grunt very confused about why its attack wasn’t happening. Aralen took the opportunity to hack again, this time completing the job.
They were clearing out the grunts too slowly, though, as the rest of the mob closed in, their clubs waving menacingly at the duo. Aralen cut into another grunt, only managing to hack off an arm before being forced to retreat from the attack of a second grunt.
Unlike before, Penora’s vines were nowhere to be seen, forcing him to fight much more defensively and cautiously. He tried to look around to see what she was doing, but the multitude of grunts made it difficult to focus on anything else. Forced to dodge one mud man’s swing, he nearly collapsed on top of Penora, who was somehow right behind him, eyes closed and vines nowhere to be seen.
“Penora! What are you doing? I need help, here!”
She didn’t respond, but a moment later a burst of vines erupted from the ground beneath one of the mud men, slipping through the cracks in the dark brick flooring. Looking closer, he realized Penora’s vines had been burying themselves into the ground beneath her feet, and the mud man was engulfed in a matter of seconds. And seconds later the vines released it, a thick layer of grass covering its muddy skin, and immediately it turned and swung its club at the nearest grunt, splattering mud everywhere.
With the added help from the turned grunt and Penora’s vines, the remaining handful of mud men were dealt with significantly easier. Aralen’s own deficiencies were easily made up for by the assistance, and soon all that was left of the grunts was piles of clay and silt as the elf stood, panting from the exertion. Jyce makes it look so easy, but they’re so hard to cut through!
Another large bang from the other side of the debris reminded him of his other allies, and he immediately went to see if he could help. The bricks were heavy and thick, a large portion of the ceiling having collapsed in the crab attack, and it was difficult to see through it. He could just barely make out Rylei slamming her war pick into the crab, causing it to release a strange, clicking noise before lunging at her. She managed to dodge out of the way as the crab left Aralen’s tiny line of sight, but a loud crash and a loud rumbling indicated it had barreled into another wall.
All of a sudden, he felt a strange tugging around his waist before he was yanked backward by Penora’s vines, right before another wave of rubble crashed down on top of the first, the barrier between the two groups only increasing in thickness as more of the ceiling gave way. He muttered out a thanks to the dryad as he heard a loud cracking noise from the other side of the barrier, then a muffled cheer from Rylei.
“Kid, are you okay back there?” he heard Jyce ask from the other side a moment later, and he rushed over to the rubble barricade.
“Yeah, I’m fine, and Penora is too. Are you two all right?”
“What do you take us for, kid? You think we became monster girl hunters by luck? We’re fine. We just need to figure out a way to get back to you. The tunnel here looks really unstable, and I don’t want to risk destroying it more by trying to dig to you. Do you see a way through from your side?”
He took a look around the collapsed area, but the rubble was too tightly packed for any chance of crawling through, and the debris extended much further up than expected, leading the elf to believe that there had already been a cave-in on the floor above.
“No, I don’t see anything. I could maybe get Penora to help hold up the rocks with her vines while we crawl through, or maybe-”
“Nah, don’t risk it, kid. We’ll find a way around to you, so long as you stay there. We shouldn’t be long, so stay put.”
Aralen wanted to argue with them, but at the same time he didn’t want to go exploring the dungeon without the assistance of the two most experienced people in their group, so he instead just sat, back to the wall, while he listened to their footsteps slowly get quieter. Soon, he and Penora were left in the damp, ruined hallway, surrounded by mud with only far away drips to accompany them.
“I’m… I’m feeling a bit groggy, Darling, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap…” the dryad said with a yawn.
“Are you alright?” he responded, suddenly worried that she had somehow gotten injured in the fight.
“I’m fine, it’s just… dryads don’t do very well underground. Or anywhere without sunlight, really. I just need a rest, that’s all. Wake me whenever they get here.” she said with a cute smile, before resting her head on his shoulder.
With his only companion asleep, Aralen felt even more alone in the dark, damp corridor of the Keep, Penora’s sweet perfume slowly fading away as her flower closed, the stench of the dank hallway reasserting itself on his nose. He jumped at every noise, afraid that it could be more mud men or even another giant crustacean, but luckily nothing attacked. Luckily turning to unluckily, though, as time dragged on and the elf began to get bored, sitting and doing nothing.
Even later still, Penora finally awakened from her nap, and the two monster girl hunters were still nowhere to be seen, and the worry started to set in.
“Do you think something happened to them?” Penora asked slowly, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as Aralen started to peer down the corridor.
“No, they’re strong. I can’t imagine anything could beat them down here unless… Nylia.”
If anything could defeat the two adventurers, it would be the succubus. And if something had happened to them, he wouldn’t even know, stuck behind this rubble as he was. He shot to his feet, causing Penora to jump slightly.
“Darling, what are you doing? They told us to wait for them.”
“I can’t stand just sitting here doing nothing. It’s been long enough that if they haven’t found a way to us by now something must have gone wrong.”
“Maybe they just got lost, or haven’t been able to find a way back. I don’t think it’s a good-,” she said before pausing to yawn, “-idea to go exploring in this dungeon alone, especially since I’m so tired… Though, there is a way for me to get some energy back~” she said, her voice becoming smooth and seductive.
Aralen ignored the flirtatious remark and the following sulky expression of Penora as he prepared his spear, trying to clean the dried dirt off in the water coating the dungeon floor.
“I’m not just going to wait here when something’s gone wrong. And I’m not going to try to explore any more than I need to. The goal should just be to get out of here so we can call for help, and maybe get a team together to rescue Rylei and Jyce if we don’t find them first.”
His determined expression sobered Penora, and she nodded, slowly getting to her feet. The tunnel seemed a lot more claustrophobic now that it was just the two of them, and Aralen tried to keep an eye out for any danger. The hallway that they were in was long and linear, and it took a while for the pair to reach any other path at all. Even then, it was just another flooded staircase, and though Aralen did peer down it just in case, he decided against risking diving into it recklessly.
Eventually, though, the hallway opened up into a large, rectangular room. Long ago, it likely acted as a dining hall, or perhaps a ballroom of some kind, but now it was eerily empty, the darkness and layer of water and the deteriorated columns that lined the walls all adding to the sense of desolation. On either side of the room were two doorways, the door that likely inhabited them long gone.
If I had to pick one… I feel like the entrance was more to the left of us, but I’m not sure. He stood for a moment, observing the two pathways. Really, there was nothing to distinguish them. Neither had any sort of indication as to where they would lead, and both had only dark hallways leading away from them. Not for the first time in the dungeon, Aralen wondered why Kurolen needed so many long, twisting hallways, or why he even needed such a massive keep in the first place.
“Um, Darling… I just had an idea.” He felt Penora tapping his shoulder, and he turned to listen to her.
“Do you have anything that belonged to either of them? Because if you do, I could cast a Communication spell and we could figure out if they needed trouble.”
Of course. Why hadn’t he thought of it? He rummaged through his bag until he found what he was looking for, a polished, black stone that Rylei had given him over a week ago.
“No need for that, Penora. This should do the trick.”
He had only used the speakstone one before, but he remembered clearly how to use it. He pressed his thumb into the small indent on the surface of the rock and waited a few moments while the stone gave off a dim shine. It wasn’t long until he heard the cyclops’s gruff voice emitting from the stone.
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“Kid? Are you alright?”
“I should be asking the same of you. It’s been ages since you left, what happened?”
There was a short pause, and Aralen began to worry that the stone had malfunctioned, but her voice returned with a hint of shame attached.
“Um, we might have gotten lost. In our defense, it’s a lot harder to explore a maze when you have a destination in mind.”
“Do you at least know where you are? You took too long so we decided to come looking for you.”
“Um… some kind of library? At least it used to be one, but now it’s just a bunch of empty stone bookshelves.”
Aralen looked at Penora expectantly, but she just shook her head.
“Alright, we’re in some big hall, trying to decide which way to go to find you. I think we’re just going to pick a direction and go, and hopefully we’ll meet up with you.”
“Sounds like a plan. Keep in touch, though, just in case anything happens,” Rylei advised, and the stone dimmed as the communications ceased.
While it was nice to hear that nothing had happened to his fellow adventurers, it did nothing to solve the issue at hand. They were still lost inside a dungeon, with dangerous creatures and potentially a powerful succubus lurking around, and he still didn’t know which way to go.
Although Aralen was starting to doubt that Nylia was present at all; if she was, she likely would have shown some kind of presence, and Penora didn’t seem to recognize any part of the Keep. At this point, it had become a question of just getting out unharmed, and maybe finding some sign of the missing captain, just to keep their hopes of finding her safe alive.
He let Penora make the pick for which direction to go, and she decided on the left doorway. It wasn’t much different from any of the other hallways, only a bit wider and with slightly more detailed brickwork in the walls. On this path, however, there were many divergences, with thinner hallways or eerie doorways much more frequently than before, but Aralen stuck with the main path.
It wasn’t long before they came across a much larger gateway, leading into a massive, circular room. The center was in complete disrepair, with a massive hole on the floor from some past cave-in leaving a pool of water in its stead, the darkness making it impossible to see more than a few inches into it. But, most notably, there were multiple cells all around the room, with one every couple of feet lining the walls.
And right on the other side of the pool of water, slumped against the walls in one of the holding cells, was the elf captain. Instead of her normal shiny silver armor, she was wearing a simple cotton shirt and brown pants, and her normally straight, clean hair was messy and dirty. She seemed to be asleep, with her head down and eyes closed, but she seemed unharmed from what Aralen could tell.
He was about to yell out to get her attention when a loud noise stopped him, coming from below the water. As Aralen and Penora stood frozen in the doorway of the enormous jail, Lithael slowly regained consciousness on the other side of the room. Her eyes grew wide with surprise as she spotted the pair, though it subsided slightly when she saw the dryad standing beside the elf, and then returned when she realized what woke her up.
The frightened expression on the elf captain’s face did nothing to quell the growing fear in Aralen’s chest at what could be lurking underneath the water as the rumbling continued, and Penora didn’t help either as she quivered, hanging on to the elf’s arm. He didn’t have to wonder for long, as the noise got louder and louder until finally the water erupted, sending waves out through the room.
The spout of water rescinded and revealed a massive serpent, large enough to encircle the room at least once, if not more. Water dripped from the crevices between its pitch-black scales as its tongue flicked out quickly, and the huge frills on either side of its head fanned out, revealing their deep green coloration. Several scales were missing, and a giant scar reached from under one of its head flaps at least four or five feet down its length. And its mouth, large enough to swallow a person whole, was filled with forearm-length fangs.
Aralen stood completely still, shocked and terrified of the colossal creature before him, and his heart quickened as it turned from facing Lithael’s cell, slowly moving its huge head towards him. Penora let out a quiet gasp, trembling, and Aralen resigned himself to his fate. This is it… right when I finally find Lithael, a huge snake eats me.
But for some reason, it ignored him, turning its head past him until it had done a full loop around the room, and he realized that upon further inspection, instead of clear eyes with slitted pupils, the snake’s eyes were white and cloudy. He breathed a sigh of relief and Penora let out the breath she was holding.
“Listen, we have to get over to Lithael, but I’m going to contact Rylei first. They should know we’re here, and maybe they can find a way over. Just keep quiet, and watch just in case that snake does find out we’re here,” he whispered to Penora, who nodded in response.
He backed out of the doorway a few steps, took out his speakstone, and activated it. It only took a moment for Rylei to answer it, and he quickly relayed what he had found to her.
“Black scales and green frills, you say? That’s lucky, at least. Those ones are relatively weak compared to other serpents you could find. Probably why it’s holed up in a dungeon instead of out at sea, to be honest. But if it’s as old as you say it looks, it might still be strong. Be careful. We’ll try to find our way to you, but no promises.”
“Alright. I’m just going to try to get Lithael out of here, so I’ll let you know if I’m successful.” With that, Aralen deactivated the speakstone and returned to Penora. The serpent was still there, wrapped around the outskirts of the room on the strip of floor that hadn’t collapsed, essentially blocking their path to the elf captain. And making things even worse, it had some kind of giant turtle in its mouth, crunching away as it tore bits of flesh from the dead sea creature.
“...It doesn’t look like he’ll be going anywhere soon, does it,” Penora said, and Aralen had to agree. Which left all the pathways to the elf’s cell blocked, either by the serpent’s body or by the pool of water, which Aralen had no desire to dip into after watching the snake emerge from it. He looked around the room, searching for a possible way to get to Lithael, until he saw it.
Hanging from the walls and ceiling were numerous chains and hoops, likely intended to restrain people in the past but now the perfect way to climb around the serpent.
“Okay, Penora, here’s the plan. I’m going to try to climb around while it's distracted. Hopefully, its hearing is just as bad as its sight. You stay here, unless you can climb well enough to keep up.” She shook her head, and he handed her his spear and bag, intending to make his climb a little easier. With great care, he lifted himself up using the ledge around the doorway, and took his first move, grabbing a nearby chain. While it clanked noisily, causing Aralen to stop in his tracks, the snake didn’t seem to notice as it crunched through another bit of the turtle’s shell.
Progress was slow, but he was making progress, hanging from the chains and using the wall’s deteriorating brickwork as a foothold. It took some time, but he managed to reach Lithael’s cell, where she was sitting and watching him climb, still sitting against the wall of her cell.
“Captain, are you alright?” He whispered through the bars as held onto a hoop dangling from the ceiling.
She nodded. “Rookie, I didn’t expect you to be the one to rescue me. Is it just you and that dryad?”
“No, there’s two monster girl hunters with me, but they got lost. More importantly, is Nylia here somewhere? We haven’t seen any sign of her, but…”
“She left days ago, but I don’t know when exactly. All the enchantments she had on this place disappeared three days ago, though, so probably around then.”
Aralen breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright, that’s good to hear. How do we get you out of here, then?”
Lithael thought about it for a moment, looking around her cell. “You could probably break through these bars with something strong. They seem pretty old and rusty.”
Aralen looked around the outside of the cell, searching for anything that could serve that purpose. A few cells away was a metal bar that had fallen out of its slot, and Aralen slowly crept along the wall towards it, finding a gap between the snake and the bricks to drop down and grab it. Climbing back to Lithael’s cell was difficult with the iron bar in hand, but he managed and quickly handed it over to the captain so she could free herself.
It seemed the snake’s senses were worse than he anticipated, for while he flinched in anticipation every time Lithael struck her cell bars, the snake seemed to be too engrossed in its meal to notice. The few moments it took for her to free herself felt like hours to Aralen as he hung from the wall, his arms getting tired and his fingers numb from holding onto the cold steel, but he was able to rest once he swung into her cell to join her. Lithael stepped towards the opening she created while he took a break, looking around the room as if searching for something.
“There,” she said finally, pointing towards a different cell across the room. “My equipment should be in that one. We need to get it before we leave.”
“What? You can just replace it when we get out. I think we should just leave it.”
“No, it’s important. I need it. Help me figure out a way to get there,” she responded, a hint of anger in her voice. Aralen relented and stood, looking for a path to the cell with the chains and footholds. Unluckily, there seemed to be much fewer options, the only path he could find requiring much more dexterity than he possessed. He still pointed it out to the captain, though, and she seemed fully intent on attempting it.
Her first moves were swift and well placed, and she had traversed half the distance before Aralen could even process it. She leaped from one handhold to another, a quick step on a wall here, a swing from a hoop there, and she was nearly at her destination already. Of course, that’s when it all came crumbling down.
Quite literally, too, as one of the chains she was using to stabilize herself after a jump broke from the wall, a chunk of brick and stone falling away and leaving her completely off-balance. While she herself didn’t fall, it left her in a precarious position, hanging from one arm right above the serpent, with no easy route of escape, and even worse, the brick had landed square on top of the snake, causing it to look up from its meal with a hiss of annoyance.
“Shit,” Aralen swore as he watched the snake start to writhe and slither its way around the room, trying to reach Lithael. She was still hanging from the chain, unsure what to do, while the snake’s open jaw got closer and closer.
“Jump! Run for the cell!” He yelled out to her, and she was pulled from her inaction. Now that the snake was moving, the available space on the floor to move had grown, and she took her chance, dropping from the chain and beginning to sprint towards her target cell, one with a luckily wide open door. The snake’s reaction was slow, and even still she only barely managed to get behind the bars before it bashed its head against the stone, causing rubble and dust to fly everywhere. It was just a bit too large to break into the jail, though, and Lithael sat, safe and panting among a pile of armor and equipment.
But the snake wasn’t done yet. With a loud hiss, it slammed again into the wall, this time with its body, causing more bricks to shake and crumble, and Lithael looked up with fear in her eyes. Aralen watched on, feeling helpless as he sat in his cell, without a weapon or any ability to help. The snake continued its assault, and though Lithael was now armed and armored, he still failed to see how that would make any difference.
Another slam rang through the room, debris flying everywhere, and Aralen could tell that one more would break through the walls keeping Lithael safe from the beast. The smell of Penora’s fragrance started to fill the room, but it seemed to not affect the snake, whether that be because of its beastial nature or her reduced charm capacity, Aralen didn’t know. But right when the snake was about to crush Lithael, a flash of blue barreled into the snake, somehow knocking it away from the helpless captain.
Rylei stood in its place, her armor glowing a dim red and war pick in hand. “Quick, this way!” she shouted, and Aralen jumped to his feet, taking the opportunity to leave his cell. The snake wasn’t done yet, though, only angered by the cyclops denying it of a meal, and it lunged again at the captain, but she blocked his attack fully, standing and tanking the blow like it was nothing.
“Rylei will deal with it, now get over here!” Jyce shouted from the entrance beside Penora, one arm extended and glowing red as he channeled a spell towards Rylei. The two elves met at the entrance with the dryad and drow, while Rylei grasped the head of the serpent and tossed it away before joining them.
“Let’s get out of here, quick. I don’t want any of you guys getting turned into snake food,” she said with a smile before leading them through the tunnels, leaving the writhing snake behind in the jail.