ASURA AND MAJIN

Everyone in the previous room, aside from Suri, had come to inspect the dungeon. The terrain, which was mostly plains cut by occasional rivers, started developing some hills. Those hills opened up into a vast lake surrounded by a black rock wall forming a semi-circle around it. Lava fell out from the black wall from sporadic fissures. As the lava touched the lake, huge steam flows rose up, forming something that looked like an immense reverse waterfall. The black wall also wasn’t completely straight; it had many jagged slopes where several lava creatures walked on.

“The lake is our best bet to enter the dungeon.” Said Badhi, the leader of the ranged troops, as he pointed forward. “The monsters are something like man-sized lava turtles.” Bahdi looked at Theo, a bit uncomfortable with the mask. “I had some plans of bringing people to freeze everything.” He shrugged. “Didn’t work. Sounds stupid but worked on some monster attacks.”

Dungeon was a name they gave to any terrain with concentrated monster activity and dominated mostly by a single monster type. Theo nodded as he looked at the expansive lake and imposing black walls stricken with red. A few shining red dots could be seen swimming on the lake’s surface as they left a steam trail above them.

“I will offer some advice for you,” Theo stated. “When encountering a new dungeon, you should always check the surrounding monster fauna,” He opened a map of the areas near Hillfront, provided by Sindbad. “Dungeons are just biomes ruled by some species. The reason for their rule is because the monsters around couldn’t, or wouldn’t, invade them.” Theo pointed to several monster habitats around. The information was vague, but almost a year of intel could gather them the basic idea. “As an example, none of those use fire or seismic abilities.”

Theo looked to the surrounding officers. Sindbad had a particular understanding face. Others, however, were still lost, so he continued, “If monsters with fire or seismic abilities existed around here, the dungeon might have belonged to another species.” Theo looked back to the rising steam vapors in the distance. “That means we might have found a weakness.”

“What? Stupid turtles live on lava and eat rock! Why fire be their weakness?” The leader of the rangers, Bahdi, seemed offended.

“Yes, they do. That’s why I said might,” Theo nodded. “Adrielle, could you tell me about the monsters inside the waterrise dungeon and its surroundings?”

Adrielle, the leader of the support team, looked towards Sindbad; after receiving a nod, she proceeded. “In the lavafall dungeon,” she stressed it for Theo, “there are mainly the lava turtles. They have some rock formed body, but we assume their internals are lava. Up close, we can see fissures on their body where shining lava flows.” Adrielle fixed her glasses. “The turtles can swim, walk on two legs, or four. We haven’t managed to fight any of them yet on ground as our troops didn’t manage to advance that far. Some people with farsight reported seeing them eating some rocks that were expelled with the lava.” Adrielle kept firing information. “Surrounding the dungeon, we have a much gentler slope formed by this black rocky terrain. Approaching from that side seemed more dangerous, as the surface is filled with lava, sudden geyser lava spurts and exploding armadillos.” Adrielle fixed her glasses once again, mostly out of habit. “I believe conquering through the lake is key, even if others disagree with me,” she said, glancing at Cairo. “Each lava turtle is classified as a level six danger when fighting on the lake. They seem to have control over the heat vapors and the water around them. On ground, however, I presume they are a much bigger threat.”

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“Thank you, Adrielle.” Theo hadn’t remembered her in his memories. He was a bit taken aback by their information level and her professionalism. “I am even more reassured. Fire, or better Heat, is definitely a solution.” Bahdi rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, prompting Theo to continue. “As Adrielle stated: the lake is key. I agree with her. Trying to fight those monsters with the constant danger of suddenly dying to some lava spurt is insanity.” Theo eyed the group, Bahdi in particular. “I believe none of you are immune to lava.”

Bahdi harrumphed. “That doesn’t explain nothing why fire.”

“My theory is that those turtles need to constantly balance their body temperature.” Theo smiled under the mask at the attention he managed to capture. “They eat and live near the minerals that get expelled through the lava. When it gets too hot they go into the lake to cool down a bit.” Theo looked at Sindbad. “If we somehow manage to increase the temperature enough on their prized lava habitat, they will be forced to move out of this fortress into the lake or at least closer to it.”

Bahdi grumbled, but this time it was Sindbad who intervened. “You seem to be awfully focusing on using fire. When you mentioned, I thought more on the lines of fire resistance,” he squinted his eyes. “Why do you think that from all the possible abilities the surrounding monsters don’t have,” Sindbad emphasized the don’t part, “Fire would be the solution?”

“It’s a speculation. We could use other methods surely. Seismic abilities are a strong contestant.” Theo shrugged. “It will all boil down into testing in the end. No way to know for sure beforehand.” Except, Theo actually knew fire and seismic abilities would work, because that was the conquering method discovered later on. Theo, however, would be hard-pressed to believe it if he was told the same.

Sindbad, however, was too pressed for results. He pondered while frowning. “Ok…”

Bahdi interrupted him again, pointing forward to the lava dripping walls that merged into the lake. “I don’t know if you have noticed, but the rocks surrounding the lake are dripping lava. We would need lots of fire.”

“I have a plan.” Theo smiled mischievously, making the others uncomfortable, so Theo quickly changed topics. “Let’s watch the surrounding terrain, shall we? Plan formation, plant some traps...”

“Yes,” Sindbad put his hands behind his back. “Care to remind me why you’re being so helpful?”

“The Lion King is an interesting person. I hope to get on his good sides through you,” Theo answered.

“I see…” Sindbad nodded. For all he knew, this mysterious helper could pose a threat to the leader and to their whole plan. However, that was a worry for the King’s protectors. He had other matters to worry about, missions to complete, and the safety of his people to guarantee. As long as results were shown, Sindbad was willing to play along. Majin was brought to him by Suri through Aaron. Suri was escorted directly from the newcomer’s trial by Aaron. The chance of it all being some convoluted conspiracy by Suri was low.

They spent the next few hours analyzing the terrain. Theo, as Majin, told them the ‘most probable attack routes of the assault forces, their composition and gave them information on troop composition to counter them. The surrounding hills and rivers had to be monitored, a flaw in their expeditions in Theo’s lifetime. The lava hill, the back part of the black rock wall, wasn’t the best place for an assault. The entrance to the lake, however, offered a neat choke point for their attackers.