By the time Maya caught up to Cyll, he’d already found the source of his annoyance – a small goblin armed with a shoddy bow. He pulled his axe out of the creature’s head and gave Maya a nod.

“Probably a good thing I went first,” Cyll said, kicking the goblin away from him.

“I’ll agree with you there,” Maya said.

The first floor of the dungeon was plain. Every surface was made from smooth grey cobblestone. It was slightly chilly, and the air smelled slightly of mildew. Aside from the dead goblin, the only thing in the room was a closed wooden door on the back wall.

“Shall we continue?” Cyll asked, stepping over the goblin’s body and gesturing to the door.

Maya stood slightly to the side as Cyll opened it, half expecting another arrow to appear in his head. Nothing happened. The two of them walked through the door. The second room had a similar appearance to the first. The air in the center of the room shimmered slightly.

The pirates drew their weapons immediately as they noticed the hazy vapors. Not a moment later, three skeletons popped into existance – about ten feet in the air above them. The monsters fell to the ground and shattered into fragments as they hit the ground. A muffled curse echoed through the dungeon.

Maya and Cyll exchanged a glance. The axe wielding pirate nudged the pile of bones with his foot, but they didn’t move.

“The boss monster summoned them too high. Blunt impacts are very effective against skeletons,” Cyll said with a chuckle.

“I can see that,” Maya said as the two of them walked past the defeated skeletons and opened the door to the third room.

They froze. Maya slowly shut the door again.

“Was that–”

Cyll nodded. He opened the door slightly and peeked inside. He gagged and closed the door again with a bang.

“What the hell are those?” Maya asked.

“Technically? Centaurs. I think,” Cyll said.

The two of them cracked the door open once again. The third room’s inhabitants were grotesque. The upper half of their bodies were that of a horse, but from the waist down, they had naked human legs. The creatures stumbled around, clearly unable to balance due to the disproportionate sizes of their bodies.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“We need to put these things out of their misery,” Maya said, drawing her sickle. Cyll nodded in agreement.

Maya kicked the door out of the way. Her sickle flew through the air, slicing through the neck of one creature. It let out a pitiful whinny and collapsed to the ground. Cyll took care of the other one with a smooth swing that split it in two.

The staircase to the next floor sat at the back of the room. Maya wiped her sickle off and returned it to her belt. She knelt beside the strange centaurs and inspected them for a moment.

“What’s up with these? I can’t imagine any reason why a boss monster would make such a useless creature,” Maya said.

“I’ve got no idea, Cap. I’ve never seen anything like this. Maybe the boss has gone insane?”

Maya grunted, nudging the corpse out of the way with one foot.

“We’ll see, I suppose. Let’s keep moving, and keep your guard up. The boss might be trying to get us off guard.”

They descended the stairs with Cyll in the lead. The cobblestone turned mossy and old as they moved lower into the earth. The smell of mildew intensified, and a breeze buffeted against them.

“Why is there wind underground?” Cyll grumbled as he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs.

He closed it immediately.

“This dungeon is cursed,” he informed Maya.

“What’s it this time?”

“Water room, Cap. There are mermaids.”

“Ah. Same as the centaurs then?” Maya asked, cringing.

“Same as the centaurs,” Cyll agreed with a sigh. “We should probably put them out of their misery.”

He opened the door again. As Cyll had said, the room was full of water. There was a trapdoor at the bottom of it, about twenty feet down. This dungeons version of mermaids – creatures with fish heads and human legs, flopped around helplessly in the water.

Dispatching the sad creatures only took a few moments. It almost felt like they were doing the world a favor in the process.

“Let’s get this dungeon over with. There’s a chance that trapdoor leads to the boss if this is a smaller dungeon,” Maya said, paddling the water to stay afloat.

“Let’s hope it’s a small dungeon then,” Cyll grumbled. “This has been the worst dungeon I’ve ever experienced. Whatever is running it is seriously twisted.”

They dove underwater and swam towards the trapdoor. Cyll reached it first. He tugged on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Maya pulled on it together with him, but their combined strength wasn’t enough to even nudge the door.

Cyll said something, sending bubbles of air floating up to the surface. It was impossible to tell what he was trying to say, but it became apparent when the pirate drew his axe. He slammed the butt of it into the trapdoor with all the force he could muster.

The wood cracked slightly. Cyll slammed it again. On the third strike, the door shattered. The pressure of the water above them was impossible to resist, and the two of them were sucked through the doorway along with a deluge of water.

Luckily, they didn’t have to fall far. The two of them thudded onto the ground and scrambled away to avoid the rest of the water as it poured through the hole where the trapdoor had once been.

The room they’d fallen into was warmly lit by dozens of torches that lined the walls. The smell of mildew completely permeated the area, and Maya wrapped her arms around herself for warmth against the howling wind that rushed past her.

“Well, that went well,” Maya said. “This seems like the boss room. We just have to find the boss and get out of here.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem, Cap,” Cyll said hesitantly. “Turn around.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”