Chapter 10: Isn't This Too Easy?

The moment that the fish-man made eye-contact with me, I was already holding onto a throwing knife. I intended to hit the fish-man before it did anything, but it reacted too quickly. Its mouth had already begun to open; ready to let out a cry. My eyes widened, 'I'm too late!' the monster and I both froze, the cry it was supposed to let out was nowhere to be found.

Ice had formed around the fish-man's mouth and prevented it from calling the rest of its friends. Lilith beside me darted toward the monster, her sword flashed, but the monster wasn't killed. The spear it held in its hands was chopped in half by Lilith's blade as she sent a kick to its abdomen, making it bend forward in a '>' shape. As it bent forward, it suddenly snapped back up as Lilith's palm delivered a powerful blow to its chin.

Her black hair danced as she swept its feet out from under it, making it fall on its back before she grabbed its feet and started dragging it to the little crevice we hid in. The monster started to wildly flail its arms around as it was dragged in, only to abruptly stop after I hit it in the head with a large rock I found in the corner.

All of this happened in an instant. The other fish-men in the area failed to notice small fight we had, even though we made a bit of noise.

I sighed in relief. This place completely destroyed the prospect of using weapons. If the two of us ever cut or slash any of these things, the smell of blood would attract the rest. My guess was that in exchange for a powerful sense of smell, the sight and hearing of these things were below average. The fish-man that found us was only able to do so because of the distance between us, which wasn't even two meters.

If I'd used that throwing knife awhile ago, the fish-men still would've found us. We needed blunt weapons. Rather, I needed blunt weapons. Lilith was good at hand-to-hand combat so she could probably knock out one of these things without much trouble, they weren't very strong individually after all.

I began to ponder about what we could do next. We could use the fish-men's senses against them by bringing some bottled blood and placing them in good areas, the blood could also be used as a diversion to lure monsters away from us. It could also be a possibility that pouring blood over a fish-man would result in it being attacked by all the other fish-men.

We needed a lot of blood to test these things out though. But how could we gather blood here without alerting all of the monsters in this floor? 

I frowned, 'Should we go back to the forest-floor to gather some blood?' 

There was no way to do that right now though, the outside had at least twenty something fish-men, there was no way we could sneak back to the last floor without being seen. Even if these things' senses were bad, there's too many of them here for us to move around freely, they were unpredictable and one mistake would lead to all of them attacking us. The might even call for reinforcements, there was too much risk.

I glanced at Lilith and found that she also had a troubled expression on her face. We could try slaughtering our way out of here, but the number of fish-men in this floor was too vague, I'm also fairly certain that fish-men weren't the only monsters on this floor.

My thoughts were interrupted by a shrill shriek that suddenly came from outside our crevice. I grabbed the rock I used awhile ago and prepared myself, thinking that the fish-men outside had somehow found us.

I stood there for a few seconds, but nothing came. I gave a confused glanced at Lilith, who just lightly shrugged. From here, we could hear the sounds of battle. Death throes and pained cries continued to enter my ears from the outside, making me perk up in curiosity.

Lilith walked to our hiding place's entrance and poked her head out. I saw this and decided to do the same. I arrived behind her and looked over her shoulder, my eyes widening in surprise at what I saw.

The eerie feeling I got from the holes all over the floor was justified after I saw what came out of them.

Right now, a massive worm-like creature was fighting against more than thirty fish-men. Their spears were ineffective against the creature's thick carapace and the black spikes that jutted out from its back and sides easily cut up the fish-men. Its body would blur and crush the fish-men under its abdomen while its mouth would occasionally open, revealing rows of large serrated teeth.

The creature was massive, it was impossible to measure its exact size as only its front portion left the hole, but that part was already five meters long. The smallest of its spikes were around a meter and its six black eyes glinted with a cold light as it mercilessly slaughtered fish-men.

A fish-man got lucky and managed to stab its spear into a gap in the creature's armor, making it let out a pained cry. The surrounding fish-men let out battle cries and jumped in to attack once again, seemingly not caring about whether they lived or died.

The only thing that mattered to them was slaughter. Killing was the purpose of their existence. The massive worm opened its mouth and breathed out a thick yellow gas. The cavern floor melted on contact with its breath and the fish-men gave out miserable shrieks upon meeting the worm's corrosive breath.

This place—this dungeon was terrifying. 

A realization dawned upon me, we could take this chance to escape! I tapped Lilith's shoulder and got her attention, pointing towards a path that led deeper into the floor. I wanted to get back to the last floor, but the massive worm was blocking the way. Our only choice was to leave this area and go somewhere safer. The fish-men would continue to flock here and it would only be a matter of time before we were found.

We were about to leave before I remembered the fish-man we knocked out. Right now, he laid down in a corner, unconscious. I looked as Lilith and said, "...Do you have any spare containers? Maybe a glass bottle?"

She nodded and reached into her bag, bringing out three small vials. I received them from her and walked towards the fish-man. I brought out my sword and cut its neck, killing it and letting the blood flow out. I earned a look of curiosity from Lilith, but I silently reasoned that it was alright to let some blood out as the smell of death outside was so strong that the other monsters wouldn't even notice the smell.

I collected the blood and stored them in the vials, making sure that the containers were corked and that no smell would come out. She asked me why I collected the blood and I quickly explained my reasoning to her, earning me a slightly surprised nod. I looked the three vials and gave Lilith a nod, she motioned for us to go and I agreed. The sooner we left this area, the better.

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Storing the vials in my bag, I followed Lilith to our hiding spot's opening. Outside, the battle was becoming even more chaotic. Now, two worms were fighting the fish-men that now numbered over fifty. The dead monsters increased even more and the fish-men just kept coming. One of the worms were badly wounded and had wounds all over its body, but it kept fighting with a tenacious will.

Lilith gave a small nod and suddenly burst into a dash, using the rocks and pillars for occasional cover. I hurriedly ran after her, similarly making sure that I wasn't seen by any of the monsters. She steadily got farther and farther away from me until she stopped at a blind corner, cautiously checking for any monsters.

I caught up to her, my breathing slightly ragged. Good thing we did all that training, I'd be out of breath by now if we didn't. Lilith and I continued to walk forwards at a quick pace, we would occasionally encounter a fish-man, but it would quickly be incapacitated by Lilith and then knocked out by me before it even knew what was happening to it.

This place was seriously annoying. I used all that time practicing my swordsmanship and knife-throwing, only to find out that this floor completely prevented me from using both. Now, all I had was my rock and I didn't trust this thing enough to keep me alive in a fair fight.

We kept walking for a few hours, knocking out individual fish-men and avoiding large groups until we arrived at a particularly large room. Inside, a massive black worm jutted out from a hole in the ground. It was just like the worms from before, except it was much larger and more spikes protruded out from its sides and back.

The room was just like the rest, littered with large rocks and boulders. The only difference was at the back of the room. The wall was made out of brick, unlike the rest of the floor where the rooms looked like a natural cave system. On the left of this stone brick wall was an innocent wooden door, it was small and just large enough to fit a normal human.

I looked at it and thought, 'This is the entrance to the next floor. Guardian monster, check. Conspicuous walls, check. Large room-spacing for an epic battle, check.'  

I nodded to myself as a plan began to form in my head. Lilith beside me was considering fighting, but I stopped her as I had a much more fun alternative. We sneaked into the room and hid behind a large boulder. The worm behind us was unaware of our intrusion. I reached into my bag and brought out three glass vials.

These vials were the ones I filled with fish-man blood a few hours ago.

I smiled treacherously and lobbed one of the vials towards the room's entrance. The vial shattered and blood splattered all over the ground. Soon enough, a large collection of shrill screeches could be heard. The fish-men were coming. I lobbed the last two vials near the entrance and the worm respectively and waited.

Seconds later, hundreds of fish men entered the room with savage expressions. Their teeth were bared and their spears were ready. They all charged toward the gigantic worm and attacked without a care for their lives, when one died, two would take its place in the never ending stream of fish-men.

As the battle went on, I motioned for me and Lilith to move towards the door. We steadily made progress and eventually arrived at the wooden door. The battle behind us intensified as more fish-men gathered to attack the giant worm. I opened the door and watched a dazed Lilith enter, soon following behind her.

As we entered the door, a familiar set of stairs greeted us. We began to walk down the stairs together, the next floor was what awaited us.

Shaking my head victoriously, I continued to follow Lilith into the next floor with a smug smile on my face. She would occasionally glance back at me as we walked, giving me a complicated look. Heh, she's probably surprised about how I managed to think of using their insatiable bloodthirst to our advantage. That's right, praise me! The smile I wore grew even wider as my stare bore into her back, my chest puffed up in pride.

Lilith glanced back at me again and saw my expression, she shuddered a little before she said, "...Stop smiling like that."

"What?"

"...Stop smiling like that, it's disturbing," She said as she hugged her shoulders, as if she was trying to shield herself.

My smile grew wider as I hobbled over to her, "You don't like my smile..?" I said.

"...It's obscene."

"This is my best smile, you know?" I wiggled my eyebrows.

"...Your best smile will get you arrested in a city," she said.

"Well, I haven't been arrested yet!" 

"...Yet."

My eyebrows twitched as my face twisted into an unsightly expression. Is it just me or is Lilith becoming crueler!? At my reaction, she let out a light laugh, her smiling expression once again making me freeze. Even in this dimly lit place, I couldn't help but stare at her as we walked, making me lag behind a bit.

'This girl,'  I sighed, 'she's too much...'  I thought to myself as I caught up to her, walking away from the mess we caused in the second floor.

Chapter End.

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Author's Note:

                             Hello everyone! I'm back! If you read the announcement, then you probably know that I'll be slowing down a bit as my motivation for writing is beginning to dim down. Chapters will come out a bit slower than they normally do due to me cooling off every other day. Also, the character illustrations page as been updated! Lilith has now been added to the illustrations. As always, any comments and tips about my writing are appreciated! Also, leave a review if you feel that there is something lacking! :D

P.S: I'm seriously running out of ideas, this chapter along took four hours. Expect erratic posting from me.

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