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When traveling, there are a few things one must not forget to bring along: food and water are the most important of them, because in the forest, if you don't know how to hunt or navigate, you're screwed.
Luckily for me, I have a half-beast girl that eases a lot of the work. After some hours on the road, we decided to rest in a forest nearby with an open field, and at the opportunity, Vio left us to go after a deer she spotted in the distance, leaving me and Aoha resting for the time being.
"How's your head?" Aoha asks, extending a hand to the grass blades and gathering on her finger a drop of water.
"Uhm, fine, I think. I've not been overthinking since the talk we had, like my head just focused.
"But how about you? Do you want to talk about what happened at the temple?"
Shaking her head, Aoha gazes at the distance without saying any more words, so I take my chance and move closer to her. Slowly, I touch shoulders with her and let the comfortable silence take over.
A soft breeze caresses her hair and makes it sway on an unpredictable dance, allowing me a window to see her face. It is becoming less rare to see moments like these where she looks calm, like the hurricane in her head finally gave up spinning in the same place.
The moment lasts for some more minutes before a scream reaches us from the distance, making us both get up and focus on the direction.
"VEENA. HARU. It would be great timing if you two could get back RIGHT NOW." A young, masculine voice screams breathlessly while the sound of metal being hit echoes in our eardrums.
As I start rushing towards the sound, Aoha pulls me by the shoulder and forces me to stop. "We can't go head-on; what if it is a trap?"
The screams cease, and all that is left is the sound of fighting. The groans, almost inaudible, makes it easy to predict who is winning. I grab Aoha's hand and focus my only eye on hers.
"Trust me." These words are enough to make Aoha sigh, with a nod of her head serving as confirmation that we are going full speed ahead.
A blond man with an expensive-looking armor set holds a big shield while fending off a two-meter-tall grotesque spider; all its arms have human hands stitched to the ends to provide support, and on its back is a glowing red symbol.
The monster's eight eyes are less terrifying than the dark liquid escaping its mouth through the long and spear-sharp fangs.
"Worse luck out there doesn't exist; oh Father, will this be the way I die?" The man mutters to himself in an attempt to hold on to his slipping sanity.
With an arrow carefully aimed, I release it to hit the spider right between its eyes. The monster raises one of its attached human hands and decides to trade one eye for one hand.
"What the?" The blond man looks at me and Aoha, who slowly moves to his side, keeping an eye on the beast, who stops to gaze at the newcomers in the battle.
"Support is here." Grinning at the man, I slap him to help get his focus back.
"Be careful; the enemy seems to be smart enough to avoid attacks on its weak points by sacrificing other, less important parts." Aoha comments, and on her hand, she prepares some kind of magic.
"Shield boy, protect us while we shoot this thing," I order shooting yet another arrow in the spider's face; this one it dodges and starts to climb a tree.
"Yes ma'am." The boy raises his shield and keeps ready to defend against any incoming attacks.
Having now reached a high position, the spider monster stridulates, and in its mouth, the same black liquid starts dripping in increasing quantity.
In a blink, the liquid is spit towards me, and the boy makes his move, stopping the liquid that, upon coming into contact with the grass, seems to erode it like acid.
"Ouch, damn spider." The boy grunts as one drip falls onto his face and eats on the skin that comes into contact until it forms a small hole leading to his flesh.
Aoha raises her hand, and fire comes out of it, reaching the spider that jumps from one tree to the next. Burning wood, the tree she hits breaks in half and falls to the ground, and the fire in the trunk is extinguished in the fall.
Doing the same, I understand her plan; there are just a handful of trees around us, meaning if there are no trees, we can have an opening.
"Keep on what you're doing; I have a plan." Putting my bow on my shoulder, I grab my dagger and run towards one of the further trees. The spider, not able to keep up with all the overload of attacks, just keeps jumping.
Securing the dagger between my teeth, I grab onto the tree and start to climb up, one part at a time, keeping a steady pace rather than rushing up and risking a painful fall.
Aoha keeps on her relentless attacks, and the spider starts shooting its acid while in the air to try hitting them, but surprisingly, the boy takes all the attacks head-on; at a point, his shield starts to erode too.
"My shield won't be able to keep up; one more, and it breaks."
Only two trees are left standing, and a problem arises. One of the fallen trees manages to keep the flame alive enough to put fire in the one I climbed.
Aoha seems to notice that, and with a painful roar, she unleashes a powerful attack that seems to be the last of her strength on the spider, managing this time to hit it straight in mid-air.
The spider's body hits my tree and slides down, hitting its back on the base of where the burning started. It screeches and tosses around, and my plan all goes down the drain.
Now that I can't have it jump straight to my dagger, I'll make sure my dagger jumps straight to its head. Burnt and badly injured, the spider gets to the few unbroken legs and prepares a hell of a spit by the sound it makes.
The shield boy prepares himself, praying in mutter that the shield holds the attack before it corrodes completely, because if it doesn't, he will meet the damage himself.
Lucky for him, the tree is about to give up and no other choice presents itself to me, so sliding down the most I can, I push myself down with my feet and put all my weight on the attack.
*Plorkk*
The disgusting sound the stab produces entering the creature's brain is sickening enough, but what comes next is worse. The creature releases its acid on the ground and falls face into it, screaming in pain as it meets its horrible end.
Shield boy falls to his knees and uses the moment to take in deep breaths to calm himself down, as Aoha looks at me and nods her head in approval.
"Good job," Aoha says to me while approaching, watching me have some difficulty retrieving my dagger. Using all my strength, I manage to get it back, but it also means I fall back by forcing it out.
Before I'm able to meet the ground, Aoha slides to my side and grabs me in her arms.
"Oh, thanks for the help." I smile awkwardly and put the dagger back on my kimono.
Aoha keeps a hold of me for a moment and stares at my eyes deeply. At first, it's awkward, but in no time I find myself smiling without intending to.
"Misses," The shield boy's voice breaks the moment, and soon I find myself back on my feet. "I deeply appreciate the help; if it weren't for you two, I don't know what would have happened."
"It's no problem, kid; we are glad nothing bad happened," I say, giving him a thumbs up.
"I think my group will still take some time to return; would you mind if I repay the help with a meal?"
"I never refuse free food." The grin on my face is enough to make the kid smile and grab some kitchen tools from his backpack.
Footsteps approach from behind me, and as I stop to look, I see Vio with two adult deer on her shoulders.
"I'm back." She says with a tired yawn before looking at the spider. "Dammit, I lost a good fight.
"Hey man, cook this for me." Vio orders without even saying hi to the shield boy, just at the sight of the big pot and kitchen knife.
She drops the two dead deer on the grass and falls on her back, curling up and suddenly falling asleep without saying more words.
The boy grabs the deer and starts to skin them to get the meat. "I'm Judeau, by the way; sorry I didn't introduce myself."
"It's fine, I'm Zero; this fire beauty to my side is Aoha." I pet Aoha's shoulder and proceed to point at Vio's sleeping body on the ground. "And the sleeping princess is Vio."
"Nice to meet you people, but why did you all stop by this forest? Wait, don't tell me; let me try to guess." Judeau puts the skin of the dear to the side and gives a strained smile. "Trying to find the infinite temple?"
"No, we just-" Aoha starts talking, but seeing an opportunity, I stop her and smile.
"Exactly. Were your group doing the same?"
Judeau nods his head and points to our right, and looking at it, it is a straight path not connected to the main road.
"We just left it, actually. We took a look at the temple and even managed to break the spell locking that place; that's how the spider got away and after me.
"I'll give you some advice; forget about it and turn around. That place doesn't have many monsters, but the ones it has are strong enough to defeat a small army."
Judeau starts working on cutting the meat into cubes, while me and Aoha have a silent conversation with just our hand movements.
It's like she's asking me if the plan is going in that place, and I nod my head, mouthing the word 'dungeon' so she can lip-read.
She seems to want to make sure that I'm certain about it, and with one nod of my head, she gets her answer and settles down with resolution.
Thirty minutes go by, and Judeau finishes making the food like I did the first night after rescuing Aoha: meat cubes, but, as we don't have many ingredients, it is just that instead of a stew.
Glad the burnt wood and fallen trees at least turned out to be of good use to us.
Checking on the camping supplies I got, I find some wood bowls—a set of six, to be precise. Taking it out, I hand it to Judeau, who proceeds to fill them up and pass them on to me and Aoha.
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Vio wakes up before we can do it for her, and she takes one of the bowls from Judeau's hand and dips it in the pot, gathering as much food as she can before taking out the dripping and messy bowl.
Silently, everyone starts eating and enjoying the nice breeze, ignoring the big spider's dead body some meters from us. Lucky for us, the smell of it doesn't seem to reach us because of the wind's direction. Thanks, Mother Nature.
The food tastes good for something without spices; the meat is neither overcooked nor undercooked; the herbs add a little bit of flavor; and the amount is enough to feed more people if we need it.
I believe this is Judeaus intention, as he keeps glaring at Vio to see if she is satisfied with the amount she got and praying that she doesn't eat the whole pot.
"Can I ask you a question?" I raise my hand and look at Judeau.
"Yeah, sure." He answers with a smile.
"Why risk going to the dungeon? Cause by your own words, the enemies there are really something else, and for a fact, I'm sure you knew it before going at it. Literally basic knowledge."
Judeau loses his smile slowly and sighs. "Hard times. Me and my group, we come from a small, simple village on the other side of the emperor's city. Many times over, we hunted to gather money so the village would keep up with the emperor's increasing taxes.
"Our leader, Mother Frida, the head of the only orphanage in our village, entrusted us with the mission to travel the country for a year and try gathering all the coins we could, but work around here pays less than expected.
"So we had to resort to other means, less safe ones like the infinite temple. We heard that the item at the end of it is unlike anything we had seen before—a pre-war artifact. If we could get our hands on it, we would be settled up for life, and the village would be forever fine without needing to worry about paying the taxes at the end of the month."
So I was right; the dungeons are exactly what we need. A pre-war artifact is the strongest type of magical item there is, or at least people say, as no one ever got their hands on one, not even the emperor himself.
Some people said that they were handmade by the last emperor when the war was to strike. Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance to use them, so he passed them by to his trustworthy friends, and they sealed them away so the power wouldn't end up in the current emperor's hands.
Super badass if you ask me.
Judeau rubs his brows and arcs his back so his head is closer to his right knee. "But I should have known we weren't strong enough yet. At least we tried, so feeling bad about it doesn't make much sense anymore.
"That's why I thank you two once again, friends; if it weren't for your help earlier, my end would have been certain."
A strange feeling inside of me stirs—embarrassment. Is that how people feel about being thanked for helping? It reminds me of how Mouse acts when I help her—the adoration in her eyes.
As I lose myself in memories, the sound of people talking comes from the temple path near us, getting further away with time. Muttering words of worry and fear.
Judeau, at the sound, quickly rises to his feet and grabs a bowl, filling it up with mostly what remains from the pot, and looks at me.
"Sorry, I have to run before my friends leave me here. If you stop by Shōsendō, I'll buy your group a meal; just seek us out at the hotel near the central park. And I'll give you back your bowl when we meet again." He adds with an embarrassed smile while running at full speed towards the voices.
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..
...
"So, who's ready to explore a highly possible, deadly dungeon with the chance of us dying?"
Vio raises her hand and smiles evilly. "I'm always ready for some fun."
Aoha rolls her eyes and nods her head. "Just let us be careful, minimizing the chance of us meeting with Lady Death if possible."
"Ow, you worry too much," Vio says with an adventurer's grin and a glow in her yellow eyes.
"And you too little; that's why I'm here—to keep your heads in place." Aoha's words hint at something, and if that didn't make it obvious, the way she glares at me makes sure to let me know she remembers our promise, a thing I'm grateful for.
Nodding my head to her, we all turn in the direction of the infinite temple. The gamble starts here, with great risks and great rewards.
For some reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to put up a very tall staircase leading to the temple. Braving the pain in my legs and rapidly decreasing oxygen, me and my group make our way as fast as we can so we avoid getting in too late into the afternoon.
Aoha, with her serious face, doesn't show any sign of tiredness—not one visible anyway, as Vio's body is much more sincere. Sweat runs down her face and rains onto the stone stair step, and the excitement she had before now is completely gone.
I can't blame her though; this staircase is managing to drain my spirit as well, but the thought of getting an artifact that powerful for us is enough to make me endure this man-made hell.
After what felt like hours, but at best it was five minutes, we got to the top of the mountain. Seriously, why are most temples in the mountains? They could build one on the ground level of a city or in the middle of a forest for a change.
Having had my first look at the temple, it isn't half as I expected it to be. I was kind of thinking there would be some workers, less overgrown, and a bigger temple, but this place looks small.
The main temple isn't big, but more like a one-room house two stories tall; to the left, there is an open shed with equipment that never seemed to receive any attention; and to our right is another building, whose purpose I can't tell.
In front of the temple, three stone lamps side by side remain lit with blue flames, looking very cool and mysterious; that's probably the seal they broke. Or maybe they activated something that gave them permission to enter.
Anyway, Aoha crosses her arms and stares at the temple with an expression of bad taste in her mouth. "The energy of this place is terrifying."
"I can't feel anything," Vio says, and I look at Aoha with a curious look as well.
"It only makes sense; only spirits can sense these types of energies. But don't any of you feel this cursed, mind-grappling fear?"
Looking at Vio, she looks back at me, and we both shake our heads. Aoha sighs, and now I can understand why she crossed her arms; she is hugging herself against this feeling. This can't mean anything good.
I make my move to comfort Aoha, but before I can reach her, the sounds of chain spinning make my instinct go crazy, and without thinking, I push Aoha away and avoid the weapon thrown by centimeters of my face.
But as I think I'm safe to draw my dagger, the chain that I notice follows the weapon clanks again and moves back, wrapping around my feet and making me fall down and be dragged towards the thrower.
Aoha and Vio break from their initial surprise and prepare themselves, as I find myself staring up at a very tall and strong-looking man. Orange eyes, white long, unkempt hair, and armor with the metal molded as Oni's faces and horns.
The man pulls up his weapon back completely, untying my feet from its chains, a big Kanabō. His point ears twitch and bring my attention to the branch-like horns on top of his head, one of which is broken in half.
"Human, you are to leave this sacred place immediately," The Oni man orders and uses his right red hand with long black nails to pick me up and lift me off the ground, easily managing to do so. "You and your friends over there are not welcome."
Vio starts growling and extends her claws to the Oni man, who looks unbothered by it and continues to stare her down. Aoha is the first to actually try talking things down.
"We are sorry to be trespassing, but we need what's in that dungeon."
"Believe me, you don't need it; you just want it." The man changes his focus to Aoha.
"What if I told you we needed it to kill the emperor? Would that change things?" I ask with a grin, placing my feet against his torso so I'm not suffocating on his hold and to avoid slipping off my kimono.
The Oni man stares at my face, searching for what I believe is a hint that what I am talking about is truth.
Upon finding something, he takes a good second to think before throwing me with everything he has, which is a lot, at Vio, making both me and her meet the ground as she awkwardly tries to catch me mid-air.
"For many years, my father waited for the old emperor's chosen ones to come claim their weapons, even if that meant being in this era or the next. If you truly seek death to the fake emperor, then prove yourselves to me first, then I shall give you passage to the temple.
"If you are to meet your death today, don't be scared; I'll guide your souls to the other side." The Oni man finishes and prepares his weapon for the fight.
All his bullshit about chosen ones or whatever makes little to no sense, but that matters not because we will leave this place with that artifact, and if that means beating the crap out of this man, so be it.
"One thing before we start, Oni." I barely hold my smug as I get ready to ask this man one thing that is essential to my plan.
"What is it, human? Speak without fear before the words become unnecessary."
"If we manage to defeat you, I have only one thing to ask of you besides passage." My words manage to grab the attention of my companions. Vio's gears start to turn slowly as Aoha catches up quickly, letting out a sigh and frowning. "Become mine."
The Oni man listens to my request and, without hesitation, nods his head. "Very well, human; if you win, I'll devote my body and mind to you."
Well, that was easy enough. That means we have something to worry about coming up in this fight, probably.
"I can't say I approve of this, but nonetheless, I have your back." Aoha comments and prepares her katana, switching fighting styles for now.
Vio smugs just like me and laughs maniacally loud, like the roarings of an unleashed beast. "It seems like I was right about you, Zero. This is as fun as I could ask for."
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