Selena didn’t know how to react to Leah's upset state, she awkwardly placed her arms around her and gently patted her head. The feeling would have been muted under the water but Leah seemed to take comfort in it, she made the motion of wiping her face even though there was nothing there because of the water. The rest of the both parties just stared from Leah back to each other silently treading water. After a few moments of getting their bearings the party finally continued swimming downwards and northwards. After a few hours of calm silent swimming before a loud noise reverberated through the water.
It was a deep baritone sound, almost like a fog horn that was amplified by the water causing the group to go on guard with weapons drawn. There were a few tense moments of silence before the sound resonated through the water again, this time even strong enough that it could be felt in the group's bones. A reptilian head the size of a small car abruptly appeared at the edge of their vision and before most of them could even register something was happening it darted forward, mouth agape, towards Fiddick. The head was attached to an elongated, tree trunk sized neck and a massive truck sized body with sharp fins. Fiddick froze for a split second as the mouth closed in towards him before kicking hard upward, he sped upwards at high speeds. Unfortunately for him the monster's neck allowed it a large range of movement for its mouth and it snaked upwards following his escape path.
Fiddick took out his two daggers and jabbed them upwards as the mouth closed around him, burying them deeply into the roof of its mouth as he braced his feet against its bottom teeth. His body tensed as it attempted to clench its jaws, his taut muscles could be seen from afar as he fought for his life. It threw its head wildly around the full range of its neck, attempting to break Fiddick loose while he held on for dear life. At this point the rest of the group had sprang into motion, they swam after it but it was moving much more quickly than any of them. It took all they had to keep it within the range of the dark vision, Selena and Tristan were fairing a little better as they had superior swimming spells that propelled them faster than Regis party, they actually managed to gain some ground on the creature.
Akil watched the desperate chase as he with a worried expression. He thought that the creature reminded him of the mythical Loch Ness monster from Earth but it was most likely an equivalent to a Water Orm from Gathilion which meant it was above Regis parties Skill level. It was about the strength of a full party of high platinum level adventurers even without being boosted. He even worried a bit about Selena and Tristan as they were only around the strength of Mithral adventures right now so if it was stronger than normal then they would have trouble. He was surprised that such a creature could be a regular monster on this floor, the difficulty seemed to have spiked quite high from the previous floor. The last two creatures they faced were both at or around the level of Gold adventurers normally so he originally wasn't too worried but it seemed like the difficulty was increasing the deeper they got. His biggest worry right now was what the next floor boss would be if the regular creatures were already this strong.
While Akil was pondering, Fiddick was running out of energy to hold back the massive jaws of the creature, his body was starting to shake wildly from the effort.. He let out an unintelligible scream that came out as a cascade of bubbles from his mouth. Selena and Tristan finally got close enough to hit it with spells, quickly belting out the incantations before firing.
[Ice Lance], [Reach Spell: Iron Skin]
A thick lance of ice fired from Selena’s staff and shot straight towards the backend of the creature, piercing it deeply. Meanwhile Tristan fired a buff at Fiddick, hoping to keep him alive should the worst happen. Fiddicks skin turned to the texture of wrought iron, just in time for his muscles to give out. The creature clamped its maw shut around him and swallowed him whole, a Fiddick sized lump could be seen traveling down its neck. The two redoubled their efforts, even with Tristan’s spell he would not be able to survive the monster's strong stomach muscles and burning stomach acid for long. Selena constantly recast the Ice Lance as she thought it was her best spell to use underwater, the creature slowly turned into a pincushion as the fight dragged on. Tristan on the other hand changed tactics, he attempted to impede the creatures movement with his next spell even though it would also affect himself and Selena.
[Heavy Water]
The water around the creature and the siblings suddenly became thick like a gelatin making it next to impossible to swim in, both the siblings and the creature were held fast. Realizing it could no longer move freely the creature turned around to the siblings with great effort and attempted to bite at them but it was just out of range. Selena was getting ready to cast another Ice lance before Akils voice rang in her head.
“Use your full abilities and finish it quickly, it will take far too long to destroy with low level spells. The rest of Regis' party is too far away to see anyway.” said Akil’s telepathic voice.
Selena instantly pivoted to a much stronger spell, she spoke telepathically to Tristan as she began the incantation. “I am going to attempt to finish it in one shot, I need to weaken it with a curse!”
Tristan nodded and cast his curse spell straight away.
[Reach Spell: Bestow Curse]
The black beam slammed into the creature causing it to roar, the deep sound vibrated through the siblings bodies violently, it was only through great concentration that Selena was able to finish her spell through the pain.
[Disintegration Ray]
A thick green beam fired from her outstretched hand towards the creature, which seemed to sense the danger, it roared even louder one more time before the beam made contact with its large body. The reverberation instantly ceased as the beast turned into a fine dust and dissipated. All that was left of the creature was a sputtering iron bodied Finnick that was trying to figure out what just happened. He looked around confused and saw the siblings, he assumed that they somehow defeated the creature and it just dissipated normally like dungeon creatures usually do. He looked towards the siblings and nodded in thanks just as the rest of Regis’ party came into view. They saw that Fiddick was fine and the creature was nowhere to be found. They looked towards the siblings as if to ask for clarification but because they couldn’t communicate verbally they just ended up shrugging and pointing to move forward.
Last to come up was Akil, he swam up right as everyone else was getting ready to leave. Regis' squad mostly ignored his existence, letting him fend for himself. Oddly the monsters seemed to have been avoiding him completely. They continued on for a few more hours before the party had to stop and refresh their water traversing spells. Akil estimated that they had traveled roughly 2 miles (~3.2 km) beneath the surface. The mental effects of the cold dark water could be seen on Regis’ party, they were starting to get agitated and were increasing the pace in an attempt to get to the bottom faster. They traveled another few hours before another monster appeared, this time it was a group of monsters that resembled underwater horses that attacked by charging at the partys. These were Kelpie and they were much weaker than the last groups of monsters meaning it was a welcome change from the last few, Regis and his crew managed to take them down without the siblings needing to cast a single spell.
This continued ad nauseam, they would travel about a mile before another denizen of the deep would ambush the party. It became monotonous instead of dangerous, they had not encountered a monster that came even close to the strength of the Water Orm from earlier. They persevered, fighting boredom and mental fatigue from the constant intensity of keeping watch for monsters.
Finally after what seemed like almost a full day they got to a wall of water that led to air straight at the bottom. They broke through to a fall through the air for about ten feet before landing on a damp cave ground. Constant dripping could be heard around them as they looked up to see the extremely massive body of water just suspended in the air above them by some magical force. Everyone was cold, wet and miserable but they had to move on, it did not seem like it would be prudent to set up camp in this horrid environment so they walked for a little while before they reached the stairs leading down which they took without a second thought.
The new floor was nothing but a small enclosed dirt space with an enormous door that anyone could tell led to the boss room.
“That wis right fucking horrible” Fiddick voiced what was lingering on everyones thoughts.
“For once I can say I agree with our crass dwarven friend” Hal said in agreement.
“Same here, say how are both of your clothes dry already?” Leah said as she looked at the siblings.
“Uhh our clothes are made out of special monster materials…” Tristan lied.
“Here let me dry everyone off.” Selena offered.
She cast basic Chore Magic to dry off everyones clothes and bodies much to their gratitude. With their newfound dryness they began to set up camp, with Akil going back to get the tent ready again. This time the siblings were exhausted enough that they were thankful Akil was doing all the manual labor. Akil finished quickly, started a fire and began preparing dinner for both partys. This time he busted out all the stops, using expensive monster meat and creams to make an extremely appetizing fish with cream sauce. By the time he was done everyone in the group was basically drooling.
“Dig in everyone, I made a fish dish because I figured it would be a good way to enact your revenge from the previous floor.” Akil joked. Everyone dug in and forgot their troubles if only for a few minutes. There wasn’t much talking during this meal, most people were too busy using the meal to avoid thinking about how horrifying this boss was going to be. After the difficulty they had on the ninth floor they knew this was going to be a very dangerous monster. With how horrible that floor was it was quite lucky that one didn’t need to return to the surface the same way that they came down. Each floor had a magical warp that led to the surface, unfortunately it was one way only, the only way to travel back down was the hard way so most people loathed to use it unless absolutely necessary. They finished their meal in silence before everyone got ready for bed, the trio went into their tent and Regis’ group went to their bedrolls for a night of restless sleep.
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Everyone woke up after only a few hours of tumultuous sleep and started prepping for the boss fight. Regis was honing his sword with a whetstone, Leah was moving through a series of stretches and kata, Fiddick was taking stock of his different hidden weapons all over his body and finally Hal, Tristan and Selena were casting buff spells on themselves and on their allies. After a few minutes of preparation everyone was ready to face the boss. There was very little talking in between the two groups, everyone was a veteran that had many tough battles under their belts. Regis put his hand on the enormous door and pressed hard, it slowly swung out towards the boss room. The room that was revealed was like an extension of the cavernous area they were previously in, the floor made of dirt and the cave itself being extremely open. They walked out towards the center, on high alert, the boss itself was nowhere to be found.
“Where is it?” Regis asked, his head darting back and forth. “Could it be invisible?”
“No, I would be able to see it if that was the case, See Invisibility is one of the buffs I have on..” Hal said confidently.
They all tightened into a circular formation with the casters in the center for maximum protection.
Akil was standing in the center with the casters, he had already discovered where the monster was and was waiting for his disciples to figure it out. He stepped over to the side in preparation. A few tense moments of silence before Fiddick started cursing out the floor boss. “C'moan ye piece o' shit.”
He stamped hard on the ground, coming into a tight stance. He spat on the ground in disgust, upset at a boss that was afraid to show its face. A slight tremor could be felt underneath their feet for a split moment and Regis had a flash of inspiration. “Watch out!” He dove towards Fiddick and pushed him out of the way just as the ground beneath him crumbled and a gigantic gaping maw appeared in its place. Fiddick tucked and rolled while Regis twisted his body to the side, barely dodging the massive wormlike creature that popped out of the ground in almost an instant. Its full body looked like a subway train car with a mouth full of rows of sharp glistening teeth.
Akil immediately recognized it as a terrifying Purple Worm he immediately began to worry for his disciples as even normally this thing would have the strength of a full party of Mithral rank hunters. Everyone stepped out into a more open formation, the tight formation they had just been in was an active detriment against a creature like this. They were all facing the creature's gaping maw that was sticking outside the ground. Tristan's ears plucked up as he heard movement behind him. He turned to see an oversized stinger dripping with venom snaking towards an unsuspecting Mia. He rushed forward and checked her with his shoulder, pushing her to the side. The Stinger stabbed straight through his side and spun him around in the process. He collapsed hard on the ground, rolling for a couple of moments before becoming very still near the mouth end of the worm.
“TRISTAN!” Mia screamed in a panicked voice, tears dripping down her face as she ran over to where he stopped.
“Mia stop! He's too close to the boss.” Regis said as he grabbed her, stopping her from rushing over to Tristan's still form.
The worm, sensing a fresh meal, dived down towards Tristan with its mouth wide.
Selena finished the spell that she had been preparing since she saw Tristan get hit.
[Telekinesis]
She mentally tugged on Tristan, pulling him out of the way of the creature's path just as it collided with the ground, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. His body flew through the air and was caught gently by Selena. Mia rushed over, taking out a healing potion from her pouch. “Quick, give him this.”
Selena didn’t hesitate, she popped the stopper and shoved it down his throat. For a moment there was no change then he started choking and sputtering as his wound slightly knit shut. He regained enough consciousness to realize what was happening, he cast a high level healing spell on himself to finish closing the wound.
“You alright?” Selena asked simply.
“Yeah I should be fine, but that thing broke straight through all my magical defenses, this won't be easy. Luckily I had a poison immunity buff on or else that really might have been the end.” Tristan said with relief in his voice. He looked over to the crying Mia and tried to console her. “Relax, I am okay, there's no need to cry.”
She regained some of her composure at his words but her face was still red and puffy.
“If you guys are done we are still in the middle of fighting here.” Regis reminded them.
They nodded and got up, getting themselves ready for the upcoming battle. After a moment they heard Akil’s voice in their head. “This creature is too strong for you guys to hold back, I give you permission to fight to your fullest.”
They looked over to him in surprise, if he said this monster was strong that meant this was going to be a hell of a fight. That also meant that Regis and his team were going to be an extreme liability. They figured it would be best if they went back to their usual tactics. They quickly cast another spell before the creature surfaced again.
[Summon Creature VI: Dire Tiger], [Stoneskin]
Selena summoned a massive Tiger and Tristan buffed it with stonelike skin. Hal saw this and his mouth went agape. “Was that a fifth and sixth level spell?” He questioned, causing the rest of Regis' team to look at them in surprise.
“Well explain later, just keep on guard for now and stay back.” Selena barked back.
They looked angry about being told to stay out of the fight but they could definitely tell this fight was way over their heads.
The massive primordial tiger looked around with its tail flicking back and forth. After a few moments it jumped to the side dexterously as the ground beneath it crumbled into the mouth of the Worm. The Tiger pounced back at it and attempted to bite at its “neck” but was stopped by the powerful chitinous armor that it was encased in. The stinger made another appearance behind the tiger but was stopped on its stonelike skin. It seemed that neither could get an advantage on the other. Meanwhile Selena and Tristan were preparing their next spells.
[Chain Lightning], [Chains of Light]
Chains appeared in the air around the worm and attempted to bind it just as a lightning bolt shot from Selena’s hand. The chains stopped it for less than a moment before it swung its massive body and shattered them almost without any effort as the lightning crashed into its side but it was completely unphased.
Selena and Tristan gulped down, they realized they were in over their head. They had one last thing they could try, they both looked at each other and nodded. Tristan ran up to the worm and jumped around trying to get its attention. “Hey you big stupid earthworm, I’ve used tougher things than you as bait when fishing.” It sensed his movement and realized that he would make an easier meal than the Tiger it had been fighting so it turned and started chasing Tristan. It rushed at him at extreme speeds, just when it was about to catch him a yell could be heard from where Selena was standing.
[Earth Spike]
A thick sharp spike shot up in front of its path, its momentum carried it right into the spike, causing it to pierce through the roof of its mouth. It shook wildly, spreading caustic green blood around it. The siblings were glad that the move had worked again and that they finally were able to damage the monster but before their celebrations could last too long the wound on the worm's mouth stitched itself back together and it shook off the pain, seemingly back to normal.
The siblings despaired, that was their final tactic against large creatures, it had never failed up until now. They had no idea what to try next… this seemed like they had picked a fight with a creature that was too strong for them. The creature “looked” at both of them before shooting forward in a dive towards them, looking to engulf them both in one move. They both jumped to opposite sides and waited for the sound of it burrowing through the floor to come but instead they heard something else.
Royal Ruby 7th Tier: Royal Blade
Akil appeared right where the creature was about to burrow, scimitar in hand. The scimitar glowed ruby red as he raised the blade and cut down just as the creature was diving at him, splitting the creature directly in twain. A large crashing could be felt throughout the cave as each half of the body slammed to the ground. Regis' group looked at Akil with their mouths wide, completely surprised at this turn of events.
Selena and Tristan picked themselves off the ground and bowed to their master. “Thank you for saving us.” They said simultaneously.
“No need to thank me, it was my fault that creature was so strong, your last move would have done lasting damage if it hadn’t been empowered by my magic previously.” He answered telepathically so that Regis and his party couldn’t eavesdrop.
Before they could continue their conversation at all Mia ran over and embraced Tristan. “I;m so glad you’re okay, you almost died because of me.” She said through sobs.
Tristan scratched his face in embarrassment, he didn’t know how to reply. When he saved her he didn’t think about it at all, his body just reacted.
“Now now, he couldn’t let his biggest fan die just like that.” Selena teased through a chuckle.
Regis and the rest of The Righteous Flame walked over slowly, gathering their thoughts. Akil turned and intercepted them before they could say anything.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions but unfortunately we don’t have much time to answer them at the moment. We are going to close this dungeon then we need to leave. If you want answers, come to Graycott and ask for us.” Akil said solemnly.
With that said Akil turned and started walking towards the end of the dungeon. Pushing open the large doors at the opposite end of the cave from where they started. Tristan and Selena followed behind, at least after Tristan managed to pry Mia off of him. Regis' party followed close behind, their minds filled with questions.
Akil was greeted with a large strong magical orb on top of a pedestal. It was what was known as the dungeon core and he very much wanted to study it but it would have to wait. During that last fight he had sensed the proximity sensors that he placed in the Shadowthicket going off meaning they had to return. It was part of the reason he helped end the last encounter so abruptly. He reached out and grabbed the dungeon core, pulling it off its pedestal and storing it within his Magic Bag. He turned back towards The Righteous Flame, “I would like to thank you guys for all your help, again come see us in Graycott with your questions but for now we have to go. It has been a pleasure.” Akil thanked them.
“Right, we will be there, you owe us a pretty big explanation..” Regis said in an exasperated tone.
Akil pulled a magic piece of chalk, he drew a magic circle around himself and the siblings while Regis party looked on with great interest. The magic circle glowed bright then they disappeared.
“What the fuck just happened?” Regis said with a sigh.