The journey ended as quickly as it began. The next floor looked similar to the first with a new twist. Gone were the dry floors and dim torches, only to be replaced by wet floors, soggy moss, and rancid smelling pools.

The moss shined in place of the torches that had once lined the walls. The faint blue glow reflected off of the water surface nearby.

They moved into combat position and advanced ahead.

Splashes and drips stole their attention away from the environment. Just up ahead of them, two rotten monsters came crawling out of the puddle. They clawed their way up onto land and struggled to right themselves with their sagging and blistered skin. They finally stood to their full hunched over height at chest level to Drew.

“Ugh. They smell like shit! Sapphire, please get rid of them.” Drew covered his nose and started breathing through his mouth to avoid the foul smell. “I can taste the rot in the air, that’s disgusting.”

The plushy splattered the monsters’ heads before they even had the chance to advance on the party.

+60 xp for defeating Rotting Shamblers [Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 470/6400 xp

The flesh melted from the bones and slipped into the water before disappearing completely.

“It will be attack on sight from now on. I don't want to smell those things any longer than I have to.”

The trio walked deeper into the floor and fought several other groups of shamblers before the conflict died down. They finally found something other than dimly lit hallways filled with foul puddles. A stone walkway was flanked on both sides with pools of water.

Stalactites littered the ceiling, pouring water onto the stone. To call it a humid and slippery mess would be an understatement. At the end of the walkway stood a strange statue that grasped a sword in one hand and a staff in another with a large golden pendant hanging from its neck.

It looked like a trap in the making. Zombies could crawl out of the water once they reached the statue and they would be stuck having to fight their way out.

He glanced between his ax and the sword. HIs weapon showed the wear of an unmaintained weapon consistently used against bone. With a new weapon and the extra experience the fight would provide, he made his decision.

“We are going to check the water as we walk down. No point in waiting for the ambush to be sprung.”

They walked down in a slow gait, looking as far into the water as they could before the dim moss failed to illuminate any deeper.

“I don’t see anything, it's way too dark.” Drew chewed his lip as they stopped half-way through walk.

“Master, can you take some of the moss off the ground and toss it in the water? It might act like a flare from your world.” Sapphire stared across the water surface and never stopped listening for any disturbance.

He kicked a lump of moss into the water and watched it slowly sink to the bottom. Once it had reached 10 feet below the surface, a horrible sight welcomed the vigilant trio.

A wave of zombies were climbing the submerged walls of the walkway, tearing off flesh from their fellow monsters in a bid to reach their prey faster. Gnashing maws clacked in the water causing teeth to crack from the pressure.

It was horrifying. There had to have been dozens of these things.

A loud stone grinding sound tore his attention away from the horrors. The hallway that led them to the room had begun closing off with a large slab dropping from the ceiling.

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Drew picked Nurgle up and rushed to the entrance. As the trio reached within a few strides from the door, a fleshy hand reached up out of the water and grasped his leg brining him to his knees.

He repeatedly kicked the monster as it dragged itself farther up onto the stone. It went to bite his boot and received the hardest kick yet straight to its face, crushing its soft skull.

He rushed to his feet and stumbled to the door only to see it close off before they could make it.

“Fuck.” Drew turned around and watched the monsters pull themselves out of the water. There had to be dozens of them now.

Nurgle struggled down from his grasp and ran over to the monsters close to their side. The Skulls had only just left the water as the cyclops reached them. He chopped deep into their brains, causing the zombies to die and fall back into the water as they struggled upwards.

Drew watched several more of the zombies that had been climbing on the foremost monsters fall along with their dead horde member.

“Kill them before they can get their footing.” He rushed to the side and hacked and bashed as many as he could before they began to overrun their capability for destruction.

The shamblers further down the walkway had made their way up and out of the water. A small group of a dozen monsters poured across the stone.

Sapphire pelted the approaching monster from the closed entrance and killed the leading members of the pack. Their fellow rotten beast stumbled over the corpses , crushing the monsters that had survived the blasts. With every foot that the horde advanced, more zombies could find footing on the walkway.

The monsterous crowd grew into a gigantic mass by the time they clashed with the frontline pair.

Drew brained and shoved the first zombie backwards into the crowd in an attempt to slow them down while Nurgle slowly fell back, focusing on killing the zombies that he could instakill.

They hadn’t been very strong when there were only 2 or 3 but now that there were dozens all pushing forward at once, they began to push him back more and more. The piles of zombies that he killed as they fought him in the front only helped to slow them down for a few seconds.

Their only saving grace was that the thin walkway only let 3 zombies push ahead at once.

The shield bashes crushed skulls while the ax hacked them to pieces.

Drew got closer and closer to the wall the Sapphire fired from signaling their end was nearby.

A zombie climbed over the one he was fighting and grabbed the shield he was pushing back with. It bit the edge, deforming the rounded edge and crushing its teeth.

Despite the destruction of its main weapon, the beast proceeded to pull his arm back to the horde.

Drew forsook the shield and let it be pulled from his grasp. He chopped the front zombie in the side and sent it tumbling into the water along with several more than had been using it as a stepping stool.

He noticed a lapse in the Sapphire’s shots and glanced back to see her charging up a powerful shot. A bulge traveled down her trunk and shivers traveled up Drew’s spine at the same time. The thought of what happened to the chimera entered his mind.

Just as the mass reached the tip of her proboscis, he moved as far out of the way as he could and watched the blast pierce the front most zombie and then obliterate a dozen right behind it.

A concussive wave shook the room they were in and deafened Drew.

He looked down the hall and sighed in relief despite the ringing ears.

The crowd had finally stopped pouring from the water, leaving only a few dozen monsters to fight off. He glanced back once more to see Nurgle coming forward to help and Sapphire charging up another blast.

He only needed to buy fifteen seconds for the shot to save them. The monsters did not falter at the disappearance of so many of their friends. The horde kept on pushing forward and the distance to the plushy shrunk with each passing moment.

Drew chopped another zombie in a bid to push them back, but got it lodged too deep inside the bone to pull it out. He refused to let go of the handle and tugged as hard as he could in an attempt to free himself. The monster was pulled into him as it was launched off of the beard of the ax. The split skulled creature bit into his leg as its fell.

Drew grunted with pain as the sensation took hold of his mind. Nurgle came up to him and finished the monster off once it hit the ground.

Blood dripped down his thigh and each step sent a spurt of blood out of the wound.

One more step back caused him to stumble as the wound left him imbalanced. He crashed into the ground and attempted to push himself back from the approaching horde. The cyclops looked back at this master and the horde before diving in at their ankles.

His slashes and chops nearly halted their advance. Without working legs, the creatures were forced to drag themselves ahead. The collateral damage from being trampled and crushed by their fellow shamblers lightened the load only leaving a dozen of them left.

Nurgle popped out of the horde and rushed back to his master to save him from a few of the grasping hands, chopping them off at the elbow or wrist.

Drew glanced back in time to see the shot leave her appendage and then hear the destruction fly by his head.