“That is indeed a very large hole.”

Languid commented, peering down at the massive sinkhole that was the mineshaft.

“Yes, it is. Now how do you think we should get down this hole?” Purpura questioned.

“Well when I usually need to fall long distances I just jump down and hope for the best. It always seemed to work out for me, with absolutely no consequences as well!” Languide said.

“So what you’re saying is that I should push you into this hole?”

“Yes.” Languid paused for a moment, rethinking his choice of words. “Wait a second, no! I meant no!”

“Damn it…” Purpura muttered. “Well, I guess I could just use my semblance again for both of us. No idea where I’m supposed to be landing though, I can’t see any ledges or anything…”

Stepping further towards the hole, Purpura placed her foot directly on the snowy edge of the mineshaft. Languid joined her on said edge, and stared down into the blackness below. Sadly, the area that Languid had chosen to place his foot on was not the most stable, consisting of mainly snow and ice that easily fell apart as soon as his weight was placed upon it. With no ground to stand on, the boy let out a yelp as he slipped off his feet and tumbled to the abyss below. Thinking quickly, he grabbed on to a nearby chunk of ice, preventing himself from fully dropping. Sadly for him, this chunk of ice was also slowly beginning to slide out of its place. He quickly turned to his partner.

“Hey, uh, Purpura!”

“Hm?” Purpura nonchalantly turned her head to look down at the boy. A devious smile fell upon her face. “Oh no! Languid! You’re falling!”

“Yeah. I know.” Languid replied. “Mind giving me a-”

“Whatever will we do?! If only there was someone who could save you…” Purpura began to slowly back away from the edge.

“Purpura please.” Languide was beginning to slowly lose his grip. “Purpura I’m gonna fall now. Purpura it’s very dark down there. Purpura I am uncertain if I will live this time.”

“What a tragedy this is…”

“PURPURA!”

With those final words, Languid shot his hand out, grabbing onto Purpura’s ankle.

“What a cruel world we live i- Wait-” Purpura paused as soon as she felt the hand around her ankle. She didn’t have much time to process the information however, as the weight of Lavender and the slippery nature of the ground pulled her off her feet all in one motion.

“AAAAAAAAAH!”

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Both Purpura and Lavender screamed as they slipped off the edge of the cliff and began to plummet into the depths of the mineshaft.

“Hold on a second! Don’t worry!” Languid spoke up amidst both his and his partner’s screams and the rushing of air in their ears. Purpura turned to look at him. “I think I’ve got this, just trust me!”

“Oh gods! I’m gonna die here!” Purpura exclaimed, not a hint of hope present in her voice.

Languid reached with one of his hands to the back of his belt. A weapon of some kind resided on his waist, folded up into a storage form. Reaching for this weapon, he grasped it in his free hand and hit a button. The weapon began to unfold, forming what appeared to be a long handle, possibly the length of a metallic staff. Purpura watched in awe as his weapon unfolded in his hands… Until it got to the end. Unfurling itself from the end of the staff… Was the head of a lamp. Lightbulb and all.

Languid clutched in his hand an incredibly long, purple coloured lamp.

“I just hope you know that if we die here I’m going to kill you and then myself.” Purpura said.

“Oh geez, that’s a lot of pressure…” Languid muttered, spinning his lamp in his hand. The ground was growing closer and closer, that being a platform of rock jutting out from the side of the mineshaft. Languid’s eyes scanned the side of the hole the two plummeted down, until he spotted it. A jagged piece of rock that stuck out from the stone walls of the mineshaft. Still grasping Purpura’s ankle with one hand, and his weapon with the other, he hooked the head of his lamp around the rock, halting his fall instantaneously.

Both he and Purpura let out one final yelp as their momentum was halted, before going quiet as they simply dangled from the weapon in the air. Purpura in particular was dangling upside down, as Languid’s only means of holding onto her was by the ankle. The two remained in silence for a moment, until Purpura finally broke with a sigh.

“Ok. Fine. I admit it. You saved us.” She grumbled, crossing her arms whilst upside down. “But you’re still poor.”

“Correct. To both of those statements.” Languid said, letting go of Purpura’s ankle.

The two had stopped their fall mere seconds away from hitting the ground, leaving them with very little distance between themselves and the rocky outcropping. Thanks to this, Purpura was able to simply fall down and land on her feet without issue. Languid followed soon after, unhooking his weapon and dropping down next to her. Now safe, the duo looked around. They found themselves in complete and utter pitch black darkness.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Hey, wanna put that… Lamp… Of yours to good use?”

“Oh yeah, right.” Languid raised his weapon up in the air and flicked a switch. The area was soon illuminated with a bright glow from his weapon, giving the two students a beam of light to guide their way. “Where to now?”

“Well… If I had to guess, General Ironwood probably didn’t hide the relics inside some random winding cave system. That wouldn’t really be testing us, would it? It would just make it nearly impossible to find… I think he would put it somewhere difficult to access instead. Somewhere that’ll test our skills, not our luck. And if I had to guess, that place would probably be the very bottom of the mine.”

“What.” Languid said, blank faced.

“Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to.” She facepalmed. “Relic down there, not in cave.” She pointed downwards, off the ledge of rock and into the far depths of the mines.

“Oh ok.”

Averting her gaze, Purpura glanced around the area. She soon spotted their ticket to getting down, a narrow rocky ledge that stuck out from the wall of the cavern, and slowly wound down.

“Well… Let’s get going.” Purpura said, heading towards the ledge. “You first.”

“Why me?” Languid questioned.

“If the ledge is unstable or if we get attacked by some monster, you’ll be first to die.”

“What.”

“Also you have the light.”

“Oh, ok. That makes sense.”

*

Raco rushed forward with a battle cry, meeting a centinel head on in combat. He slammed the side of his spear into the first Grimm he could find, before performing a quick spin in order to stab it through the head of another. A third Grimm attacked him from below, but he dodged it with some swift footwork before finishing it off with a precise stab.

Phlox wasn’t as quick to engage as Raco, but wasn’t slow on the uptake by any means. He spun around, focusing on the centipede Grimm behind his partner. Aiming his rail gun laser pointer, he fired off a shot into a small group of sentinels, ripping them to shreds within seconds. However, he wasn’t the only one with ranged attacks. One of the centinels shot up from the group nearby and opened its jaws. A viscous green substance dripped down from its mandibles, hissing a fizzing as it touched the ground. Rearing back, the Grimm spit a glob of this substance at Phlox. Being busy with lining up a shot on a different creature, the projectile splattered against how his shoulder.

“What the- Oh. Gross.” Phlox stated, as the acidic spit began to burn away at his aura. “Hey Raco, these guys are shooting their juices at me.”

“Simply don’t get juiced!” Raco replied, whilst soccer kicking a centinel into a wall.

“Why didn’t I think of that…” Phlox muttered. “I sure got lucky for my partner, this guy is a tactical genius.”

Mere seconds after his brief conversation with his partner, Phlox dodged left in order to avoid another spit projectile. He aimed his weapon at the centinel in question, rendering the insect a pile of guts and ichor in no time. A centinel rushed him from the right, but he dodged again with a simple usage of his semblance, flipping himself upside down. From this vantage point, he aimed his weapon downwards at the Grimm, ending its life in a similar fashion as the others before returning to his usual gravitational pull.

Being in mid air as he was however, left him in a rather open state. He was unable to dodge another projectile spit sent his way, with it hitting him in the leg. Raco noticed the ranged attacks being cast from a group of centinels that sat a safe distance away. He swiftly ended the centinel closest to him with a spear stab, before lifting up the spear over his shoulder and taking aim. With one almighty throw, the spear was sent whistling through the air at incredible speeds. The momentum was enough to not only pierce through one of the lead centinels, but two others that were lined up next to it. The spear embedded itself in the cavern wall with the bodies of the three Grimm skewered along the handle.

However, this maneuver sadly left Raco weaponless for the moment. One of the Grimm attempted to capitalize on this, rushing in with a biting attack at his leg. He swiftly turned around and roundhouse kicked the Grimm to the ground. From there, he transferred aura to his feet and furiously stomped down on its head until he broke through the creature’s exoskeleton with a sickening crack.

“Rookie move.” He commented, whilst raising his hand and holding it out towards his spear expectantly. The spear began to glow with a faint purple energy, as did a small bracelet sitting upon his wrist. With that, the spear wrenched itself out of the wall and flew back to Raco’s waiting, open hand. He caught the spear just in time to spin around and embed its tip into another centinel.

Phlox took a few steps back, firing shots into the increasingly large mob of Grimm. The monsters were rapidly taking ground away from the two students, pushing them back as their numbers increased with every second.

“So Raco, do you think we’ve killed at least forty-nine of them yet?” Phlox questioned, blasting away a group of spitting centinels.

“Well… Uh… I would say so.” Raco replied with uncertainty, whilst barely dodging out of the way of a bite attack.

“That is not a good thing.” Phlox stated, moving further back as the horde of centinels drew closer.

*

“Are we there yet?” Languid questioned, his voice echoing out around the expansive mineshaft.

“You’re the one leading the way!” Purpura replied with annoyance.

“Oh yeah.” Languid mumbled. The two continued in silence for a few more seconds until he spoke up once more. “What do you think the relic is?”

“I dunno. Maybe like a cool rock or-”

“I hope it’s a lamp.”

“Why.”

“I like lamps.”

“We don’t get to keep the relic you know.”

“We don’t?”

“Nope.”

“I don’t want it to be a lamp anymore then.”

The pair continued in silence for another few minutes, simply traversing the long and narrow path downwards.

“Hey Purpura.” Languid spoke up again.

“I swear to god if you ask me if we’re there again-”

“I see a monster.”

“Damn it Languid, just- Wait, what?”

Before either of the two students could react, a face appeared in the light of Languid’s lamp. A chalk white, humanoid skull with piercing red eyes and jagged bent teeth. It reached a gangly, clawed hand out towards Languid.

“PURPURA!” He exclaimed loudly, attempting to back away from the creature.

“Hold on!” She replied, pulling her harp off her back. Hitting a button upon one of the handles, the musical instrument began to transform and change itself. It folded outwards, forming a polished, mahogany wood bow. Reaching to her belt, she grabbed a wooden arrow and pulled back the drawstring of her weapon. Aiming just above Languid’s shoulder, she let the arrow fly. It whizzed past his head, embedding itself into the skull of the Grimm before him. The Grimm let out an ear piercing shriek as it toppled backwards, falling off the ledge.

“W-what was that?!” Languid exclaimed, still shaking.

“Hell if I know, do I look like some Grimm nerd to you?” Purpura answered, clutching her weapon with shaky hands.

“Ye-”

“Don’t answer that.”

Languid took a cautious step forward, scanning the area with his light, both the pathway ahead and what they had already traversed.

“I don’t see anymore. Let’s keep going.” He said to his partner.

“Yeah. Slower this time.” Purpura said, keeping her weapon at the ready as the two made their way down the winding path once more.