Tim dashed through the dim caverns of the remaining middle floors, weighed down by his burdens but eager to make his way back home. There was a final catch to this plan, however. Ever since Tim defeated that mob of Almiraj in that tunnel, he had felt something staring at him from the shadows. As he ran, Adama carefully scanned his surroundings, hoping to catch his silent observer in the corner of his eye. He gleaned little, the Dungeon’s lighting and the observer’s skill too great to catch anything more than a vague movement. A part of his wondered if he was seeing things, and he stewed on the prospect that he was just getting paranoid. Tim was fast approaching the end of the 13th floor when he had finally had enough. After reaching a wide-open space, he spun around and drew his sword. Raising his voice, he called out:
“If you’ve got a problem with me, skulking around won’t do you any good. If you wanted to ambush me, I’d say that ship has sailed.”
Tim felt a bit ridiculous, yelling back down a seemingly vacant tunnel, but that transformed to triumph when he caught real movement in the distance. Without hesitation, he struck out with a Rippling Sword, and was rewarded with more movement, the sound of sudden scrambling, and then silence. He stared ferociously into the gloom waiting for a possible counterattack, but what he received was much stranger than a thrown rock or hurled spear. What he got was a silence broken by the sounds of steady, muffled footsteps, like a woodland creature was cautiously approaching him. That mental image was strengthened by an animalistic cry that echoed back from the passage he was staring down:
“Mrreeep Mrreeep!”
The call was conciliatory, almost fearful. Like a frightened rabbit trying to say, “I come in peace!”. Between the vulnerable tone and his sheer curiosity, Adama held back from throwing out another spell as he heard the footsteps draw nearer. Soon he was able to see its humanoid silhouette and the beginnings of its features, and his eyes widened in surprise and interest. Maybe it should have been obvious from the beginning, but the monster cautiously approaching Adama was an Almiraj. But there were a few key differences between this newcomer and the monsters he had faced so far.
The most noticeable difference was its facial expression. A normal Almiraj was typically snarling or antagonistic whenever it confronted an adventurer, but this particular bunny stared at Adama with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Its red eyes glowed not with hostility but with interest as the creature approached the human interloper. Another major difference, Adama quickly realized, was its weapon. Sheathed at the Almiraj’s hip was an adventurer’s straight sword, a little rusty but still serviceable. The monster’s paws were held up in the air in a gesture of peace, and as it edged closer, Tim allowed his sword to drop from its position of hostility. He had no intention of cutting down a defenseless target. That didn’t mean he dropped his guard entirely, though, and as the rabbit humanoid stepped over the threshold of the room, he held out a hand:
“That’s far enough. I still haven’t ruled out this being an elaborate ruse. If you’re peaceful, hold your ground.”
Either it understood his words, or it figured out his meaning from his body language, and it cheeped in agreement as it stuttered to a halt. It continued making exited noises and looking Adama up and down as he stared at it, more than a little bewildered. But before he could say anything else, the strange Almiraj calmed down and pointed at his sword, then its own, and mimicked drawing its blade. It did the same thing again, before Tim snapped out of his surprise and responded:
“You want to draw your sword?”
The Almiraj nodded.
“You want to trade it for mine?”
The monster shook its head and mimed a slashing motion. Understanding immediately dawned on Tim:
“You want to have a duel?”
The monster nodded vigorously again, then looked at him questioningly, head cocked to the side. It took Tim another moment to realize that the creature was genuinely asking for his permission. In spite of his surprise, he shrugged:
“Never backed down from a challenge before, have I? Why start now?”
Adama took off his pack and set it on the floor as the Almiraj withdrew its blade. He never took his eyes off the creature, but it only watched him patiently as he let down his burden and took a more ready stance. When he was prepared, he stared into the monster’s eyes and was surprised to see nothing but determination and clarity in those soft pools of crimson. This was a real opponent. Tim took a breath and shouted:
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“Begin!”
In the blink of an eye, the Almiraj went from standing ramrod straight to swinging its sword right at Tim’s midsection. Adama was of average height for a human, but he towered over the smaller monster, and he needed to shift a little awkwardly to effectively block the attack on his nether regions. They locked blades and Tim grunted a little as he shoved forward. A normal Almiraj would have gone flying, totally overpowered by Level 2 strength amplified by his Strong Body, but this creature just squeaked a little as it struggled back. Even so, Adama got the better of it, forcing the monster to give ground.
Realizing that it was on the backfoot, the Almiraj disengaged, leaping backward and sprinting rapidly to the left. Adama tracked the little white blur as it tried to attack him from his blind spot, bringing his sword around to block another attack from the alternative angle. The monster broke off the engagement quickly, jumping back and trying to sprint around to find another angle. Adama challenge this with a horizontal Rippling Sword, but the rabbit monster jumped right over the magic without missing a beat.
Its feet pattered along the floor as it sprinted, jumping in and out of attacking range, probing Adama’s defenses. It changed directions, used feints, and even zigzagged on its approaches, all in an attempt to confuse the lone swordsman and create an opening. Adama couldn’t begin to chase after it, as its speed dwarfed his, but compare to Aiz it was practically running in slow motion. He tracked the Almiraj and blocked its attacks with little trouble, its footwork rough and not skilled enough to confuse him. However, it was easily fast enough to avoid anything he threw at it, even when he worked to drive it into a corner. He aimed a vertical Rippling Sword in front of the monster’s path, forcing it to arrest its momentum, then stabbed at it when it screeched to a halt. In response, it just jumped sideways toward the wall, did a flip in midair, and kicked off the wall, rocketing towards Adama in a counterattack.
Tim got his sword up in time to avoid getting cut, but the beast twisted around and kicked off his chest, avoiding any possibility for a counterattack. Now, the Almiraj kicked things into a higher gear, moving around even faster and bouncing off the walls to attack from every possible angle. This made things more chaotic, forcing Tim take a cut to the cheek, but it also made the creature more vulnerable, allowing him to score a shallow slice on the rabbit’s ribs. This only prompted the thing to move faster, turning into a streak of white lightning midair. This prompted the Sword Sage to move around more, diluting the pressure and disrupting any clear attacking lanes.
Then, just as the duel reached its fever pitch, it was over. The Almiraj appeared in a cloud of dust and blood at the mouth of the tunnel from whence it had emerged. In the scuffle, it had picked up a large magic stone, which shimmered as it caught the dim light of the Dungeon’s Middle floors. It popped the stone into its mouth and began chewing happily, sheathing its sword as it did so. Adama nearly hit it with another Rippling Sword before realizing that the creature no longer wanted to fight, subsequently choosing to abort his attack. He glanced between his pack, which lay open on its side, and back to the Almiraj, which had recovered from its injuries and regained its energy thanks to the pilfered stone. It cheeped happily, gave him a bow, and scampered away. Adama blinked once and gave a sardonic smile, muttering:
“You little thief. You wanted more than just a fight, didn’t you? Don’t let me see you again if you know what’s good for you.”
Again, Tim could have won easily if he had used the Endless Sword. But that wouldn’t have been good training, which the fight with the rabbit had been. And, though he would never admit it, Tim found the creature more than a little cute. It was obviously different from normal monsters, and he didn’t want to kill it if he didn’t have to. It would have been one thing if that was a life-or-death struggle. But the creature had rarely aimed for his unprotected vitals, and he had never been in serious danger of death. That fight probably didn’t do much for his stats, but it did help hone his swordsmanship. As a result, the strange monster lived another day.
“What was that thing, anyways?” He thought to himself as he gathered up his belongings and started back up the path. He was still thinking about this strange encounter when he stumbled upon another unexpected sight.
While running along the path towards the entrance on the 9th floor, he heard someone scream out in pain. When he moved to investigate, he found a large young man lying on his back in a small room, a fist shaped indent in his large breastplate. He took out a potion to treat him, but the man waved him away and pointed towards a passage further down the way. Right on cue, there was another scream, and a loud bellow that sounded quite familiar. Adama shot down the pathway, an ebony and emerald blur to the Level 1 adventurer, and he quickly stumbled on the source of the commotion.
A Minotaur had cornered a short, silver-haired magician girl against a wall. It snarled down at her as it prepared to smash its palm into her head, bringing the limb forward with crushing force. Suddenly, the arm about to pulverize her fell right off the bone. In a spray of blood, it had been neatly severed at the elbow.
"Rippling Sword!”
As the Minotaur fell into multiple pieces, splattering the poor magician girl with a generous portion of the monster’s insides, another lady arrived on the scene. A familiar golden-eyed swordswoman dashed onto the scene, before stopping short in surprise. Aiz looked to Adama, then to the girl, then back to Adama, who raised an eyebrow and folded his arms, clearly waiting for an explanation. Somewhat apologetically, she explained:
“I was doing some independent training, and on my way back to the surface, a group of Minotaurs spawned all at once on the 17th floor. I tried to kill them all, but they ran away. I chased them, but there were a lot, and they just kept running, even all the way into the Upper floors. That should be the last of them. I’ll take care of the injured man in the room behind us, since this is my responsibility.”
As she was talking, Adama went to fish out the magic stone. As he did, he checked the girl for injuries. From what he could see, all the blood covering her seemed to be the Minotaur’s, rather than her own. She seemed less hurt and more shocked into silence as she stared at Adama in paralyzing fear, eyes wide like dinner plates. Before he could say a word, those eyes closed, and she passed out, slumping unconscious against the wall with a sigh. Adama fought back a sigh of his own.
“Again? You’d think I was the monster.”
As he thought that, he happened to glance down at the pile of ash that had once been a Minotaur. Aiz, curious, looked over his shoulder and followed his gaze.
In the remains was a single, pointed, dark brown object. His blonde companion next to him was the first to remark:
“A Minotaur’s horn? Lucky you.”