An arrow struck the center of a target, creating a powerful thudding sound against its cardboard exterior. Viana held a longbow in her hand, eyes looking like the dead, deep in contemplation. "What have you come here for, Hero?"
Hero as well partook in firing arrows into the targets lined up before them. "I just... I wanted some input from someone at the party. Emma refuses to acknowledge me. Dahlia is too scared to say anything... You seem to be honest, so..."
"And...?"
"Was it a good idea to trust Rogier?"
Viana's eyes narrowed, setting another arrow free into a target she had been focusing on for what seemed to have been a few minutes now. She took a breath before letting out a sigh through her nose. "Not necessarily, but he's right. It isn't impossible, and if we're careful enough, and we make it out alive..." A beat, "Things that happen in the dungeons stay in the dungeons..." Another arrow is let loose.
Hero flicked a glance over at Viana. "What are you suggesting?"
"If he does fuck it all up. It's his head, that's what I'm suggesting."
Hero's expression became pained, shaking his head in response. "No... we won't do that, we won't resort to that." Another arrow is shot into his target.
Viana huffed, setting her bow at her hip before walking away. "It's his head. You aren't our leader right now after all."
***
A day later, now on their first quest, the party is set in front of a catacomb dungeon. Specifically, they were sent there to investigate recent, suspicious activities surrounding them.
Cultists, possibly undead. A more stereotypical first quest for an adventuring party like this. The huge, yet intimidating entrance of the catacombs sat before them. Run-down stone divets connected to a rusted iron gate, jammed into the ceiling of the entrance.
Emma, now wearing a fur-lined coat, held her bag tightly within her grasp, Rider watching their surroundings absentmindedly behind them, arms hanging loosely at their side.
Dahlia huffed, clutching tightly a massive axe that spanned half of her enormous body. "Okay... we got this!"
Emma blinked, staring at her other party members. "We'll... be fine... hopefully. I don't fuckin' know at this point." She scoffed.
Dahlia smiled. "Fair enough... uh... let's stick together, okay!?" She raised the axe into the air in victory.
"Yeah! Together!"
Hero chuckled, looking at the two. "Shouldn't that logic apply to everyone?"
"Nuh uh! Girls only, Hero!"
Viana pointed at herself. "Including me?"
"Uh, well, yeah... if you want, I won't s-stop you or any--"
Rogier triumphantly threw his arms into the air. "And now, the man of the hour has arrived! Hello~ ladies, and Hero~!"
Hero sighed. "Why are you always late?"
"Always gotta save the best of the best for last, no?"
Emma raised her hand. "If anyone needs any traps disabled, let me know."
Viana chimed in. "I guess I'll be leading. Someone needs to spot the traps after all--" She looked over to Emma, "And, yeah." Viana positioned herself in front of the group, Hero and Dahlia set side by side behind her.
Hero looked back, "Everyone ready?"
Charging forward, Rogier instead took the lead, running straight in. Everyone, startled, ran after him, Emma crying out first with curses directed towards the Draconian Man.
"Rogier!"
"What!? What's wrong!?" He screamed back, stopping in his tracks, a massive smirk on his face.
"You can't charge off like that, especially when you're the most vulnerable in the party!"
Viana pointed as they shouted at each other, Emma quickly springing into action.
"Got it!' A frustrated groan from Emma followed as a swinging trap flew by, deactivated by the small engineer herself. "Isn't that the only trap here?"
Viana nodded. "From what I can recall from the debrief, yes."
Emma sighed, passing a glare over to Rogier. "How about we don't charge ahead from now on, right?"
Rogier shrugged. "You guys took care of the trap; it should be fine now, right?" A smug look spread across his face.
Dahlia put both hands out, "O-Okay! I'm the most durable, and Hero is one of the other main melee fighters of our group. We should take the lead from henceforth, right?"
Rogier shrugged, the group once again pushing forward into the catacombs. The Party watched Rogier closely, praying that he wouldn't once again charge straight into demise like he did before. At this rate, the morale is plummeting at a catastrophic rate.
Hero sighed. "Remember, everyone, running away is always an option."
"May be optimal at this rate." Emma spat, hunched low in a way to obscure herself slightly in the case where they're ambushed in some fashion.
Rogier snickered. "It's happening~!"
"What?"
"Don't get too scared now, little Emma, it's beginning, our fight for survival!"
Just as Rogier said, a tomb is blasted open, the door crashing into the opposing wall across from it. Along with that, another undead spun out from their grave, flopping limply onto the floor below.
The party readied itself for a fight before realizing that they had more to worry about than the zombified undead themselves, but also a variety of skeletons emerging from the ground beneath them, one appearing right beside Dahlia, whilst one lifted themselvef from behind the party, another at the front.
A single skeleton leading two fleshy undead to push the front of the group, one breaking through the formation, and another flanking.
Combat begins.
Viana spun around on the balls of her feet, throwing herself backward, prone and on her back, firing out a bolt from her crossbow into the head of the skeleton flanking them, taking a massive chunk of the skull in the process.
Dahlia, reacting to the ambush of the skeleton beside her, crashed her axe into the clavicle of the skeleton before her, cracking it clean in two, causing it to stumble forward into her. As it stumbled into her body, she spun the grip of the axe to meet its ribcage before shoving it straight into the wall, crushing it in the process, leading the creature to go limp on the ground.
Dahlia, hyperventilating, looked to her group and then back to the corpse before her as it began to reform, worse for wear, but not down for the count just yet.
Emma, attempting to finish off the skeleton occupying Dahlia's attention, sent Rider to take care of it, sprinting straight at the creature, which sidestepped the machine, bumping into the wall beside it.
Whilst distracted, Emma leveled her weapon at the bony creature, a chunky revolver around the size of the very hands that carry it. Two shots fire off, echoing across the empty catacombs, ricocheting across the walls as they miss their target, prompting Emma to curse under her breath.
The skeleton pushing the front of the group took various steps back, pulling back the string of their longbow before firing out at what looked to be the biggest threat in their party, Dahlia. One arrow slammed straight into her shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain, and another arrow grazed her as it flew by, embedding itself into the stone below.
"Dahlia!?" Emma looked to the large Jotunn woman, clutching the arrow now digging into her flesh, eyes watering, concern in her eyes.
Rider braced itself, blocking the skeleton's way to Dahlia as it pulled a glaive out from one of the nearby graves, readying themselves for a swing onto the machine. With a single strike, the skeleton managed to cause Rider to topple over, crashing into the ground.
The skeleton attempted another strike, but was stopped quickly by an outstretched hand from the construct.
However, at the back of the group, the skeleton flanking them took out a longsword, attempting to run straight to Viana, path blocked by Rogier, who, during the altercation, cast a shield around themself. He looked to the rushing skeleton, brow cocked. "Uh oh." Rogier is knocked out of the way, stumbling backward into the wall behind him.
Rogier, in his petiness, cast an array of magic missiles into the charging skeleton, killing it before it could reach Viana, the two rocketing missiles slamming into the creature, the bone fragments exploding outward, reducing it to rubble.
Viana breathed a sigh of relief; one skeleton of three is down.
Dahlia whipped her head around, one of the undead earlier now charging at her, swinging wildly in her direction. The first hit slammed straight into the poor girl's jaw, causing her to buckle, the hit being strong enough to even tear open a part of her cheek. Dahlia proceeded to be grabbed, pulled toward the creature, now opening its maw to bite her.
The other undead ran straight to Hero, swinging at him as well, presently conflicted in helping Dahlia, or pressing the frontline, lifting his buckler instinctively against the pursuing creature, and unlike Dahlia, he managed to avoid its grab, that grab transitioning into another attempted strike onto the warrior, this time, missing its mark entirely, grazing past the buckler as he redirected the strike away from him.
Hero took a deep breath, focusing energy into the curved blade held tightly in his grasp. An onslaught of attacks whipped out at the creature, a blade of gleaming spiritual energy following it, cutting the monster into ribbons.
Just as the zombie's bite was coming down onto Dahlia, she shifted her positioning, lowering herself and lifting the grip of her axe to block the volatile bite of the undead before her.
Still prone, and with a sigh, Viana spun around on the rocks from under her, loading a new bolt into her crossbow and firing it into the skeleton assaulting Rider, missing her shot. She cursed under her breath, attempting to quickly load in another bolt in response.
Veins bulge out from Dahlia's neck, pushing violently against the undead threat on top of her, a burning rage building up within her. She shoved the creature away from her, twisting her axe in a swinging motion, cleaving through the monster's arm.
Dahlia shoved the creature again, this time doing no damage in the process, but now she managed to get her blood boiling, finally ready for a fight, though incredibly hurt, possibly even at death's door.
The monster cried out, but before it could pursue the nearly dying Dahlia once more, it was interrupted by two magic missiles that melted deeply into the skull of the zombie, killing it instantly, flopping onto the ground.
Rogier sighed, shielding himself again after casting another barrage of Magic Missiles.
"Kill that thing, Rider!" Emma cried out, leveling her pistol at the skeleton, targeting Rider once more. She fired two shots into the undead monster, both shots barely doing a single thing to the creature to bring it down. Rider, in response, now choosing to defend itself properly, swings its fist into the creature as well, aiming to finish it off.
Rider's fist shot down into the arm before firing out violently into the skeleton's skull, crushing it into ash and indenting the wall behind it in the process.
The last of the skeletons retreated further, bow in hand, firing it out at what it saw now, as the newest, largest threat to its life, Hero.
"Crap!" Hero yelled out, reflexively raising his buckler, an arrow flying straight into it. The arrow shot straight through the bronze buckler, scraping across the flesh of his wrist, causing him to wince in pain.
Hero inhaled deeply, sheathing his blade, and taking out a longbow, leveling it at the creature.
"You won't get away." Hero growled, focusing once more on the spiritual magic within him, the bow changing in shape, the inner grooves resembling something similar to the stars in a night sky. Spiritual energy is focused on the string of the bow before being fired out at the skeleton before him.
The shot sputtered out at the skeleton's position before exploding into a flash of light, causing the creature to stagger, but it was generally unaffected by what had occured.
Hero clicked his tongue in frustration, straightening himself.
Viana, from afar, fired a bolt out to the skeleton, cracking its shoulders before careening off into the wall beside it. Loading it, she made another attempt to fire at the creature, overshooting the monster, eliciting a whistling sound as it passed by.
Just as the shot went off, Dahlia collapsed, unable to carry her weight any longer, blood pooling at her shoulder.
Rogier snickered at the chaos, crouching low. "Glad that wasn't me."
Emma took a breath. "Shut the fuck up, Rogier." Her eyes narrowed, focusing on the creature's skeleton, now a good sixty or so feet away from them. A violent clapping sound reverberated across the cave after her shot went off, arms thrown into the air from the recoil.
Pop!
A bullet slapping against their it's bicep, eliciting a hiss from its spinal column. Emma took another deep breath, setting back the hammer of her revolver. Once again, a shot went off, missing this time.
Emma pointed to her automaton, "Don't let it escape!"
Rider, only around forty feet away from the monster, crouched down into a running position before sprinting straight toward the skeleton, swinging a coiled arm into it, firing out violently into the ribcage of the undead creature, killing it.
Its exterior clattered against the floor violently, bisected by the impact.
Dahlia swallowed, propping herself onto the rubble under her. "C-Can we rest... for a moment... m-my vision is blurry."
Hero nodded. "We should."
Rogier shrugged. "Are you sure you guys want that?"
Emma spat back. "Yes! Fuck off!" Rushing over to Dahlia to assist her.
Hero crossed over to Emma with a sigh. "Can you do something for my buckler?"
Just before she could assist in treating Dahlia, she looked over to Hero. "Yeah, sure, let me help her real quick, and I'll get to you."
Hero nodded again. "Of course."
"One fight and we're already in shambles..." Emma mumbled before looking Dahlia in the eye. "Find something to bite, okay?"
"H-Huh? Why?"
"I don't want you biting your tongue out whilst I remove the arrow, okay?"
Dahlia nodded, biting into the hood of her jacket. Emma broke off the shaft of the arrow, causing Dahlia to flinch in pain.
Viana, in frustration, pre-loaded a bolt into her crossbow, watching as Rogier walked past, his eyes dilating as he scanned the aftermath before him. "Lookin' good~!"
Emma looked at Dahlia hesitantly before motioning to her. "C-Could you remove the jacket? I need to... well... do the hard part."
Dahlia sheepishly nodded, "O-Okay." She lifted the jacket from her shoulders weakly as it clipped the broken end of the arrowhead, still digging into her shoulder. Underneath the jacket was a white tank top, stained in red.
Dahlia was large in more ways than one, which Emma noticed. She sighed, cursing herself in her mind as she pushed away one of the straps of the shirt. "O-Okay, bit down hard into your jacket, okay? I have to dig in pretty deep around the wound."
Tears in her eyes, Dahlia nodded once more, as enthusiastically as she could given the circumstances.
Hero watched as Emma administered first aid to their companion, thoughts interrupted by an approaching Rogier. Hero sighed. "What is it?"
"Just curious-- what are you thinking?"
"Went better than it should've gone, I suppose."
Rogier snickered. "You're one strong motherfucker, Hero!"
Hero remained silent for a moment. "I gotta be strong to be a hero, right?"
"I suppose you do. Lookin' very heroic there, Hero." Rogier smiled, propping himself against a wall as he waited.
***
An hour had passed, and Dahlia had been stitched back up into peak condition, giving her shoulder a good roll to test how much mobility would remain after everything that occured.
The one, surprisingly enough, who seemed to be the most tired out of those who are here, being Emma herself, after she was forced to tend to Dahlia alone, along with a shield, and her automaton. She groaned, rubbing her neck. "Alright... I feel that's enough, right? Everyone ready to continue?"
Hero nodded as he checked for any excess damage to his shield. "Should be good."
Viana made an 'ok' sign with her fingers. "I'm good."
Rogier shrugged. "Didn't get hurt much anyhow. I can get over it."
Emma sighed. "Okay... okay. Let's continue."
Hero nodded. "Let's go, everyone!"
Rogier laughed. "Shouldn't it be me givin' out orders?"
Emma clicked her tongue. "And what use have you been?"
"Oh~! Calm down, little lady, I might think ya like me~!"
"Fuck off!"
They proceeded further into the catacombs, and, surprisingly enough, through their hour of walking through web-covered halls caked in dust, there hadn't been a single encounter like the last. Not until they reached a pair of doors at the very end, much larger than anyone presently in the party.
Dahlia pushed open the doors with a bit of effort, revealing a massive mausoleum, pillars on either side of the party, a staircase leading down to what looked to be an even larger coffin for a much more significant figure than the undead they had encountered earlier.
The party stepped into the room, and the moment of silence they had whilst entering was quickly interrupted by a man lifting themselves, one step at a time, up the staircase before them, eyes widening in surprise as they spotted them.
"Shit!" The man screamed out before slipping down the staircase in a panic. "Adventurers!"
Once again, combat begins.
The man fumbled for one of the variety of knives stuffed into their belt before throwing it at the party, aiming for Hero, who held themselves with the most confidence out of the rest.
The knife completely missed, skidding across the floor, eliciting another curse from the man as he attempted to use the staircase as cover from the party.
The party rushed over to the stairs, the man crouched down, looking up at them, and at the very end of the staircase, an older Elven man with purple skin, sharing a similar hue to Viana. "Gods... why have fools come to the slaughter today? No matter, our victory is already set into the annals of history."
Hero looked to the Elven man with a pointed look. "What is your goal? Who are you!?"
Other coffins in the mausoleum are smashed open, whilst the remaining bones of two adventurers who had passed in this mausoleum rise from the dead.
The older man shrugged. "You do not need to know, for you will be dead by then."
The cultist who is with him, realizing now that they have the upper hand, surrounds Hero's party, now charged to the young Exemplar, dagger in hand. Hero struck both stabs of the man's dagger away with his buckler. The cultist staggered, a panicked expression on his face.
"Tormentum." Rogier casually waved his hand, and magic missiles, the spell that appeared to be his signature spell at this rate, fired out from within him. All three missiles slam into the man, causing him to slip down the stairs, coughing violently as blood began to pool around their chest where the spell had hit them.
Hero lunged forward, sword beaming with spiritual energy as it sliced through the man, both strikes meeting their mark. Somehow, the blade didn't cut through flesh as it would normally, and instead seared the cultist at their very soul, eyes turning hollow as the bright remains of the young man's slashes remained.
The cultist's body slumped onto the floor, Hero sharing a pinched expression with the Elven man, their arms crossed. The older man sighed, taking out a hand crossbow from his belt and firing it at Hero.
Hero lifted his shield again, attempting to defend himself against the blow as the arrow punctured the buckler, barely grazing their arm. Suddenly, Hero felt light-headed, knees buckling from under him as he clutched his head. W-What is this...?
The skeletons reposition themselves, leveling their bows at the party.
An arrow flew out, aimed at Emma, deflected by Dahlia, and another flew out, aimed at Rogier, once again, not meeting its mark as it weakly slid across the floor.
Another set of arrows flew out again, this time one aiming at Dahlia, which simply grazed her shoulder, the other narrowly missing Rogier again in another attempt to get at him.
Next thing, the undead that left their graves now scramble over to the party, inching closer and closer until they are surrounded.
Noticing the dire circumstances, Dahlia gripped her axe as tightly as she could, bursting into a rage. She braced herself, getting ready to charge through the rotting creatures surrounding them.
One swipe of her axe met the jaw of one of the zombies surrounding them, cutting it clean off. With Dahlia's next move, she spun over to another, kicking it away from the group, knocking it prone.
Emma screamed out a command to Rider, sending her construct forward and into the fray, mounting the knocked-over zombie, both attacks slamming into the undead monster's skull, crushing their head in full, black ichor spilling violently across the ground.
After the death of one of the assaulting group of zombies, Emma focused on the one targeting Dahlia, firing a shot into it. The creature swayed in response to the impact, but it wasn't enough to hurt it substantially.
Startled by the sudden approach, Viana swung at one of the undead, ambushing them with a falchion she had holstered on her hip, her first attack missing by a large margin before she used the momentum to cleave straight into the collar bone of the creature.
"Shit, I'm out." Rogier groaned, looking at his hands.
"Out? Out of what?" Emma questioned, focusing on the enemies in front of her.
"Out of spells."
"Already!?"
He opted to just cast a shield over himself, since it didn't require any energy to do so.
"Gods damnit!"
Hero blinked, a sense of lethargy coming over him. "Damnit." In a fury, he sliced at one of the zombies, attempting to take pressure off of his cohort. The first slice missed as he stumbled forward, using that forward momentum to stab straight into the undead monster's neck, pushing it away from Viana, killing it.
The blade still stuck in the monster's neck, he threw the corpse to the side. Shaking the excess flesh off his blade.
"Enough!" The Elven man yelled, swinging his hand in an arch into the direction of Hero's cohort, a cloud of darkness following it that crashed into the party, surrounding them with an inky black smog.
"W-What the fuck!? I can't see!" Emma cried, attempting to clear the darkness away from her vision, struggling to do so.
"W-What!?" Dahlia exclaimed, panicking, swinging wildly within the fog.
Viana cursed, loading up her crossbow in a panic. She was the only one who could see past the darkness that surrounded them.
In quick succession, a flurry of arrows is shot into the dark cloud, missing most of their shots, but managing to graze Viana by a small margin.
One undead, now missing a jaw, rushed straight into the fog, swinging wildly at the massive Dahlia. She tanked the blow and managed to shove the monster away, but there was no denying that she was in a vulnerable position as she is now.
Hero blinked, eyes widening as he soon realized that his eyes weren't closed, and that the darkness was artificial, surrounding him. He moved into a defensive position, unsuspecting of the arching attack from one of the last two zombies surrounding his party.
One hit struck the shield, hard, denting it in its entirety before being quickly grabbed by the creature and pulled in. The monster's mouth had then opened wide, moving to bite Hero as hard as it could, latching deeply into his trapezoid, mouth filling up with crimson.
Hero screamed in pain, attempting to break free from the undead's grapple. As its teeth dig straight into Hero's shoulder, after a moment of pause, it proceeded to rip the flesh near his neck as hard as it could, blood flooding out from the wound.
Dahlia huffed and then swung upward into the zombie in front of her, and with one passionate scream, split the corpse in two from mid-torso, up to the monster's head, ichor spilling out from the enormous gash she had created. Dahlia let out another huff, bracing herself before charging through the smog, bridging the gap between them and the recently unconscious Hero.
The zombie absentmindedly chewed on the young man's flesh, soon noticing the massive mass barreling towards it, causing it to visibly recoil.
The butt of her axe is stabbed straight into the creature's eye, a bit of flesh and bone taken with it, causing it to screech in response, letting Hero go in the process. The large woman growled, becoming more and more primal as the fight progressed.
Outside of the darkness, Rider stumbled out from within, spotting the older Elven man waiting patiently by the grave, hands behind their back.
"Kill that Elf!" Emma screamed, and at that exact moment, Viana stumbled out from the darkness as well, leveling her crossbow at the man before her.
The crossbow bolt flew straight through the man's hand as he reflexively attempted to protect himself, taking a few fingers in the process. "Damn!" His eyes widen, a metal fist straight from Rider flying toward his face, prompting him to dodge out of the way, equipping a rapier with his available hand.
Following the sequence of events, Emma stumbled out from the cloud as well, aiming her gun at the Elven man, attempting to fire at the man and missing.
On the ground, Hero's breath steadied. Though he is severely injured, somehow, by a miracle, the wound wasn't deep enough to be considered serious. Hero, unfortunately, remained unconscious, the pain being too much to bear.
The Elven man lashed out at Rider, attempting to push the machine away. Unfortunately, each strike from his rapier couldn't hit their mark, the machine deftly dodging their attacks.
Viana attempted to load another bolt into her crossbow, but before she could do so, an arrow flew across her wrist, grazing her. She visibly recoiled, falling onto her back, an arrow promptly hitting her straight in the leg, digging deep into the flesh of her thigh.
Another one of the skeletons focused straight on Emma, who had exposed themselves by exiting the darkness. A repeat of before, but instead, the last arrow hit Emma in the shoulder, compared to Viana's thigh, causing her to stumble onto her hands and feet. Emma cursed, passing a glance to one of the skeletons firing at them.
Dahlia shrank down, raising her guard as a fist slammed against her body, gripping the hem of her hoodie. Dahlia tightened her jaw, eyes squeezed shut as she raised her arms defensively, the zombie biting down into the thick muscle of her arm.
Dahlia screamed, the skin of her arm popping open, crimson spraying out from the wound. Her legs buckled from under her, her body feeling weak as the monster proceeded to tear away at the flesh, causing the large woman to stumble back as the monster followed up, clocking her across the jaw, knocking her unconscious.
"Come on!" Outside the darkness, Emma yelled out, rechambering her revolver before firing back out at the man who stood at the end of the staircase.
Pop!
Before he could even react, a bullet flew straight into the man's jaw, his body going limp in response, thrown straight onto the tomb he was protecting.
The man gasped, and a hand pressed against the wound. The sound of liquid bubbling behind his lips echoed out, eyes wide, staring directly at his killer. Emma, gun still in hand.
The darkness is dispelled, the skeletons drop dead, and the remaining zombie falls limp to the floor.
The source of the undead was gone, and with no source for their power. With no source to perpetuate their lives, they become destitute.
Emma let out a shaky sigh. "Is everyone al-" Her eyes land on the unconscious body of Dahlia, rushing over to her. "O-Okay! Okay!" After that, she noticed Hero as well, confused, conflicted, scared. "Shit!"
Viana blinked as hard as she could, groaning as she clutched her thigh.
"Okay, okay, okay! I can do this!"
As Emma scrambled to save her party members, Rogier stepped down to the tomb below, looking at the Elven man's corpse with a disappointed expression. He kissed his teeth. "Alright, didn't exactly get all of what I wanted, but hey... if it needs to happen, it needs to happen."
"Rogier! Rogier, you ass! Help me!"
Rogier looked back up the steps, looking at Emma's panicked look with a smug grin. "Sorry." He followed up with a big, toothy smile. "You know the moment in light novels where the protagonist gets betrayed? Well... you aren't the protagonist, at the very least, that Hero guy is, but still... same logic, no?"
"What the fuck are you saying!?"
Viana growled. "Bastard..."
Rogier crossed over to the cultist who was killed earlier, grabbing a dagger from their waistband.
Emma leveled her revolver at Rogier. "What the fuck are you doing, Rogier!?"
"Whoops~!" Rogier, in one swift motion, slipped the dagger straight into his neck, killing himself. Blood sprayed out from his throat, stumbling onto the tomb himself, blood pooling across it.
Emma and Viana sat there in a stunned silence. Emma blinked, looking to her unconscious companions, then back to Rogier's corpse. "What!?"