Andre grimaced as he let go of Steph, rushing towards the nearest cave with hastened steps. "Shit, of course it has to be a dungeon just when we all thought we hit jackpot, if I knew this, I wouldn't have left my rifle in the quarters, screw it not like I haven't done this before." He stealthily made his way to one of the guards, as he quickly knocked him out and silently robbed him of his rifle without anyone noticing, he looked to Steph who only gave him a small nod, they knew what they had to do. In only mere moments, Steph had disappeared, leaving Andre to venture into the narrow gold cavern by himself.
He passed through the small tunnel, as the clanks of gold echoed throughout the hall. He sighed as he loaded the gun, scoping out the area. "Alright you little shits, where the hell are ya, I know you just want to nibble on a tasty human right infront of ya" he said as his dirty blonde hair started being consumed by the darkness, masking all sight. Andre sighed as he took a deep breath in, he took only one second…And immediately fire a blazing shot, that blasted anything in its way.
....................................….
Luke had been silent throughout the trip. He didn't want to speak about the blatant trap that he would walk into with Iron, who had also been brooding more than usual. Their situation was dire, and the people they wanted were to protect were in danger as well, there was no room for mistakes this time, which was all the mor reason it bothered Luke.
After a few more minutes of silence, Luke sighed as he took Iron to one of the usual dark alleys they would go to discuss private matters. While cliché, surprisingly nobody wanted to come here because of the poverty that seemed to flood these unconventional corridors, and the people who were there never opened their mouths, making surprisingly a great secret hideout. Luke took out a small almost pathetic excuse of a cig, lighting it up with a heavy sigh "god damn it, how is it that I always end up in the most fucked positions." Iron leaned against the stone wall, scoffing "I don't know, but I think you know what this means right…. he's probably setting us up to be arrested and detained forever." Luke nodded, the signs were clearly shown, there was nothing to suspect otherwise, and the president had every reason to hate him, but why would he do it now? Luke thought for a moment "I mean sure, yeah, it's clear he's tryna get rid of us, but why now? If the duke's daughter wasn't here sure I would understand, but if he does bullshit in front of her, he's only going to hurt his chances of getting government backing, sure Judgment doesn't like what she's doing, but her father and her own status is to powerful to ignore." Luke sighed as he took another puff before handing it to Iron "I get what your saying, but I don't know, right now we honestly are the safest we have ever been because fo the fact the duke's daughter is here, it'd be a dumbass move to get us arrested now." Iron grimaced as he accepted the offer "….that's true, but I wouldn't also be surprised if there was a hit on the girl as well, people right now would pay good money to see her dead. Also, I heard from another team leader he has been hiring mercenaries recently, supposedly for how many dungeons have been popping up lately, no that I see any of them. Luke sighed as he nodded "heard so as well…. whatever the case is we need to be careful, get Kirin and Sari later I want to- "
Suddenly, Luke had heard a loud bang from the mines quite a distance away, in which he sighed "….as I was saying I want Kir-"he continued until he could hear somebody charging towards them. Luke grimaced as he looked toward his right, seeing Steph with her red hair flying across the hair. She slid down the alley making her way to Luke as he looked at her bewildered by her urgency. She drew in a hoarse breath as she looked upward, she words stumbling out of her mouth "B-boss…. The mine…I-it's a-a dungeon….Andre…is handling it right now but nobody is there." Luke's eyes widened as he cursed, looking to Iron as he grabbed Steph by the collar "get Noa now! We need to get to the mines, call anybody else you see along the way got it!" Iron immediately nodded as he saluted, charging out of the alley alongside Luke and the flying Steph. Luke grimaced as he watched the Mines from afar, rushing towards them as fast as possible "You better hold out until I get there, or else your dead Andre!"
....................................….
Ariana had noticed a very peculiar looking blade as they walked into Noa's room. It seemed to be a long Odachi, from what she learned in her father's meets with politicians, that's blade was covered by a long white sheath designed by a diamond Dragon that coiled around it. Its handle was black and light blue alternating, emphasizing the stark icy theme throughout the entire blade. It seemed familiar to Ariana, something from her past she couldn't make of. She took a step closer, reaching for it to examine the sword, and it was then she knew why she still remembered the Icy Odachi to this day, even if faintly. The minute her hand seemed to draw closer, she couldn't reach for it any longer, it was as if she was just barely at the sword but could never reach it. Her eyes widened as she took a few steps back before looking towards the sword with a curious expression "wait…how do you have that…." She seemed to catch everyone's attention, as Noa looked back with still the same indifference, btu yet curious tone "oh that…. I've always had it from what I was given it, I don't remember who, but all I can really say it was from my master before I arrived at Uru, why do you ask?" Ariana nodded, taking in what he said as he looked to him "say, Noa…where were you from before you arrived at Uru then, cus I thought you were born here like Cam."
A sudden silence seemed to fill the room as Noa and Ariana looked at each other, the other trying to decipher what it meant to have this sword. After a few awkward seconds however, a chuckle could be heard cutting the tension in the air. Cam had seemingly met a little girl playing with her just at the doorway, and when the child soon left to play with her friends, she turned to Ariana and Noa sighing "what are we getting so moody over a sword, if you must know though Ms. Mayella, Luke and Noa only came to Uru about ten years ag unlike me or Andre who were born here. We don't where they came from since they lost a lot of their memories due to being in a horrific blizzard that cursed this at the time, that all really." Noa looked at cam a bit surprised as he walked to help her with the rest of the bags "wow, no wonder why people call you a killjoy back then, you don't like drama at all do you." Ariana hid her face away from Cam, burrowing the laughter that rushed out of her mouth as Cam looked at Noa utterly betrayed. "Hey, wait, you can't be talking you bitch, you don't even do anything at the parties half the time!"
As cam scolded Noa about his rude and uncaring behavior, sudden footsteps can be heard rushing down, as Noa spotted Iron and Eidra suddenly appear at his room. Iron looked to Noa as he nodded to him "Mine's gone to shit." Surprisingly to Ariana, who was bewildered by the lack of details in report, Noa seemed to understand what Iron meant perfectly. He looked to the wall to where the long sword was, but instead of grabbing that, he grabbed the rusted grass cutter that was under the sword on top of a shelf, as he looked back to Cam and her. He looked to them with a bit of a stern face "you both stay here, If anything happens Eidra will take care of y'all." Cam gritted her teeth "Noa, just cus of what happened I may have left, doesn't mean I won't help, you don't have to keep us in the dark" Ariana nodded with determination "I'm sure we can handle ourselves, I'm not an actual child" before she could continue however, Noa sighed. "No, Cam you know what boss's orders would be, you're not employed under here anymore, so you have to stay by the Duke's daughter, no matter what….besides, you know how this place is, you can't leave anyone alone here" and before they could refute, Noa and Iron were gone in an instant, as if ripped away from that location by a divine hand.
....................................….
Back In the cave, Andre sweat, and blood sprayed everywhere as he unloaded one bullet after another, His blonde hair became a canvas for whatever these monsters have as blood, and his amber eyes seemed to be strained from the long rounds. "Ah fuck this, how many more do yall got!" he exclaimed as he fired another explosive round. The bullet cleanly passed through the golden rats head and blasted another behind them. This had been around the 120th rat he had killed, and he started getting frustrated as more poured in.
"Holy shit, it just had to be rats, and not just regular rats, they have to be huge as well, what god did I piss of to have this much of shitty luck!" he thought as he continued firing round after round. Andre had always hated the little abominations before, and they only grew more repulsing in dungeons. On top of the distain he had for rats, he also realized how much strain his body was already under. Every time he shot, a chunk of his mana was ripped away from him, soon he would run out of mana, and as more rats managed to tag bite and claw away at his flesh, the more dire his situation grew.
He quickly let off another round, then immediately ran away from the horde of rats charging at him, ducking under a golden caged crevice and sliding down the hard and shop rocks that painfully cut bits of him. He then crashed to the ground as he grunted rolling over "FUCK!" After a few more minutes of violently cursing, he sighed as he looked up, the rats seemed to be clogged at the other end, but it wouldn't seem to hold for long. "Alright, it's fine it gives me a moment to replenish my mana, but geese you fucking pests, you love filling up that fat ass don't ya" he whined as he sat down laying his back on the rough golden wall's. This moment of respite wasn't much, but it also let him do something else, calm down. It was something he learned a lot during the many spars him and Luke did, a valuable lesson after the many beat downs he took from his boss.
"Alright they should be here in a little while, I just need to find a way out of this shitty cave, and then I will be able to-" loud steps could be heard from the distance as Andre froze up. Clanking and scraping of metals mixed to give an unpleasant volume, as Andre looked to his right, he grimaced painfully getting up. "Ok, I'm actually starting to think god hates me….but something doesn't add up, I swear I sensed this was a safe place" Andre noted, as then Andre could finally see in the dark bountiful cave. A tall golden plated knight, with a rat rug wrapped around his neck approached Andre, with nothing but crimson eyes filled with murderous intent. Andre smirked as he picked his gun up, aiming it toward the golden soldier "you know…at least you don't look fucking disgusting….might actually make me feel bad for killing you."