Chapter 7 - Down a dungeon

At first, it seemed like a joke, scavenging a bow. But no, the knight was serious.

Dragging them from their home, the knight led the two other outworlders deep into the nearby forest where they were going to scavenge a bow for Sora.

According to Noel, scattered across the kingdom were several abandoned temples or dungeons that hold multitudes of treasure. So, many adventurers often explore them to get a quick payday or some free gear. Noel herself has seen some of these dungeons and was in awe at how well preserved some of the things inside were, hence her confidence in finding a good weapon for her senpai.

After trekking underneath thick canopies in the nearby forest outside Riverbank, the group found themselves in front of an old, mossy temple. It was small on the outside, no larger than a hut, but anyone could tell it ran deep underneath the forest.

"Ok you two ready?" the knight asked her companions.

Sora and Rio glanced at each other, hoping that the other would answer first, but that wasn't happening. A few seconds of silence later and they just nodded, reluctantly.

Descending the temple seemed easy enough, but it became more difficult to move forward once the light became scarce. They had a torch with them, but even then it could only do so much in terms of lighting the way.

"This place sure is creepy." Sora shook a little, her eyes darting from side to side.

"It's unusual for you to be scared Sora-senpai," Noel commented, shocked at her usual composed senior's reactions.

"Well who wouldn't be?" Sora replied in a terrified voice. "What if there are giant worms here?"

"Worms?" Noel repeated, now more confused than anything.

"Sora can pretty much handle most horror, but not worms, I don't know why though since you played with mud when we were young," Rio said, much to the girl's embarrassment.

"That's when we were kids, I wouldn't have known better!" Sora barked before puffing her cheeks at Rio.

Pressing on, the group found themselves in a large room crawling with vines, roots of trees and cobwebs. Decomposed corpses laid everywhere, their weapons stabbed onto each other.

Sora and Rio were at a loss for words, it was their first time seeing such a haunting sight that they couldn't help but wince at it. Meanwhile, Noel stood there unfazed, her time as a knight has already given her a heart of steel when it comes to seeing dead bodies.

Despite how uneasy they felt, the two childhood friends still searched the area, they just didn't touch anything and would instead just take some quick glances.

"If I had known it was like this then I would've made the excuse of going out to train." Rio sighed at his choice but didn't bother to complain any further as he was there already.

As he continued to sift through the corpses, Rio suddenly felt a chill down his spine that rendered him frozen in place. Then slowly creeping throughout his body was what felt like arms, wrapping slowly around his neck, cradling it with its cold touch. A tiny gust of wind then brushed past Rio's face and through a small whisper came out:

"Beware the Warden."

Turning around in a panic Rio's eyes darted around to look for whoever whispered to him but no one was there.

"What was that?" Rio turned his attention back to searching for a weapon, thinking he was just probably hallucinating.

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The first room was a bust, no bow could be seen in sight and even if there were it would've been too old anyway so they headed deeper down the temple.

Rio was feeling rather uneasy during their trip, chills kept running down his spine, and as he went further down, more voices began to whisper to him. All of them saying something regarding a warden.

"Rio?" Sora went up to her friend with a concerned look on her face. In her eyes, Rio was starting to go pale. "What's wrong?"

Panicking slightly, Rio waved his hand in front of him while laughing anxiously. "No, I'm fine, I think."

"If something's bothering you we can always turn back," Sora said.

"Don't worry about me, I can keep going," Rio responded confidently.

Sora wasn't convinced, it was way too sudden for Rio to look so unwell when he was perfectly fine prior to them entering the temple. But she knew even if she tried to argue, the boy would just dismiss it, so she just nodded and returned to searching for a weapon.

The next room they entered seemed like a dungeon. With rusted cells and hanging chains, the place oozed with death.

Looking around, Noel noticed that despite the age there were fresh drops of blood on the floor. With her knight instincts kicking in, the silver-haired girl turned to her companions and told them to take caution, explaining to them her concerns.

"This place was used?!" Sora asked in a panic.

"Not that recent, but definitely. The blood splattered on the floor is dry, but they don't look old enough to be the same age as the temple itself," Noel assured.

With her senior still uncertain, Noel took her mace from her side and presented it to Sora. "Don't worry senpai, if anything happens I'll protect you two."

Confident as she may be, Noel still kept her guard up. She wanted to be sharp at all times as she was responsible for the other two's safety. After all, she brought them there in the first place.

The knight slowly made her through the prison with darting eyes, hand on her mace and small beads of sweat travelling down her cheeks.

She was fairly sure that the place was safe, but an odd feeling of dread had begun to bubble within her and if she learned one thing from becoming a knight: it's to trust in her gut instinct because often than not, it's right.

After the prison the group now found themselves wandering the damp, cold and tall halls of the catacombs. Though mostly empty, the place still gave off the sense of eerieness that sent chills down Sora and Rio's spine.

"Look at the size of this place, it's huge," Rio commented in slight awe. "Who would've thought a temple would need to house so many corpses."

"This doesn't seem safe maybe we should head back?" Sora asked, slightly afraid.

"You're right, I think we've come far enough, let's return," Noel said.

Clutching to Rio's sleeve, Sora stuck close to her friend while lightly shaking in fear. Though known for her inability to be spooked in video games, Sora was not as resilient in reality.

Walking back with Noel at the helm, the sound of chains then echoed through the chambers halting the group in their tracks. The sound of metal being dragged across the floor and heavy stomps were slowly approaching them, something was there.

Not wanting to know what it could be, Noel signalled for the two to follow her. Quietly the group moved forwards, but as they made their way back to where they came from, Sora decided to take a peek behind her.

Immediate regret washed over the girl when her brown orbs locked on with a pair of blood-red ones.

Feeling her tug, Rio turned to Sora only to quickly notice her stare and he then looked in the direction she was facing, attaining the same results as his friend.

"Noel."

At the call of her name, the knight turned around and saw the creature from afar. Upon casting her gaze at the creature she froze.

All three of them were now staring at a massive humanoid, nearly as tall as the room itself with a muscular physique; wrapped around its ankles and wrists were large, broken chains. Though hidden in the shadows one could tell it was hairy, with a mane that covered nearly its entire head apart from the eyes.

Mustering up some courage, the knight instructed the other two to slowly move back to her, but when they started to move, so did the creature.

It followed them as they quietly weaving through the halls, much to the group's dismay. Sure they had Noel, but fighting in enclosed spaces would only bring more trouble or lead to casualties.

Unfortunately, the creature had no intention of letting them go quietly. As when they neared the exit, the creature immediately lunged at them.

In one swift movement, Noel took out her mace and small circuit like lines, then appeared on her arms and legs before Noel took a swing at the creature.

Striking at the side of its face, Noel sent the creature crashing into the side of the wall. Noel then tried to get the two out of the catacombs, but the creature managed to recover quickly and block their exit by throwing a boulder on the entranceway.

With their exit blocked and knowing it wasn't safe to fight in an enclosed area, the knight directed her companions to follow her as she ran deeper into the catacombs in hopes to lose the giant.

Unfortunately, as they meandered through the many halls, they were forced to backtrack and make sharp turns since the creature kept busting down every path they wanted to go through.

"It sure finds us quick for something so large," Rio commented.

"It's not like we're silent either," Sora countered.

"Worry about that later, we need to get out of these halls before we're trapped," Noel scolded.

The two were somewhat taken aback by the sudden shift in her tone, but they suspected this was probably her personality whenever she worked as a knight: serious and on point. Like a leader, she directed everything she needed concisely, not worrying about the small details as they weren't in the position to consider every drawback or optimal solution, she just did it with confidence.

While running, the knight zoned out hers and the other two's footsteps to instead listen for the sounds creature makes as it hunts them. From the chains that were being dragged across the floor to its heavy footsteps, Noel focused in order to lead them away from it at all costs.

But then a noise entered her ears that elicited hope to the knight: a soft gentle whistling.

They were deep underground, no other soul was down there with them, apart from the creature and it didn't look like it had much intelligence to whistle. So to hear whistling only could only mean one thing: Wind could flow in, and with that also meant an exit.

"Follow me!" Speeding up, Noel followed the sound with the other two in tow.

The noise led them to a path blocked out by some fallen rocks, but Noel was sure this was their exit, so took out her mace and enhanced her body. With a smirk, she then took a huge swing, bursting through the rubble.

Out of the cloud of dust, the group found themselves in yet another large room, though unlike before there was a hole where the ceiling should be, that led back to the surface.

"There's the exit." Noel pointed at the hole. "Let's quickly get out of here, who knows how long we have before that thing gets to us."

"That's pretty high up, how are we gonna reach it?" Rio asked while staring at the hole in the roof of the room.

"I'll enhance my body and take you two up there one by one, we need to hurry befo-"

A loud crash suddenly interrupted the knight and a wall behind them exploded into the room.

Towering over the group, its red eyes glowing within a cloud of dust was the giant.

Gripping her mace, Noel prepared to fight. She instructed Sora and Rio to hide with her eyes still locked onto her opponent.

Seeing as they were of no use to her, the two friends followed her orders and went to go find some cover, leaving Noel to deal with the giant.

"Alright, let's see what you got."

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While Noel was out fighting, Sora and Rio were taking cover behind some rubble.

"So that's the warden," Rio said, terrified.

Sora didn't let that comment slide and asked, "What do you mean? Did you know about it?"

Turning to her with sweat dripping off his face, Rio was forced to explain about the voices he heard when they first entered the temple. Admitting that he ignored it thinking it was just in his head.

"I really should've listened," Rio confessed regretfully.

"Stop beating yourself, you wouldn't have known. Besides we've still got ways of helping." Looking around Sora found a bow lying on the floor with some arrows next to it. "Come on, let's help out."

Staring at Sora, Rio couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, let's."

Over at the battlefield, Noel was dodging and weaving the Warden's punches. Thankfully due to it being larger, the attacks were slow enough that getting out of their way was easy. However just because it was slow, doesn't mean it didn't compensate. As Noel quickly found out though, despite her advantage in speed, the Warden's skin was as hard as stone.

"That explains how it was able to smash through the walls easily," she noted in her head.

No matter where or how much she struck it, the Warden didn't feel a thing. It was like she was hitting nothing but a wall, a fruitless effort that only drained her stamina.

"Shirogane-san!"

Turning to the rubble, Noel saw Rio waving at her with an axe in his hand. He tossed the axe high into the air and told the knight to catch it.

Enhancing her legs, Noel lept for the axe, gripping it tightly and when she landed back down, she noticed an ice script that was written on the axe's blade.

"Stick that into its legs!" Rio shouted from his cover. "If you freeze its legs then doing damage will be easier."

Grinning, the knight gave the boy a nod before charging in headfirst at the Warden.

Seeing the approaching knight, the large creature sent a barrage of punches her way, but its opponent was far too nimble to hit, so when she got closer, the giant attempted to slam her to the ground.

Dropping to the floor, Noel slid past the Warden before rushing to one of its ankles and stabbing the axe into it as deep as she could.

She then let a surge of magic rush into the weapon powering the script. Ice then surged out of the weapon, climbing the creature's leg until it had encased it just below the knee.

With the giant now immobilised, Noel began to chip away at its ankle, now managing to get rid of larger chunks as opposed to dealing minor scratches.

Eventually, she caused enough damage that the Warden started thrashing about and roaring like a beast. Its booming voice shook the whole room, which sent trembles throughout the group's bodies.

Taking the chains on its wrists, the Warden thrashed about causing everyone to take cover, dropping to the floor to avoid the chains striking from every direction.

Rocks and debris flew everywhere; clouds of dust grew, covering the entire place. The place shook violently, and the loose rocks above the room also began to fall like hail.

Sora, who was preoccupied with trying not to get hit by the chains, didn't notice a large boulder was struck, causing it to collapse and fall in her direction.

But Rio did and he shouted, "Sora above!"

Looking up the girl's eyes widened when she saw the large chunks of rock rushing towards her, dodging would have been a good idea but they were too close to move in time, so she did what her body told her to do: she lifted her arms above her head, in an attempt to block.

Noel, who got wind of this, enhanced her legs and tried to get to her senior in time, while Rio could only watch in horror.

Suddenly, just as the rocks were about to make contact a bright light flashed from Sora's bow and a ghostly bull appeared above her shortly after. In one swing of its horns, the bull knocked the rocks back. Bellowing triumphantly afterwards before disappearing.

The three outworlders stared at it with wide eyes, but they didn't have time to actually be at awe when the Warden continued its onslaught.

Staring at the bow in her hands, Sora was in bewilderment at the new appearance it took on: the dark blue body it had, reminiscent of the night sky and the two silver decorations at its tips. It looked brand new. Whereas when she picked it up, it was old and decrepit.

She was then snapped back to reality when she heard Rio call out to her, checking to see if she was alright. The girl responded by giving him a thumbs-up, before placing her attention back on the Warden.

"I have to do something." Preparing to shoot an arrow, the girl eyed the Warden's head.

Regrettably, every arrow she ended up shooting were just swatted away like flies when it came in contact with the raging chains.

In due time, she dwindled herself down to her last arrow and became frustrated at the lack of progress.

Taking her last arrow, the girl locked her eyes at her target and with a steady aim, readied her shot. Her heart raced furiously within her chest, teeth were clenched tightly and sweat dripped off her brow. She didn't want to miss, she wouldn't allow it.

Putting all of her desperation into her shot, the arrow flew towards the Warden, cutting through the air like a knife. But during its course, the arrow then burst into an explosion of light before the same bull that protected Sora appeared once again, now charging towards the Warden.

No chain could stop the beast's rampage as it swatted the metal serpents away from it. Then with a powerful strike, the bull headbutted the warden staggering it, effectively slowing its chains down.

Taking this opportunity, Rio rushed out of his cover with a sword in hand. He then went and stabbed the sword into the Warden's non-ice-encased leg. Letting his magic go wild, a series of ice spikes then sprouted out of the Warden's ankle from the inside, it covered the Warden's leg, firmly anchoring him in place.

Angered, Warden then twisted its body and swatted Rio away, launching him all the way to a wall where he smacked against it so severely that a crater formed behind the boy.

With a sharp gasp, the boy's body fell limp as he dropped to the floor with his eyes rolled all the way back.

Frozen in place, Sora's eyes widened and her mouth hung as the image of Rio's body fell to the ground.

Gritting her teeth together, the girl glared at the Warden. She then ran across the room, picking up arrows as she made her way to Rio's body.

When she got to the body, she cradled the boy in her arms then pressed her head on his chest. She heard the sound of his heart beating through his chest, which made her sigh in relief, but her fury still hasn't been quelled.

Eyeing the Warden, the girl took one of the arrows she picked up and shot for the Warden's frozen ankles. Once again the bull appeared and struck the Warden's ankle, effectively shattering it, toppling the large humanoid onto one knee.

Unfortunately, that attack did have some repercussions on Sora. She felt an intense wave of fatigue suddenly wash all over her, causing her vision to slightly blur as a result.

"I guess the attack drains more than I thought," the girl concluded.

She then turned to Noel and told her that she'll have to deal with the monster herself since she couldn't move her body anymore.

Nodding, the knight eyed the only remaining ankle, she needed to do this as quickly as possible while the Warden was still trying to adapt to its situation. Mace in hand, the knight enhanced her legs and rushed out of her cover.

The Warden spotted the charging knight and attempted to stop her by smashing into the ground, but the knight leapt high into the air and over the Warden.

Once behind it, the girl rushed for the other ankle, shattering it completely, she then grabbed the axe that Rio left behind and made her way to the front of the Warden, where she stuck the axe onto the Warden's face, freezing it completely.

Enhancing her arms once again, Noel took a massive swing and smashed her mace against the Warden's face, shattering it into tiny pieces.

With its head now destroyed, the Warden's body fell completely lifeless.

Noel sighed a breath of relief before heading to the other two to check on them.

Finally it was over.

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Slowly lifting his eyelids, Rio found himself momentarily staring at some leaves before a pair of familiar brown eyes appeared in front of him.

"You're awake!"

Sitting up with a wince, Rio looked around and realised he was no longer in the ruins. He then turned his head to his side, where a worried Sora was scrutinising him.

"Oh good we're alive," the boy said, relieved.

Sora was stunned for a couple of seconds before her cheeks puffed up and eyebrows crossed a little.

"That's it? You were slammed against a wall like smashed fruit and that's all you have to say?" The girl complained, now mere inches away from the boy's face.

"Uh, well…" Rio tried to think of something to say, but it didn't look like any answer would suffice for Sora, judging from how puffed out her cheeks were. Rio could've sworn if they were in an anime, some steam would be coming out of her head as well.

A jovial laugh then interrupted the two followed by an amused knight saying, "You sure are tough huh?"

"Shirogane-san."

"You're probably tougher than some of the knights in my squad." The girl held her hand out and helped Rio up to his feet. "Also just call me Noel, no need to be so formal after I put you through all this."

"Oh uh, sure I guess and you can call me Rio," the boy said.

"Gotcha, Rio." She flashes him a toothy grin.

He smiles back at her, amused by their exchange.

Turning to Sora, Noel bowed to her, apologising for putting her and Rio in danger. She expressed her deep regret for her negligence of taking civilians down a dungeon, even though as a knight she should have the people's wellbeing at the forefront of her mind.

Sora panicked and quickly told Noel to lift her head, but the silver-haired girl shook her head, asking her senior to give her a punishment instead.

"Noel there really is no need for you to apologise. I should've spoken up, but I kinda wanted to go deeper and get a weapon," the girl explained in a rush.

"She's right Noel, besides you did manage to get us a bow, so we can still say this was a success in the end," Rio added.

Lifting her head the girl's lips curled into a wide smile, while her eyes glistened with tears of joy. She once again bowed, this time though, thanking them for their kindness instead.

With that out of the way, the group decided to head back to the village and get some well-deserved rest.