A Fight To The Death
The two women were seated in a poorly lit room, surrounded by old books and dusty artifacts. They were completely immersed in the ancient journal they had discovered, its pages covered in cryptic symbols and an incomprehensible language.
As Kiara carefully pored over the pages, her companion watched with a mix of awe and skepticism. The characters were so unusual and unfamiliar, they almost seemed to dance off the page, but to Calli's surprise, Kiara had managed to unravel its secrets.
"You can read this gibberish of a language?" Calli asked skeptically.
"Why shouldn't I? I've lived for so many years," Kiara replied confidently. "Something like this is no problem for me."
"So," Kiara began, steering the conversation back to the topic at hand.
///Guard's Diary///
The dilapidated fortress is nothing short of a haunting nightmare. As a guard, my duty is to patrol these grim corridors, and every step I take only deepens the feeling of despair. The environment is dark and eerie, with torches on the pillars being the only source of light. The stench of blood, dirt, and other unidentifiable substances stains the solid stone floors.
The fortress's cell block is a grotesque sight. Within those cells are emaciated prisoners of all ages and genders. They're crammed together, and the incoherent muttering and self-inflicted harm only add to the overwhelming bleakness. Barely furnished with a straw bed and a bucket, these cells offer nothing but misery. It's as if the entire place is a breeding ground for insanity.
Worse yet, the dragon that plagues us. It seems to be the source of our problems, the root of this misery. It's hard to fathom how much longer we can endure this torment, with insufficient staff, food, and space to contain these afflicted souls.
To make matters worse, the prisoners are no longer human. They've devolved into something else entirely. The dragon's influence is undeniable. All we can do is cling to hope and pray for salvation.
///Guard's Diary///
Today has been a harrowing ordeal. Fleeing for our lives, we sought refuge from the relentless pursuit of a monstrous creature within the labyrinthine catacombs beneath the fortress.
As we delved deeper into the catacombs, the environment twisted into a nightmarish maze. We encountered grotesque mutants of varying forms—a spider mutant armed with razor-sharp fangs, humanoid creatures with pale, translucent skin and claws. Every step was a fight for surv
The pinnacle of terror came with the emergence of a colossal mutant, a living nightmare whose sheer size shook the very ground beneath us. Desperately, we raced onward, praying for a means of escape from this relentless predator.
Ultimately, the mutant met its demise in a spectacular plunge into a glacier, its anguished cries fading into the silence of the abyss. Yet, despite its demise, the memory of that terrifying chase continues to haunt my dreams.
///Guard's Diary///
Today, we ventured into a hidden cave beneath the fortress, and what we discovered was beyond our wildest expectations. The cavern gleamed with sparkling crystals, casting a mesmerizing glow that brought the walls and ceiling to life, shimmering as if imbued with vitality.
Deeper into the cave, we encountered an ancient altar, held aloft by a colossal stone hand. An aura of reverence surrounded it. The man in the white coat spoke of it with excitement; this was the altar of the gods, a place filled with ancient history.
However, the true astonishment awaited us in the next room. The chamber was lined with giant knight statues, armed and in battle formation. They were awe-inspiring and, at the same time, eerie in their lifelike appearance. These statues, I learned, were based on a legendary l-
"Why have you stopped, Kiara?" Calli inquired, her curiosity piqued. Had she encountered something so abhorrent that it impeded her progress?
Nevertheless, they found themselves constrained by the urgency of their quest, necessitating the acquisition of every morsel of information available.
Kiara, with a hint of regret in her voice, responded, "I'm incapable of deciphering the rest; it's reduced to an incomprehensible gibberish."
Calli, taken aback, released an astonished exhalation.
"What did you expect?" Kiara retorted. "Did you think I'd just stop reading for no reason? We can't afford to waste time on trivial matters!"
"No," Calli replied cautiously to Kiara's rhetorical question.
"Whatever, I believe we've found it! I can sense it," Kiara exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "I've been searching for this ancient cave and altar for what feels like an eternity, and now we finally have a lead."
"But can you spot any clues regarding the cave and altar's location?" Calli asked, her brow furrowing with concentration.
"I think it must be nearby," Kiara said, her gaze fixed on the text. "This cell block, these creatures, everything aligns with the journal's description. We just need to locate the entrance-"
But before Kiara could finish her sentence, the door and the entire wall it was mounted to were suddenly obliterated by the massive body of a knight statue that barged into the room.
The statue charged forward without stopping, barreling into Kiara and Calli, crushing everything in its path as it smashed through wall after wall.
The destruction only ceased when the statue finally came to a halt, leaving the women shaken and disoriented in its wake.
Kiara and Calli remained motionless for several moments, stunned and disoriented by the ferocity of the attack.
Kiara surveyed the scene around her, taking in the chaotic aftermath of the statue's onslaught. Everything was in complete disarray, with books and debris strewn haphazardly about the space.
The walls bore the evidence of the massive knight statue's destructive path, riddled with gaping holes that not only exposed the room from which it had come but also revealed several other adjoining areas.
The scene was one of utter chaos and destruction, leaving Kiara and Calli feeling overwhelmed and vulnerable in the wake of the statue's violent rampage.
Calli, buried in rubble, lay motionless. Everything around her spinning, no clear picture came about. The only thing she perceived in her dazed state was a piercing bang.
The wooden shield protected Kiara only barley from the impact off the club. Under the brut force of it's continued thrusts, Kiara was slowly forced to her knees.
Calli could only see how suddenly Kiara had to cough up blood. The club of the stature had hit Kiara from the side, forcibly blinding the wall with her body.
A quiet, powerless "Kiara~" was all Calli could muster in her state. It would take approximately two minutes to restore her body fully but Calli wasn't ready to just watch the stature beat the unconscious Kiara further.
Her body was already completely distorted from the impact with the wall and the continuous beating with the club didn't help.
Calli tried to get up with her semi-regenerated body but every attempt failed. When she tried to support herself with her arms, they just clinked away.
Slowly, her body regenerated and she felt the bones in her body reconnect. One by one too slow though.
She could only watch as Kiara spat out more blood after each blow and her body deformed more and more, slowly unrecognizable her face had become.
Calli, however, did not give up, but she slowly stood up, even with the rubble hindering her, and ran to Kiara. She tried to protect her with her bare hands, but to no avail.
The club worked efficiently, indifferent as to whom or what it struck, indifferent to whatever screams or words went up from those it disarmed or destroyed, indifferently equal to whatever weapons might be used against it.
Without her scythe in her and her current state, Calli too, was quickly overpowered by the raw strength of the stature.
The pheonix, who had recovered from her shattered bones, thrusted her sword into the direction of the giant knight statue. The black flames combusted the left arm of the stature to nothingness and burned a giant hole into the wall behind.
The stature again focused its attacks on Kiara who managed to block the club's blows with her sword even though she was pushed back slowly.
Calli used the distraction to regenerate her body. She picked up the Scythe from the ground and cut the stature with elegant, fast moves into tiny peaces, at least that was supposed to happen.
Instead, the only thing she achieved was to make an unpleasant squeaky sound every time her scythe tried to cut through the thick stone armor of the stature leaving only minor scratches.
Annoyed by Calli, the statue turned it's upper body 180 degrees to punch her with it's arm. But Calli was able to block the incoming fist with her Scythe beeing pushed back but mere meters.
While blocking the fist, she turned into a giant skeleton dressed in a black coat, a skeleton that could easily be confused with death itself. With her now modified Scythe, fitting for her new sizes, she unleashed a hell of blows that slowly forced the stature to the ground.
"Kiara now!" Calli shouted.
Kiara charged her final attack with all the power left in her destroyed body. She stood up and a fireball formed in front of her mouth to fire a beam of plasma.
But the beam missed it's original target by lengths only melting the walls of the dungeon. Kiara had taken a hook to the chin by the freed arm of the knight statue.
The only thing she could see in her fading vision was how Calli was overpowered once more. The statue took its club from the ground and before it could hit Kiara, the giant skeleton rammed into the stature and pinned it to the ground. In retaliation, it relentlessly struck Calli on the back with its club.
"Kiara do it, destroy us both!" But Kiara didn't react. She laid on the ground. Her body was fully destroyed. Nearly every bone in her body was shattered into tiny peaces, her brain fatally damaged.
In the pursuing struggle between Calli and the knight statue, the whole ground shattered. Kiara unconscious, Calli and the stature struggling in free fall, crashed through several floors before reaching the deepest depths of the dungeon.
The stature, not hindered by the free fall, tried to grab Kiara. Calli reacted quickly and with the same force that Kiara's flaming fist had, with which it destroyed a huge rock, Calli struck the stature that gave way under the sudden force.
Huge cracks began to form and the last thing Calli could hear was how the stature struck the ground and splintered before she too fell unconscious because of the impact with the ground.