The Prospects

The shadows pranced in the darkness, taunting, laughing. My brain was a complete mess; overstimulation, I knew. Deep down there, nothing was safe, but it couldn't end here, it wouldn't. This was the furthest we had ever gotten, just a little more, one push, and we could bring back an almanac, one more level, and we could revive a long-lost legend. The thought danced in my mind, tantalizing. Such an achievement, so close at hand, but if I wanted my dream to bear fruit, the sunless needed to die. They were the one creature that we hadn't prepared for, and my mind was growing impatient at the thought of slicing their grotesque, shadowy limbs for another hour. The sunless lived at the bottom of the prospects, feeding off corpses that fell from the upper floors. Vaguely humanoid in shape and as dark as night, they historically catch many delvers off-guard, and typically, falling would mean instant death. To us, though, they were as dangerous as a dustghoul. Still, I was quickly growing tired of the mundane task of slashing them down, their unsettling appendages writhed in anger as I swatted them off effortlessly. I let out a long sigh, "Hey, when are you getting he-" I stopped. My mind grew panicked as I watched the sunless clear out of the way, my eyes darting left and right. Soon, my fears were well-founded, a large, wriggling, pitch-black creature with a single bright white dot on its forehead appeared, a crowned sunless. "Shit," I cursed,

"Get here NOW Alyssa, we have no time!"

The crowned's black limb made an extremely unpleasant sloshing sound. It squirmed with an unfathomable anger, no doubt due to the countless slaughter of its kind. It wasted no time in attempting to strike me down. I sidestepped a long slithering hand-like appendage, and had barely enough footing to clumsily duck under a horizontally swiping one. I continued darting around until I could see an opening, and I found one in a slight misstep the creature had made, an over-extended arm. My balled fist glistened with wind, an effect from my scepter rune. The wind shot out in knives, bringing out large gashes and lacerations deep within the limb. The bloodied extremity collapsed to the ground, wiggling for a few seconds before melting into a black mush. Another limb came at me, much faster than any other, or perhaps I was just getting slower. My futile attempt to pivot out of the way was for naught, and the member smacked across my midsection, sending me flying into a nearby group of sunless, crushing them into a gory mess on impact. I struggled to catch my breath, and I found myself praying that I heard that voice soon.

"ETA is 55 seconds, I-"

"FASTER" I roared, my voice raspy from the lack of air supplied to my lungs.

"I-I can't, I can't even be sure if-"

"I said NOW"

A loud screeching noise emitted from behind me, and a booming voice came from the empty dark expanse to my rear.

"GET DOWN"

The colors in the black sky began to change, dark-tinged blues and purples lit up the ebony atmosphere like an aurora borealis. Faster than my eyes could perceive, a glowing, multi-colored object soared past me, ramming straight into the glowing point on the crowned. The creature keeled over, stumbling, before finally falling and dissipating. The inky sky dispersed as the other floors slowly became somewhat visible, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was so relieved that I almost forgot that my partner had just crashed directly into a category 9 titan faster than the speed of sound. I rushed over to her as fast as my tired limbs could, and I kneeled over her body, she was bleeding, not good. I ripped the gauze and cloth that I had brought out of my bag, which was somehow still intact. The injury was bad, blood flowed like a river down her thigh, sinking into the earthen floor, dyeing it crimson. My mind raced as I applied pressure, but the bleeding came unwavering. She stopped flinching. Her movements came and went until they fully ceased.

My eyes sunk in horror, did I kill her? Was that command too much? She's done it before, why is it different now?

"Alyssa… Alyssa!" I screamed, tears forming in my eyes. A cold hand grasped my arm, pulling me forward.

"I'm baaaack, from the deaaaad, to hauuunt youuuuuuu" a weak, raspy voice scraped across my brain. I moved up her hood, only to find a blood pack nestled below her chest. I ripped off the gauze and cloth in anger, wiping my tears. Alyssa began to laugh wildly, "Awwww, you cried for my death," Alyssa taunted.

I scoffed, "I can't believe you'd do that, what the hell kind of sick person fakes their own death for shits and giggles?!"

Alyssa opened into a wide smile, "This kind of sick person, anyways, can you get off me now?" I looked down to realize that I was still putting pressure on where her "wound" used to be. I whipped my hand off in embarrassment, and slowly got back up, clearing my throat. My sore, aching body complained at every movement, but I still managed to click my tongue in irritation, "Why do you even have a fake blood pack on you anyway?" I questioned.

"Well, it is real blood, if it's pierced, it gushes everywhere and whatever, or whoever I'm fighting thinks I'm dead" Alyssa responded, her warm smile turning into a self-satisfied grin at her strategy.

"Where did you even get real blo-, never mind, I don't think I wanna know. Anyways, nice assist there, I could've killed the thing by myself, but you flying into it was a stylish touch,"

"I almost died and you call it a 'stylish touch'?" Alyssa scoffed, "plus, you look like you're about to drop, no way you could've beaten a crowned in that state"

"Clearly, you did not almost die, first of all, and second, I'm not about to drop, it's just the adrenaline wearing off." I grumbled.

"Anyway, how's the thingy?" I gestured to a strange object on her back. It looked like a rock, but the cube-shaped head poking out of its front suggested otherwise.

"For the last time, it's not a 'thingy', it's a 'portable construct: for all your numerous portable needs' patent-pending, of course," Alyssa huffed.

I rolled my eyes, "Thingy is way easier, so, how do we get out of here? We've never been this far down before,"

"It's your call, but I say we keep going"

My eyes narrowed.

"Obviously we're gonna keep going, that's a given, I'm asking how we get out of this pit,"

"I dunno, probably through that big, ominous glowing door that you also happen to have a direct view of" Alyssa grumbled.

She wasn't wrong, there was a door right behind her. Full of mystique, the door looked almost like a normal house door, just white and glowing as bright as the sun.

"Well I'm sorry that I was focused on my dying friend, let's go" I retorted, gesturing to the door that was bursting, seemingly begging to be opened. She started toward the door, but not before sticking her tongue out and flipping me off. I dismissed her and started towards the door as well, after all, I had far more important things to worry about than Alyssa right now.