Boss fight-N

"Are you sure it's here?"

I heard Touji question while I inspected the bookshelf in front of us. When I looked back at him, I saw his irritated face and Sophia lying on the ground while grabbing her left knee and crying silently. Touji wasn't much better by the way. His right eye was black because I punched him immediately after he hit Sophia's knee with the hilt of his sword. I know that punching him wasn't the best solution but he asked for it!

I treated Sophia however I could and comforted her but there wasn't much more I could do. Oh also, Haruto was visibly mad at Touji for it too as he kicked him in the back right after I punched him, that's why he is so angry and grumpy.

"According to the blueprint, the entrance to the basement should be behind this shelf."

The scroll Sophia gave me explicitly says that the entrance is here, but there is only a shelf there so it has to be behind it. The shelf itself seemed to be nailed to the wall which was weird but still I checked it. I messed with the inside of the shelf trying to feel anything until something suddenly clicked and the nails that were holding the shelf to the wall fell. I stepped back as the shelf started falling towards me, lifting a cloud of dust as it hit the ground. Behind the fallen piece of furniture we found stairs leading down.

"Should we go down?"

Haruto was the first one to ask. It didn't look dangerous so we all agreed to the idea and started descending. We quickly noticed that the stairs didn't go too deep as we reached the basement in mere seconds of walking.

The basement was a little eerie. Instead of a basement it looked more like a dungeon with multiple corridors. There were a lot of boxes and barrels but most of them were broken or decayed, still we were able to salvage some torches, pieces of cloth and matches from them, among some other things such as a quill and a weird looking empty scroll. The scroll gave me a particularly weird feeling that made me want to keep it so I did. We lit a torch and used it to see since there was no light in here.

"Hey, I found a shield!"

Haruto shouted as he lifted the shield. The shield was round, made of leather and metal with a small spike in the center. It has some rust but is still usable which is really great. Haruto is also the best one of us to have a shield since he is bigger and stronger. The shield looks too big for me to use it and too heavy for Touji after all.

As we kept on exploring the basement we quickly started finding disturbing things. As we delved deeper we found blood stains which wasn't all that concerning since that was common in here, but every step meant more and more blood until we eventually started finding corpses. The amount of dead bodies wasn't normal. There were more bodies here than in the main square spread through the entire basement, with some corridors being completely blocked by walls of dead bodies.

At this point none of my friends were okay. Touji didn't look all that disturbed but both Sophia and Haruto were pale and about to vomit. Seeing them like that I quickly hugged them both and made them avert their eyes by pushing their faces against my chest. I knew perfectly the effect that had on them but that was my intention. They relaxed and instead got nervous about the sudden skinship.

After a while they were both calm enough, though they still felt bad about being surrounded by so much death.

"We should go back. This place is clearly not as safe as we thought."

"I'll appreciate that..."

"Y-yes, let's go back already!"

We turned back and started walking away but as soon as we did that we felt a sudden tremor and the ceiling collapsed. Haruto was the first one to react as he quickly pushed the three of us back before jumping out of the way. My left arm was bruised but no other damage was visible. The same was true for the rest but the problem lay elsewhere.

"We are trapped"

Touji was the first one to point it out and it was sadly true. The path was now obstructed by rubble, and although there was another corridor it was blocked by a wall of bodies, so there was only one way now.

"We can't go out, thats mean we have to go keep walking through here and hopefully find an exit"

"Fuuuck!"

Sophia cursed loudly so it was obvious that she and Haruto were clearly not happy about it but we had no other option. As we kept on walking the corpses began to cover the entire floor, forcing us to walk over them for a while until we arrived at a room that seemed clean in comparison.

The room was full of moss and moisture but it was way better that the corpse flooded corridors, however in the center of the room we found what I could guess to be a ritual circle. The circle was made of blood and some kind of black paint. Inside the circle were a bunch of different weird symbols.

There was a door to another room in here so we rested a little before venturing forward. However we only found a giant steel gate impeding us from continuing. I tried to push it open but it simply wouldn't budge.

"What do we do now?"

"I don't really know-!!"

We all turned towards the gate at the same time with weapons in hand as we heard the sound of footsteps coming from the other side. Normally, I would think that it was just a zombie but these footsteps sound heavy...way too heavy.

Along with footsteps, I also heard a growl, much more ferocious than that of the zombies. Everyone was nervous including Touji. I was the only one who remained relatively calm.

"I-i dont know what's coming but we should run away!"

"Don't try, there is no escape. We have a better chance of surviving by fighting whatever comes from there than running."

Sophia was by far the most scared of us. She has never been good with horror so it's expected but right now she has no other option other than fighting. It's the same for the rest of us.

Suddenly the footsteps stopped and only silence remained for a while, when all of a sudden I heard a loud bang as if something had hit the gate. Every hit damaged the steel gate horribly. After mere seconds it was full of dents and about to fall. I expected a final blow to finally take it down but instead a giant claw passed through a hole in the gate and tore it open.

What came out was something that could only barely be recognized as human. The creature was a bald man about three meters tall with pale skin and bulging muscles. Its neck was abnormally long and hunched forward, and his arm was deformed beyond recognition, it was basically just a giant lump of flesh with large overgrown nails at the end of it that looked like claws. On its left arm which was normal it held a steel mace that looked small in his hand. That thing was mostly naked with only a metal plate protecting his chest. His private parts which were also bulging and monstrous were dangling between its legs. I didn't think much of it as I was more concerned about the giant arm but the other three were visibly disgusted.

The moment it saw us it immediately lunged forward towards us. It targeted me since I was the closest to him so I jumped to the right and rolled out of the way to avoid his mace which embedded itself in the ground, cracking the stone floor with ease. That thing was fixed on me and it lunged towards me again but before I could dodge out of the way Haruto tackled it with his shield on the monster's side. Apparently it doesn't have a good balance as that was enough to make it trip and fall.

I took that chance to try to slash his face with my sword but he quickly raised his right arm to block it. My sword cut through its flesh with relative ease and a lot of blood poured out violently. The monster looked shocked, as if he didn't expect to be harmed. After a few seconds it let out a horrible scream that sounded like a mix of pain and anger.

The monster swinged his right arm backwards and blew Haruto away who thankfully managed to protect himself with his shield. Immediately after it chased after him but the moment it showed me his back I slashed it. Blood came out but it wasn't like before. I was unable to dodge when it quickly turned to me and swinged his mace against me. It hit me in the ribs and sent me flying away. I fell with a loud sound as my back hit the floor.

I gasped for air while lying on the floor. I didn't mind the pain but it was hard to get up. After a while I managed to regain my composure and used the sword as support to stand up.

Haruto and Touji were struggling against that monster. Haruto had bruises a lot of bruises and his clothes were torn all over. His shield was full of dents and claw marks too since apparently he had been tanking its attacks using it. Touji was even worse as he was holding his sword in his right hand while covering his abdomen which was bleeding. Sophia was at the very back holding her knife but too scared to fight. She was looking at me with worry in her face just a moment ago but when she saw me get up she looked relieved. That thing had some minor cuts on its left arm, probably caused by Touji. I could also see Haruto's bat beside him, broken in half.

As the monster lifted his massive arm to strike Haruto again I dashed towards it and slashed at the cut I had inflicted earlier. The monster didn't see me coming and I managed to land the sword perfectly. Just like before my sword cut through its flesh with ease and the limb was severed. The monster let out a loud roar of pain and rage as its arm fell to the ground. It stepped back in pain before looking at me and roaring defiantly.

The moment it took a step forward a knife passed flying beside me and pierced the monster's left eye causing it to roar again. Moments later Touji ran towards him from its blind point and slid across the floor before slashing its ankle with his sword, causing the monster to lose its balance.

Touji didn't seem to be able to stand up after doing that and the monster quickly shifted his attention towards him, turning his head to him and starting to turn around its body to go towards him. In that moment Haruto threw his shield at the face of the monster, causing him to fall backwards thanks to him being unable to maintain his footing because of his injured ankle.

I dashed towards that thing as it started falling and tried to cut its head but I cut its left hand as it tried to protect itself with it. The mace fell loudly to the ground right before the monster did so too. Upon falling down it quickly lifted his upper body and tried to bite me, taking advantage of its long neck but Haruto pushed me out of the way and grabbed the monster's head. He was barely able to do so as he was struggling to keep it away from himself, trying to avoid getting bit by that thing. Of course, I wouldn't allow such a thing so I quickly rose to my feet again and swinged my sword at its neck, cutting its head in one swift movement. A fountain of blood poured out of its severed neck as its body fell limp to the floor. Its legs and sexual organ twitched for a moment before going completely lifeless.

I too fell to the floor, completely exhausted.