Dungeon

The inside of the dungeon was incredibly different from the outside world. The sky was a mixture of a pitch black colour that dimmed the world, and a dreary pink that seemed as though it was trying to give a false sense of ease to the people who entered the dungeon.

The ground was made of a strange soil that had very little life growing from it, and it looked as though it could crumble at any moment despite the hardness that one's foot would be greeted by upon impact.

The very little amount of life that had sprouted from this terrible soil were unlike anything that grew in the human world. Tall, spindly trees with grey trunks and red leaves were scattered throughout the area. 

Although the dungeon was quiet, the sound of occasional chirping could be heard. The sounds were akin to that of a bird, except something seemed off, if you listened closely enough to it, the noise would become more and more monstrous. This was the call of the Gremlins, alerting their fellow monsters that intruders had entered their lair.

The noise that they made sounded like that of a bird's, because one of the abilities of a Gremlin was sound illusions, and anything that heard their calls would immediately have the sound waves changed into the noise of a threat-less creature they had encountered before.

Luckily, as Lucien had faced Gremlins before, he knew of this fact and was on guard, "Be careful, the Gremlins know that we're here."

Yui nodded, as despite not knowing how he knew this, she trusted him whole heartedly, "Where are they? I can't see anything."

"They're in the trees, they like to get up high and rain down magic from above. They aren't particularly powerful though, and they mostly use poison magic to little you down over time."

"I'll keep an eye out, but we really do need to find that little boy first."

"I know, we should rescue him first, and then clear the dungeon. It's not as if he could leave before we do anyway."

"What do you mean? Can't we save him and take him out before clearing it."

Lucien shook his head, "Again, you really need to research this stuff for yourself, you can't leave a dungeon until it's been cleared, it doesn't matter if you're a hunter or a regular person."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure I've heard that from somewhere before, I'll make sure to learn everything there is to know about dungeons when I get back home."

"Be quiet. They're going to start attacking."

While Yui was speaking, Lucien had heard something out of place, a call that was much louder than any of the others.

'There's a Head Gremlin, that probably means the kid's alive, but the enemies will have better communication and  organisation.' Lucien was thinking to himself, when he saw something shoot past his face.

It was purple, and about the size of a pencil with a sharp end and feathers on the end.

"Yui, get behind me, they've actually started now."

Lucien could see movement in the trees, and knew that it would be difficult to attack them from the ground. He had no way of getting up there, but he did know how to get them down to the ground.

In his right hand, an orange flame began to grow. The flames that made the ball whole flickered vigorously and violently. Lucien let the ball grow, and the colour went from a bright orange to a dark red, before becoming a dark blue that looked as though it was going between being invisible and visible due to the intense heat. 

This was about as powerful as a magic attack like Homing Flame could become, but it wasn't really viable in a close up, fast paced battle. Lucien let the magic fly through the air, and it blasted a huge hole in the tree tops.

What didn't get destroyed by the blast was immediately set on fire, and the trees began to burn down to the ground. As the trees turned to ash, a revolting smell that was a mixture of burning flesh, fur and leaves.

Some of the Gremlins had been too slow to escape the blast, and some were too stupid to escape the fire that ensued which led to their deaths. The Gremlins knew that their comrades had been slain by the man on the ground, and they scattered down the burning trees to be on the same level as him, and away from the fire. 

Around a hundred Gremlins were gathered at the feet of the burning trees that had begun to completely collapse, and they didn't look friendly.

They were about three feet tall, and a pale brown colour. Their entire bodies were covered in fur, and their small red eyes were barely visible through the overgrown, matted fur. Their feet and hands were almost humanoid, but they only had four fingers and toes, each of them being more similar to thumbs than their regular counterparts. At the end of these crooked extremities were short, sharp, yellow claws.

Lucien saw the large number of monsters, and smiled while looking down at them. In both of his palms were large fireballs, they weren't as hot as the one he had made before, but they were larger, and would create a larger blast.

Massive fire power wasn't needed for weak enemies like Gremlins, but due to their large number, a wide spanning attack to take a lot of them out at once would be perfect.

Lucien let out the attacks at the same time, and one of them landed at the front of the pack, and one landed at the back. This took out the majority of the Gremlins, leaving only about thirty of them left.

As most of the Gremlins had died, a special ability of their species activated. 

The Gremlin's fur began to turn blood red, and they grew to around four feet. Each of them, in unity, lifted their hands to their mouth and a ball of purple began to form, before they shot out a mass of poison needle magic towards Lucien.

The Gremlins had entered rage mode, and would have faster attacks and deal slightly more damage from this point on.

Lucien couldn't dodge all of the sped up attacks, and seven of them connected with him. He turned to deflect some of them, and four were stuck in his cape, while one went into his right leg, one into his chest, and one into his right arm.

"Shit, Yui, use your healing magic to get rid of the poison."

While Lucien had been fighting, Yui was waiting in the back until she was needed for healing, and hearing that she was needed made her very happy.

She ran over to Lucien, and activated her Healing Glow. A pale green magic circle appeared on the ground, with her at the centre, and the purple poison that was attempting to spread throughout Lucien's body began to dissipate.

"Thanks Yui, I'll let you know if I need your help again."

"Okay, good luck." She ran back off to make sure she wouldn't get in the way of the battle.

As he had been hit by a new magic, Lucien had gained the knowledge of how to use it. He raised his hand to his mouth, and a purple light began to form, and then it began to grow in size. Lucien placed his other hand in front of it, and split his four fingers apart, creating gaps in between them.

He shot out the ball of purple magic, and upon contact with Lucien's second hand with his fingers split, the ball of magic split into three, each of the going through the gaps between his fingers.

The three balls of magic formed into darts, with sharper tips than the ones that the Gremlins had created. These darts pierced through the Gremlins, and created holes in each of them, ending in the back line of monsters where they became lodged inside of them.

This caused a powerful poison to begin spreading inside of them, and with no way of stopping the poison, their bodies became almost fully purple, before they dropped dead. 

This was the end of all of the Gremlins, and now there was only the issue of the Head Gremlin, and saving the young boy. 

Head Gremlins were different than regular Gremlins, they were smaller, but their magic was more powerful. As well as this, they were able to command other Gremlins. They didn't live in the trees like Gremlins either, instead they created large burrows in the ground beneath the trees to stay protected. 

Lucien searched through the area where all of the trees had been burned down, and Yui assisted him. After around five minutes of searching, they found it.

"Lucien, it's over here, there was a hatch under some of the ash."

Lucien walked over to her, and saw a hatch made out of rocking the ground. He crouched down, and lifted it up to reveal a tunnel that had been unaffected by the fire.

Lucien went in first, and Yui followed him down into the tunnel. It was dimly lit by some torches, but there wasn't much else inside of it.

That was until they reached the end, where there was a door that had light shining under the door from the inside.

He grabbed the door handle, and opened it fully. What he saw absolutely surprised him.