Ruthlyn turned her head slightly, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see that pale colored creature look around for only a second before it caught sight of her and narrowed its eyes. Ruthlyn closed her own eyes and waited to feel those sharp, rusty daggers pierce her skin. Instead, she felt a slight brush of air, and heard the sounds of metal on metal as the man who had come to help her threw himself between her and the creature and started slashing at it with a pair of his own daggers.
Ruthlyn gasped, aware now of how scared she had been, only because of the relief she felt. She started backing away, not wanting to be too close to the vicious battle. A few of the other people who were in the room asked if she was ok, and she nodded absently, unable to turn away from her apparent savior fighting her would-be killer.
The fight was over sooner than she expected, and Ruthlyn almost felt foolish for having to run and cry for help. But she knew her energy was far too depleted to have fought that monster the only way she could have—using her healing spell in offense against it, while also keeping herself alive with it. Only now that the fight was over did she even think to sit down and rest. She felt safe now with so many people around her. The tall man who had saved her came over near her and sat down as well.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "You didn't look too good when you came flying down those stairs." He gestured toward the doorway on this side of the stairway that was identical to the doorway on the other side.
Ruthlyn nodded. "I'll be okay. I just need a little rest. And thank you so much for killing that thing for me. I don't know how to repay you."
"Ahh, think nothing of it," he waved his hand. "I was just passing by, couldn't let that ugly guy get you." In his other hand, he was idly fingering a hard, rough object. He looked at Ruthlyn. "Here," he said, tossing it to her. "Souvenir."
She caught the object and looked at it. It appeared to be a piece of a human bone, dried out and somewhat flaky. "From the skeleton?" she questioned. The man nodded.
"I'm Regexz, by the way."
"Ruthlyn. Nice to meet you."
He nodded in agreement, then asked, "Mind if I ask what you're doing alone in this cave? You don't look like the priests I've seen who have trained to battle."
Ruthlyn shook her head. "No, you're right, I'm not. I have trained to be a supporter. I don't usually train alone, but lately my friends have been unavailable to come with me. My best friend, Janus, has left the land of Rune-Midgard; the leader of the guild I belong to, Darian, and his brother Raum have been to busy building up the guild; and my friend Murata has just been too preoccupied with other matters to find time to train with me. When I found out about a place where I could damage the monsters with the holy power I know best, I decided to just come here alone."
Ruthlyn stopped talking and looked at Regexz, chuckling self-consciously. "I'm sorry, I talk too much. You don't care about all that stuff."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I've been a lone assassin for a long time now; sometimes it's nice to have someone to talk to. In fact, I could use some help here, if you want to come along and support me. In this area of the cave, there are sohees, spirits of a sad girl who died at a young age. They don't attack first, but if provoked, they are even meaner than the munaks, bonguns, or—" he chuckled," your friend back there."
Ruthlyn smiled. "Let's go provoke some sohees then."
"Are you sure you're ready? I know you needed some rest."
"I've gotten plenty while we've been sitting here. I'm looking forward to getting back to doing what I do best."
"Let's get going then," Regexz stood up, and Ruthlyn did the same, smoothing out her purple robe. She followed Regexz as he started walking, keeping her eye out for any movement. She'd never been further than that first room on this level of the cave, so she couldn't help but take in her surroundings, as much as she could without letting Regexz get too far ahead.
"There," Regexz startled Ruthlyn by stopping suddenly and pointing toward the shadows between a nearby building and the wall behind it. "There's a sohee. You ready?"
He started inching toward the shadow, and Ruthlyn strained her eyes trying to see it. Moving forward just slightly, she could finally make out a dark figure hovering above the ground with long, wild hair blowing as if caught in a strong wind. It unnerved Ruthlyn only slightly, as she felt not even the slightest breeze. But she answered back, "Yes."
"Do your thing, girl." Following his cue, Ruthlyn concentrated on casting every spell she knew on herself and her new friend. When she was done, she readied her healing spell just in case, and nodded at Regexz.
"Excellent," he grinned and strode quickly into the shadows. Ruthlyn followed close behind, watching as Regexz walked right up to the sohee and slashed at it once with the dagger in his right hand. It turned to face him with a blank look on its face. At first Ruthlyn thought it might just ignore him, but it suddenly pulled a shiny, silver knife out of the folds of its billowy, black dress and stabbed at Regexz. He quickly dodged the attack and came back with a few jabs of his own, which landed solidly.
Regexz and the sohee continued to battle, and Ruthlyn paid close attention to her spells, and as soon as one of them ended, she recast it. She was impressed at how agile Regexz was, dodging every one of the sohee's blows, while almost constantly slashing it with his dual-wielded daggers, one hand right after the other. Now and then, he even managed a lightning-fast double attack with his right hand, two hits in the time one normally took.
Regexz killed the sohee before it was able to hit him once. He looked at Ruthlyn and started laughing. "Now that was fun! With all those buffs you gave me, that thing couldn't touch me. Oh, I could get used to this."
Ruthlyn's smile vanished abruptly as she saw a bongun creep up behind Regexz and prepare to strike. Mostly out of habit, she clasped her hands together and cast heal on it, knocking it off guard with a holy blast. Regexz then quickly turned around and took over the fight, finishing the bongun off quickly.
"That's some nice damage you do on those things," he told Ruthlyn. Then he bent over and picked something up. He walked out of the shadow, into the light of a torch on a nearby wall and examined what he'd picked up closely. He gave a low whistle and said, "This is a nice dagger. I've seen these before; if I'm not mistaken, it's a stiletto." He looked at Ruthlyn. "Mind if I keep it? I'll bet I could really hurt some monsters with this."
Ruthlyn shrugged. "What do I need with a knife? You've got more use for it than I do."
"Great," he grinned. "Next time one of these evil things leaves behind anything of value, it's yours, I promise."
Ruthlyn chuckled as they continued further into the cave.
The two fell into a groove as they continued to fight the sohees they found, and even the undead creatures that found them. Ruthlyn had no trouble keeping both Regexz and herself covered with spells to enhance their abilities, and healing when one of them might need it. They kept moving with barely a pause between fights, when suddenly Regexz just stopped walking.
"Do you hear that?" he asked Ruthlyn in a whisper.
"Footsteps," she confirmed. That was unusual, as none of the creatures in the cave walked in any normal manner. They floated, or hopped, or sort of danced around. But none walked as a normal human would. And they hadn't seen another human for a while now, especially none who walked as noisily as this person was…nor as fast. Being especially loud here tended to draw more unwelcome attention than most wanted.
"Maybe someone in trouble?" Ruthlyn suggested. "We can help if they are."
Regexz nodded. The sound was coming from around the corner of a wooden fence to their right, so they continued that way and almost ran into a tall, muscular, green-haired man who was practically running toward them.
Out of breath, the man panted, "Excuse me, excuse me, please, I need your—" he stopped short when he looked at Ruthlyn. "Ruth! I am so glad to see you!" Then his knees buckled under him.
