Chapter 2 - Earning their Keep

The dryad, Lunette, was quick to action, having been accustomed to fighting long before. With a practiced flick of her wrist, a length of thorns materialized - reddened by the Crimson, though compliant to her will nonetheless. The makeshift whip lashed out towards a herpling that decided to do the same, clinging into its fleshy hide, and with a simple twirl the beast was rocketed into its own kin.

A trio of face monsters that hadn't been struck by their comrade broke ahead, bloodied drool glazing their mouths as they ambled towards the duo. The middle was promptly lashed across the face, its triplet to the left having more thorns stick into it as the rightmost one took a flaming arrow to the chest - the guide, Asher, had taken up his own bow and started launching volleys into the small army. A broodling crimera was shot down just as one of the face monsters tore into the offending whips below, landing into the angered beast and buying Lunette precious seconds as her weapon lay in pieces.

Said seconds were spent channeling her energy into an enchantment passed between Dryads - Nature's Blessing encased the embassador of nature and her all-knowing companion, shielding them in a flurry of leaves that ripped into the surrounding creatures. With the shield in place, yet another spell was set to charging while Asher took to using his heavy tungsten bow - assisted by the magical cutters - as a blunt weapon against the horde.

The enchanted leaves couldn't last long, however, and the moment they had dissolved, a crimslime took the opportunity to latch onto the bow. Asher dropped the bow without much of a struggle, and another face monster charged ahead, losing some blood-matted skin as it trampled its ally of opportunity. Not to be halted by its loss, however, the beast rammed into the unprepared guide, sinking claws into his shoulders and pinning him to a nearby column.

Asher shouted in a mix of pain and fear, using a free arm to ward away the face monster's gaping maw. Its teeth were coated in unknown, fleshy material, and as they grew ever closer Asher weakly kicked at his attacker in vain. It was then that Lunette's magic was released in a soul-rending burst - Gaia's Bane grasped at the horde, draining them of precious life. A light kick was now enough to fend off the enraged monster, and an arrow was shoved into its skull.

Lunette summoned her thorned whips once more, now shredding through her foes' flesh as if it were paper. Some of the smarter crimeras screeched in alarm to the others, warning them to flee before being torn from the sky. The fight was very well over at this point - in minutes, none remained to challenge the duo.

"I think that's all." Lunette stated bluntly as her weapons and magics were let go. She looked around for anything else, seemingly victorious in her posture - and then her eyes rolled upwards and her body slumped to the ground in exhaustion. Asher staggered over to her, grabbing under her arms and just barely lifting her up onto his back as he looked towards the dungeon's front door.

"Go on and rest, then," He said to the unconscious dryad while slowly dragging her - and himself - to the inner sanctum. His shoulder throbbed in pain, eyes sunken with fatigue and shock while blatantly showing his worry.

"I just hope that our host is feeling generous given the situation we're in..."

~{0}~

Skeletron sat his host within a small lounge hallway within his sprawling fortress, reading one of the many tomes kept nearby and wondering why the mortals hadn't died yet. He could sense them straggling around above him, being so immersed in his own residual magic that seeped deep through the ancient bricks - hell, he was almost impressed with the two, not that he'd admit it. Either ways, he decided to call off his personal guard in a half-hearted attempt not to smear their internals across the entry.

So he sat his host down and read, taking his sweet time to address the two impromptu guests - whenever they could manage to drag themselves over, of course. It took some time, but he'd finished a whole chapter and dog-eared the light novel for another time. There was almost a gleam of sadistic glee when he saw the self-righteous dryad bitch being carted in on the guide's back - some easy barbs to launch at her later whenever she could be bothered to drag herself into awareness.

"What took you so long?" Skeletron sneered at the guide. He'd have gladly been more vicious in his taunting, but there was a small bit of respect to be had for the many guides' shared search for knowledge. "I see your pet ran herself tired - maybe you aught to have her put down? It'd help conserve resources in such dire times."

"I'm, ah, sure you have wisdom in your words," Asher began at length, "but I assure you I need her alive - just as much as we need you and your sanctuary." Lunette was dumped onto a nearby couch, temporarily forgotten in favor of bandaging his still wounded shoulder. Skeletron watched intently, likely an attempt to unsettle, and in an attempt to break the silence, Asher continued, "So, did we do well enough in our cleanup duty?"

"Well if you insist on cleaning," the dungeon keeper retorted, "You can powder the front yard later. I'd much prefer not to reek of gore every time I step foot outside." The guide nodded to this, and satisfied with his brief assertion of leadership, Skeletron decided to grace the duo with a room to rest in for their hopefully brief stay.

And it was, indeed, little more than a glorified closet - Skeletron was a being of his word, after all.