The Land Of The Impure
The moat was at least forty feet wide, the banks on both sides sloping down sharply into the murky water. The far bank gave was suddenly to the stronghold's stone walls so there was no opposite ledge for the Ronins to use should they have tried to jump.
"So how do we get in?" Kento asked, his sub armor clinking as he walked around, picked up a fist sized stone, and tossed it into the moat.
The stone barely touched the water before a pair of jaws snatched it under, followed by a creature's back as it broke the surface for a moment then disappeared into the moat's depths.
"I don't think we'll be swimming," Ryo pointed out.
There was a sudden crash and a yelp from behind the group and they all turned around, alarmed. Cye was missing from where he had been leaning against a tree some three meters away. In his place stood a gaping hole.
"Cye? CYE!" Kento hollered as he ran over to the aperture and leaned over its edge. A groan emanated from its depths.
Cye sat up carefully. One minute he had been lounging beneath a tree and the next he was fifteen feet underground. He'd landed hard on his ankle but his sub armor had saved him from any serious injury.
"Cye!"
The voice came surprisingly faint, suggesting he had fallen farther than he previously thought.
Why me? Why does it always happen to me? Cye thought darkly.
"Kento?" He cupped his hand around his mouth as he called upward; using his free hand, he got to his feet cautiously.
"You alright?"
"Yeah," Cye reached out blindly for a wall and almost fell when he didn't encounter one. "I think I found something."
There was a scuffle of feet, a small avalanche of rocks showered down from above when someone's foot came too close to the edge; and the sound of voices, none of which Cye could understand.
There was another shower of stones before the Ronin of trust realized someone may be coming down and moved to the side.
Someone leapt down into the inky blackness and Cye didn't need any hint to know it was Ryo. A flame ignited in Ryo's upturned palm.
"You're okay?"
Cye nodded. In this light he could clearly see a tunnel leading off to his left.
Ryo unconsciously stepped to one side as Kento leapt down, followed by Rowen, Sage, and White Blaze.
"What's down there?" Kento asked, eyeing the tunnel suspiciously.
"That's what we're going to find out, it seems to lead towards the fortress." Ryo replied.
In the flickering firelight, Cye observed the others' expressions change with each flicker of the flame. Their shadows upon the wall shifted eerily, as though they actually lived.
The tunnel narrowed considerably as they walked, forcing them into single file. The ceiling, mostly packed dirt and stone, dripped continually.
"We're under the moat," Sage realized without any real idea why he was whispering.
"We must be going the right way then." Kento hazarded, whispering as well.
He looked to be right when the found beneath them began to slope gradually upward.
When there was a creak from the ceiling above them all five Ronins and the tiger froze. It was followed by another, longer creak that sent a shiver of dread along the Ronins backs. It sounded as though the ceiling was being strained.
"Oh, shit," someone muttered.
"It's gonna cave, we got to move!" Ryo yelled this regardless of who might hear, be it friend or foe.
A moment later the ceiling collapsed, giving way to a wall of water that came down with such force it knocked the tunnel's occupants off their feet.
Ryo's light was immediately extinguished as he and the others were caught up in the water's merciless rush for freedom. He felt something scaly brush up against him as he tried to figure out which way was up. But the water was just too much to fight against as it swept him along.
At last, Ryo felt the torrent's strength ebb as it spilled into a larger chamber, depositing him, coughing and sputtering, on dry ground.
It was pitch, too dark to see anything though he could hear the remaining water draining off somewhere unknown and the sound of the others coughing as well.
As soon as Ryo could manage it in all the wet, he lit another flame, sat up, and glanced around.
They had ended up in an underground chamber of sorts, most likely part of the catacombs of the stronghold.
A few feet away, Sage was on his hands and knees coughing up what water was left in his lungs. Rowen, Kento, and Cye were across the room doing the same thing, roughly, as Sage. And White Blaze was next to Ryo he was not happy. He hated water and that last little dip hadn't exactly been for fun. He shook like a dog, resoaking Ryo in the process, and proceeded to lick his fur back into its proper place.
Ryo got to his feet, augmenting his flame until its light finally seeped into the far corners of the room.
"Is everyone alright?" He asked his friends as they got to their feet, slowly and carefully. The sound of 'yes's and 'I think so's mingled with the distant drip of water met his ears. "Good, because we need to get out of here before someone comes to investigate."
The other four Ronins nodded in agreement.
There were three passages leading off this chamber: the one they had come through and two leading into the fortress itself.
When the sound of footfalls greeted them from one of the passages they automatically escaped into the other. This tunnel was not unlike the one they had previously come through, the one difference was that this one was slightly drier.
Ryo cupped his hands around the flame carefully so that anything behind them might not see their light. He only quelled the fire when a different kind of artificial light flooded the cavern, its source none of them could find.
Their pace hadn't been too terribly fast, taking top priority in not disturbing anything, but it had been consistent. Until Ryo stopped, that is.
To their right, the rock had fallen away from between the tunnel wall and the chamber beyond. The chamber beyond was enormous; dwarfing anything they had seen thus far. And its floor, it was a writhing mass of darkness, as though a thousand shadows had come alive of their own accord.
They were Nether Realm demons, no two the same size or shape, the only thing they all shared was the dull, black hide.
A set of eyes from below them in the veritable army of demons alighted upon them and narrowed. Intruders were not welcome here.
It leapt, landing fluidly in the tunnel where the Ronins were preparing to call their armors and a moment before they could it struck at them.
Three were knocked back down the tunnel and two, one in green the other in light blue, were knocked into the chamber and into the waiting and hungry jaws of the demon's brethren.
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