So people have asked about Delly and her magic spell word 'Zio'. Yes. Delly is based off of the Persona (or rather, Shin Megami Tensei) monster 'Pixie'. They use lightning, wind and mind effecting spells. Just like our sassy fox fairy Delly.

Chapter 74

The last encounter before we set foot on the basin floor was fairly simple. With our party empowered by Haruhime's spell, and our total party balance so well planned... But, we of course got the attention of the nearest Freya Familia members. By the time we were starting cleanup, two of the Freya Familia were walking over to us.

It was a little bit of a surprise though, that none, and I mean NONE of the others (and there were at least twenty in line of sight) spared us a second look. I had to admire that kind of focus if nothing else.

The two walking up to us though... One was a Palum, with a full helmet and spear. The other was a young woman with light red, almost pink hair, a very pretty face... And the eyes of someone who has been working double overtime shifts for weeks without so much as a thank you. Her 'weapon' was a simple staff, a bit taller than she was, capped with a clear blue crystal. Healer? Probably...

"Uwah... she looks exhausted..." Kaede mumbled.

The Palum ignored it, if he'd heard it at all over the sounds of nearby combat and rushing waters, "The Alliance." He grumbled, "If you're here to hunt, bugger off, we got here first."

While almost everyone kind of sighed at the blunt rudeness, Bell took a half step forward and replied with, "No, we're aiming a bit lower." He seemed to be at a loss on how to continue, so he just stopped there.

He gave us one of those 'appraising looks', obvious even with his full face enclosed helmet, "Lower? With a party of level twos?" A pause, "And what's with the tails?"

The poor overtime healer yawned, "Magic." She mumbled, "If you ever bothered to read the reports on them, you'd know."

"Bah, without her they'd still be beneath notice." He did a motion with his head towards me, "Still a bunch of freaks and fools if you ask me!"

Everyone in my party glanced towards me, but I shrugged. "I'm just a support today. So dealing with you isn't my job."

"You call us freaks, yet act like you have one brain shared by four bodies." Shinkage said, taking a half step forward, "I advise you to watch your tone, Alfrigg." She said the name like one might say 'boy', full of condescension.

The poor healer sighed and gave us all a pleading look, but kept her silence as Alfrigg seemed to steam under his helmet, "You little bitch! You're lucky I didn't finish the job that night! And was that a lucky guess? Or did you write our names down on your hand?"

"You are the second person to ever draw blood from me. Take pride in that." Shinkage shrugged, "It's the only reason why I bothered to remember your name at all." She took another half step forward, getting ahead of Bell, "But without your brothers, I doubt you could ever do it again."

"You DARE!" He took a step forward himself, his spear falling into line.

"My promise was to kill you that night, and I'll happily keep that promise." Shinkage said, getting both her hands on her padao.

But...

"Ahem." Bell did his very best Eina impression. "If we start fighting here, Miss Kodori might have to help."

We (my party) stopped looking at the impending train wreck, and looked at Shinkage. While usually uncaring about what others thought, she wasn't insensitive to it. The healer also found some deep reserve of 'give a damn' and touched a hand to Alfrigg's shoulder, "Sir..."

I could tell this guy had real anger issues. Not just 'being upset because the dragon-loli had insulted him. But something closer to 'Kodori is angry and will break stuff until rendered unconscious' kind of anger issues. It looked like it took real effort to stop himself from flying off the handle and just rushing towards Shinkage.

But he did. "If you bother our teams resting down below, I won't stop myself. Now fuck off!" And he stomped off angrily.

On our side, Haruhime was giving Shinkage a headpat. But it wasn't a 'good boy/girl' headpat, but the 'you won't do it again, right?' headpat. Shinkage sighed like an old man, but accepted the admonishment.

"Sorry about that." The healer said, almost, no, exactly how an overworked salary worker would to a boss who didn't understand the impossible quotas he was giving out. "He's the... least stable of the four."

We all bowed to her with quiet 'don't worry about it' replies. I however, went one step further and handed her something. "You won't thank me for the taste. But this will give you a full night's sleep in about two seconds. Have the big pill first, then the other two right after to get the taste out of your mouth. Return the bottle to the Manor whenever you have time."

Yes, an Instant Coffee pill, and two Mind Mints (extra strong) all in one little bottle for all your 'need to wake up right now' needs. Will never be put on the market due to the legendary bad taste.

It felt really weird to see the black hole coloured sparkles of hope shining around her. But I didn't let her reply, just said 'goodbye' with a pat on her shoulder and walking off. I couldn't fix her problems, but I felt deep empathy for her, since I was like her once.

"Miss Momiji?" Bell said as we all started towards the way down, "We've only been just into this tunnel, the map please?"

"Ah, yes Bell-san!" She ruffled the map out of her pouch and started to gather directions.

Amani gave Shinkage one of those 'instant happy' hugs, "My rival is so cool."

"Sigh..."

With all of the 'spawn points' in the Basin occupied, we had nothing to do but follow the map for a little while. Once in the tunnel, we encountered several more small Freya parties. Mostly in pairs or trios, they all seemed to be just... waiting for a spawn to happen. And when it did, they waited for the monster to flop to the floor, then stabbed it until the magic stone fell out. It seemed so industrial... The nearly helpless monster had no chance, and a few quick stabs had the 'money' fall to the floor.

Maki, our Manor's accountant, seemed to be thinking on it just as much as I was, and when she noticed me looking her way, she shook her head.

"It's super efficient. But sacrifices any hope of gaining exillia." She said, "At least... probably? There is no challenge, so no growth, right?"

"The ones in the Basin would be at least gaining something... Though they too weren't really allowing monsters to fight back." Mikoto said with a frown.

"Should we tell them?" Delly asked, "I mean... they are kinda our enemies, but this won't help if the dungeon goes nuts again..."

"Maybe not tell that twit with the spear." Welf shrugged, "Sister?"

I rubbed my chin, "Next time I see Ottar I'll mention it. He's still the captain. So long as it isn't a direct order from Freya, he'll probably change the methods."

"Hey... You guys smell that?" Kaede asked, sniffing the air, "Forest!"

The second Safe Zone of the dungeon was a bit dark. To be fair, we'd been in the dungeon for over twelve hours, so in that weird way the Safe Zones mimicked the outside world, it was getting dark as well.

Since the Freya Familia was spawn camping however, there was a lot of activity on this floor. At least another twenty adventurers were camped over in one clearing. Magic stone lamps and a big cooking fire provided a lot of light, so even those of the party without good dark vision had no trouble as we marched in.

"So weird." Delly sighed, "I should feel right at home here, with all these nice trees... But they don't feel real."

I had used the short cut the Oni had showed me to skip the safe zone both going down, and coming back up. So yes, this was the first time I'd ever been here. And while the eighteenth was kind of a 'river delta forest' with the massive tree in the middle of and a kind of orchard 'feel' to it with the random growing cloud fruit, this was a full on 'Sherwood' forest. Dense leafy trees with smaller streams and only a couple of clearings.

Everyone paused to take in the sights as best they could in the gloom, then everyone looked to Bell.

"Dinner time." He said, "How does everyone feel?"

"Aside from hungry?" Kaede laughed, "Pretty good! Though..." She looked over her shoulder at the glowing white fox tail she was 'borrowing', "This is giving me tail envy."

"Miss Hime? You can relax your spell now I think." Bell said, "Use the time to recover as best you can."

"When we choose a camp site, I think?" Haruhime countered, "Is that... Does anyone know if the fruit here is edible?"

She pointed to something hanging from a nearby tree, and Momiji replied with, "Ah, the note says 'the fruit and water are safe. I will have to find a way to thank Eina-san."

"I will attempt to add it to our meal then." Mikoto said, "Let us move away from the Freya Familia camp.

In yet another 'weird thing the dungeon did', the tasted kind of like a pear, was shaped like a plum, had a fuzzy skin like a peach, and had insides like an orange. Welf's terrible naming sense actually came up with a good one for it when he called it the 'all fruit'. Cause it kind of encapsulated what all the fruits we'd ever had were like.

None of the 'modern minded' people of the party bothered to correct him that it wasn't technically a fruit, since it didn't have any seeds in it. But even so, Mikoto managed to add it to our evening meal flawlessly.

As before, we had a four hour 'down time', with everyone getting a two hour nap someplace in that time. There wasn't really a point to a proper 'sleep' since we'd done the same back up at the top of the waterfall. And while it might sound excessive, we (the elder adventurers) were making sure our rookie team didn't accumulate any fatigue. Even with Haruhime's spell boosting them, they were still much more limited in endurance compared to everyone else.

"Ryuu." I greeted as I took my turn on watch, "Any insight to share for the next few floors?"

She sat next to me, "You don't know?" She smiled ever so slightly, "Ah... It's true, you're a little bit of an oddity..."

"Yeah, most of my stats came from things outside the dungeon. And the Oni showed me a way to skip a few floors, but it also bypasses this floor." I replied, looking at our 'rookie team' as they napped sitting up, their backs to each other like a strange four leaf clover.

"It may be difficult. The next floors are known for large swarms of monsters. A normal level two adventurer will basically be ineffective against them as well. It's common for things from the lower floors to wander upwards as well. Beetles, owlbear, bloodsaurus, violas... There are more trap monsters as well, like the Bloody Hive, and Venenthes..." A pause as she started to 'hand talk' to describe things, "It's like a plant, with a large bucket shaped flower. It smells much like a pantry, and attracts many monsters to it. But any who enter the flower are trapped, even as they drink from it."

"Oh, we have much much much smaller versions of that back on Earth." I said, "Pitcher plants." I nodded, "Hm. I know this is for them, but..."

"We will make sure they survive, learn, and grow enough to try again." Ryuu gave me one of her rare pats on the shoulder, instead of just petting a random tail. "Will you call them?"

"If we don't make it there, I'll call them when we regroup here again. If we do, well, they'll be there." I chuckled quietly, "It's funny. I've known them a short time, and they've become like brothers. But I still don't really know them. It's like every time something new comes along, they seem like they've done it before."

"Their children?"

"Yes! That exactly!" I nodded, "I mean, they speak like they've lived in caves and worked a 9-5 shift in combat every day. But they play with children like anyone else. Teach like philosophers. Speak like nobles. Talk about history like it was yesterday..."

"And of course, fight like demons." Ryuu smiled, "Yes, they're puzzles, certainly. But I think you have it a little backwards. They are not so complex as you think."

"Maybe. I dunno, I mean, they've been alive longer than the dungeon has existed. I'd love to just... talk history with them."

"What's stopping you?"

"They're enjoying themselves too much for me to want to interrupt them." I chuckled, "Maybe when I've retired and have nothing better to do."

"You'll have just as many stories to tell by then. Hm... It's almost time I think." Ryuu stood up and started to nudge the camp fire apart with her boot carefully.

I stood as well and clapped my hands exactly once, "Gear check!"

One gear check, good stretch, bathroom break and a few sips of water later, we were all ready to go. After I reconnected with Haruhime, and she cast her spell again (giving everyone a rather fetching fox tail once more), Ryuu led us to the safe zone's exit.

On the way, she started to give warnings. "From here on, it will get more difficult. Many monsters here will need nothing less than your full power to harm, let alone kill." She passed a hand under her spider silk cape and for a moment held her 'cure all' vial, "If you notice even a hint of a bad taste in your mouth, have a strange ringing in your ears, an itch at the back of your throat or the scent of something Lord Takemikazuchi cooked last in your nose, fall back, call it out, and drink a little of your cure all."

"We've been mixing it in with our canteens though?" Maki said, "Not enough?"

"If you have the Abnormal Resistance skill, it usually is. But for those who don't, it's a sign of toxin build up. Many hazards past this floor are unseen. Extreme temperatures, toxic gas, disorienting sounds."

Bell, as leader, stepped beside her and added, "Are we all still willing to continue?"

There was a moment of 'everyone looking at everyone else', and we put on our metal 'fox' masks (some were of other animals). Each of them would be a reasonable first step towards defending against the 'unseen' threats. Of course, Amani piped up and said, "Aww... I want one of those too."

Welf applied a headpat, "When we get back up."

"Yay!"

"Focus." Shinkage applied a Karate Chop of JUSTICE.

"Ow!"

The tension broken, we started marching down into the (slightly less dark) darkness.

The first couple of encounters were fairly simple. At the first sign of trouble, Bell, our forward scout (using his 'run away from combat' skill to our advantage) ran back to us, gave a super swift report on numbers, and by the time the monsters wandered to us, everyone was in line, waiting, and ready to bring down what ever sharp object they favoured to kill it.

But these were simple little fights, from 'tunnel spawns', where fewer monsters emerged at once.

Already, Delly and Maki had taken a sip of their cure all though.

Speaking of tunnels though. The walls were much different here, than above. Deep almost crystal blue. The floors as well were a bit odd. With random seeming blocks of carved stone showing up at odd angles. This was what (Ryuu said) gave this area the nick name 'water temple', since yes, the carvings looked vaguely 'divine' in their style. More of a mad cultist 'divine' but still. Weirder still were the random chunks of Roman pillars embedded in the walls. Or the perfectly carved mini-aqueducts that went from one wall to the other.

Of course, I gave all of these weird features a bit of a closer look, but any bits I broke off were simply 'dungeon stone', the broken bit turning to ash, as the wall healed itself up like any other part of the dungeon did.

But it was from one of these random 'water features' that we nearly lost someone...

"AHH!" Amani shouted, "Enemy from bel-OW GET OFF!"

The long narrow hallway we were in had a dozen of those narrow perfectly formed water channels along it. And after I'd done my little bit of experimenting on it, we just started to hop over them. They were, at most, a half metre wide, so it was no issue at all. And since we didn't want cold wet feet, none of us actually touched it.

I turned around quickly, almost pulling Haruhime with me as my connected tail pulled on hers. Amani was hanging in the air with a long, leg thick, serpent of water looped around her. Her calf had a long slash in it, likely from her own spear as she had tried to strike it.

But then the entire hallway, from all of the little water channels, dozens of these water serpents sprouted upwards.

Getting away from the water wasn't really possible. This entire length of tunnel was lined with those weird water channels. Magic was out, since the close quarters would all but guarantee friendly fire...

"Drop the spear grab my hand!" Momiji shouted, "Kaede!"

From the other end of our formation, Bell and Ouka were fighting a few as well, Ryuu was splattering water everywhere, Mikoto and Chigusa were at the other end of the line, our samurai tangled up just like Amani while Chigusa tried to cut the serpent off at the water line...

"Ryuu! How do we kill it!?" Bell shouted, one of his knives hacking away a water serpent, only to have another wrap around that arm.

"It has no stone! It's a hazard!" She replied, her fast steps and nimble blade work the only thing keeping her free, but it also stopped her from getting closer to us, "Maki! Ice!"

"Ko-san the Golem!"

I turned and just managed to catch the Golem as its legs were pulled out from under it. I then saw that the holes the water was coming from were more or less large enough for people. While I pulled back on the Golem, I heard the crackle of ice forming as Maki's spell sword went off, followed by a 'FWOOSH' and blast of cold air from Shinkage.

"Sorry." She said as Chigusa helped Mikoto break the ice that was around her leg.

"Damn that stings!" Delly and Momiji helped Amani break out of the ice, and Maki started lining up her sword for another shot.

"Going to seal these up!" Maki said, slamming a killer icicle into the water nearest her.

"Hurry! Once you're free start running down the hall!" Bell said, hacking away yet another tendril of water.

Ryuu shouted "Don't seal all the holes up!"

Mikoto, Chigusa and Shinkage ran past me. Maki and Delly were next, followed by Momiji carrying Amani. And from there it became a weird 'fighting retreat'. Clear out a few of the tendrils, hop over the water, clear out more, hop again...

Once we had gotten to the end of the tunnel and started to do 'damage control', Maki got around to asking, "Why not?" She then turned to "YAH!" at a pursuing water snake, cutting it off just behind the 'head' and making it splash to the ground.

"Backed up water pressure?" I guessed.

"Yes. It wouldn't be the first time someone has thought to just close all the channels at once. But then the entire wall breaks and floods the tunnel."

"Has anyone been hurt?" Momiji asked.

"I lost my spear." Amani pouted, "And it passed right through the thing..."

"Hold still you." Delly said, "One pill for this..."

"Ow!"

"Wimp." Delly laughed, "Eat this."

"Anyone else?" I asked, getting stuff from the Golem.

Something about that 'hazard' made me wonder. The water 'looked' like serpents, but looking at the wounds most of us had accumulated... "Ryuu? Are you sure that's not a monster?" I asked, rubbing a potion pill over the back of Ouka's leg, "Water like that doesn't cut."

"Sigh, I liked these pants too." Ouka grumbled, "Thank you Kodori-san."

The wounds weren't bad. But everyone who had any bare skin exposed to the water ended up cut. It looked almost like a cut from a blade. Not teeth.

"I should have been faster with my warning. But it's been a while for me as well." Ryuu said.

"Second time is shame." Everyone said.

"Thank you. As for the Water Wyrd, none of those serpents ever had a magic stone." She continued.

I frowned, but Welf spoke before I could, "Those cuts it left look more like fins." He said, "Uneven depth, but still sharp. Fish fins."

"Boss! Gonna need some more cure-all!"

"It's... cause of the... ice!" Amani said, shivering as Delly finished tying up the bandage on her calf, "A-amazons don't like... cold!"

Haruhime went over and gave our mini-zon a checkup. Hand over forehead, nose boop, a touch to the wounded leg... "We'll get you some soup later."

"Yes mom." Amani pouted.

Haruhime applied a headpat, smiled her best smile for the mini-zon, then stood back up, "Anyone else in need of care?"

Most of the party had a little bit of 'battle damage' on their clothes now, a bit of dried blood too. But aside from Amani (who sneezed/sniffled before she sipped from her canteen), everyone was still bright eyed and ready.

"Break's over then." Bell said, "Miss Kodori?"

"If we all had undine silk..." I mumbled, then a bit louder, "Well, aside from making sure our stuff didn't wash away, I still haven't done anything."

"Let's go then. Miss Ryuu? The front with Mr Ouka. I'll switch to rear guard." Bell instructed.

A short while later, just long enough to wonder where all the monsters were, I heard Ryuu say, "Ouka!"

"Got it!" followed by a CLANK and a grunt of effort from our forward shield bearer, "Skull sheep?"

"Yes!" Ryuu said, "Room ahead is awake!"

There was another shattering sound as Ouka's shield was hit again, then another, but then there was a deep rolling ROAR and Ouka calling over his shoulder, "Archers! Get these things!"

Asuka and Mikoto moved up, bows at the ready, "If we want to gain this room, we need to fight for it." Ryuu said, "Bell?"

It was Momiji, her ears twitching, who answered, "The room we just left is spawning!"

Bell hesitated a moment, there was another clank from Ouka's shield, then a 'maa-fwish' of an armour piercing arrow killing a skull sheep, "Ryuu! How big is the next room?"

"Three times larger than the one we just left!" She replied, her sword letting out a thin blast of magic, turning another sheep to ash, but getting the attention of a few more.

Bell weighed his options, then said, "Breach the room! Rookie support, help hold the tunnel until they gain a foothold! Chigusa, stay with me! Everyone else breach the room!"

"Right!"

(View splits, perspective changes)

With Ouka at the front, his shield angled to intercept the little gaggle of skull sheep, Ryuu, Mikoto and Asuka waited for them to stop firing just long enough to answer back with arrows and another lash of sharp green energy.

A half dozen of them turned to dust almost all at once, then Ryuu called out, "Cover from the entrance, Ouka, my back!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Don't break line of sight!" Haruhime called out, the entire formation getting closer to the new room.

On the other end, Bell was using his high mobility style to orbit Chigusa while slashing at an oncoming mob of 'wolf men'. Looking similar to the kobolds from the other side of the Gate, these were vicious two legged 'dog bodied' beasts with teeth and claws that marked the stone of the tunnels just as easily as fingers through sand.

But the ranged fighters of the rookie team were playing smart, and Bell's predictable side to side fighting was giving Delly and Maki ample opportunity to send a bit of magic down the hall. Bell rolled left? Killer icicles and thin lightning bolts go right. Amani wasn't idle either. She was using Chigusa's spear and stabbing anything that that tried to cling to Chigusa's tower shield. And every time her shield was cleared of a biting clawing monster, she would lift the spiked bottom out of the ground, take a step back, and plant it again.

In the middle, Haruhime was focused on her magic, while Kodori supplied her with raw mana. Shinkage and the Golem were on the watch for anything that flew, like a couple of giant (dungeon version) mosquitoes, and both the Golem's hand and Shinkage's padao were covered in blood.

This left Momiji to use her magic on Bell, turning the occasional claw swipe he couldn't dodge from a cutting attack to a bludgeoning one.

"Going to the front!" Kaede said, since there simply wasn't any room for her at the rear guard.

"Wait for an opening!" Kodori called out as the crazy rabbit dashed past the centre.

"Follow me in!" Welf said as the archers fired again, and Ouka and Ryuu made their way into the room proper.

Ryuu called out, "Collapse forward! Seal that tunnel if you have to!"

Then something roared. "Bloodsaurus." Kodori said, "Maki! As soon as Bell is clear ice that closed!"

Like a weird caterpillar, the entire formation kind of... turned itself inside out. Chigusa's single step retreat became two, then three, then four steps. Bell continued to orbit her, but otherwise everyone else dashed towards the next room. There was still a small flood of Wolfmen, and something bigger was coming up behind them too.

But as soon as Bell dashed past Kodori and Haruhime, Maki called out. "Chigusa! Out!"

With her vastly improved magic 'stat', Maki had long outgrown the capacitors in her sword. However, they were still there, and they provided a more measured dose of power. Like just enough power to block the average dungeon passageway with ice. The red gem on her sword spat out what looked like a wet snowbank, then a moment later a heavy 'FWOOSH' of paralysingly cold air, flash freezing the tunnel solid.

While the tunnel formation was catching up to the room however...

Ryuu, not bound to Haruhime's spell (though she'd look just as pretty with a fox tail) had jumped towards the biggest threat she could see. However, that threat wasn't the three bloodsaurus, but a pair of long snapdragon headed vine stalks as thick as a person was tall. One seemed to have bites taken out of it, likely from the dinosaur monsters, but it had no trouble moving around still.

Why the vines and not the three massive blood red dinosaurs?

Because Violas could spit acid, and most of the party was still down the tunnel.

Ouka was still guarding the mouth of the tunnel while Mikoto and Asuka kept the smaller things from invading it as best they could. Most of the Skull Sheep were gone, but their arrows were running low. Mikoto, seeing this, grabbed the last few in her quiver, slotted them into Asuka's, then drew her katana just as Ryuu called out to hurry into the bigger room.

A moment later, Kaede and Welf stomped past, two battle maniacs ready to go. Then it was just a mad rush out, and Maki sealed up the tunnel with ice.

This left the party (minus Ryuu who was running distraction on the Violas) with a bunch of angry dinosaur, a handful of leftover Skull Sheep (who had no other attack than spitting stone spikes, and thus were ineffective against Ouka and now Chigusa), and an assortment of other monsters.

Including, at the far side of the room, not visible from the entrance, a Viscum. With the sickly sweet smell of rot, dungeon pantry, and something similar to cheese surrounding it, it was indeed much like a Pitcher plant from Earth. Except it was large enough to fit most of a bloodsaurus in its flower, and it seemed to be growing out of bare stone, and not a swamp or jungle.

Then Delly pulled off her mask and started to vomit.

(Kodori)

"Everyone! Antitoxin! As soon as you have a hand free!" I knew Delly didn't have Abnormal Resistance, and her slender build meant she'd likely suffer adverse effects from poison first. Before Delly could even fall to her knees, I was by her side with my own vial of cure-all in hand.

Welf, Amani, Mikoto and Kaede, on their way to meet the bloodsaurus, slipped their own anti-toxin out of their potion belts and practically ate the cork in their rush to get them down before weaving through the dinosaur's legs to confuse them.

Chigusa, since Amani had her spear, planted her shield down and gave Ouka a potion, then downed her own, allowing Ouka to stab things with his spear and defend without pause.

Bell, of course, ran towards the Viscum, both his daggers sheathed, potion in one hand, firebolt ready in the other.

Behind me, I hoped Haruhime was drinking her potion. Shinkage too, though I didn't know if any poisons would work on her at all. Ryuu was on the other side of the room, and I couldn't see her...

And Delly, mouth and throat full of bile... I tilted her head back, and poured a bit of the potion into her nose. This of course made her cough and sputter, and I helped roll her over face down so she could clear her throat, nose and mouth. And after a few seconds she took a horrible sounding breath of air.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Welf hack into a bloodsaurus's leg, making it fall into another one. Kaede and Amani then turned their weapons on the one still upright, slashing and thrusting as hard as they could to tip it over as well while Welf brought his big cleaver/sword up over his head.

One of the Violas vanished into ash, but the other sprayed out a long line of acidic gunk that lowered the air quality in the room even further while burning the stone of the dungeon.

Bell let out a blast of fire, but it did little more than make the huge flower abomination smoke a little. But his daggers came back out as he decided to deal with it personally.

A half breath taken, I flipped Delly back over, and poured the rest of the anti-toxin into her mouth. She swallowed it, and took a second breath, but her face was vacant, her body working on automatic. "Delly is down!" I called out, wrapping her up in my tails, minus the one still holding one of Haruhime's tails, and stuck her to my back.

Maki replied with, "Assisting Bell!"

Asuka added, "Assisting Bell!" Meaning both our long range fighters would be going after the source of the poison.

"Assisting Ouka." Shinkage called out, "Momiji on Ouka." Since now, Ouka with one spear and a shield, and Chigusa with just a shield, would need some extra hands to deal with smaller threats they were pulling.

But still, no one had called for help, so, I stayed in the middle with Haruhime and kept an eye out for anyone who needed rescue.

There was a 'fwish' in the middle of the room, followed by an angry/happy "YA!" As Amani dealt the killing blow on a dinosaur.

"Behind you!" Mikoto called out, almost too late, the mini-zon hopping away just in time to avoid a massive 'RAWR CHOMP'.

But Welf was there to cover her, and take advantage of the exposed neck, his huge sword slamming down on the back of its neck and turning it to ash.

"Mikoto!" Kaede called, her katana biting deep into the third bloodsaurus's leg.

But Mikoto's blade didn't strike deep enough, and with a huge shake of its head the last dinosaur slammed Mikoto aside. Amani dropped her spear and jumped, getting between Mikoto and the wall she was going to slam into, the two of them making a crater, but not falling flat on their faces as they slipped off the wall.

Wounded, enraged, the bloodsaurus started to turn to bite Kaede (who's sword was firmly stuck in its hide). But instead of retreating or wrenching on her blade to free it one last time, Kaede let her blade go and smashed her fist into the dinosaur's nose. No fool though, she did a little hop to get off the ground, and was sent backwards instead of getting snapped up by the massive jaws. Welf swept his blade around again and managed to cut deep enough into the beast's chest to crack the magic stone. Sword and ash fell to the dungeon floor.

On the other side of the room, Bell had given up on his firebolt, and was instead ducking and weaving around lashing vines and puffs of toxic looking gunk that spurted out of every wound he made. Maki had been firing multiple killer icicles, and Asuka had been shooting it with arrows, but they were only slowing it down, and not just that, it was regrowing lost bits of itself too. Then Bell got a bright idea.

"Thunder ball! Throw a thunder ball into it!" He shouted, hacking away a vine and growling as a bit of acid blood spattered onto a bit of exposed skin.

"Here you go love." I took one of the new thunder ball 'potions' and handed it to Haruhime.

She took it, used one hand to pull the sleeve up on her heavy Black Goliath cloak, and hurled the magical 'flash bang' grenade with a determined yet adorable sounding, "Eh!"

Everyone who wasn't fighting watched the palm sized sphere of glass arc through the air. Her aim and speed looked good, and with a little 'bonk' of it hitting the lip of the giant flower 'pot' in the middle of the Viscum's body, it vanished inside.

Bell then realized something, and started to run away, "DUCK AND COVER!"

"Bell stop!" Maki called out, pointing the gem on her sword at him.

And the monster exploded.

NOTES!

Bleh combat! Haha cliffhanger! Will this be enough to stop our heroes from going further? Find out next time. :)

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.