Falling into the (Dungeon)

...

Blood was dripping down from the young girl's sword. She had finally cut down the last adventurer in her way, it seemed like at a certain point that they just wouldn't stop. However, the young girl pushed through. Ignoring the blood that was splattered on her blue combat dress, she wiped the blood from her face and continued on into the warehouse she was in. The blond was searching for something, someone. The person she volunteered to save in order to get closer to him. I must focus, otherwise I will never learn of his strength! She quickened her pace until she found him at the back of the warehouse.

There, laying on the ground in tattered clothing was a young boy who couldn't have been older than her. Fearing for the worse, the girl ran to him and shook him awake. As the young boy began to stir he looked around him and began to panic until he recognized the girl who was next to him. His eyes gleamed a bright violet and he smiled at the girl as he sat up and embraced her. "Ai! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

The girl, an eleven year old Ais Wallenstien froze in the young boy's embrace. Not knowing what to do, she just sat there, waiting for him to finish and calm down. After a couple more seconds the young boy drew back and had a noticeable blush on his face. "S-Sorry Ai. I was just...Thank you for saving me!" The young Viole Keres gave Ais a beaming smile that stured something inside her that she wasn't old enough to understand. But quickly a pang of guilt struck her as she helped Viole stand up from the ground.

"I do not deserve your thanks. I only did this to get your father to train me." The blood covered girl stated in a matter of fact tone. For some strange reason she felt the desire to both admit her motivations and hide them. Choosing the one that would cause the least amount of problems later, she blurted out her answer.

"Soooo what? You still saved me, not to mention you look badass right now! You're so freaking cool, Ai! Hehehe! If anyone can become as cool as my dad, it's you!" Ais was stunned by the boy's answer. She had come here for her own intentions, using his life as a bargaining chip and yet...

"Keres..."

"Hey! No need to be so formal!" The carefree young boy intertwined both of his hands behind his head and smiled ear to ear. As if his life was not in danger just a few minutes ago. "Call me Viole. It's only natural for friends, right?"

"Yes, Viole." Ais hid her shock as she led the boy out into the dark streets of Orario. Once they had gotten out into the street corner, Viole let out a loud sigh before taking in a deep breath.

"I'm alive...thanks Ai." She stared at him. Noticing all his eccentricities, his carefree attitude, his relaxed shoulders, his delicate hands that had no calluses from sword training. His innocent bright violet eyes. "Ai?"

"Viole. I promise, from now on, if you ever need help, if there is anything that ever puts you in danger, if you are ever scared. I will save you. I promise I will always save you!" Her voice had lost control and she was shouting now, if there were people out in the streets at this hour, they definitely would have been staring at her. But the only one looking was Viole, who looked on in shock. Before returning to the carefree smile and nodding at the girl.

"Thank you Ai. I'll be counting on you!" Ais Wallenstein had a single goal in life, that is the only reason why she was here in the city of Adventurers. That was why she needed the strongest Capped to train her. But, a part of her was yelling at her. Kicking and shouting at her to add on to her desire. I promise. I will protect those eyes. Those eyes that are so different from mine.

Princess

It was then that the dream had ended. The dream that I have occasionally been having since I met with him again. Since I've realized that I failed. Even now, a part of me is shouting to go back to the surface and make sure that he's safe. But not now.

I slowly sat up from the tent that I was staying in, Tiona and Tione still asleep. I suppose I awoke early. Even as I left the tent and walked around the eighteenth floor, a single thought never left me. The difference between his eyes then and now. Especially with the amazing skill, Nightmare Rage. Why can't I stop thinking of him? Half of our familia have been inflicted with a numbing poison and here I am...

To get my mind off of these thoughts, I brought out my rapier and began to swing. But with each swing all my mind went to were thoughts of our training. It was beginning to be a distraction. "I must ask someone about this."

SSS

Capped

It's been a week since Welf joined our party and it sure has been a strange one. Bell obtained a super rare and powerful skill that allows him to completely one-shot monsters on the twelfth floor, my own magic has been getting easier to focus on and...this.

"Here it is! The special armor that you asked me to make. I call it...Abyssal Fang!" Welf said as she stuck a pose to emphasize what I had on to my party. It was kind of embarrassing. The set of armor that he gave me had completely changed my entire appearance. Instead of my large armored coat, I was given a short black coat with dark purple lines around my arms that laid over a grey armored shirt with white accents. The black coat stopped at my waist and had a white chest plate with a red accent, one not unlike the one Bell was wearing. My black pants and black metal plated shoes didn't really change much however. Of course, I still had my black gloves but was given a red cloak that I had in my hand, not yet put on. A salamander wool cloak that my party already had on. "So, what do ya think?"

"I think the name needs a bit of work, but..." Moving my arms around, I relaxed my face. "Gotta say, it's pretty nice." I bowed towards Welf before placing the Salamander wool Cloak over by head. "Thank you. I really needed this." Welf began to scratch the back of his head before turning away from me.

"O-Oh! No problem! It's what friends are for!" How easy. This past week really showed me how simple Welf Crozzo was. He always melted under any praise, was hot headed and listened to any advice that we gave him. "Well, now that we've shown you off, shall we get going?"

The four of us were standing in a safe room on floor twelve. One more floor down and we will hit the middle floors. The floors from here on are recommended for level twos and parties. I had to admit, I was a bit nervous to head deeper in, but at the very least I had people who had my back. "Right. Remember the plan guys? Bell spent all night on it."

"I-I did not!" Bell yelled at the top of his lungs before covering his mouth, hopefully not calling any monsters to our position. "Anyway... a quick refresh. We'll try to get to the fifteenth floor. Viole and I will be in the front, Welf you'll be mid and Lily will be out backline. Alright?" The three of us not to our leader as he lets out a sigh. "Alright guys, let's go!"

Almost immediately as we hit the thirteenth floor, Bell is attacked by a wolf like monster, a hellhound if I remember correctly. Before the monster could get close to Bell, my hand shot out and stabbed the monster right between the eyes. Pulling my hand back, it exploded into dust, but it was just the beginning. A small group of hounds had been behind it. "Woah, looks like we got a warm welcome!" Welf said with a smirk as he followed Bell and I into the fight. I dodged a fireball that came out of a single hound's mouth. Focusing on my enemy, I made sure to strafe around it, waiting for a chance. Right when it was about to fire off another fire spell, I took my chance and ran to the monster, forcing its mouth shut and forcing it to swallow it's own spell. After a second, the monster exploded and I was able to relax. Looking back, it seems like the others were waiting for me to finish up. "Impressive Si-Viole. But a little cruel, huh?"

"Sorry. But after my training, I learned I need to stop relying on magic for everything if I'm going to get lower and lower into the dungeon." Ais' training was... not as informational as I thought it would be. Turns out that the strongest warrior in the Loki familia isn't the best teacher. For the first three days of training, she simply had to run all around town until sundown. Guess she can't really explain her process. Can't blame that on her though. She already isn't the most sociable person. Ugh, that week was pure hell. "Anyway, we should head deeper, no? Or are you guys already tired out?"

"You kiddin? I can go all night! W-Wait that came out wrong!" We would have reacted to Welf's little slip up if not for the... mini bell's to show up as Lily picked up the last monster crystal. "Woah, you got a twin, boss."

"Hm, I thought they were his long lost brothers. Mister Bell, you should greet them."

"Oh come on! Guys take this seriously, and I look nothing like the Al-mi'raji!" In front of us were three small white rabbits with red eyes. They couldn't be taller than my knee, I'd think they were cute if they weren't monsters.

"Bell learned cloning magic. Impressive."

"You too, Viole?! Take this seriously!" And so, our second fight in the middle floors began.

SSS

This is bad. We haven't even reached the fourteen floor and we're already surrounded. At a certain point, Raji's just continued to come out of the woodwork. Individually they're not a problem at all, but when there's over fifty of them, it's hell. You kill one, three more pop up. At a certain point we ended up surrounded in a room with three exits. Two leading further into the dungeon, one back up. "We need a plan here guys! Rouge Bringer!" Using my magic, I smashed into a cluster group of rabbits, killing them all. Only for fifteen more to pop out of the ground and try to attack me. Bell and Welf weren't in any better situations. The three of us are protecting Lily like a shield but...

"It's only a matter of time before I run out of bolts. We need to find a way out!" We relied on Lily at this point. She had way more experience in the dungeon. "Viole, use Rouge again when they cluster up and Bell use Firebolt to clear the path completely!"

"Hey, you're a better leader than Boss!"

"Shut it, Welf. Not now!" right when I was about to start our admittedly simplistic plan, a party quickly ran past us. "What the-" The rabbits seemed to ignore them and kept their attention on us. I would have paid it no mind if Lily didn't yell as they left the room. "Dammit! They Pass Paraded us!"

"Fuck!" Pass Parade. It's a practice often looked down on by adventurer's but is used nonetheless. It's the act of using another person or party that you have no relation to as bait and using them to dump off the monsters that were chasing you. It's killed thousands of adventurer's and for some reason, dad had countless stories of it happening to him. Nevertheless, there was a party of HellHounds chasing the last party and now they were our problem. "Get out of my way!" Void Out! Stomping my foot on the ground in front of me, a crack formed a couple meters and dark magic spewed out of it, killing the monsters along the line. The only problem was that the line led to a yet unknown path that led further into the dungeon. "Damn. Come on guys! We need to get out of here."

My party followed me but a sense of dread engulfed me as we ran into the doorway. Of course. It led us to a bridge of stone that led further into the dungeon. Fuck, this wasn't good. We need to- "Keep going! They're right behind us." Bell's voice rang out. I allowed the rest of my party to run past me as I turned back to the monsters that were about to cross the bridge. "Viole! Come on!"

"Go on ahead! Dammit, this is all I can think of!" Forcing magic to flow through my arm, I cocked it back and slammed it into the bridge. "Bringer!" I winced as my head began to ache but was relieved as I saw monsters fall to their deaths or be trapped beyond reach. My party and I were safe on the other side of the passageway as the bridge crumbled away. "Ugh...not now dammit."

"Viole?"

"I'm good. Thanks for worrying about me. But we need to-" I was interrupted by growling coming from further into the passage. "You've got to be shitting me." I just destroyed our only way back... damn! Why am I such an idiot?!

"It's fine. We're all mostly uninjured. We just need to get rid of them then we can get going, right?" Bell stood with determination as he held his knife to his face. "Welf, you're in the frontline with me. Viole, protect Lily and don't use any magic unless you need to. Okay?"

"Fine..." and so...our fight continued. We ran through the passage into a large room. Of course we were surrounded by more hellhounds and rajis. Just one hell for another. Dammit! The pain in my head kept getting stronger. No matter how hard I fought, it continued. It got to the point that it became hard to even concentrate.

So of course, while fighting off a group of rabbits, I failed to notice the ceiling that was about to hit me.

I was surrounded. Monsters as far as the eye can see. But, even then. I never let it get to me. I wasn't going to let myself die there.

So you know what I did, kids? I just refused. I refused my situation, I refused the pain that was engulfing me. I refused to die. You can do anything with a bit of rage. Helped that those bastards were pissin me off! Hahaha!

My eyes shot open and I found myself sitting near a wall, my back resting on it. What happened? Trying to get up, I leaded on the wall and held my head. Only to feel a warm liquid coming from my hair. Of course. Blood was coming down on the right side of my head. Luckily not going into my eye. Looking up, I found Bell helping Welf stand up and Lily standing near me, her back to me. "What happened?"

"Viole!" Lily immediately turned to me and ran to hug me. Ouch! "Thank goodness. The ceiling caved in. It seems like we were lucky. The monsters not so much but..." Lilly pointed to the entrance to the room that we took.

"Another locked exit. Dammit, I shouldn't have..."

"No, you did the right thing. If you didn't collapse that bridge, then we would have been flanked on both sides." Bell said as he kept Welf's arm around his shoulder. "But...what do we do now? We're completely lost, Welf's leg is broken... it's only a matter of time before we end up swarmed with monsters again."

"We should head down." Lily said after thinking for a bit. "If we take the pits around the middle floors, we should be able to skip by each floor without having to find the stairs. We keep doing that, then we hit floor eighteen, the safe zone. And if we head there..."

"We'll be able to meet with the Loki familia." I completed Lily's sentence. "It's been two weeks since they left for the fifty ninth floor. They should have come back yesterday but Loki got a letter saying that they were still resting on the eighteenth floor because a large chunk of them got poisoned. They'll bring us back up with them no problem." Lily nodded as she turned back to our party. It was honestly strange that Loki made sure to tell me this information before we left, but she is smarter than she looks. She must have thought something like this could happen. I probably should buy her some booze when we get back. "But this is still risky. It's your choice Bell. What do we do?

Bell glanced at Welf who gave him his signature smirk and thumbs up. "I'm fine with anything you say, Boss. Let's survive this, alright?"

"Yeah. Alright then guys. Let's head for the eighteenth floor!"

And so, we fell. And fell. And fell.

It hurt each time we fell into the pits. The constant running away from monsters was annoying when we were looking for the pits, and my mind was slowly starting to implode. I used too much magic, and this head wound isn't doing me any more favors. All of my senses were strained. I had no idea how long we'd been in the dungeon. Could be hours, days. We couldn't rest anywhere or we'd get killed by the far stronger monsters. It feels like I'm swimming.

We were on the sixteenth floor and we were searching for the stairs. Apparently, the seventeenth floor is the only floor in the middle levels that doesn't have any pits leading to them. Most likely because it was the Boss room. The room usually housed the Goliath, something that we were not ready to fight even at our best. Luckily for us, the monster had a respawn timer of a little more than two weeks every time it was killed. Since the Loki familia was the only familia to have an exhibition in the last month, we should be able to scrape by.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when three large Minotaurs suddenly appeared before us. "Oh come on, this seriously isn't funny anymore!" We were trapped yet again. In front of us were the three monsters. Behind us, a trail of monsters that we had already evaded. So yeah, Welf was right. This isn't cool. This isn't funny. This is all my fault.

SSS

Rabbit

"Bell." I was ready, I had already killed the one on the eighth floor, and that was when I was a level one. While I didn't want to leave Welf hanging, I needed to be the one to kill these monsters, I was the only one who could protect us. But, I was stopped when Viole stood in front of me. His eyes hidden behind his hair. "I got this...leave this to me."

"But-"

"If I don't... where will this rage go?!" Before I could react, the same dreaded feeling exploded from him that engulfed him when he fought Ais. Nightmare Rage! Black magic surrounded both of his arms and legs as he jumped up to the closest Minotaur and kicked into its face. "Kyahahaha! Oh I needed this! Let me show you more! Let me show you, I could do it too!" Following up his kick he grabbed onto it's horn and broke it off only to immediately stab it into the monster's brain.

"Incredible." I couldn't help but let out my thoughts. Truly, nightmare rage is something to be afraid of. His strength and speed far exceed what I had seen recently, and he was already wounded and tired. But, the dread never left. The monster exploded, but so with it did his footing. Falling, Viole was grabbed. The second minotaur grabbed his right hand and lifted him to it's eye level. Even in danger, his psychotic smile never left his face. "Viole!"

I was too late. Before I could even let go of Welf to help, the monster twisted his arm. The sound of bones cracking rang throughout the cave and blood sprayed from beneath his magic armor. Yet even so. He laughed. "Kyahahahaha! It hurts! It hurts so goddamn much! Yet, I deserve it! I'll make sure to enjoy devouring you!" Twisting his body in the monster's grasp, his arm returned to its original position but was limp. Kicking the monster in the face, he was able to get out of it's grasp. Before the third Minotaur could attack him, Viole kicked the second far into the air until it reached the ceiling. The monster hit the ceiling with such force that pieces of it began falling around the fight. A pillar of stone crushed the third minotaur and the force of his own attack threw Viole onto the ground. With a large gasp, the color in his eyes returned when he hit the ground. "Agh! AAAAHHH!"

"Holy- Lilly! Any bandages?!" Lilly nodded her head and ran to Viole, knowing full well that he was in more danger than any of us. When his arm returned to normal, pieces of bone were sticking out of random places. His entire arm was mangled and bleeding profusely. Before long, he lost consciousness. "Nightmare rage...what a horrifying power."

We were able to bandage his arm but, if we didn't reach the eighteenth floor soon, we all ended up like that. Dammit! I won't let you die!