I do not own Familia Myth or any of the characters.

Thirty Seven

Ethan tumbled out of the Lambton first, splashing down in the pool of blood and stomach acid, followed closely by Ryu, then Bell. Ethan groaned pitifully, his entire body covered in horrendous burns, most of them down to the muscle. Bell and Ryu were likewise burned, though not as badly. The moment Ryu had taken a moment to gasp for breath, she scooped Ethan out of the acid pool and scrambled to the edge of it, collapsing along with Ethan where it was dry and safe from the acid, Bell collapsing beside them a moment later. All three of their clothes had dissolved almost entirely, with the exception of Bell's scarf and Ethan's armor. Their weapons were all safe as well, aside from Ryu's tantos having lost the cloth wrapped around their grips, and Ethan had managed to protect the pocket containing his and Ryu's mermaid scales and the shards of Alf's Lumina in exchange for losing the flesh of his unprotected right hand to the bone. He could also tell just from the pain that most of the flesh on his face was missing, and had a sneaking suspicion that some acid had made its way into his skull through his eye sockets, though the copious amounts of blood that had met it there had neutralized it.

"Ethan!" Ryu rasped, clearly sobbing, though his ears were damaged so his hearing was so garbled that he couldn't understand her voice.

"I don't have any potions left," Bell said.

"I-I'll..." Ryu trailed off. She wasn't in any state of mind to be able to cast magic, and even if she did, he'd have died before Noah Heal could restore enough of him to survive.

Ethan made a croaking sound, coughed up blood, and then tried to speak again. "Res...tor...a...tion."

Green light flickered around him, glowing faintly at first before strengthening as his body regenerated quickly. However, as it faded, he was still covered in horrible burns. He'd regained the flesh on his hand and face, and his ears and eyes had healed fully, as had his eyelids, but he was still severely wounded, and the effort of healing himself that much had drained him of the last of his Mind, leaving him Mind Down. Ryu let out a shuddering breath, calming herself, then cast Noah Heal on all three of them. Then, she looked around, paling quickly.

"The White Palace," Ryu breathed. "The Thirty Seventh Floor. The Lambton brought us home."

"W-What do we...do?" Bell asked, barely able to contain his fear.

"We need to find a place to hide while Ethan heals," she said, glancing upward. "And since Ethan didn't get the chance to finish it, I assume the Juggernaut will be on its way down."

As if on cue, several small pieces of stone fell around them and both of their head snapped upward. Above them, far above, but growing rapidly closer, they could hear it. It was coming. Fast. Both scrambled to their feet, Bell throwing Ethan over his shoulder as Ryu grabbed his sword in her free hand, her Durandal sword occupying her dominant hand. Then, they fled. Ryu took the lead, being free of a wounded companion and armed, as well as having been on the floor before, and Bell hurtled after her as they raced through the labyrinth away from the hole. And then, just as they turned the corner, the ground lurched as it crashed to the ground. For a moment, there was no sound except them running. Then, the deafening "thump, thump, thump" of the chase began. They hurtled down side passage after side passage, taking turns at a sprint, and yet, the Juggernaut began to close in. Finally, Bell closed his left hand into a fist and began to charge Argonaut. However, barely forty seconds later, the Juggernaut rounded a corner barely two seconds behind them, bouncing around on the walls, floor, and ceiling again at full speed, even with one arm and its torso half-erased. However, just as it rounded the corner, Bell spun, holding out his left hand, which was still wrapped in the Goliath Muffler, only for the Juggernaut's claws to catch the edge of the corner.

"Firebolt!" Bell roared, firing, only for the Juggernaut to swing itself back around the corner and vanish before the blast was halfway.

Bell turned back to the front, panting now, and Ryu glanced back at him before turning back to the front. She understood. They needed to find a safe place to rest. They were exhausted, wounded, and Ethan was still in critical condition. They needed to stop. To hide.

They rounded a corner at a sprint and Ryu slashed instantly, splitting a horned skull that, to Bell, seemed to be floating in empty space. However, as he followed her past the monster, which was just beginning to disintegrate, he realized it was a Skull Sheep, a skeleton-type monster wearing a baggy, tattered cloak of flesh that blended its body, and its head if it wished, into the pervasive darkness of the Thirty Seventh Floor perfectly. He was grateful Ryu had experience, because facing monsters so unnatural as skeletons, he knew full-well he'd lose his cool. A moment later, another skeleton, this one humanoid, a Spartoi, stepped out, holding a chipped, aged sword, but as Ryu raced forward, it matched her speed. It slashed at her and she leapt to the wall, then back, slashing, only for it to roll under her blade, then slash at her back, Ryu deflecting it with Ethan's blade. Then, she spun, slashing rapidly, the Spartoi managing to fend her off for a moment, before she finally managed to knock its sword aside and split it across the rib cage, smashing its magic stone. Then, she was off again. Bell followed, looking around worriedly for a moment before Ryu suddenly cut right, Bell following her into a small room barely twenty feet across and with only the one entrance.

"It's a dead end," Bell said, turning back to the entrance.

"Exactly," Ryu said. "Hurry and damage the walls. Not too much, but enough to stop monsters from spawning in here."

Both set to work instantly, tearing gashes into the walls anywhere they could reach until Ryu decided it was enough for now. Then, she turned toward the entrance, chanting quickly.

"Luminous Wind!" she incanted.

A barrage of her Magic Blasts exploded into the passageway's roof and it collapsed instantly, blocking entrance or exit, but with a gap at the top for air.

"You trapped us!" Bell yelped.

"Once we've all rested and recovered, we can clear the path between the three of us easily," Ryu said.

Bell glanced at Ethan. "I don't think he's getting up any time soon."

"Don't worry," Ryu smiled. "He'll be fine."

"Okay, I'll take the first watch," Bell said.

"No, I will," Ryu said, sliding Ethan's sword into its sheath finally. "Your Argonaut skill is our ace against the Juggernaut. Rest. I'll take the watch."

"Okay," Bell nodded. "Wake me when it's time to switch."

Ryu shook her head. "We can only rest for ten minutes. You have that long to recover. And even that is only because of the debris. Anything less and I could only give you five minutes."

Bell's eyes went wide.

"It should be plenty," Ryu said. "Adventurers need to be able to recover both mentally and physically in as little time as possible. Will you be able to manage?"

Bell hesitated before nodding. He chose a spot against the wall and sat down to rest, Ryu sitting beside Ethan to wait. Finally, at the exact moment that ten minutes had past, Bell's head rose. He looked calmer now, less in a complete, hopeless panic from their situation, and a determined light had returned to his eyes. At the same time, Ethan sat up, stretching and yawning, his body almost completely recovered. Bell gaped at him as Ryu merely smiled knowingly.

"You're healed?" Bell asked.

"Aesthetically, maybe," Ethan said, then groaned as he hauled himself to his feet and began to stretch his limbs and trunk. His joints, all of them, popped and cracked, but after a moment, the soreness began to fade a bit. "I'm still exhausted, but my wounds are mostly recovered. And I've recovered enough Mind to deal with your burns. Restoration."

Bell and Ryu both shone green for a moment before the light faded, taking their burns and any remaining cuts or scratches they still had with it. Bell smiled widely.

"I forgot, you have Spirit Healing!" Bell grinned.

"Yeah," Ethan said, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "As long as I don't use either Blade Rain or Chain Lightning for ten minutes, I can heal any minor cuts or gashes we get. Bones will take twenty minutes, and if the wound is severe, I can't heal it fully for an hour. On the other hand, I can take the Vanguard, Ryu can guide us from the rear and support me where needed, and Bell can work on resting in the center, that way we can use Argonaut if we need it."

"Do you think we can handle the Juggernaut again?" Ryu asked.

"Well, it doesn't have its shell anymore, so yeah, we can manage it," Ethan said. "We'll just need a room it can't jump around in."

Ryu nodded and Ethan tugged her and Bell both to their feet, both of them taking a moment to stretch the fatigue out of their bodies as well.

Ethan glanced at the path and chuckled. "Really, now, Ryu. That's a bit excessive, don't you think?"

Ryu shrugged. "We weren't attacked."

Ethan nodded and reached into his pocket, checking his loot from earlier. Two mermaid scales, six Juggernaut claws, and a couple dozen shards of Alf's Lumina. He glanced down at his body and grimaced at the state of his clothes, then at Bell and Ryu and his grimace deepened. His clothes had been reduced to a tattered sleeve on his left side, just enough to keep the splints from falling to the ground, what was essentially a gauntlet still attached to the splints on his right arm, his chestplate, which reached to the bottom of his diaphragm, his Durandal boots and greaves, which ended in knee guards, and his pants had been reduced to short shorts. Bell's clothing had survived better, his shirt missing on the bottom left side, his left sleeve having been obliterated during the fight with the Juggernaut before Ethan had healed his arm, his right sleeve was missing sections, his left pantleg was gone below the knee, and his right was missing on the outside of the thigh, then gone at mid-calf. Ryu's outfit, on the other hand, was gone. Her bottoms had not been dissolved very much, due to Ethan having been wrapped around her as much as he could to protect her, albeit futilely, from the acid, but the right side was literally hanging by a thread, and her top had been dissolved so much that it was now a section covering her lower abdomen, then a strip running diagonally up between her breasts to cross over her shoulder before connecting to the back under the remains of her ruined cape. The cape itself was missing its hood and was closer to a bib behind her back than a cape.

Ethan shook his head. "And I thought your outfit was distracting before."

Ryu blushed and covered her chest as Bell turned scarlet and turned away, clearly having noticed but ignored it for the sake of Ryu's feigned modesty. Ethan sighed and shook his head, smiling, and kissed her, before turning and scrambling up the mountain of debris. He looked through the top, seeing it was clear, and shoved some of the boulders outward, sending them tumbling down the far side, making the opening a bit wider. Then, he crawled through carefully and hopped to the ground on the far side, drawing both of his blades as he fell before landing lightly on his feet and looking around. Clear.

"Come on through," Ethan called back to them.

After a moment, Ryu dropped down next to him, Durandal sword in-hand, then Bell dropped. Ethan glanced at Ryu and grinned.

"Yes, Ethan," Ryu sighed. "I'm glad you gave me this sword now. It was a good idea."

Ethan smiled. "As long as you recognize I was right."

Ryu rolled her eyes, and gestured to their left with it. Ethan nodded and began to walk, keeping his Xiphos in reverse grip and both weapons ready for use. After a few moments, a Skull Sheep appeared ahead of them and Ethan's eyes glowed red as he sped forward, driving his sword into its head. It didn't penetrate quite as deep as he'd hoped, not far enough to reach the Magic Crystal core, so he stepped backward then slammed the bottom of his foot into it, driving it the rest of the way in. The sheep burst into ash and its cloak fell to the ground, along with Ethan's sword. He lifted his sword, the cloak wrapped around the blade, and held the cloak out to Ryu. She drove her sword into the ground, taking the cloak and wrapped it around her torso, tying it over one shoulder, the cloak covering her torso, restoring her modesty.

With that relatively minor issue, they continued on. After a few minutes, they saw a blinking light down a passageway, the light of a magic lantern. They headed toward it, and Ethan felt Bell growing excited, so he stopped, setting a hand on Bell's shoulder and shaking his head. Bell's face morphed into confusion, and then sadness before we headed into the small chamber the light was coming fromm. Three corpses lay against the wall, one female and two men, one of which had driven a dagger into his own chest, and stopped.

Ryu hesitated, then stepped toward them, but again Ethan caught her shoulder.

"They have nothing worth desecrating them for," Ethan said. "Let them lie in peace."

"We need supplies," Ryu argued, though her voice betrayed her having to bury her emotions just at the thought of it.

"We don't," Ethan said. "All three of us has an unbreakable weapon, I'm recovering mana fast enough to treat our wounds, within reason, and all three of us can continue for now without dying of dehidration or starvation. We can make it up a floor or two before those become a problem, once we inevitably make it past the Juggernaut. We don't need to disturb their rest. We can tell the Guild about them once we're back and the Guild can decide whether or not to send a recovery team."

Ryu nodded, sighing in both exasperation and relief at his stubborn refusal to stoop to barbarism. They turned, leaving the room again and continuing according to Ryu's directions. Ethan knew she didn't actually know where they were, but she'd been on the floor, so if anyone was going to recognize a location and be able to lead them out, it was her.

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