Disclaimer: I have no rights to Nexon or Maple story, I was simply bored.
A/N: If you haven't guessed yet, this story is fairly pointless, and silly. Here's more of the same.
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Sliding down that last rope Wrie released her hold once she neared the end of it's limits and dropped like a stone the last several feet to land with a low reverberating clang, and a... splash. Stepping to the side with that fun little slushing sound (the one made by moving water) Pyro dropped down next to her, immediately making a face as the water soaked her robes through and through.
Floating several feet above them Belphegor gave a rattly cackle, "Oh that's rich, the looks on your faces right now. Big bad monster slayers stumped but a few feet of water."
"Uh, Bel..." The undersized reaper stopped laughing to look at the dragon that was fluttering near by, his head cocked to the side, "Who're you talking to...?"
Belphegor looked down to find that Wrie and Pyro were already clambering downward, the water slowly getting higher around them, chattering as they went. Sighing he floated after them slowly, his purple robes skimming the surface of the water, "No one, Beel... No one at all."
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The four emerged from the bottom of the tower into the underwater world, bubbles occasionally escaping as they 'breathed' out. Beelzebub gave a long drawn out happy sound as he wooshed through the water, skimming past coral beds and outracing random fish.
Pyro gazed absently around at the scenery until a sudden sharp jab in her upper arm alerted her that Wrie wanted her attention. Turning her head to come face to face with the forbiding grate of her friend's helmet she quirked a brow curiously. Wrie directed her attention toward Belphegor who was looking even more floaty than normal. After staring for several seconds she tried, "Yeah, what about him?"
"How's he breathing bubbles, Py?" Wrie asked, that peculiar echo to her voice that occured when she wore those face covering sort of helms.
Perplexed Pyro scratched her cheek with the top of her staff, head tilting a bit, "For that matter, how does he eat?"
Belphegor, apparently having heard enough of this (and probably having heard it too many times) spoke in a mocking tone, "For that matter, how are you two still alive?"
Wrie rattled her shield as she adjusted it for a moment then tipped her helmeted head in a way to indicate the intensity of her thoughts, "D'you mean in general... or with the whole underwater thing?"
Belphegor's boney jaws hung open, and he seemed rather stumped by that question, "I well... You know, I don't actually think I want to know." He stated firmly, before drifting past the pair.
Pyro shrugged, and after a moment of consideration started forward, moving into that bouncy 'moonwalker' gait before pushing off in long bounding leaps along the trail through the reefs. A few seconds later Wrie followed, giving slight clangs each time she touched down causing her armor to rattle.
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Not much later they reached an area with a drop off that was covered in... large blue lumps. The duo stood together gazing curiously at the odd disfigurement of the ocean floor, and after a moment Wrie wondered aloud, "Are those monsters?"
The little golden baby dragon zipped nearby, peering down his stubby snout at the mass, "Looks like it." he gurgled.
Belphegor drifted along showing his absolute disinterest, "Nooo, the seabed has cancer. Whatever. Would you two get a move on? I can see the place just ahead."
Giving the midget death a glare that was lost since her face was hidden Wrie started picking her way among the snoozing beasts. She was a good few feet in among them when she heard a sharp thwack from behind her, immediately followed by a honking bark. Freezing up she stared upward into the shadow of her helm, and the bit of sea she could see through the grate like front, "Pyro, please tell me you didn't just attack one."
Pyro watched absently as the creature she'd smacked shook its head, pawed at it with a flipper then slowly looked up toward her. She didn't think she could kill these. Darn. Upon hearing Wrie's comment she retorted, "All right, then, I didn't."
"Ooooh," Belphegor cooed, "I think they're a bit upset."
For indeed the sea of seal like creatures were waking up: All along the area heads were lifting up, and turning to zero in on the invaders. Everyone remained still; Wrie stared toward the watery outline of civilization, Pyro had a staring contest... and then Beelzebub finally seemed to waken from a trance, "I want my mommy." he gibbered, whipping around and zipping toward Pyro. His small feet grabbed hold of her shoulder as he pulled himself to a stop peering around her head.
The sudden motion seemed to goad the monsters into action, and the entire mass of them seemed to start seething, bawling, and generally making a dreadful racket. The feeling of charging magic coarsed through the water, and Wrie gave a yelp at the feeling of it, "It just had to be monsters with magic, didn't it?!" she hollered to no one in particular, throwing her shield up to try and deflect a headbutt from one of the closer monsters, and stumbling back a few paces from the blow.
"AHHHH!" Pyro agreed as she leapt to the side to avoid the discharge of some sort of electrical spell, immediately having to lunge in the other direction as the ground sprouted icey spikes.
"Hey! Hey now, no chewing the robes!" Belphegor yelped flailing boney hands at the head of a small pink seal that'd come flying out of the mass to start gnawing at his cloak. "A little help here!!"
Wrie darted around a large blue walrus like thing, bringing up her war hammer to lock with the impending fangs of another one, yelping as the connection sent tremors all up her arm. Pyro scrambled along to her left, clawing past the monsters on her hands and knees at times. A squeal of shock had Wrie stepping over, and bringing her shield up just in time to save the mage from getting skewered by more ice.
Pyro regained her feet clutching her staff in one hand, and bracing her hat with the other as she darted around the attacking bodies, "I think its running and screaming time now!" She hollered.
Wrie heard her as she reached her side, "I think it has been for awhile!"
"True."
"I mean, after all, we have been running."
"No screaming though."
"Oh would you two shut up, and get this thing off of me?!" Belphegor screeched, whirling around in circles like a dog, grasping for the baby seal.
Pyro hefted her staff, and sent a blast of magic at it causing it to squeak and let go, falling to the wayside as they charged past willy nilly. Belphegor fell back, grabbing onto Wrie's shoulder armor, and allowing himself to be towed along much like the cowering Beelzebub.
Just then, with blasts of magic screaming past, and a horde of honking beasts on their heels things seemed like they could only improve, and indeed it seemed like they did. The hoots and calls fell back, the magic stopped coming, yet the pair kept running: Safety was looming nearer and nearer...
Then the ground disappeared from under their feet, and they started to sink quickly downward.
"Oh, you're kidding me." Wrie said, staring down at an even larger mass of the monsters waiting below the drop off. Up above the water boiled with activity as that lot surged out into open sea to continue the pursuit; down on the sea floor the activity began to waken the reinforcements.
"Look! Look! Just there, if we get there we'll be okay!" Belphegor screeched; sounding nearly hysterical now, as he jabbed a skeletal finger toward a bridge over a chasm.
Wrie's head twitched as she looked between the attacking horde, and saftey. Beside her Pyro began whirling her arms, and kicking out clawing her way into a position more paralell with the ground before swishing forward: Swimming. Wrie who was sinking a lot faster than the mage began clawing her way frantically through the water after her friend.
Freezers and Sparker's hurtled through the water, some staying on the 'ground' and hurling magic at the fleeing quartet. The duo twisted and shimmied as best they could as they pulled themselves over the heads of the bawling force of fury.
Pyro hit the ground near the bridge first and let out a shriek as the massive bulk of a dark blue walrus whirled by a few feet overhead, the drag of the water nearly taking her hat with it. Wrie smacked into the ground beside her, quite litterally as she propelled herself forward to avoid a blast of electricity. Almost immediately Wrie began scrambling toward the bridge fighting to her feet from her hands and knees and thumping up the short flight of steps, Pyro at her side.
As soon as the two hit the top of the stairs they could feel the slide of magic over them, and turned in concert to watch a couple hundred angry monsters slam into a protective barrier keeping them out.
Belphegor hooted in amusement as one of the paler blue ones smacked its head repeatedly against the barrier, the small pink one on it's head flopping and squawling in outrage, "Haha! Take that you stupid overfleshed dolts! Haa, we win!! MUH HA HA HAAA!" he cackled away floating a few inches before the barrier clacking his fangs, and waving his boney hands mockingly at the monsters. Then the mini-death gave a frightened yelp as one of the larger darker beasts slammed into the barrier right in front of him, causing him to jerk back.
Wheezing lightly Wrie finally managed to straighten from where she was clutching at the railing of the bridge, "Do you... have any... idea... how hard... it is.. to.. swim in.. armor?" She gasped.
Pyro blinked over at her and said quite matter of factly, "No, not really. I don't wear armor."
"I hate you." Wrie informed her.
"You say the nicest things, Wrie." Pyro returned before wandering off along the bridge patting Beelzebub on the head as the little dragon bemoaned his fate, and the fact that he'd nearly lost his twelve portions of lunch.
Wrie dragged herself up and stumped after the pair, Belphegor floating listlessly behind her, "Life," the skeleton informed the world at large. "sucks."
"Death to, apparently." Wrie tossed back.
A few moments later they found themsevles staring up at the montainous rise of coral reef and rock like buildings that made up Aqua Road's version of a town.
"Well." Pyro said.
"Well." Wrie agreed.
"What now?" Pyro asked.
"Well," Wrie repeated, "I need to see some person named Muse, or something."
"All right, then lets find Muse."
The two tottered onward, up a likely seeming flight of steps and emerged into...
"Dry air!" Beelzebub hissed in shock, as he immediately dropped to the ground since he wasn't buoyed by the water anymore. Belphegor hooted quietly since he didn't have any real mass to drop, therefore he kept on floating as he normally did: He was, though, quite a bit more sodden than usual.
"Oh, that's disgusting. My grieves are squleching." Wrie whined, sitting down on a step and tugging the metal plated footwear off. Upon upturning it a fountain of water emptied out, just as little gushes of water drained from the openings in her helmet.
"Eugh." Pyro added, staring mournfully down at her clothing which was plastered to her body.
Wrie emptied out her other grieve before pulling them back on and standing up (which caused another gush of water to empty from bits of her armor, much to her annoyance) then the two squelched along, up some stairs, and clambered up a ladder followed faithfully by Belphegor and Beelzebub... and a trail of puddles.
Eventually they found themselves confronted by a guy with greenish dreadlocks, and a jelly hat (or was it part of his head? No one thought it prudent to ask, at the time). "Uh," Wrie ventured, causing the 'person' to turn toward them questioningly, "We're looking for Muse."
Pyro, for her part, was frowning at the pig's romping about in a rather inadequate seeming inclosure, "Who ever heard of a zoo underwater." she murmured to herself, tapping the bottom of her staff against the ground. She was tugged from her musings as Wrie prodded her, occasioning Pyro to toss the helmeted head a curious look, "What d'you want, Bucket head?"
"We've gotta go up, One Eye." Wrie informed her, pointing upward as though to emphasize her point.
Heaving a sigh Pyro nodded, and waved her staff in a 'you first' sort of gesture, Wrie grumbled, then clanked off to start the ascent. Upon reaching the next platform they were confronted by the fuzzy sight of wolf like monsters, and yeti's. "These people are clearly insane." Pyro declared, hurrying onward.
There at the top they found Muse, a very fishy girl. Wrie went straight to her, never noticing what was in the pen there, and instead waved at the fish girl, "Hey, hey, are you Muse?" She called.
The fish girl turned toward her and offered a sweet smile, "I am Muse, your guide here at the zoo!" she agreed chirpily.
Wrie stared for a beat before saying, "I need a photo album or something, I was told you've got them?" She steadfastly ignored Pyro who was floundering around at the corner of her vision, pointing and gawping at something.
"Oh yes," agreed Muse. "But it's my last one."
"I need it." Wrie repeated, speaking a tad slowly.
"Well, I had another person asking after it." Muse told her. "And I asked him for some snow in return, I've never seen snow. He went off to El Nath to fetch some."
Rolling her eyes, Wrie was for once glad for the face concealing grate of her helm, and then, an idea struck, "I've got some snow with me."
The fanciful fishy's features lit up with intrigue, "Really?"
"Oh yes, it's my last bit and I'd thought to keep it.. but you can have it if you'll give me the book." Wrie pulled an empty bottle out, and held it out.
Muse frowned, "But, that's just an empty bottle!" She protested.
"Well, you said yourself you've never seen snow... You didn't realize snow was invisible?" She asked in surprise. "That's why people like it so, you can only see it when it falls then it vanishes. You never know when you've gotten some unless you catch it just right!"
"Oh my," Muse breathed, shocked.
"Exactly, that man could have tried to scam you."
"Oh, dear me, thank you for the help. I... I guess I could give you my photo album." She murmured.
"You can have my snow as well, as thanks for being so helpful." Wrie encouraged.
Muse smiled beautifully, and handed over the book while taking the bottle and looking at it with awe, "Thanks ever so." She said.
"Not a problem." Wrie assured her as she turned away, feeling quite smug. It was at this point that she finally noticed Pyro dancing and swooshing around like she had to use the bathroom, "What" she started, staring in shock, "is your problem?"
"Wrieeeee," Pyro whined in a hiss (it was rather odd to hear, really), "It's a balrog!" She pointed at said balrog with her staff in a quick, jerky motion.
Wrie turned to gape stupidly at the huge ugly mug that was leering at them from where the thing paced, "That is completely inadequate for keeping a bloody balrog." Wrie announced.
"Yes." Pyro agreed with great vehemence.
"Brings back memories though, doesn't it?" Wrie murmured thoughtfully as the pair traded glances (sort of, bloody helmets).
"Do I want to know?" Belphegor asked in a way that said he was quite sure that he didn't.
Muse who had been watching the pair quite curiously broke the silence that had decsended after the undersized reaper's words, "What's wrong with the balrog? He's really quite harmless, you know."
"Oh, I'm sure he is." Wrie assured, sounding a wee bit sarcastic. "We were just remembering this one time... You see it was our first boat ride to Orbis..."
Pyro bounced up the loading ramp like an excited puppy, her purple eyes wide and eager. This would be the pairs first time off of Victoria since they'd arrived here! New places to explore, new monsters to kill! Wrie followed behind her giving the other people who were boarding a rather peculiar stare, some of them looked down right jumpy... How odd. Shrugging it off she hurried to catch up with the excited mage. They technically shouldn't have been making the trip yet, their training was, as yet, incomplete but... Well, the pair tended to be adventurous and curious. (Not to mention they got bored rather easily...)
Soon enough they were standing around on the deck listening to the whine of the boat kicking up for take off. Strangely as soon as they hit the skies a good group of people made a mass exodus down into the hold, dragging the shocked pair along.
Stuffed by the mass of people into a dank corner Wrie pondered in a hushed voice, "Why, are we cowering in the dark?"
Pyro shrugged and responded, "I think that patch of mold just moved a few feet to the left..."
Several long minutes of silence later, and finally Wrie'd had, had enough, "Well, I'm feeling stuffy I'm going to get some fresh air." She hissed, and began shoving her way through the crowd.
After staring after her for a moment Pyro called, "Wait for me!" and began to scramble after the other. Soon, though, she had lost Wrie in the crowd. Something else, however, caught her attention, "Wait a minute, what's this?" She mused aloud, scuttling curiously toward a ladder that went deeper downward, "Wonder whats down there...?" Thus, she began her descent.
Wrie emerged from the huddling group near the door, and opened it a crack peering out to see if there really was a reason to worry... and immediately found there was. "Holy...!" She yelped, slamming the door closed. Whirling around and placing her back against the door she stared wide eyed into the darkness. It was about then that the screaming started filtering in, as well as earth shattering roars.
Meanwhile, Pyro found herself descending not into further darkness, but into light eventually stepping off the ladder into a dangly sort of balcony on the ships belly. "Whoooa!" She crowed. "Wait until I tell Wrie about this!" Scurrying to the edge she peered over to have a look at the world below, and screamed bloody murder at the sight of a massive skull wearing, bat winged monster flying toward her from below. Needless to say she fled back up that ladder faster than a cat up a tree when someone turned a hose on it.
The pair found each other's gazes over the heads' of the crowd, and a bit of silent communication seemed to flow with the wide eyed stares of shock and all, when a quiet voice dared ask, "W-what's going on up there?"
"What do you mean?" Wrie dared to venture.
"I think I hear screams..." another person said.
"Nope, no screams." Pyro said.
"Just the wind, we're moving pretty fast." said Wrie, studiously ignoring what sounded like fists pounding on the door behind her and a muffled cry for help.
Needless to say, they joined in the cowering after that.
"And that," Wrie said loftily. "is the problem with balrogs."
Pyro nodded her head in vigorious agreement while Belphegor piped up, "You know what, I've changed my mind... I actually do want to know how you two are still alive."
"No time for that now." Wrie said. "I'd like to do a bit of shopping before we continue on..."
Pyro glanced at Muse who was currently staring at them oddly, "D'you know where the shops are around here? We're kind of new in the place."
"Ah, you'll have to go back out and swim up to the door with the golden ladder, and the shade over it..." Muse responded distantly.
"Thanks!" Pyro hollered, and off they went.
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After getting the water out of their cloths (and armor) as best they could they split up to do a bit of poking around the few shops the place had to offer. By the time Pyro was done stock piling provisions, and began clambering back up to where she'd left Wrie sifting through the armor and weaponry she could already hear Belphegor's hoots and cackles.
"Dear god." Wrie proclaimed as Pyro walked up looking curious. "I look like a bloody roman swimsuit model!"
Pyro blinked taking in the new armor Wrie was sporting, and had to agree. "It does look like a swimsuit."
"A swimsuit with spikes." Wrie agreed, turning around.
"Well," Pyro said trying to sound optimistic, "least you've got a face again."
"True." said a begrudging Wrie.
"And it's better than the spandex."
"It wasn't spandex!"
"Sure looked like it to me."
"All right, I'll give you that... But it still wasn't spandex!"
As the pair wandered back out of the shop, and into the waters of Aqua road, they left Belphegor feeling quite pleased he didn't actually need to breathe as he'd probably have suffocated due to his laughing fit.