Chapter 32 - Y

As the last Reptid ran towards us I called out to him, "I want this one."

"Uh, sure. Why not," Zael shrugged.

I smirked. "It's a special move I've been practicing," I kneeled behind a boulder and moved my arms like I was drawing a bow. A string of fire drew a long bow and arrow between my hands. I released and all of the flame from the bow followed the arrow and scorched the target swiftly. I glanced over to see him smiling. I blushed just a little, but tried to hide it.

"A bow, huh?" he let out a small chuckle.

"Well, it's not like you're the only person I know that uses a bow. Besides," I stuck my chin in the air and crossed my arms, "you use a crossbow. It's completely different."

He smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist. "I like it," he kissed my cheek.

I turned completely red. "We- We should go now. Yeah," I pulled away from him and ran towards the hole created by the little evil minions. God, how embarrassing. Why'd I have to show off now?

He caught up to me as we hit the next section. "Looks like we're out numbered." We were on the second level of this round, which actually gave us and advantage point. "But like Dagran says, 'in battle it's how you start that counts'."

I don't like that guy… "We have a good spot up here," I looked over the edge. "Hey, look there," I pointed towards one of the columns. "There's two of the knights."

"They look injured," he leaned so close to me when he peeked over the edge. Why am I so aware of him right now of all times? Is he doing this on purpose?

"Idea," I cast a quick fireball and threw it at the column farthest from the knights. It collapsed and killed at least 4 of the bloody lizards. He looked at me like I was crazy. "What? It worked."

He shrugged and pulled out his crossbow, aiming around the rock wall at the now confused and devastated little rodents. "Your fire won't hurt the knights. Watch them, would you?" I nodded and burnt every little slimy one of them around the injured knights to a crisp. "Time to go," I tried to stop him, but he jumped off the ledge a lot faster than I could even stand up to grab him.

"Zael!"

He pulled his sword and started fighting the cornered Reptids. I aimed another fireball at the column next to the one I had previously destroyed, but farthest from Zael. I kept my high point. I could help more if I wasn't being attacked. I kept an eye on him from above as well as watching the knights. "This is what we meant by reckless, dumbass." Ever since that dive down the well he's been ridiculously careless. He's going to get himself killed.

I cast a few prominence circles towards his group to help him out before I continued protecting the knights. But then another bit of the wall broke and another group of Reptids crawled in.

"Bloody hell!" I stood up and started casting. "Zael, I need 20 seconds. Hold on, okay?"

"Okay! I'm having fun anyway," I rolled my eyes at him. For someone who doesn't like seeing people hurt, he sure does have violent tendencies.

18…19…20… "Alright," I threw Meteor at the new group who had just surrounded Zael. It got most of them, leaving him with a few that he could easily handle. I jumped down off of the ledge and ran over to the knights. They were unconscious. "Hey, wake up," I shook the one that appeared less injured.

He woke with a start. "Please! There are more of us further in! You have to help them!"

"Woah, calm down. It's alright. We're going to get them, but we need to get you out of here first," I looked at the other one. "How bad are his injuries?"

"Ah, I don't know. He just knocked out so I came to get him," he said.

Zael ran over to us and started picking up the unconscious one. "Help me get him to that healing spring over there," he jerked his head towards the far side of the room.

"Alright," I helped the other one up then threw one of the injured guy's arms around my shoulders. We got him to the spring and set him down. The other guy stepped in as well.

Just then another wall broke and Zael and I both reached for our weapons. My dad's dagger was looking as good as new, since I'd been working on it.

"Hello strangers," Lowell walked through the hole. "I told you we'd meet up."

"Don't scare me like that," Zael relaxed and looked at the knights. "Stay here for now. We'll be back after we find the rest of you."

"I heard monsters swim these waters. Be careful and may the light of Lazulis be with you," he saluted us then sat next to his buddy.

"Sorry about that," Lowell threw his arms around both of our necks. "Now let's kick some Reptid arse!"

"I'm glad you're safe, Lowell," Zael smiled. We headed on towards the next section of the cave.

"Oh yeah, and I helped a wounded knight back there, so that makes three. He should be back at the castle by now."

The path lead to a dead end and, to these two idiots, that means brute force is needed. Zael kicked the wall as hard as he could and it did crumble.

"Yes! Go on son!" Lowell cheered.

"Morons… I'm surrounded my morons," but I followed them anyway. "Wait!" I stopped them from walking any farther. "There's quite a few enemies down there. They have a healer. I can sense him."

"I'll go down the right flank. Zael, take them head on. Yurick, try to stay high," Lowell planned. We nodded and we split up. Lowell crept along the outer wall and tried to stay out of sight while planning his moves. Zael ran down the straight platform we were on and crouched down at the end.

"Tell me when you're ready," he looked back at me. I walked about half way down the platform. I could see just about everything from there, but there was no guarantee for any safe spot. I nodded and he jumped down, head on collision.

Between the three of us it wasn't so difficult… until they showed up…

"Ah!" it was a girly scream.

"That's Mirania!" Zael's head jerked up and towards the sound. He started running towards her.

Lowell looked up at me. "Stay high," then he gave me a hand signal to move forward.

"Do you want me to jump down then climb back up or am I jumping from wall to wall?" I rolled my eyes. "Sheesh." I decided to jump down and just get back up when we got to Mirania.

"Ugh! Not sea reptids… That's all we need!" Lowell ran back towards where I had just jumped from, followed closely by Mirania and Zael. I climbed back up. So troublesome… I reached a hand out to Mirania and pulled her up with me. I kept my hand down for the other two, but Zael shrugged me off and Lowell said, "They're weak against magic, but they'll just absorb mine."

"Easy enough then," I shrugged.

Mirania cast a heal circle first, then alternated between that and Leaf. I cast nothing but prominence, since it's the easiest to control and the most powerful of my hastier attacks.

"Zael, knocking them in the water won't help. That's… you know… where they live," Lowell snapped sarcastically.

"It's not like I was trying to. They've got me cornered!"

I threw a fire circle in his direction and fried a few of the fish he was dealing with.

"Thanks, love," he worked his way back to the middle.

I blushed again, turning some of my flames a bit red… it was weird how they did that.

"Ew! What's this sticky stuff?!" I turned around to find Mirania covered from head to toe in yellowish green goo.

"That's pretty nasty, Mirania," I pushed her into her own heal circle and it all came off. "Huh, I didn't know if that would work."

"Ugh, it's stuck to me!" I had never heard Zael so disgusted. It was kind of humorous.

Mirania threw a heal circle in the middle of the stone pillars. "Get in the circle."

"Thanks a lot Mirania! That's genius!"

I was going to say something but I just sucked my lip and kept quiet.

"Mirania?" Lowell asked slowly. I looked down to see him also covered in goo. "Do you think you could maybe cast a few heal circles around the place?"

"Yes," she switched fully into heal mode.

I threw a few direct fireballs at individual Reptids then cast a bigger circle into a cluster of them.

It took a while, but finally we defeated all of them.

Mirania and I hopped down off of the platform and pushed on towards the next area.

"Thank you, Zael. I didn't think that they would surround me quite so quickly," she said sweetly.

"Er.. Hello?" Lowell interrupted.

"Oh! Lowell! You're here, too?" she was joking, but she sounded so serious. I laughed.

"Uh-!" he stopped walking.

She spun around with a smile. "I'm joking, Lowell. Thank you very much for helping me. You too, Yurick."

Zael busted out laughing. So hard he had to stop and lean against a wall.

"Did you… are you laughing?" Lowell felt so isolated. I couldn't help but laugh with him.

"N-no," he tried so hard to stop. It was nice seeing him like that. It'd been a while since his mind had been free enough to laugh. "Ah, Mirania, did you see Dagran or Syrenne?"

"No, I didn't," she hung her head. "I hope they're alright."

"What? Are they lost? Well, that's the captain and the alcoholic for you," Lowell teased.

Zael straightened up and looked forward on the next path. "I hope we can find them somewhere."

Lowell made a loud sniffing noise. "Mm. There's a heady mix of sea salt and monster in the air."

Mirania grabbed my hand and looked around causiously. "I get the feeling we're being watched," she said just over a whisper.

"Watch your step and stay sharp," Lowell caught up to Zael and the two lead the way down a larger, nicer looking hallway. We were getting more into the castle ruins now. "It's awfully quiet." We found a large cavern with a set of stairs leading from where we were to a lower ledge down below. "AH! They're all slimy!" he shouted as a sea reptid jumped right in front of him. "Don't touch my hair!"

"There's more against that wall!" Mirania pointed at the lower ledge at the bottom of the stairs.

We fought them the same way as before all the way down the staircase and below on the ledge that lead to an open body of water.

"Oh God, it is sticky! Mirania!" I closed my eyes and tried to shake it off of my face. "Gross." Her healing was evident immediately. "Thank you!" I shivered and fought the rest of the time from one of her already created circles. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

"I sense more of them," Lowell said as we took out the last one for the moment. "What do you want to do?"

"We should keep moving. They're just going to keep coming if we don't go," Zael commanded us forward and we went.

"Right, let's finish up and get out of this manky place!" Lowell seemed just as creeped out and sick of sticky as I was. We ran towards the large opening in the cave. "So, I guess this is where they're coming from."

"Help me!" a scream came from the body of water. It was a lot shallower than I had expected. "Ah!" the soldier's leg got caught by a… a tentacle? Really?! Fucking Tentacle Monsters?!