Sorry Ryuu. A blast of air ripped him from his final thoughts, rocks cutting his face as the blade cracked the floor inches from his face burying itself halfway to the hilt.
A hand gripped the back of his shirt, dragging him backward. Another hand pushed on his armpit, helping him stumbled to his feet. The grip on his back steadied him as the elf stepped next to him.
"We need to get the other eye," she gasped, her dress clinging to her heaving chest. "Can you get it to stand still? I can shoot its other eye out," she asked, raising a bow.
"I'm not sure, maybe for a second," he replied, watching the minotaur yank on its sword, its back muscles bulging as the sword slowly slid inch by inch out of the ground.
"That's all I need. Just keep its attention on you," she responded, knocking an arrow.
Oh, that's all he thought, adjusting his grip on his daggers. The minotaur's sword came free of the ground in a spray of rocks. Then it turned to face them. It would have been nice if Ryuu was here. His knives were gently shaking in his hands, and his stomach was doing flip-flops. The hero stories he loved reading never talked about feeling like this.
He met the Minotaurs' charge ducking underneath its swing. Hopping back to his feet inside the beast's guard, he drove his daggers into its stomach. Hot blood splashed against his face as the previously damaged flesh parted beneath his blades—blood running in the valleys of the beast's six-pack.
Come on, take the shot! As if summoned by his thoughts, an arrow flew past him. His stomach dropped, the beast seizing the arrow mid-flight, snapping it in half.
"You need to keep its focus on you!" she yelled from behind him.
The minotaur dropped to all fours holstering the blade across its back. It charged, accelerating to a red blur as it closed the distance, its head lowered, its horns at the perfect height to impale him. Its hooves tossed a dust cloud into the air as it charged. He panicked, jumping instead of dodging, his foot catching the blade on its back. He spun in the air, landing on his right shoulder with a crunch, daggers slipping out of numb fingers. His head swam, and his lunch made it halfway up his throat.
He rose unsteadily to his feet. Looking for his daggers, he couldn't find them in the dust cloud. The only weapon he could see was the red sword lying several feet in front of him. Across the room, the minotaur stood, white foam dripping from its mouth onto the ground.
The beast charged again. Bell's legs burned as he returned the beast's charge. Grabbing the sword in his good hand, he met the beast head-on.
Take out its last eye and escape. He waited until barely six feet separated them before folding his legs. Sliding across the ground, he slipped under its charge. Thrusting upwards, the sword dragged across the minotaur's face, blood and foam falling across Bell's body. The blade wrenched from his grasp, his arm popping out of its socket.
He screamed in pain again as one of its hooves landed on his shoulder. His vision flashed white.
Got you a grimace on his face as he watched the beast explode into a black cloud. His vision was hazy, and his right arm hung limply on the ground, his head pounding in painful counter synchronicity to his shoulders.
"Drink this," the elf shoved a potion into his gasping mouth. A high-grade health potion, he thought. He struggled to breathe as the syrupy fluid flooded his mouth. His right shoulder moved back into its socket with a pop. His pounding headache receded to a dull thrum.
"That was quite impressive. That beast had to be at least a level four. What familia are you in?" She asked Bell before helping him to his feet.
"I was a member of Hestia, but I'm not with them, if that makes any sense?"
"Hestia, those cowards dragged this one up from the deeper floors and ran!" She seethed. "You must have heard them shouting as they ran! Their so-called captain," she spat the word. "Even left his sword behind." He followed her shaking finger to the sword lying next to a giant crystal. He knew this sword.
"It wasn't their captain," he picked the sword up, securing it to his belt. "This belonged to Mord. I heard he went missing a few weeks ago."
"Morons likely tried to avenge him then but ended up almost getting us killed when they ran. We can deal with them later. I need your help. My companion, could you help me get him back to the surface?" She asked.
He nodded, following her as she led him down several hallways until she ducked into a cave. Didn't the elf know how dangerous caves were?
The small side room they were in was already deteriorating back into the dungeon. Cracks were all over the floor, and a fissure had opened in the farthest portion from the entrance. Soon this whole room would fall deeper into the dungeon. Inside was the remaining elf, his back propped against the rock. His skin was a sickly shade of white. His ears were much longer than Ryuu or the female elf. A high elf maybe?
"I'm back, Kelroy. We got the beast," she turned to stare at Bell. "Do you have any blood replenishment potions? I stopped the bleeding, but without those", she trailed off. Shaking his head in the negative, he felt the same burning sensation as the first night in the dungeon. The sensation started in his heart and moved down his arm. It felt like fire ants were crawling and biting inside him simultaneously. He moved on instinct until he was kneeling beside the elf. Gently reaching out, he grasped the elf's uninjured arm. He shivered as the sensation left his body, passing through his palm and into the elf.
A slap across the face knocked him to the ground. The female snarled at him, "What are you doing, sticking your hands on a high elf prince!"
She had pulled a dagger from her waist, now slowly advancing on him, the elf prince tucked safely behind her. Scampering backward, his heart went into his throat, almost losing his balance, his left heel over the fissure.
"Alicia," Kelroy spoke from behind her. Alicia stopped her advance turning sideways so she could see both men. Bell stared past Alicia and saw Kelroy now with two arms. Kelroy was waving them both in front of his face in amazement. Even his skin color had gone from pale to a healthy tan.
"What ability does that," she whispered just as the ground opened up underneath Bell. I am going to be in so much trouble, Bell thought.
Bell grasped at the rocks as he fell. His skin tearing from his hands, his armor rubbing against the walls until it was burning the skin it was struggling to protect. He slammed into sloped dirt tumbling hand over foot until he stopped.
Getting to his feet, he quickly took stock of his gear. His armor was piping hot and pressing against his side in several places. His shirt was gone from his neck to his breastplate, destroyed by the fall. Parts of his chest above his breastplate and all of his hands were missing chunks of skin. The sword was gone, likely getting stuck on a rock as he fell.
He examined his surrondings next. The dirt floor was undisturbed by tracks of any kind. Tunnels as numerous as branches on a tree were all around him. There were no markings on the walls to indiciate what floor he was on or which way led to the sairs. Picking a tunnel randomly, he moved forward cautiously stopping every few feet listening for any sound. Without weapons, any encounter with a monster would be fatal.
Bell continued sneaking down hallways, several times having to wait for monsters to pass by or backtrack around monsters that weren't moving. Finally, the tunnel widened, and ahead of him, another maw of darkness. Shit, I hardly made it through this floor. There is no way I can make it back up to the surface.
There was a minimum of fourteen floors to get back to the surface, maybe as many as sixteen. But, if Bell was on the sixteenth, he could get to the safe floor without seeing another monster. Well, so long as Loki Familia took out the Goliath.
He slipped down the stairs, his shoulders sagging as the crystal wall that would birth the Goliath became visible at the bottom of the stairs. Good thing Loki Familia took it out today, he thought, skipping across the floor. Taking the stairs down again, he emerged on the safe floor.
The smell of pine trees filled his nose. Below trees, shrubs, and all other manners of plant life filled the valley. Across the valley, tree trunks sharpened into spikes ringed a small town. He sagged against the ground, his muscles unwilling to support him anymore. It felt like the softest mattress, his armor a warm blanket. His eyelids each weighed a thousand pounds.
I'll open them in just a minute.
Loki followed her children inside the hostess. They were in an unusually good mood. Her Amazon's had found a lead on the adventurer from two years ago. The excitement so infectious even her doll princess Aiz had a smile on her face.
"He can tell you about that after. Tonight we are finishing the Argo's fall!" Tiona struck the table leaving a fist imprint in the wood.
"We have been looking for any lead on this miracle adventurer for years," Finn siad moving his chair between the arguing amazons. Tione losing all interest in her sister as she fawned over Finn's hair. "Tiona, you can have tomorrow off to hear the end of the Argo story. But tonight, we will hear what he knows about our mystery adventurer."
Loki drained half of her mug of alcohol before tossing an arm around her flat amazon. "So, where is Hesia's castoff? I want to hear this story while I am still partially sober."
"Hestia's castoff?" Loki turned her head to look at Alicia. Only a mouse or god would have heard the elf she had spoken so quietly.
Loki's eyes began to open, a rock-forming in her gut. "Alicia, that member of Hestia's familia the helped you in the dungeon, what did he look like?"
"Short maybe up to here," she put a hand next to her bust. "His hair was white like snow and cut short. His eyes were a deep ruby, and he used two daggers. Why?"
"That's Bell!" Every staff member turned to stare at Tiona. "You ran into him? Where is he?" Tiona continued.
"We were fighting an Abnormal, and he fell through a fissure," Alicia's face had gone white as a sheet, glass shattered behind them. Ryuu stood behind them, wine soaking into the floor under her shoes.
"He is lucky that he fell. After he restored my arm, I was going to have him gutted for sullying my skin with his touch," Kelroy said, a giant smirk on his face.
"You left Bell in the dungeon?" Tiona asked, a frown on her turned head. While Alicia tried to defend her actions to the Amazon, the gears were spinning in Loki's mind. How could she have been this stupid?
"Bell is the adventurer," Loki whispered. How could she have missed it? Hestia had thrown her wine at the kid two years ago. That Amazon had fucking said hair like wine! "Finn, get anyone we can spare into the dungeon and find that kid. Bring him straight to Twilight Manor."
Finn nodded; pulling the Amazons behind him, they slipped out of the inn. Loki kept the scowl off her face, but her mind was racing. How could she have missed this? When was the last time she even thought about Hestia's kid? When I came to the hostess to recruit him a month after I got him released, her hair stood on her arm, a shiver wracking her spine. Someone charmed me, Loki realized, and only two goddesses were strong enough to do that.
Loki stared at the empty mug in front of her. She needed a drink. Where the hell did our waitress go?