"Welcome to Faerun!" - Speech

'Im in Faerun?' - Thoughts

"We're in Faerun" - Telepathic Speech

"Ignis!" - Spells

"Fuck.." I silently cursed out loud. I didn't think I'd fight this early but here we go! I guess...

3 red imps were currently feasting on a fresh corpse, they soon noticed us(thanks to Lae'zel taking the lead) and took a V formation with two of the bigger imps in the front and the smaller imp in the back. Man were these fuckers ugly. They were small, no bigger than a kid, and looked no stronger. Their faces were covered with the blood of their last victim, it was a much darker red compared to the pale red that they appeared. They had thin limbs with huge black talons, with disproportionally large wings along terrifying teeth, jagged ears, and huge horns. I, however, felt no fear at all. In fact, I felt excited. My body was begging for a fight and I can't lie I was too, I wanted to see what I was capable of and these trash tutorial-level imps were perfect for this. I quickly came up with a plan in my head and told Lae'zel.

"Take the left one!" I said confidently while readying my weapon and my magic.

"Consider it done," Lae'zel said full of confidence.

The room we were in was sort of shaped like a shallow auditorium, the imps were only a foot or so below us but that gave us a good advantage. Not like I thought we needed it but it was definitely welcome! I quickly felt my magic crackle with anticipation and my blood felt like it was on fire. Was this what battle felt like? Where was this all my life?! A sick smile came across my face, and I could swear I saw the imps look at each other and gulp. That made me chuckle. Enough standing around, let's fight!

"All is ash and meat!" I cried while running and jumping at the imp on the right. I jumped a lot higher than I thought, and without even thinking I blasted the imp furthest in the back with a huge ball of heat. However, all that was on my mind was thinking about how stupid I probably sounded. The heat however brought me back to reality.

'Fireball!' I thought.

The imp directly under me received its own end by my blade. I fell to the floor with a great amount of momentum behind me, which led to a devastating attack.

Slash!

My cold steel met flesh and bone and for the first time in a long time, I felt at home. The familiar feeling of killing, the delishish smell of blood! It was all so intoxicating. It's bad to kill innocents but there's nothing wrong with relishing a fresh kill right?

...Man what the hell am I thinking?! I sound so cringe.

My sword met its end halfway into its chest before I pulled out my sword from the now-dead imp. The imp was unlucky to have me run into me, I slashed him from his shoulder to his opposite kidney. A great kill I might say but that poor imp held no chance. The other imp I hit with a fireball was nothing more than a pile of ashes, and in less than 5 seconds I killed my share of imps.

I turned towards Lae'zel to see her just finish off her imp with two well-placed slashes. Poor imp didn't even get an attack in.

I sheathed my sword and Lae'zel did the same before speaking.

"I must say you proved yourself quite adequate in battle, now-to the helm." She said before walking towards me.

"Agreed," I said simply before joining Lae'zel's side.

The room was very much like every other room I'd seen. Walls made of flesh, weird alien devices, and lots of torture tools. Complete with an open sky that showed billowing smoke. The only new thing was the amount of dead bodies on the floor. The only reason I didn't search them was because I already knew what they had and it wasn't anything special.

As we walked along the outside ring of the destroyed room we spotted an odd clam-shell-looking thing that had blue tentacles coming out of it. It looked really weird but I knew what it was. As we closed in I decided to let Lae'zel know about it.

"I used one of these things earlier, they heal you," I said as truthful-sounding as possible. Lae'zel didn't even stop to look at it and continued walking

"I have no use for Ghaik devices, and I have no use for healing," Lae'zel said in her usual aggressive tone. I sighed before following her. Don't say I didn't try Lae'zel...

We continued until we met an odd wall of sorts, more like vines made of flesh than anything. Disgusting.

'Whoa.' I thought, as I felt the ship shake heavily, it looked like we were running out of time. I tried my best to keep steady until it stopped

"Let's hurry," I said before climbing the weird flesh-ladder.

"Agreed," Lae'zel said.

Lae'zel sure didn't make good conversation, but it did feel good to have some backup.

The path we were taking was far from safe and even worse than I remembered. Most of the walls and room were burned and chewed up. It left huge scary holes in the floor that could easily lead me to fall to my death. I tried my best not to look down at the holes but couldn't help but take a peek. How high up were we? I wonder if Lae'zel is scared of heights too.

We soon made it to the final flesh ladder and this one was the longest by far and looked to lead us into a different room. Climbing this thing was weirdly easy too, it was solid and not as fleshy as I originally thought. I felt like a rope ladder, just a bit slimier. My guess was it was made of tendons or something. Whoever created this ship was a fucking psycho though. The top of the "ladder" held solid flooring, and I looked around for a bit while I waited for Lae'zel. There was nothing besides another weird asshole-like door. I fucking hate the look of those things, man. Especially the smell. Lae'zel soon climbed off the ladder and stood next to me. I touched the door when I saw her and it opened like usual, and we walked in. After a quick scan, I saw someone that caught my eye.

'Oh shit! Shadowheart!' I thought instantly.

I forgot this is where I met her! My heart pounded more each step I took, I was very excited to meet her after playing the game so much.

The room looked much like every other room here, seriously someone has to add some variety to this place man. Just flesh and weird alien technology. The only difference was a control panel directly in front of us that was in front of a large red and spikey power supply maybe? Not sure. Other than that there were a few pods around and a Healing Station. And of course dead people.

"Istik-back! Touch nothing without knowing its purpose." Lae'zel said, almost scared, but more concerned.

"I won't, don't worry," I said back.

I ignored the control panel, I wasn't sure how to use it and it would only bring us more problems anyway. I, instead, walked to the pod on the left side where Shadowheart was being held.

Thunk! Thunk!

As soon as we got close to Shadowheart she started to bang on her pod.

"Dammit!" She screamed in frustration.

We were now right in front of her and I got a good look at her while she banged on the glass. It felt like, I don't know. Butterflies. She was so stunning, breathtaking even. I've never seen someone so beautiful, not even online could you find someone this beautiful. She seemed to see something in me too but I couldn't tell you what. Attraction? Hope? Fear? Recodnition? Maybe even all four. But her pale green eyes told me something. Her face showed a mix of shock and hope. Her pale skin gave way to a smile that parted through her rosy lips. Her smile caught my breath and I couldn't shake her beautiful face from my mind.

It was love, just 10 feet away.

I shook my head, I was getting ahead of myself we had more important stuff to do right now, the most important being saving her!

Her smile quickly disappeared as she remembered she was still stuck in the pod.

"You! Get me out of this damn thing!" Shadowheart begged. Her voice was faint and hard to hear from the closed pod but I've heard it plenty of times, though subtitles would definitely be helpful right about now.

Lae'zel was not a fan of her idea, however.

"We have no time for stragglers." She informed me, fully bent on leaving her here. But I could never do that.

"I think I know what to do, I'll be back!" I yelled, making sure Shadowheart heard me.

"This ship is crashing! Do you intend to die for a stranger?" Lae'zel questioned me, an angry look clearly on her face.

"We need as many allies as we can get," I said to her.

"Hurry, please!" Shadowheart cried, still pounding on the glass, the look of fear now more clear on her face than ever.

Lae'zel shook her head and did her signature lip smack. I just internally chuckled.

"Follow me," I said to Lae'zel. I almost slipped up and said her name.

"Fine," She spat, clearly she didn't want to but did anyway.

I took one last look at Shadowheart and saw her pleading eyes.

'I could never abandon her.' I thought. She was my first romance! How could I leave her? And it's not like it was hard anyway we just need that slab.

I quickly walked to the door that was closest to Shadowheart, I hated calling these things doors but that's technically what they are. I touched it and it quivered open.

"Disgusting," I spat to no one in particular.

Lae'zel followed closely behind me to the room that just opened. It had a single mind flayer pod in the center of the room with a short set of stairs behind it that led to a chest. Directly next to us however laid a dead woman with a shiny golden key in one hand and a scimitar in the other. I grabbed both and held the scimitar in one hand and placed the key in my satchel. I would need them later. As we descended farther into the room Lae'zel spoke up.

"Tsk'va! How many hosts have these ghaik infected?" Lae'zel said, with a hit of both rage and fear.

"Far too many," I said simply. Lae'zel didn't say anything but seemed to agree with my words.

As we made our way past the mind flayer pod and up the stairs, three things were in view. Another odd crab-like chest, a human brain in a vat of liquid, and a dead half-elf that held a strange slab.

"I think this will open that pod, check that chest over there," I asked Lae'zel while I grabbed the rune off the dead half-elf. I inspected the rune. It held many strange markings that I had no idea what it said, or even what language it was in. It didn't give off any particular feeling either just seemed like a piece of stone or something. I held onto it anyway.

"Anything?" I asked Lae'zel who was looking inside the chest.

"Two potions," She said while throwing me one. I caught it very easily with my one free hand and stored it in my satchel. This bag of holding is pretty handy.

"Let's go," I said to Lae'zel before walking towards the exit, Lae'zel followed.

As soon as we made our way within sight of Shadowheart she began to bang on the pod once again.

"Let me out! Please!" She said with desperation.

It made my heart ache a little, did she really think we would leave her here?

I didn't say anything and just inspected the console next to her. I couldn't make heads or tales of it but there was a spot that looked like I could insert the rune into, which I did just that. As soon as it was inserted the fleshy console hummed and sprang to life in an odd red glow. I hyped myself up knowing what was next and touched the console.

"Ugh!" I groaned in pain. Discomfort and pain hit my head. I could feel the tadpole squirming and swimming in my skull, fuck did it feel weird. The only good thing was that the pain faded quickly and was replaced by a feeling of authority. When I was ready I willed the pod open. It was an odd thing to do but it came very naturally surprisingly. Probably a side-effect of the tadpole.

I then heard high-pressure gas escaping the pod next to me and saw the pod automatically open on its own. Shadowheart spared not a second and jumped out as soon as she could, too bad she didn't stick the landing because she fell flat on her face. Exhausted she rolled on her back and caught her breath.

"At.. last.. I thought I was.. done for," Shadowwheart said in between breaths. I squatted down next to her and inspected her, she wore the same odd armor as in the game, her torso was covered by chainmail that covered her arms and her waist, and on top of that she wore a leather vest and on top of that she wore some odd ornate metal plate and equally odd pauldrons. No leg armor or helmet. Of course...