As I fall I see the tile from above go back into its place, blocking the light from it. I hit the floor which hurts like hell but at least it wasn't anything fatal, I think. Not like I can tell how far I fell. But fuck, that hurts. This room also appears to be dimly lit with torches like the hallway above. I look around and see crates, sticks, hay, and carvings. The carvings seem to be earlier versions of the paintings from above. They are a lot rougher, so I would assume so. 

I stand up and readjust myself. I grab one of the torches so I can see things better. My body is in some pain so best not to fight for now. There was only one path for me to go so I go into it. I can hear some chanting. As I continue forward it leads to a much bigger room. I look down and see the masked people chanting. Good thing I'm upstairs or that would cause a lot of trouble for me. I move closer to the wall so they have a smaller chance of seeing me.

I notice another pathway a couple feet away from me. As I entered it, it seemed to lead downstairs. As I was about to enter I hear yelling in another language. I see a masked person with a shield and stick with stone on it. His shield was much more colorful than the others. It has red, blue, green stripes with some yellow specs. His mask was also different. It had feathers on it and his mask had more detail. It had war-like face paint and angrier. You could see the white lines and other colors. He also seemed to be the most tanned person in the room.

I would assume this is maybe a higher up? Leader? Who knows. It seems like he is yelling at them though. Maybe because of us coming into the temple. Shit, that's right... Hopefully, everyone is okay. I need to look for them before they gang up on either one or two of us. I should tread carefully too. I look around the big ass room again, it seems like nothing is really off. It's pretty plain looking. I then go down the stairs from the path before. 

As I was going downstairs I heard the sound of footsteps. It seemed they were running somewhere. I peaked at the corner of the stairs and see them running towards the left. After they disappear into one of the pathways I go to the right. There are four ways to go so I choose the right side again. I can see a person patrolling so I'll be forced to fight. Good thing this corridor is big enough for us to fight. I pull out my sword and shield.

"Hey, dick bag!" I yell to the guard

The guy yells in another language which there is no way for me to describe or translate. He starts to charge. Wait, do I still capture them? I fucking suck at magic so I can't. I will have to kill him. I can't knock him out cause he could wake up at any time so that's a risk. Shit. The man charges with his knives, he throws them. I parry them and he pulls out a stick? What? I block it with my sword. I kick him with my left leg which failed.

He kicks me which hurts a little. I push him off and stab him through the chest. Wait, I didn't mean to-

. . .

The man lies on the floor. Some blood scattered on my shield and sword. A voice in my head said, "Hey it was like the time you let her die!". I ignored it as this was different... It wasn't like that. I grab one of the old rags on the floor and clean the blood off my sword and shield. I pick up my torch as I put my weapons away and walk forward. I continue on. As I was walking forward I heard some clashing of weapons. Enemy or Friend?

Should I hurry? or should I walk and then peak? Fuck it, I'll do both. Wait, can I even peak? It leads to a room so, no I can't. I hurry along and see Illusion, Melia, and Leticia fending off against the masked people. You know I should probably call them something else besides masked people but uh dun know. Anyway back to the point. I shield bash the person aiming at Leticia.

"Sup guys." I say oh so casually

"Watch your back." Illusion replied throwing lightning behind me

"Oh." I reply

I turn to see a man paralyzed on the floor. I shield bash the guy next to me and Melia uses light magic to capture him. Leticia does Leticia things or well, nothing.

"Um... shouldn't you guys be more careful." Melia questioned

"Naaaah, we got this." Illusion

I shrug to Melia. Well anyway, back to the battle. Instead of killing them as I did earlier, we captured them. Well, hopefully, they don't find the body then. I find it funny... me killing isn't what disturbed me... Damn me. I should focus on this small scaled battle though. We quickly end this battle by just knocking them out with magic, which was mostly light and dark, shield bashing, and Illusion paralyzing them. We group them together as they are all tied up with magic.

"Well, that was quick. You guys okay though?" I asked

"We made it out fine thankfully." Melia answered

Leticia nods after Melia said that.

"Well, I saved them too. Where was my thanks at?" Illusion joked

"Ah, I forgot that happened. I am sorry." Melia states as she scratches her head with an embarrassed face. 

"Anyone know where the others are?" I asked

"Oh, Yeah. I saw them earlier! They got captured sadly. I would have helped them but there were too many of them." Illusion responded as he pointed to the right

"All three of them?" I asked again

"Yes, all three of them were captured." Illusion repeated

"Ok, just making sure." I replied

"Well, let me lead you to them. Shall we?" Illusion spoke

He leads the way. I look at the girls and shrug. They follow him after I shrug and so do I. It's another corridor, god damn this place is literally just corridors. 

"Sh! Hold it guys." Illusion stated

"Huh?" I reply

Melia looks at Leticia confused but Leticia just stares unamused. Illusion proceeds to go invisible.

"Wait here, I got this." Illusion said

"Wait... If you could of done this earlier how come you didn't do it!?!" I questioned

"It was too suspicious earlier. Plus their leader was there." Illusion answered before we heard his footsteps get further and further

I look in the room and see Dalton, Destiny, and Ivran locked in cages. Daggers were then thrown out of nowhere. Pretty sure those are Illusions daggers as they carried his blue and yellowish tint like his eyes did. Lightning struck from inside the building onto the first two targets with daggers in them. Then a small flash of light could be seen teleporting to the daggers and they were once again thrown while more lightning struck. Big flex Illusion.

The masked people keep panicking as their numbers dwindle. One of them is seen escaping but Illusion let him go? Why? Eventually, all 25 guards are paralyzed on the floor. Illusion then comes back from the shadows and gets a key from one of the guards and opens the cages. Destiny is shocked, Ivran is impressed, and Dalton is confused but impressed. Can you even be confused and impressed at the same time? Eh, whatever. Dalton and them get their weapons back as they were lying on a weapons rack in the corner of the room.

I walk up to Illusion and repeat again "Illusion, as I said before. Did you really need us for this quest?" 

"Well no, but they wouldn't let me so I forced you guys here!" he said with a smile

I sigh.

"Well, you two alright?" I ask Destiny and Dalton

"Yeah, just a few scratches here and there." answered Dalton

"What Dalton said." Destiny responds

"Ahem. What about me? Link." Ivran says

"You seem completely untouched." I tell Ivran

He stares at me but he knows I'm right. Well, that's what I think anyway from his look.

"Oh yeah, Why'd you let that one dude escape?" I ask Illusion

"To lure in the leader. It's the easiest way besides completely alerting the whole temple of our presence." Illusion answered

"Uh... I guess?" I reply with a shrug

Footsteps can be heard coming from all directions.

"Well, it's up to you guys now. I'm tired so there's is only so much I can do." Illusion says

50 of them show up surrounding us. 7 vs 50, I don't like these odds.

"Leticia come here." Ivran tells Leticia

Leticia looks at me with a shiver and I shrug at her and she decides to walk over to Ivran. Ivran, I swear to god if you leave us.

"Alright, I have a plan." Daltons says

"That was... quick." I reply

"Well, I was the smart one in our group projects." Dalton bragged

"He's not wrong." Destiny grumbled while making a pained expression

She just admitted defeat there. Huh, been a while since they fought over something now that I think about it.

"Anyways, Link you stall the leader looking guy while we get the rest." Dalton suggested

"Huh, why me?" I questioned

"I hate to admit it, but you are rather slow vs groups of enemies and seem to do well for 1v1's looking back at your last match with that guy trying to kill you." he replied

"You do know he was just messing with me right?" I say with a pained expression

"Well, you didn't die so that's work too." Dalton responded

I sigh and answer "You're not wrong... Alright, Fine. You guys better hurry up at least."

"Don't worry we will. Plus, Melia's got your back, right?" assured Dalton

Melia nods at me. Well, better than nothing, I guess. Didn't even get consent for this too. Then again, there wasn't enough time to really get an idea of what to do. So, it is better than nothing. I draw my sword and shield and grip them. Man, I fucking hate this. 10 of the men charge at us Dalton and Illusion engage two of them. Destiny throws those small ice needles to freeze two of them. Hopefully she doesn't overextend her mana. Melia is using all types of magic again. Ivran is doing something but I have no idea. Leticia can't do anything but is with Ivran.

I look towards the leader. He attempts to attack Melia first so I intercept it. He ignores me so I cut a part of his shoulder. Now his attention is on me. I see him swing his stick thing with stones at me but I also notice another guy preparing to stab me with a spear. By instinct, I block the stick with stone thing first but I end up getting stabbed near the shoulder. Melia then uses water magic to capture the guy who stabbed me and uses ice magic to freeze them in an ice block.

Well, shit. It's gonna be harder to defend against this guy now. My left arm feels like shaking too after being hit by the impact of the stick thing. I look around for a split second and half the room is cleared so I would assume 25ish people left besides us. I turn back and he already is swinging down at me which I dodge to the side. I slash at him and he deflects it with his stick sending my sword flying. You know my training did jack shit, I'm still getting my ass handed here. Then again that's also my fault.

More people enter the room. Well, shit. Suddenly the floor can be heard cracking. Me and the leader looking dude stopped and look at the floor and vines come out of the floor. Holy shit. I turn to Ivran and it's his doing. He's got a book out and is trying to teach Leticia this it seems. The vines grow and grow and become large and start slapping the masked people and those who enter. Those vines must be using a lot of force to send those guys flying into the walls.

More vines pop up to entangle the knocked out people. Well, this just got easier. Most of the room is cleared now. The leader starts chanting in his language which I still don't know what it is. The vines that were growing ceased and decayed and some masks started appearing. Okay, what the fuck. Illusion throws one of his daggers and pierces a mask and shocks it which destroys the mask. Dalton burns some of the people protecting the mask and burns the mask itself. 

There are only two masks left and they turn into copies of the leader. 

"Link!" Illusion says as he slides my sword to me

"Huh? Oh, thanks." I reply

I turn towards the leader again and now he's facing me. His head is now twisting in 90 degrees which is a bit disturbing. His eyes on the mask glow green too. And now he's hopping all over the place. Most of the other guys are gone though so that's good. He jumps toward Melia and prepares to swing his stick thing at her. I run over to block the hit but he fakes his swing and makes it hit my right arm. I think I heard a crack.

I put my left arm on my right arm. Holy shit that hurts. It's hard to hold back some tears of pain. I think my right arm got fractured or worse, broken. All I can feel is pain and see blood. Illusion throws one of his daggers into the leader and strikes him lighning. I kneel from the pain even though it's on my arm.

"Link! I-I'm sorry... I should of-" Melia apologized 

"It's fine..." I say with a forced smile

I look at my wound, it's not a small one. Those stones... or well the blades I guess I should say considering it cut into me and cut some small chunks off. Fuck, this fucking hurts. Kinda feels cold. I fall back a little.

"H-Hold on!" Melia cried 

I look at the leader, he stares at me with his neck turned 90 degrees to the right. I look around and the clones are gone. Was it the clones enhancing his ability or was it Illusion slowing him down? I don't know. I turn to my wound, seems like Melia is trying to heal it. I turn back to the battle and Ivran and Illusion are fighting it. Ivran breaks the leader's weapon. I look at it more closely... It's no stick, it was a club. How the hell did I think it was a stick? I cough a little.

I start losing focus. I heard my name getting called a couple times. I can see Dalton charging to the leader guy and burning a part of his skin. This is happening pretty quickly. I close my eyes for a bit and now the leader of the masked people is on the floor it seems he's speaking English now or something. 

"You fools have doomed us! He will come! The god will come and kill us!." he repeats 

"Ivran! Help us!" the group demanded

"But I must... he bit his tongue off and I have a duty." Ivran said

my hearing was getting hazy. The last thing I heard was to save a life or maybe save a life that won't matter or something. I don't remember it clearly before closing my eyes. This gave me a feeling of happiness but regret as my eyelids fully closed.