Watching skin and tissue break off of a beast, fall onto the ground, then spurt back up as crawling creatures of flesh, four crooked limbs with jagged teeth at their front, a surreal sight for the trio. They stood, shocked, watching the meat sacks squirm around their larger counterpart.
A roar, like the screaming of dozens of humans in concert, resounded as a tree tumbled down and then was immediately devoured, entering a gaping mouth as beady, crimson eyes maintained their forward gaze. The guardian of the 4th floor was a rampaging monster, running across the land, eating everything in its path. Its four crooked limbs, spindly and twig-like, crawled across the ground, wood and beasts crushed beneath its weight.
It was only as large as the trees around it, but its worm-like head continuously slammed them down as its mouth opened and closed, chopping as it crawled towards the trio. Its form continually birthed smaller versions of itself while it ate any life in its path.
Its multitude of crimson eyes, eyes that lay from what they assumed to be its forehead to its side, were dead set on the group.
"What the fuck is that?" Elsa asked breathlessly, "That's the thing we've been hearing?"
They had trekked across the floor, killing whatever beasts came their way as the noise of that thing filled the air, yet who knew that grotesque form would burst out of the ground and head straight for them?
Rose shrugged, <Igris> already burning in her grasp. "Whatever it is, it's likely what we'll be killing."
After all, the sigil on the back of her hand was currently glowing, signifying that the guardian of this floor was close by.
"It's already here."
Lilias's voice was cut short, mana churned over her swords as she slashed, crossed blades sliding and separating from one another with a distinct ring. Two orbs blinked and a wave of mana shot forward.
A roar resounded.
The energy morphed, twisting and forming the raging head of an azure dragon. Its maw opened, revealing sharp fangs of blue, and then it reached, biting down as its mouth expanded to devour the frontal enclave of the coming creatures.
An explosion of blue shone. Flesh and the crimson red of blood kissed the air before falling back down, the screams of dying beasts echoing through the air.
Many of the smaller forms of the guardian were dead, just like that.
Yet, the thing itself stood, part of its mouth breaking off into a brittle piece of meat that fell, died, and crumbled away into dirt.
". . ."
It stood motionless for a moment, as if taking in the damage. Then, it roared, charging across the land, limbs twisting as it crawled, while its face began reforming as it once was.
"So. . .it heals," Rose noted.
"Indeed," Lilias spoke, popping the cores from her weapon and replacing them with ones for close combat. It was the advantage of a legendary custom armament designed to have various modes. Rightfully, the weight of the twin swords in her grasp also reminded her of why they were currently in her possession.
"Elsa." Rose squinted at the approaching creature, unamused by its raging face, finding it disgusting to look at. "It's time to put your new spirit to a real test."
Elsa grinned and clenched her right hand in front of her as the spirit of the vampiric tree, etched on her upper arm, glowed green.
Vines spurted from her right palm and shot forward, twisting, and growing in the air. The beasts came and her vines spun to wrap around them before she pulled, constricting around and grasping the whole of the thick bunch. Immediately, the smaller creatures stopped moving entirely, while the speed of the larger abomination dropped. Yet, the vines upon it were already snapping, one by one, unable to restrain it entirely.
"Drats," She muttered as she gritted her teeth.
Lest she shifted into a dang tree, with immobility from roots planted into the ground, she couldn't directly drink the life out of the creature and kill it. Yet, the stamina of the beast was slowly draining, sucked through the vines, to enter her. Her quickened breath steadied.
She grinned. Her vines were entirely resistant to her lightning but, as they were growing out of her hands, an extension of herself. . .well, then. . .
Lightning rumbled and leapt through the vines.
Then the white sparks touched the beasts.
Roars of pain resounded, united. The smaller forms of the abomination were directly fried to death, bodies falling before crumbling into dirt within the uprooted forest. The larger one trashed about, figures smoking with heat, slowly crawling towards them even as Elsa poured all her lightning into them.
"Looks like it's all on you guys," Elsa commented, retreating from its detestable form.
It reached them as Rose took a step forward. It chomped, teeth clashing against one another, eyes staring down at her as it missed, devouring nothing but air. She took her weapon, hot with flames, and pierced the thick skin of its lower jaw.
"Explode."
Its head blasting apart in a blaze of fire, meat and blood splashing, hitting the floor, before turning to dirt.
Yet, she squinted her eyes a moment later.
"It's. . .it's still healing?"
The tenacity of the creature was audacious. Half its body was missing, yet it was still healing, form slowly regrowing its flesh through whatever energy it had left. Rose's golden eyes spun about, feeling as if they were missing something.
Then. She saw its mana core floating within the air, at the exact midpoint of its seared flesh, glowing azure. In fact, it was shaking, as if it would shatter at any moment.
"Lilias."
A crimson sword broke down its middle to reveal a chamber.
Mana churned.
Lilias aimed and fired.
A ray of blue, vibrating like static, hot like a laser, pierced through the core of the beast.
A crack formed then it shattered, crumbling apart, before a smaller version of itself clunked against the ground. The rest of the beast crumbled down into a brittle mass of meat around the mana orb. Slug-like and particularly disgusting to look at before the wind came and broke the illusion, revealing them already crumbling into dirt.
As the glow of her sigil died down, and a door of light appeared, Rose knew it was truly dead. Naturally, she retrieved its mana orb, disappointed that there was no spirit within. Though guardians were more likely to drop spirits than normal mana beast, it was no guarantee.
They passed through the door and entered that white space again. This time, however, Rose reached her right hand into the air as she called out.
"Dungeon - Access - Leave."
[Authorizing access.]
[Authorization completed.]
The familiar voice replied as her sigil glowed and a white circle, swimming with intricate mysteries, descended upon and through the trio, before touching the floor. As she briefly glanced down at the circle, even her own eyes finding it hard to focus on its forever changing lines, Rose thought this was how the dungeon knew what to take and what not to take in and out of it. Then, it disappeared as fluidly as it came.
[Beginning transmission.]
[I shall continue awaiting you, at the top, Rose.]
They disappeared from the white room.
Thanks for the chapter.
Thanks for reading.