Apparently walking down the tunnel was the first bad choice we made...
As soon as we got ten meters from the archways the loud sound of rock scraping against rock filled the space. We stopped and looked back as a large stone wall blocked off the entrance, then our attention was brought up to see a sort of trap door sliding back into the roof, whelp, this sucks.
I immediately grabbed Charm and began running, I knew when not to stare at something coming out of the ceiling. No matter how amazing it could be, or if it wasn't even dangerous. It was still something that I did not want to be around for, and it was a good thing I kick-started our flight.
"Don't look back, just look for a place to hide!" I yelled back at a Charm as we ran down the tunnel. She had gotten the hint and was now running along-side me. Man was I glad for all those days I ran along the water every day.
"Okay!" she said, "What are we even looking for?"
"Don't know, just look for an area that either closes or leads off into a narrow tunnel of some kind." I said as we ran through a long curve in the path. Man I miss being able to watch those adventure movies. Mainly where the main characters get into this kind of tunnel trap and have to run for their lives with some kind of thing following them. waiting for it's chance to claim their lives. Sadly I was booted out of most before I got to see the end of most of those scenes, and those that I did get to see the Main characters either died, or everyone else died.
I saw an opening in the tunnel ahead where a bright white light came from and wondered why the trap was so slow if the exit was this close. Was there something that I was missing? I slowed down as we got closer but didn't dare cross the edge until I could see what was on the other side.
I held Charm back with an arm and a head-shake and looked around for something that I could throw through, hopefully this trap wasn't a lead into some other trap. I found the bone at the edge of the opening so I grabbed it, carefully, and then tossed it through the opening. The bone hit the wall of light and disintegrated as soon as it touched the light.
"N-now what?" Charm stuttered. I growled and looked around. The sound of the trap preparing was still audible, but just barely and going back was a bad idea.
"Look at the walls carefully." I said to Charm, "Point out anything that may be different anything that sticks out, there must be a way out of here other than death" I said and looked at the walls around as Charm did the same.
"What about over there?" She said, and once I saw it I grumbled, of course it had to be so far away, no one would even notice that if they were too busy running from whatever danger came from behind that wall.
(New Titles Gained: Observer, One Who Doesn't Wait)
New Skill Gained: Trap Sense)
"Did you hear that?" Charm asked and I nodded
"Something about titles and skills?" I asked her and she nodded
"Yeah, but I got something else too." she said turning towards me, "a skill named 'Trap Disarming', what do you think that means?"
"Look at the space again and tell me what you see" I asked and she did as I asked and gasped
"There's an outline on the wall I pointed out now." She said, "Why can I see the exit outlined like that?"
"It must be something to do with this world." I said "I got Titles and a Skill as well but we can figure out what that means later. We need to get out of here."
"Y-yeah" she said and we jogged over quickly and looked around.
"See anything else?" I ask and she was silent as she looked around before looking up and humming in confusion.
"That one's glowing for some reason no as well?" she asked and I looked up to what had brought her attention and saw she'd picked out a single square in the wall, one on the left middle side of a three by three box of like squares. Each were just big enough for a hand to fit through and there was a bar in the middle going from left to right.
"Lets find out." I said grabbing the pole and deciding to twist as hard as I could since that was one way they always did it in movies. The entire area seemed to shudder for a moment before the ground below us gave way and we landed in another, short tunnel. To the left was a wall, and to the right were stairs leading to a much more peaceful looking light surrounding an archway at the top. This one didn't completely block the other side from view and looked much more inviting. We climbed the stairs looking for traps along the way just in case and when we got to the top I picked up another rock from a corner of the room and tossed it in just to be sure. Nothing happened as it passed the threshold into the room and hit the ground harmlessly. Nothing came after it afterwards either as it bounced a few times and stopped moving. We waited for a few more moments before entering the room and looking around cautiously.
"Cool. This doesn't seem to be a deathtrap just yet." I said as we stopped and looked around the room. Charm seemed to be looking much stronger than she had before, so I guess she was back to normal again. I smiled and she smiled back before grabbing my hand and dragging me around the room to see every corner of the place. There was another set of stairs on the opposite side of the room but we kept away from that for now but we discovered two other stairways, one going up for a long time, and one going down for a long time. The one we came form and the one across it were both ones that you could at least see where it stopped.
"You do realize that I know when you are making fun of me don't you?" She growled when we stopped and I just kept on smiling. "What do you think is gonna be an area to let us out?" She asked and I shrugged.
"Don't know, so far all we've only run into are abandoned caves and a potentially fake trap meant to cause people to fall for the real trap." I replied and she just hummed and we sat in silence for a while, resting.
I don't know how time differs here, but I'm hoping it's close to what it was in History. This place probably does something to make it seem like time goes slower than normal, or maybe it would be time actually is slower than normal in here than the outside world. we decided to take the stairway we couldn't see the top to, and thinking about it now, we probably should've just gone with the 'safe' option of a ceiling we could actually see. At the top of the stairs was another room like the one that we had been in, but there were four giant creatures in the center of the room. Two of them seemed to be the same species: some kind of giant rat about the size of a car with two saber-like teeth sticking out of it's mouth every time it closed. The other two were different species that seemed to be working together in an attempt to stop or kill the rat creatures.
(Encountered Dungeon Fight)
(Sealing all Exits)
(Enemies left to defeat: 4)
(Enemies left to defeat: 3)
That same voice appeared again and we both looked back to see that the staircase had disappeared and there was now an endless void off the edge. One of the rat creatures had just been killed by a seven foot tall wolf like creature. It reminded me of what those medieval Werewolves looked like, from the older movie covers that I saw in The Stacks from time to time.
The creature had digitigrade legs like that of a wolf and even though the body and arms were like that of a human's. They were each thicker than my head and covered in so much fur that it was impossible to call them even remotely human. The fact that the tips of their hands had seven inch long claws that looked sharp enough to cut through steel didn't help. It's head was like that of a wolf and the other's looked like a cat of some kind, but both were bigger than what I thought necessary.
"What should we do?" Charm whispered. We both were frozen in our spots, afraid of either of the creatures noticing us.
Oh yeah the third creature was like the wolf, but it looked more feline like, but that didn't make it any less scary. I contemplated throwing my rock at one of them so that the other could be able to take advantage of the situation and kill that one while it was distracted, but that would mean revealing ourselves to the three remaining creatures. Well either it was that, or die anyways.
"I could throw my rock at the rat creature, and you could hide behind those stalagmites." I said holding up the rock and looking at Charm.
"No." She growled, "Then you're going to be in danger, and if you die, what's gonna happen to me?" I looked at her sadly.
"Well do you have any better ideas?" I said and she hummed for a second before nodding.
"How about you throw the rock at the giant rat, distract it enough for the other two to kill it, and then hide while they kill each other?" She gave and I thought for a second before nodding. She stayed at my side even as I threw the rock at the creature. Time seemed to slow as the rock arced towards the giant rat creature. When the rock collided with the creatures face, accidentally, all three turned their heads to look at us and the rat roared out angry and rushed towards me.
(You have Taunted a Level 45 Blood Rat)
(You have Angered a Level 45 Blood Rat)
(You have been Paralyzed by Blood Gaze (Level 7))
(Time Remaining: 30 seconds)
I couldn't move, the so this thing was called a Blood Rat. It did something and now I couldn't move, I couldn't warn Charm of this either. I could only watch as the giant creature barreled it's way towards us knowing that I was helpless to do anything to it. This strange voice in my head only added to my despair as it told me how long I was paralyzed for.
Suddenly the Wolf and the Feline Creatures jumped on the Blood Rat's back. The wolf was digging it's claws into the creatures hide and letting it's claws drag back as the rat continued to go forwards. The feline creature had disappeared and as soon as the wolf creature slid off of the Rat's back, leaving four large, nasty gashes all the way from it's shoulders to the base of it's tail, the feline creature suddenly appeared at the Rat's side with longer claws than usual.
There wasn't even a second to react as the feline creature slid underneath the rat as it's neck turned to snap at the wolf behind it, leaving bloody gashes in it's wake and a waterfall of blood flowing from the wound. The wolf creature didn't wait for the rat to realize that it's throat had been cut open before leaping onto it's head and ripping upwards.
The sound of flesh and muscle tearing away from the rat's body was the only thing I heard as the wolf ripped the rat's head from it's body and the feline creature flipped and kicked the spine of the rat, causing it to snap off and disconnect from the rest of the body. The head was then thrown off to the side and the wolf and the feline creatures looked towards us with hungry eyes.
(You have been Cursed by Level 45 Blood Rat)
(Enemies remaining: 2)
(Time Left: 15 seconds)
I could only watch as the feline and the wolf creatures advanced with killer expressions. The fact that their claws and bodies were matted with blood didn't help the feeling of dread in my stomach as the two took their time coming towards me, but Charm did something I didn't think she would be able to. She moved! It seems to have only effected me, but she didn't move to hide. She moved in front of me with her book in hand. Wait, was that with her this entire time? How did I not notice her carrying a book around for all this time?
(Time Remaining: 5 seconds)
The voice in my head started to count down the seconds until I was released from my paralyzed state but the wolf seemed to sense something amiss but they both were halted as Charm swung the book out and caught the wolf's muzzle, sending it reeling sideways, but not down.
(Time remaining: 4)
(Time Remaining: 3)
Time seemed to slow down at that moment as the feline, wolf, and Charm all stared each other down. The wolf was judging the distance to me and the feline was gauging how to take down Charm, but it didn't see it as a challenge, more of an experiment. Like a cat thinking about how best to play with their prey before killing it. I was free of the effect just as the wolf lunged for Charm but her focus was on the feline, so I rushed forward and tackled the creature. When I looked up the feline creature was gone and so was Charm, but the wolf was looking at me with curled lips and slightly showing teeth. Even though I had clearly interrupted yet another situation for it.
Was it mocking my weakness? Did it sense my fear and that was why it went for her and not me? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't we have just been teleported somewhere less dangerous? We've both been left powerless and scared, in a dungeon with things that only want to kill us. I can't help but feel the despair creeping up on my mind.
A sudden, girlish scream broke me out of my thoughts and I quickly jumped off the creature, clumsily jumped off the creature actually, and I landed on my back. It growled mockingly as it stood up and I felt around for something, anything I could use behind me to fight it. Something pointy touched my hand and I scooted back a little more to grip the stone stake firmly behind me.
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