Geoff [91]
~ Billy, Kazumi Sea ~
The red masked monster squeezes his victim, his rubbery elastic body clenching down on Dick. The big man groans in pain. All that muscle is unable to do a damn thing about the monster strangling him. These things aren't like the little gooey monsters. No, they're both more durable and more flexible at the same time.
My eyes narrow as the monster grabs hold of a piece of broken furniture. It uses its free tendrils to pick up the hunk of wood before hurling it my way. I see it coming, and roll to the side. I attempt to hit the damn thing with my cloth wrapped weapon. The attack hits.
"What in the world-"
I grunt as the thing pushes me back with a slap of its slippery appendages. Unlike the smaller monsters this thing is completely shrugging off the blunt strikes. I reach down and unwrap my blade, letting the fabric fall away to expose the sharp edge.
"Thought blades didn't work?"
Kingsley asks, shortly before blocking a strike from the monster. He has his brow raised as he glances at me over his shoulder. The way his jaw clenches makes it clear he's worried about his companion.
"They didn't on the other monsters, but this one I'm not sure!"
"Well don't accidentally cut Dick up!"
Nodding, I move in to engage. Kingsley lets the monster approach me with its hostage. I watch it carefully, its masked face somehow mocking me as it holds the suffocating man's body in my path. It makes it hard to find an opening. It's using him as a human shield.
Something behind the monster gives me pause. Drist has snuck around the room to get behind the monsters. He has one of his daggers wrapped in fabric to make it a blunt tool, but the other one is uncovered. I press forward, swinging my sword in distracting attempts to attack the monster around his unwilling shield.
The monster doesn't catch on. It continues to mock me with its masked face drawing closer, as if laughing at me. I finally stop my attacks, smirking at the masked aberration. Drist is right behind it.
"You're not as smart as you think."
My words are followed immediately by Drist slicing the monster's contorting neck with his uncovered blade. Shockingly it works, severing the chunk of the monster and making it turn to watery mush which falls uselessly to the floor.
The trade off is that the monster suddenly whips around to throw Dick's body in the way. Drist has to step back to keep himself from getting body slammed by the hostage. This exposes the monster's back to me, unfortunately that doesn't help as much as I thought it would.
My sword strikes air as the creature wiggles unnaturally. Its robes billow and flow around it, several rubbery tendrils slipping from the fabric to slap at me in an attempt to keep me back. It works right up until Kingsley joins the fight at my side. The hard-boiled man swings his sword with a mask of fury on his face. He clearly cares for his own.
"Let go of my friend, you freak!"
Drist's attacks keep the monster frantically blocking one side of itself. My sword strikes aren't enough on their own, but with Kingsley here the monster can't keep up. Both Kingsley and I's blades meet the creature's flailing limbs. With each bout we gain more ground and it loses more of its gooey body.
Eventually Dick is dropped to the ground with a thud. The man's face is a scarlet color, his neck bruised. He gasps air, coughing as he sits on his hands and knees.
Our fighting doesn't result in the death of the monster, just the reduction of its size. Its mask hangs over its body like a helmet now. The amorphous blob flees like a scuttling spider. Drist gives chase, following the red masked thing before stomping it into a fine paste. All that is left is the mask.
"M-Miss Hawthorne!"
Leah's voice grabs our attention. We turn to find Miss Hawthorne and Geoff—Kingsley's underling—both held in the grip of the blue masked monster. While it has lost its mask it hasn't lost its ability to scheme. The thing is forcing its strange wriggling body down the throats of both Miss Hawthorne and Geoff. They both look pale and sick, held aloft by the monstrosity.
My eyes widen at the show of cruelty. The monster is trying to kill them from the inside. Fear and anger boil in me as I rush towards the creature. It pulls its blue smiling mask onto its face whilst tightening its grip on its victims. Kingsley and Drist don't miss a beat.
The three of us charge toward the monster in a pincer maneuver. Drist takes up the left, I the center, Kingsley the right. I swing my sword at the thing's lower body as a distraction. The real threat is Drist. His dagger slices apart the gooey tendrils that attempt to fend him off. Both of the hostages are dying. Their faces are white as paper, and their eyes are rolling back.
"Let them go, you fucking monster!"
I swing my sword up and slice apart the monster's connection to the inside of Miss Hawthorne. The thing's body ripples as she falls to the ground. She lets out a strangled cough, mushy sludge leaking from her mouth as she lies there with her eyes shut tight.
"Damn it!"
Kingsley's anguished exclamation draws my eye to him. I pull Miss Hawthorne aside whilst checking to see how he's faring on rescuing his own team member. Unfortunately it is not looking good. Geoff's thin body is trembling strangely. Kingsley cuts several tendrils before finally getting close enough to slice the freaking monster's tendril inserted into Geoff's mouth.
The whole thing falls to the ground in a puddle of mush. Confusion knits my brow as I watch Geoff fall to the ground. The man is twitching unnaturally, his mouth isn't leaking mush like Miss Hawthorne's did. Kingsley kneels down with his hands trembling. He looks down at his comrade with wide eyes. Drist comes to his side and places a hand on his shoulder.
"He's already gone, Kingsley."
"Fuck that! This dungeon isn't taking anyone else from me!"
With bitter rage plain on his face, Kingsley tilts Geoff's head back, attempting to see if he can do anything. What is revealed is worrying. The monster moved itself into Geoff's body rather than staying outside of it. It could have done this to Miss Hawthorne if things had gone differently. I shudder at the thought.
"Let him go, you fucking piece of shit!"
Kingsley's screaming does nothing to bring his friend back from the brink. He reaches into Geoff's mouth, as if trying to forcefully claw the monster out. It doesn't help. Drist firmly pulls Kingsley off Geoff before fixing him with a hard look.
"That won't work. You know what we have to do."
Slumping forward, Kingsley finally admits to himself that his friend is already dead. The man pulls his sword up and without any fanfare delivers several devastating slices to his friend's body. Most look away from the gruesome scene. I watch. I commit the horrible display to memory, witnessing a man forced to cut apart his own friend just to kill that which killed him.
It takes far longer than anyone would like. Eventually it was all over, and Kingsley placed a sheet of cloth taken from one of the many side rooms over his friend's body. The man didn't shed any tears. His grief was obvious in his face, the lines creased with anguish.
We lick our wounds and patch up any holes in our armor before checking what's inside the treasure chest located at the far side of the room. An immense hoard of gold coins and several items sit inside. The healing potion is a welcome boon, but the other items are less exciting. The dungeon lantern is largely mundane. The strange round stone with swirling orange-red lines upon its surface is a mystery.
"I'm sorry about your friend, Kingsley."
"Don't be. He knew the risk."
While his words are cold the way his jaw clenches is not. I leave him to grieve, instead scoping out the next leg of our journey. There's a spiral staircase leading up. I follow it cautiously, using the new dungeon lantern to light the way. Thin slats in the walls expose the outside world as I climb. Eventually I reach the top, where a harrowing sight waits. Towers and bridges sprawl across the open air. The height of the structure puts us dangerously close to the sea serpents swimming through both air and sea.
Not long after the others make the climb. As they emerge I let them take in the sight of our next obstacle. There isn't any wind here, but the way the dragons move makes the air whip at our clothes. The sound of water crashing when the sea serpents move in and out of the water is enough to make me shudder fearfully.
"Maybe we should turn back."
Beside me Kingsley snorts derisively. He points out toward the farthest of the towers. There's a chest. It is visible, even from this distance.
"We're not leaving without whatever treasure is at the end of this hell."
"Fair enough… Let's just be cautious."
Kingsley leads the way. Whatever desire to be protected he held before has dissipated since Geoff's death. Our eyes are drawn upwards toward the hulking mass of the sea serpents. Their striking large eyes peer down at us occasionally, but for the most part they treat us like we don't exist.
The first bridge we cross is stable. Not a single board creaks nor shifts, and the ropes binding the whole thing stay strong. At the second tower we find nothing of note. There are no monsters up here, except for the sea serpents overhead. We continues walking with Kingsley's posture slowly relaxing.
Unfortunately the oddly peaceful walk across the bridges doesn't last. With a sudden snap a board breaks beneath Kingsley's foot. He grunts in surprise, his leg slipping through the hole left by the broken board. Shock and fear cloud his face. I dive for the floor and grab ahold of him. The other board he's standing on snaps with a groan as I grab hold of his arm. Drist is there as well, holding his other arm. We have to move slowly to pull him back up from the brink.
"Damn it! Never trust a fucking bridge in this stupid place!"
"Just be cautious, Kingsley."
Drist's words just make Kingsley more irritated. He doesn't retort, instead carefully proceeding across the rest of the bridge. There aren't any other bad boards on that bridge. The next? Nearly half the boards are frighteningly noisy when touched. We skip as many boards as we can in order to make it past. This process goes on until we're nearly to the chest at the end of the series of towers.
"Wait, what's that?"
Miss Hawthorne's words stop our progress. I turn to look out across the expanse at a tower. There's a chest sitting atop a tower that's not connected by any bridges. The foundation of the tower is in the water somewhere out of sight. There is no obvious path to reach the treasure in plain sight.
"Great. Now there are whole bridges missing."
"Let's just focus on getting to the chest we can actually reach?"
Kingsley nods, agreeing with Drist's call. Its time to see what we sacrificed Geoff's life for.