Chapter 6

“Yep. Also NOT gonna walk in there,” Taku sighed.

“Yeeeaaah,” Teri replied, wiping the sweat off his chin. “No monster will spawn here too, no?”

In front of them is a large metallic door. Meticulously carved on its surface is a large sword. Factoring in the amount of overwhelming feeling that this particular door exhumed—which was dozens of times over than the last one—Teri believed that no amount of stupid jokes coming from him or Taku would make him want to try to even take a step closer to it. If Taku tried talking about society again, maybe.

Even the simple act of reaching out to touch the door’s cold surface reminded Teri of the amount of blood this dungeon had drawn. It’s a trap. It’s a trap. It’s a trap. His mind screamed, begging him to run, crying even louder as the tip of his finger was about to touch it. The feeling churned his stomach, forcing him to step back upon seeing as though the door was shaking and blood was spilling out of its gaps. Something. Something was smiling behind this door. It’s urging him to open it. Fortunately, he came to his senses, yanked his arm back, and took a few steps away from the door.

“We still have the other door, right?” Teri sighed, having that memory play every time his eyes catch a glimpse of that door always made him shiver. “At least we won’t have to worry about enemies coming this way.”

Finding the sub-boss room was easy. Avoiding the ominous northern door as well as that bloody southern corridor, both of them kept heading east, checking for traps along the way. They kept going until they had to make a left turn. And after a few minutes of careful dungeon crawling, they saw a door on the right.

It wasn’t trapped. But they did hear some sound coming from it. Lots of footsteps, snapping, and scraping. So, they decided to pass by it first and see what the rest of the corridor has to offer.

Now they know. And now they have to go back and face those monsters to progress further into the dungeon. A part of Teri wished that the monsters would just go away, but if they’re still in that room—he’ll beat the shit out of them.

“I like the look on your face.” Taku chuckled, nudging Teri’s shoulder as he passed him. He then crouched and placed his ear against the wooden door. “But try to loosen up. You know, good things can happen. Maybe, they’re gone now.”

Teri clutched both his shield and weapon tight. Taku took the left side of the door. He took the right. So, he needed to be ready. Being in a corridor like this makes him feel naked, and that doesn’t feel good when he’s looking at Taku biting his lip, both his eyes half-open, while listening to whatever is happening inside that room. A second feels too long, especially when you’re thinking that a monster, OR MONSTERS, could just walk in either in front of them. And if any of those monsters decide to attack Taku while he’s enjoying the door, he can just kick him away to save his life. That’s a plan, at least.

“I can hear monsters. They’re moving around.” Taku sharpened his gaze and pressed his head harder against the door. “If I had to guess, one is at the farthest of the room. The two are somewhat sharing some space in the middle. Yeah, around the area. That’s three of them.”

Teri raised his brows, grinning. “What are you? A bat?”

“No, they were moaning.” Taku nodded, rolling his brows. He let out a laugh before going back to the topic at hand. “But this is tricky. One doll is doable. Two is tricky—”

“Three is certain death, I get it,” Teri said. He glanced over his shoulder and at the corner in the distance. No shadows on both sides. No monsters are coming. They’re both safe. For now. “But you have a plan, right?”

Taku smirked and rolled his brows again. Teri’s eye twitched. He smiled and tried to push Taku’s face away from the door—and his best friend jokingly, softly moaned like a girl as he did. Thankfully, they didn’t make that much noise.

“We’re gonna cheese them.” Taku’s face hardened with focus. “We know that there’s at least three of those dolls there—”

“How can you be so sure?”

“There were only, vaguely, three different moans at a time.” Taku raised a finger, focus still burning in his eyes, even before Teri could audibly react. “Don’t ask how I can tell. I know what I know. Trust.”

Teri took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“There’s three dolls. One is at the farthest end of the room. Two are in the middle. With that in mind,” Taku stressed, “our plan of attack relies on luck. By luck… it means that we have to answer two particular questions as the fight happens and react accordingly. Assuming that they can detect us by sight or some other sense once we get in a certain range… We have to know if, number one, they would rush us as a group regardless if we only caught the attention of one of them. And, number two, if these monsters would go out of their way to kill us—like literally chase us down to the first room or until we’re dead. I’m hoping that the answers to those two questions would be somewhere in the middle ground.”

“So, the best case scenario is either we get monsters that we can lure one by one but will chase us down to the ends of the earth or monsters that we have to fight in packs but will not leave the room.” Teri sighed. “If neither of those is the answer, then we’re fucked.”

Taku clapped Teri’s shoulder, beaming. “There’s no better way to say it.”

Teri shook his head. But then, something in his brain clicked. He remembered that bloody door. The one they specifically avoided. “Your plan is to lure them out and see what they are, yeah?”

“Yep.”

“Let’s be a bit more hands-on with this.” Teri found himself grinning. Suddenly, watching the corners in front of him and at his back seemed unimportant. Right now, he’s planning. And it's so goddamn fun. “Instead of me or you walking over there to get their attention… What if you just run inside, bind one of the dolls in the middle, and then jump out?”

Taku beamed, looking so proud. Teri couldn’t help but smile back.

“Then, you leave the door open and run toward the sub-boss room. In case none of the dolls would come out, then we’ll know they can’t leave the room—meaning we can change our target to the monster moving in and out of that bloody door. If one of the dolls comes out, it proves that we can afford to lure monsters one at a time. If two dolls come out, then we’ll assume that entering the same area, either a room or a corridor, will have the pack going for our asses.”

“But that doesn’t let us test if they’re going to chase us to the ends of the earth.”

It was Teri’s turn to clap his shoulder. He eyed his best friend’s body up and down. “I can’t run very well. Let’s give up on that.”

Taku gasped silently. “Holy shit!”

“There’s just one big caveat.”

“Shoot.”

“I have a rough count on how long your spell lasts.” Teri leaned forward. “Do you trust me to be able to kill a doll in around ten seconds? It’s not a problem if only one of the dolls would come out. It gets complicated if there’s two,” Teri looked straight into Taku’s eyes. “How about it? Can you trust me to do that?”

Taku faced him with a burning sense of excitement and determination. “Nah,” he chuckled, still looking at him. “But I will willingly take that gamble.”

“Bro… for fuck’s sake, please just say yes,” Teri groaned.