Dream in the Street

“Yeeeeeeeeeep,” Taku sighed, enthusiasm still in his tone. “Not gonna walk in there. But hey, if this is a sub-boss room—which I definitely think it is—no monster would spawn here.”

In front of them was a large metallic door. Meticulously carved on its surface was a bed of roses pierced by a large crimson sword. He wasn’t surprised that this door too was bastardized by ikemen graffiti, this time telling them that they should not go in there. Factoring the amount of overwhelming dread that this particular door exuded, which was far more crippling than the last one, Teri believed that no amount of stupid green jokes coming from himself or Taku would make the idea of opening this door bearable.

Teri cupped his chin. If Taku tried talking about society again, he might open the door and risk getting both of them killed.

Even the thought of reaching out to touch the door’s cold surface reminded Teri of the amount of blood this dungeon had drawn. His mind screamed that it was a trap again and again, crying even louder and begging him to run the more he thought about approaching it. The feeling churned his stomach, forcing him to step back. In between blinks, it seemed like the door itself was trembling to shake the blood seeping from its gaps. But even so, something was beyond this door. It smiled, still urging him to open it like it was the most natural thing to do.

“We still have the other door, right?” Teri faced Taku as he wiped the sweat off the left side of his face. “I feel better going in there now that we don’t have to worry about enemies coming this way.”

Finding the first sub-boss room was easier than Teri thought. Avoiding the bloody northern door was a no-brainer. Following the trail down south didn’t seem like a good idea either if they wanted to live. And so, they chose to keep heading east while checking for traps along the way whenever Taku was bored. They eventually had to make a right turn toward north, and after a few more minutes of careful dungeon crawling, they saw a door on the right.

Taku checked the door. It was unlocked and wasn’t trapped. However, they heard multiple, overlapping moans coming from it. There was also the sound of footsteps, snapping, and scraping. The door felt normal. Teri couldn’t believe it himself, considering what he made out of this entire dungeon. The thought of touching it didn’t give him the same gripping feeling as that bloody northern door. It was too weird. So, he asked Taku and they decided to see what the rest of the corridor had to offer first.

Now that they had found the sub-boss room, it made sense for them to go back and face those monsters to progress further into the dungeon. Teri firmed his grip on his shield and weapon. A part of him wished that the monsters would go away, but if they were still in that room—he'd beat the shit out of them. It would be troublesome if he were to face multiple enemies, especially if they were dolls, but he would be unstoppable with Taku around. He clung to that thought as they moved forward.

The door they’d passed minutes ago came back into view. Teri stopped, squinting his eyes to see if there were shadows peeking in the corner further down the corridor. It was clear. Then, he closed his eyes, focusing this time on what he could hear. Other than the sound of Taku flapping his cloak, it seemed that they were fine for now.

It was now time for his friend to act.

“I like the look on your face but do try to loosen up,” Taku snorted, nudging his shoulder as he passed him. He crouched, set his staff on the floor, and placed his ear against the door. “Good things can happen, you know? Maybe they’re gone now.”

Teri kept his shield and weapon close. He needed to be ready. Even if he checked their surroundings in the best way he could, it wasn’t enough to shake this weird feeling off. He felt nothing from that door, but it was the halls around them and the still air that filled it that kept him on edge.

Being in a place like this too made him feel naked. And it felt worse since Taku was in front of him, in full view, biting his lip and both his eyes half-open while he tried to listen to whatever was happening inside that room. The seconds started to feel too long, especially when Teri had nothing better to do than to imagine a bunch of monsters approaching them. There was also the part of the monsters inside the room figuring out that there were intruders outside. If they got attacked right now, they’d be utterly fucked

“So… I have some bad news.” Taku pressed his head harder against the door, his voice hushed but still enthusiastic. “They’re still here.” Taku squinted and bit his lip. “If I had to guess… one is at the farthest of the room. Two are somewhere sharing some space in the middle. So, there’s three of them.”

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

“Nah, they were moaning.” Taku nodded slowly, raising a right brow. “But this is tricky. One is definitely doable. Two might be harder, but still doable if we played our cards right—”

“Three is certain death, I get it.” Teri groaned. Taku certainly didn’t give him the answer he was looking for. He glanced over his shoulder and at the far southern corner. No monsters were coming. They were both safe, for now. “But you have a plan right?”

Taku widened his grin. Teri’s eye twitched at his confidence. But Teri smiled too—as he tried to kick Taku’s face away from the door—and his friend jokingly, softly moaned like a girl. Thankfully, he didn’t make that much noise.

“We’re gonna cheeeeese them.” Taku cleared his throat. “We know that there’s at least three of those dolls there—”

“Wait, how the fuck?”

“There were only, vaguely, three different moans at a time.” Taku was serious, focus still burning in his eyes. “I know what I know. Trust.”

Teri took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“So there’s three dolls. There’s one at the farthest end of the room, hopefully. Two are in the middle—hopefully. With that in mind, our plan of attack relies mainly on luck. By luck… it means that we have to answer two particular questions as the fight happens and react accordingly.” Taku cupped his chin. “Assuming they can detect us by sight or some other sense once we get in a certain range… Number one, we have to know if they would rush us as a group regardless if we only caught the attention of one of them. And number two, we have to know 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 answer to those two questions would be somewhere in the middle ground.”

Teri couldn’t follow. He cupped his chin too and kept his mouth shut.

“What I mean is that we have to identify what kind of monster we are fighting. Are we fighting a monster that we can lure one by one but will chase us to the ends of the earth or are we up against monsters that we have to fight in packs but will not leave the room?”

Teri blinked. “Luck… huh?” His brain. His brain was melting. He wasn't built for this.

Taku gave him beaming thumbs up. “Hella. And there’s no better way to say it! If neither of those is the answer, then we’re fucked.”

Teri nodded thoughtlessly. But then, something clicked in his brain. It was as if two stars in his mind’s eye collided and resulted in a big explosion, causing the birth of multiple stars. He grinned, noticing that he was slowly matching Taku’s energy. At that moment, watching their backs seemed more unimportant. He started touching the left side of his face. Half of every fight he fought was about knowing what the plan was, after all.

“Let’s be more hands on with this. What if you open the door, bind one of the dolls in the middle, and then jump out?”

Taku’s energy soared and beamed like a lighthouse. He looked so proud that Teri couldn’t help but smile back. They also finger gunned each other.

“You leave the door open and run toward the sub-boss room. If none of the dolls came out, then we’ll know that they can’t leave the room. If one of the dolls comes out, it proves that we can afford to lure the monsters one at a time. If two dolls come out, then we know that by entering the same area, either a room or a corridor, we’ll have the entire pack come for our asses.”

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

Teri clapped Taku’s shoulder, eyeing him up and down with a sincere smile. “I can’t run very well. Let’s give up on that.”

Taku took a sharp breath. “Holy shit!”

“There’s just one big caveat.”

“Shoot.”

“I have a rough count on how long your spell lasts. 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 leaned forward and looked straight into Taku’s eyes. “How about it? Can you trust me to do that?”

Taku met his gaze with a blinding sense of excitement and determination. “Nah…” He broke the silence with a chuckle, still looking at him. “But I will willingly take that gamble.”

“Dude… For fuck’s sake, please just say yes,” Teri groaned, laughing a moment later.