Dungeon and Spectre

"It's that demi-human! Kill her!"

I continue to walk forward, bow in hand and prepared to give it all I have to draw the forces away from Link. A guard slashes at me with a battle axe. I jump into a backflip, kicking it out of his hand and firing off an energy arrow at his chest. I land on top of another guard's head and push my weight forwards, slamming his head into the ground. I then lunge into a third guard, stabbing his side with an arrow and kicking him into a wall.

They just keep coming.

I incapacitate as many as I can only for more soldiers to run at me with blades. I fight my way through, slowly making my way forwards. I end up on a large staircase, panting. They've let up for now so I have a short break.

Suddenly, an arrow flies at me from the top of the staircase. My eyes widen, but I move my head to the side just before it hits me in between my eyes, and I catch the arrow with my left hand. I see a single archer at the top of the staircase, so I pull back the arrow in my own bow, allowing the green energy to form around it, before firing it back at her. She dodges just in time and dashes away, so I rush up the stairs to give chase.

I chase the archer down the halls, incapacitating any other soldiers in the way as I do so. Arrows are flying from both sides, but we both narrowly avoid each one. She's fast.

I keep chasing when she fires off another arrow, but for some reason, I can't see where it went. Next thing I know, I feel a sharp pain in my right shoulder and I kneel forward in an instant. I look at my shoulder and see the missing arrow stabbed into me.

My vision gets blurry. H-How? It was one arrow...

I hear footsteps echoing down the hall.

"Don't worry, we won't be interrupted here. I hid this part of the hall from the naked eye." It's a female voice. The archer?

"W-What did you do...?" I force out.

"Oh, you mean why do you feel so weak? Tipped arrows, duh." She replies.

I try to get a better look at her. I think I can make out a figure holding a bow. She wears a brown leather uniform, the Klein's army uniform. She also has a brown hood on with a fabric mask covering the bottom half of her face.

"So you're that demi-human the general wanted dead huh? What a let down... And here I thought I'd be able to have a fun duel against a fellow archer." She sounds disappointed.

"W-Where did it go...?" I'm having trouble forming words.

She tilts her head.

"Hm? Ohhh, my arrow! My arcana of course! I can apply a layer of concealment on any items or locations. Basically, I hid the arrow in your blind spots." She sounds proud.

I'm getting woozy. She kneels down in front of me.

"I'm Miko. Can you hear me? Well, guess I'll kill you now."

Am... Am I gonna die...? 

No.

I told Link I wouldn't. I can't die.

The archer pulls back another arrow in her bow, and points it at my head.

"Well, seeya-"

Faster than her eyes can track, I rip the arrow out of my shoulder and I drive the arrow in her gut, pushing her back.

"Urk-! How did you-"

She stumbles back, spitting out some blood.

"Poison isn't anything new to me. It just took my body a bit of time to push it back is all." I say, picking my bow back up from the ground.

She looks surprised, but then quickly smiles.

"I see. How interesting." 

She boosts off the wall, firing two more arrows at me. Once again, I can't see them. But this time, I paid attention to the exact angle that they were fired at, and sidestep accordingly. Sure enough, both arrows hit the ground beside me, coming back into view.

I push a suit of armour that was standing by the wall against her, forcing her to change directions, which I take advantage of and shoot a quick un-charged arrow at her, hitting her in the leg.

"Shit!" She keeps shooting disappearing arrows at me, but I continue to predict their lines of trajectory and even parry some with the body of my bow.

I lunge at her one final time, enveloping my whole bow in green energy, before firing one last, powerful arrow through her chest, pinning her to the stone wall.

"Grk!" Her eyes widen as she coughs up tons of blood,

I notice the illusory veil hiding this segment of the hall disappear, so I should probably get moving soon.

"Y-You really... caught me by surprise there..." She says as I turn my back.

I don't answer.

"Hehe... At least... it was someone strong..." Miko says before going silent.

I look at her one more time and see her head slumped forward. She's dead.

I turn back around and start running through the hall once more, trying to make it to Klein's office.

- - -

Chains are dangling down from inside of the dungeon. There are multiple cells but most of them are empty. Maybe Klein moved them? I hope Emerald's okay.

I continue walking through the underground dungeon, searching for the ladder. It's almost like a labyrinth. The air is thick and it feels like this place hasn't been cleaned for months. The only noise is the sound of my own footsteps... and snoring.

In the distance, I see a guard, sleeping on a chair. I carefully approach him and prepare to stab him, but I feel a light tap on my shoulder.

"W-Wha-" I turn around.

In a cell I didn't see before, I see a group of flaming skeletons.

Spectres.

Spectres are the servants of the underworld, serving devils. That's what I read at least. Pictures depict them as looking like skeletons with their whole bodies enveloped in flames. The one who tapped me on the shoulder speaks up.

"You don't look like you're supposed to be down here. Should I tell on you?" He says in a mocking voice.

"Huh? And what good would that do you?" I spit back.

"We've been quite bored down here lately, we'll take any bit of entertainment we can get. Watching a fight would be just what we need." He says.

"How about this, you alert the guard, I kill him, and THEN you?" I threaten him.

"Pfft. You don't scare us. Show him Ashe." He turns to another spectre in the corner of the cell.

This one, 'Ashe', looks different than the others. He looks a tiny bit bulkier and his flames are a mixture of pink, orange, and green, unlike the others which are just orange.

"Hm?" He turns his head slightly to see what's going on.

"Burn him to a crisp." His friend tells him.

"...Why?" He asks.

"Huh?! Cmon, there's finally a human in range of our fire! Don't you wanna take advantage of this!?" He looks surprised.

"...Would that get us out of here...?" Ashe asks.

"N-No, but don't you wanna have some fun?" His friend looks astonished.

"That doesn't really sound fun..." Ashe turns back to the corner, going back to ignoring his friends.

"Fine, I'll do it myself!" The orange one unleashes a storm of fire which envelops me, but I stand there, unharmed.

"W-What the-"

"Hey! What's going on over there?!" The sleeping guard seems to have woken up due to the intense heat.

He walks around the corner and I jump back, drawing my katana.

"Wait! You're-"

I dash over to him and slash at him. He quickly deflects with a spear and thrusts it towards my head. It bounces off my helmet and I sweep his legs from below and shoot at him on the ground with my pistol. He slides out of the way just in time and hops back.

"You're one fast little fucker huh?" His skin begins to glow red from underneath like he's charging something.

I cover my blade in my blue flame.

"Wait till you see-" I dash at him before he can finish talking and attempt to stab him with my flaming sword. He quickly deflects with his speak and kicks me into the wall.

Shit.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you to let adults finish talking?" He unleashes some sort of red blast of pure power which staggers me even more.

"...Fuck." He grabs me and throws me on the ground.

I kick upwards with both legs and position myself on top of him. 

"Get off!" He pushes me off him and into the wall again with insane force. I hit the wall so hard, I almost bounce right off and he gets on me again, trying to choke me out.

"Fucking bastard!" I start kneeing his side but he doesn't budge.

"Oh, this is great! Klein might even promote me once I kill you-"

Suddenly, we're both enveloped in a storm of pink, orange, and green fire. Next thing I know, nobody is on top of me, and I'm covered in black ash. I look to my side and see the colourful flamed spectre, standing in the cell with his hand pointing forward.

"Sorry to ruin your little floor wrestling match." He lowers his hand. "I just wanted to kill him myself."

I stand up and dust myself off.

"Uh, thanks." I tell him.

"I told you, I just wanted to kill him." Ashe returns to his corner.

"Do you... want me to let you guys out maybe?" I ask.

His friend speaks up.

"Naw, we have a plan of our own. We'll make it out of here from our own efforts." He says.

"...If you say so. Well, thanks again." I give a short bow and run off to find the ladder, which I find fairly quickly around the corner.

Perfect. This should take me right up to in front of Klein's office.

I begin climbing up the ladder, hoping to see Emerald when I make it to the top. Finally, I make it to the top, at the very top floor of the castle. I see a large double door. Klein's office. I've been here once before, when I first enrolled in Klein's army. I don't see Emerald.

"Shit... Emerald, where are you?"

I'm standing directly in front of the office. Klein must be inside. I don't wanna go in alone but if he were to leave his office and see me I'd-

Suddenly, a stray soldier comes up behind me with a hatchet and swings it down on me. I'm about to deflect in when Emerald comes flying through the air, and slams down hard on the soldier, knocking him out instantly.

"E-Emerald!" I call out.

"Shut up, Klein's right through there isn't he?" She snaps.

"Sorry, sorry. Yeah, I think so. Although it's kinda weird he hasn't come out yet to check on the commotion." I reply.

"Only one way to find out." She says.

"Emerald... your shoulders bleeding." I notice.

"It's fine. Let's just get this over with." She steps towards the door.

I follow her, worried about her wound but regardless, we need to do this.

"Let's kill this dick." I say.

Emerald nods, and together we open the double door to Klein's office. It's a circular room with a stone brick wall. Sitting at his desk, across from us, is General Klein.

"Ah, I was wondering what all of that ruckus was about." He smirks.