Chapter 4: Dungeon exploring

When I came to I was somewhere new, separated from the others. It seems we had been standing over a dungeon and that when Agrai struck, the ground beneath us gave away, dropping everyone nearby in, and it seemed upon entering the space of the dungeon everyone was sent to different parts. Reports from previous expeditions to the moon have said nothing of a dungeon, it seems this one was rooted deep into the moon, and judging by the overgrown plants and foliage its been here awhile. The entire room was bright enough to see, but not too well, the walls and floor were made of a refined stone found on each moon of Star, patches of moss grew in spots all over, the room I was in only lead one way and that was further into the dungeon. The objective of a dungeon was to kill the master, which was usually a monster of some kind in the final room and reap the reward, or find the exit and leave, but I’ve never subjugated a dungeon before so this would be my first time. The corridors went in all kinds of ways that could throw you off, that was until it opened to a room with four ways to go. Only one way would lead to the end, while others would be dead ends, I could do trial and error but that would take to long, then I noticed it, a faint light coming from the the entry on the left, it meant something was there. It wasn’t the way, the room was lit by torches attached to the walls on both sides. Illuminated by the strange blue fire was a series of murals depicting a story of some kind, time had chipped away at it but it was still visible enough to understand. The first two depicted a figure in white paint arriving to the moon and traversing this dungeon, the third mural shows the figure fighting against a demon like entity painted in black and red, its head had four horns, two small ones and two larger ones in alignment with the other, it bore four arms each one wielding a sword, and in the fourth mural. The white entity striking it down, the white entity had impaled it with its spear, a battle between Star and someone else had taken place here, where Star would strike it down essentially bounding it to this dungeon, which would explain why she reshaped the moon and bled onto it, however, this meant there was a chance they would encounter this thing at the end of the dungeon. Having turned back to the corridor I had came from, this time I would follow the right path, was it because I had a gut feeling? No, I felt darkness energy emanating from that direction, although it was faint it meant Agrai had gone in that general direction or that demon creature, either one would work, actually no, I’d rather not run into a creature that made a goddess bleed. After my first clash with Agrai I had become confident enough that I could beat him the next time we met, crossing into a more open area I finally run into more people, it was Ren and a few of his troops clashing with abyssal soldiers, but it seemed they were at a stalemate, one that would be broken by me, entering the field I tip the battle in favor of the adventurers. They seemed to be defending another entry point, one that probably lead to the demons resting place, and where Agrai is. Once all of Agrais troops had been beaten, Ren gives a quick run down on what happened with him and his men when they had fallen into the dungeon, apparently they had also found a room with murals. I told him I’ll check it out when this is over as I head through the pathway Agrai had gone. The corridor opened to an arena like room, it was brighter than the previous rooms, and standing on the other side was Agrai, brandishing a strange looking single edged sword, the hilt curved upward as it connected to the rest of the blade, it looked to be made of dusk jade stone, despite being called jade this type of gem was red, a rather durable material and when forged right a deadly weapon, he must’ve found it here.

“ How nice of you to join, Im afraid this was the only item here so, if you want it come get it!” Agrai taunts, being able to unsheath my sword quickly was something I was proud of, as it came in handy when catching your opponent off guard and in this case it worked, Agrai was barely able to parry my blade as the next swing grazed his arm, leaving a cut mark in his armor. When one uses a weapon there not familiar with they’ll struggle, Agrai clearly wasn’t skilled with a shortsword as he was with the heavier claymore, his movement was sloppier due to the light weight nature of the dungeon sword giving me the edge over him. Despite having the advantage this was no easy win, Agrai was slowly getting used to blade but not fast enough clearly, tossing aside the blade he draws his claymore and the battle starts to become more challenging, each strike thrown was more precise and harder to defend against, you’d think the lighter weapon would be easier to master, but it seems to be the opposite for him. This battle was slowly staring to play out like our first encounter, I’d have to think of something else or im doomed to fall here, and so far I had nothing aside from getting cut in half. Despite saying I was ready this wasn’t that bad, I was still able to keep up with his attacks and slowly but surely, I was getting faster at it, “ Whats the matter, getting tired!” Agrai yells as his onslaught of attacks continues his goal to achieve something through pointless banter worked, I had been so focused on defending that his sudden shout I failed to parry his next hit, but instead of killing me he strikes me in the side with the flat part of the blade launching me across the room barely being able to slow myself down. Not even a moment to rest as hes already in front of me. I have to stay focused, im running on fumes and this battle doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, each strike from now on needs to be properly coordinated, not waste a single attack, Agrai’s attack pattern should be more clearer now, each strike weighed heavily and hurt but theres always a downtime in between the third strike and the fourth. I was able to evade the third hit and strike at Agrais side piercing through his armor, and I persisted, He would continue to read through Agrais moves, being able to strike back whenever I saw an opening, I lunge for the dungeon sword hoping something would happen and unfortunately, nothing. Agrai was mad and he displayed this anger through his swings, I was able to evade, and then im hit with a sudden wave of exhaustion, breaking my stance and allowing Agrai to pierce my side. In an attempt to block the attack all it did was redirect the blade to pierce through lower side, my entire body felt like it was going to shut down the second I stopped moving however, the dungeon sword was performing better than I thought, despite being tired I was able land one hit on Agrai knocking him back further than normal. The only thing I deducted was that the blade did have a special property to it which was energy drainage, which explained why Agrai struggled with it, it drained his stamina at a much faster rate due to him being at his peak, taking full advantage of this powered blade I ignore my exhaustion and slow the bleeding down by layering the wound in a small coating of energy, acting like a bandaid. Channeling whatever was left in my body to strike Agrai’s sword with the dungeon blade hard enough to throw him off, leaving me with an opening to use my blade to pierce through his right arm, or it should’ve. The blade hits his now dark red arm, even in this condition I should be able to pierce through his armor, but it doesn’t. I jump back to put distance between us, the dark red spot seemed to be a armament, was it his affinity? The red spot shifts back to green, this time his blade was coated in the red armament. Agrais hit were heavier than before, it seemed the armament not only increased his durability but also makes things hit harder. On top of this sudden use of an affinity Agrai coats his blade in abyssal energy, adding onto the armament. I was once again being forced on defense, my body was sending signals to my brain, I reached my limit physically and that I needed to stop. But if I stop I die, so I do the only thing I can. Ignore my body and keep going, I force as much energy as I can to course through my body, I swing my sword up slamming into Agrais, I had enough force to break his stance, allowing me to take a swing with the dungeon sword, somehow cutting through the armament, his arm came off clean. Despite having suffered such an injury Agrai was able to push through to slam his blade down and shatter the dungeon sword with one swing, if it hadn't been for my blade I would’ve been split in half. The battle was beginning to even itself out, Agrai’s attack pattern was slower, he was starting to get tired, which was all I needed to know to push through to the end. Even in a broken state the dungeon sword performed well, it was more of a dungeon dagger now, Agrais attacks were off balance due to his missing hand meaning it took more time for him to swing the greatsword. My entire body felt like giving up, my lungs felt like they were on fire, all I needed to do was push a little more, and push I did. I push whatever energy was left into my arms. In the split second I swap my sword into my left hand throwing an upward strike, shattering the dark stone blade in two and without a moments hesitation thrusted the dungeon dagger through the armament plating of Agrais armor, piercing his chest and heart. They were both panting heavily, Agrai was beaten, Doragaon remained, “ You fought well, not well enough to fight Onyx, maybe,” Agrai says. In the Dungeon of Blight-1, Agrai champion of Onyx has fallen. But it was far from over. The wall at the back was open and seemingly nothing happened, to be precise what had happened was too fast for Caelus to see, an overwhelming darkness preserved over the centuries released unknowingly when its tomb was disrupted, Caelus stared in both awe and horror as the creature from the murals stood across from him, seeing it in person was different, he couldn’t help but smile. On each arm it had strange black spikes, yet it looked beat up, as if its powers were sealed away alongside it. He stood no chance against something like that even if he weren’t exhausted, yet he raised his sword to the creature despite the urge to drop everything he was holding and accept defeat, “ Where is Star, our battle is not over,” the creature spoke, its voice light yet it had a presence that rung throughout the room, Caelus wanted to reply, the fear he felt from this thing held him in place, his entire body shook, and again, Caelus failed to keep up with its speed, it was a blur and it was right in front of him. He hadn’t noticed before but it had been holding swords, in similar manner to the one Agrai had found and broke, the same broken one Caelus was still holding and pointing at him. It rose its right arm and brought it down on Caelus as he brace himself for death in one swift move, should it have made contact it would’ve the force shattered the moon once more, and once again Caelus would find himself escaping death.