Aegis Story

Chapter 15 : Delve

Author notes: Y'know, sometimes I feel like any character I wrote has a personality of cardboard. Maybe because the casts rn are mostly goody two shoes. I'm (hopefully) gonna fleshed out the casts even more.

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What stood in front of us is the forest Dungeon. The looming entrance and darkness create a very intimidating place to be. There aren't any monsters around, so we are free to enter whenever.

"Alright, okay... okay.. I can do this. I just have to use everything I learned and not panic."

I looked at my partner who will be delving this Dungeon with me. Is she gonna be alright?

She noticed me staring at her, to which I turned to look away. "Have some faith in me alright? I won't slow you down."

"Of course."

"Okay, let's do this..."

She checked her sling bag to make sure it was strapped neatly and held firm her white staff. Then she did the unexpected.

She warped her arms around one of mine.

"Onwards we go."

I did a double-take. "...wait, why is this necessary?"

"Oh, that's because we need to keep close before entering so that we won't be separated. Dungeons are nasty in it that they will always try to separate group for easy pickings by the monsters, at least that's what I heard." She said.

"O-okay then." I just let her be as we walk through the entrance. I felt the familiar rush of cold feeling upon entering this place. We're in.

The scenery changed around us. Well, not by much, but the forest seems thicker compared to before. There are trees arranged tightly that it looked like it was impossible to pass through. The canopies above completely hidden the sky causing the place to go dark, creating the atmosphere of a Dungeon corridor. I looked at Emily at my side.

It seems like she had shut her eyes. Hey, you can let go already. I shooked her a little to indicate it.

"Huh? Oh, we are in.." She looked around us and finally let go of my arm. "So this is the inside of a Dungeon.."

"Let's move, the sooner we get this done the sooner we get out of this place." I said.

"Yeah." She seemed to think for a second. "Want me to light the way? I can't really see much." She offered.

That seemed helpful. Although... "Alright, but we need to keep our eyes open. I'm sure it'll attract some monsters, but at least we can see them coming." I said.

"Okay. Illuminate." Immediately the end of her staff emits light. That will do.

I ended up leading the way while she watches our backs. The Dungeon's corridors are a little bit more spacious compared to the previous tunnels, which would surely give us more breathing room. Although, we still have to traverse the mazelike paths. Just from a glance, the path already opens up to left and right. I decided to go right.

Slowly but surely, we traversed the corridors. Really feeling like randomly picking paths though. I guess this is the full Dungeon exploring experience. If only there was some way to take an overview look of the floor...

There's also the fear of monster attacks. I can't be too reckless now that I have someone with me. Hopefully because of my larger figure, the monsters will prioritize me first before Emily.

A few more turns later, we came across our first "room". It looks mostly empty except for... one sleeping deer? Yeah, that looks like a deer just slumped to the floor. But why is it here?

"Is that a deer?" Emily asked me behind.

"Yeah... let's just sneak past it."

We slowly walked past it. We would be away from that room if not for one accident...

"Wait! Aegis I think that's a-" She tried to warn.

On one second, I heard a *click* sound underneath my feet and the other I barely registered that I was thrown across the room.

Bang!

My back hit the bark of a tree. Trying to make sense of what had happened, I realized that the sound had woken up the deer. Its eyes... are bloodshot red. Emily is in danger.

The deer set its eyes to Emily and immediately charged for her. I raced towards them.

"Hyah!"

Emily was able to dodge the charge by blinding the deer and sidestepping. The deer turned around for another charge. I won't give it a chance.

Bam! Crackle!

I stepped heavily on the ground and conjured an ice wall that blocked its path. It rammed straight to it leaving it dazed. I took the opportunity to land a few blows.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

I cut deep into a few parts of the body, blood oozed out of the wounds. But... it doesn't look like it cares much. It was still rearing to go. I must've angered it, as it changed its target to attack me. I prepared myself.

"Aegis! Its weakness is at the back of the neck! Land a heavy blow there!" Emily said.

I simply nodded and waited for the deer to come, intentionally placed myself in front of a tree. Once it got close enough, I jumped above it causing it to hit the bark instead. From above, I held claws in front of me to land it on its neck.

SHANK!

The attack detached its head from its body. The deer slumped once more.

"It wasn't their fault," Emily said behind me. I turned to look at her. "Animals that were lost in the dungeon will become crazed. It must've been here for a while. That's just the way it is for Dungeons."

I looked at the corpse, then at the spot where I was thrown from. There is some weird symbol on the ground.

"Is that a trap?" I asked.

"What?" She followed my line of sight. "Oh, that one. Sorry, I was supposed to warn you about them. Traps can be found scattered on the floor of the Dungeon. Although... I wasn't sure what they looked like at first."

Great... more things to look out for in here. Let's just move on from the room. 

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Author notes: Also uuuh, currently indulging in collab stuff. Stay tuned for more later. (Google docx edit sharing is too much fun, you should try it sometimes too.)
PS : I don't know what I'm doing.