The door now ajar allowed Flo to enter, Catherine following silently behind.
Inside the door was an open cave with a few parties chattering away, some on the floor and presumably some friends of Cath’s standing confident or laying wounded.
Opposite Flo and Cath was the true entrance of the dungeon, a tunnel that led downwards, edges of emerald vines grappled onto the outside of the tunnel, leaves nestled upon the vines and the ever-growing branches.
Blood, violet and sky coloured flowers decorated the vines entangled with nests of brambles.
The two walked a few steps before Flo stopped and looked at Cath, “Are you ready?”
“Yep.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep,” she also nodded a yes.
Together, they entered the downward nature-owned tunnel.
Each step they took as their bodies awkwardly flowed to the bottom, the dirt became less and less and the lively grass mixed with wonderful blossoming flowers grew more and more.
The tunnel carried on for a long while, the end not yet in sight so Cath decided to make conversation, “So your weapon body is a gun, right?
What’s your element, my element is water if you were wondering.”
“Blood, just a different kind, you’ll see when we fight,” Cath’s scarlet eyes brightened at this statement.
“Different kind?
Like special kind; the kind that easily overpowers the regular kind?”
“Whatever you want to believe, ummm—what’s your name?”
“Took you long enough, my name’s Catherine but you can call me Cath and what’s yours?”
“Florian or Flo, whatever you wish.”
The bottom appeared just below them as they finally exchanged names.
Four feet connected with the ground, making a soft impact.
Ten doorways presented themselves all covered by vines and growing moss.
“Which one shall we pick?” Flo asked Cath but she had already ran ahead of him heading to the most far-right door possible.
“Right is always right afterall,” she explained as she pushed the door open.
Inside was a plain room with only a ladder.
Cath moved to the side and cheekily said, “ladies first.”
“So funny,” Flo replied sarcastically before grabbing onto the ladder and beginning the ascent.
Making it to the top of the ladder, a massive expanse of land filled with vines, shrubs, bramble and various plants revealed itself before them.
“Flowy, what stage are you?”
The veins in Florian’s head seemed to thicken but only slightly, “It’s Flo or Florian and I am stage 7 iron.”
“I’m a peak iron but I can’t ascend because my school won’t allow it until my next year,” she said, the last bit dripping with sadness.
They began to journey into the foliage.
“Flowy do you have an innate body?” Cath asked but almost as if instant karma for repeating that name her right leg was wrapped by a vine.
Flo turned and quickly backed away a few steps pulling out his marksman rifle whilst Cath grabbed a large scythe—longer than her body—which was made of a black metal from the air.
The vine tightened around Cath’s leg and stabbed through her trousers.
She swung her scythe in one smooth motion and the vine dropped to the ground.
A sudden burst of earth covered both Flo’s and Cath’s vision.
A large shadow drowned out the two.
The kicked up dirt began to clear—a colossus sized plant poked out the hole in the ground.
It was a morphed celery caused by concentration of essence inside a dungeon.
With no one wasting any time, the celery’s limbs began to scamper round the trees and plants creating a barrier of vines.
Flo and Cath also moved to give themselves an advantage, Flo moved further back only inches away from the vine barrier while Cath glided to the right behind a tree.
Flo held his rifle steadily aiming at the top of the emotionless celery, his essence collecting in the barrel of the gun.
Cath created orbs of water, balancing it on the edge of her scythe, she used her scythe as a bat and shot the orbs at the celery.
They made mini explosions on the surface of the celery but only strips of the skin were shaved off.
The vines targeted Cath and like a guided missile flew towards her—recognising her danger she twisted and turned through the tiny gaps of space the celery allowed her.
Blood splattered wherever she moved as her leg began to leak from the surprise attack.
Gradually her movements slowed and the vines crept ever closer but she barely stayed out of reach as she crafted more time for Flo.
Only a few seconds later, Flo pulled the trigger.
The black blooded e-bullet darted past the face of the dancing Cath as her eyes widened seeing the blood, her head swinging to see the large:
Bang!
It created a massive hole in the ‘head’ of the celery as Flo’s blood, having a mind of its own, expanded across the morphed vegetable’s skin and dissolved it.
Slowly, the flying vines began to slow and then froze as their master succumbed to bitter poison—eventually evaporating completely with only its life core left as proof of its existence.
Cath didn’t move from her spot after being left in an awkward spot from her ballerina-esque display, simply stared at Flo momentarily before rushing over—her leg still bleeding.
Her face wandered close to Flo’s as she began, “Your blood is special,” she said in amazement as she continued, “why’s it black, how come I’ve never seen black blood before and it also destroyed that celery, where did you get it from, can I have it?” The series of questions left Flo in bewilderment as he began to decode Cath’s speech.
Happy now?”
“Where is this man, can I meet him?” Cath seemed extremely desperate for this blood—too desperate.
“He’s dead,” Flo replied, trying to cut the conversation as they were still in a dungeon with an attractive life core only metres away.
“Then if he gave it to you, you can give it to me can’t you?”
“First I don’t know how to do that and second why would I give it to you if it would most likely kill me,” Flo’s annoyance began to grow.
“Then as an answer to your question, Catherine is not happy,” she stated as a matter of fact before turning towards the core and ending this topic of conversation.
The core was a swirl of vibrant green, it was larger than Flo’s head and heavy like a bowling ball.
And to carry it, Cath placed it into her spatial storage from where she previously took her scythe from – which is a silver ring on her left hand.
They carried on into the mess of nature hoping to find some guidance towards the boss.
As they traveled many more unique enemies emerged but were swiftly dealt with.
Only 30 minutes later, they had already attained 6 life cores—all at high iron stage.
Getting more confident, they moved with grace and purpose, trying to find the edge of nature’s mess to attempt to reach the boss.
Seemingly getting closer, more beasts started to appear and the two quickly found themselves surrounded by 3 beasts.
Back to back they glared at the beasts trying to spot any weaknesses.
The three beasts seemed to be part of the same family as they were all large rock golems covered in eons of moss.
The three golems’ green eyes were disguised among the moss along with plants and a bird’s nest that rested on the head of one golem.
One golem formed a large earth rock in front of him and grabbed it viciously, throwing it recklessly at the duo, they dodged either side just in time.
Flo pulled out his pistols and shot at the golems, twisting each time, giving each golem equal attention.
The shots did very little damage and only chipped off micro pieces of rock.
Cath created a wall of water and sent it towards one golem giving it a wash as the moss dropped from its lower legs.
“Um—Florian—w-what now?” Cath asked in worry.
In reply Flo grabbed his rifle and gathered essence into his gun but a very weak amount, “Cath create a ball of water as big as you can and bat it as high as you can into the air,” he ordered.
Cath concentrated and did as told, the large orb of water rising high above the trees, Flo pulled the trigger just before it started falling.
Swish!
The e-bullet and the ball of water collided in the air, making a massive black splash above the forest.
“That’s cool but what’s the point of that?”
“If we live you’ll find out,” Flo replied hurriedly as his gaze guided back to the golems who didn’t pause during this time as they closed in and were now a lot closer than before.