"This dungeon has no end!" says Aaron, with a voice that shows weariness and boredom.
"It must end somehow or we'll find a way out, Aaron, don't worry," says Freya, encouraging Aaron.
"I just got hungry," Aaron grabs his backpack and starts rummaging through it, finding only a piece of bread.
"What?! This is all I have left!?" Aaron takes a bite, but the bread is too hard and bothers his gums.
"We don't have much food left, we have to find a way to get out of here," Safira's voice shows agitation and worry.
"If we spend more days stuck in here, we'll starve to death, nobody knows what things the humans might do with our bodies…" says one of the elves from the other team, accompanying Aaron's team, with sarcasm and criticism toward the siblings.
"Are you saying we eat other races?" Safira raises her voice slightly, frowning at the elf.
"Nooo, how could you think that! I mean that humans are so… primitive, that well, you know…" The elf's voice continues to show sarcasm and mockery toward Safira.
Quickly, Safira pulls out a knife, but Freya manages to stop her by grabbing Safira's hand.
"Calm down, Safira, right now we need to keep our cool."
Safira puts her knife away again. "We should rest for a bit."
The two groups head to a room in the dungeons and sit on the floor to rest. The other team sits a considerable distance from Aaron, Safira, and Freya's team.
"I notice your arm is getting a little paler, are you feeling well?" says Freya while taking a piece of bread she had.
"Well, it still hurts and feels numb," Aaron looks at his arm, he is indifferent and continues eating his hard bread.
"Seriously, we have to get out as fast as possible, otherwise, we'll have to amputate your arm," Safira replies.
"You're insane! Amputate my arm? It's not necessary, is it, Freya?" He turns his face to Freya, but she says absolutely nothing, as if she is afraid to answer.
"Right?" Aaron's voice is whiny and he almost sheds a tear.
While the other team is eating peacefully, one of them notices and feels as if something is watching them from afar and in the darkness of the dungeon. This one notices that, in the darkest corner of the room, he can barely make out a figure: a creature standing on two legs, long, with arms that reach the floor, bulging eyes that show madness and a killer instinct. The dwarf who was watching it blinks for a moment and the figure is no longer there.
"I think I saw something," says the dwarf, with wide eyes and a trembling voice.
"It's nothing, hunger is making you paranoid," one of the two elves replies.
The two teams finish their rest and continue venturing and searching for a way out. Several minutes pass. At that moment, Aaron, for no reason, feels observed, he subtly hears breathing behind his neck. The stench of steel and spoiled meat made him feel more insecure. With every step he takes, he feels as if whatever is chasing him is getting closer.
"Guys, I have a weird feeling, like something is chasing us," Aaron's voice trembles slightly, a drop of sweat falls from his forehead.
"The human is right, I saw something through the darkness in the room," replies the dwarf from the other team, now more agitated knowing that Aaron feels the same.
"Yes, I've been feeling like something is stalking us for a while now," Freya also comments.
Everyone feels as if something has passed in front of them. Instinctively, everyone goes into attack mode, except Aaron; he hides behind his sister.
"Safira, protect me, I'm little," Aaron is clutching Safira's shoulders.
The two teams were on alert. No one moved. Some were trembling, others looked around incessantly.
Without anyone noticing, the entity attacked them. It jumped onto the dwarf of the team, grabbing his head… and bit him on the neck.
Blood spurted as the being mercilessly sucked. In seconds, the dwarf was reduced to a disfigured body, like a withered raisin. Everyone was paralyzed, horrified, just watching the massacre.
"Alcor!" shouts one of the elves in his group. He, without thinking, attacks by launching a burst of magic at the entity, which easily manages to dodge it and heads for its next prey.
Quickly, the other elf on his team manages to repel the monster, creating a blue shield toward his companion.
"Freya, summon your ghosts. Aaron, you stay put, you won't be useful with that useless arm."
Freya begins to concentrate and the ghosts appear from the ground. Safira readies her knife and lunges toward the entity. Freya and the other two elves continue to attack from a distance. The monster manages to dodge all the elves' attacks, while Safira continues to attack hand-to-hand.
"If my arm wasn't messed up, I'd take care of that thing!" Aaron's voice shows bravery, but with a hint of fear.
"W-well, maybe you would be useful, but stay close to me," replies Freya, unable to move any muscle due to the technique she is using.
The fight continues. Safira attacks and the others give her support from afar. Safira finally manages to wound the monster in its stomach; it recoils in pain and panic. Safira approaches it again, but it opens its mouth exaggeratedly, showing its sharp, bloody teeth. For a moment it feels as if time has stopped, everyone is perplexed, without moving a single muscle, while the monster quickly attacks Freya's ghosts and lunges toward her. Aaron, who is close to Freya, manages to react in time and push Freya; the two fall to the ground. The monster fails to attack Freya. When Freya moves, her technique is useless, she needs to stay still.
"Freya, run!" Aaron lifts Freya up and they move away from the monster, and the entity chases them.
The elves and Safira snap out of the trance when the monster moves away from them. Safira notices that the entity is chasing her brother and companion, and quickly activates her feline technique, while the other elves run behind Safira.
"Ahhhh! That thing is chasing us!" Aaron continues running at full speed, but the creature slowly catches up to them.
"I can't activate my ghosts right now!"
The two continue running, but the entity is slowly getting closer to them. Suddenly, the monster is attacked by Safira's claws. This manages to scratch the monster's long legs and it falls. Finally, Safira's feline claws pierce the entity's neck. It lets out a loud shriek, but finally dies.
Everyone sees the creature's lifeless body. Nobody says anything and they just keep looking at the black, disgusting body.
"Aaron, how were you able to move in that situation? No one could move at that moment," Freya asks, confused.
"Huh? Well, when I saw the monster open its mouth, I activated all my Aetherian. Although it did paralyze me for a moment, I was able to move thanks to my magic being activated."
"That makes a little sense, he's the only one who hasn't used up that much magic throughout our journey," Safira replies.
"That technique that monster used is very common," comments one of the two remaining elves from the other group.
"Yes, it's a technique that manages to paralyze, in reverse, using its magic, and it can be stopped if the other person has more Aetherian or moves away from the limit radius where that technique works," Freya explains, still looking at the entity on the ground, afraid that it will get up again.
"Hahaha, then I'm tremendously strong!" Aaron lets out an excited laugh.
"That's not it, human. The monster had already been wounded by the other human, that greatly lowered its power, if it weren't for that, we all would have died. It was a stroke of luck," replies the elf from the other team.
"Ahhh…" Aaron lowers his head, affected by the elf's comment.
"Well, we have to keep going, we can't stay here for long," Safira orders.
Everyone keeps walking, still hopeful of finding a way out to escape the dungeon. Hunger and fear are now more noticeable in them. Aaron rummages through his backpack again, but doesn't even find bread to eat.
"Here, I'll give you the bread I have," Safira takes out a piece of bread she is carrying and breaks it in half.
"Thanks, little sister!" Aaron happily takes the bread and starts eating it.
"We're almost out of food, this is getting worse and worse…" Safira comments in a whisper.
They continue their journey to find a way out of that disgusting dungeon. The silence that followed was not one of relief, but of fear. None of them wanted to admit it, but they all knew that the real horror was not over yet.
For a moment, they find another room again, this one seems to be a little more illuminated.
"That room doesn't look as gloomy as the others, the fragment is probably there," the elf whispers to the other elf on his team.
"Yes, we have to hurry, otherwise they'll beat us to the fragment," the other elf comments in a whisper.
Aaron's team sees the room, but the two elves run and go ahead, heading for the room.
"Thanks for helping us find the fragment, idiots!" one of them shouts. Finally, he enters the room.
"Hey, wait!" Aaron follows them.
"Wait, Aaron!" Safira shouts at him, she chases after him, and Freya does the same.
When the elves enter, not a sound is heard, everything is silent. Aaron notices this and doesn't enter.
"What's wrong, Aaron?" his sister asks him.
"I don't know, I just don't hear the elves, did something happen to them?"
"It's illogical for there to be monsters in a lit place, let's go in, and maybe the fragment is there."
The three enter, but upon doing so, they don't notice anything. From afar, they see two monsters, one looks like a child. They tremble with fear upon seeing the siblings and the elf.
"Look, it seems like they're afraid of us," Aaron notices that the monsters are afraid of seeing them.
"Don't get too close, Aaron," Safira tells him, while looking around, trying to identify the elves. But when she turns to look aside, she sees how the elves' bodies are lifeless, lying in a corner.
"Freya, look at that!" Safira says, her voice sounds agitated.
"What happened!" Freya sees the scene, her eyes tremble as she looks at the bodies.
"Aaron, watch out!" Safira shouts at him. Aaron looks at the monsters, but he's not afraid of them, he feels compassion seeing them scared.
"We won't hurt you, we're just looking for…"
Before he can finish the sentence, a six-foot-tall, stocky being with two horrible horns on its head is behind Aaron. It tries to strike Aaron with its thick fist.
"Aaron!" the elf and his sister scream.
Aaron hears that, and notices the monster, barely managing to dodge the enormous creature. It hits the ground and the floor collapses. Aaron and the creature fall due to the collapse. Quickly, Safira and Freya run towards where the giant, deep hole has been left.
"Aaron!" Safira shouts again, her voice trembling and showing despair.
"We need to find Aaron quickly, Safira!"