"Lars? You're back so soon...." Katarina whispered. Lars set down a bunch of dried wood next to her tent.
"Here, you don't need to go fetching these for a while." Lars grinned at her. Katarina was touched at the gesture.
"Wow... this could last for about a week... Спасибо..." She whispered.
"Huh? What'd you say?"
"I said thank you! Geez..." She sighed and shook her head. She prepared some more Fire-Water for him as they sat down and talked once more. This would be Lars' and Kat's new routine for a while.
The Fatui Mage didn't say anything, nor did Lars bring it up, but the man had essentially made himself home in her camp. She wasn't complaining either, she didn't admit it, but having Lars as company was nice in this deep dark chasm.
"I'd probably wanna challenge the Archons to a spar one day. "
"Huh? You? Fight the Archons? You're like a bug to them. Can you find something more realistic to achieve?"
They would banter, tease, and roast each other most of the time. But sometimes they would have deep talks in just about anything that came to mind.
There was no place to sleep at camp, so Lars opted to just keep watch when Katarina was asleep. The mage obviously disagreed with the idea, so they came to a compromise. They would take turns keeping watch over the camp, giving each other time to rest.
Time passed. Lars kept growing in strength as he constantly trained and explored the chasm to fight new types of enemies, encountering the Shadowy Husks and their different types more and more.
At this point, if he wanted to, Lars could cleanly slice a large rock in half. Some of the Shadowy Husks' armor was tough, so this improvement was very much needed. And about Haki, simply put Lars wasn't there yet, he could feel something as he constantly pushed himself, but he didn't want to worry about it at the moment, as long as he kept pushing himself, Lars was sure that Haki would come quite easily.
"Hey Lars."
"Yeah?"
"Could you do me a favor?" Katarina asked, looking at him.
"Sure. As long as it's something reasonable."
"Oh don't worry, it's pretty reasonable alright. I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned this before, but I actually have a teammate sent down here with me. His name's Nikolay."
"So you want me to find this Nikolay for you?" Lars deduced. The Fatui Mage nodded in return.
"Yes. Could you help me? If he's still alive, bring him back to me. If he's dead... well please let me know... I'm sorry to lay this on you all of the sudden."
Lars shook his head quickly. "No, no. It's fine. I can see Nikolay means a lot to you, Kat." Katarina nodded. Lars couldn't tell her expression due to her mask, but judging from the small frown on her face, he could only guess how she was feeling.
"At the time, he tried to lure the enemies chasing us away from the rest of the team... He's an excellent soldier, and I know for sure that he wouldn't die there. I can only hope that he has left us some clues..."
"Where do you think he left the clues?"
"Do you have the map of the Chasm that I gave you?" She asked him. Lars nodded, taking out a yellowish map from his pocket.
"Here..." She marked the location where Nikolay was before he went missing. Lars nodded as he got up.
"Don't worry, Kat. I'll find him for you. I'll be back in a moment."
"Be.....Be careful...." She muttered as he walked away from her camp. Lars looked back and grinned at her. As he slowly disappeared from her view, she sighed to herself, hugging her knees.
"Why the hell am I feeling like this?"
.....
Meanwhile with Lars, he quickly arrived at the location, not without defeating some slimes on the way. "This is the place Kat mentioned. Looks like I have some obstacles to clear out." He mumbled, taking out his Lumenstone Adjuvant. He cleared out the strange dark tumorous growth before him and continued venturing down the cave.
It wasn't long before he found shreds of a diary and a bloody insignia, presumably Nikolay's. Reading through it, he found out that Nikolay had run to a secret chamber with only two exits, where he had came from and another tenuous exit that looks like it could easily collapse. Nikolay then says in his diary that he was spotted by a swordsman clad in black and apologizes to Katarina.
"Well, swordsman clad in black would mean those Shadowy Husks I fought before. Now I have to find the place he mentioned. A secret chamber huh...Hmm..." Lars pondered as he ran to a possible place that Nikolay would've gone to.
By now, Lars has become a sort of an expert of the Chasm. So it wouldn't be a surprise if he's came across some secrets of the dark place. It was not long before Lars stood in front of a giant rusted gate.
"Maybe he went through here... Guess there's only one way to find out." Lars raised his sword, concentrating on his intended target. With a single slash, the gate was split in half, crumbling before him.
'Light work. Metal isn't a problem for me, well, at least rusted metal that is. Still got a long way to go.' Lars nodded to himself, preparing to step in the small tunnel.
*BOOM*
He paused as the ground rumbled. He didn't know what was happening. 'Foosteps?' Lars thought, his right hand gripping his sword readily. The booming footsteps came closer, closer, closer, until it finally stopped.
Lars could see the giant shadow looming over him, and it didn't feel good. Looking at the shadow, he realized that the giant enemy was swinging at him from his right. So Lars leaped up high, dodging the giant metal arm as he flipped over the enemy.
"You gotta be kidding me...." Lars whispered to himself, as he stared at his enemy that stoof before him in all it's glory.
A Ruin Guard.
To be continued.....