Anthony and Alwin sat there, often stealing glances at their foe every time they could gather the courage. Yet hours passed and the beast continued to patrol. It lost its pace every once and a while, fatigue showing. As the monstrous arachnid wandered it began to heave, struggling to keep its eyes open. Its mouth closed, hiding the blood on its teeth. The beast began to collapse to the floor in exhaustion, legs buckling under its own weight, after what felt like hours the beast's eyes finally seemed to close and head seemed to rest.
Anthony slumped against the wall, exhaling. The monster was asleep. Their plan could finally be set in motion. He whispered, "Alwin, the beast finally fell asleep."
"Oh, thank the goddess," Alwin said with a sigh of relief despite Anthony's short glance accompanied with a scrunched face. Alwin carefully climbed to his feet, sneaking towards the opening to confirm what he was just informed of. "Alright, this is our time Ant, what's the plan?"
"Well uh…" Anthony responded, a little startled but quickly focused. "Why does it have to be my plan?"
"You came up with this from the beginning, didn't you?" Alwin recalled, signaling for Anthony to continue.
"Alright, well it's best we moved quickly right?" Anthony said while shaking his head and blinking to garner focus. Anthony and Alwin nodded frantically at each other as Anthony continued, "Move quietly but we want to be out of there as soon as possible. I think we should get going soon."
You sure you don't want to wait a second kid, it only just got down for sleep, Leo warned in Anthony's head but Anthony only hesitated in response, he wanted to get out, needed to get home. Anthony blinked, loading up on his crouched legs to trudge into the beast's cave, just a minute away from freedom.
Anthony took a breath and began to move but Alwin grabbed his shoulder to hold him back. Alwin steadily beckoned Anthony to look him in the eyes, "You're ready, right?"
"Um, yeah," Anthony said, slightly averting his eyes before moving them back to meet Alwin's. Despite the bags under his eyes he stared down Alwin and announced "I'm ready. Let's get out of here."
Alwin stared back blankly, a look filled with uncertainty, but nevertheless he nodded. "Alright, let's go."
Anthony and Alwin began to sneak into the open cave, they moved slowly and carefully, footsteps mostly drowned out by the consistent light snores of the beast they intended to avoid. Anthony examined his surroundings as they carefully trudged towards the exit. The ceiling was too high to examine, just endless darkness above him. The walls surrounding them were lined with spider webs all the way up as far as the light showed.
The rocky cavern was scarred by claw marks all over on each wall and the floor they walked on. Scattered on the floor and in piles against the wall, signs of death were rampant, bones of some sort littered throughout, drops of blood led to the monstrous creature opposite to them. For the first time, Anthony's gaze followed the drops of blood across the room. The creature's mouth gaped open, drooling in its sleep. Its teeth were still stained with blood from Alwin's party members, right next to it Anthony saw something he had not seen in a while.
Monster corpses were easy, as if daily for the last year Anthony slaughtered them and then cooked their corpses without a thought. He was used to it, he could swing his sword, skin them, and clean off the blood without a second thought, without a change in expression. He had been killing plenty, but this sight stopped him in his tracks as he grimaced, his face contracting in terror. Next to the soundly sleeping beast was the detached upper torso of a man, it was pale, clearly drained of blood as evidenced by the dried pool of red surrounding him.
Anthony refused to move, the chewed on corpse's blank eyes stared back at him an image that only haunted him in his dreams. Images flashed before his eyes, images he was all too familiar with, images of his father, bones bashed in, blood being drawn from every puncture. He began to feel overwhelmed before Alwin grabbed him on his shoulder stirring Anthony from his trance.
"Anthony, it's okay, it happens," Alwin said steadily, grip firm on Anthony's side. Anthony nodded in acknowledgement attempting to focus back on what was ahead while Alwin continued. "I know it's hard but we have to move forward right now, take a deep breath in let's go."
Anthony took a deep breath and obeyed, but before he looked back he took a step forward— and froze. *crunch.*
Before Anthony could grasp what just happened he felt a shove on his back accompanied by a muffled yell to "Run!"
Anthony rolled to his feet only to look back at Alwin, his weapon drawn, wind blowing around him as he darted back and forth dodging the powerful and quick strikes of the massive arachnid. Anthony reached for his sword but hesitated, his fingers tensed, not quite being able to reach the hilt of his blade.
"Anthony Run! I can hold it back, I'm right behind you!" Alwin yelled with a strained voice as he bobbed and weaved. Alwin struggled against the beast even if he was surviving for now, he was on the defensive not even finding an opening to attack, much less run away. Anthony knew this, yet he turned.
Is it okay that I'm running Leo?
You have things to get back to kid, it's more important that you live on. Leo affirmed and Anthony continued to move on but right as he reached the end of the room, a corridor with light at the end before him, he stopped. Anthony's feet braced against the floor, legs ready to move forward but he couldn't make himself.
Kid it's okay, you can go, Leo lamented.
"I'm sorry," Anthony said back. He gritted his teeth in frustration before he reached for his sword and plunged back into the cave. As Anthony ran towards the danger he willed past his hesitations with devotion and filled his veins with mana, feeling his muscle fibers tense with strength as he quickened. With an aura of golden light illuminating his sword he approached the beast and leaped up into the air with all his might.
Above the beast he screamed, as if attempting to will the determination into himself. Alwin looked up as the beast let up to switch his attention to evade the strike Anthony was about to unleash.
Anthony finished his slash and along with the arc of the blade unleashed a plume of powerful golden light. The monster darted backwards but wasn't able to avoid Anthony's attack in its entirety as one of its forelegs fell off in retreat.
The spider cautiously gathered itself opposite the boys as a thick green spilled from its wound. Not keeping his eyes off the beast Anthony reached behind him for his companion.
"Alwin, are you alright," Anthony asked through heavy breaths.
"Yeah," Alwin responded. "Hey man, how the hell did you do that?"
"I'll explain later, you've been fighting it, what do we need to do?"
"It's fast," Alwin answered, lost in his surprise. "It's really fast."
"Okay, thanks," Anthony grimaced, readying himself for the fight then whispered to himself. "What do we do?"
So your goal is just to get out, but that thing won't let you leave. You managed to injure it but that won't be enough. Luckily, you and Alwin are fast too, you guys need to attack it from different angles, trapping it so it can't dodge and after you get a bad enough wound, run away like your life depends on it. Leo instructed, alleviating a little bit of stress from Anthony's shoulders.
Anthony breathed then continued Thanks. He immediately snapped to focus and began to explain the plan to Alwin. "Okay, I need you to attack from the left, maybe try to get under it. I'll go right, try to strike it from above, after we get it, run. Okay. Go."
"'Wait—your left or its left?!" Alwin responded but Anthony had already raced into action and Alwin had to follow.
They raced from each side, moving as fast as the wind. The arachnid might have been confuddled for a second but it moved quickly just the same. It stabbed at Anthony but he jumped to his right, golden light launching him off the ground.
Almost simultaneously Alwin slashed upwards, a gust of wind launching from his naginata so sharp that it left a shallow gash in the beast's side.
Yet not enough to slow it down as the monster quickly struck back, Alwin barely avoiding the metal prongs on its arms. Alwin avoided, flinging himself off the ground in an attempt to dodge. The monster caught him, it had already finished preparing for it's next attack.
As another metal leg sped towards his head, getting bigger and bigger as it approached in slow motion, Alwin's eyes began to widen in fear.
But at the same time Anthony launched himself off the beast's hind legs and swung upwards between the slats of armor on its back. It screeched from the deep wound filled with the same golden aura it knew from before.
As the beast lurched back Anthony grabbed Alwins arm lifting him to his feet and sprinting in towards the exit yelling, "Run!"
Alwin scrambled to find his footing and followed Anthony just as fast. As they met the threshold of the monster's lair the beast roared in anger and lunged towards them but it was too late, too big to chase them through the exit.
They were safe but they kept running, not looking back, keeping their eyes on the light with just as much desperate intensity with their foe stuck wailing for blood behind them. They burst from the cave's mouth, tumbling onto sunlit grass, gasping with relief, finally feeling safe.
As they laid on the ground together, just like they did before in the cave, but this time bathed in light. They rolled over, heavily exhaling in relief, and they began to laugh.
"Holy shit man," Alwin said. "We actually just did that, you just did that! How did you do that!"
"I don't know!" Anthony responded. "I think my sword is some sort of special, it can create powerful attack using my mag-"
"No not that," Alwin interrupted. "You were scared as hell and then you got us out of there, how did you focus up and save us like that?!"
"I don't know either! I just knew I couldn't leave you, not after all that," Anthony answered frantically.
"Well that was amazing," Alwin concluded. "I've been in a lot of dungeons but I don't think I could've ever pulled that off alone, you did that."
Anthony only laughed in response, but his breath quieted, finally feeling content and safe for the first time in a while. Anthony looked up at the blue sky, grass brushing up against his skin and a bit of a smile creeped onto his face.
"Can I tell you something, Alwin?" Anthony asked calmly.
"Sure Ant, go crazy."
"I ended up here because my village was attacked by giants and then I awakened as whatever kind of mage I am. Then I got teleported to some weird ass ancient temple after I saw my dad die and I don't know whether my family is safe and I've been trying to make it home ever since, and now my dad haunts my dreams every night telling me how I abandoned them," Anthony quickly dumped in arguably too calm of a tone then took a deep breath and finished off his rant with an exhilarated "DAMN that was good to get off my chest."
"...uhhh well thanks for telling me but holy shit man."