Chapter Text
After the near-death experience with A-60, our heroes dedicated a lot of the journey to honing their combat skills against the various monsters that roamed the land. Many a El Goblino’s were slain across the roads, much to the thankful delight of all the merchants that travelled. With the favour of said merchants, the party were able to get some fine armour and stylish outfits at an affordable price.
And how did they earn the money to buy these things? By completing quests for various citizens of course!
…Is only half the story.
As per agreement with the A-60, Screech would perform the ode to its son each and every time the party arrived at a new inn, town or urban area. Their vocals were beautiful, and the busking earned the party a hefty amount of coins. Rush, Ambush and Dupe, however, were getting real tired of hearing this one song in every town.
- - -
“Screech! For all things unholy, you don’t actually have to sing everytime we reach a location!” Rush yells across the table at the tiny entity. Dupe has now face planted the table, covering their ears from the torture.
“Yes, you can just say you sang the song!” Ambush adds, barely holding onto the last vestiges of their sanity themselves.
“But, but, but- How will I get better!?” Screech stammers out, eyes filled with hurt.
“Practice in your own time!” Rush shouts, still angered.
“Alone” Ambush adds on.
“Don’t worry Screech, I’ll listen to you practise” you say reassuringly. Screech perks up a little at that.
“Yay!” they exclaim.
- - -
With enough gear in their pockets and a sufficient amount of levels to have them able to take on many challenges, the group makes their final journey towards The Dark Lord’s castle.
The closer they got to the domain, the more the land became bleaker. It was as if the very life had been sapped from the trees and soil themselves. All very unnerving, but these heroes had a beautiful princess to save. They persevered.
All too soon, they found themselves staring up at the fortified castle, with high walls and many, many guards.
“Right… How do we intend to break in there?” Ambush asks, gulping slightly at the overwhelming sight.
“We fight our way in, of course!” Rush exclaims. “What have we been doing all that training for!?”
“Even I know that’s a stupid idea…” Screech grumbles. Ambush and Dupe nod along.
“Well, I don’t see you guys with a better idea!” Rush says defensively, crossing their arms over their chest in annoyance.
“Actually… I do think I have a better idea” Dupe interjects, pulling out a map and a spyglass. “In a few of the towns we passed, I did do some… ‘research’ into the area”
“Research?” Ambush asks sceptically.
“I asked around the towns-” No they didn’t, they broke into many homes and many archives. Don’t tell Ambush, but Dupe is now wanted in at least seven different provinces of the kingdom. And not all of them are for thievery. “-and I heard an interesting rumour…” Dupe brings the spyglass to one of their eyes, scanning the location before finding what they are looking for and handing the spyglass to Ambush so they can see too. “...They say that the cave there is connected to the courtyard of the castle. It could be our best shot of getting in undetected”
“You want us to go in that cave based on a bunch of rumours?” Rush asks snarkily. Dupe frowns at the paladin.
“And your idea was better?” they retort.
“I like the idea!” Screech chimes in.
“Yeah… I suppose it is better than a frontal assault, considering there are only four of us, and we have no idea the numbers The Dark Lord has…” Ambush adds.
“Excellent! Then we should make haste! Our princess awaits!” Dupe says with a clap of their hands, before setting off towards the distant cave. Rush grumbles but sets off too, quickly overtaking Dupe. Ambush and Screech follow.
The four of them arrive at the large entrance to the cave. Screech lights a few torches for the party to hold, as to illuminate their way before they set off into the depths.
“Something doesn’t feel right here…” Ambush mumbles to herself as they make their way forward. “...Where are all the cave dwelling creatures? The bats?” Not that the others seemed to pay her much mind.
“Oops!” Screech exclaims as they accidentally kick a loose rock, the sound of it clattering echoing off the walls of the cave and reverberating around them.
“In a place like this, it’ll be hard to tell where any sound is really coming from…” Ambush says thoughtfully.
“I suppose we should be aware of our surroundings, don’t want something to sneak up on us” Rush adds, continuing forwards.
“Maybe you should strip? That armour is awfully heavy… and loud” Dupe says teasingly, causing Rush to flare up.
“Would you shut up!” Rush shouts angry, voice booming out over the cave system.
Dupe would have retorted, or continued to tease the poor paladin, had a monstrous roar not rang out from somewhere within the cave. The party all froze in their spot, eyes scanning the dark, waving their torches to try and shine a light on what made that noise.
“W-where did that come from?” Screech cries out, the low visibility making it impossible to see too far ahead of them. Their fear only begins to mount as they hear thunderous footsteps that seemed to be heading in their direction, but from which direction? They could not tell!
It is getting so close now…
“Everyone shut up!” Dupe says through gritted teeth, silencing the rest of the party.
Dupe saw movement in the dark. The monster was upon them! But… if this was a cave dwelling monstrosity, then perhaps…
Dupe quickly reached down to the ground and grabbed a sizable rock before hurling it as far as they could down one of the branching paths of the cave.
The creature that had approached them was seen but momentarily in the light, before it abruptly turned and with furious roaring chased the clattering racket of the thrown stone. It was massive, towering over all of them, and despite its rather slender body, those massive claws and razor teeth looked like they could shred through just about anything with ease.
Whatever this figure was, it now stalked our party from within the dark of the cave…