The scent of water lingered in the air. The wind howled, blowing its rage across the realm the trio found themselves in. Thick, dark, clouds covered overhead. The dancing of water droplets, falling like a pulse storm, blanketed the moody sky in gloom as white lightning filled the atmosphere and thunder rumbled. For a moment, Rose thought the element of nature was frowning at her earlier attempt at borrowing its power, laughing at her once more.
"Oh come on," Elsa snarled those words out, finding herself completely soaked in an instant. Her black hair, though short, was long enough to stick to her cheeks and the base of her neck as water rolled down her shorts and knee-length socks. She gritted her teeth, breathing out to the realization that her breath lingered in the air, cold and frigid, before dissipating. "Goddammit."
Naturally, she had lived in the desert her whole life. Wetness? Rare beyond a shower. Coldness? Only if not dying of a heatstroke counted as 'cold'.
"It seems we'll have to brave the weather and the terrain as we track down the guardian or door of this floor," Lilias commented besides her, breath also lingering in the air momentarily, tail swinging lightly about, annoyed perhaps, splashing rain from its smooth, now glistening, surface.
Rose nodded as she squinted into the distance.
The terrain wasn't kind. It was murky, muddy even. There were trees, overgrown grass, and vines draping over branches and dead logs. Then there was the lurking beasts in the storm, crimson eyes far, but not too far for her own. If she had to place a tag on the land, it seemed like the entire 3rd floor was a dim marshland that lost its luster molded together with a swamp. A first for her, really. She looked below and moved her legs to the realization that they were located deep in murk and grim. She frowned, hating the feeling, almost enough to recoil. 'This is far worse than sand.'
Still, she wasn't one to be deterred. It was simply one more thing she had to step through and face.
"Let's get started," She spoke as she reached a hand forward. Flame sparked, dancing atop her right palm, glowing in the mingling of orange, like the soft fluorescence of a campfire. Warmth and light pervaded their small area, a little cove of murk smacked between intertwining, dying, trees that stuck out of the nearly knee-deep filthy waters and the odd islands of muddy grass.
"I don't want to stay here longer than needed," She added.
Her ponytail and the flap of her hood blew with the rainstorm as she took a long drag of a step forward, feet rising from mud before plunging back down into the unknown of the waters beneath them. She could feel small waves, tingling sensations perceivable thanks to her heightened senses and tension. Clearly, there were animals swimming there.
"That's it," Elsa's voice came from beside her, arms close to her body, hugging herself as she trekked. The wetness of the rainstorm did not go well with the low temperature of the dungeon's floor. Her figure changed in the next moment into a white wolf that gingerly stepped beside Rose. Even the color of its fur seemed drained in the murky atmosphere, highlighted only by the luminescence of the homunculus's orange flames.
As they winded between small islands of mud mounds, dodged past a floating log, dragged their feet through the low waters, and waded past decaying trees, Rose eyed her friend's shifted form with a raising brow.
"Are you sure you can maintain that?" She asked.
"As long as I don't go shooting off my abilities," Elsa revealed her canines, grinning, "I should be able to stay this way for a long time."
"Ah, the slight convenience of being a hollow." Rose smiled.
Elsa rolled her eyes.
"And I suppose you're staying in wolf form for its fur?" Lilias questioned, wiping a lock of sticky hair blocking her eyes. With the longest hair among the three of them, and wearing shorts with normal-length socks, she seemed to have it the worst between them, yet her face showed nothing of the sort. She was perpetually placid, even more so than Rose, who was rather disgusted by her surroundings.
"Bingo," Elsa replied, "Sorry to say, but this desert-born girl can't handle cold much."
"Oh?" Lilias nodded. "You best pray to Lanxin we don't meet a floor of complete ice and a snowstorm, I doubt your fur will be of much use there."
"Why the heck would I pray to a desert?" Elsa growled back, half-part in confusion. "And don't fucking jinx it you fool."
Rose chuckled. "If you were in danger of the cold, I'd simply burn my flames hotter. In fact, I could do that right now instead of you staying as a wolf. . .though that might attract unnecessary attention from a place we know nothing about."
"Eh, it's fine," Elsa replied, "It's better walking through all this mess with my paws than my shoes. Plus, I should get used to using this body more. You've got no idea how many times I almost died from a slip-up on the last floor."
"I see," Rose nodded.
At that moment, however, she suddenly stopped, raising her left hand and drawing her flames to her front. There was rapid swimming in the low waters—perhaps a beast running from something—and approaching squawks filled the air. White lightning crossed the sky, exposing the winged silhouette of a diving figure.
"Holy shit—"
A feathered beak pierced the water, splashing, grabbing a swimming fish. The thing squirmed, but the bird tossed it into the air, flapping as it momentarily floated on the surface of the water, its feathered body jiggling as it swallowed the other poor creature with haste.
It released a burp of sorts, floating still while beginning to throw up piles of bones from within its gullet, having dissolved the fish it had caught in the mere moments it had its fill.
"Oh, it's just a bird. . ." Elsa muttered, "Can't we just walk past it?"
"Hold on. . ." Rose replied, "The fish was running from something else."
She remained quiet. The waves she was currently feeling in the pool of grime tempted her to stay in place and watch, collect information before deciding on her next course of action. She spotted something - something slithering through the waters. She couldn't see it directly, and she suspected the bird couldn't as well, but she could see its wake of mild ripples and make out a vague snake-like shape based on that.
Then.
Just as the bird, satisfied with its meal, flapped its wings to ascend again, the creature broke out of the murk, its camouflaged form jumping through head-first. Its slimy figure wrapped around the squawking bird with its twisting form before diving—pulling really—back into the water to drown the creature to its muck, suffocating, death. Only a few seconds of splashing revealed the brief struggle of the poor bird.
As the ripples died, Rose saw the vague shape of the creature slither back, dragging its prey into the base of a crooked, dying tree. Nesting itself within its own personal space to likely devour its meal, far less quickly than the bird could. Once more, perhaps later, it would leave its home to hunt.
The trio glanced at one another.
"I hope there's not a bigger one of those. . ." Elsa laughed nervously, the thought of being pulled under to drown and suffocate in her head.
"Don't jinx it, you fool," Rose replied.
". . ."
The three unanimously decided to ignore the occurrence. The world of beasts ravaging each other was beyond them. They didn't particularly feel like fighting in the environment unless they absolutely had to. Simply walking through it was already annoying.
Elsa shook herself of the rain, turning her wolf-head to her companions as they paced onward.
"So, how are you two not cold anyway?" She asked.
Lilias shrugged. "My home is atop a mountain. I'm used to frigidness."
". . .no kidding. . ." Elsa muttered. If the ice queen who hardly showed her expressions couldn't handle the cold, she'd be surprised.
"And I'm simply ignoring the cold," Rose added, breath chilling, "Any damages that comes from it will be healed either way." She saw it merely as a small challenge, nothing more.
Lilias nodded. "Similar, on the last part."
"Well damn."
Elsa thought it a nice thing to be able to heal on the fly. As someone without that ability, lest something else propped up to help, she'd need to enter a life-pod for any serious healing. Her paws moved through the murk as she pondered. 'Hold on I'm not the weak link am I?' She thought. Then, realizing that both of the girls next to her were the type to stare blankly at her, tilt their heads, and call such a needless thought foolish, she couldn't contain the chuckle that slipped her lips. At the very least, she understood the two to that degree.
"That's. . .that's quite an odd chuckle you have there," Lilias spoke, crimson eyes narrowing as her tail quivered.
"Now that you say it. . .yeah. . ." Elsa muttered as she glanced around them, suddenly aware that they still were within this gloomy space. The flashing lightning overhead mixed with the darkened murk of a world illuminated only by Rose's flames, well, that sent chills down her spine.
Rose raised a brow.
Her flames disappeared.
The wolf's form immediately jumped in place, snapping its head at her. "Wha-what the heck's that for?!"
"You're not scared, are you?" Rose smiled as her flames flickered, reappearing and disappearing sparsely.
". . .knock it off," Elsa barked, her azure eyes shifting uneasily around the floor's environment. She could swear something was going to crawl out through the darkness. Something slimy, probably.
Just as her flames disappeared again, Rose felt something wrap around her arm, right above her clothing. She hurriedly turned and came face to face with Lilias, the dragonian's tail outstretched and tangling her limb in its form.
". . ."
". . ."
Lilias's tail quickly retracted as Rose's flames sparked back into place, the light tracing them both. There was a slight blush on the dragonian's face, crimson eyes narrowed yet more than a bit perturbed.
Lilias coughed and took a step away.
"Sorry, I. . ." The dragonian turned her head back forward, face already placid, "I moved on instinct. Ignore what occurred."
"Right. . ." Rose replied with a nod. 'I've never seen that before,' She thought, finding that the girl had a rather cute side to her. She shook her head and turned back forward as well, done with teasing the two. She found the place disgusting, yes, but not fear inducing. Yet it seemed neither of her companions liked creepy places all that much. Perhaps it was a result of them having lived long enough to develop an aversion towards things like such.
She took a step forward before Elsa's growl entered her ears, the girl stopped in place, swerving her head.
Rose stood and did the same, hand moving the flames as her eyes followed, glazed with the shine of fire.
Suddenly.
She heard, saw, and felt it.
The waters beneath them quaked from the slithering of massive creatures, their forms piercing through the shallow depths, slicing with a speed hungering for prey.
"Elsa. . .you really did jinx it. . ." Rose muttered.
Water splashed with dead vines, mud, and decaying leaves as three smooth heads, eyes crimson, broke out of the surface. Their large forms, massive and thick as the trunks of the dying trees about them, and colored much the same as the waters, rolled to surround the trio, twisting to drag them down to suffocate.
Lilias had already grasped her two crimson swords.
Elsa prepared for a fight.
Rose clapped her hands together.
Fire sparked, exploding around them, singeing the stormy air and blowing apart the enclave of creatures with the rain—sending them flying backwards in the hazy glow of red. They crashed into the murk, slamming between wild grass. Fire danced upon the beast's forms as the trio watched them, shaking their bodies before diving back into the waters, slithering within the low murk like snakes upon land. Perhaps even faster.
"Not good," Rose muttered, golden-eyes blinking, "Their bodies are resistant to flames, and diving back down quenches my fire."
Her gear wasn't omnipotent. It might burn mana to create flames, but her fire was still the same as any normal one. The only difference was that she could control it to attack only what she wanted and make it disappear just as quickly as she formed it. If the creatures simply dived into the waters, there was little she could do but swing her sword lest she try to evaporate all the water.
"Jump!" Elsa yelled as her figure began to spark.
Jump? In these waters? That wouldn't carry them far. Rose grabbed a puzzled Lilias, leapt out of the water, barely clearing the water's surface, before flames spurted below her feet, propelling them further.
Elsa's form fully erupted in lightning at that moment, flashes of white filling the space and rumbling the murk of the waters. There was squirming, there were bestial shouts of pain, then the slithering ceased.
Just as Rose's feet sunk back into the waters, splashing, three bodies floated up, dead, and roasted above the surface. The slime-like figures released smoke into the air, having been fried.
Elsa grinned as she cocked her head back. "Neat, right?"
Rose nodded. Certainly, the terrain was perfect for her particular set of skills, even the air, wet as it was, still sparked with some faint trace of the localized storm she had made.
"How much charge did that take?" She asked.
"Didn't last long, so about 10%?"
As Rose quietly pondered the charge versus the time of the ability, a tail touched her cheek and she glanced down, crossing her golden eyes with a pair of emotionless crimson.
". . .could you perhaps put me down now?" Lilias asked.
"Oh." Rose nodded. "Sorry, I moved on instinct."
". . ."
"What? It's the same thing I would have done for Elsa."
"I see. . ."
Lilias stood up as Rose gingerly placed her down. The dragonian turned, swerved her head, and took a step as her hand moved, right sword slicing the air and dividing a piercing vine in two.
"We have more trouble," The girl spoke as shreds of the fauna fell under her blade.
Rose narrowed her eyes.
She wasn't picking up any signs of anything, but vines were already rising from the waters, from the sparse grass, and from the canopies of the trees, twisting and burrowing through the air towards the trio.
"What the heck?!" Elsa's voice boomed.
Rose cocked her head to see the wolf, struggle as it might with lightning sparkling, picked up and wrapped with thick, intertwining vines. In mere moments, even as she waved her sword to slice everything, the girl was lifted into the air and her hazy film of burning red met nothing.
She heard Elsa's scream mixed with the cackling of ineffective lightning, and she ran, feet dragging through the murk of the waters before she stopped, golden eyes flickering about the space that was quickly becoming a nest of vines.
"Lilias, let them take you," Rose spoke, breath lingering in the air, the rainstorm flapping her hair as she turned to the dragonian who was busy slicing away at any vines which came her way. "Trust me."
"Trust you?" Lilias asked, crimson eyes shifting momentarily, hair stuck to her face. Her twin swords slashed, breaking apart the vines that came for her with ease. It was hard to move her legs effectively in the mud, but her arms were another thing entirely. "Yet, you hardly trust me?"
". . ." Rose narrowed her eyes. Though, she had to admit, the girl was right.
The dragonian smiled thinly, that oh-so wonderful smile Rose still disliked. The girl was devilishly pretty, but that smile that hid her emotions beneath a veil of placidness always gave discomfort. "I'm merely joking. Even I realize the best way to find the source of all this is to let it take us."
Then she gripped her weapons tightly and allowed the vines to wrap around her.
"Besides, we have to retrieve Elsa, now don't we?"
She was dragged into the air, wrapped till immobile, as Rose's flaming sword died down.
The vines came for her too, and they entrapped and took her, swinging her into the air, limbs bound tight, yet her face free to view the possible horror to come.
She did not try and escape, however. She watched the dark sky, she felt the storming rain, and she saw the crack of lightning as thunder echoed in the space. Far off, squinting in a direction further unknown, she could even perceive a door, golden and shining. But that was not her destination.
In moments, she came before a large, decaying, tree that pierced the air. Its trunk was as large as and thick as a shack, and it was shrouded in vines, thick and interwoven between branches. Many beasts lay within the air, trapped by those faunas, struggling with pain crossing their faces. It was like a graveyard. The tree, as she saw it, though without eyes, and though without face, was grinning, viciously sucking the life and vitality away from its trapped preys. Eating its fill as no sun would ever bypass the dark clouds above to feed it. Evidently, the thing, its vines reaching throughout the entire floor of the space, deep into the waters, draped over many more trees, was the top predator on the 3rd floor. It was almost instinctual that she recognized it as the guardian of this realm.
Pulled ever closer to it, in time, she could see the other two, around her, also being dragged closer to the creature. She saw Elsa and Lilias squirm under their entrapment, and that was when she was rightfully angered, seething at the creature that hung them all out to dry.
They floated there, amidst a canopy of other soon-to-die beasts; from the smallest of fish, to the largest of those slimy, flame-resistant beasts they had already fought.
Rose looked at the gloomy tree once more and recognized that its aged bark was being revitalized by the life it was sucking dry.
Then, she focused on the hum of her core, looking deep for the rage within her. The thing she usually had a handle on. Usually, she preferred her calm calculations to her bubble of emotions. But. When Elsa was dangling in the air to be robbed of her life, that was a line crossed. And though she wouldn't say she was close with Lilias, the girl had helped save Elsa from drowning, and trusted her, and that had enough meaning.
'You have a death wish,' She thought as she stared at the bark before her, golden eyes flickering with burning rage, a familiar sensation not felt since the slums, 'No one tries to kill my friends.'
Her body sparked before bursting into flames. As if a corked bottle was ripped open—everything rushing out at once—fire shrouded the area in its burning hatred. Deep crimson, the scorch of it reaching and moving across vines, touching the creatures hung to dry, and touching the tree before blazing even more brightly. The cackle of fire against wood rang, popping as the tree began to burn with all the creatures held in its vines. The screams. The roars. The crisp smell of flesh roasting and the smoke of truly, dying bark.
Within that stormy world, where everything was covered in the gloom of darkness, Rose's flames burned brightly until there was nothing more to burn, the faint screaming of beasts soon dying.
The trio crashed into the waters.
"Damn." Harsh breaths followed those words as a short-haired girl shot up, covered in the filth of the place. "Fuck," Elsa cursed, already back to human form, "I thought I would die."
Rose smiled as she took Lilias's outstretched hand. The dragonian stared down at her, expressionless, tail swinging away to rid itself of nastiness.
"Thanks," She said, pulling herself up and out of the water, "For trusting me."
"That's quite alright," The dragonian replied.
The three stood and stared at the landscape.
Ash drifted with the wind and rain as a door of light announced itself, bright amidst the gloom of the place. Mana orbs floated, glowing their luminescent blue above the murk of the realm. Ignoring the quickly slithering bodies of beasts that managed to escape her wraith, Rose spotted a mana orb with the spirit of a tree wrapped in vines floating within.