"Get behind me!"
I watched as Haruto rushed in front of me with his shield up. He was quickly hit by an axe that forced him to bend his knee to withstand the force behind the blow as the floor beneath him cracked.
Seeing this, I quickly rushed past him and slid my sword across the guard's arm, severing it horizontally as it was split in two. The cries of pain from the guard were even more horrible than when I just cut their arms normally. I had to duck as it tried to swing his healthy arm at me, but I slashed up as it passed above me, effectively cutting it too, then with a swift strike I pierced the head of the guard.
The dead body fell loudly to the ground. I wanted to take whatever valuables it had but I had to roll out of the way of a short sword before being able to do so. Another guard showed up and immediately swung his arm at me after trying to cut me in two. I stepped back and barely avoided it before Haruto came crashing against him from the side with his shield. The guard fell because of the heavy blow and as it tried to stand up his head was crushed beneath the weight of Haruto's mace.
They are stronger than us, but just as vulnerable. A good hit or cut is more than enough to kill them.
Suddenly another guard came bulldozing through a wall and slashed at me with his sword. I couldn't dodge it but thankfully it didn't cut me thanks to the leather vest that Sophia gave me. It still sent me rolling through the floor with a lot of pain though, not that it matters much.
I quickly stood up just in time to block a second slash with my own sword. Unlike the guards that hold their weapons with one hand, who follow the pattern noticed by Touji, the ones that use both hands to wield their weapons don't use their arms and instead just keep swinging their weapons, in this case, a sword.
I stepped back to avoid a slash to my face before swinging my sword towards his left hand, cutting it in half and forcing him to use the sword with just one hand. As it tried to slash at me once more, it was hit in the back by Haruto, making him lose balance which I immediately took advantage of and slashed at his throat as he fell forward.
With that last guard dead, I looked to the other side of the room where Sophia and Touji were fighting a guard wielding a large axe. Besides them another guard lay dead with multiple cuts. Touji was fighting methodically and cautiously with his new sword. He quickly noticed the guard pattern as he was actively doing precisely calculated moves to avoid wasting too much energy while slowly wearing him down. Sophia on the other hand was running around the guard with a shortened spear and a small axe in her hands. Whenever the guard focused on Touji it would be struck from behind by Sophia and when he shifted his focus to her Touji would deliver deadly slashes to important muscles. Like this it didn't take long before the guard fell lifeless to the floor.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah, but I'm tired as hell~"
Sophia answered my question. Thankfully other than the aching muscles no one was wounded. Well, my ribs hurt a little but I don't feel like I broke anything.
Two weeks have passed since we arrived in these dungeons and we have found a lot of things. First of all, we need to leave quickly. Nothing has happened to us yet but we don't know when we could start getting sick or mutated.
Touji showed me the diary he found, and later on we found a crude map of the dungeon. It was old so apparently it wasn't completely accurate, but along with the map that he made it worked just fine. Ever since we have been walking towards what the map says is the dungeon chief quarters in hopes of finding the key to the surface.
Touji suggested not to, but I still told Sophia and Haruto everything. He expected them to be mortified by the fact that the guards weren't zombies like the monsters we found in the city, but I expected otherwise. Sophia suffered a lot because of them and she developed a notable hatred for them. Then there is Haruto, who even though he is goodhearted, he isnt forgiveful, he doesnt care if it is a human or not, as long as they attack us he attacks them back.
"Is it just me or is this getting increasingly harder?"
Sophia spoke her thoughts and I agreed. The more we venture deeper into the dungeon the more guards we find. Not only that, they're better armed than before. Every now and then after killing a lot of them we feel our strength increase, which has been really helpful, but we still aren't comparable to the guards. We may be able to punch a hole through a stone wall but they can completely demolish it. The only reason that we can fight against them is that they're slow and easily predictable. Our bodies have also gotten more resistant and that helps, but a direct blow would definitely be bad. We basically gamble every time we fight.
However even though there are more guards, that also means more weapons we can ransack from them. An example of this would be the sword Touji is holding now instead of the rusty sword he had back then, or the spear and axe of Sophia.
We also found other things, like more of those healing vials. We don't have much so we will only use them in an emergency. We also found some armor, pretty much like the arm guards that Touji has or my leather vest. I found an iron chestplate that was too big for any of us except for Haruto and some leg guards that I gave to Sophia.
As we ransacked everything we could from the guards, I took the short sword one of them was holding and the normal sword of the other. The first one was obviously shorter but also broader, it seemed good for blocking, and the other one was the same as the one Touji was using. Since we can't carry many weapons, I only kept the short sword since it looks more useful to me right now.
Sadly none of the guards have a sword sheat so I have no option but carry both swords at all times...my hands are sweaty because of it.
There isn't much other than weapons to take from them. Their clothes are torn and old, so after finishing that we continued walking. Touji kept a small axe but neither Sophia nor Haruto grabbed anything.
As we continued to walk towards the dungeon chief quarters we started to notice a lot of blood all over the place. At first it was dried blood, probably the remains of the battle between dungeon guards and soldiers told in the diary, but after a while this changed. The blood was no longer dry but fresh blood along with pieces of flesh, like severed limbs or heads.
They all belonged to guards.
"Stop"
Touji stopped me when I tried to advance further. I looked at him and I saw worry in his face as he gripped his sword hard.
"What's wrong?"
"I hear metal crashing...and screaming"
I didn't hear anything, but Touji has always had sharp senses. Much sharper than anyone else, so I didn't doubt his words, instead I gripped my swords just like he did.
"We can't go back, this is possibly the only way to the chief quarters..."
"Then let's go."
Haruto spoke before walking again. I'm not worried about whatever is happening over there, but seeing that he isn't scared or nervous is great.