Only two hours later, we had reached level nine. I had allowed Carmine to set the pace. Fortunately, I didn't have to fight her on the kiosk, as it served as an entrance into the boss's room on the ninth floor.
"Hurry up! They're catching up any second we take to waste!"
I nodded and made sure my girls registered. "How many floors do you think it goes down?"
I didn't know how old this dungeon was before we entered it. If it was a year per level as it appeared to be, this dungeon could be a hundred floors or more. A hundred levels of dead space was still a hundred levels we had to climb down.
"We're close." She said, "Just another ten."
I breathed slightly easier. The longer it took to reach the bottom, the more chance we had of this Bandit King catching up to us. I quickly looked over at the murals for this story as well. Carmine made an annoyed tsk and crossed her arms. While we might not be fighting any bosses on the way down, there could be some secret to this guardian kept within the story. I wasn't going to pass it by. It could be the difference between life or death down here.
However, the mural was completely unreadable. I could see half the image of a single person. They were holding some kind of rod. That was all that was left. The rubble that once contained this part of the story now lay in broken piles on the ground. I sighed and motioned for Carmine to continue on. As we entered the tenth floor, I was expecting the door behind us to shut. However, that didn't seem to be happening.
"In here!" I heard a shout. "Ah, the next stairway down!"
The sound came from the ninth floor. I could hear a dozen people talking, and they didn't seem to be caring about the level of their voices at all. Even though I couldn't make out most of the words, they had a rowdy tone about them.
"Carmine should be right ahead!" A commanding, yet surprisingly melodious voice came out. "Oh… Carmine… we're coming for you!"
They shouted the words like they were singing a song, and the rest of the group began to make nasty laughs. Why couldn't this be a boss room? If it did, then the doors would close and we'd have an hour for it to repop! Now, it appears like they had already caught up to us. Carmine's face appeared white and she let out a cry of fear and panic.
I had some doubts before about the so-called Bandit King. I suspected that perhaps she might even be working alongside them. However, the expression of pure terror on her face instantly dispelled that thought. Carmine was actually running for her life, and by the tone of the Bandit King, he was viciously toying with her.
"Run!" I hissed out and then began to pick up the pace.
At the worst, this large boss battle room put the bandits at the advantage. They had more numbers than we did. They could take advantage of spells. On the other hand, we'd be much better off in the relatively narrow halls where we could take optimum advantage of our few numbers. As we raced the last half of the room, I could see their shadows growing like long hands looking to reach out and grab our ankles.
"I think they're down here!" Someone shouted. "Carmine and the pretty noble with the slaves!"
Pretty boy? That was a description I never would have expected, but considering most bandits didn't even have all of their teeth, I supposed it made sense.
"I want to kill that bastard myself!" Another voice, this had to be Balrack, came out.
So, they really had swarmed the city, and even were able to free Balrack. They also knew who was down here and our number. Basically, we had no surprises left. Their shadows began to move faster down to our level. Just as their feet could be seen coming down the stairs, we reached the staircase to the eleventh floor. Suddenly, the door slammed shut in Carmine's face!