{Javier~}
{Heh. Poor Javier}
An eerily haunting voice echoes in Javier's head.
{This is My beginning, and Your End}
"Eh!?". Javier snapped out of his thoughts as he swiftly pulled out a sword from his portal and clashed with the first knight that got to him. 'It's that voice again'
He covered his ears. "It's haunting!". With a royal battlecry, Javier rushed at the two other knights, kicked the first one slashed at the neck of the second. The impact went on the negative effect as the one feeling the pain and repercussions were Javier.
The second knight slid back a few centimeters, while the third merely knelt down with a knee from Javier's attack.
There was no breathing space for Javier cause as soon as he lands, he has a clash with another knight on ambush.
After numerous fleeting but dangerous confrontations with his opponents, Javier turned his head and asked breathlessly.
"Nathan, how's your end?".
He looked around and found Sebastian blocking the two knights swords with his fists, although with some difficulties, a smug expression plastered on his face.
"That one seems to be having fun"
He turns back to look at Nathan
"Pretty bad". Nathaniel replied. "I'm not really good at hand combat, but this freaking piece of metal sure is! Not to mention when I use fire to attack, he makes sure to douse me with water". Nathan frowns as he forms a ball of fire and had not even attacked yet when the knight threw an enormous wave of water his way. He squinted his eyes and spat in disgust .
The knight merely shrugged as he looked around before aiming at him again.
Nathan readied his stance. "He just might have the same abilities as I".
"Tsk". Javier clicked his tongue
"Kelvin! What about you?". Javier rolled off the floor and climbed up the wall and hit the cup holding the torch directly at the knight that was chasing him.
"Ow!". The ancient looking cup didn't budge one bit, but all he got was pain
"Same thing here Lord Javier! Anytime I try using my gale (Derived element of Air), he nullifies it!". Kelvin said with a hint of panic
"Nullify?".
"Yes, I think he uses thermal! And heat! Then fire! So he thermalizes my wind! The heat, so it nullifies.. ". Kelvin explained
Javier was confused for a second, so he subconsciously looked at the knight Kelvin was fighting who also happened to glance at him.
If the knight had a mouth, it would have sighed in exasperation, but this time, it shook its helmet in helplessness.
"Lord Javier?". Kelvin called out
"Yeah, I got ya". What a sweet child, Javier thought. In other words, the moment we entered this dungeon, we were analyzed and given opponents that suited us in battle, except better. "How annoying-".
Wait, now's not the time to be thinking!
Clang!!
He barely just dodged that!. "One of them is a pain, not to talk of three".
After several dozens of clashes, Javier finally managed to knock off the helmet of one of the knights.
Yes, he barely managed to knock off the helmet.
There was no head. It was merely a purple spirit hovering over to pick up the helmet and put it back on.
"What the hell? Is it a Specter?". Actually, I'm tired of this Javier sighed. "How are you holding up, Mathias?".
"Just barely scraping through". Mathias had his hands in his pockets as he looked up at the knight in front of him struggling in the air. It was bound by a sort of metallic string that seemed to creak anytime the knight moved.
"This one has wind for ability, quite the matchup for my string ability". He rubbed his hair. "And when I finally manage to restrain it".
The knight breaks free and lands with one knee. Slowly, it stood up with all manner of heroism that the other knights who were minding their own business had to pause for a second to look at it.
"It breaks free again". He sighed once again. "Bruh". Mathias was at the verge of crying. "Let me just beat you, and we can all go home, right?!".
The knight cocked it's helmet as if thinking
"He's seriously considering it!".
"Nuh-uh". It shakes its head
"Take this seriously!".
He went back to his fight..
Javier raised an eyebrow,
"That's... Actually I have no words to describe that nonsense".
He looks around for a bit...
Reo, whose ability allows him to temporarily enter his shadows, and those of other people and objects was making great progress in this supposed one-sided match. He jumps up from behind in the Knight's shadow and brings down his dagger.
"Good one, Reo". Javier nodded. "Now it remains...".
The Felix that was in the corner had a fire-using knight as his opponent. It was the first time his ice element in fighting had been rendered useless.
'The heat is intense' Felix frowns
"Well, no matter!"
Felix was seen whispering to the knight closely.
The dumbfounded Javier: "...". Not like it has any ears though. Is he going to be alright-
The knight gave Felix a shocking blow to the stomach!
"Ktuuh!!". I knew it! Javie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "There's no talking to those b*tches!".
Javier, who was also running for his life, stopped. They're not chasing me?
He looked behind, and then looked forward, his eye caught something ahead.
"They're waiting for me at the entrance I'm running to!!". Javier nearly choked. "And why does that one look like he's drinking tea!?" He pointed at the third knight in annoyance
Sigh... "This is really starting to get annoying". Javier furrowed his brows in frustration. "It's about time..". He stretches a little, releasing the strain on his shoulder
"I put an end to it". His squinted eyes showed all ounces of seriousness
The knights felt this overwhelming pressure coming from Javier and cautiously stood up.
-He's not your ordinary joe-. They kept in mind. There was this sense of tension that seemed to follow them anytime they moved even a millimeter so if possible, they would have broken a sweat.
Both sides readied their weapons, and in the blink of an eye, crashed down at the other. Several dozens of metals clashing every few seconds resonated in the massive hall, releasing shockwaves every now and then.
Javier set his booted foot down and detached the helmet of the knight in front of him. All the while kicking the other knight in the face, sending it flying and jabbing the last one in the stomach.
He calmed down a bit and thought to himself. "Pain!". Their stupid helmets and body armor are solid compact, adamantine!
The normal him would have screamed out in anguish and distress but. He sighed once again, he could only keep it in. He had to pretend to the others, but the pain is fun
"Alright, let's -"
Clang!!
From the other side of the wall, a metallic noise was heard.
"Someone else is here? The princess!". He suddenly came to a realization. "Good job surviving till now!"
Javier ran ahead with the knights following behind him.
To stall for time, he created and threw towards the knights a large ball of fire which they doused with water. He then used ice, wind, water, and strings. Nonetheless, all attacks were hindered. But just enough to get him closer to the other entrance .
Javier couldn't be too careful, so with all manner of circumspect, he ran along the walls and at the entryway, came face to face with a beautiful lady running. She had two weapons like sickles behind her back. The weapons were black, but they glinted an ominous red.
It was Grace, an agent in Javier's group of sentinels. Grace was a very slim and tall lady with a burnt orange coloured wavy hair of shoulder length. She had on a silver plated armor that covered her from neck to toe and an orange skirt of tigh length.
"... S-senior?" Javier called out
"Javier?". The lady asked back
"Senior!". Javier raised his voice in confirmation
"Javier!" The Grace smiled
"Senior!!" Javier beamed happily
"Javier!!". She ran forward
The Nathan who was gaining the upper hand in his fight simply turned around only to see this shit. "Idiots"
Javier hugged her tightly
"What are you doing here". He asks
"Could ask the same about you. This is our agent's responsibility". She asked back
"From my perspective it seems to be something you guys can't handle. Well, except you senior". Javier raised an eyebrow
"A lot of information about this dungeon is still unknown, so I decided to go check it out first and communicate with the others on the outside. Only I can do that". She explained
Oh yeah, she has the same ability as the seventh emperor. Sound waves (derived element of air). Javier thought
"That's still too dangerous. I don't want that next time". He begged
"Alright, I'll be careful next time". I'm supposed to be his senior but he treats me like a child? It's at times like this I remember I like his dad. She looked up at Javier who was talking to her but she couldn't hear a thing. And now I like him
"..." She slapped the nonsense out of her skull
"Hm? Are you hearing me? Senior?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, what?"
"I'm asking about the princess"
"About that, unfortunately... ". She thought for a while
" It can't be helped". Javier sighed
" I just haven't found her yet"
" You what? "
" She's still somewhere in this dungeon. It's bigger than you imagine " she looked around. "Not to mention."
"What's the matter?"
" That princess is stronger than you imagine! "Grace smiled heartily
" Really? "Javier smiled back, his arms folded
"The queen and king said no one else has been to the valley before we agents came, so it has to be only her. When I got here I had stupid knights following me, but as I continued my mission, I found several tens of monsters dead. Sword marks". She smirks
"It couldn't have been the knights, they only appear when people enter, and then target only them". Javier pointed out facts
" Exactly". Grace agreed
" So now, our mission is still not completed. Let's look for her- eh?." Javier paused
" What-" Grace also paused
"Behind you!". They both chorused
The knights behind Grace and the knights behind Javier had caught up to them already.
"Why don't you take mine while I take yours, eh?". Grace asks
" I don't see a problem with that " Javier smirks
With that, both of them ran towards the other's enemy.
A few minutes later...
"Grace!! I can't take yours please have them back!"
" Same with me! These guys are worse!! "
Grace's enemy knight had a sword with rigged, very sharp edges. And it was unbelievably fast. It also had sound waves for power. Afterall, the only way to cancel out a wave is by creating a different wave of similar frequency. In order words, destructive interference. A correct match with her abilities and weapon use. Meanwhile, Javier's knights had fire, water, wind, ice and abilities Javier has that he didn't even know of. That's quite the kill for Grace who doesn't have any physical type ability.
"Now that I think about it, why did you come over here?". Javier asked in between gasps
" Oh yeah, I heard sounds of fighting here, so I came to check it out thinking It might have been the princess, or the agents for backup. But most of all, Grace took a long and sharp breath. "The ominous glowing of the walls".
"The what?". Javier was confused, he looked back at the whole of the enormous space and saw the walls glowing red, purple, green, blue, yellow, white and black. That's new, and he could have sworn he saw Felix dancing with his enemy knight by the color changing wall. He cocked his head in confusion once again at the other's strange behavior
"Anyways, let's do something about these knights first, we can't get anywhere with them around". Grace said and Javier conceded
I would have loved to use that ability but it takes up stamina and requests more sacrifice than I can give. If I give it all the knights in here, would it...?
"Javier!". Grace snapped him out of his thoughts
"The lights. They're blinking rapidly!". She pointed out
" That's true! I have a bad feeling about this...". Javier broke half a sweat. "Everyone, re-".
Crackle-
The torches were eerily extinguished...
The few seconds of darkness and silence felt like eternity.
Whoosh!
What was not there before, suddenly appeared and what was revealed was a large ancient cup slowly igniting itself, a dim purple illumination on the outermost wall and a group of written words just beside it.
Javier strengthened his resolve and walked up to the wall. He looked back at the others and nodded
On the wall wrote...
{After spending an hour in our welcoming hall, our beloved guests have been given the opportunity to choose the qualities of their enemies}
{How would you like your next enemy/enemies...?}
Javier's eyes widened. He took a deep breath, touched the first question and said audibly.
"Question one, Fleshy". He smiled, displaying his full white teeth.
{A request from our guest...?}
Javier thought for a while.
"Question 2, let our enemy be weak, and our enemies be limited". He steadied his beating heart and narrowed his eyes.
{Last question: Make a computation? Random punishment will be admitted (From guest)}
Javier's silky black hair partly covered his face so his expression was unknown to the others.
"Question 3. Yes, let them feel pain!". His eyes glinted green as his lips parted to reveal a devilish smile.