Yun Seora and I arrived in a dark mossy cave that had rough stone walls on all our sides. There was a soft breeze that seemed to come out of nowhere and unrealistic clicking sounds and howls that seemed to echo through the vastly empty caves just to unsettle its visitors.
The worst however was the abysmal level of lighting in the cave. I could hardly see more than a few feet in front of me and even what I saw was not inviting.
The path in front of us branched into four different tunnels. Each was as dark and dreary as the other, with no clear distinctions to indicate what lay inside them waiting to feast on us.
Yun Seora gripped her two knives with a little tension while I faced ahead and studied the pathways branching from in front of us.
"Which direction do you want to go in?" I asked casually but Yun Seora remained silent to indicate that she did not have a preference.
I nodded and spoke, "Let's stick to the west wall for now. We can eliminate them one by one."
"Sure."
As we stepped into the dark tunnel on our left, we carefully began walking while keeping track of our surroundings. Every light twitch or unplanned crunch froze us in our tracks to pay attention to them, but it seemed like much of it was because of our movement, because they vanished when we stopped moving.
Eventually because of the dark and because I wasn't used to working with other people, Yun Seora's steps and presence made me constantly feel like someone was following me. And I don't doubt she felt it too.
Walking for what felt like hours in the darkness Yun Seora and I finally came across a distant light.
Just as Yun Seora walked faster, I pulled her back.
"Huh?"
"That's not an exit." I explained with a frown on my face that wasn't visible.
"What do you mean?"
"Ever heard of Angler Fish?"
Yun Seora's eyes widened and she tightened her grip around her knives.
*Krrrrrrtttttttt*
Baring the breathless creaking sound, the bulb of light slowly swayed in front of us, inviting us to meet it but its every movement only tensed me and Seora further.
"What do we do?" Yun Seora asked.
"I don't want to fight it right now. Let's check out the other paths first and if we come across something similar in them too then we can come back here."
Yun Seora seemed to understand what I wanted to do because it was most definitely a bad idea to willingly walk into a trap and so she stepped backwards.
I followed her and we walked out of the tunnel, walking faster than we had while coming in until we reached the room we were in before.
We then walked into a second tunnel and after about the same amount of time as before reached an ambush.
Just as we took a step towards the narrow portion of the tunnel, something dropped down from the rocky ceiling behind us and attempted to ambush us.
Luckily Yun Seora had great instincts and she managed to dodge the big animal that had pounced on her.
After that, I jumped onto its head and formed a magic circle before shooting a water bullet right into its head, killing it almost instantly.
"I guess this is not the right path for us.", I said.
"Why?"
"We probably need a torch or something for this pathway. I can only use water-based spells so I'm not going to be helpful here."
"I understand." With those words, Yun Seora began to walk back to the main room once again and we started exploring the other tunnels.
The third tunnel was a dead end while the fourth one was covered in plants.
We finally chose the first tunnel, not only because the Angler Fish indicated that the tunnel was filled with trap-setting monsters, but also because we couldn't risk going into a tunnel filled with what were possibly poisonous plants.
Arriving in front of the Angler Fish once again, we started our attack with me using a Water Bullet to shoot at where I assumed its head was.
A small but swift bead of water flew out of the rather complex magic circle that I'd created and harmed the 'Angler Fish'.
We knew it was harmed, not because of the soft *puchi* of the water bullet piercing its flesh, but because of how the 'Angler Fish' reacted.
It recoiled in shock before *screeching* in pain.
Yun Seora took advantage of this moment and launched at the 'fish' with her knives.
The light bulb bobbed up and down and we were soon allowed to lay our eyes upon the monstrous creature using it.
The creature had a humanoid figure, but that was where its resemblance ended.
It had three heads all mounted on various parts of its body, two on its shoulders and one on its stomach. None of them had eyes or even a nose or a hole to hear, instead its face looked like a large bulbous extension that depended on high-frequency sounds like a beluga.
Its four arms were muscular but ended in claws instead of fingers.
Its legs were heavy and looked like they could crush a watermelon in between them like a bowl of china clay.
Instead of a head on the top of its neck was a flexible appendage to whose end was the light bulb used to draw them in.
Yun Seora noticed this and froze for a second, which was a mistake.
The creature immediately took advantage of Seora's error by jumping right at her.
It was her good fortune that I managed to get the Water Dome spell running in time so that it covered her and me.
Except since the water dome spell was only good against blunt weapons and not claws, the monstrous creature's hands started to tear through it.
But it gave Seora enough time to retreat.
I poured in more mana to strengthen the water dome and called out orders to Seora.
"Stab it in one of its faces! It can't movie for a few seconds! I won't be able to hold it for long!"
Seora nodded and rushing toward the creature, she stabbed her knives through the water dome and jabbed them into the two faces on the creature's shoulders.
There was silence for a second before the creature's thin mouth opened wide, revealing the hundreds of spiky teeth lining its insides, and *screeched* with unholy pain.
The monster recoiled in shock and horror but that was a mistake.
Capitalising on its sudden loss and shock, I shot at its final head a hoard of water bullets that pierced its head and killed it immediately.
The creature collapsed but neither me nor Yun Seora moved anywhere close to it. Since the light bulb it was using to draw us closer to it hadn't gone out.
"Maybe the light bulb stays on even after death?" I spoke hopefully.
After a few minutes of waiting when the monster neither moved nor made a sound, we carefully approached it and examined the corpse.
"Can we take this light bulb to light the rest of our pathway?"
Seora nodded and used her knife to extract the appendage from the creature's neck.
But since she dual-wielded knives, I was left to hold the rather slimy appendage and walk the rest of the way while lighting the tunnel.
'I guess I can be the target while Seora ambushes them…'
'Aren't we using the same tactic the 'Angler Fish' was using?'