The three divers in the front barely managed to keep their footing as they stumbled through the mist stone. Lond had turned and glared at Emile, eyes furrowed. "Dry skin will be the least of your problems," Lond hissed through his mask. Cort was too preoccupied evaluating the chamber they had entered to take part in the argument.
Like the previous room the group entered, it was narrow. The mist stone behind them had reformed into its illusory wall state, with similar walls most likely made of real rock on all other sides of the room. The sound of falling water had stopped the moment they entered the new chamber, and the light of the labyrinth once again changed.
Rather than lanterns lining the walls, a single oversized one was hanging by a chain from the ceiling, basking the room in the red glow from its magical flame but leaving some shadows in the corners.
"I've never seen the lights change in Veranus before," Leaf muttered to himself. "I wonder what's causing it."
"I'm less worried about the light and more about what Ashen had been talking about," Cort replied. "Stay ready, everyone."
A deep, gurgling noise echoed in the small chamber. Something else was in there with them. Cort could feel something changing in his vision, but could not nail it down until Emile said calmly. "The lights are going out. Back to back, all of you."
Emile was right. Cort looked up and saw the flame in the lantern growing smaller and dimmer. Shadows were creeping out from their corners. It took another gurgling noise to put the younger men into action, and they stood back to back as a group of four. The shadows came closer until only a small ring of red light covered the group in the center of the room.
"It's moving," Emile told them. Cort could faintly hear it, too. Soft, steady footfalls. The thing in the chamber with them knew to be quiet. It was an old thing. Experienced in the matter of hunting men.
Another roar, and the footsteps grew louder. Something scraped the floor, sounding like it came closest to Lond's side of the huddle.
"Move!" Cort shouted, trading places with Lond and holding his sword up to block the object that came crashing down from overhead. The sword was met with hardened wood, and Cort saw that the weapon he had blocked was a staff with a circular golden headpiece.
The dim light grew softly in the room, expanding the ring around the divers. The wielder of the staff was a feralise. Unlike the previous ones though, this one had longer fur and was larger, possibly the size of Emile or taller if it stood up straight on its haunches. Its eyes were sharper and yellower, and its fangs had grown long.
It howled at Cort in an attempt to startle him, but he held steady. It was still trying to bring the staff down, the weapons threatening to break each other as their wielders strove to destroy their opponent. With a shorter bark, the feralise took its staff back and retreated back into its shadows. The lantern light returned to its original state, and the divers closed their ranks fully again.
"That's no ordinary rabbit," Emile remarked. "But I think if I get my hands on him, I can kill him."
"It went for me first," Lond remarked. "It can see I don't have a weapon. It thinks I'm easy prey."
"Show him you're not then." If Cort had turned at Emile's comment, he would've seen Lond shooting him a quizzical look. The turn of the head broke their careful defensive watch, and footsteps echoed through the dark again.
Once more, the steps closed in on them from Lond's side of the huddle. Cort switched places again, only he was not met with a swing from the staff.
There was a deep inhale from the darkness.
Cort realized just in time what the feralise was planning and shouted "Scatter!" The exhale followed just as the four of them dove out of the way, and a jet of fire flew through the air where they had once been. The feralise's face was illuminated as it blew the flames from the top of its staff. Once it noticed it missed, the flames ceased and the room was black once more.
"A feralise with a breath attack?" Leaf barked. Apparently he was having a hard time following their situation.
"Get back to the light!" Lond shouted from somewhere else in the dark. Cort realized the agency as the lantern light decreased the longer no one occupied it. He scrambled to his feet and got to the ring of light first, followed shortly by Leaf and then Lond.
"Emile," Cort thought aloud. He could hear it, the same raspy breathing Emile had when the fireball spells had gone off. Somewhere in the dark, Emile was suffocating after the fire breath dried him out. There were rapid footsteps in the dark, and they were going towards the sounds of struggling breathing.
"Dammit," Cort said as he ran into the dark again. It was impossible to gauge completely. It was too dark in the chamber to even make out an outline of Emile's hunched over body.
He had to rely on the sound, standing somewhere between the heavy breathing and the rapid footsteps when he came to a stop. The footsteps were getting closer, and Cort made a guess as he held up his sword to block the incoming blow.
He guessed wrong.
The feralise had attacked Cort from the side. It bit Cort right where the arm met the shoulder, and Cort let out a roar of pain. The fangs sunk deeper, and the monster started to shake its head back and forth, growling with a mouthful of blood and flesh.
Cort could feel himself start to grow weak, the pain and blood loss increasing every moment. He lashed out wildly with his sword, slashing at the feralise in a desperate fight to save himself.
Finally, Cort managed to drive his blade through the feralise. It was not enough, though, and he groaned as the jaw shut further down on his arm. Cort drove the blade deep as he could into the monster, spitting out curses.
A new sound hit his ears in the pandemonium of his duel. Water. Water splashed against something nearby.
"Hell yeah," he heard Emile say. The raspy breathing stopped, and there was a deafening roar from behind Cort. The feralise with a gut full of sword finally released his arm, but Cort turned the blade to make the monster flinch and hold still. He could feel the force of Emile's movement as his ally leapt beside him, tackling the monster to the floor several meters away from Cort.
There were sounds of breaking and tearing in the darkness, followed by a hearty laugh from Emile.
The light from the lantern grew brighter once more. It grew and grew until all shadows vanished from the room. Emile stood triumphantly over the remains of the feralise. Lond and Leaf were standing where the original ring of light had been, Lond breathing a little harder but otherwise both unharmed.
"You hit me with a water spell," Emile told Lond.
"It's water you can drink," Lond mentioned after catching his breath. "So I figured it would be okay to use."
"Hey now. I'm not just some test subject for your little magic experiments."
"We're all alive, so I'm calling it a victory," Leaf responded with a smirk. Cort could not help but smile as well. His first dive was proving to be a proper challenge, but it felt good to continue overcoming it.
Cort's vision was becoming blurry though. It was getting harder to stay standing. There was a soft thud near his feet, and Cort looked down to see what caused it.
What had landed on the ground was unmistakably his arm, no longer able to stay attached to his body after the damage it sustained from the feralise's bite.
"Well that sucks," Cort said. Standing became too difficult, so he decided to fall back. The world turned black around him mid-fall.