"Come on man, the 6th floor is nothing. Are you retarded or summin' look at us." I had to admit that he had a point. "Do we look spent to you, we got potions, we got staminal, our weapons are fine, we got no injuries, and we even got a map up to the 7th." Gesturing wildly at the party of six our party leader Leonard, was backed by the exasperated yet amused nods of our partners. I knew he was right and yet…
"How much more prepared are we gonna get. You wan' us to stay here till we level up or what, little man" the corner of my lips twitched at the ironic nickname given that despite my diminutive stature I was still taller than the dwarf by at least half a head.
"Bro the 6th floor ain't going nowhere, we don't need to rush and even if we are fully prepared what if we're not strong enough or we get ambushed or- ah!". I spun Quickly and glared up at a human redhead archer daring enough to yank on my sacred area. "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT!"
She smiled seeing my glare and raised her hand placatingly "Hey in my defence you were spiralling, and we all know how long you can go for 'morales enemy'". I redoubled my death stare after hearing my unflattering, unofficial title.
Unbothered she continued. "Look kitty I get it, no seriously I do" she reiterated after seeing my doubtful arched eyebrow. "You're worried that we're not ready and you're going to get us killed but honestly, we should be on the eighth floor by now. We have enough experience and despite your lack of experience even Leonard the old bastard would agree that your miles ahead of the rest of us put together in terms of combat talent, awareness, strategy and whatever else you use to smash a monsters head in. I grinned a little at the last part, pride surging at the recognition amidst the muttered agreements of the others.
I felt a huge palm envelop my head flattening my ears. "don't worry kiddo" came a deep rumbling voice. Looking nearly vertically into the stoic face of a Boaz, our parties' tank. I instantly felt a small amount of tension leave my shoulders. "Your too stressed, Leahs right: We're ready, even if something goes wrong just leave it to me". With that I knew I was being ridiculous. Oscar could've been a level 2 months ago, he decided to 'consolidate his foundations' whatever that means. He was overkill for the 9th floor let alone the sixth. He was no slouch and could take some weaker level 2's as a level 1 just based on his racial advantages, namely being a big fuck off boaz.
His hand sure is comfy, I desperately held back from purring to save my dignity and settled with a "hmm" of agreement.
So, with my protests silenced beyond any reasonable continuation. We descended.
***
"God damn we almost died ey". The smarmy git spoke behind me. I could tell based on his inflection that the bastard was smirking. I pointedly ignored the lanky bastard as I knew no good would come form interacting with this long eared prick. What was it with the most annoying people in my life being elves. Only this idiot would be so blatantly blasphemous when he was one whim away from being eviscerated by any deity who deems it worth their while to do this world a favour.
"c'mon say something hee-hee". I'm going to rip that smirk of his face if it's the last thing I do.
"'hee-hee?' You bag of bones. At your big age 'hee-hee', really?". He saw through my attempt at diversion.
"No no, no changing the subject. C'mon admit it kitty, admit it you big baby, say it you-".
"First of all don't call me that". I cut him off while my tail bristled with anger.
"You seem fine with Leah saying it, you should really hold it on your prejudice, or someone might call you out on it hmm?"
"You wish bastard, I let her say it because she doesn't have creepy snake eyes" I locked eyes with him and let out a smirk as I knew I had targeted one of the few things that this slithering scum hated. It felt cathartic to get one back over him using info I had only recently acquired. But my smug expression quickly collapsed given his comeback:
"Wow what a cool comeback I'm sure Oscar would love to hear it"
Suddenly I felt a wave of cold wash over me identical to the hard rock that makes up the walls of the dungeon "Hey know let just relax-". I started but I was cut off by the narrowing of his already slit eyes. "Ugh fine, whatever, you're right I worried too much" he gave no affirmation, so I continued "I was a big baby, happy?".
"Now that wasn't so hard was it" the snaky bastard spoke.
"Fucking Man child grandpa" I muttered. "Hurry up and finish your side of the stones. I'm waiting on you"
He only smirked deeper in response.
"Don't push it" I countered.
"Oi Oscar-!".
"Okay fine!" I cut him short. "Oscar it's nothing I got it!" I yelled and under the Lanky gits supervision I picked up the rest of the stones from the disfigured corpses strewn across the cold hard floor of the most unforgiving place in Orario.