As the verdant winds surrounding Armaros dissipated, he found himself in a dark cavern of weathered stone. A dark, viscous emerald liquid oozed from the stone and ceiling above him. The floor and walls made the place feel dungeon-esque, dark green with decrepit, dead vines hanging from each side. Small snakes slithered over his sneakers, scurrying away from the boy's sudden arrival.
Well, shit…this has gotta be out of a video game or something, Armaros thought, looking at the walls and hearing the pit-patters of the dripping fluids around him.
Some of the liquid from above dripped on his shoulder. Instantly after touching his hoodie sleeve, the system prompted him while the liquid began burrowing its way through the material.
[Corrosive Element: Acid Poison. If contacted with open skin, damage will accumulate per second to the target.]
Oh crap!
Immediately, Armaros stepped out of the way of the dripping poison, taking his hoodie off in the process. He examined the poison continuing to tunnel into his hoodie sleeve, coming out the other side, then vanishing into the ether the moment it had finished its burrowing.
If it could go through clothing that fast, his skin—or even bones—wouldn't be far behind.
Alright, environmental elements are also out to kill me… that's really nice.
A few hisses echoed down the hallway, followed by the howls of a beast. The enemies of the dungeon were nearby, further down the labyrinthine corridor that split into two ways, either left or right.
Though growing fearful from the sounds of the snarls and hisses, Armaros did his best to put his terrors at bay. Armaros readied his F-tiered weapons. He had no clue how to dual-wield effectively, but he was going to try anyway, taking inspiration from popular media.
"Alright…let's go see what this Raid is all about," he said.
He marched down the corridor towards the sounds of the beast that sat in wait.
*****
Throughout Armaros's trek through the forgotten catacombs, he found himself examining more of his system. One notable thing was the emergence of three bars at the top left of his eyeline, where his Name and Level used to be.
The top-most bar was red, allowing him to surmise that it was most likely his health bar. Next was the blue bar, the smallest of all bars, serving as his sort of mana bar. It served no real purpose as he wasn't likely to be casting spells anytime soon. However, the last of the three was the light green bar, constantly draining, but recharging slowly whenever he stopped moving. From this, he knew that this was his stamina bar.
Ha…quite linear. You know, I wouldn't mind meeting this The One Unforgiven and finding out what his thought process was when making—
A disastrous howl echoed down from the end of the hallway.
Armaros's thoughts broke the moment he heard it. He neared the end of the corridor, where a cavern-frame opening led to an open-spaced area. Whatever had made a sound was most definitely in this room, as smaller snakes began scurrying in hordes away frantically.
Oh god…this is about to get ugly, isn't it?
He stepped forward, setting his eyes on part of the broken ceiling of the cavern. A black sky sat overhead of this new realm. The corpse of a dark red-scaled dragon lay motionless on a collapsed wall. A moon glimmered over the scene, with a few candles around the area, so the horrors could be seen with little problem.
Over the corpse of the fallen sky-beast, Serpents with bodies of lions or wolves ate ravenously from the corpse, dried blood and flesh thrown high into the air. Each Serpent had three heads sprouting from their shoulders, with an additional snake head that served as their tails.
[Enemies Detected: Chimeric Serpentines, LV.5]
Red health bars appeared over their heads. Armaros stared at each of the beasts, noticing their scaled hides and how terrifying even one of them looked on their own. The last thing he would want is to bring attention to himself, because all 10 of them seemed ready to leave their feast for new food.
I just gotta get to the other side…He thought, seeing an entry back to the labyrinth workings straight ahead.
Crouching in a low position to make as little noise as possible, Armaros stayed close to the back wall and moved along it.
So far, so good.
At times, small snakes crawled out of the back wall. Some tried to crawl onto his hands and sword edges, forcing him to step a bit further away from his steady point. However, just as he reached the middle of the room, the tides of fate turned against him.
One snake slithered out of the wall, falling right beneath his foot. Not noticing this until it was too late, Armaros stepped full-force onto the creature. Its pained hiss rang in his ears. His attention instantly snapped to it. But if it was loud enough for him to hear it, the other creatures at their feast were the next to hear it too.
You've got to be kidding!
All the Serpentines looked in his direction, each of them snarling, some releasing howls he didn't know a snake could make. Their beaded eyes gleamed with chaos. Their forked tongues flickering out of their mouths. They stepped off the dragon they were eating, slowly stepping toward the boy.
Knowing he couldn't hope to win, and seeing the corridor exit way near, Armaros immediately knew what he had to do—run. He booked it for the other side, as fast as his stamina would allow him. One of the beasts leapt in one bound to cut off his exit.
In shock, Armaros stumbled back. The weight of his swords, especially while dual-wielding, didn't give him much body control since he was inexperienced in weapon usage.
I have to put some distance between me and this thing!
Quickly staggering to his feet, Armaros tried to lunge away. But in a second, the beast sped at him, swiping at him with his tail, taking out one of his legs. The serpent's tail scraped its teeth across his leg, inflicting poison to him in an instant. As blood flowed from his upper thigh, he fell to a knee.
Another beast joined in, not letting him gain a second of reprieve. The beast rammed Armaros with so much force it left a crack in the wall behind him. Armaros's ribs collapsed onto his lungs, puncturing tissue and forcing blood to bubble over his lips.
He sank against the wall, watching the beasts draw closer.
They wanted more. Next, it was time for their treat.
Their heads wriggled about, each set of three bearing their fangs laced with green venom. Armaros watched in terror as the venom dripped from their fangs onto parts of his arm. Patches of skin were erased in seconds, eliciting wails of pain from Armaros.
Please…not like this…
Moments after, the two beasts sank their fangs into his shoulders, three heads to one shoulder blade each. Blood traced up their fangs, seeping right back into their mouths. Armaros felt his blood being drunk by his tormentors.
All feeling in his form slowly died. His legs fell limp, and so was the rest of his body following suit. He did exactly what Tyra had told him not to. And now, he would pay the price.
But then—the shing! of a blade cut two of the heads of one beast free. Some strength found its way to his arms, and one thing entered Armaros's mind—don't die a quiet death.
If I die…I am going to die doing something in my life! If that means killing one of you with me, so be it!
To the same one he'd just decapitated, he thrust his other blade into its body. The blood loss from the two cut-off heads and now being skewered caused the bar over its head to fade to grey. He killed one beast, but in its place, the rest came right after. They instantly bit down on his arms, restraining him even more.
He could move no longer. His health bar was nearly emptied like the beast he had slain. The others descended on him, having their fill of his flesh. Squelches from his body rang around the room. Empty thoughts replaced memories of the one who had left him to die by himself.
The "error" had finally been purged.
…
[You have slain a Chimeric Serpentine, LV increased to 2. Periodic Affinity Awakened: Lightning.]
[Weapon Affinity and Periodic Affinity Matched. Awakening Weapons, Zeus, Olympus's True Lightning, and Hermes, Messenger of The Tempest. Weapons' Rarity - Divine Status]
Both weapons sparked with electricity, crackling with enough energy that the wall behind a dying Armaros shattered and broke around him. None of the debris fell on his body, his lightning destroying it instantly. Zeus turned itself into a bolt of lightning, eviscerating all the Serpentine that was biting onto Armaros's right side. Hermes followed suit in its own fashion, dragging his dying hand with unimaginable speed to destroy every creature that remained alive after Zeus's onslaught.
Every serpent had died; not a single one remained. Their blood-drenched Armaros, yet the boy still had not awakened.
He lay there against the wall, collapsed in exhaustion. These two things that hadn't forgotten him, paying back his gestures of finding use for them in turn. Whether he would live or die remained a mystery left unknown.