Arthur:
I was smushed by two huge pillows that were suffocating me. "Oh, it's been so long. How have you been?" A voice came from the creek beyond the pillows.
"Help me." I mumbled, trying to fight for my life and escape this pillowy death.
"Oh, I'm sorry," The voice past the pillows said, letting me see the light and not die from the lack of oxygen.
"Oh, you look so cute too," Angela squealed, jumping at Caera and smothering her as well.
"Angela you're going to kill her, put her down," Durden said, patting Angela's shoulder to get her attention. She let Caera out of her grasp, allowing her to breathe.
"Why are you guys here?" I asked, looking at Helen and Jasmine, who were hugging.
"For the dungeon, you guys joined our raid, we thought you would've known," Adam said, acting like it was the most obvious thing in the world and that I'm an idiot for not knowing. "Did you not look at the raid members?" Adam continued, causing me to whistling innocently.
"Well, no, I didn't really look," I muttered, scratching the back of my head.
"I told you to check it and you didn't?" Jasmine said, while Caera walked up and hit me in the back of the head.
"Yeah," I quietly said, putting my head down, while Jasmine started to berate me on how dangerous that was.
"Jasmine, when did you start showing so many emotions?" Helen gasped, while the rest of the twin horns looked like they had seen a ghost. Jasmine started to avoid eye contact with them, while me and Caera got an idea and with a single glance both of us knew what to do.
"Yeah I know right. Ever since she met HIM she's been showing more emotions, it's kind of weird," Caera teased, causing all the twin horns to gasp again, while Jasmine started to glare daggers at Caera and I.
"Oh, and who is this HIM?" Helen asked, with some concern and excitement in her voice, like a mother would when they learn their kid finally started to date.
"Um, well it's just someone I met a couple months ago," Jasmine said, looking away from them and scratching her arms.
"So it's a crush?" Adam asked.
"Oh no, there is no way this is just a crush. Those two are in love," I laughed, while dumping hundreds of letters that Bairon had sent on the ground.
"AHH!" Jasmine screamed, running over to the letters and picking them up then brushing off any dirt that got on them.
"That's a lot of letters, how many letters do they send a week?" Helen asked, as she opened one of the letters and started to read the context of it, much to Jasmine's displeasure.
"I didn't really keep count, but around five to eight letters a week," I chuckled while I saw that Helen placed her hand on her mouth while reading one of the letters.
"Jasmine, these are some serious letters. Who is he?" She asked, while giving back the letter.
"Um, well, his name is Bairon," She mumbled, so that we wouldn't hear her, but she didn't really do a good job.
"So his name is Bairon, we'll need to meet him one day," Helen said, putting the last of the letters away and giving Jasmine the bag back.
"Can we get back to the dungeon? I know this is really nice, but if we don't hurry up we will lose our reservation," said Adam, causing us to stop teasing Jasmine and get ready.
"Yeah, he's got a point. So do we want to do introductions or just go straight in?" I asked, causing them all the chuckle.
"Actually, I want to know how strong you guys are, so let's do mini introductions," Durden said, while the rest of us nodded.
"Okay well, I'm now at light orange, but still no elemental affinity," Caera said, shocking most of the twin horns as that was around their stage.
"I am at light orange as well," I smiled, removing my mask, as I won't need it inside this dungeon if I'm going down with the Twin Horns.
"I'm now at solid yellow with cracks," Jasmine said, trying to go back to her stock face, but failing pretty badly at it.
"Oh my, you three have certainly progressed far since the last time we've seen you," Angela said, while preparing to go into the dungeon.
"So are you four going to share or no?" I asked, but received a head shake saying no from all of them.
Then Jasmine walked over to the twin horns. "Be careful of those two. I hate to say it but Adam was right about them, so try and keep an eye on them."
"Jasmine!" Caera and I shouted simultaneously, our faces red. Jasmine turned to us deadpan then back to the twin horns, "See what I mean?"
"Can we just go into the dungeon?" asked Caera as she made her way to the entrance. We all chuckled and followed her in, making sure to keep a formation. Once we were in, the temperature started to rise. It wasn't hard to deal with but over time it would take an effect on us.
Flying towards us was a pack of child-sized mana beasts. They were humanoid with red skin. On their back were two red transparent fairy wings. On their heads was fire that mimicked the appearance of hair. Instead of normal armor they had what looked to be self made dresses. They all held an assortment of weapons, probably stuff they stole from other adventurers. Their faces were plastered with sadistic smiles, ready to have fun "playing" with us.
"Flame Fairies" yelled Durden as he raised some earthen spikes and shot them forward, killing about 2 of the little monsters. I ran forward and cut the head off one of them while Caera stabbed 3 of them in one thrust.
Then the fairies got into a circle-like position. My gut told me to get out of the way so I complied, pulling Caera out of the way. "Jasmine! Barrier!" I shouted so the twin horns would be fine. The end result of the attack was a huge carving from the path of a fireball the fairies all worked together on. It destroyed everything in its path, only being stopped by Jasmine's wind barrier.
Caera and I ran up and started to kill them one by one while Adam and Jasmine took care of the ones that got past us. Everyone else supported us by attacking them randomly. The most annoying thing about the fairies was that their main fire spell shot out tons of little flames rather than one big one, making it hard to dodge.
"Those guys are pretty tough aren't they," commented Adam. "I'll have to agree," said Caera as she began fetching the beast cores from inside.
Suddenly I heard growling followed by a howl. I turned my gaze forward to see a group of wolves approaching us. They had no iris or pupil leaving their eyes a solid red. Their mouths glowed a dim orange as fire covered their fangs. Drool was replaced with liquid fire, leaving a trail of burned spots wherever it walked. It looked starved, you could see its rib cage through its reddish-black skin. They had their ears back and fangs bared, ready to attack.
"Great, hellhounds," I said under my breath. While they weren't all that strong, their existence usually means the Alpha is in this dungeon and those things are annoying to deal with.
I lunged forward, dodging its now bright orange mouth. A blast of fire just grazed my head and I thursted Dawn forward into its head, killing it. I jumped back, avoiding a combo attack from the twin horns. Caera and I didn't even need to do anything; their attacks were so strong and precise.
I heard footsteps to my right and I saw a hellhound about to bite down on Caera's arm. "Caera!" I shouted as I sent an ice spike at the beast. The spike went through the beast killing it before it could clamp down its jaws.
"Thanks," Caera said, removing the beast core out of the hellhound that I had just killed.
"Ya seemed pretty worried there Arthur, something you two want to tell us?" Adam teased, while the other Twin Horns all had the same look on their face that matched Adams. Evil.
"No, I just didn't want her to get hurt," I said, turning my head away from them.
"Well, your sword says differently," Helen pointed at Dawn who was now pink. I felt my face heat up, my weapon was trying to rat me out.
'Dawn, what are you doing?' I asked her, but after a couple minutes of silence I didn't get an answer back.
'I know you're awake. You haven't spoken in four months, you have enough mana to take,' I yelled, but she still didn't talk. 'Don't give me the silent treatment! You're my weapon, you're supposed to listen to me. Don't disobey me and give me the silent treatment,' I yelled at her, but still she stayed quiet not speaking.
"Damn sword," I muttered, looking down at Dawn who wouldn't talk to me no matter how much I yelled at her.
"Arthur? Are you gonna speak or not?" Durden asked, waving his hand in front of my face.
"Sorry, I spaced out," I said, scratching the back of my head.
"So, we were rushed in here so we never got to ask you this, but how do you find adventuring?" Helen asked, sitting down against the wall, while the rest of us followed.
"I enjoy it. I like the rush of going into the dungeons and fighting mana beasts. It's also a place where I've learned a lot," Caera said. Her voice was filled with excitement, a lot like how it was when she told me about the Relictombs.
"What about you Arthur? You seem to enjoy it as well, the feelings you get when running through these dungeons are contagious. You even are a good leader like your father. You were born to be an adventurer," Jasmine said, drinking water from a bottle she had brought down. "Oh, refill," She said, placing the water bottle in front of me, waiting for me to refill it with water magic.
I soon saw that they were all sweating from the heat of this dungeon, so I cooled them down with some ice magic making a little cold ice dome around us to keep us cold and not to get heat stroke.
"Caera, do you think you'll ever get an affinity to any mana element?" Helen asked Caera, which caused her to look up and think.
"I'm not sure. I don't really have much hope of getting one, but Arthur seems pretty certain that I'll get one soon, but I'm not sure if I can trust him," Caera said, causing everyone to look at me.
"Um, it's just a thought but I thi-"
"AHH!" Caera's yelled, cut me off mid sentence. I looked over to her and saw her holding her head in pain.
"Caera!" I yelled, running over to her and placing my hands where hers were. She had tears running down her face while her hands were clutching the place where her Vritra horns used to rest.
Before the Twin Horns could check what was wrong with her I put up an Ice wall separating us from each other. Durden started to bang on the ice wall but if I was right on what was happening I didn't want them to.
"Caera, take out the necklace that hides your Vritra horns, I think they're starting to form," I said, holding her head trying to soothe the pain that she was feeling but it didn't seem to be working.
She tried to move her hands off her head, but she instantly put them back, not being able to remove her hands. I looked down to see where her necklace was, but saw that it was inside her shirt. I saw tears welling up in her eyes, she was in so much pain from her horns growing.
Without thinking I bent down and pressed my lips to hers. They were soft, nothing like I felt before. Caera's eyes went wide but she didn't try and back away. I held her head to keep the kiss going so that she wouldn't be reminded of her pain. If I had to say anything, it felt good.
I quickly reached and grabbed her necklace and started to change where her illusion was hiding. It was now covering her horns. Once I had broken the kiss a bridge of saliva was formed and broken, she had fallen unconscious.
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Thanks to Iron for helping me write part of this chapter, you're a legend. Also I may not be able to publish a chapter tomorrow as I have work, but I'll see what I can do.