Chase snapped his fingers, letting a vibrant flame dance to life along his fingertips.
"It's not great but it will do for the time being..." He said sadly, feeling Gemini's glare pierce the back of his head.
'Of all times to question my leadership... Why did it have to be now...' He thought, studying the darkness ahead of them. His new bronze short sword lazily swinging back and forth in his left hand.
His grit his teeth, feeling a terrible presence in the back of his mind, almost as if something evil was peering down at him from above.
Yet, when he looked up in confusion... He foreseen nothing but the enveloping darkness that drowned the entire room.
Using soul sense, he could gauge that the room was quite large, and most likely larger than the last by three fold.
"Stop." He demanded, putting an arm in front of Michael before he could step any further.
"Do you hear that?" He asked with a whisper.
Michael's face froze, and he waited a couple of seconds. No one moved, let alone made a sound.
A faint metallic clanging noise could be heard from straight ahead... Growing louder and louder as the seconds passed.
"It's strong..." Luke whispered, taking a couple of steps back.
"Should I start playing?" Griffin asked Chase with urgency laced within his voice.
"Shit..." Leo said, stepping back as well.
"Hold..." Chase demanded, freezing everyone in place.
"It doesn't know were here." He followed up, granting him a couple of questioning glares from behind.
"How can you be sure?" Gemini whispered, with clear spite rising in his tone.
"Hey! knock it off..." Equan snapped, as a row of lanterns immediately lit up ahead of them.
However... Nothing could be seen upon the long hallway floor.
"Are you kidding me...?" Reinhart shot an angered look at the two most recent speakers.
Chase ignored the annoying argument between his own teammates, letting his soul sense get a gauge on the area... Before his eyes widened, and he realized what was happening.
"MOVE!" He screamed, as the floor exploded into sharp shrapnel.
Chase's body was shot deeper into the hall, crashing against a marble pillar... And shattering it with the force of his momentum.
A seven foot tall brute with what looked like a clay vase acting as its head-leaped from beneath the broken granite flooring.
It let out a low gurgle as what must have been its eyes-scanned the room with inhuman precision.
Locking onto Chase, its head jerked and thrashed before the large hall went completely still.
Chase's eyes darted left and right as I prepared myself for the absolute worst possible outcome, not even having enough time to stand up on my own.
Everything jolted alive, as the beast started ravaging towards him at unstoppable speeds...
Chase's eyes snapped shut, and for a split second he knew that his only option was to tank the full speed attack.
The explosions of its giant hoof-like feet crashing against the granite tiles, grew louder and louder in those short couple of seconds, striking fear into Chase's very being as it got closer and closer.
Bracing his body, he grit his teeth.
CLANG!
Chase's eyes snapped open as Reinhart's armor met the beast head on in front of his broken body lying in front of the demolished pillar.
"SHIT! ITS STRONG CHASE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He screamed through what have must have been terrible force pushing his lower body into the floor below.
Chase grabbed the edge of the pillar, forcing axis energy into his wrist and fingers before propelling himself away from the pillar at incredible speeds of his own.
His body went flying towards the other side of the room, landing with a painful thud, then rolling and ricocheting off of different sections of the floor, until a pair of arms grappled him from behind.
"You good?" Michael asked, slowly setting Chase down on the ground.
"Holy shit... You might have to sit this one out man..." Michael continued grimly as he studied Chase's bloodied and bruised appearance.
On the other side of the room, Reinhart had been blasted back by the brutish beast and his own body had completely decimated the pillar Chase had first crashed into.
The beast turned, locking its eyes onto Equan who had snuck above it and was already preparing a powerful bolt of lightning from the ethereal strings of his bow.
"Time to go night night..." Equan whispered, letting his bolt of golden lightning loose upon the monster.
BOOM!
Lightning blasted a large crater into the floor, shooting debris and static electricity in every direction.
Chase covered his face instinctually, smearing blood onto his broken mask as he did so.
"Huh?" Michael backed away, with a look of fear in his eyes.
"It dodged..." He said quietly, summoning his frozen scythe although quite reluctantly.
Equan readied another arrow, with his body still hovering in the air.
But the beast had already made its move...
A large fraction of one of the further marble pillars crashed into Equan with terrible force, launching him into the far Northern wall of the ruins.
"Damnit all..." Michael growled, summoning a helmet and launching his body forward, summing ice below him as he sped towards the beast with his own incredible speed.
Griffin of House Harpy...
Griffin held his breath, hiding behind the crushed pillar where Reinhart's injured body lie unconscious within the debris of.
'I can't do this... I really don't want to be here right now... Stupid stupid me!' He smacked himself several times, feeling his golden lute recoil against the pillar as he did so.
Griffin did not have any hope within his mind anymore, at first he had thought himself privileged, as to be invited to party with several powerful figures such as Equan, Chase, and Michael would have been anyone's dream; however, after he had learned more about their previous endeavors...
'Insanity... They are truly insane...'
In all honesty, Griffin did not want to be here anymore, he wanted to go home. He wanted to apologize to his mother and father for running away all those years ago... He wanted to find that foolish girl... He wanted to shove the lute back into her grasp and run away...
Yet, these ruins were actively playing tricks on both his mind and the minds of his companions.
It was actively tearing them apart and the only ones who had noticed were Luke, Chase, and Griffin himself...
They were being careless... The whole lot of Unity, and yet they were still moving forward within this dungeon, hurling their own fates towards whatever terrible aura resting in the heart of Olympia...
They could all feel the terrible pressure that was eating them alive...
And yet they held the courage to not break just yet.
So Griffin had somehow found himself responsible for the morality of the team.
Behind him, Michael's body was thrown aside, and Leo let out a scream from somewhere invisible to Griffin's eyes.
He looked down at his tiny hands...
He was trembling terribly.
Closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath he muttered.
"I am apart of this team now..."
He pulled the lute off of his sling, resting his finger against the highest string.
'I'm putting my trust in you all now...'
He bolted out from behind the pillar, sliding underneath Leo's axe that had been launched in Griffin's direction somehow.
Then, his finger brushed the copper string of his golden lute, and a violent vibration shook the ruins...
"COME ON YOU FAT BASTARD! I BET THE NOISE CAN GET QUITE ANNOYING!"
The hall was drowned by both a terrible roar and the sound of a violent melody drawing in the attention of every monster within the ruins...