“Sloppy!” said Zundar as he watched the young Minos warriors finish off the last of the [Blue Lobsoach] that had filled this cavernous room blocking their path forward to continue rising up the underground tower dungeon.


    They had been slowly making their way up through the stairs and cavernous rooms that were all filled with various types of [Lobsoach].


    With the dungeon ready to burst there was of course a massive amount of the hard-shelled monster filling the dungeon giving Zundar a perfect chance to hone his training skills and try to slap the young warriors into shape.


    Zundar walked up to one of the young warriors and poked them hard on the forehead with his large finger and bellowed out a growl.


    “What was that jester show you just put on in front of me? You nearly stabbed the person on your right!” bellowed Zundar as he continued to poke the young warrior in the chest. “This formation only works if the man next to you can trust you! How are they supposed to focus on the enemy when they are also likely to be stabbed by someone like you standing next to them!”


    With Zundar constantly smacking them around they were slowly getting bent into shape while their worst habits were being smacked out of them.


    Still, if they did not continue this sort of training after they got out of the dungeon Akira did not doubt that their bad habits would come back.


    “Stop being scared of getting hurt! If you keep jumping around like that you will never be able to land a heavy blow against your enemy!” said a heated Zundar.


    Many of the young warriors were bent over and breathing heavily as they wiped away the sweat keeping it from getting in their eyes. They had grown used to Zundar''s yelling now after being smacked around so many times for their failures on their way up the nine floors.


    “We''ll take a break here. Rest up and get something to eat and drink. I have a feeling we are nearing the top of this underground tower,” said Akira.


    Zundar walked over to Akira and leaned against the stone wall as he watched the Minos warriors quietly chat with each other.


    “Yap!” said Fluffball as he watched the Minos warriors with them. He had been in charge of keeping the young warriors from getting too banged up by the swarm monsters. It was a tough task but he was up to it constantly yanking them out of the way and blasting an area with his ice attacks.


    “I just don''t get it,” said Zundar, shaking his head.


    “They''re young. From what I have seen so far, it''s highly unlikely that they will stab us in the back on purpose,” said Akira, he couldn''t guarantee there wouldn''t be accidents.


    With all the fighting side by side with the young Minos warriors he now had a better understanding of them and their beliefs. There was nothing better than fighting alongside another person in real fights to see their personality leak out even if they tried to hide it.


    “When I was their age I was not that skinny or weak. I was able to split skulls and hunt large game all by myself!”


    “At least we have found a few good apples in the lot,” said Akira pointing to one of the young warriors who wielded a custom-made bow that used arrows the size of short spears. With the power behind the large ''arrow,'' it was able to kill three or four of the smaller [Lobsoach] at a time as it pierced through several of them with each shot.


    Spearia with a little coaching from Zundar was turning out to be not all that bad besides some rather hard to get rid of bad habits.


    “We should wait until they have regained their breath and calmed down. We can''t go fight whatever is blocking our path with tired warriors. That will only lead to injuries or death,” said Akira.


    Zundar nodded and said, “If they died, then all my hard work would go to waste.”


    ***


    Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!


    “Yap!” said Fluffball complaining about the nice crunchy carpet underneath their feet.


    “It''s not that bad,” said Akira as he took another step and crushed tens of harmless mini [Lobsoach] that covered the entire floor. There was no other way to get through the hallway in front of them but by stomping through the freshly birthed [Lobsoach].


    They had already tried to use fire to scare them away but these [Lobsoach] just ignored them and continued to scurry about on the floor doing their usual [Lobsoach] things.


    Klack...


    Akira stopped and held up a hand as he listened to another sound that caught his attention.


    Fluffball, Dolph, and Vilkas all tensed up as they listened to the new sound that reached them breaking through the skittering of the thousands of mini [Lobsoach] below their feet.


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    Klack...


    Klickety-klack!


    Akira looked to the others next to him and they all nodded.


    He turned to Zundar and pointed to Spearia and the other Minos warriors while saying, “Let them know that something larger than what we have fought in here is coming our way. Possibly more than one.”


    With his quick harsh words rousing them up off their butts, the young Minos warriors rushed to get into one of the main formations that Zundar had beaten into them.


    As the sound grew louder the mini [Lobsoach] that covered the ground just up and disappeared into small cracks or ran out of the hallway and down the stairs leaving only the dead bodies of those that had been crushed.


    Whatever was coming frightened the [Lobsoach] more than fire or being crushed.


    Two gray blurs bolted into the room and came to a screeching halt as their many legs scraped against the stone floor.


    The two large [Gray Lobsoach] were similar to Fluffball''s size.


    Snap! Snap! “KREE!” The two [Lobsoach] were not happy to see intruders as they snapped at the open air in front of them with their large pincers threateningly.


    A sticky gray bubbly string was shot out from their mouths and bound the legs of a young Minos warrior who was jerked to the ground and pulled back toward the [Gray Lobsoach].


    Akira stepped forward and attacked the bubbly string with a [SwordSlash] blue crescent severing the hold the [Lobsoach] had on the young Minos warrior. The other Minos warriors nearest the fallen warrior dragged him back to the rear where he was able to be freed from the sticky string binding his legs.


    Fluffball, not wanting to be outdone by mere bugs, gathered an icy blue attack and launched it at the [Gray Lobsoach] that had tried to drag the warrior to it.


    “Kreee!” the [Lobsoach] cried in anger and pain as it turned around to face Fluffball and snap its pincers in his direction threateningly. Its back armor was now covered in ice shards. The second [Lobsoach] also took note of Fluffball and also started to threaten him with its snapping pincers.


    “Yap!” said a Defiant Fluffball.


    The yelling match between the two sides quickly turned into a Dueling match between Fluffball''s Ice attacks and the sticky bubble strings shooting through the air causing everyone around Fluffball to retreat so that they were well out of the range of the [Lobsoachs] attacks.


    While their attention was on the duel with Fluffball a spear-like arrow flew from behind Fluffball and pierced one of [Lobsoachs] eyes.


    “Kreee!'''' The wounded [Lobsoach''s] head was having a hard time keeping its head up straight with the large spear-like arrow sticking out of its eye. Without care for itself it used one of its large pincers to grab onto the arrow and snapped off the majority of the shaft that was causing it problems leaving the rest still stuck in its eye.


    While it was focused on removing the arrow from its head Akira had snuck up behind it and stabbed right through its exposed thin neck armor!


    DING! Critical hit! Skill bisection activated!


    With a quick swipe of his sword, the rest of the head fell off.


    The second [Lobsoach] was not in any better shape as its body was covered in ice shards hindering its movement.


    With its movement slowed to such an extent Zundar was able to rush forward and show off his prowess by smashing its head in sending bloody ice shards all over.


    The two [Lobsoach] bodies lay twitching on the ground for several seconds before being still.


    From each of the two bodies, a silk-like sack fell to the ground.


    When Akira picked one up and inspected what was inside he found that it was a large coil of thick sticky thread.


    “Nice, I can use these for a lot of things,” said Akira as he put the silk sack into his pack.


    “Yap,” said an uninterested Fluffball.


    While they were inspecting the dead bodies the rest of the Minos warriors who felt bad for not being able to offer any help in the fight, were now scanning the rest of the hallway for any signs of similar [Lobsoach] that wanted to ambush them.


    But for some reason, there were no other signs of them or the mini [Lobsoach] who were still in hiding.


    The battle had taken them down the hallway toward a glowing blue light that was coming out of a room.


    “Keep moving forward,” said Akira, motioning everyone to fall in line.


    When they stepped into the room with the blue light they found several piles of various sizes of [Lobsoach] exoskeletons littering the floor along with large amounts of the sticky string covering everything.


    At the far end of the room, there was a blue swirling portal.


    Seeing the portal, Klyn began to mutter off several chants making sure to place buffs on the main fighters of the group which included Akira, Zundar, and Fluffball.


    “Another one of those weird portals?” asked Spearia as she looked at the swirling light with a look full of caution.


    “It should be the last step in getting out of here,” said Klyn.


    “It''s not going to send us back to the bottom?” asked Spearia.


    After listening to the translation of their conversation Akira was stumped for a few moments as such a thought had not crossed Akira''s mind before.


    “It shouldn''t... otherwise we''re in trouble...” said an unsure Akira.


    They only had a limited supply of food and water and most of that was from Akira''s own emergency supplies he had stored in his pack.


    “There''s no use standing around! Just do that thing you normally do and get us to the next place. If something happens, we can deal with it when we get there!” said an impatient Zundar.


    “Yap!” said Fluffball, agreeing with Zundar.


    Akira nodded his head silently and used his sword to slice through the thick bubble threads blocking the portal.


    When he stood in front of the portal he turned to everyone behind him and asked one last time, “Is everyone ready?”


    They all nodded their heads or gave affirmative grunts.


    Reaching out his sword with his right hand he tapped the swirling blue portal with the tip of his sword.


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to enter the ''Royal Caverns'' along with your party? Y/N


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Akira did not hesitate and accepted the offer allowing the swirling blue light to burst out and cover his entire vision and body.