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Syr reached the table. She set a plate of stew in front of Elias.
"Enjoy,"
She said with a bright, fake smile.
Elias looked up.
"Thank you."
He did not know who she really was.
He just saw a nice girl.
Freya turned and walked back to the kitchen, her heart beating fast.
Back at the church, Welf was waiting.
He had three sets of armor on the table.
They were shiny and strong.
"They are finished,"
Welf said. He wiped his face with a cloth.
"I used the best metal. They will not break."
Bell touched the chest plate.
"They look amazing."
Welf looked at the group.
He felt lonely staying at the shop while they adventured.
"Can I come with you today?"
Welf asked.
"I want to see how my armor works in the dungeon."
Bell smiled at Elias. Elias nodded.
They walked to the dungeon entrance.
The city felt busy, but the air around the dungeon felt wrong.
It was too quiet.
Dee walked beside Elias.
She wasn't humming her happy song anymore.
She walked with her head down, looking at the stone floor.
Elias felt her tension.
"Something is wrong, isn't it?"
Dee stopped walking.
She looked around to make sure no one was listening.
"The story has changed,"
Dee whispered.
Her voice was cold.
"The monsters are moving differently today. The dungeon is preparing for a trap."
Elias frowned.
"A trap for us?"
"No,"
Dee said.
"A trap for the whole floor. The floor boss is waking up early. It is going to be a disaster."
Elias gripped his spear.
"Do you want to turn back?"
Dee shook her head.
"If we leave, many innocent adventurers will die. We have to go down. We have to stop it before it reaches the upper floors."
Elias looked at Bell and Welf.
They were laughing and talking about the new armor.
"They don't know,"
Elias said.
"They don't,"
Dee replied.
They stepped into the middle floors.
The air was thick with the smell of wet earth.
"Stay close,"
Elias warned.
Suddenly, the walls started to tremble.
Monsters poured out from every side.
It was not a normal spawn. It was a wave.
"There are too many!"
Welf yelled, raising his shield.
"I can't keep up!"
Lili cried, struggling with her heavy bag.
Bell swung his blade, but for every monster he hit, two more appeared.
They were being pushed back into a corner.
Elias and Dee stood in front of them.
They moved with calm, perfect speed.
They did not seem worried at all.
"Keep your formation!"
Elias shouted.
"Don't let them break the line!"
Suddenly, a group of five adventurers came running around the corner.
They looked exhausted and terrified.
As they passed, one of them looked back at the group.
"Sorry! We have a teammate down!"
The man shouted.
They pushed past Bell and Welf, running toward the exit.
They left their mess behind.
Elias saw a girl slumped over in the arms of their leader.
She was covered in blood. She was dying.
Elias looked at the massive crowd of monsters charging at them.
He understood the desperate move, but he did not like it.
He felt his blood grow cold.
"Dee, watch the back,"
Elias said.
"Understood,"
She replied.
Elias stepped forward.
He pulled his long Naginata from his back.
He did not look at the monsters as enemies.
He looked at them like obstacles.
He spun the blade in a wide blur of motion.
*Flash.*
The metal sliced through the air.
He did not waste a single movement.
One by one, the monsters turned to dust before they could even reach the group.
Bell watched in silence.
He had never seen someone kill that many monsters so fast.
Elias stood still, the tip of his blade dripping with dungeon dust.
He watched the backs of the retreating adventurers as they disappeared into the dark.
"Elias?"
Bell asked, his voice shaking.
"They just used us as a shield,"
Welf said, his teeth gritted.
Elias wiped his blade clean.
"I remember their faces,"
Elias said quietly.
"We will find them in the city. We will ask for a very heavy payment for saving their lives."
"You are going to make them pay?"
Lili whispered.
"They forced us into a fight,"
Elias said.
"They are lucky I did not cut them down instead."
He turned to the group.
"Move. We are not staying here."
They pushed deeper into the floor. The dungeon was wild.
Every hallway was filled with scared adventurers trying to reach the stairs.
Elias was a force of nature.
He cleared the path, his Naginata moving like a silver storm.
He did not say a word, but he saved everyone he saw.
Bell, Welf, and Lili followed close behind him, trying to keep up with his pace.
"We have to get them to the surface,"
Elias said to the group.
"Lili, check the route."
Lili looked at her map, her hands shaking.
"The path to the floor below is clear, but... oh no. Look."
The ground stopped shaking.
Everything went deathly quiet.
The walls of the large room began to crack.
Black smoke seeped from the stone.
From the ceiling, a giant hand made of rotting armor and dark shadows reached down.
It gripped the stone floor and pulled.
A massive beast climbed into the room.
It was a Goliath, but it looked twisted.
It stood twenty feet tall. Its skin was made of jagged, pulsing red crystals, and its eyes glowed like dying embers.
The monster let out a roar that shook the very foundation of the dungeon.
The sound hurt their ears.
"That is the floor boss,"
Welf whispered, his face losing all color.
"It's not supposed to be here."
The Goliath raised its giant arms and slammed them down.
A huge wave of dust and broken rocks filled the room.
Elias stepped out from the group.
He looked small standing against the giant, but he did not step back.
"Bell, stay back with Welf and Lili,"
Elias commanded.
"But Elias, it's too big!"
Bell shouted.
Elias looked up at the towering monster.
He twirled his Naginata, the blade humming in the still air.
"Size doesn't matter,"
Elias said.
The Goliath stared down at them. It raised a massive fist, ready to crush everything in sight.
"Get ready,"
Elias told Dee.
Dee stood beside him. She slowly drew her rusty sword.
"I am ready,"
She said,
The monster lunged forward, and the real fight began.