"Izei! Are you ready?"

"I'm coming!"

I quickly finish adjusting my armor before running to group up with the rest of my squad. This is my first time doing an in-depth exploration delve, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but it's also a great opportunity to acquire new experience, and it does come with a generous bonus to my usual pay.

Our squad leader, a man in his fifties covered in scars and with a gaze that makes it clear he has seen his fair share of horrors, takes a look at all of us before saying:

"You've already been debriefed on the nature of this mission, so I won't reiterate. I expect you to follow our rules to the letter and to be extra careful, especially if this is your first time with an assignment like this. The first few groups of monsters you meet might be weak compared to you, but do not assume that the whole dungeon is like that. We simply do not know what lurks in its depths. Am I being understood?"

We all respond in unison:

"Yes!"

"Very well. Now, group up with your team, and get ready to explore this dungeon."

As we enter the cavern, I turn on the light attached to my helmet and unsheathe my sword. My team members do the same. Our leader brings up the map of the area on his phone before saying:

"We've been assigned to the exploration of the west to south-west branch, starting from the entrance. According to the initial scouting report, that path goes much deeper underground and as such was not explored. Stay vigilant."

We all signal that we understood, then start following our assigned path. We very quickly find ourselves in an unmapped region of the dungeon which, as promised, starts sloping down aggressively for a few meters before straightening back up on a lower floor.

We're trying to not make much noise, to avoid attracting the attention of any monster that might be lurking around the area, but our footsteps still echo around us as we delve deeper in, keeping each of us on high alert.

Eventually, our leader signals for us to stop, then points in the direction in which we were headed. A large number of glowing red dots fill the darkness, likely the eyes of some monsters. He whispers:

"They've already spotted us. Prepare for battle."

We quickly position ourselves in a formation capable of defending our spellcasters in the back. During that time, one of our mages grabs a rock, imbues it with magic to cause it to start producing light, then throws it in the direction of the monsters. As the darkness gets pushed back and the monsters are revealed, I shiver at the sight presented to me.

The creatures are small, reaching up to our waists at most, and look almost malnourished with the way their bones show through their skin. They're covered in burn marks and wounds, some of which are still bleeding, leaving red trails on the ground around and behind them. Their leaf-shaped ears are almost as big as their heads, their grins reveal their sharp but sparse teeth, and they hold stones to use as weapons. Some of them are clinging on to the walls and ceiling, crawling along them like four-legged insects.

There's a very short time, immediately after the light reaches them, where the world seems to stop. They're looking at us, we're looking at them, and no one dares move, until a screech breaks the silence, causing them to start rushing towards us.

"Don't let them reach our back line!"

Our leader shouts an order before rushing forward to meet them.

Since some of them are crawling on the ceiling, they'll have to be the focus of our ranged attackers. This means that I, as a sword user, should focus only on the ones on the floor and walls.

Some of the creatures start throwing their rocks. Two of them hit me but bounce off my armor, so I jump forward and cut multiple bodies with a swing of my sword in retaliation. There's a lot of them, but they seem to be very fragile.

We start off with a sizeable advantage over them, but more and more seem to come out of the shadows, causing us to stagnate. Their screams are also getting louder, indicating that reinforcements are joining in, maybe in response to the sound of our battle.

"Maintain the formation, do not let them gain any ground!"

We fight as best we can, but I'm eventually forced to take a step back, then another, as my armor gets pummeled by rocks thrown and swung at me by the small devils. There's too many of them!

As the ones one the ceiling are about to get past us and reach our back line, I hear one of the spellcasters shout:

"Everyone, behind me!"

We all jump back, just in time to avoid the conflagration that expands in the direction of the monsters, causing them to catch on fire and scream in pain as their already burned flesh gets lit anew.

A few of them still try to jump on us as a last attempt at hurting us, but we have no trouble cutting them down.

As we look at the fiery pocket in front of us, our leader shakes his head.

"Let's find another path, it'll be a while before the heat here dissipates."

After the fight against the burned up creatures, we encounter a few monsters, but none of them pose any challenge for our group. As we delve even deeper in, one of the team member says:

"I noticed that all of the monsters we came across were either resistant to fire, or had severe burn marks. I think this hints at the dungeon connecting to some region of Hell, probably one of the harsher ones."

Someone else responds:

"That's not impossible, we'll have to see with the other teams if they have similar observations. That being said, if this really is a portal to Hell, we might have to artificially close it."

I can understand where his concerns come from. "Hell" is a large region of the Underworld, constantly burning up for a reason we've never figured out. Due to how harsh it is, some of the strongest fire-aligned monsters make their home there, making any dungeon located inside of a city barrier and connected to it a huge hazard.

Our team leader intervenes:

"We'll do a full report once we're out of here, and the authorities will determine if the dungeon needs to be permanently closed. This isn't up to us."

The two nod in agreement, closing that discussion.

Eventually, we reach what could be described as a room. It's a larger space, too big for our light sources to fill it up. We can't see the other walls or the ceiling. Our leader takes a quick look around, then says:

"We're going to sweep this place quickly, to make sure there are no monsters hiding in the shadows. Once that's done, regroup here, and we'll decide which way to go next."

We spread out a bit and start our search. The room is a lot larger than I would have expected, and I end up finding multiple passages that seem to lead to other parts of the dungeon, but most of them are at too steep of an angle, some upward and some downward, to be usable. It's as if this was some kind of central chamber, at the core of a network built with a logic we do not understand.

As I follow the wall, going around the room, a glimmer on the floor attracts my attention. I crouch, allowing me to put more light on it, revealing... a ring? What is that doing here?

I know that, sometimes, we find items left behind by previous delvers, either because they were lost, or because the original owner died. But this is a new dungeon, there shouldn't be anything like that here. Still, I grab it, it's likely to be of interest for some of the research people at Spearhead.

Since items left behind like this have often been corrupted by the untamed magical energy flowing through a dungeon, the standard protocol is to place them in containers that isolate the carrier from their possible influence. As I'm about to grab a small bag made for that purpose, I hear a teammate's shout:

"Woah, there's a gigantic hole here!"

Curious, we all converge to the voice's origin. As our light sources merge and overlap, they reveal an extremely large and likely very deep hole that seems to be placed around the middle of the room.

"What could this possibly be? A natural formation?"

"No, look at the walls. You can see large claw marks. This must be some kind of nest for a humongous creature."

"Then... Shouldn't we get out of here? It might come back out soon, and I don't want to meet it."

"Going any deeper might put us in danger as well. We will mark this room as potentially hazardous and go back to explore other paths."

As the others are discussing, I stare down into the gigantic hole. What kind of monster would even be capable of clawing its way up and down something that large?

We're interrupted when another group loudly enters the room. They're making no effort at all to hide their presence, but none of them are injured or wearing damaged gear. They might be strong enough to justify their confidence.

"What's that? Another team already reached this place?"

Our leader walks towards them before greeting them and explaining:

"We were just discussing what to do next. We're worried that a powerful monster lurks in this hole, so we intend to explore elsewhere."

"A powerful monster? Don't make me laugh! Everything we've come across in this dungeon has been small fry, easily taken care of. Whatever's in that hole, if there even is something, stands no chance against us. Right boys?"

The rest of his team shout loudly in agreement, raising their hands and weapons in premature victory.

"I understand your enthusiasm, but this is no laughing matter. Extremely powerful monsters are known to lurk in the depths of dungeons, and there's no telling how far down this hole goes."

One of the overconfident men steps forward, a rock in his hand, and says:

"How about we find out?"

Before any of us have time to react, he lights the stone up and throws it down in the hole. I see one of our spellcasters starts casting a spell, likely to catch it mid-flight, but it's falling too fast and the spell misses it. The lit stone bounces once, twice, three times on the rocky walls, falling ever deeper, its light becoming a smaller and smaller point... Until it stops.

"See? That's how deep it is. We can still see the stone, so it's not too bad."

Everyone starts slowly relaxing, seeing that nothing is happening. Our leader starts reprimanding the man who threw the rock down, talking about how dangerous it could have been, and some of the people who were still scouting the room approach, curious about the commotion.

As all of this unfolds, I start getting an uneasy feeling, like something horrible is about to happen. I look back down into the hole, and see... Two enormous eyes!

"Run!"

I don't have time to add anything to my initial shout, a large column of flames erupts from the hole, lighting up the room and blasting us backwards. I manage to shift my center of mass and land on my feet, but I can tell from the pain that parts of my face were lightly burned. I hurriedly put the ring still in my hand in a pocket and unsheathe my weapon. Some of the others are tapping on their clothes, trying to put out the fires that lit up on them.

A deep roar echoes in the well, followed by the sound of footsteps from the creature climbing up. Its claws digging into the stone walls produce a loud and horrid sound, making it harder for us to communicate. Using a spell, our team leader amplifies his voice before ordering:

"We need to get out of here. Regroup and exit the room as fast as you can manage. If you know defensive spells, cover the rest!"

Those who were blasted away from the larger group start running in our direction, trying to get here before the monster emerges from the hole. I position myself with my weapon drawn, ready to intervene and try to protect the ones fleeing behind me, even if I have no confidence that I stand a chance against the creature in combat. I only need to gain us a bit of time. A few more people join me in forming a defensive line, raising shields or charging defensive spells.

As the creature gets closer, a fiery glow coming from within the well intensifies, lighting the room red. Soon enough, we see its head poke out, surrounded by a large crown of flames that cause dancing shadows to be cast on the walls around us. It's elongated head is similar to a lizard's, with pitch black scales protecting a deep red flesh.

It sets its large red eyes on the fleeing people, then opens its mouth, revealing a flaming orb getting large and larger. One of our shield users shouts:

"Use defensive barriers on me, I'll try to block it!"

He then rushes in front of the monster, his magic-infused shield raised high. A few spells are cast on him, generating a barrier that should protect him from most hits. I participate by adding a fire-resistant effect to it, just in time too, as the large destructive orb gets launched forward, hitting the shield bearer directly.

To everyone's surprise, it explodes, launching our comrade back as if he had no protection at all. His shield is broken, his arm is twisted in a strange position, and he's covered in burns. One of the fleeing delvers stops quickly to lift him on his shoulder, but the monster is already charging up another attack.

It's now clear that one person, no matter how much support they're getting, is not enough to stop this abomination. If we want to be in any way effective at protecting the others, we'll need to create a synchronized spell.

The others seem to all have reached the same conclusion, as we all look at each other and nod. We focus on the monster, trying to see who it'll pick as its next target. Its large head sways around before stopping in the direction of two delvers, one of whom seems to have an injured leg and is using the other one as support.

Immediately, we jump forward and position ourselves between them and the monster. We all get to work building up a magical barrier strong enough to withstand the incoming hit. Our energies mix together as the barrier forms before us, creating a translucent rainbow wall between us and our opponent.

The oversized orb of flames is launched in our direction, striking the barrier with unexpected force, despite the demonstration we had earlier. I can feel the energy in my body get quickly drained as it gets absorbed by the barrier, and several of the delvers around me faint, drained of their own power. Some of the fleeing people come in to grab those who fainted, but the monster is already charging a new attack.

This one is sure to drain us completely. We brace for impact, increasing the energy we're putting into the barrier to compensate for our lower numbers. Soon enough, the second attack hits. The initial impact gets mitigated by the barrier, but it still breaks, causing us to be blasted away by the scalding shockwave that follows.

I fall on the ground and roll for a few more meters before finally stopping. I feel completely drained, without even the strength to try to get back up. Most delvers made it to the passage from which we first entered the room, which means we succeeded in slowing the monster down, but... What's going to happen to us now?

I can hear the enormous creature climbing out of the pit. I turn my head towards it and see that it's almost completely out, with its two forelegs standing firmly on the cavern's floor as it pulls the rest of its body out, its gaze still set on us who are now immobilized.

A few people are running towards us to try to drag us to safety, but they won't make it, there's not enough time. The monster takes a few steps, each of them causing the floor to shake and echoing throughout the large network of caves surrounding us, before opening its mouth and charging a new attack. None of us can block it anymore, this one is going to be fatal.

No, I can't give up yet. I'm still conscious and I can still move, even if just barely. I have to protect the others.

Despite every muscle of my body screaming in protest, I push myself back up, eventually managing to stand up. I reach into one of my pouches, grab a very small vial full of a glowing turquoise liquid, pop the lid off, and drink its content. As it reaches my stomach, I feel an enormous surge of magical energy within my body. Of course, I can't contain or control this much power, so it immediately starts leaking out of my body, but I should be able to hold on to it long enough for one more spell.

I grab my sword, then start pouring everything I have into it. I'm not proficient enough with barrier spells to take that hit by myself, so I'll have to fight fire with fire, or with steel in this case. As I see the fireball approach its maximum size, I dash towards it, ready to slash into it.

Seeing me approach, the monster hurries and launches its attack. My blade becomes fully coated in my energy, causing it to emit a bright blue light. I jump, propelling myself at full speed towards to fiery orb before striking it with my sword while it's just about to leave the creature's mouth.

It explodes, causing flames to engulf me as I'm pushed back at a prodigious speed. Fortunately, it also knocks the monster back, causing it to fall into the hole with a loud roar.

I hit the stone wall and fall on the ground. I can't move anymore. My body is covered in burns, I probably broke a few bones, and I'm exhausted. As I feel myself drifting into unconsciousness, I can hear footsteps around me, as well as someone shouting:

"He's severely injured! We have to bring him out of the dungeon immediately, same with the others here. Hurry, hurry!"

That might be it for me. These injuries might be too much. I hope I at least get to see Rimar one more time.

As I faint, my mind filled with thoughts of death, I feel a strange warmth in my pocket.