“Hurry up,” Alex ordered. “Let’s get down there and get this over with.”

Much to Ethan’s dismay Alex came on the dungeon dive with the rest of them. Ethan waited until late Saturday night to inform him about the plans. Alex actually paused his video game for once with Ethan brought it up and said that since they were going in the afternoon it shouldn’t be a problem. If it was in the morning he would have declined because he and his brother’s were going to church. Another reason to dislike training Ethan thought shaking his head.

“Take it easy, we’ll be getting attacked by insane chickens soon enough,” he muttered hitting the button and calling the elevator.

Alex looked anxious, probably from his previous encounter with the fire-breathing chickens. Honestly Ethan felt anxious too, not that he would admit it in front of either Alex or Quin. He was the only one who’d faced this area previously and probably the only one who really understood how dangerous it was.

Bella on his left looked concerned while Quin on his right actually looked somewhat excited. She wouldn’t have that look soon he thought frowning at her as they stepped into the elevator after it opened.

They rode down in silence until they exited both the elevator and the shrine finding the sunlit clearing near the mountains once again. The chickens were of course still there and currently wandering all around picking at the ground.

“Alright Quin, you’re up,” Alex said. “Shoot those chickens.”

“I’m going to need someone to get there attention first,” Quin replied. “There’s no way I can hit most of them where they’re at right now. I’m not that good of a shot.”

“Okay, Ethan get out there and draw them over to the gate,” Alex said.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed and snapped, “You go do it, you’re the one with the shield.”

Who did Alex think he was trying to order him around Ethan thought already feeling his blood boil slightly. Not only was everything going to try to kill them down here but he was stuck with Alex and Quin. This was going to be such a good time.

“Ethan does have a point,” Quin said shrugging. “Besides you did a great job of gathering them the last time. Just do the same thing again.”

“Last time they almost fried me,” Alex snapped annoyed to find out that he was looking at two vs. one.

Looking to Bella for help he didn’t find it. She was carefully avoiding making eye contact with anyone and doing her best to stay out of the conversation.

“Fine, I’ll do it you freaking shipper coward,” Alex muttered reaching under his shirt and activating his mark.

“It would probably be a good idea for the rest of us to activate our armor,” Ethan said to Bella and Quin while purposefully ignoring Alex.

Ethan’s armor and weapon materialized seconds after he pressed his mark. He’d done it a couple times before by now, but it was still a strange sensation and even stranger seeing the same thing happen to the other three.

Holding his shield in front of him Alex moved cautiously down the stairs right up the edge of the gate where he yelled, “Come get me you stupid birds.”

A couple of them nearby raised their heads before looking back down to continue what they were doing completely uninterested in Alex.

“What are you, chicken?” Alex asked chuckling at his own joke.

How clever, Ethan thought rolling his eyes. I can really see how you’re at the top of our class.

“I think you’re going to have to get out there a little bit,” Quin said matter-of-factly. “They don’t seem to be taking the bait with you behind the gate.”

“Alright, just get in position, because I’m only doing this once,” Alex muttered edging out past the gate still making sure to keep the shield between the chickens and himself.

Sensing an opportunity for mischief Ethan crept down the steps closing the distance between himself and Alex. The other boy was moving out towards the chickens, but at this rate he wouldn’t reach one until well after the sun went down.

Moving silently up right behind Alex Ethan suddenly let out a, “BAWK-BAWK-BA-BAWK!”

Alex jumped a full foot into the air before whirling around and slamming the front of his shield into Ethan’s laughing face. Ethan toppled over backwards falling onto the steps laughing through the pain in his face. He couldn’t help it. The terrified look on Alex’s face was too much to handle.

“What is the matter with you?” Alex demanded angrily.

His angry face was even funnier to Ethan and Ethan broke into further hysterics. He could feel water leaking from his eyes while he laughed but he didn’t care. Alex was such a jerk. It felt so good to finally pull one over on the other boy.

Alex was just about to round on Ethan some more when Bella yelled, “Alex behind you, watch out.”

Alex whirled around to find three chickens closing in on him with their mouths open. The shout snapped Ethan out of his giddy mood and he jumped up to his feet eyes wide as Alex attempted too slowly to turn his shield around to face the chickens.

The first chicken was opening its beak to shoot a torrent of flames at him when a green arrow hit it right in the open mouth. A startled look came over its face before it vanished into black essence.

“Alex move,” Ethan snapped at the other boy who was frozen in fear.

Hearing Ethan’s voice must have brought Alex back to his senses because he stopped turning towards the chickens and dove at the staircase slamming into Ethan right as two seperate torrents of flame shot behind him.

Falling down under the weight of the other boy, Ethan hit his back on the edge of the stairs and felt pain shoot up towards his head.

“Ouch, get off,” Ethan snapped pushing Alex away from him.

“Serves you right,” Alex muttered. “You could have gotten me killed.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” Ethan retorted. “You wouldn’t have been killed.”

Alex was about to retort but then noticed Quin loading and unloading arrows from her bow. Regardless of how they felt about each other, the antics between Alex and Ethan did a good job of drawing around half of the chickens to within easy shooting range for her. Pairing that with her apparently endless supply of spirit arrows made it all too easy for her to dispatch them.

“Good job Quin,” Bella said a little too forcefully, obviously trying to distract Ethan and Alex from fighting each other.

“These chickens aren’t really much of a challenge,” Quin replied. “Honestly it almost feels like cheating, shooting them like this.”

“If you’d like to make it more fair for them, feel free to go out there and let them torch you,” Alex muttered.

“I’m not an idiot,” Quin said. “I just feel kind of bad for killing them all like this.”

“Are they even real to begin with?” Alex asked. “What kind of living creature do you know that turns into black shadow or whatever when it dies. Most real things usually bleed and leave a corpse behind.”

“Alex, that’s a bit morbid,” Bella said looking grossed out.

“Eh, he’s got a point,” Quin said shrugging. “Still they certainly act living and that flame looks real enough.”

It feels real enough too, Ethan thought. What were the creatures of the dungeon? Were they living things?

“Regardless, even if they are living,” Alex continued, “they’re trying to kill us so I think we’re justified in killing them first.”

“We could just let them be and ignore the dungeon then,” Bella suggested. “We don’t really have to explore down here.”

“Don’t we though?” Alex asked quickly. “We’ve all been hearing the voices in our heads and when Ethan ignored them for long enough one of the creatures attacked him outside of the dungeon. I’d say the evidence suggests that the same thing would likely happen to each of us if we did the same thing. Currently I don’t see any option except to explore this place until we can find a way to break free of the mark the dungeon has placed on us.”

Ethan really didn’t like Alex, but the kid made sound arguments. What Alex said made sense and finally resigned Ethan to the fact, more than anything else, that he would have to start spending time down here trying to clear floors. At least until they figured out a way to break free like Alex suggested.

“Let’s move,” Quin said. “I’d like to think that you three can deal with any chickens that come close to us.”

“If you haven’t noticed, all I’ve got it is a shield,” Alex retorted.

“Surely you can bash them with it,” Quin said, “or do you need me to do everything for you?”

“Where are we going to go to though?” Bella asked preventing Alex from further outbursts.

“It looks like there’s a small path heading into the forest over there,” Quin said pointing towards where the forest began.

Following her arm, sure enough there was a small path heading into the forest. How had Ethan not noticed that before? Oh right he was worried about getting killed by birds.

“Ethan and Alex should probably lead us,” Quin said. “This way if anything attacks, Alex can block it with his shield while Ethan stabs it with his sword.”

“Bella is perfectly capable of being up front too,” Alex snapped, “or are you just looking to get the boys killed first?”

“Actually she’s not,” Quin replied flatly. “It’s clearly evident that she is the least coordinated person here. No offense Bella. She would cause more harm that good up front. I would keep her next to me where she can attack anything that gets close to us that I can’t shoot with my arrows.”

“None taken,” Bella said shrugging. “It’s true. I can’t fault you for being honest.”

“Alright, that’s logical,” Alex said still sounding annoyed though. “Ethan get up here and try not to get us killed.”

“I’d say the same thing to you,” Ethan shot back at Alex as he moved up next to the other boy.

Moving purposely the four of them moved in pairs of two away from the gate and towards the forest with Bella and Quin following about five feet behind Ethan and Alex. As they got closer to the forest several of the chickens began to take notice and rushed at them.

“Block them Alex,” Ethan ordered.

“What do you think I’m doing,” Alex snapped back moving closer to the first one with his shield out front.

The chicken blew out a burst of fire from its beak which hit the front of the shield that Alex was carefully hiding behind.

“Stab it,” Alex commanded. “It may be hitting this shield but some of it is still getting around the edges and it’s hot.”

Instead of replying Ethan moved in circling around to the side, well out of the way of the flame and charged at the small bird with his sword pointed forward. He caught it in the midsection skewering it and causing it to vanish into the creepy black essence a moment later.

For a second Ethan caught Alex’s eye and they both looked pleased that the strategy worked, but then out of the corner of his eye he saw the rest of the chickens charging at them. There was no time to congratulate themselves.

Quin stopped further back and was now firing arrow after arrow at the running birds with only a small amount of success. Hitting the fast moving targets seemed to be a bit beyond her at the moment though she did manage to kill one.

Alex charged straight into a stream of fire unleashed by a couple of them using his shield to block the majority of the flame and slamming it into their tiny bodies. This sent them flying backwards squawking.

Ethan would have laughed at the comical scene if not for the fact that he was forced to dive out of the way as one tried to torch him. He rolled losing his sword in the process, which was just perfect. Without the sword what was he supposed to do kick the birds?

That’s actually exactly what he did realizing he didn’t have a better option at the moment. Bouncing back to his feet he ran up to the bird and punted it away from him and unfortunately right at Bella and Quin.

Quin fired an arrow at the tumbling creature but missed wildly. Bella meanwhile was just standing there holding her axe awkwardly in front of her when the bird’s trajectory caused it to smack her right in the face.

The scene seemed to freeze for a moment and then Bella screamed falling over backwards and swatting rapidly at the area in front of her with the flat side of the ax. It looked completely stupid, it was unconviential, and yet when she finally stopped yelling and swatting the chicken had vanished. Somehow she’d pounded it to death while using the ax in a completely incorrect manner. Whatever works I guess, Ethan thought moving to pick up his sword.

He charged after the two chickens Alex was holding off and quickly dispatched them while Quin finally managed to shoot the last survivor.

It wasn’t pretty and he was glad no one else saw the fight but the four of them managed to win their first battle in the dungeon even if it was only against chickens. Still Ethan was breathing heavily and felt mentally drained, especially knowing that this was just the beginning and that they were going to have to go much further into the dungeon today.

“Is everyone alright?” Ethan asked looking over each one of the others. “Sorry about that chicken Bella.”

“I’m fine,” Bella said though she didn’t sound like it. “I know it was an accident.”

“Pretty solid kick though,” Quin said smiling, “and Bella literally crushed that thing. I think everything went pretty well.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at chicken the same way again,” Alex muttered shaking his head. “We should probably stay close together in that forest. Who knows what else is around here.”

“Last time I was in there, I got chased by a bunch of fireball shooting ducks and herons,” Ethan said.

“Guess that means we’re due to run into turkey that burns our eyes out with flaming talons,” Alex said smiling over at the girls.

Bella frowned while Quin shrugged in response as they closed the distance between themselves and the boys.

“What are these trees?” Quin asked as they stepped on the path and entered the forest. “They’re like redwood trees only a bit smaller.

“I think they’re a type cedar,” Bella said sniffing at the air. “It smells like cedar and look at the needle-like leaves.”

“As long as the trees don’t try to attack us, I don’t care what they are,” Alex said and Ethan couldn’t help but agree with him.

All of them were wary and were alert for an attack but none came as they made their way deeper and deeper into the forest. It was actually kind of nice down here when you weren’t getting attacked by killer birds, Ethan thought. The forest was beautiful and had this nice outdoorsy fresh scent that brought back fond memories of exploring the Redwood forest in his childhood.

As if on cue, there was a rustling of feathers overhead and Ethan looked up to catch a glimpse of a large bird taking flight before it vanished behind the trees. Holding his breath he waited for an attack, but it never came. Instead the four of them were left standing there holding there weapons aloft.

“I guess we scared it away,” he muttered after staring through the trees for a couple of minutes.

“Hopefully,” Alex replied.

“Come on, let’s move before it comes back,” Quin ordered. “I doubt we scared it off. We probably just startled it. Once it recovers it will probably return with friends.”

Thanks for being so optimistic Ethan thought. Still, he’d probably never look at birds quite the same way again thanks to this dungeon. Now anytime he saw one flying around he’d probably keep one eye on it just in case it tried to burn him alive.

The group walked on further and further following the path until it brought them out of the forest and onto a dock jutting out into the lake that he’d been dumped in a week ago. This place was even worse than the area in front of the temple.

“Watch out for ducks and herons,” Ethan said staring around and trying to look into the tall reeds along the edge of the lake for anything moving.

“This looks like a dead end,” Alex said staring around. “Unless we want to swim across the lake, I don’t see how we continue onwards.”

“I don’t know how to swim,” Bella said timidly.

“Wait, didn’t you say you wanted to go to the beach the other day?” Ethan asked turning to her.

“Going to the beach and swimming are entirely different things,” Bella answered. “I never said I wanted to go in the ocean.”

“If you can’t swim, perhaps we ought to head back for today then,” Quin suggested. “It would be…”

She was cut off suddenly by a loud screech from high above. Looking up into the blue sky Ethan glanced frantically around looking for any sign of a bird or birds but the sky was empty except for the bright midday sun.

The screech came again, this time louder and his eyes automatically snapped to the sun where he caught a winged figure in front of it before the bright light temporarily blinded him.

“It’s using the sun to disguise it’s approach look out,” Ethan yelled to the others while cringing away and snapping his eyes shut.

“His ducks have finally showed up too,” Alex called from his left. “They’re rising out of the reeds and heading straight for us.”

“Get ready,” Quin barked. “Alex get that shield up.”

Rubbing his eyes furiously with his free hand, Ethan was desperate to get his vision back. It was all happening at once and he needed to be able to see if he was going to survive. He felt the first impact before he saw it.

Sharp talons latched onto and raked across his right shoulder and neck before letting go. Instinctively he jerked away and swatted in the general direction with his sword. A second later it met a solid blunt object.

“Watch where you’re swinging,” Alex snapped and Ethan now knew he’d hit the boy’s shield.

“Sorry,” Ethan muttered rubbing his eyes once more and finally getting his vision back.

As his vision came back he saw low flying herons and ducks unleash a volley of fireballs right at them. Diving to the side he managed to avoid getting hit though it wasn’t all good as he landed on his injured shoulder. The shoulder was sore, tender, and bleeding a little though it appeared his armor had absorbed most of the damage.

Alex used his shield effectively and blocked all of the fireballs shot at him while Quin ducked and actually managed to shoot a duck with her bow and arrow. Bella wasn’t so quick and got caught by two fireballs right in the chest that knocked her backwards causing her to topple off of the dock and into the lake.

“Bella,” Ethan yelled after the girl, but it was pointless as she was already underwater and probably couldn’t hear anything.

Taking a quick glance over the scene he finally caught a glimpse of what attacked him the first time as it came in for another attack. It was like a giant flaming hawk with flaming wings and talons. Was this a phoenix?

Shaking that question out of his mind he refocused on what was most important in the moment. Bella was going to drown if they didn’t help her. She still hadn’t resurfaced though with all the body fat she he wasn’t quite sure how she wasn’t just floating to the top. Don’t be a dick Ethan, he thought, just do something.

“Try not to die,” he called to the other two as he felt his legs beginning to move almost on their own. He dropped the sword as he reached the side of the dock and leaped off splashing down in the water a minute later.

The water was both colder and deeper than he imagined it would be, but there was no time to worry about himself. The good news was that he found Bella almost instantly she was flailing around only a few feet below the surface, moving water around but doing very little else. She looked completely panicked and Ethan knew what he was about to do was stupid and very likely could end up getting him killed. Still he couldn’t just let her die without trying to save her.

Swimming quickly he moved over in front of her and attempted to lock onto her eyes. They were wild but seemed to at least recognize him which was a positive sign. He pointed in the direction of the dock and then made several gripping motions trying to tell her that she would need to hold onto it. She didn’t nod or give any indication that she understood what he was trying to convey to her, but it would have to be good enough. She was running out of time.

Diving down he got behind her and beneath her trying to aim his shoulders underneath her legs. It would definitely be an awkward position for both of them, but it seemed like the best position in order to push her up towards the surface and as she was drowning he didn’t think she’d be to worried about how awkward it was at the moment.

His aim wasn’t perfect and he ended up getting kicked in the face several times by her dress shoes which of course were about as solid as could be. Ignoring the increasing blows to his head he pushed upwards shoving her rear end with his open palms and feeling the girl start to move. Normally he knew he couldn’t have moved her own his own. She was too big and he was far too weak, but in the water it was a bit different and he found he could shift her if only a little.

Screaming silently he pushed the top of his head up against her rear along with his hands and kicked as hard as he could. God he hoped she broke the surface soon and figured out to grab ahold of the dock or he was going to sprain his neck at this rate. Come on, Bella.

Suddenly he felt the tension against his hands and head ease up and she moved away from him. Yes, she must have grabbed it Ethan thought changing directions and moving away from her and then kicking rapidly towards the surface. He broke the surface a second later gasping for breath and sucking in air like a mad man.

When he finally was able to assess this situation he saw Bella desperately clinging onto the dock, still in the water but definitely okay. Alex and Quin were somehow surviving up on the dock too with Alex blocking most of the incoming fireballs and Quin then quickly firing at the birds when she got a chance.

“Bella, just stay there,” Ethan order swimming towards the dock. “I’m going to help Quin and Alex and then we’ll pull you up once it’s safe.”

She nodded her head in agreement but didn’t say anything. She looked shell shocked and he guessed that the experience of nearly drowning was weighing heavily on her. Still he couldn’t stay there to console her right now, not at least until the immediate threat was over.

Reaching the dock he began climbing up the side until he dragged himself and flopped on the deck like a fish out of water. He half expected Alex to take a jab at him but the other boy was too busy and too focused on the attacking birds to pay attention to Ethan.

When the ducks and herons weren’t shooting at them, the fire hawk was dive bombing them at unreasonably fast speeds. There wasn’t much he could do about the herons and ducks because they were keeping their distance, but if he was quick he might just be able to swat that hawk with his sword.

Picking up his sword he moved over to stand with the other two and said, “I’m going to try to bring down that hawk, you two keep focusing on the other birds.”

“That’s kind of what we’ve been doing while you decided to go swimming,” Alex snapped back sounding irritated. “Nice of you to finally decide to help.”

Ethan wanted to punch him, and it took most of his willpower to keep himself focused on what was actually important in the moment. The hawk dived towards them and Ethan slashed with his sword missing it spectacularly while it left a narrow cut across his forehead.

Alex moved up in front of him blocking several fireballs that were coming right at him while Quin rapidly shot arrow after arrow and the birds. Their strategy would definitely work for killing the other birds, but there was no way Quin would be able to hit that hawk with an arrow. It was simply too fast. Hell, Ethan couldn’t even slash fast enough with his sword. Maybe if I, he thought getting an idea.

“Come on you stupid hawk,” Ethan yelled at it taunting it and trying to make sure that it targeted him again instead of Alex or Quin. If it targeted them he’d never be able to pull this off. The hawk made no indication that it heard him but after turning it shot straight at him like a bullet.

At the last second as it was about to hit Ethan in the face he raised his in a blocking position with the sharp end of the blade facing the hawk. The giant bird hit the sword with a force that nearly knocked it out of his hands, but Ethan managed to hold on and watched as the bird split itself in half with both sides falling to the ground and vanishing in black essence.

Suddenly the remaining birds stopped their assault and flew away while the dungeon boomed, “Congratulations, you have cleared the first floor by defeating the Taimatsu-Maru. The second floor is now available to you.”

“We defeated the what?” Ethan asked stupidly, but there was no reply.

“Could you guys help me,” Bella asked timidly from below them.

“Oh yeah, sorry Bella,” Ethan said dropping his sword and moving to the edge to help her. “Alex, Quin could you help please.”

Ethan grabbed her left wrist while Alex grabbed her right wrist and together they heaved pulling, or rather dragging, Bella up and onto the dock. It was exhausting. The girl, who was already quite overweight, was made even heavier by the water clinging to her clothes. He actually didn’t think they’d have been able to get her all the way out if not for Quin grabbing her underneath the armpits and pulling once they’d gotten her high enough.

Still with all three of them helping they managed to get Bella back onto the dock safely.

Breathing heavily Ethan asked, “Are you okay Bella?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Bella replied, “I lost my ax though. Thanks for saving me, I thought I was going to die.”

“Don’t worry, you’re ax will come back the next time you activate your tattoo,” Ethan said, “and you would have done the same for me.”

“You might not have died today, but you’re going to die of diabetes pretty soon, that’s for sure,” Alex said standing up and brushing himself off. “What do you weigh, like a metric ton?”

That was it, Ethan had completely had it with Alex’s crap. The stupid kid just couldn’t ever stop being a jerk ever, even after they’d all barely survived a battle in this godforsaken dungeon.

Before Ethan realized what he was doing he felt his hand curled into a fist and found himself standing up. He was seeing red right now and he didn’t care. Lining up Alex’s face he unleashed his arm punching the other boy hard right in the jaw.

Alex staggered grabbing his jaw and staring daggers at Ethan before launching himself forward and slamming his shield against Ethan’s noise. There was an audible crunch as Ethan felt his nose break and now it was his turn to stagger backwards.

The fight would have probably continued if it wasn’t for Quin grabbing them both by the front of their shirts and holding them apart. Ethan always knew the girl was strong, but man he didn’t realize how strong.

“What’s the matter?” Alex spat. “Can’t handle the truth? Your girlfriend is fat, that’s a fact.”

“Did you never learn how to be nice to people?” Ethan asked staring at the other boy. “What did Bella ever do to you? For that matter what did I ever do to you?”

“For starters you’re both causing my tuition to be higher since you’re shippers freeloading off of the rest of us,” Alex muttered.

“Oh, I’m sure it is so hard for a rich kid like you,” Ethan shot back sarcastically. “Did your dad have to sell his tenth car because of it?”

“Are you two almost done?” Quin asked sounding annoyed.

“No,” Both Alex and Ethan snapped at her at the same time.

“Fine, I guess both of you need to cool off,” she muttered pushing both of them off of the dock in seperate directions where they splashed down in the very chilly lake water.