The first test the Heroes faced on the 10th floor was the layout itself. The floor was split with roughly three fourths of the floor being either immersed in or deep under water. Of the other one fourth of the floor, it was also split between being small islands above the water and dry rooms beneath it. Anyone not used to fighting underwater or in waterlogged environs were in for a difficult time, even more so for the Heroes who did not have the luxury of the dungeon not trying to kill them. The 6 Heroes surveyed the area above water that they could see and tried to look around in the crystal-clear underwater areas, but they could only do so much without stepping off of the entry platform.

“Hey! Move it!”

The voice of a crass young man came from behind. The Heroes turned around and saw a group of six people of various ages and builds.

“You damn brats better get the fuck out of our way or else we’ll-!”

The rude young man was silenced with a smack to the back of his head by the eldest in the group.

“Apologies, kids. Keith here has a grievance with the ‘Light Lands’ and well, you being who you are he must’ve gotten a little hot under the collar. Still, it isn’t good etiquette to block the entrance to a floor. Although, I understand your trepidation; this place is a doozy.”

“Oi, Rob, what the hell, man?! These are-!” Keith, the rude man from earlier tried to argue, but…

“Shut it! You know the rules, and I’ll be damned if we get barred from the dungeon for a week or more due to a single party member breaking the rules. Rule Number 1: No Killing other Delvers! Rule Number 2: No Robbing other Delvers! Rule Number 3: The Loot of Others is Not Your Own! Rule Number-!”

The big and burly man with the greying hair and beard, Rob, began to list out rule after rule, completely oblivious to the world around him. A woman with red hair dressed in what appeared to be an occult version of a Warrior Nun’s armor and robes held her head and groaned, as did the others in Rob’s party.

“You should go on ahead.” The Occult Warrior Nun said. “When he gets like this, there is no stopping him.”

Looking behind the party, they saw the line of rather annoyed people growing and decided it was best to follow the instructions of the veterans.

…

“This is gonna suck….” Pierre moaned. His Plant-Based powers would have little effect in this floor, or so he thought. However, what he was moaning about was not his uselessness, but the fact that the water dripping from the ceiling was colder than anything he had ever felt before.

“If the dripping water is that bad, then the water out in the field will be worse…” Vladimir said dejectedly. Even the man from Siberia admitted that the dripping water was too damn cold.

The Heroes nodded in silent agreement and cautiously took their first steps into the shallow, inch deep water that awaited them. The water was not as they expected. They thought it would be bone-chillingly cold, but instead it merely felt lukewarm. It was as though they had stepped into the shallows of a grand indoor waterpark that had been resting in a room-temperature room for several weeks.

“This… This is…”

Nagato reached down and ran his fingers across the bottom of the floor. As he did, he felt the sand move both as his fingers ran through it and the waves pushed and pulled against it.

“Duck!”

Alice didn’t know who said it, but that warning saved her skin. A bat-like fish/ reptile/ amphibian creature swooped down and almost impaled Alice with its toxin-filled stinger. Thankfully, the warning had startled her enough that she had slipped and fallen into the water; this is what saved Alice from at least having her lower body paralyzed and at most her life taken by a neurotoxin-filled stinger to the spine.

“SHIT! [Equip]!” Nagato shouted as he manifested his armor and weapons.

The creature, having realized it had failed in its ambush, flew off into the ceiling of the floor. The thing had a lot of places to hide and move around in too, as stalactites and odd architecture hung from the roof and thus obscured line of sight with anything up there.

…

Several hours and many fights later, and Alice had been saved by the mysterious voice several more times. Every single time she was saved, Alice looked around, but no one was there to have given her the warning. She had already given up questioning it but soon she began to hear the voice again, but it was different. It was not the kind and compassionate voice from before, now it was a monstrous, maddening voice. It called like a lure from deep into the water, and it was driving her crazy.

“Stop it…”

It would not stop.

“Shut up!”

It would not shut up.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The voice became a song and Alice began to walk forward. She could not help it; something was pulling her forwards and towards the deeper waters.

“Alice! Stop!”

Alice’s eyes were blank, as was her mind. She could not resist the siren song.

“Pierre! Anything from your Plant Radar?!”

“Yes! Right there!”

Suddenly Alice regained her senses as the form of a serpentine woman that looked to be a cross between a fish and a snake was thrown out from the depth that Alice was being drawn towards and into the air. The feminine monster didn’t hit the shallows as hard as was expected and seemed to break its fall by slithering swiftly as it landed.

The creature reared up and hissed in anger as its red eyes glowed with malevolent intellect. The malicious snake-fish woman held its four hands just a bit apart as it conjured lightning within the empty space between them.

“Shhhhaaaaaah! A little more, and It would have been dead! You will regret not letting her have a quick and painlessssss death!”

Alice now realized what the warning she had gotten in the Hot Springs had meant. She quickly pulled the special ear plugs from her bag and stuffed them in her ears as tight as possible.

“Hey! The Earplugs! Put them in, otherwise-!”

The snake-fish creature began to sing, and Vladimir held his head in anguish before slowly marching forwards like a machine. The other Heroes, minus Alice, realized what was happening and stuffed the Earplugs into their ears.

“Vladimir! Snap out of it!” Nagato yelled, but to no avail.

Vladimir had gotten too close, and the monster unleashed a massive lightning bolt to his chest.

“Gah!” Vladimir gasped as he fell backwards.

“Shhhaaaahahahahaha!” the monster woman cackled as her tail wrapped around Vladimir’s neck. “DIE!”

The monster’s tail constricted, but there was no sound of bone breaking or of his spinal column snapping. Instead…

“Gotcha!”

Vladimir’s big burly arms wrapped around the back of the snake-fish woman and the two began a battle of constriction. Vladimir pulled the creature towards him, slowly crushing the monster’s bones while the monster’s tail continued to tighten on Vladimir’s neck.

“Shaaahhhh… You… won’t… win… Hero…”

Vladimir laughed in response.

“Well, only one of us is actually having trouble breathing, monster!”

The monster woman’s mouth and gills began to trickle blood and at this point the creature gave up on trying to kill Vladimir and began trying to escape. However, no matter how it struggled it simply could not break free. Vladimir’s grip tightened and the bear hug finally ended as a sickening crunch echoed through the floor.

The creature fell limp as Vladimir released it and with a swift kick to the back of the neck, Vladimir made sure that the thing was dead. His monstrous strength and durability having put even the Naga Siren to shame.

“Shaaaaaaahhhh!”

The Heroes turned and saw dozens more of the same creature slithering out from the depths, this time accompanied by more armored and armed variants. Vladimir rejoined his ‘companions’ and cracked his knuckles.

“I call dibs on the ones with the Naginatas!” Nagato yelled as he charged ahead.

“More backs to break!” Vladimir yelled as he too charged and abandoned any kind of tactics or strategy.

“Guys! Wait, I need protection!” Alice cried, her powers being completely useless down in the dungeon’s ‘lower’ levels and against bosses.

As the boys launched ahead, Alice retreated to higher ground and tried to provide some support through her crossbow, but to little avail. The past few floors had been out of her league, and her crossbow had not managed to help her in the slightest. She cursed her own weakness and after she had spent the last of her bolts in a fruitless endeavor she hid behind a piece of masonry and cried.

By the time her waterworks ended, the fight was over, and the party continued on its way. They eventually overcame every puzzle in the floor, although it nearly cost them their lives several times.

Now they were ready to face the floor boss, and boy would they be in for a treat. They had no idea a ‘special guest’ had made the Dungeon Master alter the 10th floor. Now the normal floor boss was just a prelude to this ‘special guest’.

As the Heroes opened the boss door and stepped in to face the Naga Queen, a much smaller being than the Naga Queen was and yet many, many times more powerful watched with anticipation. She may have been altered heavily from what she once was, but even still, now she would see which was more powerful.

Would she, the Pseudo-Hero, be able to best True Heroes? As the humans danced on the stage she had set, providing one hell of a fight for the unnamed Naga Queen, C’thylla watched and waited and took stock of the undisciplined and uncoordinated foes that were tiring themselves out without ever noticing her presence. A thin smile slipped across her normally emotionless face for a moment before she once again became a blank slate.

“Even. If. They. Don’t. Win. Against. Me. I. Will. Let. Them. Go… They. Will. Become. Stronger. From. Defeat. And. Will. Face. Me. Again… Then. I. Will. Grow. Stronger. Too…”