“Haah, haah, haah… We did it!” Kristof said through exhausted breaths.

Indeed, they had. They had managed to kill the monstrous Naga Queen despite being pushed to the brink. When the Naga Queen had begun flooding the boss room with water, the normal routine that the Heroes had engaged in so far had to be shelved with all due haste. They had just barely managed to kill the giant octopus-fish woman before it could completely fill the room. Pierre’s Plant Manipulation had proved to be effective at draining the water, although it had drained said saltwater slower than it was being dumped into the arena.

In fact, the only person who had not managed to pull their own weight had been Alice, whose passive ‘Charm’ ability had not managed to support the ‘team’ in the slightest since the 7th floor.

“Alice. You suck.” Jesus remarked at the most useless member of the group.

“S-shut up! I can’t help that my powers don’t work!”

Before the two could argue, Nagato interfered.

“Hey, do any of you notice that the stairs to the lower levels have not appeared?”

The other five people looked around. Nagato was right; the stairs that usually appeared when the floor boss was defeated had yet to appear.

“So, we reached the bottom?” Vladimir asked, but his question was answered by an unwelcome source.

“No…”

The feminine yet bestial voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere sounded very much like that of one of the monster people they had fought before. But, while they could not put their fingers on what it was that was different, something about the voice was, in fact, radically out of the norm for these monsters. The saltwater was still draining from the arena and the 6 Heroes were still exhausted from the fight, but they readied themselves for a second round.

“I. Can. Wait… Gather. Your. Strength…”

Pierre looked around, but the ruined structures that dotted the arena’s ceiling and walls made it impossible for him to locate the source of the voice.

“So, you are just going to let us get ready to fight you? That seems… odd. Don’t you want to just kill us and be done with us?”

“No…” the voice responded. “I. Want. To. Prove. Myself… Even. If. I. Win. I. Will. Let. You. Go…”

“That is… generous…” Nagato said cautiously. “Why would you just let us go?”

“Not. Telling…”

“Fine then. Keep your secrets.” Kristof muttered.

…

“Alright monster; we are ready! Come face your doom!” Nagato shouted into the arena.

“Yes…”

Before he could react, Nagato was impacted by something at a high speed. The force of the impact sent him flying across the arena and into the boss room door. As he impacted the door, it swung open and he fell in a battered and unconscious heap just outside of the boss room, at which point the door slammed shut.

“What the fuck was that?!” screamed Alice as she tried to figure out what was going on. Her reaction time was slower than Vladimir and Nagato’s but slightly faster than everyone else’s, and yet she couldn’t tell what had happened. “Vladimir; what just hit him?!”

Vladimir looked just as confused as Alice and the rest.

“I... I don’t know! I couldn’t see-!”

Vladimir was launched into the ceiling of the arena by a punch to the underside of his jaw. The only thing anyone could see was Vladimir being approached by some kind of blue-green blur and then sent skyward at an absurd speed as the blur sped off into the shadows. Vladimir impacted the roof and rebounded off of it and then hit the ground at an alarming speed. No one dared to move to check on him or even say a word.

They reasoned that, because Nagato and Vladimir had moved and made noise, the creature had attacked them first. By that logic, Alice was the next target. She barely held back her tears and sobbing with closed eyes as she braced for pain, but instead of receiving a heavy impact that would certainly break bone, she was grabbed from behind and…

“No. Tears… Only. Dreams…”

The wet skin of the creature moistened Alice’s clothes from behind as its arms and hands linked up on her front. With a quick motion, Alice was hit with a German Suplex. As her head hit the ground, she too passed out. With her K.O., however, the rest of the remaining three Heroes got a look at the entity they were facing.

The thing they were fighting was a woman with deep blue-green skin that certainly looked like that of a Naga. Her most defining features were the fact that she did not have the lower body of an octopus or fish-like snake, but instead a human, with the obvious difference being the webbing between the slightly elongated toes. The second most defining feature were the two tentacles protruding from just below the back of the shoulder blades that looked like the tails of the majority of the monster women the Heroes had faced on this floor of the dungeon. The last feature was the thin tentacles she had for ‘hair’ and the fact that her eyes looked like those of an octopus.

“!!!” Pierre nearly cried out and barely fidgeted at all, but the monster woman did not pay him any mind and took the unconscious Alice and Vladimir and tossed them outside of the boss room. With a glance, the monster looked over the remaining three and cocked its head to the side.

“You. Can. Move. And. Speak. You. Know...? I. Am. Able. To. See. You. All. Just. Fine. Even. If. You. Stand. Still. And. Stay. Silent…”

“[THORN BIND HOSTAGE!]” Pierre shouted as he forced thorny brambles to erupt from under the creature.

“Useless…”

The brambles tried to grasp the beast, but it shot up into the ceiling and hid amongst the ruined structures before the plants could take hold or even touch it.

“Eenie… Meenie… Miney… Moe...!”

The creature appeared and sent Pierre flying. He rolled across the ground for a bit before ultimately coming to rest against a bit of shattered masonry.

“Catch. A. Tiger. By. It’s. Toe...!”

The creature disappeared into the ruins again, and the speed of the monster in the shadows meant that neither of the two remaining Heroes knew where it was or where it would strike from next.

“If. It. Hollers. Let. It. Go…!”

Kristof was the next to fall. His body cartwheeled in the air after the impact before eventually splashing down into a pool of water. Thankfully for him, he landed face up and the monster used magic to drain the small pool so that he didn’t drown.

“Eenie. Meenie. Miney…”

Jesus was not going to let himself be beaten like a fool!

“[Ice Aura: Maximum!]”

The air around him dipped farther than it normally would and the warm and humid air in the arena began to turn into a chilly fog around him.

“I AM THE SECOND COMING OF THE LIVING ICE AGE! YOU CAN’T BEAT ME! I AM INVINCI-!”

“No…”

The uninterested voice of the creature was the last thing Jesus heard before he awoke outside the boss room. As he woke up, he noticed that something was on his face. In fact, there was something on the faces of all the other dejected Heroes. That something was a post-it note made with a very durable material that had been adhered by a powerful adhesive. All of the notes had the same words on them.

“I am disappointed. Try again when you are stronger. Until you win or surrender, I will let you walk away like this time.”

…

Three more tries later, each ending in a total and humiliatingly fast defeat at the hands of the unknown creature, the 6 Heroes decided that they had had enough of The Dungeon for now and made the journey back to the rest area. Shortly afterwards, they made their way back through floors 9 through 1 and out onto the surface again. It would be another day and a half before they delved down deep again, and only after Kevin had broken into the ruined nunnery and the blocked-off dungeon.

As they descended again into the depths, they hoped that Kevin didn’t do anything stupid if and when he reached the rest area. Despite being enemy territory, they really did not want to lose access to the amenities there the next time they delved for real. Although, if there was another reason besides avoiding the same fate that befell the former Hero Wakanda, it was…

“I fucking swear to comrade Karl Marx; if Kevin’s shitty behavior prevents us from ever getting decent food, clothes and amenities again, I will rip that motherfucker a new asshole! I don’t even care that they are capitalists; I will shred that gringo bastard if he keeps me from what is available down there!”

“Damn straight! I want my rice!”

“And the beds, beauty products and the hot springs!”

“And the borscht!”

“For cheeseburgers, soda and great justice!”

“Give me indoor plumbing or give me death!”

Let’s just say they all had their own, more personal reasons for stopping the asshole of a douchebag that was Kevin besides merely avoiding excommunication…