Group Dungeon II

A pack of water nymphs, little pixie like monsters who can cast low level water spells - given the doused flames of the torches and explaining why these students were fighting in the pitch black, it was obvious to Sven that these creatures had focused their attacks on the torches first to negate the adventurers vision and were now praying upon the helpless, sightless students who for some reason refused to blow their silver whistles. Some of them had been slashed repeatedly by the nymphs water blades but were still stubbornly fighting through the blood and pain, they must have just been swinging blindly through the darkness in hopes that their attacks hit something - in fact given that Sven couldn't count a single dead water nymph but could clearly see blood on some of the students weapons meant that they had simply been hitting one another blindly.

Sven was at a loss for words that none of them had blown their whistles, did they simply not care if they died? As Ignis and her fire orb illuminated the scene ahead of them, granting the group of students their sight back, the angry students in question suddenly began to ferociously and with heightened vindication take down their winged opponents.

"Not so tough now I can see you huh?! you fucking fairies!" One of the students yelled as he slammed his mace down into the cave floor, crushing a water nymph between his steel and the rocky surface. Another student shot a nymph out of the sky with a gleeful noise as he heard his attack connect - the ranger in question had a bloodied face showing that he had been a favored target of the nymphs teasing attacks and was glad to be letting his frustrations out on his tormentors.

Deciding to join in, Sven and his party helped the injured students deal with the water nymphs one by one until the pack had been soundly defeated. After it all was all said and done, no less than 20 water nymphs were sprawled dead across the floor, some of them in better states than others Sven thought grimly as he looked at the warriors reddened mace.

"You're Sven Gate aren't you?" The warrior asked, shaking the gore off of his weapon. "Maybe you're not everything those rumors make you out to be, you have mine and my teams eternal thanks, friend." The warrior offered his hand out for Sven to take, reaching out Sven shook his hand before in-turn offering the mace wielder a piece of parting advice.

"Any time, but in future you should blow that whistle if you find yourself in a situation like that again. Your life is worth more than a class upgrade, you can always try next time if you fail." The warrior pulled back his offered hand after the hand shake was done and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment for having been reprimanded by a fellow student. Bowing as one, the group went their separate ways down an entirely separate passage way, leaving Sven with the task of harvesting all of the water nymphs drops that the other party had gratefully left for Sven's group as a form of payment.

Done with his collecting Sven, Ignis and Alice made their way down the passageway, encountering and defeating more sonic bat groups as they walked until they followed the snaky passageway into another big room. Inside the room there was two more passages, Sven realizing that they needed to take the left one to make it to the nature healers shrine. The room itself was similar to the previous one they had come from save for one big difference; on one side of the room there was a fissure that looked like it dropped down an unknown amount of levels, the crevice was rather wide and if he wasn't careful, he or his party could fall and slip down an unknowable distance and find themselves trapped and **** to blow the silver whistle - if not outright die to the fall itself.

As Sven and his party traversed the cavernous room being careful of their footing, a warning signal from his brain suddenly shot each row of his body hair to attention all at once in a cascading fashion from feet to head, expecting the attack since the very beginning Sven dodged the knifes razor edge as his assailant swung past his head, merely managing to graze his cheek. Landing several meters in front of him, Markus landed in a crouched position clutching his faintly bloodied knife.

SunBane was the next to attack, using his rapier to try as best as he could to stab Sven full of holes, however Sven riposted most of the blows and **** SunBane to jump back in order to dodge Sven's warning cleave. As the cat man jumped back he was now side by side with his orc accomplice.

"A predictable attack really, what, did you think I would forget about the way you two were eyeing me out there?" Sven asked with a raised brow, SunBane glared back at Sven baring his thin vampire-like canines.

"You better back away from Sven! If I ring this whistle the ministers aids will-" Alice threatened as she reached for her silver whistle but found nothing but an empty pocket.

"You mean these whistles?" Markus smirked as he twirled 3 silver whistles around his index finger, Sven's eyes went wide as he felt for his pocket as well to find that he too had indeed been robbed of his whistle.

'When did he?..' Sven began to ask himself when he realized that the robed Orc's little **** attempt wasn't the only objective he was aiming to achieve. Frowning Sven considered his opponents properly, he had intended to just beat them down and blow the whistle for them, but now he wasn't so sure how this would all turn out. Had he misjudged these two?

"What is it you two want anyway, why do you hate me so much?" Sven asked, if he was talking then they weren't fighting, and if they weren't fighting maybe he could subvert this fight entirely if they came to some sort of understanding.

"Why you ask? I just don't like your face, or your attitude, or the fact that you're a filthy human. Pick a reason and that's why I hate you." SunBane got into a fighting stance, ready to pounce whenever he needed to, however it was the orc's turn to speak.

"Ditto, however I got a more personal kind of beef with you." Markus spat at the floor. "You're banging that red head and the cat bitch right?" SunBane shot his 'friend' a warning glance to remind him that she was his childhood friend. Really, friend might be too much, rather 'an enemy of my enemy is also my friend' kind of deal. "In Orc culture it is custom to take over another Orc's harem by besting him in combat - and I think I can take your bitches as my own." Markus licked his lips causing Ignis and Alice to heave in disgust.

"You wish, you fucking disgusting pig!" Ignis's hands began to glow as she readied her spell.

"In your dreams orc boy, and you, SunBane." Alice addressed the person she had grown up with. "Aren't you at least a little bit ashamed that you're jealously seeking for my attentions by attacking my man? Do you think I would favor you if you somehow managed to double team him and defeat him? I'm with him for a reason you know, wanna know what reason that is?" Alice scolded him, which only caused his fangs to become more and more pronounced by the second.

"Because you're a race traitor slut who would sooner fuck your oppressors than fight them?" SunBane quipped back causing Alice to earnestly laugh back derisively which only fueled the rage burning inside the white pelted cat man.

"No, it's because he's kind and gentle, smart and funny, he saves people without being prompted to save them and you know what else he has that you don't?" SunBane gnawed his teeth together audibly. "A big ol' human dick, twice, nay, THREE times your pitiful size. That's why you're mad isn't it? because 'the big mean human' is cucking 'your' girl." Alice put a mocking emphasis on the 'your' part. "Well I'm not interested in your courting SunBane, I thought I made that blatantly clear by the amount of times I rejected you. That one night was a mistake SunBane, let it go." Alice finished her devastating blow, if SunBane was pissed before then now he was practically seething, his eyes had grown bloodshot and if he bit down any harder then Sven could of sworn he would shatter his teeth.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!!" SunBane lunged towards Alice in a fit of rage, Sven went to stand between them but had to dodge backwards as a knife whizzed past his head from Markus's direction, Sven had no time to recover as Markus was soon upon him, allowing him no time to save Alice and diverting all of his attention towards the Orc rogue in training. Markus produced another knife from his floaty ragged robes and slashed at Sven - closing the distance between the two.

Off to his left he could hear Ignis and Alice fending off the enraged SunBane but meanwhile he couldn't take his eyes off the surprisingly quick and nimble orc. He was dodging and weaving Sven's blows as well as Sven was dodging his, however the big difference is that Markus was naturally fast and perceptive whereas Sven was relying on pure muscle memory and decades worth of combat experience. Feigning a slash of his Slyvian blade, the Orc jumped back to anticipate the blow but found that instead of a blade, there was a small black ball fizzling its way through the air. His eyes barely had the chance to widen before the bomb went off in his face, sending him hurtling backwards and stunned for a short period.

During this time Sven activated his blades invisibility and looked back to see SunBane had Alice pinned the the ground, both of their weapons thrown off to the side while Ignis helplessly hit him with the butt of her staff ineffectually landing blow after meaningless blow - he could see her dilemma, they were so close that using a fireball on him would simply damage Alice along with him, Ignis had tears in her eyes as she tried to free her friend from the jealous claws of her childhood friend.

Sven ran to them instead of finishing off Markus who was slowly starting to come back to earth from his shell shock, Sven could see that SunBane was reaching for something but he couldn't tell what. Alice was busy trying to push him off her but he was too strong, she was a healer and he was a duelist, try as she might she couldn't get him off of her, with one hand he fended off both of hers as she desperately clawed at his face and neck.

To Sven's horror he witnessed the white furred cat pick up the dagger Markus had thrown in both hands and held the blade up high with a shocking look of primal anger as he peered down at her through a blooded and scarred visage.

"DIIIIEEEEEE!!" He screamed as he began to descend both hands down towards her face for the killing blow, Alice screamed as she closed her eyes, her hands going to protect her face instinctively. However her screams were echoed by the screams of another - that and a warm sensation running down her face. In a strange dejavu moment she opened her eyes to find that she hadn't been struck, instead she looked up to see blood pouring down onto her, through the blood she saw SunBane and his horror filled look on his face - gone was the sick, sadistic murderous rage he wore moments before, now replaced was a look concocted mixture of shock, terror and grief.

Two sickening thuds sounded one after the next, then a third as Sven spartan kicked SunBane off of her. Picking her up, Sven embraced her with a hug, she didn't know why but feeling his skin touch hers so comfortingly at such a moment as this brought her out of her shocked state all at once as she realized how close to **** she was. She wept openly into his chest as he held her, only to look back at SunBane's writhing body as he clutched his armless stumps close to his quickly reddening chest.

However the sweet moment only lasted so long as Sven felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end once again, but relaxed when a fireball soared past his head and connected with what he assumed was the Orcs face if the maddening scream he made was anything to go by. Ignis still had tear marks straining down her cheeks as she heaved heavily, her staff arm shaking slightly from exertion.

Sven released Alice from the hug when she calmed down and went over to Markus who was clutching his burnt face with one hand and holding the other up defensively as Sven towered over him.

"M-Mercy, I was never gonna kill ya, I j-just wanted-" He stopped as the look in Sven's eye shone dangerously so as he was just about to mention stealing Alice and Ignis from him as a reason. "I'm sorry! Look it's him you should be mad at!" Markus pointed towards the now passed out cat man. Sven continued to glare down at him wordlessly, not buying any of what this fucker was trying to peddle him.

"Blow that whistle or your friend bleeds out." Markus took that as a sign of compassion and proceeded to waste no time blowing one of the three whistles he had stolen from them.

"Thank you! You're a better man than I, rest assured I won't-" The Orc stopped mid sentence, his eyes widening as Sven slowly pierced his throat, glaring down at him coldly without even so much as blinking, savoring every moment as he pushed his blade further inside the wretches soft insides. "Wh-why?" The Orc croaked and spluttered as his last words.

"You were aiming for my head, what do you call that other than trying to kill me?" Sven rhetorically asked as he pulled out his blade just as slow, watching the very moment the light left the Orc's beady eyes. He felt calm, shockingly calm at such a ruthless act that he scared even himself. He didn't even regret it, or what was going to follow from having killed and or maimed two of his fellow classmates. He felt justified, righteous even as he sheathed his bloodied blade. Looking back to Ignis and Alice they too looked shocked, he looked at them both individually and they adverted their eyes, the fleeting righteousness and justness he felt receding into thin air all at once.

'Do they... fear me?' Sven felt a pang in his heart, he didn't regret it before, but now?

"W-We should get out of here before those PikanVale aids arrive." Sven said, unsure of how to proceed from here as a party. Leading the way the group left the room wordlessly, tending to their wounds as they walked in silence, the sounds of SunBane squealing in agony fading as they delved deeper into the cave. Sven wasn't sure if he should broach the issue with the other two just yet, whether it was or wasn't the right time for it, what could he even say? Luckily for Sven it wasn't him that broke the silence.

"You- You didn't need to kill him, you know..." Ignis said quietly, Alice said nothing as she kept walking, only looking down at her feet glumly with a hint of guilt. Sven walked for a time as he considered her words, replaying the scenario over and over again in his head he came to the conclusion every time that Markus should die.

"He tried to kill me, he backed up SunBane who was trying to kill Alice. I don't regret taking his life." Sven admitted honestly, Alice whimpered quietly as he answered, she felt horrible - sick to her stomach. Not with Sven like he might be thinking, but with herself. Ignis sniffled along side her, for much similar reasons as well.

"It's my fault all of this happened, I just couldn't keep my big mouth shut." Alice admitted sadly, Sven looked shocked at this recent admission, he had just assumed she was scared of him, could it be that he had interpreted her looking away wrongly?

"If I hadn't of taunted him like I did, then Sven wouldn't of had to kill anyone." Alice couldn't even match Sven's stare as he ground to a halt, she felt so incredibly guilty, in her mind it was all her fault that Sven had to save her once again - and this time against a student, this event would no doubt bring troubles for Sven and it was all because she got heated and said too much escalating shit.

'So she doesn't fear me?' Sven felt a wave of relief wash over him, then looking to Ignis he gauged her reaction.

"If I wasn't so fucking useless Sven wouldn't of had to chop his hands off either, fucking dammit!" Ignis threw her staff against the cave wall as she vented her frustrations, Sven couldn't believe he had read the situation so wrong, they weren't scared of him, they were guilty for their own individual reasons.

"It's ok both of you, the important thing is that we made it out of there all in one piece. We all did what we had to do, Ignis you couldn't use your fire magic to save Alice or else you'd have seriously hurt her along with him, and Alice you said what needed to be said, if he wasn't listening to reason or what I was saying then he needed to be told straight by you for him to finally give up. He chose his own path and I chose mine, and I'd do it again an infinite amount of times knowing how we'd all end up." Sven put a comforting hand on either girls shoulder as he said that, finally they looked at him with tears threatening to fall - wordlessly embracing him as he stood tall for their sake.

'Whatever happens next, I will deal with it properly.' Sven resolved himself as the three huddled together in the dark, an otherwise sweet moment after such a savage encounter.

Authors Notes: I'm going to be moving houses soon, so this will be the last chapter I'm able to make for a while, maybe. None of the details are fully ironed out yet and I've been messed around by the sellers quite a bit so whenever I'm able to get my internet up and running / everything decorated and PC set up I'm unable to say right now. So I hate to have to leave you here, but I'm gonna have to stop with the daily uploads for a while - I have uploaded 3 chapters today so maybe you can forgive me for that? Look forward to the rest of the arc as I have a few surprises in store for when I return. Peace and later!