Momoko [Judar X Kougyoku]

Dungeon Vinea (Part 1)

When I awoke again, everything was cloaked in darkness. I opened my eyes, but they burned and I couldn't see anything, so I squeezed them shut again. I heard a faint but muffled sound...someone's voice? Ka Kobun?

I couldn't feel anything, and I opened my mouth to breathe, but I couldn't breathe...I couldn't breathe!

I started to thrash about in the weightless suspension of this void, and then a hand encircled my upper arm and tugged hard. I finally realized I was in water when I breached the surface and gasped for air, sputtering and coughing.

"Princess! Thank goodness you're alright!" Ka Kobun exclaimed as he pulled me out of the water and onto a rough surface. I continued to hack up water and rub my stinging eyes as I came to. The chill of the air against my soaked skin made me shiver.

When I recollected myself, I looked around to see where I was. The surface that Kobun had dragged me onto was a large rock made of old coral, and we were in a cavern made up of what once seemed to be a brilliant reef of corals, but was now just bleached and dried up. The cavern was flooded with murky water. Ka Kobun and I were situated near the edge of a rather large pool, with other spots of old coral poking above the surface like stepping stones, leading towards a huge door at the other end of the cavern.

Kobun was just as soaked as I was, and he had already discarded his yellow outer robes and cap. I elected to do the same and shed my heavy outer garments. Water-logged clothes would only bog down my movements.

Kobun grumbled as he wrung the water out of his clothes. "This is bad, Princess...when I woke up in that pool like you did, I lost our rations. And I think there's something big swimming around in there...I felt something brush against me and got out of there quickly. I still have some of our other supplies, but I don't have anything to start a fire with so we can dry off."

I squeezed water out of my linen under-robe and unwrapped my jian from its protective cloth, retying it onto my sash. "I guess we'll just have to press forward as much as we can then. We need to conquer this dungeon as soon as possible, if we don't have any food-"

I gasped when I felt something slimy curl around my leg.

"Look out!" Ka Kobun sprang towards me, drawing his sword and slashing at the thing around my leg. He severed the slimy appendage, and the rest of the limb retreated into the water.

The severed limb was still stuck to my leg, and I pulled it off. It had suckers like an octopus or squid tentacle.

Ka Kobun was poised for combat. "That must be what swims around in here. Prepare yourself, Princess...we probably made it angry."

Just as he said that, there were huge bubbles churning in the pool of water. I drew my sword and poised beside him. Adrenaline was already coursing through me, and my heart pounded.

A mass of huge tentacles burst forth from the water and slapped around blindly. Kobun and I slashed at them as they flailed towards us. We gashed up a few of the creature's limbs, and it withdrew into the water again. We gripped our swords, preparing for another assault.

Then a gigantic squid's head emerged from the water, with six demonic-looking eyes glaring at us angrily. It reared its tentacles out of the pool again and bore its gaping vertical maw, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth, and screeching with a guttural, beastly roar.

Unnerved, Ka Kobun and I recoiled, but we steadied ourselves for the monster's attack.

Tentacles came flying at us with blinding speed, and we cleaved at them as hard as we could. But when we severed a tentacle, another one struck at us so fast that we couldn't react. I was knocked over, and Ka Kobun was sent crashing into the cavern wall.