ZEN - Part Two [COMPLETED] [#WATTYS2017]

Damsels Saving Damsels Saving Idiots

 Chapter 57 - Damsels Saving Damsels Saving Idiots

"Any signs of Mizuki on this floor?"

"A-yup. She went everywhere. Compared to all the other levels, I think this is where Zen actually started to farm monsters." Mishone tilts her chin a little higher to sample the slight draught. "The smell's faint, though. I doubt she stayed in any one place longer than a minute or so..."

"Havesting materials, then..." Joanne offers an absent nod, then glances towards their Mouse-kin Scout, who had the best hearing of their group. "Mina?"

"Just normal beast-noises. No fighting."

"Shite." The red-headed healer lets out a soft sigh before waiving their recon-unit away. "Then let's get started, again. Find us the fastest route down, as usual."

"... Understood."

"Right!"

Joanne places her hands onto her hips while watching the scouts quickly disappear in the gloom ahead of her floating lights, then impatiently begins to tap her foot against the rocky floor.

They were now on the thirty-fifth sub-basement, resuming their search after their second forced rest-period, this one being a full ten hours.

It was taking a lot more time to work their way through the levels, even with heading along the most-direct paths to the Boss-chambers. The monsters themselves were becoming very physically-resistant, and more than a fair few of the beasts were masters at manipulating magic-power.

Most of the time they simply negated offensive magics directed towards them, though a few occassions they'd destroy defensive barriers or even cast their own powerful offensive spells... which obviously meant that they had to take every encounter very seriously.

Typically, though, in the cramped tunnels, all of the monsters were eventually forced to fight in close-quarters, where their group was able to overwhelm them with sheer numbers... but, on occasion, there were times when their plans failed, no matter what they did.

For the past few floors, spectral enemies began to appear en masse. Ones that could completely vanish, only to re-appear in a different area without any warning.

And usually right in the midst of their party. Then it was a mad scramble to kill the things before they could disappear again, or use their weapons or magics to steal their lives.

They'd even taken to arraying their group in a different manner, simply to counter-act those nasty monsters. Each of the pole-arm users were paired with a close-combat partner, and if a beast were to vanish, then they'd instantly go back-to-back in a loose square-formation.

So far, their plan had met with decent success... but they still had a number of contingencies to deal with any unforeseen issues... of which there was bound to be a few.

"Jo-dearest? Could you possiblymaybestopthat before you drive us completelyinsanefromallthetapping?"

"Eh? Oh... sorry..." Joanne draws in a deep breath to steady her nerves, then briefly squints as she sees a momentary flash of green far into the darkness ahead.

"New objective! Scouts are in combat..." Elsa cocks her head a little to the side as her ears twitch at the sounds drifting back to their location. "Snarling... and enemies with high physical capabilities..."