The Dark Descent Chapter 12

Story by PROKNIFER69 on SoFurry

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#12 of The Dark Descent

In the distance, a group of four could see their destination. A place where only nightmares were spawned, but the promise of gold still drew them in. They came prepared for a fight, but nothing could possibly prepare them for what they must endure. Watch as a blaziken, a gallade, an alakazam, and a dwarf are all forced to fight for their lives. They will be pushed to their absolute limits, both physically, and mentally. Only one thing is certain, none will escape unscathed.


Robin slowly opened his eyes, but he couldn't see anything. Without the torch light, it was impossible to see what was around him. However, he got a sudden feeling of dread when he heard something unusual. He could hear a strange click-clacking sound. It sounded like hooves hitting the hard stone floor. Something was in the room with them, but he couldn't see what it was. He didn't dare move. He even tried to breathe as quietly as possible. He heard the unknown beast moving around, sniffing the air. It seemed to know that something else was in the room with it. The gallade prepared himself for the worst as he heard the creature approaching him. He balled his hands up into fists, and slowly started to stand up. He tried his best to be silent, but then he felt something hard striking his face followed by a loud massive roar. Robin stumbled into a wall, barely remaining conscious. He could hear a high pitched sound in one ear, presumably from the strong blow. He didn't even get a chance to recover. He felt something grab his left his arm, and lift him up off his feet. He kicked, squirmed, and screamed out in a desperate attempt to save his own life. "JANUS! HELP!"

In a flash, the room lit up with nothing but flames. The fur on the beast that was holding him ignited, and rapidly burnt up, searing the flesh. The bright golden flames blinded Robin for a few seconds, even after shutting his eyes tightly. Then, he was thrown aside by the creature, his back slamming into a hard stone wall. Air was forced out of his lungs, and his vision faded. When his vision returned, and he opened his eyes, he saw Janus standing over him. His hand was lit up like a torch, flames engulfing it. "J-Janus? What the hell happened?"

"You were knocked out by some big hulking beast! The fat bastard could barely fit back through the door he came from. I uh, I'm sorry if I burnt you a little," Janus apologized.

The gallade slowly pushed himself off the floor, and back up onto his own two feet. "Don't worry about it. I have a close relationship with fire." Robin then pointed towards the burn scars on one side of his face.

"Looks more like an abusive relationship to me."

"Hah, I guess it is... This place smells awful, like burning hair."

"That thing did look like it was covered in hair, or fur before it went up in flames. If another one of those things come along, then at least we know that it seems to be scared, or weak to fire." The blaziken then looked down to the gallade's arm. "That bite wound doesn't look so good."

"No, it doesn't." Robin knew that if he didn't do something, this wound could get infected. It was probably already infected. They had stories of people dying to wounds like this back in the village he came from. One of the stories he heard started with two rival knights, fighting each other. One knight beheaded the other, and took the head as a trophy. The teeth supposedly scraped and pierced his skin, causing him to later die from an infection. It was a cautionary tale, although he heard that it may have been more than just a story. "I don't think I will be able to get back to sleep after an awakening like that. Are you ready to push on?"

Janus was more than ready to get moving. The longer they were in this place, the more likely his spine was going to get separated from his body. "I'm ready. Let's get going before another hairy beast comes along and smashes our skulls in."

Robin prayed that he didn't encounter some other dreadful abomination. He had seen enough of them to last him a lifetime. His head was aching badly, as was his back. His vision was a little blurry too, which led him to believe he was suffering from a concussion. He knew from experience that it would eventually fade, but they didn't have time to wait around. They both approached the door the beast seemed to have came from, and cautiously walked past it. Both men remained silent, standing side by side. The blaziken's flames barely illuminated the path in front of them. The walls and floors were made up of big solid stone blocks, which made Robin think. "The dwarves couldn't have built all this. This doesn't look like the work of dwarves either..."

"Maybe they accidentally tunnel straight into Hell," Janus quietly joked.

"That might not be far from the truth, considering what we've seen." The gallade wasn't sure what was going on in this place, or why this place was even here. It didn't matter, all that mattered was getting out of this place. The promise of gold and the chance of a better life drove him here, but now he was ready to call this expedition a failure, and get out of here. He could recover from monetary loss, but he couldn't recover from death.

"If we are in hell, do you have anything to confess?" Janus inquired, being sure to keep his voice low as he spoke.

Robin went silent for a moment, feeling guilt nibbling away at him. It took him a moment to even acknowledge the blaziken's words. "I have a few things to confess, but not to you..."

"Are you sure? This might be your last chance to confess," Janus said. The blaziken was a little curious as to what Robin had to confess.

Robin seriously thought about telling him, after all, there was a chance neither of them would get out of here alive. On the other hand, what he had to tell him may make the blaziken think twice about watching his back. "You're starting to sound like Thea. I might tell you later..."

A strange gurgling sound made both men stop in their tracks. It sounded close, very close. If Janus had to guess, he would say about thirty meters away at the most. The blaziken stayed very quiet, until he heard the sounds of wet flesh slapping against a hard surface. It sounded like footsteps, but he couldn't really tell what it was. It was getting closer, and he had to make a choice. Janus stepped in front of Robin, and threw his hand forwards. Flames swept through the dark hallway in front of him, burning away cobwebs, and scorching the body of a creature in front of him. Before they could even get a good look at what it was, it went up in flames. It screamed like a pig having a sword plunged into it. Whatever it was, it was big, and humanoid in shape. It had long arms, normal legs, and a big belly. Its face appeared to be similar to that of a human. Instead of retreating from the flames, the creature shambled right towards Janus.

"Get back!" the blaziken yelled. Despite the creature's size, it was fairly fast. Even as the flames burned and consumed the creature's body, it still found the strength to press on. It was only a few feet away from Janus. Its mouth opened up, and vile liquid spewed forth towards the blaziken. Most of it went straight over his left shoulder, but some of it landed on his skin. It smelled absolutely disgusting, like shit mixed with dead rats. The smell wasn't the worst of it, as Janus soon learned. The vomit began to burn his feathers, and seared his skin. Janus let out a massive scream as the still burning creature grabbed Janus with both of its large hands, wrapping them around the blaziken's neck. Janus closed his eyes tightly as he tried to push the burning, stinking beast away from him.

Robin jumped in, and with a loud shout, he rammed his elbow blade right into the side of the creature's head. He could feel his blade penetrating the creature's skull, and skewering the brain. Like a rag doll, the creature dropped to the ground, still burning. "I fucking hate fire!" His attention was soon drawn away from the creature, when he heard Janus still screaming even after pulling away from the creature.

Janus fell onto his back as his flesh burned. The corrosive bile ate away at him, blood escaping the large, but shallow wound over his shoulder and chest. "It fucking hurts! It's killing me! The bastard got me!" This is not the way he imagined going out. Death by puke. It was hard for him to think of a more undignified way to die. "I can't die to vomit!"

"You're not going to die!" Robin hoped to calm the blaziken while he looked down to his wound. The nearby burning corpse provided just enough light for him to see what it looked like. It looked ugly. Red flesh was exposed by the acid, but thankfully, it hadn't burned too deep. It looked like it had just stripped away the skin, and burned some of the flesh. The smell was horrible. It was like copper, mixed with hot rotten food. "It hasn't burned away too much flesh, but we need to wash this wound immediately."

Janus grunted as he sat up. He knew there was water back in that room they were attacked in before, but it smelled dirty. He wasn't risking putting more shit into his wound. He had to find fresh water, or more barrels filled with ale. He blamed himself for this. "I should've been quicker! Dirty vomiting bastard..."

Robin heard something coming from behind. Instinctively, he spun around, and raised his fists. That's when he saw something he really wasn't expecting to see. "Hilda?! Thea!"

Hilda ran up to the two of them. "What the fuck happened to the bird?" she immediately asked.

"That thing, it spewed vomit all over him. It burned away his skin," Robin told them.

"I need to find water! Fresh water before I catch some gut wrenching disease!" Janus exclaimed. It hurt so bad, he needed to do something. Unfortunately, it looked like the dwarf and the alakazam did not have their backpacks with them.

Thea walked over to Janus, and reached into the side of her robes. "I've got something that can help with that." She pulled out a small vial of clear liquid. "I was saving this for an emergency, I believe this qualities. Drink this. It will taste bitter, but it will dull the pain and prevent infections. I had two more of these, but they must've slipped out of my robe when I fell into the water."

Without a second thought, Janus took the vial of clear liquid, and took the cork out of it. He threw his head back, and drank every last drop. It tasted like dandelions, mixed up with some other bitter herb. It had a strange earthy smell to it, like rain water mixed with dirt. It did not taste good, but he drank it anyway. He then handed the empty vial to Thea. "When does it start working?"

"The pain should start to fade soon," she replied.

Janus hoped that was the case, because right now, he was in agony. His wound was big, and unpleasant to look at. After making all those jokes about Robin's face, he may just come out of this with an even uglier scar. He could live with it, so long as he escapes this place with his life.


Author's note: More injuries, more reasons to get the hell out of that place. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Oh, and thank you once again to BigBossSonic again for editing this chapter.