Side Story: Another Perspective Part 1

"Okay, so the quest says we need to make our way through this temple and fight a boss so we can get an ancient artifact that somebody wants."

I was currently standing outside of a decrepit-looking temple which was located deep in the woods. I currently have two other people in my party with me; I don't mind one of them, but I don't enjoy the guy's company. I can't remember their names, but the one I don't mind is tall, and the one I hate is short.

"Here, I'll go in first. There may be danger ahead, and I can't let my fair maiden get hurt."

"..."

Do you see what I mean? Anyway, he made his way inside first while the other person apologized for his friend's behavior. I don't want to play with this guy, but no one else would join my group. Why didn't Tonic join? It said he was online, and I invited him like an hour ago, so he should be done with whatever he was doing.

"There doesn't seem to be any danger my fair mai-"

"Oh my god, just call me Olivia."

The man looked surprised.

"I- I can't believe we're already on a first-name basis. How very forward of you."

I really just want to smash my head into the wall. Maybe it would be better if it was his.

We all entered the temple, and as soon as we did the door closed behind us.

"Is this a trap? Hurry and get behin-"

"Can you just stop? I don't need this fake chivalry."

"…"

He went silent and the three of us proceeded further into the temple. Lights appeared before us, filling the whole room with color. It was then that we noticed a closed gate with two pedestals in front of it; one on the left and right. The right one already had a stone slab in it which had a carving of a bird, but the other pedestal was missing its slab.

Okay, so it's a standard dungeon quest. I'm guessing we find the slab further in, fight some enemies, backtrack to here, then put it on there so we can enter the closed gate that has the boss behind it. There was definitely variety in the dungeons and temples and such, so it doesn't really get stale or old, but after seeing it for like a minute you can usually piece together what it wants you to do.

To the right of the pedestal that had the slab was a caved-in path, while to the left of the one that didn't have a slab was a well-lit entrance to go further into the temple. I guess that's where it wants us to go. We all started heading to the path and after a few spike and dart traps it opened into a very wide and elaborate area. I'd say it was at least 50ft long and wide, and there were stairs and arches, so we probably had to make our way up there to continue forward. Runes and some other ancient language covered the walls, and as if on cue for us entering the room, undead enemies started breaking out of their tombs and heading toward us. There were maybe 20 ish in total.

The tall guy stepped out in front and equipped his weapons which were a pair of gauntlets, while the short annoying guy started going on about defending my honor. He was annoying me, so I equipped my sword, pushed him out of the way, and joined in with the other guy to fight on the frontline.

Ever since killing the dragon a few days ago, I got an enchanted sword that can channel magic through it like a wand, but sadly it's not nearly as good; as well as some enchanted armor. However, the armor didn't really fit with what I'm going for, so I sold them, but I still have an awesome sword. It looks like a normal high-quality sword, but it has runes inscribed on the blade, and it changes color depending on what type of magic I channel through it.

The blade turned a bright red as I channeled magic through it, which caused it to be engulfed by flames. There were undead on our left and right, so we split up with me taking on the ones to the left, and him fighting the ones on the right.

My sword was cutting through the enemies like a warm knife through butter, and I was killing each of the undead with about two good hits. I should be able to take care of these guys fairly quickly. The short annoying guy approached me and started to strike up a conversation while I was in the middle of a fight.

"You know, you shouldn't just push me away like that. I'm your shield after all. Anyway, do you need some help with these guys?"

I looked over to the tall guy; I guess more undead had spawned and he was having some trouble fighting them all at once. Surely if he paid attention to his friend, he would know to help him first, right?

"Go help your friend. He seems to be in trouble."

He looked away from me and at his friend, then back to me before saying…

"Nah… he's fine. So do you need help?"

What do you mean fine? He looks like he's on the verge of being pinned down and eaten by zombies!?

"Dude, help your friend."

"Ughhh… okay I'll go hel- OOOOWWWW!"

His character fell to the ground.

"What's the matter, what happened?"

*Sobs* "I hit my knee on my desk IRl and *inaudible* on the ground."

I didn't think he could have gotten more useless, but here we are. Guess I'll help him myself. I pushed the zombies in front of me back a little before turning to the tall guy and shouting…

"FIRE SLASH!"

A wave of fire was sent toward the enemies that were about to overwhelm him. It didn't kill any of them and seemed to accidentally hit him a little, but it did some damage and slowed a bunch of them down; that should give him enough time to turn the tables. I then went back to fighting my enemies, and soon after, they were all dead again.

"Thanks for that fire attack. It saved me."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Oh, Oh, I helped too!"

"…"

"…"

"No you didn't."

"Well, I tried, and that's all that really matters, right?"

"…"

We climbed up the stairs, continued through the temple, and eventually entered another room where we found the stone slab we needed. It was in the middle of the room hanging from a chain attached to the ceiling. The stone had a picture of a skull inscribed on it.

Something seems off. I don't know why, but I get the feeling that if we grab that slab something bad is going to happen. The tall guy and I still need to recover our MP and HP after that last fight, so we should probably wait a minute before grabbi-

"Hey, guys! I found the thing!"

The short guy had run ahead and grabbed the slab without me noticing.

"Oh my god. You have to be kidding me."

"Olivia! I have found the thing you nee-"

The room started to shake, the lights darkened a bit, and the entryway we took to get in here was now closed by a gate. We might be in some trouble.