The Door to Cerberus

After Damascus had had time to nurse his wounds and for Zain's medicine to take effect, he was able to move without cringing and even act as if he hadn't been hurt too seriously while they were making their way down the twisting cobblestone hallway. At every corner Zain would ask him to check for enemies up ahead of the group and he would usually reply with the same thing of "noting ahead." But as they grew closer and closer to where the ending should be Zain had a sneaking suspicion that it was about to get worse as they approached the sixth turn Zain asked again to Damascus to see if anything laid in wait for them. Damascus's pupils widened to about twice their normal size and then he responded as flush in the face as he could get. "There are two of them ahead of us before a door."

"Two?" Zain asked in a panicked tone. "We barely got out of the last one, but we must learn. Do not engage them directly and do not try to act as a shield. If you have to block do so where you can easily escape from the claws and bites. Blades are to stab and move while ranged attackers will attack. Damascus do not stray too far, and I will try to ward them from you as much as possible."

Everyone nodded at these directions understanding well the outcome would be serious were it to falter even slightly. Zain passed his mother some herbs and vials and looked her in the face before speaking, "These are just in case, so you can make medicine while we fight. I know you're better with acrobatics and using alchemical compounds to fight but that is more valuable in open areas."

With that Zain moved to the back beside his father and then all four of the main combatants flipped the corner to see two hell hounds eyeing them down as if they were expecting them. Sophia readied her glaive in a low position as if she were going to thrust it, but Zain realized the foot positioning was more defensive while Damascus had his sword over his shoulder with more offensive footing. With that Zain looked at his dad and spoke, "If they do not work in tangent with each other, we will have our work cut out for us."

Zain's father nodded agreeing to what was just said but not wanting to add anymore pressure. Zain pulled out his revolver and his father readied his cross bow. "So, from your studies son, what is the most effective magic to use on these things?" his father was asking because his father could enhance his arrows with any type of magic. "Their weakness should be holy magic like most others we've encountered here father." Zain responded rather quickly.

His father quickly imbued his cross bow with holy magic and took aim.

One of the hell hounds lurched towards Damascus as the other tried to barrel over towards Zain and his dad. The First caught a bullet from Zain's gun and the other caught the Glaive Sophia was wielding and got thrown from it. Zain's father let his arrow fly towards the one that had just been thrown from Sophia's glaive and then another towards the one Zain hit with a bullet. They were obviously taken by surprise with how this rag tag team was fighting and started to gather themselves as Damascus was up on them slicing off their burning skin with his broadsword. The four of them kept fighting like this but then Zain noticed that Damascus was being too reckless. Sophia was reserving her true fighting strength because if it held true like last time, this would be a bigger version of these hell hounds they were currently fighting as a floor boss.

The turning point for this farce came when one of the hell hounds decided to try the same maneuver again and barreled over the other to be caught by Sophia's glaive where he was about to be thrown as it was thrown back, it took both a bullet and a crossbow bolt to the head. The other went to lurch at Damascus and got the same fate but with the broadsword in it while another crossbow bolt and a bullet pierced through its cranium.

As the last of the hell hounds fell the group saw another menacing grayish black door with a relief carved into it. This one was of a giant dog to no surprise for any of them, but this dog was not missing flesh and had three gargantuan heads. There well flames bordering the whole of the door and each of the heads had a different expression with different expressions.

Zain knew the tales of his old world and this dungeon seemed to be following a certain laid out path thus far and this boss was going to be none other than the famous Cerberus, the guard dog of Hades himself. Zain let out a quick sigh thinking of what else could be lying ahead of them. Sophia tilted her head curious as to what he was making a fuss about, and just as she was about to speak his mother caught her attention and shook her head from side to side.

Zain looked up and decided to give a directive that was not anything that they expected at all. "Rest now because this boss is going to be harder than the last and the scaling of this dungeon might be off from what is normal." Zain was thinking he hoped this wasn't the same as most of the other myths he had heard about, because that would make this beast the most dangerous, he has fought to date. This dungeon would probably be about a SSS rating by the time they were done with it if this kept up.