The Jokul Frosti

As Zain started leading the way through the doorway, he stumbled upon a spiral staircase. The staircase seemed to keep going into the abyss below, never ending, but it must end at some point, right? Well one would think.

Zain started heading down the staircase. Not knowing what to think, he pulled his revolver and reloaded it while still holding the torch in his left hand. Was this what he was expecting from his first dungeon? No, he was expecting something more down scaled on floor bosses and more of the smaller creatures that wandered the floors, but this was turning into a literal hellscape as they descended further down. The walls were getting hotter, the sulfuric smell of brimstone even became strong enough they had to use clothing to cover their noses and mouths to withstand the smell while breathing.

While climbing down, the darkness seemed to be ever encroaching until it started to dissipate into light as they reached the bottom of the steps. The floor was looking like a cobblestone street or walkway, but the stones were more black than white or grey. Heat radiating more from all around than normal making sweat drip down Zain's face and soak his clothes.

Still pressing down the hall, Zain could barely see because of the sweat and the heat underneath his makeshift face cover was making him wonder if the sulfuric smell would even bother him more than the heat that was compounding underneath it due to him breathing, but the group pushed on.

Eventually, the heat dissipated along with the smell, and it became a bone chilling temperature in the corridor. At this point, Zain kept his face covered for warmth and was growing awfully suspicious about what was making the temperature fluctuate so much.

The answers to the question Zain was asking came as a shock when they found ice patches around the walls and floor sporadically. As Zain looked at these patches, he also noticed marks as if some claws had been dragging along the floor and walls.

"That's strange." Zain murmured as he was looking at everything around.

After a few seconds, Damascus responded to him "What's so strange about things like this in a dungeon?"

"Well, when you are dealing with demons, you do not usually see ice patches." Zain started explaining. "I just feel like this could be a lot more complicated than normal infernal beings."

Damascus nodded and all was quiet for a bit, then his mother spoke up "Well there are things called frost imps and Oni."

Zain nodded at this acknowledging the possibility that he hadn't thought of. Swallowing hard another thought crossed his mind and out his mouth before he could even stop from shuttering it out. "Wechuge."

Everyone stared at Zain for a moment blankly. Then out of nowhere, Sophia spoke up. "I haven't heard of it, then again half of the monsters we've encountered in here are as likely to encounter as a god or even a dragon."

"She is right," Zains mother started. "But they are also all infernal beings of varying combat powers. If Lilith is the core of this dungeon as I suspect, that would explain that much."

Damascus nodded in agreement. Zain's father not much for words did this as well. Sophia looked even more confused than normal at this and looked at the three of them who were in their rights unmatched classes of adventurers. Zain shrugged and as they rounded a corner making a left turn then quickly took a step back. There stood a being that looked like a humanoid frozen solid or maybe it was made of ice and frost. Zain did not stay looking around the corner long enough to find out as it started to turn be went back around for cover.

Readying his gun and passing the torch to his confused father, Zain quickly whipped back around the corner and took aim. But what he found standing before him was no longer humanoid, instead it was more golem like now than anything and with giant clawlike hands made out of ice.

The thing reared its hands up and slammed them on the ground, letting a bellowing roar exit from its mouth. Zain took the opportunity and fired a shot directly into its mouth, trying to stab it with unheated metal or fire arrows at it would be useless here, Zain could only hope that the metal ammunition he was using would be heated enough by the gunpowder to take any effect on it. His hopes were not in vein, but they were not enough to completely incapacitate the beast as another guttural scream came as it started to charge.

Sophia rounded the corner hoping that it wasn't something unheard of but to her surprise, she had never once seen this beast. She instinctively held up her left hand as she formed her magic into a flaming arrow and fired. The shot exploded engulfing the creature's face from the side as its mouth had closed.

"Nice shot!" Zain exclaimed in his excitement.

"It's not over yet, this thing is still standing and that was my only ranged offensive spell I can use." Sophia stated rather on edge. "I'll add on, that I can only use it once my mana is fully restored as I am more weapons oriented than magic in my training."

Zain's eyes nearly popped out of his head upon hearing this. "Judas Priest! Lead with that next time!" He retorted while flustered and firing off two more shots before the fire dissipated from the creature's face. As the flames began to die down the ice and frost on its face were still melting. It reared up to slam again and as it was up Zain shot for a fourth time. This time, he saw the bullet fully penetrate the creature's head, and it started to lean backwards.

The creature fell and Zain walked up and let one final shot off from his gun fully penetrating the creature's head once again as he turned to Sophia with a twinkle in his eye. "Just one more for good measure."

The rest of the group came out after assessing that they had fully dealt with this creature. His mom looked directly at them and then waited a moment before his father spoke up. "Well, you two make a good combination with that type of formation."