First Floor: Undead Warriors [I]

Falling further into the bottomless pit with no visible ending soon, Damien forced all his strength into his right arm, smashing his dagger into the wall of the dungeon. 

His dagger forced a crack into the wall, pulling him along till it got stuck deeper into the wall. Dawn was falling alongside the other members towards him and he knew this was his chance to prove to her he was better than Armin.

As the trio raced towards him in a deepening fall from above, Damien stretched his hand forward, ready to grab Dawn the moment she reached him.

"Here, Dawn, grab my hand!" He shouted desperately, his arm stretched into the space enough to scoop her waist in his grip.

With a fast whoosh, the other two fell further, his hand holding her tight as if his whole life depended on that hold. His dagger, unable to bear the newly added weight, slipped as it dragged through the wall again, forcing Damien to grunt as he tried to deepen his grip on it.

And after a slow burn drag, the dagger finally got stuck in the wall, enough to hold both weights with one single hold. A sharp sigh of relief escaped Damien's lips and he looked down to check on Dawn.

Suddenly, a sonic boom erupted from the pit, fluttering an intense fiery wave which caused Damien to smell burning skin for a moment and within that fire from below, a magnificent phoenix wings spawned out from the pit, charging fast towards the top.

This took him by surprise, forcing him to tighten his hold ground the hilt of his dagger. As the Phoenix emerged from the pit, Damien could see Ace being carried out effortlessly, already saved from the unprecedented fall and the pair of wings, an ethereal bright orange padded wings enlined with cosmic yellow energies lining its tail, belonged to Dawn.

A slight frown formed on Damien's forehead, his eyes deepening as his brows furrowed in confusion. His mind was processing a million thoughts under a second as he had grabbed Dawn moments before she fell, but who was he suddenly holding? 

His gaze trailed towards his left arm which was being held desperately by the one who was his sole rival in heaven and on earth— Armin.

As if Armin had just been caught stealing Damien's birthday present, a cheap smile cranked up on his face, making mockery of Damien's stupid stunt.

"Why are you the one holding on to me?" Damien grumbled, his voice echoing in the cavernous space.

"You're not going to let go of my hand at this point, right?" Armin teased, tightening his hold on Damien's buff hand.

A look of disgust washed over Damien and almost immediately, he let go of Armin's hand, forcing him back into the endless pit with a loud scream searing through the rift.

"F-u-c-k Y-o-u, D-a-m-i-e-n!" 

A sinister smile of victory settled on Damien's lips as he watched Armin descend through the puffy smokes that had erupted from the sonic boom caused by Dawn summoning her Phoenix wings.

"See you in hell!"

"Grow up, Damien!" Dawn's voice chided from above as she took her landing on a platform which had appeared before Armin fell through. 

"Argh! Never land on your back during a fall." Armin groaned, getting back on his feet as the materialized platform spread evenly into a floor that led to a rift that had suddenly torn through the wall— the first dungeon floor.

A million bets down Damien didn't see that coming. His eyes widened in shock while his breath came out more forced than the last. He could have begged for the ground to tear up and swallow him up, but the dungeon gave no room for him to say a word as the rift made a loud scream.

The yellow rift appeared again in various edges of the floor, shimmering with deadly energy spitting out the undead warriors it had been breeding.

"Ever fought with beasts before?" Armin asked, taking his space beside Ace as he effortlessly summoned two swords fully coated with mana like a raging inferno.

"No!" Ace replied sharply, his eyes surveying the rifts as the warriors emerged continuously out of them.

Their skeletal forms clad in tattered remnants of once-mighty armor. Their hollow eye sockets glowing with a ghostly green light, exuding an aura of malevolence.

With each move they made, their bones creaked and rattled, the weight of their rusted swords slowing their movement down as they clutched them tightly in their bony hands. 

As they advance, the faint scent of decay fills the air, a reminder of their cursed existence. 

[Dungeon undead warriors (D-rank)]

[Description: These warriors have long been dead since the beginning of ages, trapped within the walls of labyrinths to protect dungeon relics and mob monsters from adventures]

[Quest(s) overview: (I)- Defeat dungeon monsters.

(II)- Harvest 10 soul cores of undead warriors]

"I think you should be summoning your weapon by now, sire." Armin alerted.

Ace wasted no more time as he summoned the shadow blade sword which exuded a reasonable amount of mana energy. Armin, sighting his sword gave an indifferent look, wondering for the first time who he had gotten himself hooked up with in a dungeon raid.

Ace, catching this feeling about his weapon, gave him a quick nudge, "Basic, but strong."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you. You don't even look like someone who knows how to wield a sword yet." Armin complained, his fingers gripping the hilt of both swords harder.

Damien jumped down from the wall which was holding him up unto the platform, his grip tightening around his dagger as he prepared himself for the first attack, crackling the bubbles in his knuckles as he moved. Dawn had no weapons as she was fully dependent on her elemental ability.

"Tell me, Armin. What exactly are you good at? Running your mouth?" Ace raised a question, his eyes fully laid on his first targets.

"Looking good!" Armin said with a scoff before dashing towards a rift that spluttered out a new batch of undead warriors.

"ARGHHHH!"

Ace also took off in an instant, the battle hurling up within a second and the seemingly once tired skeletons picked up their balls, dashing dangerously towards the invaders to suck out their souls.