First Boss
ROOOAR!
The monstrous screams of the unknown creature were so loud that they vibrated through the air, filling the dungeon with an intense pressure. Axe was completely unfazed by the sheer power radiating from the unknown monster.
Silvia, however, felt like her stomach was twisting inside out.
So that's what it feels like to face a monster in the Platinum Dungeon... Silvia thought to herself.
Her respect for Axe grew, even though she would never admit it.
She doesn't even flinch...
Axe confidently held her large metal axe in her hand. The dense muscles on her arm flexed as she prepared herself for the monster to arrive.
The ground crumbled and shattered. Whatever was moving toward the two women wasn't just fast—it was also incredibly strong. With every passing second, the sound of its devastating footsteps grew louder.
Given the size of the dungeon, it would probably be a battle with almost no space to dodge attacks.
The red-haired warrior was breathing heavily, almost as if she couldn't hold her excitement back.
With another rumbling roar, the monstrous silhouette slowly became visible. The creature had a humanoid shape, but its shoulders were unnaturally large and exaggerated—almost like every fiber of muscle on its upper body.
As the dim light of the surrounding torches revealed more details of the monster, a shiver ran down Silvia's spine.
"Is... that a human?!"
"Not anymore."
Axe's voice was surprisingly neutral, lacking its usual aggressive undertone and raspiness.
The creature looked like some kind of grotesque, mutated warrior. Its face was completely distorted and unrecognizable, with only a few shredded bits of armor remaining. A morningstar was almost glued to the creature's hands, its spikes stained with fresh blood.
That blood... it's fresh. Axe thought to herself.
...!
With a creepy laugh escaping the twisted mouth of the creature, the morningstar swung toward Axe at a speed too fast to be seen by the normal human eye. An untrained warrior would have been dead already.
But Axe isn't an untrained warrior.
She moved even faster than the morningstar, causing it to shatter the rocky walls of the cave, slamming a big chunk of the gray, wet stone out of the dungeon's wall.
Almost silently, Axe landed on her feet—she had jumped over the morningstar within the blink of an eye. A cheeky smile played on her lips as she rolled her neck to stretch her muscles.
"You almost got me there. Almost."
ROOOAR!
The mutated beast seemed to grow upset. Although the monster wasn't able to talk, its loud roar made it clear that Axe's attitude was fueling its anger and hatred even further.
With flexed muscles bulging in an uncanny way, the monster launched a second attack with the morningstar toward Axe—this time shattering the ceiling above her before slamming the weapon into the ground.
The attack was so fast that there was certainly no way of dodging it.
Thick clouds of dust denied Silvia any view. No matter how hard she tried, the princess couldn't see anything. She couldn't even walk into the thick smoke—if she did, that strange monster would easily kill her with a single hit.
No warrior Silvia knew was even slightly as fast as that creature.
"Axe?! AXE!" Silvia cried out loudly.
There was no way that even a warrior as capable and fast as Axe could have emerged unscathed from such a devastating and destructive attack.
"Quit yapping already."
The strict voice of the strong warrior echoed through the thick dusk that slowly settled on the ground.
The sight that revealed itself to Silvia was nothing short of unnatural.
Even the mutated monster shivered in fear. Its morningstar was crumpled, as if someone had crushed a piece of paper in their hand.
Axe had effortlessly shattered the metallic surface of the weapon she was attacked with—without so much as a single scratch on her palm.
"You guys seriously get quite annoying. You really thought you could win, big guy?"
Axe's smile widened—confident, unsettling, and terrifying.
"And now it's my turn!"
As Silvia blinked, the monster was already cut in half. Its upper body slid off its waist and crashed onto the ground with a loud slam.
Axe stood beneath her rain of victory.
Her worn-out armor clung to her ripped muscles, her oversized battle-worn axe—its cutting edge nearly as big as the entire handle—drenched in blood.
Even her scarlet-red hair was soaked in the essence of the slain monster.
A chill crept up Silvia's spine.
It was hard for her to tell the difference between Axe and the monster when it came to sheer brutality.
Is she even human? Silvia thought to herself.
She was too scared to utter a single word to the warrior—a beast in human form—that accompanied her.
They teamed me up with a monster...
The princess's blue eyes wandered down toward the body of the disfigured monster.
While its corpse remained lifeless, some distinct human features were still visible on its face—frozen in an expression as if it had just seen a ghost.
"This is what happens when a warrior gets lost inside a dungeon for too long."
It was as if Axe had answered Silvia's question before she could even get a word out of her mouth.
"You mean... this could happen to us?" Silvia asked, her voice shaking like the ground the monster had shattered.
"Not really. Only if you don't find the gate at the end or the way back. The magic here is very strong. Some people are immune to it... others turn into these things."
Axe explained it surprisingly casually as she started walking deeper into the dungeon, stepping over the halved cadaver of the slain beast.
"H-Hey, wait!"
Silvia shouted after Axe and hurried to step over the corpse—though not without tripping and nearly falling to the ground.
As the princess closed the distance toward Axe, the trained warrior quietly lifted her hand.
"Something is off."
Her voice was surprisingly serious.
"Something is off? What do you mean?" Silvia asked curiously.
"The big guy back there isn't part of the dungeon. Just a lost warrior—not the boss of this cave that protects the gate."
For a warrior this brutish, Axe was surprisingly strategic at this very moment.
Axe's green eyes squinted as she stared into the endless darkness ahead.
The torches barely provided enough light to reveal what was lurking in the shadows.
Besides the already nerve-wracking circumstances of not being able to properly see what lay ahead, there was something else—something even more unsettling.
It was too quiet...
Axe let out an amused chuckle and continued walking deeper into the dungeon.
"What's so funny?" Silvia pouted.
"Remember the morningstar? There was blood on it. Red blood—human blood." Axe smirked.
"Yes, I saw that too. Is that so unusual?" Silvia asked curiously.
For someone this aggressive-looking, she is surprisingly thoughtful in dungeons... Silvia mused to herself, keeping her analysis to herself.
"There are Gatekeepers in here. If they survived the big guy... which is not that likely." Axe mumbled thoughtfully.
The long cave widened, revealing a golden gate engraved with glowing magic runes. It was still locked.
But that wasn't what made Axe so thoughtful and quiet.
While the gate itself remained unharmed, the surroundings were far from it.
Brutally smashed corpses lay scattered across the floor, their blood and organs coating the walls in a gruesome display.
"M-My god..." Silvia gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Seems like they beat the boss and stayed a bit too long here."
Axe kneeled beside a slowly rotting corpse and picked up a small, square-shaped gem that shimmered with an eerie blue light.
"Is that a..." Silvia couldn't believe her eyes.
Axe nodded.
"A Soulgem. The last few memories of a soul."
Her voice was quiet as her pretty but stern expression reflected in the gem's smooth, glowing surface.
"My father once told me about them. Not every dead warrior leaves one—only those with a pure heart."
Silvia's eyes grew wet as she thought about the poor soul that had died here.
"You believe that?!" Axe grunted, her voice sharper than usual.
"That person was part of the Gatekeeper group. If that one guy hadn't mutated and killed them, they would've fought us instead. Don't be so naive."
"How do you even know that?!" Silvia's voice grew louder.
"I have my fair share of secrets."
Axe crushed the Soulgem in her hand. An eerie, glowing dust surrounded her as she slowly inhaled it.
"Keep an eye on me, will ya?"
With that, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground, sleeping peacefully.
"Axe?! Hey! Wake up!"
Silvia's voice grew quieter and quieter with every passing second.
She's quite the bold one, isn't she?
Axe thought to herself as the last shred of her consciousness slipped away.