Chapter Text
The man pauses as the dense fog around him begins to thin. He can see a large structure looming in the distance. The sight of it strikes fear into the man's heart, but his feet carry him towards it anyway. He's struggling to remember what it is, but he knows there's something important he must do here. Actually, the man is struggling to remember a great many things, he realizes. Most important of the things he cannot remember is his own identity.
Who... am I? the man wonders. He looks down at himself and besides the dirt and dust from travel, his clothes seem very fine quality. Am I wealthy? He asks himself. There is a big, lumpy bag over his shoulder that is much lower quality than his clothing, but it's stuffed with food supplies and torches.
The fog lifts more as the man nears the entrance of the dungeon. As it comes into clear view, he remembers his purpose for coming here.
I am looking for Kujou Saya. I need to save her. That's all he can remember, though. It's a frustrating feeling, not remembering something. Is he prone to bouts of amnesia? He wouldn't know; he can't remember anything past walking through that fog.
The man enters into a front courtyard area. The yawning entrance beckons him, but the man is distracted by a dead horse laying off to the side.
Poor thing, he thinks glumly. How did this happen? The corpse is minimally rotted, like the horse died a few days ago. It's not a good sign for the state of this place. Another, more obvious sign of danger is the lack of guards. Somehow the man can remember that this dungeon should be functional. It is meant to serve as a prison for the worst criminals. He would imagine such a place should have tight security.
That's why I need to find Saya. He remembers. She came to investigate rumored hauntings in the depths of the dungeons. Then the city lost contact with the officials here, and everyone they sent out to see what happened never returned.
The man isn't sure how or why he remembers all that but not something so simple as his own name, but at least he knows he has a goal. He's not thrilled about going into a place that nobody has returned from, but he feels a strange determination to go in anyway.
I need to find Saya. Is all he can think when he tries to rationalize going inside. The thought is strong enough to keep him from turning right around and leaving. Who the hell is Kujou Saya? he wonders. And why do I care what happens to her?
The man can't explain it, but his subconscious is resolute. He needs to find Saya.
The man decisively walks towards the gaping entrance, but pauses for a moment in the threshold. The hair on the back of his arms stands up and a shiver runs down his spine. Everything in his body is screaming at him don't go in there.
The man hears the howl of a wolf in the distance, but not distant enough. His heart hammers in his chest and he forces himself forwards. He ignores his every instinct telling him not to go inside. If wolves do come this way, they should be distracted by the horse. The man rationalizes.
Before he walks completely into the building, the man spots a torch laying on top of a box against the outside wall. Judging by the number of them in his bag, he assumes that he was expecting to need a lot of them when he was packing. One more won't hurt.
The barking and snarling of wolves grows even closer, but the man feels secure being a little ways away from the dead horse. There's no reason for wolves to come after his scrawny self when there's a big meal right there. Since he found a torch out here, the man wonders if there could be anything inside the barrels and crates lining the walls that he could use. He searches the crate he found the torch on top of and gathers a couple scraps of cloth from the bottom. It looks like enough cloth to wrap around a big enough stick to makeshift a torch if he needs to. It's also enough to wrap a wound, should it come to that.
The sound of barking enters the courtyard and three wolves appear from the fog. They run towards the horse, but instead of chowing down on it like the man expected, they bypass it entirely to come straight at him.
Time seems to slow as panic overtakes him. He can see a side door to his right that if he's quick enough, he can get in before the wolves tear him to pieces. There is a chance, however, that the door is locked. His other option is to run in the main entrance, but the door is wide open and he doesn't know how big the entrance hall will be. There might be no doors close enough to hide behind before the wolves reach him. His third option is to stand there and do nothing, which is hardly an option at all, really.
The man makes his decision and sprints towards the side door, silently begging it to be unlocked. He reaches the handle and pushes the door open, and for a brief moment he is flooded with relief. His relief is broken by the wolves at his heels, so he wastes no time with going inside and shutting the door. The wolves push at the door and the man struggles to close it. Somehow, he is able to shut the door. He leans against it for a moment, feeling it shake from the wolves clawing at it. The door stays strong and the man sinks to the ground with a sigh of exhaustion. He only just got here and he's nearly been eaten by wolves. He hopes that this will be the worst thing he experiences in this dungeon, but as he looks into the oppressive darkness before him, he has his doubts.
Thankful that he had the foresight to bring torches, the man lights one so he can navigate down the stairs into the darkness below. His torch light makes it marginally better, but he can still feel the cold dread of the dark encroaching on his little circle of light. His steps feel too loud as he walks down the narrow staircase. At the bottom is another door. The man feels like going through it would seal his doom, but he can't turn back.
The man opens the door into some sort of large room. He takes a few steps into the space and freezes as his torch illuminates a gruesome scene before him. Somehow, he immediately recognizes the ritual circle that appears to be drawn in blood, presumably from the dead body crumpled at the edge of it. In the circle is the symbol of The God of The Depths, an old god whose worshipers are few. The symbol looks like a backwards R.
The man feels sick, he doesn't know how he knows all that. It scares him and makes him want to run away, but he has to continue forward. He walks around the edge of the ritual circle, unwilling to step directly in it. He knows that it's probably not going to do anything if he does, but he also doesn't want to take chances that the circle is somehow active.
A figure appears around the corner of the wall in front of the man. At first he thought it was someone in a big hat, but as the creature comes into the light, he realizes that it is some sort of horrific flesh jellyfish floating in the air. It moves slowly, swaying in a relaxed manner. The man isn't sure if it's hostile, but he doesn't want to get close enough to find out.
The creature moves slowly, so the man is able to get past it by walking quickly. The room is pretty big, so he can keep it at a distance. There are some barrels in the back, presumably for wine. To the left is a stone door. Seeing it as the first potential exit to the room, the man goes to investigate it.
As soon as he places his hand on the surface, a voice echoes in the man's head.
"Come and find me... let the blood flow..."
No thank you. The man thinks in response and turns around to find a different door to investigate.
Keeping an eye on the jellyflesh, as he's decided to name it, the man walks past the wine barrels and down a hallway. He looks through an arch into a room and sees a massive pile of something in the darkness. He takes hold of the torch with his other hand to hold it steady as he can't seem to stop shaking. He holds the light out to see into the room and all he sees is a pale foot before a movement from down the hall catches his attention from the corner of his eye. It's another one of those things and it's floating lazily towards him. The hallway is narrow enough that he doesn't want to try and pass it. Deciding he doesn't need to know what the pile in that room is, the man turns to the right through a different arch.
He has to slap a hand over his mouth and nose as he turns and finds exactly what he was afraid of in the other room; a pile of decaying bodies. The smell of death permeated the area the moment he stepped in, but being so close to the source now has tears springing to his eyes.
So many bodies... he knows he can't remember anything, but he's sure he's never seen this many bodies before. He's only heard about it in news of a plague that tore its way through a village. There were too many bodies to bury them all individually, so they had to make a mass grave or dump them in the water. The man was glad his home is far away from all that.
The man realizes he just remembered his home. He doesn't know his name, but he knows that he lives in a mansion. He can see the grand staircase and the grandfather clock at the top. He'd be more happy about this revelation if he weren't standing next to a rotting pile of bodies.
The man notices something about the bodies. While it's uncomfortable that they are all nude, he thinks it makes sense to perhaps burn clothes separately if they have remnants of the plague on them. But the state of the bodies makes him feel like it wasn't a plague that killed these people. Plagues don't chop off limbs or leave gashes through skin to let the guts spill out. These wounds were caused by violence. Furthermore, this hardly seems like a good place for a mass grave. It's really more like... storage.
The bodies are still relatively fresh, too. They've been decaying for a while, but it's not like they're especially well preserved. He can't imagine these bodies are more than a week or two old. His heart sinks.
Would I even be able to tell if Saya was in here? The man tries not to entertain that thought further.
On the other side of the room, past the bodies, the jellyflesh from the hall has entered through the other archway. It floats towards him, so slowly that the man isn't concerned about it anymore. Whatever put all these bodies here can't be these creatures. It's more likely that they're scavengers attracted by the corpses. He still doesn't want to get close to one.
The man walks back into the hall and jolts to the side as the other jellyflesh from the other room is right there at the corner of the arch. It's close enough that it's reaching out its tentacles towards him. He quickly gets out of its range and proceeds down the hall further.
He passes by a jail cell with steel bars, but he doesn't even bother to try that door. It just looks like there's more bodies in there anyway.
Around the corner where the hall bends, the man nearly slips on some plant growth. He manages to catch his footing, but the little slip sent his heart into overdrive. If that's all it takes to panic him, how is he going to go further in this place? He sincerely doubts that anything good awaits him beyond the doorway at the end of the hall. A lone skeleton sits to the side of the door. After the pile of bodies, seeing a simple skeleton without any rotting flesh or gore on it is a relief. He decides not to worry about why it's here or how long it's been here. He's ready to get out of this horrible smelling room so he goes through the doorway without hesitation.
The next room brings with it the smell of dirt. It's not like the stench of decay that spread throughout the previous area has gone away, but it's just lighter now that the bodies aren't right next to him.
The room appears to be a sort of graveyard. The mounds of dirt marked with names look like they've been dug recently. There's one that is still a hole, not very deep, either.
The man scans each marker to see if any are marked for Saya, but there are none. He's not sure if that means she's still alive or that she's dead somewhere else, rotting out in the open. Unburied, unnamed, unremembered.
What name would go on my grave? The man wonders glumly as he heads further into the room. His torch decides now is the best time to go out, causing the man to curse quietly as he tries to pull out another one. He stops as he sees a hulking figure in the darkness beyond some sarcophagi. It could just be a very large person, but after the jellyflesh things, the man isn't taking any chances. He quickly ducks behind a sarcophagus as the figure starts walking his direction.
In the dark, the man can only understand what he's seeing so much. The creature appears to be a big, hulking guard wearing heavy armor. At first it seems the guard has three legs, but the man has to cover his mouth to keep from gasping when he realizes what that "leg" really is. That part has armor, too. It's massive, even bigger than the man's thigh. Granted, his legs are rather thin, but that is still far too large for that particular body part to be. He hopes that this creature has similarly sized females of whatever species it is. The thought of that fitting in a human... the man chokes down some vomit that started to rise.
He knows he needs to get past it, but he feels like he's shaking too much to walk. If that thing gets a hold of him, he'll be lucky if he's only beaten to death. Thankfully, the creature continues patrolling and doesn't notice as the man crawls from behind one sarcophagus to another until he's out of the room.
Away from that thing, the man is able to pull himself together enough to stand. He seems to be in some sort of storage room, but every shelf and barrel he searches seems to have already been emptied of anything useful. He heads into the next room where there is more light coming from sconces hanging from the ceiling. Thanks to the flickering fires, he can see something massive, even bigger than the thing in the grave room, walking back and forth through the wide halls.
The man darts across a hallway to get into the doorway on the other side while the beast's back is turned. The room appears to be empty, but there is a burned up campfire in the middle of the floor. Sitting on top of it is a lit torch, seemingly dropped there. The man walks over and picks it up. Raising the torch illuminates the room better.
There is a large statue of a woman and a bird against the back wall. There is a chest that is open to the left and a bed against the wall to the right. The man freezes as he could swear he saw something move under the bed. The man keeps his eyes on the bed as he steps towards the chest to see what is in it. There is a small pile of silver coins at the bottom.
The man checks his bag to see if he brought money with him, but he can't find any. He's not sure why he would need coins, but perhaps paying someone might come in handy. He could also use them as distractions to throw down opposite hallways to get past creatures. He picks them up and counts seven as he puts them away.
In the midst of his counting, the man takes his eyes off the bed. That moment, something begins to emerge from the darkness. The man startles and throws one of the coins at it without thinking. It hits the thing in the head.
"...Ow." The thing says, and the man realizes that it's just a normal looking person. A guy, perhaps a bit younger than himself, in an oversized jacket. His eyes look tired and shifty, but sane.
"Oh- oh no, I'm sorry, I thought you were-"
"A monster?" the man from under the bed cuts him off. "And you think one silver coin would deter one of those things?"
"...I have six more..." The man grumbles in self defence. The man from under the bed snorts out a small laugh and shakes his head.
"You're sane, I gather? Even if you're not too bright." The rude man dusts himself off and crosses his arms.
"I'm sane and plenty smart, thank you. I'm just not used to being scared by creeps hiding under beds."
"And I'm not used to hiding under beds, but with the things out there, it's better to be safe than sorry. If you were one of those guards, I'd be fucked."
The man with the torch cringes at the other's wording. He knows it's a figure of speech, but thinking about it being literal makes his stomach churn.
"Anyway, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Mashita Satoru. And you are?" The man from under the bed, Mashita, looks expectantly at the other.
"I'm, uh..." the man frantically tries to remember his name, but continues to come up blank. The only thing he can remember is that he probably lived in a mansion. Before Mashita can get too suspicious about his lack of answer, the man blurts out a name.
"Yashiki Kazuo."
"Well, Yashiki, I'd say it's nice to meet you but let's be real, there's nothing nice about any of this."
"Finding someone who is alive and not trying to kill me is pretty nice, though." Yashiki counters. Mashita scoffs and rolls his eyes.
"Hardly. What are you doing here, anyway? You don't look like someone who belongs in a dungeon."
"I'm looking for someone. Kujou Saya. Do you know her?" Yashiki asks. Mashita shakes his head.
"Nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
"What about you? Why are you here?" Yashiki directs the question back. Mashita glances to the side before responding.
"I'm looking for someone." He says, but does not elaborate.
The two stand in silence for a long minute. Neither are sure what to say or what to do. Eventually, Mashita clears his throat.
"Well, I need to continue forward. I assume you also need to keep going to find this Saya chick." He says, walking towards the door. "There's safety in numbers, right? We might as well walk together if we're both going the same way."
"That sounds like a good idea." Yashiki agrees, following the other to the door. "Maybe we'll be lucky and the people we're looking for will be in the same place."
"Maybe." Mashita says, but he doesn't sound at all confident about it.
Out in the large hallways once again, the pair watch the hulking, golden figure patrol around the area from the shadows. It seems too big to fit into the sides of the halls where beams and arches support the ceiling. Yashiki points this out to Mashita in a whisper and Mashita responds with a silent nod. They stay close to the walls and out of sight.
There looks to be a room on the opposite side of the + shaped hallway, with another door leading somewhere unknown around the bend. Carefully watching the Golden Guard, as Yashiki has decided to call it, the two sneak past the exit to the side of the hall with the other room. In the middle of the floor outside of the entryway is some sort of creature. Yashiki startles upon seeing it, but Mashita clicks his tongue in annoyance.
"Calm down. Look, it's dead already." The man gestures to the bug-like corpse.
"What killed it...?" Yashiki wonders out loud. Mashita shrugs.
"My guess would be on big goldy over there." He gestures to the golden guard.
Yashiki continues to stare at the dead creature. There is something extremely unsettling about it. It looks kind of like a face. Mashita leaves him to his staring and enters the room. Yashiki follows after him quickly, only to be stopped in the threshold by an injured man with a crossbow.
"Stop right there!" The man yells. His eyes are wild with fear, but he still seems somewhat sane. Sane enough to not shoot them on sight, at least.
"Don't worry, we're normal people." Mashita says, not reacting to having a weapon pointed at him at all.
"Oh, yes, I suppose if you weren't, you'd already be attacking me." The man lowers his weapon slightly, then raises it again. "But don't get any ideas! I'm still prepared to defend myself!"
"Relax, neither of us want a fight, either." Mashita speaks for them both.
"Good." The man's eyes dart between the two intruders a couple times before he relaxes and sits back on the ground. He gingerly sets his leg out in front of him as he does so, but clearly tries to hide how it hurts him.
"You're injured-" Yashiki says, taking a step forward. He freezes as that crossbow is pointed at him again.
"So you noticed, huh? Don't think that makes me an easy mark. I am a knight of the glorious kingdom of Rondon, I will not be taken out easily."
"I wasn't thinking that at all! I just- are you okay? Do you need anything?" Yashiki shakes his head, eager to clear the misunderstanding between them. Both the man on the floor and Mashita look at him with a bewildered expression.
"No I'm- well, actually, if you have any alcohol on you..." the man says, looking between the two of them hopefully. Mashita shakes his head as Yashiki searches his bag.
"No, just water. Sorry." Yashiki says, shoulders drooping.
"I won't turn down some water, if you're offering." The knight says. Yashiki starts to pull his waterskin from his bag but Mashita stops him with a hand on his arm.
"What if you need that for yourself later? We don't know if you'll be able to refill it when it's empty." Mashita whispers, mouth so close to Yashiki's ear that his breath tickles him. Yashiki frowns and looks down at his waterskin. The knight on the floor is still looking at him expectantly, but Mashita makes a good point. Eventually, Yashiki shakes his head and looks at Mashita.
"Even so, I can't just leave someone to suffer with nothing." He responds. Mashita just clicks his tongue and steps away, putting his hands up.
"Fine, but if you're dying of thirst later, don't ask for any of my water."
Yashiki sighs at his new companion's selfishness and hands his waterskin over to the knight.
"Don't worry, I'll try not to take too much." The knight says. He lifts the opening to his mouth and drinks down a couple gulps of water before handing it back. "Thank you. I am in your debt."
"Not at all. I'm just happy to help." Yashiki smiles.
"What are you doing down here anyway?" Mashita asks.
"I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Ser Seymour. I'm here with fellow knights for a mission, but we got separated. I fear my companions may be..." The man shakes his head. "In any case, my main goal right now is to reunite with the crown Prince, Buckman. I would like to find the others, as well. If possible."
"Unlikely." Mashita comments. Yashiki shoots him a dirty look.
"Do you know anything about what's going on here?" Yashiki asks, happy to move the conversation along before Mashita pisses the guy with a crossbow off.
"Not a clue. It's something foul and unholy, that's for certain. I heard rumors of these dungeons being cursed, about monsters roaming the halls. I didn't realize they weren't just rumors." Ser Seymour answers. "My recommendation for you is to get the hell out of here, if you even can."
"I can't just leave. I'm here looking for someone. Kujou Saya. Do you know her, by any chance?" Yashiki asks.
"I'm afraid I don't. If she's here, you may be too late already. This is no place for a woman." Ser Seymour pauses. "It's not much of a place for a man, either."
Yashiki looks down at the floor, wondering if the man's words are true. Is he too late?
"Hey, don't get depressed on me now. You'll never find her, alive or dead, if you just mope about it." Mashita puts his hand on Yashiki's shoulder. His words are cold but Yashiki lifts his head and nods.
"You're right. I shouldn't let doubt get a hold of me."
"That's better." Mashita gives Yashiki a little smirk. It looks snarky, but Yashiki gets the feeling it's supposed to be genuine.
"Hey, Ser Seymour," Mashita turns to look back at the man on the floor, "you've been here for a while, yeah?" Ser Seymour nods. "Do you have any tips for survival down here?"
"Tips for survival...? I suppose I may have learned a thing or two." The man thinks for a moment, then gestures out the doorway. "Did you see that thing out there? I managed to slay it, but not before it got my leg. If you ever see one of those, be very careful. The bugger spits acid."
"Acid?" Yashiki repeats quietly, looking back at the dead thing on the floor outside. He returns his attention back to Ser Seymour as he continues talking.
"If you can, I recommend you avoid fighting at all costs. If you have no choice, then you need to be careful about it. These creatures I've seen are tough. You won't take them down easily. When you can, go for the head. It's hard to get them when they're moving around, so try taking out their legs first. You have to be strategic or you won't make it very far."
"Noted." Mashita responds.
"But really, my recommendation is that you get out if you still can. Whatever you came here for, ask yourself; is it worth it?"
The question Ser Seymour poses is a good one. Yashiki contemplates his options. He doesn't even know who Saya is, why should he risk his life for her? But no matter how he tries to look at it logically, something within him urges him that he must save Saya. He looks at Mashita to see him also furrowing his eyebrows in thought. Could he be having doubts about his reason for coming here too?
Whatever he was thinking about, Mashita shakes it off after a moment. "I've made my decision. I'm not turning back right when I get here."
"Yeah." Yashiki agrees.
"Very well. But before you leave, you should take a look around here. There's weapons and armor that still seem to be in decent condition. I haven't examined anything closely, but there is probably something you can use." See Seymour gestures to the tables and stands of weapons and equipment. "Going further in without a weapon is suicide. You should avoid fighting, but you don't want to find yourself unarmed and cornered."
"Thanks. We'll have a look around, then." Yashiki says and begins to walk towards the back of the room. He decides to start with the armor racks. He can't really remember, but he doesn't think he's been in very many fights before. The idea of holding a weapon makes him nervous.
Most of the armor is badly dented or rusting, unfortunately. He does manage to find a single leather vest that seems to be in okay condition. He looks it over, and while it's a little too big for him, it's better than nothing.
"Find something?" Mashita asks as he walks over. He appears to have already found a sword and scabbard that he's buckled around his hips.
"Only this," Yashiki replies and buckles up the vest over his clothes.
"Good work. You didn't find anything else?" Mashita steps closer and Yashiki makes space for him to look around himself. "Wow, yeah. Everything over here is shit. How long has this place been inactive? It shouldn't have rusted this much in just a few weeks."
"I don't know..." Yashiki responds and moves to the weapons table. He starts looking at the different tools of death and feels sweat drip down his forehead. Tentatively he picks up a sword that he thinks is average size, but it's so heavy he has trouble lifting it.
"Hey, I think this one is more your size." Mashita pushes a far thinner sword towards Yashiki. Yashiki takes it and sighs when it isn't as much of a pain to simply hold. He's still unsure how he's going to swing it around.
"You've never handled a weapon in your life, have you?" Mashita teases.
"I guess not."
The uncertain response has Mashita narrowing his eyes in suspicion. How could you not be sure of something like that?
Yashiki steps away from the other two people in the room and gives the sword a couple swishes through the air. He feels his wrist ache from the way he's holding it. Mashita shakes off his suspicion in favor of coming over to show this fool of a man how it's done.
"You're holding it wrong, first of all. Grip it like this." Mashita takes Yashiki's hand and wraps it around the handle correctly. Yashiki slashes the air again, being careful to point away from Mashita lest his clumsiness cause an accident.
"You're waving it around like it's a flag. You're not going to be able to do any damage like that. Here, try holding it steady with both hands." Mashita pulls out his own sword, closer to the size of the one that Yashiki couldn't pick up, and demonstrates how to hold it more firmly. "See? Now you have more control over the way your blade moves."
Yashiki tries to swing it a couple more times and finds that it is easier to control with two hands.
"That isn't a two handed weapon. It's meant to be held with a shield in your other hand." Ser Seymour speaks up from the floor. Yashiki deflates a little, losing what small confidence he gained quickly. Mashita shoots the knight a dirty look.
"Hold it however you need to hold it." He says to Yashiki, but keeps his eyes on Ser Seymour. The knight shrugs and looks away.
"I'm just saying, his form is completely wrong."
"Then why don't you give him your crossbow?" Mashita suggests, getting startled looks from both Yashiki and Ser Seymour. "If you have such a problem with him being untrained in swordfighting, give him your crossbow."
"I-I don't even know how to use a crossbow!" Yashiki protests. "I'm fine with this sword, really! See?" He demonstrates a few more controlled swings and a couple stabbing motions.
"I'm not giving you this. That is out of the question." Ser Seymour takes hold of his crossbow tighter, looking ready to aim and fire it at the first sign of any violence.
"Then shut up." Mashita says and puts his sword back into its sheath. Ser Seymour grumbles an apology and looks away. "That's what I thought. Now, Yashiki, are you ready to go?"
"Not really." Yashiki looks out into the darkness of the hall. "But I guess there's not much choice, is there?"
"I'm afraid not," Mashita replies. He takes a couple steps out into the darkness to look down the hall. "That big thing is turned the other way. We should go now."
"Um, it was nice to meet you, Ser Seymour." Yashiki says as he heads for the exit with Mashita.
"Sure." The knight sighs. He looks so sad and alone, Yashiki doesn't want to leave him behind. But Mashita whispers at him urgently to hurry up and Yashiki knows there's no way he could come with them.
"If we see any of your comrades, we'll tell them you're here." Yashiki promises. Ser Seymour smiles just a little.
"Thank you."
"Yashiki, now." Mashita hisses, grabbing Yashiki's arm and pulling him away.
Yashiki sees why his companion is so agitated quickly. The giant golden guard has turned around and is slowly trudging in their direction. They were safe sticking close to the walls before, but around the corner are the lamps that illuminate the area. They'll have to pass them to get to the door at the end of the hall.
Mashita leads Yashiki slowly down the corridor, heading towards the golden guard. They have to pass him to get out, too. They stay pressed up against the wall closely hoping that its eyesight won't be good enough to see them. The creature stops in the middle of the + shape. The two men stop as well. Yashiki feels his heart beating. He wonders if it's so loud that the monster can hear it.
But then it turns and faces away, looking down the other corridor.
"This is our chance!" Mashita whispers and pulls Yashiki with him. They hurry to the end of the hall but are stopped by rubble blocking their path in the darkness. It forces them to go out into the light and hope the beast won't turn around. They pause, looking at the creature as it trudges away from them. Thanking the gods for the opportunity, they quietly go into the middle of the hallway. The temptation to run is strong, but their feet will make too much noise. They don't know how fast this thing is or what it's capable of doing.
They make it halfway to the door before they hear an angry grunt behind them, followed by loud clanging of metal armor in motion. Yashiki looks back to see the beast charging at them, but Mashita doesn't let him get distracted. He grabs Yashiki by the arm and pulls him the rest of the way to the door.
The beast is too large to fit through the doorway, and it cries out in frustration as they run into the room beyond the door. They get far out of the creature's reach from the doorway, panting heavily as they watch it try to get to them. Eventually it gives up and turns around to continue patrolling the halls. Yashiki slumps forward with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He smiles over at Mashita, glad to have escaped that beast. Mashita grins back, equally thankful for their safe escape.
That horror is behind us, Yashiki thinks.
The two men recollect themselves and their smiles drop as they look around.
... but what horrors are to come?