This place was dark, very dark. I guess no one lighted the place that much, since the only light sources we found were the two lit torches on both sides of the entrance. Just great…
"Whoa… This place is really dark…" Marisa breathed.
"Not for me." Remilia said, putting her parasol away. "I can see perfectly fine."
"Well, you ARE a vampire, so…"
"Ooh, and it's a bit spooky in here too…" Youmu said shakily. Huh… by this reaction, I do wonder if she's afraid of the dark.
"This isn't good…" Aya trailed off while looking around the place with her eyes squinted. "Even if my eyesight is really good, it's still not enough for me to see well in the dark…"
"Okay, I HAVE to find a solution for this. " I thought as I looked around on the floor for anything… and as luck would have it, I found a stick next to the torch on the left. I walked over to it and picked it up, then I placed the tip of it into the torch's fire to light it up. "Ah, there we go!" I triumphantly exclaimed.
"Nice job, guv!" Yangus complimented. "Now we got a light!"
"Yeah, but make sure you all stick together to me so no one gets lost, got it?" I advised as they nodded, and so we proceeded to walk over to the walkway ahead.
The cave seemed pretty huge, with waterfalls protruding from the walls to give this place a big dampness that clung heavily to the air around us. Additionally, the cave mouth seemed to be on a platform attached to the rock face, while below that was all water… and it was quite a few ways down too. Everything seemed tranquil for us at first… but just then, the moment we were halfway across the walkway, I started hearing noises that almost sounded like bat noises coming from above us. Oh, boy… this doesn't sound good, since I knew exactly what could those noises belong to.
"Wait." I motioned everyone to stop the moment I heard the noises, and they did it so. "Do you hear something?"
Reisen's ears twitched a bit. "Yeah, I'm hearing bat-like noises… but who's making them?"
And right on cue… a massive mob of Drackies flew down from the ceiling and were viciously heading towards us, ready to suck our blood. "Blood-sucking Drackies incoming!" I shouted. "Let's take them out!" I began to reach for my sword…
"I got this!" …until Cirno suddenly flew in front of me and faced the Drackies. "PERFECT FREEZE!" she yelled, sending out a large amount of cold air at the Drackies and freezing them all instantly, and then they fell onto the ground one by one where they shattered.
"…Oooor we can just leave it to Cirno." I sweatdropped.
"Ha, piece of cake!" Cirno boasted. "And I've done it without a single scratch!"
However… not two seconds after Cirno said that, Reisen gasped, "Cirno! Your arm is bleeding!" she cried with wide eyes while pointing at Cirno's right forearm, and sure enough, that portion of her arm had two holes that almost went straight through her arm and blood was coming out of them pretty profusely. There's no doubt that these were a Dracky's bite, so I guess one of them might of have avoided her Perfect Freeze attack and bit her on the arm before fleeing.
Cirno looked at her wound, and shook her head. "Eh, it's not much. You can just heal it with one of those medicinal herbs you got, right?"
"But… I was thinking about saving them if anything worse happens."
"Then we'll just wait. Really, it's not that bad. It'll stop bleeding at some point!"
"Yeah, when you're dead!" Marisa retorted.
"But fairies like me can't even die, they just revive! Seriously, I'm perfectly fine!"
I sighed. "Look, let's just keep going. If Cirno insists she's fine, then so be it. Because starting an argument is only going to waste our time."
"He's right." Reimu chimed in. "Let's go on already."
With that, we crossed the rest of the walkway and reached the doorway that led to a branching tunnel. After some debating, we decided to head right… but as we started walking there, I heard a loud thud behind me…
"CIRNO! Are you okay?!" … along with Reisen asking in worry, as I turned around to see that Cirno had fallen to the ground. But that wasn't what shocked me; it was her wound. Unlike what she had stated before, it wasn't bleeding any less. In fact, it seemed to have gotten worse, having its gory blood sprouting increased.
"Well… I feel a little better… All the colors are coming together in a really pretty blur and all the fun times I had playing with Dai-chan are flashing before my eyes…" Cirno spoke in a dazed and dream-like state as if she was staring at a pleasant scenery in her mind. Uh-oh… this wasn't good. She is going to pass out from all that loss of blood. I have to do something!
"Cirno!" I quickly ran over to her while dropping my torch and picked her up in my arms. "Hang in there!" I instinctively placed my left hand onto her wound, as I felt blood getting onto it but I didn't care. " Oh, please that I have the Heal spell right now, please…! " I thought as I prayed internally.
Then, all of a sudden, as if my prayers had been answered, a weak soft green glow came from my hand as a green light enveloped Cirno and pulsated faintly before dimming. Did… Did I actually do it? I pulled my hand back in wonderment… and much to my surprise, Cirno's wound had been closed up into a scar and all the blood was gone. I… actually did it! Who knew that my very first spell learned was Heal?
Yangus and the girls were also taken by surprise. "You… You actually healed her…" Alice awed. "That's amazing…"
I looked at my hand in astonishment. "Wow, my first spell… and it worked perfectly!" I said with a big smile.
"Hooray!" Cirno cheered as she flew out of my arms and began flexing her healed arm. "Check it out! It's like nothing ever…" buuuut then the scar on her arm reopened and continued to bleed, but at the very least the leakage was minimal. "… happened." she grimaced.
"Hey, easy there. You shouldn't overextend yourself." I said to her like a parent talking to a child as I held her shoulders. "Just because I healed you back up doesn't mean that your wound is completely closed up. Don't move your arm around too much, okay?"
"Okay…" Cirno sighed, and then I went back to get the torch again so we could continue.
The tunnel led us to an open area with lots of stalactites and stalagmites as some of them were joined together to form huge columns, as well as several large shallow pools of water that gleamed off the walls to create a shimmering effect, a narrow walkway zigzagging through the area… and more monsters, those specifically being Mischievous Moles. The moles would immediately spot us and stare for a moment, before deciding that we were a threat and stood in offensive stances. We watched as the Mischievous Moles scrunched up their faces while glowing with a purple aura. A Psyche Up!
"What's with that purple aura on them?" Youmu wondered.
"That's a Psyche Up." I replied. "It's a technique that lets you focus your inner will and spirit to build up tension, but it takes a lot of great concentration and not to mention that only people from this world are able to do it since it's considered a skill. Tension will increase a person's strength and magic for their next action, and will immediately wear off after they execute said action. The more tension built up, the more powerful they'll become."
"Hmm, I see…" but as Youmu was musing, she didn't notice that one of the more powerful Mischievous Moles was charging at her and ready to smack her with its shovel.
"Youmu, look out!" I warned.
"Huh?!" she didn't react in time and the Mischievous Mole smacked her in the gut. "Ungh!" she winced as she hunched over. "Alright… You like tension? Then I'll give you my own tension." She glared at the rest of the Mischievous Moles while taking out a spell card. "Celestial Star Sword: As the Silent Nirvana!" just then… it felt like as if time itself slowed down for me for a second and before I even knew it, Youmu had taken out all of the Mischievous Moles by apparently slashing the air in front of her and without making any sound whatsoever… somehow. "Good riddance." she said and sheathed her katana.
I blinked in total confusion. "Uh… What did you just do? I didn't even see or hear anything!"
Youmu chuckled. "That spell card I used is meant to work that way, where I take actions so fast that you can't even see or hear what happened. But if you want to know, I merely just sent incredibly high-speed danmaku at the moles. Obviously, not even them could see the danmaku before they were taken down."
"Ah…" after that, I looked around the area and found something that intrigued me: a treasure chest. I immediately ran over to it and opened it up, taking out a Chimaera Wing. Ah, perfect! Now after we find the crystal ball, I can just use this to warp us back to the town of Farebury in an instant! I put the wing into my knapsack and motioned the others to follow me into another tunnel ahead, which was lined up with lit torches on the walls.
Exiting the tunnel, we ended up in another wide area similar to the previous one we've been, except that there's less pools of water, and there was moss growing around the columns. Oh, and of course, the monsters in this area were different too: this time there were some Mecha-Mynahs roaming about. The Mecha-Mynahs immediately noticed our presence as some of them proceeded to launch metal feathers at us, while the rest casted Acceleratle on themselves before flying towards us at a higher speed than usual.
"Wind Sign: Opening Wind of the Tengu Realm!" Aya quickly acted and launched a whirlwind projectile out of her fan at the Mecha-Mynahs, who didn't have time to flee from it and they along with the metal feather projectiles were all blown away by it while breaking apart. "Heh, they might be fast at attacking, but not at dodging!" she smirked and then we continued onwards, going down deeper into the cave via a staircase.
"So… we're just going to encounter different monsters every time we enter a new area, is that it?" Reimu asked me.
"Pretty much." I replied.
"Oh, lovely…" Reimu muttered.
"Say… I'm starting to wonder if this crystal ball is being guarded by someone who lives here in this cave." Reisen speculated.
"Probably." Remilia agreed. "I mean, with all those torches around, I doubt anybody would leave this place unguarded."
"An' if this someone does 'ave the crystal ball and doesn't wanna give it ta us, then wot do we do?" Yangus asked.
Marisa grinned a bit mischievously and clenched her fist as she said, "Then we'll just have to take it by force! We need that crystal ball no matter what!"
Yangus mirrored her expression. "Now that's wot I'm talkin' about! A good fight!" These two sure are starting to get along well, aren't they?
Arriving at the cave's lower floor, we continued along the dark tunnel while looking around for any sign of hidden monsters… and at this moment, a Dancing Devil jumped in front of us, forcing us to stop.
"What's this guy's deal?" Cirno wondered as the Dancing Devil cackled evilly before doing a Sultry Dance, and… instantly, my whole body felt the sudden urge to dance as I tried to fight it but I couldn't… and so I ended up dropping my torch again before I began busting some moves against my will. Lord, help me…
And just to rub salt in the wound, the Dancing Devil started laughing at my miserable situation as I could do nothing about it before it proceeded to fire a blast of magic at me. "Cautionary Border!" but then Reimu called out as a blue barrier appeared in front of me and blocked the attack, much to the Dancing Devil's dismay… before it would get swatted away by a Yin-Yang Orb of sorts that might've also come from Reimu. The moment the Dancing Devil was no more, I finally stopped dancing uncontrollably and could move my body again.
"Ugh, finally it stopped." I said with a groan. "I swear… if I get affected by a Sultry Dance again but from another monster, I'm going to scream."
"I dunno… I'd say ya got some slick dance moves there, guv." Yangus teased me, and he even looked like he was trying to hold his laughter.
I shot him an annoyed glare. "Very funny…" I grumbled before I knelt down to get the torch and we moved on into the tunnel, where we arrived in yet another open area where vegetation was even more apparent compared to the previous area as it was present all over the floor, while the walls were filled to the brim with waterfalls. And what about the monsters in here? Well…
"Are those monsters… moving around in boots?" Alice wondered; a bit weirded out by them.
"Yep." I nodded. "Those are Skippers, and they love to house themselves into old unwanted boots much like how hermit crabs love to house themselves into discarded shells."
"I see…" then, a smirk formed on Alice's face as she summons her dolls. "Then I hope they don't mind if I ruin their fun!" she commands her dolls to charge at the Skippers, as they immediately turned over and began to hop towards the dolls. One of the Skippers casted Deceleratle on some of Alice's dolls, lowering their speed before the other Skippers proceeded to easily kick them away. "Tch." Alice coldly glared at them and took out a spell card. "Red Sign: Doll Mira Ceti." she said and, together with her remaining dolls, they all fired red danmaku at the Skippers, defeating them all instantly. "There we go." Dang… I better keep in mind to not mess with Alice and her dolls ever.
"Hey… I think I can see a weird short hooded guy holding a mallet over there!" Aya spoke up while pointing up ahead, and when I decided to approach a bit, I indeed saw said creature that Aya described (that was a Hammerhood, by the way) standing in front of another doorway, but this one had a large wooden door that was partially broken. No idea what caused it, but the damage was pretty massive.
"Who goes there?" … Wait. Was the Hammerhood… talking? This definitely caught me by surprise, since monsters usually just attack without saying anything… but I guess some of them do stop and talk, it seems. Looking back at the others, I saw that they were as equally as surprised as well. Taking up all the courage I could muster, I approached the Hammerhood and talked to it:
"Um, hi?"
By the Hammerhood's reaction, I could tell that it was taken aback by me, a human, just casually walking up to a monster and talking to it. "Well, well! You must be really brave to come up and talk to me like this!" it exclaimed. "A man that looked like a peddler came along earlier, but when he saw me he ran away without saying a word!" I mean… who could blame him? Everyone in the world think that monsters are always aggressive and will attack sometimes for no reason. "Anyway… As you've probably realized, you'll have to fight me if you want to go any further!" its voice now sounded threatening. Oh, now things are getting interesting. "What do you think? Brave enough for that, are you!?"
To be honest, up until now, I never actually considered myself brave and courageous before just like my three comrades. I guess maybe I had finally gotten the courage to really begin this journey and let fate make me become a true Hero, after all (don't tell that to Remilia). Flashing a smirk, I replied, "Why, of course! Otherwise, I wouldn't have come all this way over here!"
"R-Really!?" the Hammerhood stuttered. "Y-You really are brave. That means you must be a good fighter…" then it began musing a bit before speaking up again, "I know! In recognition of your bravery, I'm going to let you through!" … Are…Are you serious right now? I looked back and saw that even Yangus and the girls couldn't believe it. I then looked back at the Hammerhood just in time as it moved aside. "Off you go. Be careful now!"
"Well… Thanks." I awkwardly thanked it since I didn't know what to think about that, really. Either way, I once again motioned the others to follow me through the doorway and venture into one last tunnel. As we got to the end of it, we came upon a wooden sign next to the stairs that would lead even further down the cave, and out of curiosity, I walked over to the sign and looked at it, seeing that the lettering on it seemed to be scratched roughly.
"WATERFALL AHEAD. NO LITTERING!" the sign read. Wow, whoever lives in this cave sure is stingy about keeping the water clean. Anyways, after reading the sign, I turned around to face the others as I said, "You know… I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the crystal ball should be just down there." I directed to the stairs.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Marisa said, and thus we headed down the stairs.