Mímir Temple Exploration [Quest]

Damian didn't have time to turn and see what was going on with his partners. He wanted to get to the end of this damn hallway so they could find whatever treasure the crackpot "scientist" wanted. He listened to the two of them talk about Lily's lost bow, but it should reappear in her inventory, just as Olive said. "She's right, Lily. It should," he said. They continued down the impossibly long hallway and eventually approached a wider area, a giant room. He could see the wall at the far end of the room. "Fucking finally," he breathed, turning to face the oncoming storm of Wicken. He held his sword with both hands as he caught his breath. But nothing came from behind them. Damian stood up straight and sheathed his sword, listening. It was dead silent except for their breathing. "Something's not right," he said, half to himself.

She was more than flabbergasted when Olive had guided her hand around, as though she were some lost child who didn't know how to do anything, watching as the interface popped open in front of her eyes, never mind the fact that the mage was still holding her wrist like she was completely helpless. Lilian could feel herself fuming on the inside, cheeks red and the atmosphere growing warm enough that she could feel her palms sweating. "I can do it myself, thanks," she mumbled, freeing her hand from Olive's grasp and pressing the inventory tab. Sure enough, her bow was where it should be, and she allowed it to re-materialize in her fingers, a wave of relief washing over her.

They had finally reached a giant chamber, and carefully, she glanced around. Nothing. There wasn't a single Wicken or other creature that was roaming around and going to try and kill them. When Damian mentioned that something was off, Lilian could only be silently glad that there wasn't anything that they had to fight. It put her mind at ease as she took a glance at the holy grail seated in the middle of the room. That must be what they were coming for. Without waiting for the others to say anything, she rushed forward to grab it before jumping down the steps, unaware that she had activated a trap.

"Alright, we got it! Let's go!"

Olive gave Lilian a sheepish smile before all of them entered the last, huge chamber. It was eerie to be in such a large room in the middle of the group, since there were no pillars to hold it upwards. This place should have fallen appart ages ago, but it had not. She looked at the ranger as she sped up towards what appeared to be a holy grail, on the other side of the room. The mage grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back viciously, looking at the floor with her eyes wide. This wasn't good, this was too good to be true, and they had to be careful.

"What are you, a preschooler? This place must be lain with the most torturous traps." she hissed to the both of them, letting go of the other girl's shoulder and squinting across the huge chamber. If only they had some way of telling whether this place was alright to cross or not. She looked up at Damian for any idea, not really considering that the blonde had any any suggestions after the careless way she had sprung into what seemed like imediate danger.

The building began to rumble around them. "What the hell were you thinking? Have you never even seen a movie before? There's always a trap. Always," Damian said. "We need to get out of here before something collapses and falls on us." And so he started running, making sure the other two were following. "Hurry!" he yelled as they continued.

"H-hey...!" Forcibly, she was pulled back, and from the sounds of it, it was the Neapolitan girl who had dragged her off the steps. And okay, maybe she didn't think straight there. Maybe it was a little dangerous and grabbing the treasure right off the bat wasn't the best possible choice. But was that cliche really part of video games? It was just in movies, wasn't it? Lilian nearly lost her balance when the building shook, her figure nearly landing on Olive's before she managed to catch herself.

As soon as Damian had yelled for them to start running, she followed suit. Keeping the grail tucked cozily between her fingers, the mad dash out seemed to go well so far. So far. This definitely couldn't get any worse, right? "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking!" That was a lame excuse, but it was the only thing she could come up with. "We'll be fine, though! We only ran into one thing on the way here." Oh, how wrong she would be on the way out.

Olive smacked her palm to her foreheard and sighed in exasperation as the temple began to shake, and, of course, they were right in the heart of it, ready to her smashed to pieces. Lilian came barreling over her and she quickly pushed her away and began running after Damian. The ranger seemed to have lost all tiny bit of logic and the mage followed Damian with a frightened expression on her face, expecting monsters to come out of everywhere. And they did, a bony hand tried to latch onto her neck but she batted it away with her staff. The thing pulled back but definitely did not die. A mushy shape tried to follow them from behind, but it was too slow for the three players sprinting for their life.

"We need to go fast! Dodge everything, don't stop to fight!" she screamed as the rumbling of the collapsing structure almost entirely covered her voice. The screaming and running left her throat sore and she kept on running for dear life, her chest feeling like it was being stabbed with every step. Being a mage did not ensure speed, but luckily Olive had been an alright runner for most of her life, so she could follow Damian and Lilian with enough ease.

Damian ran at the head of the group, with Olive and Lily not far behind. He held his sword in his right hand, in case anything tried to stop them. Thankfully, the monsters only littered the sides and the back rather than the front. Rocks began falling closer and closer to the group, and a good sized chunk knocked into Damian's right shoulder, effectively dislocating it and he lost grip on his sword. He yelled in pain as his HP bar lowered a 1/4th of the way down on his Interface. But he kept running. He could finally see the entrance to the temple and ran through it, making sure the other two did the same. They were finally out, but they weren't quite safe until they got out of the ruins completely. "C'mon, we're almost there!" he said, rushing the other two.

What was this? An Indiana Jones adventure or something? Well, actually, that probably wasn't wrong - in a sense -, but that didn't make it any better. While a sense of thrill and excitement filled her mind, pouring over her heart in an ebb and flow, the adrenaline coursing through her veins immediately screamed 'flight' and to most definitely not stop sprinting if she so valued her life. A quick mutter of thanks that she had been an athlete in the real world was enough as she continued to dash. So long as she controlled her breathing, she would be fine. Coach would kill me for improper form, she grimaced, keeping a tight hold on the grail that prevented her from running efficiently in the first place. Too bad it wasn't small enough to act as a baton.

Lilian's expression contorted into a wince and concern as Damian's health quickly fell, her own decreasing swiftly as debris rained down on their heads. By the time they got outside of the temple, she was sure the entire thing had collapsed; it'd probably reset later, but she wasn't willing to find out whether it would. The familiar antiquity of the ruins surrounded them, and while Damian urged for them to keep going, she stopped momentarily and dropped the grail. "Wait, watch out!" Pulling the string of her bow, she allowed an arrow to fly loose, grazing Damian's cheek while it passed by and straight into a Wicken.

That was definitely not enough to kill it. She turned her head towards Olive for a few moments, nervously laughing, before preparing another arrow.

The run was draining out her energy and the girl struggled to make her way through the barely lit hallways, their only way out. The monsters mostly gawked from behind and the ones that lunged at them were too disfigured and efficiently catch up once they had fled past. Rubble knocked into her face and she shielded her eyes as Damian grunted in pain. Without daring to stop, she continued, despite her legs saying otherwise.

Lilian's arrow flew past her face and the fighter's and connected with the bony face of a Wicken that took them all by surprise from in front. The mage watched its health bar deplete but it was not dead yet, and she gathered all her force to take her quarterstaff and bash it wit all force into the face of the creature, obtaining a satisfying yet earpiercing howl from it. The face crumbled and so did the attacker, collapsing on the ground. Behind it, Olive could see the exit of the temple, bright daylight burning her eyes. Without waiting, she shoved Damian forwards and ran behind him, wiping gravel off her face as sweet light touched it. It felt like they had been in that dark temple for a long time, only for it to have been a few hours. Now that her eyes adjusted back to the sun, she looked back at her teammates.

"The grail!" she gasped, looking at Lilian and Damian wild-eyed. If they had no proof, what were they going to do? Go back in there? The young girl hugged her knees and thought about the terrible things that had endangered her life there and thought otherwise.

Damian felt the arrow scratch his face as it struck the Wicken directly ahead of them. He was helpless without his sword and his arm dead at his side. Thankfully his two partners were there to help. Lily's arrow struck the Wicken in the face and Olive finished it off. He sighed a breath of relief but grimaced as he was pushed out of the collapsing temple. He held his shoulder in pain as Olive mentioned the grail. He sighed again. "There's no way in hell any of us are going back in there. That 'scientist' will have to live with just the map. C'mon, we need to get back to town; my shoulder is killing me," he said, stumbling back through the ruins to get back to Roslare.

Her hands came up to cover her ears, the Wicken's dying screeches erupting into the air. Once it had disappeared into nothingness, she reached down to grab the grail from where she dropped it, blinking when she only grasped thin air. She could've sworn that it had been right there earlier, and so... Walking out with the other two, Lilian flicked open her UI, tapping onto the inventory tab, and she skimmed through it for any item that pertained to a grail of some sort. If it was like her bow and arrow, it should've reappeared in there, right? Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case. A groan escaped, and as she listened to what the others were saying, she shot a guilty look towards Olive, biting her lip.

"Sorry about that. I should've held onto the grail instead," she mumbled. On the way back to the capital, she kept quiet, unsure of what to say. Having grabbed her weapon to help was the right decision, wasn't it? A key item to a quest wasn't as important as a human life. That should've been the case. That had to be the case. And yet, a part of her wondered why she valued it when they had risked their lives to grab it, that they had three lives in the first place. It wasn't wrong to shoot. Shaking her head, Lilian sighed, dismissing the thoughts. No point in giving herself a headache over this.

Olive sighed and shook her head, but sne couldn't blame Lilian. She had acted fast and protected Damian and she from being hurt by the Wicken. The mage sighed and got up from the ground, putting a hand on the ranger's shoulder and gave her a gentle pat. "Don't worry. It's okay." she mumbled. This was odd, making friends with people she was trapped with, but it felt alright. Deciding to lift the mood, the cunning girl smirked at her teammates and clapped her hands. "I say, if the dude wants the grail, he can go back here and have it. We drew him a map after all." she smiled and marched forwards, skipping in the front of the group and leading them all out of the ruins. They all needed a break after this, but maybe they'd won something more than a prize.