FFXV: Subvert Fate

13 - Keycatrich Trench

Noctis pushes open a creaky door ahead and Prompto shudders. "Ugh, I hate that noise!"

"Too atmospheric for ya?" Gladio asks with a grin.

The hallway ahead is even more rundown, with tunnels riddling the way forward, holes in rocky swiss cheese. "I can feel eyes on us," Prompto mutters, grabbing onto Chrys's shoulders from behind again, much to her disgruntlement. "The second we turn our backs... BAM!"

"Stop being a wuss," Gladio growls at him as Chrys rubs her ear again and gives Prompto a dirty look.

"Um.... hellooooo?!" Prompto calls out. "Anyone home?"

"Shhh," Ignis admonishes.

Suddenly, Chrys darts forward, grabs Noct and pulls him back to her in a protective way while Prompto lets out a terrified scream and screeches, "Did you see that?!"

"Hmmmm?" Gladio asks, still unconcerned until he sees Chrys has one of her knives drawn and held backwards along her wrist.

"Something ran past!" Prompto says in a scream-whisper.

"What was it?" Ignis asks, edging closer to Chrys to flank Noctis on the other side.

"Dunno," Gladio mutters.

"Let's find out," Noctis says.

"Um, we're not going to run?" Prompto asks. He latches onto Chrys's arm. "Protect me!" he cries pitifully.

There is a whirring sound then a clank. Something skitters in the gloom, many legs pittering across the floor in quick succession. Prompto squeaks and puts Chrys's bicep in an even tighter stranglehold to which she grunts something unintelligible and foul.

And then, the lights click off.

"The hell...?" Gladio asks gruffly.

"Somebody turn on a light!" Prompto says in a squeaky voice.

They each click their flashlights on, only to find they are utterly surrounded by goblins and giant spiders.

"Ugh," Gladio says as he slashes towards the first goblin leaping for his head. "Perhaps we should have kept the lights off. These things are hideous!"

"Now that's not a very nice thing to say about your cousins, is it?" Chrys says, grunting as she pulls her blades out of a very nasty goblin, its rotting teeth inches from her face, a line of drool dangerously close to falling on her cheek.

Noct lets out a startled laugh for the first time in days. "Where you been, girl?" he asks Chrys, slashing in the dark with more energy than he's shown in a while. "Finally out of your funk."

Chrys skewers a goblin and turns with it still on her blade to glower at her prince. Her other hand goes to her hip and she gives him the female death glare that every man ever has learned precedes a very dangerous female action. She flicks the goblin off the edge of her sword with a flourish of strength that looks effortless. She points the bloody tip of her sword at him, ichor splattered on her cheek. "Careful," she warns. "Enclosed spaces. Big sword. High risk that I'll accidentally skewer a prince instead of a goblin."

"Save it for what's out there," Ignis says, gaze on the hall.

They turn to see tarantula daemons starting to swarm into the room.

Chrys gives a laugh. "Finally, something fun!" She crows and dives in.

The boys exchange glances. "Did she go from passive funk straight through the looking glass and on to insanity?" Gladio asks as Chrys creates tarantula filets with alacrity.