It was obvious that the first floor wasn't to put up any difficulty. The kobold writing on the ground had met a quick end to Oben's nodachi. Even though the kobold on the ground struggled, pleaded, and tried to avoid death with everything in its power, the skull-faced warrior's blade was simply stronger. Its head was separated from its body and the pained whimpers had been replaced by a deafening silence.

Kori's simple bladework made quick example of the mutts attacking her. Simple moves were always called the fundamentals for a reason; they worked. The first kobold that she had attacked let its guard down. This was something that kobolds had been known for. They were nothing more than dogs on two legs. To attack, they would leave themselves open to any counter attack. The simple thrust that Kori had prepared had easily sliced through the roof of its mouth. The flying kobold's body went limp while its skull was skewered on the shieldmaiden's blade.

The second kobold didn't fare any better.

By swinging with such force, the mutt attached from brain to blade had been thrown off. The second kobold, which had been approaching just as rapidly as the flying one, had its skull meet with the side of Kori's blade. With a crunch, it cleaved into its skull. Had the kobold been wearing a helmet, it would may have not acquiesced its demise. Dogs didn't wear helmets, though. The force of the blow had carried the mutt off of its feet and into the pillar.

Castor's simple moves were both defensive and offensive; they were trademarks of the spear. The force of its charge had only caused it to meet the pointy end of a long stick. It was skewered on it. Castor's fancy move of planting the spear and finishing it off using his shortsword also bore fruit. The kobold was unable to avoid a blade coming at its neck. Using the genetic freak's natural breadth, the blade cut deep into its neck. However, the head wasn't removed. A mixture of hard pelt, fat, and spine had stopped the blade in place. Was it a bad angle? Even though Castor had struck it at a good angle, the unsecured nature of the spear had only worked against him. The spear then began to fall with kobold and sword attached.

And the room was clear. No more kobolds. Almost instantly as combat finished, the short and (now that the party had discovered) incredibly fast pallum porter quickly dashed from corpse to corpse. In her hand was a strange knife; it was incredibly thin, but had great surface area. It was constructed from a pitch black material with edge on one side and hook on the other. It was obviously not meant for combat; it looked like it would shatter if it ever had to block anything. The speed of Penn was incredibly. She cut into the chest of each kobold with extreme ease. From their now opened chest cavities, she extracted a single crystal. It was about the size of one's thumb and faintly glowed with magic. Upon removal of the stone, the corpse would begin to fade. Muscle would unstrand and wither, skin would tighten and dry, and bone would crack and turn to dust. Within seconds, the body would turn to ash and blow away in the nonexistent wind. One kobold, however, hadn't completely faded away. The kobold that had met its end to Varanense's arrow and Oben's [s]glory stealing[/s] mercy killing had left behind its skin. No blood was left to taint the fur as Penn shoved it into her oversized backpack.

[b][color=7b9d93]"Good work everyone,"[/color][/b] Penn assured them even though it was a cake walk of a fight, [b][color=7b9d93]"the hole down should be just in the next room or so. There aren't any stairs or anything for this hole, so you're going to have rappel down a rope. Or learn how to. Trial by fire, you know?"[/color][/b]

[hr][h3][b]Floor 2[/b][/h3][hr]

Sliding down the rope, the party would first notice that it was practically the same floor as before. Dirt and stone were still the primary material the floor had been constructed of. The same blue lights illuminated the halls. If there was any difference that the most astute of adventurers could see, it was that it was slightly darker and the halls no longer felt straight and gridlike. While the rooms remained unturned, the grid-like maps of the first floor had been replaced more free-form paths. Simple curves and diagonal halls. That was the main difference of the second floor. It was much easier to get lost as a result. This time, however, Penn made no attempt to help the party navigate. She would still answer any questions they had, but now the onus of navigation was much more on them. Well, at least making the path they would follow. Penn didn't want to get lost and die on the second floor because she wanted a bunch of adventurers to navigate, after all.

The question made itself apparent: what path would the party choose?