"Are you alright?"

Kommando293 watched as Sinon tried to get back on her horse after she suddenly fell off when it had scrambled over some rocks. Although the fall hadn't hurt her, at best annoyed her, he watched as she tried to get back on her Ghastly Horse and was failing because it was a bit taller than her and so the stirrups were way up so to force her to make a high-kick pose.

"Could you help me back on?" She finally asked after a few tries to get on and failing.

Kommando293 gave a small chuckle as suddenly he took her horses reigns and tied them to his horses saddle and as Simon was about to get up, suddenly he reached down and snagged her from behind and she gave a blush and yelp as suddenly he lifted her up and then plopped her in front of him on his horse as he snickered and said, "I think you'll find staying on my horse to be a bit easier."

"Oh-" began Simon to tell him that was a poor excuse then suddenly he gave her a small hug and she instantly froze up and stiffened up as she rarely got hugs from the opposite sex in any degree but she let it happen as it made her feel a little less stressed.

Kommando293 kept a hand around her waist and a hand on his horses reigns as he slowly trotted them towards the nearby tunnel that was the entrance to the dungeon himself, Sinon, Lisbeth, the handmaidens, and his friends were going to clear out. The boss in question was a lv.160 Shadow Drake that was supposedly sitting on enough resources to make a whole new army and that was a very tempting target to himself and his friends who at the moment were keen on having more armies to now send at the Alf garrison growing in their backyard.

While Kommando kept a hand on Sinon, he was all to cautious to move it in case Sinon decided today was the day to straight up castrate him. Not to mention, this was the first real physical contact he had with her in any real way and as he kept her close to him, he sorta wished this would last forever just for the comforting feeling she gave him.

But then, almost not to his surprise, he then heard a voice say, "Could you at least try to go a few minutes without a cuddlefest?"

"Ah.... Bloody One..." said Kommando293 to Reaper as he sighed before saying, "I help my bride one moment and give her a hug to make sure she's okay and everyone flips out...."

Reaper chuckled as he was on his Helhound while just behind him were the three Miadens and Lisbeth on her Bronze stallion who was shaking her head but she was smiling as she saw Sinon blushing mad while being held close.

"Give her the horse back, Darky..." said Reaper with a snigger and Kommando sighed as he then let go of Sinon and untied her Ghastly Horses reigns before helping her back on it and then promptly trotting himself over to begin a heated discussion with Reaper.

As Sinon watched the two Necromancers get into an argument with a small blush still coloring her cheeks, she was about to keep moving her horse towards the entrance just as the Handmaidens in their cart appeared when suddenly Lisbeth appeared next to her and said, "Someone likes an NPC... he going to be your future Husbando?"

"Shut up!" Sinon said with a blush, "I just don't get many hugs from boys, okay? Besides, you probably jealous cause you probably never get hugged?"

"I can change that if she wants me to." Suddenly came the Blood Princes reply as the Prince of Darkness gave a snicker.

"I will put a lightning bolt so far up-" began Lisbeth when Sinon giggled and she looked at her friend and said, "Oh don't you start now."

"Alright, alright." Said the Prince of Plague as he showed up with the Princess of Lust at his side just before he then said, "We all came here to kill a Shadow Drake, not start a friggin Orgy."

"Diseases, you would probably scare off every woman because of your lepersie problem." Said Kommando293 to Midnight.

"Oh, ha ha... very funny." Said Midnight996 as MantisSphinx next to him sniggered.

With the majority of the silliness aside, at least for now, the group slowly came to the entrance of the cavern as they then dismounted, the handmaidens tying up the reigns to the horses as the rest of the group began to slowly make their way into the dark, long cave. There were no lights but as the Handmaidens appeared, three orbs of light were summoned up before they began to slowly continue on deeper into the cavern.

The first cavern was decently sized, big enough for a battle tower to be inside with room to spare, stalactites hanging down from the fielding like teeth of some really big monster. Spires of gems rose from the floor as some gave off a faint enough glow to light up the dark, cold stone as well as illuminating the few skeletons scattered about in disarray and haphazardly.

The group then stopped and as Sinon looked around with her bow out and a arrow notched, Lisbeth slid next to her as everyone was looking around as she asked, "Why did we stop?"

"You feel them?" Asked Reaper as he drew his sword from his shields sheathe as he looked around, the DarkSteel blade glinting faintly from the glowing orbs above them while he directed the question to Kommando.

"Yeah... they can see us..." Kommando said as he drew both of his swords out and looked around. "Question is when will they finally get tired and come out..."

The answer to that question was soon answered as then several creatures leapt from out of holes in both the walls and the floor as they sprung at the group, Sinon firing a shot at the darkly-colored creatures as one went down with an arrow to its face.

The Shadow Drake Wyrmlings were the beginning stages of growth after they hatched from their eggs, slowly becoming adolescents to then full on adults. Seeing as most were still in such an early stage, the easiness to kill them came from the fact that their scales had not hardened yet to the same durability as steel but were still much more like hard leather.

Nonetheless, as more of them came at the group from all angles, they still were a problem if they got you surrounded and outnumbered which was almost what was happening at the moment as Kommando said to the others, "Circle up around Sinon!"

Sinon fired another arrow while Lisbeth smashed in the head of another Wyrmling when she suddenly had one jump at her and as Sinon dodged the things claws and fanged maw, her hand went to her DarkSteel dagger in the lower of her back and as she drew it and slashed it along its face and it screeched as she then stabbed it through an eye. It fell over limply as her dagger slid out and when she put it away, she looked up to see the Prince of Plague looking at her with a smile as he suddenly slashed out two dual, green daggers just when three other Wyrmlings leapt for him.

All three hit the ground hard as gashes had almost magically appeared all over them and when the Prince of Plague sheathed his blades, he shrugged to her and said, "You got some time to get better."

"Show off." She muttered.

Kommando and Reaper stood shoulder-to-shoulder as Reaper slammed his shield to throw off a Wyrmlings before he shot a Blood Bolt at it when Kommando did a flurry of blows that sent sword waves everywhere.

Reaper watched as Wyrmlings flew left and right from the attack and when he felt himself smile, he was almost tempted to draw the hidden sword in his shield to join in on the dual-wielding fun. But he held himself back just as the last Wyrmling fell to Lisbeths DarkSteel Siege Hammer.

"Whoo... bit of a fast start..." said Mantis as she twirled her halberd around. "Wasn't expecting so many so soon.."

"You girls alright?" Asked Reaper to the Handmaidens.

"We will be fine, Prince of Blood..." said Sanginium.

"Well, lets continue on... let us not tarry here for more of them to appear.." said Kommando as he began to walk with his swords returned to their back sheathes, slowly following the tunnel before them deeper into the cavern system.

The group, guided by their orbs of light, crept slowly and carefully through the twisting tunnels and caverns as they kept an eye and open ear out for more trouble. They passed more gem spires and pillars of obsidian whilst also managing to disturb the occasional pile of bones that were now starting to appear.

The next cavern, however, is where things got more interesting as Kommando293 entered the cavern just as something slammed him off his feet and made him fly back a few feet from the group, smoldering craters in his chest armor as the three Drakeling Shadow Spitters gave cries of warning that summoned up at least a dozen more Drakelings that came in for an attack.

"Darkness!" Reaper hacked down one Drakeling as he ran to his friends aid while everyone else stayed close together as more Shadow Breath attacks began to rain down around them.

Sinon fired some arrows at the Spitter Drakelings and although one of them hit one in the neck, not only did it spit back still but the other two were still up and firing more of their shadow breaths that rained around the party.

Lisbeth almost cursed but kept her mouth shut as she shield bashed a Drakeling away from her and as the Princess of Lust slashed it dead with her halberd, Lisbeth shouted then to the Prince of Plague, "Give me a boost!"

"Are you nuts?" he asked her as he fended off a blow from some Drakelings claws.

"Just do it before more spitters arrive!" shouted Lisbeth as she stunned one Darkeling with her DarkSteel Siege Hammer.

"Well alright then..." The Prince of Plague got onto a knee and held his hands in a cup and as Lisbeth ran over, she jumped on his hand as he grunted before launching her high into the air.

Lisbeth felt Shadow Breaths fly by her bodies as the Spitters went after her with their ranged attack and as she landed before them, she slammed her Siege Hammer into the head of the one with its neck pierced with an arrow as it screamed just as lightning suddenly fried it.

The other two of the Spitter Drakelings hissed and slashed at her with their claws, she brought her DarkSteel buckler shield up and blocked the attacks as then she slammed it into one of the Drakelings heads before slamming her Siege Hammer as a follow up, crushing its skull against the stone floor.

The last one tried to fire another attack but then an arrow pierced through its skull and as it limply fell over, Lisbeth looked to Sinon who waved before firing a few more arrows at the Drakelings around her.

Meanwhile, Kommando and Reaper were back-to-back as they fended off several Drakelings and when Kommando moved to lunge, it slightly hurt as the chest hits he took from the Shadow Breaths stung where they had impacted on his chest plate.

"Just like the old days, eh?" Asked Reaper as he blocked with his larger shield.

"Yep... enemies all over, allies unable to help, just you, me, and the world to take on..." said Kommando as he launched some Darkness bolts towards the Drakelings.

Three were knocked back as one went down but due to how Darkness and Shadow elements were essentially the same thing with different names, the damage was rather minimal until Reaper launched his own blood bolts that finished the last two standing off in a flurry of blood-colored magic missiles.

Sinon fired one last shot and as she looked over towards the Prince of Darkness, he seemed to heave a sigh as he walked over before she asked him, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine... they just surprised us is all..." Kommando idly watched the Drakelings corpses slowly disintegrate into Virtual shards as he then asked her, "Are you and your friend alright at least?"

"Yeah..." said Lisbeth.

"We better get going before more appear then..." said the Blood Prince as the group soon continued onward down through the cave.

As the group continued their journey, suddenly a roar was heard as it shook the stone around them and they all paused as Reaper then said, "Sounds big... for a Drake at least..."

"Lets not keep it waiting then.." said Mantis as she lead the way.

Within a few more minutes of twisting, winding cavern halls and tunnels, the group came to one last, large stone hall full of spires of gems. It was here that they saw two different enemies like before. The Adult Shadow Drakes were at least twice as big as the Drakelings and were far more built in body proportions, easily looking to Sinon like they could toss Theodosius like a rag doll even in his heavy armor.

The Adult Shadow Drakes also had much better Steel-scale coats as they all had red eyes and maws full of yellow fangs while four of the dozen before them were opening mouths that swirled with Darkness, like Adult spitters.

As Kommando brought up his sword to fire his Shadow Bolts, the earth began to shake as they all then watched as a huge Adult Drake, twice as big as the others, appeared and when it roared from the rock outcropping that was its perch, it made stone chunks fall from the ceiling as the group got close to avoid being hit.

"A Legendary Shadow Drake, eh?" Asked Kommando as he saw the health bars appear and then it's name appear with a level. "Well then... lets go, big boy.."

Now Sinon has seen stupid NPC's before in her life, really stupid ones that die quite quickly in fights or battles because they were stupid enough to charge a better leveled enemy or player while they were sub-par. But when the Prince of Darkness charged the Legendary Shadow Drake on its own, she watched in shock and awe as suddenly he slashed his dual longswords around him as the very earth cracked and shattered with the swarm of attacks that splashed across the Legendary Drakes front in a brilliant wash of magic and sparks.

"Go get 'em, Darky!" Shouted Reaper as he watched Kommando begin to go off Dual-weirder style on the boss Drake while he slammed his shield into the face of a Adult Drake, the shield cause it to wail in pain as he slashed it with his own sword.

Midnight took out his daggers again as the chains he had around his forearms slowly unloosened and hanged down to the floor and as he whipped one around, he began to spin and flip around as his Poisoned blades slashed across Drakes regardless of place while he whipped them around like bladed whips. The Drakes hissed and screeched as the poison slowly ate away at them and as he finished with returning the blades and whips to him, he then watched as Mantis ran in and began to hack and slash with her halberd as larger, more severe wounds began to soon slay the creatures where they were on quick succession.

Sinon fired her how, arrow after arrow, as she tried to take out the Adult Drake Spitters while Lisbeth did her darnest to keep the other Drakes off of Sinon with Medusae, Sanginium, and Thaxae. It was hard for Sinon, however, because their Scales were extremely resilient and a few of arrows either bounced off or didn't go deep enough through the scales to do damage. But as she drew back another arrow and fired, she finally brought one down as the arrow pierced its eye and continued through the other on the opposite side of the skull in a grisly spray of blood.

"You think the Darkness Prince is okay?" Asked Lisbeth to Sinon with gritted teeth as she tried to push back a Drake trying to chew her shield off.

Sinon looked over and was in awe still. The Prince, bounced, hopped, skipped, lunged, and rolled out of the way of multiple attacks while his own attacks seemed to carve the Boss into ribbons as the Boss was already down to half health. She watched as the Prince, who was still above 3/4ths his health in total, slash again and send a flurry of Darkness Bolts into the Legendary Drake as it roared and blew a hearing breath of Shadow at him but he in,joy dodged as he skidded across the cold floor.

"He's doing good so far but let's help him out." Said Sinon as she shot an arrow at the boss.

The moment the arrow touched the Legendary Shadow Drake, all was still as it stopped from attacking Kommando293 to looking at Sinon and as Kommando realized he had just lost the Agro from the boss, he looked to Sinon as he began to run over towards where she was as a huge zone of red suddenly surrounded her. Sinon watched as the Drake suddenly leap into the air and as she fired her bow and tried to run, suddenly she felt herself trip over a rock and gave a cry hitting the floor just to look up and see the Drake right on top of her.

Shove!

KKKWWUUMMPPFF!!!!!!

The Dust cloud from the Drake landing was so great it obscured the entire area in dust and even Shadow and as Sinon looked into it from where she had been pushed, Lisbeth ran over as she said, "What happened?"

The dust settled and before everyone was the Shadow Drake, unmoving and its health all gone as it then finally dissipated to reveal a flattened Prince of Darkness, both of his swords piercing the floor hilt-first as he had actually been smashed into the floor by the Drake. The group slowly walked up as Kommando293 gave a low groan, the feeling of what was essentially a tank falling on top of him had left him with a lot of hurt, a lot more than he really wanted to have with him.

But as he looked up to Sinon looking down at him, he managed a cough and said to her, "Do me a favor and please never do that again, Sinon... I want to stay 3D not 2D...."

Sinon almost didn't give a smile, almost, but she managed a small smile as she sighed before saying, "Thanks... for pushing me out of the way..."

"Your fine... I just want you to know that most Drakes will attack the first thing that hits them so unless it's a large group of people, they focus on whoever attacks them... I was simply hoping you would stay out of it till I was done..."

"How did you kill it?" Asked Lisbeth.

"They have soft underbellies and I put a really powerful Shadow Beam into there, critically wounding it and then killing it on my blades..." said Kommando293 as he soon was off the floor.

The group then looked up to see their rewards and as Sinon looked at her reward, the DarkIron Bow wasn't as good as her current Legendary bow but it would do for now till she found an even better bow. But as she put the two bows she now had on her back, she then felt another hug from the Prince of Darkness as he said, "But thanks for allowing me an opening to use my spell, my dear..."

Sinon smiled, this time a more genuine one for the compliment, when she felt him give a small kiss on her cheek. The warmth from it, even if, he still had his mask on of Bone, spread through her cheek and face as she gave herself a blush just as he released her and said, "Alright, my dear.... time to go back home... maybe prepare some dinner for us..."

And as Sinon watched the NPC walk away, she touched her cheek that was rosy red as she then smiled and said, "Just make sure you don't burn anything this time..."

"Hey, I didn't burn them that badly!"