The Flooded Prison

Chapter 2: The Flooded Prison

With only a tad bit of disobedience, Yunica Tovah ascended to the second set of the demon tower Darm. She was only on the sixth floor. Unlike the surprisingly pristine hallways of the Wailing Blue, the Flooded Prison had its share of troublesome terrain. Most notably, deep pools of water.

The first room brought Yunica to a fork. She took the left path and defeated a glowing red worm that erupts from the floor. It broke down the red demon gate that led to a nice treasure.

Usually, when warriors fight, they pace themselves in battle. Their actions are well rehearsed to remain at top condition for as long as possible. Their stamina and run speed are well trained for a long battle. The Silver Bracelet, however, removes that restriction. Yunica gained a full breath of air no matter how fast and far she ran.

It allowed her to fight through the monsters in the Flooded Prison with greater grace. The most common demons were the elegant swordswomen and a creature that spits poison on Yunica. She quickly learned to use her axe smash to stun the creature as eating the guaranteed poison wasn't wise. There was also a giant lizard creature, a scorpion, and more slimes. After a while, she found someone she was looking for.

The girl who summoned the bat demon was waiting for Yunica. As before, she insulted the axe wielder, but Yunica tried to defend herself. Sadly, the stranger didn't change. She's a proud person and "doesn't leave room for small things in her memory." If Yunica wanted to learn anything about this person, she'd have to accept her fight.

Fast and from range was how the Enraged battled. She'd throw her knives when at a distance and thrust her spear when nearby. It could be one stab or a series of attempted impailments. Yunica tried to jump on her, but she was always ready with a slice upwards. Yunica, struggling to find an opening, eventually saw that the girl let her defenses drop when she charged up a powerful attack. She seemed to set herself on fire and cooldowned on the otherside of the arena. When she was finished, she appeared tired. And that was Yunica's opening. She swung her axe until the enemy regained her senses and brought forth an orange shield, warding off further damage.

Proofing herself a worthy opponent, Yunics learns the girl's name is Epona. She and the guy next to her are not from Ys. Before getting any more information, Epona had to leave and meet up with her ally. Yunica continued down the hallway she was in and found another chest. It contained fish scales. She didn't know what they did, but her Lila Shell started to vibrate. Eolia was on the other end with good news. The scorchers were found, and everyone was convening at base camp. Knowing further exploration now was a bad idea, Yunica teleported back.

Roy and Ramona scolded her for not returning immediately. In her defense, she did, but where were they? Before anything further happened, Shion led the missing search party members into the tower. General Galleon and his second in command, Cecilia, were with them. Cecilia and Yunica are old friends, and Galleon worked under her father, but there was little time to talk about the past. Cadena and Miuscha were ready to begin this search in earnest. They were still missing another mage, but everyone expected him to already be in the tower, and the two women told us to continue. He's even more forward than Yunica.

Galleon led the discussion and requested advanced information from Rico and Yunica. Rico didn't learn much, so it was up to Yunica to tell them about Epona, their foreign status, and a potential third entity. Her information about the demon behind the beast mural led everyone to think the Six Demon Leaders who led the first siege on Ys reside in the tower. With this knowledge, Galleon gave everyone their orders. The sorcerers would learn how to deactivate the traps while the knights fought off the demons. Rico would remain at the base because he has the power to enchant weapons. Shion and Eolia would also stay here to keep the barrier and act as a liaison, respectively. Yunica would join the knights but was never given orders. But she's made the most progress, so no one complained.

Before setting off, Yunica made use of Rico's magic specialty. He used a piece of clera ore to make her axe stronger, but he got annoyed when he learned a simple "plushie demon" had the same power as him. A rivalry formed!

Yunica returned to the tower and made her way to a room filled with water, as the name of this section should lead us to think. It was a maze with only one path, but it would make for a fine barrier had Yunica not found the fish scales. The Sea Dragon's Scales let the user breathe underwater. It made the winding hallway child's play. The second room, though, was filled with crabs she couldn't harm. She had to swim through the waters, avoiding the crabs and spitting jellyfish as well as spikes on the ground and ceiling. The next room had a water flow that pushed everything into a wall of more spikes. While getting lost, she found new armor and another Roda Fruit. After several minutes of frantic fleeing, Yunica found another chest that contained the Levinatrike Warhammer. It's a thunder elemental smasher that made quick work of those immortal monster crabs. It could also break down cracked walls, which was an accidental discovery. An Arthropod Medallion was behind the rubble she made.

Yunica continued to dry land and more poison spitters. She found another hungry roo, and Yunica has a need to feed adorable creatures. It rewarded her with a topaz, which made the hammer stronger. She had already found two emeralds to empower her wind magic. Climbing more stairs, killing three red deathclaws, and purifying another demon statue brought her to the ninth floor and another mural. Behind that...

A statue of a horrendous millipede was wrapped around a pillar. Yunica remarked that it was ugly, but the execution was well done. And then it started to move!

 Nygtilger clung to the pillar and tried to electrocute Yunica. She had to stay on the move until the worm finally came down to her level. From there, Yunica jumped onto the demon's back and tried to break the beast, one armor segment at a time. Nygtilger tried to double back on itself, which let it getting triple hit by wind magic. After being assaulted for so long, it went back to the pillar. Adding gravity bombs to its arsenal, Yunica had to now avoid the lightning and push the bombs away from the battlefield. While this happened, she saw the demon curl up into a hamster wheel and bumrush around the pillar. But after tearing apart the exoskeleton and avoiding the multitude of attacks, Yunica finally broke through Nygtilger's head. A gate opened, and Yunica took the stairs that led to another section of Darm Tower.

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Origina is based on the Napishtim/Three Swords engine. Yunica plays very similarly to Adol in Felghana. So far, it's very good. I don't need every game to reinvent the wheel. If something works, don't break it! Napishtim was wonky, but Felghana cleaned up the jank, and it shows!