"To Be Heroes, We Gotta Slay A Dragon"

The joint smelt like a combination of Gooderson's shoes and his breath after eight hours of burning pastries. A trembling hand quickly slipped into a pocket occupied by a small cardboard package. Gooderson fondled it briefly, before abruptly pulling himself back and scratching his chin in faux thought and consideration.
Not now.
You can have one later, I promise.
"So Kageo." Gooderson smirked, trying to bring up a topic to distract himself from the tempting roll-up nestled on his person. "How long have you been in the biz? You look like the type who knows his way around a blade and staff, if you don't mind me saying."

The sudden question had drawn Kageo into a strange place, though it wasn't so far off from an answer, he'd just give the first thing of a grain of truth; since the nugget of information might have some place later. "I've been at it for a number of years, I'm at least good enough to know when I stand a chance and don't." the answer was about as vague as they come, but still somewhat polite since he wasn't the type to just blow someone off randomly.

The young Kaka was entitled to his secrecy, that was for certain. In Gooderson's line of work even information on what he had for breakfast was more than enough to get him killed if it fell into the wrong hands. Accepting Kageo's vague answer out of a combination of fear and respect, Gooderson turned back around silently.
This was more awkward than the spelling of the word "Awkward"
He wondered just how much the boy was hiding. It was his job to find these sort of things out, but a strange feeling of trust seemed to rise from his gullet when he glanced at the young man's stoic gaze.
He would trust him.
For now.
He autonomously scrunched his fist around the cardboard in his pocket. "... Doesn't that tail get in the way from time to time...?"

A slight bit ahead of the two others, Youna was playing scout. Well, at least she would've been if something wasn't trying to chew on her leg, and given the size it sure as hell wasn't Kageo. Looking down, she saw the weird blue jaw-like thing on her leg and, scared to a "Eep!", unsheathed her sword and slashed it in half in one reflexive swing. She voiced her disgust as she kicked the remains that still stayed on her socks away. "Looks like we're gonna have to go even deeper to find a good beast." Despite her tone, she had to make a heroic example, so of course she took her confident façade back as quickly as possible. "How about over there?", she pointed one thing that seemed like it was a cave. Surely, by taking this path they would be closer to the ultimate depth where a dragon lurked. There was no cleared way to this though, so they'd have to walk in the trash or whatever ugliness Area 28 reeked of if they wanted to head there...

Gooderson took a moment to poke the gooey looking corpse of the blue cretin with the tip of his shoe, before casting a look in the direction Youna had gestured. He hadn't heard what she'd said, but he assumed everyone else was looking that way and didn't want to be the odd one out.
"That looks like a good direction." He announced, pointing at a tunnelling path adjacent to the one Youna had mentioned. "Doesn't look as... Trashy... Either."
He took a few steps forward from the group, trying to crane his neck around and have a closer look.

"Not as trashy...but the feeling seems heavier, more seithr...hmm well good call for a bigger brute." Kageo was still bringing up the rear, but after the scream he'd decided to stay close in order to keep better track of any dangers. After having heard her scream he knew full well what it meant, that at least Youna's ability to defend herself was not completely lacking; though it would mean that she'd be pressing some strong issue forth. A thing that disgusted her might be easy to slay at least. He considered that as well.

His spear held out in hand now, suddenly present it was just to wonder where it came from...but he had it out and was already prepared to make the next move count.

Her sword tighlty gripped in her hand, a suddenly stressed Youna now was doing her best to avoid the slightest mistake: It would cause discomfort at best and death at worst.
"Yes, that tunnel smells a lot more like beast to me..." She snuffed just to make a point, but hell, the literal smell was weird. Like they just throw drugs down there too... She was almost seeing the world in rainbow colors if she didn't realize she was just persuading herself to make this ugly place more colorful in her mind...
Paying mind to Kageo and Chaucer, she used her sword to open a way in the soil that swarmed of all kinds of trash and half-life that she wouldn't bother with: they needed their path, and she was making it. They were almost down the cave but... the girl waved off the sweatdrop that crept down her temple. She had never been in a fight down there. What would they find in this tunnel?

Chaucer stood a few feet behind Youna rather awkwardly as she hacked and slashed, suddenly noticing an awkward silence over the trio of adventurers. Exhaling loudly, he tapped his foot rapidly against a stiff chunk of dirt to produce an incessant clopping noise.
This was getting ridiculous.
His eyes wandered over to the Kaka warrior amongst them. While the boy's face was stoic and solid under the shroud of his hood, he could feel an aura of tenseness radiating from his body. He could've been the biggest badass in the universe, but that wouldn't change a thing.
Fear was a flame that could never be completely stamped out.
"Ummm..." Chaucer coughed, trying to grab the determined youth's attention without prompting her to lunge at him with her blade. "Need any help cutting through there dear?"

"What is ahead is simply more than what you think, it is going to be dripping with seithr, I am prepared for this and you all should as well. Focus, remain steadfast, we'll need the power to destroy the beast. I do sense that something is ahead of us." he'd said this slowly while rubbing the top of his head.

The kaka was already looking ahead while he flicked his tail and held the spear firmly, removing it from his back and taking the moment to clear away some of the trash at his feet; he chose to rally his comrades and back up the actions as they headed into the tunnel. There was no serious danger yet, but he had a feeling that would change as they headed inside.

Whacking away whatever unholy thing was on the ground was going to take too much effort if she wanted to make it fresh to the dragon. Damn all these long stages before the bosses, this is real life, dammit, a thing such as endurance (or lack thereof) exists! Of course, the great Good volunteering to help her was met with a grateful smile and her nodding in approval. When she looked at Kageo behind them, she remarked how he felt much more at ease than the both of them combined -- or was it that he was so much better at hiding his fear? Youna didn't know, she was just a normal girl after all...
But there was something everyone could hear and feel at this moment. Up the tunnel, an air current went up and down, like some gigantic being's breathing. It was a bit noisy - how noisy would it be when they'd be facing it outright? - and clearly overwhelming. Sweat dropped down her temple and Youna started feeling cold, like she felt the threat of instant death upon her. Her steps forward weren't as confident, as now she was shivering in scare of one fact: she could not come back up if the fight started, but she didn't want to back off of this fact, and be back up because she was a coward. The pressure she felt was exponentially growing to like infinite level until she stopped walking. She needed to ease herself a bit before going totally down the tunnel...

It didn't take a doctorate in psychology to notice how truly terrified Youna was at the moment. From her quivering jaw to her quaking knees, she was practically on the verge of bursting into flames without the "dragon" even touching her. That's not to say she was alone in that feeling; Chaucer had the nagging urge to leave beating into the back of his skull like a broken car alarm.
Glancing back at Kageo to see him solid in his action hero pose, Chaucer decided to take the initiative.
"I can take point." He whispered gently, trying to hide the shiver in his voice. He wasn't exactly fond of the sight of the terrified young girl, and hoped that the words of Good McGooderson could help soothe her frantic nerves. "All you need to do is ask, dear."