Fighting Cerberus

Standing there in front of yet another of these gray stone doors, Zain took a deep breath and stepped up to it. He knew what laid behind it was not any monster from this world, he knew that he had to rely on information from his previous life's myths and legends. What Zain couldn't wrap his head around was why.

Why were these monsters never seen in this world before appearing?

Why was it that he was the only one who knew how to deal with them?

Why was it that he was the only one who knew how to make guns?

Why was he reincarnated in the first place?

All of these questions ran through his mind as he steadied his hand and calmed his nerves.

He walked up to the door, put his hands on it, and with a mighty push he opened it. Normally, dungeons were not this quick to go through after a flood but given the severity of the flood, it might have let most of the monsters' escape leaving only the few that they had run into so far.

As the doors stopped moving open, Zain calmly entered followed by the rest of his group. As they entered one by one, the torches along the walls started to ignite and bring light into the room where in the center they saw a gargantuan black dog who was lying there seeming to sleep. As Sophia got into view, she asked the one thing Zain had hoped not to hear.

"Why dose this one have three heads?" She was undeniably perplexed by this as it would have been the first time she had ever even heard about but.

"It's called a Cerberus," Zain started explaining as the eyes shot open. "It's said to be the guard dog of the underworld and now it's a floor boss. What kind of dungeon is this?"

The rest of the group fell so silent you could hear the dirt shifting as the creature stood up. Zain's parents and Damascus looked genuinely nervous about what was waiting for them at the end of the dungeon but at the same time looked as if they knew the situation they were currently in and how grave it actually was.

"Before we look for an exit after this, I will explain my theory to you." His mother said softly.

Zain knew what needed to be done so he said, "Well this creature has a brain in each of its heads. We can kill it by sheer damage, we could kill it by strangulation, or we can kill it by nocking all three heads out, so it has no way to continue."

Everyone else nodded to his directive and thus Zain pulled out his revolver. Damascus pulled out his sword while Sophia pulled out her glaive, and Zain's father pulled out his cross bow. Zain's mother was still less able in combat than the rest of them with only daggers and alchemical means in a confined space not being very favorable.

Zain thought back on how to convey the plain he had to his dad upon seeing the beast and remembered a story that he had once been told as a kid.

There was a hunter who was on a hunt with his pet badger who was his normal hunting partner. The badger had seen the original prey run into a briar patch and chased it. As it did the hunter saw three Griffins swooping down towards the badger and killed the Griffins to save the badger. The original prey got away, but the hunter had saved his friend and that was what had mattered to him.

Zain looked dead at his father and spoke what his plain was without going into too much detail with a simple phrase. "I'm the Badger and that's the Griffins."

Without a second thought Zain drew his rapier and bolted towards the Cerberus. Within seconds he had positioned himself under it and started provoking it by stabbing at its underside repeatedly. All of its attention was on Zain and his father knew what needed to be done.

Zain's father notched a bolt into his cross bow with two more laced in his fingers. The first one was shot and hit the Cerberus in the center head making it go limp. The other two were locked onto Zain as he kept provoking it the entire time.

His father notched the next bolt and steadied his aim as Zain continued to move frantically while still provoking the beast into attacking him. He shot his second bolt and hit another head this time the one on the left as the beast turned its attention to him dead locked.

The Cerberus started to charge and as it did everyone watched as Zain pulled up his revolver and fired hitting the final head from behind. The beast fell to the floor moving the loose debris that had piled up over the few years of it being fully dormant.

Zain's father looked at him awestruck and couldn't formulate a single word to reply to what had just happened as Zain spoke up. "The moral of the story was not to go hunting alone."

Zain's mother was struck into a state of shock and Damascus started laughing at this.

Zain, still not content with the given situation, went over to inspect the body this time as it started deteriorating quite fast. Another beast unable to be identified by the time we get back huh? Zain thought looking at the corpse.

He quickly spun around to his mother who was still shell shocked by all that had happened and Sophia who was looking down due to not being able to fight this time. "I'm sorry for rushing the fight, Sophia. I didn't want to prolong this anymore." He spoke almost cold and calculated in this moment. Not the warm person that any of them knew.

"It's fine." Sophia spoke while looking at the ground still.

Zain then faced only his mother and opened his mouth once more. "Mother you said you would explain when we were done. A floor boss cannot respawn while we are in the chamber, and nothing can come in or get us until we leave. Care to explain?"