Even with Lina's light spell illuminating the way ahead, the underground tunnel was dark and claustrophobic. Not only was it forbiddingly dark, but the tunnel's walls were wet and slimy, and a foul, rank odour pervaded the entire passageway.
"Eewww..." squealed Amelia as she stepped in a deep puddle. "This is disgusting! Do we have to go this way?"
"That's what the map says," muttered Lina, squinting at it in the low light. "Now, the tunnel turns here..."
"Uh, Lina?" said Gourry nervously, "The tunnel just stopped."
"That's impossible. You're probably just..." Lina began to snap, irritated, as she looked up from the map; her voice trailed off as she saw nothing but a solid wall of dirt up ahead. "Oh." She turned back to the map, puzzled. "But it's supposed to turn here..."
"Is that what the map means?" said Zelgadis, pointing near the floor of the tunnel. Everyone looked where he was pointing; right next to the floor was a muddy hole, little more than a crack in the side of the tunnel.
"I really really hope not..." said a grimacing Amelia.
Lina crouched down and stared into the hole. "It looks just wide enough for us to get through." Straightening up and consulting the map again, she said chirpily, "It doesn't seem to go that far; we'll be out of there in no time, and into the... Pit of Absolute Despair... What a corny name!"
Amelia was about to agree, when suddenly a massive black tentacle whipped out of the hole, wrapped itself around her leg, and hauled her back through the little hole, screaming all the way. Lina, Zelgadis, and Gourry dashed in after her. They crawled through the mucky, cramped little tunnel as fast as they could; as they crawled, they could hear Amelia up ahead, frantically yelling at the top of her ample lungs. "I'll punish you!" she shrieked. "Justice will prevail!"
"Is she trying to give a speech?" muttered Lina. "Gimme a break..."
Finally, they squeezed out of the tiny tunnel, finding themselves in a huge chamber, at the center of which was an enormous pit. A gigantic, tentacle-covered creature had emerged from the pit, and was even now trying to stuff a protesting Amelia into its gaping beaked mouth. She'd given up on the speech and now was trying desperately to blast the monster out of existence, using all the magic at her disposal.
Zelgadis jumped right into the fray, adding a few "Flare Arrow!"s to Amelia's efforts; the monster started burning beautifully, waving its flaming tentacles and squawking in pain. It really started squawking when Gourry attacked it, sword flying, and lopped off a couple of minor tentacles. Purple ichor sprayed everywhere, and the monster dropped Amelia on her head in order to deal with these new threats.
Lina concentrated hard, and sent a Gaav Flare towards what she assumed was the creature's head. The squawking became an anguished wail, and the tentacled monster jerked away violently, stunned and grievously wounded. Gourry finished it off with a few well-placed swings of his sword, though it kept twitching for a few minutes after it died.
Lina breathed a big sigh of relief. Behind her, the monster's carcass was still burning, thanks to Zelgadis's earlier Flare Arrows. "So much for the Pit of Absolute Despair," she remarked cheerfully.
Amelia rubbed her aching head and moaned. Gourry tried unsuccessfully to wipe the ichor off his sword, while Zelgadis muttered something sardonic about getting the mud stains out of his clothing.
Again taking the map out of her pocket, Lina tried to re-orient herself. "Okay," she said, pointing to a tunnel across the room from where they were standing, "We'll go that way." The four friends made their way to the new tunnel, climbing over the occasional flaming tentacle lying in their way.