Runeblade

Chapter 32 : Labyrinth

Kaius watched the brambles that lined the path of the maze with suspicion. Waiting to see if they would lash out in violence once again. He crept forward, getting closer to the spot where he had cut into the branches. Tense. Ready to leap back at the slightest sign of movement.

Nothing, the bramble was as still as it had been the rest of their journey.

Sighing in relief, Kaius looked back and found Porkchop staring at the patch of hedge with wide eyes.

"Think we might have to stay on the path." Kaius said with grim resignation.

"Agreed!" Porkchop replied, nerves evident across their connection.

His friend pushed past him, taking the lead once more. They hit another crossroads. Kaius tapped his companion to signal a halt. He reached for Explorers Toolkit, seeing if the skill would give him any inclination of a direction to take. Despite spending minutes inspecting the various paths, it remained silent. No more than a low level hum that had been present since they had entered the maze.

He had no doubt that given enough levels the skill would have done something, exploration and orientation was part of its domain after all. Yet whatever obstacle the Depths had created for him, it was far too large in scale for his skill to handle at its current level.

They would have to do it the hard way.

"We'll follow the left wall. If we hit a dead end, just turn around and keep holding the left." Kaius spoke softly.

"How will that help?" Porkchop asked, tilting his head at him in confusion.

"It'll take a while, but doing that will get us out. Even if we have to map the entire maze in the process." Kaius explained;

Porkchop grumbled in response, unhappy with his answer. He kept left all the same, taking the next branching path.

They continued, time blurring together in the strange monotony of the maze. The darkness grated on Kaius, every looming shadowy shape hiding a potential threat.

Every minute his tension grew, a winding spring growing close to breaking point

Suddenly Porkchop yelped, struggling against something in the darkness ahead. Kaius started, the noise shattering his dread like glass.

"Porkchop!" He shot forwards, sword at the ready.

Thorny vines lashed around his friend, twining themselves around his back as a section of the hedge loomed over him like a hungry beast. Kaius saw finger length barbs dig into his companions hide, staining his fur with blood. With every second, the plant wrapped itself tighter around Porkchop.

He flailed, yanking back against the ensnaring grasp of the hedge. It only caused the thorns to work their way deeper.

Kaius hacked at the plant. Despite their firm grip on his companion, the wood split easily under his blade. Slowly freeing the meles.

"Back up! Get back down the path!" He called.

The hedge didn't take his interruption silently. More vines came spooling out of the tangle, lashing through the air to ward him off. They raked against him, cutting deep furrows through his chest.

Porkchop roared, struggling against his confinement. Vines started to snap under the strain, his claws digging into the flagstones below.

Doing his best to defend himself from the plant, Kaius continued to chop at the vines that held his friend stuck fast. Ignoring the searing lacerations he received in turn. With a heave, Porkchop finally broke free, spinning around to run back the way they had come.

Kaius dove after him, pulling back from the flailing wooden tentacles that snapped through the air behind him. A look back showed the vines retreating back into the hedge, quickly vanishing to become indistinguishable from the rest of the maze.

Porkchop slowed, before stopping with a moan. Quickly catching up, Kaius found him whining as he craned his head, trying to pull away broken vines that had been left behind. The thorns still embedded deep in his flesh.

"Help?" he whimpered.

"Yeah buddy, of course." Kaius said gently, sheathing his sword and hurrying forwards. It was grizzly work, but he quickly removed the rest of the vines, tossing them to the floor. Checking himself over, Kaius found his chest and arms covered in a layer of fine slashes, his reinforced jacket having prevented deeper wounds. Now that he had a moment to breathe, the cuts started to sting fiercely.

They took a moment to recover, both standing tense. Watching the surrounding brambles with suspicion as they waited for their Health to seal their wounds.

As the last of his cuts on his arms closed, Kaius pulled up his Resources to check the damage.

Resources:

Health - 247/300 (2/min)

Stamina - 200/200 (2/min)

Mana - 120/120 (2/min)

"Not too bad." He thought to himself. Kaius looked over to find his companion licking his wounds, the flesh rippling as it sealed the last of the nasty punctures on its torso.

"I'm down roughly fifty, are you okay or do we need to rest?"

Nearly two hundred. The meles' grunted, not looking up.

"Hells," Kaius blanched. "That nearly drained you?!" Porkchop was capped like him, until he could go through whatever analogue beast's had to class selection. That meant he had two hundred health at most. The brambles could have killed him.

"No," Porkchop looked up at him. "Remember what I said about having a stronger body? The ancestral blood makes all of our stats have more weight behind them thanks to our baseline, and it also doubles our resources Resources. I have four hundred. I'll be okay."

Kaius sighed in relief. Though, now that he thought about it it did make sense. He'd been suspicious with how easily Porkchop had so totally overwhelmed him physically. Sure, he was built like a bear, and stats multiplied their base, but that hadn't been enough to explain all of his prowess.

Looking back down the path to where his friend had been ambushed, Kaius stared at the bramble that had savaged them in suspicion. It can't have been a depths-born. They would have encountered more of them by now, and there was no way a plant monster would have let them pass without making an attempt on their life. Even if they were ambush predators.

The Depths did something to the monsters it spawned to populate its domain. Neutered them mentally somehow. Made them act according to specific patterns. Notably, hyper aggression. Hell, half the people he had managed to weasel a delving story out of believed that they were only born when someone entered a biome. Spawned whole-cloth, as it were. They acted out a barely passable facsimile of life, but one the cracks shone through nonetheless. The way the Butcher had simply waited in the lodge for him to enter jumped to mind.

No, it couldn't be a monster. They would have run into others by now.

He took a step in the direction they had fled from.

"Kaius?" Porkchop asked with concern.

"Don't worry, just checking something." He called back, creeping forward.

He strained his eyes in the half light to catch the sign of anything amis. As he approached the spot where Porkchop had been ensnared he slowed. Blood and cut brambles littered the ground, muddying any impressions he could gather from the sight of his confrontation.

Scanning the bush itself was no help. It was indistinguishable from the rest of the hedge. Even the sections of vine that he and Porkchop had torn free were gone. Either regenerated, or retracted deep into its inner reaches.

Turning back to the ground, Kaius watched the floor closely. He knew he was on the right track. Something was here, Explorer's Toolkit wouldn't be calling to him so incessantly if it wasn't.

The skill dragged at his attention, nudging his gaze to a gap in the flag stones.

Tensing, he moved closer, ready to dive out of the way from so much as a rustle of the bush to his left. It was too bloody dark, he could barely make out anything.

Wait.

He could just barely see a thin root crawling through the gaps in the stone walkway, zigzagging its way across. He followed it with his eyes. Unsurprisingly it buried itself into the thin berm of dirt in front of the offending bramble that had assaulted Porkchop.

As he got closer, Kaius saw fine hairs erupting from the root. Sticking up and out from the path about a finger length. If he hadn't been looking so closely, hadn't known the root was there, they would have been all but invisible. Even then he could barely make them out.

The only sign was the faint raising of stone at the edges of the root, pushed upwards by the plant.

Kaius backed up, taking a moment to scoop up a short section of severed vine. He lobbed it straight at the line of hairs.

The vine thwacked into the ground.

The hedge writhed, twisted tendrils whipping out to snatch around its discarded limb, pulling it deep into its embrace a moment later. Thorns dragged past each other in a circular motion, slowly retreating back into the bush. The plant settled, indistinguishable from the hedge surrounding it.

You found something? Porkchop called from behind him.

"Yeah. A trap," Kaius said grimly, his shoulders tense. "Which means I'm going to have to lead, since I'm the one with a skill to sense them."

Porkchop let out a slow rumble, padding over to come up behind him. "I don't like that."

"Me either bud," Kaius sighed. "Me either."

Their progress slowed to a crawl, Kaius forced to watch the ground with razor intent. Looking out for the slightest sign of a triggering root. They almost stumbled head first into the next two traps, the darkness so dense that Kaius wasn't able to see the faint telltale buckling of stone until he was only a few strides away.

The tense atmosphere that had surrounded them since they entered the maze only grew heavier. Steps were slow and measured, and both Kaius and Porkchop kept their gazes firmly locked on the ground just in front of them.

Only to miss the faint rustle from the trees, and the dark shapes dropping from the canopy far above them.

Kaius cursed in surprise as something landed on his back, thick fingers scratched at his neck. More shapes landed in the darkness in front of him, their forms obscured. Kaius grabbed the thing on his back, fingers sinking deep into greasy fur as he ripped it off him.

He tossed the figure into the darkness ahead, readying his blade. Behind him Porkchop roared.

More behind, you focus ahead!

Porkchop roared for a second time, sounds of battle quickly following. To his front Kaius could barely make out what he was facing, silent figures blurring in shadow as they loped along on their front limbs.

Gritting his teeth, he slashed at the approaching monsters. Sweeping his sword in wide arcs, forcing the creatures back. He could barely tell their numbers, only that there were more than four. One of them jumped towards him. He responded with a slash, cutting deep into its chest.

It was a monkey, though its fur was mank, and looked like it had been torn out in great patches that had taken the skin with it. Undead beasts, great.

The others took advantage of his preoccupation, throwing themselves forwards with arms outstretched. He tried to ward them off with another wide slash of his blade, but one got through. Thick fangs sunk deep into his forearm.

**Ding! Adamant Body has reached level 3!**

Kaius yelled in pain, feeling the teeth grind against bone. He grabbed the monkey by the scruff of its neck, ripping it free. He tossed it to the ground before the others could capitalise on his injury. A follow up stomp smushed the monster's rotting skull.

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

Kaius took a single look at the level and knew what he was dealing with. Another swarm. Fantastic, just what they needed.

Unphased by the death of their companion, the other howlers flung themselves into the fray once more. Lithe forms blended into the darkness, leaving Kaius struggling to track their positions. Only able to react once they had fully committed to an attack.

Behind him, all Kaius could hear was vengeful growls and smashing limbs. He left Porkchop to it, trusting his friend to cover their rear.

A leaping blur of scrambling limbs rushed him. Kaius cut. The howler was bisected, torso sliding free of its legs. It tried to keep crawling to him, teeth gnashing. He was forced to ignore the undead, its allies pressing the attack.

His sword bit deep into another Howler, severing an arm. Another jumped close, swinging off his blade in a finger severing movement, launching itself at him in a fury. Kaius punched the approaching blur. The monkey dropped to the ground. Landing on its half severed companion.

Kaius brought his sword down. It cleaved through the howler from crown to groin, cutting into the struggling torso below.

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

Kaius's eyes strained against the dark. If he could just see.

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Low Light Vision (Uncommon)?**

"YES!" Kaius all but screamed at the system.

The system acted. A pulse emanated from his centre, a new nexus of power joining the processional orbit around his soul. The darkness was pushed back, everything within a dozen long-strides of him being thrown into a strange monochromatic relief.

His full faculties of sight returning- at least within the sphere of his skills influence- revealed the forms of four more of the swarming howlers. They lurked back near the edge of his vision, beyond where he could previously see. Kaius kept himself steady, trying not to give away that they had been exposed.

Two of the undead beasts charged him. Alternating between short hops and long ambling swings on their too-long arms. Kaius paused. Turning his head back and forth like he was looking for them. They entered his range, throwing themselves airborne in an attempt to cling to him.

A silver flash.

He caught the first one through the ribs. Twirling his blade he stepped back out of range of the second monkey. Bringing his sword came back around in a heavy overhand chop. Shearing through the howler's skull.

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

Half crippled, the other howler dragged itself along the ground in an attempt to reach him. Its two remaining companions charged.

Two quick cuts were all he needed. A final stab for the one on the ground.

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

Whirling around, Kaius was treated to the sight of a massacre. The howlers had clearly identified Porkchop as the greater threat, easily fifteen crushed bodies littered the narrow strip of flagstones. Most were pulped, but a few still twitched, trying to claw themselves along the ground even if they were more mush than threat.

Porkchop was still furiously engaged in battle. Two howlers had managed to latch themselves onto his back. Grimy fingers gripping his red and black fur as the undead sank rotting teeth deep into his friend's flesh.

Kaius cursed, running over to cut the final swarmlings off his friend with two deft flicks of his blade.

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

**Ding! level 8 Dead Howler slain**

Unrestrained by foes he couldn't reach, Porkchop quickly finished off the rest of the swarm that still ineffectively swatted at him. Unable to get close enough to clamber up his back and out of reach.

The pair walked through the carnage, finishing off the last twitching undead in grim silence. Finishing their black work, they stood there, chests heaving from the fading rush of battle.

Kaius broke the silence.

"Time for a break?"

"Yes please."