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AS WE MADE OUR WAY to the bottom, we were racking our brains. Another upwelling would probably be coming at any minute. And we did not want to consider what might happen if we didn’t make it in time. To wander this capricious labyrinth for months or even years, gradually transforming into yet more ghastly anomalies? No thank you!
I didn’t want to think ill of my new friend, but malicious thoughts came to rattle my mind all on their own. Would it have really been so hard to tell me about the portal before?! To say I didn’t understand the gnome would be a lie. It was an utterly logical and rational act. Completely in keeping with gnomish ways. Royal ones, too. If not for the friendship amulet, one might think that she simply duped me like a little commoner. But I already knew the value of such amulets all too well. Nure-onna herself, even in her own citadel, could not bring herself to harm me.
I smirked as I ran. If my new friend thinks she’s going to get rid of me so easily, she is sorely mistaken. The reward for such rare ingredients should be truly a king’s ransom. Furthermore, I was already planning to visit the undermountain kingdom regardless. I needed to complete the Woodwose’s assignment.
But just then, Gorgie gave a warning growl, helping me surface from the daydreams about the fabulous rewards I might get for saving the Queen of the gnomes. We had reached our destination.
It was vast cave with a huge ash gray obelisk looming large in the very center. It greeted us with an unnatural and dismal silence. The silence was heavy and frightening, making me turn my head every which way.
Gorgie didn’t like it here either. The scales on the nape of his neck were standing on end. He was occasionally baring his teeth and hissing in dismay. The danger seemed to be emanating from everywhere.
We froze in place, unable to work up the courage to move a muscle. My very nature was trumpeting out that we needed to run away at breakneck speed. Just cram our way down some far-away burrow and not so much as stick our noses out. What is going on with me? Why all this panic?
Gorgie fell to the ground and, hissing like a little kitten facing a big huge mastiff, started to step back. I had never seen my friend act this way before. Something smells fishy. Something definitely smells fishy...
It took me a few seconds to grasp what was going on. Then, working on instinct alone, I activated the summoning amulet.
Gorgie disappeared. And just in the nick of time...
— Attention! You have been subjected to mental magic!
― Attack repulsed!
Something clicked in my head. Like a key turning over in a lock. The panicked fear abated as if it were never there. In its place came a cold confidence.
— Attention! You have been subjected to mental magic!
― Attack repulsed!
The unseen enemy, as if aware of my mood, redoubled the pressure. The mental attack notifications poured down on me like summer rain.
Not wasting any time, I somehow chucked Pinebogey’s body onto my back and, trudging heavily, walked toward the obelisk. The canopy of invisibility was no help. They could see me perfectly. I meanwhile was blind. And there was no way not to be mad about that. With a chaos shield over me, I started to cast ice arrows at random all around me. They just crashed against the stones and broke into shards of gray, falling to the ground. But alas, that didn’t stop my adversary.
— Attention! You have been subjected to mental magic!
― Attack repulsed!
“Vermin!” I barked out, huffing and panting. “Show yourself, scoundrel!”
In reply, I got a message that the invisible creature had made it through to my shield of will. The mana started flooding out of my supply with frightening speed.
I was just a few steps away from the portal when the earth underfoot shuddered and started to crack. And from those cracks wafted a cold, putrid air.
Staying on me feet by some miracle, I continued moving. Fancifully jumping over the quickly expanding gaps, I found myself an outstretched hand away from the portal.
Paying no attention to the sudden howling and cracking of stone, I took one last step. While sinking into the thick haze of the portal, I managed to turn around for one last look. Abyss! What I saw turned the blood in my veins to ice. Five steps away, walking heavily and clumsily hopping over cracks I saw...
But that’s me! Draped over my back was Pinebogey’s body, giving no signs of life. My arms and legs are shivering with strain. A bead of sweat on my pale, fearful face. I had seemingly realized who was trying to stop me... Ghm... I was no longer in the Labyrinth of Fright.
I plopped out of the portal like a sack of turnips. Pinebogey’s body fell on top of me like a heavy log, pressing me down. Good thing it was a soft landing ― I came down on something soft and wet. I quickly looked around and realized it was night, I was in the woods, and lying on a thick blanket of rotten leaves.
I summoned Gorgie to help with the woodsman’s body. He had already assured me there was no one around.
Lying on the soft blanket of leaves and breathing in the cool humid air, I whispered to the harn as he loomed over me:
“We walked the line again, brother. That beast just about took you away from me.”
Gorgie gave a tender groan and licked my whole face.
“We need to check out our surroundings,” I said, rubbing my eyes with my sleeve and gently pushing his whiskered snout away.
The harn snorted in agreement, giving me one last lick, then vanished into a nearby bush.
Slowly standing to my feet, I glanced at the portal. It was a stone arch, ten feet high and six wide with ancient writing carved into it. But I had neither the ability nor particular desire to read it. It was situated atop a massive stone plinth with carved steps, which I had somersaulted over onto the blanket of rotten leaves.
I checked my shield and mana supply, then breathed a heavy sigh. Everything is fine. My Wisdom was accumulating mana without fail, and my shield was practically unaffected.
A rasping voice to the right distracted me from my survey.
“Where are we?”
I turned sharply. My mouth stretched out into a satisfied smile. Pinebogey had come to his senses. He was sitting with his back up against the wide trunk of an old oak tree and trying to shake off the dry bark covering his body with clumsy thrashing.
“We made it out,” I answered, bending down over my brother in arms. “How are you?”
Though I didn’t have to ask. His energy channels were glowing. And inside, the woodsman had changed dramatically as well.
“Fine,” Pinebogey responded, pulling a piece of bark off his shoulder. “What about you?”
“It’s a miracle we escaped,” I answered, sitting next to him on the ground.
“Labyrinth not wanna let you go?” he chuckled.
“Yeah...”
“How long were we in there?”
“Almost a week.”
“Then I see,” he nodded, ripping a bit of wood off his shin. “How do I look?”
“Ten years younger,” I answered, glancing at the woodsman again. “What do you remember?”
“Dobbess dying,” he answered sullenly. “Then it was all like a dream... How did we win?”
“The Heart of the Forest took control of your body and killed everyone.”
Pinebogey just grunted.
“How are you doing? Coping?” I asked.
“For now, yes,” he answered seriously and added: “It’s still asleep. But when it wakes up, it will want food. You must be aware it will need to eat very soon. And a lot.”
“Why do you think they killed him?” I asked. Pinebogey realized who I was talking about and responded with a question.
“Why aren’t you asking what made him betray us?”
“Mind control, his pledge to chaos, oaths to the magister. Does any of that mean anything now?”
“It does to me,” Pinebogey looked me in the eyes. “He was my friend. We always dreamed of teaming up and going off to fight darkness together!”
“And you believe he wanted that, too?”
I understood that asking Pinebogey these questions was basically equivalent to pouring salt into an open wound. But I needed to know.
“Yes, I did,” he answered quietly. “And I still do. He did not wish me harm.”
I shook my head.
“What about your duel?”
Pinebogey waved it off.
“He was always telling newbies that. It was his way of testing whether newcomers were loyal to me. Assassins have been sent to kill me many times... That was his way of trying to get on their good side.”
“Looks like he did a decent job,” I said with a smirk.
Pinebogey glanced at me with reproach. I just stared back. I felt no pity for the traitor. And I wasn’t going to pull any punches. Furthermore, I needed to know the limits of my alliance with Pinebogey.
The woodsman’s cold piercing gaze gave way to sadness and pity.
“Why did the Snake order us and him killed?” I asked. “I would never believe the snakefolk and werewolves would defy her will.”
“You’re right about that,” Pinebogey nodded confidently. “They would never disobey an order. I think you were the main objective. As soon as she realized she could not make you one with chaos, you became a target. Especially when she realized who you really are. She did know about the Steel King after all, right?”
“Yes,” I nodded gloomily.
“For some reason, her archnemesis needed some kid with the blood of the ancients in his veins. And so what if you’re a zero? She doesn’t give a crap. What matters is the blood, which is the key. Why should the Steel King bother with someone like you? Hold your friends prisoner? Simple ― you can open the doors to many mysteries. And in doing so, you would be making her enemy stronger. She was not able to tame you. And given that, you being alive places the very existence of the Citadel of Chaos at risk.”
“What about you?”
“Me too,” Pinebogey agreed. “The spirit probably told the Snake about the seeds. Dobbess squealed, too. He naively thought she would support our alliance. But she decided not to risk it, take out her wayward agents and rob them of their unique resources.”
“Yeah, but she never could have done anything with the seeds,” I sneered and, seeing an inquisitive look on Pinebogey’s face, explained: “The Woodwose was clear that I must give up the seeds voluntarily. Otherwise they won’t work.”
“But what if they’re taken by force?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t envy whoever tried to take them.”
“Indeed,” he snorted, carefully picking up bark.
At first, I didn’t understand why he was doing that, but when I took a closer look it hit me.
The Great System called the bits of bark “ancient armor shards.” Each piece was level forty. Rarity ― legendary.
Pinebogey noticed a look in my eyes and snorted, extending me a little piece.
“Here. Something to remember me by. A savvy armorer will gag on their own spit when they see this.”
While gently stashing the gift in my backpack, I wanted to thank the woodsman, but he stopped me, placing a pointer finger to his lips.
“Shhh,” he warned, grabbing a root jutting out from under the gigantic tree with his left hand and closing his eyes.
An instant later, he glanced at me and, quickly getting up, said:
“Your beast will be here soon. He’s very shaken up.”
Gorgie didn’t keep us waiting. He dove out of the bushes like a black shadow and shot out on the fly:
“Death. Blood.”
“What’s going on out there?” Pinebogey asked.
“Seems like he’s found an ongoing battle,” I responded. “We should go take a look and figure out where we are.”
* * *
“FOXFOLK,” PINEBOGEY said in a whisper, watching the carnage on the small meadow.
“So, we’re on the west of the Dark Continent,” I responded. “And to be more specific, not too far from Narrow Lake. The river Morta has its source here, and runs to the...”
“Dead Ocean,” Pinebogey nodded. “Don’t you think they seem odd?”
I took a closer look at Sly Redtail’s fighting modern-day descendants and from time to time found myself spitting out bitter saliva.
“Dark beasts,” I shrugged.
“No,” Pinebogey shook his head stubbornly. “Not all of them. Look closer. They’re not all the same.”
I did that and, to my astonishment, also noticed a difference between the fighters.
“There are two groups,” I nodded.
“Exactly,” whispered the woodsman. “One defending, the other attacking. There are clearly half as many of the defenders, but they’re all armed with swords and bows.”
“What makes you so sure they’re the defenders?”
“The burrows,” he said curtly.
That’s right! The swordsmen and archers are defending the entrances to earthen mounds, which I hadn’t spotted right away. So that’s why they still haven’t retreated despite the onslaught of a more numerous rival.
By the way, the attackers are unarmed as well. To be frank though, with claws and fangs like that, there’s not much need for weaponry. I’m getting the impression these are savages attacking their more civilized neighbors.
And they really are different. In fact, the difference is striking! Wait... But what’s that?
“You see it, too?” Pinebogey asked. “Shapeshifters?”
“Yeah, but they don’t transform into people,” I whispered through my teeth. “Those aren’t foxfolk at all. They’re blackbloods.”
“Abyss!” Pinebogey cursed and started looking around.
“Looking for their mother?” I asked.
“Yeah...”
I sensed a metallic edge to his voice.
“Gorgie knows what they smell like and would warn us,” I reassured him.
Pinebogey looked at me thoughtfully.
Meanwhile, the situation on the meadow had changed drastically. The attackers were now fully transformed, revealing their true guises to their adversaries. Based on the concentrated looks on the defenders’ faces, the changes were no surprise to them.
At the very least, I now knew for certain that Sly’s descendants had not sold out to darkness.
The foxfolk fought valiantly, but they were plainly losing the fight. There were more blackbloods, and most of them were higher level. The defenders were only still holding out because their mage was alive. But based on the sparseness of his casting, he would run out of mana very soon. And meanwhile, there were probably women and children taking shelter in the earthen mounds. I didn’t want to imagine what might happen when the blackbloods broke through their defenses.
Pinebogey and I traded glances and nodded in unison.
“I’ll get through to the mage,” I said, tossing on my invisibility canopy. “That’s where they’re most concentrated.”
“And we’ll flank them,” Pinebogey nodded. “Let’s get started!”
Gorgie gave a delighted growl and dashed forward, curving around the meadow on the left side.
I was still a few steps from the nearest adversary when I heard the first yelps of pain from the harn’s direction. Weaving around the stake fence, I cast a few ice arrows while still running. The foxfolk, having found unexpected assistance in the form of sharp pieces of ice sticking out of their enemies’ bodies, started to look around in amazement.
Once in the middle of the village, I activated life aura, marking not just the warriors but their families as well. I could read slight bafflement and hope on the defenders’ vulpine snouts. Many of them, grinning joyously, started looking at their mage thinking he was catching a second wind. And so, just imagine their surprise when they found out that their mage was still on his last legs, and himself somewhat puzzled as well.
My first ram sent the blackbloods boxing him in flying away like strawmen in a tornado, making the foxman mage shudder in fear and look around. The ram was followed by lightning and a few dozen ice arrows. The foxman just stood there with his eyes peeled. His enemies were just suddenly dying.
Shrieks of pain and fearful growling to the left. A big huge multi-armed monster tearing the blackbloods limb from limb with its tentacles to the right. For some reason, all the still-living foxfolk went over to join their mage in hopes he might be able to defend them from new calamities.
While finishing off an incapacitated blackblood, I noticed one of the foxfolk drawing their bow. He was aiming at Gorgie, who was sowing death in the ranks of the retreating blackbloods.
A short lunge and my Spike cut the bowstring.
“Play nice,” I warned.
The limbs of the bow, once free of the string’s bondage, straightened out in a lightning-fast burst. Like a ferocious snake, the weapon broke out of the archer’s left hand.
The blackbloods were fools if they thought they could run from Gorgie. Not a single one escaped.
The forest filled up with yelps of pain and furious growling from the harn. Every such outburst made the foxfolk piling up around their mage shudder.
And then the dozen-tentacled monster started moving. He would be here very soon. I hope Pinebogey won’t turn into a log again. Gorgie and I were not professional stevedores.
Watching the ghostly vines with their sharp thorns vanish, and Pinebogey reappear where the cocoon had been, I breathed a sigh of the relief. Seemingly, he was mastering the forest avatar just fine.
With Pinebogey at my side, I deactivated canopy of invisibility. I glanced at the archer, still standing with an arrow in his right hand and shrugged my shoulders guiltily.
Gorgie darted out of the wall of trees like a lithe shadow and came our way with a satisfied look.
Strange as it may have been, the foxman mage was the first to come to his senses. He pushed through the warriors with his shoulders, stepped out in front and, with a bow, said in clean Imperial tongue:
“Esteemed masters, we thank you for your timely intervention! Clan Sharpear and I, Sly Redtail, are deeply indebted to you!”
Hearing the familiar name, I shuddered. When I looked closer though, I felt a chill run down my spine. The resemblance was striking! Was this the Labyrinth of Fright playing one last trick?!
