Unbound

Now that it was proven that not all the traps were disarmed, the trio proceeded far more cautiously. The last thing Felix wanted was to be catapulted into a wall again, or have his legs incinerated, or his head pulped. And those were just three of the traps they managed to avoid. The sheer variety was remarkable to the Nym. What's more, his Manasight had trouble picking things out down here, otherwise he wouldn't be as tense as he was. For some reason he didn't understand, using his Manasight was like lifting a barbell with his pinkies. Potentially possible, but extremely taxing. Felix kept at it though, the Skill was one of his most useful and it was like he was blind without it.

Maybe this is like weight training for my eyeballs, he mused as he once again flexed his Skill. There was a definite ache behind his eyes, not quite a headache. He mentally shrugged. Just another bit of pain. Add it to the pile.

Cautious as they were, they still were moving fast, or as fast as Magda could manage. She claimed to be fine, but was white as a sheet after only twenty minutes of running, which led to more breaks. It grated on Felix's nerves, which were unable to escape the feeling that the giants were out there, closing in. Maybe they had stayed up above, but he doubted it. The bastard wanted whatever was down here. He could only groan in frustration each time they had to slow or backtrack from a dead end.

The Labyrinth was well named, as it was filled with twisting paths and strange formations. Those line-carved standing stones were everywhere, sticking up from the ground or from the walls themselves. Often they and the ground were covered in thick, faintly bioluminescent moss. Like the thick fog, it was meant to distract and conceal. As Felix found out the hard way. Nothing down here was safe.

They traversed two more rooms, areas of the Labyrinth where the corridor walls bulged outward in various shapes, and which were (usually) the most dangerous places. The traps were half disarmed in both sections, Felix's Manasight flaring enough to note the thick cloud of Mana vapor clinging close to a number of the floor tiles. Following his guidance, the three of them made it through without incident.

The stretch after that, however, was a gauntlet.

Not only were the traps more unpredictable and varied (fire blast, conjured crushing pillars, even a type of sonic wail), but monsters emerged. At first Felix mistook them for chimeras, but both Magda and his Analyze dissuaded him of that. They were basic elementals.

Name: Charwing

Type: Elemental

HP: 222/222

SP: 255/255

MP: 430/430

Lore: Elemental creatures of fire, they have a pack mentality and work most effectively as a group. Their limited senses are easy to fool.

Strength: AGL, STR

Weakness: VIT, PER

Six of them swarmed from the dark ceiling, dark shapes that burst into fire only moments before they struck. Felix and Magda dodged and tanked the hits, respectively, the woman's powerful shielding ability knocking them aside. The flock circled up and around for another attack.

Fire elementals? Felix felt that hunger again, though he was hard pressed to determine if it was that gnawing emptiness or his own avarice.

Magda let out a piercing wail, like a high pitched siren almost, and the Charwings immediately oriented on her alone. Recognizing a taunt Skill when he heard it, Felix reached out with Reign of Vellus and attempted to grapple them.

Lightning sparked in midair, leaping from creature to creature as azure light flared and held fully half of them in place. The other three sped onward to Magda, buffeted by the invisible edge of her right arm shield. Felix held the first three in place and with a burst of mental effort and fully a quarter of his Mana, crushed them. They burst like charcoal, fire spouting outwards before extinguishing. All that was left were three small cores that clattered to the ground as he released the spell.

You have defeated Charwing (x3)!

You have earned XP!

Reign of Vellus is level 28!

Felix sensed Magda and Pit dispatching the remaining Charwings, but his attention was truly captured by two larger foes that emerged from his immediate right. Both were shaggy beasts with rake-like claws, multiple curved tusks, and bone spurs that raced along their tapered backs. Quadrupedal, they stumped out of the mossy earth as if swimming from the depths.

Analyze...

Name: Mogru

Type: Elemental

Level: 39

HP: 849/849

SP: 522/535

MP: 325/325

Lore: Elemental creatures of earth, Mogru are very strong and sturdy. Their mossy fur and flabby body provides excellent protection from bludgeoning damage.

Strength: END, STR

Weakness: AGL, DEX

"Mogru, hmm," Felix considered them a moment longer before deciding to experiment. They felt...dangerous, like an mudslide about to happen, so he knew he had to stop them quickly if he could. Reaching out a hand toward the two earth elementals, Felix cast.

Influence of the Wisp!

Mogru (x2) have been Enthralled for 5 Seconds!

The blue white fire limned both Felix and his targets, and this time both of the elementals were enveloped in the effect. And what an effect: Enthralled for an entire 5 seconds, an eternity in a battle. But Felix felt there was something else happening, and when he looked closer at the elementals he noticed that instead of the illusion of fire the Mogru were literally burning up. Startled, Felix simply watched as the beasts' shaggy fur curled and blackened, their small beady eyes revealed beneath skin folds that began to crack and char. They couldn't even scream...until the effect ended. Then they bellowed with a terrifying vigor, and both charged at Felix in a rage.

Influence of the Wisp is level 26!

The Mogru were slow, their ponderous bodies not made for quick turns or pivots, but their huge foreclaws were deadly weapons. Twice they struck against Felix, once against his left arm held up in a block, and another tearing into his back. The claws dug deep furrows into his skin and muscle, bleeding him and shredding his shirt.

Ugh. He grunted as he ripped off the rest of his shirt. The loss of his top hurt more than the pain itself. I really need armor.

Armored Skin is level 26!

He tried repeatedly to counterattack, but each Corrosive Strike and unarmed blow against them only did minimal damage. Their massive, flabby bodies, easily the size of a riding mower were heavily resistant to his bludgeoning attacks. If only he had still had his Crescian blade, then he'd have a better way. However, when one of his Corrosive Strikes hit an eye one Mogru squealed in rage and disappeared into the ground. The other quickly followed.

Felix stood still, senses straining. He could hear Magda and Pit killing the last of a second batch of Charwings, and could almost feel their deadly heat waft against his neck. Felix pulsed his Manasight, pushing to see more. It was like shoving a boulder up a hill, but in a quick flash he caught a rapidly rising hunk of dusty brown Man inscribed with veins of green-gold life Mana. He grinned.

Felix jumped backward, landing nearly ten feet away, precariously close to the unspent traps that dotted this section of the corridor. Shaping a quick spell in his core, Felix shoved it into the earth before him, just as the Mogru burst from the earth in a powerful charge. Heads down and tusks out, the elementals had built a deadly inertia after swimming the earth. Felix almost felt bad. But not enough to let them kill him. So, in the instant before they came within five feet of him, there was a discharge of dusty brown Mana beneath the ground, and two, three foot thick spikes erupted mere inches before the charging Mogru. Too late to change their momentum, the elementals just put their heads down and barreled through. The stone held for only a moment before it began to crumble and crack, but Felix was already airborn, leaping over them in a wide if ungainly arc.

Then the Mogru ran right into the traps.

The explosion was deafening as a variety of lethal measures erupted. Heat and cold washed in turns through the relatively small area, and it wasn't until well after the Mogru had perished that the traps stopped discharging.

You have earned XP!

Acting is level 11!

Felix breathed a sigh of relief, wincing as the tender bits of his arm and back pulled. They were clotting nicely, even scabbing over rapidly in some places, but his Health regeneration would take some time to catch up. Another pop of discharging Mana grabbed his attention and he closed his eyes in annoyance. Shit, their bodies were destroyed. No more blood for him, even a bone to gnaw on. Whoops.

Magda and Pit were sitting together on a standing stone, the large woman's hand gently petting his back. Felix raised an eyebrow when he saw it but made no comment. Pit chirruped happily and hopped down, while Magda seemed amused.

"Dead enough for you, kid?" She nodded at the charred stretch of landscape. "Everything in this maze would have heard that."

Felix grimaced. "I didn't really think that through. Thought they'd trigger a trap or two, then I could finish them off." He shrugged, then winced again. "We should get moving then, yeah?"

"Agreed."

Running. More and more running.

Felix tried to set the pace, feeling a rise in that unnerving sense of urgency. Still Magda's injuries restricted them all. Every time they rested, Felix paced or practiced a Skill, unable to place the rising unease that prickled at his skin. The fog felt...inhabited, sentient. Like the breath of a beast the size of a mountain, the dimming exhalation of a song that even now lingered at the edge of his hearing.

Beckoning.

Felix.

He bolted upright and spun in place, searching for the source. He saw only fog and the diffuse glow of moss.

"Pit did you hear that?" He turned to see the tenku on his feet, hackles raised and beak wide. Pit growled in that strange way of his. Felix could feel surprise and fear through the pact, directed outward into the dark. He heard it too, he thought with relief. I'm not crazy.

"Hear what?" Magda asked, getting back to her feet.

"I uh..I heard someone call my name," Felix explained.

"Callie said this place was full of illusions. It's probably that. Don't pay it any mind, focus on movin' forward." She started walking. "Let's go."

Felix frowned, still turning to regard the darkness around them.

Something is out there. He gulped. And it knows my name.

Dual Casting is level 21!

Manasight is level 33!

Meditation is level 33!

Cloudstep is level 8!

Physical Conditioning is level 23!

Relentless Charge is level 9!

More monsters loomed in the murk, each stranger than the last. They faced elementals of all stripes, fire, earth, even a couple water types. They also contended against increasingly convoluted traps and obstacles. Giant stone presses, exploding walls, air that literally became fire, nothing seemed beyond the craft of whatever built the Labyrinth. When Magda mentioned the Geist were the builders, some pieces started falling into place for him. The towers and the Labyrinth, the whole city itself, built by the Geist. And the Geist had some sort of relationship with the Nym. So what did the Geist, and likely the Nym, want to lock away down here? Was it some incredible monster? Was it the Mother?

And why did he keep hearing her song? It was growing increasingly hard to put it out of his mind, the mournful tune intruding at the oddest moments. Only if he flexed Bastion of Will was Felix able to completely silence it.

The further they traversed, the stranger everything became. There were rooms that appeared to be underwater, yet the water was contained in an upright cube, something they had to swim through while avoiding dark orbs that swarmed in the liquid. More than a few impacted against him, though Magda's shields help stave off the worst of the damage.

Swimming is level 6!

Armored Skin is level 27!

Occasionally they would encounter a grouping of metallic creatures. Appearing humanoid, they were built from a dark metal and furnished with plates of quartz-like armor across the chest, shoulders, and appendages. Even Magda worried about them, and Felix's Analyze pulled back only their name, type, and levels.

Name: Etheric Automaton

Type: Golem

Level: 44

Thus far they had been lucky enough to avoid them. Stealth had been a big part of that, and as a result, it finally hit Apprentice Tier.

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Stealth!

You Gain:

+3 PER

+3 AGL

+3 VIT

The stats rushed into him, but again, it felt somewhat lackluster compared to Tempering himself. Though admittedly he was avoiding Tiering up in his remaining Mind and Spirit Skills; Felix wasn't entire sure Magda would be able to protect him if he locked up due to Formation. She wasn't her usual self by any means.

At their next rest stop, Felix decided to feed the collected Charwing cores to Pit. He had been only able to retrieve eight in total, as some of the enemies consumed or depleted their cores somehow. The cores were small, maybe the size of a marble, and Pit ate them nearly all at once.

"Slow down, little pig," Felix admonished, ruffling the tenku's head.

"Are you feeding him elemental cores?" Magda asked, her voice slightly strained. She had started walking with more a limp after the last mile, claiming to be low on Stamina. They were moving down a broken pathway, the ground falling away in jagged chasms that crisscrossed the area. Felix and Pit traversed the wide crevasses with ease, Felix using his new Body to effortlessly clear the five to six foot gaps while carrying the still injured Pit. Magda, however, took pains to make it across each one and had to rest every couple of jumps. They were resting now, about halfway through the chamber.

"Yeah, he likes em. Makes him stronger." Felix gestured to Pit, who had started to glow slightly as a small amount of orange vapor escaped between his feathers.

"Huh," Magda grunted. She shook her head. "Expensive taste."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Felix asked.

"Elemental cores. Used by nearly every profession. You just put about six hundred silver worth of cores in that chimera," Magda said, taking a swig of water from their dwindling supply.

What? Felix looked at Pit, who tilted his head curiously. That sounds like a lot of money...maybe I should start saving some of these. Pit nudged his thigh, hard enough to make Felix sway and he laughed as he batted the tenku away from him. Ok ok! You get all the cores.

"You're not what I expected, Felix," she said, interrupting his thoughts.

He looked at her askance. Felix had been enjoying Magda's change of attitude since getting stuck with him, so he was hesitant as he replied. "And what did you expect?"

"A spy," she said. There it was. Suspicious Magda.

Felix's laugh had an edge to it. "A spy? For who?"

Magda grunted and shook her head. "I don't know. The Guild, maybe. We stepped on a lot of toes to get out here, and plenty of Elders didn't want us out here. For official reasons, of course. No one would admit to the lost operation and squandered Guilders, so they couldn't block us outright." She frowned and growled. "I thought you were a plant. Someone who came out here to either stop us or report on us."

"What? Why? I didn't even know what the Guild was when I met you," Felix said.

"Yeah, and that's part of it. You're an enigma, kid. You've got too many Skills, stats that are through the roof for your level, a fog-touched chimera as a pet that you feed precious cores to like they were biscuits." She scoffed. "You don't know half the stuff all of us were taught in childhood."

"But I'm not a spy. I'm just...lost, I guess," Felix countered, still nervous to admit anything to the warrior. "You folks have taught me a lot, and I appreciate it. What I don't appreciate is the constant suspicion that you bombard me with; it's exhausting."

Magda held up her hands, her script seal starting to flake. "I know, I know. And I'm sorry, for what it's worth. The last few months I haven't...I've been in a bad place."

Felix was silent a moment, chewing over his thoughts. There was more to say but he didn't know how to approach it. So he just settled for: "Well, apology accepted, I guess."

The silence after was uncomfortable to say the least. Moreover, it was interspersed with the undulating song in his head, an intermittent urge to keep going and leave everyone else behind. Shoving that drive away, Felix turned to Magda, who seemed to be contemplating the darkness above them.

"So...you and Callie, huh? She seems...intense." Oh my god what you doing? Felix's internal social critic railed at him even before he finished the sentence, causing him to stumble on the dismount. Magda was quiet for several minutes after that, which led to even more self-condemnation. Ahh, why did you say anything? Just sit in silence. Or go find a monster. Yes, that's better. Let's go fight. Felix almost stood up when the Shieldwitch spoke.

"Once we were something. I don't know if that means anything now." She sighed, a big one she dredged from her core.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

Magda looked at him and smirked. "No. It's fine. I've interrogated you enough." She adjusted her seat, leaning once again on her uninjured arm. "We worked together for years, even before Harn joined up. Before that we were friends, back at the Academy."

Academy? Felix wanted to ask, but now that she started he was loath to interrupt.

"We did a few harrowing trips into the interior of the Continent, gained some levels and reknown, and during all that we grew closer. It was nothing we ever said, not out loud, but before we knew it, we were together. It was...it was nice." Magda's smile turned wistful. "Those were the good days, shortly after we were promoted to Bronze Rank and formed our own team. Harn joined up, and off we went. Hot spot to hot spot. There wasn't a contract we didn't take if it were within our rank. We were a perfect team."

Felix smiled. "That sounds nice. So what happened?"

Another sigh, deeper and more meaningful this time. "We got famous, in our own way. We were on track to be promoted to Silver Rank after some harrowing contracts, and things...fell apart. It's my fault, in the end." She closed her eyes and knocked her head against the stone wall. "Callie proposed. And I...I got scared. Silver Rank is a big deal, something fewer than 10 in five thousand might reach it. She wanted to get away from it. Do our own thing, away from the Guild. I...I couldn't. So she left."

The silence that followed was worse than what came before. Felix felt terrible for bringing it up. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but each time had nothing more than empty platitudes. "I'm sorry, Magda. That's rough."

Magda nodded and with some effort stood up. She looked less pale, though the skin around her eyes was a little red now. "Don't let your mistakes linger, Felix," she said, looking into the foggy distance. "You'll try to bury em, but they come back. Regrets never really leave."

She gestured ahead. "Let's get moving."

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