Chapter 13: Oasis:
"Come on! You have to move faster!" Liriel called out to Starlight as she struck his silver blade with her own.
"Gugh!" Starlight scowled as he backed up. Blistering, fiery light shone on his light shirt, making his entire body feel hot.
Starlight stared back at Liriel's calm face. She had not even sweated a single drop since the beginning of the battle — just like the other ones.
Starlight and Liriel were sparring. This was their fifteenth bout.
Two months had passed since they first entered the labyrinth. The moment the last person entered the door, it closed on them, not opening again. Traversing through the halls of the labyrinth was relaxing but also nerve-racking.
Going from walking through the forest to the ancient halls of some underground structure was still disturbing, but less so. The forest seemed to have eyes watching him from every angle and moment. But here, in the labyrinth, he was so insignificant, with little pressure at all.
Luckily, the group had the trail of light from Starlight's coin; it still worked in the labyrinth, it would be strange if it didn't, as it brought them here.
Of course, they still happened upon hordes of monsters, usually staying in rooms, like the one they were in now. Two types of structures made up the labyrinth: long, twisting and turning halls, and large rooms filled with monsters.
The corridors were tall and spacious, the stone walls arched into a semicircle, on which golden lanterns hung. Golden torches also lined the walls in an orderly fashion. And in the large rooms, an artificial sky spread across what would have been a roof. Just like the void, it had a cycle of day and night, with stars as the sun.
There had been a few rooms that the group had contested and won. Not that they wanted to fight, but they had to. The only source of water in the labyrinth was in these giant rooms.
The rooms usually contained a horde of hundreds of skeletons, all of them being either a Fiend or a Wretch. Although not a match for five Travelers, they were still exhausting to deal with.
The group of skeletons was not all randomly placed there either; each had a role. It was like an army. Spears, swords, and shields armed the footmen. Some archers stayed in the back and shot their cohort with arrows. These two types were mainly Fiends.
The Wretches had more important roles in the army. The most prevalent type of Wretch was the brute. They were fully armored and quite big, almost as big as the Rat King. Each unit of foot soldiers or archers had a Wretch who commanded them and was a stronger version of them. Among each unit of foot soldiers or archers was a Wretch who commanded them and was a stronger version of them. And most troublesome of all was the commander.
Multiple brutes guarded the commander, but they lacked physical strength. Rather, it specialized in scheming; the commander would lead the troops, maintaining their formation. And after engaging in combat with the Travelers, they would sometimes discover their weaknesses. For example, once, in the first room they encountered, the commander discovered that swarms of soldiers could not deal with Godric and his relic, which had to do with explosions. It commanded the brutes to gang up on him, not attacking as a group, but one by one. It also saw that Aster did better in one-versus-one situations, so it got the swarms to attack him
After a few battles like this, the group had actually increased its cooperation and grown even more formidable, not as individuals, but as a team.
During some battles, there would be the occasional lone foot soldier. Under the guidance and protection of Liriel, he would battle it. So far, he had fought eight of them; only twice was he defeated. The first time was his first battle; it was quite miserable. Despite being dead, the skeleton completely countered his sloppy sword skills. The second was in the middle of their duel, a horde of monsters spilled over and attacked Starlight together. Both times, he had to be bailed out by Liriel, who cut up the bone creatures with light work.
Although he had suffered losses, Starlight had drastically increased his swordsmanship during the time they were inside the ancient structure. He trained his strikes daily and learned a couple of recent attacks. After Liriel found his skills passable, she would engage in a mock battle with him, winning each time with ease.
The room they were currently in held sand everywhere, with large mounds of it too. The skeleton warriors all had ragged clothes covering their ruined armor.
The room was unnaturally large, much, much larger than the rat cave. It also dwarfed the other rooms that the group went to. The room, from edge to edge, was equivalent to ten city blocks, and the roof was the height of a castle turret.
The battle was also the greatest they had faced so far; instead of the usual hundreds of skeletons, there were thousands. There were over ten commanders and even a Wraith who commanded over the commanders; luckily, he didn't have a rune.
The battle had taken over a week to kill every last skeleton. And a full day to deal with the Wraith general.
…
"Come on, focus!" Liriel called out as she lunged towards him.
Following her move, he held up his blade in a blocking position, but just as he did, Liriel's blade struck his. With swift and fluid motions, she disarmed Starlight and sent his sword flying away.
Starlight stared in stunned silence for a moment, then smiled slightly, 'This happens every time, why am I still stunned by this?'
After sheathing her sword, Liriel looked back at him, "You know that you can't block my strike… it might work against a weaker opponent, but not me. How many times do I have to tell you that you can't rely on the basics for every battle, you have to adapt?"
"Sorry," Starlight said. He lingered for a moment, then walked over to his blade. It lay on cracked stone bricks; its clean, untouched silver blade stood out like a silver coin among the rusted copper coins.
Despite the fierce attacks of Liriel, even though she was holding back, and those of the skeleton warriors he fought, it remained without a single scratch.
He looked into the pristine blade and his reflection in it. Aside from his sweaty face, his appearance had also changed greatly; his hair had grown longer, and his frail frame had become larger and stronger; it was slight but noticeable. His pale skin had also regained some semblance of life, and his face had also grown slightly plumper.
His survival skills had greatly increased, too; not only had he learned the basics of swordsmanship, but Starlight, as a human, had been able to consistently kill Fiends. The condition being that he had a strong offensive and defensive artifact. Both of which Fiends could not deal any damage, nor defend with their own equipment.
Now, he could not be considered a useless ant in the eyes of Divers, but still a slightly stronger ant.
"Come on, we're resting now. Tomorrow, we will leave this room and find another one." Liriel told him as she walked closer to an oasis.
Starlight followed her after putting his sword in his makeshift belt. He looked over to the oasis; it was in perfect condition. But water was not the problem; rather, it was food.
During the first few days of their journey through the labyrinth, the group had adequate food and water. But they soon were close to running out, and that's where the rooms came in. The rooms had different themes, like the desert the group was currently in. But they each had something in common: water and food.
Each room had a source of water; for example, the room they were in now had an oasis, and the previous a well. The real problem was food. The monsters could not be eaten; this was not a problem in the forest, but here, all the monsters were skeletons. Each room had some animals, which had meat, like birds, dogs, rabbits, and deer.
Seeing this for the first time was very shocking to Starlight. In the void, the only living beings aside from humans were monsters. Only in the Overworld were there 'animals', beings who don't attack humans for the most part and don't have special abilities, like monsters.
The desert room they were in now mainly had camels and birds, but they had all but run out. The skeleton monsters did not eat meat, but that didn't stop them from destroying the environment. Except for the water source, they didn't go near them.
When the cohort came in, after long battles and tiring walks, they slaughtered the animals and ate their meat. But this lifestyle couldn't last forever; they had to move rooms often. And it wasn't like they wanted to preserve the animal life; they still had to get back to White City.
After walking for a few minutes, he approached a pool of clear water. Surrounding the oasis were tall and sturdy palm trees and a lush grass bank.
Sitting alongside the water were Aster, Lyra, and Liriel. Liriel had just gotten back and was drinking water. Aster was resting after hunting some wild animals, and Lyra was preparing for tomorrow.
Starlight walked over to Liriel and got the water purifier from her. He then scooped some oasis water into it and drank it. After drinking, he stayed silent for a moment, calming his body from the after-shock of his bout with Liriel.
Bram and Godric were both scouting. Godric was checking over the area of the room, looking for if they missed anything. While Bram was scouting the halls of the Labyrinth.
'They should be arriving back soon, at around sunset.'
Starlight sat around for a minute before reaching into his cloak pocket. He had to fight off boredom somehow. Before coming to the Trial, he didn't really do many fun things, really only study, travel, and take part in tests — the most fun thing he did was run away. But since he came here, running away and fighting monsters was scary, but fun at the same time. Especially learning how to use the sword, and sparring against Liriel — although it was fun, it was also the most thrilling thing he'd ever done in his life.
Starlight rested for a few hours, studying his mouse, Rune, and coin. Godric arrived shortly after he came to the oasis, sitting down and resting as well. When the fake sunset had just dimmed, becoming night, Bram arrived. He was late, very late.
The entire group stared at him when he brushed past the bushes surrounding the oasis. He had tired eyes and was covered in dust. The leather armor that encased his refined body was ragged and tattered; there were traces of cuts and slashes scattered all over.
Taking a seat near the oasis water and drinking some, he huffed a sigh of relief. "The next room is going to be very dangerous."
Seeing him stuff food in his mouth, Starlight didn't dare ask for details. Neither did the others. He had probably gone through something rough and wouldn't want to be bombarded with questions.
Slowly, after stuffing food down his throat and swallowing, he continued in a more somber tone. "I was about to return a few hours before when I was supposed to, but I ran into something unfortunate. Right before turning around, I heard the sound of marching. A battalion of skeleton troops had ventured out of one of the upcoming rooms and was marching through the halls."
He looked down at the clear water, reflecting the soft light of the cohort's lantern Artifacts. "A wandering squad managed to find me, and I had to battle them, almost exposing me to the full force."
Aster was the first to react, showing an extremely shocked reaction. Followed by Godric, Lyra, and Liriel, who had the same reaction. Starlight was still a little confused about them being stunned. After all, it was natural that sometimes someone would be found spying on monsters.
But then it hit him: Bram was a master spy. His Relic was based on being unseen, spying, and assassination. How could normal monsters find him, especially since he was a traveler, and the normal skeletons were just Fiends?
Starlight turned to him with an unsightly and nervous expression, instead of one of shock. 'What new monsters could the skeleton legion have that could find a stealth master like Bram?'
Following the stunned silence, Bram waited for a moment, then spoke again. "The skeletons had a new type of monster. They were dogs. Some were smaller, like normal dogs, while some were larger than the Star Hounds. They seem to have a special sense of smell, which is probably why I was found."
This was shocking news to the group. In all the time they had spent in the labyrinth, they had only come across one new type of skeleton — there were the troops, archers, brutes, and commanders, and the newest was the skeleton general.
'But now, a new type? Are they evolving… or have we just barely brushed the surface of the dungeon?' Shivers ran down his spine as he tried to imagine what would come after the dogs.
Trying his hardest to remove the countless questions from his head, Starlight lay down on the long grass. He had stayed up long enough, waiting for Bram to return; now he needed to sleep.
…
The bright light of the artificial sun shone in Starlight's eyes, waking him up. Starlight grimaced as he sat up, looking around at the others. They had also awakened and were preparing to leave.
He reached into his cloak, checking on the Little Light Guardian Mouse. The white mouse had fully recovered, and its ethereal white light shone as brightly as before. The mouse scurried around his hand, then rolled into a ball as it comfortably slept.
Runes that are not attached to a Relic usually hibernate. It's not unusual that all the mouse could do was sleep and try to save up enough strength to survive. Even Runes had to abide by the law of the jungle.
Putting his little mouse back in its secret pocket, Starlight reached for his sword. Picking it up and holding it in his lap, he studied it intently. Just as always, the blade was pristine, reflecting the sunlight and everything else the silver blade could see, or that Starlight could see in it.
Slowly, he stood up, groaning after lying down in the same position for the night. He put the sword in his belt and grabbed the bottle of water. Slowly, he drank, studying his surroundings. The five Travelers were moving around, packing their belonging, and preparing for the upcoming fight.
They had hoped to avoid fighting within the winding halls of the labyrinth, but it seemed that with a legion moving through them and approaching their position, it was inevitable.
Starlight walked over to Liriel, offering her his help. The condition for her teaching him was that he would help carry her things, both unpacking and packing.
Without exchanging any words, Starlight started to pack her bag. After finishing, he placed it on his back and followed behind her. She, as well as the others, was walking to the back door of the great room.
In the next half hour, the group crossed over tall dunes and large valleys of sand. They passed fallen ruins and countless bones of remnant battles. Suddenly, they all stopped in place. Starlight gazed up because there, in front of them, was a giant door.
The door was not really a door, but a giant door frame. Just like the entrance of the labyrinth, the door and all the others leading to the rooms were detailed with intricate patterns. Surrounding the door frame, between golden casings, were patterns that curled and waved like sand running across dunes.
Taking his eyes off the door, he glanced at the rest of his group. Their unenthusiastic gazes did not make Starlight feel good about this journey; it was certainly going to be one of great peril. Reluctantly, Godric took a step forward, then the rest followed.
Soon, they passed through the great door and ventured out into the long, never-ending, inordinate halls. Starlight looked back with an apprehensive gaze. He sighed, then looked forward.
This was not going to be fun.