Ian sprinted down the halls of the maze with Derek following a few paces behind. Derek’s sword scratched the floor causing a screeching that a large, brown-furred minotaur followed by sound. Derek’s close-quarters encounters with the minotaur had left him with a few scrapes and cuts, but he did not have much time to focus on the pain or the health potion he held onto. Occasionally Ian prepared a fireball and launched it behind him when Derek was ready.
Ian knew that this floor would be a difficult one to cross. There were four possible exits, one for each of the four cardinal directions and it took luck to find the right way initially. Ian and Derek had been careful initially, but things had faltered once they ran into the minotaurs. The group of three had started to overwhelm them. Despite their weariness towards the fire, it didn’t stop the final one from chasing them from hallway to hallway. Ian was at least relieved that they had dealt with the other two minotaurs and hadn’t found the exit yet. As long as they hadn’t found more enemies or a dead end then they were free to run down the hallways of the dungeon screaming like the children James thought of them as.
Ian fired a fireball behind him, and Derek ducked and turned his head around when he saw the fireball being prepared. The attack rocketed past him and towards the minotaur racing towards them.
“Duck!” Derek screamed.
He dropped to the ground and Ian rolled around a corner right as an axe went over their head and stuck itself into one of the maze walls.
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James and his novices walked down maze hallways. Since the encounter with the two minotaurs, they had yet to see signs of anyone or anything else. As they walked James had his bow out and was mentally mapping the area trying to fit the paths onto one of the four variations he had memorized. He was counting the steps and making note of the size of the hallway when they all heard the sounds of screams.
“They are nearby. We got to go.”
James doubled his pace and the others tried to follow behind. James focused on his hearing, dismissing the exact path he was now following. As Naomi and Wes followed James the sounds increased in volume until at one point they heard a ‘duck’.
James was running along the path when they suddenly saw Ian turn a corner with a minotaur’s axe following shortly after. It embedded itself into the wall.
“How many?”
“Just one,” replied Ian.
A second later Derek turned the corner and was faced with James with a fully drawn bow.
“Out of the way,” James shouted.
Derek moved to the side and dropped down as the minotaur rounded the corner. It was so focused on Derek that it didn't realize that James had fired his arrow.
The arrow was fully charged and focused on blunt force rather than piercing power. The one-axed minotaur we sent off its feet and flew back a few feet as the force impacted its chest and off-center body. James took this opportunity to grab the axe left in the wall and rip it out.
The minotaur was stumbling up on its knees when its own axe went flying for its head. It fell down once again this time for good. When the minotaur fell James relaxed. Things were back to feeling ok for now. Sure, the dungeon was changing but he had gathered the novices back together and no one was dead or gravely injured.
James was surveying the hallway and the three-way split that Ian and Derek had come from when he noticed the sound of Ian slinking away behind him.
“Oh no, you don’t. The two of you are staying right here with us.”
James grabbed Ian’s arm and spun him around. Ian held his head high and looked up at Ian.
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“I’m gone for five minutes, and you choose to run off. Why in the world are you doing this? Do you want to get yourself killed?”
“No. I was just. Looking ahead in the dungeon for you. It wasn’t like you weren’t going to follow us anyway. There was no path you could have taken.”
“That is a lie, and you know it. At least you two aren’t dead yet but if you pull this stunt again I don’t know if you will be. The spiders will be much more tricky, and you won’t be able to burn through every one of their web traps.”
James turned to Derek who had stepped behind Wes. He had just finished healing up and was wiping the blood from his clothes.
“Don’t think I would just forget about you,” James said to Derek, “If you hadn’t followed him and been his close-range fighter then I doubt Ian would have the confidence to run off and face minotaurs alone. Now tell me. How many resources did you just burn on this floor running around without a plan?”
“We just had a health potion between us, and I finished it off just now. Ian ended up drinking two mana potions to deal with two of the minotaurs we ran into so quickly. It was also about then that I received as mana cuts as I did.”
“That was fucking stupid of you. As you might have noticed there is something wrong with this dungeon. There was no exit gate to get out of here and I can only hope that I can get you out of here by the end of the 20th floor. And because of your stunt here we will have to make do with less. You are lucky that neither of you is dead and I have some stuff in my bag that should make killing the 20th-floor boss pretty easy,” James turned a looked over each of the novices, “From this point forward you will stay with me and listen to my every word. I want to get out of here as soon as possible and preferably without anyone dying. Now let’s go. Wes is in the lead, and I will direct the way. We have a bit further to go before I know exactly where to go.”
James pointed his group towards the third path, the one neither group had explored yet. While walking he returned to his mental exercise of mapping out the maze. He continued to do this for a few minutes as they walked down hallways and found themselves at a few dead ends on occasion. They continued without interruption for a while before James stopped them.
“Wait here,” James told them all. They all stopped in their tracks, “I know the way out of here now. We aren’t too far away from the boss and exit but we will have to backtrack a bit.”
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The minotaur before them was a foot taller than the ones previously and was only accommodated by the dungeon thanks to taller domed ceilings in the boss room whose door had just closed for their group. The minotaur wore a slightly different style of armor to fit its larger body. It sported twice as many horns as the others and additional ones were attached to the pauldrons on its arms. Under all the armor James could barely see its bull-like features. It wielded a large sword instead of axes and swung at them as soon as the door started to close.
“Wes get up there and take the hits. Ian starts burning pieces of its armor off before it can do too much to Wes. Same with you Derek.”
The boss minotaur pushed Wes back with every attack. When Derek stepped in he could barely hold up his sword as the minotaur bashed against him repeatedly. Ian’s attacks mostly passed over the boss with few changes. Each of the fire attacks seemingly took longer each time because Ian was weary of accidentally hitting Wes or Derek.
From behind Naomi and James fired arrows with their full force when an opening presented itself. The minotaur was careful to let arrows fly by or hit more armored areas if possible. For now, at least it was held back by Wes and Derek confronting it.
Derek went it for an upward swing when the minotaur swiped from the side. The minotaur’s strength was too much, and Derek’s went flying. If he hadn’t let go then it would have left with his hand as well.
Derek was about to let out a string of curses when the minotaur’s free hand grabbed him and threw him into Wes. More cracks formed on Wes’s shield and Derek felt something break within him as the two of them hit one of the walls.
“This isn’t working,” said Ian desperately.
The minotaur took a swing for him, and he barely ducked under the swing, taking the opportunity to release a wave of heat so close to the minotaur.
“I know. We are bleeding it slowly,” said Ian backing up a bit more.
“Too slow right now.”
Seeing the desperate nature of the situation James took out one of his potions. He knew he shouldn’t use so much but if Ian stepped back any further then he and Naomi were going to be in trouble. James uncorked the bottle with his teeth and threw the glass at the minotaur’s head.
The minotaur let itself get hit by the bottle because it was preoccupied with Ian and thought it was safe, to its detriment. The glass shattered on its helmet and the metal immediately began bubbling. Shortly after the minotaur was howling as the acid met its flesh.
Ian didn’t have to do much to finish off the minotaur as it slowly died regardless.
“Is everyone ok?” James asked.
Derek and Wes were getting up and nodded as they split one of the last three health potions. The room was cast in blue light as the brick room was lit up by the exit portal. James half hoping for a miracle looked to the other portal. The glow never came.