He enters a labyrinth, he multiplies by a thousand the dangers already inherent in the very act of living, not the least of which is the fact that no one with eyes will see how and where he gets lost and lonely and is torn limb from limb by some cave-Minotaur of conscience.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Seph materialized inside a great maze. Three walls surrounded him in three directions, with only one way to go. The place stank of manure, and he could hear the rumbling of the breathing of some beast coming from somewhere.
“Okay, this is bad. Judging by the stink of this shit, there is a big ass monster lurking around here, and I don’t see well to begin with.” Seph whispered to his monkey friend, while trying to squint his eyes and see if there was any danger in the immediate vicinity.
Suddenly he heard a loud bang, and a female voice screaming loudly, followed by another loud bang on the wall, and then the heavy running of enormous feet on the ground, undoubtedly the feet of the monster, he thought.
But that female voice could only mean that he wasn’t the only one facing this challenge. Who could it be, though?
He took out a fire leaf and found that it glowed slightly in the dark, making him see better. He had various ways now to create fire if he wanted, but none of them were quiet, and he didn’t want to face whatever that was on his own.
He started moving slowly forward, while hearing the loud foot stomps of the beast coming from somewhere to his right.
Sun, meanwhile, sat on his shoulder, holding his own nose closed to block the smell.
After moving forward for a while, Seph could feel that not only was there the former female who screamed with him in this challenge, it seemed like there were more. He could hear the occasional loud step or a grunt or various small voices, but there were many people in this challenge for sure.
The sounds created by the gigantic beast quietened as well. It didn’t catch whoever it was running after.
After a while, Seph bumped into something huge. He looked above him in trepidation, only to find the equally alarmed face of Gabalawi looking down on him.
Seph composed himself faster and said, “Shhhh, we think there is a gigantic monster somewhere around here. It’s great to see you again, Gabalawi. We gotta move this way and attempt to rescue whoever it was the girl who screamed, though.”
“There are more of us here? I thought I heard some noises, but I didn’t guess it was other cultivators, I also didn’t hear any girls scream, good to see you again Seph and Sun.” Gabalawi said his tension visibly dissipated a little after finding strong company he can depend on.
Seph felt more confident to face anything with Gabalawi by his side, and so they both started heading to the right where Seph had heard the scream.
But someone else had gotten there before both of them.
****
image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]
Esme materialized in the labyrinth after her last challenge. She was back to her melancholic self, after losing the company of Dahlia, who seemed to want to be her friend.
That feeling was new to her: friendship, such an alien word on her tongue, a word she never thought she would get to experience.
But then they got back to the challenge, and she lost the only person who seemed interested in her.
She heard tales about people becoming friends after fighting, but people becoming friends after nearly killing each other is a new tale.
She felt she could have died from that fire-breathing bottle that Dahlia threw at her, but Dahlia showed genuine remorse after that, and spent considerable effort to talk with her.
She hasn’t seen her since then though, and she doesn’t know if she will survive this Labyrinth, or if Dahlia will survive. She might end up alone again after these trials, or dead. Dead sounds much better, though.
She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize her surroundings, or the stench of manure around her, but she finally did when she felt a hot powerful breath coming down on her.
She looked up alarmed only to find a humongous metallic Minotaur bearing down on her. She froze in fear, but the Minotaur didn’t give her fear anytime to sink in and attacked her with a huge hammer.
She used her new defensive skill of hardening her hair to protect her, and it did, but she got launched back into a wall anyway, which made her scream in pain.
She got over her pain, and got up, because the Minotaur was rushing towards her.
It swung the hammer again, but she thought fast and held the top of the labyrinth wall with her hair and pulled herself to the next hallway.
After the loud bang of the hammer that was targeting her hit the wall, the Minotaur ran towards her, because it knew the labyrinth like the back of its hooves.
Esme whined in pain for a few seconds in the next hall, before composing herself and climbing the wall to another hallway. That way, the Minotaur didn’t know where she was anymore.
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She didn’t have it in her to beat this beast by herself. Her hair can’t possibly pierce its metallic structure, and she hadn’t anything else to fight with.
She was safe for now, but for how long?
****
image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]
Dahlia had been searching the halls of the labyrinth for a while, while fanning herself with her foldable fan. She was the only challenger who didn’t have the displeasure of smelling the manure all around.
Not only was her fan capable of providing her with scented air. Since she became a cultivator and since she specialized in flowers, her own body gained a certain flowery scent that would make all women envious of her, and would make all men desire her.
But she wasn’t thinking of men, not lately. Something about Esme attracted her, her vulnerability maybe?
Her solitude? Is she attracted to be the only person allowed in her fortress of solitude?
That’s not saying Esme isn’t pretty, she is gorgeous, but rarely would anybody get to notice that. From her hair to her preference of being alone. It was very hard for anyone to approach her.
But Dahlia approached her. They became so close in that fight, so transparent, they could really see each other, and through seeing one another, they bonded and became closer.
It’s a friendship now, but Dahlia would be lying to herself if she didn’t say she wanted more.
Lonely life isn’t kind to her. Her own children surrounded her in the past, also her maids, and occasionally her cheating husband.
And even if Esme was used to loneliness before cultivation, the change from normal human to Yin cultivator is radical. You need someone with you through that journey if you are to survive, if you have any hope of not giving up to the darker side of your new reality that keeps tugging you towards evil.
She hadn’t seen Esme since the tournament, and she was on her wits’ end with worry about her new friend. She wanted to take her and get the hell out of there; not caring about the blasted big prize anymore, she just wanted to be with her friend forever from now on, get stronger together.
Oh, how she would love to call her lover instead of friend, but it would have to wait. She just got her foot into the shell that Esme had surrounding her, she would have to wait to get to that point, for now she just hoped that Esme was okay.
Suddenly, she heard the loud scream of a voice she knew so well. It’s Esme!
She became fearful for her friend’s life suddenly and ran towards the voice.
She didn’t know what she would have to face, but she knew she would face anything to save her friend.
After running for a while towards where the scream came from, she came face to face with the angry Minotaur beast.
She was taken aback by its sheer size, but acted fast and made a whirlwind of flowers circle around its face, it was obvious the flowers were not harming its metallic hide, but they were doing a good job of distracting the angry Minotaur, since it stopped advancing and kept trying to shoo away the flower petals.
Each once in a while it would lash out at Dahlia with a hammer strike, but Dahlia used a new skill she got that made her sprint away faster with the ground under where she started and where she ended turning into a flower bed.
She didn’t know how she would beat this, especially with Esme not helping her. The poor girl must have been scared out of her wits and hiding somewhere and didn’t realize that her friend came to her rescue.
****
image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]
Seph and Gabalawi could hear sounds of fighting from afar, the occasional bang from the gigantic monster, and the sound of a fast moving wind.
Seph thought it must be someone else other than the first person the monster attacked.
Both guys sped forward towards the sounds, with trepidation in their hearts as they saw many barebone skeletons in their way.
They kept thinking, what could strip the bones of flesh this clean like that?
Eventually, they reached the familiar beautiful figure of Dahlia, and found that the air smelt better here.
Gabalawi screamed, “DAHLIA!” Before he stomped the ground with his foot and the speeding fissure in the ground headed straight for the beast, Dahlia was in the way, but she sensed it and jumped before it hit her.
The beast was about to land a hit on her in midair, but the localized earthquake made it unstable, and made it hit itself with the hammer instead.
This stopped it in its tracks for a few seconds for the group to compose themselves.
Weird black lumps fell from the beast’s face where the hammer hit it, and the face seemed slightly smaller than before.
Gabalawi’s shout earlier helped Esme as well to know that her friend was fighting, and that someone came to her help, so she got out of her hiding and headed towards the voices.
“You have the best defensive capabilities out of us. I suggest you tank it while we attack it or distract it with you.” Seph told Gabalawi, who just nodded back stoically and headed to the front of the formation.
“I can distract it with my flower whirlwinds.” Dahlia told Seph.
“That’s okay, then the only damage dealers on this thing will be me and Gabalawi, I’ll try to circle around it and hit it from behind, were you the one who screamed earlier, or is there a fourth member in our team?”
“Esme is here. I was close enough to recognize her scream. I sure hope she is okay. In the meantime, we have to take care of this behemoth before we look for her.” Dahlia answered him with a worrisome look on her face.
“I agree, don’t worry. I faced many bosses before getting to this point, and I bet Gabalawi did the same.”
Seph used the Eye of the Veteran on the monster before getting into the fight.
Name: Metallic Beast of the Labyrinth
Class: Minotaur
Cultivation stage: Body Dismantling (V)
Only one stage above us, not too bad…Wait a minute, what is this tingling sensation I am getting from the Eye of the Veteran?
Seph looked inward towards his skill, and a screen popped up.
Quest
Eye of the Veteran lvl 3: Identify 10 unique bosses.
Progress: 4/10
Shit! I had totally forgotten to check on this quest. Very interesting though, 10 bosses and again it’s counting in retrospect, so I got 4 already, 6 more to go. This shouldn’t be a tough quest to finish, either.
After these thoughts, Seph focused on the fight, as the Minotaur had already restored his equilibrium and was about to attack again.