A frigid breeze whistled through the overgrown entrance to the labyrinth, carrying with the musty scent of decay. Zeke stood before it, hesitant to take that all-important first step into the elaborate maze. But it was necessary, as had been established over the past few weeks of travel through the wilderness.

After leaving the fallen ship behind, he and his cadre of kobolds had trekked through forests and over mountains as they searched for a way to the other side of the labyrinth. However, they’d found no such route, largely because, where the maze didn’t bar their way, giant, seemingly bottomless ravines or insurmountable mountains obstructed their path. In the end, they had no choice but to search for an entrance into the labyrinth.

“How confident are we that we’ll find a way through?” he asked, glancing at Pudge. He and the rangers had been invaluable during the trek through the wilds, and without their contributions, they would never have found the entrance that could prove to be the only way to their eventual destination.

“We will do our jobs,” Pudge stated simply. It was his answer to any question regarding the competence of his chosen team of rangers. And so far, Zeke had seen no reason to doubt his companion. Pudge was a lot of things, but boastful was not how Zeke would describe the bearkin.

So, he said, “Alright, then. You’ve set up a system, right? We’re going to have to map this thing as we go.”

“The rangers are passable cartographers,” interjected Jasper, who stood nearby with his hands on his hips. Sasha was there, too, though that was more because she wanted to see the wilderness than because her skills fit the situation. She could take care of herself, though, so Zeke didn’t mind her presence. “They can do the job.”

“Alright, then,” Zeke said. “Then let’s do it.”

With that, he strode into the labyrinth. Immediately, he felt the temperature drop – not quite to freezing levels, but much colder than the temperate forest only a few feet away. That was expected, though. The dungeon at the center of the maze was purported to be based around ice, and it had affected the surroundings appropriately. Still, Zeke preferred a much warmer climate, so he embraced his colossal form in an effort to shield himself from the worst of the cold. When he did, Pudge gave him a sideways glance before shaking his head.

“What?”

“It is not that cold.”

“You have a built-in fur coat. Of course it isn’t cold to you,” Zeke remarked.

“Baby.”

“What’d you just say?”

“You act like a baby,” Pudge said, grinning slightly. “Big man afraid of a little cold.”

“I’m going to choose to ignore that,” Zeke said.

Pudge shrugged. “Ignore it or not. Doesn’t make it not true.”

Zeke gave his bound companion a look of feigned shock. Normally, that would have prompted a wrestling match, but there were more important things to do than a bit of roughhousing. So, he changed the subject, explaining, “When we get to an intersection, we’ll stop while the rangers fan out to map the area. When they get back, we’ll move to the next section and do the same thing. Over and over until we’ve got the whole labyrinth mapped. Sound good?”

Pudge nodded.

“How many do you have?”

“Seven-hundred and twenty-three,” he answered without a hint of hesitation. “More if we used trainees.”

“Better not,” Zeke said. “We don’t know what’s out there.”

After that, they started a pattern. Every time they reached an intersection, the army of kobolds would fan out, mapping their path with the cartography skills they’d been taught by Jasper. It wasn’t a system granted skill, but they’d learned the techniques well enough that they could get by. And with each passing day, they grew more adept.

In the meantime, Zeke often retreated into the tower to go about his own tasks. He spent whole days within the Hunting Grounds working on his fighting technique, but he also spent quite a bit of time inoculating himself against his own Will. Of course, that also necessitated quite a few trips to the Crimson Springs, though, so long as he kept ahead of the worst of the damage, he never had to spend more than an hour or two at a time within the soothing waters.

He also worked on his plans for his next skill. He was still a little ways off, and in fact, he still had nine levels to go before he unlocked the slot. However, he’d found that there was no such thing as too much preparation. So, he endeavored to be as prepared as possible when the time came to build the skill.

Of course, there was also the possibility that his plans would be rendered useless by whatever skills he was offered at level fifty-five, but he was willing to take that chance for two reasons. First, he could always choose whichever option didn’t resemble his planned skill, and second, even if he didn’t, the preparation wouldn’t go to waste. Every moment he spent building a skill – or preparing the foundations for doing so – was valuable practice.

In addition to all his normal progression-centric activities, he also started down the path of a piemaker. At first, he simply got the ingredients he knew went into such an endeavor and tried to wing it. However, that resulted in some truly horrible concoctions, so he eventually broke down and solicited the help of an old goatkin woman named Margary. She was small and frail-looking, but she also had a habit of smacking him with her wooden spoon every time he made a mistake.

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Which, much to Eveline’s continuous delight, was a horribly frequent occurrence.

Yet, after only a few days, he managed to create something that resembled an apple pie. It didn’t taste great. Zeke was the first to admit that. However, it was recognizable as a pie, which was the first step in the long journey ahead of him. The moment he tasted it, he pumped his fist in mingled satisfaction and delight, though Margary pointed out that it still tasted like, “garbage wrapped in undercooked dough”.

Even so, Zeke was happy with his achievement, which only cemented his resolve to conquer the process.

But eventually, after more than a week, the time came to leave the kitchen and return to his responsibilities, because the scouts had finally found one of the Adontis strongholds that dotted the labyrinth. So, Zeke left the Lord’s Manor behind, exiting through the Entry Hall and to where he’d left the gate summoned. Stepping back into the maze brought with it a wave of cold air, but he ignored it as he asked one of the nearby kobolds, “What exactly did you find? Which fort is it?”

While waging the war with Adontis, they’d gathered quite a lot of intelligence. Some of that had been augmented by his interrogation of the prisoners in the Jail. One of the key things they had learned was the orientation of the labyrinth forts as well as their names and, most importantly, their weaknesses. Zeke had hoped to bypass those forts altogether by sailing over the maze, but now that events had transpired to force his hand, he was grateful for the thorough preparation.

“It’s Snowfall Fort, Ak-Toh,” the ranger answered.

“Snowfall, huh,” Zeke muttered. That wasn’t the best-case scenario. He had hoped that their path had taken them further into the maze. However, Snowfall Fort was situated very near the midway point, which meant that there was no way an attack would be expected. After all, if an enemy was coming for them, they would’ve had to have gone through the other four forts along way first. So, while it could have been a better situation, it certainly could have been much worse as well.

The fort itself was nothing special. Zeke and his army had conquered similar strongholds multiple times over the past months. However, there was an additional factor that made the situation unique.

“Can we take the watchtower before they light it?” he asked.

“No,” said Pudge, who’d just arrived. “It is too well guarded. We can get through them, I’m certain. Yet, doing so before they alert the other forts is impossible.”

“Damnit,” Zeke growled. The last thing he wanted was to have to fight his way through the labyrinth. The going was slow enough as it was without having the Knights of Adontis dog their every step. In addition, the Knights had the advantage of fighting on their home turf. Surely they knew secrets that would give them the edge.

“You’re looking at this all wrong,” Eveline said.

“What?” he asked.

“I said you’re looking at this like a problem. It’s not.”

“Oh? Then tell me how I should be looking at it.”

“As an opportunity,” she answered. “Do you know why war is so constant in Hell?”

“Because it’s Hell, populated by demons. I thought that was self-explanatory,” Zeke answered.

“Well, yes. That. But it’s also because there’s no better way to advance than through slaughter. And there’s no better way to do that than to go to war,” she said. “Think about it. All those bags of kill energy, just waiting to be consumed. It’s practically heaven, at least as far as Hell is concerned.”

“You think I don’t know that? We’ve been fighting a war for a while now.”

“Sure, but you’re holding back, Ezekiel. You don’t want to lose your precious kobolds, do you?” Eveline guessed. “Listen, you can probably get past these forts. Just send everyone into the tower, then sneak by on your own. If you encounter anyone who might raise the alarm, kill them. You can do that much on your own.”

“Yeah, but what –”

“Or you can pull out all the stops and kill everyone in those forts as you massacre your way to the other side of this labyrinth,” she suggested. A second later, Eveline amended, “Well, not the beastkin slaves. You can add those to your army to replace any losses.”

“That’s a coldhearted way to look at it.”

“Pragmatism wins wars.”

Zeke sighed, but he didn’t immediately respond. He had two paths in front of him. One in which he could reasonably expect to find his way to the other side of the labyrinth without losing any of his people. If he chose that route, they wouldn’t have a chance to develop and progress. But they would be alive.

The other way would be to abandon the notion of sneaking past the various forts. The original plan was to fly over the labyrinth, land, and hit the Knights of Adontis from a direction they didn’t expect.

Attacking from the center, rather than from the other side still followed the same principle; the only difference was that they would run the risk of being surrounded and attacked from both sides. The rewards, though, were significant. The war had already been good for his people, ushering them to much higher levels of power than they could have otherwise achieved. Already, the kobolds were a force to be reckoned with, and the centaurs as well as the beastkin weren’t too far behind.

But more than anything, Zeke’s choice came down to one simple factor: he couldn’t afford to continue coddling his people. He felt responsible for their well-being, but didn’t that include giving them the opportunity for advancement? If he didn’t, there was every chance that they would soon encounter some obstacle they couldn’t overcome. But if he managed to push each of the kobolds toward one more level, then maybe that would make the difference between victory and defeat.

“We attack,” he said aloud. “But we’re going to do it smart.”

“Something new and different for you,” remarked Eveline in his mind.

He ignored her. Instead, he explained his intentions regarding the battle plan. First, he directed the rangers to continue their exploration and mapping of the labyrinth. He wanted to move quickly, and the only way to do that was to know the way through. As they set off, using their skills to mask their presences, Zeke went on to explain the rest of his plans.

Strategically, it wasn’t particularly complex. The idea was to hit each fort hard and fast, then move on to the next before the Knights had a chance to properly react. With any lucky, three of the seven remaining strongholds would fall without significant defenses being raised. After that, they would backtrack and take on the ones they’d already bypassed by approaching the forts by way of an unknown entrance into the maze.

Zeke knew it wouldn’t go precisely as he planned, but as far as he could tell, it was the best way to take advantage of their mobility as well as the surprise they had on their side.

So, with that in mind, they continued to wait. Every now and then, a patrol of Knights would pass near where Zeke had summoned his gate, but they didn’t seem terribly vigilant in their responsibilities. As a result, the patrols never even looked down the side passages that led deeper into the labyrinth, and instead, followed their prescribed route without variation. Meanwhile, the kobold rangers, led by Pudge, continued their own scouting duties, and over the next week, they managed to map a route to through to the end of the labyrinth.

It took another few days, but they did the same in the other direction, even marking the dungeon location along the way. And just like that, the labyrinth was completely mapped, and the preparations for the continuation of the campaign against the Knights of Adontis were complete.

“It looks like we don’t have anything else to keep us from going forward,” Zeke said aloud.

No one else was around, but as always, Eveline was there to say, “It appears so. Good luck.”

And so, Zeke motioned for one of the kobolds to gather the rest of the army so they could commence the first attack of many to come.