As Avis walked down the passageway, she noticed the light became sparser and less visible. She grabbed a nearby torch from the wall and continued walking. The passageway quite subtly began sloping before it turned into a stairway. She looked to the side and noticed a railway.

("With the railway here the place that would make sense is the main mine. I suppose I've drawn the hardest of the three options.")

She sighed and made her way down the stairs, making sure to keep her gait silent. She thought about abandoning her torch but saw no need against opponents of this calibre. By now she had noticed a distinct lack of torches. Earlier there was at least a set interval they would appear but so far, she had seen none in the stairway.

("They can hide all the light they want. The outcome will only be prolonged.")

After several minutes of walking she reached the end of the stairway and what greeted her was a black abyss. It was a space so wide even her torch couldn't help to show its scale.

As took her first step inside, several lights in the underground had vanished.

"Yes, I'm here, can we please get on with this?" She said to the darkness. She wasn't given a response and continued walking into the void.

Out of curiosity, she threw her torch and it didn't hit the ceiling before falling back down.

"I see they've made the most out of having such a low underground mine."

As she threw the torch upwards she noticed this quarry had paths of various heights dug out.

"I do hope that key holder isn't foolish enough to hide at the highest point."

She continued along, now at an almost casual pace and noticed the various boxes and minecarts scattered around the area.

Her annoyance was now becoming visible to any foolish enough to go close to her and she continued her search until she had to stop or risk falling. She came across a giant pit, the size she could not determine, from her torch's light alone.

"Now that I think about it, this place is more of a quarry than a mine isn't it?"

She stared over the edge of it and the little rats waiting in the dark decided to take their chance.

The moment she heard she turned around ready to accept their attack.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

("The foo-")

What came at her was not a person but a stick of dynamite. She quickly used her wire to grab and throw in the direction it came from but that wasn't the only thing coming her way. Rocks, pickaxes you name it, they were throwing anything they could get their hands on at her. She easily dodged them and even grabbed a pickaxe to parry all the stones thrown her way. She was still close to the edge and they weren't going to give up. As she walked to the source of the thrown objects she quickly dodged a minecart pushed her way. Based on how long it took for the sound of it to hit the bottom of the hole, she realized it wasn't because of the quality of light she didn't see the bottom of it.

As she dodged to the side an object from behind was thrown and she used the pickaxe to block it. Unfortunately, it was neither a rock nor a stick of dynamite but a bolas aimed at her feet.

She tumbled to the floor and a figure came into her light to deliver a dropkick. With the pickaxe now tangled with her feet she had no chance but to take the pathetically weak attack and was sent straight towards the hole.

All that was left on the ground was the torch she held.

"Did we get her?" One voiced.

"Shut up you idiot, we have to confirm she's dead."

"And how are we gonna do that? I'm sure as hell not going down there."

The man who drop-kicked her picked up the torch and started walking towards the hole.

"Could you twats, can it for a sec?"

As he walked over to the hole, he heard something hit the floor and breathed a sigh of relief. She was now either dead or had so many broken she'd wish she was.

"Alright fell-"

He assumed that anyway but he noticed something as he looked at the edge. This mine was used to excavate blocks of marble (as well as other more valuable materials) which meant it was dusty. He saw the outline of a hand gripping the edge.

"N-no way."

He calmly said before being knocked out by the maid with an almost personal blow to the face. She grabbed the torch and quickly searched him.

"Tch, not him. It looks like your leader has smaller balls than the rest of you."

Since baiting out the key holder didn't seem to be working she simply lit the place up to find him.

Anything flammable? She used her torch to light it on fire. The minecarts, the boxes and even the clothes of her defeated enemies, she would light and throw to areas in complete darkness.

"What the hell is doing?" one whispered.

"I don't fucking know, just move!" the other whispered while making his annoyance known.

They weren't sure why she did this and kept moving along as she got closer or brought light on them. She'd catch those that tripped or made noise as they moved but they were in the minority.

"Jeez, what the hell is sh- WOAH!" the man shouted.

"You jackass"

"Dumbass."

"Gobshite."

"Arsehead."

"Wanker."

"Cun- wait a second."

As they cursed at the fool for making noise, they realized there were a lot more there than they expected.

Tired of playing mouse, they began lighting their torches and stared her down. As one looked behind he realized they were in front of the pit and pulled up the one dangling on the edge.

Without knowing it, they had been corralled like a herd of cattle here.

"Now, I'm sure this isn't all of you but one of you must have it."

She pulled out her string and dropped the torch on the ground since they had been so kind to provide their own light.

Realising how bad this position was some tried to push past their comrades but it was too late. She started taking them out.

"I do hope none of you fall. It'd be inconvenient if I had to search down there for the key."