The white sand hissed under Belaphorde’s boots as he landed. The space was notably more claustrophobic than the last dungeon. A thin layer of frost glittered on the sandstone walls in the light of the gate which disappeared into the darkness of the corridor stretching out before them. Vigo turned on his pocket flashlight, illuminating a fork in the road up ahead. He whistled; the sound echoed far in each direction.

“Looks like we have a labyrinth to solve. I could see this place having deadly traps and treasure-filled tombs. There should at least be one Minotaur-shaped crystal monster.” Vigo chuckled and turned to Kaigo. “As our chosen leader this is the time to start telling us how we do this Dungeon business.”

“Yeah. Let’s have a stroll.” Kaigo turned on his light and the trio headed into the dark labyrinth.

Belphorde trailed his hand across the wall, the sand was frozen into solid bricks. He figured the whole place could come down if the temperature went up. Distant echoes of scuttling and violent bangs could be heard through the silence of the dungeon.

“What is the protocol for taking on a Dungeon? You have also yet to explain how this- “ Belaphorde held up the black crystal Needle, “is used. I’ve only ever seen you use your spear in combat.”

Kaigo spun his glave around, droplets flying off the blade and staining the white sand. His face was a bit swollen from the boxing match but the blond kept his usually dopey grin and carefree saunter.

“All higher-level monster hunting follows a similar line of action. Step one; observe. See what you are dealing with. Step two; find the energy source. For a dungeon it’s the boss, for a monster, it’s their core. If you don’t kill the core you can wack away at a creature all you want. If there are any interesting artifacts those are great to cut off. I haven’t fought a Kaiju but I imagine it’s the same, only that the body is huge. Step three: execution”

“I see. I imagine some Espers have powers that suit the recon step more than attacking. Dividing up tasks and minimizing the use of powers was a crucial component to hunts in the Guilds I have worked with.” said Vigo.

“City guilds do not have to worry about such matters. They have Guides. But the guilds would take precautions to not lose precious agents.”

“Right as always my darling Bel-boy. And sometimes there are people like me with OP powers who are great at recon and murder-killing. My steam erodes the surface of the crystal beast and forces them to use energy to protect themselves. You can kinda feel the spot the energy is coming from. Then I use my kick-ass glaive to do a water cut with minimum mana use from my side to kill the bastards. Ichor management is a pain so even I have to hold back. Death by Ichor is only acceptable if I can make it cinematic.”

“Hey,” Vigo grabbed Kaigos shoulder and locked eyes with him. The young Esper jumped and looked like a big question mark in response to the sudden shift in tone. “No death talk. Not even as a joke.” Vigo patted his back in a fatherly manner before letting him go. “I think you were supposed to tell Belaphorde how he can use the artifact you gave him.”

“Alright. Geeze. Overreact much?”

Belaphorde found Vigo’s behavior atypical towards the extravagant Esper. Gallows humor was everyday meat for the company they have kept. Vigo clearly held Kaigo with other standards.

“You called it the Needle before?” Belaphorde interjected and got Kaigo back on track.

“Yeah, the Needle. It works similarly to a syringe. The monster it was part of would pierce Espers with it and drain them of their mana and power up the creature with the Espers powers. When an Esper uses it on a Monster it drains them, causing a sudden shock to the creature and stunning them for a while. With a core used on it, the effect is quite powerful and should give you a fighting chance at survival in a close-quarters situation. I hope you see how it’s worth it for you to carry it around, even if it’s kinda awkward to hold.”

The Needle was so lightweight it was hard to see how it could hurt anything, but if all that was needed was contact with a target and power to activate it then it could indeed be useful. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

“Hope you get to use it. Your personality is better suited for killing than healing. It’s time you got some way of expressing that. You remember when we first met and I thought you were an Esper and then you knocked me out? Good times.”

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“Cool your jets kids. No one is fighting anything if we can avoid it. We are still recovering and here to learn.”

“Sure thing boss. Wait, I was the boss of this group. Ermm. Yes … Dad? Papi? Vroom-vroom Vigo?”

“As you say, sport.” Vigo patted Kaigo’s back once again when Belaphorde noticed a sudden shift in both Espers.

“Energy source up ahead and to the left. I also start feeling a hint of drag.” Kaigo spoke in a low voice and pointed with his spear.

Belaphorde could not sense the energy or drag. The Espers could use their senses to find their way in the labyrinth while Bel inherently lacked this ability as he had no mana or powers. It also meant he was immune to effects that caused ichor build-up and drag by the boss monster.

“Xablé and Angel here; roll call.” the familiar macho voice crackled loudly in the echoey hallway. Kaigo patted down all the pockets in his suit in search for a small walkie-talkie.

“Team Kaigo here with agents Vigo and Belaphorde. Over.” He related and added extra “kchzzyt” sound effects at the end before releasing the button.

“Agent Dolores reporting in. All is clear at the gate. Over.”

Xablés voice returned to the speaker. “We have spotted the Boss at 11 o'clock from the gate. Horse-like and moving quickly. No contact was made but the Boss has a strong aura and heavy drag. The bastard caught us by surprise and we had to fight a few monsters. Could we get the Guide here? We are doing alright but I’d rather go into a Boss fight with no ichor. Over.”

Kaigo looked over at Belaphorde.

“You up for it? I know Xablé can be a bit of a dickhead. It’s just how he talks though. It’s still your choice if you are up for it. We are just touristing here after all.”

“I don’t believe “touristing” is a word.”

“Oh, hush.”

“We want to go in their direction either way. Report back that we will look for them.”

Kaigo pressed the big button on his talkie.

“It’s your lucky day Xablé. Belaphorde has agreed to help your sorry ass. Over.”

“Roger that. I’m sending out a search signal. Don’t take too long making out or we’ll lose the Boss. Over.”

“Damn, he is *really* into shipping us. The pevert.” Kaigo joked as he began to move the radio from side to side. Belaphorde had a weird image in his head of being wrapped up in packing tape from the odd use of the word “shipping” but shook it off as another little weird thing to ignore.

The radio gave off a beeping tone which changed in frequency as Kaigo moved the device until it gave a flat tone as he pointed it straight at the wall.

“I see. This way you can kinda find each other without sending out energy signals or something else that might attract the monsters. Simple but clever.” Vigo remarked.

“A bit low tech if you ask me. We should have mini-maps with dots for friends and enemies. Or something like that.”

The ground began to rumble. Frost fell from the ceiling like snow. A chorus of clattering crystal legs were heading towards the group.

“Shit. Well, a thing about being S-rank-” Kaigo chucked the radio to Belaphorde and spun his spear around. “- is that you stand out like a Christmas tree in the dark for mana seeking bugs.”

“Can't you just blow out a hole through the wall so we don't have to go through the horde? I'm sure if there's another corridor nearby then it's the best choice to get to Xablé.” Belaphorde remarked.

“You sensible killjoy.” Kaigo drew a circle with the spear on the wall and then spun it to create a hydro cannon. In one burst he had created a perfect circular hole with the sandstone splattered across the wall in the other corridors.

“Ok, that was way more fun than I thought it would be. I got a real knack for DIY.”

“We can think about future demolition projects later. Let's get moving.” Vigo took a glance down the hallway where the monsters could be heard stampeding in the dark before jumping through the hole.

The trio made their way through the labyrinth following the radio signal. They moved through walls and collapsed them as it suited them. The further in they got the more floaty the Espers movements got, though the effects were more obvious on Vigo.

They found themselves in a room about as large as a tennis court with a three meter wide trench going through the middle digging deep down into the dark. On the opposite side of the room they saw a radio blinking with a red light.

Kaigo grabbed the walkie-talkie from Bel and shouted “Xablé you bastard what's going on here?”

“No time to worry about that, run!” Vigo felt a powerful pressure pressing down on him as a galloping could be heard behind them in the tight corridor.

The trio ran into the room. Kaigo vaulted over the trench and shouted in pain as he had not recovered so that he could jump around. His ankles and knees stung and he couldn't help but to feel pissed. His body had never hurt and betrayed him like this.

Belaphorde didn't feel too confident about making the jump, but he was not left any time to think about it as Vigo grabbed him, got him on his back. He ran with a trail of blue light, jumped, and crashed right into Kaigo who involuntarily cushioned their fall.

The comedy sketch trio got up on their feet and watched an obsidian centaur gallop into the room. It had forward pointing spikes and an ice blue left hand.

Kaigo didn't give it more than a few seconds before he thrusted out his spear and sent a water jet to cut the equestrian monstrosity in half.

The creature collapsed on itself. It flailed its arms around and a light surged from it's left shoulder as dark energy flowed between the halves. It raised it's icy arm and clenched it's fist as a freezing gale hit the group from the corridor behind them. The radio flew across the room and fell straight down the hole. Vigo hit the ground and tried to hold on to the ground to not be sent flying into the pit, but the sand offered nothing to grab onto. Belaphorde grabbed him with his Needle dug firmly into the ground as Vigo sent energy through the Aegis and made a sort of barrier against the monster's blizzard magic.

Kaigo was getting real tired of all of this. He raised his own hand and a gaiser sent the centaur crashing into the ceiling were Kaigo shot it's shoulder with a laser beam like string of pressured water powerful enough to cut through a diamond.

The air stilled. Vigo's mustache was more frost than mustache. All their injuries felt so much more painful in the freezing cold. Kaigo stumbled and leaned against the wall as he found it hard to think. He was so out of shape and the ichor build up felt like his body suddenly had bags of bile beneath his skin.

“I see you are developing. Perhaps we'll be friends soon.” A chilling voice called out to Belaphorde through the dark hallway. It was so alien, like the voice of deep sea submarine, a choir of eldritch whispering weaving into one voice.

Belaphorde searched for the source and saw a shimmer of smiling white diamond teeth in the dark before the visage disappeared. He turned to his companions. Clearly none of them had heard anything as they went on to collect the Boss core and cursed Xablé and their own injuries. Belaphorde had to question if he had really heard anything at all.