CHAPTER 8 – TIP TOES TO CARNAGE

Labyrinth of the Shade – Gideon Sho

***

Gideon had spent the next two days gathering intel and scouting but refusing to engage. He was also dragging his pride back together after face-planting thirty feet into stone but such was life. It was a difficult challenge as even though the labyrinth was huge they were all paths that led to one of the bases of the hunters. Granted he could and did use [Birthed of the Eternal Eve] to slip by or just hide from the ever-encroaching enemies yet still he needed to rest at some point. His old hidey hole with no rat alarm was suspect at best especially now that at least one of the hunting groups was out and about.

The one thing that saved his ass was finding a small alcove of all places in the actual ceiling. Freddie had zeroed in on it with his bat sonar or whatever it was. It also happened to be right above a swarm of rats but it was fine. He got to utilize his AOE and Aura more, speaking of which in the last couple days due to more rats he was able to raise both Abilities by 1 in addition to several others from his run in with the Barghest. He was currently in the alcove which was a literal cubby hole only eight by eight but at least it was a place he could catch some rest, and well, look at his gains.

He zeroed in on just that part of his [System Template] and threw it up.

Offense – The Edge of the Deep Umbral (Epic) – Concept – Level 12 (Copper)

Offense/Control – The Pitch of the Umbral Moon (Ancient) – Concept – Level 12 (Copper)

Movement – Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade (Epic) – Concept – Level 16 (Copper)

Utility – Birthed of the Eternal Eve (Epic) – Concept – Level 14

Aura – Night of the Ecliptic Horror (Epic) – Concept – Level 16 (Copper)

His Abilities were getting there though still a far cry from breaking the Iron Rank boundary. He needed every Ability at the peak of 24 ready to slip into 25. Still a shit ton of ladder climbing to go. Also the second Ability he ever got was getting no play. [Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade]. It was a great tool and a go-to in most situations but in these confined spaces less useful then [Birthed of the Eternal Eve]. When one was outside in open areas where the latter would be less useful with far less shadows with which to hide, it was his first choice every time but irregardless he needed to somehow utilize it.

His plan had been to hit Iron Rank within this System generated dump but he wasn’t so sure after seeing the aftermath of not only his demon puppy lure and ambush but the other hunters seemed to have ran into each other and done his work for him at least once not counting the current siege.

The Sanctum seemed to have lost several including their light generating whoever. All they had now were the torches the place had plus a bonfire they’d set up right near the entrance to their base. Those flames did keep him from wanting to find out more but he’d only seen one man near the fire with a big boned Eldarin Woman periodically coming to converse with him in clipped tones. At a guess he thought their Commander was still alive and huddling in the small stone fort they had. The Barghest had done some heavy lifting, killing at least three from his observations, a good day’s work if he did say so himself.

They seemed to be for the moment not leaving their compound which was understandable after being mauled by beasts and having no clue whether there were more roaming the halls but uncharacteristic from the Sanctum he’d experienced in the Tutorial. He wasn’t going to complain, the longer they hid in there the easier it would be to wipe the rest, and they were helping him in that arena. And that thought led him to what he’d found out about his fav four-armed demons and lizard dragon wanna bes.

He could tell they’d clashed when he found the evidence in one of the passages between their two bases, heavy patches of blood that had got his [Tracking] up another Level which had him theorizing in a hot sec. He’d always wondered why that was a Class Skill of [Umbral Savage] as everything else about it came across as a lethal killer, one meant for solo work or as he’d thought before, if in a military force, one that broke formations. Then it dawned on him. A bounty hunter, a hunter of men or elves or whatever. That made more sense.

The Class would thrive in that profession. It was Umbral so automatically had [Stealth] as a General Skill and added along with [Tracking] and all the combat oriented Skills, yep, made sense. Gideon was pretty sure in the Multi-Verse he’d seen so far there was definitely a call for bounty hunters, in fact, he’d bet two dimes to a dollar that the Unchained probably had a whole division of bounty hunters. That seemed right up the whole mercenary Faction’s alleyways.

And now he understood perfectly why he’d been offered it. Senator Davis Wells. He’d spent two years dismantling his entire enterprise to finish with killing the man himself, certainly in the bounty hunter territory or well assassin but assassins were usually a one kill hire. So yep, what he’d been doing was far more in the bounty hunter territory than assassin. It also made sense why he had [Light Armor] as a Skill instead of one of the heavier armors. It’s meant for speed and hunting. That was also why his Class had no Defensive Slot. Unlike L’Sana with her [Spectral Reaver] Class which had [Medium Armor] and a Defensive Slot.

He could imagine her Class more being for heavy blitz raids. He could imagine a whole slew of them getting out of their longboats and hitting some unsuspecting village hard but have enough defensive measures and armor to withstand resistance and still with two Offensive Slots to overwhelm the opposition.

Another mystery that had boggled his mind was how the hell the System had shoveled everything neck deep in Umbral Runes? It was not natural in any way, shape or form from all his previous experiences and he knew without a doubt that it, like the Barghests, had been another hidden weapon to see him dead. The fact it prevented him from using his runic sight was a hard rip out of his tool box but it was what it was. Freddie had once again come to the rescue. He said that now that he’d actually been looking for it, he’d noticed an overabundance of runes emanating from all the purple torches spread throughout the place. Gideon couldn’t confirm it without utilizing his actual runic sight but he trusted his AI buddy. It was an ingenious way of accomplishing the endeavor, some rune etched torches that did nothing but create a weak illumination and a shit ton of Umbral runes. If Gideon hadn’t realized the fact in a situation where it didn’t immediately kill him it would have been a hard press for it not to do so.

He shook his head, shifting his body in the small ceiling cubby, his new home. Enough theorizing. He knew he had some heavy nerd in him and had spent a good part of his youth reading every Role Playing System he could get his mitts on, absorbing every bit of world creation he could chew while creating endless characters and running them through an ever-evolving stream of stories in his head. His best friend since he never really had actual breathing ones and with an Uncle that acted like he didn’t even exist, his escape. Still, right now in a labyrinth of death probably not the best time to dip into.

Back to what he was able to pull from the whole blood patches and scene of the scrap. He’d found green blood and black blood, more of the former than the latter. His [Tracking] had told him at least two of the Troglodytes met their end based on the amount of blood spilled unless they had a seriously good healer, and at least one of the Demons. Which now made sense when he’d come upon the siege or that was what he was calling it. In reality it was the four-armed demons sitting on the entrance to the Lagoon and spouting insults and taunts attempting to lure the Troglodytes out into the passages and away from the water.

The Demons only had four which meant another had died somewhere else and they were led by a vicious looking specimen who held the biggest spiked mace Gideon had ever seen. Iron Rank rolled off him and he didn’t need Freddie to tell him that. He was joined by another big plate wearing demon but different than the earlier one, this hulking specimen holding some kind of pike and tower shield.

In addition ot those two there was a female demon with a massive bow and one with four short blades, both looking like the underhanded rogue types with some form of leather light armor adorning their bodies with a hint of metal over it, like a chainshirt. He didn’t see the heavy plate wearing one with the axes so assumed he was one of the dead. And that was where he’d left them as far as intel gathering and retreated back to his cubby hole to contemplate and catch some zzzzzzs. He’d slept for a good hour but Freddie woke him with a whisper. He felt warmth radiating from his cloak and he sent her a thank you.

“One of the demons is below in [Stealth] but his sneaky can’t escaped my senses. It is the skinny one with the swords. He doesn’t seem to know our whereabouts and just seems to be scouting moving cautiously in addition to the vibrations he is sending off radiate a calm.”

Gideon wasn’t sure what he wanted to do? Does he let the scout go by? Kill him? If he kills him especially right here below his cubby it would ruin another haven for himself but how often will he get a chance to isolate one of his enemies? Decisions, decisions. He whispered to Freddie.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Is he still beneath us?”

“No, he’s moved down the passage that leads to the Sanctum and the Barghest Cave. He’s still moving cautiously but at a good pace in a crouch. His [Stealth] is very low skilled Gideon. I would guess at Primitive I, maybe II.”

It was just too tempting a fruit and would allow him to gauge himself against another Peak Copper Ranked Citizen. If he remembered correctly the Demon’s Bloodline boosted their Strength and a bit of their Body. He didn’t remember any other particulars in his one scrap with them. Well, besides the mage and tank one had been a pain in the ass but below was their version of a rogue and he couldn’t imagine that being a strong take in the Infernal Soul-Pillar.

He could be wrong but Infernal came across as flames, flames, and more flames along with brute force shit. Time to hunt. He focused for a moment and Skald went to storage. He was going to show this fool what [Stealth] could really do when in the hands of the Umbral.

***

He’d skulked after the Demon for quite a while through the passages implicitly trusting his [Stealth] and cloak vs the Demons Perception and Freddie hadn’t been kidding about how bad the guy’s own sneaking Skills were. With Gideon’s high Perception his [Stealth] did nothing to hide him. He could see him pretty clearly just a bit out of focus. At least he now knew what it looked like when the Skill failed miserably.

Besides moving cautiously the Demon hadn’t been doing much else. Gideon at a guess was thinking maybe he’d been sent to possibly find a back door to the Troglodyte’s cage meaning the demons didn’t know about the Sanctum which made sense since he hadn’t seen the religious fanatics leave their portion of the Labyrinth. Then the Demon did what Gideon had hoped he would, entered the Barghest cave which was now wide open with the illusory wall gone to the wind.

It was the perfect place to make his move and see how he stacked up with what had to be if not the Scions of their people, at the very least, the next step down as he couldn’t imagine the System excepting anything less when attempting to put Gideon into the ground.

He allowed the demon, who had now pulled all its blades, four straight edge short swords in its four arms, to move further into the space. The creature was only wearing leather with a light chain shirt over it. A lot of gaps. Again he wished right now he could use his [Rune-Mastery - Umbral] to have finally upgraded his daggers but it was what it was.

Unless he could figure out a way to shut off the torches or whatever was pumping the tidal wave of Umbral Runes into the place, it was a no-go. And going around attempting to put out every torch in this massive place didn’t sound feasible in the least. Focus Gideon.

The cave wasn’t overly deep, about seventies yards to the back side and half that wide. He waited until the bastard reached about the midway point. It looked like the demon either didn’t have [Night Vision] or like its [Stealth] was very low Ranked as it was squinting, blades held tight against anything coming at it when to Gideon and his own vision, it was obviously empty space.

He was going to pull a variation of what he’d tried and failed hard on with the Barghest except this time he would start it with the Ability he needed to Level up. He took some deep breaths, his cloak pulling hard and heavy on the deep pitch in the cave than activated [Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade] slipping through the Umbral to right behind the target than immediately activating [Night of the Ecliptic Horror] but before his Aura even began to billow outwards the Demon was already spinning with its right armed blades.

Gideon pushed his effective (157) Agility to dip snake fast below the arcs coercing his frame into a side roll past the twisting hips to relocate still behind the twisting form while activating [The Pitch of the Umbral Moon] but before it had even materialized reddish lines of embers lit his adversary’s flesh and his speed tripled as he kept his spin going, turning back towards Gideon’s new position, then moving like a bolt of spirit, repositioning behind Gideon and if he hadn’t the Agility he did he would have been pinned by the all four-arm thrust of blades but even boosted Gideon still had the edge on speed and rolled back and to the side, the Demon only finding empty space with his blades.

His Aura was still billowing from his Spirit and he saw the beginnings of it’s effects, the Demon twitching its head. Gideon sheathed a dagger in time with that twitch and in that open left hand [The Edge of the Deep Umbral] placed a black-silver blade of runic energy just as his arm slid forward releasing it followed by another and another, three blades in as many breaths. Right behind those attacks without a thought [Eternal Embrace of the Shade] brought him right behind the Demon again as it dodged one of the thrown blasts of energy, two of them eliciting grunts as it went right through the four-armed menace’s armor and the slowing effect took hold.

Dagger came back to hand as Gideon slid to the Demon’s back right his speed flowing for a kidney shot but one single edge barely entered before the fucker’s boosted speed once more took front and center, black blood barely coating the tip of his left dagger before whiffing on the next as the bastard spun away but then the Demon stumbled, eyes going wide beginning to see things that weren’t there courtesy of Gideon’s Aura.

The lines of ember lining the Demon’s flesh went dull. It seemed to be an Ability he had to focus to maintain and Gideon grinned under his half-mask, that is, until the wide-eyed, beginning to succumb to Gideon’s aura, Demon, growled and with a flash of red from its slit-pupiled eyes, a wave of black embered waves of energy flashed out and Gideon’s Aura went the way of the Dodo, broken by whatever Ability the Demon just used.

It threw Gideon off and the Demon took advantage. It was still shaky but it once again lit lines across its flesh and speed boosted, zipped forward, and threw a front kick into Gideon’s chest, the Bloodline Strength boost flashing an appearance, showcasing even a Rogue focused Demon could send him flying back to crash against stone, daggers tumbling to ground as a big expelling of breath croaked out of his lungs from the impact.

[Pain Resistance] did it’s thing as well as [Combat Awareness] and the decade of combat experience Gideon had stepped through as his empty hands came up with dark and silver edged blades in each and let fly, one, two, and another out of each hand. The Demon’s boosted speed had it dodging two of them but two slid through and once again had it stumbling in pain as the blades of night ignored armor. Once again small flecks of black ice formed on chest and right shoulder. When the Demon’s eyes lifted up after the stumble it’s prey was nowhere to be seen.

Gideon was a shadow above the fucker on the ceiling as he accessed his Health and resources. The ceiling seemed to becoming like a second home to him in this shit-hole. His Health was High-Yellow from the kick into stone hammer once again showing the insane amount of Strength these Demons had. Granted, part of that Gideon believed was the combination of Strength along with the boosted Agility from his Ability and the stone as a backdrop but still. He could feel the cracked rib and strained back muscles even through [Pain Resistance] and his Spirit was Middle-Yellow and Stamina the same but dipping as he played shadow. He’d severely underestimated his opponent and truly other Citizens were proving to be much tougher adversaries in many ways than the beasts he’d gone against so far. His mind flashed back to the Wyvern and the Arcane Master Golem. Well, maybe not that much tougher if at all. Those two were fuckers he’d remember for a long time.

A few breaths later Skald appeared in his hand as the Demon was starting to recover from his Aura and his thrown blades. He couldn’t have that. The Demon’s speed and Perception were tough to get past but he’d been running that boosting Ability of his for most of the fight so his resources had to be getting low or so Gideon hoped. As a shadow he was in command here as it was pitch night in the Barghest Cave and though the opponent below seemed to have a high Perception he had very little [Night Vision]. He was doing well when Gideon had been within ten to fifteen feet of him but was not able to pick him out now as a shadow thirty feet above. Gideon made some choices and slid with the shadowy Skald across the distance to the far wall, then down.

Gideon realized the guy he was going against was a hard counter, fast, an Ability that shut off others and something that boosted his speed that he could maintain with focus. He needed to blank his mind, get that boost off. He couldn’t rely on him just running out of Stamina.

The Demon still had its blades up, eyes roaming every direction. Not having the Party chat was a hard hit as he would be having Freddie give him the low down on what he could get on this guy’s health. Gideon had hit him with at least three or four of his umbral knives.

It didn’t matter. It was time to go for broke. He sent a bit of Will into his cloak and did his best to impart his plan and hoped somehow she would understand. A warm pulse was the only answer he got and was going to get but it was good enough. High risk, high reward.

He took off legs pumping as he let his shadow body slip into the real. The demon immediately reacted as once again Gideon pulled blades from [The Edge of the Deep Umbral] and tossed two as he closed the gap. He followed with a horrible throw of Skald to follow them without breaking stride then went into a slide. His Perception caught the Demon, still boosted, red glowing lines crossing its flesh, dodge both energy blades followed by all four of its swords knocking Skald out of the air to than look down at the sliding Gideon as a kunai flew from his fingertips from no more than six feet.

The Demon let out a high churdling scream as the throwing blade entered its right eye in a fountain of black blood as Gideon’s cloak stretched out pulling Skald to his waiting hand as he cut ground in the slide to just below the Demons writhing frame as two of its hands were to its face, blades clanging off the ground. The red lines on its body winked out, its focus broken. It pivoted its head down to catch sight of a rising Gideon with Skald coming. It tried to lean back out of the line of assault but without the boost it couldn’t match Gideon’s speed, the slide ending in his legs exploding his entire body up, Skald entering beneath the Demon’s jaw and out the top of its head.

Gideon couldn’t stop all the momentum from his charge and slide though and barreled over the corpse that had been a demon, and Skald, stuck in its skull, acted as a pole vault, launching him up and over to a heavy painful landing on his back. Fuck. His already strained muscles and messed up rib screamed in protest. Gideon didn’t want to move. He already felt his cloak pulling darkness to boost his healing and Freddie’s voice slid into his ear.

“That was AMAZING!!!!!!!! Team Gideon for the WIN!!!!!!!! Oh my, that’s better than when Anthony Hopkins came out in the end of Legends of the Fall after he’d had a stroke in the big fur jacket right when they were gonna take Brad Pitt’s Character Tristen into the woods to shoot him and then threw his jacket open with a shotgun in his hand yelling ‘You won’t take my Son!!!!’ Seriously Gideon. I got teary eyed all 842 times I’ve watched that. I haven’t mentioned that before have I? No, no, you have mentioned it. So let me set up the whole scene for…”

Freddie kept going and Gideon just took a deep breath and tuned him out as he curled himself into his cloak and waited for the healing to stop the spikes of pain up his spine.