CHAPTER 10 – A WINK AND A PRAYER

The Labyrinth of the Shade – Gideon Sho

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Gideon gathered his fallen daggers and pulled his kunai from the eye socket of the soon to be fading corpse. The System did what it had done in the Monster Waves. Every dead body including the rats went back to wherever they were pulled from or at least that was where he imagined they went or the System could just be disintegrating the body, who knew? Who cared? It was moot and Freddie chimed in it was to limit resources being taken and the challenge made less so by Citizens with crafting ability. It tracked with what he knew of the murderous miserly System.

With all his weapons where they should be and Skald in hand he limped back to his cubby hole in [Stealth], his cloak doing its best to push his healing. Once he arrived he sat in the small space and waited for his torn back muscles and ribs to once again heal. Several hours passed as his mind drifted over everything he was mired in.

Gideon had beaten the Demon by the skin of his teeth and had to re-access the actual danger he was in. He knew the odds had been stacked against him by the System but the actual reality of how skewed against him the System had twisted it cemented itself into his brain for the first time. He’d fought one of his true adversaries now and been knocked around. He’d won, yes, but it had been a challenging fight. And that was one of them. There were far more left including Iron Ranked with Sub-Classes and Paths, whatever those were. Freddie still had his mouth clamped on what to expect with those other than they were a boost.

He hadn’t really been that injured so his mind was making it closer than it had been but close enough to know he wouldn’t want to tackle two of them at the same time. It was the first time in his life his thoughts drifted to challenges that made him query how to do get them done and if he had the tools to accomplish them. Certainly he had faced challenges he would have failed without the help of others. The Master Golem came to mind immediately but the difference here being he’d never gone into a fight thinking anything other than he’d find a way to come out on top, doubt non-existent.

Doubt, that was the word here. Never fear. It was more of a logical analysis of his tool sets measured against what he was up against. Gideon had always been a man that strove forward no matter the odds. He wouldn’t even use the word ‘Hopeful’ as it was more he just never took the time to think of failure. He always had a goal, a mission, and put his head to the grindstone chewing up each step that would get him there without wasting any thought to what could go wrong.

The reason was simple. He was always meticulous in planning and strategizing and training beforehand. By the time he was done with all the prep once he got moving he put no thought to anything other then getting where he needed to go trusting he would put down whatever stood in his way. The System changed all that in a hot sec with everyone having what seemed like an endless variety of superpowers and the more he advanced he had come to the reality that he wasn’t the only one that was getting more tools and no matter how special ed he was there were almost an endless amount of elites and powerhouses in the cast swathe of the Multi-Verse.

The Demon he’d fought showed him a pure Rogue was most likely not the forte of the Infernal Pillar but the Demon would have made a hell of a mage killer. With that Ability that canceled Gideon’s Aura and the boost to his Agility he could maintain on top of his natural Bloodline that made even the smaller Demons hit like a truck? Add in at least a low level [Stealth] capability and Mages who usually didn’t focus on Perception would be fodder for the build. It was always good to learn overall strengths and weaknesses of different Soul-Pillars though he had to remember there could still be outliers within each.

The System itself no matter how many times he thought he’d gained at least a bit of understanding on how things worked it would turn everything Gideon knew on its head. Pure chaos was the norm, him being tossed from one calamity to the next again and again where planning, strategizing, training was sacrificed with no time or tempo with which to implement.

Even here within this labyrinth he was pressed on the tick-tock of clock hands knowing his Family needed him, knowing the System’s challenges were still churning space outside of this place with their normal murderous intent. He flexed his Will. Calm. Focus. Trust your people, those you love. Trust they can handle whatever the System throws. That worked doubly for himself. He flexed his Will and pushed the pervasive doubt aside. His belief and confidence was not so easily broken. He would get through this however he had to.

He’d told himself when he entered he needed to become the old Gideon, the strategist, the killer, the face in the shadows. So far it had worked. His enemies had already killed off some of the others, the Barghests had slaughtered half the Sanctum. He just needed to continue with what he started and let go of time or impatience. Damn. Pushing aside thoughts of L’Sana, Ari, Shira, everyone was a difficult challenge but as always when push came to shove, he did what he needed to. The only help he could give them was if he survived this shit hole. As his Father always said, one step to the next.

Even after all these years still his Father’s voice rang in his head, resonating over the stretch of shifting sand. His Mother had been less about words and more about action, a hug, a look, constant empathy and compassion. She volunteered every other weekend at the local Soup Kitchen, had always been a part of the PTA at his school and even when he was five or six, had painstakingly taken on the weight of providing all the costuming for his school play where he took the role of the March Hare in an awful rendition of Alice in Wonderland. They’d forced him to sing a song and he couldn’t hold a note for the life of him but there she’d been in the front row clapping for all she was worth, eyes shining with pride.

She had no less influence than he Father on who he was and who he would be as a man. And who was that? Someone that would never quit, never lose his morality, his compassion nor his intent to end anything that came into his cross-hairs.

A deep breath. Enough reminiscence. He was healed and needed to move forward, one truth that would never change. Move forward or die. It had been his mantra since the word of his Parent’s death reached his young ears. At that point he’d been on the verge of breaking regardless of his immutable calm on the outside. He did not foresee a future for himself without them at his side only an empty void where his life, who he was, had no meaning. In that moment and crossroads he promised himself he would step forward and never stop. If all he saw was an empty space he would keep stepping until he saw something different no matter what it took.

Freddie had been quiet for a long time but knowing him he was probably watching a film or TV show. Some bouncing of thoughts would be somewhat helpful but he decided to leave his AI buddy to the things he loved. He would be there if Gideon needed him, of that he was sure. He slid from his cubbie with [Stealth] already on and his cloak doing its thing. He decided to go see the Sanctum first and see if they were still held up turtling in their base. If they were he would track back to check on the other two groups and see if the siege was still at a stand off especially after they realized their scout would never be returning.

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The place was massive though and it would take almost an hour to get to the Sanctum base alone if not a bit more moving at the cautious pace he set but it was what it was. He would not be hurried. Step after step, eyes open, watching, seeking a hole to push a blade through. It was the only path he had that would see him through this. He was against overwhelming odds so as he began so shall he finish, from the heavy pitch of night, death in one or a thousand strikes as long as in the end he was still breathing and his enemies were not.

Then a catalyst he hadn’t foreseen rose its head. He was only halfway to the Sanctum base having just passed the Barghest cave when Freddie vibrated on his wrist. He paused movement immediately and then he heard it, the sounds of people moving in armor. Whoever they were certainly had no sneak Skills as they made enough noise to let anyone and everyone know they were coming. He slid back towards the Barghest cave which was only five minutes back. To save time and allow himself to set up he activated [Birthed of the Eternal Eve] morphing to a shadow as he slid up to the ceiling and within thirty seconds was sitting fifteen yards back against the stone in the Barghest cave, hidden in the deep pitch letting go of his Ability and trusting in his [Stealth] and his cloak’s boost to it.

It only took another ten minutes before he heard the clanging of weapons and armor moving. He kept his body frozen controlling his breathing. He had no clue whether they had any high Perception builds or some Slotted Ability that would duplicate such. He’d already underestimated the Demon earlier. He would do his best to not do so again. These were, if not Scions, at least Elites of their respective Faction. They would be powerhouses compared to most of the same Rank. If he was to defeat them he had to be smart and lose the arrogance if not his confidence.

And less then a few seconds later on the back end of that thought they went past. In the lead was the man he’d seen before with a two-handed greatsword in a back sheathe wearing plate and chain then the female from before following behind. Both of them were Eldarin, the race that ruled the Sanctum and she was the spitting image of their symbol with a straight edge longsword at her hip and a large heater shield on her back. Behind them there was no doubt this was their leader and the Iron Ranked.

He wasn’t anywhere near the size of the other two who both hit about seven feet, the same size as L’Sana though bulkier while this man was a bit under that height and slender for an Eldarin, closer to the Elves he’d seen yet still with that bronze skin coloring that was all Eldarin. He wore extremely ornate battle robes and had a necklace around his neck that had an orange/red crystal at its center that if Gideon had to guess was some form of Soul-Bound item. Based on the look and knowing the Sanctum’s focus he would guess the man was a pure Spiritual Class.

Mages seemed to be less common in the Celestial Soul—Pillar as far as his own experience. He’d seen far more Spiritual and Martial Classes. Something about the man radiated a danger he hadn’t seen in the Iron Rank of the Demons. No eyes had been laid on whoever led the Troglodytes so he couldn’t judge her yet but this man not only exuded threat but had the cruel eyes he’d come to associate with the Faction itself.

Every Faction he’d either heard about or seen so far with the exception of the Temple were not good people. They were dictators, despots and overall power hungry assholes but the Sanctum took all that and added genocidal maniacs to the list. They hated anything that wasn’t the Celestial Soul-Pillar and from what he’d seen, looked down at those that were but not Eldarin. He doubted any of their higher ups were of a different race.

He kept himself from acting on his Bloodline and Class which were both screaming at him to hit them from behind and slaughter them. It was amplified more than normal with it being the Sanctum which churned the memories of the Tutorial and all the evils relayed to him by Unra, Orin and the other Shador. Not yet. He waited for them to pass before releasing a breath. The cloak had shown once it could isolate all sound but it had to pull from his resources in addition to the ambient Umbral runes of the shadows and dark and he didn’t feel it was a good trade off. Luckily it worked out. None of them seemed to be built as Perception builds.

He cautiously followed in their shadows giving a good amount of space not that he needed to be that close knowing the passage besides a few dead end paths would lead directly to the siege if it was still going on. In fact for something the System called a labyrinth it wasn’t very maze like. It was certainly massive and endless passages and with the rats which were becoming few and far between but was a rather simple design leading to the three bases for the three groups of hunters. Besides the Barghest den there hadn’t been much complexity he’d seen. He’d also still not found anything remotely like an exit but he assumed it would be in one of the aforementioned Faction bases or something that appeared once they were all corpses.

It took quite a while, almost an hour to get to the Troglodyte base not that the Sanctum were skulking or sneaking but were moving glacially slow, the threat of violence emanating from them around every corner they turned. It made sense cause as far as Gideon knew this had been their first foray into the labyrinth so had no clue what or when they would face something. They more than likely knew of the rats based on the floating light bulb he’d seen when he’d first scouted them out. But without their Light Lady to produce said illumination the only other source of light besides the purple torches of the labyrinth itself was when they had their front liner with the two-handed blade unsheathe his weapon showing its naked edge which he ignited in some kind flames. Gideon at first somewhat thought of them as flames but had to re-access after watching them for a few turns of passages, more of an aemanation of radiating heat with slight sparks of golden red fire that would occasionally spark like the heat of the sun with solar flares popping off it.

Eventually they got closer and with his high Perception he could begin to hear voices even over the loud noise of the Sanctum and their armor but before he could blink twice the high Ranked Sanctum leader lifted his hand and sparks of red gold fell off him, an Aura, and his people and the sound they made faded to nothing. Gideon was curious what it did besides the obvious? He was sure it did far more than just silencing sound and it was interesting to see another Class with an Aura slot and he could tell it was an Aura as it stayed centered on him as they moved.

It was the first time he’d seen it outside his own. Freddie had mentioned Auras were very rare and usually only seen if one reached an Epic Class which usually wasn’t till they evolved at Silver if then. He was still restricted in giving him too much information about Ranks and it took a lot for him to even part that much. He would love to get his buddy’s take on the Aura he was looking at but without the Party Interface they both knew better than to make any sound.

He continued to trail after the Sanctum and as they slid around a bend Gideon recognized, knowing it came out at the entrance to the Lagoon, he tensed, ready for anything. What he saw boggled his mind for a moment as it looked like the Troglodytes and Demons were, negotiating? That wouldn’t be a good outcome for him.

He slid closer and heard the egotistic words of the Sanctum leader as he let his Aura drop. He saw the big tanky demon look like he wanted off his leash at the sight of the Sanctum but the leader showed some uncharacteristic restraint from what he’d seen in the Tutorial pf the Baraleth. It didn’t bode well for Gideon if he had a truce between his enemies but he could use the naked aggression seething on the tanky demon’s face and the similar look on the lizards he could see behind them.

Gideon slid closer to the Sanctum as quiet as he could pulling both kunai and shifted till he was directly behind the fanatics yet had a clear line of sight at his targets, the male Troglodte and the female demon with the bow. Both throws would definitely look like they were coming from the Sanctum’s direction or at least he hoped. A wink and a prayer, a famous saying in the Rangers and it would have to do. Before he could rethink his decision he let fly with both, one after the other, hitting both targets. A yelp from the male and some cussing from the woman had him smiling.

His [Stealth] broke at the attack but his cloak made up for it by pulling heavy on the pitch and still keeping him semi-hidden in the dim lighting while he took a step back into heavier darkness and just to make sure activated [Birthed of the Eternal Eve] sliding up the wall as a shadow into the heavier pitch, out of the radius of the torches. and as he moved further down the passage the clash of weapons and war cries were music to his ears.