Jacob was physically, mentally, emotionally, and magically exhausted. He had been fighting non-stop for God knows how long.

He was standing in the middle of a shimmering magic dome just big enough to stand upright in the center. Three other mages were sitting inside the magic dome on the sand. He had little mana left and what he did have left was slowly being siphoned away to the magic dome. He didn't have enough mana to power any of his mana-hungry spells. He was a sorcerer, that was all his spells.

The swordsmen, earth mage, and commander Erwin were the only ones still fighting. The dome produced little light but for the swordsmen, it was enough. They were fighting against an army of tendrils that shot out of the sand in the darkness. Their jaws were lined with razor-sharp teeth. Most of the mages were out because of the tendrils poison.

The swordsmen were blurred figures as they zoomed across the sand. They kicked up dust clouds as they chopped, sliced, and slashed, at the tendrils. They made a bloody rain of gore, and viscous materials like bits of meat, jaws, blood, and more. They were cut down by the hundreds with every move from the swordsmen, yet the waves of tendrils didn't seem to thin.

The only mage still fighting was Isaac the earth mage. He was flinging boulders, solidifying the sandy ground into a solid dull grey stone trapping many, Petrifying thousands at a time, throwing large stones that shattered into fast-moving shards, and just being a force to be reckoned with.

He was able to keep up with the swordsmen as he had cast spells like Stoneskin, Earthmeld, and Rock armor, on himself. due to which his face and body were completely covered in rocks, stones, and sand which wouldn't even leave space for his eyes. He would go in and out of Earthmeld as he sunk through the sand with his entire body becoming one with the earth and gliding through.

When he fought the blood-covered battlefield would look like a giant's hand had torn it up. It was so dark in the Raithmaun that he could only sense the Tendrils by Seismic sensing. The swordsmen were working by the dim light of the dome and their trained ears.

It was hard to overestimate how many tendrils there were. The mages in the dome could only see a few meters from the dome and then it got darker, and all they saw was the hundreds of thousands of tendrils around them trying to go through the barrier or under it. They were cut by swords as crops would by sickle. They were cut by the thousands and then thousands took their place.

The battle continued for a while until the carnage the group wrought paid off and there were no more tendrils to fight. Isacc continued to be covered in the earth while resting with the swordsmen and commander Erwin.

They would go and search for the prince in some time but right now they needed to rest.

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It had been a while and Nico and been phasing in and out of unconsciousness. He had no idea how long he had been sitting in the same place, but time meant less in the dark. He was starting to get hungry, when he saw some lights in the dark distance.

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"What? Had they won? Were they alive?" he wondered hopefully. He was shouting and waving with his left hand as his right side was injured heavily. They must have noticed as they started rushing to him faster. They were using a few Light balls that shone like the sun in comparison to the dark surroundings.

When the group reached Nico a mage knelt near him to treat his wounds. Nico was about to say something when the pain flared again due to muscle movements. Cassandra was a light mage with slight healing skills.

She first gave a slight check to see which parts were damaged. She had expected to have to cauterize the wound but strangely the Blood had somehow fully clotted around the area. She was mainly concerned about infection and the poison from the tendril but Nico just said that those would be fine.

So she called the rock and earth-covered Isacc to her. She would first cast a spell to burn away all of the impurities from Nico's side and then Isacc would meld some sand to act as a temporary replacement onto his side.

"No," Nico said when he heard the plan."What? Do you want to be a liability or do you want to move?" Cassandra said slightly confused and angry. "No means that I will not let you burn my body," Nico said with some measure of annoyance. "I am trying to heal you. so just go with it" Cassandra said while trying to hide her growing annoyance.

Nico was about to say something when he suddenly just collapsed. Cassandra looked in shock until she heard Jacob say "Well, thank me or something. I might be executed if we return cause of that.".

She immediately began casting the spell and then applying the warm glowing light to Nico's injured side. She saw it get redder as the affected area started to look better. It was burning away the coagulated blood and replacing it with a transparent thin skin-like layer.

She then concentrated the spell on the mound of sand with a paste-like consistency. Isacc slapped the hot and now sanitized sand onto the thin skin-like layer. He then worked on shaping it till it wasn't bulky. The sand now had a rubbery texture that felt like tough skin.

The brown substance would make sure that it wouldn't hurt anymore.

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Nico woke confused and with a slight headache. He was on the shoulder of Commander Erwin who was tasked with carrying the unconscious prince. Nico looked around, there was blue light coming from crystals growing out of the massive walls. it was dark but visible.

The ceiling was so high that he couldn't see it properly. all he could make out was that they were in a slightly lit cave, no, cavern made out of sandstone and was big enough to store seven dragons with room to spare. It was unfathomably large and made him feel like a small, tiny little ant.

He noticed that most of the group was missing. Including but not limited to Cassandra, Isacc, and Jacob.

He and everybody there were in the prison of monsters of titanic proportions, An ecosystem of vermin and colossal monstrosities, The home of living calamities. They were all in the labyrinth.

He had read about the labyrinth. It was a cesspool of ecosystems with occasional "Corridors" and entrances. Monsters were weeded out until only vermin who have become part of the labyrinth, and monsters of devastating power are left.

There was a bellowing sound that made the entire area shake. It sounded like a mountain crashing like pure power was poured into a roar. It was coming from directly behind them. Nobody turned to see what happened. A sound like the grating of stone except much, much louder was heard. A stray Beam of light so intense crashed into the wall burning a shallow hole into it.

Nico looked in the direction from where the light beam came from and saw a towering figure. It was a giant with 2 enormous horns jutting out of its head. It's entire body was covered in shaggy brown fur. Its head was that of a bull with the torso of a hairy humanoid giant and the legs of a powerful bull. It was a minotaur