“I’m not risking my life for your pet,” I said. While the words came out harsher than I’d intended, I meant what I said. “Look, I love dogs as much as anyone. Had a Lab and a Husky growing up myself. But you gotta be real, here. We’re jeopardizing our lives for her. I’m sorry. It’s just not happening.”

“Emma’s not just a pet!” Aerion said, his voice frantic. “She’s everything to me. She’s the only real family I have left. And… She’s saved my life more times than I can count. If I abandon her now…”

I mulled it over. This was an awful risk. That said, having an attack dog would be a big boost to our survivability. At some point, I recognized what my brain was doing. I’d done this exact same thing enough times to know it well by now. It was an art all humans perfected, one way or another. Rationalization.

Yeah, I felt bad for Aerion. I knew what it was like to lose a dog. Especially when the end came before their time. Especially knowing they were alive and mistreated... Ugh.

I sighed. “How strong is she? Stronger than you?”

Aerion nodded vigorously. “Emma’s in a league of her own. She was the one who handled most of the monsters we came across. The ones the delvers ahead of us didn’t take out, anyway. Also, her licks have restorative properties.”

“Wait, say that again?”

“They're not as effective as Sanctuary Water, but Emma's licks can heal wounds, to a degree.”

Well, shit. That was similar to the Aralez in my world, too.

“This changes everything, Aerion. Why didn't you tell me this before?”

“I thought... I felt you wouldn't want to save her if you knew she wasn't a person...” Aerion replied, looking away with embarrassment.

I groaned. “The opposite, actually. Having healing would be immensely helpful. And it's not like I don't want to help a pup in need. Of course, I do. Just needed to convince myself I wasn't an idiot for going through with this, if that makes any sense.”

“I understand. It does. And... I apologize,” Aerion said, hanging his head. “I should've told you. I'll... attempt to be more forthright in the future. I'm sorry.”

“I'd appreciate that. And I know now, so no harm done. Your Aralez, is she big?”

“Somewhat. And vicious. But only against monsters. She’s really quite friendly otherwise.”

“Uh, huh. How do I know I’m not going to have my arm bitten off when I unlock her cage?” I asked, feeling my resistance crumble.

“Oh, just take this,” Aerion said, handing me a handkerchief. “I always wear it. It has my scent.”

“And you’re sure this’ll be enough?” I asked, eyeing the small piece of cloth. I froze when I saw the design. It was once white, but had been so horribly stained over time it was now a dirty creme. It also sported a big winged dog in the center, clutching a big red heart.

“Don’t stare,” Aerion said. “It’s embarrassing. And yes. She’ll listen to you if you have this.”

The thing was just adorable.

“You do realize this will make getting her out a lot more complicated, right?”

“It won’t. I promise,” Aerion said, eyes lighting up. “Emma is extremely well trained.”

“Uh, okay? So, just the regular commands, right? ‘Sit’, ‘Stay’, ‘Go’?”

“Yes. Those will work. And ‘Rend’ if you want her to attack. But be careful. Once she starts, it can be difficult to get her to stop.”

Rend? As in rip apart? Seriously?

Maybe this dog was more lethal than I’d given her credit for.

“Okay,” I said. “Then if there are no further surprises, I’m heading down.”

Aerion shook his head. “Good luck.”

“And you.”

----------------------------------------

Getting into position didn’t take long. It was finding the blasted green-loincloth goblin again that forced me to wait.

And wait. And wait. I was beginning to think the key-bearer had gone off shift or something, when he—or she, I couldn’t tell—emerged from a side hall, keyring jingling at their side. The jet-black obsidian goblin started doing its rounds, disappearing within the maze of cages.

Alright. It’s now or never!

I hurled an uninitialized rock high into the air, not really aiming for anything in particular. It just needed to soar high enough to be visible to Aerion and to make enough noise that he’d notice even if he didn’t see it.

Aerion noticed. I never heard the rock hit the ground. Not above the sound of exploding glass. If I’d had any doubt that the sonic bolts would work against the rock goblins, those doubts were suddenly—and violently—expelled.

It worked, alright. It worked so well, that the goblins didn’t even have time to scream. Every goblin in a perfect circle just shattered, sending shards of obsidian glass flying everywhere.

Using Uninitialized bolts had been the right call. If they were this dangerous, mine would’ve seriously risked injuring both myself and Emma.

There was silence for another moment. Then the screams came. The goblins who’d witnessed the sudden obliteration of their buddies ran off, crying at the top of their lungs. The others who’d been inside the tunnels came out to investigate.

Not the smartest creatures, these goblins. Even if they could ride mine carts at sixty miles an hour. Or maybe that just showed how dumb they were.

Either way, the ground floor was soon packed with goblins. Aerion couldn’t have hoped for better targets if he’d tried, and his second and third blasts came in quick succession, pulverizing the large open area.

I wasn’t getting a better opening, so I took it, blitzing across the open space to the cages in the center.

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As I’d suspected, I was the last thing on the goblins’ minds. A few threw me glances, but they were far too busy running for their lives to even think about attacking. Neither did I attack them—no reason to make them think I was a threat.

It was all going so well, which of course meant that everything was about to go horribly wrong.

The moment I got close enough to see the animals locked up in the cages, I knew we’d messed up.

Back when I’d called the assemblage of stacked cages a maze, I couldn’t have known just how accurate I’d been. It was a maze in every sense of the word. Unlike any sane race, the goblins had seen fit to stack the cages four high in the most haphazard way possible, forming bizarre passages that often dead-ended, and others that wound around, and sometimes even up, with ramps leading up and down.

If I was lucky, it’d take a while to find Green Loincloth. If I wasn’t… well, he could already be long gone, and I wouldn’t know without combing the place first. By then, Aerion’s position would’ve been discovered, and we’d be screwed.

Fuck.

I broke into a sprint, blindly charging down the bizarre passageways formed by the gaps in between the cages. I had to be careful—some of these housed some seriously impressive beasts, including a lion with two heads, something that looked suspiciously like a Chocobo, and several rhinos.

As one could imagine, I was reluctant to get close to any of those.

Sadly, I had no choice. Through the gaps in the bars, I spotted a goblin. Our goblin. It was crouched and cowering in between some cages—ironically the safest place it could’ve chosen to hide, given our goal.

The issue was that the goblin was on the other side of what looked like an ostrich with velociraptor claws, and a hippopotamus with three rows of vicious teeth. Both of them were biting at their bars in a bid to eat Green Loincloth.

Oh yeah, and there was only a couple of feet of gap between the two cages. A hallway of death that I had to cross through.

“You got this Neo,” I whispered. “Free your mind, and Fear is the mind-killer, and… Oh, screw it!”

I ran and launched into a flying dive. When I sailed by the cages—the claws coming just a moment too late to rip me to shreds—I hadn’t expected to hit anything.

I did, in fact, hit something. Green-loincloth. I also learned firsthand just how painful colliding with obsidian truly was.

My world went white, and all I felt was pain. I must have hit it at a bad angle.

Congratulations! Grace has increased to 7.

For several moments, I heaved, willing air into my lungs, which felt utterly paralyzed.

I’d been winded before, and it was never fun.

It was only a few seconds later that I regained my composure, sucking in one deep breath after another.

Turning over, I found that my cuirass had tanked most of the damage, though the dent it suffered made me cringe. My waterskin had come uncorked, spilling some of the precious liquid on the floor, but had otherwise survived. Miraculously. I found the stopper and plugged it as fast as I could—I figured I still had about half left.

At least I’d gotten a point of Grace out of it. And I no longer had to worry about the goblin…

Congratulations! [Iron Cuirass]’s ability [Obsidian Bane] has leveled up to Foundation - 3.

The goblin beside me was very very dead. In fact, there wasn’t much left of him other than shards.

Stumbling to my feet, I snatched the keyring and pocketed a few shards for good measure. I could always Initialize them in a pinch, and if nothing else, they’d make a good distraction.

Now I just had to find Aerion’s puppy.

Thanks to the maze, the number of goblins who wandered in was thankfully few. Those I did encounter died with a few swipes of my blade. I still had no idea how to wield the thing, but the goblins were weak enough that my technique didn’t matter overly much. I didn’t even want to think about what obsidian did to an iron blade…

I’d only just begun my search when another explosion of obsidian forced me to my knees.

Jesus, Aerion!

Why was he still firing? I’d told him to bail after I’d reached the cages. The goblins were running around wildly—at least the ones that hadn’t vacated the kill zone, anyway.

I had to hurry. Breaking into a sprint, I dodged outstretched claws in a desperate bid to find…

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

I spotted a pair of wings poking out of a smaller cage in the distance.

Aerion’s pet wasn’t on the first level of cages, or even the second. No, it was up on the third floor, high above the others. Which meant I had to climb over several cages to get to it. Cages full of creatures who’d like nothing more than an arm or a leg to dine on.

Fucking perfect.

I picked a cage with a beast that looked like a cross between a cow and an emu, since it looked like the least likely to kill me out of the ones nearby.

Jumping up, I pulled myself up the side, which was surprisingly hard, weighed down by my chafing cuirass and sword.

I scrambled onto the roof, careful to place my feet across the bars. Last thing I needed was to get caught in the gaps and twist an ankle.

From there, my choices were limited, so I just sucked in a deep breath and went for it.

Unfortunately, the animal in the next cage wasn’t as nice as the emu-cow. It scratched and clawed through the bars. I avoided most of them. The few that connected resulted in some nasty slices across my face.

“Fuck! Ow!”

My skin stung and burned, but the wounds were luckily not deep.

I forced myself to ignore them. I was almost there. The moment I was up, I dribbled a few drops of miracle water on them, which reduced the pain considerably.

Getting a running start, I jumped up to the Aralez’ cage and slotted a key, and for my parkour, I was awarded a System message.

Congratulations! Grace has increased to 8.

The gain wasn’t significant enough to notice on its own, but I figured a few more, and I’d be feeling a bit lighter on my feet.

The lock opened on the first try—there weren’t a lot of keys on the ring, but I guess I’d gotten lucky. It was my first break of the day. It’d also end up being the last break I’d get for a while.

I hastily retrieved Aerion’s handkerchief, opened the door, and waved it in front of the beast.

“C’mon, girl. I’m here to get… you… out?” my words trailed off as I took in the sorry state of the beast.

I’d never seen such a pitiful creature before. It was so emaciated, its ribs were on full display, and I could almost see its organs. Its beautiful white fur was matted in dirt and soot, and the small wings that sprouted from its back were tattered.

The poor beast lay heaving on the floor of its cage, its tongue lolling to the side.

Forget attacking me, it looked like it might croak right then and there. Even with my improved Vigor, I doubted I could carry her back. She was just too big. Actually, Vigor was probably useless here, anyway. More likely that Dominion governed my raw physical strength.

The Aralez opened its azure eyes and slowly turned them toward me. They’d be gorgeous if they weren’t glazed over and cloudy.

“Emma, right?” I said as tenderly as possible. “Hey, girl. I’m here to save you. I’m a friend of Aerion’s. Your master!”

At Aerion’s name, Emma’s eyes shot open, and she lifted her head, sniffing.

“That’s right!” I said. “I’ve even got his handkerchief, see?”

I brought the white cloth up to her nose. That got her going.

Unstoppering my waterskin, I brought it up to her nose. She took a few hesitant sniffs, then licked the nozzle. I dribbled the nectar of life down into her throat, and with each drop, her energy grew. The life returned to her eyes, and soon, she was madly licking at the skin.

I was about to pour the remaining contents down her throat when the cages shook. For an instant, I thought there’d been an earthquake.

Then I looked down.

This was no earthquake. It was something far, far worse.

Damn it all.