It was easy to track the path of the newcomers who’d awakened their boss’s ire. Once they knew where to start looking, the trail of confusion they left in their wake was unmistakable.

Ignoring laws, flouting customs, and acting like some combination of idiot tourists and dangerous fugitives, the group left more than enough hints behind to follow them.

At least, at first. Midway through floor one, their strategy abruptly shifted. Instead of making a complete spectacle out of themselves, they started trying to be covert and moved more swiftly and with purpose.

Olor Avix, the lead scout for this particular detachment, held up a hand to bring his group to a halt.

“What’s wrong?” Urthir, his primary mage asked, scanning the area with concern. “You find something?”

“I know where they’re going. Take your best snipers and go to the second floor and post up as overwatch by the Carnage. Wait for my signal.”

Urthir grinned. “Unless they slip past you and reach us first.”

Olor laughed coldly. “Nothing slips past me. Go.”

As Urthir and two snipers Olor recognized as rankers in the top fifty thousand, departed in the direction of the second floor’s entrance, Alamir and Dimavar approached from behind. Urthir grinned, giving both the customary salute.

“‘Ey, Olly. You got any intel to share, or do I need to remind you that you owe us for saving your ass during the Revarian Sandworm incident?” Alamir’s shit-eating grin annoyed Olly, but a debt owed must be repaid.

“They entered the midway point, and it appears they’ve picked up a guide. The drop point into the second floor will be right in the middle of the weekly Carnage. That’s all I’ve got, so I’ll see the both of you after we’ve bagged them and Bron gives us a promotion,” Olor said, waving as his short range teleport augment swifted him away from the two,

With them competing, he’d have to be careful not to get his ticket to promotion within the Expansionists stolen out from under his nose.

He spit behind him. “Try me, boys. Get in my way, and I’ll make you hurt in ways you didn’t know you could.”

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From the way people in the bar seating area were pointing at the leaderboard and muttering, James got the distinct impression that a newcomer appearing so highly ranked had come as an unwelcome surprise to many. He was glad to see no one pointing in their direction, at least.

Yet.

“We should go,” James said.

“Aw, I wanted to trade these for something useful…” Ivy glanced down at her collection of monster cards.

“Nope, we should go now.” James herded them toward the door labeled “two”.

Merek caught on and tugged it open for them. “There’ll be plenty of other lobbies to shop in. With monster cards, you’ll get a better price if you have them sharded them first anyway, and you can’t do that properly until floor ten.”

“Why wait? I have the option right now.”

“Don’t. By default, each level increases the chance of successfully retrieving a shard by ten percent. If you’re under level ten, you may not even get one shard, let alone the full set. We’ll hire a professional.”

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The second floor was occupied by four castles, each positioned on a hill equidistant from one another, and endless armies poured out from each of their open gates to assault the castles adjacent and try to claim the field in the middle. Each castle's battlements was hung with a clashing variety of colored banners, haphazardly placed without any sense of aesthetics.

Merek started down toward the nearest castle without pause, as though the thunder of charging minotaurs was fully ordinary.

“Is it just me, or are these lower floors way too dangerous?”

“Do not be afraid, Senior James, nothing will harm you here.”

“But it might harm Ivy. Or you.”

“I will be fine.”

“I could protect myself better if I had a giant sword,” Ivy complained for the hundredth time.

“As soon as we get back to the shop and can trade in some… currency for local goods, we’ll buy you any sword you want,” James promised for the hundredth time.

“Why do we have to rush through the floors instead of going back out the way we came?”

“You’ve upset some very powerful, very dangerous people. Wait here. Be ready to run when I signal.” Merek opened a back gate in the castle they’d walked up to, and disappeared inside.

“Signal? Run where?” James sighed. “This adventure is getting a little tiring.” He waved a hand, and a comfortable chair, sandwich, and cool drink completely failed to materialize. “I miss the shop.”

“What were you trying to do, Senior James?”

James stuck his head into the door, which turned out to lead to a narrow stairway leading up to a tower. “Hey, grumpy Merek! I don’t suppose there’s a card for summoning sandwiches?”

“That’s an advanced evolution of ten different conjuration cards, only usable at Rare level or above.” Merek leaned over the railing about eight stories up to glare down at James. “Be ready to move.”

“I’m ready, I’m ready.” James leaned up against the wall beside the door. “Ten card conjuration array just for a simple sandwich. Ridiculous.”

“Now! Straight across!” Merek shouted from the tower.

Shen Ai grabbed James and Ivy’s hands in hers and was already running the moment the words left his mouth.

They fell in naturally with a group emerging from the gate, perfectly in sync as though they’d planned it. It was quite the thrilling—and terrifying—experience to charge in the middle of an army of minotaurs.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The front ranks of their group clashed into the opposing group, which was made of minotaurs wearing gray armor instead of brown. Several stray blows bounced off James’s Protective Totem, but somehow Shen Ai managed to maneuver them through the chaos without any of them being hurt.

Merek, though… was another matter. He’d been at the top of the tower when they left and though he charged toward them with the next group, he wasn’t nearly so adept at evading. He got trapped in a fight without being able to disengage before he’d crossed half the distance.

Shen Ai pointed to the far side of the sky. “Go! I’ll retrieve our guide.”

James grabbed Ivy’s hand and ran.

Behind them, the war clashed on. Ahead, another battle, between the gray minotaurs and those in a third castle who wore green.

“Stay right behind me.” James timed their run and threw himself into the gap between waves. They had to run diagonally, keeping ahead of the charging gray minotaurs while weaving their way past.

They weren’t fast enough to stay ahead, but so long as James kept Ivy very close, his Protective Totem blocked anything coming near him.

It was enough to get them through to the other side, though not an experience James would ever want to repeat.

He looked back once they were clear, trying to get a better perspective on what was happening on this floor. It didn’t make any sense to him, until he noticed that there were people fighting inside each of the castles, and that the number of minotaurs leaving each castle was proportionally matched to the number of flags flying from the castle walls.

Some kind of war game, with the perpetually-respawning minotaurs as proxy for the smaller fights going on behind the scenes.

“Lifespan,” he whispered and saw, for a brief moment, a thousand threads of gold crisscrossing the field, all streaming to one or another of the castles—apart from the tower’s share, which went straight up as usual.

“If we had the time, holding one of these castles looks like it would provide a lot of experience. Anything an allied minotaur kills goes to the people inside.”

Ivy’s eyes widened as she took in the widespread carnage taking place. “This…!”

“We should come back once we’ve got your sword. After all, you did want to fight in an arena.” James grinned.

Ivy punched him. “But where are the others?”

James shook his head. Between the sheer size and quantity of minotaurs on the field, he couldn’t make out Shen Ai or Merek anywhere. “I’m sure they’ll find us. For now, we'll keep you alive and maybe try to steal a little bit of experience.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” She paused, her enthusiasm turning into amusement. “That cheat skill really suits your laziness.”

“It sure does.” He pointed toward an approaching minotaur and launched a magebolt. He looked at the miniscule damage and sighed. “I wonder if there’s a way to make this skill stronger. It’s simple and effective, but it does so little damage.”

Protective Totem flashed golden as the minotaur’s rushing form got within range for its horned head to lower and try to bash him. It was stopped in its tracks and let out a roar of pure rage right in his face.

James noted the spittle it flung in his face didn’t qualify as an effect worthy of deflection as it splattered into his eyes. “Maybe I should look into getting a cleaning spell before I go for the sandwich array.”

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“I really thought I could make it through there,” Merek groaned. He’d been in such a rush to get them all to safety, he’d mis-timed his own escape. Stupid. He shouldn’t be risking his life this far, let alone actually getting injured for them. What did he owe them, anyway? They were amazing, powerful, but still low level. Was their future potential really worth risking himself so fully?

Shen Ai stood over him, alternating between sending minotaurs flying with her bare hands and using an epic-mastery deck to heal him. “Your awareness of your surroundings is lacking. You should remedy this before you attempt to do such things alone again.”

“Yeah…” he coughed. “It’s usually not this bad. I’ve come through here two or three times a day…” He’d seen battles like this before, but this was the first time he’d tried rushing through one. He should have known better.

“Can you walk?” The stampeding minotaur hordes charged them from either side, but slowly, as she sent one after the other flying away in the same direction, a path began to clear.

Merek nodded.

“Then follow me.” Gradually, they got closer and closer to the edge of battle. “Don’t let your guard down,” she warned. “I sense several presences waiting beyond. I believe they are here for us.”

Then the waves broke, and the presences turned out to be a group of people lazily waiting on standby.

People Merek recognized. Expansionists. Bron Del’s lackeys and enforcers. And it was too late. They’d already seen him and Shen Ai. Their whole demeanors shifted.

Merek paled and shrank back. “No… not like this…” He looked frantically back and forth between Shen Ai and the waiting ambushers, panic only growing as the confrontation became inevitable. He couldn’t fight the whole Expansion faction. He was already on thin ice with them after the previous fiasco.

“Ah, what do we have here, boys?” The speaker lifted his wrist, and a projection appeared there from a tiny implant in his wrist.

It was James, Ivy, Merek, and Shen Ai talking in the city. Merek swallowed and backed away. He was dead. There was no way out of this. No way.

“Looks like one of ‘em to me, boys. Bag ‘em for the boss.”

Another tapped the first speaker’s shoulder. “Alamir, boss said to get rid of the rat.”

“Ah!” Alamir snapped, grinning. “That’s right. Get rid of the rat and bag the exotic one, boys. Get it done before Olor can interrupt.”

“Aye!” the group roared.

Shen Ai raised her hands, prepared to fight.

“No!” Merek let out a strangled cry and cowered behind Shen Ai. “You can’t fight them. They’re from above the fifth tier.”

“I can fight whomever I wish,” she said, drawing herself up grimly. “I don’t like their sort.”

“P-please, you’re the one with they want, m-maybe they’ll make a deal with you!” It was his only hope of getting out of this alive. Why, why had he stayed? Helping them once was enough of a risk, he should never have done it a second time. He’d been pushing his luck enough as it was. “I don’t want to die!”

“Excuse me, but could we negotiate?” Shen Ai asked without breaking eye contact with Alamir. “I’m quite willing to provide my services, assuming you can afford it.”

“Oh, the pretty one wants to do business, Dimavar. What say you?”

“Well…”

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“Little Bird to Momma Bird, the pests have split and are on the move,” Jarvick, a scout for the Ascension faction, relayed through a device in his sleek armor’s helmet. The surroundings blurred around him as the active camouflage kept him out of sight and away from unwanted attention.

The voice that responded back over the communication systems was clear and calm, cold and calculating. “Keep your distance, but try to get closer. Relay identities as you get a good scan and everything they do, asap. We can’t fall behind the Expansionists on this. Not this time.”

“Black Cat to Momma Bird, I’ve caught a little mouse,” came over the squad’s line, interrupting them. “I’ve hijacked their comms and have a direct line established. Currently preparing to relay.”

Jarvick paid attention to the comms as he began a high speed pursuit of Bron’s men. His ocular augment was good for keeping distance and tracking, but in this case, it was a little too good. The distance he needed to cover would take time, and from how they’d picked up their pace, he didn’t know if he could afford to slack.

“B-Black Cat to Momma Bird, there’s word of a legendary heart card user and… and in that user’s party an epic. Fully manifested epic deck on awakening, over.”

“Location?”

“The Expansionists think the party has recently entered the second floor amidst the Carnage Castle’s weekly farming session. They’ve lost visual confirmation, but it’s only a matter of time now until that party is found—” A second passed in silence. “Disregard. They’ve made contact!”

A legendary awakener and a full epic manifested deck? Jarvick disregarded remaining stealthed and put his suit’s full power into optimization for speed.

No matter what, he would find them and recruit them himself.

“Little Bird, your orders are to—”

Jarvick shut off his connection to the faction’s comms. Right now, he needed to be able to focus. If he couldn’t keep this new power party from being recruited by the Expansionists, he’d kill them…

Even if it would be his final act for his people.

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