The Trials (Part 4)

"Well, lets rest up and head on in." Iskandor says and by the next morning everyone is ready and raring to go.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye out for traps." Hikari states.

"I'll take care of chalking our path, as I won't have much use otherwise for this stretch." Serena informs while Lar grabs her bow.

"Haven't gotten use out of this yet, hopefully I will soon." She mutters.

"I will take the roll of support apparently, I seem to get put in this position quite a bit don't I?" Iskandor laughs.

"I'm sure you'll get your moment to be the hero or whatever it is you want." Lar jests.

"Anyways, let's get through this labyrinth." Hikari says, taking the lead, followed by Iskandor, Serena and Lar in that order. Fenrir, as usual walks side by side with Iskandor.

Not long far into the labyrinth everyone found their way to a dead end, when they turn around to backtrack the notice that the chalk trail suddenly dissapears a couple yards ahead.

"Wait a minute, how did this happen? We're smarter than this!" Iskandor questions, confused.

"Apperently not." Hikari answers.

"So, leaving a trail won't help... What next?" Serena asks.

"We hope our luck can find us a way out, as there wasn't a right turn here previously." Lar says.

"Ok... I should have thought of this... We haven't encountered traps, yet, but it appears this labyrinth is much more complicated than I thought. Reminds me of Daedalus' labyrinth in Greek mythos, or at least on version of it." Iskandor explains.

"So, did anyone make it through?" Lar asks.

"In the traditional myths a hero named Theseus explored the labyrinth in a similar way to what we have done, he did so to kill the beast, a minotaur, within the labyrinth. In some depictions of the labyrinth however it was alive so to speak, it was an ever-changing maze, basically impossible to navigate. It was all luck unless you somehow had some form of map, but most depictions didn't have one." Iskandor elaborates.

"So... We're fucked aren't we?" Lar asks.

"The only way I can think of is one that is almost garunteed to fail as it depends on many factors out our control..." Iskandor replies. "Some versions of the myth state that minotaurs within a labyrinth for an extended period of time learn to navigate it easily, but assuming that is the case it won't help us if there isn't a minotaur in here, we would also need a way to trick it to lead us to the exit."

"So, again, we're fucked aren't we?" Serena asks.

The sound of Fenrir sniffing is heard, "Perhaps not, I smell rotten bones, blood, and terrible breath lingering in the air." Fenrir notifies Iskandor who relays the information.

"Fenrir, are cou confident in leading the way to the minotaur?" Hikari asks, "If we go side by side I can deal with traps while you choose the direction." Fenrir's response is the closest thing to a shrug a wolf can manage and takes the lead alongside Hikari.

Hours go by, the scent draws closer and blood stains are now noticeable on the otherwise immaculate walls.

"You got to admit, this place is a feat of engineering in of itself, not a single crack in the walls thus far, no signs of mold and staining other than the blood here and the smooth surfaces with perfect 90, 60, 45 and 30 degree angles." Iskandor states, amazed.

"Don't get me wrong, the place looks nice but do you think we should praise the place that has been trying to kill us for the last 5 hours!" Hikari yells. "I've disarmed 136 traps, triggered 21 and stopped you guys from triggering another 69! I don't anger easily but whoever designed this place has officially earned my ire."

"Should I take over trap duty for a while?" Iskandor offers.

"We both know I'm more efficient at this, and as we are nearing the minotaur I should be the one disarming the traps due to that fact, not to mention my senses are better than yours so I am more likely to detect the traps." Hikari groans, upset with the place which is strangely out of character for the cheerful kitsune.

"Alright, however I would appreciate lessons in lockpicking, trap disarming and so on when we get out and have ample time to do so." Iskandor requests, "I don't like seeing you frustrated like this."

"Sure, and thanks for the concern." Hikari states, becoming a bit more cheerful.

"Run!" Iskandor yells, Hikari failed to notice a new, subtle trap.

The Labyrinth rumbles, the ceiling opens to expose a track while the floor slants the the path behind closes.

"We fell for the oldest trick in the God damn book... A boulder run." Iskandor mutters, pulling everyone along. "Keep an open eye, it would be way too easy to miss a trap while running for our lives." Iskandor yells.

"Don't tell me that's what I think it is!" Lar says, pointing ahead.

"Afraid so, we don't have time to figure out what tiles trigger the trap and what ones don't, RUN!" Hikari screams, seeing the trap ahead. The hallway's floor transitions to several hundred feet worth of pressure plates hooked up to dart traps.

"My fire can't break a boulder and neither can darkness, any ideas? Otherwise we have to risk the darts." Iskandor asks, 200 feet away from the dart trap. Everyone is running at about 40 feet per second and the boulder is slowly gaining.

"I barely even know magic!" Hikari responds.

"I don't have usable magic!" Lar adds.

"I got the same affinities as you plus light! what can I do?" Serena sarcastically adds.

"I'm just a wolf cub!" Fenrir also adds.

"Guess we run and hope to survive!" Iskandor says, suprisingly in sync with the others in taking their first step onto the trapped stretch of hallway.

"At our speed we only need to survive 20 seconds to make it past this trap, but by the time we get past it we have to deal with that!" Hikari says, referring to the pitfall trap, not even 100 feet after the pressure plates.

"At our speed we might make the jump, but barely. It's about 35 feet..." Iskandor says.

"How do you guys figure that out?!" Lar asks, confused.

"I dealt with measurements quite a bit so I got good at eyeballing distances, speeds and other such things." Iskandor replies.

"As for me, I have no clue... Perhaps assassin training or something." Hikari says, obviously confused on how she can figure it out this quickly while in the heat of the moment.

18 seconds pass, Iskandor was grazed in the shoulder and hit in the arm, Lar was grazed in the thigh but somehow didn't even flinch and Hikari got nicked in the ear. The group jumps, hoping to reach the other side safely.

(Authors's Note: I just made a small edit to fix a mistake I made. I forgot Iskandor already had earth magic at this point. I have to fix future chapters now too...)