"Cyrus!"

"Lady Sereza!"

Thick and heavy ropes wrapped around my chest and I sailed through the air. I landed on something firm cushioning my fall as the crunch of stone and dirt rang beneath me.

"Master!" Sturmrorex roared.

"Master safe! I got him!" Zagreus hissed.

Commotion exploded in the background but it was too muffled to hear. A heavy weight pressed against my chest, pinning me down.

"Zagreus, get off," I coughed.

My familiar shifted and the block of red covering my vision moved aside. When I got to my knees I raised my head and took in the scene.

Vincent stood over Sereza with his shield raised, his skill flaring as a sizzling crack split the center of the metal. Teddy and the others had their weapons up, pointed at Toogen, while Khrem, Tyrrion, and Arturous hung back. The king was sprawled on the bear's behind, robes a mess as Áine started to pull from my mana pool.

"Toogen! What's the meaning of this?" Teddy demanded.

Toogen held a staff, one made of dark iron. He raised his hand, pink threads of mana weaving through the air as he watched the Broken Tower prepare their skills. His gaze disregarded them like one looks at an ant. When he stared near Arturous, the outline of his smile faded.

"You know, it could have been easy. I would have let you go, even escape before things went to shit. All I needed was the felkin, and you would have been spared from the Master's wrath," he sighed.

Master? Ah fuck, of fucking course he's involved.

"Toogen? I won't ask again," Teddy declared. "We'll put you down if we have to,"

The light around Toogen's hood darkened, and when he looked up his face disappeared beneath the shadows. He raised his hand, and Eodyne's bow thrummed as she pulled back the bolt.

Toogen exhaled and shook his head. "I can't let you go anymore. If it was just the felkin, I could have ignored the orders… But I can't ignore his majesty on Arturous' back. I'm sorry, Teddy."

"Toogen!"

Several things happened at once.

Toogen shoved his arm into the sky, and Broken Tower unleashed their skills. Teddy formed a spectral mace above Toogen's head and sent it downward. Eodyne unleashed her arrow, and it zipped across the space between them in a screeching blitz. Isaac launched a dagger, and Igas summoned pillars underneath Toogen's feet.

Barriers appeared around Broken Tower and Arturous, surrounding them in a box, while another began to form in front of Vincent and me.

None of that stopped the bastard from activating his skill. Pink lines and sigils intercepted the attacks and shot into the sky as a beam of energy.

In the same instance, Toogen blinked out of existence, appearing to the right, out of the salvos' radius. That beam pierced the barrier.

I shot to my feet. The ground shook, and the sky roiled.

"There's no point resisting, Teddy! There's no escaping, not with him here," Toogen shouted over the madness. He pointed to Allaron's crumpled form and shook his head. "Hand the king and the felkin over. If you do, I can distract him when he arrives—but only if you do."

Teddy's aura rose from his chest, blanketing us in light.

"That's not happening. You know who we are," Teddy said.

Toogen sighed. "I know, friend. I know. Broken Tower, the adventurers who lived up to their name. Through honor, decency, strength to show mercy, and the wisdom to finish off the evil. Your reputation was earned, not bought. That made you different from the typical highborns."

"You got a point to this or what?" Isaac snapped. "If you're going to ramble then at least have the decency to stay still!"

Daggers flew through the air but Toogen batted them away with his staff. One dagger curved, a trial of shadowy material having stuck onto the metal. Unfortunately, a ribbon of pink intercepted and the dagger snapped out of existence.

My eyes narrowed, that was a spatial effect. The movement skill from earlier could have been anything but there was no mistaking the mana that had appeared.

He's not locked down like us.

I didn't need to tell the others, Teddy's and Celanae's eyes shared the same expression.

"My point," Toogen continued. "Is that I see your value. I know that you will stand up and fight even as others run away, but you're smarter than that. Leave now, this is the last chance. Don't let your friends and family die out of pride, Teddy. There is no winning here."

"You'd really let us go? Just like that?"

"Theodore… If you dare turn your back on all that you stand for…" Tyrrion growled.

"Teddy!" Celanae exclaimed.

She slammed her staff in protest and pulled at Teddy's shoulder. With a quick gesture, Arturous bit her sleeve and hauled her back into position. Tyrrion was held back by Igas barring his way. The man looked ready to resist and grab Teddy's collar, but his body shifted. Mana oozed out of his body, and parts of his skin had retracted, revealing a crystalline structure underneath.

Toogen lowered his staff and turned back to Teddy. "I will, but only if you leave them behind. You saved my life once, and I'm willing to repay my life debt, but I can't spare you his wrath. Fifteen seconds, decide now."

The beam continued to pulse in the air while the blood boiled. Titanic bubbles formed, one large enough to shadow half the hedgemaze under its span. Teddy looked back, a calculating look in his eyes.

"Teddy, we can't," Celenae whispered.

Sereza had stood up at this point. Vincent continued to shield her but he slowly started to angle it in Broken Tower's direction.

"Master, shield your eyes in seven," Sturmrorex said.

I grabbed onto Zagreus neck and wrapped my tail around one leg. Like Vincent, I angled my spear just between Toogen and Teddy.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Teddy lowered his weapon and steeled himself. "You're right. To die for pride is one thing, but to drag my team along with me is another. Very well, Toogen. Take them, and we'll go."

Toogen clenched his free hand and raised his staff. "If only I believed you. You idiots."

Teddy conjured his mace and jumped onto Arturous' head. Eodyne shot not an arrow, but a streak of azure scales tinged with lightning. In an instant, Sturmrorex rocketed toward Toogen, but a net of pink ribbons caught him like a spiderweb.

"Now!" he roared.

Light erupted, and thunder boomed. I shut my eyes and opened them in time to see Khrem launching toward us with the bloodied body of the king in his arms. Celanae's barrier stretched across the gap. A sigil flashed on the ground between us, but a snake made of stone dived into its center and buried into the dirt. Muffled pink light erupted from underneath, lighting the sharkman's silhouette.

"This is the plan?! Seriously!!" I shouted.

"No time!" Khrem said as he landed on Zagreus. "We need to get to the barrier."

Zagreus whined but obediently followed my command. He turned tail and charged away from another crackle of lightning. Arrows zipped like cannon fire, while ice formed and shattered, blown away by some kind of warbling thrum.

"What about—"

Sereza landed on my right and lurched forward to grab onto one of Zagreus' heads.

"Don't stop! We'll cover you!" Igas shouted.

A beast made of stone formed beside him—but wrong. Pink lines laced across its back like a tiger's stripes, followed by an eerie crunch. One of Celanae's barriers formed.

Behind me, a pained needle spiked in my chest as the link to Sturmrorex flexed. I desperately wanted to turn back, but Khem placed his hand on my chest and shook his head.

"Trust them, Cyrus."

I took in Khrem's expression; The hard lines and eyes that bled through even his hard to read face..

I swallowed my protest and followed Khrem's instructions. We took a few turns, and already the sounds of fighting dimmed. It took a lot to resist tapping into Sturmrorex's memories. I didn't want to distract him, and even now he started to pull at my mana as light lit up the sky behind us.

"I hate feeling this useless. It's the rift all over again," Sereza growled.

"You're not useless, but we have to do what we can. Right now you and Cyrus are potential targets, and so is the king. If we can get out of here and find help, we'll do more good than trying to stay and fight," Khrem said.

"Of course we will. We just need to make it back before they have all the fun," Sereza laughed.

It was hollow, and her face betrayed the joke. Still, we continued taking more corners than we did on our way in. Soon we came upon a part of the maze I recognized.

"Take a left here," Khrem instructed.

I hadn't paid much attention to the minute differences during our travel through the maze, but I knew enough to know we weren't heading toward the barrier. Not directly.

I shook my head. "This way is a dead end. We need to turn back,"

"No, keep going," he insisted.

Zagreus pulled us along. He wasn't really meant for travel, not yet at least. Four people pushed him enough that he too had to spend mana to keep going. For added measure, I pulled out a keg and upended the top, letting it spill over and into one of the greedy heads.

"Is that my blood?" Sereza asked.

"I told you it would come in handy!"

Zagreus swallowed it all and grew in size enough that it made standing more comfortable. Khrem pulled out a potion and uncapped it, pouring it over the king's body. What effect it had, I couldn't tell, as my familiar continued to pump bursts of healing into his back.

His eyes were closed now, and his breathing shallow.

Khrem's right. We need to get him out now, before it's too late.

"Last left, then charge forward."

I shook myself out of my thoughts and looked ahead. "How do you even know where to go?"

He raised an item, revealing a metal box. Khrem tapped my wrist, and a spectral map appeared. Simplistic lines with no extra details showed portions of the maze we traveled as well as a glowing path lit in blue.

"Cost me all my reserves, but I thought it'd be useful."

"Worth it," I agreed.

A moment later, where there should have been a dead end was instead an open strip. Leaves of the hedge maze were burned away with dripping sections of bloody tendrils having taken root along the walls. The ground was muddy, evidence of some kind of water beam that helped dig a trench several feet deep directly ahead.

Beyond that layed a solid barrier of dark crimson.

"There, let's hurry before-"

A sharp trill knocked my friends to their knees. Zagreus hissed as his scales softened and we tilted forward. I spun and unleashed the acid glob I had stored. It shot into the air and directly into the hulking mass of blood and bodies.

Flesh ripped and peeled as the spinning sphere of acrid yellow sailed harmlessly through and splashed onto the ground behind it.

The monster from the auction house reformed and raised one of its grotesque limbs, claws splayed.

Sereza was standing up, but Khrem stayed down, across Zagreus back. My familiar continued to move forward but the monster closed the distance with a single kick.

I crouched, ready to intercept. I'd break several bones but I could absorb the kinetic energy. I had to!

Roouuaargh!

Now!

I jumped but a tightening in my chest slammed through me as the world started to brighten in color.

"Ragnarok's Descent!"

A flaming missile crashed into the monster's head. Flesh scattered. Blood bubbled. Flames of crisscrossing prisma surged like a tsunami and brought the monster to a screeching halt.

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