Soul Merger

Alissa was very grateful for the orange markers they'd left as they hit the first crossroad. She scrambled around the turn without pausing and pressed on towards the next. They needed to get out, and fast. Anything that could make Ibaraki scared had to be level five and have one of the nastier killing abilities.

As they approached the last turn before the ladder up she spared a glance to make sure everyone was still behind her. To her great relief all her companions were there. Clara had picked up Fili to make better time, and everyone else was matching her pace. Even better, the yuki-onna wasn't immediately visible, though Alissa still felt the chill in her soul.

Best to keep running.

She spun around the turn and her heart sank. Three dryads, two treants, and two humanoids were looking over the battlefield beneath the ladder. One was a woman in full armor, but the other was a man in simple robes, showing the red skin and horns of his race.

A demon.

She didn't hesitate. Without a word she put on a burst of speed, getting as close as she could. Her dagger was already in her hand as one of the dryads yelled out a warning. The man looked up, saw her and froze. And with that she threw her knife right at his throat.

The knife sailed through the air only to bounce off the interposed shield from the armored woman. A fire shot from Fili also bounced off, while Clara's crossbow bolt punched a third of the way through before getting stuck.

The woman grabbed the man who had recovered enough to give a squeak of protest. "Kill them," she ordered the plant monsters before retreating.

The dryads and treants spread out, blocking the way to the ladder up. Alissa drew her sword, but hesitated as Rosalina called out. "The yuki-onna's catching up!"

"I'll stall her," Fili said quietly. "Rosalina, keep us from freezing."

Ibaraki stepped forwards. "Guess that means we gotta break through. Alright girls, here's where the fun starts."

Alissa moved to Ibaraki's flank, and she saw Clara take up position on the other side. The minotaur merge had swapped her crossbow for her axe.

"Alright, let's party!" Ibaraki rushed in, club swinging wildly. The center dryad ran in to meet the oni and got sent flying. Ibaraki didn't even slow down, moving to fight both treants at once.

Alissa decided to head directly for the dryad on her side. The wooden woman was already prepared for battle, so she kept an eye out for the vine whips dryads loved.

As expected her enemy grew a thorny whip and cracked it at her. Alissa expertly slashed the weapon in half before it could wrap around anything. The stray end bits still hit her, but it was literally just a scratch.

She stepped forwards with a slash, but the dryad skipped back, then stabbed with its claws forcing her to retreat. The damn thing was apparently willing to stall her out. And here she was in a fair fight against something without organs. This was not her forte.

A metallic 'clunk' followed by Fili yelling "Explosion!" resounded behind her. Then a roar of sound and heat washed over the area. The yuki-onna must be close. They needed to finish this quickly.

The dryad reformed her thorn whip and Alissa sighed. This was going to suck. Her foe lashed out and this time Alissa caught the attack on her wrist. Pain spiked up her arm as the thorns dug in, but that level of injury only made her stronger.

As the whip finished latching on she pulled on it, yanking the surprised dryad forwards. A backhand blow into the creature's armpit got a cry, and the creature's arm went limp. Then she focused. Strong, dismissive. "Beheading strike."

This time it was a perfect blow. The annoying creature's head neatly separated from its shoulders and she could go about more important things.

Alissa turned to see Ibaraki and Clara were hacking down the treant like the oversized lumber it was. The other enemies were dead, and the way to the ladder was clear. "Let's go!" She called out as she scooped up her dagger and cut the vine still attaching her to the dead dryad.

"Okay!" Fili managed to gasp out. Alissa looked back to see a mass of flame filling the passage they'd come from. The mage and Rosalina were awkwardly staggering away from the area.

"We got them," Clara said as she hacked the the treant's last branch off. "Lead the way."

Alissa nodded and jumped to the ladder. She hit it about halfway up and scrambled the rest of the way as fast as she could.

The area up here was free of monsters which was a blessing. She looked back down the ladder. "We're clear!"

"Okay." Ibaraki yelled back. "Catch."

Alissa blinked as the oni catgirl appeared at the bottom of the ladder and threw Rosalina straight up. She instinctively reached out and caught the dragon priestess' arms. There was another jolt of pain as Rosalina's weight hit her, but she pulled her friend up.

"Gonna have words with those two," Rosalina muttered as the priestess slumped next to the floor transition.

Ibaraki's voice rang out again. "And two!" Alissa looked down to see Fili speeding towards her as a small bluish missile. This time she was able to reach down and grab the woman below her arms and just let Fili stick to her as they fell back. The mage gave a tired sigh.

Clara was next up the ladder with Ibaraki rapidly behind. "How long do we have?" Clara asked.

"We bought some time, but sticking around would be bad," Rosalina said, getting to her feet. "I'll recover fast. Let's move."

Alissa helped Fili to her feet. "Quick movement, but let me lead still. Might be new monsters or traps."

"Wanna get rid of your new bracelet?" Clara asked, pointing at the vine wounds.

"After we're on the next layer," Alissa replied. She didn't like leaning on her merge this way but right now she needed to. "Direct route this time?"

"Yes." Rosalina replied. With that they gathered themselves and set off at a brisk pace.

Alissa was next to Ibaraki again, doing everything she could to sharpen her senses and keep an eye out for ambushes and traps. Normally you could count on these passages being clear but today was definitely not normal.

A flash of movement as they rounded a corner caused her to lash out. Her sword cut another vine, this one attached to a bloodrose. Great, someone had planted extra monsters for them. She hissed in annoyance and let her body take over, stabbing the bulb at the base to kill the damned plant before it could attack again.

"Oh, nice. Instinctive technique! Knew you had some hate in there somewhere," Ibaraki said.

"Shut it," she muttered back. Something to think about later. For now she pointed at the partially hidden bloodrose bush along the corridor they were moving down. "Deal with that."

"Sure thing," Ibaraki replied. The oni caught the plant as it reached out for her and ripped it right out of the ground. With a flick of the wrist she caught the bulb and took a big bite out of it. Alissa could only blink in confusion.

"What?" the oni asked. "Thing needs to learn its place in the food chain."

Best not to worry about it, Alissa decided. She turned her attention back to their escape route.

A few more bloodroses tried to slow them, but they were all placed to ambush people coming the other way. A quick firebolt or stab made work of the monsters and they pressed on without slowing.

Alissa's legs were starting to hurt from the fast march when they reached the ladder up. She grabbed a rung, then hesitated. There wouldn't be traps, but there might be monsters. Demons didn't follow the rules of a dungeon. She looked over to where Fili was catching her breath. "Sorry to ask this, but could you throw something lethal up there?"

Fili started to use her staff to push herself up, but Rosalina put a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'll do it. Won't be lethal but it'll be simple."

Alissa stepped aside as the dragon woman walked up. Rosalina closed her eyes, then threw her hand to the air. "Reveal yourselves," she commanded and electricity crackled up through the hatch in a blinding arc.

Rosalina smugly lowered her hand and posed. "My genius skills have revealed there's no enemies above. The closest razorvine is at the edge of the area. You may praise me."

"Thanks for the main character trick," Alissa said, hopping onto the ladder and climbing up. Rosalina's deep sigh as they exited the third layer brought a fleeting smile to her face.

Looking around Alissa saw the one razorvine plant was blocking the way further into the labyrinth, so that wouldn't be a problem. No immediate traps on the way out either. She looked over at the others as they got up. "Should we keep running?"

"I think-" Fili's paused as the sound of distant shrill whistles hit them. The evacuation signal. "I think we should at least walk fast."

What the hell was happening? Alissa shook her head and began mentally plotting out the way up. "Can't even blame this on Rosalina."

"Let's hope it's just some idiot getting too careless with fire spells," Rosalina said grimly as they began moving towards the exit.

The signal whistles got louder and louder as they moved through the labyrinth, which suggested the people were on the same floor. Finally Alissa felt safe enough to toss on her cloak. She noticed the others relax a little at that, which was both worrying and a little sweet. They really shouldn't trust her senses that much.

This time she was right. Around the corner was a team of twenty delvers, pushing down to spread the evac order. The well armed werewolf at the front waved them over. "We need to evacuate everyone from the dungeon.. Do you know where the other party is?"

Alissa responded by displaying the ID cards they picked up. Rosalina added the longer explanation. "Total wipe. We saw yuki-onna and at least one demon on the floor as well."

That got some curses and shudders from the rescue team, but the leader just shook his head. "Damn. Right, we're getting out. This is an official Gold Level guild order."

Well at least that meant they'd get compensated for it. Gold orders meant you got your gold back. Still, what the hell would cause that level of trouble? Even the sighting of level five plus monsters on the first floor only led to a Silver Level closure. Clara asked the obvious as they started out of the labyrinth. "What's the situation?"

"There's been a Rampage," the man replied simply.

"What?" Alissa felt sick. The disaster that had thrown her life into shambles had been an Outbreak. A Rampage was an even bigger disaster. Monsters not just loose in the city, but actively flooding out of dungeons. "Which ones?"

"The Black Sound and The Devil's Market," he replied and Alissa felt even worse. Two labyrinths' protections had failed? "At least that's what I'd heard when they sent me down here to shut this place. It's a shitshow up top. Everyone's on call."

Akari moved closer to conversation. "Um, what's that mean in this city? I haven't had time to review."

"All labyrinths are closed, double bounty on monsters in the streets, plus fifty crowns a day for helping out," Alissa replied. She was probably one of the few people who'd memorized those details. But mental scars lasted much longer than physical ones for her. "And if you try to skip town while there's urgent help needed you'll get blacklisted."

Of course she didn't care about that detail right now. She wasn't going to abandon anyone to this disaster. She looked over to Rosalina and saw the woman giving her a grim smile. "Don't worry," the dragon woman said. "We'll help you out. Just let me fish out the energy potions so we don't drop from all the running we're doing."

"We're with you," Fili added in between panting.

"Thank you," Alissa said. It was kinda stupid thinking her friends would let her run around on her own. But she couldn't just ignore this.

Especially since the Devil's Market was too damn close to where Juli and Sera were.

Finally they made it to the top, where a bunch of delvers were loitering around. "Do you need people to guard this labyrinth?" Clara asked. Alissa really hoped the answer was no.

The secretary ignored the question as she marked down their party, and the dead of the other party. "All members clear. Confirmed."

A well dressed man who looked uncomfortable in his armor looked over the list and signed his name. "Approved. Close it."

Two more guild officials kicked a couple large barrels down the stairs. Alissa smelled naphtha oil as they broke open. A few torches and the entire entry area on the first floor was ablaze.

"The dungeon is closed. All guild members can head to help the city," the man said.

Alissa turned to rush out the building but Rosalina pushed a bottle into her hands. "Drink first."

"Right, thanks." Alissa chugged the alchemical formula, doing everything she could to keep the liquid from touching her tongue. The bitter fishy oil was disgusting, but she felt her muscles stop complaining nearly immediately. She gagged and handed the bottle back as the others finished their own drinks. "Why the hell can't they add mint to that or something?"

"Reduces the effectiveness," Fili muttered before pulling out a flask and taking a swig. "You don't need to worry about magical interactions after drinking it though so you can wash out the taste."

Alissa took the advice and took a sip from the medical whisky in her pouch. The flavor mix wasn't great but it was better than the aftertaste.

"Right. Back to the action," Clara said, loading her crossbow.

They walked out into the streets along with a crowd of other delvers. The darkening skies were full of flags signifying whether or not monsters had been seen and how badly the area needed help. Regular people were either running home, straining to try to see how the situation was changing, or boarding up their windows. Meanwhile, delvers were running about with little to no direction. Most headed towards the areas asking for the most help, but some were almost certainly heading to check on friends or their own property.

Alissa turned to check the street that led towards the hostess club from here. Her stomach flipped as she saw a yellow and black flag flying. Help needed urgently.

And then a flare went up. A red firework into the sky. The sign that a demon had been sighted.

She started running down the street. This time would be different.

It had to be.