Soul Merger

The staging ground above the Luminous Seabird Labyrinth was different than usual. The small army of guilds and Silver Order Members that had swamped the labyrinth earlier had demanded a massive number of guild orderlies to handle them. Which meant the usual delvers who farmed the upper levels for easy prey had either been stuck in line, run over to get a quick assignment from the Silver Order, or just sat down to watch the chaos.

Their team had settled into a corner to handle their own prep. Several people were whispering about them, but fortunately no one had decided now was a great time to hit on someone in the crew.

Alissa checked the straps on her sword belt again, but there were no signs of wear or damage that could lead to a blade falling loose at a bad moment. She then replaced her cloak and turned to join the rest of the group. "Ready."

Kotori shook her wings and glared at her own packs straps. "I don't know why I need to carry this stuff. It'll slow me down."

"Everyone needs to have some gear, just in case," Clara replied like a trained teacher. She was carrying most of the gear of course, but literally putting all their eggs in one basket was obviously stupid.

"Be glad you don't have to get ID cards!" Rosalina added a she gave her rod a few experimental swings. "I mean sure it's because of the horrible misunderstanding people have about fully souled creatures and monsters, but hey, abuse their mistakes as much as you can."

Fili grimaced. "I'm annoyed we still have to pay the entry fee. You'd think the guild would give a discount or something." The mage had slotted all her staff's chip slots, and had her book in a secure hip pouch.

"It's shameful," Raiel said. The angel had a large pack as well, since she wouldn't be frontlining. "They've made a great deal of money off their refusal to help children."

"Greed is truly the foundation of society," Akari said from where she was meditating. The priestess had gotten the iron headband she'd been interested in for extra protection. Hopefully Ibaraki wouldn't break it.

"Well as much as I hate interrupting our musings, we should probably begin our journey," Rosalina posed. "Let us bring forth light into the darkness and rescue the innocent from the depths of the labyrinth!"

Alissa managed a weak smile at Rosalina's arrogant proclamation. "First we gotta get past the darkness of bureaucracy."

"Yeah yeah," Rosalina sniffed and headed to the now empty line. "Party of five plus two. Raid."

The woman at the desk nodded. She had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "So you know, the guild won't indemnify you, or send out search fliers for people lost in raids. Sorry."

"We know," Clara said, handing over her guild card. "Hope it doesn't come to that eh?"

"Hopefully." The woman quickly filled in all their info. Alissa suspected they'd actually done most of the work earlier. She handed back the cards. "Good luck. All of you."

"Thank you," Alissa replied before heading towards the entrance to the labyrinth.

The first layer was relatively pleasant at least. Large rooms with short grass on the floor, the walls made of massive rows of boxes. Alissa still took point, checking for traps, but everything had been cleared out. A few bloodstains and broken birdman corpses reminded the group this was an active labyrinth, but the small army that had passed through had cleared the monster presence.

The ladder to second layer was guarded by a few Silver Order members who gave them a nod as they passed through. "Secret stairs are cleared. Good luck."

"Thank you kindly," Rosalina replied with a wave.

They followed the path the Tower maps had shown to a doubled staircase leading down. With that the second layer was mostly clear.

A metal stair took them to the third layer, a concrete wasteland with partitions that sometimes reached the ceiling and sometimes didn't. It was a perfect environment for the minotaurs and spine chameleons that hunted here.

"Never liked this place," Alissa muttered as she slowly moved along their planned route.

"I could see how it would be very bad for a solo delver," Akari said as she looked about, her ears flicking in random directions. "It would be hard to stay predator and not prey."

Kotori hissed. "Labyrinths are stupid. Why have open spaces you can't fly through?"

"One of the mysteries of the universe," Fili replied. "I've got a few theories, but..."

They pressed on down the metal stairs and past signs of violence. But in the end it seemed the Silver Order had handled everything along the way.

Finally they reached the long canopied ramp that led to the fourth layer. Alissa had never been this far into the labyrinth before, and the wide open chunks of the fourth layer made her stomach churn a little.

A group of armored warriors waited there on guard. The group gave them a salute. "This is as far as we can go. Good fortune to you."

"Thanks again," Rosalina replied. She moved to the passage down. "Well, shall we begin?"

Akari shrugged and shifted, Ibaraki's nasty grin replacing her serious look. "Yep! Time to go crazy."

"Let's hope we make it to the fifth layer before then," Clara said.

Ibaraki shouldered her club and started down, Alissa quickly moving to follow.

The clear blue fake sky of the fourth layer made it look like a perfect day outside. The labyrinth here was a marshland with wooden platforms connecting more solid areas. Brush, reeds, and water lilies filled most of the area.

"I'm going to have to keep an eye towards the ground," Alissa reminded the group as they began down the path towards the stairs. "Don't expect me to call out aerial threats." She'd have to focus on traps and any monsters in the weeds.

"We shall keep the sky clear," Raiel said, stretching her wings. Kotori was already hovering over the group, circling lazily now and again. Alissa wasn't sure that'd be the best guard pattern, but it'd have to do.

The first obstacle was a pit trap with sharpened stakes at the bottom, hidden by plant leaves. Easy to spot, but still dangerous. Alissa carefully checked it. "Perfectly regular. Labyrinth make, not monster crafted." The others relaxed a little. That meant there probably weren't any intelligent monsters hunting the area.

They'd made it about halfway to the layer down, when the screech of a hunting raptor carried through the air. Alissa froze, forcing herself to look around the ground while letting her friends check the air.

"Giant hawk," Kotori said. "I'll go handle it."

"Right." Alissa kept her eyes to the waters around them

And she was rewarded. A few reeds bending in the opposite directions. Something was approaching.

She put her hand on Ibaraki's shoulder. The oni gave her an annoyed look, but readied her weapon as Alissa pointed out the area she thought the monster was.

Up above Kotori yelled at the hawk, "Hey! Get lost ya idiot! These people aren't food! Or after your eggs! That's right, just head off! Nothing to see here!"

"I'm amazed that works," Rosalina said.

The water in front of them exploded. Alissa flung herself away as a twenty five foot crocodile tried to snatch Ibaraki. The agile catgirl oni leaped above the bite however, then dropped down on the creature's head. Ibaraki grabbed the side of the creature's mouth and wrapped an arm as far around the upper and lower jaws as they would go. "I got hi-"

Alissa cursed as the creature began to thrash, attempting to dislodge the oni. It couldn't seem to open its mouth, but it was battering the catgirl against the ground.

Fire and lightning stabbed into the creature, but the casters couldn't hit the vitals because Ibaraki was too close. Alissa drew her blade and rushed in.

As she closed she did her best to focus her mind. The monster was confident in it's power and flexibility. She'd steal that from it. Her blade hummed happily as she called out her technique. "Crippler."

The sword slid through the thick scales at the leg joint with pinpoint accuracy. Her pinpoint strike would have aimed for arteries. This blow wanted to sever nerves and muscles. The crocodile overbalanced and flopped on its back as the leg failed it. Alissa took the opportunity to stab the other leg with another Crippler.

She had to retreat as the crocodile's powerful body and neck muscles finished the spin. But it had slowed down. Ibaraki slammed her armored forehead into the creature's jaw, breaking teeth and bone, before kicking off.

The monster opened its jaw to strike again now that it was free, but the damage had slowed it. Lightning paralyzed it, light blinded it, steam cooked it's open mouth, and then a arrow went down its throat for good measure.

The beast slumped, dead.

Alissa took a few breaths and looked around before wiping her blade clean. "Of course there had to be one of these along the way."

"Labrynth's mad we skipped all the fighting up top," Fili muttered.

"Nah this is great!" Ibaraki stood up and tried to dust herself off to little success. "We've got gator leather for a full set of outfits! Huge win!"

Clara shook her head. "That's a big lizard, but our outfits would end up looking a lot like Alissa's if you used it for seven people."

Alissa gave the woman a side eye, "Only because you'd steal more fabric than most."

"And?" Ibaraki grinned. "Anyways get the skinning knives out. We gotta make some cash here."

"No we don't," Rosalina said. "But someone needs healing so poor Akari doesn't wake up covered in bruises, so everyone else might as well do that while I heal you up."

That was decent reasoning, so Alissa got out a good blade and waited. Sure enough Fili approached her. "Nice move with the steam," she said. "Got any skinning tips?"

The faint scent of strawberry hit her as Fili gave her a bright smile. "Of course! Let me guide you."