Dokeshi March ~ 30!

The next few hours were notable only in their confusion: a jumble of turns that left Grant’s head spinning. Moving through the Labyrinth was a lesson in frustration; every time he tried to work his way closer to the area where Suki should have entered the maze, he would hit a dead end or find himself body-blocked by a massive monster. He was starting to feel like he was spending more time backtracking than he was moving forward.

Just as he seemed to find a path that allowed him to move deeper, he heard the sound of fighting from the other side of the wall. A loud crash and hard thump caused the ground to rattle, and he dashed toward the noise so he could determine what was happening.

“Move left! Move left!”

“Don’t let it block us off! Get those spears braced!”

“What is this thing? It keeps changing-” The last voice was cut off with a wet *squelch*, followed by a few cries of alarm.

<Hope those people were after you, because they absolutely found a mimic.> Another earth-vibrating crash shook numerous leaves from the hedges. Both Grant and Sarge went silent to try to listen in on the fight after an ear-splitting wail echoed over the walls of the Labyrinth. The shouts and screams continued for several minutes, before gradually moving away. By his estimate, either they were in a running retreat, or a second foe had used the mimic’s attack to launch their own.

How they could be followed by a wall was a mystery to Grant, so he assumed they were escaping. <Might not be a wall. Couldn't tell you if it’s the same mimic or not. They might be endemic to the area. Frankly, I’m just as turned around as you are.>

“Really?” Grant looked down at his sheathed sword in surprise. “I’d have thought you could keep track of all these turns better than I can.”

<There must be some kind of magic changing the region around as we move.> Sarge sounded a little angry, as if the trickery of spell users was a personal attack. <It can’t cover the whole area. I imagine they have people watching through the walls and shifting things around as we pass through.>

“If that’s the case, speed is going to be the name of the game. I can start running, but I don’t even know which direction we came from.” Peering along the strange hedgerows that grew along dense walls, Grant felt a wave of vertigo. Everything was the same—either shifting greenery or certainly trapped bare wall—and it was very disorienting. “I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this.”

<The sounds of the fighting came from your left as we walked here.> Grant could agree with that much, at least. <Put the wall with all the leaves on the ground to your left, and get a move on.>

Putting action to Sarge’s words, Grant took off at a ground-eating pace. He could keep up a jog for hours now, and he was happy to put his conditioning to use. An orange-tinted monster rat jumped off a hedge onto his back as he rounded a turn, forcing Grant to roll into a wall to dislodge it. <I’ll keep an eye out for monsters and people, so we’re gonna train while you run.>

“Make it happen.” Grant’ hand slapped February Twenty Nine’s hilt, and a smile ghosted over his face as he thought about how cool he looked running like this. The fact that he could do it never stopped impressing him.

<We should keep an eye on that seed of narcissism you’re formulating. That’s really not what you should be basing your path on. Looking impressive is fine, but you need to cut people, not amaze them. I can help you keep your thoughts focused.> It took a full hour, but Grant once again heard the sounds of fighting. This time, the commotion came from straight ahead, so all orange constructs in the area faded as reality became more pressing than practice.

Sweat was dripping into his eyes, making his vision blurry, but a few calming breaths and a quick wipe at his face cleared that up. There was a ‘t’-shaped intersection less than twenty feet away, and Grant wasn’t sure which turn would reveal the source of the screams and shouts.

<Stop and prepare yourself. Rushing into battle half-blind is more foolish than shearing sheep with a dull spoon.>

“Already ready to go, Sarge.” Grant thought it was strange that the sword hadn’t noticed his preparations. He loped forward, and Sarge made a choking noise as Grant explained, “Eyes are clear. Let’s-”

A large gorilla creature rounded the corner on Grant’s right at a dead sprint, watching behind itself at whatever it had been fighting. Which meant it didn’t notice him until after they both went down with a meaty collision. Grant had only managed to get his uchigatana halfway out of its sheath when they collided, his slowest draw ever after reaching Beginner Iaijutsu. The oversized creature’s proportions made it deceptively fast, making him misjudge the timing of his Iaijutsu strike. <What could make this thing run from combat?>

“Get back here, you stinking apes!” A very familiar voice was almost drowned out by the thundering footsteps of another half-dozen gorillas immediately on the trail of the first, and the sight of pink hair and shining gauntlets as they flashed past his prone form made Grant smile. He had really missed Suki these last few hours. “Don’t think I can’t catch you! Stand and fight!”

The gorilla on top of Grant didn’t bother trying to stand, instead scrambling away from him on all fours as soon as Suki ran past. As he got back to his feet, Grant watched the monster disappear back around the corner. The entire incident hadn’t even brought up the system prompts. Spinning to follow in Suki’s footsteps, he quickly managed to catch up to her. She was busy pounding the slowest of the beasts into the ground with her fists, the rapid-fire impacts causing the gorilla to quickly fall unconscious.

“Suki! Sword Saints, I finally found you!” His cheerful greeting earned him a glance, and the slightly crazed look in her eyes quickly diminished. “I’ve been trying to catch up to you for hours!”

“Grant, thank the Regent. This place is a nightmare!” Her eyes glazed, obviously reading the screens that only she could see as they popped up in her vision. It only took her a few seconds to clear them away before refocusing on him. “What happened? How did you make it into the maze? The last thing I saw before they tossed me out the door was you still standing by the tables in the back.”

“Oh, that’s the cow-pie game. I’m actually pretty good at it, even though it doesn’t actually involve pie. When we take this place over, let’s make gambling for anything but Time illegal.” Suki didn’t know what to say to that, so she kept her mouth closed as Grant relayed the events of the past few hours to her. After explaining why he and Sarge thought they were getting turned around so easily, and describing the sounds of battle between the people he was pretty sure were following them, Grant finally held up the pouch containing all the Time he had won. “Also, since they couldn’t catch up, we now have plenty of coins for our mission.”

<Just because you have Time, doesn’t mean you have time to waste. You two need to get going before someone catches up.> Sarge’s urging caused Grant to scan the area, realizing that they were unwisely relaxing in a very open location.

“Sarge has a good point. Perhaps a four-way intersection isn’t the best place to stop and talk. You can tell me what happened to you while we find someplace to rest?” Grant picked Suki’s pack up from where she had dropped it during the pummeling of the ape-man-thing. “We need to get our winnings distributed, and get some food in us. Keeping our energy up will be important.”

“That’s… a good idea.” Suki seemed surprised at Grant’s decisive directions and sudden increase in competence, but she quickly reconciled reality with her mental image of him. “You do a lot better in situations you’re familiar with, don’t you? It’s strange to me that you’re more comfortable in an area teeming with monsters while completely lost than you are around people. I guess, from the little we’ve discussed of your past… that makes sense.”

“Running and training through greenery, while getting jumped at, basically describes my time in District February.” Grant chuckled mirthlessly, pulling a wan smile from her.

As they walked, Suki relayed her own version of events, starting with just how much she had to cheat to win in the casino. “Absolutely everyone was cheating, even the dealer. I was lucky that everyone was more interested in not getting themselves caught than hunting for other cheaters.”

“I don’t like how dishonest everyone in this place is. It just…” Grant led the way deeper into the maze as he struggled to articulate his thoughts, his hand on his sword and eyes constantly scanning for signs of mimics and monsters. “I guess I feel that it makes hard work and learning proper skills seem less important? It makes my gut clench with… not anger… indigestion!”

“Indignation,” Suki corrected him, taking the initiative to smoothly move the conversation along. “While I agree with you, there isn't much we can do to change things in the here and now. All we can do is adapt to the situation, and make the best of it.”

“Don’t get me wrong.” Grant frowned, unsure how to word his grievance. “I understand that changing this place will take a lot of time, but I don’t agree with compromising our integrity by bending to our circumstances. If we want these people to be more honest, don’t we have to set the example for them to follow?”

“I… don’t know what to say to that, beyond stating that winning in the short term is more important to your actual quest. You could theoretically live forever as a cultivator, not to mention as the Calendar King. You’ll have the time you need later.” Suki’s argument left a bad taste in Grant’s mouth, but he had no choice other than to stay silent. “Anyway, when I had enough winnings to prove I should move on, they didn’t even let me stop to use the bathroom. They practically dragged me to the exit, and tossed me into a pit on the other side.”

Suki winced, the memory obviously making her uncomfortable. “I was able to climb out easily, but there was a group of bandits ready for me as soon as I did.”

“Bandits?” Grant was a little shocked. He’d thought that the honest way to get through the casino would be the safest way through the Labyrinth. “How many were there?”

“Not enough to stop me.” Suki cracked her knuckles to emphasize her point. “It didn’t take long to teach them the error of their ways. Then, I just kind of wandered the maze until those gorillas ambushed me. You know the rest.”

“I wouldn’t say you ‘found’ me. It was more like we ran into each other.” Grant eyed her apprehensively, still trying to bring the conversation back around to the issue of honesty. “Why do you disagree with me so much about cheating to win? Don’t you hate it too? Isn’t transparency in leadership your whole deal?”

“Grant…” Suki sighed and straightened her spine, clearly fed up with this line of questioning. “It isn’t about you being wrong. It’s about you learning the wrong lesson from this. You haven’t experienced the life of Nobles for very long. This is just how things are done. Not to be as rude as I know this is going to sound, but I don’t expect someone with a commoner background to understand. Not without a lot more experience.”

Grant opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off before he could say anything. “Don’t worry. When we’re married, I’ll deal with the other Nobles while you concentrate on ruling the twelve Districts. It’s the perfect division of roles. Just another reason why our impending marriage is an excellent transaction.”

The reminder made Grant blush furiously as his mind partially shut down. In all the excitement, he had almost forgotten about her desire to wrangle him into marriage. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea.

A heavily-armored woman bearing a halberd rounded the corner in front of them, and the two Wielders came to a stop, relaxed but ready to fight. “Oh, did we come across a lover’s quarrel? How fun! Dillon, did you hear that? These two are supposed to get married!”

“Congrats on the impendin’ nuptials!” An archer, holding a horn bow with a wickedly barbed arrow nocked, stepped out of the foliage behind them. “I’d warn ya against gettin’ tied down to jus’ one person at your age, but I don’t much see the point. Get it? The point, cause it’s an arrow that’s gonna kill ya! That’s jus’ pure comedy right there, I’m tellin’ ya-”

He wasn’t able to finish the thought; Grant was already right in front of him. The bow *twanged* as the bandit released the string out of sheer surprise, but it was too late. The uchigatana was already in position to deflect the arrow high into the air. Before the system could even prompt Grant for an action, his sword found and removed the archer’s throat.

“Dillon!” The scream from behind him reminded Grant to shift his position and take down the secondary threat. “No~o!”

Combat initiated

Action: Attack: With Weapon.

Result: Enemy defeated. Two enemies remaining.

Actions: Please select one option from the following list.

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell.

Defend: With Weapon, Without Weapon.

Run: Attempt Escape.

Grant had already spun in place, ready to sprint at the woman holding the halberd. She had rushed forward as well, trying to use the axe head at the end of her polearm to chop down into a surprised and unprepared Suki.

Her gauntlets flickered into existence, and she easily caught the downward swing in one hand. A sharp blow to the diaphragm of the bandit woman forced her to drop to her knees. Grant sheathed his sword as Suki tossed the halberd away.

<The system, Grant!> He halted, trying to figure out what Sarge was trying to say. As a crossbow bolt slammed into the crate of produce still in his pack rocked him forward, he realized what the sword meant. The system had said there were two enemies remaining.

Spinning around once more, Grant spotted the only place the crossbowman could be hiding: a gap in the hedges a few yards back that he was sure hadn't been there before. He was already moving before his conscious mind caught up.

Action: Defend: With Weapon.

Result: Projectile deflected. One enemy remaining.

Actions: Please select one option from the following list.

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell.

Defend: With Weapon, Without Weapon.

Run: Attempt Escape.

By pure reflex, Grant had used his Iaijutsu to deflect a bolt he hadn’t even seen until it was already knocked away. Selecting ‘Attack: With Weapon,’ he stabbed low into the hedge, feeling more resistance than he should have. With a quick twist and flick of his wrist, the system told him the bandit was done.

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [5 Wins / 2 Losses] to [6 Wins / 2 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

Peeking into the leafy alcove, he found another man that looked similar enough to the first archer that he could have been his twin. Grant guessed they were brothers. The man quickly bled out, joining his sibling in whatever afterlife was waiting for a pair of men who regularly robbed and killed innocent people.

“What have you done?” Suki walked over, her eyes lingering on the pools of blood. “I thought we talked about showing true skill by not killing our opponents? These are just basic Weapon cultivators!”

Instead of answering, Grant’s sword flashed out, blurring so close past Suki’s head that a few strands of pink hair floated on the breeze. Behind her, the female bandit was impaled through the wrist, and her dagger clattering to the ground was a loud counterpoint to the second movement in the quiet that followed. As the bandit crumpled to the ground, the hated system gave Grant another update.

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [6 Wins / 2 Losses] to [7 Wins / 2 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

“They told us they were going to kill us. They tried to kill us, and they would have if I hadn’t stopped them all three times. Treat every battle as if it’s life or death. It isn’t just cultivators, Vassals, and Wielders that can threaten your existence.” Grant angrily wiped his sword off on the dead bandit at his feet before sheathing it. “You nearly got us killed to prove a point. I took a crossbow bolt to my back, Suki. If I wasn’t carrying this crate, that would have gone through my armor like I wasn't even wearing any at this range.”

“It still wasn’t right for you to kill them.” The arrogance in those words finally made Grant snap. As he stalked away, he threw Suki’s condescending words in her face.

“It isn't that you have the wrong idea, it’s just that you’ve learned the wrong lesson. Only spending your time on non-lethal training, with enough resources to feed fifty people spent on you every day? I wouldn’t expect you, as a Noble, to understand. This is just how commoners do things.”