Minutes passed quickly as Nico stalked through the maze, winding around towards the small group. His lusterless silver armor was splattered in a coating of brown mud to help him blend in, and he kept to the shadowed section of the walls, his pale torch distorting the light near him.
Eventually, though, he ended up turning away. It was easy enough to find the creatures rough distance since his senses transcended visual limitations, but due to the nature of the crimson labyrinth, it wasn't always possible to find the right passages to catch them.
'Regardless, there's more nearby.'
Jogging in another direction, he closed in on a larger group of five. Usually that kind of number would've given him pause, but he hardly needed to worry when he was a monster with two augmentations. They were all Beasts anyway, and with how relatively slowly they were walking, he managed to reach them without trouble, scaling over a corridor a hundred meters ahead and hiding behind a bend in the path.
They would arrive in a few minutes.
Summoning the [Mourning Star], he rigged it to blow and topped it off with essence — having filled it a good bit during his journey here — then infused one of his soul roots before burying it in the mud.
After that, he dropped to a crawl and peered around the corner.
Five quadrupedal figures were lazily crowding the narrow passage in the distance. They were almost horse-like, with long, thin legs and stone-like hooves. Thick, leathery gray skin was stretched over their trunks and hindquarters, with moss and coral growths dotting the weathered surface. Head hung low, the vertebrae of their necks and spines jutted outwards unnaturally, and at the end, its snout, eyes, and ears were just as weathered as the rest of it.
Their underbellies, however, looked rather soft — almost raw.
'Did they collapse into rocks to try and hide from the depth dwellers?'
He didn't know for sure, but felt that for this species, that was the case.
Either way, their preferred method of hiding would prove beneficial for Nico.
***
The monstrous horse moved slowly, hooves slapping against wet mud as they sniffed the humid air, their noses searching for any distinct odors that might indicate prey. For a while nothing had appeared, but then a whiff of something — something untainted, pure, and in abject defiance of their very nature.
A ripple spread through the herd. Each one's neck crackled upwards, rising into the air as they bolted forward into a fierce gallop.
Before a few seconds had passed, the creatures reached a twist in their path and were forced to slow down to turn.
When they did, though, a blinding explosion erupted from the mud underneath them. The closest one to the blast was completely incinerated in its flare, and the two next to it were both severely burned.
Surprised, the insane Beast's grunted loudly and stomped the ground, rearing backwards from the conflagration.
Then, a figure descended behind a twisted piece of the coral walls, a single arc of red light denoting the decapitation of their injured comrade.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Gravestone Strider.]
Before the corpse even hit the ground, one of the three remaining striders lurched angrily toward Nico, hooves crashing down in an attempt to crush him.
He avoided them easily with a sideways dash.
His glaive blurred through the air again, but this time the creature was able to react, its long mouth splitting to reveal rows of thick, sharp teeth. Only, when they closed around the [Wrathful Crescent]'s enchanted steel, they shattered, and its momentum remained unbroken as it continued upwards and split the abomination's head in half.
Blood and brain matter sprayed gruesomely. The strider's tall body twitched, collapsing against the mud and rolling to the side.
[You have slain an Awakened…]
The voice was cut off as the remaining two — one half-burned, the other uninjured — recovered from their initial shock and pressed the attack. Despite their lesser numbers, now surprise wasn't on Nico's side, so the Beasts began to push him back.
Not for long, though.
The soul root he had used on the [Mourning Star] was just now returning after the weapon was dismissed, meaning he was now three times as strong once again. Not that he would've needed even a single augmentation to beat these creatures, of course. His strength as a Monster alone would've sufficed.
Nico blocked the burned striders by slamming the pommel of his weapon shaft into its snout. Thrown off balance because its weakened, burned legs were unable to support the force, it stumbled into the Beast beside it, and Nico smoothly transition his attack into an overhead swing.
Poised like the blade of a guillotine, it rent flesh, muscle, and bone easily, carving the Beast's head off and leaving a deep gash into its brethren's shoulder.
[You have slain…]
An ear-piercing screech erupted from the last strider's mouth, and it threw away the corpse pressed against it with a single jerking motion. Unfathomable wrath burned in its black, pupilless eyes.
Nico calmly took a few steps forward. His weapon was angled forward like a spear.
Without much warning, the Beast lunged at him, reared on its hind legs as it came crashing down.
Easily, he lunged forward to match it, and his blade sank into the soft underbelly beneath, piercing its chest before its stone hooves could come down to crush him. Only, it wasn't dead yet, so he pulled his blade upwards and split it wide open.
The strider's tensed body slacked, and the Spell whispered:
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Gravestone Strider.]
Still, even dead, its momentum continued, and the abomination's corpse sank further onto the [Wrathful Crescent], stopping only when it reached down to his hands.
Grunting, Nico pushed the body away, then tore his blade free, fresh blood dripping down its shaft and off his armor.
The steel shimmered red angrily, and its single soul node shone brighter.
Exhaling, he brandished the blade, flinging viscous droplets from the metal as he thought:
'So, that's your enchantment, huh? I guess I should've figured sooner. Who'd have thought the menacing red blade got stronger the more it killed, right?'
He exhaled and grimaced as a streak of blood dripped from the edge of his visor.
'And I thought weapons like these were supposed to keep enemies away from you? I must be doing something wrong here…'
***
Worn from exhaustion, Nico rolled over the lip of the dead giant's rib and collapsed onto the white bone covered in sweat, the fading sun painting the world lilac behind him.
His armor collapsed into a scattering of sparks, releasing him from the overbearing weight and heat as he thought meekly:
'I don't think I've ever hunted that many creatures in one day.'
Inside his makeshift rucksack over twenty bloodied shards sat in wait — over twenty Awakened creatures slain, and all in a day's work — literally.
Groaning, he strained his abdominals and sat up, snatching his rucksack from his belt and staggering to his feet. Stretching stiffly, he approached his resting Spire Messenger, its pale, massive body curled up, stained feathers twitching in rest.
Shaman would be a big step closer to filling his counter of fragments now.
'If this pace keeps up, it'll be most the way there by the time we reach the other side of the crater.'
Stirring in the center of the gigantic platform, the Specter lifted its eyeless head, crimson flames flickering brighter when it noticed him. Then it noticed the offering. Snapping its beak in anticipation, it slunk towards him on all eights; the injured claw had fully healed during the day.
Opening the bag for the Specter, he watched it lower its head and open its beak, then poured all twenty soul shards inside. However, instead of swallowing or breaking the stones like one would've figured, tendrils of fog snaked out from within its mouth, enveloping the shards in a shroud.
For a moment nothing happened. Then, forcefully, essence was pulled free from the shards and absorbed into the fog, disappearing into the gaping Messenger's maw towards where its four cores were hidden.
The Spire Messenger dumped back out the emptied crystals.
Nico stood idle, thoughts blank.
'Always strange to watch that.'
Before the shaman was a Specter it had absorbed the shards in some mystical way Nico couldn't quite understand, but because it had a visible body now, he was able to see the true machinations of how it worked easily.
That aside, Nico busied himself preparing a campfire out of some materials he'd scavenged in the labyrinth, crafting other amenities like a seaweed bed and another pouch — stuffing everything into one bag was becoming inefficient and quite unsanitary.
Soon, a steady flame was burning next to him.
Retrieving a couple strips of meat that he'd flayed off one of the Gravestone Striders from his rucksack, he set them to roast, sprinkling a little bit of salt he'd brought along for good measure; it was supposed to help cover the terrible taste. Monster hunting had never been a profession with great benefits, anyway.
There was a pleasant fatigue to his body today. It wasn't the aching brought by overexertion, or the stinging pain spawned from several cuts or bruises, but the cathartic kind that let you know you had worked hard.
Truly, it was a strange thing to be feeling after surviving battles against deadly monsters.
'I guess I've just grown that much stronger.'
The mere Beasts in the labyrinth were nothing much to him anymore. As a Monster he was more than capable of handling them.
His head turned towards Shaman as he asked:
"Do you need to eat?"
It felt like a silly thing to ask a wraith. What kind of ghost ate? But, its host had a body of flesh and blood, so he figured it reasonable — if a little negligent of himself to have not asked sooner.
Without the need to answer, it glanced at him, then lowered its body back to the bone floor. Nico read its emotions unwillingly. Shaman was hungry, of course, but had eaten one of the corpses when Nico sent it to hunt by itself yesterday, so the Fallen Beast wouldn't be starving any time soon.
There would always be more later.
Turning back to the fire, Nico waited a couple minutes, then retrieved one strip of meat and took a bite.
He scooped snow from the [Winter's Vase] and melted it in a cup for clean drinking water.
After finishing his simple meal, he sat idly.
It sure was… boring out here.
He stood up to attempt building a foundation for his glaive style, then felt a wave of fatigue wash over him and reluctantly sat back down.
Searching for his elusive spirit, and throwing himself at the same brick wall over and over, had become irritating. He'd do that tomorrow.
Was there really… nothing else to do?
The couple of silent minutes that followed was his answer.
He sighed, then turned to watch the fading sunset. It wouldn't be long before it turned to night anyway. Then, he would sleep.