Chapter 5

  Said Hey Good Lookin….

  It had been days since Fay had fallen into the pit. After taking some time to gather supplies in the forest, Fay continued his journey. He had descended down to the 27th floor, the other floors untouched by the magic like the 21st. During the day, or what had become Fay’s day, as he had no sense of time without the sun, he would search for the stairs down, fighting and killing any beast he saw.

  During his time down here, Fay had learned a few things that were incorrect from what the Beast Hunters on the surface thought about the Beasts and the labyrinth.

  Firstly, not all the beasts on the lower floors were stronger than the previous. While they did get stronger the farther he went down, there was negligible difference between close floors. The beasts of the 21th and 23rd were not that different in might. Fay thought back to his conversation with Barron and how the beasts did not categorize themselves.

  Must have been us humans that put the labels on them, they only see the strong.

  Secondly, the floors were not all warped with magic. While the mana was definitely thicker, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why it changed some floors and not others.

  Thirdly, the physical gifts of the Beast Hunters were not gifts at all. Most Beast Hunters drew mana into their piece subconsciously, and in doing so fortified their bodies. While some of the A and all the S ranked Beast Hunters could forcefully control mana to parts of their body to strengthen themselves or produce magic, they all did it to some degree.

  Lastly, Fay had discovered a neat trick afforded to him by becoming a desperado. He was able to access a small space outside of the world. It wasn’t very large, about the size of a box used for storing the grains at the tavern, and Fay couldn’t exactly put into words how he did it, but by willing his hand to break through reality, he was able to access this space. It wasn’t useful for much besides storage, but limited to only what he could carry, it was a blessing to Fay.

  Fay had taken to extracting the cores of the beasts he killed as he continued his journey down the labyrinth. It not only reminded him of his days with Dorain and the others, but these beasts were stronger than anything that the Beast Hunters of East River had ever fought, so their cores would be worth more money than he could have ever hoped to see working at the guild.

  Fay smiled as he thought of Tima, Ridley, and everyone else at the guild’s faces when he returned with enough cores to make him a noble. He knew they must be worried, and his heart stung with pain especially when Tima came to mind. He decided that he would move her out of that little shack and into the biggest estate he could afford to make up for how much pain he knew his disappearance must be causing her.

  On the day that Fay thought marked a week in the depths, he found himself on the 34th floor. He had fought many beasts, and had nearly lost his life more times than he could count, but he refused to be removed from the natural order. His body had become scared, and his hands calloused.

  In all the time he worked in the slaughter room, he could not remember a time he had been as filthy as he was now. His usually short cut black hair hung past his ears, and his smooth face was now covered in a layer of scuff that itched relentlessly, with no amount of scratching bringing reprieve. As Fay descended the steps to the 35th floor, he was met at the bottom by something he had not encountered yet.

  Doors.

  The massive stone plates sat shut, their craggy exterior and enormous size sending chills of danger down Fay’s spine. As he ran his hands over the door, he felt the etching of words on their surface. Fay spun his piece to his hand and held it to the door for light. From the top of the door Fay read the contents of the sprawling text

  Beyond these doors lies celestial defiance. Oh great scar, that which reminds of the reprimand brought upon all that defy the orders command. Praise be to the promise that broke from its chains. If you think yourself strong, take charge of vow now fallen and deliver unto the sovereigns of order disorder.

  What in the hell does that mean?

  Fay was puzzled by the strange words etched deep into the stone of the doors.

  I guess this is where things get serious. Not like I have any choice but down.

  Fay pushed on the giant doors, their weight requiring a feat of strength alone. As the stone of the door ground and scrubbed over the stone of the ceiling and floor, they gave way into a room of pure white. The room itself was no larger than a grainfield found on any farm in East River, and it was bare except for two large statues on the opposite end. The smaller statue was of a woman in chains, the fear and pain of captivity carved into her face in excruciating detail.

  The larger of the statues depicted a great beast of scales and wings. Its body reminded Fay of the lizards he and Ridley would catch as children, but its monstrous size and three heads were unlike any lizard he had ever seen on the surface. Its jagged, rocky teeth lined its three chasms of mouths and its eyes were as black as a moonless night. Its claws, even etched from stone, looked sharp enough to cut anything they contacted in half.

  That can’t be just for show, Fay thought as he stepped uneasily into the room, his piece held close to his chest.

  Fay was right, and as he made his way just past the open doors, they slammed shut behind him.

  There it is.

  When Fay returned his gaze from the door, the lizard beast stood in front of him. The stone that once imprisoned it lay in pebbles around its feet, and the beast sucked in a great breath before rearing its three heads to the sky and let loose a ear-piercing screech.

  The statue of the woman remained in its place.

  The beast turned its frantic eyes to Fay, its rage towards its imprisoner cast upon him.

  This is going to be tough Fay thought as he leveled his piece at the beast.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Although he had trained with Barron every night in the chamber of his soul, Fay could tell this was going to be difficult from the beast's mana-aura alone. Fay rattled off three shots at the beast, one for each head. The shots blazed towards their targets, engulfing them each with an explosion of light.

  That was easy Fay thought as the heads of the beast smoked.

  In an instant, the plume of smoke around the left head of the beast split, and out of it came a boulder the size of a cowbeaver. Fay drew his piece and fell the hammer, the shot causing the boulder to erupt, sending chunks of rock all around. Before he could ready himself for the next projectile, the right plume of smoke split. From it came an equally large spear of ice. Fay, not able to turn and level his peace at the gaining spear, dove to his left and rolled to a crouch.

  Just as he landed, the middle plume of smoke too split, and a wave of fire large enough to engulf the fields of his small village surged towards him. Fay drew mana from the air into his piece, a trick he had learned from his training with Barron, and shrouded himself in it. The fire washed over him. It burned the oxygen in his lungs and singed his skin, the water that poured from his eyes blinded him. The flames died, and Fay felt the pain from his wounds and smelled the char of his burning flesh.

  If that hits me again I won’t make it, I gotta end this quick.

  Fay studied the three heads of the beast. It’s left a craggy and cracked exterior of shell-rock and brown. It's right, smooth and blue, with small stalactites of ice jutting from it at all angles. It’s middle an inferno of flames, an amalgamation of dazzling red, oranges, and yellows.

  Neat trick.

  Fay darted from his kneeling position to the left, believing that the head of ice was easiest to avoid. Spinning his piece in his hand, Fay pulled the hammer back with his left palm, letting loose 4 shots at the beast's ice head. Much like before, ice split the smoke surrounding the head in half, the beast unharmed. As he dodged to his left, he was met with a boulder slamming the ground in front of him, blocking his path. Planting his feet, he stopped his momentum from carrying him into the boulder, as the head of fire spewed a cyclone of flames towards him. Fay once again pulled the mana from the air into him. Sending it to his legs, he leapt over the wall of flames that bore down on him, barely making it over the top. As he crested the top of the cyclone, his eyes met the boulder and ice spear converging in on him from either side.

  Oh shit.

  He could only shoot one. Fay shot the boulder, the chunks raining to the ground and embedding themselves in the floor. He twisted himself in the air enough to avoid a direct hit, but the spear of ice made a deep wound in his side as it shattered against the stone doors behind him.

  I've got to end this, I don’t have much left in me. It's all I’ve got just to draw the mana into my piece, and using it is tearing me apart.

  Fay could feel the pain in his limbs from his use of the mana. While his training with Barron gave his mind the knowledge of its use, his body was still unaccustomed to it, every use sending jarring pain through his body as his muscles shred from the forced exertion. His legs shook from the strain created by the magic, while the wound on his side spilled a pool of blood at his feet.

  My piece can't get through it’s damned armour, and it's covered square in it. Where the Sun and I were supposed to shoot this thing?

  Fay’s eyes darted across the beast's monstrous frame, frantically searching for an opening. The beast threw its heads towards the sky once more, its rage and bloodlust towards Fay thickening the air.

  Its mouth!

  Fay looked at the howling creature, its mouth a fleshy pink. Its eyes fixated on Fay, and he gazed into them. Fay was ready to make his final stand. He would either dominate this creature or be dominated. He would prove himself strong or die weak. Fay ran to his right and slid behind a fragment of rock left over from one of the boulders he had shot. It was all his legs could take just to get him there, but he didn’t need to move any more.

  Fay, his piece in his right hand and his left on the hammer, slung 4 shots at the beast's left and right heads. The shots dug into the beast's eyes, and with a flash of light, chunks of flesh and rivers of blood spilled from the holes in its heads. The beast pulled its atrocious, wounded heads to the sky once more, and opened its two mouths to howl. The flesh of its inside’s now exposed, Fay let loose two shots of light from his piece.

  The pair of heads fell to the ground with a thud, the impact shaking the ground beneath his feet. The final flame enveloped head screeched at Fay, its rage exceeding its own limits. The flaming head opened its ferocious maw, the heat from the flames scorching the walls around it as they spilled from its mouth like a rabid animal.

  Guess you were weak.

  Fay squeezed the trigger of his piece. The shot ripped through the roof of the beast's mouth and out through its skull, showering its life blood from the sky.

  Fay wiped the blood from his face. The beast lay dead in the center of the room, its three heads spurting and spilling fountains of liquid from inside the beast. Looking at himself, Fay could not tell what blood was his and what were the beasts. As his adrenaline died down, Fay felt the pain from the wound in his side, and the shredded muscles in his legs. He fell to his knees, his hand held against the wound to stop the bleeding.

  The blood poured from his body, the deep crimson and black pooling around his hands. Fay was never much of a drinker, but the loss of blood intoxicated his mind worse than any a barrel of spirits ever had. He rolled to his back, the blood coating his torso and hair as it continued to leak from his body. He stared at the white ceiling of the room as he thought of the surface above. He closed his eyes.

  Damn, it got me good. Sorry everyone, but this is as far as I go.

  “Pardon me, but where am I?”

  Fay’s eyes bolted open, believing the voice to be his final blood-drunk hallucination before death. Standing above him was a woman. Her silver hair drew Fay’s eyes to it. He had never seen hair like that. Hair so magnificent, so exquisite, so beautiful. Her skin, as pale as the Wisteria that hung from the roof of his little shack, was smooth and unblemished save for the small scar on her cheek. He looked to her eyes, two bright amethysts in a sea of white. This woman was beauty incarnate. A star given corporeal form and sent unto this world for him alone to find.

  Truth be told, Fay had never cared much for the sun. Its light was aggressive, and it burned those who basked in it for too long. It abandoned them to the cold at the end of each day. But the moon, Fay loved with all his heart. Its pale light wrapped the world in its soft embrace at the sun's abandonment. Its soft pull on the seas spread the pleasant song of the breeze through his open window as he lay in bed. The citizens of the Sol Empire saw the moon as nothing more than a promise of the divine sun's return, but Fay saw it as the divinity that it was.

  The moon huh, I wish I could have felt that cool breeze one more time.

  Why am I thinking about the moon at a time like this?

  “Pardon me, but where am I?”

  His thoughts were cut short by the women’s repeated question, but he did not answer. Instead, his eyes were drawn to her shimmering silver hair.

  Ah I see, the moon. I need to say something to her. What did Ridley say about talking to women? Compliment them?

  Fay’s consciousness was slipping, his side still pouring dark blood onto the floor. In his fading, intoxicated state, Fay turned his gaze to the women.

  “Hey there, good lookin, I ain’t much but a desperado, but I’m yours if you’ll have me”.

  Fay, unable to fight the pull any longer, gave into unconsciousness, his last sight the glistening beauty of the woman’s hair.