Chapter 3

  A Lone Desperado

  Fay made his way through the dimly lit labyrinth. His heart pounded in his chest. It beat with such fervor he could hear it in his ears. Sweat soaked his shirt, his breath a shallow gasp. He had talked a big game in the tavern, but it took all of his strength to shuffle one foot forward at a time, as he clutched the jagged, damp wall.

  Hopefully they killed everything here on the first floor, if I run into a beast, I’m as good as dead.

  The Labyrinth itself was a cave like any other, dark and damp. Its jagged rocks were grey and desolate. This was not a place for humans. There was no sun here.

  Fay continued to force his feet to action, dropping to his knees at the slightest sound.

  He aimlessly wandered the hellscape, and he silently prayed he would not come across the bodies of Dorian or Ridley.

  I shouldn’t be here. Ridley is probably on his way back with everyone now. He is going to be pissed when he finds me here.

  Despite his thoughts, Fay feared the worst. Memories of the day his father was killed flooded his mind as he made his way forward in search of the stairs that would take him below.

  While the beasts were mostly mindless, the intelligent ones would sometimes set mana traps to pull unsuspecting Beast Hunters to the lower levels, making for easy, disoriented prey. Ridley had mistakenly triggered one of these traps when he was first brought under Barron’s wing, and the whole party was taken to the 7th floor, the deepest level traversed by the beast hunters of East River.

  Barron had protected the men with all his strength, and overpowered the beasts that laid in wait for them. Ridley had run to Barron’s side to help. A hidden beast lunged for his neck, the mindless thing. Barron protected Ridley, and lost his life. The beast was weak. It should not have scratched Barron. Ridley killed the beast, and came back with the other men carrying Barron’s corpse. The remarkable man died an unremarkable death.

  Why am I thinking of this now for sun sake?

  Fay arrived at the steps of the second floor. Steeling his nerves, he began down the winding steps before him. He descended for what felt like hours, every step harder to muster the courage for than the last. Fay came to the mouth of the second floor, and there he saw it. The magic circle. The trap they had to have fallen into. It shone with a horrid glow, its shimmer an insult to light. It was not the Sun’s light. It did not give warmth, radiance, nor gift, only the promise of death. It was a cheap imitation, an insult to creation. To natural order.

  Shit shit shit shit I can't do this.

  Fay stood frozen before the circle. His palms dripped with sweat, and the hair on his neck stood like a dog ready to bite. His stomach churned, and his knees weakened. He had come here for nothing. He had to leave. He took a step to turn and felt something press against his back. It was cold, and it made a soft clanking sound as he impacted it. Fay, green in the face, slowly turned his head upward to see what it was that was behind him. It was a man. He had no face. Fay let out a scream and jumped forward. It was the man from his dream.

  The man doubled over in what appeared to be laughter, and pointed at Fay. Fay had jumped away from him. Jumped into the circle. The magic gripped him, and he felt it pulling him to sun knows where. The last thing Fay saw was the man thumbed his chest and pointed at Fay’s. With a salute from the man, Fay’s vision faded to black.

  Fay opened his eyes and was engulfed by darkness. He felt around for the floor, the wall, anything to orient himself in the void. He crawled forward on his knees, when his hand landed in a puddle of thick liquid with a splash. Fay sniffed his hand. It was blood. Human blood. The metallic smell was enough to make his stomach turn.

  Fay called out his piece. Even if it was worthless, it would at least make a half decent lantern with its dim glow. With the piece raised in front of him, Fay saw the bodies of the beast hunters. They were all without heads, the spines sticking halfway out the torsos like de-boned fish. The floor was a lake of blood and innards. Crimson viscera painted the walls of the cave in a shade of crimson as deep as the red moon on the harvest solstice.

  Fay, still on his knees, spilled the contents of his stomach until there was nothing left to puke up. Gasping for air, Fay retreated to where he had originally been transported. He dug at the wall, at the ground, desperate to leave this place of death. He clawed until his fingers bled, and tears began to run down his face as he curled his legs to his chest.

  I am going to die. I am going to die. I am going to die.

  The words screamed in Fay’s mind. The words ripped at his psyche, attempting to drive him mad. He knew he was going to die. He was going to be ripped apart like the others. If the C rank’s were killed, then he surely would.

  Fay cried, his shirt becoming soaked with tears. He did not move. He could not move. He had relegated himself to being killed here. If something was going to kill him, Fay was not going to go out of his way to run into it.

  Guess this was always my place in the natural order. A shitty piece makes a shitty existence. The weak don’t get to live happily. If it was the order's will, then there was nothing I could do to avoid it. Ah, I wish I was strong.

  Fay’s thoughts were cut through by a yell. A human yell.

  “Come get some you sorry sonofa…GUHH”

  It was Dorian. Fay cried again. Dorian was dying.

  It hurts. I don't want to hear this. I am weak.

  Fay laid where he was, his mind blank. He had already given himself to death. The chains on his hands were heavy. Fay looked down. The chains were there. No longer just a feeling, but there, their obsidian hue silently pulsing.

  Just what the hell are these?

  Fay thought of his words to Corina and Sammy. He had promised. That fire, he needed that inferno in him. He rose, the last cinders in his heart refusing to be snuffed out. If he was going to die, it would be at Dorian’s side. He had promised that much to himself before he came down here. Fay began to shuffle towards the sound of fighting. The memory of his words to the family of the fighter replayed in his mind. Fay began to walk. He thought of Ridley, of Tima. Fay began to run. The embers of his heart were starting to ignite.

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  As he came upon the grizzly battle, he saw Dorian. He had a great wound in his chest. He was pale as a ghost. With his plate sized hands, he pressed on the wound to stop the bleeding, but the blood poured out from him like a river. He was going to die.

  “Hold on Dorian” Ridley screamed, his piece locked with the beast’s claws.

  That's…... .that's not a shield.

  It was a beautiful piece. A great-sword of fire. It's fine double edge radiated tendrils of flame. They lashed at the beast, as if the fire itself wished to see the creature destroyed. It was magnificent.

  Fay looked at his own piece. Compared to that, it was worse than junk.

  I shouldn’t have come.

  Fay ran to Dorian’s side. His chained hands weighted on him, pulled him towards the ground. They became heavier with every step he took.

  Fay arrived at Dorian’s side and pulled his shirt from his body. He pressed it onto the massive wound that ran from Dorian's Shoulder to his opposite hip. The blood was black, and the wound was deep.

  He is going to die

  “Sun above, what are you doing here boy?” Dorian said through labored breaths.

  “I came to get you. Your wife and little girl are a mess. You are going to get an earful from them after we get back” Fay spat through sobs.

  “I don’t know about that boy. That thing got me good. I guess this is the way of the natural order. I was always supposed to die a Beast Hunter's death. I tried to defy that order and here I am…..sun above. I had wished to write more poems for my sweet ... .Cori-……” Dorian’s eyes glazed over, and he fell limp.

  “No…No…No ... .Dorian…..Dorian what about Corina and Sammy. You can’t die here. You can’t. Dorian please”.

  Fay wailed like he hadn’t since losing his father.

  His heart, his soul. It was screaming. He hugged Dorian.

  I will do it for you. I will defy the order.

  As this thought entered his mind, the chains weighed on his wrist so heavy, he was pulled to the floor. The world around him went dark. The faceless man was before him. The same routine. Thumbing his chest. It was trying to tell him something. Fay understood. He had never pulled back on the chains. Fay clenched his fists and pulled with all the force he could muster in his body. The chains, in kind, adjusted their pull on his. The faceless man was frantic. He thumped his chest, and pointed at Fay’s. Fay imagined his piece, his soul. The harder he pulled on the chains the more intense the fire grew in his chest. Something was missing, he knew it. He pulled on the chains. They pulled back. They began to give.

  They cracked.

  Fay continued to struggle against the chains, radiant light spilling from the cracks in the dark obsidian bindings. With all the strength he had left, Fay pulled for the final time.

  The chains broke.

  Radiant light swirled around him and into his chest. He could see it, the light was part of him, his missing piece. Fay called it to his hand. It was the same, but a curved piece now sat in the loop connecting the cylinders. It was no longer dim. It shined with not fire, but pure light.

  “Sun above, would you look at that beauty. Ain’t never seen something like that before.”

  Fay looked up, the faceless man now in possession of a face. Fay was speechless at the sight of it.

  “Dad?” Fay finally spat out.

  “It took you forever to finally figure it out son, but you did it. You broke the chains of the natural order.” Barron laughed.

  “What do you mean, what were those chains, what is this piece, what is the natural order?”

  Fay continued to spit the myriad of questions he had for Barron, but with a wave of his hand, Barron cut him short.

  “Now’s not the time for that, Ridley is gonna get killed by that thing if you don't get in there.”

  Barron pointed to where Ridley was fighting the beast.

  The beast had Ridley pinned against the labyrinth wall. His sword of flames entangled with the claws of the beast, its edge nearly at his own neck.

  “You're an order-breaker now son, a real lone desperado. I can't wait to see what interesting things happen now.”

  With those words, Barron’s form faded, the mischievous grin on his face the last to disappear.

  Fay was confused, but that could wait.

  His soul was ablaze. His piece called to him. He leveled it, pointing the end of the open cylinder at the beast. Fay wrapped his finger around the new curved component that had once been missing. It guided his hand and mind.

  Pull me, It spoke to him.

  Fay’s finger curled and pulled back the small lever, and the hammer at the top of the cylinder fell with a slam.

  Light tore from the end of the barrel, its color so pure, it was the hue of the sun itself. The tiny ball of light flew across the room faster than Fay’s eyes could track and struck the beast in the flesh of its disabled body. It reared its two disgusting heads in pain and let loose a piercing howl. It retreated from its new attacker and freed Ridley from the wall.

  “Fay…What the hell. What are you doing here, what the hell is that?” Ridley yelled in disbelief.

  “Talk later, go help Dorian. I will handle this thing…..I'm on fire right now." Fay said, spinning the piece around his finger and thumbing his chest.

  Lets see who's stronger, the desperado or the beast.

  The beast did not retreat long, and charged at Fay. It weaved in a zig zag as it approached to avoid his shots. Its three mismatched legs moving it in an unnatural way that Fay was having trouble tracking.

  Fay felt the inferno raging in his heart. His ribs felt as if they would give way and his chest would burst open, spilling the whole room in light.

  “Sorry, but with the state I'm in, I don’t think I could ever lose”.

  Fay leveled the end of the piece at the beast.

  “Fay, watch out, it’s an intelligent!”

  Ridley’s warning came too late.

  “WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT HUMAN.” the beast screeched as it barreled toward Fay.

  Fay let out two shots from his piece in a flash of light. The first shot exploded just left of the beast, and the second to his right, ripping up rock and leaving deep smoking craters in the labyrinth floor.

  Fay felt the piece calling to him again. He hadn’t used all its tricks yet. Spinning it around in his hand once more, He took it in his right hand and placed his left on the hammer above.

  So that's how it works, Fay mused to himself.

  He pulled back the hammer and let it fall in rapid succession with his left palm. Three shots roared from the piece near simultaneously.

  Fay had put one shot just on either side of the beast and one directly between its heads. Fay was aiming for its core. If he could destroy that, he would win. There was nowhere to dodge. He had gotten it.

  “Not bad for a human”. The beast roared.

  The beast launched itself into the air over the three shots. It flipped in the air and pulled its massive claws above its head. Its paws glowing with amassed magic from its core.

  “Fay RUN” Ridley yelled as he watched the scene unfold.

  The beast slammed its empowered fists not into Fay, but into the ground in front of him. The Labyrinth shook and moaned at the power of the strike.

  The floor cracked and tore beneath Fay, and it gave way to the depths below. He fell through with the beast.

  “See you in hell” the beast said.

  The beast hit the side of the wall as they fell, its body mangled into a bloody ball of insides and flesh by the jagged rocks of the pit in an instant.

  Fay fell for what felt like eternity. There was no pain, no sound. Everything was there, and then it wasn't.

  He had fallen too far for any human to survive.