"Yes."
Just as I had hoped, when I directed my answer to the Union Ring, Deckard picked up on it too.
"Girl?"
"Now!" the mind bitch screeched, her voice rattling in my skull, forcing me to move, and I did. That was, however, where she made the second mistake, or rather, failed to notice that I was barely standing. That was where I miscalculated, though. Despite the pain my body was in, the lack of strength, and my missing leg, I didn't fall flat on my ass, but instead broke into a surprisingly fast, if odd, three-limbed run.
?Lady??
?Where you off to?? Neighed the confused animals I slipped past. Obviously, I was more capable than I thought - whether it was due to my bestial linage, regeneration, or weaves like [Equilibrium].
Not that any of it got me far. One step and Deckard stood by me, hoisting me up by the waist like I was nothing more than a wayward pup. A pathetic little whine of relief escaped my lips before the mind-bitch's magic stopped me. Honestly, I had no idea what she was thinking. That I could just slip through a herd of scalehoofs without anyone noticing - while missing a leg?
"Brainrot have you, seeker!" the bitch shrieked, perched high on her mossbear’s back.
"Like I said, brain-dead fools," he shot back a grin. "Let me guess? You wanted to have her use a Labyrinth Anchor?”
'Damn, how did he know?' That was exactly her plan. Once I was close enough, she was going to throw me whatever this anchor thing was and had me pour mana into it.
"Tsk," she clicked her tongue, her gaze, like everyone else’s, snapping to the treeline skirting the clearing. One by one, mother mossbears emerged from the trees, slow and lumbering - or rather, the trees moved out of the way of these majestic creatures. There were five of them, the same number I had seen hauled across the ground by the young mossbear. And they were every bit as colossal as I remembered. Three humans tall, maybe more. Their antlers, covered thick with moss and vines, stretched even higher, looking like tree branches. Their fur, somewhere between brown and gray, was almost buried under all that moss clinging to them.
Their eyes swept the clearing, pausing on the young - fallen, dead, and alive. Most of all, they lingered on the two trapped under the bitch's control.
?Thought Fuddler!? grunted one of the mother mossbears. ?How dare you muddle their thoughts!? One didn't need to know the beast talk to catch the fury in her growl - that went for the mind-bitch too - or rather the 'Thought Fuddler'. A fitting name for one like her.
I could almost see the gears turning in the bitch’s head as she weighed her options - her chances, the pros and cons. No doubt, pretty much everyone in the clearing had to be doing the same. But it was when glowing green strands appeared briefly on mother mossbears' antlers and Thought Fuddler lost control of the two beasts, that she understood that not even today she would have her way.
Forced to jump off the back of the young mossbear she was riding, she spat a curse, shooting daggers at me and Deckard. "Curse you, mutt!" A black cube etched with runes, not unlike the one I had seen her use back then in that cursed lab, appeared in their hands.
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'She wants to run away!' I tried to warn Deckard, but still held in her thrall, my tongue didn't move at all, nor did my thoughts reach the ring. Instead, a crushing force slammed into my mind, threatening to tear my skull apart.
"Have fun teaching her not to piss her knickers, seeker," the bitch spat with a sharp grin. The runes on the cube lit up white-hot and with a blinding flash like those on Labyrinth Square's platform, she was gone.
─◇─◇─◇─
POV: Deckard
"You’re getting old, fool!" Deckard swore under his breath, as the young woman he held by the waistband of her shorts twisted and sank her teeth into his hand. He should have seen it coming. No, not the bite, but the bitch's mind attack. Her kind thrived on leaving ruin in their wake, like letting people have their sanity slowly stripped away by taking care of those whose minds the bastards decided to destroy.
The woman he came to pick up, however, was far too lively to be a mere hollow husk. ‘Did the Cognizant mess up?’
"Are you there, girl?" He spoke through the link of the Union Ring. But instead of replying, she lunged at his hand, scratching at it like a wild animal. 'Has she turned into one?' Given what San had shared of her nature, it wouldn't surprise him. ‘Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but…’
"Should’ve asked for more," Ward muttered as the mother mossbears voiced their displeasure at the mind mage’s cowardly escape and another anchor had appeared in his hand, much like it had in the Cognizant’s. Although, it could teleport its user back to the main platform of the labyrinth, no matter where they were - a rare one-time use thing, that, and by no means a cheap one. Few could afford it, save for the heads of the seeker companies like Ward.
His gaze shifted back to his men, a grim smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Draven, Rhea. If you get out of this, a favor’s yours."
"The fuck, Ward?! I know you have more than one anchor!"
"And…?"
"No, no, no, no... you fucking piece of shit!" Shadow Thief howled, his hand passing through nothing but white dazzling light instead of grasping his leader. 'Really disappointing,' thought Deckard. ‘The guy was a bastard who deserved to rot in jail, but…’ He never thought he would sink so low.
"How can you just stand there, Rhea?!" Shadow Thief snapped, his boot striking the extinguished Labyrinth Anchor now laying cold on the ground. It shattered into fine dust.
"What would you have me do?"
"I don't know, be a little fucking pissed!"
"I am - but throwing a tantrum isn't going to help us get out of here, is it?"
"Then what the fuck…?"
The ground quaked as one of the mother mossbears took a step, her growl shaking the very marrow in his bones. 'Fool, you should know better than to wish it wouldn't come to this.' Deckard sighed, a bead of sweat tracing the length of his spine under the piercing gaze of the beast.
?Growl!?
'If only I knew what you want,' he thought, his mind racing through his options. Were it just him and the girl, he could simply run away, but he wasn't Ward. The death of two guardswomen would weigh heavily on his mind. ‘Is she even worth saving?’ At present, she resembled a wild animal more than anything else.
As if to prove him right, the girl hissed, teeth bared, and a billow of orange gas erupted from her tail.
"Don't move!" Deckard managed to shout to the others, his words barely out before the massive moss shoots surged from the earth, the moss swelling beneath his feet to the height of his knees, all around him and the girl. In barely more than a handful of apple-scented breaths, the shoots and mainly the moss itself absorbed the cloud.
- You were poisoned
"You sure are full of surprises, girl." Barely finishing that thought, not at all concerned about the poison, he watched the moss shoots coil tightly around the girl, pulling her to the ground into a blanket of moss.
?Grrrl!? The mossbear’s voice cut through the air, its warning halting his movement. Instincts honed by years in the army - one just didn't watch a fellow soldier or civilian being eaten by a beast or plant. As such, the urge to act burned inside him, even though he knew it wasn't necessarily the end of the girl. She thrashed beneath the vines, hissing and growling as moss crept up her limbs - the question was whether to heal her or…