Floor nineteen.
Bell walked. Crimson Order resting on his shoulder. The weight of it was different from usual blades—heavier, more like carrying responsibility than a sword. He could still feel a faint warmth along its hilt.
Flames wound over his free hand, shaping into a dome of blazing heat.
A Spartan shield. Aspis.
He glanced back. Feet shoulder-width apart.
Alfia met his eyes. Her weight shifted, calves tensing. Ready.
Trees stretched around them in a circular radius, soil wet and soft, thick with humidity. Moss clinging to bark in patches.
A single Bugbear emerged from ahead.
Bell pushed his heel down.
Soil erupted from his rear foot—a brown spray hanging suspended in humid air. He moved. Soil clusters were still rising, still reaching for the apex of their arc when his shield rammed into that Bugbear's skull.
Its face caved in. Fur ignited. Canines tore free—whistling—spinning between two trees. Those clusters at his original position finally touched ground. Yet Bell was already three meters ahead, Aspis buried in a second Bugbear that had been running behind the first, hidden by its bulk.
He pushed. Its feet left the earth, body vaulting over his shield's face like cement thrown from a shovel.
Bell shoved his shoulders back, launching that Bugbear sliding over his Aspis behind him. It continued past, rotating, claws raking empty air—then its skull met a tree trunk and bark exploded inward.
More shapes. Six. Three left. Three right.
His lead foot was already pointed left, body bending in that direction. Shield trailing embers, setting floating leaves aflame.
Alfia moved.
No—she had already moved. One moment, behind him. The next, her heel found his shoulder, body bent rightward.
Bell faced left. Alfia faced right—her heel still on his shoulder, body already coiled above him.
He used ground as a pivot. She used him as a pivot.
Somewhere behind them, a trunk split, splinters raining from above. They were already gone—slicing toward their targets, a V carved through the clearing.
Alfia was now inside the right formation. Three Bugbears. Left. Right. Ahead.
Her earring had come loose, falling behind her.
She erupted.
That earring fell one centimeter. Her fist caved in a Bugbear's skull.
Another centimeter. Another folded, ribs puncturing outward through its own chest.
Less than even that. The last's torso burst open.
A drop of blood sailed through air, closing on her falling earring.
She closed her fingers around it first.
Bell ran. A Bugbear closed from his left.
Aspis met it at impact. Before the monster could even react, his shield parted vertically from bottom to top. Crimson Order swiped along that space, flames closing back in his sword's wake.
That Bugbear split in two, falling toward his Aspis. Three inches between them. Two. Then—nothing.
Bell was long gone—sliding feet-first on his back, Aspis held overhead.
He caught another Bugbear on his slide and swept it off footing, driving its skull straight into his Aspis, slipping between its parted legs before its whole weight could stop his movement.
The last Bugbear bent its knees, arm pulled back for a strike.
Mid-slide, his foot dug into soil. Core wrenched, shoulders jerked—and Bell pulled himself upright from his slide in one sharp motion, spine straightening.
He didn't stop.
Momentum carried him forward—up. Both feet leaving ground. He jumped onto the last Bugbear's bent knees, soles planting on its kneecaps like a platform. Its arm was still pulled back—frozen mid-swing, balance broken.
Aspis drove upward. Edge-first.
Flames met chin. A crack echoed through the clearing. Its head snapped back, mouth ripped open, neck stretched wide and vulnerable.
Crimson Order swiped.
Steel carved through that open throat—a single red line severing head from body.
Nearby, Alfia slipped her earring back into place.
Floor twenty.
Same wet soil. Same thick humidity. But the trees here were older—trunks wider, canopy denser, light trimmed to just strips falling between branches. Moss hanging in long strands now, no longer clinging in patches.
Bell stepped through broken branches. Aspis on his arm. Crimson Order in his grip.
Alfia moved beside him, feet tapping over branches to walk. Her eyes tracked movement between trees—shapes, multiple, coming from three directions.
Bugbears. Four. Crashing through foliage ahead, shoulders grinding bark from trunks.
Battle Boars. Three. Left side. Tusks curved forward, hooves tearing up soil as they charged.
Lizardmen. Five. Right side. Crouched. Moving branch to branch, spear-tips catching fragments of light.
Steelbirds. Ten. Above. Circling through the sky, wings grey with rust spiralling down them.
Twenty Two monsters. Three directions. One above.
Bell looked at Alfia.
She gazed back.
He dropped his Aspis onto soil. Shield face-down, its hollow inside toward the sky, like an open-faced bowl.
They moved at the same time.
Bell's boot stomped his shield's left edge. Alfia's heel struck right. The impact launched Aspis forward—sliding forward across ground, mud spraying from either side—and both of them jumped, landed inside its hollow space. Facing forward.
Their shield skimmed through wet soil. Grass flattened beneath it. Trunks passing in blurs left and right.
A Bugbear lunged ahead, fangs screeching. Another followed right behind.
Bell leaned. His weight dipped that edge toward ground—Alfia's side rose on the opposite end like a seesaw.
Those fangs missed Bell by a finger's width. Alfia rose with the lift, fist finding that Bugbear's throat on her way up.
Bell's edge touched soil—Crimson Order cut the second Bugbear's stomach on his way down.
Both bodies dropped behind them. Aspis kept sliding.
Two more Bugbears. Side by side. Closing fast.
Alfia dropped her weight. Their shield plunged toward her side. Its other side swung upward—carrying Bell with it. He launched off his edge, legs coiling, reaching three meters above the floor.
Crimson Order came down on one Bugbear—splitting it from shoulder to hip.
He landed back on Aspis. Same foot. Their shield wobbled but held.
The remaining Bugbear grabbed for Alfia's edge. She stomped on her backfoot. Aspis hit a root and kicked upward—Alfia slid forward off the shield's front, passing above that Bugbear's reaching arms. Two fingers pressed into its neck on her way past, and it folded, their shield arcing over its head.
Battle Boars. Three. Left side. Charging in a triangle formation.
Their shield landed. Alfia landed on it a moment later.
The lead boar's tusks were aimed at Bell's ribs.
Bell leaned forward. Alfia leaned back. Aspis angled—front dipping, rear rising—and they accelerated, soil screaming beneath cinders. That lead boar's tusk scraped against the shield's edge, missing.
Alfia's knuckles found its eye in passing. The boar collapsed, legs folding, skull dragging a furrow behind them.
Two boars left.
There were two trees ahead of them now, their shield wider than the space between those trees.
Bell tilted left. Alfia shifted right. Aspis's one side climbed, another plunged. They slid between wooden trunks, their shield diagonal to the floor.
A boar missed, burying its tusks into a tree. Another crashed into the first's back, both shrieking.
Alfia and Bell were already ahead. But two flaming arrows distorted air on their way to those boars, each aimed at a boar's eye.
Lizardmen. Five. Spread in a half-circle ahead. Spears forward. A barricade of pikes designed to catch anything running straight at them.
Aspis was still sliding.
Bell stomped on their shield's rear edge. It tilted vertical—standing on its rim like a wall—and both of them balanced along its boundary, arms wrapped around each other's waists.
Five spear-tips struck Aspis in a single heartbeat. Metal melting. Sparks showering.
Bell burst out from left. Alfia from right.
Two Lizardmen had their heads pulverised before they could react. A third found itself rammed by their shield. Bell put his boot on the fourth's chest and propelled upward, squashing its chest on his way.
Alfia's heel was already using the fifth's face as a stepping stone to catapult herself ahead.
Both landed back inside Aspis just as it slid back horizontal.
Steelbirds. Ten. Dropping from above. A metallic ring closing overhead.
A burning sheath materialised on his back. He sheathed Crimson Order there.
Bell stepped to Aspis's rear edge. Alfia stepped to the front.
She turned. Faced him.
Her eyes met his. No words. None needed.
Bell pushed his weight down.
Their shield's rear edge plunged into soil—the front edge rose. Alfia rose with it, body leaning back toward him, and their hands found each other. Fingers interweaving. Grip locking. Her weight pulling. His weight pushing.
Bell's spine tilted backward—parallel to the ground—both of them turning their shield into a vertically balanced dome.
Their foreheads touched.
The first steelbird struck.
Talons shrieked across solid blaze. Sparks showered around them—orange light flickering across their faces. Neither moved.
Second. Third. Impacts ringing like hammers on an anvil. Embers caught in Alfia's hair. Bell's thumb shifted—pressed her hand tighter.
Heterochromatic eyes met ruby red.
Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Their shield shuddered. Bell's arms burned. His spine was trembling. Their shield held.
The tenth struck lowest. Talons scraping—searching for a gap between rim and ground. Finding none.
Silence.
Their shield finally slowed, falling back down after dragging to a halt some distance away.
Bell's spine straightened. Alfia's feet touched ground. Their hands separated.
Ten steelbirds lay behind them, beaks melted to slag, talons charred black, killed by his flames.
Bell brought his arms over his head, stretching, glancing at her in between.
"Hey, Aunt. This enough warm up for you?"
Alfia tilted her head slightly and gave an imperceptible nod.
"Mm."
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***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
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[Aspis] - The shield usually used by Spartans, basically their most famous shields.
[Bugbear] - A bear monster that is faster than it looks. Its strength and defense are on par with a Minotaur but more agile, which makes its base potential to be high among monsters in the Large Tree Labyrinth.
[Battle Boar] - A giant boar monster that can reach two meters in height.
[Lizardman] - A humanoid lizard monster with red scales. It is capable of some swordsman or spearmanship and uses metallic weapons.
[Steelbird] - An OC monster inspired by Firebirds that can be found around these floors.
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[Authors Thoughts]
Hahahahahaha!
I just can't! Writing these chapters makes me so happy!
Take care everyone!
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By the way... I've tried to simplify my imagination as much as possible, do try and tell me, can you all follow the sequence without getting lost in between?