We moved deeper into the mist, the mist thickened as we pushed into the outer fringe of the Coral Labyrinth. The air here always felt different — denser somehow, as if it already occupied by things. Every step crunched against fine shards of coral and bone, the sounds muffled by the shifting fog.
The labyrinth rose around us, a forest of jagged crimson and bleached towers. Some were slick with saltwater, others glittered faintly as if lit from within by trapped embers. The wind moaned through them in long, hollow tones that almost sounded like breathing.
"Smells worse than usual," Effie muttered, crouching near a broken coral pillar. The ground there was gouged deeply, sand sprayed outward in wide arcs. "Something heavy moved through here recently."
"More tracks?" Sasrir asked.
"Yeah, and not the usual kind."
Sasrir knelt beside her, fingers brushing along the impressions. "Too broad for the crabs. Maybe one of those dog-things again."
I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. The dog-things — the Bone Hounds, as the guards called them — prowled the shallows at the labyrinth's edge. They had the lithe, long-legged bodies of hounds but skulls shaped like hammerhead sharks, their white bone faces splitting open when they howled. They hunted in packs, silent until they struck.
Sasrir and I had faced them before, just before reaching the Statue of the Priestess and claiming the Cloak, and they had nearly killed us. Despite facing them a few more times, they were still a great danger.
"Let's hope it's just a small group," I said.
"But prepare in case it's not," Sasrir added calmly.
We moved on, weaving between the coral towers. The tide was creeping in again, dark water gliding silently around our boots. Every so often, something bubbled beneath the surface, sending ripples through the reflections.
A faint metallic clicking echoed from somewhere ahead. Effie raised a hand for silence.
All of us froze.
From the mist emerged a hulking shape — a Crustacean Centurion, its carapace the color of rusted iron. The thing was as tall as a house, walking sideways through the shallows on six bladed legs. Two massive claws snapped open and shut with a rhythm that could crush stone.
It didn't see us yet. Its eyestalks swayed lazily, scanning.
Kai whispered, "You'd think after six months they'd start avoiding us."
"They are," Sasrir said. "We just keep going where they live."
Effie smirked faintly, drawing her spear. "That's called commitment."
We circled around, moving slowly until the creature drifted back into another path. When the clicking faded, we started forward again.
Above us, a shadow glided silently through the fog — something wide and winged, its silhouette rippling across the coral spires.
"Eyes up," I murmured.
The shadow wheeled overhead, and for a moment, the mist cleared just enough for us to see it properly.
A Maw Ray.
Its body was flat and graceful like a manta ray, wings undulating as it flew. But where a head should have been, there was only a circular maw ringed with jagged teeth. When it screamed, the air itself seemed to tear — a sonic wail that rattled the coral and made my teeth ache.
We ducked low behind a ridge until the sound faded. The Maw Ray drifted away, its shriek echoing through the maze like the cry of a dying baby.
"Still prefer them to the hounds," Effie muttered.
"I'd take neither," Sasrir said, his voice low. "We're too close to where the Centurians burrow in. Let's finish the sweep and get back."
We kept moving, the labyrinth closing tighter around us.
And then — movement.
At first it looked like a reflection, a shimmer in a shallow pool beside the path, left behind when the Dark Sea retreated. Then the water began to rise.
"Hold," I said softly.
The surface bulged upward, taking form. A glistening column of black liquid, thicker than tar, rose from the pool. No limbs, no face — just a heaving mass of sentient fluid. Beneath its translucent surface, something pulsed faintly: a small sphere, deep within its core, glowing a dim blue.
"Oil wraith," Sasrir whispered.
We'd only ever seen one once before — and that time, it had nearly melted Sasrir's right hand off.
Effie's grip tightened on her spear. "Same rule as before. Physical attacks won't work."
"Hit the core," I said.
The blob quivered, and then surged forward with shocking speed. The ground trembled as it rolled toward us, a tidal wave of black fluid.
"Scatter!"
Kai leapt sideways, shooting an arrow that hissed uselessly through its body. Sasrir raised his arm, and shadows became forged into a katana that swung through the orb, but the blob barely slowed.
It lunged toward me.
I dove aside, drawing the Unshadowed Crucifix, its flame flaring to life. The white fire condensed into a fireball the size of my fist and then flew to meet the creature, causing it to writhe from the contact.
"Now!" I shouted.
Effie spun her spear in a smooth arc and drove it through the wavering mass, piercing clean through to the blue glow within. The tip of her weapon flared with essence, and for a moment, the creature froze — then imploded, collapsing into a pool of inert, black sludge.
The only sound left was our breathing.
Kai let out a low chuckle. "Well… that was easier than last time."
I crouched near the remains. The blue core flickered once, then shattered into two smaller fragments. After making sure no more acidic ooze was attached, I picked them up and pocketed them.
"That's the third one we've seen this month," Sasrir said, his tone contemplative. "Has something changed amongst the aquatic monsters in the Dark Sea?."
"Maybe something's stirring them up," I offered. "The Sea runs down to the Underworld, maybe it's a migration from there."
I glanced toward the horizon, where the sun was still high in the sky. Only two hours had passed, and it was around midday now.
"Come on, let's cover a bit more ground and then we can go back and report in."
The puddle of oil still steamed when we pushed deeper into the labyrinth. The air thickened the further we went — wet, heavy, carrying a faint metallic tang that made my tongue prickle.
This place was always changing. Every week, the paths shifted, coral towers collapsed or rose anew, as though the whole labyrinth were alive and quietly rearranging its bones.
We passed a ridge where the coral had fused into spiraling columns. From within one, something clicked and scraped, like teeth grinding behind a wall.
"Anything?" Effie whispered.
Sasrir pressed his ear to the surface, then grimaced. "Larvae. A clutch, maybe."
"Crabs?"
"Bigger."
Kai muttered, "Fantastic," and knocked another arrow from his quiver.
I caught movement in the mist ahead — a ripple in the coral dust, subtle but there.
"Wait," I said.
The fog split open.
A Bone Hound burst forth, all pale limbs and grinning bone. Its head was a smooth, curved hammer of white skull, two hollow sockets glimmering with faint light. The thing bounded forward, silent until its jaws unhinged sideways — then came the sound, a shriek that was neither bark nor howl, more like metal tearing against stone.
I met it halfway.
The Unshadowed Crucifix flared with a soft white gleam, its flame cutting arcs through the mist. The fire met the hound's skull with a hiss; white bone charred black where the light struck.
It reeled back, but three more leapt from the coral behind it.
"Pack!" Sasrir barked.
Effie dropped low, sweeping her spear to trip one as Kai loosed his arrow, glowing red as it flew. It struck the second hound's legs, and then it exploded and turn te limb to mush. For the third monster. Sasrir met it head-on — his trusty Shadow Katana slicing through the familiar weakpoint in the bone plating and impaling its' brain.
The first slammed into me, knocking me sideways into a coral outcrop. Its weight was immense, breath hot and reeking of iron. I jammed the Crucifix between its ribs, twisting hard — the holy fire inside the weapon flared, and the beast convulsed before a spear of light burst under and out of it, right through the heart. The armour i wore proetcted me from the worst of the impact, and the Verdant Enchantmnet of the Regenerative Bloom was already at work soothing my bruises.
Kai calmly fired another arrow, thisone with a barbedtip, and it penetrated the crippled Bone Dog's eye socket, causing it to convulse and whimper before dying.
Effie spat into the sand. "I hate these bastards, their meat is too tough."
"Really? You seem to eat them all the same anyways."
"Let's not judge a lady by her eating habits" Kai interjected with a smile, earning a snort from Effie.
We moved again, our boots sinking into wet coral dust.