Floor 13

Unlucky Thirteen

We flickered into existence on the thirteenth floor, my body low to the ground as I readied for potential combat. Though the orcs would most likely not attack due to the time, there was always that off chance we’d run into an Umbra. All in all, though, it wasn’t the orcs that would be the most dangerous thing on this floor.

I glanced at Kuzu, who stood next to me with her claws adorned and at the ready. She’d taken my recommendation to heart, which I considered a good sign for the future.

The sword I’d had at the ready was put away, and I offered my left hand to Kuzu. “Grab hold and don’t let go until we’re through this floor.”

She flicked her fingers to put away the diamond tips on her claws, and then reached for my hand. There was no hesitation like on the eighth floor, and her soft hand squeezed my own tightly.

“Why do we have to do this?” Kuzu asked while her tail twitched behind her.

“If we get separated on this floor it could prove dangerous,” I said, “and if you see orcs leave them alone.”

I began to study the area near us, barely glancing at the compass on my wrist. Normally I could have used it to find the portal, but on this floor that feature wouldn’t work. Lute had made certain of that when she created this annoying place.

We were inside a large plain room, one that had no distinctive markings anywhere. Only two doorways were visible to us, one to the north and the other to the east. I already knew that the direction we took didn’t matter, so I walked with Kuzu in tow through the eastern door.

We stood at the top of a staircase, while around us numerous other staircases led in every conceivable direction. I pulled Kuzu along with me as I descended, my attention focused entirely on what lay in front.

When I reached the bottom of the staircase what lay in front was a hallway. It was unlike any other hallway that existed in the entire labyrinth, one that warped to the left and yet somehow seemed to go to the right. As though multiple images overlaid onto the world in front of us the hallway itself splintered in every direction imaginable.

Kuzu’s grip tightened on my hand, and when I glanced at her she’d started to sway. “Close your eyes,” I told her as I did the same thing, “you can’t rely on your eyesight for this.”

I closed my eyes as well, the sensation of vertigo that had started to creep up on me negated instantly. I reached out with my free hand to make certain I didn’t walk into a wall, and then began to move forward.

Blindly we walked through the hallway for what felt like an eternity. Though I had left myself easily attacked I knew that it was a necessity. The only way to get past this floor was to move forward, since a retreat often meant a reset of all progress.

When the environment changed I almost fell flat on my face, stumbling forward into hot sand clumsily. Kuzu fell against my back as she cried out in surprise as I accidentally pulled her off balance.

“What’s going on!” she cried out with her mouth so close to my ear it twitched uncontrollably.

I opened one eye to check on the situation. From the dizzying hallway we’d arrived in what could only be called a desert. In every direction I looked it stretched onward, the hallway we’d used to reach it magically gone from sight.

I lifted one hand up to block the sunlight, the heat that beat down on us intense and sudden. When I glanced at Kuzu it was obvious the heat was even worse for her, as she had started to visibly wilt beneath the scorching sun.

“It’s alright Kuzu, you can open your eyes,” I said as I looked over my shoulder at her.

While she opened her eyes and started to look around I couldn’t help smiling, as she gawked so comically at the desert we’d ended up in. “How’d we get here?” she asked as she pulled away from my back.

“The floor is aware and wants to stop us from getting to the next floor,” I said, “but it can’t straight out kill us or manifest anything too dangerous.”

Kuzu wiped at her forehead, the sweat already enough to make her bangs stick to her face. “How is this not too dangerous?”

“What, the heat?” I laughed at Kuzu. “This is nothing compared to the volcanos later. Besides, you can fix it for us in a snap.”

She slowly tilted her head to the side and looked at me with an obviously confused stare. Her one ear even went flat against her head, helping her to double down on her dumbfounded expression.

“You have an ice gem in you,” I reminded her, “all you need to do is focus on creating a light cool aura and maintain it.”

“I forgot about that!” Kuzu exclaimed.

“Obviously, now try to focus on your magic. Form the image of yourself surrounded by cold air, but don’t let the image go.”

Kuzu closed her eyes and put her empty hand to her chest. We stood there for a while, with the heat crushing down on us, and it started to look like I might need to choose a different course of action. A little tickle of cold crept up from Kuzu’s hand that I held, and the goosebumps that lifted up on my arm were very welcome.

“That was easy!” Kuzu opened up her eyes and smiled at me, perhaps not realizing how long she’d taken.

“The hardest part is keeping the aura active.” I started to walk across the desert, once again heading straight ahead and not looking back. “If you start to get dizzy let me know. It usually means you’re getting exhausted.”

For the next hour we trekked across the desert, the horizon unmarred by any landmarks or changes. Next to me Kuzu continued to follow me, though her attention seemed to be more focused inward as she tried to maintain the cool air.

There was no warning, instead one moment we were in a desert and the next we were in a metal hallway. The only lighting came from lightbulbs embedded in a transparent floor, and etched into the walls were numerous arrows pointing back the way we had come.

Kuzu tripped at the sudden change and actually fell down onto her knees. Her concentration had been shattered and so the cold air no longer surrounded us. While she tried to adjust to the new environment I offered my other hand to her to help her up.

We emerged from the hallway into a large room, one that stretched upward and to our sides for what seemed like infinity. I didn’t even bother to look around, and instead focused on pushing straight ahead, since I already knew that anything nearby wouldn’t matter in the long run.

It was a mistake, however, as Kuzu let go of my hand and started to run off to my right. She half-turned and beckoned toward me. “Come on! It’s the portal!” she called out.

A short distance in front of her was what looked like the portal. “Kuzu! No!” I yelled at her.

My warning came too late as beneath Kuzu’s feet the floor opened up, and then she vanished into a dark pit. Her scream of terror wafted up out of the trap up until it slammed shut and the seam in the floor sealed.

“Kuzu fell, daddy!” Lisa told me, a hint of panic tainting her voice. “Is she going to be alright?”

“She’s going to be fine, Kuzu isn’t so helpless that she’d be hurt bad by something as simple as that.” I turned my gaze up toward the ceiling while a hint of electricity crackled down my arm. “And if Jinx doesn’t want me blasting a hole in him he’ll open that trapdoor for me.”

There was an eerie silence that filled the large chamber, even the air itself seemed to stop. Then, almost as though embarrassed, the floor slowly cracked open and revealed the pit that Kuzu had fallen into.

I walked up to the edge of the pit and jumped in without hesitation. The pit itself was filled with darkness, though as I descended down toward what I assumed was the bottom a hint of light peeked out of the black.

As I fell into the light I could see a large forest spread out beneath me, the foliage thick and wide. Trees with leaves that were larger than most men stood tall out of a sea of green.

When I landed it was on a giant pile of ferns that were excessively springy. Like a trampoline they bent downward, and then rebounded and pushed me up and off of them.

I touched down on solid ground a few seconds later in a crouch, my attention focused on the forest around me rather than the ferns. The trees grew thick with vines and leaves everywhere, a heavy curtain of green that made my enhanced vision pointless. I could hear the distinct sound of bones clacking together, something you wouldn’t normally hear in a jungle.

“Get away from me!” came the voice of Kuzu from somewhere ahead in that tangled mess of vines and trees.

I whipped the sword out of its scabbard and sliced through the vines, while I dove headlong into the jungle in search of Kuzu. Every so often I could hear that odd bone noise along with the sound of Kuzu grunting and yelling. I used those noises to zero in on where she was and perhaps only a minute or so later I came across her.

Amongst the thick trees stood Kuzu, who had ducked behind the trunk of one of the squatter trees. In her hands was the two-handed sword that the kitsune had given her.

On the other side of the tree from her were two skeletons armed with swords made from bones. A skeleton without a skull had collapsed on the ground near the other two.

Neither of the clattering skeletons seemed to notice me, and so I leapt in from the side and delivered a quick stab with my sword at the nearest skull. The tip of the blade cut easily through the bone, and as I drove the rest of the sword through the skull it fractured instantly.

Kuzu cried out in joy as she noticed me, but I ignored her happiness and instead quickly pushed past the defeated skeleton and attacked the last one. It had begun to turn, sword lifted up in defense, but my own sword had no issue not only slicing through the defending weapon but also the neck of the skeleton.

WIthout their heads the skeletons couldn’t live, and so the two skeletons had already been defeated. Once more I put my sword back into its scabbard, and only then did I turn to look at Kuzu.

She’d picked up a cut on her arm along with a few scratches, but for the most part she looked alright. I reached into one of my many pockets and pulled out a very small bundle of gauze, and then I walked over to Kuzu and started to wrap up her arm.

“Thanks,” she murmured while her ears drooped, “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect a trap like that.”

“That’s why I told you to hold my hand until we get to the next floor.” I finished wrapping up her cut, and then flicked her forehead. “Don’t screw up again, otherwise you’ll get something worse than a cut.”

Kuzu flinched from the flick to her head, but she gave a small nod of her head. The large sword she still held with one hand was slowly put onto her back again, and then she offered her hand to me.

I took that hand in my own, though for a moment I thought about sending her back. Ever since we’d reached the tenth floor we’d been embedded with red gems, and they served as checkpoint crystals. Similar to the return crystal they would allow us to use a portal to go back to any other checkpoint we’d been to, so at the least I could’ve put her on the tenth floor while I continued forward.

Yet I didn’t choose to do that. I wasn’t even quite certain why I decided to keep going through the labyrinth with Kuzu. Perhaps I’d subconsciously noticed some sort of potential in her, or maybe I simply didn’t want to give up on someone I’d already invested time and effort into. Or it could be that she reminded me of myself, when I was useless and could barely survive fighting regular goblins.

I gave a small shake of my head, one that drew a look of confusion from Kuzu. “Just remember, until I tell you it’s safe don’t let go of my hand.”

Once more I started to walk in a straight line, deviating only slightly to go around any trees or other obstacles in the way. As we passed through the jungle it shifted into an open field dotted with piles of gold, and then after that it turned into a dark house filled with weird sounds.

My favorite place that Jinx tried to use to stop us from going forward was the dragon nest, a large rocky valley with a bunch of dragons in the air above. As we approached the far edge of the valley one dragon swung down from above and breathed a stream of fire at us, a move that I blatantly ignored since I knew it was an illusion.

Kuzu’s reaction was to squeal in fright while she clung to me, her fox ears pressing down on her head. After the flames passed through us she opened one of her closed eyes, and immediately tried bright red in the face when she realized it’d been an illusion.

Finally we arrived at what could only be called a white expanse, one that had a couple of campsites setup that included hide-based tents. Above the stars glistened in the night sky, while a moon could be seen to our left. A white orb hung in the middle of the area.

Around the tents were orcs, each one squatted down on their haunches and relaxed. Our appearance drew the orcs attention but none of them made any move to attack. A few did stand up and put themselves on the edge of their camps, but they crossed their arms and merely glared at us.

“Don’t worry, I’m just taking the fox girl to the next floor,” I told them in their own tongue.

The orcs stiffened at that, most likely not expecting an Elf to know their language, and then they nodded and relaxed. The ones who had taken up a defensive position wandered back to the campfires. In a matter of seconds it was as though we weren’t even present to the orcs.

I finally released Kuzu’s hand and rubbed my hands together. Due to how long we’d held hands mine had started to go numb, with that tell tale tingling sensation having bothered me for a while.

“Is it safe?” Kuzu asked.

I glanced at her and gave a nod of my head. She was focused on the orcs in front of us, the worry obvious on her face. “They won’t attack us right now, it’s still night time.”

“Why would that matter?”

“Learn how to read and Lisa will teach you why.” I motioned toward the portal. “We should move on before the moon sets, though.”

“Alright,” Kuzu said, though she made no move to walk toward the portal. Her tail twitched behind her as she stared at me.

I turned away from her and walked toward the portal. I could hear her following behind me, her light footfalls barely loud enough to pick up. When I reached out to touch the portal I paused, and turned to glance at Kuzu.

“One thing,” I said, “when we reach the next floor don’t move, and don’t say anything. No matter what you have to stay absolutely quiet.”

“Alright, I promise I will!”

It was a promise that would decide her fate, since if she couldn't do what I'd asked the labyrinth would deal with her for me. Without another word to her I placed my hand on the portal and focused. A few seconds later I vanished as I triggered the transfer.