The next morning, a straw dummy stood in the yard behind the shop. Grun had made it by stuffing an old burlap sack with straw.
"First, try linking [Lunge] and [Iron Legs]."
"Yes, Boss."
Luca stepped ten paces back from the dummy. Right foot, half a step, deep. Drop the weight. Then kick off, hard enough to crack the ground.
The next instant, the world went flying past him.
He shot right by the dummy. He couldn't stop. His feet skidded across the dirt, and he went headfirst into the water jar at the edge of the yard.
It made a truly magnificent splash.
Luca said nothing.
"Hahahahaha!"
Grun was slapping his false leg and roaring with laughter. Luca pulled his head out of the jar. Water dripped steadily from his hair.
"...Boss, you knew that would happen."
"Of course I did. [Iron Legs] puts your whole weight behind a single point. Kick without picking a direction first, and you're going to fly off somewhere."
Grun wiped away the tears he'd laughed out.
"Use [Lunge] to set your direction. The kick comes at the very last instant, and only then."
On the second try, he crashed into the hedge. On the third, he tripped and fell short of the dummy. On the fourth, his shoulder finally hit it, and he tumbled into the corner of the yard with the dummy in his arms.
"Good morn— What are you doing?"
Celes was peering over the hedge. She looked down in disbelief at Luca, who was lying on the ground soaking wet and covered in straw, hugging a dummy.
"Training."
"...I see. Good luck with that."
The tenth try.
Lunge. Then the kick, only at the very last instant.
Luca's body flew dead straight, and the pommel of the dagger in his outstretched hand punched clean through the dummy's middle.
Straw burst out with a soft whump. There was a fist-sized hole in the dummy's gut.
"...That one wasn't bad," Grun muttered.
* * *
Early in the afternoon, Theo came hobbling over on his crutches with a wooden sword tucked under one arm.
"I'll show you Leonhardt's three-strike combo. Slowly, though."
Standing on one leg, Theo raised the wooden sword. He brought it down in an overhead cut. A turn of the wrist into a sideways sweep. Then, flowing straight on, a cut rising up from below.
"That's it. And after the rising cut—"
Theo froze with the sword raised high. His left side was wide open.
"There. The real thing does all three in the blink of an eye. The opening only shows for an instant."
"The blink of an eye..."
"So doing it slow isn't really practice at all, but..."
Theo looked down at his leg in frustration. Grun plucked the wooden sword out of his hand.
"Give it here."
"Huh? Uh, Boss?"
"My leg's fake. My arms aren't."
Grun took his stance. In that instant, the air in the yard changed. Luca heard Theo swallow.
"Here I come."
Overhead, sweep, rising cut.
Fast. Nothing like Theo's version. Luca caught the overhead cut on his shield, knocked the sweep aside with his dagger, and tried to lunge in after the rising cut—
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Something rapped him on the head with a light tok.
"Too slow."
"...Yes, Boss."
The second time, and the third, he got rapped on the head. Somewhere past the tenth, Theo spoke up, leaning on his crutches.
"Luca. Right before the rising cut, he always takes a breath."
"A breath?"
"Yeah. He puts the most power into the third strike, so he breathes in first. His shoulders come up. Just a little."
Luca watched Grun's shoulders.
Overhead. Sweep. And then the shoulders rose, just a little.
Now.
Before the rising cut even came, he was already setting up his lunge. The instant the wooden sword swung up: right foot, half a step, deep. The kick, only at the very last instant.
The pommel of Luca's dagger stopped dead a hair's breadth from Grun's left side.
The yard went completely silent.
"...That," Theo murmured, stunned. "Not even Leonhardt could dodge that."
Grun looked down at the pommel for a while without a word. Then he ruffled Luca's hair, roughly.
"Again. Do it a hundred times, until you can land it a hundred times out of a hundred."
"Yes, Boss!"
* * *
In the evening, Celes joined in.
"While I'm chanting, Gina is definitely going to come for me. That's where your fire arrow comes in."
"The fizz."
"Yes. The fizz."
Theo took up the wooden sword to play Gina and went at Celes. Celes chanted. Theo stepped in. Right in front of his face, a tiny ember burst.
Fizz.
"Whoa!? Hot!"
Theo screwed his eyes shut and jerked back without meaning to. In that gap, Celes finished her chant. A fireball shot from the tip of her wand and up into the sky.
"H-hey, you! That's a dirty trick!"
"There's no such thing as clean or dirty in a real fight, Theo," Celes said, perfectly composed.
Luca blew gently on his fingertip.
"Sorry. Weak techniques are all I have."
"That's nothing to brag about, you know!"
* * *
That night, Luca made dinner for everyone.
A huge pot of stew, filled to the brim. He ran the ladle along the bottom of the pot and turned his wrist. Once, twice, three times. The bits that had been about to stick and burn floated gently up.
Grun was watching his hands closely.
"Luca."
"Yes?"
"That turn of the wrist. Looks like it might work against a sword, too."
Luca tilted his head, ladle still in hand.
"Come on, Boss. This is a ladle."
"That so."
Grun didn't say anything more. He just slurped his stew.
* * *
And then it was the morning of the inspection.
Six people gathered at the entrance to the Labyrinth: the three Golden Lions, Luca and Celes, and the inspector the Guild had sent.
"Hwaaah... Ah. I'm Oldo, the inspector. Let's all get along, eh?"
He was a small, white-haired old man. He leaned on a walking stick and was doing a poor job of swallowing his yawns. By any measure, he looked better suited to dozing in the sun than to the Labyrinth.
Luca didn't miss the quick glance Leonhardt shot at Bolz.
Grun had come to see them off. When he caught sight of Oldo, his eyes went wide for a moment. Then, for some reason, he gave a small laugh.
"...So the old man's still kicking."
"Boss, you know him?"
"Who knows."
Grun slapped Luca on the back.
"Off you go. I'll have dinner ready."
* * *
The forest on the sixth floor was full of soft, pale light, just as it had been three days ago.
"The site is this way."
Leonhardt took the lead through the trees. Bolz walked beside him, and Gina followed at the rear. Luca, Celes, and Oldo ended up sandwiched in the middle.
After a while, Luca frowned.
This is the wrong way.
Three days ago, Luca had run north. To the northern hollow, and the bear's nest. But Leonhardt was heading west.
And there were no dropped things. On the trail three days ago, there had been a canteen stopper and a golden thread. This trail had nothing on it at all. The Golden Lions hadn't come this way.
"Miss Celes," Luca said under his breath. "This is the wrong way. The hollow is to the north."
"...I thought so."
She seemed to have noticed too. Her grip tightened on her wand.
"Inspector, sir."
Bolz, walking up front, looked back over his shoulder.
"There's something over here that looks like footprints. Would you take a look?"
"Oh? Let's see, let's see."
Oldo made his way over to Bolz, leaning on his stick. Bolz led him deeper into the undergrowth. Then, between the trees, the two of them were gone.
"Oldo!" Luca called.
There was no answer.
He spread out [Sense Presence]. Oldo's and Bolz's presences were moving farther and farther away.
Next thing you know, you've been split off from everyone else.
By the time he remembered Theo's words, it was already too late.
* * *
The forest opened up.
It was a bowl-shaped depression, a size larger than the hollow from three days ago. At the bottom, no fewer than three caves gaped black.
"Here's the site."
Leonhardt turned around.
He was smiling.
"...Nothing but lies." Celes raised her wand. "This isn't the hollow from three days ago."
"That's right. This is the Western Hollow. Three gray bear nests, and an ogre's lair at the very back."
Leonhardt took a pot out from inside his cloak. Then another. And a third. The wax seals had no stamp on them at all.
"This time they're not Guild issue. I bought them on the black market. Nobody can trace them."
"Leonhardt...!"
"Bolz will keep the inspector lost. While the old man is wandering around the woods, the two of you will be attacked by monsters."
Gina circled around behind Luca and Celes, raised her wand, and began to chant. She meant to cut off their retreat.
"Accidents happen in the Labyrinth."
Leonhardt tossed one of the pots down into the bottom of the hollow. It shattered with a crash. A sweet smell rose up, thick enough to choke on.
Growls came from deep in the caves. Not just one. Two. Three. The ground began to shake with heavy footsteps.
And from the deepest cave, a shape even bigger than a gray bear stooped low and crawled out.
Greenish-gray skin. Arms like logs. In one hand, a club that looked like an entire tree ripped out by the roots.
An ogre.
"Now then."
Leonhardt slowly drew his sword. The polished blade glittered in the light that filtered through the leaves.
"Maybe I'll deal with you myself before the bears and the ogre get here. Claw marks are easy enough to add afterward."
"...Miss Celes."
Luca drew Grun's dagger.
"Could you take care of Gina?"
"And you?"
"I'll handle Leonhardt."
Celes hesitated for just a moment, then nodded. She turned to face Gina and raised her wand.
Leonhardt laughed, delighted.
"A scavenger, taking on a Rank Five swordsman?"
"Yes."
"I like it. That's a lot of nerve, for a hyena."
Leonhardt kicked off the ground.