"How the hell did I miss this?" I stared down at the choppy waters of the fountain, taking in whatever aspects of my appearance that I could properly ascertain.
"Perhaps-"
"I've seen my damn face! Like, sure, never clearly, because it's in stuff like this, but it's really damn obvious. Look at those!" I stared up at her with a wild expression, pointing at my eyes. She simply blinked at me in response, and after a moment, I realized the stupidity of the command. "Right." I went back to staring down into the imperfect reflection, letting a bit of my adrenaline bleed away.
Clearly amused by my freakout, Rachel began again, "Perhaps it has something to do with your magic? It is the same color, right?"
Huh. I reached up to point at the far wall and spoke a Mana Bolt into existence, marking the color of it within my mind's eye. I moved my vision back to the water again and matched it to the (new?) color of my irises. Yeah, it was a perfect match. "It's still really weird that I didn't notice it. It's like, until I was looking for it, it just didn't register."
"Did you used to wear contacts of some sort? The color changing kind?"
I shook my head. "No, I was always a glasses girlie, touching my eyes like that is, eugh. No thanks."
A thought occurred to me, and my eyes sought my companion again. "Have your eyes always been brown?"
"My whole life," she responded, with an eyebrow up. "I don't have your Mana Bolt, so it's not like I can tell if it's the same."
"Maybe it changes after you commit to more magic stuff? Maybe it's connected? Maybe, uh..."
"Correlation does not imply causation, Allison," Rachel cut me off. "You could be a unique case. You could be typical. It does us no good to speculate on what appears to be a cosmetic change to your appearance."
Wow, just shut down. She was right, of course, but wasn't she curious? It would be important to know this weird stuff. Anything about it could be dangerous. But, for now, I yielded the point. "Alright. Fine. Then we should talk about moving forward, like I suggested. Let's refresh our abilities, yeah?"
With a nod, Rachel spoke again. "Yes, that makes sense. All of my attributes have been invested in Resilience and Endurance. Many of my skills are passive in nature, but I do have a fighting style focused on my sword and shield, my Clingshield which uses a combination of mana and endurance, and a Block skill. The last allows me to bring my shield to bear against threats that I could not normally move fast enough to intercept."
"Your Clingshield is the sticky shield thing, right?" She nodded. "Okay. I'm a little more active. I've put a lot into Mana and Endurance, but also some into Resilience so I'm not just pasted..." I shuddered as my memory went back to the Berserker. "So I'm not just pasted with ease. I've got several passives, but a couple skills. My Mana Bolt and Spark are spells that use mana, and my Dash and Parry are skills that use Endurance."
"Spark. I do not believe I have seen you use this before?"
"Right. It's a touch spell where I just... you know, touch something, and I can shock them with some electricity. It's not a ton, probably doesn't do a lot of damage, but it does lock them up for a moment. I hit level 11 our fight, by the way."
She smiled. "I did as well. It seems I have caught up to you."
"Considering you beat my ass before I'd even expended half my shit, I certainly would hope so." I chuckled, feeling a bit of frustration build up despite not really being mad at my new friend. "I really wanted to win that."
"Of course. Perhaps it was simply a matter of compatibility?" Rachel asked as she approached her lurdrakka egg once again. She patted the thing, stroked it fondly a couple times, and began to gather up her gear. She grabbed a change of clothes and entered the little closet that we'd stuck a large cloak in front of, our impromptu 'changing room.' She'd found some supplies of her own as well, and combining our good fortunes made for a more complete resting area. The Sanctuary was almost homey.
"Eh. Honestly, I don't know, and at the moment, I don't care. We don't have an expert who could tell me what I did wrong, so I'm just gonna keep on going with my weird style and fixing things as they come along." I took advantage of her retreat as well, switching quickly over to new clothing as well. Given what she grabbed and our conversation topic before my eyes had interrupted things, we seemed to be on the same wavelength. We'd be tackling the labyrinth again today, hopefully together.
Her voice returned from the changing room. "Fair enough. I believe we would be well-suited to continuing using the plan you developed in the tunnels."
"Me on offence, you on aggro?"
"Indeed." Rachel pushed out of the changing room and returned her clothing, but instead of just in a pile somewhere, she gathered it in a loose ring around the egg. At my cocked head, she gave a small smile. "If we are returning to the labyrinth, I cannot very well take this large, unwieldy, fragile thing with us. So, I may as well make it as cozy as possible, no?"
I smiled. "Fair enough," I shot back. "Yeah, makes sense. I dash around and take stuff out, you get the attention so that I can do it with less danger. Moot, if we get tossed into the labyrinth separately, but that's the risk we run. Do we want a plan to try to reach each other once inside?"
"Can we even affect that?" She asked. "I have simply taken to wandering in different directions, around the rim of the circular valley. The terrain does not seem to be consistent."
"Hmm. Yeah, you're right." How do we do this? How can we be properly cautious? We both started gathering materials to prepare for our trip. Rachel refilled her waterskin and gathered some food into her bags while I did the same, both of us munching on a light breakfast. The labyrinth was a danger, even if we could come back alive, there was no telling how long that would last. I'd done so twice now. Third time's the charm? Indefinite? I really didn't want to test the limit at all.
There was also the possibility of running into Nathan. Preferably, we'd be together if it happened, but contingencies would be needed if we were separated by entering, regardless of intent or whatever. Should we create some sort of delaying action? A kind of signal we could use to try to get together? Should we even get used to fighting together with so much riding on an unknown? It was madness. There was so much risk, so many things to plan for, so much that could go wrong.
I'd sat down at some point, stopped preparing, focusing my full effort on what we'd need to figure out. First was how to meet up if we separated. Choose the same direction beforehand? If we both went west, would that lead to the same, like, instance or whatever? Or was it just at the whim of this odd, semi-intelligent labyrinth? Maybe we should have a system where we climbed a tree or whatever and used calls. Or do we just accept that we're separate inside the thing and agree to only go in again after meeting outside? There was also the possibility of multi-day stays within. Our first outing together had likely been at least two days, judging by the full sleep we'd all had, and there was no guarantee there wouldn't be more.
If we went in separately, we'd also have to have some sort of plan for-
"Allison."
Shocked out of my thoughts, I blinked a few times and looked up at the woman standing in front of me.
"You are spiraling. I recognize the look, my cousin did much the same. Please, take a moment to gather yourself."
Damn. She was right. I needed to take a step back. Or maybe, maybe, that was the problem. Too many unknowns. Too many things to plan for.
A sigh escaped through my nose, anger and fire filling it. "You're right. There are too many unknowns, too much we can't prepare for." My eyes found hers. "Nothing to do but do it, right? New plan." She nodded, and I stood again by taking the hand she reflexively offered. Suddenly, I didn't feel so small. It was a simple thing, 'don't overthink,' but it was such a dangerous hole. "We just have to go in and do it. You know what? Fuck this."
My thoughts spun for just a moment before coalescing into a plan of action. Though, it was less of a plan, and more of a reckless lunge. "We gotta beat this place, right? That was my direction."
"Mine as well."
"So, let's just fuckin' do it. If we go in together, we shoot for the middle. That big rise is clearly the end of the labyrinth. We've outgrown its twists and turns. Let's just climb over the fuckin' walls and get to the destination."
Rachel laughed, but it was a full, emotional sound. "I like it. Even if we become separated, it is its own beacon we can use to orient ourselves. Yes, I like this. We defeat this labyrinth, and with luck, we can deprive our adversary of any benefits from it as well." I nodded. She was picking up what I had put down big time. At that, we both finished our preparations, gathering the last of our gear and drinking our fill of the almost dust-free water from the fountain. Rachel took a moment to make sure the egg was secure in her little nest, and followed me as I made my way into the tunnel towards the portal room.
It wasn't really far at all, so after just a moment, we both stood in front of the multicolored doorway that led to the next step of this adventure. Strange, that one of the most fantastical elements that we had encountered so far had so quickly become normal. It took a moment to strike me that in front of us was an incredible magical thing, full of mystery and adventure, and I was just thinking of it as an obstacle now. An obstacle to answers, to growth, to getting the hell out of this temple and making it to society. I wanted to talk to people, I wanted to learn about Avare, I wanted to take the world by storm, maybe even literally, thinking about my Electric trait. Daredevil and Electric, a combination made in heaven.
Or maybe hell.
I loosened up my neck and held out a hand to Rachel. "Best chance of going in together if we're in physical contact, probably."
With a nod, she took it, and without any more waiting, I reached my other limb forward to make contact with the wall of color.
A moment later, we were in a different spot, and my hand was still on hers. I couldn't contain my smile as I pumped my fist. "Yes!"
"Success," Rachel said. "I do not recognize this place. Is this where you have been entering?"
A quick look around showed the normal temple that welcomed me into the labyrinth the few times before. I nodded to her. "Yeah, this is normal for me. I've already looted the hell out of it, so there's nothing really here to grab or investigate." I shrugged, and turned around to open the door to the exterior, the labyrinth greater. "Any reason to hesitate?"
Rachel shook her head. "None. Let us finish this chore."
I smirked and shoved it open. A vista identical to the previous ones greeted my sight. The off-putting fake forest, the big caldera in which it all sat, and that spike of a building sat right in the center. Before, it'd seemed dark and ominous. Now, in my mind, it was just one thing: a big fat (thin?) bullseye in the middle of a target.
"I do not expect our approach will be without difficulty," Rachel pointed out. "Given the threats we both have previously faced in the forest, and our destination, it only stands to reason that the forest itself might be a battleground."
"Makes sense," I responded as I checked all my gear again. Making sure it would be easy to fling off my bags, my boots were tightly laced, my spear sturdy enough for battle. A glace at my companion and I saw that her shield was already equipped, and she was checking to make sure her sword was loose enough to draw with ease. "Doesn't that get tiring? Holding your shield all day?"
"It did at first, but I am fairly certain that my fighting style skill is reducing the weight of it to make it easier. It became less of a burden after I acquired it. Of course," she said, lifting her arm up and poking at it, "it could be that I am simply growing in strength and endurance as well. It would be nice to have that be the case."
"Oh!" The words gave me a reminder. "Have your scores gone up a little bit? Not, like, from a level up, but like a point or something." I took off walking straight toward the tower, with Rachel following behind.
"Yes, my Resilience has increased by two and my Endurance by one without my input."
"Nice. There must be some way to train them up naturally. I guess it makes sense, we are pretty active after all," I laughed out. "But good to know. If there isn't a library when we make it back to civilization, I'm gonna be super put out. There's just too much stuff we don't know and I'm gonna devour an entire wing of books if it's available." Rachel huffed good-naturedly in response, but otherwise remained silent. I supposed that I should as well, given the amount of danger that could pop up out of the wood with little warning.
Some time passed with us being cognizant of our surroundings. I recalled my previous experiences, so kept a lookout for small little bastards that might be a problem. Rachel seemed to be doing the same, but some nonverbal communication between us had her scanning the treeline while I focused on the ground instead.
Thankfully, our diligence paid off. Perhaps an hour or two into our vigilant approach I spotted half a dozen of those damn beaver creatures sprinting at us with violent intent, eyes flaring with malevolence.
"Incoming, two o'clock," I said, dropping my bags off to the side as Rachel did the same. I backed up and let her move in front of me while I limbered up my shoulders. It would only be a couple seconds before the little beasts were on us, and I wanted to be prepared. This time, though, instead of the jitters of danger and the worry that I might not measure up, I was filled with a sense of glee. I'd fought these things before. I'd fought that fucking mimic, an entire swarm of squirrel fucks and still bore a little of the soreness from that fight. These chumps? They were nothing to me now.
The first of the beavers reached Rachel who unceremoniously put it to its end by meeting its wild leap with the point of her sword. Unfortunately, that meant she couldn't deal with the next one as well, and slammed her shield forward to block a bit of the momentum of its charge.
But she wasn't alone. I Dashed to put myself in range of number three before it could get any closer and shot my spear out, catching it by the tail enough to stop it in its tracks. I felt a wild grin take my face and I slammed my foot down on its head with a sickening, satisfying crunch of blood and gray matter. I withdrew my spear and without a moment's thought, slapped my hand up toward the creature that I could feel as it neared me in the air. That Situational Awareness skill was a game changer, almost like a strange radar that extended a short distance in every direction around me. A Parry-Spark later, number four was destined for an unpleasant end as my strike had it plummeting to the ground head-first. I didn't let it hit, though, using my leg not currently stepping out of beaver viscera to strike it in midair and heard a very nice 'thunk' when its body hit a tree nearby.
I was a bit surprised as number five was intercepted with the body of number one. I could tell it was number one due to the fact that there was a deep gouge all the way through it from Rachel's sword. Had she flung the thing off her blade in an effort to get it off, and had it struck five on purpose or accident? If it was on purpose, that was really fucking cool, and if it was on accident... well, it was still really fucking cool, just a little less. I didn't have time to admire what she'd done and attempted to spear number six as it burst past me, but it managed to swerve away from my weapon and attack Rachel. I'd have to trust her to handle it, and didn't doubt that two wouldn't be long enough for this world to make much of a difference.
Five, though, was getting back up, just way too slow. I kicked both it and the body of number one, but the combination made for a lesser strike. Five rallied around the hit and leaped, managing to smash its tail against my shin, which shot a shock of pain up my leg, but it wasn't enough to really do anything more than make me miss a step. With a snarl, I swung around and shot a Mana Bolt into the back of the creature before it could turn around, and I watched as its chest went concave from the force of the spell. That just left six and possibly two. My eyes found Rachel, but I quickly saw that my further assistance would not be needed. Number two was just sitting there, utterly stuck to her big shield, and I watched as six took a pommel to the head followed by a quick slash that left its lifeblood draining into the dirt. With no sense of urgency, Rachel looked at me, smiled at my progress, and simply held out her shield to me. It took me a minute, but I chuckled as I just reached out and stabbed through the last surviving beaver.
A great feeling suffused me. I'd gotten better, in both intangible and tangible ways, in such a short time. Not only had that been easy, but it had been fun.
Maybe it was fighting with a partner, or maybe it was just coming up against earlier enemies after growing, but damn, I was riding high on my newfound strength.