"What the hell is this?"
This is the question Hajime asked incredulously when he looked at the rectangle section within the mountain rock that had absurd writing on it.
"Hey Yue, is this real," Hajime asked again, still not really believing what he's seeing in front of him.
Yue nodded, though she was beginning to doubt it, "The name is correct, but as for the rest…"
Sargon also looked at the writing with a deadpan expression. Shea, on the other hand, did not share the other's hesitation,
"It has to be one of the labyrinths! It says so right here!"
While saying this excitedly, she put her hand on the rocky wall, which unexpectedly turned horizontally and caused her to fall through with a surprised yelp. Seeing this, Hajime and Yue looked at each other then sighed. Sargon meanwhile, looked alarmed and a little worried,
"Shea?"
He walked over to where the wall turned and left a little space. As soon as he walked in however, an arrow shot towards him. Acting on reflex, Sargon deflected the arrow to the side with his cane. Sargon looked at it with narrowed eyes,
"A trap. If the rotating wall wasn't enough, this should prove we've entered a labyrinth," he said seriously.
Hajime and Yue entered shortly after Sargon did and the latter warned them.
"Watch out for any sudden traps, you 2."
As soon as he said that, another arrow shot out fast and headed towards Hajime, though the latter calmly moved his head while raising his right arm, catching the arrow effortlessly. Hajime looked at Sargon with a slightly sarcastic tone,
"Thanks for the heads-up pal."
Yue looked around a bit before she stopped at a certain spot, "Looks like Shea was barely able to get through that first trap."
Both boys looked at the direction she was addressing and saw Shea posted on a wall looking terrified with arrows surrounding her. Sargon sighed while shaking his head and went over to where Shea was.
"Shea, are you alright," he asked as he helped her down.
After being brought down, Shea breathed a sigh of relief and straightened herself up.
"Ok! From now on, let's give it our all!"
After saying that, she looked around a bit before spotting a stone tablet under a light.
"Hey look! A stone tablet! This could be a clue," she said as she walked up to it.
She knelt down and read what was on the tablet, "Let's see,
A moment after reading that out loud, Shea pulled her hammer out and smashed the tablet into pieces. Sargon, Yue, and Hajime sweatdropped at the sight.
After Shea smashed the stone tablet, she lifted her hammer up only to see words on the ground that said, [
After reading those words, Shea got even more angry and repeatedly smashed the ground where the words were. The remaining trio sweatdropped even more with Sargon sighing and Hajime saying,
"This labyrinth is not going to be an easy one, huh?"
Yue merely hummed in resigned agreement.
[A Little While Later]
"This place definitely looks like a labyrinth doesn't it," Hajime asked in a little astonishment.
Yue nodded, "Hmm, very easy to get lost, and I think we are."
Shea then chimed in boiling, "Whoever made this labyrinth must be evil and rotten! Grrrrrrr!"
Seeing and hearing this, Sargon sighed once again and said to the angered rabbit-girl.
"Shea, I understand your frustration, but you can't let that moment from before cloud your judgement."
Shea, although still incensed, followed Sargon's advice.
Yue then put the question out in the open, "What are we going to do now?"
Sargon contemplated while looking around, "For now, I suppose we should start mapping the areas we've already passed."
"How come there's light, but no exit anywhere," asked Shea as slumped.
It was Hajime who answered this time, "Looks like the walls what's providing the light here. Guess this is something unique for this labyrinth, the Orcus one didn't have walls like these."
"Indeed," Sargon said in agreement.
All of a sudden, a click was heard from below. Everyone turned their head towards the source of the sound and found a section of the ground lowered by Hajime's foot. A moment later, saw blades erupted from the walls on each side and moved towards the 4.
"Dodge," Hajime shouted.
Everyone reacted instantly and dodged the sawblades to the best of their ability. They eventually made their way through the sawblades, breathing a little heavily due to the unexpected trap.
"So this labyrinth is filled with completely physical traps, huh? Even more of a pain thanks to our magic being reduced."
Shea, covering her ears in fear, suddenly turned her attention towards Hajime.
"So you mean you couldn't have destroyed them with magic?"
Sargon shook his head at her question, "Not with it being reduced to such low potency, especially within this labyrinth. In terms of externalized magic, the results are either the magic being dispersed completely or reduced heavily. Magic that's channeled through the body, however, is unaffected."
"You know what that means, right Shea," Hajime asked.
Shea looked at him in confusion. Hajime continued, "We're going to be relying on you a lot while in this labyrinth."
Shea's eyes widened a bit, before nodding resolutely, "You can count on me!"
Hearing and seeing her determination, Sargon smirked.
[1 Minute Later]
Hajime, Yue, Shea, and Sargon are seen sliding down a corridor quickly, with Shea screaming in fear. Hajime looked at her in outrage.
"Freaking rabbit! How the hell do you screw up the minute I say 'We're counting on you?!' Especially after you then said 'You can count on me'," Hajime asked as he slid down with Yue on him, who was also glaring at Shea.
Shea, laying on Sargon while they were sliding, apologized meekly.
"I'm sorry!"
Sargon meanwhile sighed for the up-teenth time since entering this labyrinth while also sporting a slightly annoyed look.
Shea then said in alarm, "Guys! We're running out of road!"
Everyone looked where they were heading and saw that there was indeed little road left after the doorway. Sargon immediately said to Hajime,
"Hajime, you got a way to clear that?!"
Hajime looked at Sargon, "I think so, you?"
"I believe so, too. Brace yourselves everyone," he said as he quickly morphed his cane into a bracelet.
Once they reached the end and passed the door, they were right above a pit of spikes. Thinking fast, Hajime lifted his prosthetic left arm and shot out a grappling hook, which struck and dug into the sealing. Hajime then proceeded to swing with Yue in his arms to the next visible doorway.
At the same time, Sargon summoned his dark blue bird-like creature while holding onto Shea. The creature grabbed his arm with its feet and glided through the air carrying both Sargon and Shea.
Once both duos were able to save themselves from immediately falling into the pit of spikes, they made their way to the open doorway and landed a little roughly past it. The 4 breathed a sigh of relief from making it passed the pit of spikes, with Shea saying,
"Haaaahh! Oh, I thought I was going to die!"
Hajime nodded, while stuttering a bit, "Yeah. That, that was way too close.
Sargon looked at the remaining 3 in concern, "You think we should rest here for now to recover our bearings a bit?"
Before they could even respond, they saw a stone tablet in front of them that said [ After reading the passage, a lot of reactions happened all at once. A vein grew on Hajime's cheek, Yue's face darkened, Shea was about ready to smash the tablet, and even Sargon's eyes turned a little cold.
Hajime then balled his fists and squeezed trying to reel in his anger.
"Calm down guys. We lose if we attack this thing, that's what they want to happen. That goes for you too, Shea."
Shea, once again, reluctantly complied with the suggestion.
Hajime then turned to Sargon, "About that break suggestion, we'll take a short one here. There's most-likely still a long way to go before we actually complete this damned labyrinth."
Sargon nodded in acceptance, "Very well."
[Around 3 Minutes Later]
The group of 4 found their way in the middle of a long, wide, and curved hallway. Shea remarked on how wide the space was.
"This area's so wide. There's no possible way a trap could be placed–"
Before she could finish, she stepped on a section of the floor that sunk deeper, which also made a familiar clicking sound. In response, Hajime became alert, while Yue glared at Shea once again,
"You just had to open your mouth, didn't you?"
Shea pointed her fingers together teary eyed, "I promise it wasn't on purpose!"
Sargon hung his head low while shaking it, breathing deeply and slowly to cool his head. A rumbling sound was heard a little after Shea stepped on the square section, which made Hajime contemplate out loud.
"This sound."
A moment later, a huge boulder came barrelling down in front of the group, which shocked Yue and Shea.
"A giant rock," screamed Shea.
"We've got to run," followed Yue.
As both of them were busy running, Hajime simply stood there. Yue and Shea looked back and saw that Hajime wasn't moving.
"Hajime?"
The man in question got into a combat stance as the boulder continued rolling. Hajime also started slowly speaking as he got ready to act.
"Again and again, always getting beaten!"
Hajime cocked his prosthetic arm back as it charged with electricity. Then Hajime shouted in defiance,
"That's not my style!"
He then lunged his prosthetic fist towards the boulder and collided with it. The boulder was tough, so nothing happened yet, but when Hajime put more power into his punch, the boulder cracked. Then with a final shout, he punched through the boulder and shattered it.
This display of strength shocked both girls and Sargon, however the latter quickly recovered and narrowed his eyes thinking,
'There couldn't have been just one boulder, right?'
Hajime looked back with a huge smirk, proud of himself for his accomplishment.
"What do you think? That felt pretty good."
Immediately after he said that, another boulder was making its way towards Hajime, who looked back in surprise. But before he could do anything, Sargon blitzed past Hajime, drew the sword out of his cane, and thrust the tip at the boulder, which also shattered it.
Now everyone was shocked at Sargon's display of strength, but unlike Hajime, he didn't look back with a smirk and instead continued his focus forward, expecting something else.
Sure enough, another boulder made its way down the hall, followed by the sound of more boulders and the entire area rumbling. Sargon thrust his sword once again, which shattered the boulder just like the last, but all that did was unveiled the next one barreling down.
Sargon in response, turned the other half of his cane, morphed the end into a point and thrust it forward, with it displaying the same result. He consecutively did this while making his way forward and ushering to the others,
"Don't just stand there! Keep up! We're going to make it to the other end, so I'll keep the boulders off! Let's move," he shouted with urgency, which snapped the shock out of the rest of them.
Sargon continued to pave his way through the countless boulders piling up in order to reach the next entrance. Soon, the entrance up ahead was visible, which Hajime immediately went for.
"This way," he shouted.
Yue and Shea bolted towards the passageway while Sargon kept destroying the boulders. After they made it in, Hajime shouted towards Sargon.
"Sargon! We're clear! Come on over!"
Sargon looked back for a split second after destroying a boulder and saw the distance he needed to cover before making it through. He then turned his head back and shot his arm with the sword piece forward, shattering another boulder. He continued to do this while stepping back towards the entrance. After shattering one boulder, he beelined for the entrance and jumped in just before getting caught by the next boulder which barreled down the hallway.
Sargon exhaled deeply after getting clear of the danger zone, then was immediately greeted by an excited and awestruck Shea.
"That was amazing, Sargon! You completely shattered those boulders left and right!"
Yue was equally impressed by the display and nodded, smiling a little while clapping her hands.
Hajime also nodded while smiling, impressed, "You really did pull us through man. Thanks."
Sargon lifted his head, straightened up, and smiled, "Thanks everyone."
But then the smile turned a little dark, along with his eyes. "Although I must say, Hajime. The next time you want to show off your strength, do make sure it isn't a one time showcase, will you," he said as he looked at Hajime pointedly.
Hajime, in response, sweatdropped and looked away in slight embarrassment.
"Right, sorry about that."