The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 11: Sacrifice to the Minotaur

Sliding down into the hole and beneath the Temple, Crucis found his feet meeting a cold, marble surface. As he ducked down into this underground area to look around, he saw that he was on a small ramp at the entrance, leading into a dark labyrinth carved from brown stone. He could hear a few heavy footsteps nearby, probably coming from monsters. As he cautiously walked off the small marble plane, the hole in the Temple floor closed and bolted so that nobody else without an appropriate map could enter.

Crucis remembered the rough direction to the treasure marked out on the map, which was in the top-left corner of the labyrinth in a small passage. Although he saw a passage leading leftwards, he waited in place for a moment to listen carefully for the sound of any monsters. He noticed that most of the footsteps he heard were coming from the right, and wondered if there was anything being guarded there. There seemed to be a few powerful beasts to the left, however, including one who seemed to be occasionally pacing near the end of the leftwards passage. He also heard a sound which seemed like people talking, a short distance to the right. He strained to listen.

He could make out a player saying that they couldn't buy replacement maps until they left the game, so they shouldn't disturb the minotaurs. Crucis realised that, since these players were currently trapped in the game, they couldn't donate to buy replacements after using items like treasure maps. This meant that, if they died in here, they might not be able to re-enter to recover items from their corpse. The rest of the players' conversation was mostly inaudible, so Crucis crept quietly down a small rightwards path to listen more closely.

"The minos are nearby, but they won't see us if we hide behind the pillars on this side," said one player with a low-pitched, grizzly voice.

Crucis saw a few large, hulking silhouettes gathering within a small marble-floored square as his passage turned left. The players must be on the other side of this square, where he could see a few large, white pillars reaching up to the high, rocky ceiling of this area. He could make out a few shapes slowly and carefully moving behind the pillars. Crucis considered kiting the minotaurs towards the hiding players, but decided against it because running straight through a gathering of minotaurs would be unsafe and receiving a few strong blows would make escape difficult.

He therefore shuffled leftwards to follow the movement of the players, and saw that there was a wall between the players and himself. He heard the low-pitched voice speaking, "There might be a door leading to treasure up ahead and to the right. Gryfon told me it was somewhere here, and he's been down here 10 times. We can return here when we're done, and if we didn't find the door we can look around for it down another path. The treasure respawns every few hours, but it's probably there now, since treasure maps are rare and most players don't notice this one. It should only take about 3 minutes to check, anyway." This player seemed to be the more knowledgeable one, and was guiding his companion.

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Crucis heard as the two players' footsteps pattered away down a straight corridor, and then turned to walk away to the right. Crucis used [Agile Step] to enter the wall to his right, and stepped through to the place where the players had been talking. He remembered that the players were planning to return here. He would usually have to be careful not to run into them, since if he was killed then he wouldn't be able to recover his corpse. They were wearing heavy armour, however, so he could probably hear them coming from some distance. Crucis guessed that the Guilds were sharing information about where to find additional treasures and drops in this labyrinth, and he was somewhat uncomfortable with the prospect of these players taking all of the nearby treasures and possibly attacking him.

After waiting for about a minute to familiarise himself with his surroundings, he began pacing slowly towards the pillars beside the gathering of minotaurs. He equipped the skeletal necklace he had obtained from the undead dog, because if NPCs were bleeding then they would generally stalk or chase the perpetrator more fervently. Somewhat nervously, he hid behind a pillar and peeked around the edge, seeing that each minotaur was marked as a [Young Minotaur], and that their levels were in a range between levels 30 and 40. This was a dangerous opponent, and much more threatening than most creatures in this area were likely to be. Crucis surmised that there was probably some valuable treasure on the right side of this labyrinth, but it might be difficult to reach. Since minotaurs were generally quite loud, and stepped slowly and heavily on the ground, players were probably expected to hear and avoid them rather than fight them.

Using [Stealth], he inched up to the closest [Young Minotaur] and slashed at it with [Ripper], activating the necklace's ability to ensure bleeding. He only made a slight dent in the minotaur's rough skin, but he was lucky to trigger the bleeding effect twice: once from the necklace, and once from the skill [Ripper] which had a chance of causing bleeding. This meant that the minotaur would be bleeding for about slightly over a minute. As he struck, he quickly began stepping back, as he saw the horde of minotaur suddenly turn towards him. They poured into a gap beside the pillars, and began to chase him. Using his high Agility, he bounded quickly away and led the minotaurs towards the right turn which he had heard the two other players take. He could faintly hear the sound of the heavily-armoured players making their way back.

As the minotaurs trudged slowly up to reach Crucis, he estimated that there were about seven of them. Even a strong player like Jarius was unlikely to survive a fight with such a mob. As the minotaurs edged towards Crucis, he used [Agile Step] and slipped into the wall to his left. It was a thick, jagged wall which had earlier divided him from the players as he overheard them. As expected, the minotaur AI wasn't adjusted to adapt to this bug, and so the minotaur pack just paced around in confusion, growling threateningly. Due to the bleeding, they would probably remain in place for two minutes at least. If they were like the guard who Crucis had fought near the Storage building, then they might not adjust easily to unexpected, buggy maneouevres and might keep standing here for a while longer, since they had not seen him leave the radius where they would stop chasing.

After about a minute, Crucis saw the two players returning empty-handed from their search for treasure. They looked slightly sheepish, but were probably still determined to go down the other path and find the treasure. However, Crucis had to suppress laughter when he saw the expressions of the two players as they turned the corner and saw a large pack of minotaurs bearing down on them. The higher-levelled level 32 player, who must have been the one Crucis had heard planning before, shouted a few expletives and then turned around to warn his companion. However, he was struck to the ground by a minotaur's heavy mace, and collapsed heavily. The minotaurs closed in on the weaker, level 17 companion, who nervously held out his shield and was shaking heavily. As a minotaur swung to hit him, he tried to lift the shield towards the swing but was jittering so hard that the blow struck him straight on the face. He collapsed hard to the ground. Due to the pain reduction, he seemed more disoriented than in pain, and scrambled about on the floor trying to get up.

The level 32 rose from the ground and held out his shield in a more sturdy stance. He faced a level 30 minotaur beside him, and used his shield to deflect an incoming blow, while striking heavily with his sword. This player was of the [Knight] subclass, like Jarius, and seemed to have high defensive stats. The level 17 turned to him and said, "I'll help you, Sardaukar! We can do this!" Leaping to his feet, the player struck with a [Heavy Blade] and interrupted a minotaur which was planning to attack his companion. The higher-level player, named [Sardaukar], used this brief momentum to launch a [Hilt Blow] on the minotaur and send it reeling backwards, following this up with a [Combined Slash] on another minotaur. Since [Combined Slash] gains more power when it is used immediately after another attack, the increased strength sent another minotaur flying back. Gritting his teeth, Sardaukar tried to push the minotaurs back, although he had an air of resignation that showed that he had little hope of getting out of this alive.

Stepping forwards towards the minotaurs he had shoved backwards, he ably held his shield up to the left to deflect an oncoming blow, then jumped towards the attacking minotaur and struck with [Momentum Stab], running his blade through the minotaur's left shoulder and using his own momentum and strength to slam the minotaur into the wall shoulder-first. The minotaur lost 10% of its HP, and cried out at the harsh blow to its injured shoulder. Without looking backwards, Sardaukar instinctively aimed a [Heavy Slash] behind him, gathering his strength to slash his sword horizontally and strike a minotaur that was approaching him. He had expected another minotaur to be bearing down on him after he had finished the [Momentum Stab], and anticipated this with the slash which sent this would-be assailant minotaur hurtling backwards. There, the level 17 leapt towards the minotaur and used [Takedown Stab] to stab the injured minotaur's shoulder and push it to the ground. While the minotaur was strong, the impact of Sardaukar's strike had left it reeling backwards and made it easier to send to the ground.

"Well done, JaxonFive! You just wrestled a minotaur!" said Sardaukar, trying to maintain some levity.

The level 17 [JaxonFive] started to smile, but before he could go after the minotaur on the ground further, another mace strike sent him collapsing to the ground. He had only 60% of his HP remaining. The minotaur who had struck JaxonFive walked up to him and stepped on him, taking 10% more HP. Sardaukar tried to intervene, but was surrounded by minotaurs and struck harshly to the ground. As he scrambled to his feet and held his shield up, an unexpected blow struck his head from behind and the minotaurs started to close in. Sardaukar had only 20% of his HP remaining. However, he used [Hilt Blow] again to beat a minotaur back, and stepped into the gap where the minotaur stood. Deflecting a blow with his shield, he called for JaxonFive to flee while he held up the monsters. JaxonFive darted off, and Sardaukar used [Wide Slash] to slash across the gathering of minotaurs in front of him and aggro them, preventing them from chasing the fleeing level 17.

JaxonFive sprinted awkwardly to the right-turn which he had previously taken in a fruitless search for treasure, and after turning right he blindly charged forwards to get away from the minotaurs. Crucis knew that Sardaukar was sacrificing himself to save his weaker team-mate, and so it was inevitable that Sardaukar would die to the minotaurs. Using [Stealth] to prevent Sardaukar noticing him, Crucis darted out of the wall and took the right turn to pursue the fleeing level 17. Due to his higher Agility, Crucis swiftly closed in on JaxonFive, and used [Agile Step] to catch up with JaxonFive and use [Stunning Dagger]. With the warrior briefly paralysed, Crucis kneed him to the ground. The warrior fell heavily, and Crucis knelt down to stab him. However, JaxonFive had higher Strength, and wrestled Crucis himself down onto the ground by grabbing his shoulders and heaving him down. JaxonFive stepped up nimbly, and tried to strike the grounded Crucis with a [Heavy Blade] strike, but Crucis rolled quickly out of the way and leapt to his feet while keeping some distance between him and the warrior.

"What the hell are you doing?" shouted JaxonFive.

JaxonFive strode quickly towards Crucis and feinted a blow from the right, then used his [Flourish] skill to change the angle of his attack and give an unexpected strike targetting the Assassin's left shoulder. Crucis stepped back quickly, but he was thrown by the change of angle and was caught with a small cut on his left shoulder. He could feel a faint sting as a small pool of blood flowed from the wound. He had guessed that JaxonFive might be of the [Knight] subclass, like his companion Sardaukar, but the [Flourish] skill was a recognisable trait of the more agile and unorthodox [Arch-Knight] class. JaxonFive was an Arch-Knight. This meant that, while slower than Crucis, he could still strike quickly and fiercely if Crucis was nearby.

Crucis pretended to be badly injured and reeling in order to draw JaxonFive closer, since he remembered how the Arch-Knight had tried to pursue a fallen minotaur only to be knocked down. As expected, JaxonFive stepped forwards and prepared a [Hammering Blow] attack to hit Crucis, but the Assassin quickly bolted behind JaxonFive and used a [Chokehold]. Due to the Arch-Knight's forwards momentum, he was almost choking himself on Crucis' arm as his neck pressed against it. JaxonFive let out a muted cry. Feeling the strain on JaxonFive's neck, Crucis quickly used [Black Spot] to cut a slit in the warrior's neck. Howling with pain, the warrior shoved Crucis away and looked at him with indignant eyes flaring up. Crucis tilted his head nonchalantly.

While JaxonFive started to step towards Crucis, his movements seemed sluggish due to the pain from his neck. In his anger, JaxonFive prepared to use the [Charge] skill and run across the corridor at Crucis to inflict heavy damage. Crucis was slightly surprised to see an Arch-Knight using [Charge], a skill that was typically associated with the Berserker class. The Berserkers and Arch-Knights were often described as near-opposites by players, as the first uses agile and unexpected strikes while the latter uses rash, powerful hits. However, for a level 17 player, the [Charge] move might still not have that much disadvantage. Crucis was slightly puzzled at first by why a level 17 player would have the [Arch-Knight] subclass, which usually requires level 30, but then remembered that it might be a perk for donors which allows them to unlock a sub-class earlier. Subclasses like the elemental forms of magic or the Arch-Knight were considered 'complex,' and hence typically players would have to wait for level 30 to unlock them.

Crucis was slightly winded, but noticed that he was seeing multiple renders of the walls beside him. As he saw JaxonFive charge down the corridor towards him, Crucis used [Agile Step] to enter the wall to his right, dodging the Arch-Knight's lunging, clumsy strike. However, he was surprised to see that the Arch-Knight ran up to the wall as well, and used the Arch-Knight skill [Sudden Burst] to take a highly rapid but short step forwards, entering the wall. Crucis was slightly taken aback by seeing another player enter the wall with him, but was on guard as soon as he saw the Arch-Knight walking towards the wall, and quickly struck a [Stunning Dagger] move on JaxonFive's shoulder. He followed this up with a [Dagger Twist], causing JaxonFive to give a throaty scream. He noticed that the warrior was crying. Using his grip on the shoulder, Crucis shoved JaxonFive's shoulders and head out of the wall. Grabbing JaxonFive with a [Chokehold], he harshly thrust the warrior's head backwards into the wall. JaxonFive cursed loudly.

Crucis raised his right leg to JaxonFive's upper back, and kicked the warrior to the ground. JaxonFive was still dazed, and collapsed onto the ground. JaxonFive had only 3% of his HP remaining. Crucis swiftly knelt down and used [Ripper] to make a gash across JaxonFive's neck, and JaxonFive died mid-scream with his mouth full of blood. Crucis left the wall, and crept cautiously back towards where the minotaurs had been fighting Sardaukar.

The minotaurs had by now returned to where they were gathering, and Crucis could hear their footsteps in the distance. However, Sardaukar's corpse was still lying on the ground. If he did not return to claim it for two hours, then Crucis would be able to loot the corpse. However, while Crucis had overheard Sardaukar mentioning that they might not have enough maps to return, he couldn't be 100% certain that they wouldn't return and he didn't want to be standing by the corpses if they did. He hence decided to look around first, starting with the treasure which Sardaukar had earlier mentioned.

Yours? Mine.