Meager Power

Pain returned just as consciousness did, and it absolutely did not pull any punches. Before I had the chance to even think, my legs were throbbing, my arms were jelly, and my head was feeling like it was split into a million pieces. I tried to open my mouth to signal that I was awake, but all I could really manage from my beleaguered throat was a groan. It took some doing, but eventually I was able to pry my eyes open.

The Berserker was still on the ground, unmoving, with a pool of blood slowly oozing out of the body. It had reached me, and I could feel it getting into my pants. I was slightly disgusted, but at the moment, I was in too much pain to move away from it. Other than that, I checked where Rachel had fallen, but she was gone. I swung my head around slowly, and was delighted to find that she was instead sitting against the nearby pillar looking like the noise I'd made had awoken her. She looked unimpressed and probably in pain just as much as I was, with sleep still filling her eyes, but a thin smile made its way to the surface of her expression.

"You live," she said slowly.

I tried to respond, but a groan left my throat again. I swallowed, feeling an awkward amount of grossness stuck in my esophagus, and looked over unimpressed at the fact that my bag was over at the other end of the room. My eyes softened and I turned my doe eyes against Rachel, who narrowed her at mine.

"What." It was a question, but she didn't really phrase it atone.

I looked over at the bag again and attempted to clear my throat, now adjusting my face into a pout. It definitely didn't help the pain through my body, especially my head, but maybe it'd convince my hellish partner to assist with my parched state. I grunted this time, trying to show that I really needed the water.

"Pest," she said after a moment, and reached behind her. My eyes widened as I realized she had grabbed her own waterskin and tossed it to me. Thankfully, it landed in my lap, and I found that my arms moved enough to allow me to bring it to my lips. Beautiful, lukewarm water poured down my throat. I had to stop to cough a moment, but the wonderful liquid was a balm to soothe my pains. I let the moisture penetrate my throat before trying to speak again.

"I live," I croaked out. It was unpleasant, but I could finally use my voice. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit."

"Same."

Rachel moved her eyes from me to the berserker's body. "How did you finish it off? Last I remember, we were on the ropes."

A giggle burbled up from my throat, making my head spike with pain, but I couldn't stop it from becoming a laugh. I barely managed to get out "magic trick" between breaths. "It's gone!"

"Descriptive," she responded, annoyed.

It took a little bit for the bubbly laughter to finish, but eventually I regained control of myself. I could tell I was dizzy from the fight, from the pain, from the ecstatic feeling of victory. "Momentum. Heh. I introduced its noggin to what was left of my spear." She still looked a little confused. "If you could roll it over, you'd see a bit of it sticking out of its head. Made it mad, charged at me, introduced its skull to the point."

Rachel still looked like she was dissatisfied with the answer, but nodded, seemingly accepting that I wasn't capable of a full explanation right now. "Okay. Well, it seems it is done. Can you stand on your own?"

"Gimme a few," I said, pushing down the pain I felt. It was a combination of the blows I'd taken in battle plus the pain from those uncountable stairs, and it was an absolute mess. But, surprisingly, after a number of minutes to get my gumption up, I was able to wobblingly bring myself to my feet by using the broken pillar next to me as a guide. I took some deep breaths to center myself. "Might need some help moving around, but I'm at least up. Pain is everywhere at the moment."

We both waited there for a little bit, still a bit taken aback by the finality of the moment. Honestly, I realized I was still very surprised. I'd expected to fail, or to find some other new challenge at this point. When one hears the term 'labyrinth,' one expects that it'll take more than a few weeks to get to this point. Of course, it was entirely possible that this wasn't the end, this wasn't 'conquering it,' but as the place seemed to have at least some sort of conscious will, it made more sense that we'd rushed the end. This was my introduction to the place, a kind of meta "look at what you must overcome." If it didn't end here, I had half a mind to leave anyway. In my mind, this place was fucking conquered.

What level had I reached? What kind of rewards awaited us? Would there be any? It always seemed like the place was forthcoming with adding power to us whenever we had accomplishments, so I definitely was expecting something, but had no idea exactly what we might find. Hopefully it was two things, and ones we wouldn't fight over. I didn't want to jeopardize our new alliance by immediately introducing silly, petty shit like jealousy.

"Where to now?" I sputtered, and drank some more water.

Rachel stared at me a moment. "I seem to be more mobile than you. I will check the other rooms. If you are okay with that," she trailed off, suddenly uncertain.

Why was she not certain about that? It made sense for her to check things out, the violence was done, as far as I knew. Was she worried about trust, now?

Oh, yeah, of course she was. Last time we took down a big bad was when Nathan had backstabbed us. She was worried about that, wasn't she? Reliving that kind of thing. I'd been focused on my reaction, but of course she was affected, too. We were both human, as unflappable as she appeared to be. Rachel was a person just like me, so something like that would stick. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Of course I am." I smirked. "If you wanted to stab me in the back, you woulda done it while I couldn't get up. Just be careful walking around, and don't open any treasure chests."

Her head cocked at the last. "Why not?"

Oh. Uh. "Mimics."

"You really think there is going to be a challenge like a mimic right now? After that fight?"

I shuddered, and the action sent a fresh shock of pain through me, though it was starting to dull as I kept myself moving slightly. "I... maybe, maybe not. Better to be safe, yeah?" She seemed to accept those words and trundled off slowly, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I looked down at the big berserker and once again checked my pants, noting the big red spot that had stained its side. I sighed, knowing that they were absolutely ruined. Hopefully, when we reached civilization, we wouldn't be dismissed outright over our disheveled appearances. Fuck, what was my hair like? Rat's nest was probably a compliment. I'd kill for some shampoo and conditioner.

What would we do about moving on? We could only carry so many supplies with us. We'd probably need to preserve as much meat as possible, though I had no idea how the hell to do that. How do you smoke meat? Make jerky? I couldn't depend on my Mana Bolt to hunt, and foraging would be a crap shoot in Avare, a world where we knew as much about plants as anything else. Sure, we had potatoes and carrots waiting in the freezer back at the Sanctuary, but that could be coincidence. Countless different species of greenery called Earth home, the fact that some overlap existed just made sense. Or did it? Cosmically? If there were as many permutations of plant as atoms in the universe, then maybe two significant overlapping species would be statistically improbable.

Ugh. Useless speculation again. We'd have to make the best of things. Make proper plans. Get back to the Sanctuary, and turtle up for a little bit while we prepared. Try to smoke some meat, try out hunting or trapping. Keep on our guard against Nathan sneaking up on us. Put together what gear we could. Agh, there was also the egg. I hoped it was okay, all alone back there for a couple days now. If Nathan showed up there while we were gone...

No, no use worrying about things like that. Rachel reentered the room from one doorway and gave me a shake of her head as she approached another one, still checking. I gave a wan smile in return but remained deep in my thoughts. Food and safety first. We should practice fighting, too. Just to keep up with our abilities. I had no doubt we'd run into dangerous beasts out there, so we'd need to be able to fight, still. We should read up on what we could as well, given those tomes that Rachel had said she had. Even if they weren't directly good info, having context on some stuff would be invaluable. That'd give some time to hope the egg hatched or something. Whatever a lurdrakka truly was had to be helpful if it had been a reward from that odd House of Valor. It sure sounded significant, at the very least.

Civilization, though, was an exciting prospect. If I had to be honest with myself, and I probably should, fighting like this had been fun. Even when pain reared its ugly head, even when I struggled or lost, it was exciting to get my blood pumping. To put myself in mortal danger, to stack myself against foes that wished me harm. What did that say about my personality? I was concerned about it, and what it meant for the rest of my life's issues, but again, this was speculation. Worrying about the life I'd left behind, literally, wouldn't assist with me now. Even if I really missed Dad. But, civilization. I wanted to talk to people, wanted to explore the differences, wanted to get to interpersonal conflict, not just life-and-death battles. Adrenaline was one thing, but the cold, calculating world of verbal intrigue and sparring was what really interested me.

How would the world react to our contest landing on it? I started exercising my body, trying to loosen away the stiffness that had taken over while I was unconscious. There was no way we could hide the Game from the powers that be, not for long. And, now thinking about it more, I didn't really want to deal with the hassles that would come from hiding my origins. Both revealing myself and hiding myself would come with challenges, but one of them meant safety, and the other one meant progress. After today, safety just didn't sound as appealing as it did before. Progress, growth, learning, power. That's what I wanted.

Was this my Daredevil trait coming out? Or was this my natural inclination, and having the trait just was an indicator for how I really was? I shook my head again, knocking away the ridiculous beginnings of the old 'nature vs. nurture' debate that was utterly pointless. It's both. It's always both. So, if this thing that I had accepted was affecting me, I just had to work with it. No matter what, knowing the cause of this particular quirk of mine would not help me in any realistic way.

I had barely noticed, but while I'd been submerged in my mind, Rachel had finished her investigation of the surroundings and was approaching the door through which we'd entered. Curious, I looked at her, and was surprised at the visual of the exit when she opened the door once again. The endless sea of stairwells was gone, hidden behind the portal that led to her exit. She turned to me with a triumphant smile on her lips and arms crossed. "Found it."

"We good to go, then?" I asked. I dismissed my 'deep thoughts' for now. It'd be better to worry about that thing when we were back in the Sanctuary, in more comfortable surroundings. Certainly better when not covered in wounds.

"Yes, mostly. I did not spy any containers that would be considered 'treasure,' nor did I find anything of note. I invite you to to check on your own, though, as it seems you have improved in the short time we have been awake.

"Nah," I responded, "I trust your eyes on that. I'm tired and want to get back. I admit I'm a little pissed there's no treasure or anything, but honestly, not totally surprised." A thought entered my head. "What about the third floor? We can't get up there."

She laughed a little at that. "There is not much left of the third floor, as far as I can tell. It seems to have fallen completely in, which makes sense, given your account of your previous visit to this place."

Ugh. "Alright. Get your stuff, then, and I'll gather up mine. Let's get out of this fucking mess." We both spent some time shuffling around to gather up our discarded gear. Rachel had already retrieved her sword, but her shield basically fell apart when she attempted to pick it up. I looked forlornly at the stick that had once been the shaft of my spear. That's what bothered me more than anything else at the moment. I was going to have to find another weapon, again. Once we made it to a city or something, I was absolutely going to find a way to get a sturdy tool that I would not lose, would not get broken, that would be properly helpful. This needed to stop before it became a pattern.

I could use an axe or a dagger or something, we had several back at the Sanctuary, but I had really come to like the spear. Even though it felt a little was missing, yet, it was the most comfortable thing I'd wielded.

Whatever. I'd make do.

With our things collected, we both approached the exit portal. I held out my hand to Rachel, who accepted it. She gave me a nod and touched it.

We found ourselves back in the Portal room underneath the Sanctuary, and I let out the breath I had been holding. I'd let out my tension too soon, though, as a noise built up behind us. Both of us whirled around to watch as the portal began to swirl with colors more violently than before, letting out a cacophony not unlike the static of an analog television unable to pick up any stations. We backed up, nervous, and Rachel placed herself in front of me. She was the only armed one of us, after all. Technically. I did have my magic and my kicks, so unless my tank was empty, I wasn't really unarmed.

But nothing attacked us, nothing came out. The noise continued to grow, rising to headache-inducing levels (despite the pain I was already dealing with), and with a 'pop' that echoed through my skull, the swirling colors suddenly converged in the middle and disappeared. The sudden quiet that followed was startling with just how strong it was. We had no idea what time it was outside, and we were too far removed to hear any birds or insects, so at that point, there was nothing more than our breathing.

"Fuck," I finally said.

"Agreed."

The portal was gone, revealing some kind of room behind it. It made sense, after all. Why else would there be a door there? Rachel padded forward on uncertain feet, checking beyond the threshold. I followed close on her heels, eyes trying to adjust to the dark room beyond. Light from the portal room (was it still the portal room?) flowed beyond, revealing what had been hidden to us before. It was pretty clearly some sort of dormitory, though time had completely wrecked it. It was mostly collapsed in on itself, with what looked like a large amount of simple beds destroyed by the debris. There was really only one thing that stood out, however. There was a treasure chest sitting in the middle of the room, untouched by the devastation that adorned the area around it, like an untouched circle protected from the elements.

Rachel took a step towards it, but I reached up and gripped her shoulder in a move that surprised even me. "Ow," she blurted.

"Sorry. Just. Let me."

Her eyes narrowed at me, but nodded. I raised my arm and fired off a Mana Bolt at the chest, watching as it 'thunked' against the wood of it. It was decked out to the nines, actually, with some sort of metal all over it. If it didn't seem to be heavy as shit, it might have been worth bringing it back with us to sell to some rich asshole or whatever. None of that mattered at the moment. What did matter was that it thankfully was pushed back by the spell, revealing smooth floor underneath it. I sighed in relief. Whatever danger might be there, it wasn't huge and betentacled and slimy. "Clear," I said.

She reached up and pried my hand off her, for which I mumbled an apology, before approaching the thing. She unceremoniously opened it and stared within, motioning for me to approach. Inside the box, there were five items, and none of them recognizable. Three of them were orange cubes, about the size of, well, an orange. They shimmered with light from within. The other two were little ruby-colored triangular prisms, and were positively radiating energy. I raised an eyebrow at my companion and showed her my gloved hand, making it obvious that I should be the one to check them without skin contact. She shrugged and stepped back.

The red ones called to me more, so I just reached down and picked it up. It was extremely warm to the touch, but not uncomfortably so. Magic definitely radiated from it. "It feels... energetic. Like holding your hand against a running motor."

"Any idea what it might do?"

"Not at all." I shook my head. "Energy to absorb? Do we eat it? Is it a bomb? No idea. Probably should be careful with it until we find out, yeah?" She nodded. "Let's leave them here for now. Better safe than sorry."

I replaced the pretty little thing and closed the chest, and after we both took a moment to reset ourselves, we started a tired walk back to our Sanctuary. I snorted after a moment. "I guess a new spear would have been too much to fuckin' ask."

A laugh met me from slightly up the stairs, Rachel being able to take them faster than me at the moment. "I doubt whatever force animated the labyrinth expected you to lose your weapon."

Before I could respond, she continued.

"Again."

Piece o' shit.