This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder Than Expected-7.55 – Labyrinth

In the hallway exiting the protective artifacts room, they found a large red shield and a wooden staff leaning against the wall.

"That's a relief," Zoey said. "Shard didn't leave our armor, but we get our weapons at least."

Astrid hefted her dragon scale shield up, nodding to herself in satisfaction. She would have been the more disadvantaged between them. As the guardian of the team, her role was especially reliant on having a wide, durable shield to swing around and block attacks with. Zoey would've managed fine without her staff, though the amplified power and easier casting were definitely nice to have.

"You can Influence before we continue," Astrid said.

Zoey nodded. Reaching inside herself to that vibrating pool of energy, she drew out mana and shaped it, thrusting the resulting spell into Astrid, who didn't resist the effect. The berserker stiffened, eyes widening and back straightening as a rush of anger supernaturally infused her.

"More?" Zoey asked.

"That's enough." Astrid bounced on her heels, suddenly full of energy, and Zoey tried to keep her eyes on Astrid's face, but couldn't help them from flicking down to admire the … show … her energetic bouncing was putting on. She was only human.

Astrid caught the look and came to an abrupt stop. Flushing, she turned on her heel. "Let's go."

Zoey wondered whether she should apologize, but she couldn't be blamed for her eyes flicking down to her teammate's naked, bouncing breasts. Besides, Astrid wasn't offended, just embarrassed at the reminder that she was mostly nude.

Zoey put that out of mind. The real adventure was starting, and she needed to get her head in the game. Gripping her staff and focusing, she followed Astrid deeper into the shard.

As with the prior architecture, the aesthetic was reminiscent of ancient Egypt—so far as she could remember from her past life, at least. Hieroglyphic carvings covered the walls with infrequent pillars holding up the wide hallway. Brass sconces and braziers illuminated the space, the flickering light casting long shadows. Longer shadows than seemed appropriate. It created an ominous atmosphere. Cobwebs hid in corners and sand covered the floor in a light dusting. The air was hot and dusty. This place was ancient; she could feel it in her bones. And, as the murals had made clear, cursed. She almost felt a dark presence lingering over her shoulder, and she had to fight the urge to constantly glance backward.

As they walked through, taking turns at frequent junctions, she quickly discovered they were in a labyrinth—a maze. She tried to keep track of the turns they were making, but knew it was hopeless. Even if she accurately mapped the passages out, Zoey bet the walls would shift. If the shard wanted them lost and confused, they would be no matter how hard they tried to fight it.

They found their first combat encounter shortly. Or rather, it found them. The monster struck first, having been hanging on the ceiling above the doorway, impossible to spot.

Astrid, though, was ready; she was a stalwart professional, and it would take more than an ambush to catch her off guard. She caught the enormous green-tipped stinger that snapped down like a whip. The impact sounded an enormous clang through the chamber, making Zoey's ears ring—a lot of power had gone into the blow. Astrid grunted and was forced a step back, despite being easily the strongest member on their team. The monsters down here were a full advancement higher than them, Zoey reminded herself.

She responded a quarter second after Astrid; she was getting the hang of the whole life-or-death stuff. She opened with Bolster, pushing the enormous stat boost into Astrid, who was finally Bonded and thus a viable target. Strength surged through her, and her trembling shield steadied. She shoved the stinger away, resetting her stance. freeweɓnøvel.com

The scorpion dropped from the ceiling. It was twelve feet long, covered in black chitinous plates. Eight segmented legs supported its wide and flat body, each leg ending in pointed tips that scratched the floor as it skittered backward to make space. Two massive pincers extended forward, and its giant stinger curved overhead, dripping green venom that was melting the stone floor where droplets landed. Zoey winced. It wouldn't be pleasant if a stray drop landed on her, much less if the scorpion got that stinger into one of them.

Its beady eyes were fixed on Astrid with predatory focus, its mandibles clicking.

Astrid charged forward, happy to fulfill her role, keeping its attention as Zoey pointed her staff and started casting. She had two options: ice and lightning. The former, though the branch of magic she'd unlocked earlier in her career, wasn't weaker, just different. With how much damage Rosalie and Delta were capable of dealing to an incapacitated target, coating an opponent in ice could often be the more useful option.

But Astrid, while ridiculously durable and great at keeping a monster's focus, was less capable of damaging opponents than even Maddy—who could, at least, confuse a monster into seriously maiming itself if the situation called for it.

So it was Zoey's job to take the monster down.

Astrid brawled with the scorpion, wrapped in a red bubble of energy—her Crimson Barrier—while using her shield to bash away its snapping pincers and whipping tail. Finding an opening, she rammed the pointed tip of the dragon scale into the armor of one of its pincers, but she only cracked the black chitin, not pierced it. She seemed caught off guard, and Zoey was too. She reminded herself for a second time they were in a fifth advancement shard: these would be the strongest monsters they'd fought yet.

To be safe, Zoey activated Burst as her Heavy Lightning Bolt finished forming. The air crackled with electric energy as she held onto the spell, her staff swiveling left and right as she aimed, looking for an opening.

When Astrid went skidding back from a powerful sweep of the scorpion's tail, Zoey unleashed. The chamber flashed white, and even with Maddy's adjustments to the spell to reduce the thunderous noise, her ears rang as the smell of burnt ozone filled her nose.

Astrid might only have been able to crack the monster's armor, but an empowered Heavy Lightning Bolt was more than capable of piercing its armor: her strike hit the scorpion on the side, blasting off two legs and leaving a gaping wound that leaked black ichor. The monster made a horrible noise, a clicking screech as it scrambled away.

Astrid pursued, charging in with a raised shield. Zoey was already pulling together a second lightning bolt. This one caught the scorpion at the base of the tail. A decaying stench filled the air as black blood poured from the monster. It thrashed wildly as it tried to send Astrid flying away, though the wild blows only gave the berserker more openings. She stabbed the edge of her dragon scale shield into one of its eyes, which didn't blind it but certainly didn't seem pleasant: again, the creature screamed and thrashed.

Two more lightning bolts blasted off the remaining legs on its left side, and the fight was all but over, the unbalanced monster barely able to drag itself around. Still, its flailing tail sent drops of green venom flying, and one caught her on the calf. Zoey swallowed a scream as she stumbled away, resisting the urge to wipe it away with her hands. Astrid's Crimson Barrier engulfed her a quarter-second later, bringing the searing agony down to just 'miserable'.

A final high-powered Lightning Bolt—no need to use more complex spells when the simple, well-trained one was doing the job—into its exposed side had the beast collapsing, and Astrid finished the fight by slamming her shield repeatedly into its skull with grotesque crunching noises. The giant insect went still.

"Good shots," Astrid grunted, yanking her shield out of the gory mess and turning to nod at her.

"Thanks," Zoey said, wrinkling her nose as she looked at the mess of chitin and insect goo. Her calf itched fiercely, so she pulled out a low tier healing potion and applied it. The shard hadn't taken everything, after all. Just most of their equipment and gear. "You too." She didn't envy Astrid's role. She much preferred getting to stand back and blast magic into her opponents.

"Tough, for a normal monster," Astrid said.

"The boss is gonna be interesting." If this was what the 'filler mobs' were like, the higher caliber opponents were going to pose a serious challenge. But that had been their hope setting out.

They checked the chamber for anything interesting, but there was nothing. Zoey scooped up pieces of the monster's broken chitin, stored its blood and venom in small jars, and collected its stinger. The parts that had pinged her alchemist's intuition for valuable salvage. Sabina would appreciate the reagents.

They ascended the stairs, leaving the corpse behind. First encounter of many finished. She couldn't help but wonder, though, when the real theme of the shard would rear its head.

Which of her teammates had been possessed, and when would they come for her and Astrid?