MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera glanced around. It was a terrible spot for them to be. More skeletons could fall from the upper floor at any moment. They needed to get back to a wall, that way at least they could see all the enemies coming.

She started to move towards the door they came from when the undead in front of her lunged, the bony hands clawing away at her. Hera pressed both feet on the ground and placed her handaxe on her waist, taking the stance from the first move she learned in the ATR.

When the skeleton was in range, Hera slashed at its ribcage with her axe. The impact made some bones break, throwing a few splinters on the ground. The creature lost its footing and fell on the floor.

With a satisfied smile, Hera looked around. Alex was at her side, fighting one skeleton. She had spun the creature"s arms around in a way that they became stuck in its clavicle.

On the other side, Tiffany had just smashed a skeleton with her broadsword. She swung it on the side, making it look more like a baseball bat than a blade. The undead flew across the room, hitting the bars in one of the closed cells. She split the skull from the rest of the body, hitting the far back wall near a pile of cloth.

Hera was impressed, and a little scared of the woman. Getting hit by a swing of that sword would easily knock someone out.

Suddenly, a hand grabber Hera"s ankles. The skeleton she had pushed away was still moving. It clawed at her leg, slashing her calf. Hera screamed in pain and slashed at the creature using both of her weapons. Lucky, she remembered that the fundamental idea was to push the target away before attacking.

Using her chakram she started to hit the skeleton"s skull, trying to get a good angle to attack with her axe. The skeleton stopped Hera"s attacks by biting the chakram.

Hera tried to pull it back, worried she might lose her weapon, but the skeleton wouldn"t let go of the blade. Seeing an opening, Hera pulled the chakram as high as she could and aimed at the undead"s neck with her axe.

In one swift motion, she decapitated the skeleton, making its body fall limp on the floor.

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[All In] effects deactivated, the cooldown will now start

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"c.r.a.p," she thought to herself.

Unconsciously she ended up activating her [All In] skill in the first monster she found. Now the rest of the test will be harder since it lowered her stats.

Hera shook the skull of her chakram and stared at the pile of bones, waiting to see if it was still moving. A couple of seconds pa.s.sed and nothing seemed to happen with the bones, but Hera still wasn"t convinced. She took a step towards the skeleton when she felt someone pushing her.

Looking back, she saw Bonnie walking backward while defending against a skeleton with her quarterstaff. Hera was so focused on her own fight that she forgot about the rest of the group.

She twirled around, dropping her chakram and placing her free hand on Bonnie"s back, hoping to help the woman recover her balance. Hera then moved a bit to the side and attacked the skeleton with her axe, aiming at its neck. But the creature raised one arm and blocked her attack. Even so, the slash was enough to cut halfway through its forearm, snapping the ulna in half.

Taking advantage of the attack, Bonnie pushed the creature back, making it take a few steps backward. Following up, the woman raised her staff above her head and struck the skull of the undead with all her might. A loud crack accompanied the impact, the top of the skeleton"s skull shattered leaving only its face remaining. However, the creature fell limp on the ground.

Hera looked back towards the one she had defeated, making sure it would not attack her again. The remains of the skeleton were still spread around motionless.

"Aim for the head, they stop moving without the skull!"

Hera yelled at the group, trying to convey the new information.

"Yeah, no s.h.i.t. It"s basic undead knowledge that you should aim for the head," Kenjiro replied while finished off his opponent.

"That"s only for zombies. Not all undead are the same, you racist!" Mark cried out after an arrow flew past Blue hitting a skeleton in the eye.

"Are you really calling me a racist because of that?" Kenjiro asked while he jumped towards the one attacking Alex.

"They are a race, and you are grouping them all up in the same stereotype. That"s racism," Mark replied with a playful smile.

"Less talking, more fighting. We are not out of the woods yet," Leo intervened, shutting the two men up.

That minor exchange was enough to lift some tension around the group. Having people joke around during a fight gave the impression that the situation wasn"t so dire.

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"That laddie will be a good party leader someday," Greyson said. He was watching the group with the other explorers, although he wasn"t taking part in the betting.

"Someday? To me, he is already doing a pretty good job," Helena commented.

"He wasn"t able to stop Blue. And during the fight, he only talked once. A good leader would change formations and strategies. Not just focusing on his own fight," Greyson explained.

"Honestly Calvin, you are too strict. They are doing fine, no one got badly injured and they are all in the room together. You know that most times they split up, and that always goes badly."

Helena had watched many groups doing this test. It was one of the hardest ones, not because of the strength of the monsters. But because of the number of traps and gimmicks that the simulation had.

"Ah guess yer right. It also helps that Blue is carrying the group. She dealt with three skeletons on her own."

Greyson watched the Blue haired woman toss one skeleton into the other. The move made the bone stuck together. When that was done, she quickly popped their heads out of the socket like she was playing with a toy. With that move, the last of the skeletons were defeated. The recruits seemed to celebrate, but the explorers watching only shook their heads.

"Ah guess we can see what they are made of now," Greyson said while staring at one of the cells on the screen.

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"Blue, you are terrifying you know that?" Alex said, still staring at the woman.

"Why?" Blue asked while holding a skull.

"That"s why. No normal person would be doing that," Bonnie intervened while pointing at the skull.

"Oh, stop being such a baby. It"s a simulation nothing here is real, and even if it was, everyone here has one of these inside their head," Blue replied moving the jaw of the skull as if it was the one talking.

"Yeah, that"s a bit too grim Blue," Leo pointed out while staring at the girl.

"You guys are no fun," Blue rolled her eyes, tossing the skull inside one of the cells.

"Spread around, see if that opened an exit or something."

With Leo back at his leader persona, the group spread around looking for anything that had changed.

Hera did her best to focus on the task at hand. But something was bugging her. The noise she heard before the attack wasn"t just bone. There was a metal sound in the mix, and none of the skeletons carried any weapons.

She was looking at the door they came in from when she saw a chain hidden behind a grating. Even in the low light, coming from seemly nowhere, Hera could follow the path the grating took. It would go up to the ceiling and then towards the sides of the room, as well as towards a closed wooden door in the back of the room.

Hera followed the chain with her eyes until it disappeared right above the motion sensor. She leaned into the wall, trying to see where the chain stopped. The chain vanished behind the grating two meters above the ground.

Using the cell bars as footing, Hera tried to climb part of the wall to see where the chain would go.

"Hera? Whatcha doin"?" Blue asked while placing her hand on Hera"s back, giving the woman a better footing.

"There is a chain in the door, it seems to be connected somewhere around here," Hera replied, doing her best to climb to see the chain.

"Where?" Blue asked, looking around. A few moments later she noticed the glimmer of metal coming from above the door, "Oh, I see it. Wow, how did you notice that?"

"I"m not sure, I just ..." before she could reply, Hera placed one foot in the wall. However, the rock shifted, making Hera lose balance. If it wasn"t for Blue helping wouldn"t be able to keep her footing.

When the rock became loose, Hera and Blue looked at each other with big smiles. They quickly pulled the rock, trying to remove it. Noticing something was happening, the rest of the group joined in the efforts to remove the rock.

When they took the rock out of the wall, they revealed a large iron chain behind it. Carefully, the group tried to pull the chain.

It took four recruits to pull it. Leo, Blue, Tiffany, and Kenjiro, the ones with the highest strength stat. When the chain began to move, not only it moved the two doors to the room, but all cell doors started to move as well.

The group let go of the chain to think of a plan before going forward.

"We can push the rock under the door, that way it will hold it open," Anaya suggested.

"Yeah, that can work. But that thing is heavy, we need to place it fast," Leo said.

"The three of us can do it. Me, Kenji, and Tif. I can focus on positioning it while the two of them can push it quickly to avoid any problems."

Leo considered for a moment. Six people could be enough to pull the chain. Placing the loose rock under the door quickly was the best option.

"Ok, let"s do it."

The group helped move the rock as close to the wooden door as they could. Then, leaving Anaya, Kenjiro, and Tif.a.n.n.y near the rock, the rest of the recruits moved towards the chain.

"Everyone ready?" Leo yelled.

In response, Mark let go of the chain.

"C"mon, do it right," He said with a smile.

Blue started laughing.

"Yeah Leo, how can we know who is supposed to be ready?"

"If you do it, I buy you a drink after this," Alex said.

Leo turned to Hera, hoping the woman would help him.

"Sorry Leo, but they are right. You need to do this the proper way," Hera said with a playful smile.

"Traitor!" Leo gasped.

Letting out a lengthy sigh, he then yelled.

"Spartans! Are you ready?"

"Yes, sir!" the group replied, already laughing.

"Now stop joking around and pull!" Leo yelled once again before everyone started pulling the chain.

It took a while, but little by little the door rose. After a few moments, the door was high enough to be held by the rock.

Hera looked towards Anaya"s team just in time to see the three of them running under the door without setting the rock to hold it. Inside the room, she could also see a golden glimmer coming from something on a table.

"Anaya, are you done?" Leo yelled.

"They are inside!" Hera replied.

"What the h.e.l.l, Anaya?!" Leo shouted towards the door.

The group let go of the chain, making the door close once again. The last thing Hera saw inside that room was Anaya picking the golden object.