Dokeshi March: Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Chapter 30

The next few hours were a confusing jumble of turns that had Grant’s head spinning.  Moving through the Labyrinth was a lesson in frustration.  Every time he tried to work his way closer to where Suki should have entered the maze, he would find a dead end.  Grant was starting to feel like he was spending more time backtracking than he was moving forward.  Just as he seemed to find a path that allowed him to move deeper, he heard the sound of fighting from the other side of the wall.

“Move left!  Move left!”  A loud crash and hard thump shook the ground, and Grant moved to the opposite wall to hear better.  “Don’t let it block us off!  Get those spears braced!”

<I think your pursuers found a mimic.>  Another earth-shaking crash made leaves fall from the hedges.  Both Grant and Sarge quieted down to try and listen in on the fight after an ear-splitting wail echoed over the walls of the Labyrinth.  The shouts and screams continued for several minutes, before they gradually moved away.  Either they were in a running retreat, or a second foe had used the mimic’s attack to launch their own, Grant didn’t know.  How they could be followed by a wall was a mystery to Grant.  <Whether or not it is the same mimic, I can’t tell.  I’m just as turned around as you are.>

“Really?”  Grant looked down at his sheathed sword in surprise.  “I would have thought you could keep track of all these turns better than I can.”

<There must be some kind of confusion magic over the region.>  Sarge sounded a little angry, as if the trickery of the spell was a personal attack.  <It can’t cover the whole region.  I imagine they just cast it over the entrance area to confuse people as they come in.>

“Well, hopefully we can clear the spell soon, because I don’t even know which direction we came from.”  Looking back, Grant felt a wave of vertigo.  Everything looked the same, and it was very disorienting.  “I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this.”

<The sounds of the fighting came from your left as we walked here.>  Grant nodded in agreement.  He could at least remember that.  <So, put the wall with all the leaves on the ground to your left, and get a move on.>  Putting action to Sarge’s words, Grant took off at a ground-eating pace.  He could keep at a jogging pace for hours now, and he put his conditioning to use.  An orange-tinted monster rat jumped off a hedge onto his back as he rounded a turn, forcing Grant to roll into a wall to dislodge it.  <Oh, and we should train while you run.>  His only reply was a groan of acceptance.

Less than one subjective hour later, Grant once again heard the sounds of fighting, but this time it came from straight ahead.  Sweat was dripping into his eyes, making his vision blurry.  There was a tee-shaped intersection less than fifty feet away, and Grant wasn’t sure which turn would reveal the source of the screams and shouts.

<Stop and prepare yourself.  Rushing into battle half-blind is more foolish than shearing sheep with a dull spoon.>  Grant did as he was told, but couldn’t help but feel confused by the sword spirit’s words.  <Don’t think about it too hard.  Just know it’s stupid to try and cut a sheep’s wool with a spoon.>

“Um, okay Sarge, whatever you say.”  Grant ignored the sword, instead dumping a portion of a canteen on his face.  “Now, let’s-”

A large, gorilla-like creature rounded the corner on Grant’s right at a dead sprint, looking behind itself at whatever it had been fighting.  Which meant, of course, it didn’t notice him standing there until after they went down in a tumble of limbs.  Grant had only managed to get his Uchigatana halfway out of its sheath when they collided, which was a first for him.  The big creature’s size made it deceptively fast, making him misjudge the timing of his Iaijutsu strike.

“Get back here, you stinking apes!”  A very familiar voice was almost drowned out by the thundering footsteps of another half-dozen gorilla’s immediately on the tail of the first one, and the sight of pink hair and shining gauntlets as they ran past his prone form made Grant smile.  He had really missed Suki these last few hours.  “Don’t think I can’t catch you!  Stand and fight!”

The gorilla on top of Grant didn’t bother trying to stand, instead scrambling away from him on all fours as soon as Suki ran past.  As he got back to his feet, Grant watched the monster disappear back around the corner.  The entire incident didn’t even bring up the system prompts.  Spinning to follow in Suki’s footsteps, he quickly managed to catch up to her.  She was busy pounding the slowest of the beasts into the ground with her fists, their measured impacts causing the gorilla to quickly fall unconscious.

“Suki!  Thank the Regents I finally found you!”  She looked up at Grant, the slightly crazed look in her eyes quickly diminishing.  “I have been trying to catch up to you for hours!”

“Grant, thank goodness.  This place is a nightmare!”  Her eyes blurred, obviously reading the screens that only she could see as they popped up in her vision.  It only took her a few seconds to clear them away before refocusing on Grant.  “What happened?  How did you make it into the maze?  The last thing I saw before they tossed me out the door was you still standing by the tables in the back.”

“Oh, that’s the cow-pie game.  I’m actually pretty good at it, even though it doesn’t involve pie at all.”  Suki didn’t know what to say to that, so she stayed silent as Grant relayed the events of the past few hours to her.  After explaining the spell that caused both him and Sarge to get confused, and describing the sounds of battle between the people he was pretty sure were following them and the mimic he had run from, Grant finally held up the pouch containing all the Time he had won.  “And since they couldn’t catch up, we now have plenty of coins for our mission.”

<Just because you have Time, doesn’t mean you have time.  You two need to get going before someone catches up.>  Sarge’s words caused Grant to look around, realizing that they were in a very open location.  A four-way intersection wasn’t the best place to stop and talk.

“You can tell me what happened to you while we find someplace to rest.”  Grant picked up Suki’s pack up from where she had dropped it during the pummeling of the ape-man-thing.  “We need to get our winnings distributed, and get some food in us.  Keeping our energy up will be important.”

“That’s… actually a good idea.”  Suki seemed surprised at Grant’s decisive directions, but a sly smile soon followed.  Seeing him start to grow as a leader was a step in the right direction.  She quickly relayed her own version of events, starting with how much she had to cheat to win in the casino.  “Absolutely everyone was cheating, even the dealer.  I was lucky that they were more interested in not getting caught than paying attention to what I was doing.”

“I don’t like how dishonest everyone in this place is.”  Grant led the way deeper into the maze, his hand on his sword and eyes constantly scanning for signs of mimics and monsters.  “Cheating one another all the time is no way to live.”

“While I agree with you, there isn’t much we can do to change things.”  Suki was bringing up the rear, glancing backward every few steps to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them.  “All we can do is adapt to the situation, and make the best of things.”

“Don’t get me wrong.”  Grant paused, thinking about how to word things.  “I understand that changing this place will take a lot of time, but I don’t agree with bending to our circumstances.  If we want these people to be more honest, we have to set the example for them to follow.”  Suki just stared at him, and they continued in silence for a little while.

“Anyway, when I had enough winnings to prove I should move on, they didn’t even let me stop to use the bathroom.  They practically dragged me to the exit, and tossed me into a pit on the other side.”  Suki winced, the memory obviously making her uncomfortable.  “I was able to climb out easily, but there was a group of bandits ready for me as soon as I did.”

“Bandits?”  Grant was a little shocked.  You would think that the honest way to get through the casino would be the easiest way through the Labyrinth.  “How many were there?”

“Not enough to stop me.”  Suki cracked her knuckles to emphasize her point.  “It didn’t take long to teach them the error of their ways.  Then, I just kind of wandered the maze until those gorillas ambushed me.  That’s when I found you.”

“I wouldn’t say you ‘found’ me.  It was more like we ran into each other.”  Grant looked at her, still trying to bring the conversation back around to the issue of honesty.  “Why do you disagree with me so much about cheating to win?  Don’t you hate it too?”

“Grant…” Suki sighed, and straightened her spine.  “It isn’t about you being wrong.  It’s about you having the wrong mindset.  You haven’t experienced the Game of Nobles for very long.  This is just how things are done.  I don’t expect someone with a commoner background to understand.”  Grant opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off before he could say anything.  “Don’t worry.  When we are married, I will deal with the other nobles, while you concentrate on ruling the twelve districts.  It is the perfect division of roles.  Just another reason why our impending marriage is a necessity.”

That made Grant blush furiously.  In all the excitement, he had almost forgotten about her wanting to force him into a marriage.  He still wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea.  On top of that, she had just needlessly insulted him.

“Oh, did we come across a lover’s quarrel?”  The two Wielders came to a stop as a heavily-armored woman holding a halberd rounded the corner in front of them.  “How fun!  Dillon, did you hear that?  These two are supposed to get married!”

“Congrats on the impendin’ nuptials!”  An archer holding a horn bow with a wickedly barbed arrow nocked stepped out of the foliage behind them.  “I would warn ya against gettin’ tied down to jus’ one person at your age, but I don’t much see the point.”  He drew back the arrow and aimed it at Grant’s face.  “Get it?  The point, cause it’s an arrow that’s gonna kill ya!  That’s jus’ pure comedy right there, I’m telling ya-”

He wasn’t able to finish the thought, because Grant was already headed straight for him.  The bow twanged as he released the string, but it was too late.  Grant was already in his face, Uchigata in position to deflect the arrow high into the air.  Before the system could even prompt him for an action, his sword found the archer’s throat.

“Dillon!”  The scream from behind him was almost drowned out by the loud gurgling coming from the dying man in front of him.  “Noooo!”

Combat initiated

Action: Attack: With weapon.

Result: Enemy defeated.  Two enemies remaining.

Actions: Please select one option from the following list.

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell.

Defend: With weapon, Without weapon.

Run: Attempt escape.

Grant was already spinning in place, ready to sprint to the woman holding the halberd.  She had rushed forward already, trying to use the axe head at the end of her polearm to chop down into a surprised and unprepared Suki.  Her gauntlets flickered into existence, and she easily caught the downward swing in one hand.  A sharp blow to the diaphragm of the bandit woman forced her to drop to her knees.  Grant sheathed his sword as Suki tossed the halberd away.

<The system, Grant!>  He halted, trying to figure out what Sarge was trying to say.  As a crossbow bolt slammed into the crate of produce still in the pack on his back rocked him forward, he realized what the sword meant.  The system said there were two enemies remaining.

Spinning back around, Grant saw the only place the crossbowman could be hiding.  A gap in the hedges a few yards back that wasn’t there before, and he was already moving before the thought finished.

Action: Defend: With weapon.

Result: Projectile deflected.  One enemy remaining.

Actions: Please select one option from the following list.

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell.

Defend: With weapon, Without weapon.

Run: Attempt escape.

By reflex, Grant had used his Iaijutsu to deflect a bolt he didn’t even see until it was already knocked away.  Selecting ‘Attack: With weapon,’ he stabbed low into the hedge, feeling more resistance than he should have.  With a quick twist and flick of his wrist, the system told him the bandit was done.

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [4 Wins / 2 Losses] to [5 Wins / 2 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

Peeking into the leafy alcove, he saw another man that looked similar enough to the first archer that he could have been his twin.  Grant guessed they were brothers.  The man quickly bled out, joining his sibling in whatever afterlife was waiting for a pair of men who regularly robbed and killed innocent people.

“What have you done?”  Suki walked over, her eyes lingering on the pools of blood.  “I thought we talked about showing true skill by not killing our opponents?”  She waved her hands around, indicating the mess.  “These weren’t even cultivators!”

Instead of answering, Grant’s sword flashed out, blurring so close past Suki’s head that a few strands of pink hair floated on the breeze.  Behind her, the female bandit was impaled through the forehead on his Wielded Weapon.  The sound of a dagger clattering to the ground was loud in the quiet that followed.  As the bandit crumpled to the ground, the hated system gave Grant another update.

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [5 Wins / 2 Losses] to [6 Wins / 2 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

“Treat every battle as if it is life or death.  It isn’t just cultivators, Vassals, and Wielders that can threaten your existence.”  Grant wiped his sword off on the dead bandit at his feet before sheathing it.  As he walked away, he looked back at Suki.  “It isn’t that you have the wrong idea, it’s just the wrong mindset.  Living in a gilded castle your whole life, I wouldn’t expect your noble sensibilities to understand.  This is just how things are done.”

While he might have won this battle - both against the bandits and the verbal sparring with Suki - for some reason, it didn’t feel like it.