小嫂子的味道

Walking through a tunnel-like way, we descended to the 3rd floor of the labyrinth—descended because all paths in this labyrinth were tilted downward and were forming a slanting ground.

Soon we stepped inside what seemed to be the main area of this floor. It was smaller than the last floor and was shaped in an oval structure. The ceiling was curved upward—like the ones you see in old castles—and contained many holes and cracks.

The ground was a carpet of dirt and even had muddy areas in several places, and this was due to the puddles that were scattered all across the floor. The water inside them was surprisingly clear and reflective, though it was not any water.

It was emitting dim, cyan-shaded light that was illuminating the whole area; it wasn't as much light to engulf the floor completely, but enough that Xara stopped with her incantations, and the fireballs extinguished.

"This is kind of eerie, ain't it?" Spene voiced as he turned his head in all directions and scanned the place.

This floor sure gave that type of vibe, and the reason is that this place was incredibly quiet. Only the sounds of our footsteps and the sound of water dripping somewhere far could be heard; aside from that, not a single pitch fell onto our ears.

However, just because there wasn't a sound doesn't mean we were alone in here. Unlike the previous two floors where the monsters waited in the dark to make us comfortable to the place, so we can let our guard down, and they can take us by surprise, here we already had company with us.

At around 50 meters of distance from us were some of our friends who'd come to bully us. Actually, there was one more change on this floor; unlike the previous ones, I was seeing monsters of multiple species grouped together.

Right now we had mud-skinned orcs, Minotaurs, and one other species called kobolds. They were lizard-like creatures who walked on two legs and used weapons as their primary means of attack; basically a level down from the Minotaurs—inferior in strength but superior in intelligence.

Although there were multiple species of monsters here, they weren't great in numbers—unlike the previous floors, where they mostly relied on numbers rather than individual power.

Normally we would've stayed and discussed the strategies, Spene would probably have mocked the monsters or cracked a joke or two, but right now there wasn't time for any of that.

As the monsters detected us, as if switching into battle mode, they all rushed in our direction. Spene and the others instantly took the obvious defense formation and the three of them stood before me and Challes as they raised their weapons and prepared their bodies for a battle that was about to come.

Xara used her incantation and completed it by shouting out loud the word, "Quagmire!" which was the name of the spell she used.

White energy beams shone from the gem on her staff, and a mass of land in the way of the monsters got wet and turned into a sucking pit.

The monsters ran into it and three of the orcs and one Minotaur stepped into the quagmire and without a second their feet sank in, and they drowned inside the mixture of semi-solid clay till their waist.

Xara activated the second part of the spell and the ground that'd once swallowed the monsters, turned solid again and entrapped them within the earth.

However, among the remaining monsters, the kobolds were the first ones to flank beside the quagmire and the rest of the monsters followed their lead.

Favian also loaded his arrows on the bow only to realize that he was running low on them, nevertheless, he stretched the string of his bow and then released it; firing two arrows at the same time.

One tore the air and pierced the eye of an orc, but the other one was smacked down by the blade of a kobold. Favian bent and reached for a leather bag that was attached to his right leg, he untied it and then took out a couple of arrows from it—around 10 of them.

He threw the bag and put the arrows back in his quiver. 'There aren't enough,' he realized internally.

At this point, the monsters had already closed the distance between us and then the battle started off with a BANG; and by that I mean literally a bang that was heard from the clashing of heavy metals.

After all, it was from this floor from where things will start getting rough.

***

Zero stood and watched from the rear when the battle started for the adventurers, and one thing was sure, this was going to be one hell of a battle.

The BANG that was heard came from Spene's sword as he clashed it against the blade of an orc, a chill ran down his body and he got goosebumps when he felt the difference between the hardness of their blades. Gritting his teeth and forcing his muscles, he pushed forward and fought back the orc.

Jumping upward, he drilled his sword into the orc's chest and slid all the way down by hand on the sword, and opened the said orc in half. Blood splattered on the ground and some even fell on his clothes and face, which he didn't care to wipe off; he had not the time to do so.

He turned to the side quickly and barely made it in time by raising the sword against his head to fend off the gigantic blade of a Minotaur—calling it a blade was an insult, it was one hell of a chopper.

A Minotaur; quite bigger than the orcs, was weighing down on Spene as he released steam from his nose like a steam engine of the old times.

The pressure on Spene was too much, his feet started sinking into the ground. He tried but wasn't able to throw the Minotaur off balance.