CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 107

Hours Later

Satou didn’t know exactly how long he’d been fighting. Time became meaningless in the maze, with its identical corridors and constant stream of enemies.

He’d killed seventeen Maze Stalkers so far. Each one required multiple strikes to put down. Each fight left him a little more tired, a little slower.

His Enhanced Hearing was proving invaluable, he could track enemies through the walls, hear them coming before they reached him. His Echolocation helped him map the maze, though the images were still fuzzy and difficult to interpret.

But he was learning. Adapting.

The Maze Stalkers had a pattern. They attacked from side passages, trying to catch him by surprise. But they were also slow to turn once they committed to an attack. If he could bait them into lunging past him, he could strike their backs where their mud-armor was thinnest.

Satou turned another corner and found himself in a larger chamber maybe twenty feet across. And standing in the center were five Maze Stalkers, all facing toward the entrance as if they’d been waiting for him.

An ambush, he realized. The maze isn’t random. It’s herding me toward these concentration points.

The five Stalkers rushed forward as one.

Satou activated Predator’s Gaze, but these creatures seemed even less affected by fear than the Blind Stalkers had been. They barely slowed.

He activated Earth Manipulation, ripping up a section of floor into a wall between himself and three of the Stalkers. That bought him a few seconds to deal with the other two.

His sword work had improved over the past hours of constant combat. He was learning to conserve energy, to make each strike count. He parried the first Stalker’s grab, redirecting its momentum into the wall where it crashed face-first. His follow-up strike destroyed its head before it could recover.

The second Stalker’s attack was more coordinated. It feinted with one hand, then struck with the other. Satou took a glancing blow to his ribs that would definitely bruise, but he managed to counter with a thrust through the creature’s center mass.

The earth wall crumbled as the other three broke through. Satou was already moving, using his Pack Tactics knowledge to predict their approach patterns.

They would try to surround him. He couldn’t let that happen.

Satou charged forward, surprising them, his sword taking one Stalker’s arm off at the shoulder. Without the arm, the creature’s balance was thrown off. It stumbled, and Satou’s follow-up strike finished it.

Two left.

These two were more cautious, having seen their packmates fall. They circled him slowly, looking for an opening.

Satou used Stone Spit

, the projectile catching one Stalker in the chest and staggering it backward. That gave him the opening to engage the other one-on-one.

Three strikes. That’s what it usually took. Strike one—break through the mud armor. Strike two—damage the core. Strike three—finish it off.

His sword moved in that familiar pattern, and another Stalker crumbled.

The last one, the one he’d hit with Stone Spit, was struggling to get up. Satou didn’t give it the chance. One clean strike through where its head should be, and it collapsed.

[Maze Stalker Defeated] x5

[+400 EXP]

Satou stood there, breathing hard. That fight had been close. If he’d been even slightly slower, if they’d managed to surround him properly, those five could have overwhelmed him.

He devoured all five corpses, his shadow expanding to consume them.

[Maze Stalker Devoured] x5

[Stone Skin (Minor) Acquired]

[Enhanced Reflexes (Minor) Acquired]

His skin hardened slightly, becoming more resistant to damage. Not enough to stop a blade, but enough to reduce impact damage from blunt attacks. And his reflexes sharpened, his body responding just a fraction of a second faster to threats.

Every little bit helped.

Satou continued through the maze, killing Stalkers as he went. The numbers were increasing—sometimes three at once, sometimes four. The maze was getting more aggressive, throwing more enemies at him more frequently.

After what felt like hours more, he’d killed a total of thirty-seven Maze Stalkers. His arms ached from constant sword work. His stamina was flagging despite the level-up healing between major fights.

Then he turned a corner and found himself in a massive circular chamber, easily a hundred feet across.

And standing in the center was something different.

It was roughly the same shape as the other Maze Stalkers, but three times the size. Easily nine feet tall, with arms that dragged on the ground. Its mud-armor was thicker, darker, looking more like stone than dried earth.

[Maze Keeper - Level 15]

[Floor Boss]

Of course there’s a boss,

Satou thought tiredly. Why wouldn’t there be?

The Maze Keeper turned toward him, its faceless head tracking his position unerringly. Then it raised both arms and smashed them into the ground.

The impact sent cracks spider-webbing across the floor. Chunks of stone broke free and began floating into the air, orbiting the Keeper like satellites.

It has magic, Satou realized. Earth magic, like mine. This is going to be bad.

The Keeper gestured, and the floating stones launched toward Satou like missiles.

He dove to the side, activating Earth Manipulation to raise a protective wall. Most of the stones struck the wall, but two got through, one catching him in the shoulder with enough force to spin him around.

Pain exploded through his arm. Not broken, but badly bruised.

The Maze Keeper was already moving forward, impossibly fast for something so large. Its massive fist came down where Satou had been standing, cratering the floor.

Satou rolled away, came up on his feet, and immediately had to dodge again as another barrage of stones flew at him.

I can’t get close while it’s throwing rocks. I need to disrupt its concentration.

He activated Stone Spit in rapid succession, launching three projectiles at the Keeper’s head. The first two bounced off its thick armor. The third struck true, hitting what passed for its face.

The Keeper stumbled, its floating stones dropping as its concentration broke. That was Satou’s opening.

He charged forward, sword raised, and struck at the Keeper’s leg. His blade bit into the stone-like armor but didn’t penetrate deeply. The Keeper’s back-hand swipe caught him mid-strike, sending him flying across the chamber.

Satou hit the wall hard enough to see stars. Pain radiated through his entire back. He struggled to his feet, sword still somehow in his hand.

The Keeper was advancing again, raising more stones from the floor for another barrage.

I’m not strong enough to cut through its armor, Satou thought desperately. I need a different approach.

He activated Echolocation, clicking rapidly to get a better picture of the Keeper’s body structure. The sound waves painted an image in his mind—the thick armor, yes, but underneath... there. Hollow spaces. Weak points where the armor didn’t fully cover.

The joints.

Satou dodged the next stone barrage, using Earth Manipulation

to create uneven ground that made the projectiles’ trajectories unpredictable. Then he charged again, but this time he went low, sliding under the Keeper’s swing.

His sword came up in a precise thrust, not at the body but at the back of the knee joint where the armor was thinner.

The blade punched through. Black ichor sprayed out, and the Keeper’s leg buckled.

It crashed down to one knee, roaring silently through its faceless head. Satou was already moving to the other side, his sword finding the other knee joint.

Another strike. Another spray of ichor. The Keeper collapsed completely, unable to stand.

But it wasn’t done. It slammed both fists into the ground, and the entire chamber began to shake. Cracks appeared everywhere, stones raining from the ceiling.

It’s trying to bring the whole room down on us!

Satou didn’t have time for caution. He ran forward, leaped onto the Keeper’s back, and drove his sword down with both hands into the back of its neck where the head met the body.

The blade sank deep. The Keeper’s thrashing intensified, trying to throw him off. Satou held on with one hand while using the other to activate Poison Fang, biting into the wound he’d created and injecting venom directly into the creature’s core.

The effect was slower than it had been on the Blind Stalkers, but it worked. The Keeper’s movements became sluggish, uncoordinated. The shaking of the chamber subsided.

Satou yanked his sword free and drove it down again, and again, each strike going deeper until finally, the Maze Keeper collapsed completely and went still.

[Maze Keeper Defeated]

[+1000 EXP]

[Level Up! Level 18 → Level 19]

[Floor Two Complete]

[+800 Bonus EXP]

The healing warmth flooded through Satou’s body. His bruised shoulder mended. His aching back stopped hurting. The exhaustion faded.

He devoured the Maze Keeper’s corpse, his shadow expanding to consume the massive body.

[Maze Keeper Devoured]

[Earth Manipulation (Intermediate) → Earth Manipulation (Advanced)]

[Stone Skin (Minor) → Stone Skin (Moderate)]

[Tremor Sense (Weak) Acquired]

Satou’s connection to earth deepened significantly. He could now feel vibrations through the ground, sense movement through stone. His Earth Manipulation had jumped an entire tier—he’d be able to create more complex structures, manipulate larger amounts of stone, and do it faster.

A doorway appeared on the far side of the chamber, stairs leading down to Floor Three.