The sliding door he closed when he entered the room came flying at Jace. Ulin and Charlie both ducked to the side while Jace grunted while taking the impact from the door. He slid back a bit as he caught the door with his hands, one of which was holding his knife.

    The door fell to the ground with a clatter of metal as they all looked towards where the door flew from. The doorway was completely destroyed with metal bent inwards towards them where the door clearly tried to keep its door in place.

    Stepping down through the doorway is the large minotaur figure with its tan skin that was leathery and had muscles pulsing. Now that it was across them in this small room more of the details were visible. The stitching and an adhesive substance was visible on the edges of the metal protrusion. Clear signs of the experimental surgical procedure that was conducted on this creature.

    While around its neck leading to the metallic bull head were stitching and scars where the minotaur likely had work done. Or it was repeatedly damaged and repaired. It looked more like a form of torture rather than anything surgical.

    But he needed to focus on what was important as the minotaur swung his axe through the air. Cleaving through the air in the entire room. Ulin jumped over the axe as her plasma sword lit up. Jace leaned back as the blade of the weapon was just short of his head. Charlie raised her energy shield while pulling out her hand axe up.

    The axe suddenly stopped with the end pointing at Jace. He could see directly into the barrel as it began glowing red. "Ah shit." Jace cursed.

    Doing a movement to throw his back downwards while bringing a leg up to kick the weapon. He fell backwards as a beam of red slammed into the top of the door and went upwards from the force of his kick.

    Every spot the beam of energy touched turned molten red. It was very distracting for a moment before Jace remembered where he was. The minotaur was forced back as the others pressed forward, swiping their blades at him. The minotaur was being cautious of their attacks.

    Jace pulled himself up and readied his knife watching for an opportunity to dive in. The minotaur was using his axe to block some of the strikes from Ulin and Charlie. Each time the plasma based weapons left a burn mark on the handle of the axe.

    Charlie got around on one side distracting the minotaur while Ulin went to the other side of the minotaur. Its attention was split so Ulin managed to get close enough to strike at its side. The blade passed along the minotaur arm.

    There was a sizzling followed by a scream as the minotaur let go of its axe and back handed Ulin across the room. She flew into a wall and her shield flared yellow as it blocked the damage from the impact. The wall was damaged but her armor was not damaged.

    The minotaur used the last of its strength to throw its axe at Charlie, managing to throw her off guard and fall back. She moved back with surprise as she dropped her hand axe and caught the larger axe.

    Jace went to dash forward but stopped himself as the minotaur charged at him. Instead he flipped the knife in his hand and grabbed one of the minotaur''s horns as it charged at him. Jace grunted as his armor''s shield flared and his back impacted into the partially opened door. Sёarch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Jace''s knife sunk into the neck of the creature as they went crashing through the door. His heads up display showed that his jet pack suffered severe damage. The minotaur grabbed Jace''s body as it tried to impale Jace on its horns.

    They went crashing into the next room and Jace had to move his hand from the knife stuck in the minotaurs neck to its other horn as he got a better grip. He grunted in pain as his back smacked into the ground.

    The lights lit up the room but he was more focused on the bull that was both trying to crush him with its hands and impale him with its horns. The pressure from the minotaurs grip was causing the armor indicator on his HUD to indicate an increase in pressure on his chesplate.

    Jace wrapped his feet around the minotaur shoulders and began twisting him by the horns to turn its head. Trying to spin the body one way while spinning the head the other way. As he spun it he put all of his muscles into twisting the minotaur.

    The minotaur lifted him up and then slammed him down onto the ground. He could see rocks being throwin into the air out of the corner of his eyes. While he managed to manuver and twist his body so the minotaurs head was now slightly twisted and Jace could hear him begin to heavily breath.

    He began wrestling the the minotaur onto its side when the minotaur began screaming then Jace suddenly felt the head give way. He lifted the head and found it was detached from the body. He looked at the body and saw that Charlie and Ulin and worked to there to detach the head.

    He laid back and took a deep breath of air. He felt the sluggish movement of his armor as he sat up. There were damage to the servos that would usually be used to assist him in movement. But he had them deactiviated since they only held his physique back.

    "Boss… you should take a look at this." Charlie''s words pulled him from his thoughts as he looked to them and saw both Charlie and Ulin focused on gazing at the room. They were looking around the room turning in all directions.

    Jace pulled himself up and looked down at the body of the minotaur first. They had used his knife to carve through its spine. Ulin was still holding the blade while a pool of blood was mixing with a dark blue liquid by the body. The neck of the minotaur was pulsing and leaking the liquid continuously.

    He then turned around and sucked in a breath of air as he processed what he was seeing. Covering the walls and roof were engraved words and messages in foreign languages accompnayed by pictures. While the in center of the room was a pedestal. It was a similar type of set up to what he encountered in the Requiem marriage room back in the Echo System.

    "What is this-"

    "Turn off your helmet cams!" Jace told them immediately as he deactivated his own. He hoped Captain Hammers would understand and erase any footage of the room on his side. But just in case he would have to remember to do it later.

    "Almost immediately." Daedalus'' voice sounded over a speaker system. But this time there were no cameras in the room. Mostly because these were ancient carved stones. The only thing in this room that was artificial were the lights which replaced the light crystals he had seen before. It appeared they were pulled out and replaced with basic electric bulbs. "I may not be able to see you but I can still register the signal from your helmet cameras transmitting and you turned them off almost immedailty."

    Jace froze and frowned at the words while he looked at Ulin and Charlie to make sure they followed his orders. Once that was done he signaled for help as he removed his jetpack. Once that was removed he started walking around the room.

    "I will say your encrypted signals are next level. I have been doing everything I can to crack them, but they truly are unbreakable. By the way I can still pick up noises in the room, I just can not see you." Daedalus informed them.

    Jace took a moment as he looked around the room before switched his communication to speak through an external speaker. "Thank you for the complement. I designed them myself. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about disguising those signals." Jace admitted as he made sure to record the room and put the recording on local space to keep it secure.

    "Well then I will be sure to make the report about you to highlight how capable you are and how dangerous you are as well." Daedalus told them. "Now if you excuse me I have to make a hasty exit and escape this place before you turn your attention to me."

    Jace smirked as he looked around the room. "Daedalus if you designed this labyrinth you truly are an amazing engineer. I will make sure to have it thoroughly searched. I think it would be a useful training ground. But unfortunately you will not be escaping today."

    "What makes you think that?" Daedalus asked as the clicking noises became more frequent only reinforcing the idea in Jace''s mind that this Daedalus was a clockwork abomination himself.

    "Simple." Jace shrugged as he signaled for the others to move the minotaur''s body out of the room. "She should be coming through that door in just a moment."