A Sinner’s Chance

Unlike the previous floors that had been rather straightforward, not only was there no sense of where we should go, but the monster diversity was much larger. Where it had only taken us a day to clear up to the tenth floor, the tenth floor itself had already taken several days and it didn't seem like we were any closer to finding the boss and therefore the next floor.

My blade sliced through a direwolf as my Yinfire began to consume it leaving only its bones behind. We took a short rest among the remains of the slain direwolves, both me and Arya breathing heavily, though for different reasons. She had expended quite a bit of mana and the exertion needed to use a bow was not light either, so she was sweating as she fanned herself with air magic. 

I on the other hand wasn't tired but simply aroused, it had barely been an exertion for me, but direwolves were adept at utilizing their pack advantage so I had taken a fair share of damage. I of course recovered quicker than they could hurt me, but that simply built my frustration up even further.

Unfortunately there wasn't the leeway to relieve myself unless we retreated back to a previous nest or I constructed a new one, neither of which were actions I planned on doing. I'd never really been frustrated like this, as the Dreamscape would either reset me to my starting state for multiple challenges in a row, or I'd leave and the arousal wouldn't come with.

I was seriously considering installing vibrators so that I could deal with this, but that solution would take several tests as it would require either an adjustable speed, or one that responded to some kind of automatic detection system, otherwise I wouldn't be able to properly focus when I needed to, and I'd have to wait until I was somewhere safe before being able to remove it.

There were all manner of problems that this experience had exposed in my designs and I was already working on ways to mend them, but it would have to wait until after we were done in the Labyrinth as it wasn't like I was going to find an entire blacksmiths workshop that was also prepared to deal with processing my chitin.

We pressed on for another few hours before I set up a nest, it had already been four days since we entered the forest and if it weren't for the fact that I was using a thread to trace our path I would swear we were going in circles. On the plus side I'd been able to somewhat deal with my aversion to Arya's condition, something that was bound to happen when we slept in the same bed and it turned out she was a hugger. She would cling to me and often when I woke in the morning it was to the presence of a bulge rubbing against my legs. I still wasn't able to touch it directly, but progress was progress, and I planned to keep making slow and steady strides towards being able to deal with it.

I took us almost another two days before we finally made it to a clearing that seemed to be a graveyard of sorts. At the center on a throne of bones was a skeletal creature wrapped in black robes, a staff leaning off to the side. If this wasn't the boss I was going to go insane and just demolish the forest.

I approached while having Arya keep a distance and prepare a Yang infused fireball, a lethal combo for most undead. When I'd made it about twenty feet or so into the graveyard, hands suddenly shot out from the ground wrapping around my ankle and holding me in place. At the same time the cloaked skeleton also shifted grabbing the staff that had been leaning on the throne. "More living sacrifices, offer your life to this one!" The creature's voice was raspy and rattling as it began to float while several magic formations appeared around it.

Arya shot her fireball towards the creature as I broke free from the grappling hands only for the surrounding earth to be disturbed as zombies, skeletons, wights, and even ghouls rose from the ground and began to assault me and Arya. My strongest Skill, Flames of Yin, were actually not that useful on the undead. I had found that out early in our journey on this floor, which left me with only being able to physically carve them up with claw and blade or blast them apart with Vibro magic. 

Arya had it considerably easier as she summoned a ring of golden flames surrounding her that protected and incinerated the undead that came close to her. While a battle of attrition was something I could easily handle, Arya was not so fortunate, especially with the lack of Yang aligned mana on this floor. It became apparent that she would only be able to maintain her defense for a short while, which meant we quickly needed to deal with the robed skeleton. 

That was easier said than done as it seemed that the waves of undead creatures was endless no matter how many I destroyed and Arya was having a hard time fending off the barrage of magic that the robed skeleton was capable of firing rapidly without tiring. This was the hardest fight we had been in since entering the Labyrinth and on top of that it didn't seem that we were going to win. I didn't really want Elaine to intervene since that meant we'd lose her help after this floor, and judging by the difficulty spikes we were definitely going to want it.

I had to slowly carve a path despite me being capable of rending three or four undead with a single strike. On top of that I was using Vibro and Life magic nearly nonstop and yet my progress was practically halted. I wasn't even able to web grapple the robed skeleton because one of the other undead would always shield it when I tried, making my attempts useless.

Even when Orgasmic Burst triggered my speed barely increased for the duration and the robed skeleton would just float away leisurely while it continued to bombard Arya. I could tell that she was having a hard time hanging on and was now completely on the defensive and unable to retaliate. My mind raced as I thought of what I could do to change the situation but nothing came to mind as I continued to be assaulted by the endless horde of undead. 

I silently cursed as I saw Arya's golden flames began to waver before disappearing as she dropped to her knees breathing extremely heavily. A party of just us two wasn't enough to deal with this kind of enemy, another mage or better yet a priest and we likely would have been able to manage.

I yelled as I saw Arya unable to muster resistance as the robed skeleton floated over and grasped her by the neck. I could hear her gasp and struggle to breath as it put more strength into its grip. Time seemed to slow as I watched its arm begin to turn as if it was going to snap her neck like she was nothing more than a helpless chicken waiting for the slaughter.

I was frustrated and angry at my powerlessness in the situation. I had been overconfident in my ability and while I was sure that Elaine was going to save Arya, I cursed because if she did it would mean that this was our limit, which meant the chances of me beating Hiroshi were even slimmer than I had thought. I screamed with rage and hatred at the robed skeleton and its undead minions as I desperately tried to cleave a path to save Arya before Elaine intervened.

Just as I saw Elaine's magic formation being constructed, a sudden fire seemed to begin to burn in my blood. My vision was suddenly dyed white as I felt my blood explode out of veins and begin to take the shape of a lion-head woman in heavy armor wielding a greatsword of white fire.

"Smite the enemies of Ra!" she roared as her blade slashed around me immediately clearing the surrounding undead before she dashed towards the robed skeleton. "Return to Anubis vile fiend!" she yelled as she brought the white blade down upon the head of the creature which had dropped Arya and attempted to defend with the staff in its hand only for it to be destroyed as the flame consumed both it and the staff in a flashy display of white flame.

As if she was satisfied with the pile of ash before her she paced back towards me. I was kneeling down, as the various gaping wounds on my body began to heal as purple black flames covered me. The amount of blood I'd lost would likely have killed most people, but I prided myself on being extremely difficult to put down.

The lion-headed woman approached and kneeled before me. "It seems you are a worthy master, while you cannot compare to Ra, so long as you have life in your body, feel free to call on me to bring destruction to those who have earned your ire." With that she grasped my face and planted an awkward kiss on my mouth as she once again became white fire and was sucked in through my mouth and coursed through my body, something my Yin energy was not extremely happy with.

However, the white fire soon dispersed without a trace, though I knew that I could summon it again should I wish, though doing so would probably lead to a similar situation as what my body was currently in, which meant it either had to be a last resort or I needed to find a way to control how the power was released. 

When Ellie had told me Sekhmet's Wrath was extremely Yang based I hadn't though much of it since I had never manifested it's power before but now that I had, I agreed that it was almost as strong as the Unworthy Burning Yang curse that came about from looking upon Arya naked, and that was pretty much the pinnacle of Yang concentrate.

It took a moment for me to recover, but I was soon able to stand and walked over to Arya who was currently unconscious, Elaine standing nearby, but not doing anything, despite the fact that I could see her tension had yet to loosen. We'd all gone through a rather harrowing experience just barely, so I thought it was quite commendable she was still properly doing her job as supervisor and nothing more. Thankfully she'd be able to help us once we'd gone down to the next floor, so I wasn't that worried, though I wondered just what the next boss could be.

I didn't think too much as I focused on applying Life magic on Arya, something that was made easier because I had a detailed record of Elven anatomy, thanks to Seshat's Library. It only took a few moments before Arya's eyes snapped open and she sat up. "What happened?" She asked tentatively looking between me and Elaine.

I shook my head and smiled. "I managed to finish the fight myself, though it wasn't easy. I was in much worse shape not too long ago."

Arya looked somewhere between relieved and concerned but I assuaged her worries as we stood up and searched the graveyard for the treasure room and the stairwell to the next floor. The treasure room had quite a bit of good items, though since we were still planning on going further we left most of it behind as we approached the stairwell.

However before we could get too close a skeletal arm shot out of the ground as a final skeleton blocked our path. Me and Arya prepared our weapons and just as I was about to rush forward the skeleton held out a hand. "Wait, I come in peace. I am Eldora, the Servitor of the Labyrinth, please listen to me."