Grachnid assisted kill – 1,000 EXP gained!
“Grachnid burrow,” Zelda said, scowling at the now caved-in trap. “Thought as much.”
“Nice!” Titus cheered.
“Ouch. Murdered in their sleep,” Odditor said, his tone somber. “How, how rude.”
First trap down, Kaiden thought. Though it hadn’t been much of a trap. Not on its own, at least. But the labyrinth had far harsher tricks, Kaiden knew.
“Onwards, then,” Zelda said and jogged forward, being sure to give the remains of the burrow a wide birth. “I know there’s more difficult things in here than th—” She slid to a stop all at once, nearly toppling over, but catching herself at the last moment.
“What’s up?” Kaiden asked as she backed cautiously away, eyes on the ground.
“Pressure plate.” When she was ten steps back Zelda fired an Improved Burst Arrow at a spot on the ground. As it hit, there was an audible click and a series of spikes thrust up from the ground. Spikes as long as Zelda was tall.
“Ooh buddy,” Titus said, frowning. “That was close.”
“Good eyes on this competitor,” Odditor commentated. “Doesn’t miss much, does she, stream?”
As quickly as they’d shot up, the spikes slid back into the ground. The pressure plate popped back into place with a soft click.
“Maybe I’ll try not to step on that,” Zelda said as she eased around it, eyes to the ground in case there were others. Looking down as she was, she didn’t see the little red light embedded in the wall beside her. Just as Kaiden was about to yell a warning she crossed in front of it and the wall beeped.
Zelda looked up sharply at the noise, and then twenty paces behind her one of the walls groaned and a door appeared near its base. It slid open and three monstrous forms stalked out.
Grachnid Punishers
Level: 50
Quick facts: An elite member of the grachnid hive-mind, grachnid punishers are the preeminent hunters of their species. With maxed-out dexterity and strength stats, they excel in chasing down prey and pounding them to a pulp.
Kaiden’s visor read out some details on the punishers as Zelda raised her hammer-gun toward them. The grachnids Kaiden was used to were massive, insectile things with too many legs that each ended in sharp points perfectly designed for impaling. The punishers, however, were still insect-like, but in addition to their spear-tipped legs, they each had two chitin-covered arms tucked into their chests. At the end of each was a bulbous claw.
The punishers looked around for a moment, antennae on the tops of their heads working back and forth, until they spotted Zelda. They turned toward her in unison and a clacking, cracking noise filled the labyrinth.
Their claws, Kaiden realized. The punishers were punching their claws together with quick, almost hydraulic-like bursts of movement. With each impact, little shockwaves poured out from them and stirred up the dirt beneath the creatures’ feet.
“Probably best not to get socked by one of those guys,” Kaiden said.
“Can’t say I disagree,” Zelda said and began to back away. Then, all at once, the ground was moving. Dirt fell away with a hiss and a pit opened up at her back. At the same moment, the punishers screeched and charged as one.
“Go, go, go!” Titus shouted as Zelda readied to jump across the pit. It’d stopped expanding, but was still far too wide for a normal jump to cross; and, as more light illuminated the pit, Kaiden could see it was brimming with the same spikes that had been triggered by the pressure plate earlier.
“Uh-oh,” Odditor said, letting out something that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. “I guess there’re some fights you can’t, can’t run from.”
Zelda sprinted toward the punishers and Kaiden heard himself gasp.
“It’s three against one!” he shouted through comms.
“I’m not fighting them,” Zelda said as she slid to a stop, then turned back toward the pit. “Just getting a running start.”
The punishers were nearly on her when she started sprinting back toward the pit. Several clawed fists jabbed forward with explosive force, but stopped just short of her back.
Zelda reached the edge of the pit then flung herself forward in a jump. But there was no way she would make it. She was a blast warden, not an enhanced or power warden. She didn’t have the movement abilities to clear such a distance.
What she did have was an Improved Kinetic Grenade on the end of her hammer-gun. Just before she hit the peak of her jump, she threw it downwards. It exploded against the bottom of the pit and a wash of flame along with a concussive blast carried Zelda up and flung her the rest of the way across the pit.
She came down hard on the far side, health down to eighty-seven percent, but still very much alive.
The punishers skidded to a stop on the far side of the pit and howled in anger.
“I had a feeling this one was clever,” Odditor cooed as Zelda rose and dusted herself off.
“Close one,” she said, but she was smiling. She looked directly into the camera. “Come on, Odditor. I expected a little more originality from your labyrinth. Is this all it’s got?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Turn right, and right again. Yep, there it is,” Thorne said, making sure Zelda always took the right-most passages as she ran through the labyrinth. Kaiden was pretty sure he’d lost track. Easy enough to do when grachnid ambushes and lethal traps were popping up every other minute.
The grachnid punishers were several turns back now and their angry cries were nothing but faint screeches in the distance.
“We’re bound for a new trap any moment now,” Zelda said, breathing heavy from the non-stop running.
“No burrows ahead,” Titus confirmed.
“And I don’t see any pressure plates,” Kaiden added. Zelda had assigned them each a role in helping her keep a watch ahead. There was too much for one person to focus on. Odditor had let them use comms to communicate, so they were going to make the most of it.
Zelda tore around another corner, then paused as the
