“I guess we’re doing this the hard way, then.”

“What?” Cowl yelled. “We can’t hear you!”

“Shut up! I’m monologuing to myself,” Angel yelled back. He flicked his eyepiece down and scanned the door. It found nothing. As far as he could tell, it was just a massive slab of metal. A slow grin pulled across Angel’s features. “Or maybe we don’t have to use the hard way at all.”

Angel retracted his hook, rising through the air until he was hanging in front of a hinge. Like the rest of the door, it was made of metal. However, Angel couldn’t think of a single hinge that could possibly hold a piece of metal this large on its own.

His thoughts proved correct. Runes covered the surface of the hinge. He recognized about an eighth of them, which was better than normal. Angel spent a few moments memorizing the runes. It had been hard at first, but the lack of paper made it a necessity. He’d long since grown adept at recognizing patterns, and any knowledge he could get his hands on was invaluable.

Once he was finished, Angel drummed his fingers on his chin. Making magic work properly was incredibly difficult, but breaking it was a whole different story. It wasn’t a question of how to break something, but the method he wanted to use to do it. Angel’s eyes lit up and he glanced down at his metal arm. “Maybe we’ll make you work for your rent instead of breaking my toys. How’s that sound?”

Angel pressed his hand against the hinge. It sparked as soon as he touched it. A small puff of smoke rose up as the runes fried. Purple electricity arced down his hand and vanished into the arm.

The hinge let out a loud creak. The metal warped as the weight of the door crushed it. He swung out of the way as the hinge at the top of the door snapped under all the added pressure on it.

With an earthshaking shudder, the door crashed to the ground, falling forwards and crashing down in the center of the room. Angel ripped his grappling hook free and jumped down on top of it.

He was nearly blinded by the brilliant golden light that emanated out from the room behind the fallen door. Glimmering gears and tubes full of crackling energy lined the walls, churning along silently.

At the center of the room was a large podium with a glass orb floating in the center. There were several regular sized doors along the sides of the room, nestled in between the machinery.

“Good job,” Cowl called, hopping down from the ledge and landing on the rubble in front of the door.

It shifted underneath his feet and a thrum ran through the room. White lines of light broke through the rock beneath them as Cowl’s foot nudged a buried old magic line.

With a blinding flash, a hulking minotaur appeared in the room. It stood twice their height and carried a savage looking bronze axe. The beast let out a snort. Angel swore and flicked his eyepiece down as the creature started towards Cowl.

Race: Minotaur

Level 120

Status: Healthy

Information accuracy: 76%

Strength: 100

Intelligence: 20

Nimbleness: 20

Toughness: 100

Rating: Significant Threat

Weak point(s): Not Enough Information (0/100)

Element(s): None

Error: Unable to analyze further. Information incomplete

There wasn’t time to say anything. Cowl’s sword blurred out of its sheath and he dashed forward, his wings shooting out from his back. The Hunter thrust the blade at the minotaur, which knocked it away with the hilt of its axe.

The minotaur kicked Cowl in the chest, sending the man tumbling backwards. It loped forward and brought the axe down on him. Cowl rolled over, bringing his sword to bear and deflecting the strike just before it could hit his head.

A bolt of lightning tore out of Angel’s hand and slammed into the minotaur’s back. It stumbled forward, snarling as the attack singed the hair on its back. It hadn’t done much damage, but it bought Cowl enough time to roll over and slash at the creature’s legs.

The minotaur roared. It turned its attention back towards Cowl, saliva dripping from its mouth. It raised its axe and brought it down on the man as he was standing, forcing him to scramble back once more. The minotaur lunged forward, ignoring Angel completely and swinging at Cowl again.

He deflected the attack to the side and finally managed to get his feet under him, rising up and thrusting his blade into the monster’s chest. The strike punched clean through it. The minotaur bared its teeth and grabbed Cowl by the shoulder, picking the man up and hurling him into the wall.

Cowl hit it hard, sliding down and nearly falling over before he got his feet under him. The minotaur reared back, preparing to hurl its axe at the Hunter. Before it could let go, a bolt of green light screamed across the room and slammed into its head.

Three more followed after it. Two of them struck the monster’s chest and the last missed completely, flying across the room and burning a hole into the wall. The minotaur howled, spinning to find the source of the annoying attacks.

The movement bought Cowl enough time to grab the disk and insert it onto his sword, doubling the weapon in size as he darted towards the minotaur and brought it across the beast diagonally. It didn’t even have a chance to scream. It toppled forwards, split in twain, and the two halves of the monster crashed to the ground. The room fell silent aside from Angel and Cowl’s heavy breathing.

“I’m sorry,” Vanessa said. “I know you probably had it covered, but you said to shoot if it looked like it would help.”

Angel shook his head. “Not at all. That was beautiful aim, Vanessa. Well done.”

He stalked towards Cowl, his eyes narrow. The Hunter disassembled his sword as Angel approached and cocked his head to the side.

“What –”

Angel hit Cowl in the side of the face with his left hand hard enough to send the man spinning. “You goddamned idiot. What do you not understand about ‘listen to my instructions when we’re in a catacomb’? You could have gotten us all killed. What if this trap was damaged? The whole room could have gone under!”

Cowl caught his balance. His muscles tensed, and Angel prepared for the man to spring at him. Then the Hunter let out a metallic growl and gave him a single nod. “Apologies.”

“Just don’t do it again,” Angel said, the adrenaline starting to leave his system. He didn’t trust the Hunter in the slightest, but he was well aware that he had no chance against the man in a fight. There was no way to confront him – not yet at least.

The minotaur’s body shimmered. Three streams of blue energy rose up from it, flying through the room and rushing into them. Angel shuddered, but Vanessa nearly fell over. She let out something between a whimper and a gasp of surprise.

“First time getting magical energy?” Cowl asked her.

Vanessa gave him a jerky nod. “It’s incredible. I feel amazing.”

“Don’t get addicted to it,” Cowl said. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

Vanessa gave a jerky nod, still clearly recovering from the effects of magical energy. “Is it safe to come down?”

“Yes, but jump onto the metal door instead of the ground,” Angel instructed. “Traps take a long time to recharge, but there might be more than one trap here. It’s impossible to tell with all the rubble.”

Vanessa nodded and hopped down, landing on the huge door with a thud. She grimaced, standing up and brushing the dirt off her knees. She showed Angel a spent canister. “I don’t suppose you’ve got another I can have?”

Angel handed her a canister from what remained of his dwindling supplies. “I’m running low. Make it last.”

Cowl stepped up onto the metal door to stand beside Angel and Vanessa. He adjusted the mask on his face and nodded towards the glowing room in front of them. “So, what’s that?”

“Danger,” Angel replied. “Looks like a bait room to me.”

“Bait room?” Cowl asked.

“It’s a bunch of expensive or powerful artifacts surrounded by traps and dangerous stuff,” Vanessa said before Angel could respond. “Seekers try to avoid them.”

“Not bad,” Angel said, giving her a nod. “Only got one thing wrong: most Seekers avoid them. Bait rooms, especially obvious ones like this aren’t hard to spot. But they’re also some of the best places to find loot.”

“So we just have to leave the room as quickly as possible?” Cowl asked.

“We could,” Angel said, starting towards the room with a hungry look in his eyes. “But why would we do that? Look at all those artifacts. The tubing in the walls, the glass orb – beautiful.”

Vanessa glanced at Cowl nervously. “Has he gone insane?”

“He’s a Seeker,” Cowl replied, following after Angel until they were standing directly before the glowing room. “They’re all insane.”