Tafel exhaled as she glared at the sight in front of her. A series of corpses lined a path, leading up to a few mounds of ice that contained still-alive creatures inside of them. A diminutive figure stepped up to her side and nodded. “Well, it looks like Vur was definitely here,” Alice said with her hands placed on her hips. “But what’s the deal with the ones at the end? Actually, no, what’s the deal with the bears that look like they’ve been eaten?”

“He … probably ate them,” Tafel said, cause Alice to make a face. Tafel’s brow furrowed as she pursed her lips. “I wonder what they taste like.” She crouched down by the first corpse and poked around for some fleshy bits that Vur hadn’t completely cleaned off the bones with her finger. When she found a piece, she stripped it off and popped it into her mouth.

“Well?” Mr. Skelly asked as he wrapped his arm around Alice, who had turned away from Tafel with a pale face. “How is it?”

“It tastes like iron, but it’s salty too,” Tafel said as she stood up and wiped her bloody fingers on the thigh region of her robes. “Overall, not that different from an actual raw bear. It might even be tastier if you enjoy the taste of that.” Her forehead crinkled. “Which Vur does.” She walked over to the frozen bears near the end of the hall and tapped on the surface of the ice, causing the bear’s eyes to roll towards the sound. “And this is how he was taught to preserve food by his mother. We could probably leave them here without issue.”

“Our contractor’s a savage…,” Mistle said as she hovered near Tafel. “These poor bears.”

“They’re monsters,” Tafel said with a snort. “It’s not like they have any feelings. And they’re made of blood too, so I doubt they can even feel any pain. If anything, the creatures in this dungeon are all a type of golem created by some perverse magician who’s probably the final boss. They’re very rare, but it’s not like an artificial dungeon is impossible to create.”

Alice slipped out from Mr. Skelly’s embrace, walking with her head held high to avoid looking at the eaten corpses on the ground. Unfortunately, she was too short, and the bones of the bears were on her face level. So she bashed them aside with her shield, clearing a path to the door at the end while walking around the frozen mounds. “How far do you think Vur got?”

Tafel’s expression darkened. “Even if we run, I doubt we’ll catch up to him before he reaches the final boss.” She pushed open the door. “Unless the dungeon’s like a labyrinth and he got … lost….”

Seven bloody people stared at the intruding demon. They were sitting around a table with utensils in their hands and cooked vegetables on the plates in front of them. After examining Tafel, they exchanged glances with each other and stood up. A few reached underneath the table while others walked towards a cabinet, but in the end, all of them pulled out some kind of weapon.

“…Did Vur get lost in a completely straight line?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He….” Tafel bit her lower lip. “Maybe…? He’s Vur; the impossible becomes possible for him. Like getting lost where no one else possibly could.”

“Or we can use logic and conclude that the door has multiple exits,” Diamant said. After being discovered by Tafel and Alice, he had reverted back into the form of a ball of light. Unfortunately, Alora wasn’t around to discover the secret of canceling a polymorph. “Close the door and open it again. We might be able to find the path Vur took.”

“Got it,” Alice said as she shut the door just in time to block a bloody arrow. There were a few thudding sounds as multiple attacks landed on the door. “Now I open it again?”

“Yeah,” Tafel said as she readied her staff. “I’ll block any attacks that come your way.”

Alice nodded as she prepared her shield as well. Then she kicked open the door. The sight was exactly the same, and a bombardment of bloody spells flew towards the group.

***

“Is it just me, or is it a little loud back there?” Stella asked, turning her head almost a hundred and eighty degrees behind herself without moving her body like an owl.

Vur twisted his body and cupped one hand over his ear. A few moments passed, but the only sound he heard was the wind whistling as the walls whished past. “Nah. It’s just you.”

“Oh,” Stella said as she fixed her posture. Her legs swung back and forth as she sat on Vur’s shoulder, holding onto a clump of his hair to prevent herself from falling off as they traveled at high speeds. Vur was sitting on a strange bloody creature with seven legs, two heads, and four tails. Each of the legs seemed to belong to a different kind of animal. One of the heads was crocodilian, and the other was birdlike. The tails were all long and thin like a furless cat’s. “How much longer do you think it’ll take for us to get out of here?”

Vur shrugged as his chimera mount rounded a corner. The hallway after the kitchen ended up being a type of maze with traps laid out on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Vur came to the conclusion that one of the beasts living inside the maze would know the way out, so he sat on one. Then it started running on its own.

“This is such a dumb idea,” Mervin said, his face pale. Vur’s body jolted up and down along with the chimera’s clumsy seven-legged gait. “I’m getting motion sickness. Genie’s weren’t made to move like this.”

“Then hurry up and turn back into a beansprout,” Stella said, shaking her fist at the genie king who was sitting on Vur’s other shoulder. “And nonsense! All of Vur’s ideas are good.” She tugged on Vur’s hair. “You can’t let him disrespect you like this. You should get rid of him.”

Vur turned his head towards Mervin. “Why is this a bad idea?”

“Think about it,” Mervin said. He held one hand up and turned his head away, vomiting off the side of Vur’s arm. He wiped away the remaining spittle from his lips and readjusted himself. “Genie kings don’t even eat. How did I vomit…?” He shook his head. “Anyway, think about it. If you’re an animal being chased by a predator, where would you run?”

Vur stared at Mervin. “I can’t relate.”

“…If you’re hunting a bear, where does it run when you first show up?”

“I kill it instantly because Grimmy says I shouldn’t play with my food.” Vur nodded. “My food never runs.”

“Okay,” Mervin said, his expression dim. “Well, animals will run to where they think is the safest place for them. Squirrels run up trees. Rabbits run into burrows. Sloths just die. If this chimera you’re sitting on has lived in this maze for its whole life, then there’s no way it’ll run to the maze’s exit. It wouldn’t run somewhere unfamiliar to escape from you. If anything, it’ll head deeper into the maze.”

Vur raised an eyebrow. “So I should get off?”

“Probably.”

Vur grumbled. “But it’s pretty comfy. I think I’ll wait and see where it brings me first.”

Mervin scratched his nose. “Well, you’re the landlord, so I guess I can’t complain.”

“Vur’s body isn’t for rent!” Stella glared at Mervin. “It’s private property owned by me!”