There were four of the Kelps standing guard over the cages. Their rigid body postures coupled with their inhuman visages probably made the captives terrified out of their minds. I wasn’t even in one of the cages and yet I felt a bit apprehensive.

I turned to Verita, who was shaking her head and praying to whatever Gods she believed in for a chance at redemption.

“So, my beautiful Latina, are you ready?”

“No. But I’m going to die anyway, so…” She confessed with a sigh of defeat, moving closer to the edge of the cliff with her dagger at the ready.

“Hey, chin up darling. At best, you’d lose an arm or a leg. Nothing serious,” I encouraged her with a wide smile. From the unamused look she gave, she was clearly not feeling a spurt of bravery at the moment.

Taking a deep breath, she looked to me, the edge of the cliff face, her target and me again. Then, like we planned, she jumped.

Without waiting a second, I followed suit.

The Kelps were a short distance from each other, so everything looked like it would line up with my hare brained plan. To be honest, it was pretty simple. I was essentially going to copy that takedown mechanic from that popular Batman game… what was it called… Markham Blight? I remember the ability was called ‘fear takedown’.

As such, I had told Verita to angle towards the single Kelp to the right. Her fall should see her land right on top of it, taking away her downward momentum and transferring it to the landlubbing crustacean.

While the others were alarmed by her sudden appearance, I would use that chance to ‘drop in’ and give the first one the same treatment as Verita’s target. Then the rest would be a blur of Bruce Wayne action. Yeah, I was looking forward to that.

Verita landed on her target with a whumpf, her dagger soon following her feet in plunging into the body of the Kelp below her. The other three turned their heads to face her so fast that I cringed. Those flexible bones were coming in handy, as I seriously doubted that a normal humanoid would survive doing that.

Despite their fast head movement, their reaction time was slightly behind as I landed on my own target. Unlike Verita who stayed immobile upon hers to act as a distraction for me, I forwent thrusting my dagger into the Kelp as I was sure my fall would incapacitate it if not outright kill it. So my follow up was to throw my short sword at the left most Kelp with all my power.

Without checking to see if it connected, I leapt with all my strength towards the last target, my dagger stabbing out to pierce its throat area. The Kelp was fast though, it raised its arms to fend off my blow and my firsthand knowledge of its thick skin along with its hard scales made me switch my trajectory to its lower body.

Unsurprisingly, my rusty dagger failed to penetrate its body. In fact, the damn thing went a step further and broke against the Kelp’s abdomen. Both the Kelp and I looked between the broken blade and each other for a few moments before it lunged and landed upon me, baring its claws as it sought to overpower me and rip me to shreds.

I barely held it off. For a small creature, a Kelp had a shocking amount of strength. Something to do with that exoskeleton I’m sure. Still, I was able to keep it level with me at a stalemate, our strength ratings probably similar. Had I been alone and surrounded, that could have been problematic as its cohorts could rip at my legs and lower body. As it were, Verita’s short sword came plunging through its head, gray matter flying anywhere and everywhere it could reach.

Tossing the limp body over me, I climbed to my feet with her help, ignoring her self-satisfied smirk.

“Well pretty boy, you owe me one,” She stated smugly, using her dagger to clear dirt from under her fingernails.

Refusing to rise to the challenge, I simply grunted and set to work doing one of the most important activities of society. Looting a dead body. When I approached one of the Kelp bodies, I noticed that a screen popped up into view. On the screen were items that I assumed were available for looting. There were organs and blood for alchemy and rituals, scales and skin for crafting and the good old copper pieces. I took everything. You never know when you’d need them. I also retrieved my short sword.

While I was busying catering to our inventories, Verita had taken up the noble act of freeing the captives from their cages. Most couldn’t even crawl out due to the state of damage they were in. Some shambled out and others managed to shuffle out. The only one who was able to walk reasonably well was a large dark skinned fellow with the face of a dangerous man. Even with my good height, I had to look up to meet eyes with him. He had a similar attire to Verita and myself, so I knew he was a PC. Like Verita, he wore a wraparound bandana that covered his scalp which was black in color. His brown eyes and lightly scarred face stared into mine.

“Damn son, you’re bigger than my hopes and dreams.”

And like that, I broke the building tension by doing what we dudes always do. Saying something dumb. He half smiled as he stretched his hand out.

“The name’s Rolando, what’s yours?” He asked in a deep, heavily accented baritone. Damn, despite his not so handsome visage, that voice made me shiver… and I’m not even into guys!

“I go by the name of Jay. The fine ass wench behind me who I about to whack me is Verita,” I replied, my words cut off as I tasted dirt after receiving Verita’s predictable wallop.

“I can guess from your accent you aren’t from around our side, but you should never shit talk a Caribbean woman again hombré. You won’t live long like that,” He advised with a grunt.

“Noted.”

“Buenas noches, señora, cómo está?” Rolando asked Verita with a knowing smile.

“Bien, gracias. Qué trae a un hombre bien educado como tú a este basurero?” She replied with the sweetest smile I’d seen from her since we met. I almost puked.

“Fuimos capturados por ...” Rolando started, but I stopped.

“Yeah, yeah, stop right there. See, I don’t speak despacito, so you’re gonna have to speak the Queen’s English,” I declared with a puffed out chest. Rolando was making me self-conscious with his buff body. No man should have such a ripped torso. And besides, I didn’t like how he was all over Verita.

Verita must’ve noticed my jealousy, because she smirked and coiled her arm around Rolando’s in a possessive manner. I seethed at the sight. Rolando looked between the two of us with confusion then read in between the lines. Instead of honoring the bro code, he tore it to shreds by smirking and leading Verita away from me towards the other prisoners. What a betrayal!

Instead of taking it like a man, I stomped over to the two and ripped Verita from his arms and put her into mine while shaking a fist at the woman thief. He just raised his arms in mock surrender while Verita laughed.

Walking with my Caribbean Goddess in hand, we came upon a gathering of the captives, those that were still alive. To say they were in a sorry state would be an understatement. These people needed healers, a bath and a year to rejuvenate.

“Hello, my name is Jay and the woman with me is Verita. We are planning to take down your captors who appear to be trolls. Can you tell us anything about them and this labyrinth in general?”

The moment I introduced myself, all eyes fixed upon me, parsing my announcement as best as they were able. When I stated I was going to take down their captors, a few faces hardened and looked ready to kill, despite their injuries. Rolando patted my shoulder and answered for them.

“We don’t know much. They hardly ever came down here. I was part of the latest batch of captives. Some of them had been locked in for almost two years,” He explained, a few heads nodding to his words, “apart from the monsters you killed, the Kelps, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of anything else.”

“Did they extract any captives for any purpose? Sacrifice, rape or just torture? Anything? How were you fed?”

“None of that. We never left our cages for any purpose. We only survived this long thanks to Zuric, a high cleric who could use his healing to rehydrate and revitalize us every now and then. Due to the number of us, he couldn’t focus on resurrecting anyone. He barely had enough mana to keep us alive.”

Damn. These people had been captured by unknown beings and just left to rot down here like they were no better than pests. I cast an eye over the damaged group again. I used my Identify skill to pick out Zuric.

Zuric lvl 8

HP: 30/340

MP: 300/800

SP: 10/50

He was a lanky fellow, as far as I could tell, and had very average features minus his height. Apart from his dirtied robes, he held onto a wooden staff that looked more like firewood that anything that could channel healing magic. His hair and general skin color were lost to me with the filth he was smeared in, but his eyes were a startling grey.

The moment I picked him out, he clambered to his feet and tried to stand with his back firm, but I saw how his knees wobbled. Still, it wasn’t my place to put out his fire. If he wanted to fight, we’ll take him. God knows a healer would be crucial.

“Zuric has joined the party!” I exclaimed to the surprise of everyone but the woman on my arms. She’d had enough time to get used to my antics. “Alright comrade, you’ll go with us to deal with the monsters in the cave. The rest of you should follow Rolando out of the cave into the grasslands where you’ll be safe.”

I expected Rolando himself to argue against my leadership and subsequent sidelining, but he simply nodded and started carrying those too weak to walk on his shoulders. I quickly sent him a ping on the map, which allowed him to see where Verita and I had traversed so far. Without a word, he took charge of the escort mission and led his fellow captives out of the labyrinth, leaving Verita, Zuric and I standing in a mixture of awe and respect.

“That is one hard fella.”

I clapped my hands to gain the attention of my two companions as I began to relay out plan moving forward.

“So I assume that the Kelps will start to increase in density as we head deeper into the maze. Right now, I don’t know exactly where we’re heading, but I have a feeling we want to go to the center of this place. That’s most likely where our target is. In light of that, what items do you have on you Zuric? Minus, the staff of course.”

When he spoke, his voice was raspy, but I detected an accent which sounded Russian. “I have nothing but what is on me right now.”

“Here you go then, eat that while we explore,” I said as I tossed him a food ration and a water flask. His eyes widened as he saw the portion and he dug into it with gusto. “Ah, ah. Don’t eat fast. You’ll suffer for it later, trust me. I know you’re famished, but try to take even bites.”

Surprisingly, he took my advice and tried to control his consumption of the food and water. Nodding to Verita, we started towards the side tunnel that lead deeper into the bowels of the volcano.