Anda pulled the fingerless gloves tight against his fist. It was made of supple leather, much like the rest of his outfit, but the glove’s back had metal plates attached to them. He wiggled his fingers, feeling the tightness of the weave. It was a good glove, one from Master Kio’s leatherworks.

His backpack was ready, with straps to go around his shoulder and a tail loop to slip his through to better control how the thing lay against his back. A longsword in its scabbard slid into his belt. A crossbow with a case of twenty bolts hung on a shoulder strap. The projectile weapon was one of the latest to come from Vizugmon City’s weapon innovators.

The crossbow’s string was pulled taut by a winch; the mechanism had been improved from the previous styles. All it took to rearm the crossbow were three turns on the handle as compared to the seven or more from before. That meant Anda could shoot the weapon nearly ten times a minute compared to the three or four that was possible before.

Where he was going, he’d need all the advantages he could get.

“Last bit’s the knife,” he muttered as he sheathed the tool across his longsword. “Not that I really need one,” he continued with a chuckle.

He flexed a finger and a sharp claw, nearly an inch long, popped out. It was razor-sharp, he’d made sure of that. All sixteen of them.

He stalked out of his home, jumping down to the ground floor with ease allowing his powerful legs to absorb the force. His house was five paces above the street level, and the only easy way to get up there was to climb the trunk. Or jump up.

It was early morning on Vizugmon. The sun cast long shadows down the street. He lived in the Bachelor’s District, the east quarter of the Tigris Clan’s city, though there were more than Tigris clanners living there.

His house was set on the branches of an Adaviren Tree. Each one with a trunk that would take a dozen men joining hands to encircle. His was on one of the lower branches, and his neighbour, a Kutin clansman, whose features resemble more a domesticated cat than a tiger’s, was out sweeping his porch. Ando gave a quick wave, while Masa easily waved back while yawning.

Anda hurried down the cobblestone road, his heart thumping with excitement. The Delvers’ Guildhall was in the Western District and a good half an hour’s walk from the Bachelor’s District. Ten minutes if he ran. Time saved if he did but he’d exhaust himself needlessly.

He ran anyway.

He was bouncing on his toes by the time he arrived. He had slowed back to a walk five hundred paces from the guild to catch his breath but he was still short when he arrived. Unlike the dwellings, the Delver’s Guild was more of a fortress than a house. Stone walls with crenellations, a portcullis, and even ballistae on the towers. Come to think of it, the Delver’s Guildhall was practically at the edge of the city. Made sense since there was a Labyrinth entrance just a couple of longstrides away.

The Labyrinth was where Anda was headed. The Beast Tide ended a few weeks ago and now was the prime time to attempt a Delve. He arrived in front of the Guildhall to a crowd of Tigris, Kutin, and Iona Clanners.

He craned his neck to look for his temporary teammates. Hundreds of delvers took their chances after a Tide. It was safe enough, at the shallow levels, but the pickings were lean. Nonexistent, actually. But the deeper one went, the more dangerous it became.

The danger was lessened now, of course, but maybe there were holdovers in the depths.

“Anda!” A high pitched, feminine yowl, called to him.

“Masa.”

He nodded at the Kutin clanner. The girl had little of the People’s features to her save for her eyes and ears. Her eyes were emerald green and with slit pupils and her ears were cat-like. She had tawny orange hair but the rest of her was distressingly human-like. She didn’t even have a snout or fangs! She did have sharp claws on her hands though, but her tender feet were protected by leather boots. Anda’s were bare, just like every proper member of the People.

Still, Masa was a childhood friend. Yes, he was more than a decade older than her eighteen years but for most of Anda’s childhood, Masa’s family had lived next to his. As a result, he was often tagged to babysit the kid. That she had followed him into the Delver’s trade was both gratifying and worrisome.

Masa beckoned and Anda followed. The rest of the temp team was with her. Anda nodded to Dai, a stocky Iona clanner. Like the rest of his clan, his mane was as wide as his shoulders, though meticulously groomed. On his back was a tower shield and on his hip was a short spear. He nodded gruffly at Anda.

The other two members were strangers.

“Anda,” he said as he tapped both of his fists on his chest in a salute. He carefully kept his claws retracted, indicating a friendly greeting rather than a challenge.

“Cheaci,” the male Tigris clanner replied, mimicking the gesture.

“Hixe,” the female Kutin clanner nodded. This one was a proper Kutin, with whiskers, snout and fangs, as well as the signature ears of the Unified Clans.

“About time you arrived,” Dai rumbled. “Let’s get going.”

The others nodded along with Anda. The Iona were natural leaders, though they weren’t the most powerful of the Clanners. The distinction belonged to the Tigris, though the Iona would protest. As for the Kutin, they were the most numerous and the most varied in size and physique. Why, next to Dai, Masa looked practically a child. Well, Anda towered over her too.

He carefully took note of each of their arms and armour. Masa had a longsword like his. One would think that a one-armed weapon, like an arming sword or a short sword, would be more suited to the half-Kutin girl, but longswords were balanced for use in two hands. That meant that each of Masa’s hands only bore half of the weapon’s weight. A polearm like a spear or a glaive would have been better for her too, but the Labyrinth’s tunnels sometimes became low and narrow.

There was a well-worn road to the entrance and Anda’s team made quick work of the intervening longstrides. Vizugmon was set on a flat plain, though only the eastern side had farms. The west had pastures. Currently, there was a herd of sheep to the north, and one of cattle to the south.

A longstride from the entrance and the area was completely barren. The earth was churned by the passage of large claws, hooves, and assorted footprints. Some were tinged red with old blood. Of the beasts or the clanners, nobody really knew. Probably a mix.

The entrance to the Planar Labyrinth was a hole on the side of a low hill. It was twice the height of Dai and about seven times as wide. There were no guards, gates, or any kind of defences built around the entrance. No, that would be an exercise in futility and a colossal waste of resources.

A couple of groups had already preceded Anda’s inside. He glanced back at the city, at the fields, and the skies. He might not see them for a while, or ever again, for that matter.

“Think we’ll find an ivory trove?” Hixe whispered.

“That’s the goal, isn’t it?” Masa squeaked.

“Hrmph,” Dai grunted.

Anda shrugged. A trove would be nice, but even a single piece would more than make it worth the danger and the time spent.

The devilbeasts came up out of the Labyrinth to spread across the Bella plane. They either killed or drove out what animals already lived there but whenever they saw a humanoid, they went completely berserk. They came once or twice a year, often at the tag end of the Season of Water or Fire. But leave them alone long enough and they lost whatever it was that drove them mad.

However, they also lost whatever made them so valuable in the first place. Each devilbeast has a special bone in their bodies. It contained their Anima and if a clanner consumed it, their Geist would strengthen. They had to consume a matching type though. So for Anda’s group, they had to hunt down devilbeasts that were in the shape of hunting cats.

Ivory, on the other hand, was the remains of devilbeasts that perished while in the Labyrinth, was suitable to be consumed by anyone, even humans. Though those people don’t have a Geist, it somehow increased their Animus reserves anyway.

“Noise discipline.” Dai reminded everyone. He stood in front of the team, ready to handle any of the dangers that might come their way.

The entrance hall was suitably wide, but there were branching tunnels immediately a few paces away.

“Which one?” Dai asked.

“How about route 3C?” Masa asked timidly.

“No,” Cheaci scoffed. “That’s too shallow. We need to go deep. 52H!”

“You really want to look for a trove?” Anda asked incredulously. “We’re just a temp group. What if we encounter remnants?”

“What, so you’d rather settle for scraps?”

“I’d like to live to enjoy the fruits of my labours.”

“Don’t be a scaredy-cat,” Cheaci smirked. “I thought you were a Tigris. Do you have human blood in you?”

Anda blinked while the other three gasped.

“No, I don’t have human blood in me. Maybe you have Oska in you? Don’t be so reckless.”

“You take that back!” Cheaci growled.

Anda stared at the other’s eyes for a long moment before he sighed.

“I apologize, that was out of line. But the fact remains, we’re only a temp group. I know Masa and Dai but you two, I don’t.”

“What, huh, you think I’ll stab you in the back?”

“Not at all, but I don’t know how you’ll react to danger.”

“Peace,” Dai rumbled. “Let’s take the middle road. 31G. It’s deep enough to have a chance, yet shallow enough that we can comfortably reach the surface before running out of supplies.”

“Fine,” Cheaci grumbled, even as Anda nodded his assent.

The tunnels were labeled at the entrance with the letter. The number represented how many longstrides it was from the entrance. There were no markers beyond the hundredth. Even coming to the ninetieth longstride was a gamble.

They headed to the tunnel marked with a G, and followed along its length. Soft yellow light glowed from the ceiling, casting a bit of shadow, but nothing that Anda’s eyes couldn’t handle. The tunnel was square-ish, with straight walls carved into the stone. The floor had a layer of earth. The deeper they went, the less the tunnels looked like a mine and more a natural cave system.

“Anda,” Masa whispered from beside him.

“What?”

“How many Delves have you done?”

“This is my thirteenth.”

“Oh.”

“This is just your second, right?”

“Yup.”

“Ah, no wonder. Don’t worry, Masa, most of the devilbeasts should be dead.”

“It’s not the devilbeasts you have to worry about,” Cheaci snarked, “it’s the other Hunters.”

Masa looked at the other Tigris clanner in confusion, but Anda nodded.

“What do you mean?” Masa asked.

“Ahas and Oska,” Cheaci growled.

“The other Clans?” Masa asked.

Anda interrupted. “It’s unlikely. There are no Labyrinth entrances close to their cities.”

“You never know,” Cheaci shrugged. “If we find any of that scum then they’re not coming back out.”

They lapsed into silence for the next few longstrides. The tunnels slowly spiralled downwards, and somewhere between the tenth and eleventh longstride, the tunnel’s side opened out into a great chasm. Most of the tunnels spiralled around it, going deeper and deeper into the earth. Anda could even make out other tunnels across the gap, highlighted by the tunnel’s lights. The gap was at least a longstride wide, maybe more at some places.

A wind blew up from the depths, and he could see some shadowed creatures flying in the dark. The lettered tunnels didn’t really intersect until deeper inside.

Deeper and deeper they went. They stopped to eat their rations once they thought it was midday. There was honestly no way to tell down here. The lights never changed, even when it should have been night.

Anda and his team had enough supplies to last them several weeks. Long enough to reach a proper depth, and hopefully, they would find treasure.