AN: Thanks so much Secret Wind for reviewing the previous chapter!

Ngh, sorry, short chapter…Everything seemed to be against me this week. I'll spare you the details. It's just been one of those week. Anyway, hope you'll enjoy reading!

Chapter 10:

Reacting purely out of instinct, Baldur clutched the monster codex tightly against his chest as he lowered his head, bracing for impact. However, instead of tremendous pain, he instead heard the sound of a sharp metal clung followed by something grasping onto his shoulder in a desperate and somewhat harsh grip.

"Logre!"

Suddenly, Baldur was shoved to the side. No, he was thrown to the side.

"Hold on!"

Baldur then found himself held up in Logre's arms as the older man picked him up effortlessly and carried him away. "B-but…" What had happened?

"Roxbury!"

At the sound of Mahalah's horrified cry, Baldur lifted his head up and quickly looked around in a frantic manner. He immediately understood why Mahalah sounded so upset.

Where Baldur had been standing only moments ago was Roxbury, pinned to the ground with only his shield between him and the gapping jaws of that monstrous dragon. He was using both his arms and one of his legs to brace himself against the shield. His weapon, a spiked mace, had somehow been flung to the side and out of reach.

Not that he had the time to actually use it. How could he when the monster's teeth were scraping wildly against his shield? Of which was offering only the inconsequential of protection. It, however, was the only thing stopping the monsters from wrapping its jaws around the fortress. It was constantly thrashing its head around, forcing Roxbury to continuously readjust not only the position of his shield, but his grip on it as well.

An expression of sheer concentration was on Roxbury's face as beads of sweat appeared on his brow. He was using all his strength and mental capacity to stay alive.

"Logre, do something," Baldur ordered with a surprisingly amount of desperation in his voice the second Logre set him down upon his feet. "He's going to get killed!"

A deep scowl appeared on Logre's face as he studied the enormous beast. He muttered something under his breath as he dropped the large bag he always carried and opened it up. He then pulled out his driveblade, the darken and harden metal glinting in the light.

Holding it in one hand, Logre stood up to his full height. "Isiah, Falkner, watch his highness for me."

"I'll give you some cover fire," Falkner responded as he reset his bow, placing a surprisingly amount of bolts within the string.

"Hurry up," Isiah muttered between his whispering of healing spell. "I can only do so much from a distance."

With a stony expression, Logre vaulted toward the dragon, not worrying about the arrows that were whizzing around him and bouncing off the creature's thick skin.

"The others," Mahalah murmured as he shook his head in fear and disbelief, his eyes frantically searching their surroundings. "Bryce, Varuna, Nitish, Achyuta and Zoran. Are they all right?"

"I can't see any bodies," Isiah stated with little emotion. "I'm sure they're elsewhere on the floor."

"Please…"

The sharpness of the driveblade may have not been enough to cause major injury, but it should have been enough to gain the creature's attention, even in short bursts. But it wasn't doing anything.

Why was it so intent on destroying Roxbury? Baldur knew that some fortress had the skill to taunt a monster; to force it to focus its entire attention on them, but Roxbury didn't have the time to use a skill. Maybe his presence alone was enough to enrage the fiend?

"Just as we had thought," a new voice uttered, surprisingly calm despite all the mayhem. "It's too late."

Falkner immediately bristled "He's not dead yet," he hissed as he glanced toward the tree line, to where the shadowy form of a runemaster appeared.

"I wasn't talking about him," the pale and seemingly frail runemaster simpered in response, his expression stoic and his gaze cold. "Although, his life is clearly in the balance."

"Then help us out," Falkner all but demanded as he revealed a set of his strongest arrows.

The runemaster was silent as he glanced over at Falkner before turning his gaze back to Roxbury. His expression remained impassive, but he seemed to mutter something under his breath. "...working on it…"

Baldur suddenly remembered that he had that book Nitish created for him. To analyse and document all monsters encounters. He never really understood why he had carried to book with him since then, but…

He quickly placed his hand on the cover of the book where the powerful spell was etched in the leather. "Burst Skill: Analysis!"

The book in his hands suddenly levitated in front of him. A strange wind picked up, prompting the book to open and the pages to flutter in the breeze. It went back quite a few pages, almost near the very end of the book itself before promptly stopping. Then, on the blank pages, lines started to appear, skirting over the paper.

Then words and a black and white drawing of the monster appeared.

Sand Leviathan.

As the book floated back to his awaiting hands, Baldur lifted his head up when he felt that someone was staring at him. And he was right. The guild's redheaded sniper was looking at him with a confused, yet curious look.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"A burst skill," Baldur murmured as he chewed on his bottom lip. "Nitish gave it to me. It's used to gather information on monsters."

A look of understanding appeared on Falkner's face and he nodded. He then suddenly moved, positioning himself to stand directly in front of Baldur, shielding him in his own way. "Then stay behind me. What does it say?"

Baldur quickly glanced down at his book, skimming the notes. "It's weak to ice but resistant to fire. And…that's it."

"Did you hear that, Durriken?" Falkner asked rather tersely, directing it to the gaunt looking runemaster.

"Won't mean a thing until we get him away," the runemaster known as Durriken replied just as tersely.

Falkner fired off a couple of arrows, hoping to distract the Sand Leviathan, but it appears that nothing will tempt it from its current objective.

"Dammit," Falkner cursed before glancing over his shoulder. "What else does it say?"

There wasn't much else the book could offer him, but a short, two sentence description. "A sand-coloured dragon that spits fiery balls of sand. Though it is enormous, its wings do carry its weight."

"Great, so this thing can also fly?!"

Not if Logre took out a wing.

"Logre, use freeze drive to take out its wing!" Baldur ordered.

Logre didn't need to be told twice. Inserting an ice cartage into his driveblade, he lunged forward and with expert control, sliced right through the dragon's left wing with a single strike. The appendage fell to the ground with a thud, blood spurting high into the air from the stump. Not only should the loss of a limb gain the monster's attention, it should have weakened it in some manner.

But…it didn't.

"I don't…I don't understand," Baldur muttered in disbelief as the dragon kept its full attention on Roxbury, thrashing its head around violently to cause as much damage and injury to the fortress as possible. "It's missing a wing. Why isn't it reacting?"

"This is no ordinary monster," Falkner muttered after firing a volley of arrows which had no effect whatsoever.

"It was resurrected," the runemaster known as Durriken stated. "So it will not behave like other monsters you have encountered."

How much did that runemaster know about this creature's birth?

"Damn it," Falkner hissed as he reset his bow. "I hadn't anticipated anything like this..."

A series of explosions from elsewhere in the labyrinth suddenly shook the ground beneath their feet. Alarmed as the eruptions sounded suspicious like that of a driveblade in a continuous ignition, Baldur turned to his left. He could see trees shaking from some violent force before abruptly cracking and crashing to the ground. There were a series of them, one after the other.

…And they appeared to be travelling toward them.

Something powerful and deadly was heading in their direction!

"Baldur!" Falkner called out to him, motioning for him to move closer toward him, to take shelter behind him.

Knowing that there was little he could do without armour or a weapon, Baldur edged closer to the redheaded sniper. "What's happening now?" he asked.

"I don't know," Falkner answered honestly. "But stay behind me."

Out of the thick foliage of the labyrinth, a man in dark clothing similar to those worn by nightseekers appeared, seemingly scrambling for his life. His cloak and clothing were torn in several places and splashes of blood could be seen.

Most striking of the man, however, was a look of fear on his pale face.

"Telem?" Durriken stuttered as the nightseeker scrambled over to him, falling to his knees in front of him. "What happened?"

"He's stronger than we realised," the nightseeker known as Telem murmured breathlessly.

Durriken placed his hands on his shoulders in a small display of comfort. "Who did you attack to get his attention?"

"The landsknecht," Telem replied with a shake of his head. "I wasn't expecting such a reaction. He assassinated everything in his path..."

Telem suddenly stiffened and he whipped his head around to look over his shoulder, his eyes wide.

Startled, Baldur instinctively turned to look as well and immediately winced when a large tree, one of the Baobab kind was suddenly felled, cut cleanly in half. As the tree hit the forest floor another figure appeared, behind him a seeming trail of destroyed trees.

It was the red-cloaked nightseeker, Varuna. Hanging idly in his right hand was a driveblade, burning red hot and whirring noisily. His shoulders were hunched forward and appeared somewhat unsteady and hazy, and yet as he walked, his steps were silent and powerful. He looked foreboding. And that was before Baldur realised that he was splattered in splotches of blood.

Did…was he the one who cut down all those trees? With a driveblade?

"What did you do?" Falkner hissed to the other nightseeker.

"He's in Silent Assassin Mode now," Telem explained hastily as he sprung to his feet, seemingly oblivious to his injuries and, with a great amount of trepidation, pulled himself into a fighting position.

"Silent Assassin?" Baldur murmured, his brow furrowing as he turned his attention back to Varuna. As soon as he did, he had to hold back a gasp.

Varuna's head was drooped forward, his long white hair covering his face. Saved for his right eye, peering through a slight parting in his bangs. The eye was…a deadly, piercing colour of red.

"It was the only way," Telem murmured as he pulled out a long, thin blade from his cloak.

Suddenly, Varuna stopped dead in his tracks and head jerkily rolled back and twitched to look in the direction of the Sand Leviathan. His piercing red eye just stared at it.

His eye then narrowed.

In a flash of red, Varuna was standing next to where the Sand Leviathan had Roxbury pinned to the ground and fighting for life. Before the monster could realise he was there and so close, Varuna reached into his cloak and pulled out a single knife. With a startlingly quick flick of his wrist, the knife was abruptly embedded in the monster's eye.

The Sand Leviathan immediately screeched from the attack and started to lift its head up. Gripping at the driveblade with his two hands, Varuna lifted it high over his head. There was absolutely no expression in his face (not even a grimace from exertion) as he brought the weapon down, cleanly cutting through the Sand Leviathan's neck, taking its head completely off with a single strike!

B-but how?

Blood sprayed up and out into the air like a geyser as the head tumbled to the ground some feet away from where Roxbury was. The body of the monster twitched in its death throes before crashing to the ground in a heap.

A spot of blood splashed against Varuna's cheek, under his right eye. Yet again, absolutely no reaction from him. He just stood there, letting the driveblade he wielded so easily to hang limply in his grip.

A tense silence fell over the chamber, everyone looking at Varuna with expressions of pure and unadulterated shock on their faces. They could barely believe what had happened. For Varuna to so easily…

What impressive power.

A grunt of pain from Roxbury broke the silence and everyone immediately turned their attention to him. The fortress was covered in his own blood, his armour and clothes ripped in so many places. He was so badly injured. A moment longer and he…

"Varuna..." Roxbury murmured as he struggled to sit up, his obvious injuries causing him great discomfort. Then, on his pale and pain-stricken face, an expression of gratitude appeared. "T-thank you."

Unexpectedly, Varuna's piecing red eye seemed to soften, as if he was relieved. That was the first time there was any form of expression on his face.

The driveblade in his hand, however, was whirling out of control!

"Get rid of that thing before it explodes!" Logre shouted, his commanding yell barely holding back his fear.

Instinctively, Varuna raised the arm that held the driveblade and then proceeded to throw it at the body of the Sand Leviathan, embedding it deep into the carcass. Baldur thought it was a strange thing to do as it was obvious that the monster was already dead. However, he quickly saw the merit to it when the driveblade exploded, the body kept the shrapnel contained.

"We better leave," Durriken muttered as he pulled his hand into his robes to reveal an Ariadne Thread. He tightened his hand around it just as Varuna languidly turned to face them, warping him and his partner Telem out of the labyrinth.

Everyone became silent once more, waiting as Varuna continued to stand in the middle of the chamber, covered in blood and next to the decapitated body of the Sand Leviathan. Suddenly, he began to stagger on his feet, swaying awkwardly as he tilted his head back. He abruptly became still as he looked up at the sky.

He then screamed and held his head. "Stop it! Shut up! Get out! Get the fuck out!"

"Varuna!" Isiah called out, yet he looked uncertain and bewildered. He had his mace gripped in his hand, but he was unwilling to use it.

But...knocking him out might be the best for him, right?

"Varuna!"

The shouting of his name from elsewhere caused Varuna to suddenly tense, his hands lowering slowly from his face.

Out of the forest, from the path that Varuna had carved out for himself, Bryce appeared with a streak of blood from his neck that dripped over his armour. He immediately raced over to Varuna and wrapped his arms around him from behind, one arm around his middle as the other moved over to cover his eyes. He rested his chin on Varuna's shoulder and held him tightly.

"I'm here, I'm ok," Bryce said as he carefully lowered them both to the ground. "I'm fine, we're all fine. You can stop now."

As if a switch had been flicked, Varuna stopped struggling and fell limp in Bryce's arms. They both collapsed onto the ground, Varuna resting against Bryce's chest as the landsknecht continued to hold him as tightly as possible, whispering things in his ear.

"Oh my god, Roxbury," Mahalah murmured as he raced over to the injured fortress.

Isiah was, of course, right behind him. He slipped onto the ground next to Roxbury, unconcerned by the splatters of blood staining the grass. He dropped his bag next to him and proceeded to pull out rolls of bandages and bottles of medicine. His attention was focused solely on Roxbury, his expression serious.

He must be in a pretty bad way after all…

"Bryce, wait!"

Out of the same opening, Achyuta abruptly appeared. He was carrying Nitish in his arms, who of which looked washed out and extremely pale. Trailing behind them, clutching as his sceptre tightly in one hand while the other held the hem of Achyuta's shirt was Zoran. The little vessel looked confused and frightened.

"W-what happened here?" Achyuta stuttered as he took in the surroundings, his gaze flickering over to the body of the Sand Leviathan before stopping to rest on Roxbury, whom of which was relying heavily on Mahalah for support as Isiah healed him.

"Varuna…" Nitish murmured as he began to stir in Achyuta's arm. Dutifully, knowing that Nitish needed to be with his brother, Achyuta gently lowered the runemaster to his feet, reluctantly letting him stumble over to Bryce and Varuna.

Achyuta then turned his attention back to Logre, looking utterly bewildered. "Sir Logre, what in the world-?"

"Not sure," Logre murmured, cutting him off as he took a moment to glance around as well. "First, can you fill me in with what happened to you?"

Subconsciously, Achyuta stood to attention. "We were investigating the western part of this floor when Nitish suddenly fainted," he explained with a slightly pained look on his face. "He awoke a few minutes later to tell us of an extreme malice in the air. However, before he could tell us anymore, Telem suddenly appeared before us and attacked Bryce, slicing at his neck. There must have been some kind of either paralysing or sleeping agent on the knife as he went down immediately. This happened directly in front of Varuna. And he...he stole my driveblade and proceeded after the threat. He, ah…destroyed everything in his path."

Logre was silent as he mulled over what he had learnt. "That would explain quite a bit."

"So, ah, what happened here?" Achyuta asked, his gaze once again falling onto Roxbury. His concern was quite evident in his eyes.

"Don't have all the details, I'm afraid," Logre said as he sighed and roughly scratched the back of his head. "This...monster-"

"Sand Leviathan," Baldur provided for him.

"Sand Leviathan..." Logre repeated before trailing off, looking greatly unsettled. "Was seemingly resurrected by a small group of imperials."

"I see..." Achyuta murmured, also looking rather disturbed by the thought. He then turned his attention to Baldur, his expression lightening a mere fraction when he spied the book in his hands. "Ah, that's the book that Nitish gave you, isn't it, your highness?"

Baldur idly trailed his fingertips over the spell infused leather cover. "It is."

He then turned his attention over to where Bryce was holding Varuna in his arms, Nitish kneeling next to them as he gently held Varuna's hand in his. His expression was a mixture of pain and sadness, almost on the verge of crying.

"There's nothing more I can do here," Isiah was heard saying, his tone surprisingly weary.

Tearing his eyes away from where Varuna was being comforted, Baldur watched as Mahalah cradled Roxbury's head on his lap, running his fingers through his hair as Isiah tightening a bandage around his bared midsection. Roxbury had his eyes closed and he seemed to be breathing deeply, as if the intake of air was also hurting him.

It wouldn't be a surprise if he had several broken ribs. At the very least.

Isiah looked tired, but he still pushed himself to his feet. "Bryce?"

"I'm fine," Bryce immediately answered as he kept his arms wrapped tightly around Varuna, whom of which looked to have fallen unconscious. "Zoran took care of it."

"Hm?"

"Zoran here used a combination of Head Snare, to clot the bleeding in Bryce's neck and Release Heal to heal his injury," Achyuta explained as he looked over at the small vessel, reaching out to place a hand on the little one's shoulder and pushing him forward.

Isiah looked relieved, granting the vessel a small smile. "Great job, Zoran."

"Un." Zoran nodded his head as he tightened his grip on his sceptre. "I've learnt greatly from you and Baldur."

Baldur found himself blinking in surprise. How in the world did he learn anything from him…? Oh, right; test subject. Perfect.

The smile on Isiah's face soon disappeared, however, and he sighed deeply. "Logre. I need you to carry Roxbury for me. He can't put any more pressure on his wounds. Mahalah, ensure he doesn't fall unconscious."

"Right," Logre dutifully replied as he placed his driveblade back into his bag. He was about to holster it upon his shoulder when Falkner tugged his from his grip. With a nod of acceptance, Logre allowed the sniper to carry his belongings before jogging over to where Roxbury rested.

"Easy," Mahalah murmured as he and Achyuta carefully moved Roxbury so that Logre could carry him on his back, positioning him in such a way that it wouldn't cause him further pain.

"Bryce?"

"I've got Varuna," Bryce announced as he effortlessly lifted an unnervingly still Varuna into his arms, cradling him against his chest. "Achyuta, take care of Nitish."

Achyuta was immediately by Nitish's side, helping the fragile blond to his feet before fluently sweeping him up into his arms once more. "Yes, of course," he said as Nitish curled in his arms, wrapping his arms around Achyuta's neck and pressing his face against his shoulder.

"Falkner, I need you to lead us out," Isiah commanded before finally turning to look in Baldur's direction, giving him a very tired look. "Baldur, stay with Zoran."

"Sure," Baldur muttered as he clutched the codex against his chest and allowed the small vessel to take a hold of his hand.

His mind reeled as the large group of them hastily made their way through the labyrinth and to their awaiting airships. What was that creature? What did they mean by resurrection? How was it resurrected? Why was it? Who did it?

The whole event was startling and confusing. What really bothered him the most, though, was the fact that Imperials, his Imperials, seemed to be behind the whole thing!

Why? Why would his Imperials do such a thing?

He wasn't going to overlook this. He couldn't. It was inexcusable. It was deplorable. Those involved…needed to be punished.

But first; he needed to know what the hell was going on!

AN: Let me know what you think!