AN: Finally heading towards the nitty-gritty of this series! Two new characters to meet and they're not quite what you'd expect, hopefully~ Anyway hope you enjoy!

Chapter 20:

When Drayce and his guildmates entered the labyrinth, Drayce noticed that there appeared to be quite a few novice explorers loitering about. They lingered mostly in the western side of the staircase. Either checking out the fishing point, gossiping about the sealed door, or admiring the beautiful lush scenery. Perhaps all three at once.

It was good to see that other explorers were in the labyrinth as they made their attempt at the first mission on their own. More explorers meant more money filtering back into the city. It was a good thing.

And yet a part of Drayce felt a little wary. More people meant less chance for him to pull out the Moon Legacy without possibly arousing suspicions or interest from others. He also worried that the bandits may use the wandering explorers to their advantage to blend in. He may just be a tad paranoid, but he thought it would be better safe than sorry.

Well, nothing he could do about it.

"Morning, Virgil!" Drayce shouted his greeting as he waved a hand toward the guard.

Virgil immediately looked up from his chickens and a genuine smile spread across his lips. "Ah, good morning," he greeted warmly when Drayce and the others stood before him. "Another day in the labyrinth?"

"That's right," Drayce answered before he felt a familiar tug and glanced down to find that familiar chicken once again picking at his shoelaces. "Good morning to you, too, Deloris."

Virgil chuckled as he bent down to scoop the lively chicken into his arm once again. "She's certainly taken a liking to you," he said with a sense of humour in his voice as he allowed the hen to sit in the crook of his elbow. "How are you progressing with your first mission?"

"Haven't completed it fully yet," Drayce admitted with a shrug. "Been a little…busy, you know? The map is coming along great, though, and we managed to snag a sapling, so I like to think we're progressing nicely."

"Oh, good," Virgil said as he nodded his head idly. "Hoping to gather the soil sample today?"

Drayce nodded his head. "That's out goal. Need to do things by the books, right?"

"Yes, that is very true," Virgil replied around a small chuckle. "It's good to see that you're so dedicated."

Drayce granted him a smile as he glanced around to see a few more guilds roaming around in the background behind the guard. "A few rookies roaming about, I see."

Virgil idly glanced around as well as he nodded his head. "Oh yes, there's been an influx of them lately," he said as he glanced over at Drayce only for his gaze to flicker to look over his shoulder. "I best get to work. I do wish you good fortune for today."

"Thanks, we'll be sure to make it out in one piece so don't worry," Drayce said in return as he set about stepping aside to allow a new guild to speak with the friendly guard. "Hopefully we won't have to play the hero again."

"I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to step in again if the need arises," Virgil said with a smile.

"Yeah, won't turn our backs on anyone," Drayce said as he motioned for his guild to move with him. "We'll catch you later."

"Virgil seems as content as usual," Kamali commented lightly as they head deeper into the labyrinth.

"He does," Drayce agreed before musing to himself. "I guess that means he hasn't seen anything suspicious. Not that he would be able to notice too much when dealing with those new guilds and not to mention his chickens."

"So, what's the game plan now?" Blayke asked, always so serious and determined.

Drayce idly traced his finger over the wooden case containing the Moon Legacy that was hidden in his coat. "Let's head north," he said.

That was, after all, the direction they found Caelem running from. He didn't want to pull out the Moon Legacy unless absolutely necessary. He also wanted to make sure that no one else was around when he did just that. Just in case.

"Right," Blayke said as he glanced suspiciously at their surroundings.

They fell into a comfortable and reasonable silence as they began to trek further into the lush green woods. With Drayce at the forefront of the group and with Nashoba trotting silently behind him, he led them through the winding pathways. The large clearing in the centre of the floor soon came into view and they paused momentarily to survey their surroundings.

As they headed in a northerly direction Drayce began to notice that the crowds of explorers slowly begin to dwindle. And as they pushed through a set of large stone doors, they were seemingly alone.

Good. He wanted to check on the Moon Legacy to see if there was any reaction from it.

A low growl pulled Drayce out of his thoughts and he glanced down to find their guild's wolf staring forward, head low and heckles raised.

"Nashoba?" Faelen said as he placed a hand on Nashoba's back and crouched down next to him.

"What's wrong?" Drayce asked.

Faelen lifted his gaze away from Nashoba to look up at Drayce but paused and instead focused on the path before them. His ears twitched for a moment before they folded back slightly and his shoulders hunched with unease. "There's someone else here," he whispered.

Drayce immediately felt his protective heckles rise and he grasped his shield tightly as he took to the very front of the group. "…Stay behind me," he murmured.

Whoever was there with them, it could just be a guild of rookies like them, simply completing the first mission. But the way Nashoba was growling, whoever was with them they were Drayce was certain they weren't friendly.

"Come out," Drayce commanded. "We know you're there."

After a moment, footsteps were heard. And from around a corner of the path, two figures stepped out.

One was a tall, probably over six foot tall, with bulging muscles and a large scar across his bare chest. Green and black hair and tanned skin. His face was chiselled with hard edges and his eyes were quite small, beady even. He wore a pair of shorts that reached his knees and had armlets that gave the indication that he was a pugilist.

The other was much, much shorter and barely dressed. A hoodie with the zipper connected at the very bottom of the jacket but that was it. Other than a pair black boots, they wore absolutely nothing else. Their eyes were pitched black as was their hair. They were obviously classed as a necromancer, not just because of the dark green skin and multiple scars, but the two large coffins that they carried on either side of them.

They certainly didn't look they were ready to traverse the labyrinth. Drayce knew that many were averse to armour of any kind. Still, he felt extremely cautious. Did they simply dislike armour and were being foolish, or were they skilled enough that they didn't need it?

Regardless, he immediately felt a protective bristle race down his spine when the two stood directly in their path.

"Let me guess; bandits, right?" Drayce state more so than asked.

"We prefer adventurers," the short necromancer immediately replied with a grin.

Drayce was honestly taken aback by the necromancer's voice. Despite their short, scrawny stature their voice was the deepest he had ever heard. Low, rumbly, and gruff. Purely masculine. And by the voice alone, Drayce was going to assume that they were male. He wasn't completely certain, though. Still, the deepness of his voice was almost comical.

But the humour was overridden by annoyance that they would refer to themselves as adventurers. He was fairly certain that this necromancer was the one that Caelem warned them about. He had better test his theory first.

"Adventurers don't go kidnapping others," Drayce said simply.

The grin on the necromancer's face widened. "And how do you know?" he returned with a tilt of his head.

Damn it. He was right. This deep-voiced necromancer was the one responsible for what happened to Caelem. And he obviously had no problem with it as that grin of his was simply malicious.

Drayce felt his eyes narrow in protectiveness as he stared at the necromancer. "Oh, I know."

"Cut the shit," Blayke practically growled. "What do you want?"

The necromancer ignored the demand and insist returned with a question of his own. "Where's the therian? The one you nobly saved?"

Did they…witness that? Or was that just a lucky guess?

"Somewhere safe, obviously," Blayke snapped as he took a half step forward, obviously riled up by the two before them.

Drayce reach out an arm in front of Blayke, his arm hitting him square in the chest. Blayke kept his angry gaze on the two but took that half step back. With Blayke at a safer distance, Drayce pushed himself forward to allow himself to be the main focus of the two. The necromancer appeared to be the one in charge, at least out of the two of them. The muscular pugilist hadn't uttered a word. In fact he barely moved, other than to stare them all down.

"Look, we don't know what you want nor do we care," Drayce said. "Get out of our way; we've got things to do. Unlike you, we're interested in following the rules and finishing the first mission."

Once more the necromancer deflected their words. "You know what that Therian was carrying, don't you?"

Despite trying not to, Drayce felt himself go tense and he inwardly hoped it wasn't visible. "Carrying?"

"A spell," he continued with that malicious grin unfaltering. "On his back."

Drayce stared hard at the necromancer, his eyes narrowing. "...You could read it?"

Somehow his smile grew in wickedness. "Maybe."

Despite the seeming smugness, Drayce immediately knew that he was bluffing. He wouldn't have confronted them about Caelem if they knew about the Moon Legacy. "Heh, I'll take that as a no," he said as a confident smile spread across his lips.

Finally that grin he necromancer wore faltered. "And you can?" he accused.

"Nope, I can't," Drayce immediately replied with a careless shrug. "Even if I could I wouldn't tell you anything."

"Drayce?" Faelen whispered with a quiver in his voice as he tugged on the sleeve of his jacket.

"It's all right," Drayce said automatically as he reached out with his hand to subtly push Faelen behind him in order to keep the attention focused solely on him and not his guildmates. "Just stay behind me. I'll handle this; you guys keep a look out."

"Ok," Faelen relented as he moved from his sight.

"So what if he had a spell on his back?" Drayce demanded as he took a half step towards them. "What's it to you?"

The necromancer idly dropped the coffin halves to the ground and shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. "Haven't you heard the rumours?"

"There are lots of rumours about the labyrinth," Drayce retorted. "You're going to need to be more specific."

The green-skinned celestian twitched and his face creased into a barely restrained look of sheer annoyance. "You're a wise guy, huh?" he muttered.

Drayce shrugged carelessly. "Also a wild card, apparently."

Again, he twitched. "You're getting annoying."

The green-haired pugilist suddenly lifted his arms and folded them tightly over his chest in a somewhat intimidating way. "I dun know nothing about no other rumours but there's a treasure chest of money and jewels here and stuff," he unexpectedly said.

Drayce felt himself blink. The man's voice was an octave higher than that of his companion, but still quite deep and husky nonetheless. He also sounded surprisingly honest.

"Oi, shut up!" the necromancer immediately yelled. His conceited and overly confident facade crumbled somewhat as he turned to chide his companion, bristling rather comically at him.

"Don't you yell at me!" the pugilist yelled back at the necromancer in a truly disgruntled manner, also bristling as he leaned way forward so that he could be eye level with the short celestian. "So what? It's not a secret or nothing."

Although the two were slowly becoming less intimidating, Drayce still felt incredibly cautious towards them.

"Treasure chest of jewels, huh?" Drayce murmured. "I think I remember hearing something about that. About an ancient cache of jewels lying at the bottom of a lake."

The pugilist immediately perked up and looked over at Drayce with a wide-eyed expression. "Yeah, that's the one!" he said surprisingly eagerly.

"Shut up!" the necromancer once again yelled as he tried to lash his foot out at him to kick him.

But when his foot made contact with the pugilist's leg, he barely even moved. He didn't seem to even acknowledge the kick. However the necromancer certainly felt it and he soon turned his back to them to obviously nurse his foot. And the pugilist remained unmoved.

"I guess in your mind that's worth kidnapping someone for," Drayce commented.

"Of course it is," the celestian retorted as he stood up, shoved his hands into his pockets once more and slouched his shoulders in a supposedly dark, edgy way as he turned to face him. "Money makes the world go round, after all."

Ok, so they didn't seem to know anything about the Radiant Moon or the Forgotten Princess. Good. But that meant they just made an assumption about Caelem. Literally a wild guess. Which was a little more disturbing, honestly. Unpredictable and hasty. Not a good combination.

He needed to know more about them before he could think of some kind of counter or game plan to deal with them. He hoped the pugilist would blurt out the information needed.

"So, tell me; are you part of a guild or are you a travelling duo?" Drayce asked.

The necromancer grinned. "Oh, are you-?"

"Hey, we have an awesome guild name!" the pugilist shouted with fiery indignity. "Don't you know who we are? We're Brigands!"

"Isn't that just another word for bandits?" Fiorello was heard idly commenting from behind Drayce.

And Blayke snorted lightly. "Honestly, their name should be Shirtless. It would make more sense."

Fiorello chuckled. "They do seem to have an aversion towards clothes."

"Hey!" the necromancer bristled comically and stamped his foot childishly on the ground. "I look awesome!"

"You certainly look like something, but I'm too polite to say what exactly," Fiorello responded in a sing-song and incredibly cheeky manner.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Drayce wasn't sure what he meant either, but he let the two to their bickering as he carefully and subtly surveyed their surroundings. Let Fiorello get under the celestian's skin and keep him busy. The insults were childish, no doubt, but they were distracting and that was what he needed.

The two before them acted nothing like what Drayce had expected the band of bandits that kidnapped Caelem to act like. But Caelem mentioned that there were others. A necromancer and a pugilist were the two that he remembered. And if they were as boisterous then as they were currently, then it was no surprised he remembered them.

They were just a comedy duo. It was the other nameless faces he mentioned that had Drayce worried.

However, he couldn't see anyone else. Just these two. And that's a little unsettling in of itself. Were they overly confident, or were they actually quite skilled? Drayce didn't particularly want to find out, but he might not have a choice in the matter.

"Whoever you are, I've never heard of you," Drayce said as he regained the centre of attention.

"Come on, our boss is super famous!" the pugilist reacted in the similar way as his companion did but bristling wildly and stomping his foot on the ground. "Don't lie!"

"Would you shut up?!" the necromancer hollered once more.

Boss? So there were more of them. Figures.

"So you have names, too?" Drayce continued with his subtle interrogation. "Or should we call you Pantless and Shirtless?"

"Oh, I'm Bronson and that's Tomlin," the pugilist introduced rather politely.

Tomlin sighed loudly as his shoulders sagged in a mixture of exasperation and annoyance. He slapped a hand against his forehead and ran it over his face. He obviously put up with a lot and no doubt Bronson often interfered with his dark, edgy persona.

Yup, a comedy duo. Too bad they were bandits otherwise Drayce may have liked them.

"Oi, Lunkhead, don't just stand there," Tomlin finally said as he straightened his posture. "Show them what us bandits are capable of."

Bronson frowned. "Hey, I ain't taking any orders from you," he said as he folded his arms tightly over his chest in a stubbornly manner. "I only listen to the Boss."

Tomlin's eye twitched. "He ain't here now, is he? So get to work already you useless lump of shit."

"I said I aint taking orders from you!"

"Dumbass!" Tomlin shrilled and bristled as he spun around to face the much taller earthlain. He then unexpectedly drew in a sharp breath through his nose as if to calm himself. "Think about how happy your precious Boss will be if we return with a priceless treasure."

Bronson immediately perked up and seemed genuinely interested in making this Boss person happy. "Huh? The Boss would be happy?"

"Is everything you do for the boss only?" Tomlin muttered before he spun around to face Drayce and the others again and pointed dramatically at them. "Jeez. Look, just punch someone already!"

"Alright!" Bronson hollered with enthusiasm.

Great. Just what they needed.

"So much for doing this by the book," Drayce murmured as he reached for his cannon with one hand while the other grasped at his shield. "Let's get ready to kick some ass, guys."

"Right!"