Chapter 55: Back to Nature.
As Jay strode through the forest he couldn't help but look up at the truly enormous trees towering above their heads and he couldn't help but think to himself that Yautja would truly love to leap from branch to branch in them, they always did love to be up high and these things were massive.
The lower branches which were still a good fifty-odd foot above his head were so thick it looked like Jay could have easily built a full-sized house dead centre of it and still had room on either side of it for a garden.
Jay had always wanted a treehouse, he's seen some of the ones that some of the Yautja chose to live in back home and they always amazed him, though it was predominantly the ecologists that chose to live in the outskirts of the society as they monitored nature and ensured that it was both protected and given all the aid it required to flourish, though now they did have some help from both the Raptorian and Serpentinus immigrants who hadn't joined the military wings of the Clan.
It really did seem that the children of the Great Tree did have a very deep-rooted connection to the essence of nature, infact quite a pack had gone to work on Aiane and Murphy's farm among the farmer Xenos, they'd even built a greenhouse so they could grow some of the crops that been shipped in from their homeworld after they had gone through a very rigorous quarantine and testing by firstly the science hive, then the ecologists and finally the farm hive themselves and once they were all sure that they could be introduced safely without damaging the local ecology they had been set up and planted.
The result had been more and more delicious Raptorian foodstuffs appearing on dinner tables across the Clan, infact the Raptorians grew some of the best mushrooms and onions that Jay had ever tasted in his life, his favourite was something the Raptorians called Sunshrooms which actually didn't grow above ground but glowed bright gold with bio-electricity but were perfectly safe to eat and actually tasted like smoked bacon.
Plus to be fair even though Raptorians weren't exactly his thing when it came to women as he preferred his women to be well bigger, though to be fair it seemed that both the humans and the Yautja were very popular among the Raptorians, infact he'd seen quite a few packs wandering around the city with either a human or a Yautja male at its centre, even a few Xeno boys had been swept off their claws by those sexually aggressive and dominant little women, that's not to say that they were untoward towards their boys hell far from it, infact one of the Saviours he knew called Omar said they were like little Yautja girls wearing scales, they hunted you mercilessly but once they had you they would do everything in their power to not only protect you but to keep you happy and all they asked from you was your love and loyalty which were the cornerstones of the Clan Mason mentality, so very fair and easy trade.
"So umm you have a lot of experience with alien worlds right?" Xao asked suddenly from behind him snapping him out of his little daydream and he shook his head to clear it before turning to look at the young Asian man.
"Well technically no not really but every Saviour is trained for things like this, it's mandatory in the Guardian corps hell it's pretty much mandatory in the schools in the Clan, the Grand Matriarch takes the survival of future generations very seriously, every single child born in Clan Mason is taught the basics of hunting and survival in school hell I know some kids that could figure out how light a fire using nothing but sticks and tree bark before they could tie their own shoes," Jay said with a chuckle.
Xao looked amazed and then disturbed, "Seriously? Jesus what kind of society do you guys have?" he asked.
"The most open and free one you'll ever see anywhere, the whole premise of Can Mason is strength through unity, a place where people are free to be themselves and to find their love's truest desire whether it as scales, skin, is big or small, strong and covered in muscles or lithe and svelte with an air of mystery, female or male the Clan does not judge you it welcomes you all it asks is unwavering loyalty, to become one of us you must either be born into it or earn your place among us, the Clan does not just take anyone everything in the Clan must be earned through hard work and dedication to the principles of the Clan, you see none of the species that make up Clan Mason is truly responsible for it being, the whole thing is the result of the hard work of two people whose incredible love inspired the whole thing," Jay said.
"Two people built a whole world?" Xao exclaimed and Jay nodded.
"Yup, pretty crazy right?" he replied.
"You got that right I mean how is that even possible?" Xao asked obviously fascinated.
"Well to understand us first you must understand the societies that make it up, obviously you have humans and yeah the first generation came from Earth, infact the very first ones to arrive on the Clan homeworld after our Grand Patriarch and Matriarch who are themselves a human male and a Yautja female were rescued from the same planet that the pair of them escaped from originally after they first met, our Grand Patriarch went there to rescue their daughter from bad bloods and they met a whole society of humans living in secret after surviving the hunts of the bad bloods, meanwhile our Grand Matriarch travelled to her old Clan ship to rescue their son who despite being a hybrid started a Yautja love revolution and gave the Clan it's first Xeno queens," Jay said proudly.
Xao looked like Jay had just spoken sixteen languages at him all at the same time before slapping him with a fish, "What?" was the only thing he said and Jay sighed heavily.
"Alright let's unpack so you can understand," he said and with that, he began to explain the history of Clan Mason to Xao as they walked through a seemingly never-ending forest.
Eventually, he finished the story and it was just as they reached the end of story where Jay explained to him the Raptorian wars with the Scalathor and the Clan's part in ending it not to mention ending the Scalathor's threat to the universe as well as their own species they reached a huge mountain that even towered over the trees making them look like planted matchsticks by comparison.
"So wait a single man took down an entire species!?" Xao exclaimed.
"Well, not solo he had his team with him but essentially yeah, trust me Xao there is one thing that being a member of Clan Mason teaches you and that's you do not piss off a Dream Warrior our Seekers of Truth are fucking scary as hell when they get angry, I once saw one of them a little Raptorian male called Remal cut clean through a fucking solid stone pillar with his claws because someone stood on his tail, this guy is just about four foot tall and he cut clean through a four foot thick solid stone pillar that they use in the Seeker temple training grounds for high-speed balance training with a single hit and he didn't even scuff his claws, they are fucking scary I'm just glad they are on our side," Jay said chuckling and shivering at the same time.
"But there are dark ones as well right? Nightmare Assasins you called them?" Xao asked as he stood by Jay's sidle looking up the huge sprawling slope of the mountain before them.
"Yeah, I've never seen them myself but I've seen the vids from the helmet cams of those who have fought them our Grand Patriarch included and they are fucking scary, Dream Warriors went bad and trust me when you put that kind of power in the hands of evil it is truly a terrifying prospect, imagine someone who can dodge bullets and move so fast to your eyes they are essentially nothing more than a streak of light, they can cut your limbs off or your throat before you even see them coming and that's if they are in a good mood, if not they can destroy your mind and soul with their abilities, pray you never see one and if you do pray there is a Seeker at your back because they will be the only ones capable to take them out," Jay said.
"Wow Jesus I just never imagined that the Galaxy was so complex, I mean I always knew that there would be alien races but there are just so many and they are just so different and then this Dream Warrior crap and Gods being real, holy fuck, all I wanted to do was to come out here and start a new life, to build a new world you know?" Xao said with a look of shock on his features.
Jay reached out and planted a reassuring hand on his slender shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze making the young Asian man turn to look at him, "Don't worry Xao I know it can be kinda overwhelming at first but trust me you get used to it very quickly, you just have to keep an open mind and kinda just roll with it" Jay said.
"Whoo yeah not sure how to do that but I'll try I guess," Xao said and Jay nodded.
"That's all anyone can ask of you Xan and believe me when I say it will get easier I mean yeah sure I know I have a biased opinion as I was born into it but even so I've seen others like the Raptorians, Serpentinus and even freed Scalathor so I've seen what it's like for new people to have to adapt to having a whole world full of strange faces all around them and having to come to terms with it so yeah I have some experience and one of the major roles of Saviours is to make people feel safe and secure and while technically you are not of our people or our Clan Saviours do not discriminate, we protect anybody and everybody who needs us to, that is the way of Clan Mason," Jay said proudly and Xao smiled.
"Well you already proved that when you dragged my arse through the atmosphere of this planet, I never in my life imagined seeing something like that let alone experiencing it for myself, I mean hell there I was spinning off into space thinking that's it I'm dead, I'm done and then out of no-where you just appeared like an armoured angel and you hit the pod and carried me through the atmosphere to safety, so yeah thank you for that" Xao said with very genuine emotion in his voice and Jay smiled warmly.
"You are most welcome, now come on, let's go and find ourselves some cover, the night is coming and we need to get set up before it hits" as we have no idea about this worlds climate or its nighttime predators," Jay said pointing up the mountain away towards what looked to be some caves set into the side opposite small patch of much smaller trees just outside but it was going to be a bit of a walk in the open as the forest was rather sparse and patchy on the side of the mountain, not really growing on the slopes themselves but on any little plateaus that littered the slopes, but it did mean they were going to have to move through the open a fair bit.
As they emerged from the forest the first thing that greeted them was the warmth of the sunlight, it licked over their exposed skin bathing them in its warm golden glow, Jay couldn't help but enjoy the warmth of it penetrating his skin, well what little skin was showing anyway as his undersuit covered the majority of his body leaving only his hands and head uncovered.
Xao was a little more nervous about stepping out into the open but then he wasn't armed with a high powered battle rifle now, was he?
The walk up the side of the mountain was tough going as it started off gradual but it quickly steepened the closer they drew to the caves, fortunately they had managed to recover both his own rations from the armoured pouches of his destroyed battle suit which had initiated its self destruct after ejecting from him to not leave a single shred of usable or reverse engineerable material for anyone to find, the Clan had a rule about technology, if they did not give it to you then you do not get to use it.
So all their tech had been programmed to self destruct if it received unrepairable damage, which thanks to Raptorian nanotech that they had happily exchanged with the Clan in the early days of their partnership and the science hive had been soaking their proverbial Xeno sized panties to get their hands on it as it had pretty much endless applications, in everything from medical tech to weapons tech even down to manufacturing and farming.
But the pouches containing his emergency rations and his water recyclers did not self-destruct as these were emergency survival tools, just like his wrist comp did not self destruct giving him access to more processing power to his implanted translator as well as other functions like local mapping by use of laser scanning and high-frequency ultrasound which worked like bat sonar, this also had a secondary effect of tracking movement in a very localised area, now while not as precise or as powerful as the movement tracker his suit had it was a very useful substitute in a pinch.
Finally, Xao and Jay reached the plateau that the caves opened onto, Xao was panting like a hot fire tiger and he doubled over placing his hands on his thighs, after a few gasping breaths he reached for his water bottle which he'd salvaged from the emergency rations that were held within his escape pod, they had a week's worth of dried high-calorie survival food each which was not much in the grand scheme of things.
"I-I-I need to rest, Jesus how do you just keep going like this? You're like a fucking machine!" Xao panted and Jay smiled as he sat himself down on a rock that sat on the outskirt of the large ring of trees.
"Saviour training is incredibly demanding Xao, to become one of us you have to be the best our Matriach Sela eleth Mason demands our best and nothing less, we are all things to all people on our homeworld so we have to be trained in countless different things, then when you take into account that one of the jobs we do is police and you may very well have to subdue an angry Yautja girl strength, endurance and combat training have to be as high as possible" Jay said proudly.
"Yeah from what you told me these Yautja seem like a very nasty bunch," Xao said moving over and sitting down next to him.
Jay chuckled softly and shook his head, "I may have made them sound worse than they are but I was trying to give you respect for them, their entire society is based on honour and the honourable hunt, principles that have bled into the very basis of our society, hell even the claiming of a male mate is held but something we call the mate hunt, a great hunt made up of multiple females who chase down a single male and the winner is the one who catches him, if they are worthy of course if it's the reverse and multiple males have designs on a single female a battle royale is held and the winner is the last man standing, but to be fair they are much rarer, the girls of Clan Mason aren't exactly shy wallflowers" Jay said making him thing of both Vessi and Kess'all mournfully, he really hoped they were safe and alright.
"Jesus, you make it sound like the guys on your world are prey or something?" Xao said and Jay roared with laughter and nodded.
"Truer than you realise but it's not a bad thing really," he said and Xao looked at him through the side of his eye.
"How the hell is that not a bad thing?" Xao asked.
"Because you do not have to kill prey Xao, the girls of my world simply like to have a good hunt, it takes the chase and simply makes it quite literal, it also takes away ambiguity, it takes away uncertainty, it places the choice in the hands of the Eternal Huntress and lets her decide who is worthy to hold our heart for life and she has never once failed us," Jay said and Xao looked amazed.
"So what no breakups? No divorce?" Xao asked in a truly incredulous voice and Jay looked at him in confusion.
"Divorce? What's that?" he asked curiously, he was sure he'd heard this word before but he was not sure where.
"You know, divorce, where two people who were in love and got married fall out of love and decide that they do not wish to be married anymore so they split up and get divorced, have their marriage annulled" Xao clarified.
Jay looked at him like the man had just spit on him, "That sounds truly monstrous and no there is no such thing within Clan Mason, take our Grand Patriarch and Matriarch, the pair of them have been married a couple of hundred years by now, same for our Matriarch Sela eleth Mason and before you ask human life expectancies are a lot longer in the Clan thanks to our medical tech, couple of hundred years to be exact" Jay said and now looked truly shock.
"Well talk about blowing my world view apart, Jesus the more I learn about you guys the more jealous I get and to think we came out here to build a new world, a better world and it already fucking existed and was just hidden in the depths of space, fuck I wish we'd found you before all of this," Xao said sounding forlorn.
"Only those worthy find the Clan it's part of what the Yautja call the journey of the unchained heart, no one just finds Clan Mason, we make sure of it, but those who follow the clues hidden in the words of our Grand Matriarch are able to contact us and then we will set a meeting and find you and if you are worthy she will break your chains and bring you to the Clan where you will be welcomed with open arms and your freedom will truly begin, but don't you worry Xao both you and your sister will be welcomed by the Clan, you survived a truly horrific act of cowardice and genocide, one that the Clan WILL see punished you mark my words and as for the two of you, well you will be brought before our Grand Patriarch and Matriarch and they will determin if you are worthy to join us but from what I have already seen I have no doubts you'll be welcome," Jay said and Xao nodded and seemed to brighten up at Jay's words as they showed his belief that his sister was alive.
"Come on we'd better get into the cave, I want to secure us a place to rest and we're going to need to do things like gather firewood and make a place to sleep before nightfall," Jay said patting his shoulder and rising up to his feet, Xao groaned but didn't argue, he simply got to his feet and followed Jay up to the mouth of the large cave at the head of the plateau.
No sooner had they stepped over the threshold something caught Jay's attention, "Hey look at this" he said and he knelt down to look at the floor and he ran his hand over the smooth rock of the floor.
"Whatcha got?" Xao asked looking down over his shoulder.
"Odd scuff marks on the floor, they look like a track to me," he said feeling the slight roughness under his fingertips where the ground was scuffed.
"Tracks? Like something has passed through here?" Xao asked and Jay nodded.
"And quite regularly based on the marks I'm seeing here though what could make marks like this I'm not quite sure they almost look like hoof marks to me," Jay said trying to use his hand to measure the distance between the sides of the scuffs which were bigger than his whole hand, whatever made these scuffs was big and rather heavy.
"Hooves?" Xao asked and Jay nodded both sharing the same confused look on their faces.
"Yeah and by the volume of them I'd say these caves are some kind of throughway, like a path or a road possibly," Jay said.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to camp here? I mean I'm not much of a survivalist but I'm pretty sure camping on a game trail is not the best idea in the world" Xao said looking at the long line of scuffs that disappeared into the darkness.
"Normally I'd agree but I don't see that we have a lot of choices, though from what I'm seeing here it looks like they are bipedal," Jay said and Xao cocked his head curiously.
"Bipedal, as in two-legged? Like people?" he asked and Jay nodded.
"Quite possible but without seeing one I can't be sure obviously," Jay said.
Xao looked kinda worried but he nodded, Jay followed the scuff marks up to a tunnel that lead off into the pitch blackness of what appeared to be a tunnel and by the look of the tool marks in the stone of the walls it had been carved out, quite possibly out an already existing cave network but the existence of tool marks indicated intelligent beings which could be a blessing or a curse.
He also noticed that the line of light made by the sun entering the cave was rapidly retreating towards the entrance, "Looks like we are out of time, we need to secure this place and gather both firewood and something to sleep on, it's going to be a rough night but we'll do what we can alright?" Jay said and Xao though looking doubtful nodded all the same.
The pair of them left the cave to head down to the forest to look for wood for both the fire and thanks to Xao finding rather a lot of large branches as temporary beds, Jay was thankful that his combat knife had survived the crash as every good Saviour knew that a good strong blade was an essential survival tool in the wilderness and not just for defence but for near everything, from cutting and shaping twine from vines and tree fronds to lighting fires.
So having cut as much vine as they could find and indeed carry the pair ferried the smaller piles they had made all around the forest the pair created a much larger pile back at the cave, the first priority was to have fire so that they would have both light and also heat, it would also help to keep any potential wild animals at bay as most creatures had an innate fear of it.
They set aside the branches they intended to use for bedding then everything else was split using Jay's blade and rocks, thankfully Clan mason blades were incredibly strong and sharp, it was a proud claim that any blade that was forged by the Grand Patriarch himself never dulled no matter how many times it was used or on what, it was said that the both of his kids and the Grand Matriarch herself had blades that were forged when they first met infact she had sets of wrist blades made at the same time that she still used and proudly so.
Jay sat the strips of dry bark that he had cut from a few trees between his legs and gently he rubbed the blade up and down creating a fluffy kindling made from the dry shavings, once he had a big enough pile he put it under a pile of dry twigs and sticks that would act as the ignition, the next thing he took out was a striker stick made from flint which he placed at the base of the pile of kindling.
Using a very practised method he struck the stick with the very edge of the blade making white-hot sparks jump from it, little blue smoke trails marking their path to the ground below them, a few of them landed right in the pile of kindling and it began to smoulder.
Quickly Jay scooped it up and bunched it up in his cupped hands before blowing on it gently at first but then harder as the smoke began to plume and the first licks of golden flames began to peek through before bursting into bright golden flames which Jay quickly tucked under the sticks causing them to crackle and then ignite.
Only minutes later the decent-sized fire crackled, popped and roared along happily, bathing the whole cave in a warm golden light providing enough light for them to work, the pair of them wove and bound the branches they had collected together while also stringing the vines across the centre of the frame in a repeating pattern, which wound tight enough created a hammock-like centrepiece that was strong enough to support their weight.
Once done they had a pair of modified A-frame style beds that could be used with or without a mattress which they had provided with as many large fern-like leaves that they could manage though only after Jay had poison testing them which without his scanning tools and testing kits had to be done old school, this involved rubbing a tiny amount of the sap on bare skin and waiting a few minutes to see if there was a reaction if there was none a second test was performed and if this was negative they were ok, which they were.
Jay had also set up a couple of tripwire and noisemaker traps in both the cave entrance as well as in the tunnel entrance, now the beds were not exactly as comfortable as the beds at the Saviour barracks but there was a damn sight better than the floor.
So with the fire fully stocked with thick long burn logs the pair ate some dry food from their survival rations, now survival rations are not like meal kits, they are a condensed form designed to fit into pouches, they are basically high energy and high-calorie bars which will keep a person alive in a pinch, they are long-lasting and small which is perfect for fitting inside a soldier's pouches.
The ones from the pod were just larger versions much like MRE kits which could be eaten hot or cold, they had chemical packs designed to heat them up by using water to kick off a chemical reaction but Xao had wisely decided to keep the water and eat his food cold though by the look on his face they weren't exactly appetising.
After their basic meal, the pair decided to bed down for the night, "Do you think your people will find us in time?" Xao asked from his bunk to Jay's right.
Jay looked over at him, "Undoutably, Clan mason has the best hunters in the entire universe and the second they find out what has happened you will see Saviour, Hunter and Seeker drop pods raining down on this plant like fucking meteors, we do not leave our people behind or in trouble, it is the oath we all swear, every Saviour, Hunter and Seeker is both my brothers and my sisters and they stand for me as I stand for them, together we are both united and we are strong, so yes Xao I have zero doubts the Clan will come for us and when they do they will turn over every single rock on this plant if that is what it takes to find us because one other rule of the Clan is no member of the Clan will ever be buried anywhere else other than Clan mason's sacred soil, it is our birth right to rest in the soil we gave our lives to defend so that our mortal shells will give new life to the soil that gave us life, it is the way of the Clan" Jay said proudly.
It was odd he had grown up hearing these mantras and oaths his whole life and even though he had always understood them it was nowhere in this cave light years away from his beloved home that he felt the weight of them and a small part of his soul wondered just how Xipa Longclaw must have felt when she had called upon that most sacred of all of the oaths of Clan Mason, the Dark Star.
How must she have felt uttering those most revered and scared of words, words that would call the entire weight of Clan Mason to bear to attack and to defend like a giant celestial hammer brought down on the heads of enemies unknown, to bring every single one of her brothers and her sisters running to her side ready to defend her with everything they had and to attack anyone who would do her or those under her protection with the sheer fury that only a people untied by that powerful belief could achieve.
He couldn't help but smile as the images of that response made what they would send for them look like someone's birthday or hatch day fireworks inside his mind, infact it was with these warm images he slowly drifted off to sleep with his final silent words being a prayer to the Eternal Huntress to watch over his brothers and sisters and to guide them safely back to each other's sides and then to deliver them back into the arms of the Clan safely and should anyone have hurt them to guide his brother and sister Saviours right to their door to avenge them with righteous and swift fury.
With a snort, Jay woke up and he looked around himself rapidly his mind struggling to remember exactly where it was currently, finally it reconnected and his memories swam back into place and he sighed heavily letting his headrest back down on his makeshift bed, to his left Xao yawned loudly and his bed creaked as he turned over.
Finally, the pair got themselves in gear and woke up properly, jay checked the traps while Xao had the idea to break down their beds and convert them into carrying packs so that they could take them with them, he figured that it would be worth the entombment to have something better than the ground to sleep on as he figured it could take them a day or two to get through the cave network to the other side and these would not only allow them to take the beds by also the remaining surplus firewood, Jay had agreed that this was an excellent idea.
So once they'd broken camp they broke out the torches and they made a couple of flame style torches from a couple of shorter cut off branches along with some cut rags soaked in tree sap and wound with a vine which while they wouldn't last for long would be better than nothing, but they hoped that the batteries of their solar emergency torches would last underground.
So with all this done the pair of them ventured through the entrance of the tunnel and into the surprisingly large carved rock tunnel, it was pitch black beyond it and the only light came from their little torches and they did not really reveal much.
Jay had his torch clipped into the mounting directly under the barrel of his weapon as he moved, he also now had the low power laser targeting system active which shone a red laser dot forwards from the weapon to assist in quick aiming and acquisition of target in close range, it was an aid designed to operate in the absence of his smart targeting systems.
It cast a little red dot onto the walls of the tunnel which also bounced off in places where there was either water or reflective volcanic glass in the tunnel wall, but it was what was at the end of the tunnel that truly shocked the pair because the tunnel opened out into a massive underground chamber that their torches simply could not reach into the depths of to see what was hidden in the darkness, but what they could see shocked the pair of them.
"What the hell is this!?" Xao exclaimed looking up at the incredibly intricately carved walled of what appeared to be an archway that led into a pathway beyond it.
" proof that there is or at least was a sentient species present on this planet and I'd say it's safe to say they are not human," Jay said and Xao looked at him curiously until he saw what Jay's torch beam was lighting up and his eyes widened.
"T-T-That's a fucking Minotaur!" Xao exclaimed and jay looked at him curiously.
"Minotaur?" he asked and Xao looked at him in surprise before his expression softened and he nodded.
"Oh yeah not from Earth, have to keep reminding myself of that, well the Minotaur was a myth from a place called Greece where in ancient times they believed a mighty creature that was supposed to be half-human half-bull protected a giant labyrinth and well it looked exactly like that" Xao said pointing at one of the giant carvings and jay looked up and just like he said the carving was of a giant humanoid ovine stood holding out what looked like a giant axe the tip of which was touching the tip of another axe held by another of these Minotaurs through this one by the shape of which was female.
They were dressed in what appeared to be pretty heavy plate armour and Jay could feel his breath being taken away by the incredible detail of these carvings, "Well I guess we don't really have any other options other than to go in" Jay said and Xao looked at him in shock.
"What!? Are you crazy!?" he exclaimed.
"Well, it's either that or go back and given that we've come this far that means we are back to square one only with one day less food and water," he said.
Xao looked between him and the archway but before he could argue Jay moved through it with his weapon in the shoulder and from behind him he heard Xao swear before he rushed to keep up, "If this turns out to be a fucking labyrinth I am so fucking blaming you" Xao said and Jay chuckled and that's when he saw the narrow corridors and turns, it fucking was a labyrinth as well, what were the chances of that?
So with Xao following him so closely that he was pretty much wearing him as luggage Jay took a deep breath and ventured deeper into the carved narrow passageways, trusting in the Eternal Huntress to guide him through this, whatever this was.
IT took them what felt like hours to reach the centre of the labyrinth, its twists, turns and infuriating dead ends constantly making them double back the way they'd come, but between the pair of them and once he'd finally got him to quit bitching about being lost and to help him figure out to make themselves unlost they finally made it to the centre, but what they found there made him wish they had fucking listened to Xao in the beginning.
At the very centre of the labyrinth was a large room walled in on all sides but with a series of arches much like the one they had entered through, directly in the centre of the large room their torch beams found what appeared to be a huge stone altar with large pools of black all over it, but it wasn't that that really caught their eye, it was the figure that was stood next to it dressed in what looked to be black robes.
Jay trained his weapon and light on the figure though by the size of them they were not one of these massive ovine creatures they'd seen in the carvings, well that and they appeared to have a massive thick tail on the floor behind them.
"Hey! I'm a Clan Mason Savior! Put your hands up and turn around to face me slowly, any show of aggression will be met with force!" Jay yelled in his best authoritative voice.
Slowly the figure turned but they made no attempts to raise their hands infact when they turned Jay was able to see that they were holding a rather vicious and wicked-looking black long sword in their right hand.
"Drop the weapon!" Jay yelled raising his laser dot to the centre of the figure's chest where most species had their heart, but when the figure lifted its head Jay's heart froze like solid ice in his chest.
"Oh fuck! Xao run!" he yelled.
"What? Why? What's wrong? Xao asked in rapid-fire.
"It's a fucking Nightmare Assassin! Fucking RUN!" Jay boomed so loud his voice echoed around the place as the Scalathor tore its hood down and howled a laugh into the darkness behind them.