The chamber was covered with the remains of dead monsters, ones which had already melted down into piles of goo. We hadn’t killed these monsters though. That had been done by the players we were chasing.

When we’d first started following them through the Labyrinth, the trail had been old, to the point that we were close to losing it entirely. Most of the monsters had melted away entirely, leaving no trace that they had ever been there, but enough traces of goo remained that we’d been able to follow the trail. Now, the remains were fresher. All of the puddles of goo remained. Slowly but surely, we were catching up.

I looked over at Olivia, who was rapidly writing notes in her notebook, ones that would help us find our way back once we were finished. Without her notes, we had a much higher chance of getting lost in the Labyrinth and perhaps eventually popping out in Bolivia or Romania.

While we waited on Olivia, I looked around, absently touching the knife on my belt as I did so. That wasn’t the dagger, which was also sheathed on my belt, but the combat knife that I’d taken off Nash before we’d entered the Labyrinth. It was too late for me to do anything for Nash, except for sticking his knife into the man who’d killed him. That much, I could still do.

I noticed that Ramirez was leaning on her spear, watching me with a thoughtful expression. I’d caught her doing that a couple times since she’d figured out who I was, or at least, who I used to be.

“What is it?” I asked Ramirez, deciding to just get this over with.

Ramirez squirmed a little awkardly. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just hard to believe that you’re Carl Upton. I mean, I saw your body. I spent the last month reading up on your career.”

“I’m not that person anymore,” I reminded her with a sigh. “Not really. Dying and having a new body both change things.”

“I get it,” Ramirez responded. “At least a little.” She paused at that and then shook her leg. “You know, I never would have guessed that you used to be a guy.”

“None of us are who we used to be,” Bunny said, giving Ramirez a flat look. “And bringing up a player’s past is considered bad manners.”

“Or just rude,” Ace said.

“Some people prefer not to think about who they used to be,” Turtle added. “Or what they lost.”

“Most of us prefer to just focus on who we are now,” Olivia said. “On our new lives.”

“I’m sorry,” Ramirez apologized again, seeming sincere. “It’s just a bit to wrap my head around.”

“You know,” Turtle said, looking self-conscious. “I used to be a woman.”

“Really?” Ramirez asked in surprise. “I never would have guessed.”

Turtle nodded. “I was completely straight, with husband, kids, and the whole white picket fence thing. But now…” He paused and gave an embarrassed smile. “I’m a guy. A straight guy. I like women and have absolutely no interest in other guys.” Then he paused again before adding, “I’ve become a completely different person, and I’m comfortable with who I am. THIS is who I am now.”

“I was Korean,” Olivia abruptly added as she stared down at her dark hands. She smiled a little self-consciously. “Korean American. None of my family have actually gone back to Korea since my grandparents left in the sixties.”

Ace shrugged, looking almost smug. “I didn’t really change all that much.”

“Unfortunately,” Bunny added with a faint smirk.

“Like I said,” Bunny told Ramirez. “None of us are quite who we used to be.”

I just nodded at that, knowing how true her words were. It was easier to simply not think about my old life, so I could focus on my new one and who I was becoming now. It was easier to accept and even embrace my new self when nobody else had any idea about the person I’d once been, so having my old identity revealed was a bit…uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about it now.

It wasn’t like I could just forget about my old life anyway. The person I had been still defined the one I was now, and as Ramirez had pointed out, that kind of experience didn’t go away just because I had a new body. Besides, I still had unfinished business from that life, business that had intruded right into the middle of my new one.

“Come on,” I announced as I started walking again. “We don’t want to lose any of the progress we made by standing around and chatting.”

----------

I looked over the monster bodies. There were only three of them, but they were each the size of elephants. However, what caught my attention about these bodies the most wasn’t the scales or tentacles, but the fact that they were still intact. They were fresh enough that they had yet to melt into goo.

“They’re taking time to kill every monster in their way,” Ramirez announced in a clinical tone.

“Good for us,” I agreed. “It’s not only leaving a trail for us to follow, but is also slowing them down enough for us to catch up.”

“Yeah,” Bunny said as she poked at one of the bodies with her scepter. She scrunched up a nose. “These ones haven’t been dead very long, so we’re definitely catching up.”

I nodded at that as I looked around. Then my eyes locked on Turtle, who was bent over to retie his boot laces, or more accurately, my eyes locked onto his ass. He had a damn nice ass, and though it was hard to make out with his armor, his muscles were really nice too. My body started to respond to those thoughts so I had to look away.

Turtle had said that he used to be a straight woman, but was now a straight man. I smiled faintly at that, considering the fact that I was clearly now interested in men. But then, my eyes went to Ramirez, and I admired her curve, appreciating them just as easily as I had Turtle’s ass and muscles. Clearly, in spite of my new interest in men, I still liked women as well. And unless that faded away over time, it looked like I was going to have to get used to being bisexual.

“This isn’t the time to think about that kind of thing,” I quietly told myself. Then I shook my head and gave myself a mental cold shower. Imagining the old me naked was enough to do that. The very memory of the last time I’d seen my old self in a mirror was enough to make me shudder. “Time enough for that once we’re out of the Labyrinth.”

Suddenly, Bunny shouted out, “We’ve got company.”

I looked around again and quickly spotted what Bunny was referring to. There were two large monsters heading towards us, each the same size and type as the bodies that our quarry had left behind. Each was the size of an elephant, with round bodies that were covered with sickly purple scales. There were no arms, legs, heads, nor tails, just that single round shape that was covered with a dozen tentacles, which is what they were using to move forward. And then, as if this wasn’t nightmare fuel enough, each monster had three wide mouths that seemed to have been placed on their bodies at random.

“These things are UGLY,” Ace exclaimed.

“And big,” Turtle pointed out. “Definitely big.”

I muttered a few choice profanities as I quickly looked over our surroundings yet again, even though I already knew exactly what I would find. This whole area seemed to be nothing but rock, with lots of canyons and rock pillars. I might have thought that we were inside another of the cavern areas, if it wasn’t for the fact that I could actually see a blue sky up above.

“There,” I shouted, pointing to a cluster of rock pillars. “We can use those for cover.”

“They’re close together,” Ramirez said, echoing my own thoughts. “And they’re too big to go between most of them.”

We all rushed towards the pillars, getting into our usual formation as we did so. We reached cover just in time because the first of the monsters reached them just a couple seconds later. It stopped, unable to pass between the pillar, though I quickly saw the flaw in my plan. The monster might not be able to go between the rock formations, but it’s long purple tentacles could.

Turtle activated both of his abilities, making himself tougher while also drawing the monster’s attention. Severa tentacles reached for him at once, though he was ready to fight them off with sword and shield. Four horned rabbits immediately rushed to his aid, charging past him and at the monster itself. Sir Fluff followed behind his smaller brothers and immediately began to attack the massive monster.

The other monster tried coming in from the other side, though it was blocked by a couple of other rock pillars. It immediately did the same thing as the other one, stretching its tentacles out to try grabbing us. Two of its mouths were wide open, showing lots of sharp teeth and indicating exactly where it intended to place any of us that it could get hold of.

Olivia held up her staff and held out her hand, then fired off one of her shockwaves. The air in front of her rippled outward in a cone. I’d noticed that she could change the focus of the cone, spreading it out wider to catch more enemies, or making it smaller in order concentrate the force into a tighter area. This time, she had it pretty narrow, though that still wasn’t enough power to even budge the monster. However, it was able to knock back all of its tentacles, hopefully causing a bit of whiplash in those limbs.

I took a deep breath and began activating ‘Invocation of Spite,’ taking my time as I did so. This stretched out the agony, making the pain last even longer, though I was able to build up a bit more of a charge as I did so. This was what increasing focus did for me, besides improving my memory and my ability to both concentrate and multitask. I let out the largest and most powerful ‘Invocation of Spite’ that I was able, hitting the monster and making it scream from all three mouths.

“I NEED to increase my vitality,” I gasped, shaking a little as I did so. That attack was more potent than normal, by a good twenty-five percent, but it also put a lot more stress on my body as well. “Crap, that one hurt.”

“Good hit,” Ace called out as he stood back and fired both scepters at the monster.

The monster that I’d hit was currently having a seizure, shaking all of its tentacles. Its mouths were all open, drooling, and letting out gurling cry. My only regret was that I hadn’t been able to hit the other monster at the same time. As it was, Olivia had already bought us a few seconds away from the tentacles, but Turtle and Bunny didn’t have that respite.

Ramirez abruptly leapt out from the top of one of the rock pillars, having climbed it while I was distracted. She landed right on top of the monster that Turtle and Bunny were focusing on, driving her spear deep into the creature. That seemed to piss the monster off. A moment later, she jumped off the monster and joined Sir Fluff in performing quick hit and runs along the creature’s side.

The monster that I was facing had recovered enough to attack again, and this time it was focused on me. It let out a horrific shriek and lashed out at me with no less than four tentacles at once. I saw the attacks coming and immediately responded by activating ‘Invocation of the Wisp’. A moment later, a ghostly image of me appeared, running away from where I was standing. The monster turned its attention to the illusion, ignoring me entirely. That gave me the chance to get away for real.

“That is such a cool trick,” Bunny exclaimed as she watched the monster attack my illusion.

“Yeah,” I agreed, even as the illusion faded away. “Doesn’t last long though.”

The monster seemed confused by my illusion fading away and it didn’t seem to know what to do at first. Then it noticed the real me again and lashed out, this time with a single tentacle, as if testing to see if I was real. When the tentacle reached me, I smashed it as hard as I could with my mace. The tentacle squished against the ground a little like rubber, but it didn’t seem to be damaged.

“Crap,” I snarled.

Three more tentacles came lashing out at me. I dropped my mace since it wouldn’t do much good, and drew my knife and dagger instead. As soon as the first tentacle grabbed at me, I lashed out with my dagger and severed the attacking limb.

“TAKE OUT ITS TENTACLES IF YOU CAN,” I shouted out. “IT ISN’T AS DANGEROUS WITHOUT THEM.”

“Good idea,” Ramirez agreed.

She drew her own knife and immediately sliced off one of the tentacles, close to the monster’s main body. Then she dodged to the side and poked it with her spear as she moved along. Between her spear and knife, she took off three more tentacles in the next few seconds.

“Time to put my money where my mouth is,” I muttered as I moved closer to the monster.

I let the monster see me, then I moved back behind a pillar where it couldn’t see me. I reached for me with one of its tentacles, which left it vulnerable to my knife. It didn’t take long to remove a couple more tentacles, or at least half the tentacles. I wasn’t close enough to the main body to get the whole thing yet, but I was still making it hard for the monster to reach our ranged attackers.

Once I was ready, I hit the monster with another ‘Invocation of Spite’, then I rushed forward and sliced off a couple tentacles while it was spasming in pain. I quickly retreated after doing that, wanting to get out of reach before it could recover enough to retaliate.

A few minutes later, both monsters had either lost their tentacles, or had them cut short enough so that they were practically useless. That left the monsters nearly helpless, making them easy targets. They didn’t last long after that.

Once both monsters were dead, Ace asked, “Does anyone see a treasure box around anywhere?”

“If there was one around here,” Olivia answered with a sigh, “the players we’re following probably found it first.”

“Good point,” I agreed.

With that, I looked at the monster bodies, the ones that we’d first found upon arriving. While we’d been fighting the new monsters, the older bodies had already turned into goo. I scowled at the sight of that, realizing just how much time we’d just wasted.

“So much for catching up to them soon,” Ramirez said as she stared at the same melted bodies.

“And we’re not done yet,” Bunny abruptly announced.

I looked to where the summoner was pointing and let out a loud groan. Another of those monsters was coming towards us from the same side path that the last two monsters had used.

“Crap,” I grumbled. “This is really going to slow us down.”