Battle and Rescue

Estouls and his opponents stared at each other. The vampire, Vicky, curled her hands into fists while Kaeru pointed a finger gun at Estouls. It felt like they stared at each other for a long time, but I imagine that was only my perception.

"Bang." The shot that would start this fight went off.

A lightning bolt immediately shot out of the tips of Kaeru's fingers. The hallway was instantly lit up. It all happened in a flash, far too fast for me to see, but the room seemed to heat up as the jolt arced at Estouls.

The electricity suddenly disappeared as fast as it was discharged. The view in the hallway cleared, and Estouls stood with the shield blocking his chest. The gem on the center of it glowed a brilliant blue light before fading back to a dull clear color.

Estouls wasted no time. He charged forward in a motion that almost made it look like he slid across the floor. His lance went directly for Kaeru's chest, but she suddenly became a figure of electricity. Her electrical form broke a hole in her chest, which allowed the spear to pass through harmlessly. The figure then deformed into an amorphous blob which quickly slid behind Estouls.

Kaeru's foot was the first thing to come out of the blob as it reformed into her body. She delivered a hard kick into Estouls' back. He stumbled forward a few steps before he regained his balance.

Unfortunately, his opponents didn't give him an excellent opportunity to react afterward. Vicky was immediately in front of Estouls while he regained his balance. She delivered a punch to his stomach that caused him to stumble back, only to get kicked again by Kaeru.

Estouls looked like he was stumbling forward, maybe he was, but he took the opportunity to lunge at Vicky with the shield in front of him. The lunge was weak, most likely because he hadn't had sound footing, but Vicky was now cautious of the shield.

She stepped back just enough so that the shield would fall short of hitting her. Estouls, however, was prepared. With a change of footing, he suddenly switched his lunge into a strike with his lance.

Vicky was struck in the shoulder and reeled back from the blow. She took several steps away while holding her hand over the location that had been hit.

"Arg!" she yelled something, but it didn't sound like words.

Finally, she stopped and removed her hand to look at her shoulder. There were the typical kinds of scuffs that you might expect to see in a fight, but the shoulder was in perfect shape otherwise. She sighed sadly as Estouls took a defensive stance facing the vampire.

Kaeru took the opportunity to point her finger gun at Estouls while his back was turned.

"Estou-" I tried to shout out, but I was too slow.

"Bang."

Once again, the hallway was lit up. In a flash, the scene reappeared in front of me. Estouls was now slightly leaning to the side while Vicky had been knocked onto her back.

"You need to watch where you point that," he said before spinning around and charging at Kaeru. She changed back into electricity and deformed. His lance struck only the air.

The ball of electricity flew around Estouls and quickly found its way next to Vicky. Kaeru's form reappeared as she kneeled next to the fallen waifu.

"Vicky, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

"You know that wasn't enough to take me down, don't take your eyes off the fight!"

As if on cue, Estouls came charging in to strike at Kaeru with his lance. Vicky quickly pushed her back so that the lance harmlessly passed through the air. While Kaeru's back hit the floor, Vicky promptly grabbed onto the lance without moving from the floor. Estouls tried to pull it back to him, but it only shook slightly from his pull.

Vicky smirked and yanked the lance from Estouls' grip. Before he could do anything, the vampire jumped up off the ground. I'm not even sure how she did it, but in a flash, she was standing back up and giving Estouls a kick to the chest. He flew back and landed in an upright sitting position on the ground.

As Estouls stood back up, Vicky threw his lance like a javelin. It flew directly at his head, and he had to fall over slightly to the side to avoid it. The lance smashed into the wall at the end of the hallway. Instead of impaling into the wall, the lance harmlessly bounced off it while making a loud clang sound. It was a testament to how well-reinforced the arena was.

Estouls quickly looked back to the lance before turning back to his opponents. Kaeru had just stood up and now joined Vicky in staring down Estouls. The pink-haired knight bit his lower lip while he held his shield up. It was about 8 meters from the end of the hallway to Estouls. If he tried to turn around and make a run for the lance, his two opponents would quickly close the distance and strike his back.

"Tai-kun, take the lady and make a run for it," Estouls said out loud. His opponents began to chuckle slightly. They probably thought there was no way I could escape.

They were likely right. Alone I might be able to run away with Estouls covering my escape, but there was no way I could do it carrying Marigold. Perhaps I should consider working out more....

Nevertheless, we were in a tough spot. Estouls' opponents didn't give him any time to say anything more. Kaeru began a barrage of shots at the pink-haired knight. They bounced off his shield while he held his ground. Vicky did nothing to Estouls but instead watched me. Her eyes resembled a predator watching for their prey to make a move.

I looked around the area. Marigold was still unconscious, Estouls' lance was down the hall, there was a fire alarm a little further past Marigold, and further past that was an elevator door.

I had options.

I could pull the fire alarm. That would alert the whole building and cause a mass evacuation. Ultimately, I don't think it would do any good. There was no guarantee these waifus would give up just because of the fire alarm. Even if they did, there were no other witnesses, and they could play it off as us being instigators. I don't think anything would come from trying that.

Next was the elevator. I might be able to get to it, but would it open in time? Since it was behind the duo, they might be hesitant to turn away from Estouls. I couldn't be sure, however. Even more than just the speed of the door, I was sure I would not be able to carry Marigold to it. I also couldn't be sure that Kaeru wouldn't just be able to get into the elevator in her electrical form.

That just left Estouls' lance. It was behind him, so if I made a break for it, he could probably block the attackers. I should be able to close the distance quickly if I sprinted as well. There was a risk that Estouls could still lose this fight, but now was not the time to doubt his ability.

I stood up off the ground and began my sprint. I took off in the direction away from Marigold headed to the lance.

"Tai-kun!" Estouls shouted. He may have tried to shout more, but an increasing number of electric shots drowned him out.

Vicky was right behind me, or at least I figured she was. I couldn't see her, but it felt like there was an immense pressure closing in on me. A large boom and screech of an animal suddenly echoed from behind me. Vicky made a surprising shout. As I sprinted toward the lance, I heard an odd chorus that consisted of a loud bird, bangs, and electrical crackles coming from behind.

I suppose Estouls summoned his griffin to block Vicky. Now wasn't the time to stop and look, but I couldn't even imagine how that giant beast fit in this hallway.

I bent down and scooped up Estouls' lance from the ground. It, of course, was heavy, and I struggled to lift it off the ground.

I turned to the battle that had been unfolding behind me.

Estouls' griffin was now taking up most of the hallway. The giant beast was turned away from me, but I could tell it was swatting at something in front of it. Estouls must have been somewhere in front of the beast with his opponents as I could hear the sounds of the battle.

"Estouls!" I shouted. I started to run forward with the lance in tow.

Estouls griffin disappeared, and he did several backward cartwheels to reach me. As he flipped along the ground, he gracefully avoided the electric discharges from Kaeru and punches from Vicky.

When he got close to me, he pushed himself into the air with a significant thrust of his arms. Estouls grabbed the lance from my hands while flying upward and upside down. His feet reached the ceiling first, and he pushed off the ceiling down at an angle aimed at the duo. As he fell, he twisted in the air. He slammed the lance's back end into the floor and used it to propel himself at the opposing waifus. Estouls flew through the air like he was doing a flying kick.

He held out his lance so that it extended on either side of him, presumably so it would smack both opponents if he flew between them.

Kaeru turned into a ball of electricity, and Vicky simply ducked so that Estouls harmlessly passed by the both of them.

He stabbed his lance into the ground to halt his momentum and spun around to view his opponents.

"Hey, look, a fight!" someone yelled out from behind me. I turned to see who it was.

A crowd was starting to form from random people around the arena. The shouts in the distance indicated that the match was still on. However, with all the noise we were making, I'm sure some people were drawn our way.

I turned back to the dueling opponents. Kaeru suddenly zipped past Estouls and lifted the unconscious Marigold.

Vicky pulled out what looked like a walkie-talkie.

"There are too many people here; get us out."

She had only just finished her sentence when their bodies suddenly seemed to shatter like glass. The shards dissolved into the air before they could hit the ground. The waifus and Marigold were gone. Though, I felt like I had seen something similar to how they disappeared not too long ago.

Estouls and I quickly headed to the elevator before the crowd could begin to ask us questions. We both let out a heavy sigh when the door finally shut.

"Well, they got away, Tai-kun."

"Fortunately, they did."

"Didn't they take that lady in the uniform? Aren't you concerned?"

"We can report it to some officials. They can take care of it."

The elevator beeped, and the door slid open.

Who should step in? Kioshi, Marigold's partner.

He looked at us and held up his notebook.

I heard a lot of noise, and Marigold is not responding. Do you two know anything?

"She was kidnapped by some waifus..." I filled in Kioshi on the details, and he nodded along.

Do you have any idea where they took her? Kioshi asked

"No idea," I answered as the elevator beeped again. The door slid open for the floor Estouls, and I would want to get out on.

"They took her to the labyrinth under the arena. They have been hanging out down there," A voice said from overhead. We looked up to see the ghost waifu floating above our heads.

Estouls screamed and slid behind me.

"A ghost!"

"Since when have you been... look, she's harmless."

"You can't trust a ghost, Tai-kun!"

I ignored the shaking pink-haired knight and turned to the ghost.

"Weren't you planning to stay hidden?"

"We don't have time now; they must have kidnapped that lady because she heard something. We need to save her!"

"Kioshi-san can take care of that."

Indeed, I can handle a couple of troublemakers.

"Don't you want to help her at all?" the ghost girl asked me.

I did owe Marigold for letting me get away with not having a license on two occasions, but that didn't mean I had to fight some waifus under the arena.

"I'm sure Kioshi can call as much backup as he needs," I said while turning to Kioshi.

He held a radio in his hand and stared at it. We watched him stare at the device before he finally held his notebook back up.

Sorry, my oath of silence prevents me from calling backup.

"Why didn't they give you something that uses text?" I asked.

I'll go in alone.

"He probably should have someone go with him," Estouls said from behind me while uneasily watching the ghost waifu.

"Why don't I call on your radio?" I asked.

You can't. They made it so only agents with preregistered fingerprints can use it.

I sighed.

"You... uh..." I tried to address the ghost but only now realized I had not gotten her name before.

"Kura the Treasure Hunter," the ghost answered with a smile as she realized what I was thinking.

"Kura, can you accompany Kioshi?"

"I can, but I am no use in a physical confrontation."

I knew she would say that. It was pointless to ask, but I still did anyway. I rubbed my forehead for a moment before moving my hand through my hair.

I did not want to get involved in all of this, but it seemed like Marigold might be in trouble. And, if Kura was willing to show herself, she must think this is important. Why she felt it was important was something I did not know.

"Fine, Estouls and I can go with Kioshi. We'll call everyone to help if we have to."

Sounds like a plan. Kioshi pressed on the basement button for the elevator. The doors slid shut, and it began to slide down.

"Wait, Tai-kun! Are we going to trap ourselves herewith that ghost!"

Estouls fearfully cowered as the elevator slid down.

  The elevator beeped, and we stepped out into the underground. We had exited into a large open room with several doorways dotted along the walls. Some weak overhead lights dimly lighted the room, and I thought I saw something move in the corner.

This was a bad idea. It hadn't even been that long ago that I had gotten lost in this underground, and now I had willingly chosen to return. I turned to my companions.

The ghost girl, Kura, was happily floating around the room. Kioshi was examining each of the doorways as if one would tell him which way we should go. Estouls continued to use me as a shield between him and the ghost waifu. He cautiously watched her as she floated around the room like a cat watches a red dot. Only, I don't think he intended to pounce on his target.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. We were getting dangerously close to the time for our next match. I had to let at least someone know about what was going on. I made a few swipes and selected Tanaka-san's photo. He answered after the second ring.

"Hello, Juyo-san. What's up?"

"Hello, Tanaka-san, where do I begin..." It took me a minute to explain everything to him, from coming across the two waifus to coincidently running into Estouls as he was picking up snacks and the fight that ensued: I told him everything as I best remembered it.

"I can't believe this," Tanaka-san said over the phone once I had finished filling him in.

"I know we've been dragged-"

"Estouls just left those snacks in the hallway! Quick, where did he drop them? I'll go pick them up right now!"

"Aren't you focusing on less important things?"

"Less important? I loaned him the last bit of change I had on me; I can't let that food waste! Surely you understand?"

Having lived on a tight budget myself, I decided to concede to Tanaka-san's point.

"Fair enough, but moving on from that... I don't know when we will make it back to the arena.

"You still have an hour before the fight. Do you think you'll be down there that long?"

"I have no idea. Can you let the others know what is going on, just in case?"

"Certainly, but do try to make it back on time; we shouldn't fight with one less team member."

We ended the call after that. Now that I was thinking about it, I really shouldn't have gone along with this. We had a bet to worry about, and now that Estouls was absent, our team would be less powerful. Perhaps I should send him back? But then what use would a ghost that can't touch anything and my weak self be to Kioshi? Maybe I should try to convince him to wait for backup after all.

"Um, Kioshi-san?" I said in a shaky voice.

What is it? He held up a piece of paper.

"Maybe we should turn back and get back up after all. We don't know what we are about to face, and Estouls should be preparing for the next match."

"Hold on, Tai-kun," Estouls suddenly said. He finally stopped cowering behind me and boldly stepped an arms reach away. "You don't need to say that on my behalf."

"I'm not saying it on your behalf; it's just the tr-"

"A ghost, no matter horrifying, will not be enough to jeopardize this rescue mission."

"No, we need to get back. There's the bet and all..."

"On my pride as a butler, I will save that lady!"

"The things you take pride in as a butler seem to have nothing to do with being a butler...."

Estouls was unwavering. He confidently marched forward with Kioshi down one of the many corridors. I should have let them march off and gone back, but I instead hastily attempted to follow them. The duo stayed several paces ahead of Kura and myself as they continued their way forward.

I let out a sigh.

"You don't seem very excited?" Kura said to me.

"Who would be excited about weaving through this labyrinth?"

"I don't know, Theseus maybe."

"Who?"

"The guy that fought the minotaur."

I gave the ghost waifu a blank look.

"Anyway, this sure is a nice labyrinth. The ambient lighting adds to the overall atmosphere, and I love how they made the walls out of stone," Kura said while trying to find something to talk about.

"It's just a bunch of rooms and hallways; they just arranged it like a maze instead of in a practical manner."

"Don't say that! Think of all the poor architects that had to design the layout! They had to carefully craft it into a maze and place traps and all sorts of things!"

"Traps?"

"Sure, we will encounter them as we continue to go down."

"Why would they do that?"

"Who knows... maybe there is a treasure at the bottom of the labyrinth!" Kura said with sparkles in her eyes.

The hallway seemed to start to go down on a gentle slope as we kept walking. We turned down several corridors with no apparent direction in mind.

"Shouldn't you be telling me more about my dad or whatever?"

"Oh! Good point! Now, where did I leave off?"

"You should have a better idea of that than me."

"Your father hid a key for you somewhere in the arena. It unlocks a locker at a local water park."

We turned another corner to empty into a large room with many exits. Kioshi and Estouls stopped and began to look around. They debated quietly to themselves over which way to go. We stayed farther back from them to continue our conversation.

"Where did he hide the key?"

"I don't know... He said he was sure you would find it, though!"

My father couldn't make this easy.

"Did he give you any hints?"

"He said he left it with the other keys."

"That's not very helpful."

"It may not seem like it, but it just makes the hunt for it all the more fun!" The ghost girl happily shouted. Estouls jumped at her sudden yelling.

He quickly picked the path we would take and started walking through the door. Kioshi was right behind him, followed by Kura and me.

We walked for only a short while before there was a sudden mechanical clang that echoed through the hallway. Estouls, who was leading the group, suddenly froze and looked down at his foot. He turned back to us with sweat running down his forehead.

"We probably should run," he said with an unusual calm.

A loud bang echoed in the hallway behind us. We turned around to see a large stone sphere start rolling our way.

Needless to say, we started running immediately.

The ball made a loud noise as it rolled through the hallway after us. We got a good head start since it started moving slowly, but shortly after, it sped up. As we ran, the hallway began to angle downward more and more. It was getting steeper, and running was getting a little more difficult.

"Haha, this is great!" Kura yelled as she floated next to us.

"What about this is great?" I shouted back.

"It's our first trap on this quest!" she said with a laugh.

Being a ghost, she wasn't in any real danger. I imagine that is the only way she could find this situation fun at all.

We continued to run until the hallway split into two paths. The ball seemed to get louder and louder. I could look back to see how close it was, but I imagine I wouldn't like what I saw.

"Go right!" I shouted as we reached the fork. I dove to the right as the ball smashed into the fork. My body landed on the hard ground as dust was thrown into the air all around me.

I pushed myself off the ground and brushed myself off. The large sphere stone was now wholly blocking the direction I had come from. I looked around the area. There was no one else around.

Kura's head popped through the boulder before I could say anything.

"What are you doing?" she asked me. Didn't you see Kioshi's sign say to go left?"

I had, in fact, not seen anything of the sort. I groaned and brushed some dust from my hair before responding.

"Didn't you hear me say to go right?"

"Tai-kun! Tai-Kun! Are you alive," Estouls yelled from the other side of the boulder. His voice was muffled, but I could at least make out what he was saying.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"We're going to take the path ahead; we'll try to meet up later!"

It seemed like a sensible enough decision. I just yelled "okay" to him before turning to look down my path as well. We could no longer go the way we had come; I should have turned back when I could.

I sighed and began my walk down the new corridor.

"That sure was fun; I wonder what kind of trap we will get into next!"

I decided to ignore Kura, who was floating alongside me. I put my hands in my pockets and began to dig around in them while the specter went on about traps.

I pulled out a series of items: a paperclip, my phone, a coin, and a folded-up piece of paper. There was not much here that was interesting. I slid most of the items back into my pockets except for the piece of paper. I was not sure what it was.

Carefully I unfolded it. The image was a familiar one. This was the Mirage Map that I had picked up in the Waifu Draft. The colored images still showed the areas we had walked in during the event, though the icons representing us were now gone.

"Ah! Is that the Mirage Map?" Kura suddenly phased through my head to get a good look at the map. A chill ran up my spine when she passed through me. I jumped and quickly slid away from her.

"Don't do that," I said while shaking off the chill.

"Where did you get that?" Her eyes sparkled as she asked me.

"It's just a scrap of paper I picked up from somewhere."

"That's no scrap of paper; it's a map that can come in handy! Try moving your finger on it."

I slid my finger over the piece of paper. The previous map from the Waifu draft disappeared. In its place, a new map appeared. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was the underground labyrinth I currently stood in. There was an icon for where Kura and I stood and two other icons for Estouls and Kioshi.

"Huh," was all I said before folding the map over and tucking it back into my pocket. I'm not sure what good having it would do, but I would keep it in mind.

I continued walking forward down the tunnels.

"Only, huh?" Kura asked me. She must have figured I would be more impressed with the map.

"It doesn't do us much good right now. Maybe when we leave, it will come in handy."

She sighed but didn't respond as we walked into another open room.

This room only had two doorways, the one we entered from and one straight in front of it. It was wider than the rest of the hallway and much taller. Near the ceiling, there were a series of metal grates on the wall. The ceiling also had a large disk that appeared to be painted onto it.

I looked all around as I began to walk through. Suddenly, a loud bang came from behind me. A large stone had just sealed the doorway shut. Then, before I could react, another bang echoed through the room. The opening on the other side had sealed as well.

Water began to spill out from the grates into the room.

"Aren't these traps a little excessive?" I said aloud as the water began to cover my feet.

"I think normally they are turned off. Nothing went off at all when you were down here earlier after all," Kura said with her hand to her chin and her eyes closed as she floated around my head.

The water was now up to my knees.

"This is filling up rather fast; we should probably do something."

Kura began to float around and the room and through the walls. She flew through one wall and into another, then into the ceiling. When she finally popped back into the room, she had her arms crossed and nodded to herself.

"I see, I see."

"What did you see?"

"The disk on the ceiling, there is a dial to open the door," she pointed to the door we hadn't come in through. "You will have to wait until it floods to turn it, but it will open from the bottom first. You need to turn it fast enough, so you don't get sucked down by the water and stuck in an opening that isn't large enough for you."

"So, either way, I get swept away when the door opens?" That didn't sound like a good idea, no matter what happened.

"Good luck!" was all the ghost waifu said to me.

The water was now up to my neck. I started to kick my legs to keep up with the ever-rising water level.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" I asked the floating ghost. She was hovering just above the water.

"If I could touch something, I would turn that dial for you. Right now, I'm afraid I can't do anything to help." She seemed sincerely apologetic. I sighed as I continued to keep my head above the water.

It wasn't long before I was pressing against the ceiling of the room. The dial was right next to me as the water filled up. I reached out and put my hand on it.

Up close, I could see that the disk was protruding from the ceiling slightly. There was a gap between it and the ceiling at the very edge that was wide enough for me to see toward the center. Some shaft connected the disk to the wall, but that was all that I could see. I pushed on it, and I felt it slide. It turned relatively easily. A grinding sound accompanied the sliding. Something moved, but the room was still filling with water. I took a deep breath just before the water level went over my head. I didn't have much time.

I carefully maneuvered both my hands onto the disk. I looked all around. There wasn't anything for me to get some footing with so that I could spin this. It turned easily, but it seemed like I would have to move it quite a bit to get the door to open enough.

I didn't have enough time to think about the best way to do this; I just had to try something. I swam to one of the vents on the wall and propelled myself off it with a strong thrust of my legs. I kicked as hard as I could with my hands reaching out to the disk.

I shoved my fingers into the gap between the disk and the ceiling and grabbed it as tightly as I could. At the same time, I was furiously kicking to rotate the disk. The disk began to spin as I swam around it. The loud grinding indicated that something was moving. I could also feel some grinding for the tops of my fingers as I slid them against the ceiling.

I swam in a circle until I began to feel a pull at my feet. The water was starting to be sucked out from the bottom. I tried to push against it and gripped the disk tighter, but it was no use. The current finally began to pull me. I held on for as long as I could; the disk spun along with the currents pull, but eventually, I was ripped away from it and sucked down below.

I hit the wall above the door first, or maybe it was the door itself. My back was what made contact, and I had no time to turn around.

I felt myself get pulled downward and was pulled under the door. As soon as I did, I headed down a hallway that was now like a rushing river. I reached out helplessly as I was swept along.

Something made contact with my hand, and I grabbed at it immediately. I felt a jerk as I was no longer getting taken by the makeshift river and quickly pulled my head above the water to gasp for air.

"Are you okay?" Kura asked, having just appeared in the air above my head. I looked at what I was holding onto, a chain embedded into the wall; it looked like there were several laid out along the hallway to grab onto.

"No, I'm not okay," I said as I tried to navigate my feet to the hallway floor. The water was shallow enough that it only came up to my waste, but the current was so intense I felt I might get sucked away at any moment.

I held onto the chain tightly until the current's intensity started to die down. The Initial amount of water that had been filled up must finally be gone. There still was a flow, but it was steady. I imagined that water was continuing to fill up from the grates. I would have to keep moving in case this hallway would fill up next.

I hastily headed down the hallway. The whole time I made sure to grab the next chain I could as not to get sucked away again, just in case.

The hallway finally opened up into a very expansive room. We stood at a ledge that had a thin stone walkway coming off of it. The thin walkway stretched across the long room to another ledge with a door. Under the ledges and the narrow walkway was a deep pit. There were spikes pointed up, and snakes were slithering around them at the bottom of the pit.

The water from behind me was steadily floating in the pit and beginning to flood it. It would take a while, but this room would be flooded as well.

"Kura, can snakes swim?"

"Yes, they can; it would be a bad idea to wait here for the water level to rise. Those snakes are especially poisonous."

"When I get out of here, I'm going to have a word with whoever designed this labyrinth," I grumbled as I put my foot on the thin walkway. It was only wide enough for one foot. I had to quickly swing the other in front of it and try to catch my balance.

"Careful!" Kura yelled.

"Just be quiet!" I snapped back as I took another step forward.

I had both arms out to try to keep my balance as I kept stepping forward. Kura didn't say anything more as I kept stepping forward.

I focused on keeping a steady breath and keeping my balance as I moved forward. The rushing sound of the water behind me offered no comfort, so I tried my best to tune it out as I moved.

A breath in and a step, then a breath out and a step. I kept this pattern as my focus until I finally stepped on solid ground.

I crumbled to my knees as my heart raced.

"Good job!" Kura shouted.

I didn't answer as I pushed myself off the ground. I took a deep breath and continued forward. At this point, I just wanted to get through this and get out of here. It seemed like we still had a little of a way to go.