Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

KA-BAM!

Stone dust flew, clouding on the air. Sparkles from shattered crystals danced on the breeze. Ike coughed, waving his hand. Did it work?

The air cleared. A hole pierced through the shard before them, into the back of the crystals on the other side. Ike grinned and clapped. It was working. This would work.

"What? Only that deep? Get back, pathetic child. Watch a real mage get to work." Wisp pushed him to the side and stepped forward, cracking her knuckles. Her aether surged, and black chitinous armor crawled over her arm. She pitched back and hammered the crystals with a punch.

The crystals immediately shattered. Chunks of crystals flew through the air and rained down on the other side, scattering over the next hallway. Smug, Wisp sashayed through the gap she'd made. "Haha, look. A real mage can get through."

"You only got through because I already broke through the hard rock for you," Ike grumbled, half-joking.

She turned back and stuck her tongue out, grinning broadly. "Says the guy who couldn't break the crystal. What's harder, hmm? You could break the stone, but it took a powerful spider beast like me to break the crystal."

Ike rolled his eyes. "You know—"

A little ball of feathery rage pushed past both of them. "You're both pathetic! Watch how a true king does it!"

Mag hurtled up into the sky. He reached the ceiling, then whipped around and plunged out of the sky, his foot outstretched. Chunks of stone and dust flew, and he landed in a hole in the rock. He hopped back, appearing out of the dust. "Look upon my might and despair!"

Ike clapped once, putting aether into it so he cleared the dust. Mag had knocked a hole in the stone a little smaller than the one he'd smashed, but just like Ike, he hadn't broken through the crystal.

Wisp chuckled, puffing up her chest, smugger than ever. "Oh-ho-ho, would you look at that. I guess the crystal really is harder to break through than the stone, hmm? Tut-tut. It's a good thing your friend Wisp is here to put some real spider muscle into it."

Ike sighed. He shook his head at Mag. "We're never going to hear the end of it, are we."

Mag shook his head mutely.

The layers of crystal and stone couldn't hold the three of them back. They smashed through, one stone petal at a time. Ike felt vaguely bad about it, smashing directly through someone's hard work, just brute forcing through the maze, but at the same time, mazes were annoying and a pain in the ass. He far preferred to smash through the maze rather than actually try to solve it.

With the three of them taking turns to smash the rock, they broke through the stone petals in no time. Ike glanced back, checking that the persistent puppet that had been following them the whole time wasn't catching up. Whatever was in here, he didn't want to deal with that annoying jumpscare and the actual danger in the center of the maze at the same time.

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A silhouette stood behind him, outlined by the sun shining through the holes in the stone petals.

"Hold up," Ike muttered. He whipped around and ran back, charging to the silhouette's side in a rush of purple lightning. The figure resolved into the ragged puppet. Seeing him, it startled and raised its sword, but it wasn't at all prepared for a headlong rush. When even its sneak attacks bounced off, perhaps it should have been obvious, but this was a foregone conclusion. Ike hammered the puppet into the ground, and it shattered to dust again. Digging his toe in, he pivoted and whipped around, heading back toward the group.

"Take care of things?" Wisp asked as he reached them again.

"Yeah. The stupid puppet was back up again. I had to put it down."

She nodded. "We need to take that thing out for good."

"I agree, but how? It doesn't have a core or goo. I pummel it into powder, and it reforms as if nothing happened. We could bury it somewhere, I guess, but I have a feeling it would just climb out, or turn to dust and drift out. I have no idea what to even target to destroy it, or how to contain it," Ike pointed out.

She twisted her lips, then shrugged. "We can think on it, but we have to do something. That thing can't just follow you around for the rest of your life."

"Gods. I hope not," Ike muttered. He glanced back. The puppet still hadn't reformed yet, but he could see its ragged cloak. The rest of his life? That was too long. Way too long. In the back of his mind, he'd been thinking that it would only follow him here, in the badlands, where it had found him, but Wisp was right. There was nothing, as far as he knew, holding it here. Nothing to prevent it from following him everywhere.

He stared over his shoulder for another few seconds, then shook his head. Worst case, the puppet didn't move overly fast, and couldn't fly or anything like that. They could always just leave it behind eventually.

But Wisp is right. I'll have to deal with it permanently sooner or later. I should start thinking on it now, see if I can come up with anything. He put the task to the back of his mind, to sit there on the back burner for a while. After he took control of the King, that would be his next task.

The petals grew tighter and tighter, with less space between them. Finally, the petals were so tight that there was no room to stand between them. They smashed through one, and immediately had to smash through the next. Ike stood back, waiting for the other two to take their turns, and looked around. "Guys, do you think we're doing this wrong?"

"What? What would give you that idea?" Wisp asked, stepping back from the petal she'd just punched through.

Ike stepped forward, drawing back his sword. He unleashed a powerful blow, smashing the next layer of stone. The Hungry Sword chewed unhappily, crunching loudly to let him know its displeasure. "I don't know, maybe the fact that there's no room to stand between these petals?"

He walked out of the hole, and Mag took his place. The bird transformed into his true form and raised a claw to scratch his way through.

"No, no. You're being ridiculous," Wisp said dismissively, waving her hand.

"I mean, it does seem to be working. I can't complain when it gets the job done. But I do feel like this probably isn't how we're meant to get there."

"Ehhh. If the solution works, then the person setting it up didn't build their trap well enough," Wisp replied. Mag retreated, and she stepped forward to pound down the wall with a punch.

"Better words have never been said," Ike agreed. She backed out, and he jogged forward, swinging his sword. He sped up, accelerating until he reached the wall, and unleashed a heavy blow.

Crystal scattered. On the other side, a vast hollow opened up. The shards completely contained it, leaving it in total darkness. Ike couldn't see far into it, despite his Rank enhancing his eyes and every other part of him, but that 'bad' sensation oozed out of the darkness, thicker here than anywhere else. Cold emanated out of the darkness and wrapped around his ankles, and a shiver ran up his spine.

Ike glanced back. "I think we found it."