While Val was of course aware of the magical stags available in Abyssia, he had chosen not to rent one for his initial, ill-fated solo expedition for the same reason he had not let a nineteen-year old hotel porter convince him to go dune-hopping on a rented quad bike on his honeymoon, his entirely reasonable fear of being crushed to death. As he and Katya sped across the rolling fields of the fourth floor, Val jostling around like a poorly secured sack of potatoes on the thick, woven shabraque laid over the animal's back, he reflected on how that had been an excellent choice, not that it stopped him from eventually dying in an automobile accident.
Katya, ever the picture of a graceful warrior, scanned the horizon as they travelled, her back straight and movement perfectly matched to her mount. Even though Val was clearly uncomfortable, they were covering ground at a speed that they could never match on foot and were on track to reach the entrance to the fifth floor just after sundown.
The density of monsters wandering the floors near the main paths gave Katya a small amount of hope that some time had passed since any large groups had come through here, which meant they had as good a shot at anyone at taking down the level five golem floor boss. She turned her head to comment on their good fortune to Val, but the pale, vaguely sick look on his face made her think better of it. She turned back and focused on the road, a slightly amused look lifting the corner of her mouth.
"Poor guy," she muttered to herself.
As if by response, the sound of a light dry heave came from behind her, and she decided to take pity on her companion, who was clearly suffering.
"Ho!" Katya yelled, pulling at the deer's reins gently.
Its pace slowed immediately, allowing the bouncing Val to pull up alongside her.
"Hey," he asked, "What's going on?"
"Let's make camp," Katya responded, her eyes still on the horizon, "I'm exhausted, and we should still be able to easily make it across the fifth floor tomorrow if we stop here for the night."
Val couldn't, and didn't even really try to, keep the relief from his face.
"Sure," he agreed, "Whatever you say."
Katya nodded and, with two quick clicks of her tongue, pulled the deer to the left towards a clear area a little away from the well-worn path.
With a sigh of genuine relief, and with a distinct lack of the same effortless poise, Val followed her.
Unnoticed behind them, a ways back along the path, another deer ridden by a rider cloaked in green veered off the road and into the trees.
—
A slim, waning moon hung in the clear skies above Katya and Val's camp, watching over them as they slept soundly on rolled out leather and wool camp beds. A soft breeze rustled the grasses surrounding the camp, creating a soothing white noise. Their fire was long dead, allowed to fall to gently glowing ashes, as the balmy weather on the higher floors meant there was no use for it beyond cooking and the comfort of the flickering light it generated.
A little away from the camp, their two mounts slept curled around one another, their reins and saddle cloths removed, though there was no need to tie the deer down, as the same magic that gave them supernatural stamina and size bound them to follow simple, sorcery-enhanced commands that would keep them from straying.
A soft, rhythmic clicking sound came from off in the darkness, but both Val and Katya were so deeply asleep that they did not stir. Interlocking plates of shining black caught the small amount of moonlight as the clicking drew closer to the sleeping pair.
Out of the long grass, an enormous black beetle emerged, drawn by the scent of the camp, the clicking grew more frantic as it opened and closed its enormous mandibles. The beetle was at least a foot and a half tall with a long, flat body split into two sections, a small low-set head and six thick, chitinous legs ending in barbed toes, by all accounts looking like a mutant variant of a stag beetle from Val's own world. Clicking its jaws excitedly, it scampered toward Val and Katya's sleeping forms.
Even with the increased racket the beetle made as it approached, neither the sleeping adventurers, nor their mounts on the far side of the camp, stirred at the noise. But, just as the beetle went to enter the camp and descend on Katya's unconscious body, it froze in place. Each limb, and even its jaws, were locked in place. The clicking fell silent as the beetle struggled against its invisible bonds, unable to move any part of its body more than an inch or two.
As it resisted, the soft moonlight caught on hundreds of miniscule silver threads tangled around the beetle's body, holding it in place. A short grunt of effort came from a patch of thick brush, a little away from the camp, and the beetle was yanked away roughly into the darkness, surrounded by what looked like a mass of shimmering spiderwebs .
Out in the darkness, the sounds of a small scuffle were carried away on the gentle night winds, and everything again fell silent.
—
The next day, Katya and Val broke camp just after dawn, wolfing down a simple breakfast of soft bread with a sharp, tart berry preserve as their mounts grazed on the open field before mounting up and heading on toward level five. They reached the staircase entrance without incident, and without seeing any other travellers, and headed down the long, spiralling staircase seemingly still well ahead of the Forgelight and Cannoneer groups that entered the labyrinth with them.
Val felt a small ball of tension form in his neck as they moved away from the fort at the foot of the level five entrance, which, despite its small size, hummed loudly with mid-morning activity. The last time they had made this trek it had ended in near-tragedy and, if not for Katya's skill and his own newly-awakened Daddy powers, he was acutely aware that this floor could have easily been their final resting place. Val looked over at Katya to see if any sort of similar doubts plagued her, but he saw only the usual expression of steely resolve and heightened awareness that she always carried as they moved through potentially hostile lands.
Katya felt Val's eyes on her and made sure to keep her expression as neutral as possible. She was, of course, reminded as he was of their last trip to this floor, and the their near-death experience that took place on the same path they would have to follow today, but she saw little purpose in allowing herself to relive the terrifying moment that she had accepted that her journey would end under the stamping hooves of an iron-horned direbull..
Please, she sent a short prayer to her ancestors, more out of habit than anything else, No parties of fools who've bitten off more than they can chew.
There was, of course, no response to her silent supplication, but Katya didn't let that concern her. She was at least confident in the strength of her arm and her blade, and the man who rode beside her.
She glanced over at Val, once she was sure he wasn't still examining her, and watched him swing and bounce awkwardly on the back of his deer.
Well, she thought, Maybe rode is a strong word.
At teh pace they were moving, it only took them a few hours to reach the clearing in which they'd previously fought their last major battle. Every step that their mounts brought them closer to the treeline sent their hands surreptitiously pulling on the reins, and by the time they broke through the thick forest onto the open plain, they were barely moving at all. Side by side, they looked over the enormous open area of green, both inwardly sighing with relief at the clear space, populated only by a few scattered groups of monsters, and blessedly without feeling adventurers, or enormous floor bosses that had made their way up from below.
Their mounts came to a stop on the soft slope that led down to their prior battlefield and they looked at one another.
"So," Val said.
"So," Katya returned.
A long beat of silence formed between them.
"Let's, uh," Val muttered, "Let's do a late lunch today, hey? Once we're a bit closer to the stairs."
"Yep," Katya agreed, "Definitely."
With that settled, they both touched their heels to the sides of the deer and took off down the hill, cutting a path well clear of the wandering monsters and making their way onto the path in the opposite treeline without delay.
—
They cleared the forest on the opposite side without taking a break, unable to ignore the fact that each trotting hoofbeat that took them away from the clearing, the tension that had descended upon them got a little less overbearing. Their mounts seemed to feel it too, and they picked up their pace once outside the oppressive density of the forest, revelling in the open field of gentle sloping grass.
Val was finally, painstakingly, becoming accustomed to the cadence of movement required to ride his deer without battering and bruising his buttocks, and unexpectedly finding very occasional moments of enjoyment as the deer seemingly flew across the open ground. Even Katya, for whom riding was no special occurrence, considering her upbringing, found herself basking in the sunshine and feeling of speed as she watched Val occasionally pull ahead of her, and put her heels to the deer, tearing past him in a burst of acceleration.
The sun had long begun its descent toward the horizon as they reached the peak of the last crest before the staircase that would lead them down to level six, deeper than Val had ever ventured before. They paused at the top of the hill, gazing down at the wide reach of hard, rocky ground that surrounded the exit, pepper with boulders and stones of all sizes, stretching out for a half-mile in every direction from the wide staircase at the centre.
Val scanned the area for movement, but the boulders were still.
"Can you see anything?" he asked.
"No movement," Katya responded, "But it could be dormant, and if it's not moving it's just going to look like any other pile of rocks. We can't really know until we head down there."
The wind picked up, blowing in waves across the grass behind and around them, and kicking up small clouds of dust from the rocky earth in the potential battlefield in front of them. They watched the area in silence for another few moments.
"Lunch?" Val suggested.
"Absolutely," Katya replied.
The two dismounted and commanded their mounts to stay put, then moved slightly down toward the exit, so they could monitor the area while they ate. Val unwrapped a pair of minced meat pies from their waxed paper and handed one to Katya. They sat on the grassy hill and ate them in companionable silence, keeping watch for any sign of the golem, and mentally preparing themselves for battle.