It had been at least thirty minutes since they entered this maze-like structure, an ancient dwarven ruin so excessively winding that it was testing their stamina.

Laios pulled out the map he had taken before they entered. He squinted at the strange crisscrossing structures, the odd little marks scattered all over it, the winding paths that didn’t seem to match anything they had walked through. “Hm. This is strange. Did the dwarves build this to confuse intruders, or was it meant to confuse them too?"

Chilchuck clearly in no mood to deal with another of Laios' casual declarations of confusion, especially after just tripping over some uneven stone. "Can we stop for a second? This is the fifth i tri—"

His words cut off with a yelp as something snatched him into the darkness, the sound of rushing wind swallowing his presence whole.

Laios blinked, turning around. “What was he saying?”

...

The clang of metal startled them.

Everyone’s heads snapped toward the spot Senshi had been standing. His cooking pot lay abandoned on the floor, rolling slightly before stopping.

“WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!” Marcille's hands shot up with sheer panic, barely processing before she began to cast a spell. “Laios, I told you! This is exactly why we should never—AHHHH!!”

Her staff slipped from her fingers, spinning through the air before clattering onto the stone as she was yanked. It happened so fast Laios barely saw it—a blur, a shape moving faster than his eyes could follow, and then she was just gone.

"This thing’s toying with us.” Izutsumi hissed, her fur bristling, her knife flashing into her hand as she crouched low.

“Izutsumi, wait—”

And she lunged forward into the black, only for a high-pitched meow to echo back before she too was swallowed by silence.

"Guys?" Laios stood very still, his grip tightening on his sword. It was either toying with them, or captured all of them to use as stored food. Not a reassuring thought. Now it was just him, the darkness and the thing.