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Aliyah knew that she wouldn't be able to dodge the axe throw with her meager F-rank speed. With how strong the minotaur was, she also knew that Ax packed a heavy punch. Orion moved in front of her as if to tank the attack and Aliyah's mind drifted to what would happen should his health reach zero.[break][break]

Thankfully she wouldn't have to find out about that just yet as Hana moved to intercept the axe throw with her shield and snapping Aliyah out of her fear. Resummoning Aquila, the three of them took to the air and each launched their attacks; Orion's Frost Wing, Aquila's Lighting Drop, and Aliyah using her Ice beak, each striking the Minotaur as it was busy grappling with Hana and causing it to bellow in pain.[break][break]

Clearly, on its last legs, the minotaur decided to launch a last-ditch assault, drawing in a great amount of air before releasing another bellow; this one echoing throughout the area and grating on the ears of all within 5 meters of him(D rank)

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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The backrooms were just as creepy and confusing as she expected though Hana's background music helped things. It didn't take much to arrive back at their starting point a d after laying down some new tape, the pair would start on their way through.[break][break]

When Hana pointed out that they had gone in a circle, Aliyah's first instinct was to deny it. The tape hanging off the wall though wouldn't allow her to deny that and she felt uncertainty creep in as Hana pointed out that the stairs that had originally been going up were instead going down."Guess something really wants us to fight that minotaur again." she said, distaste and a small amount of fear creeping in her voice even as Orion attempted to bolster her confidence.[break][break]

"Well it wasn't our fault that that stupid bull decided to run away with its tail tucked between its legs. If this stupid building wanted us to defeat the minotaur then it shouldn't have allowed it to escape in the first fucking place." the witch would suddenly grumble out, trying to mask her fear with anger. She wasn't sure if it worked but it at least allowed her to focus as the pair went down the stairs; Aliyah being sure to put the more durable party members between her.[break][break]

Once the reached the bottom step, a T-shaped corridor would await them, each looking similar to the other. " So. Got any methods to track it or are we just going to end up wandering around and hope we get lucky? she stated before a whoosh of air drew her attentionto the corridor directly in front of her. The sound revealed itself to be the minotaur's axe flying down the corridor with the minotaur not far behind.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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Aliyah stared in growing fear and horror at the slashing attack making its way toward her. Even with the boosts she's received to her speed from her passive ability, she wouldn't be fast enough to dodge this attack. Mentally cursing herself for once again putting off her speed stat, Aliyah shut her eyes and braced for what would no doubt be a painful attack.[break][break]

Or at least that's what should have happened. Instead, Aliyah felt herself being lifted and carried behind the Minotaur; safely out of the way of the attack. Glancing down, the witch saw that her mysterious saver turned out to be Hana. "Thanks. And it's fine" she muttered before remembering Orion and Aquila; both of whom should have been in the path of the attack. The thunder hawk had managed to dodge; having used his lightning drop skill to dodge while Orion created frost armor over himself to tank the hit.[break][break]

Seeing that Hana had produced a cannonball next, Aliyah aligned her own shot and fired while Aquila struck down like the living lightning bolt that he was. All 3 attacks slammed into the Minotaur, sending it blasting back and destroying a few of the surrounding walls with the explosion of water. Aliyah felt everything below her ankles become drenched in water and dreaded the shape of her shoes after this mission was over. That would be when she noticed that the water seemed to be draining somewhere and after following it, would lead to a hole in the floor leading to another level of the maze and the minotaur was nowhere to be seen.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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[break][break]

"You mean a minotaur?" the witch state after taking a few seconds to ponder. That guess would fit since they were in a maze but the previous 2 floors showed that the creatures didn't have to match with the theme. "Rats aren't office workers."[break][break]

When the wall smashed, Aliyah had been surprised as she had expected it to come through one of the entrances. " Does that mean that it's capable of planning surprise attacks or did it just decide to take the path of least resistance?" she thought as she dodged to the side, followed by Orion. Absentlymindly, she could feel another rune form on her body bringing her total to 4.[break][break]

She wasn't surprised to see Aquila launch his own attack; a wave of static electricity striking the minotaur and slowing it down even further before Hana smashed it back through the wall it had come through. "Gotcha! Let's go, Orion!" The witch shouted before launching her ice beak attack into the hole. It was smashed with a swipe of the minotaur's axe but it had merely been a distraction for Orion to strike with his frost-coated wing.[break][break]

The minotaur stumbled back before releasing a bellowing roar and swinging its axe with both hands, unleashing a pressure wave, gouging into the walls, and aiming to cut the girl team in two![break][break]

B rank air slash incoming to all members.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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At Hana's comment, Aliyah came to a halt, considering how factual her statement was. She had no proof that this was the real Orion and not some fake created by Earth-chan. Her aunt's house was gone so she had no way to check if his cage was empty and while he had matching memories, they could easily be fabricated.[break][break]

Aliyah could feel her breathing begin to increase and made a conscious effort to calm herself; taking a calming breath and centering herself. This wasn't the time for her to go to pieces; they were in the middle of some makeshift dungeon being observed by something. "Just shove it down and I can deal with that after this mission is done."[break][break] she thought before continuing forward, pointedly ignoring any looks of concern from Orion or Hana if she sent any her way.[break][break]

"Oh, these are backrooms. They're really growing in popularity within the horror youtube community. People were filming this kind of stuff where it was an endless maze and then some sort of creature starts chasing them. They usually end up dying in those videos though." The witch said, trying to sound excited and putting the previous thoughts out of her mind. "I'm assuming that there will be another monster in here or maybe even more than one given the previous floors.[break][break]

"Sure. Not like we have anything to lose doing that." she stated, before heading down one of the corridors, making an arrow to point the way back to the stairs. Meanwhile, deeper in the maze, the shrill cry would awaken a beast, making it rise to its feet and begin stomping through the maze, hunting down the intruders.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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Aliyah was fine with letting Hana take the lead, the girl had much more variety than the witch did so she was sure that she had something up her sleeve. She was proven correct when Hana launched a powerful fireball at the murder crows, landing a direct hit after she blinded them.[break][break]

The two ravens that had been at ground zero were nothing but charbroil right now, with the remaining 3 being severely burned and ended up being easy pickings for Aliyah and her birds. With the death of the latest defenders, the surroundings once again returned to the standard gemstone look from the previous floor.[break][break]

"So first was an office floor then storage units. Whatever is causing this seems to mimic different types of buildings though all those creatures were real." She stated aloud, beginning to brainstorm and attempt to solve the mystery. As the two women attempted to solve the puzzle, Aquila would call their attention to the other side of the room where the stairwell disappeared, another one reforming a few meters to the right.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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"I wouldn't mind having some company to do dungeons and missions with. I can only spend so long around these guys before I start to crave some human companionship." Aliyah joked before answering her melanated companion. "It was a lucky pull from a mystery box honestly. I'm hoping to upgrade it to be able to shoot out feathers of something."[break][break]

Once she finished answering Nubia, Aliyah turned back to read what Deedee had written in her notebook. "Oh my God, no way! You're the first summoner that I've met since everything went down." The witch-themed teen squealed out, crouching down to examine each of the summons named. It seemed that unlike her, Deedee hadn't gotten limited to a single type of creature.[break][break]

When the contract appeared on her screen, Aliyah made sure to go through it in full before she signed. Just because she trusted Hana didn't mean that she was just going to blindly sign something like this. Finding nothing malicious in it, she signed her name, becoming an official member of Anthem.[break][break]

"Guess now I gotta make sure I don't bring any embarrassment to the guild."

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