Labyrinth

As Ki cut through the poison ivy and any vines blocking her path, the ones that were cut down and of any use were placed in a large bag for to be used later.

Ki did not wish for anyone to come in direct contact with any of it so she made them all wear gloves while moving it all into the bag.

It didn't take long before Ki had opened up a path leading into the mountains that was hidden behind the vines.

Ki turned to the others and spoke. "We have opened up a path so we can enter but stay behind me at all times. Light up the lanterns immediately."

Ki took the lead while Marilyn and Lumi followed behind and the members of the blood shadow group who carried the lanterns lighting the way into the dark tomb.

Within the tomb there were many paths within it as if it had been built into a labyrinth leading underground or within the mountain.

Ki held another map in her hand that mapped the detailed route to travel though the labyrinth and began to mark up which way they all had travelled and each turn they took.

Ki looked at the walls and floor carefully each time she took a step.

She took another step forward and then stopped in place.

She then knelt to the ground and used her hand to lightly brush away the sand and dust to the side.

After a little time a large square tile with a small space around it showed that the place was not part of the usual ground they had been walking upon.

She then continued to look at another square tile on the ground to its left and found it was solid and nothing was unusual.

She looked at the walls and saw several holes that were big enough for steel poles or arrows to pass through.

As if testing her theory she turned behind her and spoke to Marilyn. "Can you pass me the weighted bag you brought. It's time to test if this works."

Marilyn held the bag and placed it in Ki's arms. "So what is this all about?"

Ki smiled as she took the heavy bag and then made it hover over the unusual looking tile that had a small space almost like the ground beneath it had been dug out under it. "Most mechanisms have some sort of unusual mechanisms or ways of activation but they are easy to identify if you enter enough tombs and gain experience. This one is a classic version that works with pressure plates to activate the traps. This one is arranged so that there is an option to step on the left of right tiles and then continue choosing a tile to step on for every step along the path."

She then dropped the bag as it hit the ground heavily and the weight caused the tile to lower a little.

Afterwards the trap activated and several sharp metallic spears came out of the holes in the side of the wall very quickly and passed through the other side of the wall where the holes were and then retreated back slowly as if the mechanism was resetting.

The holes where the spears came out of the walls were located near the lower, middle and upper parts of the wall where the tiles were placed.

Ki saw it all happen along with the others and spoke. "Similar traps will be placed by either trip wire or through pressure plates but there will also be some other types of traps so we need to remain cautious."

Ki removed the bag from the tile to remove the weight and dropped it on the left tile but nothing happened afterwards. "See? You just need to recognise which one you need to step on. Sometimes there will be some tricks involved that may mislead your judgement but this one is pretty basic."

She kept checking the floor in front of her after stepping on the left tile and then went on to finding more safe tiles.

Some tiles had the sand or dust fall through the small gaps in between the tiles and the floor which helped better identify them as fake flooring.

As she reached the end of the hall she turned around and spoke. "Left, left, right, left, right, right, left, right. Continue along the path taking those steps forward and be careful not to trigger the traps."

Marilyn was the first to step through the path of traps, then Lumi followed and then the members of the blood shadow group.

Continuing down the route mapped out, Ki stopped again, examined the floor and began to wipe the dust and sand away.

Ki noticed an abnormality immediately and applied some pressure to the ground in front of her which displayed signs of the floor giving way to the weight applied at an angle.

She sighed and then spoke to those behind her. "This is a floor pit trap that is designed to keep the floor flat but once weight is applied the flooring will immediately flip over after someone steps on it. A metal bar is in the middle of the flooring which keeps it in place so even a little bit of weight can cause either side to tip far enough for someone to fall into the pit. Luckily enough this trap is easy to jump across rather than risk falling to your death. Either the pit will be too deep to survive the fall or there will also be spikes underneath."

Ki took a step back and then gained enough momentum to jump over after she had tested the size of the trap and how far it covered.

She ran and then jumped across and then turned to press on the ground as it twirled around and then reset to become flat again. "Remember the distance you need to jump so you don't accidentally fall down."

She then marked a line within the sand and dust on the ground to help better identify it and shouted over as she pressed down on the floor trap again. "Mark a location on where to jump just in case and don't forget the last traps footsteps as they will now be reversed on the way back."

Seeing that the group had passed the traps they had encountered Ki wiped the sweat from her brow. 'Well… no casualties so far. So long as they listen properly there should be no problems."

Along the way they all encountered several traps of a similar manner which were either made from weighted tiles or deep pit traps.

As they continued on their way deeper into the labyrinth Ki stopped again and her eyes sharpened as she looked across at the end of the final path.

On the end of the hallway was a wall before a sharp turn but the wall itself had a large rectangle which was cut out and something behind it subtly reflected the light from the lanterns that shone through the hallway.