The level 30 jaguar drops dead in front of us. That was the strongest one so far. Can't say we did ‘great’, but I still have two heads left, so not terrible either.

  I've become quite good a turning myself into a meat shield. In this last fight, I completely wrapped myself around Chase to protect him, opening an opportunity for Vassos to stab the jaguar mob and end the fighy. Well, that and Vassos throwing ash blindly into the air to reveal the cat's position.

  Yeah... so me and the boy got real intimate back there. He did not look happy about it. It hadn't been in any of our exercises—I just came up with it then and there—so he wasn't expecting a hug.

  Come on little parasite. You could at least wipe your eyes and pretend you weren't crying. I'm not that gross, and I do have feelings.

  The chamber is cleared and we find two exits, one leading to bees, and the other cats. We ignore the bee chamber—I imagine Vassos already knows where it leads—and enter the next jaguar camber. This one is narrower, more tunnel like, and the trees are shorter. The scent of unfamiliar plants is strong and everything is damp.

  There's a series of screeching roars—one coming from the left and the other from the right. The previous cats had all been quiet, but these two are communicating something. I think we may have to fight a duo now.

  A carrier swine rushes out from the undergrowth charging at me. I ready myself and move to tackle it. What? Nothing... The pig disappeared. No. It didn't disappear. That carrier swine was never real to begin with!

  Behind me, Vassos scatters ashes in the air, revealing a jaguar just in time for him to dodge and then stab it. We hear a scream from behind. The boy! Chase stumbles forward, his hand breaking his fall. There's a streak of blood running down his back.

  I stare at the long cut in the armor that's been left out to dry. How did I fall for that illusion? Carrier swine never enter jaguar chambers. That illusion had been purely black-and-white, it even flickered as it moved.

  My gut reactions took over and betrayed me. My rational mind had been too slow. The two of them don't look upset at me and that only makes this harder to bear. No doubt this is what they expect from a mere animal.

  Chase hasn't lost mobility, but I can see him flinch during archery practice. Meanwhile, Vassos is sitting on his rock—thinking again. He's been at it longer than usual this time.

  So what am I doing? Good question... Having a leader has made me complacent. I'm forgetting to make battle plans of my own. That won't do. I've outsmarted opponents before, I can do it again. Come on, think. Everything has a counter. Combined, those two mobs have less levels than us. We just lack the right counter.

  During my first few days in this labyrinth, I thought the carrier swine poison-moth attacks were unfair. The potency of the poison is so high compared to hydra venom at the same levels. I now know that there's a ridiculously simple counter to it: just hold your breath and move out of the gas cloud. I won't tell you how long it took me to figure that one out... It took too long, that's all I'll say.

  The biggest weakness for carrier swine is that their ranged offensive actives are easy to avoid. Me just tanking it turned out to be a special case. For speedy illusion wielding jaguars, their main weakness should obviously be area-of-effect actives. The problem is, none of us have one.

  And on that point, I've been thinking: back when I faced the ankylosaur, I needed a piercing active but had none. I overcame that limitation by using a weapon. So, can I make a AOE weapon? Let's go do an experiment!

  I grab a couple of the bags which Vassos had previously used for carrying ash, and head to one of the pig chambers to bait some swine.

  Coiled around a level 6 carrier swine, I wait until just before its moth active is ready again to kill it. With the pig dead, I start cutting out the moth-pods stuck in its back.

  My fangs are delicate and break off easily, but they are quite sharp and can cut through the pigs tough skin if applied in exactly the right way. It's not great for combat, but this is how I'm usually able to cut up my food. My necks are thin, so swallowing large chunks is not an option, and I have no chewing or chopping teeth.

  I put several pods in a bag and keep a few out to do some tests. Let's see... Nope, throwing them doesn't have any effect. Next, I gently cut one open. It proceeds to fly straight into my face and then explodes. No use, the panthers won't hold still for that.

  I can't throw them hard enough to make them break, but Chase probably could. Let's take these back to base-camp.

  I check up on my moth pods on the way back and notice the color has changed. Hmm... I was afraid of that. Taking one out and popping it reveals the insect is dead.

  Scrap that idea. It seems the pig needs to be alive. Perhaps with some rope I could tie one up and drag it to the panther chambers, but there's no way to throw a live pig at an enemy—and even if you could, it would be way too easy to avoid.

  Okay, lets try this with bees instead. I move to one of the bee chambers, slither right up to a level 4 hive, and throw a bag over it. Aside form the ones that died stinging me, the ones in the bag seem to still be alive. Let's see how long that lasts.

  With five mouths to grasp things, I carry five bee-bags back to base-camp. I think enough time has passed now, let's figure out how to deploy these. There's a tree stump here that we often use as a target for training. I face it, open a bee-bag slightly, toss it at the target—and... not far enough. Did I mention I'm terrible at throwing things?

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The bees are slowly coming out. Too slow. No use as an attack. Come on... think. Think! How else can I do this? There must be some way to toss them at an enemy. Chase is pretty good with projectiles, I could get him to do it, but he's probably not gonna handle getting stung well—better ask the old man instead.

  With a bit of hissing and gesturing, Vassos caves and follow me to the training grounds. I demonstrate my bee-bag toss using our usual target.

  Okay, now's your turn, "Ksssss!"

  He doesn't seem interested in throwing it, but he is inspecting my creation carefully. Vassos squats down, his eyes remaining glued to the improvised explosive. Good, looks like he's thinking.

  He leaves, and just when I'm beginning to think my plan was rejected, he returns with more bags. Vassos makes no move to collect hives, instead, he just hands me a bag and points at one. It's the tank's job to get stung—I guess.

  As I'm bagging the first one, the man starts making the "no!" sound—possibly the first word I learned. Hmm... what's this about? It takes a bit of trial-and-error to figure out, but it seems he wants the nests intact. Very well, easy enough.

  We're back at the training ground and our leader calls the boy over. I think he's gonna show us how he intends to throw them now. Well. I'm waiting...

  Vassos faces me, points at a bee-bag, then points at a boulder, and says "place!"

  I don't know that word but can tell it's a command. I struggle to follow human speech. I can associate individual words or phrases with a specific objects or actions, but when they start stringing words together, it all turns to noise.

  He probably wants me to throw the bag at the boulder, but why? Okay. Lets do as the man asks.

  "No!"

  Okay. So I'm not throwing it then? More human noises. Sorry, I didn't get any of that. Even more human noises, and now the boy is chiming in as well. This really isn't helping. I put the bee-bag on the boulder and step away. Well? is that what you wanted?

  Vassos tosses his hands in the air—a sign of frustration—and marches over to where I left the bag. He picks it up, points at the bag, points at the boulder, and repeats the command, "place!" Next, he opens the bag, removes the hive with his hand and neatly places it on the boulder. And now he's running away.

  Oh! Now, I get it: ‘place’—but why?

  An irate looking man covered in red blisters points at another bag and then a tree, and commands once again, "Place!"

  We're back at the entrance to the second jaguar chamber. This time we have a plan—my plan. Don't ask me exactly what that plan is though. All I know is, it involves placing bees nests for some reason. Oh yes, we brought bee-bags. As many as we could carry in four trips. They range in level from 9 through to 25.

  The two humans stay at the entrance, an easily defended choke-point. Me, I'm being ordered to place bees nests all over. This one goes in the nook of this tree, like so... and then this one here...

  Slice!

  Aaah! Head number five comes off clean and rolls on the ground. Now arrows are flying my way. I know this part. I need to move predictably to make aiming easy for Chase.

  More arrows rain down around me and its hard to believe none have hit me. A cloud of bees fly off in what seems, at first, like a random direction. There's a screeching call as the panther's camouflage comes undone. Interesting... it look like these bees aren't fooled by panther illusions.

  The mob flees, barely evading arrows. I head back, passively healing, and fetch the next nest.

  Okay, that's the last nest placed. What happens now? Hmm... it looks like we've spaced them out just far enough that a small team of three could move around inside the gaps without aggro-ing the bees. The jaguar mobs rely on hit-and-run tactics with many angles of attack. This should seriously limit their mobility. I think I get it now.

  We return the next day with bee-bags reloaded and ready to continue. Disappointingly, it seems the resident mobs did not simply accept having their home vandalized. Many nest lay broken and empty on the ground. Many, but not all!

  Inspecting more carefully reveals something very interesting, and its at this moment that I know we've already won. The humans have figured it out too, based on the exited chatter coming from behind me. So what has us so excited? Look carefully, see that!—the remaining hives are all level 18 or above. The cats can only destroy weak nests!

  We continue working for the rest of the day as before, slowly pushing the jaguars further back. While returning to fetch the last nest, I notice something. That level 26 nest was at level 25 before. It leveled up.

  While I've never seen it happen, I've been suspecting this for some time now. Labyrinth mobs don't need to fight to gain XP. Think about it. Carrier swine sometimes take down bees nests to eat honey—their gas attacks are perfect for it—but other than that, they just eat plants. When you look at how often one of them wanders to a bee chamber, and at how often hives disappear, the steady rise in pig levels over time just doesn't add up.

  I've seen panthers hunt pigs, but it's uncommon. And then there's the bees, they hunt nothing, and yet, somehow, they still level. Perhaps they simply need to eat to level. All day, I've been noticing bees visiting flowers just as they do in their own chambers. They seem to have taken to this new habitat well.

  It's the fourth day. We've harvested almost all the bee hives in the sector, and the chamber exit is in sight. Increasingly, the jaguar mobs are making their displeasure known. Shrieking growls echo between trees with growing frequency. There's got to be at least four of them back there. They can't afford to continue surrendering ground. Soon, there will be conflict.

  This next exit is a narrow tunnel, just wide enough for three of us to stand in side-by-side. It slowly curves away, so the end is out of sight. One jaguar passes into that tunnel. Will they flee and force a fight in the next chamber? Another moves into the same passage. Shortly after, a loud uproar rises for somewhere beyond. Two cats come rushing out and are followed by a herd of angry squealing carrier swine. A cloud of blue gas leaks from the tunnel, making it clear why the panthers had to pull back.

  Spotting our opportunity, Vassos orders me forward while he and Chase advance steadily. I'm not confronting any of these mobs just yet. For now I'm just blocking the central passage. Anything that tries to get past me here will have to trigger a bee's hive.

  Not all of the jaguar mobs have illusion classes. One, with a speed build, leaps forward to slash at a pigs neck. It succeeds, but the maneuver was too predictable and Chase took advantage of that. An arrow pierces its hind leg and as it tries to limp away, moths from the dying swine impact it. A second arrow follows and ends it.

  The chaos here is to our advantage, and it seems—much like with the bees—the blue moths aren't fooled by light illusions. Not wanting the pigs to return to their chamber just yet, I advance and plant myself in the center of the exit tunnel.

  Our leader gives some signal and the two humans run over to stand behind me. The last of the pigs dies to an unseen enemy just as they arrive. The remaining enemies are all behind us now, trapped between us and a maze of bees hives.

  Chase has moved further into the narrow tunnel, and me and Vassos are standing side-by-side at its entrance. The jaguars have vanished again and all is silent.

  An arrow is shot at some point up in a tree, and while I could not see the mob, I did see the branch being flung back, as if something had just jumped off it.

  Guessing where it would land, Vassos dashes out and scatters ash in the air. The mob is revealed. It doges another stab from his rapier, but is driven into a bee hive. In its confusion, the second arrow finds its target leaving the mob immobile and engulfed by an angry swarm.

  I'm not standing around idly while all this is happening either. Now would be the ideal time for one to charge at Chase. I move closer to the boy, ready to throw myself between the archer and anything that might target him.

  There's a scraping sound. Something rushes past me on the left. I'm too slow to intercept, but the boy notices and shoots it in the chest point blank

  I know there's at least one more panther, and if one passed me on the left, the other would aim for the right. I rush to the right—and almost exactly as predicted—something collides with me hard. We both roll to the ground, but I've got one neck coiled around something. This one won't be getting away. Soon, my whole body is wrapped around it. Sharp claws slash deep into my flesh but none of it targeted well. The mob is desperate and flailing too much to aim for anything critical. I keep squeezing and its neck snaps easily.

  Vassos has caught up to us now, and it looks like the fight is over. The mob beneath me was level 32, much higher than anything I'd fought before, but it's fate was sealed the moment I had a grip on it.