"How big do you think this place is?" Aurora asked as she sat by the pool, wringing her shoe out. Water still spilt into the pool, where pieces of a ceramic like material floated. Aurora couldn't believe they had survived the challenge at all. None of them knew each other, but yet they were able to be coordinated enough to survive.

 

"Big enough to give us some sort of problem, no doubt." Alexander laughed, wringing his black boots out next to Aurora. He seemed intent on getting every drop of water out of them.

 

"We almost just died. How can you be so happy?" Aurora asked with a chuckle, as she wrung out her other shoe, quickly putting it back on. She would have taken the opportunity to wring out the rest of her clothing, as it was really uncomfortable, but being around the two boys didn't exactly make her feel comfortable with doing that. All of the maids she had back at the castle were female.

 

"C'mon, you can't tell me you didn't get at least a little thrill out of that." Alexander laughed, still wringing out the same shoe. "I mean look, you're smiling right now."

 

"You two need to stop messing around. We need to focus on getting through this maze." Lora said said while behind them, crossing her arms and looking at the exit to the dimly lit pool area quickly.

 

"The way to go is right in front of us." Cypher said pointing towards the opening, as water dripped down from him. He didn’t seem to care at all that he was wet, but instead had a smile on his face. 

 

"Yes but which way, the hallway breaks off into both left and right." Lora sighed, shaking her head.

 

"Maybe we should just pick a direction and go?" Aurora questioned, walking next to the two of them.

 

"We can’t afford to just randomly guess, we should have at least some form of a logical choice." 

 

"But how could anyone even know which-" Aurora started to ask, but was quickly interrupted.

 

"We have to go to the right." Alexander said, stumbling forward while trying to put his left boot back on.

 

"And how do you know that?" Lora questioned, only causing Alexander to grin.

 

"When we were falling, I noticed a large collection of light off to the right, with the lights dimming towards the left, logically we go towards where the light is the brightest." Alexander explained. Lora looked like she wanted to argue, but her face fell into acceptance.

 

"Then let's go." Cypher nodded, being the first one to walk out from the pool room, followed by everyone else. Aurora was in a bit of disbelief over Alexander above all the others; she couldn't figure him out at all. Lora, as it was plainly obvious, was one of those lone warrior types she had always had to deal with back at the castle. All of the knights, vying for her affection, would act this way with her. Cypher seemed to be an adrenaline junky, who probably fought just for the fun of it. Alexander though? She couldn’t figure anything out from the outside. She fell back in the walking order, as Lora and Cypher led the way, and walked next to Alexander.

 

"What is that? I've never seen a Pawn like that before." Aurora asked him curiously, as she noticed the Pawn’s display had taken up his entire forearm. The band itself that projected the display was also a bit larger than a normal Pawn would be.

 

"It's a specialty Pawn I made." Alexander smiled, putting his wrist down then looking to Aurora. She looked into his eyes, wondering if she could see them glowing in the dim light, but they just looked to be normal. What had she seen before?

 

"You must be really smart." Aurora smiled too, looking down at his Pawn.

 

"Nah, I just like to tinker with stuff and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t." Alexander shrugged as they reached yet another crossroads, this time going two different paths forward, one to the left, one to the right.

 

"Not again." Lora muttered, folding her huge arms and sighing deeply.

 

"Why don’t we go left." Cypher questioned, already starting to walk towards the path but Lora stepped in front of him.

 

“We really shouldn’t just go in a direction... I’d rather try to get out bearings. Getting killed in a place like this isn’t something I need.” Lora said, glancing at everyone else with a sort of worry present.

 

"This is a Labyrinth meant to confuse and misdirect us into traps and other challenges. The more randomized we make our decisions, the less this place will be able to trick us and kill us.” Alexander explained, then glanced back down at his Pawn, which showed a current map of the route they had taken.

 

“What makes you so sure?” Lora questioned, looking at him with a bit of disbelief.

 

"It only makes sense. A test is meant to trick you in order to test your knowledge." Alexander explained leaning off the wall then walking up to the crossroads, looking left then right.  "We're going left." 

 

And then he promptly turned right and began walking down the nondescript pathway.

 

"Um..., that's right." Aurora tried to point out, only causing him to laugh.

 

"Well obviously I'm right, so you all should seriously stop asking questions." Alexander said, nearly disappearing from sight around a dark corner on that pathway. Cypher then immediately followed after him, giving a little laugh before also disappearing around the corner.

 

"He’s going to get us killed.” Lora sighed, walking forward. Aurora finally took the opportunity to try her best to get to know Lora as well, seeing as it hadn’t worked with Alexander. Lora immediately turned over to Aurora when she got close and gave a little bow. “Hello Princess.”

 

“You don’t have to bow.” Aurora spoke through her grit teeth. No matter where she went, she couldn’t seem to escape from her bloodline.

 

“It's my duty as a citizen of Ventali to show respect to the royalty.” Lora spoke, walking faster than Aurora, as they both caught up to Alexander and Cypher.

 

"You know, it's pretty quiet in here guys." Cypher said aloud, causing everyone to stop. Alexander turned around, and almost glared Cypher down.

 

"Don't you know that's the last thin-" Alexander started to complain, when suddenly the floodlights on the ceiling turned on, and a loud roar echoed through the entire warehouse. "Oh that's just great."

 

"What was that?" Aurora asked as fear once again filled her.

 

"That was a Taurus.” Lora spoke, her head perking up as worry filled her eyes.

 

"A Taurus?" Cypher questioned, but he wasn't the only one. It seemed no one else in the group knew what she was talking about.

 

“It's a huge dire, native to Laxius, what is one doing here?” Lora questioned, in slight fear. “Its vicious, relentless, and kills without regard for its own life.”

 

"And we're just standing here like we're ready to die?" Aurora questioned, only to have yet another roar tear through the air, but it didn't seem like the Dire had moved at all. She gripped onto her bow tighter and looked around.

 

"Wait a second...Why isn't it moving?" Alexander asked as another roar. Then a scream pierced the air, similar in distance to the Dire roar.

 

"Someone needs help." Cypher announced, immediately running down the now lit hallway, in the direction of the scream.

 

"Cypher! Don't go towards the giant monster you idiot!" Alexander yelled at Cypher, running after him.

 

"You got a lot of nerve saying that!" Lora yelled after them, trying to get them to stop but it was ineffective. Lora wasn’t as fast as Alexander, and it seemed that despite Cyphers size, he was able to easily keep up.

 

"Cant… run.” Lora said, gasping for air, stopping mid run and putting her hands on her knees. She was truly gasping for air, but Aurora didn’t understand why.

 

"Lora are you okay?" Aurora said half yelling, as fear consumed her. She heard yet another roar from the Dire, and this one sounded even closer than it had before, followed by yet another scream.

 

"I cant…ha...breathe." She gasped, her knees hitting the floor. Aurora couldn’t believe that such an athletic person had been brought to her knees by seemingly nothing, something definitely wasn’t right.

 

"Lora, tell me what’s going on, are you-." 

 

"Princess…" Lora gasped quickly, her eyes widening as she looked behind Aurora. Lora tried to get up, but it was absolutely ineffective, she couldn’t move. Aurora quickly turned and saw a Dire that was completely unknown to her. This dire looked to be a sort of rat, but was literally the size of Lora. It had razor sharp claws and also seemed to be puffing a sort of green gas from its mouth.

 

"Lora…. we have to go." Aurora stated, pointing an arrow at the dire, fear causing her arms to shake a bit. She had never fought anything before this day, all of it had simply been training.

 

"I..can't…move." Lora said, still gasping for air. Aurora couldn't figure out why she was having such trouble breathing, but she knew now wasn't the time.

 

“Remember, your breathing is important.” An echo of a voice whispered in her ear.

 

“Rictis.” She muttered, her nerves steeled. She let her arrow fly, then concentrated, and pushed the arrow to barrel towards the stalking Dire.

 

For an instant, Aurora believed that she had obtained the victory over the Dire, as the arrow flew towards its head. However, she was wrong. The Dire shot out of the way before the arrow could even contact it, making the arrow slam into the wall behind it.

 

"Oh no…" Aurora muttered as her nerves returned. She watched the Dire shoot forward towards her, and notched another arrow as quickly as she could.

 

“Not good enough Auri, that won’t save you unless you make it save you.” Rictis’s voice spoke, and she grit her teeth and moved her eyes to the beasts shoulder. She fired yet another arrow, trying to anticipate where it was going to be. The arrow hit its target like it was a bullseye and tripped and slid towards Aurora. While it seemed Aurora was master of her bow, she had forgotten one key thing, momentum.

 

The Dire slid towards her at full speed over the glossy floor and slammed into Aurora’s shins, its sharp claws swinging around wildly as it tried to get up, cutting Aurora lightly a few times.

 

"Ow!" Aurora yelled rolling to the side to get away from the Dire, which was a mistake on her part. The Dire immediately jumped on top of Aurora, and spit in her face, releasing a gooey green liquid that felt as if it were burning her face. She closed her mouth then threw her fist out, hoping to punch it off of her but failing miserably. The Dire scratched at both of her arms, leaving light cuts, then bashed its head into her head, causing her entire body to feel hazy.

 

The burning in her face seemed like it was sinking into her brain, her arms were dripping with blood, and her vision was clouded by the brutal hit she had just taken. She felt as if this was going to be it for her, like she would fail before she even had a chance to try. That was until the Dire exploded before her eyes, raining blood upon her. She didn’t understand what was happening, and she felt herself being thrust up while something rubbed her face. Her vision slowly came back, until she saw Lora with a worried look on her face.

 

"You really need to be more careful, you’re an archer not a brawler." Lora spoke, as she began to rub a wet cloth over her cut up forearms.

 

"Did you…" Aurora started to ask, before she began coughing heavily. She felt like she couldn't breathe at all, what did that dire do to her? She looked down at her arms and saw the Socrates beginning to fade as the wet cloth cleaned them. “What is that?”

 

“It's a healing cloth. The water is blessed with the power of the sun god.” Lora explained as she continued to wipe Aurora’s wounds. “That being said though, your wounds are healing much faster than even I expected. I suppose that is something to be expected of the royal princess though.”

 

“Right…” Aurora muttered, turning her head away and glaring at the wall. She saw all the pieces of the dire that had attacked her and slowly her anger went away, and instead curiosity consumed her. “What was that?

 

"It's a dire called the Spitrus. That gas and spit in its mouth is toxic enough to make anyone incapacitated for a few seconds. While its claws aren’t the sharpest in the world…if it had even one more second, we both would have been dead."

 

"Terrifying…" Aurora coughed into her arm as she tried to get up, but weakness had overcome her body.

 

"Be careful, it takes a second for the effects to wear off." Lora told her, helping her up from the ground. Lora seemed to have fully recovered from the poison, but Aurora was still extremely dizzy. "Now where are the idiots?"

 

"They went...that way." Aurora coughed weakly, pointing right down the branching hallways in front of them. Lora nodded her head then pulled Aurora's arm over her shoulder, helping Aurora walk down the hallway.

 

"I can't believe they just left us behind." Lora grimaced, obviously irritated at them.

 

"They just wanted to help someone, is that so bad?" Aurora questioned weakly, honestly confused. 

 

“Yeah but…” Lora just sighed in anger. “I don’t want to see anyone dead and if they try to fight that Taurus, they are going to die.”

 

Aurora glanced at her with wide eyes but didn’t say anything. She was worried about her new friends, even if she barely knew them. After a few seconds they saw a giant flash of light blast from about a hundred feet to their right, just above one of the maze walls, followed by a loud roar, and a few loud yells.

 

"That’s them. Can you walk?" Lora asked quickly, and Aurora nodded. She shifted her weight back to her legs, and nearly fell, but she tried her best to muster up her strength and stay on her feet. She refused to be just some useless princess they had to protect.

 

"Are you sure you're okay to walk?"

 

"I'm fine." She said, forcing a smile, then moving forward down the whitewashed hallway. They started to pick up a run as they heard the Taurus roar once more, but as they were about to turn a right corner, they immediately slammed into Alexander and Cypher. "What the-"

 

"Shh." Alexander whispered into her ear as he covered her mouth, then pushed her into the wall softly and then standing completely still. She immediately blushed hard, and she wasn’t sure whether to feel enraged or embarrassed. No one would have ever even dreamed of doing this to her, unless they wished for death.

 

She looked him in his eyes and saw that his iris's seemed to be dimly glowing yellow, but they were also slightly cloudy. Anger turned into curiosity as he looked into her eyes, realizing the glowing hadn't been her imagination after all. She then glanced over to the others, trying to understand what had happened, and saw that Cypher and Lora were standing completely still on the wall. Why did they seem so-

 

Then she saw it as she looked towards the corner. A large brown fur face appeared from the hallways the others had just come from. Snot dripped out of its nose, tears were coming from its eyes, and saliva dripped down onto the floor with a sickening sound. Aurora scrunched up her nose as the smell from the dire hit her, which was a smell more rancid than anything that she had ever been near. She turned to its eyes, wondering why they hadn't already been killed, then saw that the dire's eyes were completely white, not even a hint of an iris. The Dire was completely blind.

 

The Dires nose then moved, and she heard a sniffing noise. The Dire was trying to find them using its other sense to detect them. However, it was at a disadvantage, as they all were still soaked in the water, which was mixed with the blood of a Palude. This isn't entirely what saved them however, as the Dire moved closer to all of them. Noticing this, Alexander reached his hand slowly around Aurora's torso. Her eyes widened, as she didn’t understand what he was doing at all, but then he slowly pulled one of her arrows out of the quiver. She thought he was even crazier for grabbing the arrow than anything else he possibly could have done though.

 

Alexander noticed this worry, then shot her a smile, lobbing the arrow over the wall behind them, towards the area that the dire had just come from. Aurora, even over her own heartbeat, heard the arrow clatter in another hallway and sucked in a breath. The Dire then immediately bolted from where it had been standing, and chased the false noise caused by the arrow.

"Go." Alexander whispered into her ear, pushing on her back and trying to direct her towards the hallway her and Lora had just come from. Aurora didn’t think about the order, but just slid herself away from Alexander and began moving towards where they had come from. She noticed that Lora was leading Cypher along, just as she had when Aurora was hurt. What she noticed first and foremost was that Cyphers eyes looked exactly like the dire’s, he was completely blind.

 

"T-that thing was horrifying…" Aurora muttered in fear, trying to calm herself down. She had never seen a Dire like that, nor heard of it. It truly looked like a beast that wanted nothing more than to kill them all…the true personification of a dire.

 

"That Taurus looked hurt." Lora said quickly as they all caught their breath and their bearings. A loud thud came from near Aurora, and when she looked, she saw that Lora had set Cypher down on the ground.

 

"What happened to your eyes Cypher?" Aurora asked, worry filling her voice as she took a knee next to Cypher. 

 

"All I saw was a guy, then next thing I know, I'm blind." Cypher explained in an uncomfortable tone, reaching his hand up to his eyes.

 

"We're lucky I was looking down." Alexander pointed out, leaning down next to Cypher then putting a hand on his left arm. "We would have been dead had I not."

 

"What do you mean?" Aurora questioned, bending down next to him as he looked at Cypher’s eyes.

 

"Someone fighting that Dire before we got there must have had the power to explode into light or something." Cypher sighed.

 

"How were you unaffected?" Lora questioned Alexander, a tone of suspicion filling her voice. Aurora looked at him too, and noticed there was not a bit of haze over his eyes.

 

"I was, but I was able to heal it fast enough to pull Cy out of there and meet with you guys." Alexander explained, as he looked into Cypher's eyes, concentration obvious on his expression. Aurora kept looking at his eyes and noticed that she could see them start to glow ever so slightly. A few seconds later, the white that covered Cypher’s eyes turned more to a haze, but never reached a super clear state. Alexander let out a loud breath, and Aurora noticed that for a split second he looked like he was in pain, but the expression quickly disappeared as he stood up. Aurora found this particularly odd, she had never seen a healer have to try so hard.

 

"Oh wow Alexander, what a friend." Cypher smilled, standing up then clapping him on the back in a friendly way which made Alexander cringe in pain. "Now we can go kill that Taurus together!"

"Cypher, it would take a lot more power than we have to kill that thing.” Lora spoke as she kept her eyes on the hallway they had just come from. Cypher looked almost disappointed.

"I agree, we can't beat it with brute force like we did the Palude." Alexander spoke up, glancing over to the hallway they had just left. For a moment he thought, then he looked back to everyone else. "I think we should sneak past him. I noticed an open trap door on the opposite side of the Taurus's room before whoever that dude was destroyed the dires eyes. I think that's where we need to go."

 

"Oh...I'm not the best at...stealth." Aurora said quietly, she had always been bad at it and even Rictis had mentioned it before. ‘You’ll never be more than your family if you don’t learn stealth.’ He always used to say. Alexander though, stood by her and put a hand on her shoulder as if trying to comfort her.

 

"I'll walk with Aurora, make sure she doesn't get curb stomped by that beast." Alexander said quickly, confusing her completely. She had never talked to someone who treated her so nonchalantly like this before. It didn’t seem like he wanted to protect her just because of who she was, and it didn’t seem like he saw her as a princess either. Just who was this person? Where had he come from? 

 

"I'll walk with Cypher." Lora said softly, glancing over to Cypher, who looked to be playing some sort of game on his Pawn. He then noticed he was being talked about then looked up with a wide, innocent smile on his face.

 

"Thanks Lora." Cypher continued smiling, walking over and clapping his hand down on Lora’s shoulder. "I'm so lucky to have friends like all of you."

 

"Yeah…" Lora grimaced, rubbing her shoulder after Cypher pulled away.

 

“Alright we’ll go after you two. Better if we split up anyway.” Alexander said, smiling at them and taking his hand off of Aurora. How was he so happy and calm in these situations, it just didn’t make sense to her.

 

"Lets go big guy." Lora spoke, walking down the hallway, making absolutely no noise at all as he walked. Cypher stumbled towards Lora, trying to catch up, and Aurora noticed that his loud footsteps seemed to get quieter and quieter as he approached Lora. When he got next to her, there wasn’t a sound from either of them. Then, they disappeared around the corner, and the wait began.

 

“She has the blessing of the shadow?” Aurora asked, amazed.

 

“What’s that?” Alexander asked her, and she glanced over as if he were crazy.

 

“The blessing of the shadow? It's historically one of the most dangerous blessings the gods bestowed upon us. “It lets the user turn the area around them into a dead space for noise.”

 

“That’s amazing.” He spoke, sighing then looking over to Aurora with those eyes that seemed to mesmerize her. They looked almost like pure yellow lightning, and had so much life inside of them. “You ready to go?’

 

“Oh...um…” 

 

"Just calm down, and take it easy. You'll do great." Alexander grinned, pulling his sword out of his sheath. She didn’t know why he had pulled his sword out, but she didn’t question him. "Just don't say anything and it'll be okay, don't worry we will be fine."

 

"Okay." Aurora nodded her head, the fear almost disappearing as they walked down the final stretch of the hallway. Then they turned the corner and her fear quickly returned, in full force. The room was quite a large space containing a number of toys, meat, and destroyed pieces of armor scattered throughout the room. She also noticed that the Taurus was sitting on the left side of the room, battling the blindness in its eyes.Her breath caught as she looked at its body though as had shaggy fur hung loosely over his huge muscles, which looked like they could break through solid rock. It was the mass of their entire group combined, which was absolutely terrifying to Aurora. Aurora shivered a bit as she imagined having to fight the giant monster, and even though they had defeated all of the other challenges to this point, she didn't think her and Alexander even stood a chance.

 

As all of her focus was on the Taurus, her attention was pulled away from the direction she was supposed to be walking in. That's when it all went wrong. Her foot slammed into one of the slabs of meat, knocking her off balance. Quickly however, Alexander's arm reached around her, and protected her from smacking into the ground, but in doing so his sword clattered to the ground. A loud echoing clang ran out through the room, immediately alerting the Dire that they were there.

 

"Move!" Alexander yelled, pushing Aurora out of the way behind the slab of meat, then scouping his sword up and facing the Taurus, which had gotten up on its feet and was looking in their direction, despite still having the white haze over its eyes. It then turned its head a bit more and looked Alexander seemingly in his own eyes. 

 

"You smell funny." The Taurus growled with a voice so deep and loud, that it vibrated the very ground they stood on. Not another seconds could pass before the Dire charged at Alexander. It was almost as if it could pinpoint his location with its other senses

 

"Since when could you talk?" Alexander shouted, dodging out of the Dire's way. Aurora found herself asking the very same question, she had never seen or heard a dire speak at all. The Dire rushed past Alexander, sliding before it could slam into the wall, then looked him in the eye once again.

 

"Since always." It growled deeply then bent its body down to charge once again, this time scratching the ground a bit. Aurora, who was still on the ground only a few feet away from the trap door, saw Alexander bend his knees, readying himself. The Dire's mouth widened a bit, as if it were smiling, which put fear into Aurora's stomach.

 

"Alexander watch out!" She yelled to him, as a warning, but he simply just grinned and stared the Taurus down. The Taurus let out a puff of air, then bolted towards Alexander once again, this time with more force. Alexander tried to dodge out of the way, but before he could get very far, the Taurus's arm shot out and slammed into him, throwing him into the wall near where the dire had been resting before. Alexander let out a loud grunt, but the Dire didn't stop and kept barreling towards Alexander, who had fallen to the ground.

 

"You rumble too much." Aurora heard Alexander say as he looked up. She couldn't believe it, but he seemed to have a slight grin on his face, beyond the blood rushing from his nose and mouth. The Taurus grinned as it neared Alexander, but he didn't move until the Taurus got only a few inches from him. He expertly slid forward and under the dire before it could splatter him into the wall, and instead the Dire itself hit the wall, shaking the entire room. Alexander then popped up on the other side of the dire and jumped up.

 

"Oh shi-" Alexander started to say as he watched the Dire spin around with unbelievable speed, and smacked him mid air into a wall close to where the trap door was, but still a good distance away from Aurora. Alexander's vision quickly began blacking out as he tried to keep himself conscious, he wouldn't pass out now, he wouldn't. He tried to pick himself up from the ground, but immediately fell back down. "What's...the...damage?"

 

"Crack in the left part of your shoulder blade, light concussion, bleeding from the mouth and nose." Artemis's soft voice spoke in his ear, although he could sense some worry in her tone, he decided to ignore it. He glanced up and saw that Aurora seemed to be trying to run towards him to help him, but she was quickly stopped by the Dire stepping in between them. The Dire's pure white eyes were focused on Alexander's, as if the Taurus believed it had already won.

 

"You are weak." The Taurus growled in an almost humorous tone. Alexander grinned a bit as he pushed himself up, pushing power through his body to first heal the crack in his shoulder blade.

 

"I'm a bit rusty Bull Boy, cut me some slack." He laughed, getting fully to his feet and still brandishing his sword in his right hand. He knew his shoulder blade would take at least a minute to heal, but he also knew he could at least last long enough for his plan to work. "Get the hell out of here while you can Aurora, I'm going to make this thing wish it had given up."

 

"You do not admit defeat?" The Taurus questioned, which only made him smile more. He glanced over at Aurora and saw that at least she had heeded his advice and was heading down the trap door. Finally, now he could let loose a bit.

 

"Listen, I always keep fighting." He laughed once again, staring the Dire down with the same intensity it was giving him. This made the Taurus huff.

 

"Foolish." It growled, bending its body down and readying itself for a final rush. It wasn't going to hold back any longer, and neither was Alexander.

 

"You won't be able to fight again if you don't give up now, give up." Artemis hissed in warning, but Alexander only chuckled.

 

"Just believe in me for once Artemis." Alexander laughed. He turned his attention back to the Dire and beckoned it to attack him, with a sarcastic grin plastered on his face. This was the final straw for the Taurus. It roared then bolted at Alexander, anger filling its face as it barreled towards him. For a moment, fear crawled over his face, but it was quickly replaced by determination as he let the Dire get closer. He knew he didn't stand a chance going left, right, or down, which only left one path open for him to escape. He waited for a moment, for the Dire to get really close, then he slammed the tip of his sword into the ground with all his remaining strength, vaulting himself over the Dire's large frame. He stayed in the air long enough to clear the Taurus, but then slammed into the ground and rolled, shooting pain all throughout his body as he neared the trap door. 

 

"You can't escape!" The Taurus bellowed as it spun around quicker than Alexander had anticipated. He looked to the Dire, with fear now obviously in his face. The Dire then began to run at Alexander, with anger filling its expression.

 

"There isn't enough time, you have to let me-" Artemis warned, fear and worry present in her voice. Alexander was already moving his hand though, as if he knew what Artemis was going to say. Suddenly, a loud boom echoed through the room and a bolt of lightning slammed into the Dire's head, knocking its run off course, and causing it to barrel past Alexander. 

 

"There…" Alexander muttered weakly, pain running rampant in his body. He wasted no time rolling over towards the trap door, and yanking it open. He pulled his body to the opening, then balanced himself on the ladder before looking up and seeing the Taurus once again barreling towards him. He reached up quickly, and pulled the trap door shut, sealing the Dire off from him, letting him breathe a sigh of relief.