Free Elementally Priceless by Shannon Mayer

height, sharp teeth, eyes like bugs with those freaky looking clusters that never blinked, and grasping, infection-causing claws. The one in front of us was pale gray, and barely stood out from the walls. It waved and grinned around a mouthful of shark teeth.
    “All right, kid, let’s see what you can do.” Lark stepped back and urged me forward.
    I didn’t wait for her to ask again, and if I was going to stop it from letting his friends know we were there, I had to do it fast.
    Two strides and I leapt into the air, using my momentum to come down hard with the sword slicing the goblin from shoulder through to the hip on a diagonal. I might as well have been cutting through butter with the ease the sword sliced through bone, muscle, and flesh. The goblin wobbled and I yanked the sword free and lifted my boot to push the two halves of the goblin apart.
    Then things got interesting.
    A deep, bellowing roar echoed much closer than before and the sound shook the walls, putting cracks through the marble. If that wasn’t bad enough, the goblin I’d chopped in half, molded together. Like I’d never cut him.
    “What the hell?” I snarled, taking another swing at him. He giggled and danced out of the way, then dove in and slashed my right calf, putting a gash in me. I bit down on my own bellow of anger and focused on a solid blow. Twice more I sliced into his side, and twice more he healed with a grin. I was really not liking the way this was going.
    “Head—go for the head,” Lark called out and I adjusted my aim mid-slice. The goblin’s head bounced from his shoulders and rolled to the wall. But his body was still alive. “This is fucking nuts.”
    “This is the Shadow Walker. All his creations are hard, if not impossible to kill. I’d hoped it would only be the Minotaur we’d face.” Lark strode past me and flicked her hand at the goblin. The ground around him swelled and sucked both body and head down.
    I looked at the sword, not a drop of blood on it. “What about fire, would that work?”
    Lark paused, slowly nodding. “Yes, fire is a cleanser; that should work like a hot damn. Good idea. You got any fire handy?”
    That was a good point. But I did have another idea, one I thought was pretty damn smart.
    “Can you lift me on your shoulders?”
    She didn’t say anything, just walked over and picked me up like I was a child. Then  benched  me over her head. “Holy shit, you are strong.”
    “Comes with the territory. Now, what are you looking for?”
    I grabbed the edge of the wall, though I was barely able to reach it, and pulled myself up. “We use the top of the wall as our path; we can see where we’re going and avoid the Minotaur.”
    Lark regarded me for a moment, and then ran straight at the wall, running part way up it and grabbing the top. I didn’t help pull her up. I didn’t want to offend her.
    “This is an excellent idea.” Again, she led, but was jogging. I felt it too, the urgency to get in and out as fast as possible.
    Crossing along the two-foot wide tops of the walls, we headed straight for the labyrinth center. We passed all sorts of shit. A water pit seething with snakes and alligators, the cluster of goblins, a whole section that looked frozen in liquid nitrogen, and even a short stretch that was on fire. But no Minotaur. That made me wonder if the creature existed, or if we were walking into an even bigger problem.
    I was guessing it would be statement number two.
    The bigger problem.
     
    Lark
     
    Rylee was going to be very good at Tracking one day. She was good at it now, but once she had some experience she would be even better. I saw the intelligence and strength in her, even behind the potty mouth. She hid behind her swearing, hid the smarts and natural leadership she carried with her, just Elle, the first Tracker I’d met had. I understood that, the hiding anyway.
    Hopping across a small gap, I looked below us and wished I hadn’t. There was the big boy, coming straight