That Saturday, Lianne makes sure to get all of her weekend homework and studying done by noon. She then explains the "scouting group" to her mom, gets permission to go and then 'maybe' stay out late 'hanging out at the library.' She packs her phone, a flashlight, a textbook, and bus fare, then heads to the community center.
"This way," she mutters, drawing her sword and heading down the slope. She's still a bit clumsy with the 'flying', but she's getting better steadily.
And down.
At some point during the descent, the shaft becomes vertical, and square instead of circular. Neither of those changes seem to have happened at any particular moment during their descent, or to have had any intermediate stages.
The wooden backs of the glass cases give way to obscured views of more shafts. There is the sense of wood-paneled walls in the distance, beyond a grid of two-sided cabinets, but it's impossible to tell how far away they are, or behind how many panes.
A floor approaches. (Floor? Ceiling? Probably floor.)
Yeah the spatial distortion's probably going to be the weirdest part of hunting.
She and the others all go to land.
Mal checks whether the cabinet can be simply opened, and then shoots out the glass if it can't (the three girls all back up a bit and draw their weapons).
They proceed cautiously, weapons out, Lianne and Sophie in front.
In the next room they get a clearer picture of it. It's mottled green, like a child's idea of a troll, tall and hunched, with an extra right arm and clublike fists, or possibly fist-shaped lumps of flesh. It is immaculately dressed in an old-fashioned schoolboy's uniform. Its back is to them, and it doesn't seem to have noticed them yet. It may hear them when they open the next cabinet.
Lianne and Sophie exchange a look, then Lianne kicks the cabinet open and they charge it, Sophie extending her halberd once they're through. They almost immediately separate a bit, going to circle it.
It's clumsy: its fists are larger than its head and it doesn't seem to know how to balance accounting for its extra arm. It roars when the cabinet opens, but vacillates for a moment between going after Lianne or Sophie, and when the shots hit it groans and stumbles. It aims a swing at Lianne with both of its right arms, using the way it stumbles to add momentum.
She dodges wide then swings, going for its arms even as Sophie aims her spear at its back.
Lianne dodges, overshoots a bit, corrects, then makes her sword really big and swings at its center (Sophie jumps back a bit, but not before a parting swipe).
Eep!
...Is it dead-dead? (She stays ready just in case, remembering Mallory's words of caution earlier).
Yeah but is the maze fading like last time, can she still sense a witch? Or was that a familiar?
Yeesh. Well, luckily there's the team, and it was fairly easy.
They continue on towards the witch, keeping an eye on the shards until they're past them.
Shards remain inert.
The cabinets continue to admit visitors to pass through them. The chambers get bigger. The path to the witch winds nonsensically, turning right or left without warning, sometimes doubling back.
Then, after some time, they come upon a room in which all four paths, including back the way they came, lead to chambers with familiars in them.
If the familiars aren't reacting yet, the girls move to stand back-to-back, then each points at one of the familiars, picking their targets. Mallory then summons eight large machine guns, two per familiar, and fires them in a short burst, additionally shooting her main pistol at her chosen target, while Alex fires as many arrows as she can (three at a time, every other second), and Lianne and Sophie both ready their weapons and brace themselves, Sophie preparing to spear the familiar on a charge, Lianne preparing to swing.
Bullets pierce the panes of glass, and they shatter into minute shards that billow out in clouds and then ease to a stop, suspended in midair. Vases and sculptures explode, opaque fragments of glass and ceramic fly like shrapnel. There is a high distant scream of inarticulate rage.
The familiars, irregular assemblages of limbs and heads and mouths, roar and charge through the clouds of suspended glass without fear or hesitation.
Alex's goes down quickly; Mallory's, the largest, charges forward heedless of the bullets, bounding forward on one-and-a-half legs, readying its five arms to grab her in a bear-hug.
Lianne's familiar is just an enormous three-elbowed arm emerging from a pair of legs, big enough to crush her head in its fist. It staggers forward, half running and half falling, graceless but purposeful.