Angor kept flying for about ten minutes and reached a junction connecting three other paths.
He then facepalmed himself. Which way? What was beyond them? Were there monsters? He did not know!
Did not matter now. Angor chose a random one, made a mark, and moved on.
Another ten minutes went by. Angor reached another fork… a five-way one this time. Like before, he left a mark and moved into a randomly-chosen one.
About more than an hour later, Angor reached a dead end, so he had to go back and choose another path. He went on like this and ran into several stops until he finally entered a path which… seemed to be working.
Still, he had a question. He did not stumble upon anything on his way. No monsters, no stuff, no nothing. According to Sunders, the underground maze should have been way more chaotic than this. Maybe he was just lucky? Well, he should be thankful.
The truth was that after he drank the saliva of the mouth flower, he carried its scent as well. Such scent was extremely terrifying for the monsters living in the maze. Weaker monsters escaped right away when they smelled it. This was why nothing stopped Angor, but he did not know this himself.
The scent only repelled weaker monsters. Stronger ones would not run away because of it.
After flying for about three hours, Angor finally saw a monster.
He hid behind a corner and peeked at a hall ahead.
There were not only tunnels in the underground maze. There were other structures, such as halls, gardens, and deserts. Angor was now looking at a giant underground hall.
The ceiling of the hall was about a dozen meters from the ground, and thirty meters in circumference. The hall was decorated in an elegant foreign style. There was a giant carpet with strange patterns on the floor, as well as stoves, desks, chairs, and bookshelves at the right end.
However, those were unimportant. Angor’s attention was fixed on a giant figure in the middle of the hall.
It was a blue, bulky-looking giant, about three or four meters high. It was wearing a loincloth made from animal skin and an ox horn helmet. It had three eyes—an extra vertical eye sat between the two normal ones. Sharp fangs covered in bloodstains stood inside its maw, giving it a fearsome look.
The blue giant was fighting a small figure. They were several dozens of meters away so Angor could not see who the smaller one was. He only knew it was human or something that looked like a human.
His only way forward was to cross the hall and leave from the small door near a stove. There was no way he could do that with the monster fighting in the hall, so he could only stay as far as he could.
The fight became more and more intense. The blue giant looked really strong, but its reflexes and speed were both slow. The smaller figure toyed around the giant easily, while leaving some wounds on the giant’s body occasionally.
Still, the giant was powerful. Each time it made a jump, even a small one, Angor could feel the ground shaking from his location.
After being poked around, the blue giant suddenly howled into the air, picked up a big boulder and hurled it toward the small figure. The boulder was directed at the entrance of the hall. Angor was not harmed because he stayed pretty far, but the small figure was hurt by some of the scattering shards. He stumbled in the air and crashed against the wall not far from Angor.
Angor finally had a chance to look at the figure. He was “small” compared to the giant, but he was taller than Angor. It was a young man covered in blood, while still vomiting some more blood. Looked like the boulder wounded him badly.
Blood had covered most of his face. From what was exposed, Angor felt something familiar about him. Short, grayish green hair, a tall nose, muscular yet slim body build… Angor saw him before.
He looked like a human, not a monster, which was strange in this place.
Angor concealed himself as best as he could, but he could not hide the horrific scent of the mouth flower. The man soon noticed his presence.
“Who’s there?” A cold voice reached Angor’s ears.
He was found out? Angor jumped. When he saw the man dashing toward him with a weapon raised, Angor quickly flew into the air without hesitating.
Angor felt air current behind him. He turned around and saw the man in the air as well, hitting him with a cane.
“Oh shit!” Angor kicked the air and turned abruptly, barely avoiding the attack.
“Die, monster!” The young man tried again quickly.
“I’m not a monster! Don’t kill me!” Angor heard the man yelling and replied as fast as he could.
The man’s attack did not slow down in the least, but faster than before. Angor could only dodge again. Thanks to his hours of flying experience, Angor actually maneuvered faster than his assailant.
“Do not run, monster. I’ll kill you!” It was the same cold tone.
Angor dodged in the air and thought to himself. That voice sounded so familiar, but I could not remember where I heard it!
The blue giant that came along was surprised to see another man in the air, and that its original target was attacking it.
The blue giant picked up a large stone pillar and prepared to throw it at them. It then caught a sweet scent which came from the smaller man. The giant’s expression changed drastically, and the two eyes on the sides widened.
The giant revealed a terrified expression at Angor. It looked at its original target and decided to quit. It then stepped back into the hall.
Just when Angor thought he could find a chance to escape when the blue giant caught its target again, it ran away?!
“Stop! I’m a human, human! Not a monster!” Angor shouted.
The young man neglected his words and kept attacking.
“You deaf??” Angor spat and ran away.
Angor could move faster than the attacker. However, since he needed to avoid all the incoming attacks, he had to keep turning, which allowed the man to slowly catch up.
“Why did you change target anyway? That giant hurt you so bad, aren’t you going to revenge?” Angor did not stop his verbal assault while escaping.
None of his words worked. The man did not even blink.
Maybe he was deaf for real?
Angor made another turn and was terrified to see his only path ending at another wall.
A dead end, with a crazy deaf psycho in hot pursuit. Angor’s face went pale immediately. Would he die? Not to a monster, but to a freaking madman?