Marco, Mili, and Jack clutched their heads and groaned: the swine-thing’s scream rang all throughout their bodies, plaguing their ears, their brains, and every conscious moment with its final death throe.
When the scream finally stopped, the party members looked at each other. And Jack gulped.
“We’re screwed.”
Somewhere in the shadows, they heard a stomp. It was quiet, barely noticeable, but then came another, and another - each one louder than the last.
“OooOoooOoh…”
A new sound began to fill the air. It was a groan that belonged to neither man nor beast: nay, rather a vile combination. It had the long, monotonous drawl of a cow; the high-pitched squeal of a pig; the rumbly neigh of a horse. This and all, conflicting sounds with naught in common, it spewed towards the group now. Closer. Even Closer.
They could not see the thing’s figure amidst the darkness, but they didn’t need to.
It was quite clear what they had to do now.
The four of them took off, sprinting ahead with all the strength their feet could muster. Left, right, middle—none of it mattered anymore. They simply ran, faster, more desperately, anything to lose the trail of the thing lumbering towards them now. Its gruff, bestial voice never trailed too far behind. It was gaining on them.
Except for Lucius of course. Before he knew it, he was already far ahead of his fellows. Their prior formation had long since been disbanded, and the others lagged behind.
On and on they dashed through the endless corridors, fire blazing in their lungs, when something jumped out. It was the shambling flesh, but they were different. The once-docile abominations swelled up in size and blocked their way, acting as a bloated wall of sticky, gooey meat.
There were times when one had to make a sacrifice no matter how much it pained them to do so. For Lucius, that sacrifice was the cleanliness of his shoes.
With a swift kick, he knocked the flesh away splattering into the wall.
*EXP + 2!
Countless messages popped up as he continued to clear the way for the others. Now he was level three. Then level four. All the stats he obtained were put into agility on the spot. He didn’t care much to keep track of all his dispatches; what mattered was finding a way out of this predicament.
A human scream alerted his attention from behind. Mili was dead last, and her eyes grew wide as a massive gnarled claw reached out towards her.
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What emerged from the darkness was too terrible to fully comprehend.
Its hulking body struggled to fit within the hall. The thing was… humanoid, stretching the definition to its absolute limit. It had the torso of a man, but limbs all belonging to different mutated animals. It had one head, but three beastly faces protruded from the center as if they were malignant tumors.
Disgusting, revolting, completely and utterly hideous: a chimera of the foulest aspects of all living creatures, one with a horn of bone that constantly scraped against the ceiling.
This was it - the Horned Exile in all its maddening glory. And it descended upon them now, swinging its claw directly at Mili.
“Get back!”
Jack pushed her away at the last second, and took the blow in her place. The Exile’s nail ripped along the seams of the poor man’s arm, leaving him crying out in pain as he was left there, panting and gasping, with a deep bloody gash.
Mili froze, but it didn’t last for long. She shouted in anger and whipped out her guitar, strumming the strings until an electric surge filled her instrument with power.
“EXECUTIOOOOOOOOOOOOON!”
A lightning bolt exploded forth and smashed into the Exile. It roared and collapsed onto the ground, convulsing from the static running through its undulating mass.
The monster was stunned, vulnerable.
Lucius was not going to waste this chance.
He rushed over and vaulted into the air, twirling in a flamboyant show as he pulled out the rusted dagger and made straight for the Exile’s malformed faces.
With a single slash, he cleaved through all six of its bulging eyes.
*Critical hit! Lucius Rose has inflicted Tetanus against Howlerflesh, the Horned Exile of the Forgotten Maze.
The knife broke instantly, but it did its job. The thing could see no longer.
“Oh my, I must have quite the luck today.”
But though Tetanus was a fearsome thing, Lucius stopped and pondered to himself. Hm, does it not usually take a week or two for the infection to actually cause harm? Inflicting it now really wouldn’t do much at all with helping our current conundrum.
Alas, lady luck was a cruel mistress.
“Get away, Lucius! I got the kid!”
Marco hauled the groaning Jack onto his back and ran away with Mili in hand. Lucius landed on his feet and joined them, but they weren’t out of danger just yet. The Horned Exile still gave chase despite its blinded eyes; however, it was clumsier now. It stumbled over its trotter and hoof, crudely ramming into the wall whilst flailing about in agony.
The monster was even more erratic, more enraged in its pursuit.
Things weren’t looking good for the young Jack. Blood oozed out of his arm without any sign of stopping. Lucius ripped the man’s shirt and put pressure on the wound with a makeshift cast, but Jack needed more precise treatment.
“Ugh…” Jack mumbled to himself and tried to speak, but only disjointed words left his lips. “Straight… keep going straight… a little farther… it has to be…”
Marco nodded and the party continued to move forward, all-the-while hounded by the Exile’s warped shrieks.
Eventually, Jack jerked up and pointed a shaky finger at the wall. “Hit the tile. HIT THE TILE!”
It wasn’t very clear which of the tiles he meant, so Lucius just hit all of them. He pounded his fist brick onto brick until—one of them pushed inwards.
A giant stone wall slammed down and closed off the hall behind them. There was a loud crash, an infuriated roar, and then… nothing. The monster chasing them skulked away, leaving only its bitter groans to fade into the tense quiet.
