We continue with the perspective of our current survivalist, Sargon Kaze, walking through the dark caves of the Orcus Labyrinth, eyes back and forth, analyzing his current environment.
He then catches a faint magical presence. It isn't alive, but it is there. It feels soothing, almost healing in a way. Now a little more determined to find out the source of the magic aura he's feeling, he continues to trek onward, still keeping the illusions and invisibility up to increase his chances of survival, though he noticed that the further and deeper he walked, the less effective that strategy was becoming.
After walking for a little while, he found that the source of the magical presence was coming from inside or on the other side of a wall. Sargon closed his eyes and took a breath, then channeled his will. A moment later, another mass of formless, dark matter from his shadow emerged on the side of him, which then conformed into another creature.
This creature, only similar to the others in origin, took the shape of a panther, completely black except for his eyes that were light purple.
The panther stood ready, eyes gazing forward like a predator ready to pounce on whatever may try to harm his creator. Sargon then stepped forward, extended his cane outward enough to lightly tap the wall, and send a pulse of earth elemental magic within it, then backed up quickly.
The next second, the wall collapsed smoothly, yet not quite quietly. Sargon was waiting for something to jump out and attack him, but after a few minutes of waiting, the supposed attack never came. He then sent a mental command to his panther friend to scout out the hole he made.
The panther walked towards the hole and summoned 4 tentacles with teal tipped spikes and sent them through the hole as they sensed around trying to find any threat that may be lurking in the shadows.
After a couple of minutes, he retracted the tentacles and moved to the side, indicating he found nothing harmful in there. Sargon smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Shadow."
The panther, now known as Shadow, softly purred at the words of appreciation. Sargon then quickly made his way through the hole, but not before dispelling Shadow back into his....shadow and exiting the hole he made.
He then turned to look at the hole he made and lightly tapped his cane, to which the hole he made slowly reformed itself until it was a wall once again.
Sargon looked to his left, he found the source of the magic aura he felt. There, stuck in one of the walls of the cave, was a teal-colored mana crystal that was constantly dropping some type of liquid, apparently so much so that it had formed a puddle underneath it.
'Water,' the man thought, before quickly shaking his head, 'No, this is a mana crystal, one that has great regenerative properties, both physical and magical,' Sargon thought with a pleased and slightly tired smile.
He walked up to the puddle beneath the crystal, crouched down, and drank from the puddle. As he did, he felt some of his mana being regenerated and some of the pains, bruises, and small injuries he suffered before now regenerating. However, his thirst wasn't actually quenched as this wasn't technically water. He raised his head with a frown, "Not enough," he thought before propping himself up enough so he could sit with his back up against the wall.
Once he did, he then closed his eyes as he let out a relieved yet tired sigh. He then looked at his left arm and grabbed it as a dreaded memory began to fill his mind, chills started crawling down his spine, and his heart skipped a little faster.
[Flashback Start]
A minotaur-like beast roars angrily as he punches the ground close to where Sargon is. Due to the strength of the beast, his punch had unbalanced Sargon enough to where he was vulnerable to an attack, which the beast capitalized on. He sprinted forward, with speed surpassing that of the bear monster Sargon had defeated before.
Sargon frowned and gritted his teeth as he raised his cane, which had a white aura surrounding it, to intercept the incoming blow. The minotaur raised its axe and brought it down on the man, who managed to successfully block it, but due to his unbalanced state, the force of the blow was enough to force him on his back.
As both the minotaur and Sargon fought for dominance. As the minotaur pushed with more strength, Sargon pushed back with an equal amount of effort, trying not to get his head split open, though it seemed as though that the minotaur was slowly winning the dominance match, as the axe was gradually making its way towards the man's head. But before he could actually succeed in killing him, the beast suddenly stopped with its eyes wide.
A moment later, a sharp object ejected from its mouth, which curved upward and split into 2 more sharp points that proceeded to thrust straight into the minotaur's eye sockets, killing it instantly.
Sargon then put more effort into the push and managed to push the beast off of him while also seeing the spikes recede from its eye sockets and back into its mouth, where we see another Sargon holding his cane in a way that looked like it went into the minotaur's anus.
He lifted his cane, swung it to the side, and brought it back in front of him, eyebrows creasing in blatant disgust and aversion. He quickly raised his other hand and a bright white light shone from it, seemingly cleansing his cane of the filthy act.
The Sargon on the ground heaved a sigh and laid down for a moment before sitting up with one knee up and the other outstretched and glaring at the other Sargon, "That was quite a close call, don't you think?"
Sargon merely looked back at him slowly, non-amused nor fazed by his apparent annoyance. The prone Sargon sighed "Yes yes, I know. I'm not really alive, so I can't technically die either." It then dissipated into thin air.
Sargon also sighed and then looked around ... to see a little more than a few of those same beasts lying around, dead.
'What a troublesome and unfortunate requirement. At least it's over. Now to finally get out of--'
In the middle of that line of thinking, Sargon felt a chill down his spine as his eyes widened. He turned around and immediately raised his arm, to which a claw swiped at.
"Arrgh," he cried out as he stumbled back from the attack and the pain.
A bipedal animal with claws had successfully hit him and it seemed like he was going to do so again with its left claw. Sargon, still not over the pain, but having no other time to react, reached out his other hand to catch the arm before it could strike, then followed the catch with a side kick, which sent the bipedal beast flying to his right, crashing into another wall, dust forming from the impact.
Sargon gritted his teeth as sweat formed on his forehead and blood dripped from his left forearm. He grabbed his cane with his right hand and prepared his counterattack.
He pointed his cane out towards where he sent the beast. Then the bottom of the cane suddenly extended violently and thrusted out into the direction it was being pointed at. However, the beast was too quick for this and side-stepped the attack before sprinting for Sargon once more, lunging its claws toward his head for a finishing blow, only to get bounced back from an invisible barrier placed beforehand.
The beast was taken aback, even more so when the elongated cane quickly wrapped around him tightly. Now it could no longer move.
It then felt sharp, little stabbing pains all across its body. The parts of the cane that were making physical contact with the beast had formed spikes from where it touched it.
Sargon then pulled the cane hard, while spinning, causing great pain to the beast as the supposed spikes cut through more of its flesh as it too violently spun. As the cane whip finally released the beast, Sargon was already positioned for another strike, which he did as he cracked the cane whip horizontally, which the whip followed and right when the end of the whip was close to the beast's head,
"Splat!"
This was the sound that was heard, and a bipedal, headless body covered in blood was what was seen. The whip then shorted to its original length as Sargon looked at the deep gashes on his forearm. He focused intently on the wound as he channeled some healing magic into it. The wounds started to heal, but it wasn't like he could wait. What if something like that happened again? He then increased his speed and sprinted out of the area towards the opened door awaiting him after completing the challenge.
[Flashback End]
Sargon reflected on what happened back there, 'I don't normally make mistakes like that. How did the enemy get past without me sensing it until it attacked? It probably had some skill which hid its presence. Or perhaps,' Sargon thought solemnly 'It's because I'm exhausted, huh? I suppose it makes sense, I haven't slept in quite a while, always moving to find a way out of here, fighting monsters here and there, never stopping for breaks except to eat, even having to use my magic to solve my thirst problem by summoning water and drinking it. A very unusual method indeed, but desperate times call for desperate measures as they say.'
Sargon then looks around one last time before clutching his cane in his lap, laying back, taking another deep breath, 'I suppose I need to get some sleep before I get back to trekking. I may not be so lucky next time,' was his final thought as he drifted off to sleep for the first time since he awoke in the deepest parts of the Great Orcus Labyrinth.