Jareth's eyes opened to the woozy vision of a cracked earth brown ceiling swimming in and out of focus, his head throbbing with a dull headache.
'Ugh…'
Chaotic rumbles vibrated through the floor without pause, jolting the floor beneath him. Deep chill from the ground he lay on seeped into his bones, drawing an involuntary shiver.
What transpired before he blacked out came rushing into his head.
'…Where—'
The thought shattered as a deafening roar tore through the room.
His pupils shrank, but he suppressed the surge of adrenaline, forcing his body to remain limp. Instead, he shut his eyelids to slivers and subtly tilted his head, scanning the surroundings through the veil of his lashes.
Goosebumps prickled his skin at the sight.
The lower stump of a huge tree covered in trails of white sap leaking from punctured holes was whipping its roots like tentacles at its surrounding beasts, moving like a mobile beast.
It was surrounded by many big quadrupedal ash beasts, with a long horn covered in bright blue aura in front of their head like a unicorn, except these ones looked malevolent with their sharp fangs and vicious green eyes.
They were dodging the tentacles while searching for gaps to charge with a super speed and slam their horned head into the colossal tree.
Jareth snapped his eyes shut, breathing as light as he could to avoid drawing their attention.
He presumed they would join forces to kill him first as he had never seen a friendly beast; all the beasts he met were hostile towards humans, despite meeting very few.
'I was caught by that octopus tree?'
Ignoring the tiny rubbles falling on his chest resulting from the quakes, he mused, 'And I'm naked. I need to focus on how to escape before they notice me.'
'Run towards the door? No! They will notice me. What about blanketing this place with quagmire and dash towards the door? No! I'm not sure the oblivium will block their vision. Crawling slowly while pretending to be dead is the best. If I get caught, I will switch to the "quagmire-run-away" plan.'
Upon deciding, Jareth opened his eyes in a slit and scanned his surroundings, tilting it both sides.
That was when he noticed bones of different kinds, littered on the floor, with some weapons scattered around, including his destroyed body armor.
Jareth caught the sight of a thick, long shield along his escape route.
Steeling his nerve, Jareth stealthily turned and pressed his belly against the floor, with his face fixated at the battle for an easy scan. Then he crawled forward on his stomach.
He paused every three seconds, scanned and crawled again. Slowly, he inched towards the opened door but paused when he got beside the shield.
The shield was positioned on the other blind side. Not wanting to get caught turning, he remained in the same position—face still fixated on the battling beasts with shut eyes—and sneakily stretched his hand to his other side but his fingers didn't touch it. Despite not looking at it, he knew the shield was there.
He was even tempted to leave it but felt it might come in handy.
'I might even sell it even if I don't use it. No risk, no reward.'
He held his breath.
With a stealthy sideways creep, he extended his arm and fingers, and strained his joint while trying to remain limp. His fingers finally touched the cold metal surface. He instantly sent it to his badge with a thought.
Then he continued his crawling when one of the beasts suddenly turned and charged at him with a streaking speed he couldn't follow.
'Hell!'
Jareth rolled to his feet while releasing the shield, positioning himself with his back a few steps against the opened door.
Just as the shield appeared in his grasp, the beast rammed into it. The force catapulted Jareth through the door like a loose arrow, his arms almost damaged.
He smashed into something that made him spit blood, the inertia flinging his shield over his head.
Ignoring the pain, Jareth scrambled to his feet to escape but froze at the sight of beasts everywhere.
He was standing in the middle of a beast horde. He saw different types of beasts glaring and snarling at him.
'Escape. Where? Where? Where?'
His eyes searched as he backed away with his sword appearing in his grasp. Adrenaline pumped through his veins.
His thoughts swirled, seeing many wreckages of buildings, including a building not too far from him.
Feeling something wrong, he spun to see what he had smashed into was a huge purple lizard, which was sneakily creeping towards him. It lunged at him when he spotted it, its serrated maw opened wide to bite off his upper body.
He instantly rolled on the ground. The lizard flew over him but smashed his sword out of his hand with its tail.
The other beasts roared and charged at him.
Jareth lifted his two hands and activated [Quagmire].
Violet fog surged from his hands, submerging his vicinity and expanded outward.
Soon, violet fog had blanketed the area.
Jareth paused when he felt his mana remaining about a quarter, and observed the area.
Cacophonous roars echoed with the beasts walking and bumping into each other, some even attacking anything they bump into. Meanwhile some couldn't move, which Jareth deduced were Rank 1. The area quickly devolved into a brutal and chaotic battle royal.
He narrowed his eyes and searched for his sword, but found it stuck in the mouth of the lizard, battling a bear. He couldn't understand how and when the blade pierced its mouth. The bear's lower arm was covered in a brown earth substance, ripping the lizard's scale with every swing. The lizard wasn't outdone, as it whipped its knife-like tail for attack, slashing the bear crazily.
'I'll leave it. My mana is draining too quickly, so I better find where to rest and make a plan. This method won't get me out. I can't even see the border of this place. And the tall building… I hope it's not what I'm thinking. Hiding there is good. Few beasts are there. There should also be a protected room. And most importantly, a vantage spot.'
Jareth left for the building, silently walking past the beasts, avoiding most of them while punching back the few unavoidable ones.
The fog followed him as he moved, maintaining his central position.
He soon reached the tall building, but froze when he saw a pair of green eyes gazing at him and a blue glowing horn staring at him from the door of the building.
Both of them locked gazes.
Jareth moved aside but the gaze still followed him.
'It can see me? When did it get there? From inside?...'