Seeing the beast, Jareth's thoughts churned and went into overdrive in a fraction of a second.
'I can't outrun it. In that room, I merely stood up and it met me in that instant. It should be at least a Rank 3 beast. Or a Rank 2 at the peak of its strength. From its rank and my mana level, fighting it is suicide! How do I escape it…'
His eyes rolled about, while keeping an eye on the huffing beast. The beast crouched in a ready stance. Jareth felt the hair on his nape stand, as he rummaged through his head for a surviving solution.
His eyes narrowed. 'I'll just go with that!'
The beast abruptly charged at him, transforming into a released streak.
His breath hitched.
Jareth's hand snapped, his palm pointing at the ground.
Crimson flame swirled in his palm and transformed into an orb.
The beast was already in front of him, but the orb ruptured in that instant with a loud bang, catapulting him up like a doll out of the violet fog, along the side of the tall building.
'To the top!!!'
His vision swirled as he spun uncontrollably. The rushing air lashed his exposed upper body and whooshed against his ears. His hair whipped around as he rose higher.
Jareth slowly felt his speed dropping and his body stabilizing upside down in the air, with his body facing the tall building. Tilting his neck, he caught the sight of the dispersing violet fog and the snarling beast growing smaller. Snapping his head up, he saw the top of the building still very far.
'I won't make it. I will be dropping soon!'
Then he lowered his head and scanned the building, seeing many pittings and cracks of different sizes marred the black building.
'I just need to grab one when descending. Fortunately, it is just an arm's length from me.'
He focused.
A few seconds later, he finally halted his ascent and began plummeting. Jareth activated [Quintessence Claws], covering his lower arm, from his elbow, in a clawed gauntlet made from black mist. He stretched and gripped the pitting his hand touched, his body swung down and slammed against the wall.
Jareth wheezed from internal pain but clawed the wall tightly.
Looking down, he saw the violet fog had dispersed, with other beasts going their way while the 'horned beast' was still camping beneath.
'I don't know if I'll even survive if I fall from here.'
Exhaling lightly, he carefully turned, his belly now against the wall.
Angling his head, he squinted at the top, and then gauged the rate at which his mana was draining.
'My mana wouldn't sustain my claws that long. Climbing barehanded is very dangerous. But, why are there no windows?' he pondered.
His eyes settled on a punctured hole on the building that could barely fit an adult human, a few meters from him.
Jareth began climbing towards it, cautiously and slowly.
When he got to it, he peeked first but only saw an empty dim room with a bronze workbench and an ajar door.
'Good!'
Jareth pulled himself into the building through the hole, ignoring the rough scrapings against his exposed body. Climbing to his feet, he quickly ran to lock the door, which was surprisingly still in good shape considering how downtrodden the outside of the building was. But it didn't feel safe enough, so he ran to the bronze workbench, which looked timeworn with dents and crevices over the body.
Jareth tried to lift it but it only bulged slightly.
He then strenuously pushed it towards the door, gritting his teeth as he bit down the pain wracking his body. The workbench was slowly pushed towards the door. What surprised Jareth was that it didn't make any sound despite its legs drawing against the hard floor.
He pressed the bronze workbench against the door before quietly making his way to the corner. He slumped down in the corner as his taut nerves relaxed. But a sharp pain from his left shoulder made him hiss.
Feeling the biting pain around his shoulder, Jareth reclined deeper while hissing through gritted teeth.
Lowering his head, he saw his shoulder looked normal save for some dirt that was over his body; it wasn't dislocated as he presumed. But the biting pain wasn't reducing.
'My arm felt numb when I blocked that horned beast's attack. It should be from there,' he thought.
'Fortunately, Liana got a healing potion for me.'
A bottle with green liquid appeared in his right hand. Uncorking it with his thumb to release a sweet flowery scent, Jareth downed it in one gulp.
A cooling sensation washed over him. All his pains, including the ones he got from all the escaping stunts, slowly vanished. Shutting his eyes, he relished the feeling.
Soon, the cooling sensation vanished with his pains. Jareth stood up and flexed his arm. Apart from his low mana and a bit of exhaustion, he was refreshed anew.
Staring at his body, his upper body was shirtless covered in dirt, leaving only his shock bracelet on his wrist.
"I look like a caveman now," he mumbled.
Raising his head, he narrowed his eyes at the opening he passed through.
'I hope it's not what I'm thinking,' Jareth thought and walked up to it with a trembling heart.
Placing his body to the side, he peeked at the landscape from above. He was about 20 meters from the ground.
Rows of wrecked archaic buildings stood with destroyed paved roads, teeming with beasts of different kinds roaming everywhere—some in packs, others solo, and some brutally battling each other. Everywhere his eyes passed had beasts. Dissonant and distant roars filled the air.
The setting sun painted the desolate landscape that stretched into the far distance until it revealed an expanse of forest.
Jareth clenched his fist, his lips trembling.
'A tall tower, ruined buildings, teeming with beasts, surrounded by forest… T-This is really the ruin estate? Then this… must be the tower at the center. I'm at the center of the ruin estate? So, there are many Rank 2 beasts with a few Rank 3 beasts?'
Taking a deep breath, Jareth walked back to a corner absentmindedly but paused when his foot bumped into something.
Jareth looked down but saw nothing. However, his leg still felt like stepping on a hard object.
'Invisible?'
Jareth squatted and touched it. The surface felt curved and rough against his palm.
"What's this?" He mumbled and tried to raise it.
It didn't budge.
"What is with this damn tower and gluing things to the floor? Who even made it?"
Jareth strenuously pulled it and it moved a bit.
Something appeared in his hands. It was a scaly coiled body.
Jareth snapped his head up and he recoiled in shock at the sight of a pair of huge slit eyes glaring at him. The invisible stuff was a coiled serpent, standing on its tail with its head held high, almost touching the high ceiling.