The ground beneath his feet trembled, and with that, Dean’s eyes narrowed.
"Boom!"
A deep, thunderous sound echoed through the enormous chamber. It was almost like a bomb.
Then another.
"BOOM!!!"
This time, the noise was WAY louder. Dust fell from the ceiling. Dean slowly tightened his grip around the Spear of Dawn.
"Something’s coming," he said to himself, not to the frog standing near him.
The words had barely left his mouth when the far end of the chamber exploded.
Stone flew everywhere. Dean immediately moved away.
A gigantic arm tore through the wall.
It was covered in black, stone-like scales, each one larger than Dean’s entire torso. Its claws scraped against the floor, leaving enormous trenches in the ancient stone.
Then the rest of the creature emerged. Dean’s expression changed. The thing was enormous.
"A behemoth," Humphrey said, this time without any joke.
It stood well over twenty meters tall, with four massive arms and a body covered in thick black armour. Two enormous horns curved backwards from its skull, while its face contained nothing except a gigantic mouth and two glowing crimson eyes.
"You, my dear fellow, ought to learn to see both the light and the dark, hm? Find the path betwixt the flickering thoughts, if you please." Humphrey said.
This was the clue.
There was no hesitation in the monster’s eyes.
No intelligence that Dean could recognise...Only hunger, and killing intent.
The behemoth opened its mouth.
A roar erupted.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The entire chamber shook. Dean’s ears rang once more. For a brief moment, his vision blurred.
Then the behemoth charged.
Dean’s pupils shrank.
"Holy fucking shit!" he yelled.
He immediately turned around and ran.
"BOOM!"
The behemoth’s fist smashed down where he had been standing. The floor exploded. Not literally, but again, there were many stones that flew around.
Dean leapt forward as fragments of stone flew past his head.
He rolled across the ground, quickly regained his footing, and continued running.
Another fist descended.
"WHAM!"
Dean jumped sideways. The attack missed him by barely a meter. He could feel the wind generated by it tearing against his clothes.
"It’s fast!" he said.
He wasn’t wrong; the behemoth was too fast.
That was the problem.
Dean could probably survive one or two direct attacks with his current strength, but fighting this thing head-on would be suicidal.
The Spear of Dawn could certainly hurt it.
But getting close enough to stab it would be another matter entirely.
It would be suicidal to attack a monster like this.
And then Dean saw them.
The symbols.
Ancient symbols covered the walls on both sides of the enormous chamber.
Hundreds...maybe thousands.
Some were glowing while others were completely dark.
Dean’s eyes moved across them as he ran.
"Blink."
One symbol flashed.
"Blink."
Another.
Then three more.
His brows furrowed.
The behemoth swung an arm. Dean ducked. He was able to dodge it, it seemed.
The enormous limb passed over his head and smashed into the wall.
"BA-BOOM!"
Dean glanced at the symbols again. The glowing ones weren’t random. They were blinking just like he did.
Some remained illuminated. Some flashed only once before becoming dark. Others pulsed repeatedly.
"Wait," he thought.
Dean’s mind raced.
He remembered the entrance. The ancient symbols he’d seen there.
The light, the eyes, the strange sequence.
This wasn’t simply a room.
It was an examination.
And the behemoth wasn’t the actual challenge. It was the pressure.
The puzzle was the challenge.
"Of course..."
Dean gritted his teeth.
"Why would they make it easy?"
The behemoth roared behind him.
Dean sprinted faster.
He had to watch the walls while running from a monster capable of crushing him with a single punch.
Exactly what he needed. He looked left.
Three symbols blinked.
One, two, three.
Then another flashed on the opposite wall. Dean memorised them. Him being smart and having a photographic memory helped him dearly.
The behemoth charged again. He didn’t even look back. He threw the Moon’s Rope behind him.
The rope shot forward and wrapped around one of the creature’s legs.
Dean pulled.
For half a second, the behemoth stumbled, and that was all he needed.
He changed his direction directly. Didn’t even think about it for another second.
He ran toward the right wall. The behemoth recovered and charged after him.
Dean looked at the symbols.
A triangle.
A spiral.
A symbol resembling an eye.
Then a strange character shaped like a broken crown. They blinked in sequence.
"Triangle... spiral... eye..."
Dean whispered the order. The behemoth caught up.
He suddenly felt the air behind him change, and then he jumped in that second.
A massive claw swept beneath him, but Dean hadn’t jumped high enough.
The claw struck his leg.
"Gah!" he screamed.
He was thrown sideways. His body slammed into the wall.
"CRACK!"
Pain exploded through his left arm. Dean hit the ground and rolled several times. His arm hung awkwardly.
He stared at it for a few seconds.
"Broken," he said.
He forced himself upright. VERY Painfully.
The behemoth slowly turned toward him. Dean’s breathing became heavier. He couldn’t afford to keep making mistakes.
The symbols. He needed the symbols. He looked at the wall again.
The blinking sequence had changed. This time, four symbols illuminated. Then two and then one.
Dean stared almost blandly; his face was changing because everything hurt so much, but at least he needed to concentrate.
His eyes widened.
"It’s not showing me the answer..."
He looked around the chamber.
"The blinking ones are telling me where to go," he added to his own words.
His gaze shifted toward the floor. There were faint lines.
Ancient grooves carved into the stone. They connected the symbols.
A path.
Dean smiled.
"You bastard of a dungeon," he said to himself.
The behemoth charged. Dean started running once more. He followed the path indicated by the blinking symbols.
The behemoth followed him blindly.
Every time Dean stepped onto the wrong section of the floor, a symbol turned red. Every time he stepped onto the correct one, another ancient symbol illuminated.
He was solving the puzzle. While running for his life.
"Come on..." he thought.
Dean’s eyes darted across the walls.
"Come on!" he yelled outside.
The behemoth swung. Dean ducked.
A second arm came from the side.
Dean jumped, but it wasn’t enough.
The claw clipped his ribs.
"CRACK!"
Dean crashed onto the ground.
Pain shot through his side. He rolled away just before another fist obliterated the floor.
"Two..."
Dean coughed a tiny bit of blood.
"At least two broken fucking bones," he said.
He pushed himself up.
"I fucking hate this dungeon," he added to his words.
The behemoth roared again. Dean ran again.
The final sequence appeared. Seven symbols...Only three were blinking.
Dean stared at them.
The first.
The fourth.
The seventh.
His eyes moved downward. There were seven stone platforms in front of him. His expression changed.
"That’s it."
The behemoth charged.
Dean stepped onto the first platform.
"Click."
The second.
"Click."
The third.
Nothing. The answer he put was wrong.
Dean immediately jumped backwards. The platform shattered beneath his foot.
"Fucking hell!" he yelled.
He looked at the walls again.
The blinking symbols had changed.
Fourth.
Second.
Sixth.
Dean moved very fast. One platform...Then one more and then another one without stopping.
The behemoth was almost upon him. Dean could hear its footsteps.
"BOOM."
"BOOM."
"BOOM."
The monster’s step literally sounded like bombs exploding every fucking time. It was more than irritating.
Dean stepped onto the sixth platform. The entire chamber went silent.
The behemoth stopped directly.
Dean froze.
Every ancient symbol on the walls suddenly illuminated. The light became blinding as the behemoth screamed.
"GUUUARRRRKKK!!!"
Not in anger but rather...in fear.
Chains of pure light erupted from the floor. They wrapped around its legs, its arms and its neck afterwards.
The creature struggled while the chains tightened.
Dean stood there, breathing heavily. He was still trying to stay awake. His body started hurting like crazy.
He put the Spear of Dawn back into his soul back but the Moon’s Rope was still on his arm. Only this time, he changed the situation by making the Rope hold his arm for him. At least it would support the broken arm.
Suddenly he pair of mysterious eyes above them slowly opened wider.
Dean stared all around him.
The light surrounding the ancient symbols began to disappear one by one. The behemoth was dragged into the floor.
Its enormous body vanished piece by piece until nothing remained.
He once more looked at his broken arm and after that at the bruised side of his ribs.
Then back at the empty chamber.
He sighed.
"So..."
"This was a puzzle dungeon. Bull fucking shit...Is what I want to say, but it was a puzzle exam..." he added.
A pause.
Dean looked around once more and said, "Humphrey!" Since the exam began, the frog vanished into thin air.
Still...even when Dean called, there was no answer.
"Next time, maybe put up a sign," he said as he looked around.
Then the chamber trembled. A new doorway opened behind Dean.
Dean breathed deeply once more and saw something the second that doorway opened.
He smiled and said, "There you are, you damn frog."
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