Chapter 21: Hooded Monster

Kairos looked down the stairwell for the basement.

"Is this supposed to be the entrance to hell?"

It looked like an entrance down into a cave. However, there were what appeared to be red veins pulsating around these rocket walls, almost like the place itself was alive. Tori furrowed her brows when she saw this.

"It wasn't like this before."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"What was the situation before?"

Tori closed her eyes.

"There were these monsters chanting to something around this red prism that was floating in the air. I wanted to snatch it, but wasn't sure about the strength of those monsters."

Kairos furrowed his brows, then turned to Nicole, holding out one of his fire axes.

"Oh yeah, take this. You will probably need it."

Nicole took the fire axe with a firm grasp and nodded.

"Alright!"

Kairos then turned to Tori, who wasn't moving.

"Are you going to lead us in?"

Tori stuttered.

"I-I..."

Kairos gave her a deep look. There was a clear amount of hesitation on his face, but after a few seconds, he sighed.

"I can take the lead."

Nicole's eyelashes jumped.

"But-"

"It's fine."

Kairos shook his head and began walking down the steps.

Tori's eyes widened, clearly surprised. However, Kairos paused as he walked down the steps and turned to glare at Tori.

"Believe me, I will make you regret it if you try something."

Tori's face twitched, but she nodded soon after.

"Got it."

With that, the group began walking down the steps. The pulsating red lines made it feel as though they were walking down the belly of the beast.

And when Kairos reached the bottom, he surveyed the area.

"Huh."

Tori had been right behind him. She stepped down along with him then looked at the area.

"Eh? This isn't what I remember at all."

Kairos turned to Tori.

"When was the last time you came here?"

Tori spoke softly.

"Just... a day ago."

Kairos nodded.

"It appears that the red prism you were talking about has some sort of value then."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Probably some kind of a super shovel."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"What are you two talking about?"

He made his way down towards the ground floor, then looked around.

"Ah."

Instead of a basement, there was a giant cave that had been hollowed out. The overall area they could see was around the space of a football field, which was far greater than any basement was supposed to be. Far off into the distance, were two separate pathways that seemed to contain endless darkness.

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"Does anybody have a flashlight?"

Chase nodded.

"Ah, I should have one."

He reached into his own backpack and pulled out a flashlight after a little bit of rummaging. Kairos took it with a bit of surprise.

"That's convenient."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"If you camp within the forest overnight, this thing becomes more useful than you'd think."

Kairos looked it over before switching on, letting it release a fairly strong beam of light. He then began walking towards the two pathways.

"So. Left or right?"

Harold furrowed his brows.

"Do we really have to go down here?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"No. But we also don't have to search for food, either."

Harold narrowed his eyes.

"But scavenging for food is a risk we have to take if we want to live."

Kairos sighed and walked forwards.

"Food is for our immediate survival, but without a certain amount of power, we won't survive anyways, or even be able to acquire that food."

Harold still seemed against it.

"But-"

"Honey."

Sydney gave him a sad look.

"He's right. People are simply becoming too strong too fast."

Harold turned to her, then let out a soft sigh.

"A-Alright."

With that, Kairos clicked his tongue and began walking forwards.

"Well, we really don't know what is down either path, so we might as well just go down the left one."

The group followed from behind, causing countless rocky tapping sounds to reverberate across the air. It almost made the place seem bustling despite how empty it looked.

The pathway was rather large. If they wanted to, four of them could comfortably walk shoulder-to-shoulder. However, it was only Kairos at the front while the rest of them clumped up from behind.

At first, it was just a straight tunnel. The red veins across the walls seemed to grow a little larger, but that was it. And eventually, they came across a set of three tunnels.

Kairos shone his light between the three pathways that hardly looked different from the other.

"It appears to be a maze."

Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"I recall a saying, that if one were to hug the left side of the wall, they could get through any maze."

Kairos tilted his head to the side.

"Well, that only applies if the destination is from one end of the maze to the other. If the goal is actually the center of the maze, then a set of walls that aren't connected to the rest will thwart that."

Nicole blinked a few times.

"What?"

Kairos waved his hand dismissively.

"I'm just saying that the tactic isn't perfect. Though we may as well follow it for now."

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With that, he began walking down the left path of the three options while the others followed from behind. It was just a normal pathway at first but slowly expanded to become a rather large room. Then up ahead, there were two more pathways.

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Ok, if this really ends up becoming even more complicated, then we should probably give up."

Suddenly, Nicole spoke up.

"Um... are we back to where we started?"

Kairos turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?"

Nicole took a peek backwards and pointed.

"Isn't that the staircase we came from?"

Chase furrowed his brows and walked back.

There was indeed a staircase. Just to be sure, he walked up that staircase and pushed open the door.

After a few moments, he came back down and nodded.

"It is the place we entered from."

Harold frowned.

"This place is too weird, we should just leave."

Kairos waved his hand dismissively.

"Wait. This might actually make things easier."

Tori's eyes widened.

"Eh? Really?"

She was a little nervous because her suggestion seemed to be a waste of time.

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"If these pathways work like a passcode and send us back whenever we get it wrong, it should be possible to brute force the right way."

Chase scratched his hair.

"But surely there will be consequences of getting it wrong, right?"

Tori pointed ahead.

"Is that the consequence?"

Kairos spun back to face forwards and saw a total of six monsters appear from both of the pathways up ahead. However, these monsters were very different compared to the others they had seen before.

Unlike most that had clothes that were horribly ripped due to their transformation, these ones had black robes covering their body. On top of that, they did not roar like most monsters upon appearing.

Instead, they just stood at the entrance of the pathways, watching.

Kairos frowned.

"Are these the monsters you were talking about earlier?"

Tori blinked a few times.

"Um, they had the same robes, but these ones seem a little different."

Eventually, one of the monsters walked up, standing in the middle of the room. Unexpectedly, it spoke up.

"One."

Its voice was horribly garbled and deep. If one wasn't paying close attention, then they wouldn't be able to make out the meaning of the word."

Nicole nervously took a step back.

"I don't like these things."

Chase rubbed his chin with great interest.

"It seems that it wants one of us to step up."

Harold looked up with trepidation.

"We should get out of here."

Kairos looked at Harold, before turning back.

"...Let me try it."

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"That can't be a good idea!"

Kairos walked up with the fire axe resting against his shoulder, not heeding their warnings at all.

"I'm just really curious, alright?"

Nicole reached out, but stopped halfway through, slowly letting her hand fall back down to her side. There was a concerned expression on her face, but she decided to let it go.

Eventually, Kairos stood across from the monster.

"Now what?"

The monster bent its knees slightly and balled up its fists. It was taking on a stance.

"Proof."

Suddenly, it shot forwards. However, Kairos already saw this coming, thus was not caught off guard. He stepped to the side and raised his axe.

The monster threw a punch towards Kairos at a startlingly high speed. However, it was nothing to him paired with his future vision and higher agility.

Kairos gave up on striking and got ready to dodge the attack.

...Yet the very moment he did, his future vision warped before showing the monster's fist pull back as the other shot forth.

Kairos decided to swing his axe at that fist instead. And once more, his future vision distorted, before showing him that the fist twisted at an elusive angle, out of the trajectory of the axe.

Thankfully, because of Kairos' high agility, he was able to react in time, shifting his axe to block.

A loud bang rang out.

Kairos hurriedly backed off while furrowing his brows.

Although from the outside perspective, all they did was exchange blows once, it obviously wasn't so simple. Though the monster was strong, it wasn't really that big of a deal for Kairos.

His strength was a substantial amount higher.

However, the moment Kairos decided to change something because of something he saw in the future, the monster seemed to be able to predict that, as though it had the same ability.

However, it didn't seem to be perfect, as the monster still wasn't able to attack him through it. Kairos strongly suspected that the monster was able to tell how he was attacking from how his body moved.

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, the monster charged forth once more. On the other hand, Kairos made sure to keep his distance.

His main advantage was the reach provided by his fire axe, thus he fully intended on using it. Right when the monster would be in range, Kairos swung with his axe.

He saw that the monster dodged to his left in his future vision, thus redirected his trajectory to the left. Unfortunately, it seemed that the monster saw it coming as his future vision warped, showing the monster dodging to the right.

Kairos clicked his tongue and gave up on the swing altogether. Instead, he backed up some more.

Nicole shouted.

"Do you need help?"

Kairos grit his teeth.

"I got this, don't worry!"

This time, he swung his fire axe horizontally, so that the monster couldn't dodge to the side. However, the monster ended up jumping into the air.

Kairos hurriedly canceled his strike and got ready for the monster in the air.

But his future vision warped again, showing the monster simply running towards him.

Kairos cursed internally before retreating once more.

He wasn't used to this kind of fight, where his opponent could also predict his movements. Though he was stronger, the monster's technique was definitely superior.

If it wasn't for his future vision, Kairos might already be dead.

He quickly realized that there was no way he could win like this.

Kairos narrowed his eyes and swept out with his leg. He was confident that this would trip the monster if it hit because his strength was substantially higher.

Kairos saw the monster leap upwards with his future vision, but did not stop his sweep with the leg. However, right when the monster leaped in reality, Kairos also flung his axe out.

And flew straight towards the monster's neck.

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