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005

Marcus started to run, but he could feel the tremors getting closer, leaving no real chance to escape. Having no other choice, he stood his ground with the decent sized crystal in each hand, ready to club whatever was coming at him for survival.

He held his breath in anticipation, but was still shocked by the outcome.

Rather than seeing a behemoth come barreling towards him, he was swarmed by dozens of little creatures no bigger than one of his feet.

Each one ran like a lizard scampering side to side, with rather burly looking limbs and short, stubby tails that arced up towards their spines. They must have been a dark brown color from living their whole lives in the dirt, but the dim lights made them blend perfectly into the walls and floor. The swarm made the whole cavern look alive, scaring Marcus more than he would have admitted.

Seemed luck was in his favor, as they ran around him instead of at him. Their tiny size poised no threat, only their sheer numbers would have. Seems they were not accustomed to being predators anyway.

'Okay well I have never seen these things on the wildlife channel, so I might actually be in a different world.'

Against his better judgement, Marcus snagged one by its tail, as he was curious if he could somehow eat the little scuttling beasts. His hunger was driving his body to take the chance that was being given.

Sadly when he grabbed it, he found it too light and scrawny for taking meat off. He found the little thing was actually coated in a heavy and scratchy fur, not just dark skin. When he turned it over, the whole thing froze in a playing dead stance, its resemblance to some time of cross between a moles head and a furry reptilian body.

'Well that went from scary, to horrifying, and now disappointed. Farewell you gross little one.' He thought as he tossed it back to its brethren.

Even if he managed to find something with meat on its bones, there was no way to prepare it. The only thing Marcus could find in the tunnels was wet dirt and rocks, nothing that could burn for a decent fire.

Eventually the tunnel grew quiet as the little scuttlers continued on their journey, leaving Marcus tired and along once again.

At least he thought he was alone.

A new noise started coming from the direction that the swarm came from, it barely rumbled the ground as it sounded more like a wet body was being dragged along the floor. When Marcus turned to see the source, he got what he was expecting originally.

Taking up most of the tunnel's width was a leathery maw shaped like that of an alligator. The resemblance stopped there though, as connected to the sides of the huge head was very human looking hands with talons and webbing between the three fingers and thumb. Marcus only got a glimpse of the abomination's front half before he bolted.

'Suddenly the fleeing meth squirrels makes more sense.' Marcus thought while jumping over another puddle. 'They've got the right idea, dammit I should've followed them too. They might know of a way out of here.'

Marcus could only mentally kick himself as he ran for as long as he could. He ended up breaking away from the tunnels he had drawn on and was bent over wheezing in a new section of tunnels.

'Thank god that thing was a lot slower. I don't know if I can keep up with all the wildlife of Krotosia, nor with how ugly it is either.'

It was a short lived break, as the ground beneath him started sliding around. The tip of the massive jaws came bursting through the tunnel's floor.

The behemoth used it bulging arms to slam its head between the walls, finding its way back to Marcus.

The much smaller human could only swear loudly and keep moving, but after so much running and no real rest, Marcus felt his legs give out. The jaws and both hands managed to climb out and he got a full view of the creature's body this time.

It looked like it had a disproportionate bulldog body with an alligator's head slapped into the base of its neck. The thing half-walked half-crawled with its swollen lower frame unable to hold up the weight of its full body and much heavier front limbs. If not for the more durable front legs, its head would've dragged along the ground alongside its stomach.

'Fantastic, I lasted forty-eight years during my first life and not even a day in my second life.'

Marcus truly believed this to be the end and with no real idea on how to escape, his thought process degraded to the most basic idea he could come up with.

Start throwing rocks at it.

As the monster managed to pry its full body out of the tunnel below the current, it felt a sharp pain above its right eye. Evolution had not been kind to its species, as it had an inefficient digestion process, and horrible sight that forced it to live underground, eating the tinier mole species.

When it turned to find the prey it had been following through smell, it could only see a glimpse of something moving in the sparkles of lights. Suddenly one of those sparkles grew brighter and it hit the monster directly in the eye that time, irritating it greatly.

Marcus had no idea if his plan would amount to anything, but at least he could vent his frustrations at the creature before dying at its largely curved teeth.