One-Sided Fight

Emile wanted to turn back. He wanted to go check on Blood and escape this labyrinth, but he couldn't. He was frozen and stuck, his body wouldn't listen to him.

Standing a ways away down the hall, the last man stretched his back after crushing Blood. He raised his arms in the air and let out a long yawn.

He finally stopped stretching and rested his black eyes on Emile. His neck twitched and he began to convulse. His veins pushed against his skin, fighting to burst out, and they too darkened to black.

The man looked demonic, possessed, and unnatural. And then, with another twitch of his muscle, he exploded forward.

Emile barely had enough time to react, only able to thanks to his Gifts effect on his brain. He pulled himself to the side of the hallway just as the man engulfed in a blind rage flew past him.

"What did you do to him?!" Emile yelled.

"You don't need to know." Chief Khon replied, "All you need to be doing is preparing for the afterlife!"

The behemoth sized man charged forward to strike Emile, but with the possessed man far down the hall the consuming aura left with him.

Able to move freely, Emile easily ducked underneath Chief Khon's punch and struck with the dagger. The dagger slid across Chief Khon's armor, not even making a scratch.

Seeing his attack do nothing, Emile hurriedly twisted his body and wrapped around Khon until he got behind him. And again, Emile struck Khon's back but was unable to pierce his armor.

Khon's towering arm swung backwards and crashed into Emile's chest. Emile launched backwards and slammed into the wall. Falling onto his knees, Emile slid down the wall.

He could feel the ground shake with every one of Khon's steps, but he was too tired to look up, to raise his neck and lift his eyelids. Emile felt his body going numb.

The vibrations beneath him grew stronger as Khon stepped closer, until Emile noticed a shadow consuming the light above him.

"What's this?" The old woman's voice crept around the corner of the hallway, "I haven't seen a corrupted soul in a millenium… how unfortunate for you."

Emile barely had enough strength to open his eyes and look around him. As he thought, Chief Khon stood just above him, but he was looking away at the guardian of the labyrinth.

As soon as she finished speaking, whirlpools of essence flooded the hallways. The white particles consumed the area until they condensed into a hundred Wooden Puppets.

Mixed throughout the army of puppets, Enlightened beasts stood tall as well: the towering blue reptile and the Cloudlet were among them.

"Corrupted souls have no place in this realm." And with that, the guardian dropped her hand and the monsoon of summons pushed and squeezed through the tight hallways.

Body's collided, wooden limbs splintered, and gifts ran rampant. Sparks ignited in the hallway, flashes of light blinded Emile, but he could still hear the battle.

He felt Chief Khon step away from him, his earth-shaking steps leading him towards the onslaught of enemies. For a split second, the rampant vibrations in the ground ceased and the two parties collided.

Emile didn't know what kind of Gift Chief Khon possessed, but whatever it was allowed him to meet the torrent evenly.

With his monstrous gauntlets, Khon bulldozed through the Wooden Puppets. Groups of ten were smashed in seconds while their mediocre weapons bounced off Khon's armor.

It was the other beasts that Khon had to look out for. The Cloudlet juggled between the two walls, rapidly bouncing between the two and gaining speed as it did so.

Meanwhile, the giant reptile spit its cannonballs through the hall without remorse for its comrades. Even more Wooden Puppets were rapidly obliterated until so much essence evaporated in the hallway it looked like a sauna.

Eventually, numbers overpowered Khon. The Wooden Puppets, even though they couldn't damage Khon themselves, piled around him. The dolls trampled on one another to meet Khon's height.

They grabbed each others hands and wrapped themselves around Khon's limbs, sacrificing their lives to slow the giant down for mere seconds.

It was those seconds, however, that made all the difference. With Chief Khon immobilized, the Cloudlet released its accumulated velocity and rocketed into Khon.

For the first time ever, Khon's armor took a visible hit. The Cloudlet crashed into Khon's chest with enough force to slam him back into the wall.

The moment Khon hit the wall, the Cloudlet returned to hopping between the walls, but the damage was already done. A severe dent remained in the center of Khon's chest piece, hopefully deep enough to pierce his skin.

Even after taking the hit, Khon never stopped swinging. The Wooden Puppets quickly swarmed the empty space and continued to rain hell on Khon. But then, the Enlightened reptile struck.

Streaks of invisible cannonballs tore through the Wooden Puppets as they traveled to Khon. Wood dust and splinters filled the air along with the recurring drum of cannonballs smashing into Khon's body.

Since the Wooden Puppets continued to get one sidedly slaughtered, their numbers rapidly decreased. The mound of dolls climbing one another around Khon vanished. Now, only about twenty puppets remained.

But with that meant a clearer line of sight for the Enlightened creatures. The Cloudlet barreled down into Khon once more, this time definitely breaking a couple ribs.

Khon grabbed the Cloudlet from his chest and smashed it into the wall. The bird instantly popped as it struck, its blood and guts splattered up the wall.

Similarly, Chief Khon coughed up a mouthful of blood himself and spit it to the side. With so few Wooden Puppets remaining, Chief Khon struggled to stand but was quickly met with a barrage of spit-cannonballs.

More blood escaped from his lips and his movements slowed. His head wobbled as he looked around, clearly suffering from some sort of daze like a concussion.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could gather the words a dented short sword pierced his throat. Blood gurgled and foamed through his lips. He spread his eyes wide as they traced up the body of his killer.

Holding the mediocre sword, still consumed by rage, Khon's final lackey twisted the handle around and gouged the inside of Khon's neck.

Disbelief, anger, shock, all these emotions and more flashed through Khon's facial expressions.

"W—" Blood violently splurged out of Khon's neck as he tried his best to speak, "why?"

The repugnant man pulled the sword from Khon's neck then held it to his own, "Because you are an unworthy inheritor!" The man spit in Chief Khon's face then slid the blade across his gray skin, severing the black artery on the side of his neck.

Black sludge tiredly oozed from the wound. And then, the man collapsed onto Khon who too took his last breath.