Dream land

As the massive creature steadily approached him, he retracted his steps and started to back down while keeping his gaze fixated at the creature ahead.

The slow march of the creature ahead puzzled him. If it wanted, it could have caught him in a single jump. Yet it was approaching him step by step.

'Is it toying with me? Or is it that confident, that it would catch me even I try to escape from it's clutch?'

He thought, while his face showed the expression of mixture of both confusion and trepidation.

He was extremely engrossed in the creature ahead of him that he completely forgot about the pitfall behind him.

While backing down slowly, he soon reached the dead end. He only realised that he had reached the edge of the cliff, after he couldn't feel a surface to step on.

A chill ran down his spine as one of his legs hung freely on the cliff. Unable to feel a surface to step on, his heart skipped a beat.

Just barely maintaining his composure, he staggered and fell ahead.

[Hahaha...]

A playful sinister laugh echoed.

Despite the fearsome laugh, the voice gave him a sense of familiarity.

His feets trembled as he tried to pull himself up. While slowly raising his head to get a better view of the creature ahead, he looked at creature. A sense of worry and fear was evident in his eyes.

[Peak a boo!]

The creature gave out a demonic smile as it spoke. It's numerous sharp canine teeths which looked like serrations of chainsaw became more vivid as it smiled.

Upon seeing the sight infront of him, he was quickly petrified by his fears.

[Oh! What's this? Why aren't you speaking?]

The creature playfully mocked him.

[Or did you already forgot about me?]

Zan couldn't think of anything even after listening the creature. His fear clouded his thoughts.

[Sigh~ It's me the rabbit? The same rabbit which lead you here. Remember me now?]

The creature let out a deep sigh, revealing it's dissatisfaction and playfully introduced itself.

Zan was left dumbfounded by the revelation. Since the time the rabbit had lead him in the dark cave, he had been suspicious of the rabbit. His suspicion was further deepened after the disappearance of the rabbit in the middle of the way.

He knew the rabbit was upto something all along the way. But he never anticipated it to be the same bloodthirsty creature ahead of him.

"Wha.. What? You're the rabbit?"

He stammered.

His voice was shaky and his expression further accentuating the fear in him.

The cunning creature pretended to be a docile creature all along to deceive him. Even the moment when it looked helpless or the moment when it expressed it's gratitude, it was pretending all along.

[Tch... Tch... Tch... Poor mortal how foolish of you to fall for my tricks.]

It clicked it's tongue while mocking him.

The creature slowly marched towards him, while chuckling all along the way. It drove him to a corner leaving him no place to escape.

Zan stood frozen as it moved towards him. Helpless Zan couldn't escape even if he wanted to. Afterall, behind him was deep cliff which was as tall as trees of 'jungle of giants', while ahead of him was a monstrous creature which could outmanoeuvre him even if he wanted to make an escape.

The creature began to sniff him from toe to head. Zan held his breath and couldn't let out even a single word due to his fear. Zan was completely speechless. He desperately wanted to scream for help but he was so terrified that he couldn't open his mouth.

His tightly sealed lips and eyes full of fear satiated the creature. If it wanted to, then it could have chewed him in one single bite but yet it continued to toy with him.

[You know why I didn't reveal my true form from the beginning?]

The creature came closer to his face and whispered in his ear.

But Zan didn't respond at all. Not because he didn't want to but because he couldn't even if wanted to. He was simply paralysed by his fear.

[It's because I love to toy with the food before I eat it. I love seeing their horrified face. Their fears excites me. Grrr....]

However the creature was telling a lie. It wasn't because of it's attitude, but it was more like it couldn't reveal it's true form, until it was inside the cave. The right path, which Zan took was it's habitat. And it had been cursed by the sun god Inti to remain trapped inside the subspace for eternity.

It's power was also limited as it could only reveal it's true strength inside the cave.

Thus, only inside it's habitat it could reveal it's true appearance and assert it's dominance.

Even it's present appearance wasn't it's true form. Infact it didn't have any form at all. The whole subspace was a mystic zone.

The familiarity which Zan felt when he arrived there was simply because of the nature of the subspace. It was designed in such a way that it could mold into the shape of anything as desired by the summoned one.

Due to the nature of the subspace to mold into any form desired by the person who enters the subspace, it was referred to as dream land.

And the creature ahead of him was one of the inhabitants of the dream land. Infact the only inhabitant present there.

It was shapeless and didn't have it's original appearance.

The appearance which it took right now was merely due to Zan's imagination. The rabbit which he imagined when he was hungry and the horrifying creature which he imagined when he was scared.

But Zan was completely unaware of the truth. Thus he couldn't help but feel desperate about the foregoing situation.

The creature turned back and walked, while showing it's back to Zan.

"Sigh~~"

He let out a relieving sigh as it walked away from.

But the puzzling actions of the creature confused him. After standing there petrified for a long time, he finally moved a little as the creature walked away.

Just then the creature abruptly charged towards him. It's blade like claws swung towards him. He quickly reacted to the attack and ducked down, barely dodging the attack with hairs breadth.

[Hoh! I didn't anticipate you to avoid my attack. Have you been hiding your true strength all along behind that terrified facade of yours?]

The creature looked puzzled and astonished by Zan's quick reaction.

Just when it finished it's sentence, it swung it's another arm towards Zan.

Zan barely dodge the first attack and was startled by the second attack. Even so he evaded the attack by stepping aside.

The creature again swung it's other arm towards him, giving him no chance to rest. He stepped back to dodge the attack. As he stepped back, he could see the blade like claws right infront of his eyes.

Right when he thought that he evaded the attack, the claws in it's arm extended all of a sudden. The attack caught him by surprise. Thus he couldn't dodge it and his face was scratched.

"Argh... ahhh..."

He screamed.

The attack nearly cost him his eyes.

Fortunately it only scratched his temple. The horns in his forehead protected his temple from serious injury.

The wound was shallow but it was still painful.

[Oh! Still not dead? I was sure that this attack would have chopped your head. But may be it's still not enough]

The creature chuckled as it spoke in a deep voice.

But Zan was in no mood to hear it's trivialities. The creature's chattering behaviour provided him with an opportunity to make a run. He stormed towards the cave where he came from. The creature chased him upon seeing him flee.

It let out a loud scream. The scream was followed by violent shockwave.

Zan who was fleeing away was hit by the shockwave and was sent flying towards the cave. He crashed in the cave and fell down.

The previous shallow wound started to heavily bleed as he hit the cave.

Despite harshly crashing in the cave, he didn't have any time to lay down and recover. For the creature, was on his tail.

"**** It's so unfair. It has sword like claws and even it's scream is terrifying that it could literally blow me away."

In desperation he started to curse as he steadily got up.

Upon realising that he had no way to escape and fighting back was his only option.

He clenched his fist and raised his hand while taking a defensive position. But somehow he wasn't trained in martial arts and his form was sloppy.

[Hahahahahahahaha.... What are you doing? Performing an act? Dancing?]

The creature mocked him and burst out in laughter after seeing his sloppy form.

To be made fun off by the very same thing which was after his life, he felt embarrassed.

But still he refused to speak anything to the creature ahead of him. And maintained his defensive posture while keeping his gaze fixated at the creature.

The smile on the creatures face slowly faded away as it stormed towards Zan pointing it's huge maw towards him. The creature opened it's mouth as if it was about to chew out Zan.

Instinctively Zan realised that if he were to block the attack, he wouldn't come out unscratched. He probably would have lost his arms at the least if he were to block that attack barehanded.

But even so he couldn't evade it either, since the creature would chase him either way to finish him up.

Upon seeing it's pointed canine teeths, he wished he could have weapon in his hands to fend of the attack.

Just then a familiar sword appeared from beneath the ground.