The dream ended, and my consciousness returned with a stabbing, throbbing pain around what used to be my head.

Apparently, in the time I had gone unconscious, I’d died and returned to my subspace. Those bat-things might not have been hostile, but the wolves were clearly smart enough to use them for an easy kill…

But what were those bats? I’d read up on the labyrinth long ago, and it never mentioned anything like them. They looked… Like the ancients. Like the beings I’d been shown in that dream.

That can’t be, right? What would they be doing here of all places? And why would they be monsters now, unless they’re a metamorphosed version of their race, like the elves are to humans…

No, that’s crazy. They wouldn’t be here, secretly hiding in the depths of the Elosian Minor Labyrinth if that were the case, and they wouldn’t be showing me — some random passerby that was about to die — the start of the cataclysm.

It was a random dream, and nothing more. They’re monsters, and nothing more. Like the toad whose form I took, which the wolves have killed, they were too inconsequential to consider.

I shoved the question of their identities out of my mind. I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it. For now, I need to find out what the situation outside is like.

I shifted into a random fly’s form, the most expendable of creatures I have, and portaled out of my subspace.

I emerged from my subspace, and found myself in a different cave from the one I’d died in. A den of wolves, apparently. As soon as I arrived, one of the wolves started howling. Then another, then another. But only the three. The rest looked around, but were unaware of what was causing the disturbance.

They must be the Deceitful Wolves, then. Three of them. Just my luck.

I flew out of the den and up towards the ceiling of the cave, the wolves hot on my trail. One of them jumped high into the air, snapping at me. I dodged out of the way, their bite missing me by millimeters.

My mind raced at the speed of thought. Where do I retreat to? Do I have a way out of this? Even if I were to take a monster’s form, there isn’t anything that could break their tracking. I’ll have to fight my way out of this, but how? Where do I make my stand? What can I use to my advantage? What’s around here that I can use…

I rounded the corner, and reached the open cavern, and laid my eyes upon one of the light flowers from before. A plan formulated in my mind. A shame this one is only E rank, but it will have to do.

I flew into the radius of its light, and the wolf-pack that was chasing me skidded to a halt. But they made the mistake of not keeping proper spacing, and the back row bumped into the row of wolves in front of them, which bumped into the ones in front of them, etc, until the front row of wolves crossed into the light-rose’s reach.

The rose blinked out in an instant, throwing the area into darkness. The noise of thorny vines scraping across the ground was followed by the sound of pierced flesh, and a number of yelps from the wolves.

The light shone out once more, and the few wolves who were unfortunate to cross into its boundary were lying on the ground, nothing left of them but skin and bones. Vines slowly slithered their way out of them, retracting back towards the rose. The rose bloomed even more brilliantly than before, and the red fruits around its base grew in number.

One of the Wolves barked a command, and the rest spread out, surrounding the radius outside the rose’s reach. Plan to wait me out, eh?

I took a few minutes, shifting into one of the few other bloodless monster forms I had: the Ostean Giant Flytrap. It’s too useful to me now to lose, but it’s my best way out of this mess.

I opened my mouth, but withheld the effects of my mana. I need to surround them with my saliva’s scent to see them, but I can’t have them all rushing me at once.

As I detected the effects of my scent around me, a few of them stood out to me.

Quite a few of them were “blurry” around the edges. As if they were designed to be easily distinguishable via scent. Of course! There’s multiple monsters here, and all of them have smell as their primary sense. They have to be able to somewhat see through each other’s illusions. But now that I have a powerful sense of smell, their camaraderie will be their downfall.

Far more of them were blurry than just the three Deceitful Wolves, meaning at least one of them must be creating illusory copies of itself. The only blurry image that wasn’t identical to the others was the bipedal wolf.

So there’s one making illusory copies, a bipedal one, and one more that I can’t identify. All the other blurry images are illusions. I can bring one of them to me in all likelihood, but I can’t take that risk on the only one I know I can identify at a moment’s notice.

Instead, I dug my roots into the ground, and started casting a space-bolt spell. When it was finally ready, I concentrated and produced my mana in a single spot within my aura around one of the ‘blurry’ wolves. Not only did the wolf not seem to notice, but my mana didn’t even react to it, as it does with most creatures. An illusion, then.

One by one, I repeated the process, going through two dozen illusory wolves before one finally reacted.

It suddenly snarled and howled, and all but two of the other illusory wolves suddenly grew restless, barking and scraping their paws against the ground and raising their back fur to show their aggression.

The other wolves began to follow suit, but the bipedal wolf barked once, and the rest tucked their tails between their legs and waited. All the rest, except for the one I targeted, and its illusory clones.

It howled into the air, and a few its illusory copies crossed into the range of the blue rose.

The rose suddenly shriveled, and its thorny vines shot out at the illusory wolves, passing through them where it expected blood.

More illusory copies appeared from nowhere, and passed through again, and again, and again.

The mindless rose kept striking at them, passing through them ceaselessly. Slowly but surely, the rose was overwhelmed, and one of the illusions got through. It ran at me and tore a chunk of my flesh out with its jaws.

I shook in pain, and battered it out of the way with my head, but otherwise did nothing. It’s just an illusion. It can’t hurt me.

Another illusory wolf got past the rose’s whips, then another, then another, each biting me and tearing a chunk of my planty flesh out. I keeled over, smacking my “head” against the ground, and held still.

The illusory-copy wolf, seeing its chance, Howled into the air, then it and its several dozen illusory copies all ran straight for me.

I ignored the illusory copies again, my focus still on the main one. It crossed into the threshold, and when it was a dozen feet away from me, fell into my trap.

I raised my head suddenly, and my roots burst through the ground beneath it, wrapping around one of its paws. It growled in my direction as I opened my mouth, revealing the space bolt. I spit it out at the wolf, but before it reached, it chomped at its own leg, tearing it off, then leaping back.

The wolf was still alive, but it bled profusely, and its illusory copies puffed in smoke one after the other. My wounds began to heal, proving they were never real to begin with.

And the rose smelled blood. Its vines all stopped targeting the fading clones, and every one shot straight for the now-bleeding wolf.

It gracefully dodged around them, but couldn’t dodge forever. It instead ran back towards the edge of the blue-rose’s range, ready to give up.

Not on my watch. I phased another mana crystal out of my subspace, and chomped down on it. With a burst of strength, I infused my mana into a wave of scent at the wolf. It overwhelmed its senses, making it hesitate for only a moment. But a moment was enough.

Three vines pierced into it, sinking into its true-flesh. The wolf’s fur slowly faded, revealing its true monstrous appearance, which shriveled as its blood was sucked out.

The rose bloomed again, and the wolf’s blood flowed up the vine, coalescing into another blood-fruit.

I crawled over to its corpse and phased it into my subspace, then shouted out “Who’s next?” though it came out as more of an unintelligible vibrating hiss.

The non-monsterous wolves growled out, and stepped forward, but with one quick, sharp bark, the bipedal wolf put a stop to their aggression.

I wonder why it’s stopping them. If they really wanted to kill me, they could have just overwhelmed the blue-rose’s defenses when they realized they couldn’t wait me out. I wonder what’s going on in that mind of theirs… Oh well, it’s none of my concern. I just need to find a way out. It’s the alpha among them, so if I can kill it, maybe the rest will flee?

I let loose my mana-filled scent around it, and it bared a fang for only a moment before it recollected itself. I pushed harder, but that was the only reaction I got from it.

“Come here you stupid mutt!” I hissed to no reaction.

“Die like your sibling over there, you worthless monster!” Its ears perked up, almost as if it could understand me. Weird, but it is dream aligned. Maybe it doesn’t need words to understand the basic thought behind my words.

“Yeah, you worthless mutt! When I’m done with you, I’ll kill the other monster too, then the rest of your stupid pack!” It bared its fang once more, but it wasn’t enough. I need something more to push it over the edge. Think, Sylas. What else does it care about? More than its pack. What does it care more about than its own siblings? Hmm… What was it doing in the bat-cave before?

“And then, I’ll kill your masters too.” I blurted out.

That was it. The wolf stepped forward, blurring the air around it, cracking the ground as it moved. The rose shot out its vines at the wolf, but it didn’t dodge. The vines smacked into it, but didn’t pierce into its illusory fur.

Wait, that’s not how illusions work, unless there’s some solidity to them… What rank is it?

I shot out another space-bolt I’d been producing. The wolf grabbed onto it, and the bolt detonated in its illusory paw, failing to deform it.

Vorfahr’s hairy balls, that was all I had!

I crawled backwards on my roots, trying to put some distance between it and me. Suddenly, the scent around it collapsed inwards, as if it suddenly teleported elsewhere.

Behind me, a hole appeared, and I tried to crawl forward away from it, but it placed its paw on my head, holding me down.

The wolf lifted its paw, and started lightly patting me… What the fu—

It turned, and in an instant smashed the blue rose into splinters and paste.

It let out a few short breaths, as if it were laughing, then simply walked away. As it passed the rest of its pack, it raised its paw into the air, and closed it.

The rest of its pack closed in, and the fighting began in earnest.