‘Calm down!’ Rex berrated himself as the petals danced through the air. It was impossible for all of the falling petals to be creatures. In the first place if that was the case he would have been bitten as soon as he set foot on this floor. No. It would have even happened on the previous one, assuming the creatures weren’t native to this floor and indeed existed on the first one as well. But what should he do in counter to them? Use his cloak? It was certainly thick, but it would limit his movements and if one of those critters indeed fell on it, it would keep him from feeling it and perhaps allowing it to even slip under and either bite him from a better position, or drop on a vulnerable spot out of similarly nowhere.

Then… his scales? His scales were hard. It would be impossible for one of those critters to pierce them. But his head was completely uncovered along with his abdomen. An idea struck him. Could he do what he did with his hands and fix that? He tried. He felt the scales spread upwards over his skin, but they stopped quickly, only covering his cheeks. ‘Better than nothing.’ He decided, before trying the same on his abdomen. Again he could feel the scales spreading and covering his skin, but again there was a limit. He still couldn’t cover most of his abdomen nor could he even begin to do anything about his… ahem… most vulnerable area.

‘And just in case…’ he took off his shoes and threw them in his bag along with the rest of his belongings. The bag was almost full. He turned his hands into claws and tried something he had been practicing, but never really used until now. His feet got covered in scales as well, the process being just as quick as his hands and only taking a fraction of a second as compared to his abdomen and cheeks which were something new to him entirely.

They changed shape, taking on a sharper look than the soft human foot, even the fingers looking different, sharp, enough to tear through someone’s throat. Just like his hands, his feet took the form of claws, much different than those of humans. Even more different than his hands were. His hands still took a relatively human shape even while being transformed into claws. Rex was still getting used to the strange sensation. Like this his feet allowed him much greater maneuverability than anyone wearing shoes. His claws allowed him greater footing and balance. Even though they were slightly bulkier than human ones, that amounted to no disadvantage whatsoever

Finished, he finally stood up, now looking more draconian than he ever had before. He noticed the ball of mana right next to him, but ignored it for a moment, looking upwards and scanning through the falling flowers, before turning away and putting his hand inside the orb. The mana dispersed suddenly, almost as if the sphere shattered. Rex could sense it being absorbed into his surroundings though. It just went back to the labyrinth. And the small part that had remained in his hand had turned into what seemed like a small white gem.

Rex didn’t recognize it. To be accurate he didn’t know anything about it in the first place. He had focused his studies about this world in a few areas in particular and stones were not a part of it. He guessed that maybe it could be sold for a decent price. He threw the marble-sized gem in his bag and moved forward while keeping his vision on the flowers. Those were what he was most concerned by right now. He doubted the wolves could do any real harm to him. They went for the neck and his neck was covered in his scales. Not the softest of materials. Rex wouldn’t be surprised if their teeth were the first to give in. The wolves were surely not used to scales of that strength, most likely underestimating their durability based on being able to bite through the scales of the small snakes that inhabited this floor and the last.

As he noticed one of the strange flower insects he swatted it away before it even reached him, Its body disappeared as he continued forward not even sparing the small thing an extra glance. A small snake tried to bite his leg, but unable to pierce his scales it was simply kicked away. The attacks of the two small predators continued unsuccessfully, but strangely Rex saw nothing of the wolves until he got close to the tree he was heading towards. After once again checking his direction by climbing through the trees and observing the areas from the top, he confirmed that he was only two or three minutes away from there tree, he dropped back to the ground and turned to continue forward when he heard the slight rustle of grass he had been awaiting the entire time.

His tail sprung upwards as he reached into his right pouch and grabbed two knives. Right as he felt his tail impact something accompanied by a loud yelp he tried spinning around. With a slight delay due to being unused to his feet, he turned to watch the wolf impact the ground and threw his two daggers at it, one piercing its stomach and the other its throat, or at least where they should have been in a normal wolf. Rex didn’t know if the anatomy of these was anything similar. Even their blood wasn’t the right color.

The wolf’s body started disappearing but it was too soon to relax, as Rex heard a low growling sound. He concentrated trying to pick out its direction, but only then did he realize it wasn’t coming from any particular one. Wolves started appearing in his vision, slowly walking out of the foliage, baring their teeth. One by one they revealed themselves as Rex could do nothing, but watch, the realization that he was surrounded setting in quickly and mercilessly.

With wolves on all sides and lacking a decent weapon to fend them off, Rex determined his only option was escape. And being surrounded the only way to escape… was up. As soon as he was ready to spring up the wolves, seemingly sensing his intentions attacked all at once. But they were too late. They all rushed as Rex jumped up grabbing onto a branch and as they jumped to bite him he swung himself up, kicking two of them in the heads as he did so. He planted his feet on the branch firmly and looked down at the wolves, growling up at him. He was too far up for them to reach. He was safe. For a moment he relaxed and that was the exact moment he felt something fall from above and instantly wrap itself around him. Even then then the tyrant reacted quickly, successfully getting half of his right arm and his tail, spares from the prison of muscle. The head of his attacker stood in front of him, as he stared into the eyes of the white-scaled snake, many times larger than the small green one.

Of course with this development there was no way even Rex could keep his balance on the already somewhat thin but though branch. What he could do was at least chose the direction and somewhat affect the way he fell. Rather than falling head first the moment he lost his balance he jumped slightly making sure to drop to the left side of the branch with his feet down. As he passed falling by the branch. His free right hand grabbed onto the branch and held him up. It was incredibly difficult to do with only half his arm at his disposal and the wall of muscle that constrained him and tried to crush him wasn’t helping. He struggled once more, trying to move he snake off of him, but it felt like he was trying to move while under an avalanche or landslide. The snake didn’t budge and he couldn’t use his muscles to their proper extent in the position he was put in.

The wolves didn’t sit idly by either as they jumped up and bit into his feet which were free of the constraints. They couldn’t break through the scales but the pressure of the bite still caused Rex pain and the added weight he had to support was extremely taxing on his one arm. He moved his tail towards the snake’s head in front of him. The snake attempted to move away from it, but his tail moved almost like a snake itself, getting behind the creature’s head in one movement and wrapping around it. Rex was sort of impressed with his tail as he clenched it down around the snake, to hear a crack, the tail was much more useful than he gave it credit for with its impressive length and strength. He could immediately feel the muscles of the snake around him relax somewhat, but it still wasn’t letting go. With three wolves biting into his legs he could barely hold himself up, let alone pull himself onto the branch. As he freed his right arm completely now that that gap it created was able to be widened, some of the strain of his arm traveled upwards towards the freed half with a slight adjustment to the way he held himself up. His tail traveled down this time and smacked the wolves that were biting onto him. Really. He would give it more credit from now on. If it wasn’t for it he would have most likely died there.

The wolves that were barely hanging on as they were, were easily forced to let go and Rex took that chance pulling himself up and out of their reach again, along with the snake. A minute later, the snake disappeared and he let out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he had. He sat onto the branch, resting his back on the tree. He rested a bit there, trying to catch his breath, until a moment later when he felt a small bite on his neck. Smashing his palm into the location he felt the splatter of one of the flower monsters. “Oh for fuck’s sakes!” he exclaimed. He looked down at the wolves and considered for a brief moment, jumping down and taking out his aggression on them, but he sighed and decided otherwise, remembering why he was here in the first place. He didn’t know how many floors the labyrinth had, but no matter how you looked at it, wasting time and effort here wasn’t wise.

He prepared to head out, but stopped as another white ball of mana formed next to him. ‘There was a delay?’ He touched his neck to find nothing there. ‘No. This thing was just the last I needed to get it I guess.’ He shrugged and put his hand in the mana. Taking it out he had another small gem in his hand. It was slightly bigger than the last one, but it was obviously a different gem as well, being red unlike the previous white one. He wondered if he would be able to even find these in his bag without unloading the whole thing with how small they were. But he threw this one inside as well. He didn’t have time to worry about small stuff like that for now. He was only a few minutes away from his goal.

Tying the bag back around his torso, Rex tightened it and jumped to another branch. Then again, grabbing another branch and using it to swing himself, before jumping to another. Like that he continued forward through the trees, keeping an eye out for any of the snakes still hiding in them. Thankfully the snakes were much easier to spot than the blossom monsters and even easier to avoid once knowing where they are. He actually felt one bite him twice, but he was vigilant about his vulnerable areas and none managed to bite him there. Even the ones that tried to bite his scales where just squished almost immediately after. It seemed like not only the wolves, but nothing in this labyrinth was used to anything with as high a defense as his. He attributed that to the labyrinth’s youth and the creatures’ inexperience.

Eventually, though it had taken more than anticipated due to not walking there, he made it to the tree. He didn’t even need to circle it to find the large hole carved into the tree’s bark. Though another thing he noticed immediately were the two corpses at the front. Jumping down from the tree he examined the two humans. They both wore leather but all of their other equipment and supplies were gone, most likely taken by the group so they wouldn’t be wasted. Looking at them closely both of them had their eyes rolled back and their mouths were open in a horrific expression. The most obvious of their damage, though were their slit throats. Rex considered betrayal for a moment. Perhaps they wanted to turn back, just like the ones at he entrance, but insisted too strongly, earning them a knife in the back. Or throat. It was possible but there were also signs of poisoning. So perhaps they were bitten and carried in hope they would survive, only to be given up o and put out of their miseries?

Rex didn’t know and he couldn’t be sure. The only thing he did know is that the group had proceeded down to the next floor. Rex opted to do the same. Leaving the two dead men behind he entered the hole in the tree. To his left was a staircase which he started going down. It seemed like it would be a spiral staircase this time, unlike the last straight one. After some time to descend he came to the exit. What revealed itself past the small room carved into the trunk of the tree that proceeded much deeper underground than it should have, was darkness. Even with his vision he could barely even see. There were only small forms of illumination In the form of mushrooms, but these ones were different. They were smaller and glowed fainter. Thee tunnel in front of him was made out of dirt, small bits of roots or stones peeked out of some of the sides and the whole thing was quite constraining, allowing room for at most two people to walk side by side, and even then they would be almost, if not brushing against the walls to do it. That large group… they would have trouble in here…

Rex though didn’t mind. He stepped forward. Even if it was dark, to him it was much less so than to a human. He proceeded down the path until coming to a fork, with three ways to go. He simply continued forward, until after a few more moments of walking, he saw the silhouette of something in the darkness. Walking towards him, causing him to get on guard. As it walked into the illumination of a mushroom, Rex got a better look. It looked like it was completely made out of thick roots tangled around each other. Its legs and arms inhumanly thin and long, and its body sickeningly slender. Its head alone was strangely oversized with the roots it was made out of being the only part of its body to have thorns and being strangely distanced from one another. As they twisted and closed up Rex saw a glimmer of red from within them. As Rex looked astonished at the humanoid figure that was as inhuman as he could have possibly imagined, the creature stopped walking. And as it raised its hands, Rex prepared for combat.