Warlock Apprentice

When Angor screamed, the shining green lines on his back quickly retracted and returned to one spot.

Just like his hologram tablet, something changed under his emotional outburst.

Before Sunders’ dagger could reach his chest, a bloody maw full of sharp teeth abruptly appeared on the wall behind Angor. The maw swallowed Angor whole, which caused Sunders’ dagger to hit the solid ground instead, leaving Sunders puzzled.

The wall “ate” Angor and returned to normal. Sunders let go of his dagger and touched the wall in surprise. It felt smooth as it should be. That giant, fanged mouth earlier was like a dream.

“Shit. It got away!” Sunders punched the ground in frustration.

Angor thought he was dead for sure when he was swallowed by the mouth. He was preparing to rot in the belly of some kind of monster… which felt worse than being slain by younger Sunders.

However, instead of falling into a corroding stomach, he found himself being spat out by the giant mouth.

When Angor fell out of the mouth, he was still at the base of a solid wall.

Angor was wondering why the monstrous mouth did not actually eat him. Still, he was glad he escaped from “Sunders”.

His body was still aching, and he could not stand up.

Angor lifted his head weakly and inspected the surrounding area. He was still inside a path of the maze… but it looked familiar?

There was a Hanzi written on the soft dirt not far, which represented the beginning of his name “An”.

He wrote that word with his own finger. So… he went through this path before? Angor looked at the character and realized his situation.

He was back at one of the roads he walked, and he was sure there was no monster around here.

He could not move. It would be unfortunate if he was left somewhere dangerous and got killed by a monster. At least that would not happen now.

Angor rested for the night and felt a lot better.

The pain on his body faded a bit, especially the pain on his back, which almost disappeared. Even Angor could not believe it. He did not have any first-aid, and most of his injuries were gone.

More importantly, Sunders hit him pretty bad yesterday, but he did not even spill a single drop of blood. He only received internal wounds maybe? Angor stood up and walked around. He only felt several sore joints; there were no internal injuries either.

It was a miracle! Maybe the wall incident improved his self-recovery as well?

He checked the time. It was eight in the morning. Angor decided to move on.

There was only one way for him to go and it was one of the paths he walked yesterday. He needed to get past the hall with a blue giant in it to advance. All the other paths led to dead ends.

Angor moved while still thinking about the younger Sunders. Was he the same person that came to the Nightmare Realm with him? Why did he become younger… and weaker?

If he was not the same one… then who was he? Angor was sure the man was “Sunders” since too many elements on him proved that. Still… would Sunders attack him like that? Angor was unsure. He never knew Sunders’ true intention.

Angor inclined to the idea that “young Sunders” was some sort of projection inside the Nightmare Realm. Maybe “projected reality” included projecting humans too. He might even find his own projection somewhere!

If young Sunders was not the real Sunders, then he should follow his original task—get to the center of the maze. He still needed Sunders to bring him back to reality.

“I hope that’s not him…” Otherwise, he would be trapped in this nightmare cage forever.

Angor clung to his hope and flew toward the hall he saw yesterday.

It was peaceful. He heard occasional rustle noises, but he never saw any monster. When he was two turns away from the hall, he slowed down.

Angor did not know if young Sunders was still there, or what the blue giant was up to. Still, neither one was something he could manage, so he could only hope they were not there. If he had to choose one, he preferred running into the blue giant, since that kind of giant monster would have a hard time trying to catch Angor. Sunders could fly, so he was a bigger threat.

Angor knew that most creatures did not look above them much, so he moved to the ceiling and slowly went for the hall along the ceiling wall.

There was nothing beyond the first corner except some traces left by the fight yesterday.

The hall was just around the next corner. Angor slowed down further and held his breath, then peeked from the corner of the passage wall.

He immediately noticed something was different.

The hall looked messy. The blue giant was nowhere to be found, and lots of bloodstains scattered on the beautiful carpet.

Angor looked carefully. He could almost see the entire hall. Neither the giant nor younger Sunders were here.

“What happened? Did they fight again and leave?” Angor considered. He quickly gave up that idea. The giant was big, so there was no way it could fit through the small wooden door inside the hall. However, Angor did not find any traces left by the giant on his way here. Did it vanish into thin air?

Angor looked toward the wooden door again. It was shut yesterday, but it was left open now. Someone must have left that way.

Maybe it was the younger Sunders, Angor pondered.

So Sunders defeated the blue giant and passed through? Whether correct or not, Angor knew he was lucky this time.

No blue giant, no young Sunders… nothing was threatening him now. Angor sighed in relief and flew inside the hall, feeling satisfied.