Asoka continued his journey through the pocket space, moving steadily away from the gigantic monster he had seen earlier. His steps were unsteady at first, the world around him feeling oddly smaller, almost compressed. Yet, despite the disorientation, Asoka felt a surge of energy coursing through him—a new strength that made him feel invincible. Deciding to test his newfound vigor, he sprinted, relishing the fresh wind whipping against his face.
“This place feels so free,” Asoka thought to himself, a rare moment of peace settling in his mind.
He ran tirelessly for an hour, the endless green meadow stretching out before him. Then, on the distant horizon, something broke the monotony. A shape emerged, hazy at first, but as Asoka pushed forward, it became clearer: a village—or rather, what remained of one.
The buildings were peculiar, their size comparable to Asoka himself, with some even larger. The village seemed frozen in time, abandoned long ago. Asoka wandered through the deserted streets, his curiosity piqued. He inspected the structures, running his claws along the walls, peering into darkened doorways, and imagining the lives that once filled these empty spaces.
After an hour of exploring, boredom crept in. With no signs of life and no treasures to uncover, Asoka looked around for something else to catch his attention. But the flat, featureless meadow surrounding the village offered nothing. Deciding he had lingered long enough, he picked a random direction and dashed off, eager for new discoveries.
For another hour, Asoka sprinted through the meadow, but the landscape remained the same: endless green grass, the occasional gust of wind, and nothing else. The once-refreshing breeze now felt dull and repetitive.
Just as frustration began to set in, Asoka’s foot sank into something soft. Before he could react, the ground gave way beneath him.
“Whoooosh! BOOM!”
Asoka plummeted headfirst into a hidden pit, landing hard on the rocky floor of a dark cave below. Dazed and in pain, he lay still for a moment, trying to regain his senses.
Unbeknownst to him, something stirred in the shadows. A strange, bony creature emerged from the darkness. Its worm-like body slithered along the cave walls with eerie precision. Eight sharp limbs protruded from its torso—four on the front and four at the back—giving it an unsettling symmetry. Its two heads, perched on flexible necks, twisted and turned independently, watching Asoka with a mix of curiosity and predatory intent.
Asoka shook his head, trying to clear the dizziness. Slowly, he rose to his feet, his eyes scanning the dim surroundings. The cave was vast and oppressive, its jagged walls enclosing him like a stone prison. With no clear way out, Asoka chose a direction at random and began to walk, his claws brushing against the walls to guide him through the pitch-black void.
The floor was uneven, littered with branches and stones that snapped and crunched under his powerful steps. Though the obstacles slowed him slightly, they posed no real threat to someone of Asoka’s strength. After several minutes, his hand touched a solid wall. Carefully, he traced its surface, realizing that the cave seemed to curve, forming a spherical enclosure.
Turning back to the spot where he had fallen, Asoka tried to think of a way to escape. Just as he began to formulate a plan, the creature lurking in the shadows made its move.
Soundless and deliberate, it crept closer, its pointed limbs gripping the cave walls with terrifying efficiency. Without warning, the creature lunged. Its back limbs, sharp as spears, stabbed into Asoka's flesh, piercing deep into his bones and organs.
A guttural roar of pain and fury escaped Asoka as he twisted to face his attacker, his instincts kicking in. The battle for survival had begun.
“Kugghhh!”
Asoka froze, his body locked in place as searing pain erupted like wildfire through every nerve, radiating outward from where the creature’s jagged, needle-like limbs had pierced his flesh.
The appendages dug deep, a grotesque fusion of biological weapons, injecting something vile and alien into his bloodstream. His body, hardened by evolution and tempered by anger, fought back against the invasion, repelling the foreign substance with an almost primal defiance.
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Yet, the sheer force and precision of the attack had him completely pinned, the angle and pressure of the creature’s assault rendering him utterly immobile, like a stone statue amid chaos.
A roar burst from his throat, raw and furious, reverberating through the cavern like a beast unleashed. The guttural sound carried anger, pain, frustration, and an unyielding determination to survive.
The creature, a hulking mass of sinew and shadow, stood firm. Its grip was like iron, impossibly strong even for a predator of the subterranean dark, its many limbs moving with unsettling precision. Asoka thrashed with all the power his broad frame could muster, muscles coiling and straining against the bonds of pain and paralysis.
But the combination of agony and the creature’s unrelenting hold left him helpless, robbed of leverage and power in a way he hadn’t experienced in years.
Refusing to succumb, he channeled his frustration into another roar, a sound so feral it seemed to shake the very air around him. The echoes cascaded through the jagged walls of the cave, carrying with them a resonance of raw, unfiltered rage.
The vibrations rippled through the stillness of the underground chamber, unsettling the creature. Its two grotesque heads, crowned with twisting horns and glistening with some unholy ichor, jerked violently as if in discomfort. The grip on his body slackened ever so slightly, the minute shift sending a spark of hope coursing through him.
Sensing the sliver of an opening, Asoka roared again, this time pouring every ounce of his being into the sound. The force of it wasn’t just audible; it was tangible, a wave of defiance that battered against the creature’s senses.
The cavern trembled in response, faint tremors shaking loose dust and pebbles from the high, unseen ceiling. The beast reeled, its heads flailing in disarray, its balance shifting as dizziness overcame it. It was a predator of silence and shadow, designed to stalk and kill with stealth, not endure the deafening assault of sound and fury.
Asoka didn’t hesitate. Pain and exhaustion were irrelevant; survival demanded action. His body, battered and bloodied, surged with a desperate strength born from years of enduring the impossible.
He felt his muscles scream in protest, veins bulging, skin stretched taut over straining bones. The creature’s limbs trembled, the once-impervious hold now faltering under the combined weight of sensory overload and Asoka’s unrelenting defiance. With a final, guttural cry that seemed to drain the very core of his being, Asoka heaved against his restraints.
The moment shattered like glass. The creature’s limbs gave way with a sickening snap, its alien strength finally succumbing to Asoka’s will. In the process, he felt his own body suffer—muscles tearing, bones cracking under the sheer force of his escape. Yet, even as pain roared louder than the echoes of his triumph, Asoka stood tall, bloodied but unbroken, a living testament to the power of resilience in the face of death itself.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sound of snapping bones echoed through the cave as Asoka bent and broke several of his own ribs in the struggle. The creature screeched in pain, its severed limbs twitching on the ground as it recoiled.
Freed but battered, Asoka turned to face his attacker. Rage burned in his eyes as he lunged forward, sinking his teeth into one of the creature’s necks. His powerful jaws crushed through bone and sinew, severing the neck in one brutal motion. The creature let out a shrill, agonized shriek, but Asoka didn’t stop.
He attacked relentlessly, biting into the creature’s tail and tearing chunks off its writhing body. The creature writhed and screamed, its struggles growing weaker with every savage bite. By the time Asoka finished devouring the tail, the creature had succumbed, its lifeless body sprawled on the cave floor.
Yet Asoka wasn’t done. Consumed by primal hunger and a desire for dominance, he devoured the creature entirely, chewing through every limb, bone, and sinew. Nothing was left behind—not even the hard, unpalatable parts.
When he was finally done, Asoka staggered deeper into the cave, his body trembling from the ordeal. He collapsed against a dark, jagged wall, his breath ragged and shallow. The pain he had endured was excruciating, and though he hadn’t shown it earlier, it had taken its toll.
For the first time, Asoka’s composure broke. He lay still, his body wracked with agony, his consciousness flickering. Slowly, the darkness of the cave crept into his mind, pulling him into a deep, death-like slumber.
Whether it was sleep or the onset of death, Asoka couldn’t tell. All he knew was the overwhelming exhaustion and the suffocating silence that enveloped him as he drifted away into the void.
*****
The colossal monster that Asoka had spotted earlier was now observing him from afar.
Its name was Lider, an ancient being that had inhabited this pocket dimension for nearly a million years. Over its vast lifetime, Lider had come to know every corner, every hidden crevice, and every portal that connected to its domain. It prided itself on its knowledge of this space, yet the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar creature like Asoka puzzled it greatly.
The creature had arrived through the Earth portal, a connection Lider was intimately familiar with. Earth, a peculiar planet, was riddled with portals leading to various pocket dimensions. Despite its uniqueness, Lider understood Earth to be the dominion of humans—a race not typically associated with monsters. No creatures like Asoka had ever emerged from that portal before.
What made Asoka even stranger was his scent—or rather, his lack of it. He didn’t smell like a monster at all. Instead, he carried the distinct scent of humanity, which made his presence all the more perplexing.
Lider’s ancient mind churned with curiosity. Humans were a peculiar race, remarkable not for their physical attributes or strength, but for their unparalleled adaptability. Wherever they set foot, given enough time, they would eventually conquer and thrive, no matter how harsh or unyielding the environment. However, despite their resourcefulness, humans never appeared as monsters. That was an unchanging truth.
And yet, here was Asoka—a contradiction.
This "human monster" moved like a beast, driven by raw instinct. It fought without tactics, without the calculated precision humans were known for, and showed limited adaptability to its surroundings. It acted like a creature of nature, not one of reason or invention.
Lider was at a crossroads. Ordinarily, it ignored the monsters that wandered into its pocket space, tolerating their presence unless they actively sought it out. Even then, it rarely engaged, often opting to dismiss them entirely or expel them through a portal.
But Asoka was different.
This strange being piqued Lider’s ancient curiosity. A creature smelling of humanity but behaving like a wild beast was an anomaly, and Lider loved few things more than unraveling mysteries. The idea that something—someone—had created this monster intrigued it deeply. Who had brought this fusion of man and beast into existence? And why?
"Bring that little monster to me," Lider rumbled, its voice like a deep, resonant echo that shook the air.
From the ground, smaller creatures—Lider’s subordinates—emerged. They were lean, swift, and obedient, rising like shadows given form. Without hesitation, they sprinted toward Asoka's location, their movements fluid and purposeful, eager to fulfill Lider’s command.
For the first time in millennia, Lider felt a flicker of excitement. This mysterious intruder could be the key to something new—a rare opportunity to learn, to understand, and perhaps even to challenge the long monotony of its endless existence.