[Noone truly mourns the dead.]
[It just becomes as if they were never there, to begin with.]
[However, what happens when one is banished?]
[Sure, the people will talk, and some may miss the evicted individual, but after some time…]
[It's like they were never there.]
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{Passageway 6}
BWOOSH!
The bright orange inferno utterly consumed Oz's entire vision.
A claw enshrouded in flames was fast approaching, with the sweet melody of death not far behind.
SSSZZ.
Oz quickly jumped back as the long trailing streak of flames sizzled the air.
He squinted his eyes at the foe ahead of him, "What the hell are you?"
The figure in front responded with a toothy grin, revealing its jagged, sharp teeth.
He wiggled around, "I-I'ma take ya back to the mini-b-boss and da bwoiisssss", its tongue flickering out.
Oz's back dripped with a cold sweat.
A heavy gulp wiggled its way down his throat as he cautiously stared at the lunatic's still-enflamed hand.
The shaft of the arm was completely enshrouded in patchy red fur and at the tip, the fingers clutched the fiery ball of heat.
Oz frowned, 'I knew that guy had friends…"
He glanced around and, in the corner of the room, spotted the corpse of the rat he had previously fought in the cave.
Its body was gaunt, seemingly absorbed of all nutrients as its bones protruded from within the drained husk, poking out of its discolored fur.
Oz looked back towards the maniac slowly walking towards him, 'The fuk did he do that rat?' as he continued backing into the dark passageway, 'And what did it to him?'
The boy would have no more time to ponder as the feral man leaped at him, swinging his enflamed hand down once more, " Yaghh!"
BOOM!!
Oz stepped to the right, narrowly missing the blow as the heat from the flames crept against his left side, and the rubble flew in the air, shattering his side.
Oz grimaced, yet took this opportunity to attack, rushing forward and swinging his right arm in a wide-sweeping hook.
WOOMPH.
The man caught the boy's fist.
"Mhuhuhuhu"
A burst of muffled laughter sounded throughout the dim red passageway, sending tremors through the granular walls.
The man stood there with a wide grin across his face, his triangular teeth perfectly slotted in between one another and the pupils of crazed eyes thinning into a sharp line, "Once a newb…"
Oz felt a frigid chill shoot down his back as the man spoke once more, "Always a noob."
In a flash of red, the man's arm moved in a blur that sent the boy flying across the small passageway, zooming through the air before tumbling along the ground.
"Ugh…" Oz lay there on his stomach, face down, still.
His body twitched as he slowly lifted his face from the warm floor that smelled of charcoal.
His shirt was completely charred off, with the pants burnt into a ragged crisp, barely covering his legs.
The boy's eyelashes fluttered as his vision began to readjust and unblur itself.
'Bwuh- wuh… happened?'', he mumbled out as he stumbled up to his feet, his knees buckling in under his own weight as he awkwardly attempted to rise back up.
FWOOOOSH!
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The sound of rushing flames reverbing through the caves caught Oz's attention.
He looked ahead, "Oh shi-" his eyes widened in surprise to see a blackened figure fully enshrouded in flames rushing towards him like a speedy comet.
PACK!
Oz slapped himself across the right cheek and shook his head to wake himself up before fully stumbling up and taking off in the opposite direction.
"No way in hell I'm fighting that!" As he shot towards the black portal not too far away, continuing to squirm and pulsate as if beckoning him to enter.
Oz shot a glance back as he ran, 'Fuk he's too fast!' even now with the boy's enhanced strength and speed, it was nothing in comparison to what this… thing could dish out.
Thick black clouds of smoke rolled along the ceiling, encompassing the passageway.
The sound of the flames flickered as if laughing at and taunting the boy.
Finally, he was mere steps away from the squiggling black goop.
It seductively wiggled and jiggled, beckoning him ever closer, better it than the man behind him.
His back was burning, scorched from the proximity he felt with the burning flame, "Aaaaaagh!" Oz shouted out as he leaped head-first into the abyss once more.
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{Meanwhile... near the Entrance of Passageway 2}
There was an eerie silence.
A lanky cloaked figure traversed through the dim red passageway, his sharp green eyes piercing out from under his robe.
A gust of wind danced along the ground speeding up his soundless steps as he progressed through the road.
His mind began to wander, 'What did that boy do?'
His eyes grew brighter, lighting up until finally dying back down.
An appalling look spread onto his face, "I-I can't reach anyone?"
He stopped in his tracks, "What's goin' on?"
The man closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, 'I gotta get to the bottom of this…'
WHOOOSH!
He disappeared from his location and quickly zoomed towards the exit, speeding into the black goop that greedily sucked him in.
It churned and splurted, warping and bubbling before finally returning back to its original state.
Spiraling and swirling within itself, the black liquid-like substance spun in an infinite cycle.
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{Meanwhile back at the Center of the Cave}
"Oof!" Oz collapsed onto the ground, his back was bare, charred, and tainted with soot.
His chest heaved up and down as he forced gulps of the cave's humid air down his smoldered lungs.
The blazing ball of light above still glowed with its inviting, warm light, yet now there was a tinge of chilliness in the air.
A sense of dread filled the room, sending cold shivers down the boy's burnt back.
He wobbled to his feet, "I gotta get the hell outta here…" he lumbered forward, stumbling forward as his knees buckled, grabbing onto the wall to support himself.
SSSSS…
The smell of burning flesh slipped into his nostrils once more as he trudged forward, the mark on his hand subtly glowing with an insidious red light.
"Damn, one more thing to worry about", he sighed in annoyance.
"Just… just gotta get to that pond outside", he muttered.
Yet, the further and further the boy progressed upwards out of the cave, that eerie chillness crept closer and closer, its haggard breath of death exhaling its putrid odor down Oz's neck.
'Why do I have such a bad feeling?' he shuddered as he continued walking down the pitch-black passageway.
The warm and inviting ball of light was now far behind him, and yet he was still a distance from the exit, walking through pure darkness once more as when he entered.
Crunching footsteps sounded against the cavern floor, and as he progressed, the faint smell of cinnamon was replaced with a rancid odor.
Oz sniffed the air as he paused his steps, "Is that… rotten eggs?"
"Hmm", he was suspicious, but with a psychotic rat-man on his tail, he had no time for hesitation.
As he continued further and further up the pathway and the mark on his hand continued eating away at his flesh, the putrid stench became much worse, causing Oz to feel a strong sense of nausea.
However, through all this, there was a silver lining or rather, a red one.
Far ahead, as Oz continued, a faint red light caught his attention.
Even from afar, he could feel the heat coming from the glowing dot in the distance.
Unsure, yet also fatigued, the boy continued forward.
2 minutes had passed as he progressed, and his teeth were chattering.
The cave had only gotten warmer since walking up, and yet that chilling sense of foreboding grew stronger.
The red light, which had previously been the size of a human head, was now twice the size of a watermelon.
Still a sizeable distance away, yet enough for Oz to realize something was wrong.
Oz stopped in his tracks as a sense of dread crept up his spine, prickling his neck, 'No.'
His eyes peeled as he analyzed the red ball of light, 'Something's wrong.'
The fetid odor had gotten so bad that Oz's nose wanted to turn itself inwards.
The burning feeling was excruciating, yet as time went on, his body was becoming numb.
His eyelids felt like bags full of sand, it took all his willpower to keep them open, and he was glad he did, as what he saw was concerning.
The suspicious ball of light, which seemed like a halo in this gloomy dark, was now getting… bigger?
It bobbed up and down, seemingly dancing and weaving through the shadows to approach Oz.
Yet the boy was suspicious.
He took several steps back as the heat steadily increased, casting him in a sheet of sweat.
Then as the small ball got closer and closer, as if Oz were on a theatre stage, he was nearly blinded by a swarm of bright lights flooding him with their red glow.
Intense heat and the cracking of flames whooshed through the air.
Oz's onyx eyes glimmered as he gazed at the now fully illuminated figures who were a far distance away.
Rats, a whole army of them, and at the helm of all of them was the warm ball of red light he had been walking to.
A second passed since this realization as the furry creature ahead of him snarled, causing the mark on Oz's hand to sizzle loudly in response.
However, as soon as Oz processed everything and saw the swarm of hundreds of rats all ahead of him, he sighed.
'Typical.'
SKREEEEEEEEEEE
The furious swarm of rats screeched in unison.
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