He willed his legs to move, but they were glued to the ground, as though pinned by invisible nails.

'Move! Move!'

The disfigured hounds were already less than fifty meters from him.

'React!'

A blooming knight broke from the crowd, running much faster than the others despite carrying a massive longsword. Yellow flowers, turned greenish under the blue light, sprouted from under his armor.

'Adapt!'

Each of Cassio's countless roles, each of his countless faces and lives flashed before his eyes. The cavern turned into a great stage, with him under the spotlight. Out of an old professional habit of self-deceit, his brain reformed everything into a play, where Cassio had to pick up a role and perform it.

'Loman, Maxson, Tevye...'

Around twenty-five meters remained between him and the knight who had overtaken even dogs, but the more time passed, the thicker grew the shroud of deceit that enveloped Cassio, liberating his movements. The 'stage' and 'reality' morphed, mixed, and mingled into one.

'Kovalksi, Macbeth, Proctor...'

The knight raised his sword, pale yellow petals dancing in the air under blue light.

'Odysseus!'

Cassio jumped back, avoiding the whistling tip of the blade by mere centimeters. The knight's sword slammed into the ground, raising clouds of dust and sending tremors all across the mine. Cassio turned around and dashed away from the approaching abominations.

As soon as Cassio leaped forth, he nearly lost his balance: the speed of his new body was double that of a normal human, so Cassio was not accustomed to it. Still, the situation forced him to regain equilibrium quickly, and Cassio continued his escape.

'Odysseus, Odysseus...'

Although Odysseus was a character from mythology, Cassio had played him once in the adapted play. What he sought right now was a miracle of trickery. He had to think like Odysseus and act like Odysseus.

Cassio glanced back only to find the knight, having already picked up his sword, chasing after him. As expected, even the speed of this body couldn't compete with the blooming knight who was racing through the mine like a heap of iron and petals that left clouds of dust in its wake.

The only salvation was that the trajectory of the heavy sword was mindless and predictable, so Cassio managed to dodge at the last moment once again, rolling sideways and coughing out dirt.

He whipped his head up, finding the knight slowly lifting his sword from the ground. As Cassio hurriedly shot up to his feet, he grimaced at the approaching horde of other blooming horrors. He had no chance of escaping that knight, he had no chance of surviving in a fight...

Although Cassio's heart was racing and blood was thundering in his ears, he still retained a cool state of mind. Everything was a stage. Everything was a play. He just had to pretend. React, adapt, act, like he had been doing his whole life. Fear of death only fueled his performance.

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So, what could he do? What would Odysseus do? Cassio didn't know. Odysseus had never been chased by flowered abominations, after all. Along the growing rustle, the knight raised the longsword above his helmet, the visor of which was filled with petals.

Cassio leaped sideways, and the longsword fell into the place he had been standing a second before. Because his whole focus was devoted to the knight, Cassio failed to notice the wooden pillar and slammed into it with a shoulder. Rotten splinters rained down on his head like a shower of sand.

Cassio cursed inwardly but then froze, a strange smile twisting his lips.

'Indeed, the cunning trickery.'

Cassio stood in front of the pillar while facing the knight, who towered above him like an iron mountain reflecting the gems' light. The knight raised his sword, stirring the petals into the air.

Cassio's shoulders trembled, his muscles tensed so hard that they seemed to explode at any moment, but Cassio didn't budge – he only stood there, his gaze fixed on the slightly moving petals in the knight's visor. Suddenly, the knight lunged forward making a broad swing that split the air with a booming whistle.

Only then did Cassio move, jumping away from the swing and avoiding the knight's forceful charge. As soon as Cassio landed on his feet, a deafening crash boomed behind him, and a barrage of crumbly splinters shot into his back.

Then, the thundering cracking filled the mine. Cassio turned around only to find the giant pillar, dissected diagonally, crumbling on the knight's head. The mindless abomination simply stood in place, mechanically lifting his sword from the ground.

Strong tremors ran through the floor, prompting Cassio to leap back a few more times, and soon big rocks and boulders rained down from above, following its collapsed support.

Even the weight of the giant pillar couldn't bring the knight down, only buckling his knees a little and then crumbling into splinters. However, then one rock dropped on the knight's head, and after this another. Blue gems plummeted with the boulders, and it looked like the sky itself was falling onto the knight's broad shoulders. He finally staggered and fell under the crushing weight, his armor dented and crumpled and shredded.

The sight of the boulders rapidly burying the knight's silent figure mesmerized Cassio, but he hurriedly snapped back to his senses and barely managed to dodge the charge of the blooming hound, stumbling to the side and then kicking the hound with all his might.

Without producing any sound apart from the rattle of blasted ribs, the hound soared into the air and hit a wooden cargo cart a dozen meters away, smashing it completely. It seemed that his power, too, doubled that of a normal human now, although Cassio didn't know whether there even existed the concept of normal in this wicked place.

Momentarily distracted, Cassio failed to dodge the second hound and its jaws clutched onto his left arm, sharp fangs sinking deep into his flesh. A tortured grunt escaped Cassio's lips, and he punched the hound's skull a few times, raising a scattering of white petals colored by his own blood into the air.

The hound didn't yield the grasp on his arm, so Cassio charged towards another pillar and crashed the hound's back into it. Then, he raised his hand and swung it fiercely, slamming the hound into the pillar again, then again, over and over listening to the wet crunching noise, until finally, the loud snap reverberated from the hound's spine and its jaws loosened ever so slightly.

Cassio tore his arm from the hound's grinding clutches, splattering blood all around him as he looked at his mangled flesh. But he had no time to lament it, not even to moan about it: the horde of blooming people was already jumping upon him like mute floral ghosts.

Cassio leaped away, and the next moment, the mass of flowers and flesh crashed into the pillar he had been standing nearby only a moment ago. No sooner had Cassio landed on his feet than he dashed away, hearing the deafening thunder of wood cracking and breaking apart. Even the incessant rustle grew muffled.

A sea of dust swirled behind him as the boulders showered down from the mine's ceiling once again, encasing the blooming people in a stone tomb.

For a second, only the echo of destruction bounced from the mine's walls. Cassio turned around, listening to the settling silence. The rustle was gone.