I ran towards the rabbit, choosing to ignore most of the soul beast around me. But for the ones I chose not to ignore, I either left in pieces as I sliced them with my sword, or broken as I bashed them with my shield. One of the tree men soul beast blocked my path and attempted to kick me backwards. A twirl to the right kept me out of reach from the soul beast, but left it overextended and vulnerable. I swung my sword hard as I relieved him of his left foot, slicing through his wooden physique completely separating his ankle from the rest of his leg.
I kept my pace running forward, but after taking four steps forward, I threw my sword behind me, letting it slice through the air as it went on to sink its entire frame into the back of the head of the now stumbling tree man soul beast. With a puff, the soul beast turned into a cloud of soul energy as a simple flick dragged my sword back into my hand.
I brought my shield back up to my face, letting it cover my upper body as I leaned my shoulder into my run, tackling and slamming into every soul beast that was unfortunate enough to still be standing in my path. With every hit I made, I either left soul beasts terribly injured, or dead. But either way, all that meant was that I was getting stronger and stronger with each step I took.
Ahead of me, the rabbit had come to stop, standing over a suspicious hole that just appeared out of no where and on the ground. But there were now giant dinosaur like tree soul beasts standing in front of me and blocking my path. There was no gap for me to slip through, as their defense looked really tight. All of a sudden there was a sharp rumble and the whole world of the rune circle shook vigorously.
I turned around and couldn't help but widen my eye as I saw a massive tidal wave...…..made of thorns, really fearsome thorns that tore everything in it's path to shreds, without an iota of care or remorse as numerous other soul beasts met their death at it's approach. I took off towards the dinosaurs, hoping to use brute strength to move past this flesh wall of theirs.
However as I got close, a massive tail, twice as fast and strong as me swung towards my body.
There was no way in hell I would survive getting hit by that, and even if I did survive it, I doubted I would be in one piece, which would leave me vulnerable enough for the wave of thorns to drag me into it's fold and grate me like cheese. I brought my shield up and poured soul energy into it's frame, creating a sort of membrane over it's surface to cushion the approaching blow. That was a bad idea.
"BOOM!"
It was like I dropped a million pounds metal from a height of ten thousand feet. The sound of the impact at this close of a distance ruptured my ear drums as i was thrown off my feet like a rag doll, flying back almost fifteen meters towards the rapidly approaching sea of thorns. I landed hard enough that I heard my left shoulder crack and pop out of place. A few uncomfortable rolls later saw a few ribs breaking and finding purchase into my internal organs as it became really hard to breathe.
There was so much pain, so much hurt, in this moment I'm truly wishing for death, the pain is just too much, dying would be better than this.
My pathetic attempt at defense, even with my new armor had sent me flying through a lot of other soul beasts like some sort of bowling ball. Which meant quite a few of them were dead, and the soul energy from them went on to heal me of my injuries, eliciting screams from me as my bones were mended and put back in place.
The rumbling tidal wave of thorns was closer now, almost a few feet away from where I was. I quickly got back up to my feet and shot forward worried for my little life. The dinosaurs were twice if not more stronger than me, so a head on collision would not serve me. As I ran towards them, I angled my approach so that I was heading straight to the wall of moving trees rather than the dinosaurs.
The wave of thorns was barely five feet behind me now, as I got closer to the trees, I pushed myself forward as I placed my feet on one of their trunks, but before the tree could attempt to grab me, I started running across the surface, moving forward but upward in a steady incline that took me over the head of the dinosaurs. I jumped hoping to go over the head of the dinosaurs and get behind them, but two massive tails were heading for my head and legs respectively.
Everything seemed to slow down as I brought my legs and arms and head close to my body, making me look like a curled up baby or tortoise. I felt the two scaled appendages miss my body by only a hairs breath as I could even feel them scrape across the surface of my feet and the top of my head.
I heard the wall of thorn crash into and consume the dinosaurs, remaining hot in pursuit of myself. But my jump carried me in an arc towards the wide hold on the ground that the white rabbit just jumped into.
I closed my eyes and prayed to God, hoping I will make it before I get shredded by the wave of thorns. There was a pop, and then darkness as I went through. The tidal wave of thorns crashed over and past me, while I fell down, down into the rabbit hole, safe from death grating or shredding.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When I opened my eyes I was still falling, and the white rabbit was also ahead of me, falling too. There was a golden paper stuck to my forehead, and pulled it off to read what it said.
[GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE]
Seriously, wasn't I already in the rabbit hole. I threw the paper away and chose to focus on my descent into this hole that doesn't seem to have an end. The walls of this hole were actually just like the trees outside, however apart from being withered and constantly in motion, they were not full trees, but rather roots that twisted in and out of a wall of earth. If I should be honest, it was as if I was in another rune circle rather than a hole.
My immediate area was somehow lit up, and I could see the rabbit falling, but past it, all I could see was darkness.
All of a sudden a giant violin came rushing up from the darkness, the rabbit scaled it with such ease and evaded it.
It was harder to control my body from the air, but I was able to twist to the side as I avoided the violin that suspiciously looked as if it was falling down rather than going up. As it went past me, I turned to watch it disappear into the darkness, but that was my mistake as a massive white piano came and smashed through me.
"Argh!" the scream flew out from my mouth, I was not really injured, but seriously bruised. And I was really surprised that something of that size would come flying up, or was it falling down from the darkness.
I was knocked off any sort of straight course as I tumbled through the air for a few seconds incapable of reorienting myself. During the process, I caught glimpse of words on the wall that seemed to be following me as I fell down. I looked down to see all manner of things flying up, from furniture to instruments, even animals like snakes and a walrus?.
I stretched my hand and grabbed a street lamp that was flying past, using its own momentum to bring my disorganized descent to a jarring halt. Then I let go, fallen down with my feet pointed down as I looked on and read what was written on the wall.
[WHY DO YOU FALL?]
Okay what?, is this supposed to be a riddle of some sort or something. Why do I fall, well that's simple.
"I fall because of the law of gravity" I answered simply.
All of a sudden, everything came to a halt and I was left hanging midair for a few moments, before I heard a sound like someone rewinding an old tape. Then with a blast of air, I saw a lot of things coming up at me with a whole lot of speed, and among those things, what I could recognize were not limited to a car, a saxophone, a baby walker, a bouncy castle, donkeys in a hat, and a kangaroo with boxing gloves. But that was the least of it as everything that had previously went past me before were all coming back down, as if and this is ironic, they're being affected by gravity.
"Fuck me!"
"CRAAAAASSSSSHHHHHHH!!!"
I think I blacked out the moment my head went through the car's windscreen, thankfully I was wearing a helmet and a full body armor. However I don't think that really worked in protecting me. I don't know how long it took me, but I woke up, still falling, aching in pain, and a white rabbit with a waist coat still falling in front of me, and completely unharmed.
At this point in time, I could not begin to tell you how much I hated the guts of that rabbit. 'What the hell is he doing? Is that a pocket watch, hah! You're late aren't you. Just wait till I get my hands on your furry ass, then I can finally know what rabbit stew taste like.'
I looked to the walls, and saw the same question that sent me through the most massive random collision in the history of ridiculousness.
[WHY DO YOU FALL?]
I was about to give a sarcastic answer that would show how annoyed and angry I was, but I clamped my hand over my mouth, literally. I had no intention of having another head on collision with the fist of a boxing kangaroo. The last one was not pleasant at all. So in the end I really needed to think about the answer to this question. At a glance it would seem like a simple question that had it's answer in one of the most simplest laws of physics, but at a second glance I understood that this was not a question of why things fell, it was a personal question of why 'I' fell.
It was not a question that could be explained by the laws of physics, the answer laid with me, inside of me. But in the end why do I fall, I know it's not talking of the action, but metaphorically when things went sideways in my life. But how could I know the answer to that, if I should stumble and fall many times in my life, it's completely out of my power, it was all up to destiny and fate. Everything was by chance right?
But is that really true. Destiny and fate are very real forces that govern, prod, and control the lives of every living thing in the seven layers universe. We're helpless against them, we fall when they want us too, and are forced to get back up stronger than before so that they can push us down even harder. But what was the point, why push us down, again, and again, and again.
Most of us just want to be happy, we want a simple life, but In the end, we're the ones who suffer the most. Then when we have big dreams, ambitions that fills us with adrenaline and give us a reason to get up every morning and live with hope. That's the time when life becomes a mountain you have to climb, a mountain 99% of the time you never climb, you fail and are stuck somewhere along the way, because this time you fell, but were not strong enough to get back up.
I've fallen so many times in both of my lives, that I've lost count. And each time, harder and more painful than the last. And every time I'm forced to pick myself up, I'm stronger for it. That's true, but I would hope I never have a reason to fall, but in the end without all the falls I've had, I wouldn't be the person I am today, wouldn't love as hard as I can or fight as good as I could. So that was the answer, at least my answer.
"I fall because I need to. If I don't fall, if I don't fail, then I wouldn't be strong enough to be the man I want to be, and the man I'm meant to be. I fall because it makes me stronger."
The words on the wall flashed and disappeared, ahead of me, a wooden floor came up, bringing an end to this endless hole. And I went smashing into it headfirst, then everything went dark.