The thick roots that had entangled and made a spiral path, and their moving branches danced like poisonous snakes eagerly waiting for their prey and lurking for the sound of their prey.
The fleeing group walked towards the labyrinth; at that moment, they felt that the ground beneath their feet was spinning and wants to throw them in that spiral full of poisonous blades.
And the sound of those blue branches clashing made their being restless. "Badump, badump...!"
Every step they took was filled with fear, drops of sweat settled on their foreheads and rolled down their faces and disappeared in the dust.
All of them were very tired and helpless at this moment; the wounds that had not yet been treated and the burning pain caused their sense of vitality to decrease; And the steps that were becoming heavier and heavier, as if a heavy weight had been attached to their feet and was about to drown them.
At this moment, they said to themselves, "I wish they could break this silence for a moment and talk to each other."
But unfortunately, this silence had to continue; because breaking it was equal to being slaughtered by those poisonous branches.
But their existential fear was not of talking, but of the battle that was taking place miles away from them, and that was attracting the attention of those branches. A battle that they could only witness the deafening sound of and that sound was definitely approaching them.
This was the worst possible situation for them, if that sound got closer and they couldn't get out of this labyrinth soon, they would undoubtedly be hunted and become food for those dirty creatures.
Zack's eyes were blurring, he had already suffered a lot of damage and was trapped under the rubble. And now, he was also carrying Elaine on his back.
He could feel the pain in his bones, but he couldn't give in to this pain; His surrender, even in such a situation, had a heavy price, the loss of his loved ones.
So, without paying attention to the pain in his body, he took a step. The heavy sound of his breathing and the pounding of his heart warned him that he had reached his limit.
But he stood firm, each time he stepped stronger and more powerful than before. At this moment, he should not was wavered. He could clearly see the bad condition of his group, none of them were in a good condition at this moment, so showing weakness would destroy the morale of the group and push them further towards death.
So he said to himself, "I can't fall. I have to stay strong. Bear, bear more, Zack."
But even though Zack was trying to keep his face, Billy had noticed his pale and sickly appearance and knew that Zack was not in a good condition and was struggling to bear it.
But he also felt helpless; He wasn't as smart as Zack, nor as strong as Josh. He was just a weak person in this group. Billy always had this feeling of hopelessness and insignificance. He felt that if he wasn't in this group, they wouldn't have been hurt so much and they wouldn't have had to choose such a dangerous place as a shelter.
If it weren't for him, they wouldn't have lost their previous shelter. Whenever Billy thought about those events, he blamed himself for everything and wished he had died and not caused such harm to the group.
He felt like his heart was being crushed and his throat was tightening and his whole being was burning with the pain of guilt, he felt like he had reached the bottom of a cliff but his legs were chained and he couldn't jump off that cliff.
With despair anchored in his heart, he suddenly looked at Karina in his arms, a kind little girl whose smile warmed his aching heart and reminded him of his sister.
So instead of dying, he decided to become as strong as he could and make up for his mistakes to free himself from that feeling of shame and guilt.
So he stepped a little ahead of Zack and walked towards Josh who was walking in front of the group. He gently grabbed the corner of Josh's clothes.
Joshua felt a small touch next to him and turned in that direction. He was surprised when he saw Billy next to him.
Billy pointed at Zack with a pointed look. Joshua noticed Billy's gaze and without Zack noticing, he glanced at him and realized that he was not in a good condition.
So he slowed down so that Zack could catch up with him. And then he stopped Zack.
Zack was shocked by Joshua's move and didn't know what was going on and thought something was wrong. But Joshua took Elaine off Zack's back without saying anything.
Zack was shocked at that moment and wanted to stop Joshua, but Billy stopped Zack and tried to calm him down.
It was a very suffocating situation and they couldn't talk to each other and had to convey their meaning by pointing. But at one point a voice broke the suffocating silence.
"M...monster, run away...!"
It was Tahel's voice.
Zack, Joshua and Billy were both shocked. And they looked behind them, several monsters that had been saved from the branches were moving towards them. And Tahel's voice attracted the attention of the branches around them and made them take aim at them.
Now they were surrounded from all sides; behind the monsters and in front and on the sides, moving branches were trying to kill them.
At this moment, they felt their path getting narrower and narrower. As if that wall of roots was compressing and trying to bury them alive.
Joshua quickly put Elaine on his back and with the hammer in his hand, pushed aside the branches that were lining up in front of them to open a path for the group to pass.
Although Zack knew that using the life points again would cause him irreparable damage, he did not stop trying and prepared to confront the monsters behind the group.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood again: "Cough..." and gathered white energy around his hand, compressed that energy into ice blades, and aimed at those unbalanced black shadows that were chasing them from afar.
Those deformed shadows were hit by the ice blade and were knocked down, but there were still a few deformed shadows left and they were able to dodge those ice blades.
Billy was in a state of confusion, and all he could do was look after Karina. He struggled to push away the branches with his one-handed dagger, sometimes having to fight them with his body, which was why he had received many wounds.
They had to survive in any way they could, because they were only two kilometers from the exit of the labyrinth. And those two kilometers would determine their fate; life or death.