Rocks tumbled and a dust of cloud swept from the mass, Mark's eyes were fixed in the spot in anticipation, a thought was in the back of his mind, a fear.
And then suddenly, there was a loud roar that went through the cavernous space, a scary unkind roar that sent a chill to Mark's spine.
He immediately snapped out of his trance and hurried his leaps on the slabs forward.
The Minotaur roared once more and then began running, flailing its large red arms like a mad animal.
Its legs sank into the molten rock as it ran, but the burning lake did nothing but slow it down, it didn't appear to be hurting, either that or it was great at hiding away pain.
Leaps upon leaps, Mark passed the twin warriors statue and kept on steadily. He hopped like a starved rabbit: weakly but with determination.
Then he heard a loud shift of stone, a friction between two thick slabs, and when he turned, he saw that the statues had begun moving.
They took steps, approaching the demon Minotaur that was trailing behind.
A little sense of relief fell upon Mark, and he hastened his steps.
Then he got to a slab before the last. The last slab was much taller and denser than the rest. Mark was close to hoping on it when he stopped, almost falling into the lake of molten rock.
Not only was the slab close to his torso–basically half his height, and farther, it also had bright golden inscriptions on it, one that was hard to miss.
He crouched to read it.
"A reward for surviving this precarious environment, a gift from the most benevolent." The inscriptions shone.
Reading them motivated Mark a little, he thought of using the Wind of Euses skill, but it was still on burnout, and he still had more than an hour before he could use it. He would have to rely on his physical capacity in this dire moment.
He moved to the edge of the slab, his heels were almost off the platform. He then took an inhale of the warm air and he…
'Breathe' the word rang in his mind, like a mantra.
He then stormed forward, and put all that he had on his legs, soaring through the sky for a moment.
He landed with a thump on the thick slab, and sprawled on it, taking deep breaths. The slab was just by the landmass–it was fixed to it.
The slid to the rock and crouched in exhaustion. He then turned to the back and read the inscriptions once again, it was the same as that in the front except there was a keyhole at the bottom.
"A key is needed, but no hint on where."
He then turned, his eyes scanning his surrounding. Behind him was the door to the next, but this opening, this portal was unlike the previous two he had gone through. It was black, and warbled. Its inside looked to be spinning around, and that gave Mark an uneasy feeling.
He turned to his back, to where he come from and he saw the twin statues swinging their arms and their sword at the demon who was actually faring off fine against them, there was no telling who would come out atop.
He shook his head.
"The key, it should be somewhere around."
He turned his head slowly, and then stopped. His eyes caught a shiny thing on a resting boulder not far from the portal. He walked to it.
"A sapphire." He muttered, his eyes gleaming with greed.
He picked it up and a deep black hole was exposed. From it came a line of light that zoomed from it to the keyhole, and then bounced off to the area just before the portal, atop it and on the wall.
[A sapphire is a close proximity, do you wish to deposit?]
[Yes/No]
'Yes' he mentally commanded.
The green of the stone became white and it disappeared from Mark's hand.
He looked back to the distant fight, and the statues were still busy with the Minotaur, no one had fallen.
"Hmmm…"
The wall was too smooth, the idea of climbing it was foolish, and there's the portal to consider, a misstep, and he would be swallowed by the portal, he needed to demonstrate great caution.
He cleared his throat and gave a mental command.
'Withdraw Silverine Fanged Spider eyes, all four.'
Immediately four red balls sat on his hands, with two being larger than the other two.
He squinted his eyes on the spot where the light struck for focus, he'll need a lot of focus for what he's about to do.
He placed three balls by his side, and kept one in his hand, tightening his grip around it.
The Silverine Fanged Spider eyes were squishy and soft, yet they felt repelling, it bounced back Mark's fingers whenever they sank.
They were red, but the back of the eye had multiple white spots that it was more white than red.
They were also dry, which Mark thought was nice.
He swallowed, his throat was aching for water, and this place was sucking the liquid out of him.
He held the ball with his hands, looked at it, looked up, and then he threw it.
BAM
It struck the wall, but inches away from the spot of light.
The eyeball slammed the area, and the immovable area pushed it back, bouncing it off into the lava.
"Ohhh." He threw up his hands and watched the eyeball catch fire.
He still had three more chances.
He took the other large one, bounced it by his side and locked his eyes on the target.
And then his feet left the ground.