Tepo's eyes widened. Something moved in the darkness. A buzzing echoed in the hallway.
His mind churning, the young man came up with a brilliant idea. He grabbed a few of the knives scattered on the ground, holding them above the hole.
Breathing shallowly, suppressing all noise, Tepo lied in wait. He focused on the darkness. Nervous, shadows appeared in his vision. The young man had the urge to aimlessly thrust his knives, but he stabilized his mind.
Suddenly! A black stick seemed to separate from the darkness. Big eyes and an ugly, black head followed. Tepo's chest tightened. Before his eyes a fly was leaving the darkness. It really resembled a normal fly. A harmless animal. Except for its unnatural size.
With its proportions similar to an average dog, Tepo didn't dare to underestimate this particular fly. Not taking any chances, he held out one of his knives over the hole, trying to gauge the animal's flight pattern.
Fortunately, the fly didn't appear too vigilant. And why would it be? All its life the fly didn't have any enemies. Admittedly from a human perspective the fly's life was incredibly short. Its big body burned to much energy, killing it within days. There was a way to prolong its life however: by drinking blood.
Despite not being able to form any coherent thoughts the fly knew that the strange being in front of it could provide the nutrients needed for its survival.
Thus, it was in a great mood. It advanced through the hallway, water gathering in its mouth.
Suddenly the creature above it moved. It held out some silvery shining object. The fly was attracted by the light. It quickly sped up.
Tepo focused on the fly. His eyes narrowed. He waited patiently. Waited for the fly to come closer, leaving it no time to react.
Suddenly… now!
Tepo let go of the knife. Immediately it turned into a projectile. But something strange happened.
As soon as the knife entered the hallway, it accelerated rapidly. The sharp weapon shot at the fly at high speeds. The animal didn't react. It had a hard time comprehending the situation.
Greenish blood splattered. A ripping sound echoed out. The fly's nervous system went into overdrive as the knife cut through its body. Despite its size the beast fortunately wasn't especially sturdy. Thus, the knife took a good chunk of flesh and even two wings with it as it plunged into darkness.
The fly immediately followed behind it.
Above, Tepo watched calmly. The knife's sudden acceleration led him to miscalculate slightly, but the result was satisfactory. He turned around, ready to search the kitchen for anything useful.
Just as the young man took his first step, he frowned. Was there another buzzing sound? But this one seemed different. It slowly grew louder. Much louder than earlier. As if… a whole swarm of flies was rushing towards the kitchen.
Tepo gulped. As even the air began to vibrate, he didn't hesitate any longer. Turning back was not an option. He didn't want to die in a trap of his own making. Thus, he could only escape towards the front.
Running for his life, Tepo dashed forward. If his relationship with gods wasn't this complicated, he would have surely thanked all of them for the opened kitchen door.
Without any delay the young man jumped with all his strength, landing on the door, which protruded towards a different room.
Suddenly though, a creaking noise sounded. Tepo's body shook. With trained movements he jumped forward, transitioning into a dive roll as the door crashed to the ground behind him. Wood splinters shot out, as the continuous buzzing sound was drowned out by a loud rumbling for a moment.
"F*ck!"
Tepo cursed his luck. Ignoring the pain in his ankle, his eyes roamed the room, only finding a single door at the ceiling above him. His only lifeline appeared to be the window next to it. Or rather the curtains.
The young man's mind was tense, the threatening buzzing constantly in his ears. He turned around, grabbing a pile of wooden pieces. Aimlessly, the threw them back into the kitchen.
An enormous clamor followed. Just as he had hoped, the stove was affected. Being hit by a single wood splinter was enough to end its odd, frozen state.
Together with the working station it surrendered to the might of gravity, crashing towards the ground. Loud hissing and squeaking noises accompanied it as a few pipes tried their best to hold on, but ultimately lost.
Tepo didn't know if anything fell into the hallway, squashing a few flies, and he had no time to confirm it. Instead, he would rather buy some more time.
With this in mind, Tepo threw another piece of wood. He hauled it at the massive closet standing against the wall above him. Fortunately, the door wasn't in the middle of the wall. Thus, as the closet came barreling down, it still managed to cover almost all of it.
But Tepo still wasn't in the mood to relax. His nerves were strained, and his heart raced.
With a couple more skillful throws Tepmodus got the curtain to elegantly flutter down. In the process they unfortunately graced the luxurious four post bed, which succumbed to gravity as well.
At this point Tepo had already demolished half the furniture. He could only hope that no one would come to settle the bill with him. Well, the owner didn't seem to be particular concerned about the state of his manor anyways.
With weird thoughts in his head, Tepo reached for both the curtains, which framed a big window above. He did one sudden pull before decisively climbing upwards.
Suddenly a loud noise sounded behind him. Tepo turned his head, only to see the closet behind him shaking. Something hammered against it form the other side. Tepo gulped. The hammering was slow at first, but it quickly picked up.
Tepo's body trembled. He had to hurry up. Climbing a curtain was definitely the higher difficulty version of climbing a robe. But for the young man in his prime it was still a manageable task.
Suddenly a hole was punched through the closet. A disgusting, long mouth reached into the room.
Tepo knew his time was running out. He didn't hesitate any longer. As the closet gradually began to crumble, the young man decisively took a swing before letting go of the curtain.
Fortunately, the open door wasn't far away. With a heroic jump Tepo bridged some two-dozen centimeter (9''), tightly gripping the door's top, his body dangling in midair. As his fingers protested in pain the young man gritted his teeth to pull himself up.
As Tepo rose his head over the doorframe, another head plopped into the bedroom. It was only a matter of seconds until the swarm of flies would break in.
Not giving up, Tepo gave it his all. But suddenly he felt an odd sensation. Gravity in the next room was different again! Suddenly his head was pulled to the right, while his body was pulled downwards.
Others might be bewildered, but Tepo didn't let the strange situation affect him. At the contrary. His face sweating, the young man perceived his chance.
Taking a deep breath, he gathered momentum. Swinging his legs once, twice, thrice!
Suddenly he pushed himself up, his whole body entering the next room. His legs pointed towards the ground, almost as if passing the door normally. But what was ever normal in this dungeon? Certainly not gravity.
But Tepo knew this, so he was already prepared. Hurriedly pulling his hands down to brace his fall, the investigator heavily landed on the opened door, guided by the change in gravity.
He groaned faintly but luckily the drop wasn't far.
But maybe all of Tepo's efforts were still for naught. A loud rumbling sounded form the bedroom. Buzzing followed. A rage filled and hungry swarm of flies entered. They made out their target, shooting towards the ceiling with far less problems than the clumsy human.
Tepo's eyes opened wide. He jumped from the door, landing on a stone wall. He found himself in a large hallway, crystal windows on the ground forming a play between light and shadows around Tepo.
No time to appreciate the beautiful scenery, Tepo turned around. He didn't run. He realized it was futile.
Ready to fight, the young man drew his knife in one hand and the handgun in his other. He waited for the flies to clump within the doorway, before taking as many down as possible.
But suddenly a confusing scene fell into Tepo's eyes. For some reason the flies didn't dare to enter the hallway. They angrily buzzed outside the door, forming a chaotically churning black mass.
Tepo didn't understand. What was holding the raging animals back?
A moment later his questions were answered. A deep growl echoed in the hallway, sending a shiver down the human's spine. Tepo stiffly turned his head, gazing behind him.
"Are you f*cking kidding me?"