There were trees all around me, in every direction that I looked. As soon as I’d stepped outside of that weird room with the pool, I found myself in the middle of a forest.

I’d never been one of those outdoors people who liked to do camping, hiking, and other weird stuff in nature. The closest that I’d ever come had been the brief time that I’d lived in the streets. After that, I just didn’t see the appeal of sleeping in a tent.

“Just great,” I grumbled as I looked around. “Trees.” I shook my head. “At least I won’t have any problems finding a place to take a piss.”

Then I paused, suddenly remembering that my bathroom situation was a bit more complicated than it used to be. I couldn’t just find a convenient tree or alley to pee behind anymore, at least not without the risk of a mess.

“Great,” I repeated bitterly. “Just fucking great.”

I looked around again and let out a long sigh. I had absolutely no idea of where I was or how I’d arrived there. However, something tickled my memory and I realized that I did have an idea of where I was.

“The Labyrinth,” I said in a whisper. A chill ran down my spine.

Everyone had heard of the Labyrinth, just like they’d heard of players. It was some kind of weird place that spat out monsters and fucked with the laws of physics. And from what I’d heard, it was also where players came from.

One of my old neighbors used to go on about how the Labyrinth was really hell, and that players were either demons or damned souls. Maybe both. His opinion on what players were seemed to change from day to day.

“Looks like his paranoid rants are starting to look more likely,” I said.

I’d died, then I ended up in this strange place, which I could only assume was inside the Labyrinth. That meant I really was a damned soul. Where else would I go after death but Hell?

I muttered a few choice profanities, then looked around again. I could get out of here. Players got out of the Labyrinth all the time, which meant that I should be able to find my way out too. I just needed to look around to find it.

“Well, I’m not seeing any exit signs,” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head.

Since I had absolutely no idea where I was going, I just picked a direction and began walking. However, I quickly realized that this was going to be a very long and annoying walk. The weight on my chest and the swaying with each step was a bit distracting, but I bit my lip and did my best to ignore it.

My sword was a bit of a problem too. I didn’t have any sheath for it, so I was forced to just keep carrying it as I walked. It was a bit heavy, which only became more noticeable the longer I had it. That made me wonder if I’d really be able to use the thing if I ever actually needed to.

At first, I’d just thought that this was a generic forest, but it didn’t take long before I began noticing the weirdness. There were glowing fruits in some of the trees, similar to the ones inside that room. And then, I saw some giant mushrooms, about three feet tall. They had glowing spots on the surface, which really helped to reinforce how weird this place was.

It didn’t take too long before I heard the growling, coming from somewhere out of sight. I snapped around and held up the sword. It was a one-handed sword, but I used both hands to keep it up and steady. The growling grew louder…coming a shorter distance away. I took a step back and readied myself for whatever was coming.

A few seconds later, a strange creature emerged from the brush, stepping out from behind a tree. It was about the size of a large dog, but it looked more like a rat with six legs. It opened its mouth, which was way too large, and which was full of LOTs of sharp teeth. Two rows of them. A tongue snapped out and stretched nearly two feet from its mouth.

“A monster,” I gasped in realization. This was proof that I was actually inside the Labyrinth, as if the weird plants hadn’t been clue enough. “Shit.”

The weird rat dog lunged at me and I responded by swinging the sword. The blade hit the monster in the side before the impact tore the weapon out of my hands. It now had a nice slice along its side where black blood was leaking out. However, it didn’t appear to be too serious and I was now unarmed.

I took a step back while my heart raced in my chest. I’d never been good at fighting, and usually ended up getting my ass kicked…or worse. A memory flashed through my mind, of the fight during my last job and the disaster that had come out of it. I was sure that an even bigger disaster was about to happen now.

The monster growled and began to approach me again, this time going slower and being more cautious. I’d hurt it, even if not badly, so it was being a little more careful this time.

I took another step back, wanting to turn and run, but I knew that would be a bad idea. If I tried that, the thing would just jump me from behind. My best chance might be doing the same thing you did with bullies. Puff yourself up, try to look more threatening, and hope that they decided you weren’t worth the risk.

“Come on, you ugly little purse dog,” I exclaimed, holding my hands up and trying to look bigger. “I dare you…”

Of course, it was probably too late to act tough and scary when it had already seen me all but pissing myself. It looked angry and vicious, so I was pretty sure that my bluff wasn’t going to work. But what else did I have?

Then, I suddenly remembered what I had. My superpower. My ability.

I held out my hand and activated ‘Hex,’ instinctively knowing how to use it even though I’d never done so before. A strange pressure build up inside my body and then fired out my hand as a beam of black and purple energy. It hit the rat dog, which staggered back with a yelp of surprise.

For a moment, I just stood there, staring at the rat dog and trying to make sense of what I was seeing. There was a faint purple and black glow around the monster that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. My ‘Hex’ hadn’t just blasted the monster, it had clung to it. And then, I instinctively understood what the ‘Hex’ was doing to it. My ‘Hex’ was like a magical poison that was making the monster sick and slowly hurting it more with each passing second.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to take down the monster. The rat dog seemed to be feeling a bit weak, but it was still a threat. It turned its attention back to me, staggering slightly and growling. A dark malevolence gleamed in its eyes as it clearly intended to tear me to pieces.

“Great,” I growled to myself. “I get a magic ability, and all it does is annoy the thing.”

I dove for the sword and got it in my hands again right as the monster lunged. I held the sword up and the rat dog ran straight into it, impaling itself so far that half the blade was in its body. I released the sword and scrambled back, leaving the weapon inside the monster.

“Shit,” I gasped, shaking from the adrenaline.

The monster wasn’t dead yet, though it wasn’t in any shape to threaten me anymore either. Instead, it remained on the ground, twitching a bit as it bled out and finally died. It was only then that I pulled the sword out of the body.

“I should have grabbed that knife instead,” I told myself. “It would have been easier to use.”

Of course, the knife also would have been a lot shorter, which meant that I would have had to get even closer to the monster to use it. Why couldn’t I have found a gun instead? Now, that would have been a good weapon to have against monsters like this.

I sat down on the ground a good distance from the monster’s body and all the blood it had spilled. My heart was racing from the excitement and I was still breathing hard. I’d fought a monster and won. A real monster. It didn’t seem possible.

“Fighting monsters is exhausting,” I said. I was pretty sure that I’d have a few nice bruises from that as well, which was a LOT better than what I’d been expecting.

I took a few minutes to rest, but then I heard another growl coming through the trees. I cursed and got back to my feet, readying my sword. I did NOT want to do that again, but it looked like I wasn’t going to have much choice.

Another monster emerged a minute later, one that looked almost identical to the first one. I grimaced and then fired a ‘Hex’ at the monster, hoping that this would at least slow it down enough for me to have a better chance. The faint purple and black glow spread over the creature, which then staggered a little before slowly coming at me again.

“Ugly rat dog,” I spat out. “You might as well just be a giant chihuahua. Yip yip yip.”

The monster lunged, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the insult. I swung the sword and caught the monster alongside its head. Unfortunately, the angle was bad at the blade bounced off rather than doing any real damage. It snapped at me and I kicked in in the head, only to let out a yelp while wishing that I had steel toed boots. Still, the kick bought me enough time to swing the sword again. This time, I was able to hit the monster in the neck enough to draw blood.

The monster snapped at me, hitting my arm and causing me to drop the sword again. It bit down on my robe and began shaking its head, knocking me around as it did so until the fabric abruptly tore and released me. I immediately ran as fast as I could, then scrambled up a nearby tree.

“Fuck,” I snarled, cursing my bouncing tits and just how much they’d gotten in the way while I was climbing. Those things might be fun to look at, but so far, I wasn’t impressed by actually having them.

I clung to the tree, then shifted over to sit on one of the branches. I was only about eight feet off the ground, but that seemed to be high enough to keep the monster from reaching me. That also gave me a chance to catch my breath a little.

“You can’t get me up here, you flea bitten chihuahua,” I taunted the thing. Of course, it wasn’t exactly safe for me to climb down either. “You might as well give up and leave.”

Unfortunately, the monster didn’t just give up and leave. It circled below me, growling and snarling. A couple minutes later, ‘Hex’ wore off and faded away. I immediately blasted it with another one, more out of spite than for any other reason.

I remained where I was for the next fifteen minutes, both entertaining and distracting myself by mocking the monster. And every time ‘Hex’ wore off, I blasted the monster with a new one. This cycle repeated about four times before the rat dog staggered and fell over dead.

“Holy shit,” I gasped in surprise, my eyes going wide. “I killed it.”

I waited another couple minutes then climbed down from the tree to check on the monster’s body. It was definitely dead. My ‘Hex’ hadn’t seemed all that powerful, but given enough time to work…

“Not bad at all,” I said with a nod of approval.

I picked up the sword from where I’d left it, then looked around the area. The body of the first monster was right where I’d left it, but oddly enough, it was starting to melt a bit, as if it was made of wax and had been left out in the sun on a hot day. That was strange, but no stranger than anything else that had happened to me since waking up.