Popping sounds began to resonate within the science lab, echoing off the crumbling walls like a deranged popcorn machine, all underscored by Billabong's agonized screams. I looked up, and there it was—the squiggly Beholder, hovering 15 meters above like a judgmental blimp, regurgitating floating eyes. Now there were around five of them, rotating around it in a lazy, ominous circle. Its three main eyes shifted toward our direction, gleaming with what looked suspiciously like sadistic enjoyment, toying with us as if we were ants under a magnifying glass. Come on, man, how many eyes can this wheezing eyeball produce? I demanded of my already adrenaline-soaked, squishy brain. Brain, think fast!
"Aaah, my arm, the pain! Smiley, help!" Billabong wailed in a panicked frenzy, scrambling on his back like a flipped turtle, desperately trying to stem the pixelated squirting from his right shoulder. It looked like a glitchy fountain of red pixels, straight out of a low-budget RPG.
Smiley was already at his side, pulling out a syringe made of glass and metal that sparkled in the dim light, filled with bubbly red fluid. "This is gonna hurt, big guy, but it'll only take a moment," he said, his voice unusually gentle, stripped of his natural crazy edge. He sounded... caring, almost tender. I bet this isn't their first rodeo, I thought. They've gotta have a killer backstory for this weird crazy-yes-man duo.
My General Awareness pinged the syringe:
Chamoine's Needle of Regeneration: Lost an arm or a leg in a dungeon dive? No problem! One squeeze of this bad boy can make a sad grown man smile! Hand, finger, or an entire leg—voilà! Gone no more. Warning: A little... extremely excruciating... Have fun! It then droned on with manual-style instructions: injectthe fluid where the missing limb is located...
Some of the floating eyes veered toward Smiley and Billabong's direction. I dashed to intercept, my feet pounding the cracked floor.
"No, no, no needles!" Billabong protested, shaking his head wildly and kicking his trembling feet away from the pointy thing like it was a venomous snake.
"Where's your hand?" Smiley asked, scanning the gore.
Billabong looked side to side, searching for his missing extremity. "Hey, where did it..."
Smiley yanked the needle into his gory shoulder and pushed the plunger with grim determination, then tossed the empty syringe aside with a soft clank on the ground. "Sorry," he said, stepping back. He stowed his mace in his small man-pouch and pulled out a flintlock pistol, which he began loading with practiced efficiency.
Huh? A flintlock? I thought, my brain short-circuiting. Sword, armor, skills, giant Labyrinth... and a flintlock? What in the historical mess is going on here?
He raised the flintlock and—BLAM!—shot one eye clean out of the air. It crash-landed, skidding toward Smiley, who stomped it flat like a bug underfoot, using it as a makeshift footstand while reloading another round.
I threw two throwing knives, mimicking the ninja moves I'd binge-watched on YouTube during the loops. Thanks to my Force Throw skill, they propelled extremely fast. You should've seen it! They sped through the air—one knife thudded into a floating eye, followed by the second with another soft thud, sending it tumbling and rolling across the floor in a pathetic heap.
BLAM! Another floating eye imploded mid-flight from Smiley's shot.
"Aaarhg, grrrraaaa, aaaaaaa!" Billabong shouted in pain, convulsing like he was being exorcised by a budget priest. His feet kicked wildly, twitching uncontrollably. "Smiley, it... PAIN!" The bleeding stopped, and flesh began to bubble and burst, forming what looked like nerves and bones slowly growing from his shoulder—like a white-colored seedling sprouting in fast-forward. Muscles climbed up, eventually reaching the tip of his new hand. Finally, skin rolled out like the finishing touches on a grotesque 3D printer. Wow, new hands.
"UWAAAAAAAAA!" the Beholder bellowed after the freak show, sounding almost like it was asking, "Another round, honey?" Its minions spread out again, reforming their hexagonal position.
Aw man, here it comes again. "I'm loving this day already," I muttered under my breath, pure sarcasm dripping. Focus, Kiko, my mind snapped, like a coach's finger wag. Game time. Look for the weakness, glitch, or pattern. Oh yeah, what was I thinking? Thanks, uh, brain!
Heightened Awareness:
Name: Floating eyes
Attack: Laser blast barrage
Attack Area: Shown in red dots.
The Beholder continued its soft mantra, "Uwa a a a, u wa," like creepy background noise commanding its army. The floating eyes twitched, their eyes blinking like erratic signal lights, no rhythm to it. Red dots peppered our locations, one at a time, like a deadly game of digital tag.
"It's going to shoot down explosive laser beams—be ready!" I shouted. "SmileyX, what's your cooldown on that spinning pointy skill?"
"Hmmm, I don't know," he laughed crazily again, his voice bouncing off the walls. "What's your cooldown on your foresight skill?" he asked, turning the question back on me.
"Foresight?" I echoed, confused.
Billabong was now on his feet, a little shaky, proudly flexing his sweaty, tan, muscular right arm—complete with an anchor tattoo on his shoulder. He picked up his tower shield and activated Stone Skin, Greater Deflect, and Veil of Thorns. "Whoo!" he hissed in bravado, like he hadn't just almost bled to death a second ago.
My Heightened Awareness pinged: Attack incoming. Pew pew pew! The sounds roared from above, like a Star Wars intergalactic battle, but here in the Labyrinth. Yellow, rod-like laser beams rained down like arrows in a medieval movie. I dodged the red pings tagged on the ground by my awareness. Then came the explosions—dust, smoke, splashes erupting everywhere. Dodging the floating eyes' attacks was slowly becoming second nature, registering effortlessly in my psyche after a couple of rounds. One red dot popped in front of me out of nowhere—a zipping sound, and Heightened Awareness screaming, Incoming beam! No time to dodge properly, so I Force Dashed upward and backward to a big slab of fallen wall. Hey, I just said I'm getting the hang of this dodging thing, and I almost get blown away. Don't get cocky, Kiko, I reminded myself, heart pounding.
I scanned the place for my unsolicited frenemies. There stood Billabong, shield up like a fortress. Most laser beams bounced off his Deflect skill, ricocheting to the surroundings; some pierced through but got snagged by the tower shield, now covered in light red ethereal thorns of vines, exploding harmlessly. "Keep 'em coming, yeehaw!" Billabong shouted, his voice a mix of pain and bravado.
Then there was Smiley, under the protection of Tinman, who was holding a telescope aimed right at my direction. When he saw me looking, he waved cheerfully. "Huh?" I said, mesmerized by Smiley's actions amid the chaos—like a kid waving at a parade while the world exploded around him.
One laser zipped past my head with a searing whoosh, followed by an explosion behind me. "Quack!"
"UWAAAAA A A!" the Beholder hissed, breaking the floating eyes' formation in a wave of frustration.
Heightened Awareness:
Name: Floating eyes
Attack: Eye bombardment
"Hey, the same attack!" I shouted. "Kamikaze eyes!"