From Above

Garrett kept running, ducking left and right into different tunnels and rooms. Any poor cave spiders or other monsters that were in his way were cut down, leaving a trail of bodies behind him. He managed to get most of the Helioxene that dropped, but a few of them evaded his grasp. Still, he could hear the shouting of Lyman some distance behind him.

"Ugh, why did it have to be Lyman?" Garrett said to himself as he ducked under a cave bat. "And of course, he wasn't captured this time."

As he ran, something caught his eye. It was a door in an offshoot part of the tunnel. If he hadn't been looking for any way out of Lyman's pursuit, he wouldn't have noticed it. Garrett turned quickly to make sure that Lyman wasn't directly behind him, then ran to the door. The door slid open and Garrett ducked inside. He quickly shut it and listened carefully.

"You cannot run forever, you fiend!"

The patter of Lyman's feet running past the door relieved Garrett. Garrett sighed and turned to see what was in the room that he entered into.

The room was a simple square room with a door on the other side. Tiles littered the room, similar to the falling tiles room that he encountered in a previous timeline. However, it didn't have the same feeling as that room though. Carefully, he knocked against the tiles with his sword, hearing the solid ground underneath.

"Okay, so if the tiles don't fall, and they don't seem to be pressure plated, then what gives?" Garrett said as he walked through, gentle step by step.

It was a drop. Just a small drip that landed on his shoulder. Quickly, Garrett looked up in terror. Staring him down was a gaping maw, lined with sharp teeth. He rolled out of the way as the mouth came down, attempting to bite him. It was dark green and stretched like rubber downwards. As he stared at it, he could see bits and pieces of armor and weaponry from poor adventurers who got snatched up. It slowly retracted back into the ceiling with a dissatisfied frown.

"What the hell is that thing?" Garrett said to himself, trying to track the mouth on the ceiling. It was too dark to see anything except a shining glint of teeth as it came down again to try and bite Garrett.

This time, he knocked it aside with his shield, which only seemed to annoy it even more. It slowly retracted into the ceiling with a cackle.

"Oh great, it talks," Garrett said as he scrambled to his feet. He dashed back to the door he came through, only to find that the door was sealed. "Are you kidding me?"

The cackling filled the air again as the row of sharp teeth came down at Garrett again. Garrett narrowly ducked to the side. This time, he noticed that there weren't as many bits and pieces of metal this time.

"Time to try the other door." Garrett rushed over to the other side of the room, dodging another attack. He gripped the handle of the door, but it wouldn't turn. "Seriously? It's locked?" Garrett turned and scanned the room. There weren't any chests or containers or anything of the sort that he could see. "There has to be a way out of here. Either the key has to be in some kind of hidden compartment or," Garrett said, as he looked upwards, "whatever that creature is has it."

He drew his sword and prepared himself. He walked into the room and waited for the creature to attack. "Come on, get down here, and fight."

The laughter came from all around him. Quickly, multiple mouths shot out of the darkness towards Garrett. One of them, though, was blue and had a metal chain around it with a key. "There you are!" Garrett lunged his sword towards the mouth, but it retracted up into the ceiling, chuckling at him.

"Alright, you get down here." Garrett tucked his sword away and aimed the bracelet up towards the ceiling. "Flariseo!" Fire launched from his hand up into the ceiling, illuminating the walls at it rose up into the darkness. Then, it vanished as it hit the dark ceiling as if swallowed by a pool of ink. Garrett's eyes went wide in shock.

More mouths launched at Garrett, only to be deflected by Garrett with his shield. "Okay, guess we're back to the basics then." Garrett drew his sword and swung at the mouths, only for them to retract back into the darkness.

"Great, this thing is going to keep doing this until I get tired, huh?" Garrett said, keeping his eyes upwards. He clanged his sword against his shield. "I'm not dying here. Come at me!" If he wasn't fast enough to block and attack, then there was only one reasonable choice left.

As the first mouth came near Garrett, he swung his sword. It connected with the mouth, causing whatever the creature was to scream in pain. Green blood dripped from the wound as the mouth retracted back into the ceiling. Two other ones, unable to properly stop and direct themselves, landed near Garrett. They were met with Garrett's sword, this time the sword cutting clean through them. Blood sprayed everywhere as the ends of the mouths retreated into the darkness.

"Yeah? How'd you like that, huh?" Garrett shouted upwards with a grin on his face. "Either you let me out of here, or I'll keep this up until all your mouths are gone!"

There was a lull in the activity. No mouths and no laughter came from the darkness. Then, a blue mouth slowly came down from the ceiling. It set down the chain with the key and then retracted into the darkness, letting out a low sad laugh.

"Glad we could come to an agreement." Garrett put his sword away and picked up the key. He looked over at the two mouths that he had cut off. "Well, it'd be a shame to just leave it here. Maybe these might come in handy."

He picked up the ends of the mouth and then looked at his backpack. It hadn't occurred to him before, but he realized now that his spear from the last timeline somehow fit into his bag. Curious, he stuck one of the mouths into the bag, which looked like it should have filled up the entire thing. Then, he stuck the other one in without any issue, as if the bag was expanding on the inside but not the outside.

"Figures there would be something weird about it. Thanks Otris," Garrett said as he put back on his bag. He walked over to the door and unlocked it with the key. "See you around, Top-Mouth."