Having assumed a balanced position with which he was going to launch out his plan, Laz increased his speed towards the open windows and as soon as he got close, leaped high enough to step on its supporting wall, using it as a boosting force to get on the monster which was way high above if he leaped directly from the floor.
The diagonal force he had exerted on the wall sent him flying mid-air, getting closer to the monster. But, his eyes widened. He hadn't made the right justification.
How could he forget that the monster might be slow in its steps, but was extremely fast in executing attacks?
Being able to detect the attack Laz had launched with the table, it was able to strike it off, sending it in Laz's direction.
'Uh-oh.'
The moment the table connected with the monster's trollish hands, it sped almost like it bore the speed of sound in the air towards Laz, hitting him and sending him to clash with the handle of the open windows, deep into the forest he had viewed from inside the room.
He landed with his back on one of the branches of the tall trees that made up the forest, and was able to deduce that—
'Now, I know the reason why the mood of the atmosphere outside was crimson.'
His thoughts couldn't be articulated into speech, as his mouth quivered open to vomit blood instead. Shakily, in pain, he turned his head to glance at the tree he landed on and realized he had clashed with a tree of thorns. Not only was it a tree of thorns, but he looked around to analyze the trees in the forest and noticed they were of the same kind.
'A Sanguarbor?'
He dropped his head back onto the trees and as if a rush of adrenaline got him, he pulled his head back. The pain... "Ouch."
After scratching his head where it had connected with the tree's thorns, closed his eyes and his mood turned pitiful.
"Oh, death... Laz, I will tell you this, when you meet death, become pathetic with a pitiful face at least to obtain mercy."
"Shit."
"Shiiit!"
"This is doomsday," he tried to shout aloud, "...this is doomsda—!" but his voice hitched in his throat as more blood poured out from his mouth.
Notwithstanding the approaching figure of the rodent monster, which now looked smaller than the tree on which he was stuck, he had fallen into the valley of death.
Sanguarbor Primevalis.
A tree that is mythically believed to be the bloodroot of the First Age. Some nerds believed it was never a myth, but based on realistic occurrences, hence they called it a Legend.
Sanguarbor is less a tree, and more like a living monument of ancient horror. It has an obsidian — black bark, with veins of glowing crimson lines that pulse in rhythms, like they carried blood instead of sap.
The rodent monster looked smaller to this tree, and to Laz who hung on its branch because the tree was estimated to stretch hundreds of feet into the sky, wide enough at its base to house a small creature haven within its hollowed chambers — though no creature would dare.
'I doubt this. For my predecessor to live in this area, with its pet. Just what was he thinking?'
Laz struggled to stand on the broad branch, severing the pain he got from the thorns of the tree. It was very much better than flying off the tree, all the way to its base, or worse still, climbing down through its trunk tree.
After standing, he looked below and prayed that the rodent monster would approach faster. He was going to jump onto its body, it was better than the pain he felt, and his blood which relentlessly gushed forth, down the tree.
Unexpectedly, the tree began to vibrate. Laz instinctively extended his hands to choke them into the thorn branches of the tree which twisted like skeletal arms, clawing at the heaven with no leaves. His whole surroundings were filled with the aura of crimson — a faint metallic scent of blood.
After shaking furiously, it stopped again and went mute.
Laz could only endure his suffering, still staring at the far distance for the approaching monster.
What he didn't know was that Sanguarbor had a heart where a Crimson Hollow lies, carved into the tree's trunk like a gaping wound. All this while, he had been feeding the tree its food, and soon enough, it would awaken. When human blood touches the bark of the tree, it awakens.
"How can a monster as huge as you are be slower than a snail?" Laz shrieked in pain, his face already pale. The cotton flow-down garment he had adorned as a result of his transmigration was now stained in blood.
'Can't you be a little faster?'
The pain surging from his posture — his feet and outstretched hands pierced into by the thorns of the three — began to make him restless. For some reason, he wanted to scream but he held himself.
He was pathetic enough, and shouldn't feel same the more.
Tears began forming in his eyes, he wanted to release his hands but thought immediately that he was going to fall off from the tree.
Thoughts began flowing into his mind. Pity for his fellows emanated as well. He wondered how they fared in their various trial zones. But immediately thought they should fare better than him since they must have acquired several survival skills, both from their private lessons and even through books — books like 'After I Became A Bearer'.
'Why should I even care?'
'What on earth is my business with their survival when I'm slowly freaking out of life here?'
The psychology of pain and the unsettlement it caused for the human mind was what took over him. At some points he would think about the well-being of others, at other points he disregarded these thoughts and focused on himself.
It was now hard for him to bear. The pain was extinguishing enough for a young boy like him.
"It's true I scrambled my whole life for survival, but not of this kind... Not of the kind where even my shadow should desert me," his eyes closed, the tears that had been forming in his eyes turned into crimson, dripping down his cheeks.
"I have chased dreams, barely ran from the valleys of death — oh, death, you get whomever you want to."
He raised his face to the crimson-streaked sky, with his eyes still closed.
"I—I don't want to go. Not yet. Not like this."
Unknowing to Laz, the rodent monster was approaching closer, but the tinge of pain that had taken over him couldn't stop him from screaming.
"HELP! HELLP!! HELLLLP!!!"
At that instant, the Primevalis tree which had been absorbing Laz's offering began to rumble, its trunk where the Crimson Hollow lies shrunk with a sickening squelch, throwing Laz forward to the rodent monster.
Laz tried to open his eyes but he couldn't. Had he gone blind? Why couldn't he—
At that moment, all he felt was a bone-like solid, with a needle mouth, carefully tearing into his garment and lifting him.
'So, I finally fell into the hands of Little Rodent,' he realized.
But at the same time, he heard a shrieking loud sound. The stench of crimson became stronger.
In his darkness, he imagined strange figures making the shrieking sound.
'Strange figures, strange figure— wait, Sanguarbor Primevalis, the Cannibal Reproducing Tree?!'
If only he had his sight, he would have seen what they looked like. His ears have only heard of them, but his eyes were yet to see even their picture-like forms.
'Or, no. I prefer Little Rodent ends my life right now.'
As if listening to his thoughts, the rodent monster, which now had Laz in its claws flew him off far away back towards the room.
'Cannibals according to my knowledge are twisted, humanoid aberrations with bark-like skin, thorn claws, and... if it is born from a Sanguarbor, does that make it a Crimson Cannibal?'
What answered his thoughts was a successful crash against the bricks of a wall. The pain he felt increased, but he seemed not to think about it at the moment.
What he thought about, where his mind raced to was far into the distance where he heard the loud growl of Little Rodent and the high-pitched shrieks of the Crimson Cannibals.