The moment Barion's fingers closed around the sword's hilt, the cave reacted.
A deep, grinding tremor rolled through the stone beneath his feet, as if the earth itself had been disturbed. Dust fell from the ceiling in thick sheets, pebbles skittering across the floor as cracks spread along the walls with sharp, echoing snaps.
Barion's eyes widened. "For god's sake… don't tell me you're the trigger."
The rumbling intensified.
Massive slabs of stone tore free from the ceiling and crashed down with deafening force. The far end of the tunnel vanished under falling rock, sealing itself completely. The ground lurched, throwing Barion off balance as debris slammed down around him.
He was lucky although barely.
He had been near the end of cave, and while rubble still collapsed near him, only part of the ceiling gave way on his side. A heavy rock struck his leg and pinned it briefly, pain flashing sharp and immediate. He sucked in a breath and tried to shove it away with a strained grunt as the cave finally settled into an uneasy silence.
Then came the sound. A violent hiss echoed behind him.
The serpent had not escaped unscathed.
One of its two massive heads was crushed beneath a fallen slab, the neck bent at an unnatural angle. The body twitched weakly before going still. Whether it was dead or merely unconscious, Barion did not wait to find out.
The other head was very much alive.
It thrashed violently, scales scraping stone as it hissed in raw fury. The third eye between the heads glowed brighter, unfocused but burning with aggression.
Barion exhaled sharply, forcing himself to move.
"For god's sake," he thought as he shoved another rock off his leg, "I wasn't the one who collapsed the cave. Okay, technically I was. But you were the one charging at me first."
The serpent was struggling too, its tail trapped beneath debris. Both of them freed themselves almost at the same time, stone grinding as weight shifted.
And then the serpent lunged.
Barion did not panic. He had already anticipated it.
Surrounded by broken walls and rubble, retreat was impossible. Running was suicide. Worse, he still did not know whether creatures here could use magic, venom, or some other unknown ability.
So he chose defense. He raised the sword diagonally, presenting the flat of the blade toward the charging serpent. His elbows tucked in close to his hips, stance lowered, body braced to absorb impact rather than overextend.
It was not an attacking stance. It was a stance meant to survive.
The serpent struck.
At the last instant, it tried to shift its trajectory, clearly realizing that charging headfirst into a blade was a mistake. But momentum betrayed it. The flat surface disrupted its movement, trapping it in an awkward angle where it could neither bite nor retreat cleanly.
That was enough. Barion did not swing wildly. Because he had also known that, if the snake attacked at his flat surface it would naturally be trapped near towards him due to block. The snake saw the tip sweeping towards it.
He brought the sword down in a controlled motion, letting gravity and positioning do the work. The blade was already angled toward the ground, and he drove it forward with a sharp, precise thrust.
Resistance met steel due to it's scales,Then it gave way.
The blade pierced cleanly through the skull. The serpent convulsed violently, its remaining head jerking back as the tip of the sword emerged slick and dark.
Barion did not stop.
He stepped in and slit through both necks in quick succession, ensuring there would be no sudden miracle, no final desperate bite. Only when the body went completely still did he step back.
His chest rose and fell heavily. He had won.
But the cave felt wrong.
Barion looked around at the shattered pedestal, the skeletons scattered across the floor, rusted armor and broken weapons lying among them.
"These weren't weak," he thought. "People like this don't just die accidentally. Also how they even died. Is this cave a den or somekind for a monster. Or else is it the result of this sword. It could also be this snake's den, yet might not be considering it's weird reaction here."
His gaze drifted back to the sword. Something hummed. The blade vibrated in his hand.
Barion frowned. "…Wait."
The sword wrenched itself free and plunged into the serpent's corpse.
Barion stiffened instantly.
It did not cut. It devoured. Flesh dissolved unnaturally, absorbed into the blade in seconds. Light flickered along the runes as the serpent's body collapsed inward, leaving behind only clean, bleached bones.
Barion stared while backing away towards the entrance.
"Nevermind it answer my a... WAIT. A MINUTE. I don't think non living objects are supposed to fly without a propeller."
The sword lifted itself into the air.
That was when Barion took a step back.
His muscles tensed, instincts screaming as the blade hovered at chest height, runes glowing faintly. His grip tightened reflexively even though the sword was no longer in his hand.
He backed away another step, fully expecting the blade to strike.
It didn't. It hovered, unmoving, as if waiting.
The realization crept in slowly, unwelcome but unavoidable.
It had devoured the serpent in seconds.
It had moved faster than his eyes could track. And yet it had not attacked him.
"If you wanted me dead," Barion murmured, "I wouldn't be standing right now."
The answer formed naturally.
"…I'm the exception."
His eyes flicked to the dried blood smeared along the hilt where his hand had been earlier.
"I bled during the collapse," he thought. "Blood on the weapon." Magic. That was the only logical conclusion in this absurd situation. Even though he was average in that room, still it wasn't like he wasn't exposed to ridiculous scenarios, yet this was exceptional among the exceptional where he wasn't able to derive reality bound conclusion. So he had to rely on his fictional knowledge to fill the blank.
The word no longer felt absurd.
This world had it, and somehow, through coincidence or design, he had triggered it.
The sword drifted closer. Barion hesitated, then slowly opened his palm.
The blade slid into his right hand as if pulled by an invisible thread and went completely still.
Barion stared at it for a long moment.
"So you think I'm your master," he muttered. "Or something close enough."
He exhaled slowly.
"I don't know what you are," he said quietly, "and I don't know why I was brought here. But I'm guessing none of this is accidental."
His grip tightened.
"And I don't think you're going to stop following me."
To be continued==>