Chapter 58: Labyrinth
We walked in SSJ form for what felt like a mile before the hall opened into a cavern. When Vegeta and I stepped out, so did Goku and Mirai. All of us were SSJ.
"You made it!" I cried to them. I ran over and hugged Goku and Mirai.
"Whoa! Not so hard!" I looked at Goku and he had a large gash across his chest.
"Goku, what happened?" I asked as I got out a Zinzu bean.
"I was attacked."
"So was I." Mirai said.
"We were as well. It was a good thing Vegeta was there or I could have been killed."
"You saved me, and I saved you in return." Vegeta said. I reverted back from SSJ to save energy, and the others followed suit.
"Whatever, Vegeta. You don't have to hide your true feelings from us, you know. We're your friends and family." I said, laughing sarcastically at him. But he was staring ahead, and then I looked to see the cavern dropped off about ten feet out. The four of us walked to the edge and looked to see a large labyrinth below. We could see the beginning of it, and it stretched for miles, leading to the other side of the cavern I guessed. The ceiling looked to be about 60-feet off the ground.
The labyrinth?
"A maze? Do we have to go through that?" Mirai said.
"Yes, if we want to make it to the next room." Vegeta said. Then a loud roar came from the inside of the labyrinth.
"What was that?" Goku asked, sounding nervous.
"Its big, whatever it is." I drew one of my laser pistols, "Stay with me. This is the labyrinth from my dreams. I know it is. I know it as well as Brolly knows crazy."
"What's that mean?" Goku asked.
"Never mind, just trust that I can get us through that maze. Stay close to me." I jumped over the edge of the cliff and landed gracefully as a jungle cat. The others followed and I lead us as a group into the maze.
"There are many legends about giant mazes in my dimension. Greek mythology states that a man built a labyrinth with his son and did such a good job of it, he got lost in it."
"Did they get out?" Mirai asked. I stopped and looked around the corner before continuing the story.
"They did. He and his son built a pair of wax wings to fly out, but then the son got too close to the sun and the wax melted, and he fell to his death."
"That's awful." Goku said.
"Not as bad as the monster that was put into that labyrinth. It was called the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull. It fed on the flesh of young virgins and to keep it under control it was fed seven young men and women once every seven years. Finally a hero came and killed the monster and saved all the people of the city-state."
"And you learned this in school?" Mirai asked.
"No, I read a lot. School couldn't teach me a thing. Its like a saying I once heard, don't let school get in the way of your education."
"This is very interesting, but I think whatever is in this maze is close." Vegeta stated.
"I know, its trying to hunt us, but I'm hunting it."
"What is it?" Goku said, now sounding even more scared. I guess my story freaked him out a little.
"I think it's a retile of some sort. Maybe a Basilisk, the king of all snakes. If it is, you can't look at it directly or you'll be turned to stone. It's suppose to be the most venomous creature to ever live, but that only matters if this is a Basilisk."
"How do you know so much about monsters?" Goku asked.
"I told you, I read a lot. Even as a child I had a high reading ability, so I was reading chapter books while other kids were reading Dr. Seuss."
"What's wrong with Dr. Seuss?" Goku asked. I ignored him as we got to another corner. I stopped and checked around the turn before we moved on.
"What else could it be?" Vegeta asked.
"It could be a Dragon, a Chimera, or a Hydra."
"What are those?" Mirai asked.
"Don't you guys ever read?" I asked. This thing was playing cat and mouse with me. The hard part was figuring out which of us was Tom and which of us was Jerry.
"Not as much as you." Mirai said.
"The Chimera was a giant monster that was part lion, part goat, and part snake. It also breathed fire and it could swallow a horse whole. The Hydra was a giant snake, and if you cut off its head two more would grow back, and so on. It had hundreds of heads before it was destroyed."
"Is that all the possibilities?" Vegeta asked, sounding annoyed.
"That's only if it's something from a myth. It could be something else."
"You sure are being calm about this." Mirai said.
"I'm the hunter, and it's the prey. Besides, in all the myths they didn't have guns. This thing could take out a T-Rex with one hit." I said, point to the laser-gun. I heard something ahead breathing hard, and it smelt like a reptile, "Shh, we're getting close to it." as if on cue the monster roared again, showing that it was only on the end of the next turn. It took a step and shook the ground.
"It's big." Vegeta said. I agreed and crouched down; the others did as well. I was leading them, and in a way that felt good.
"This thing has our scent by now. It'll head this way, and we can't get out of the maze by any other path. When it makes the turn be ready."
They nodded and stood patiently as its booming steps got closer. Finally we all sensed that it had come around the corner and we jumped out, facing the creature. But I didn't expect to see what came out from the corner.
"I don't believe it. It really is a Hydra." I said.
"Well, lets kill it already." Vegeta said. Though I hate killing, there is a time and place for violence. I learned that lesson while living in this dimension. Sometimes only fighting can bring about peace.
The hydra was 20-feet tall from what I guessed, and it already had five heads. It had four legs like a crocodile and a tail like a whip. It saw us and roared again.
"Whatever you do, don't cut off a head. Aim for its back or belly."
"Right!" we took off the ground and flew at the Hydra. It snapped and roared at us as we got close, and I barely missed getting my leg ripped off. Goku and Vegeta were blasting at the heads to keep them busy, and I shot two warning shots at it; right into its eyes. I then replaced my gun, realizing it did minimal damage to the Hydra.
I flew past its heads to its back, and it watched me with one of the other heads that could still see. It whipped its tail at me, and I felt like I was playing dodge ball, especially with the mace on the end of its tail. I finally cut off its tail with a Destructo Disk, and I found out the rule also applies to its tail that applies to its heads; two tails grew back.
So now I was dodging two tails and five heads. I decided only one shot could end this. I fired up another Destructo Disk and threw it through the monster's back. It fell limp and in two pieces.
"Alright! Score one for the Sayjins!" I cried.
"I don't know about that…" I looked back to the monster and it was twitching. Two more, slightly smaller hydra's then formed.
"Give me a break!" Goku called.
"Okay, mental note, hydra's can't be killed by cutting them into pieces."
"I though you were a monster expert!" Vegeta shouted.
"Only on the mythology! I never fought a real hydra before!"
"Aright, we have to hit it with our best attacks." Goku said.
"Agreed." I seconded.
"Ka-me-ha-me-ha!"
"Final Flash!"
"Burning Attack!"
"Sneak Attack Ball!" we all shot our favorite attacks at the two hydras and blew them up completely. And I mean it, we were covered in monster guts. We landed and stared to clean the guts off.
"Gross!" Goku said. I flared my Ki and the guts and blood blew off, but it resulted in a wet dog impression and more of the stuff got on the others. Vegeta threw a large piece of a gut at me, and I dodged and it hit Goku. Well, you can guess what happened.
After a few minutes we stopped our gross little guts-throwing contest and cleaned up, laughing.
"That was fun, sort of." I said as I pulled off a large piece of what I guessed was a liver out of my hair, "Everyone okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"One of the legends about a hydra was that its blood was poisonous. Just checking."
"Thanks for the warning now that we're covered in it." Vegeta said spitefully.
"Come on, we're near the end." I said as I led the way to the end.
