"Because, you're going to have to go through a little, 'gauntlet', if you will." Hm, Red thought, I like where this is going so far. "Yeah, I'll bet you do." Red ignored the original voice in his head, and instead thought, okay, where to? "First, back to the room you were in." Yes ma'am, Red thought. "Oh, aren't you a gentleman?" Once Red was back in the room with the strange sculpture, he thought, now what? "Now, we wait." Red's eye twitched again. Uh, Red thought, are you serious? But the new voice didn't answer. "Geez, tough crowd, am I right?"

After waiting for ten minutes, when Red was about to ask the new voice in his head how long this would take, he heard a faint rumbling sound. He gripped the sword that had been given to him. As the rumbling grew louder, the room began to shake, almost as if there was an earthquake. As cracks began to appear in the ground, he could swear he heard the new voice chuckling. "Now then, my guest, let's see if you can defeat this creature." As the ground gave in, Red jumped toward the open doorway, but when he landed, he felt something grab his right leg.

As he looked back, he saw something he never saw before, except in myths. It had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and wings of a bat. He was looking at a manticore. The shit I go through, Red thought as he drew the sword, and stabbed the manticore's claw. The manticore roared in pain, and flapped up. Red moved away from the doorway, just far away, and in time, to keep from taking any serious damage. The manticore burst through the doorway, completely destroying it.

As Red turned to face it, he saw the manticore bring one of it's claws up. He swung his sword just in time, clashing the sword with the claws. As this happened, Red's left eye turned, from it's natural brown, to dark grey. So, he thought, mind telling me why you brought a fucking manticore to fight me? "Isn't it obvious? I want to see just how strong you really are." Really, Red thought, well, if that's the case, you're going to need something a lot bigger for me to really fight.

"Well then, after this is over, I'll arrange for something worth your time." Red ducked another claw, then took the chance to stab the manticore in the body. All that it seemed to do was enrage it even more. As Red ducked another swipe, he slashed at the arm of the manticore. It didn't seem to affect it in any way. Dammit, Red thought, what do I hit to even hurt this thing?

Red barely finished that thought before the manticore managed to swipe him across the chest, tearing his clothes, and drawing blood from him. As Red felt the pain, something hidden within him awoke. He grinned, and looked at the manticore, and jumped toward it. Surprised from the sudden attack, the manticore took a flurry of strikes before it could react. As Red jumped back to avoid another swipe, he ran straight for the manticore again. But this time the manticore was ready. It swiped at Red again, only for him to duck under it, and sent a barrage of strikes at the manticore's body.

After the barrage, Red stabbed the manticore repeatedly. It was bleeding heavily now, and it realized that it couldn't win. and turned to run. Red took this chance to jump on it's back and stab it repeatedly once again. The manticore roared, and tried to slam Red against one of the walls of the castle. But Red jumped off at the last second. As the manticore slammed into the wall, destroying it, it realized it's mistake. It was in no condition to get back up. As Red walked toward the wounded manticore, he let his sword drag behind him, creating a few sparks. Then he jumped, and stabbed the manticore deep in the body, hitting one of it's vital organs.

As Red drew the sword out of the manticore, his grinned faded. He looked at the dying manticore, and decided to end it's pain early. He stabbed the manticore through the mouth, instantly killing it. As Red cleaned the blood off of his sword with the manticore's fur, he heard the new voice in hi head again. "Well, now that that's over, let's move on to something more, 'difficult'." Red could hear the grin as the voice said that last word.

He sheathed the sword again, and sat down against one of the walls. After another ten minutes, he could hear more rumbling. So, he thought, what is it this time? "Oh, I'm sure you'll find this one more... Challenging." Good, Red thought, I was getting bored of waiting. As the rumbling grew louder yet again, Red noticed that the wall he was sitting against was shaking. As he got up, he heard another roar, but this one sounded different from the manticore's.

When Red saw that the wall was about to give, he drew his sword once again. Once the wall was broken down, Red saw another mythological creature. This time, it was a hydra. It roared again, and charged at Red. Red rolled out of the way, but a moment too late. One of the heads had managed to hit him. As he was thrown seven feet back, the grinned returned, and as he got back up, the hydra charged again. This time, instead of rolling out of the way, he brought the sword up, stabbing through one of the heads. Then he slashed at another's neck, vertically.

As the head with the slashed throat bled out, he slashed at another head. The head got out of the way, but Red still managed to get it's eye. With two head's gone, and another injured, Red seemed to have less trouble with the hydra than he did with the manticore. That was, until the two uninjured heads began chewing away at the dead one's. Next Chapter: Revelations Part III Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 7 Minutes