Chapter 18: Magical Curses.

Plopping down at the base of the stairs, Catherine arrived at the next floor and not to her surprise it was another maze floor. The floor itself looking like the last two, but with one notable difference that was flora was growing on the walls and floor. Shrugging, she placed a nub on the left wall and oozed along the floor.

After a few run-ins with dead ends, the stray orcs that were dealt with quickly, and avoiding the same traps she halted. A strange sight caught laid in front of her, a strange red symbol could be seen at the upcoming intersection behind the foliage “Oh? A new trap?” She approached it, looking up at the symbol that covered the entire section of the wall.

“How do I set it off?” She questioned, curious at the new find and with how nothing so far has affected her she was itching to see what this did. She passed it a few times, jumped around in front of it, and even climbed on top of it to clean away the foliage but nothing seemed to trigger it. “Hrmm…” She looked up at it, frustrated with the damn thing she moved away from it before stopping.

“What if its because I’m in this form?” She morphed, gaining height and took the form of her usual version of Catherine. Hands on her hips she walked out in front of the symbol and was pleasantly surprised when it lit up “Bingo!” She cheered before being engulfed in flames.

“Shit!” she screamed, the flames burning away at her flesh at an uncomfortable rate. She was losing mass fast, her recently acquired regenerative ability not keeping up at all. She tapped into her reserves of fluids but even those were quickly burned away ‘ok, not good.’ She thought, the flames were not dying down and seemed fueled by whatever magic the trap had.

Attempting to put out the flames she shot water out from her body but even that was ineffective. “Fuck it.” She thought, emptying a lot of fluids from her storage to gain mass she then shot out a large blob of slime after forming a hole in her body, careful not to get any flames on this new blob. After the blob landed, she cut her connection to her flaming body, watching it loose any remaining shape and forming a puddle on the ground which was quickly consumed by the flames that died out when nothing remained.

She reformed her body, checking over it a few times for any remaining flames before plopping down on her butt in relief “alright, that was… never again.” She sighed looking up at the wall and noticed the symbol had vanished, the trap spent. “I think that was the most danger I have ever been in…” Making a mental note to avoid weird symbols on the wall she stood up and stretched.

“At least they are obvious…” She said, continuing onward before a bright orange flash over took her. A cold sweat went down her spin as she turned to her left, a bright orange symbol behind a thick layer of grass shined as it activated ‘Shit!” She abandoned her body, spitting out another blob before whatever activated damaged her. She looked back after she reformed to see the fate of the body that she abandoned, only to be surprised to find out nothing had happened ‘Huh? What gives?’ she thought.

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She stared at it for a moment, moving it remotely and finding no problems she shrugged. What ever had activated had no effect on her “immune to orange or just lucky?” To be safe she cut her connection, leaving behind the puddle she continued on, more carful then last time. After a brief stroll, killing a few more nameless orcs she had stopped again, this time noticing a black symbol further down the hallway.

She crossed her arms “The red one set me on fire, the orange one didn’t do anything…” If she was smart, she would of avoided it, she knew she should avoid it. The red one actually harmed her, but after the orange one having a different effect she was curious at all the things these magic symbols could do.

“ah fuck it” Worst happens she could just abandon the effected body and move on. Against better judgement she walked infront of the symbol, watching as it activated, a black mist surrounded her body. “This it?” She asked herself, moving her hands threw the mist. It wasn’t harming her, but it also wasn’t doing anything.

“At least I can tell its at least trying to do something?” Catherine said with a shrug “If anything its kind of cool to have this mist following me.” She chuckled, striking a pose with a sword she took out from her inventory and forming a black suit of armor around herself. She giggled “I look ridiculous.” Somehow feeling embarrassed if anyone saw her like this.

“Ok, enough messing around…” She was about to walk forward but stopped, noticing the symbol had yet to vanish like the others did. “The hell?” wondering if that meant the effect wasn’t over, well, obviously with the mist still circling her “Ok, safe to say I ditch this body before…urk-!?” She lunged forward, her body moving on its own as it slammed into the wall, pressing itself against the symbol as more mist spewed out.

The hallway was covered in darkness, the mist filling every corner “Ok, yup, not good” Cursing herself for fooling around she prepared herself to bolt, but before she got a change the black symbol vanished and as if responding to it all the mist converged into Catherine’s body. “Fuck!” She screamed, her body convulsed as it was dyed black. She fell to the floor, unable to move on her own as suddenly thoughts invaded her mind.

[Rage]

It filled every thought she had, briefly overtaking her reasoning as all she could think about was hunting down and killing everything she could find. “You don’t tell me…” her body convulsed, her fist hitting the ground as she lifted herself up “How to…” she gritted her teeth, fighting against the rage trying to consume her.

“Fucking feel!” She screamed, her body imploding on itself, dark fluid flying everywhere in the hall as she expelled every tainted peace from her body, leaving nothing but a small palm sized palm sitting in the middle of the pitch black ooze.

“…” Catherine sat there in silence, inspecting the room. The black slime dripped from the ceiling, and covered a good ways down the hallway in both directions, the only clean spot was were she sat. She sighed, cutting the connection to her separated body, finding it annoying when the goo remained at its consistency “Great…”

She would have to clean this up, knowing it was not a good idea to leave whatever this black mist was laying about. She formed two nubs and raised them into the air, two magical circles appearing above them as she charged her only fire spell. “This is going to take a while…” She sighed, and started slowly burning away at the black goo.