Ivy's jaw dropped as the group split up. Someone getting annoyed and needing some space was understandable but the only reason she could see to split up like this was if they were truly concerned that it would take them more than an hour to complete the floor. In fairness to the group, she and Evelyn were fairly confident that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to complete each of the trials in series within an hour, but splitting up to this extent seemed excessive. Though mostly she was just frustrated she could only pick one to watch.
Evelyn followed the rat-man who seemed to be a leader of sorts and demonstrated a versatility of skills that intrigued her. Ivy decided she most needed to see how the light trial performed. Unlike the others it was just a puzzle. Hopefully a tricky, or at least time-consuming puzzle, but it was almost impossible to know how difficult a puzzle actually was if you knew the solution. Much more so when you were the one who made it.
When the spider-woman entered the room filled with mirrors on pillars of varying height and short sections of wall placed without apparent pattern her first reaction seemed to be confusion. While cautious for traps she manuevered towards the hole in the wall from which a thin stream of light poured through to strike against one of the mirrors. Seeing this and a similar dark hole in the wall above a disk with a sun symbol she quickly put together the goal of the puzzle, redirect the beam of light to the target to release the disk.
The flickering and slightly diffuse nature of the beam pricked at Ivy’s perfectionist nature, but it was the best she could manage without someone dropping a laser pointer or something. She’d struggled to make a beam that would be sufficiently coherent after being bounced along several mirrors at all, resorting to making a huge fire in a distant, inaccessible room connected only by a narrow hole in the end. At least she’d found a use for all the smoke.
As Lisa started to redirect the beam with the mirrors a faint smile came to Ivy’s lips, the method she was pursuing would get the beam close to the end point but the mirrors at the end wouldn’t be able to move quite enough for it to actually reach the goal. This slightly smug feeling lasted just long enough for Lisa to adjust the last mirror then start forming crystal or some sort of clear gemstone in the air in front of her. She was making a prism, Ivy realised equal parts indignant and impressed.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
*Whump*
As Ivy refocused on the scene in front of her after being distracted by the deafening explosion in the fire tower, she saw the shattered remnants of the prism dissolving on the ground, far too quickly to be the dungeon absorbing them unfortunately. The woman on the other hand was clutching her ears while her head jerked back and forth searching for danger. Given Ivy had felt the explosion in her gut, that level of pressure and sound would be quite uncomfortable if you were corporeal, particularly if you weren’t expecting it. She added toning down the sawdust to her mental checklist for the floor.
Recovering quickly the woman abandoned the puzzle and went to investigate the disturbance. The scorch marks and ash drifting from the fire tower made locating the source trivial. Scurrying up the flint steps while calling for Al in her chittering voice she discovered the thoroughly charred remains of both Al and his skeletal opponent littering the passage. Though if it wasn’t for the dungeon beginning to absorb some of the fragments it would be hard to tell what belonged to who. The scent of charred flesh was sickening and the woman quickly pulled away disturbed by the sight while Ivy felt a strange numbness. She knew that should spark fury at the removal of her emotions even as she was also glad she wasn’t traumatising herself with her creations.
An increasing cacophony sounding nearby drew both Ivy and the spider-woman’s attention to the air trial where a storm of projectiles raged around the four-armed kangaroo-man who was standing on the far podium throwing bursts of air with his punches to deflect the projectiles coming his way. Thus far it seemed quite effective, though the frantic edge to his movements suggested it was not a feat he could keep up indefinitely and the larger bricks and cannonballs seemed to give him significantly more trouble than the smaller debris like ball bearings and flechettes. As a harpoon forced him to jump to a nearby ledge, gems started being fired through the maelstrom attempting to snipe some of the more dangerous projectiles.
Torrents of sweat ran down both beastkin’s forms as they used their skills in rapid succession but even still, the kangaroo-man had to accept increasing numbers of smaller injuries to avoid the larger projectiles. Suddenly the room went silent save for the sound of heavy breathing from both beastkin as all the projectiles lay scattered across the room.
The bloodied beastkin wearily made his way from point to point towards the entrance, occasionally boosting a jump with a blast of air that drew a pain filled groan from the taciturn figure. Looking between him and the spider-woman who had slumped to the ground in exhaustion despite her four legs, Ivy decided the pair were unlikely to push further. It was time to see how the others were getting on. The faint rumbling from the earth trial sounded promising.
A bloodcurdling scream rang throughout the floor.