Ch.28 Emerald Horror

The scholar had recovered all his mana, assessing his troop's condition, the mages took turns casting (water mend), the soldiers are now fully recovered.

Blue lights could be seen inside the mass of Poison Ivys, separated by ten feet, while the walls radiated soft pale white light. "The Dungeon must have run out of Mana," the scholar turned to the soldiers, "just like last time go and find the right path."

The soldiers had their orders, going inside in groups of two, more soldiers ready for their return.

Six hours later the soldiers and the Scholar were losing their patience. "Why are they taking so long!" Said most of the mages, the soldiers were also thinking something must have gone wrong.

The twenty soldiers went missing with no death sound or struggled, the Scholar decided to be prudent, even if the Maze has no Elemental Domain it must have changed somehow.

Looking around for the smallest difference the Scholar found one, "what's this, a hole?" The walls of Ivy now had a small hole on the bottom, however, was not consistent.

Looking at the distance the small entrance was randomly placed, some pathways had some right across each other, while other paths had only one.

The scholar decided on a plan, "we are moving forward as a group, with no information on what we're dealing with it is best not to split up, for now, report at the slightest change!"

The group agreed something was odd, the Scholar told them to be mindful of the strange holes as they walked.

After several hours the Scholar started to go crazy from the neverending green Maze, with no reports of strange changes he orders a rest.

While the mages talked among themselves the soldiers brought out their rations, one of the soldiers noticed something, where is his friend?

He started to yell for him, "Asil, where are you?" he looked around the narrow halls but didn't see him, another soldier answered him instead.

"You looking for Asil? Last I saw him he was covering the rear with Kipe." Said an older soldier, "now that you say that I haven't seen him either."

"Huh, you said Asil and Kipe were on the rear? That can't be I send that newbie to the back because no one was watching it," said a higher rank soldier.

The commotion grabbed the Scholars' attention, "report the situation." The soldiers reported that about five of them went missing guarding the rear, "what do you mean we lost them, how can someone disappear without a sound or struggle."

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"You," the scholar pointed at the current soldier in charge of the rear, "I want you to go and report back what you see no matter how trivial."

The soldier was not willing to go to a dangerous place but had little power to deny orders. He nodded and draw his sword moving back to where they came.

After three minutes of walking and careful observation, nothing was strange, the same dizzying and repeated Maze.

Looking around one last time before reporting he felt that something was watching him, he then heard a small sound to his left, turning to the source of the sound, he saw a small green paw dragging its black claws thru the floor. The sound was sharp but not loud to the point the others would hear it.

He noticed that the paw was coming from the end of the hall as if inviting him to come over. Not willing to fall for whatever killed the others he slowly backed up till the paw was no longer visible.

As he slowly backtracked while keeping an eye out for the green paw, he heard the same sound, this time behind him.

Terrified, he turned around only to see the same green paw, his back was covered in a cold sweat, was he surrounded, how many are there?

Not wanting to find out, he started to yell for help as he continued running to where the troops were, however, upon reaching the location there was nothing here just the same repeated hall.

Shivering in fear, he looked at all the hallways trying to spot anything that was different or could comfort him, he noticed the blue lights seemed different.

"The blue lights were a lot brighter than I remembered when we first map the maze." The blue light had cast a shadow that would always be aimed exactly where the new holes were at, not that knowing this would help me.

The sound of claws scratching the floor came out again behind him, this time it was different, it was a lot sharper like the creature was laughing at him.

He turned around, his hands and feet shaking. The black claws dragging thru the floor slowly, like tasting the soldier's fear. The soldier couldn't take it and started to run the same horrible noise chasing after him.

The terrified soldier could not take it anymore, "y-you want me, then come and g-get m-me you dam monster!" He shivers in place, hearing a different sound behind him.

Turning around he was paralyzed, two deep green eyes were peering out from the hole in the Ivy wall, only a few feet from him.

The eyes were like two abysses that swallowed his soul, he could do nothing but stand there his body refusing any of his commands. The horrifying beast stretched out a green paw, without breaking eye contact, the sharp black claws came out aiming at my shadow.

The monster ripped the shadow of my head into pieces, the pain was unbearable, trying to escape I used my Elemental Mana, it helps greatly and I was slowly moving my sight away.

While I was happy my efforts were working, suddenly, my Elemental Mana had run dry. In the last moments of my life, I wonder how this happen, noticing that the monster had a large evil-looking smile my mind snapped the last shred of resolve I had.

A blood howl of pain and primal fear was my last words.

Back on malpetios core room, "hehe looks like my puppy was a giant success, truly my best masterpiece does far."

Q'ill ask in curiosity, "by puppy you mean the wolf cub you got a few hours before your entrance open right?" She remembers it looked rather terrifying, pitch black, and eyes full of deathly allure.

Malpetios happily said, "yah, with its help I managed to unlock a new element, though I can't use it yet, I now have a new goal to unlock 'Dark' Element!"