Now that for Tacha it was a rush against time, her steps were quick and resolute as the two players jumped from platform to platform in the red foggy world.
They didn’t know what was hidden beyond the fog, but the appearance of the Mark of Styx on both of them meant only bad news. Wether it was the place itself or a mysterious enemy that gave that to them, it didn’t change the fact that it was a great liability. They hoped that it would disappear once they left this place.
They followed the compass inside the fog, their nerves tense from the unkown dangers. However, to their surprise, nothing happened when they reached the final platform. The fog turned out to be just that, a creepy addition to the landscape.
As they got deeper into the bigger platform, the fog slowly dispersed, and a closed gate was floating just a bit further away. Two ancient soldier statues on the sides, looked at the gate located upwards, sandwitched between two floating pillars.
The area looked like a large arena, where the two soldiers on the sides were ready to battle each other.
Frӧst exhaled a long sigh “Haaaaa, finally!” dragging his body forward, he got under the closed gate. Staring at it, he threw a random rock towards it, and from halfway through it floated upwards. “So, how do we open this thing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s an emergency button around here?” Frӧst shrugged off her answer. The both of them started looking around, and soon the young man found a marking with same symbol as the gate over their head beside one of the two statues.
He pushed the marking, and it sunk even further inside the wall. With a smirk, Frӧst looked towards the granny, whom scoffed.
With a rumble, the gate started to open, however it stopped halfway through and a notification appeared in front of them.
Autentication failed.
Starting defensive protocol...
A few spots all around the floor and walls light up, and with a creak the statues turned their heads towards them. The players tensed, and only when the statues unsheated their weapons, one a sword, the other a spear, did they start to move.
There was no need for the system to tell them; it was easy to guess that they had to touch all of the illuminated spots.
The two rushed towards the closest to them first, to then stepping upon those on the floor. As granny Tacha stepped on the last glowing symbol on the floor, she felt a rush of wind on her back and instinctively threw herself on the side.
With a sharp sound a lance impaled the ground a few centimeters off from where she was earlier. She turned around and saw that the statue that just threw it was looking at her. Seeing how it missed its target, it started moving closely.
Tacha didn’t lose time and rushed towards the next symbol. When she saw where it was, she let out a groan “Who had this marvelous idea…” The light came out from a hole in the wall. It seemed like the symbol was hidden quite deeply.
Grannt Tacha put her hand inside the hole, searching frantically for the symbol with just her sense of touch. As she was feeling the bottom of the hole, she heard a thud right beside her ear, the wall beside her cracking and a rush of air scruffing her hair.
Without turning her head, she looked sideways at the lance impaled on the rocky surface. As cold sweat dripped down her face, she concentrated even more on the feeling on her right hand.
She could hear the heavy steps of the statue coming closer. She cursed that time when she decided that it was a good idea to create a character with such short arms! Then, she found the button and pressed it.
Override successful.
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Proceding to open the gate...
When she turned around, she almost got an heart attack. The statue was frozen in a grabbing position, its hand a few inches from her neck. Staring at it, she slipped away from the side. Looking over to Frӧst, Tacha saw him climbing off the other statue’s back.
“Still alive?” Tacha asked, out of reflex “Seems so” after a bit of hesitation, the grandma walked closer to the boy and helped him down “H-hey!” she simply patted him on the back and went closer to the gate “If you’re not quick it will close before you can get through it”
Frӧst scratched his head akwardly “I know…” and followed suit after the agile granny.
ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ
After their guardian returned triumphantly after defeating the Silver Devil, all of the Overgrown Radishes esulted in joy. They could finally rest in peace, knowing that the great evil was defeated.
Festivities were abound, and even the radishes that had found home in other places came back to rejoice. Everyone was happy, and soon life returned to normal as the fights with the Tiger Rabbits resumed.
The sun was shining brightly upon the clearing around the big blue mushroom in the heart of the Nightgleam Forest, and a good number of radish was paying their respects to it. However, their calm days were bound to be coming to an end.
The earth trembled, and the Great Mushroom sank a few meters into the ground. The closest radishes were swept under the roots, and not even a few moments after, the giant mushroom emitted a bright blue light, as red fog started to appear from under it. All of the radishes backed off in a hurry.
A few, unfortunate ones that tripped or that weren’t fast enough, were caught by the fog. When it came in contact with their outer layer, they screamed in pain as it turned into a brown decaying color.
The group of vegetables stopped running after a bit. They watched as the fog didn’t advance anyfurther than the Great Mushrooms surroundings. It was clearly struggling, but it was still trying its best to protect the little radishes.
However even after a while, the situation still wasn’t changing. The Overgrown Radishes prayed with all of their hearts to the Great Mushroom. They could feel it in their greens that something much worse was coming.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed the edges of the hole. All of the radishes shaked, as a wild silver mane was followed suit by a pair of terrifying green eyes locked onto them. Golden hues could be seen whenever one looked straight at them.
The vegetables looked on in horror, as the demon came out from the ground. Its silver hair shined with blue hues from under the roots of the great mushroom. When the demon laid eyes on them, the poor, terrified radishes screamed their lungs out.
“Whaaaaaaaa!” From children to the older vegetables, they all scrambled to get as far as possible from the scene. How could they even compare to the slaughterer of their kind? Even those fearsome Tiger Rabbits weren’t as persistent as that fiend!
Even in death it wouldn’t leave them alone!
ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ
Tacha stared blankly at the escaping radishes. Was the gate connected to the vegetables spawn point? She crawled out of the hole, the cap of the mushroom barely grazing her hair. If the poor thing had sunken further, she would had to improvise a way to cut through the thing.
She stopped, he gaze going back to the luminous mushroom. Wouldn’t it taste good? A magical blue mushroom sounded like a perfect source of extra attribute points.
Then, Frӧst came out from under the mushroom too. He coughed heavily as he was doing his best to get that delicious fresh air.
Both of them exchanged a glance, then laughed. Luckyly they managed to get out of that weird place.
A low rumble could be heard, the ground trembling slightly. The two players turned their heads towards the direction of the sound, and by squinting their eyes they could see a small dust cloud coming closer.
A few seconds later, they could see the small radishes charging at them with mini forks and makeshift blades from within the cloud. Frӧst stepped back a couple of steps, while the granny looked on the scene with a smile.
After receiving the Radish Exterminator title, she thought that she would have no more opportunities to gather a few more radishes. They were afterall quite good as an improvised weapon.
However her smile froze as soon as she felt a big tremble after another. And not a moment later, a big, angry giant radish was running her way at full speed.
Even before her brain said so, the legs started running in the opposite direction. Even if she wanted to have a go at the radish guardian again, she would’ve picked a better place to have their show off.
She shuddered at the memory of her previous failed escape. “Hey, wait for me!” Frӧst was a few beats slower, and so he was a couple of meters behind her. But this time she didn’t think he would be that useful as a bait since last time the big radish came after her for revenge.
And seeing even how determined the little ones were chasing her, she feared that they weren’t going to stop anytime soon.