34. Level Six- Demonic Tilt-a-Whirl
CHAPTER 34
Level Six- Demonic Tilt-a-Whirl
Rez
“ I ’m scared to ask what that does,” Lynx comments on the glowing pentagram on the floor. I’m in the same group as before: Ryker, Knots, Reaper, Lynx, and myself, and now we’re faced with a new trial, but I have no idea how this one works. What the hell are we supposed to do now?
It takes up the entire room from edge to edge and engraved into the stone floor are symbols that glow a reddish-orange. I have no idea what those symbols mean but since we’re on Beleth’s level, they aren’t suggesting a walk in the park. On the other side of the massive pentagram is a lever and the safe house.
“Well, we won’t know unless we step on it,” Ryker suggests.
“It doesn’t look like we have a choice since that’s the only way, and the clock is still ticking,” Lynx concurs.
“I hate that you guys are right.” I take a deep breath before stepping onto the pentagram and bracing myself for anything. When nothing happens, I let it out while looking over my shoulder, giving everyone a tentative smile with a thumbs up. With looks of trepidation, the others slowly step onto the glowing symbols as well.
“Easy peasy.” JP chuckles.
As soon as he laughs, a loud click rings out, and the platform jerks to life, rising from the ground and causing us to lose our balance. Falling, I grab the closest thing to me—Reaper—and hold on for dear life, burying my face into his fur until the ground stops shaking. Sensing the tremors stopping, I pull away and look around, only to see the pentagram has separated and shifted apart. I have no idea how that could happen when it takes up the whole room, but now I’m looking down at Lynx on a different section of the pentagram, and I have to peer up at JP on another.
“Is everyone okay?” Knots asks with a concerned tone.
We all confirm that we are fine as I check over Reaper. The sound of gears clanking rings out before the floor jerks again, and our platform starts moving. It’s slow, but mine starts rising and slowly moves around to replace JP’s position. The colors below my feet change to a bright green, but before I can call out the change, Knots does.
“My colors on my section have turned to blue. Have they changed for anyone else?”
Reaper barks and jerks out of my arms, pulling my attention away from the swirling green pattern. Coming from the wall are trees! Long-limbed, soulless eyes, jagged teethed, fully grown walking trees, and they looked pissed. What the hell did I do to them? As one takes a swing at me, I duck as one thing becomes clear: I don’t have anything to really fight them with. My glaives are good for flesh and bone, not petrified wood. My P.M.S. needles are good for the same thing. The only thing that would be good to take them out would be fire, but Bez already nixed the idea when I couldn’t conjure it, only redirect and manipulate its direction during our training.
As Reaper weaves between the trees, one of the limbs gets too close to him, and flames ignite. Stupefied, I smack myself in the face before calling Reaper over. God, I’m slow sometimes.
“Reaper, I need your fire,” I tell him.
Knox told me my little puppers is smart, so I’m hoping he knows what I’m talking about. I can’t conjure fire, but I can direct it if I concentrate. Loyally, Reaper shoots his flames higher off his mane, allowing me easy access to his fire.
Swooping my hand through his flames, I lift a fireball into my hand and fling it to the nearest walking tree in one smooth motion. Thankfully, all I feel is the heat, but not the pain. Granted, I’m sure if I held it in my hand much longer, I might. No, the pain I feel is deep in my gut with each fireball that I pull from Reaper’s mane.
The tree screams as it goes up in flames, and I continue throwing fire until they wake up and scamper away into a tight cluster in a corner, abandoning their attack.
Once they move into their huddle, I notice a ladder embedded into the wall. What does that go to? But before I can check, Lynx’s platform starts rising as mine lowers.
“Rez, hurry,” Lynx yells, leaning over the edge with his arm outstretched to me. Picking up Reaper, I take off, running toward him. I need to reach it before my platform passes his. Thankfully, he grips my wrist in a crushing hold and yanks me up as his platform raises past mine. Reaper wiggles free as we roll onto Lynx’s platform.
I catch my breath while looking at his glowing silver platform.
“What came out of your platform?” I ask, sitting up and seeing long round skins lying around that are no longer or wider than a finger.
“Brillo Worms,” Lynx tells me as he cocks his eyebrow and helps me up.
“Brillow Worms? What the hell are those, and how did you defeat them?”
“Nasty worms that secrete a liquid through their pores that erode and break down your skin. The only way to defeat them is my specialty.” He breaks out in a grin from ear to ear.
“Peeing on them,” we say simultaneously.
The platform shudders for a moment before it speeds up, rotating around and raising up enough for me to see the safe house a few platforms down in the distance. Ryker races up the ladder, but the next platform tilts and knocks him off. My breath hitches for a moment before Ryker falls easily into Knots’ arms while airborne for a brief moment before landing on JP’s platform.
“How in the hell are we going to get off of these things and make it to the safe house while we’re on a demonic tilt-a-whirl in Satan’s toilet?” Lynx grumbles.
“I have no clue, but we only have a few minutes to figure it out,” I point out, indicating the ticking clock. We have ten minutes left, and with the floor swirling with colors, I can only guess we’re in for another fight.
Once the color stops on a brilliant yellow, the ground begins shaking as human-size daisies pull themselves out of the ground. They could almost be cute if it weren’t for their menacing stalks covered with sharp thorns. Their leaves become hands and feet, and their petals flare with their anger like that one dinosaur that spits acid before it devours its prey. Talk about intimidating.
“We have to fight measly plants?” Lynx scoffs.
On cue, the plants shake out their hands into razor blades.
“Lynx, have you ever considered just shutting your mouth?” I sigh, reaching for my glaives.
“And deprive the world of my awesomeness? No way.” He gives me a wink before turning into a creature that can only be described as an armored battle otter the size of a wolf. He’s a black shadow as he runs toward the first group of daisies and uses his claws, teeth, and tail to slice through them. I don’t have long to admire his work before a mob of enemies is on me.
Even with the knowledge of where to cut and how to move, I can’t keep up with the overwhelming amount of flora. I cut down one, and two seem to appear in its place. Small cuts and knicks get through my defenses while I try to keep my footing as the floor tilts and my concentration slips on my shield, slowing down my progress.
Fuck. When will this stop?
‘Lynx, I can’t keep up!’ I cry out, knowing we’re running out of time and I’m being no help.
‘I’m coming, Rez. Just hold on!’ he tells me.
But I glimpse him between a few daisies and watch as more enemies pile onto him, and my heart sinks. I’m mentally exhausted, but they keep on coming. A chime rings, and afterward, ticking from a clock rings out the seconds. I turn around to attack another daisy and glance up at the clock. Two minutes left and at impossible odds.
I want to believe I’m strong and not scared, but this is our lives on the line, and this time, it’s not a game. If we fail, we don’t pop back up in some graveyard to try this level again. If we fail, we spend eternity here and become Beleth’s fucking puppets. I’m all for playing video games, but not for my entire afterlife.
The ground jerks, making me lose my balance and fall to the floor. I only get a moment to look up before green distorts my vision, and I see the glint of a razor's edge of a leaf aiming for my neck when it jerks and evaporates in a blink, and the ground stops moving. I’m momentarily stunned as I look around and try to figure out what the hell just happened.
“Rez! Hurry!” Lynx yells and hauls me up against him, helping my balance as the pentagram slams back into place, becoming whole once again.
Our feet are pounding the level ground before I know it and racing towards…Reaper! My baby is standing next to the lever I spotted when we first came in, and he’s barking at us furiously as if urging us on.
How the hell did he even get up there?
Better question: why do I even care? He just saved our lives, and here I am contemplating the why behind it. I must have been hit in the head by one of those flowers. I urge my legs to move faster and dig deep, willing myself just to keep moving even though my body wants to collapse.
Just a little further.
I catch sight of JP and Ryker piling through the front door of the safe house with Knots wrangling a hyper Reaper in the rear with only a few seconds to spare. The truth hits me as the last seconds on the clock tick by, and Beleth’s sinister laugh rings out throughout the cavern. We are too far away to make it.
With only one second left on the clock, I rip my hand out of Lynx’s grip, push all my energy into a shield, and throw it out.
‘I love you, Lynx. Please take care of each other.’ With that last thought, I propel Lynx like a torpedo into the safe house without me right as the buzzer blows, and my world goes black once again.