"Geez! What are these things!" Helio trambled as the body slammed into the floor with a very liquid 'plop'. It sounded as if someone fell from a very high ground like a building, suggesting that the body was indeed, extremely heavy that even Aefia struggled to stand on her knees with it hanging at the end of her sword.
"These creatures are said to prevent any humans from entering. This should be enough to tell you just how strong and terrifying the mage is. Don't keep you guard down because more of these are coming. This is just the first stage and if we can't get to that door in time, we will be eliminated and her lady and her son will be the only ones dealing with the reminder of the mission." Aefia explained while cluntching her sword tightly while having goosebumps appear on her hands.
Glowing cat-like pair of eyes appeared from the darkness covering the edges of the dungeon while stomping noises erupted from the far distance. Suddenly, the pair of glowing eyes and stomping noises exponentially grew and a completely white body appeared in front of them.
"The starting was more of a hybrid between a lion and a cat, so what is this supposed to be?!" Helio asked as he shivered due to the abrupt drop in temperature of the dungeon. "I don't know. The only thing I know is that if the temperature drops in your surroundings, it means your magic power is limited and you can only use your experience in combat to ward off danger." Aefia crouched to the ground just to see the face of the giant creature who was almost gnashing against the ceiling of the dungeon.
Standing at a height that dwarfs the humans beside it, this emaciated mutation manifested as a living nightmare, stripped of all warmth and humanity. Its skeletal frame was draped in a translucent, parchment like skin that clinged tightly to a huge ribcage and a jagged, saw toothed spine, creating a silhouette that was both fragile and lethally sharp.
The creature's tall but thin, spindly limbs terminated in unsettling, human like feet and clawed fingers, suggesting a predatory agility that defied its starved appearance. Every movement looked as though it would be accompanied by the sickening sound of grinding bone, while its unnatural posture, hunched and coiled, signaled a malevolent readiness to strike.
The sheer physical wrongness of its proportions, combined with its sickly, grayish complexion, made it look like a corpse that had refused to stay buried, radiating a cold, predatory sense that promised nothing but a slow, agonizing end for almost anything caught in its path.
The most paralyzing aspect of this entity lied in its grotesque, long head, which extended from a withered neck to stare directly into the soul of any observer. Its face was a void of empathy, dominated by massive, ink black empty sockets that lacked pupils or light, creating the impression of staring into an endless, bottomless abyss.
Below those hollow eyes, a jagged jaw revealed rows of needle thin teeth, set in a permanent, horrific grin that suggested intelligence rather than mere animal instinct. The creature's stillness was more threatening than any motion, as it loomed in the dim light like a manifested sleep paralysis demon brought into the physical realm.
Just looking at its distorted features triggered a primal terror, as if their very survival instincts were screaming that this being, was a fundamental violation of the natural order. Its presence didn't just fill a room, it poisoned the atmosphere with a heavy, suffocating sense of dread that still lingered long after you look away.
The blood of the weird creature wasn't actually red with closer look, rather, it was ink black and it eroded the ground where it fell. Aefia, now alert about the weird creature, abruptly stood up due to shock, causing her senses to blackout a split second and regain with no memory about her own situation.
"And what are we supposed to do again?" Aefia asked while looking up at the creature. Now that she had momentarily forgotten her present, she squated back down to touch the poisonous blood with her left index finger. She brought it to her nose and suddenly, she regained her memory about the dungeon and everything else.
"Shoot! This was poison!" Aefia tried to wipe it on the dirty dungeon floor, but she only succeeded by wiping off the visible parts of the poison, and the requirement to actually get affected by it, slipped into her brain with the high pressure of blood in her veins.
Once the poison is in my brain, I will start forgetting things, then it will progress to slowly killing more of my neutrons until I become paralyzed. But the only cure to this poison is probably with her lady right now. Counting from this second, I have exactly one hour to reach the third stage where I will switch partners. Until then, I will have to try my best at staying alive. Subtracting the time where I start to paralize from my feet, I have twenty minutes to reach that stage.
Aefia found it slightly difficult to move her fingers but she kept them wrapped around the hilt of her sword, so when she loses full function over her hands, she will still have the sword to block any attack reaching her. "We can't fight them. If that's what you are thinking." She told Helio once she saw his desperate face. "Because once you lay even the smallest scratch on them, they will immediately flee to protect the mage. That will only make the boss stage harder, so the only option we are left with is dogde and run."
"But if we can't fight, nor can we clear the way, than how are we expected to move towards the door? I can estimate that the door is exactly two kilometers away. Or at least one." Helio exaggerated. "How do we avoid their gaze if they move like giant indian elephants?!"
"It is simple, we crouch our way there. Remember how we used to play horror games back at Earth? We have to use that knowledge in this dimension too. The key rules will be to be silent, move only when you see a path, and turn into a statue when you feel like you are being watched." Aefia explained. "But I most recently saw you looking at something with a very cautious look on your face, what was it that got your nerves wrecked?"
"Oh that, that was a mysterious circular hole in the wall where I felt like something would sprint out any second. But that was also when you sprinted in and stabbed the lion-cat hybrid, so I forgot where it was." Helio replied while searching for the 'mysterious circular hole in the wall'. "Oh right! Found it, right between those two resting cat statues." He pointed at the extremely dark circle in the wall.
She moved her head ninety degrees to the right and saw the same thing. "Memorize the location. We will have to get some work done in there." Aefia finally added while devising a plan. "It seems that they are being summoned but the help of a much bigger force, their caster. Their odd body shapes tell me that they are also victims of a ritual that is still running. Once the ritual is ended, they will return to their dead state and this room while be cleared of threat."
"Then isn't it slightly obvious that the ritualist is currently hiding in that hole or whatever is behind it? Does that mean that you want to avoid interrupting this creatures and directly hunt down the main source in this chain?" Helio asked, now he was much calmer.
"You understood that. But the only problem is, we both can't go the same direction, otherwise these creatures will follow behind. You will have to got right while I will will left." Aefia looked through the entire room. "Or, we will have to see this as a riddle."
"What sort of riddle?"
"Those brain teasers one?"
"Then I am not really good at it."
"Don't worry about that. We will solve it anyway. To start, the creatures are far enough and traveling at a very slow speed, so you have an estimate of around fifteen to twenty minutes until they reach within this cirlce's ten meters threshold. Within that time, I will have to be at the one-eight point of the dungeon and maybe up to fifty meters away from the circle. The other problem here is, we will need to move at least eighty degrees away from our pivoting area so the monsters can't follow us.
"So I think it is safe to say that we already have half the plan ready and done. Now the main thing will be that both of us will have to reach the hole at the same time, not even a second delay. Because once we do, the monsters will be suspicious of our acts and charge at us at despicably fast speed. Faster than the blink of an eye, and that is because they are paranormal creatures and they have supernatural abilities like dissapearing within a split second while mentally attacking the victim." Aefia explained.
"The problem isn't that I guess, the problem is who is faster. My speed hasn't changed since on Earth and my element won't offer me extra strength too, so that leaves the only option as you having to take the longer route. Although, you did say that we are both limited in power, so what if, you use your power as a boost in different time intervals to propel you forward? Then you can use your spying skills to stay hidden from their vision for as long as they search you." Helio dropped an opinion.
"That works but their gaze can penetrate through 'as long as' few layers of concrete wall. They also have panaromic view so even if I try to escape from the other side, they would still be able to catch up with me and basically, that just means I am dead. We aren't playing a video game where once we fail, we can restart the fight until we manage to win it. For this, once one of us is eliminated, the other one needs to continue regardless of how impossible it is to continue as a single person team. And that too will be an impossible task to complete during the third stage."
"Third stage? How many stages are there?" Helio asked with concern.
"At most, five including the final boss. During the fourth stage too, we will stay separated, so converse most of your magic power in this stage itself. We need at least fifty percent of our magic powers remaining by the final stage. The third stage will require most magic power, especially for healers I remember."
Helio gulped, but stayed silent. He got distracted when Aefia was looking around the entire dungeon. The first cat statue is also slightly far away from the second statue. So what if, Helio's tragectory was slightly diverted away from the hole and more near to the second cat statue? And I was slightly closer to the fifth pillar from the first statue. There are exactly sixteen pillars in this room and fourteen lit candles at the end of each pillar, this must be a code to a random thing in the second stage. I propably won't remember it, but I will entrust Helio to it.
"I think I already have a plan. I will leave first in the direction of the fifth pillar from the first statue and you will move towards the second statue. You will have to get moving slightly earlier than usual. Once I have reached the first statue, you will have to already be at the second statue. Do you get all that? We don't have much time until we will have to already leave this spot."
"Can't we just ask an AI?" Helio asked clearly still distracted.
"..." Aefia stared at Helio before smacking hjs head from the back. He immediately turned around to face Aefia's angry face. "You are the most unserious person during a serious situation. Did you even hear what I just said?!"
"You told me to go directly towards the door? And what did I say?" Helio asked, nervous.
"Nevermind, you said 'ask AI'. To think that this world and dimension doesn't even have the internet, I think you need to forget about Earth and think about your current situation. It is the first thing to survive and the second ti think about returning." Aefia replied. "Now the thing I have asked you, you will have to go towards the second cat statue and reach their at the same time as me reaching the first cat statue. And I will need you to remember a code for the second stage, will you be able to do so?"
"Yes, I guess I have a strong memory as long as the code isn't hard to remember." Helio replied with a curious look on his face but Aefia already knew what he was about to ask. "Yes, I am currently a bit forgetful because the poison is already affecting my brain. That is why we need to hurry up before I start to paralize upon reaching the third stage. Just how much time has past? I don't think I have the luxury of time left until I freeze." She explained.
"Alright, then we need to get moving if the time is limited. So what is the code?"
"The code would be sixteen subtracted by fourteen. Remember all three numbers because I have already forgotten how to calculate basic math. I still don't understand why I choose to inspect the black liquid on the ground." Aefia smacked her head in continuous while saying. "Oh right, I will make my move. Once you notice me near the third pillar from the first statue, you will make your move."
She ran towards the end of the circle and jumped onto the crowd of white creatures while landing on her heels. She did that to avoid the creatures for keeping track of her movements and plunging into a large crowd was the same as falling into a foam ring at the indoor theme park.