Rahz passed through the magic screen and arrived to the other side to find that it was nothing like the outside walls. There were no expensive materials that shone like chandeliers, there was no luxury, only ruins and decay.
5000 years had passed since the Fifth Gate was destroyed by the dragonkin and the few things that continued to work were powered up by the Elementium, this was a testament to the amazing properties of the material. The Elementium attracted mana spontaneously and with that Mana it was able to empower a few of the gate's most basic functions, this included the arcane screen that kept the water out, continuous air recycling, and most importantly, the alarm system.
The moment Rahz's feet touched the floor inside the Fifth Gate, the entire outer wall started blinking while a loud noise that seemed to reach every corner of the place reverberate through.
Bweep Bip Bip Bweep Bip Bip….
Elune and the others came inside and were received by the extremely loud noise and didn't know what to make of the situation.
"What did you do Rahz?"
"I didn't do anything, I just came in and haven't moved since"
At the same time, Riddick smelled the air and said " EEWWW…Rotten food"
The alarm quiet down after a few minutes and a powerful voice that seem to come from a few floors below where they were standing said, "INTRUDERS HAVE COME TO DIE, LET'S NOT KEEP THEM WAITING"
Rahz and his team heard the voice and their faces said, "Oh Shit" Footsteps were heard all over the place and the team got ready to rock and roll. Rahz step forward to receive the incoming enemies but the first group of undead crawled through gaps inside the walls that had decayed with the years. To everyone surprise the undead were not brittle or slow at all.
GROWLLL!
A muffled growled came from the undead soldiers that despite being all bones radiated the pressure of level 15s and moved really fast, it was their gate to defend and they would do it fearlessly. The sudden onrush caught the team by surprise and in that of moment of crisis Elune made a very rational decision and told the whole team to jump back out.
Rahz was the one farthest away from the screen and as he was running back out, he caught a slash to his shoulder blades that made him grimace.
Outside in the lake, Elune and the others were being questioned by the Royal Guard who could not believe that the team that went in literally a minute before came back out with pale faces.
"Did you guys chicken out, they are barely level 15s on the first floor how can you be so weak?"
"Hey!!! you better cool it buddy, it is a loony house in there and we need a plan before heading back in, I even caught a sword to the back, see.."
With her hands folded across her chest Elune said, "If it wasn't for this curse, I would say we need to leave right now Rahz. Thank you for this near death experience Rahz".
The rest of the team just nodded their heads.
Rahz flinched at Elune's words and knew he had messed up,however, there was nothing he could do now for the team except to successfully complete the mission given by the specter and get rid of the curse.
"It looks like they can't follow us outside. This is Awesome!!!"
"What are you so happy about? What is so awesome about it?"
"DAH!!! If they can't follow us, all we need to do is run back out every time we are in trouble and we'll be safe".
Everyone's faces lit up as they realized that this might actually be a great thing for them. All they need it now to make the opportunity more perfect was for all the enemies to provide them with juicy energy experience.
Rahz and the others put their heads together and came up with a very simple plan. Riddick's job would be to rain fire and decimate anything coming from the far side while Rahz cut down anything coming through the cracks on the walls and Midori just needed to defended the rear.
The inside of the gate followed the shape of the dome and to the left and right of the main entrance there were two halls that followed a round curvature and stop about halfway through the structure where the hall did a 90 degree turn towards the middle, where a huge room guarded by a very powerful individual stood. In short, all the roads led to the main room. Whether you took the right hallway, the left hallway or walk across the mid courtyard, if you wanted to head to the basement, you needed to defeat all enemies no questions asked.
The team waited outside for 15 minutes while the area clear out, No intruders meant No defensive protocol, there was no need for the soldiers to stay there and all the undead went back to patrolling their usual area. The team iron out some wrinkles and this time cross the barrier together.
The voice was heard once more and the sound of footsteps started coming closer and closer, the moment Riddick saw a couple of shadows, he lifted his hands and cast his go to spell " Destroy!!Destroy!!" The magic circle appeared in the roof of the Gate and Chaos Energy started raining down on the area 20 ft in front of the group.
The undead were fearless!!
They ran through the fire and attack with their rusted weapons but before they could come close to the team they were disintegrated into ash by the fire that had a great advantage vs undead. On the back side of the hall Midori was having a hard time, the undead were immune to poison and disease so.. that made 60% of Midori's skills useless.
It was trial and error at this point and if it wasn't for the timely ward by Elune, the basilisk would have been gravely hurt. Every swing by the soldiers was covered by unholy energy and was extremely harmful to the living.
HISS! HISS!!
Midori's pride was hurt when she was sent flying by the attacks, but she stood back up like a cobra while her body was covered with a dark grey aura and she used her tail like a whip with extraordinary force.
BOOM!
The tail hit the undead soldiers like a wrecking ball knocking and shattering the front soldiers and sending the ones in the back tumbling like bowling pins. It took them a few seconds to stand back up but the moment they moved to attack, the grey aura around Midori's body started moving upwards while the pressure exude by her explode it with power and made the hairs on Rahz stand up.
Rahz couldn't help but look in Midori's direction to see what was happening but was tackled by Elune to the floor.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Elune put her hands on Rahz's eyes and close her own fast.
WHOOSH!!!
A blinding grey light shot out of Midori's eyes that illuminated the whole hallway, all the undead in front of her started to solidify into stone and some of the ones that were in motion fell to the floor and broke into pieces.
Petrifying Gaze
It was the first time the Basilisk used her most powerful skill and even if Rahz did not look into her eyes and just look in her direction, the residual petrifying energy would had at least paralysed him for a few minutes.
Riddick was the farthest away from Midori and he still manage to feel the wave of energy assailed him. Riddick shiver and then turn back to see what was going on and saw Rahz on the floor and 5 different soldiers dropping from the ceiling.
"Judgement! Punishment! Chains of chaos energy shot out of a magic circle in the ceiling and manage to capture the Undead about to drop on Rahz and Elune. Riddick scream while running back to the group and yelling "RUN!!!"
Midori slithered back and grabbed Elune while riddick grab Rahz and both jump out of the screen.
"Wow.. thanks guys, that was extremely close".
Riddick smile and said, " I want BBQ" while Midori nodded her head.
Rahz looked at the 2 meat junkies he had created and said " let's rest and recovered before heading back in, it looks like the Energy we can gain is almost non existent but the good news is that we can help you, sir Guard ".
The moment the specter got reassurance from Rahz, a big smile appeared on his face making him look extra creepy.
Rahz and the others waited for the area to clear and went back in one more time. Just as predicted, it took a little longer for the soldiers to reach the entrance to the zone and this proved that their strategy was working.
Rahz switched roles with Midori and took the right side while the basilisk was responsible for protecting Elune and destroying any undead dropping from the ceiling or coming through the holes on the walls.
The new strategy provided them with way better results almost immediately. It wasn't that Rahz was way stronger than Midori but in this particular case, Chaos Energy provided twice the results for half the effort.
Little by little the team was able to start moving along the tunnels but the progress was very slow. The main issue was that whether they move left or they move right, in order to escape through the screen they had to kill their way back.
Rahz and the others had lost count of how many undead they had killed in all their attempts but it was in the hundreds. Every time they got injured they had to move back and step out to rest, this made their progress extremely difficult due to the fact that every 3 days they were back to square one.