Rahz and the others had already experienced the taunts of the voice so many times that it was just another day at the office for them. They continued down the hallway with smiles on their faces while the exasperation of the voice ratified their decision to just go down for a couple more hallways before turning back towards the entrance to receive the mode change.
At the end of the hall there was a circular room and the light they saw from time to time in the distance before actually came from a merry go around type of challenge with four columns that discharge lightning balls at three different heights bottom, middle,and the top. This setup made sure that the warrior had to walk to the other side in between columns that move around like a revolving door. The challenge was relatively simple as mode 001 was an introductory level and the speed of the columns was on the slow side. Despite all this, it still required good timing from the challenger as walking a little slow would get them hit by the lightning door moving forward from the back and if they went too fast you would be hit by the lightning in the front.
This time around, the tailless Midori refused to go first and the responsibility fell on Riddick who just sneered at Midori for not stepping up.
Riddick waited for a couple of seconds and stepped in between the lightning doors before walking along the revolving room leisurely to the otherside. Riddick was pretty pleased with himself as he managed to show off in front of the others in what looked like a extremely easy challenge but it all changed when the feeling of impending doom assailed him all of the sudden.
Chin .. chin .. chin
Riddick activated his shield as quickly as he could to stop whatever was coming his way but if it wasn't for the sound of the attacks hitting his shield, nobody would have been able to tell that something was trying to kill Riddick while he was going through the lightning door.
Riddick believed that he had managed to stop the trap successfully and continue to move through the revolving door but he realized very soon that it was not the case. There was pain coming from the right side of his body and both his right arm and right leg were not responding to his command to move.
"HE...HELP!!!"
Riddick use all his willpower to move his leg forward but he could barely lifted.
The called for help woke everyone up and Elune cast 3 spells back to back. Eidolic Ward, Cure Ailments, and Nature's Healing. As Riddick limped forward to keep up with the lightning device, he looked at his right arm and saw two star like objects buried deep inside his skin.
RAWWRR
Riddick screamed in Rage as he used his left hand to take them out. The moment he removed them, the outstanding vitality of the demon race kick in and repair the damage.
Clink.. Clink.. Clink
More and more of this star looking objects kept hitting both shields and dropping to the ground. Thanks to Elune's Elementium Flower, wards kept coming none stop keeping Riddick from receiving further damage and buying time for the team to react to the new treat.
The enraged Riddick started dropping Chaos Fire on the hallway he was heading to, but it hit noone. Rahz saw the trouble his best friend was in and started to panic, without thinking it twice he jump in the next space available in the revolving lightning doors and head it after Riddick.
Rahz had a bad feeling about the situation and flashbacks of the moment Legolas appeared behind his father and stabbed him in the heart kept popping in his mind.
Riddick managed to get off the artifact and walk in 5 ft before sitting down to take care of the star like objects in his legs. Blood kept flowing down but at least he was finally on the other side and it look like there was no more traps for the moment. Riddick kept his shield up just to be safe but the one provided by Elune was dissipating and there was no way to get another as Elune was still in the other hallway.
Rahz was starting to lose it while moving along the lightning carousel, as the rage was building up, his eyes started to flash red in color and the images of the people that die defending Helgahvall kept flashing through.
ARGGHH!!
Rahz Energy was increasing at a rapid pace, and it was blinking in and out of existence outside his body.
Everything happened really fast or really slow depending on their distance to the series of events, for Elune that was looking from a distance it took a sec, but for Rahz and Riddick it took an eternity.
All Elune saw was Rahz throwing his Axe at Riddick and hitting the wall close to his head before he rushed forward in his bloodlust state with his knife at the ready.
Clink..Clink
From Riddick's perspective, there was nothing in the hallway and he was confident that if more of this star devices came his way the 2 shields that were currently on him could ensure his survival, so all his attention was in removing the foreign object in his legs. As Elune's Ward dissipate three things happened at the same time, the door of lightning in front of Rahz started to open towards Riddick's hallway as a wisp of Dark Smoke started to materialize close to Riddick and the energy going out of control outside Rahz's body went inside and Bloodlust activated.
The moment the door opened towards the hallway where Riddick was healing, Rahz saw the familiar scene of a black figure materializing while grabbing the sword by their waist ready to strike in one swift motion. Thanks to the Bloodlust, Rahz was able to react in time and threw his Axe with both hands at the shadow. The Axe traveled so fast it looked like it warped besides the shadow that had to cancelled his attack and activated a defensive skill.
The axe cut through the smoke left behind by Master Chrysalis and bounce off the wall three inches above Riddicks head. Rahz immediately took out his knife and rush in, while an undead fade into existence 20 feet away from Riddick further down the hallway.
Seeing Rahz reaching the side of his prey the Undead clad in a black attire flip backwards a couple of times rapidly while sending Star looking projectiles before disappearing in the shadows.
Thanks to his Bloodlust, Rahz speed increased significantly and was able to stop two out of the three range weapons thrown at him before taking a star from his left arm.
"Are you ok Rid"
With a smiled on his face Riddick said, "Yes, Kin!!"
Elune and Midori arrived into the hallway and the group was covered once more in defensive wards.
"What happened? All I saw was Rahz go crazy and then his axe hit the wall"
Rahz eyes came back to normal as he kept his vigilance up and said, "It was the Second Guardian, he is similar to the person that killed my father so I couldn't control my rage but thanks to that I was able to stop him from killing Riddick. He is definitely a master".
The team rested for a while before deciding if they should continue with their expedition for a little longer. Rahz also took this time to put the star looking objects in his storage space before holding one and inspecting it.
The weapon was a four side star with each of the sides finishing in a very sharp point that could penetrate a material even harder than itself. In the middle of the star there was hole that help with the grip of the device and although the weapon was black in color, upon closer inspection, it was an illusion caused with some sort of paint as the material of the weapon seem to be really good Iron.
Rahz put away the throwing weapon and continued guarding the team alongside Midori while Elune helped Riddick recovered.
"We have about 3 hours left, I think we should continue for a little bit longer and then start heading back". Said Rahz
The team agreed and started to move in unison once more, the appearance of the second guardian had thrown a wrench into their plans but it was all part of the mission. If they wanted to leave the Fifth Gate there was only one thing to do and that was to move forward.