After running for a while, both of them reached the entrance of a gigantic hall. The hall was as big as a football stadium. At the other end of the hall, there was a small door, possibly to the next room. And in the center of the hall was something, shrouded by darkness, slowly getting up as if something disturbed its slumber.
A sturdy black figure emerged from the darkness.
It was 30 m tall, and its body was made up of a black rock. Countless uncanny runes were carved on it's body. Its hands were like giant hammers, and its eyes glowed with a demonic red light.
"What the hell is this?!" Rick exclaimed, evidently shocked.
"It must be some kind of guardian. Can you kill it? If you can't, then let's turn around and run." Tirus advised. He was not a coward, but he wasn't stupid enough to deliberately put himself into life-death situations. From the looks of it, this was most probably an inheritance ground, so if he could survive this, then his gains would be immense.
"Hawke, go!" Tirus comanded Hawke to go and create a distraction, but the golem didn't notice it at all.
"It's not getting distracted, maybe because Hawke is already dead. Not like this, we will definitely die if we fight it directly, but If I were to use my first transfigured form, then there's a chance that we might be able to buy enough time to reach that door." Rick said as he pointed at the door.
"I wonder where Bilan is right now?" Rick thought, seemingly worried.
"Okay, Rick, you go and distract it, and I'll go to the door first and then cause distractions to buy time for you, you would have great regenerative abilities when you are in your transfigured form, so you should be able to do this." Tirus immediately gave Rick his plan.
"Okay, good plan." Rick nodded in agreement as he jumped in front of the tall black giant. His entire body's muscles bulged and started to turn green. His height increased by 3 times as he let of a roar.
*Grr*
Seeing Rick in this state, he couldn't help but think of the incredible hulk from his previous life.
*Bam*
*Bam*
*Bam*
Each and every one of his punches carried immense weight as he started punching the black giant golem at a rapid speed. However, it did not have any effect on the golem.
Sounds of bones breaking could clearly be heard, Rick howled in pain but didn't stop his barrage of fists.
"So the only thing we can do is run, eh." Tirus thought as he used his monstrously high agility to reach the door at the other side of the hall in a few seconds, along with Hawke.
"Sluggish spell!"
"Shadow embodiment"
Tirus immediately cast two spells after reaching the door. The sluggish spell made the golem's movement two times slower than its original speed, and the shadow embodiment conjured an illusion of a living creature which cased the golem to focus its attention on it.
"Rick, fast!" Tirus hushed in a low voice, but due to the use of some unknown method, the voice could clearly be heard by Rick.
Rick, seeing the giant golem chasing the illusory creature, started sprinting towards the door as well.
"Argh!" Rick screamed in agony as the side effect of the transfiguration started taking a toll on his body, his body started to return to its original size, but by that time he had already entered the next room with Tirus.
Transfiguring one's body with green metal tree permanently increased one's longevity, and it also had many paths for further development, but in the earlier stages, it wasn't the best when it came to the side effects such as pain after using the transfiguration.
…
In another hall,
A red haired girl, holding a magic staff in her right hand, was fighting hundreds of thousands of gray ants desperately.
These gray ants were extremely violent and were now all over her body, bringing excruciating pain with each bite.
"Will this ever end? Oh! god, I don't want to die!!" She thought as her entire body started trembling as she understood the severity of her situation.
She was now bleeding all over. It was as if she was being flayed alive.
"I should've listened to them." She thought as she abandoned all hopes of her survival and out her right hand on her head.
"Fi…. Fireball ." She took in a deep breath as she cast the fireball spell of herself. Ending her life. The thought of her being slowly eaten by hundreds of thousands of ants had terrified her to such an extent.
Just a small mistake had cost her this much.
To be continued.....