Red, it was all painted red. The soft green glow from the mysterious wires on the walls burned red. The white button-down shirt wrapped around Emile dripped fresh, crimson blood.
Seven scarlet crystals hovered in the air around the contentious duo and a subtle, red glow breathed life into Blood's crystal arm.
"Two more ahead!" Blood shouted.
Emile readied the dagger and sprinted down the corridor towards the two Wooden Puppets equipped with long swords. Emile dropped into a slide and slammed into the ankles of one of the puppets.
As the puppet fell, Emile pushed the dagger into its chest. He slid across the ground, dodging a strike from the other puppet, jumped up then slid the dagger's edge along the puppets neck.
[Chosen Wooden Puppet Slain]
[Chosen Wooden Puppet Slain]
After slaying the two puppets Emile ran and caught up to Blood who went ahead. After blowing a hole in the labyrinth walls the atmosphere changed.
Beasts from the trials were suddenly released throughout the maze. Vampiric Wolves and Wooden Dolls were the only enemies Emile and Blood had run into thus far, but that didn't mean the other monstrosities weren't here somewhere; lurking in the dark, behind the next corner, watching them from a distance waiting for an opportunity.
Emile and Blood needed to get out of the maze. If they could, they would have returned to the trial arenas where they had structures and towers to utilize to their advantage, but Chief Khan was there, hunting them like the rest of the beasts.
Then the only option was to clear the maze and come out on the other side. So they ran.
Emile and Blood soared down the hundreds of paths within the maze. They constantly ran into the wolves and puppets and decided that Emile would deal with groups of three or less on his own.
As Blood put it, "it only sticks when your life is on the line" and since they were constantly under attack and Emile was out of essence, now was the perfect time to train.
Blood turned another corner ahead and a bright flash of light burst from the passageway. Emile turned the corner and a wave of flames was about to crash down onto him.
A wall of ruby hardened in front of Emile, successfully blocking the flames. The wall loosened and returned to Blood's side, allowing Emile to see their opponent clearly.
It looked like a dual candle holder, but massive. An eight foot tall silver pole at the center. Two arched limbs each holding a plate with flames overflowing over its edges.
The abomination hovered about a foot off the ground and brought one of the plates full of flames to its head. The creature blew onto the flames, rolling them off of the silver plate until they crashed down into a wave of flames.
Blood pushed Emile back behind the corner before the flames drowned them. Exhausted, Blood wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned to Emile.
"Can we go around?" He asked.
"No—" Emile coughed, the scorched air burning the inside of his lungs, "we can't go back!"
"Awesome!" Blood responded sarcastically.
Blood jumped into the corridor with the flame spewing creature. The beast immediately put its flames to its lips and blew towards Blood.
Blood quickly prepared a single crystal spear and hurled it at the obscene creature then ducked behind cover with Emile once more. The flames passed by them and a loud bang echoed through the maze.
Blood peaked around the corner once more and another onslaught of waves crashed by.
"I don't even think I dented it, that thing is tough." Blood announced.
"So what do you need to do? Bigger spear? Make it spin?" Emile asked.
"Yeah I'm sure your charm would work, but that'll be the last attack from me for a while."
"You're out of essence?!" Emile exploded, "You've never run out of essence!"
"Okay and? That doesn't mean I can't!"
"Do you think we can just run past it?" Emile asked.
"Run past it?! Do you hear yourself?! That would never work!"
"Why not?!"
"…"
***
"One! Two! Three!" Emile shouted.
On three, Blood bolted into the corridor with the flame spewed. He ran to the wall on the other side and constructed a crystal shield to protect him.
Moments later an ocean of flames crashed into the crystal shield, dispersing the flames all around the corridor. The second the flames dissipated Emile shot out into the passageway and hugged the wall opposite of Blood.
Emile ran down the corridor towards the creature while Blood did the same on the other side. The silver candelabra brought the plate of flames to its lips and unleashed the torrent of heat.
Blood split his shield and sent a piece in front of Emile, it wasn't large enough to block all the flames, but Blood angled the shield to a fine point. The flames crashed into each of the boy's shields and slid along the sides sending the majority of the flames away.
Emile tried to jump over the flames escaping beneath the shield and burning his legs. He soared by the candelabra and continued running to the end of the corridor. Meanwhile, Blood was only a few steps behind him.
The candelabra slowly rotated around to follow the boys, but by the time it turned around the boys had already made it to another path.
"Just keep running!" Emile shouted.
Blood had fallen considerably behind. Ever since they ran past the candelabra he's been turning back to see if it was following them. After running for so long down the new path, he muttered under his breath, "I can't believe that worked."