[Character 'Kaleb' personal attribute is in affect and has used his personal skill 'Shun from Bravery']
Kaleb was brought to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. I wanted to help him, but the daunting figure just stood there.
Without warning, they brought up their arms to surrender and spoke.
"What's the problem here?
As the figure stepped away from behind the flames, the fire now reflected across his face. It was Jon. He was wearing that stupid grin of his and in his hands appeared to be a spear. His eyes moved sporadically on all of us, probably expecting some type of welcome.
Enraged couldn't even describe the emotion I was feeling towards him, before I could stop myself, my feet moved by themselves and marched in front of him.
His stupid mouth was about to open, but a hand soared through the sky and slapped him with excessive force.
[Readers are appalled by your actions to your friend!]
[More Readers have signed the petition]
"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" I shouted, echoing throughout the tree.
He grabbed onto his face where a red mark began to show, he looked to stunned to speak, it was a moment until he opened his mouth.
"First off, ouch. Second of all, what's with the defensive stances? It looks like you were ready to beat someone up"
"Because we thought you were a threat! You didn't announce yourself or use the transceiver!" My ears started to ring, drowning any other noise "Oh but of course you don't see any problem with anything you do because its all a game!"
My lips moved in the same way when Jon lies, except mine was a filthy habit stemmed from myself, this rant went on for a while.
It was my shouting that seemed to get Kaleb to his feet, it looked as if he just woke up from a bad dream onto another, because his pale gaze was fixated on whatever was behind us. The others were waking up too and shouting to themselves, my ears were still ringing.
It was about now when I felt an extreme heat hit my face, I turned my head towards the entrance to see a lot of it on fire! Heavy smoke began to rise and fill the lip of the cave, the others were already packaging their things as the black smoke reached our camp position.
"This is what you did, you damn screwup"
I ended things by pushing him on purpose and walked away.
He proceeded to just stand there, looking at the ground and muttering an apology. Eventually, Clay got his attention and he rushed to help the others get their things.
"We need to go further into the tunnel, get to higher ground before the carbon monoxide replaces our air!" Peter exclaimed.
Having our only known exit now blocked, we didn't have much of a choice but go further into the tunnel to escape the flames. I turned on the flashlight from my tactical baton and Alec seemed more than happy to use their projection as a light source.
I noticed my hand I used to slap Jon and the one holding the baton had this weird, slimy substance. It was green in color and started to discolor already. What did I do to get this?
While traversing the creepy tunnel, the others began to question how a major fire ignited, As much as I wanted to tell them it was entirely Jon's fault, I had lied instead, it's the least I could do for slapping him.
"Some strange creature had come through, but I don't think it knew what fire was and it ran through it. It's fur caught fire and ran through the leaves in a frenzy"
I felt my lips curling up and hid my mouth, pretending to yawn.
They didn't seem to notice and nodded with acceptance, because now a slurry of questions arose for Jon about where he went and why he held a spear, but Kaleb and Clay both gave me looks.
I'm pretty sure Clay figured out I had lied about something, and Kaleb already knew the truth, but for a split second, I swear Jon gave me this weird glare that I've never seen him do. Almost as if, he wondered why I lied for him.
Then my sailboat began its voyage for a while only to be halted when Jon spoke about his travels. How he wandered around the tree for a bit and finding that relic of a spear. It was rusted on its tip but had a sort of craft to its metal like a writer's penmanship. It once had elegance, which begs to question what that belonged to....
Wait.
He said he went around the tree. I thought Marcus stated he went inside the tree?
Things weren't adding up, so I interrupted mid-conversation and confronted him.
"I thought you told Marcus you were going inside the tree, not around it"
He just stood there, shocked, then began to stutter.
"we-Well You-I Ummm... "
Everyone stopped in their tracks and examined this phenomenon, we all know he could immediately come up with a somewhat believable lie if he wanted to, but he was hesitating, what was he trying to hide?
"The truth is. I never went further inside the tree and went back outside through another exit. I did not want to worry everybody, but the more we go down this path. We will confront two people. I witnessed one of them onslaught the residents of this place and the other was just a nuisance"
Holy crap! He was just hiding this information, knowing our only way was going to lead us to these people. Were they contestants? If so, how didn't we spot them? Also, since when were there things living inside this gigantic tree. I wonder if they are some hidden race of elves or maybe-
I couldn't keep my mind from floating as the others had questions along the lines of mine, more importantly, Jon knows of another exit, he told how we must push forward until we reach an impasse.
The tunnel ran for ages, with these weird twists and turns with those pale roses growing on the walls, the wood seemed aged as if these paths had been dug out for a very long time.
Milo did say that we were transported to a new 'setting' which in most comics and manga is just a different world, I wonder if its filled with magical creatures or fictional races. My sailboat ran free with the idea of tree elves all living in harmony, singing their foreign songs and using their connection with nature to help further themselves or the environment.
It was about this time I snapped out of this fantasy to find that we had entered a large room hollowed from the Tree. There was furniture consisting of elegantly crafted desks and chairs scattered around the room, depicting the story of either disorganized people or those that tried to leave in a hurry.
On the other side of this room was another path that lead deeper, but Jon came forward to state that he would go further in because he knew what to look out for. Most of us agreed because we knew about that ability of his, so it was easier for him to get out of sticky situations.
While he ventured for our safeties, everyone already had their weapons out, but we all scattered around the room out of curiosity. I knew this was a bad idea, although, what if there's hidden loot or something that can tell us about the people here.
I wounded up reaching a desk in the corner that seemed to have been carven from when they made this room as it was connected to the wall itself, almost reminding me of a clerk job.
Going around the desk in hopes of finding loot, there was instead this strange football shaped object that stood upright from the ground and was made up from a sticky substance. Bringing the group around, we pondered what on earth that thing was. Kaleb poked it with a stick and the football thing reacted.
All of us fell back and hid on the other side of the desk, peeking our heads out in case something blew up.
"What do you think it is?" Clay whispered.
"I believe it is chrysalis, though I would need a better look at its natural makeup to confirm" Peter whispered back.
We all shook our heads in agreement like we knew what he said, however, he recognizes that none of us knew what he was talking about. He sighed at our intelligences and mentioned it was a cocoon. A series of quieted 'Ahhs' spread amongst us.
Without warning, Jon had now came back and mentioned things were safe, so we left the room in a hurry in case whatever was in that cocoon wanted to eat us. Strangely enough, I noticed Clay wasn't with us until he arrived a minute later coming from the room we just left.
In between huffs, he apologized to us, stating he forgot his wand on a chair. Though I noticed something was off from his speech pattern, or maybe it was because he was out of breath. Whatever suspicions I had were long gone due to my own blindness for my cousin, the path continued for another series of long minutes.
We eventually made it to the said impasse. There were four paths, and there was no smell of smoke too, which was hopefully a good sign.
I also noticed a small light coming from the pale flowers when I shined my flashlight.
"So Johnny-Boy , which way to the exit" Scott asked nonchalantly.
"I don't remember" He replied with ignorance.
We all facepalmed, of course this happened AGAIN.
"I got us this far, I think we should split up!" Jon said with excitement.
"NO!" we all barked back.
"That's how people start to die off in horror movies" Bridgette chimed in.
"Maybe we can all just vote for one path and stick with it" I reminded.
The topic of choosing our paths was a little long because we didn't want to choose our demise, however, I noticed Jon had slinked away towards the wall near a weirdly shaped branch that had a white rose growing on its end.
He approached the flower and gently held it, smelling the inside of it and almost shivering with this weird excitement. I know the guy is weird but that didn't stop me from watching this almost sinister grin form on his face, one I have never seen before.
I was going to ask what his problem was, but he grabbed the branch and yanked it back like a lever.
There was no time to react as the floor below us caved in at a slope that slid into new holes underneath each tunnel. We all slid into one of the paths into pairs, I was the only one who went down the middle one.
Beyond the echoing screams erupting from all of us, my baton slipped from my grasp; Sliding past me further down this slope. The flashlight had been bouncing around, hitting the walls where I saw glimpses of those flowers. I was taken for a ride as my body flipped and twirled going down this hell of a slide.
Eventually the decline cut off and was straightened where I slid for a little longer before bumping into a bunch of metallic objects.
It felt like a bucket was on my head and when I took it off, my hands felt dirtied by touching the bucket. It was rust.
I had the recurring question of why Jon would do something like this, maybe it was one of his dumb plans again, but that smile. A shiver went down my spine as that image glued itself in my mind, it was like the smile of a killer.
I saw the light of my baton's flashlight a little further down this place I now find myself in, it still was the same wooden floors, but it was smoothened out like stone.
Snatching my baton and flashing my surroundings, I was in another room of some sort, there were stands of rusted, out-worldly armor sets and I shined my light to where I would have entered to see I landed into a pile of now clattered armor.
On the walls where weapon racks laid were instead covered by vines and the occasional pale flower that reached the ceiling.
[***]
Suddenly, a small light appeared behind me, revealing a long hallway, then another, then a barrage of them turned on, almost leading me in that direction. Seeing no other way, I followed the lights.
I looked at what was causing these lights and it was none other than the flowers we have been finding everywhere. After a couple of minutes, I stumbled into a large room that almost resembled a miniature, roman coliseum carved into the wooden walls. Each side had an entrance where a gladiator would come from and above the fighting grounds were the stands where viewers watched.
A set of humanoids walked in at the same time as me.
I watched in horror as each of them looked disgusting, some of them had antennas like bugs but others had these weird mandibles or other animal features, they all varied in size too.
I turned the baton to taser mode and inched back into a wall, the creatures did the same. One had this blunt object at the end of its arm and the one beside it was smaller but was pointing its arm out like it was going to shoot something.
Another had the body of a bear but arms of a gorilla and just raised them like it was trying to protect its body, the one beside it had started to jump in place with its grasshopper-like legs.
The last two were not much of a threat as one had curled up into a ball like a pill bug and the other just stayed sitting down trying to speak through its weird mandibles.
It was like a Mexican standoff, none of us barged from our corners, that was until there was a familiar voice, actually, I thought I heard multiple of the same voices.
"Hey! Need some help?"
Our heads turned up to see a horrid sight. It was Jon. No! It was a large number of Jons!!
They all clanged to the dome-shaped ceiling like creatures in a horror film, a few appeared in the stands just a floor above the arena too, watching with evil grins.
[Gaming Hud has revealed multiple hostile opponents!]
A red dot with a red bar took shape on top of their heads as they came down in clusters.
The first Jon didn't even hesitate and tried attacking the bear-like creature, but the bear easily punched him once and knocked him down, the red bar was instantly reduced to below half. Not a second later the grasshopper legged one jumped into the air and pounded its head into the floor, the red bar was now empty as his head splattered into pieces. An oozing, pink blood started to spread.
This high-pitched scream came from the other ones as they watched him die. Then they proceeded to jump down in bunches, surrounding each of us. I didn't have time to react as a Jon got in front of me, he had a large handprint on the side of his face.
"Hey pal, remember me? let me help you"
His voice sounded the same, but his body language said he was ready to pounce. If my gut told me one thing, it was that this is definitely not a prank but an imposter.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think your capable of doing that, you screw up" I said trying to be bold or stupid.
He looked even angrier as his eyes turned green with one small black dot for pupils, almost like one of a praying mantis. He leaped forward with his spear and I stood ready with my baton in hand when all of a sudden, a voice appeared in my head.
🔲 Use the Skill 🔲
Without even questioning, I knew what it was talking about.
[Private skill activated: Predicting Measures: Lvl. 1]
Time seemed to slow down as now I could see multiple of the same Jons moving ahead of one another like an after image, with the limited time I had, it showed that he was going to feint the stick and grab me with his other hand.
[Warning - Your Archetype cannot uphold this ability. Shutting off skill]
My head rang with a small, searing pain and time seemed to start moving back into place, but I didn't let that stop me. I barely dodged under Jon's grab attempt, slashing a part of my arm instead as I witnessed him jump over me, and with one quick motion, I implanted the baton into him and pressed the button.
His body jolted with the high-powered shock as it coursed through his body, he revolted in pain and his red bar quickly began going down, eventually it reached zero and his eyes popped out like squishing the head off a bug. I almost wanted to throw up, but the feeling of adrenaline pumped even harder.
[A character's Tarot Card has Awoken!]
A blue haze erupted from somewhere within the room.
[Tarot Card 'The Moon' has used its ability 'Revealing Tides']
[The effects of the Primordial Skill 'A Pointless Dream' have dampened]
This feeling of mist hit my eyes as my surroundings blurred, I blinked rapidly until I found myself standing in front of the lying body of a humanoid Praying mantis with its eyes blown out and holding this large spear with purple oozing liquid.
I turned to see my surroundings to see the faces of my friends now standing where the abominations were and the 'Jons' were these bug or fungoid humanoids. Where the curled-up pill bug was now a shocked Kaleb and surrounded Clay, he was waving his little wand around trying to back off two of these creatures with mushrooms attached to their heads.
Using the ounces of adrenaline in my body I rushed across the room nearly being caught by a spider-like enemy with multiple arachnid legs, though it was interrupted by a small metal pellet that came from a different source.
My scratched arm was bleeding profusely and but I think the adrenaline was keeping me from feeling how serious it actually was, as I could barely even move it.
I now reached Clay and got behind one of the mushroom heads, practically shoving my baton into its back and turning on the taser once again. Unlike the bug, this mushroom just started to sprout out more mushrooms till it eventually fell to the floor, not moving. The one beside it now turned to me and was about to strike.
*ka-PEW*
Its red, spotted head was blown to bits inches from my face. I suddenly twisted my head to see Clay, with his eyes closed and his hand squeezing the wand Jon got him, it smoked a vibrant turquoise color. He opened his eyes and looked surprised; my sailboat was out in the gutter through all of this so my lips just spouted whatever came to mind.
"You could have blown my face off with that!"
"I'm so Sorry! I didn't know it could do that" Clay desperately tried to apologize mid-battle.
"I was being sarcastic!" I shouted to him then beckoned to grab Kaleb's shoulders so we could escort him. "let's get this loser out of here"
Picking up Kaleb and running across the way, we found an entrance that we never saw before, it was much larger than the ones we came out of. Under it was Peter and Bridgette fighting a few of those enemies, when one of the creatures got close, she whacked it with one of her heavy tools, that surprisingly hurt them, and Peter would fire one of his metal balls in the eyes of the bug creatures with perfect accuracy, some of their eyes even ruptured.
"We need to leave!" I screamed out.
They both nodded and got the attention of the MVPs of this shit show.
Marcus and Aideen were surrounded by a dozen lying bodies of these things, they synergized with each other very well, one would knock or grapple an enemy and the other would kick a hole through their weak bodies.
With the help of Clay shooting some shots off his wand, they made it to us, and we then explained to them our plan. They quickly nodded, and we dashed off into the hallway, still hearing cries of those things, we turned every corner we could within this ever expanding Tree Kingdom to lose them.
Their cries were eventually clouded out by the sound of my racing heart, wherever we are going next, I just hope our luck could turn for one damn second.