“Come on, we still need to get to the safe house,” Levi reminds us as he goes over and helps Chester up. Knox shifts and helps carry him as they lead us to the house.
I look up at the clock and sigh in relief that we still have ten minutes to spare.
As soon as I walk into our safe house, I’m hit with dread.
“Where’s Rez and the rest of the gang?” I ask.
CHAPTER 34
Level Six- Demonic Tilt-a-Whirl
Rez
“I’m scared to ask what that does,” Lynx comments on the glowing pentagram on the floor. I’m in the same group as before: Ryker, Knots, Reaper, Lynx, and myself, and now we’re faced with a new trial, but I have no idea how this one works. What the hell are we supposed to do now?
It takes up the entire room from edge to edge and engraved into the stone floor are symbols that glow a reddish-orange. I have no idea what those symbols mean but since we’re on Beleth’s level, they aren’t suggesting a walk in the park. On the other side of the massive pentagram is a lever and the safe house.
“Well, we won’t know unless we step on it,” Ryker suggests.
“It doesn’t look like we have a choice since that’s the only way, and the clock is still ticking,” Lynx concurs.
“I hate that you guys are right.” I take a deep breath before stepping onto the pentagram and bracing myself for anything. When nothing happens, I let it out while looking over my shoulder, giving everyone a tentative smile with a thumbsup. With looks of trepidation, the others slowly step onto the glowing symbols as well.
“Easy peasy.” JP chuckles.
As soon as he laughs, a loud click rings out, and the platform jerks to life, rising from the ground and causing us to lose our balance. Falling, I grab the closest thing to me—Reaper—and hold on for dear life, burying my face into his fur until the ground stops shaking. Sensing the tremors stopping, I pull away and look around, only to see the pentagram has separated and shifted apart. I have no idea how that could happen when it takes up the whole room, but now I’m looking down at Lynx on a different section of the pentagram, and I have to peer up at JP on another.
“Is everyone okay?” Knots asks with a concerned tone.
We all confirm that we are fine as I check over Reaper. The sound of gears clanking rings out before the floor jerks again, and our platform starts moving. It’s slow, but mine starts rising and slowly moves around to replace JP’s position. The colors below my feet change to a bright green, but before I can call out the change, Knots does.
“My colors on my section have turned to blue. Have they changed for anyone else?”
Reaper barks and jerks out of my arms, pulling my attention away from the swirling green pattern. Coming from the wall are trees! Long-limbed, soulless eyes, jagged teethed, fully grown walking trees, and they looked pissed.What the hell did I do to them?As one takes a swing at me, I duck as one thing becomes clear: I don’t have anything to really fight them with. My glaives are good for flesh and bone, not petrified wood. My P.M.S. needles are good for the same thing. The only thing that would be good to take them out would be fire, but Bez already nixed the idea when I couldn’t conjure it, only redirect and manipulate its direction during our training.
As Reaper weaves between the trees, one of the limbs gets too close to him, and flames ignite. Stupefied, I smack myself in the face before calling Reaper over. God, I’m slow sometimes.
“Reaper, I need your fire,” I tell him.
Knox told me my little puppers is smart, so I’m hoping he knows what I’m talking about. I can’t conjure fire, but I can direct it if I concentrate. Loyally, Reaper shoots his flames higher off his mane, allowing me easy access to his fire.
Swooping my hand through his flames, I lift a fireball into my hand and fling it to the nearest walking tree in one smooth motion. Thankfully, all I feel is the heat, but not the pain. Granted, I’m sure if I held it in my hand much longer, I might. No, the pain I feel is deep in my gut with each fireball that I pull from Reaper’s mane.
The tree screams as it goes up in flames, and I continue throwing fire until they wake up and scamper away into a tight cluster in a corner, abandoning their attack.
Once they move into their huddle, I notice a ladder embedded into the wall.What does that go to?But before I can check, Lynx’s platform starts rising as mine lowers.
“Rez, hurry,” Lynx yells, leaning over the edge with his arm outstretched to me. Picking up Reaper, I take off, running toward him. I need to reach it before my platform passes his. Thankfully, he grips my wrist in a crushing hold and yanks me up as his platform raises past mine. Reaper wiggles free as we roll onto Lynx’s platform.
I catch my breath while looking at his glowing silver platform.
“What came out of your platform?” I ask, sitting up and seeing long round skins lying around that are no longer or wider than a finger.
“Brillo Worms,” Lynx tells me as he cocks his eyebrow and helps me up.
“Brillow Worms? What the hell are those, and how did you defeat them?”
“Nasty worms that secrete a liquid through their pores that erode and break down your skin. The only way to defeat them is my specialty.” He breaks out in a grin from ear to ear.
