Dunst Till Dawn

The Quest for The 13 Hollows Part 5 Part 2

Abasi stepped out of the portal first. Careful to only step on the tiles at the cross section of 30 and 3, as he was told to do. The others followed, also making sure, for he had warned them as well. They barely made it through the portal. It disappeared right behind them. For the one holding it open could do so no longer. He was now but a pile of ashes.

Abasi turned to the lock. Imagining within his mind the key that had been implanted within. Abasi's memory and imagination was nowhere near as honed as to imagine the key in such perfect detail as was needed, but The Mason's imagination was. And all Abasi had to do was focus on bring it into fruition.

He brought forth the key and turned it. Opening the door to a narrow hallway, about five feet wide. Like the previous hallways, it too was tiled in a black and white checkered pattern. The tiles seemed less vibrant than the others though. Almost as if they had been burned away at by acid. They all searched the floor for any numbers that had been scratched into them. There were none. None that they could see at least.

Dawn and The Fellowship entered the hallway, not knowing about the other booby-trapped tiles without the numbers. Unlike the other rooms before which were all lit by a magical light, this hallway they noticed was lit by torches that hung along the walls. Torches that immediately ignited through magical means, once the group entered. And once the hallway was lit, they could all see what was on the other side. A nearly transparent giant greenish gelatin blob.

The blob was less than 8 feet away. It was wide enough to take up the whole hallway. And it was moving toward them. Slowly, but surely. Sizzling the ground beneath it as it got closer and closer. 

Dawn doubted that bullets would have any effect against it. A theory that was confirmed once Michal opened fire upon the blob with his minigun. The bullets did nothing to it. Simply going right through it like... well, bullets through gelatin. The gelatin melted away the bullets once they were inside of it. Doing the monstrous blob itself no damage, but disintegrating the bullets into dust. 

The gelatin blob came a foot closer. It was only 7 feet away now.

Dawn unsheathed Hrunting, ran over to the blob, slicing it in half. It didn't even slow it down. The blob just kept continuing forward. The two sides of it congealing back into one. The only damage done was done to the blade of the sword itself.

The acidic gelatin was now covering the sword and was eating away at its blade. She could hear the sound of it sizzling away. The gelatin on the sword was as sentient as the blob was. It started climbing down her sword toward her hands. She tried to shake it off, but she couldn't. Abasi came to her aid, grabbing one of the torches from off of the wall, using it to melt the gelatin off. The gelatin liquefied and fell to the ground. Sizzling into the ground where it fell. Then it congealed back into the main blob.

The blob was only 6 feet away now.

Abasi tried to use the torch to hold the gelatin monster back. But the blob didn't fear the fire. it didn't have enough consciousness to fear or think anything. The fire did melt the gelatin a little, turning the gelatin to liquid where it did. But it wasn't enough to do it much lasting harm. And once the gelatin reached out and grabbed the torch, it snuffed out its flame. 

Just as with Dawn's sword, the gelatin crawled down the torch toward Abasi's hand. He dropped it before it could dissolve him as well. The torch dissolved into dust before it could hit the ground.

The blob was less than 5 feet away now. Even closer really, for it could reach out up to 2 feet away, to pull you into it.

There was nowhere to run. Going back meant going back through all of the traps again. They were trapped. The blob was coming right toward them, melting away anything and everything that it touched. Including the ground itself. The sound of the ground, the roof and the walls sizzling as the acid melted away at them, made it very clear what would be their fates once the blob reached them.