Fantasy Kind Of Story

Chapter 35: Gridlock

Klaus peaked over at the entrance to the ruins, which was surrounded by his own men, Tom crouched beside him and also looked.

"What's the plan sir?", Tom asked.

"No need, I'm going to go over and ask them to let us in, simple as that", Klaus said optimistically.

"And if that doesn't work?", Marya asked from the other side of Klaus, startling them.

"Next time give us a heads up when you're going to sneak up on us like that", Klaus said angrily, holding his chest.

"Next time open your ears, and how much you wanna bet those guys down there aren't going to be happy to see you?", Marya scolded, pointing at the heavily armed bandits.

"Have you forgotten they work for me? I'll be fine", Klaus replied with confidence, patting the dwarf on her head as he made his way over to the bandits.

They all watched the scene play out infront of them, Klaus strolled up to them and was immediately met with blades and bows pointed at him, Klaus threw up his hands in fear and began rambling attempting to talk his way out of danger, his plan had quickly fallen apart.

"I hate men", Marya said as she put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. suddenly a large log came flying out of the woods from the right, landing on top of three bandits and knocking them down, on the left Jiro flew from the bushes and knocked out two other bandits with his polearm, while Silvio shot a green bolt of energy at the last bandit, sending him flying into the wall.

"Damn", Tom said, reacting to the efficient takedown that took place before him.

Marya walked over the Klaus, Tom and the other bandits followed behind.

"I had that handled", Klaus grumbled.

"Sure you did buddy", Marya replied, patting him on the back playfully.

The ten of them stood infront of the towering door and stared at it in awe for a few moments before snapping out of it.

"Alright, you five stand and watch, we dont know if Travis stationed anyone else out here, so we'll need to keep them out", Marya commanded.

"Those are my men, and I'll be the one to give them orders!....but yeah, what she said", Klaus said angrily, tired of his rank being ignored by this dwarven brat.

Marya rolled her eyes before entering the ruins.

The staircase seamed to go on forever, tunneling deeper and deeper, after what felt like an eternity, they finally arrived at flat ground, but it was pitch black in the room, they couldnt see anything around them.

"Please tell me SOMEONE brought a torch?", Marya asked irritably.

"Dont worry, I got this one", Silvio announced enthusiastically as he summoned his wand, chanted a few words and raised it high in the air, the tip of the wand began to glow emerald green, increasing in brightness before dissipating abruptly.

"...Wow, thanks Silvio, great job bud!", Kiburi yelled aloud, sarcasm in his tone.

"I-I dont understand, that should've worked?!", Silvio panicked.

"The room appears to have syphoned out the mana from your spell, magic isn't going to work down here", Jiro explained.

Jiro took a cautious step forwards, with each step he felt around to see if there was anything hidden in the darkness that he needed to avoid. He took a couple steps forwards until he placed down his foot and felt the ground sink a bit, stopping with a click, Jiro fully expected this to be a booby trap and stood there, accepting death. However, he was instead met with the room being quickly illuminated by crystal sconces lining the walls, unveiling a large grid infront of them, Jiro was standing on one of the squares at the beginning of the grid, which was now glowing yellow from the lines in between the squares. The five of them noticed another glowing square off to the side.

"Just a hunch, but maybe he has to land on all of the glowing squares in order to cross?", Kiburi said.

"Looks like the orc does have a brain", Klaus chided, Kiburi fumed with rage, Marya shot him a glare that swiftly shut him down.

"Yeah but the other square is clear acrost the grid, nobody can make that", Marya stated.

"Hold on, maybe this challenge is the EXACT challenge for him, he is probably the one person agile enough for it, right Jiro?", Silvio said enthusiastically, turning to Jiro with hopeful eyes.

".....no, I cant make that.....", Jiro answered plainly.

"So no secret monk technique?", Silvio asked again expectantly.

"No", Jiro answered again, the hopeful expression on Silvio shifting to disappointment.

Klaus walked over to the end, noticing that although it was humanly impossible for Jiro to make it, it would be possible for another person to, he then proceeded to jump onto the next square, with a click of the mechanism the next square lit up, this one was close enough for Jiro to make it, without waiting, he made the jump to it, they expected the next square to be infront of them, but instead it appeared behind them to the far end of the grid, too far for either of them to make it.

"Seriously? God I hate puzzles!", Marya exclaimed before bounding over onto the third square, the next square was closest to Klaus, so he hopped onto it to reveal the fourth square appeared behind them again, they were now too far ahead to reach this one, meaning Kiburi or Silvio had to do it.

"Alright grid, here I come!", Kiburi proclaimed, with a running start and a jubilant hop, Kiburi landed on it triumphantly, the next square appeared near Marya, she managed to make her jump appear as resentfully as she could, which didn't sound possible, but she made it work.

The fifth square emerged backwards again, with the only one left to reach it being Silvio .

"Alright guys, hop onto that next one!", Silvio said, cheering them on.

"This ones all you", Kiburi said encouragingly.

"M-me?! No no no, its clearly meant for one of you guys", Silvio objected.

"You are the only one close enough to it Silvio", Klaus replied.

"That cant be, Marya you are close enough to it, why dont you?", because im not close enough to it, hurry up and jump", Marya explained.

"Come on guys, just believe in yourselves, I know you can do i-".

"WOULD YOU JUST JUMP ALREADY!!!", Jiro exclaimed, everyone turned at him in shock, they had never heard him raise his voice or even get slightly annoyed until now.

"O-okay, fine", Silvio gave in, he took a couple deep breaths, closed his eyes, and with a hesitant jump, he barely landed on the square, his anxiety immediately washed away and he jumped with pure elation.

"I did it, I actually did it!", Silvio proclaimed, but in his victory hop he accidentally put his foot on the square next to him, the tile lowered downwards and all the squares began glowing an ominous red. Behind them at the beginning of the grid, the tiles began to drop downwards into a pit below, the five of them looked in fear as the grid was falling, moving closer towards them. They all began sprinting across the grid, with Silvio being the furthest behind. Everyone managed to get to the other end quickly, but Silvio was so far behind.

"Run faster!", Marya yelled.

"I'M TRYING!!!", Silvio screamed as he ran as fast as he could, it was gaining up on him at an alarming rate, he could feel the collapsing tiles reverberating through his paws.

"JUMP!", Klaus hollered at him, Silvio immediately jumped right as the square beneath him fell, Klaus threw out his arms to grab him, Silvio dug his claws into Klaus' arms as he dangled above the pit, the others grabbed him and helped pull him up.

Once they were able to get him to safety, they all collapsed onto the stone floor to catch their breathes.

"Next time, dont celebrate prematurely", Klaus said through heavy breathing.

"Noted", Silvio responded.

Once they all recovered, they entered the next room, the darkness engulfing them as they moved forwards into the ruins.