Red Fang II

Chapter 22 (L/T Arc): Music, Maestro!

We last read Chapter 21, in which Lily Ladair and Theo Ladair—now accompanied by the Talking Skull—conquer their next challenge: a series of circular platforms with railed pathway segments on top of them, all of which are positioned precariously over a massive bed of perilous spikes. Though Lily is quick to try and push Theo to walk the gauntlet, Theo insists that Lily do it instead because he's been suffering endlessly since the beginning of the adventure. Lily reluctantly agrees, and begins moving along the rotating railway segments while unsuccessfully engaging in small talk with the Talking Skull.....only for the vampire duo to realize that Theo could've just figured out the correct configuration for the circular platforms starting from the exit and work backwards to the start, which would've saved the group a lot of time.

Once Theo finds the correct solution and gets Lily to the end, he himself also runs across in a matter of seconds, since the solution had already been figured out. The Talking Skull then alludes to the next trial by hinting that it will test Lily and Theo's musical prowess, which they claim to be good at.

This time, Lily and Theo tackle a remarkably musical challenge in their quest to obtain Prince Boripedes's vast riches.....

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"Dang it, Señor Skully!" Lily admonished. "When you told us that the next trial would test our 'musical prowess', I thought that meant we'd be playing instruments! I didn't think it meant we'd be playing multiple rounds of musical chairs!"

Lily annoyedly gestured to the setup before her, Theo, and the Talking Skull, which consisted of a well-arranged circle of ten folding chairs all facing outwards, with a circular light shining down from above them which placed the ring of chairs more or less directly in the middle. Along the left and right walls this time around were a series of vertically-sliding doors—which were all currently closed—and the exit door on the other end of the chamber was currently shut for the time being,

"Yeah, dude.....looks kind of sus to me, bro. Like, big time sus," Theo commented as well. "And why are there ten chairs when there's only two of us? Does someone have to get eliminated? What happens to the people that get themselves out?"

"Would you both let me finish my explanation?!" the Talking Skull exclaimed frustratedly, much to the stunned silence of Lily and Theo. ".....Thank you. Now, what we have here is a simple textbook game of musical chairs. Rules are as they always are: move around the circle of chairs while the music plays, and once it stops, everyone dashes into a chair. Whoever doesn't have a chair gets themselves out. At least one of you has to "win" in order to open the exit gate at the other side."

Assuming she and Theo were the only "contestants", Lily smirked humorously. "Well....I'm sure we'll be able to handle that, won't we?"

"No! You didn't let me finish! .....Again!" the Talking Skull scolded. "Your opponents are about to pop out now!"

As if on cue, the vertically-sliding metal doors on the left and right walls of the chamber moved upwards, and eight purple robots about Lily and Theo's height which were heavily modeled after old tin toys—complete with wind-up keys in their backs—marched in perfect sync into the playing field and positioned themselves amongst Lily and Theo.

"These are who you'll be playing against!" the Skull briefed. "Lily and Theo, let me introduce you to the Bot Platoon!"

Theo apprehensively tapped one of the purple robots on the nose, only to not receive the slightest response from it. "Oh! Well, umm.....nice to meet all of you, 'Bot Platoon'.....? ......Okay, I give up. I have no idea what we're doing."