A New Challanger (1)

When he closed the screen, Elo was still thinking about all the new possibilities he would have with this tool.

But shortly after, his eyes fixated onto the stairs. He wasn't here to daydream!

With large strides, he walked towards the small stairway. When he stood before the stairs, his eyes light up.

Only standing here, he could already see that the room above him was illuminated by sunlight and it radiated a warm atmosphere.

Without hesitation, he started to climb the stairs until he was standing in a small room.

The sun was shining through small rectangular holes in the wall, which could be closed with wooden curtains. A new brown door was leading the way into the next room.

Opening the door, Elo glanced into the next room. Wooden doorways could be seen along a large corridor, separated by about 3m (9'10") each. Elo counted a total of ten entrances.

When he pushed one of the doors open, the smell of wooden furniture overcame him immediately, and all he could see was light.

When his eyes got accustomed to the brightness, he could finally make out the interiors of the room.

A big bed was dominating the room, almost covering half of its interiors, and the sun illuminated the entire room through a big window on the opposite side of the room.

A small table and two wooden chairs stood underneath the window, which gave the room a light and happy atmosphere. Elo almost felt like he was visiting a small hotel in the countryside.

He slowly walked towards the window, to look at the outside world from up here.

But as soon as he reached the window, he came to a stop, and his whole body froze.

The scene before him was beautiful; the sun lightened the entire forest, and every leave seemed to have plenty of energy, enough to support the growth of the tree by themselves.

But what made Elo's heart raise was a spot of shadow, in between all of the light. In one small part of the forest, all of the sun's brightness seemed to be devoured. Inside of the darkness, Elo saw something big, slowly making its way over towards the village.

Without waisting a second, Elo started running. When he reached the stairs, he took three steps at once and jumped down the last quarter.

Lara, who was already searching the big hall, turned around with a bright smile, but as soon as she saw Elo's expression, her happy face crumbled.

"What is going on? Is there something up there?"

Elo could not hear any trace of fear in her voice, but by her face, it was easy to tell that she was worried.

"No, nothing up there... it's in the forest... come with me."

Elo still had to catch his breath, but there was no time for this. An enormous beast was coming towards the village, and nobody knew of it yet.

When he rushed outside, he almost collided with William, who was about to enter the hall as well.

Thankfully, all the inhabitants of the town were gathered around the city hall, so Elo would not have to search for them.

"Come here! There is no time to explain everything, but something huge is coming. You have to join me as a team. That way, you will become stronger. Afterwards, we can hopefully kill the thing, or at least chase it away.

Elo could see a screen appearing in front of William, and thankfully he agreed without talking much. That was most likely because it was easy to tell that Elo was extremely worried.

"Ding"

"A team has joined you.

Teams: 1/5"

When the others realised the huge boost their stats had received, they all started exclaiming in shock, but William silenced them raising his arm.

"There is something we have to do now, stop muttering and get ready to fight!"

While William shouted, a small wooden puppet had appeared in Elo's hand.

"Ding"

"Marionette of the lord is now following you.

[Team] 6/10"

In an instant, the world around Elo seemed to fade away, and all he saw was black. After an unknown time, that felt like infinity to Elo, he regained his sight.

When he looked up, he saw an enormous face. After the first shock was gone, he realised that it wasn't just somebody's face, but his one.

He could still feel his own body, but besides that, he could also fell a second one. It was like nothing Elo had ever experienced.

With much effort, his second body slowly stood up. He had to concentrate his entire mind to the task of not falling, while slowly looking around.

He could see himself and all the others, but everything seemed to be supersized. He almost felt like a bug.

When he started speaking, it was not his puppet body, but his normal one.

"Lara, I am controlling this small pupped. I will accompany you in the fight and try to help with killing this monster. For this operation, you will be the boss, since I am not able to speak in this form.

This Pupped has some magic skill, and I'll try to help you with it.

Please pick me up and lead the others towards the dark part of the forest, that's where the monster is."

Elo's real body pointed towards the direction he had seen the shadow earlier.

He didn't want this big thing to reach the town, because that would surely mean its destruction.

With and astound expression, Ella answered.

"Ok, I'll pick you up now. Let's see what you can do with this small puppet."

With these words, a big hand emerged in his sight, and suddenly his view became black.

"Wait, please don't cover the puppets head with your hand, I can't see like this."

"Oh, sorry."

His heart almost stopped when he suddenly was launched into the sky.

He was already sure that he would die, when the big hand caught him out of the air.

The moment Elo wanted to start protesting, Lara dashed towards the forest.