T.D.o.N.B: S52J, part II - The mistake and the gift

All the plates covering the whole plaza raised, blocking my path, and making me instinctively slow down. It was a dumb mistake. I should have pressed on, but I didn't. Allowing the guardians who showed up a second later, to form a hard shell around the tree with those plates.

They were there, waiting for us, just simply invisible.

Around twenty aliens of the same race. They are very thin with long heads and small mouths. I couldn't help but think of sticky insects as I glanced at them. All wearing similar grey robes.

It looked awfully like half of them took care of this quick construction project, while the rest was about to attack. There was also another interesting little detail. Underneath the plates in the plaza were more identical plates, not the ground as you would expect.

When I regained my senses, I instinctively tried to shadow walk closer to that damn shell, to pierce through it, but I couldn't.