Portable Statues

A few minutes after Adelgeld and Denila entered the forest. The remaining teams waited for each other to enter.

"Are you entering or what? I don't plan to waiting here all day, Azgore" Jonathan says

"Why don't you and Gunvil head on in first, we'll guard the rear" Azgore replies

"Think they're alright? We haven't heard any signs from the two at all" Benjamin says worriedly

Azgore takes in a deep breath, then screams out in the air with the volume being enhanced by magic. "Denila! Adelgeld! Give us a sign if you can hear this!"

A few moments passed and no replies nor signs were made. They waited for another few minutes in hopes that the two would reply to scream but nothing happened. It begins to snow lightly.

"Fine fine, I'm going in then!" Jonathan says

He walks in with Gunvil by his side and they both enter deep in the forest. They continue going forward through a mist unable to see anything but prepared for the worst. After a few steps, they make it into a clearing filled with statues looking at each other. All of the statues were depicting a scene of people socializing. Some snow covered top of the statues a bit.

"Who would put statues in the middle of nowhere? Especially out here in the snow?!" Gunvil exclaims

"We're not here for sightseeing. We have to find those monsters lurking in the forest ambushing travelers" Jonathan says

The two ignore the statues and continue going deep into the forest. Looking around, they notice that there are a lot of statues in the area. There are statues hiding behind trees, out in the open, emerging from the ground.

"This place is crawling with statues, what the heck?" Johnathan says

"First time seeing display of artworks?" Gunvil asks

"You call this art? Hah" Jonathan replies

The two continue walking until they reach another clearing in the forest. Many statues are placed in the clearing, but something seemed off. One statue stood tall while the other statues some split into pieces. Arm and leg pieces were everywhere. Torsos surrounding the one standing tall.

"Totally a work of art huh?" Jonathan says

"All this is looking fishy not gonna lie" Gunvil replies

Jonathan approaches the statue standing and looks at it in the eyes. He smirks then pats the statue's shoulder then turns back to Gunvil. As he tries to walk back, he realizes that he can't lift his feet. He looks down and sees his feet buried in the snow and two hands holding on to him. Hurriedly, he scans the surrounding and notices that some statues seem to have closed in on them a bit.

"Gunvil! You think your sword can cut through these statues?!" Jonathan asks

"I don't think so, but only one way to find out!" Gunvil replies

Gunvil readies his great sword and runs towards Jonathan then passes around him striking the statue. The statue immediately lifts its hand up to catch the sword, and Gunvil pulls back.

"Jonathan get out of there, the one behind you is an enemy!" Gunvil exclaims

"I've been caught. There are statues emerging from the ground, which we can't see because of all this snow" Johnathan says

Johnathan begins to panic and takes out a dagger attempting to stab the fingers of the statue that's wrapped around his foot. The blade does nothing to the fingers. He begins to struggle getting out. Multiple statues begin to close in surrounding them. Gunvil does another strike using his full strength at the statue standing near them. The statue responds with the same move catching the blade, but the force of the swing was too strong that it cut the hand of the statue off.

"I did it! I was able to through the statue!" Gunvil says excitedly

"Great! Can you do the same to these statue fingers wrapped around my foot without cutting my foot off? It'd be nice to get moving!" Johnathan says

Johnathan continues stabbing the fingers until he feels the grip loosens then immediately breaks free and moves away. He looks at the hand that Gunvil was able to cut off from the statue then at the statue that was attacked.

"Nice one!" Johnathan says

"Yeah! Now you got any ideas on how to handle this? It took my full strength to cut that off" Gunvil asks

Johnathan scans the area again. More statues are appearing and walking slowly towards them.

"It's gonna use your full power swing again. But I did think of something. Not sure if it'll work" Johnathan answers

"While they're slow, go ahead and say the plan" Gunvil says

Johnathan takes three small bags from his pack. He looks up in the sky and faintly see a tall tower, then gets covered by the dark clouds. He turns to Gunvil then points at the direction of where he found the tower.

"You swing any that comes close. I'll provide cover. We're going that way too" Johnathan says

Gunvil gives him the thumbs up and prepares his sword for another swing. Johnathan throws two small bags at both of his side which they burst into smoke giving them cover. Gunvil instinctively begins running towards the direction that was pointed followed by Johnathan who held onto one more smoke bomb. Statues slowly appear to block their way and try to defend themselves as a rampaging dwarf swinging a great sword around pushes through them, followed by Johnathan who avoids each and every statue that try to grab him on the way. Soon, they enter deep into the forest again and Johnathan drops his last smoke bomb to cover them, and the two make a turn sideways making the statues think they just went forward since they were last seen going forward. They took a break under a tree and ate some rations and drank some water.

"Phew, if it wasn't for your quick thinking we couldn't have made it out" Gunvil praises him

"Don't be like that, they would've caught us and stopped us in our tracks if you didn't cut through them" Johnathan replies

Johnathan takes his last drop of water from his bottle.

"Gah, I should've refilled this before leaving" Johnathan says

"It's been too long, now's the time to get moving" Gunvil says

The two continue their journey towards the direction of the tower. From a distance, they encounter an injured man. He has golden blonde hair and a bit dark tone skin with green eyes. Wearing a gray vest over his white long sleeve and a black jacket. His vest is opened and blood can be seen on his attire and holes and cuts around him.

"Help me..." he says