Tedious Traps

A sombre mood settled as we strode further down the ruins of the Sun Gods Empire.

I asked Chlora how she even began to solve that riddle to which she pondered once more before showing me a blood soaked blood in her left hand.

Our tomato-like figures read and skimmed through pages together till we reached the second to last page.

In a small box in the bottom right, what looked like a family photo-shoot revealed itself.

In it, was a group of mixed hair colours.

There were 6 people with blue hair. Their faces were blank but I could make out 3 children, A mother and A father. The blue texture was heavily stressed defining this blue as a particularly dark blue. They were positioned on the left of the photo.

There were 3 people with green hair, all old men. They stood with crooked postures and aged sticks hosting their weight. They looked on ahead and stood in the top right of the photo.

There were 2 people with white hair. One man and one girl respectively. They stood strictly and affirmatively. They were in the bottom right of the picture and looked quite stoic in comparison to the rest from posture and uniform alone. The girl was significantly shorter than the man and barely a teenager from my analysis. It seemed to be a father and daughter combo.

Finally, in the middle of the picture, there were 8 with red hair.

They were all mages, apart from the one that led them all. He carried a sheath by his right and was the scruffiest in the picture. His hair was messy and long yet something from his attitude told me he was one thing.

Strong.

So that was how to solve the puzzle?

I shut the book by accident.

"Hey."

Chlora looked in my direction innocently.

"You're pretty smart, you know?"

My eyebrows were slightly slanted as I looked at the ceiling. To my statement, Chlora merely looked a bit confused herself.

Well, it was quite an odd statement for someone as humble and peace-going as Chlora as she probably didn't want to confirm or deny it.

"Hmm."

We trod through the ground before rock turned to mud. I stopped in my tracks.

Why was there mud down here?

I then looked up.

A small driplet of water fell.

Ah. I see.

Ignoring the ominous source of water above us, we entered through a soaked,red-wood door. Quite prestigious and out of place down here.

The first thing I saw as I opened that red-wood door was 3 silver blurs.

Chlora murmured a chant yet her voice was far behind the arrows.

I couldn't move my blade upwards to block in time or dodge since Chlora would then get hit.

I was in quite the dilemma, huh?

I couldn't use materialisation since the only world-energy was stored at my feet and in my hands.

Wait. Hands?

I don't know how but, I had a stupid comical idea.

No. There's no way I do that right?

But I'll look bada-.

No. Wait.

Ah. It's too late now.

"Crash forward with the spring."

The arrows were metres from my face and moving at a pace where metres would become 10s of metres in mere seconds.

"Woeful Blasts."

A light squealing sound was released from the magic Chlora released. Her instinctive whispering paid off as 3 gales travelled forward.

Boom.

Wind and pain travelled past me.

My hair flew backwards as my eyes were washed over in a luminescent gold.

Two of the arrows lay on the floor, sweeped out the way by the Woeful blasts.

One however, had missed its shot.

My head was bleeding heavily and had already become as red as the rest of my body. This red however, was deeper and fresh and mine. It was my blood.

Chlora looked at me in utter fright but her fear turned to a sigh of relief when she saw my blundered state.

My right hand had risen up, in its grasp was the last arrow.

I had stopped it from blasting straight through my head by instantly boosting my hand with a blast of world-energy. The trajectory put it right next to the arrow and the momentum gave me the strength to halt its charge.

I sullenly stood panting, as I held the arrow in one hand.

My blood dripping down my neck as I slowly removed the tip of the arrow from my forehead.

As my adrenaline finally rose into the air, I could feel a sharp resonating sting pulse from my forehead and my arm aching in pain.

I cursed lightly.

What was that power?

After checking I was okay, Chlora did the only healing spell she knew, calm mind. We then kept on travelling after some light-checkups and tests.

It was quiet. Deathly quiet. Killing quiet.

Our wet steps squelched as we found ourselves looking back in paranoia.

Click. Ah. I knew it.

Using the world-energy that I had prepared in advance I blasted the unknowing Chlora forward.

Boom.

Chloras body rolled sideways and down the passageway for around 40 metres. I felt bad as she grunted and exhaled as tears lightly surfaced on her face.

She managed to get up quickly after a couple of laps of rolling yet the sound of cannons had fired before she could even ponder what had happened.

Peu.Peu.Peu.

Boom.Boom.Boom.

Salt and soil burst into the air and covered our vision. The clouds soon disappeared and Chlora mouthed a thanks from across the passage.

My mind was seething

What was the deal with the traps?

Why did the Sun Gods 'Empire' have more traps than goddamn people? Citizens? Life?

I helped identify her injuries and told her to use the spell, Calm Mind.

She denied claiming we needed every bit of mana we could get right now.

I sighed.

Really?

Anyways, we kept going before a faint buzzing sound gradually got louder.

"BZZT."

A large black and camouflaged wasp-like creature blasted past us.

I had already formed a source of world energy to blast it back yet it paid us no mind. Merely barging us out the way as if we were the least of its worries.

My blast only slightly hindered it's escape.

It's eyes did not fret as it's figure was buzzing not violently, but desperately.

I looked back in confusion before I met with an eye of deep dreamy blue.

Two eyes of deep dreamy blue.

Three eyes of deep dreamy blue.

6 eyes of deep dreamy blue.

8 eyes of deep dreamy blue.

24 eyes of deep dreamy blue.

A wall of eyes possessing a deep dreamy blue.

I had met a monster.

I could barely whisper as my captivated eyes looked down instantly. The sound of wet crawling made my ears twitch horribly.

"Run."