Chapter 4: Another Realm
It was dark and ever so cold. The world was nothing like we had imagined it would be. In the distance, I noticed something, many things. It felt like we were being watched from afar. Whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t good.
“This place is eerie; I don’t like it at all,” Drakel added as he looked around the barren wasteland. The folliage was looked unnatural and the world seemed like some twisted fantasy.
“Let’s just find the labyrinth and get out. Luckily, I have a map. Follow me,” Tarquin said to us. As we continued moving forward, I began to feel increasingly unsafe, as if we were being watched by something. Skaro seemed quite worried as well. After hours of walking, I felt something cold touching my back. I immediately turned around to see a strange humanoid creature standing roughly 9 feet tall.
It was thin and had sharp, elongated claws. It had a 2 large horns portruding out of its head and pointing upwards. It had no eyes and had a large mouth full of sharp teeth. It's skin was black and parts of it were covered in rough metalic scales.
“Fuck!” I yelled out loud. I quickly pulled out my weapon to attack it; but to my dismay, the blade just bounced off of it's skin. Then, it let out a horrifying screech and it began to run after us. “Run!” Drakel yelled as we tried to escape. “I’ll try and kill this thing! You guys go on without me,” he added as he began to attack it.
“Drakel, don’t!” I yelled at him before the creature impaled him in the chest. “Drakel! No!” I screamed as I rushed over to him. “Don’t do it, Kazz! You will die!” Hanako yelled out at me, but I didn’t listen. I wasn’t going to let him die. Or at least, that’s what I told myself at the time.
I tried to help Drakel, but the creature started to attack me. Tarquin shot it in the back, distracting it. I pulled Drakel to safety and tried to help him. “Drakel, come on! Don’t die, please! Does anyone have a healing potion? Quick!” I yelled out. “Damn it! I can’t right now; this creature’s trying to kill me!” Tarquin yelled out. Hanako and Skaro also didn’t have one. “Come on, Drakel, stay with me!” I said to him as I tried to cover his wound.
Tarquin finally defeated the creature and handed me a healing potion. “This is our last one,” Tarquin said to me. “Drakel, drink this! Please, you need to,” I said to him, trying to get him to drink the potion. He wasn’t responding. “Drakel? Wake up! You can’t die! Drakel!”
He wouldn’t respond no matter what I said. “I knew we shouldn’t have come here!” Skaro yelled.
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Hanako snapped at Skaro.
“This is your fault he’s dead! We should have never come here!” He said, mainly directed at Tarquin.
“And let the world fall to pieces? If we don’t grab that bloody staff, we will never kill the Koldryth Beast!” Tarquin backfired at Skaro.
“There could have been another way!” Skaro said to Tarquin.
“Will you two shut up! Do you not see what just happened?” I said as I punched Skaro in the face.
“The fuck is wrong with you, Kazz!?” He yelled at me.
“Quit fighting! We were supposed to be a team!” Hanako yelled out to us.
“Behind you, Skaro!” Tarquin yelled, right as another one of those creatures stabbed Skaro from behind. As he bled out, two more of those creatures appeared.
“Skaro, no!” I yelled out as one of the creatures picked him up and threw him. I could barely move. How could I let this happen? If I didn’t blow a fuse and attack Skaro, he might still be alive. And Drakel... I should have helped sooner.
The creatures started to attack us. One of them picked up Hanako; however, Tarquin shot it in the head. It then let go of Hanako and went for Tarquin. “Hanako, are you ok?” I asked her. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She replied.
I then attacked the creature in the back. It started to bleed out. “Wait a second! These creatures, their weakness is in the back of their neck!” I yelled out audibly. As I stabbed the creature a second time, it quickly turned around and picked me up by the arm.
Hanako then hit it in the neck again, and the creature dropped to the floor. Unfortunately, there were still 2 more of them. This one was much easier since we found out its weakness.
Tarquin shot it a few times in the back. “Die!” Hanako yelled as she stabbed it in the back. After a few minutes of fighting it, it had also died. Right as we thought they were all gone, hundreds more started to appear. It seemed as if there was an army of those creatures. We knew we couldn’t kill them all. Our only option was to run.
“Kazz, come on! We have to go!” Tarquin said to me in a hurry. “Alright, I’m coming!” I said to Tarquin as I quickly followed him. There were so many of those creatures.
Luckily for us, we were able to get away from them. “Ok, it says here on the map that we need to go this way. This may be dangerous, so let’s be cautious.” Tarquin said, as he followed the directions of the map. We all followed right behind him.
As we traveled further in this desolate wasteland, we came across a strange, abandoned village. Nothing was there except destroyed buildings and statues. The architecture was far different from anything we have seen before. Hanako searched around to see if anything was lurking. Luckily, there was not. The buildings looked alien and were unlike anything I have seen.
The statues had people that looked similar to the creatures that attacked us earlier, just less monstrous. There were also tablets with strange writing on them. None of us could understand what was written on them.
“Should we make a small camp here?” Tarquin asked us. “No! It’s way too dangerous.” I quickly replied to Tarquin. “Ok then, never mind.” Tarquin responded. For hours, we kept walking when we came across a strange tower in a similar architecture. “This is it! The Forerunners Labyrinth!” Tarquin said to us all.
“Huh? This is just a small tower! There is no way this is the labyrinth.” Hanako told Tarquin.
“Yes, but the labyrinth is under the tower.” He said to us as he walked down the stairs.
“This is the labyrinth! Or at least the entrance. We do need to be careful, though. Not only are there traps, but there may be creatures too. Luckily, I know the route.” Tarquin said to us as he pulled out his map.
“At the end of the maze, there should be a portal frame, so we can leave.” Tarquin added
“So, where do we go?” I asked him.
“Just follow me, and we will be done in no time!” He said to me as he pushed open a large set of gates, leading to the maze.