Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 22

Severance survived the dark tunnel. Blue light soon filtered through the darkness, and the passageway opened up into the next room where Ironhide waited for them.

Torches lit with blue fire lined all the walls. As Severance came up beside the tank, he could see that there were no monsters in this one. Just a floor covered in strange tiles. On the far side was a heavy stone door with a strange pillar sitting in front of it. This pillar had six sides, and each side had a symbol carved into its surface.

From where he stood, Severance could see one symbol clearly, and it didn't take long for him to realize it matched one of those on the floor. It looked vaguely like the outline of a rhinoceros' head.

"You can only step on the symbol that's facing you," Ironhide said. "Watch."

And without any further explanation, he strode out onto the tiled floor. The instant he stepped on a tile—this one etched with the same rhino-shape as the pillar—it depressed into the floor with a clunk. At the same time, a grinding sound came from the pillar as it began to turn.

Ironhide waited for a short second as the pillar rotated enough to reveal the second symbol. It looked like a creepy bug. The tank glanced down, eyes tracking over the floor until he spotted the nearest matching tile. Then he carefully stepped over.

After a bug came a bird shape, followed by something that appeared to be an extremely toothy crocodile. Ironhide followed the cues, moving from one tile to the next with care. The pillar began to pick up speed. That gave even less time to find the nearest matching tile. Yet Ironhide continued with a calm that Severance didn't feel.

What happened if he messed up and stepped on the wrong tile?

It only took Ironhide a minute or two to cross safely to the other side. Immediately, the pillar slowed back to its original speed. It didn't stop turning, though.

"Come on," Ironhide called. He gestured, indicating for Severance to follow.

Severance grimaced. He moved to the edge of the tiles. They stretched before him, all innocent and freaky with their weird animal symbols. It looked perfectly safe, but he didn't believe that lie for a second.

He glanced behind. Awesome Dude had just emerged from the shadows of the narrow corridor. He caught Severance's gaze and grinned, golden tooth gleaming.

Atrocity settled against the wall, appearing bored. He still had a piece of grass dangling between his lips like an oversized toothpick.

A dark shape darted past them in a rush of air.

Severance's jaw nearly hit the ground when he realized it was Valentin. The knightglaive leaped into the air, soaring over the tiles and performing an elegant flip before gravity tugged him down. Valentin landed lightly on a rat-etched tile in the middle of the room just as the pillar revealed an identical rat symbol.

The red-eyed player waited for a moment. Not a single flicker disturbed his impassive expression. As the pillar reached the halfway point to revealing a new symbol, he bent his knees and lowered his body. It was like a coil compressing itself in order to build up tension. No sound came when that coil was released. Valentin exploded up in an Olympian jump, the motion powerful and graceful like he'd been training all his life for this one feat. He landed beside the pillar just as lightly as he had on the tile.

Severance couldn't believe his eyes. How did Valentin even do that? The knightglaive only touched the one tile, while Ironhide had to traverse a whole bunch of them.

"Show-off," Atrocity called out.

Valentin didn't respond. He merely stood beside Ironhide and rested the butt of his glaive on the ground. He held it upright casually, and regarded them with those unnerving red eyes.