Defenders & Artefacts: Broken Rules

     Location: Research Laboratory

     Discoveries: Bite

     Verde struggled to get up from the floor where he was lying, but he managed. The vines were vicious and it took a lot of his energy to avoid them. He hadn’t seen vines like these ever before, even in the most hidden jungles he once ventured through. He stretched his legs and, when he felt ready, he continued straight, through the only exit from the Research Laboratory.

     He stepped inside to what seemed to be the Attic. The ceiling was slanted, made up of slabs of wood, and a single bulb hung from the centre. On the wall at the end of the room was a small barred window letting in some sunlight, the shadows of the bars forming on the floor. The room was mostly empty, except for a cheap looking bed on the right hand side of the room and an old office desk with its wooden chair on the left.

     Suddenly, a suffocating smoke started oozing from the floor and the ceiling, creeping through the smallest cracks and quickly filling up the room. The smoke was so thick that Verde had difficulty identifying what was in front of him. He started coughing and covered his face with his shirt to evade the smoke. Despite its texture being almost transparent, the volume of conglomerated smoke made it appear white, and it smelled of dirt. This didn’t make any sense, where had it all come from? His green wristband came alive, the light enlarging to let him see the writing more easily through the veil. The smoke in the Attic would impede, but not render impossible, any attempts he would make using any of his skills. This fact didn’t deter him as he believed in his skills, although part of him hoped that he wouldn’t need to use any skills in this room.

     Without any warning, the room started spinning. The smoke encircled him, increasing in speed, forming a tornado around Verde. That was impossible; he hadn’t touched anything with a white glow, which was the case last time he had this experience. As he stood still, with the smoke revolving around him, his eyes went white and wide. He started levitating off the ground, unable to hold himself down. His head held high, mouth wide open, arms spread, the wristband illuminating his whole body in green.

     Blanca

     Location: Rotten Room

     Discoveries: Crystal ball

     Blanca put the crystal ball in her bag to safeguard it. Her wristband had informed her that she could attempt to use the crystal ball, using her intelligence. Doing so successfully would allow her to decide what item would be found next, inside the house. If her intelligence was strong enough, she could even acquire the item directly. Her intelligence was quite high, which reassured her. High intelligence; she wished her colleagues would take note of her stats and understand her capabilities, since her previous excavations and restorations of ancient relics didn’t prove her worthy enough in their eyes.

     She decided to keep going straight. A strange door guarded the next room, nothing like the ones she had seen before. This one was thicker and wooden, with two metallic bars running down its surface in parallel. The handle was big, circular and metallic and it hung from a small chain on the left hand side of the door. Small details caught her attention on the surface of the door that she thought were symbols of some kind and reminded her of the Maraquan alphabet she had once studied. She ran her fingers and traced the symbols. She couldn’t make out what they were saying as it wasn’t an alphabet she recognised. She pulled on the chain, putting all her strength in it. The door swung open with difficulty, making a high pitched sound as its hinges rotated around their axis. She took a step into the next room.

     A cold breeze brushed her face. She had stepped outside the house, standing on the Paved Pathway which led to a big tower. The sun was still shining, although a few clouds had started to dirty its blue colours. The tower was looming tall in front of her. Halfway up the tower was a balcony which encircled it. Another door was at the bottom of the tower, closed. To reach it, she had to walk along the cobblestone path. Thankfully, both sides of the pathway were fenced with a metallic arrow-pointed fence to prevent anyone from tumbling over and falling down. She glanced over the fence to the ground, one floor lower, her hands grasping the fence to steady herself. It was a big fall!

     The wind around her started getting stronger. Out of nowhere, thick grey clouds littered the previously clear sky. With a swift crescendo it picked up great speed, causing the leaves of the nearby trees to shake uncontrollably. The wind lashed against her face, pushing her backwards. Blanca stooped low to protect herself. After a few brutal seconds it reached its peak. It was banging against the wooden door, trying to barge it open. It hammered against the windows, rattling the whole house and forcing it to dance to its own rhythm. She was holding onto the fence so that the wind wouldn’t propel her against the stone wall of the house behind her.

     The sound was intolerable. It reminded her of the shrieks she heard while walking through the Creaky Hallway. Although this one felt more real, more dangerous. It was her against nature; but she had years of experience in that department. In this whole pandemonium, she started getting irritated. She could hear the crystal ball rattling in her bag but unfortunately it was of no use at this moment. She realised that she had to concentrate on her strength. Judge Hog’s own words came to her mind and she got annoyed.

     “A strong defender is a determined defender.”

     Empty words, as always, used to inspire some fake sense of courage into wimping weaklings who - the majority - had no reason to be taking part in training. She hated false positivity. Sometimes we had to take life as it came and no mantra or inspirational quote could help us. She despised the blind following of questionable leaders, something that newly appointed defenders abided by, while more capable individuals were stuck in menial tasks.

     But at this moment, that quote was the sole guidance she had. As the wind kept striking her body, she closed her eyes and focused on her strength. It wasn’t enough. She heard Judge Hog again.

     “Your lack of conviction could result in your downfall”.

     Unexpectedly, the wind picked up even more speed than before and struck her with such a force that caused her hands to let go of the fence and drove her into the stone wall where she crashed, bag first.

     As she lay on the ground, her hands hugging her head to shield herself, the wind calmed down, turning into a gentle breeze flowing across her face. Pushing against the ground, she helped herself back up and checked her wristband. She had lost one point in strength and one point in movement because of the harsh crash.

     In an instant, she started levitating off the ground. Her head held high, arms outstretched, mouth agape. The Paved Pathway’s stones started floating and revolving around her, almost with as much speed as the wind moments earlier. The brown streaks of the tower in front of mixed with the grey streaks from the stones, while her wristband was showering her in white light.

     “It’s starting,” she announced calmly, with a grin. She could feel his power. This felt different, this time it was for real.

     Azul

     Location: Charred Room

     Discoveries: Baby Vandagyre

     Azul tucked the baby safely into his bag and its little Vandagyre head poked out. He was in no state to do his defender job properly, let alone take care of a baby. It had fallen asleep in the meantime and Azul was grateful for that, as each step he took kicked up more soot and lingered in the air. He had options in all four directions to continue his exploration, even though he was tempted to leave the house and wait for everyone outside once they had finished. He decided to take the door on his right. He walked closer and pushed the blackened door open. Residual ash was left on his hands from pushing the door and he quickly rubbed them together to get rid of it. He took a step inside the new room but he found no footing.

     The new room had no floor! He started falling through the void, his arms flailing to save him from the unknown. He grabbed his bag from his back and swiftly swung it to the front. He hugged it strongly, wishing for all this to be over, as he kept falling and hit a metallic slide. He had gathered up speed and was sliding down the Coal Chute. His clothes had accumulated a significant amount of ash now. All the care he took not to get dirty in the previous room was literally going down the drain. He was unable to stop and just wished he would fall somewhere soft, like his bed back home for example. The Coal Chute didn’t have a very steep angle, which made him hopeful that he wouldn’t get hurt when he arrived.

     He was right. After a few seconds he saw an opening at the end of the tunnel, which originally appeared as a tiny white circle before them. The hole was getting bigger, brighter and closer to them until they passed through it and safely landed on their backs, unscathed. They had reached the Basement Landing. The room was completely empty without any furniture or other decoration to cover the stone floor or walls. It was significantly colder and damp down here. He checked his wristband. The blue map showed a purple dot, informing him that Purpura was in the room on his right, the Gym. She hadn’t yet found the room with the stairs which would allow them to return back to the ground floor. As much as he wanted to turn through the door on his right and run to see a familiar face, he gathered up any ounce of courage he could muster and stood up from the cold floor, deciding to take the door on his left. His duty was still calling.

     He entered a very cold room, incomparable to the cold of the landing. He was already shivering and he had only just passed the threshold. He saw that the room narrowed into a small corridor before sharply turning left to continue its course. Lit candles decorated most of the walls of the passage, which provided little light, the flames dancing along with their shadows cast on every surface. The walls were made of tiny pebbles mixed with skulls, all stuck together to create what looked like a wall made of sandpaper. What a strange mixture to use as a wall material.

     He checked his wristband to find out that he was in The Maze, something that didn’t inspire more confidence. He wasn’t very fond of getting lost in it. The room certainly continued after the sharp turn - and it might or might not have led to an exit door on the other side - but to traverse through and reach his optimistic destination, he would have to navigate twists and turns with dead ends and minimal light source. The skulls on the walls creeped him out and made him shiver every time he laid eyes on one of them, so he didn’t continue further into the maze. He had stopped relatively at the entrance of the corridor.

     On the wall on the left hand side of the room hung a portrait painted with old oil paints. Cracks started to appear on the surface of the picture, exposing older layers of paint underneath. The frame was made from dark brown wood. The flames from the candles showered orange and yellow hues on the familiar face looking sinisterly back at him. The paint had started to chip off and fall, but he could easily appreciate the characteristics of the face. A pair of eyes were staring at him, the eyes of a familiar Wocky. Its mane white as snow, he was painted sitting on an expensive armchair. Parts of his body, from what Azul could work out, seemed to be decorated with black symbols and markings which he did not recognise. His eyes were venomous green, almost glowing, and they seemed capable of poisoning him from afar. Around this mysterious Wocky, painted in light strokes of paint, an eerie white aura encapsulated him. Azul stared at the portrait for a long while without being able to recognise who it reminded him of.

          He turned his gaze back to the end corridor which continued left. He was debating if he should go ahead and explore further this room or return back, when he noticed a piece of wood lodged in between the skulls and pebbles on the wall on his right hand side. The wood was emitting a faint white glow which mixed with the orange yellow glow of the candles creating an, admittedly, mesmerising combination of colour harmony. He knew what this meant. This faint flow resembled the white aura that surrounded the baby Vandagyre and, if he touched it, the room would start spinning. Nothing had happened before, other than the Visions counter increasing by one point, which in reality didn’t seem to affect, for better or for worse, the defenders’ task.

     He was anxious. The empty sockets of the skulls on the walls were staring at him, demanding that he make a decision, while their bald surface radiated an orange colour, reflected from the flames. The room was freezing cold and suffocating which did not help in this stressful situation. With a sigh, he approached the wooden board and reached with his hand to dislodge it from the pebbles.

     Upon touching it, the pebbles and skulls from the walls detached, and started encircling him with increasing speed while the flames became long, orange streaks and mixed with the maze, quickly spinning around him. His arms lurched outwards, his head suddenly jerked backwards with his mouth wide open and he started floating off the ground with his bag dangling from his back. His legs were left limp, levitating above the floor, as the orange and grey streak kept increasing in speed. He could not utter a single word as he was left to the mercy of the house.

     They all heard the same voice, they all saw the same vision. From deep within their minds they heard the pompous voice of Orion O. Ophiuchus. Accompanying the voice were grey blobs that floated chaotically around, in their head. An amorphous substance with no form.

     “Heed my words, mighty defenders, for I have seen the vision. Admittedly, the deception had started since you first set foot in this unfortunate house. A great evil is approaching the house. An evil bent on defeating every single one of you, with power you have never faced before, not even in your most rigorous training.”

     The blobs suddenly took form as they merged together, expanding and retracting at different parts of their surface, sprouting facial features and limps. A stodgy, white Wocky appeared in their minds, levitating off the ground. A white aura was surrounding him, his mane filled with indistinguishable symbols. Despite the greyness, his eyes shone green with malice.

     “Albugineo is strong. He will hunt you and overpower you with the sole purpose of absorbing your essence. You have to defeat him or you have to accept defeat. He will use his aura to unleash corporeal attacks onto you, beware of them. Regrettably, your own attacks won’t have any effect on him… At least not yet. Finding yourselves in the same room as him will trigger his aura to attack your clarity. Hone your skills, remember your training and break free of his trance. If not, suffer the consequences.”

     The malleable blobs suddenly changed form and Albugineo disappeared. In his place stood a massive grey blob. Within seconds, it started dividing into smaller pieces, chopping itself in the middle, to form two distinctive piles of grey bubbles. Their surface was translucent.

     “Search. Learn. Fight,” his voice echoed in their heads, “Two specific weapons are scattered around the house, their exact location is unknown. I sincerely wish you have already stumbled upon one of them as they are your only hope for survival…”

     The blobs took shape. One took the form of throwing stars. A set of two stars hovered in mid air in their minds, their surface free from any blemishes. Their black exterior accentuated their sharp edges. The second pile took the form of a bow without a string. The bent weapon was made of a dark, metallic material which somehow reflected the mind world on its surface.

     “Only these two weapons can permanently defeat Albugineo. In dire situations, defeating him with a normal strength attack might be the only solution, however doing so will cause him to vanish, only to return stronger.”

     The weapons were now rotating in their minds, along their own axis and along a central axis, resembling a merry-go-round. Each defender could clearly see every detail of the magnificent weapons.

     “In case that luck wasn’t on your side today, to discover these weapons you have to search in specific rooms. They have a possibility of being found in the Attic, the Hall of Heroes, the Library or the Treasury. Rely on your intelligence to find at least one of them,” his voice became louder now.

     “Alas, the hindrances don’t stop here. You need to learn your chosen weapon. Study its use, master its application. Cryptic shall be the clues. Only once you have mastered it four times will you be able to properly use it against Albugineo,” his voice reached a crescendo.

     “One of you has betrayed the rest and will do it again,” he said with such a thundering voice that made the house tremble. “One is working against the rest!” The blobs changed form at once. A slender, white, female Wocky formed in front of them. Blanca.

     To be continued…