That moment felt like an eternity.
The sound of the Vase shards breaking felt like an eternity.
The pain in my wrist felt like an eternity.
How long did we stay still, 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 30 minutes? An hour perhaps?
I turned around very slowly to see if death would greet us and take our souls to the underworld.
Instead all I saw was the creature shifting around a bit. It also barely opened one of it's eyes and then closed it.
But that glimpse made me realise that we would have no chance of survival if we initiated a fight with it.
With that to preserve our lives we continued to tiptoe out of the room. Once we made distance me and Toby instantly sprinted to go to the centre.
I was panting out of breath.
Then Toby proceeded to speak "Now that we've escaped lets go to the bottom corners".
He attempted to stroll to the lower left floor where I stopped him by grabbing the hood of his jumper, this made him stop completely.
"Now would you proceed to tell me why carrying shards is a good idea?".
I had that look which told him that he was caught red handed.
"Umm whoops my bad".
He says that but he's holding his shard out like it's an offer to make amends. Plus he had his sarcastic smile like offering it would resolve all problems.
"You reckless fool, forget it lets head to the bottom left area".
Toby gave me a thumbs up in response. Alongside that, the sarcastic smile hasn't gone anywhere.
But before we even managed to do anything Toby was suddenly frantic.
"Move. Now. Head to the corridor entrance". His voice full of urgency.
I dashed without even thinking and took cover behind one of the corridor walls. Toby was behind me.
I leaned out a bit but heard nothing.
"What's going on?" I asked.
His answer was a gesture that clearly told me to be quiet. He then pointed at his ears and gestured me to listen.
I was confused at first but I realised why. Voices.
"Hey look a chest" one shouted.
It seemed to be that we weren't alone. I could make out three voices, I couldn't make out what they were discussing but I did confirm one thing.
All of them were male.
I took a slight peak and saw high vests. Some stained in blood. One had a small hammer whilst another had a sledgehammer. The other had an axe.
"It's the construction workers and they're armed" I whispered.
"Damn do we make a run for it at the end of the corridor" Toby replied.
"NO" I whispered aggressively.
"We'll make too much noise and they'll know someone is here".
I continued by saying "Our only chance is if they take one of the three routes except this one".
"After they take one of the three routes we dip".
"And what if they take this route?" Toby questioned.
"Then I'll haunt you in the afterlife" I replied in a quiet voice. I also had a murderous look in my eyes.
I didn't need Toby to tell me that if they came here we're finished.
Ultimately it came down on luck.
Who is lady luck going to favour I wonder. Us or the construction workers. Her answer will be given in the next couple of minutes.
Toby gulped in response. At least he knew the severity of our situation.
A construction worker spoke "Someone's here for sure, considering the fat door was open one of the other three teams opened it"
Another responded back to that statement "Also look at the boxes around the treasure chest, some have been stepped on".
I immediately turned around to look at Toby. I didn't step on anyway so the culprit was obvious.
His reaction. Looking away and pretending to whistle like he didn't have a damn clue on what was going on.
"Well it isn't the college kids, from our skirmish and the route they were going they wouldn't have found the staircase down".
"WHO CARES" shouted one.
He continued to shout "THEY KILLED ONE OF OUR OWN".
"At least we go one of them. An eye for an eye that's what I say" one spoke softly.
It was clear that he was trying to reassure him. But in truth what's the point.
You adults are so naïve to hold on to your faith and protect those you work. Don't you know that only two can survive.
If you really cared, how would you react if you were the last survivors. Your stuck with a choice to kill one of your colleagues just for you to carry on your legacy.
That's like telling me would you save a classmate or Toby.
I would pick Toby in a heartbeat, a classmate comes and go. A friend will always be there to say hello.
"Should we open the chest? We might get good gear" one suggested.
The other two agreed.
"Sure we need the advantage".
They opened the chest. Cheers came out of their mouths as they apparently found loot. Seconds later fear was in their eyes.
A siren let off. My eardrums were starting to experience PTSD of that scream in the trap.
Wait PTSD?
The sirens then suddenly stopped.
"My ears have been saved" sighed Toby.
Wait if this was something similar to the trap that can only mean one thing.
That chest was a trap, one to lure out a creature that would decimate us. I'm fairly certain. No. I am certain.
"Well that was a jump scare" one worker laughed shyly.
"For re--"
The worker with the big hammer was trying to finish his sentence when he was suddenly flung to the wall.
The impact crushed the wall.
Toby murmured, "That sounded like a cricket bat hitting something".
A firework bang was announced.
That construction worker died instantly.
"What. The hell. Is that?" one worker asked in despair.
I popped my head out to see what was going on. My legs turned into jelly. My face began to feel hot with rage.
Those idiots. I had a feeling it was a chest trap. That chest must have summoned a creature.
Guess what. It turns out the creature is the one half asleep. The one that you don't want to mess with.
The faceoff between that creature and the two workers lasted for at least 30 seconds. After that the workers proceeded to attack.
The worker with the axe slashed at the lower leg. The creature responded instantaneously by swinging the club again.
The worker took two jumps back after the slash allowing him to dodge it.
The worker with the hammer then charged, he aimed at the wounded leg whilst the creature still had to recover from that swing.
He was successful in his attack. What surprised me was that there was a small bang.
The creature cried in agony as he tried to punch the one with the axe.
But before the blow can connect the slash wound glowed red and more blood came out. The creature screamed in anguish.
What was that? Was it a skill?
The creature then stumbled back and raised it's club in a sort of defensive stance.
The workers tried to attack him again by slashing and hitting but the creature blocked and didn't over extend.
It blocked and weaved over and over.
The creature then let a huge roar. The whole floor felt its fury. It's pain. It's discomfort.
The ground shook. I nearly let me whole body be exposed but Toby manged to grab me and pull me back.
I spun around to thank him but the colour of his face was gone. It looked like he seen a ghost.
"Footsteps, Rivian I think a hoard is coming. A hoard of creatures".
Toby said that with full of panic in his eyes.
Considering I didn't hear them they're not super close but close enough that we were running out of time.
Crap we can't escape since a fight is going on at the entrance. We're also trapped since a hoard is approaching us.
We need to stay invisible that's how we stay alive.
Invisible.
The vials.
I took out two vials from the inventory and handed one to Toby.
"Drink this we'll become invisible" I hissed urgently.
Toby drank it immediately and so did I. A screen popped up between us with the following:
Note
You have become invisible temporarily
The only one that can see you is your duo
I looked at Toby and sure enough he looked translucent. Funny it looked like he saw a ghost but now he's become one.
Behind him I saw the creatures running, they were slow but there must have been around forty of them.
I braced myself but they just ran past us, even though me and Toby were glued to the wall.
"Hurry we don't have time" I whispered.
We headed to the centre and the room was taken over by the mob.
The creature taunted at the workers. It forced the workers to focus on him.
Before they even realised the first creature grabbed one by the neck and pinned him to the floor. The others then repeatedly slashed at him.
What made it more horrifying was one sank its teeth in his neck.
He attempted to scream but the mob didn't give him permission at all to utter a single word. He was powerless.
I tried to ignore that gruesome scene by signalling Toby to run. As soon as I signed him that he dashed.
We ensured that we didn't bump into any so that we weren't detected.
A firework bang, one more eliminated.
The last worker did hold his ground. The hammer he used took out one of the creatures. He then used that flash bang hammer move which blinded three.
Using that he took down three by whacking them in the head.
But his efforts ceased when the large creature crushed his skull by using the spiked club.
Another firework bang.
The creatures celebrated by feasting on the workers dead bodies.
Good they're distracted, we can escape this cursed floor.
As soon as I though we were victorious Toby tripped ahead in front of me.
It was quite a bad tumble, he was making out with the floor.
Note
Your vial's duration has expired
"OW" Toby muffled.
Well we're only metres away from the staircase we should be fine. I looked behind me just in case.
My witness report. The hoard halted their feast.
Their heads turned slowly and faced us.
Escape really is a meaningless word isn't it.