"Tyel, they're smashing the wall! It won't last long!" shouted Darian. As he finished speaking, the wall behind him collapsed and the plushies all rushed towards the group while screaming wildly. The moment the wall fell down, the Seamstress screamed once again, and once she stopped yelling, other plushies appeared in front of the room, about to block the path that would let the group escape.
"You guys focus on the ones behind us, I'll take care of the ones in front of us! Radial freeze!" shouted Darian as he created a small path of ice under himself to gain some speed so that he would arrive before the plushies and could block them with another ice wall.
"Darian, grab this!" shouted Orechin as a small blue crystal appeared in his hands and he launched it towards Darian, who caught it while sliding on the ground. "Thanks!" shouted Darian as he realized that everything around him was moving extremely slowly.
'So this is how it feels…' thought Darian. The moment he slid in front of the plushies, he pointed his hands towards the entrance. "Radial freeze!!" A huge wall erupted from the ground, blocking some of the plushies, but some of them were able to pass through.
'Damn, I won't be able to defend myself,' thought Darian the moment he landed directly in front of the wall, and some of the plushies that came out launched themselves towards him. Unable to defend himself, Darian instinctively positioned his hands to protect his face and closed his eyes.
"I've got you!" shouted a voice behind the plushie. As Darian opened his eyes again, Vane, in eagle form, had rushed towards Darian and sliced the plushie in half. "We should run!" shouted Tyel as the first cracks appeared in the wall near the group, right as all of them reached Darian and Vane.
The Seamstress grabbed one of the plushies and launched it at extreme speed towards the group. "Dammit!" Vane tried to react in time to slice the plushie in half with his wings, but as he didn't have the time to harden his skin, the plushie, before getting split into two parts, was able to create a small hole in Vane's skin, making him bleed.
Soon enough, the wall nearby them collapsed, and countless plushies appeared the moment the wall was destroyed, and all of them, biting, fell directly onto the group.
"Ice armo—" Darian tried to create a defensive armor over his body but it was useless. It was like being in a sea of plushies and non-stop screams; it felt like each of these two things was about to crawl directly into your skin.
Darian didn't even finish creating his armor before the plushies fell directly over his body and soon started to eat his skin, creating countless pains all over his body. "Help me!!" shouted Liro as he stretched out his arm, trying to get some help, but it was useless; everyone else was in the same situation.
'I have to end this fast… I'll try again in the next loop…' Tyel was being eaten alive by the plushies. The ones who weren't screaming were eating his skin, and the others were slowly eating Tyel from every part of his body.
"It can't end like this… Tyel…" Orechin stretched out his arm, trying to grab Tyel as both of them were nearby, but the moment he tried to reach Tyel's dress, the plushies completely bit off his arm. Orechin's screams were soon covered by the scaring and terrifying screams of the plushies.
"Here!!" shouted Tyel as he grabbed his knife. Before he could slice his own neck, he had already ceased to breathe.
"Déjà Veil"
"Ahhhh!!"
Tyel breathed heavily as he opened his eyes once again. On his body, multiple scratches had appeared because of his power, and everyone else was looking at him, scared.
"Tyel, have you used your power? Why are you bleeding thi—" asked Darian, before Tyel immediately ran towards the drawer he had been searching into.
"We don't have time! Liro, send an illusion towards that hall, the Seamstress is about to arrive," ordered Tyel. Liro looked a bit confused. "We don't have much time!" shouted Tyel as he grabbed the paper of Project Seamstress back into his hands.
"Eh, Tyel, what happened?" asked Darian, worried, as he noticed the paper in his hands, which was able to catch his curiosity almost immediately.
"Guys, she's really here!" shouted Orechin. Liro immediately stepped forward and created an illusion of Vane running towards the Seamstress and the plushies nearby her. The Seamstress, surprised by the sudden attack, slashed her claws forward, trying to slice Vane in half, but he stopped right in time.
"She's distracted, we have to be fast!" shouted Tyel as he started to run, followed by the others. The plushies nearby the Seamstress jumped to bite Vane, and the moment they were about to bite off his skin, they simply passed right through him.
As the Seamstress saw the humans going away and realized that the creature wasn't really in front of them, she screamed hard.
"Eh, why did you use my illusion and not somebody else's?" asked Vane, who was caught a bit off guard seeing someone exactly like him about to get sliced in half.
"You're the one who always goes to the front without waiting for anything else, so…" answered Liro as he kept running, following Tyel, who was doing his best to take the lead, even if he wasn't the most athletic person in the group.
"Your power really saved us, great job Tyel!" shouted Orechin. Before surpassing the corner that would bring the group to a safer place, Tyel turned his head and noticed the countless plushies rushing towards them.
"Darian, place a wall to stop them! Orechin, place a blue crystal… everyone else keep running, we don't have time to wait!" shouted Tyel. Everyone followed his orders without hesitation. Vane and Liro started to run. "Radial freeze!" shouted Darian as he created a wall that stopped the plushies, who soon started to hit it with all their strength.
"Go, go, she's about to launch a plushie!" Tyel had noticed in these loops that once the group was far enough from the Seamstress, she would always throw one of the plushies, and now she had just grabbed one of them and was about to throw it at full speed towards the group.
"Still prism!" Orechin summoned a huge blue crystal between the group and the Seamstress. The moment she launched the plushie and it entered the range of the crystal, it soon slowed down mid-air.
"Your power is so amazing Tyel, it saved us!" shouted Orechin as he soon caught up with the group. The moment he positioned himself near Darian, who was the last one running, the wall behind the group fell. The plushies now arrived, but rather than catching the group, they found nothing instead and fell on the ground.
The first ones were crushed by the weight of the others and were unable to rush towards the group, but the others were ready, and joined by the Seamstress too, they all screamed together and rushed forward once again.
'It saved us…?' thought Tyel as he remembered Orechin's words. As he turned his head and saw the countless plushies, he realized that he didn't have any time to think about anything else.
'Is she going to launch a new plushie at us…?' Tyel looked at the Seamstress and realized that she had raised her hand. In Tyel's mind, the scenes where the huge plushies crushed the group appeared once again.
"She's about to fuse the plushies to make a huge one, get ready, we don't have much time!!" shouted Tyel as, behind him, a lot of plushies fused together, forming a huge round chicken that soon started to roll on the ground and would soon reach the group.
"I'll try to stop it for now! Still prism!" shouted Orechin as he created a huge blue crystal that slowed down the plushie. 'As long as it is only one, we can do it…' Tyel looked back once again and realized that there was no longer a single huge plushie, but most of the smaller plushies had fused together into bigger ones, and now rolling on the ground there were exactly three, positioned in a straight line.
'Wait, if one of them is further behind, it means it can push the one in the front… meaning the blue crystal will soon be destroyed!' thought Tyel. He knew the crystal wouldn't affect the plushies in the back, and thanks to their huge bodies, they would be able to push the other plushies, sending them crashing against the blue crystal and nullifying his strategy.
"We don't have much time, Darian, figure something out!" shouted Orechin. Darian started to sweat hard, caught by surprise. "Why me!?" shouted Darian, and as he kept running, he closed his eyes for a moment.
'Think, Darian… how can you stop them… not stopping them, but making use of the fact that they're rolling non-stop…' Darian, while running, stopped for a moment and opened his eyes with a serious expression. "I got it!"
As he turned around, he positioned his hands on the ground. The plushies would soon reach him and Darian had to be fast. 'Snowy… I'm asking for some of your power… give me at least one tail,' thought Darian as he closed his eyes.
As he pointed his hands at the ground, two tails appeared. 'Be fast,' answered Snowy. Darian nodded his head, and the moment he started to charge his spell, the effect of the second tail appeared over his body.
"Radial freeze!!!" shouted he, as he charged the spell to create multiple spikes to stop the plushies, completely filling the path with spikes; for someone that big, it was impossible to continue.
As the spikes kept appearing, time was slowing down for Darian. He had all the time he needed to charge up his spell, and while for everyone else less than a second had passed, for Darian around five seconds had already gone by.
'It should work… thank you, Snowy!' thought Darian happily. As he finished loading the spell, Snowy's tails disappeared from his body and time started to flow normally for Darian too.
As Darian turned towards the group again, multiple ice spikes appeared all over the path. The plushies, who couldn't predict it in any way, couldn't help but be struck by the countless spikes that appeared.
The smaller plushies tried to pass through the spikes, but it was impossible. There were too many, so even for something as small as a plushie, it was impossible to pass through.
"Woah, Darian… what the hell was that?!!" shouted Orechin as he got excited at the sight. In front of his eyes, the huge plushies got completely destroyed and couldn't move anymore.
"I just focused on—" Darian couldn't finish speaking before the Seamstress, at the sight of her plushies getting brutally destroyed in that way, couldn't help but shout as loudly as she could. As the huge plushies disappeared and died, she screamed once again, and with no more plushies following her, she slashed her claws forward, destroying the spikes with all her strength and pursuing the group from behind.
"She will not be fast enough… and we're almost there!" shouted Tyel. The whole group nodded, and before turning a corner, Liro created an illusion of the whole group where they were touching each other in the illusion, aiming to scare the Seamstress the moment she turned it.
"That's good, Liro," whispered Tyel to keep his voice from being heard by the Seamstress. As the group turned another corner, the Seamstress arrived at the one where the illusion was positioned, and caught by surprise, she sliced her claws forward, only to realize after they passed right through them that she had been fooled again.
As she screamed once again, Lily and Syrmax, who weren't very far, heard the scream and immediately opened their eyes in fear.
"Have you heard that?" asked Lily as she rose, returning to her feet. Syrmax, who had gained energy by now and was looking barely muscular, opened his eyes, yawning tiredly as if nothing important had happened during this time.
"LET'S GO OUT!!!" As Lily and Syrmax turned around, they noticed Liro, Darian, Tyel, Vane, and Orechin running towards them while sweating extremely hard.
"She's here, we don't have much time!!" shouted Darian. Behind them, the Seamstress had arrived once again, and as they turned around, they noticed her yelling in anger towards the group.
Everyone had just arrived in the room near the ladder, and Lily created multiple roots that raised everyone else and brought them directly up near the ladder. Vane turned into an eagle and rushed to open the hatch, while Lily created a platform with her roots for everyone to walk on and reach the ladder.
"Shit, she's here, we won't have much time!!" shouted Orechin as he noticed that the Seamstress had just entered the room. Lily spoke with a serious expression and a reassuring tone.
"Don't worry, we haven't slacked off the whole time… Poisoned crown." The moment she snapped her fingers, the seeds she had hidden in the room in case the Seamstress arrived all grew immediately and rushed toward the creature, blocking her movements exactly when she was about to slice her claws to destroy the platform from below.
The Seamstress yelled loudly as she saw the humans going away and closing the trapdoor above them.
"We're alive…" Tyel breathed heavily as he realized that, together with the others, he had been able to get outside.