Blessed Combat

4 - Hero

“HeeeEEEEYAAaaaAAH!!!!!” Phoenix cried out with a mixture of fear and irritation. Once her baby blue eyes were locked at the sight of a corpse of a butler, she engulfed her fists with smouldering red flames; keen on thoroughly turning him into peppery ash. For the third time in history of Hallway of Horrors, a competitor had managed to knock out a corpse, once and for all.

“Calm down Phoenix. Remember? Breathe.” Zatch spoke, half chuckling at her fresh reactions and carrying an unconscious Stabs on his back. Phoenix simply glared at him, her face red by being so worked up at the tons of dead butlers and maids they had dealt within the past few minutes. It didn’t help that Stabs, who was quick with finishing his opponents, had fainted at the mere sight of wandering zombie maid with rotting flesh and bone. However, to faint without screaming was indeed, worthy of a medal.

“How can I calm down?! The minute I calm down we see a dead zombie wandering off somewhere at the next corner! I am certain by the time we finish I would already had gone past the point of having a heart attack!” Phoenix yelled furiously, her crimson red hair blazing into neon blue flames and both eyes reformed into hollow white. She glared ferociously at Zatch, -despite having no indication of pupils- whose smile didn’t waver in the slightest. Instead, he simply looked her in the eye, and replied back with a creepily composed voice. It was as if he wasn’t scared of the game, not one bit.

“Well now we know that once we go astray from this glowing trail of blood we would see a dead zombie somewhere at the next corner”

The AI must have had a liking to all three of them because it didn’t take long for them to find a task concealed in a room. The task itself was easy to follow, literally.

Follow the Blood Trail

 After reading and examining the small piece of paper, the whole room abruptly grew dark. Immediately Stabs started whimpering and prayed to God that he hoped that this was not the end and that he didn’t want to die too young. It took a good whack on the head by Phoenix to get his wits back together.  After a while of getting adjusted to the dark, a trail of luminous substance started glowing brilliantly on the floor. It had leaded them to another door in that room and on to the next area.

It was bearable enough for them to handle since by then, they still haven’t encountered any zombies and dead servants patrolling about. That was until they were ambushed by a frenzied voice of Zero who had lost sight of a short girl; followed by what seemed like a squeaks of mice. While Phoenix and Stabs could only try their best to bring their breathing to its rational rhythm, Zatch was the only one who bellowed in laughter. The other two could only assume he was laughing due to delirium of the game.

The area the blood trail had leaded them to, was something short of a dead end. The walls were covered with several boulders of varying sizes that reached up to a great height. There was an old fashioned elevator stationed in front of them but what good was an elevator that was broken? Despite having to deal with that obstacle, with Zatch’s high intellect and sharp memories of the earlier versions of Hallway or Horrors, they managed to get the broken down elevator whirring back to life.

The elevator had lead them to what seemed like an abandoned laboratory. It was equipped with several cupboards of jars that were filled with grotesque organs. Large quantities of desks were aligned in a neat row full of instruments and heaps of notes of experiments were scattered all over the yellow tinted tiles. Following the blood trail once again, they went behind one desk in particular which had the instructions of how to create a specific, unnamed acid. Chemistry was not their strong points. Even Zatch had some difficulties with it. Using wild guesses for the amount and timing, soon they finished creating their first acid that didn’t blow up as well.