Suspended beams, ropes stretched over a foam pit, soft high-rise structures, climbing walls, all kinds of twisting and turning things – the obstacle course was teeming with a crowd of people who wanted to go through the first stage of a long action quest. Like a wild animal, Naz instinctively felt the danger: from the far end of the hall, she, the Baroque woman, was looking at him. He felt her gaze on his biceps, glinting in the fluorescent light. A small shiver ran through his body.
"Naz, what's up, bro? Let's go!" Jules shouted to him, and jumped over the first obstacle.
The girls went ahead. Every now and then they strove to fall, but each time something magically helped them regain their balance. Helped everyone except for Naz, who continued to unsuccessfully try to cuddle Rose, and successfully catch various objects in the face. Shinigami are merciless! And they came again for their souls.
"There!" shouted Jalapeño and moved his hand to the sword in sheath.
"Wait a minute!" Big Jim stopped him. All around the room people were running, jumping and falling from all sides. "There are too many kids and kid-alts here. They are unpredictable. Hide your weapon until the right moment."
A majestic pyramid-shaped castle of soft multi-colored cubes and triangles rushed up to the passage to the next level of the action quest. Naz, Rose, Olivia and Jules were climbing to the top along with a dozen visitors.
Big Jim gave command to four henchmen – this time there were more of them: the spicy Cheongyang and the fiery Guntur joined the chili brothers Jalapeño and Habanero. They were climbing up the castle, approaching their target. Big Jim couldn't wait to see Tim's doomed face when he'd realize that he lost. But Jim lost sight of him. The renegade shinigami who had been climbing next to Rose a second ago vanished in thin air.
"Are you looking for me?" said someone to Jim's ear.
Shinigami cannot die from physical injuries, but they feel pain like all living beings, and Tim felt how his foot kissed the jaw of Big Jim, who right now was flying into the abyss. It must hurt.
Jalapeño turned out to be less adapted to flying. Tim was only able to throw him down couple levels lower. However, this was enough to gain the slight advantage necessary for four human beings to break away from the unseen pursuit.
Guntur launched his agile partner Cheongyang like a rocket. In one jump he appeared before the renegade shinigami. Fast moves, blocks at the last moment. Tim realized that he met a skilled fighter, with whom it is better not to fight. Besides, Habanero was already approaching from behind. And downstairs, Jim and Jalapeño came to their senses.
Leaping between the protruding structures of the multicolored castle, Tim escapes and fight with the overwhelming numbers of shinigami. They fall, but they rise, they fall, but they climb again. Tim is the King of the Hill.
An enraged Guntur pulls out his sword. One, two, three. Tim dodges but is knocked down by Cheongyang. These guys know how to work in combo. Big Jim and the others are also about to pounce on him, but Tim manages to wriggle out of the trap and knocks the sword out of Guntur's hands. Oh no! A sword that can teleport shinigami to the underworld. A sword which single touch can kill any living creature. This sword flies towards the children climbing up the castle.
Tim and all five shinigami realize their mistake and rush towards the kids. The agile Cheongyang is the fastest of all, he jumps, but his height is not enough, and the sword flies past the agile shinigami falling from the castle. Tim jumps out after him, a little more and... Fingertips touch the handle of the lethal weapon, but it slips away. The green-eyed shinigami drops down one level.
Two children are laughing merrily as they stand on the edge of the castle. The phantom blade flies exactly on one of them. Horror seizes the angels of death. Big Jim closes his eyes.
The two kids barely have time to glance up when Jalapeño appears in front of them. He covers the boys with himself, grabbing the sword by the blade, and evaporates.
Phew! Saved. Big Jim opens his eyes. Tim is already at the very top, disappearing in the arch leading to the next level – a labyrinth with numbers. Each fork of the labyrinth has a numbers drawn on the floor, by solving the mathematical riddle correctly, you will choose the right path, and if you make a mistake, you will end up in a dead end with a trap.
And handsome Naz, of course, falls into the trap, slowing down everyone else. The green-eyed shinigami has no other way than give a fight to a shadowers: he frightens the angels of death with sudden appearances and drives them into dead-end rooms with traps, away from Rose.
Habanero falls into the pit that suddenly appeared under Timothy hanging on the wall. But the nimble combo of Cheongyang and Guntur cannot be caught like that.
Surrounded again. Dead end. Pit. And now three angry angels of death are standing in front of the pit. Big Jim steps forward, looks at Tim hanging on the wall. Only a hole separates them. Jim reaches for his sword.
"Hey, get me out!" Habanero's voice comes from the pit.
Big Jim draws his sword, it grows in size. The long blade can reach Tim. A big shinigami smiles. Strikes. Tim lets go of the wall and falls into the pit. The blade of the sword passes over his head. Big Jim looks down, only to see the palm of someone's hand, which grabs his face and pushes him into the hole to the Habanero, who himself holds his hands on the face, which recently has become a springboard for Tim.
Taking advantage of the surprise, Tim slips between Cheongyang and Guntur, and runs further through the maze. Right, left, left, left again... There are three pits ahead. First. Jump over. Second. Jump over. Oh no! How? The nimble Cheongyang is standing at the third pit. And behind the stern Guntur. Nowhere to run. Tim looks left, looks right – they catch his every move. Tim looks down, they look down. Tim jumps... Cheongyang and Guntur instantly jump down into the pit. Alone. Because Tim just jumped on the spot. The cunning shinigami smiles and jumps over the third pit.
Tim fled with the hope that Rose had already left the dangerous labyrinth, but very soon his hopes were squashed. They got stuck in the last section of the maze. A room with a timer for solving a puzzle – the Chinese arithmetic game "24". When you start the game, 4 numbers will be given. You need to add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers so that in the end it comes out 24. The numbers will fall out in the format of playing cards: from 2 to 10, as well as Jack, Queen and King – 11, 12 and 13, respectively.
As Rose and Olivia study the rules, Naz encourages Jules to make a mistake:
"Hey, we need to give the wrong answer."
"..?"
"Then we will get to the penalty round, where there is a kissing room. We'll split up there, each with his own girl."
"Ah... Okay, bro. I got you."
"Ok. Come on. Let's do it," Naz smiles. "Well, girls, we are ready!"
In the distance, Tim hears the voices of other shinigami prowling through the maze. Rose clicks on the timer. The countdown went: 24, 23 ...
Images of four cards appear on the screen: Jack of Clubs, Jack of Spades, Queen of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds. Under the cards marked their values: 11, 11, 12, 12.
The girls start doing mental calculations in a flurry. Noisily counting out loud.
"Oh, my brain is not working. Come on, Rose! Oh, 15 seconds already!"
Rose looks at the numbers, reads the rules again. You need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide numbers so that you end up with 24.
11, 11, 12, 12...
10 seconds left...
Four shinigami burst into the room, but Tim was waiting for them. He immediately draws the Habanero's sword and, using him as a shield, drives the others away, threatening them with phantom blade.
"Revenge me, guys!" says Habanero and firmly grabs the blade of the sword. He and the sword are gone. Tim loses his advantage.
Olivia, Jules and Naz are standing at the computer screen and mumbling under Rose's arm. She pushes the buttons:
11 divided by 11... plus...
"Let me!" Naz is afraid that his plan will fail, and pushes her.
12 times 12...
Wrong!
"No! What did you...!" Rose was not able to finish her indignation because the floor disappeared under their feet.
Everyone falls down the pit onto the soft floor.
"Why did you click on multiply?!" Rose screams.
"Oops! I thought I clicked on the plus. I'm sorry!" says Naz.
"Oh, come on, Rose. I think it's even more fun," Olivia says through the cage.
Falling down, the guys were separated by a partition – cage. Rose with Naz on one side, and Olivia with Jules and a bunch of shinigami on the other.
The floor, which now was a ceiling for them, begins to close. Realizing what happened, Big Jim commands: "Hold him!" – and scrambles up to move into the next room to Rose.
Tim wants to interfere, but the nimble Cheongyang and Guntur do not let him do this, they throw him away from the exit. Rose and Naz leave the room through the red tunnel – a slide, and Big Jim manages to jump into their compartment and go after them.
It would seem that Tim should have been worried about Rose's life, he understood that Big Jim was threatening her and could not allow him to get to her. But for some reason, at that moment, the unpleasant idea of the kissing room, and the fact that Rose was going there with handsome Naz, occupied most of his thoughts. No! This will not happen! He will definitely get there first and save Rose. But first, someone had to save him.
Cheongyang and Guntur are not like Jalapeño and Habanero, and Tim felt it on his own skin. These guys were out of his league and were determined to pay him back for that pit jump prank. No one had ever made fools out of them, and now, with every blow to the head, Tim was getting closer to becoming a fool himself.
Loud female voices were heard from above. Tim recognized one of them, and began to crawl away from two shinigami.
"What? Is that everything you got? I thought you would be tougher," said Cheongyang.
Women's voices continued to be heard from above.
5... 4...
"No... That's not the case. It's just you stink so much I can't handle no more."
2... 1...
"What did you say?!" Cheongyang and Guntur were indignant, and rushed to him at the very moment when a group of large-sized women fell on top of them and crushed them to the ground.
The Baroque woman lay on the soft floor, not realizing that she had landed directly on top of the invisible shinigami.
"Get off me, you old..." Cheongyang swore, forgetting that humans couldn't hear them.
Tim hit him on the head with the hilt of his sword.
"Don't insult the pretty woman."
"Hey, this is my swo..." Tim raps both shinigami with the blade of the phantom sword and they disappear.
The ceiling above his head begins to close, Tim runs up and pushes off the women, soars up and flies into the next room, where Rose was a minute earlier.
In front of him are two tunnels – two slides leading into the unknown. Red and blue. Above them is the inscription: "If you go to the left, you will quickly reach. If you go to the right, you will go for a long, long time. Or maybe the other way around?"
"What kind of genius wrote those inscriptions?"
Tim jumps on the red slide and rushes into the unknown.