To Annabre24: No worries :p. Thanks for the kind words :). You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Turbo has matured a good bit, yes, but as you may find this chapter, he's still got a long ways to go xD.
Turbo kicked a root beer barrel-themed mine cart after leaving Tapper's. He felt that he needed to fight something to clear his mind. He wasn't ready to meet those four, not that soon. He was amazed that he didn't expose himself, though he knew full well that he had gotten dangerously close, to the point that they probably didn't trust him in the slightest. That's fine though. I don't need them. I don't even like them. Except maybe Felix. He's okay. "You know what? I'll go to Dragon's Lair." He grumbled out loud, though nobody was around to hear him. That'll show 'em.
So to Dragon's Lair he went, after bobbing and weaving through the crowds which only heightened his frustration. Will these people get out of my way?! He growled under his breath, which made a few of the shorter game characters scuttle away.
The sky was a deep, cloudy purple inside Dragon's Lair. Surrounded by nearly endless amounts of massive thorns was an old, eccentrically designed castle. A chill ran down Turbo's spine, as if to warn him that he shouldn't be there.
Turbo took out his sword from its little pocket dimension. I ain't about to test whether or not I turn into that ghost form in here when I die. He'd never been in Dragon's Lair before. He only heard rumors of its harshness, the biggest details of which coming from Felix.
Turbo cautiously made his way over a run-down drawbridge, inching his way across slowly, cringing at the creaking noises that were amplified by his imagination. Once he was halfway across, two boards gave way. He fell into the hole, just barely managing to grab onto the edge as the sounds alerted something in the water.
Four purple tentacles, each topped with a golf ball-sized eye rose up from the water and approached the hole as Turbo climbed up and laid on his back in an attempt to calm down from the shock.
One of the tentacles reached up through the hole, wrapped itself around Turbo's ankle and pulled him back down to the others.
Turbo landed in the water and choked as it began to fill his lungs from futile gasps for air. He was entirely wrapped by the tentacles, their hold on him tightening slowly.
Even through his panic, he managed to glitch. It wasn't really a skill he had perfected, per se. There wasn't really anywhere for him to practice. At least nowhere that such a thing would go unnoticed for long. But the option was always there.
He reformed in the water a few feet from the tentacles. His lungs were no longer filled with water, however, much to his relief. Not that he had the luxury of air just yet. Not wanting to give the tentacles any more chances, he glitched again, this time back onto the drawbridge, with some effort.
The tentacles, though mindless and momentarily confused, managed to lock back onto him as if they could sense his presence. They rose back up through the hole once more.
Turbo had grown far more cautious in the brief moments that would have led to his certain death, and was waiting for the tentacles to come up. "Not this time!" he yelled fiercely as he swung his sword downward in a single, powerful diagonal stroke, slicing cleanly through each tentacle.
Whether this killed the tentacles, or they simply regrew with more eyeball heads like a hydra, he didn't know. He wasn't going to wait to find out. He made a dash for the castle, his eyes taking focus on the dark, steel gate at the castle's doorway.
As he ran under the gate and straight inside, it fell, and then a second, smaller steel gate fell behind shortly after.
Turbo finally looked behind him, no sign of the tentacles remained. I could probably leave.. I probably should leave.. He let out a prolonged sigh, pinched the bridge of his nose, and subtly shook his head, "Why did I even come here in the first place? What am I trying to prove by coming here?" It was nerve wracking even just standing there, unsure what unknown horrors were lying in wait.
He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion and sighed again, deeply. "Whatever," he shrugged, "Con-tin-uing on.." He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly in his hand and pressed onward down a short, narrow, stone hallway with an open, wooden door at the end.
He flinched as the door shut tight behind him. He briefly closed his eyes and shook his head before glancing around anxiously. There were three doors in the small room he found himself in. Two of which had quickly shut from top to bottom, on both his left and right. The door in front of him was closed from the beginning. The room was made of the same unevenly crafted stone slabs as the rest of the castle.
Turbo cautiously crept towards the door which was already closed, stopping dead in his tracks when cracks began to form under it. Large, gaping cracks. The lower half of the door itself and the entire floor along the wall, and even some of the wall itself had crumbled and fallen into an unseen abyss. The left wall was given similar treatment.
Right right right riiight. Turbo clutched his hair with the hand which wasn't holding his sword, half-expecting a helmet to be there for some reason, and ran to the door on the right, which seemed stable enough. There was a sound as if someone had fired a laser gun as the door disappeared in a dim, yellow flash, leaving an open doorway for him to run through.
Just as he made it through, the ceiling caved in behind him in the other room.
He found himself in, of course, another room. There was once again a door that closed on its own. Why do these doors close from the top down? "What they got against swinging doors?"
There was a stairway to his right. It was a straight stairway for the most part, however a few steps before reaching the floor, the stairway was angled towards the center of the room. There was a small wooden table a few feet from the door opposite him, and on the wall to the left of the door was a weapons rack with rusted tools of war.
In his curiosity, Turbo inched in the direction of the weapons rack for a closer inspection, stopping immediately when something in the room above shook the castle. A long, thick, green tentacle with pale suction cups on one side came down from a gaping hole in the ceiling in front of the weapons rack. "Nuh uh!" Turbo yelled suddenly, having had plenty enough experience with tentacles for one day.
He spoke aloud the words to activate the skill he'd grown all too accustomed to, "Ogre sword!" A rush of power washed over him as he glowed yellow and quickly flew towards the tentacle in an attack stance. With his feet firmly grounded, he slashed the tentacle in two heavy, side to side strikes. The tentacle completely disappeared as a light green hue briefly flashed in its place. Well that's kind of disappointing.
The unmistakable rustling and.. Groaning?.. of more tentacles could be heard behind him as the weapons rack seemed to beckon him closer with a light blue flash. Whatever! He jumped over the small table as a few more tentacles fell from the ceiling behind him to his left. Instinctively he jumped to the door which suddenly opened, only for it to shut again as the large tentacles slithered in front of it.
Stairs! The stairs! He jumped over the small table once more and onto the stairs, and yelled an obscenity when yet more green tentacles spilled down from the open hole the stairs led to. He jumped back onto the table and noticed that the door had begun opening and closing rapidly. He let out a frustrated growl and timed his jump for when it would be open, narrowly escaping the tentacles' grasp.
"I swear to Konami, Felix. When I'm done with this game!.." Turbo muttered bitterly, before coughing and looking around the room through squinted eyes. The room he found himself in was shrouded in thick smoke. He froze up for a moment as he noticed a skull hanging from the ceiling by a thin rope. There was a door on both his left and right, each with a steel gate raised in their doorways. The door on the right was raised a foot or so off the ground, with some steps leading up to it.
That was before the gates shut. Of course. And then a giant, red, black, and white striped snake lowered itself down from a hole in the ceiling. Not a tentacle, but close! He killed it quickly with a single swipe of his sword. These things disappear just like- He suddenly tensed and then slashed an identical snake which appeared from a hole in the wall across the room. And then the one that appeared from a hole on the left side of the same wall. Stop!
The rope which the skull was tied to flashed yellow. He didn't question it. He just yanked on it as hard as he could, which caused another rope to fall from an open hole in the ceiling. Gettin' out of here!
Turbo jumped at the rope and climbed it fervently as yet another snake hissed at his heels, sending chills down his spine. "Yeaugh!" he shuddered at the thought of facing yet more tentacles and snakes throughout this game. This ain't a freakin' game. This is madness!
He rose to his feet at a doorway. Nothing but darkness was behind him as far as the eye could see. Through the door was a one foot long ledge. That's all that the floor consisted of. The rest of the room was a pit of fire, with three ropes dangling from the ceiling, each lit on fire at the bottom. He could've sworn there were large spikes in the pit as well. Not like I'm gonna jump down there anyway.
He took a deep breath and made like Tarzan, swinging from rope to rope across the room to the only other door, which had a similar ledge. He hadn't even noticed that the ledge behind him had retracted since he left it. This room was fine. That I could handle.
The next room seemed innocent enough.