Chapter 19: Beneath the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava

The Council Chamber of the Teensies again. Rayman had passed through this place at least three times now. It's always the same requirements needed — lums — to pass through the door and it's always a "new world" behind the same door. Or is it a different door with the same design? Don't know. Only the Teensies will know.

Rayman wasn't shy anymore. He knew what he must do and what it took to find all the Masks of Polokus and rid his world of those pirates. But even if it's not shyness, Rayman still hesitated a bit before pushing open the chamber door.

Rayman appeared in the same temple as the previous level, but he could sense that he was deeper into it. He felt hot. Really hot. He walked over to the edge of the platform he was standing on and saw lava, and quickly stepped back. Rayman looked up. There was a way upwards but the walls of the hole were covered with vines all over. Rayman started to think. How could he get around in a vine-and-lava-filled place like this? That was when Ly appeared.

"Rayman," Ly began in her whispery voice, "I have good news and bad news."

"Start with the good news," Rayman said.

"The good news is that I have gathered enough lums to give you a new power." Ly put her hands together and a silver lum materialised. She gave the lum to Rayman who absorbed it and danced with joy. "A new power? Yippeeeee!"

"Now you can fly with your helicopter," Ly explained. "And the bad news is that your mission gets harder. So here's some advice: use your helicopter power to fly. Just activate your helicopter and keep A pressed down. Press Control to move around, it'll be much easier. Good luck, Rayman!" And Ly calmly disappeared again.

The first thing Rayman did when in flight was shoot the nightmare bouncing about on the opposite side of the room, and then collect a vertical trail of red lums to store up on energy. On the other side of the room he turned around and saw a small door in the wall under the platform he first landed on, very close to the lava. He shot the door and flew into it, careful not to touch the lava. Walking on another platform, he shot a vine and broke his 68th cage. He then flew out of the little door and up into the way covered with vines.

The vines that stock out and wave at him could not be shot back into the walls. At least the little nightmares that come at him while in flight will disappear after being shot at. Rayman landed near a big fan. It was blowing things in one direction. Rayman activated his helicopter again, and began flying in that direction, too.

In this single-direction flight, Rayman avoided more lava, more vines, more nightmares and some flames shooting out of rotating prisms. He shot at two blocked doors and cleared the way. At the end of the first part of his flight, he broke Cage 69 and collected a large yellow lum (worth five little yellow lums) hidden behind a pillar. Then he shot downwards by shooting the slanted tip of the pillar which aimed his shot downwards, and cleared the way of a hole in the ground, and jumped in.

Time for Flight Round 2! Rayman stood in front of another big fan. He could see multiple lava falls that he had to weave around and fly past in helicopter mode. Ulp! This flight is more hazardous than he thought. Oh well, off he went!

After the lava falls, he had to fly above, under, around and in between some more vines, while still careful not to touch the stream of lava underneath him. He flew to the left side and landed on concrete, sweet concrete. He broke Cages 70 and 71 and collected the lums inside them. His energy bar maxed out and extended to its longest level. Rayman jumped for joy. He felt powerful, ready to take on the world and the pirates that infest it.

He kept flying his way out of the sanctuary and shooting at more vines until he came across another door. The door opened and Rayman flew through it. So. Much. Lava. Rayman has seen enough lava to last him a lifetime. So what next? As Rayman looked around him, he didn't notice Foutch, the Guardian of the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava, sneak up behind him. Foutch knocked Rayman into the lava and also knocked the flight power out of him.

"AAAAAAAAAH! I CAN'T FLY ANYMORE!" Rayman screamed as he fell down and landed on a thin platform in the lava. Foutch approached from behind and Rayman noticed him. He had to fight this guardian off now to get his hands on the third mask. Here goes……

Foutch threw some flames at him, coming out in a series of horizontal and vertical lines. As Rayman ran forward, he jumped over the horizontal flames and dodged the vertical ones. He saw a spring of spider webs and bounced on it. Foutch, just in time, was directly beneath a stone stalactite attached to the bottom of an overhead bridge. Rayman shot the stalactite and it fell on top of Foutch's head, depleting his energy by a third.

Foutch spun in circles and black smoke came out of him. Rayman kept running and dodging and jumping over his fire and bouncing on the web and he let the guardian have a taste of the stalactite two more times. Foutch exploded and red lums came out of him. "YEAH!" Rayman cheered. In his opinion, this fight in a lava temple was not as "cool" (mind the pun) or as challenging as the fight with Axel (the guardian of the Sanctuary of Water and Ice), but it was still one, er, "hot" fight and tired him out.

Rayman bounced on the webs again to collect the red lums. He then swung from a purple lum and landed on one of the overhead bridges. He walked across the bridge and jumped down a hole and made his way towards the Third Mask of Polokus. The stone structure opened up in his presence and revealed the brown mask. Rayman climbed up the structure, took the mask and held it up high, and he disappeared and reappeared in front of Polokus again.

"Congratulations!" Polokus said. "You have found the third mask. Just one more mask and the miracle will come true." Polokus added the mask to his stone structure. Then he created a portal and passed in through Rayman's body. "Go…… quickly!"

*

Alright, that's the third mask, one to go! Rosalynn decided to take another tea break. Heck, it's HER game. She can return to it any time she wants.