Gore Warning: Injuries relating to Burns and Slicing
The water flowed into the room, dousing out half the flames as Cassie entered, sword in hand.
Her skin stung, the heat was sweltering, and rage burned within her like boiling lava as she looked at Blaze, who stood in the center of the room. Anger flooded through her as she shouted and charged.
The monster looked at her, eyes widening in shock and dodging just a second too late. Her blade sliced through flesh and cloth, and the creature let out a roar of agony, clutching at the large gash in his right arm, hissing in pain.
Anger pulsing through her veins, she swung again at him, but found her sword blocked by the golden rods. She struck again and again, wanting her sword to cut through bone, but it kept being met with air or golden rods. Her anger grew fiercer as her skin stung, and she stabbed at the Blaze once more.
Her blade clashed against the golden rods, but just as she was about to swing again, the monster rapidly flew upwards.
She tensed herself for an attack, but he only flew up into the tall ceiling. She stared wide-eyed as he landed on a platform above, then disappearing.
"GET BACK HERE!" she shrieked at him, her blood roaring in her ears and sweat beading down her body from the sweltering heat.
"Cassie!" she whipped around to see Harper, Aiden leaning on her for support, "We need to go!"
"But the-" Cassie's eyes widen when she looks at Aiden's face, "Holy shit."
Burns, raw and bloody, covered a large portion of his neck and creeped up the right side of his face in the rough shape of a hand. The large slash in his cheek was black, looking like it was rotting. The rancid scent of burnt flesh reached her nose, and she almost gagged.
He looked up, and seeing Cassie, his eyes widened, "You're alive?" he said voice raspy from the smoke, then burst into a fit of coughing.
They all headed through the door, Harper and Aiden at a slower pace, when there was the sound of a loud crack, and Cassie froze in the doorway, spinning around and looking into the flames. "What was that?"
"The heat probably cracked the mirror! Cassie, go!" Harper said, and after a moment of hesitation, she did so.
Once they entered the hallway, Aiden stumbled, and Harper gently sat him on the floor.
"How are you still alive?" she asked him, gently touching the not-burnt side of his face.
Aiden didn't reply at first, just breathing shallowly, but then he looked at Cassie, and his brows furrowed. "Is your skin... red?"
Cassie's fists clenched, and she snapped at him, "That thing threw me threw a wall of fire. I'm not exactly going to be just fine now am I?"
He looked to the ground, then opened his mouth to say something else, but didn't get the chance to because of a clunking sound, then another following immediately after it.
She looked back to the room with the netherrack floor, but shock filled her when she saw the entrance had disappeared. There was nothing but wall where the doorway had been, as if somebody had blocked it off.
Except there had been nobody to block it off.
For a minute, nobody spoke, the only sound being Aiden's breathing slowly becoming more stable now that he was out of the smoke-filled room.
Finally, Harper said, "I think we should rest before we move on."
Cassie nodded, her skin still stinging, but her body cold. "Agreed."