Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 46
The Trial Part 3
"MIKEY!"
Rushing to the limp body of their friend, everyone was worried sick about him. Donnie fell to his knees as soon as he reached his little brother, and instantly checked for any signs of life. Mikey was barely breathing and his pulse was slowing, but he was still alive, if just barely. There was still time to try and save him, but how? Donnie looked at the dozens of crossbow bolts that pierced Mikey's arms, chest and stomach, and the blood from the wounds, realizing that there might not be anything they could do. But he refused to accept that, he had to do something.
"Quick, give him some of the healing medicines! And remove the bolts too!" said Devina as she fell to her knees next to Donnie and began pulling out the bolts.
"Wait, what? If we do that, we might make the wounds worse, and the bolts are the only things that keep him from bleeding out!" said Donnie.
"I know, but if we don't, I can't heal him properly! Please hurry!"
Seeing the logic in Devina's words, Donnie did as she told him. Even after the time they had travelled together, he still hadn't been able to fully comprehend that Devina possessed healing magic, but he sure didn't complain. And as luck would have it, the bolts didn't have proper arrowheads, only simple points, so pulling them out didn't make it worse for the orange-masked turtle.
While Donnie and Devina quickly removed the bolts, Mona helped as best she could by making Mikey drink the healing medicine. Once enough of the bolts had been removed, Devina held both her hands over Mikey, and a warm light encased them both and spread to Mikey. Shortly after, the wounds started to slowly heal, the combination of both magic and potion repairing the damage.
It took a while, but eventually Mikey looked like he hadn't been hurt in the first place, though Devina looked exhausted from the effort. Donnie gave Mikey a quick check up, just to be sure, but he couldn't find any injuries any more.
"Seems like he'll be fine." he said.
Mikey groaned as he regained conscious, blinking a couple of times before he looked at everyone, his gaze stopping at Tyroth.
"You know, Big T, being a pincushion ain't fun." he said with a weak but goofy smile. "But, I guess you knew that already."
"That I did, Mikey, that I did." Tyroth chuckled.
"He's fine." said Raph. "If he can be like that, there's nothing wrong with him, aside from him being him."
"What happened, Mikey?" Leo asked.
"Well, I couldn't figure out which button to press, so I pressed all of them. Had to do something to save you guys."
"Mikey, you brave fool." said Mona and gave her adoptive little brother a big hug.
"I'm glad that you are well." said Devina, still looking tired.
"And we got you to thank for that." said Leo. "We owe you his life."
"Think nothing of it, we're friends, and friends are there for each other."
Once they were sure that Mikey was alright and had rested enough, they continued even deeper into the tunnel. Mikey was still a little tired, but was feeling remarkably well none the less, so he didn't want the others to take it easy for his sake.
After a short while, they reached a fork in the path, the main hallway continued forward while the other path led to the left.
"Please take the left pathway." said the wisp.
"Where does the other way lead?" Sephie asked, and it was something the others wondered as well.
"Had you chosen to take the other path earlier, you would have arrived here from that direction, if you had been able to complete the challenges on that path, that is. Now, please take the left pathway."
"How many more challenges are there left?" Tyroth asked as they walked down the left path.
"Including the one you are about to face, there are two in total."
"Not much longer then, the sooner we get out of here, the better." said Raph.
"But what kind of challenges await us?" said Donnie. "The ones we have faced so far have all had a theme of sorts."
"Really? I haven't noticed that. What kind of theme?" said Mona
"If my theory holds, the mind. Sephie cleared the first one with her archery skills, but Devina, or anyone else with the right kind of magic, could have done the same. Leo had to face his own darkness, and that takes a disciplined mind. And the last one required intelligence to clear, even though Mikey found another solution, but intelligence must be required to be able to use magic properly. So I'm thinking that this trial is meant for mages and wizards primarily."
"And we have still been able to get this far, that takes some skill. And luck, lots of it." said Mikey.
"Yes, but it is what we might face from here on out, that has me worried. If the next challenge requires actual magic, we'd better hope that Tyroth or Devina can handle it." Donnie continued.
A few minutes later, the team entered a large room. Just like before, the door shut behind them and there was another at the far end of the square room. In the middle of the room stood three altars in a row from the left to the right. They were pillar like, roughly five feet tall, each having an empty stone bowl on the top and a big plaque facing the entrance. Each of the plaques were engraved with a large fireball, just like the ones the reptiles had seen on the strange magic table back when they first arrived in Skyrim. In addition to that, within each fire ball was another etching, the one to the left had a lightning-bolt, the right one a snow-flake and the middle one a smaller fireball.
"Anyone got any idea of what we're dealing with this time?" said Raph. "Devina?"
"I am not certain, but the etchings, the big fireball, is the symbol of one of the main schools of magic. In this case, it's the symbol of the school of Destruction, that focuses on offensive spells. However, I have never seen it with the other symbols before, though they are the same as the three elements of that magic, fire, ice and lightning."
"That has to be a clue. But how do we use it?" said Sephie.
"Got any ideas, Donnie?" said Leo.
"I'm thinking. Hmm… The pillars must be part of a lock system… Maybe if we… Yes, I think I got it. The bowls must be like a form of pressure plates, filling them should open the door. And the small markings probably dictate what we have to put into the bowls. Fire and ice should be easy enough, with Tyroth and Devina having those elements at their disposal, though we might need some for of fuel for the fire. The lightning however, that's going to be more difficult, both to get and to maintain, especially without our own tech."
"I've seen lightning magic before, any chance you know some of that?" Raph asked Devina, but she shook her head.
"Sorry, despite my age, I haven't exactly studied magic that well, I only know a handful of spells and barely any of them are of the Destruction school."
"What about you, Tyroth? I saw you absorb electricity back when you saved me from the bandit leader. Do you have any left?" said Mona.
"I'm not sure, but I think that I used it all up at that time. But with enough time, maybe I can learn to create my own lightning from my magic."
"Well it's not like we don't have time to spare." said Sephie. "If only my shock-arrows hadn't been drained when we got whisked away, we could probably have used them."
"Yeah… Wait a minute! I think I got the solution!" said Donnie. Pulling out his shell-cell from his belt, he started to dismantle it. "Sephie, I need a shock-arrow. And an apple."
"Not sure what your up to, bro, but if you need a snack, I'd go for some of that dried meat instead." said Mikey.
"Snack has nothing to do with this, Mikey, I need the apple for this as well."
"I get it, you're making a fruit-battery!" said Mona. "I made one of those in science-class when I was ten."
"Precisely. Fruits and vegetables with high acidic levels, such as lemons, oranges, apples and even potatoes, can be used as a power source. And these apples were rather sour. All I need is some copper wire from the shell-cell to conduct the electricity, the zinc-tips from the arrow to connect the apple to the wires, also a diode from the shell-cell, to check if we got power."
Once Donnie had scavenged the parts needed, he quickly assembled them. Connecting the diode to the wires, he was pleased that it shone with a stable light. Now the questions were, would it be enough electricity, and how would the mechanisms even detect it?
Devina was astonished of what they had been able to create, and without magic to top it all of. Now that they had all the elements they needed, she approached the bowl that was supposed to have ice, concentrating her ice magic in her hand. But when her hand got close to the bowl, the freezing energy was ripped from it and pulled into the bowl, and a large ice-blue flame erupted, burning on its own.
"What the heck just happened?!" said Leo.
"I-I don't know… I was just going to place some ice in the bowl, when… that happened."
"Wonder if the same will happen with the other ones." said Tyroth and approached the middle pillar. Breathing some fire at it, the flames were violently drawn into the bowl, just like the ice, and erupted into a fireball, burning without any kind of fuel.
"Well, if it does the same with the electricity, the task of holding it there long enough is solved." said Donnie. "But I can't shake the feeling that I'll get shocked if I'm not careful."
"If you're worried, I can do it. I've gotten zapped more times than I care to remember, so I should be able to handle it." said Tyroth.
Feeling that Tyroth was right, Donnie handed him the apple battery. Walking over to the last pillar, the dragon braced himself for the potential shock as he held the wires in his hands. Crossing the wires in the bowl, there was a spark, and just like with the fire and ice, the spark was pulled into the bowl and a pale purple flame erupted with a crackling sound.
Once all three bowls had their respective elements, the fireballs shrunk to the size of a fist, becoming highly concentrated in the process. Then they all shot a beam against a spot just above the door, and the door opened, allowing the team to continue.
"Great work, Donnie!" Mona praised. "Who else would have thought of making an apple battery? You're the best."
"Now there's only one more challenge left, then we can finally get home again." said Mikey.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Mikey." said Leo. "That might just be the hardest challenge of all."
"Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Let's get this over with." said Raph.
Yay, Mikey is alive! I wouldn't kill off the goofy turtle, but I sure had you worried. He really took one for the team last time.
And who else but Donnie could build a battery on the fly in Skyrim, but are the team up for the last challenge? Find out next time, as the end draws near.