Author’s Note: Unedited Chapter

———————

I am aware and you’re not helping,” Gustav only reason for attacking the balls were to deter them and avoid making any contact.

He was never trying to destroy them in the first place.

Fhwwhiiiii!

As the group made it past a quarter of the statue challenge terrain, the statues behind suddenly stabbed their weapons downwards.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The statues behind, lined in an horizontal format blocked the path with their weapons slamming into the ground.

The ice balls chasing after Gustav and the others were completely blocked off and could no longer chase them.

“Phew, that was something,” E.E heaved a sigh of relief as the group came together once more.

“Man you didn’t even have any issues,” Teemee voiced with a slight tone of annoyance.

“Gustav are you okay?” Vera questioned as they stared at Gustav standing with a single leg and missing an arm as well.

“It will grow back,” Gustav stated.

“Don’t let your guard down. We’re not out of the clear yet,” He quickly added before the group could ask any more questions.

“We’ve definitely entered another stage of the challenge,” Aildris stated as they peered forward with intrigued and wary gazes.

“We should…”

Just as Falco was about to suggest something, the ground began caving in around them.

Krrrryyccchhh! Diiiihhhhh!

As the icy sloppy ground caved in around them, they were forced to head towards the middle path as it seemed to be the only unaffected area.

The statues remained standing in the vicinity despite the crumbling grounds.

The team arrived in the middle path which was large enough for them to stand side by side. Looking over the edge, they could see a water body hundred of feet below where the grounds had caved in.

[God Eyes Has Been Activated]

“It is as i suspected… the water below us is not ordinary,” Gustav informed the others, the instant he inspected the liquid below.

A metal bar appeared in Gustav’s grasp from his storage space which he proceeded to drop as he stood before the ledge.

As the bar fell towards the liquid below, it began freezing up, before turning into a complete chunk of ice in mid air.

It hit the liquid moments later and drowned in it which meant the body water below them was extremely cold.

Cold enough for the mist emitting from it to turn anything or anyone into a statue of frost before they even hit the surface yet the water body remained liquid.

“We just gotta make sure we don’t fall in, right?” Ria  said while gulping down saliva.

“I don’t think they intend to let us make it through,” E.E voiced while pointing at the statues lining up on the sides of the path up ahead.

Thiiiinnngghhh!

They eyes emitted a silver gleam as they raised the weapons in their hands.

“Move!” Gustav instructed.

Bang!

Everyone dashed forward as quickly as they could, missing the descent of a massive club like weapon that slammed into the path.

Krrrychhhh!

Web like cracks spread across the place as the path began to split open. The group had rushed forth so they escaped the area of impact.

However, up ahead, the other statues were swinging their weapons downwards and backwards.

Fwwhiii!

Gustav jumped slightly as he reached a particular distance. A massive blade, the size od a five storey building, swept below him as he ascended, sending blistering winds across the vicinity.

[Regeneration Complete]

“Watch out,” Gustav warned the others since he happened to be ahead.

Unfortunately he seemed to be the one in need of this warning as a massive staff like weapon shot forward, heading in his direction as he had ascended to the exact height needed to make contact.

His entire figure had been covered up by the looming shadow of this gigantic staff which had arrived before him in an instant.

Gustav swiftly reacted by stepping forward in mid air.

[Dash Has Been Activated]

Swwoosshhh!

He sped across the tip of the massive spear, arriving atop its body in an instant.

Fwwwhooosssshhh!

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His teammates who were initially worried, showed expressions of relief as they also did well to avoid the oncoming onslaughts of the statues.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Teemee had conjured a spherical red enclosure that encompassed his entire being as he flew forward and zigzaged his way across the path to dodge the weapons.

“Don’t try to parry the attacks, just do your best to escape them,” Gustav announced up ahead as he did multiple front flips in mid air dodging massive metal balls that shot forward from a cannon like weapon in the grasp of one of the statues.

Snap!

Massive Vortexes opened up, swallowing the weapons in E.E’s path and appearing far in the sky.

Elevora and a few others who happened to trail behind him, had no issues with the attacks of the statues. They only had to make sure they were quick enough to escape the areas affected by the collision of the weapons which caused the path to cave in.

“Show off,” Glade made a low tch as she jumped and swerved sideways repeatedly, dodging the flurry of attacks while watching Teemee escape them effortlessly.

“Its not my fault you chose weaker abilities,” Teemee shrugged.

A gigantic axe like weapon swung downwards before Gustav which he proceeded to latch onto.

The statue lifted its weapon back in the air unbeknownst to it that Gustav held onto it. After ascending more than a thousand feet in the air Gustav leapt off the axe.

‘Guys, the path ahead is missing and there are ghastly looking hands extending from the liquid below…’ Gustav informed them as he sped forward.

‘Can’t we just leap over?’

‘Or better still, E.E could open a vortex for us to get past that area,’

Teemee and Falco questioned through the mind link.

‘If only it were that simple,’

Gustav proceeded to explain that the happened to be a barrier of sorts ahead that would prevent them from getting to where the path resumed.

If they decided to leap over, they would slam into the barrier and fall into the liquid below or get dragged into it by the massive hands protruding from it.

If E.E was to open a vortex and they got past the barrier due to that, it might count as disqualification since he had noticed a small platform that extended from the surface of the water body below.

This platform was in the middle of the sunk in area and the arms protruding from the water body were surrounding it.

‘The platform has a stand point that I believe deactivates the barrier so everyone would be able to leap over and arrive on the new path…’ The instant Gustav got to this point he descended from above with speed.

Fwwwhiii!

‘Leap now,’ Gustav’s presence had attracted the hands which shot forward in an attempt to grap him.

Bang!

The instant Gustav landed on the platform, his teammates leapt forward simultaneously while the barrier got deactivated.

Thrrrihhh! Ssiiiiihhhhh!

The small platform which was only two feet in length and breath really had no space for Gustav to escape in as the hands tried to wrap around his figure.

Swwhhiiii!

[Size Manipulation Has Been Activated]

Unfortunately for them, Gustav evaded the reaches one after the other as he decreased and increased his body size as desired.

The liquid hands would squeeze up thinking they had the gruesome being in their grasp onto to notice, he was standing on the platform finger sized.

Swwhiii! Swwwhii! Swwhii!

Gustav would occasionally change size becoming either as thin as a piece of paper and slanting backwards of making himself very little.

After a few seconds of evasion, the arms all reached out at the same time to grab him in frustration but Gustav had already achieved his goal so he didn’t need to stay here any longer.

[Size Manipulation Has Been Deactivated]

Thooooommm!

Gustav leapt off the platform instantly, arriving at the start of a new path.

They all headed forward together the instant he arrived there.

Now they had crossed another two quarters of the terrain that the massive statues covered. Only one quarter was left.

###########

-Thirty Minutes Later

“That was kinda exciting,” Matilda voiced as the group walked togther across a ridge while holding onto different colors of eggs.

A couple hundred feet behind them was a terrain of massive frosted looking statues. It got smaller, the further they walked.

“We could have scaled through that easily if it was a battle. Its no fun to just evade things, i want to break things,” Glade spoke with a slightly irritated tone.

“Maybe could learn from this instead of seeing it as a chore due to restrictions,” Aildris voiced with a smile as his silver hair fluttered in the wind.