3.1.7.3. Flyin' Flynn - Part Three
Tentative Image Source for Kyflynn Windwalker : Dark Elf by ~kerembeyit
http://kerembeyit.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Elf-61425102
Kyflynn answers, ‘We’ll take notes from the hunters who return here, and then send groups to explore and find out more accurate combinations. Who among you can use telepathy?’ Again there’s no answer. Kyflynn talks on.
‘No one? Then we can only rely on our notes. Let’s hope we don’t go into dead-ends.’
‘I’ll write it down now and make a diagram of it,’ says Carolyn. ‘Now give me what you got.’ She takes out her quill and her notebook from her goodie bag. Then, one by one, the hunters, starting from Kyflynn and Genilda tell Carolyn what tunnels and rooms they went into. Carolyn makes a diagram and writes down the information in codes, sometimes murmuring…
‘Yes… north room, left tunnel… N1. Then came out in N2, went in tunnel N23 and returned at South Room. Next!’
And soon, more and more hunters starting to go and return in the rune room. Robert, Chiel and Andreas return together. And then Agustina returns too.
Carolyn and Kyflynn begin to send out groups. The first group is led by Robert and Andreas to the East Room to find out a more accurate route. Some more hunters come, and one of them is Hernan y Parvaez, leading a few wounded hunters, returning in the rune room. He went into the tunnels much earlier than Robert and Kyflynn’s parties, but he never found a right route out.
‘It’s my turn again now,’ says Kyflynn after studying the diagram and exchanging information with Hernan and his group. ‘I have a hunch that the north room is worth some more checking. I need five hunters and Agustina with me into the tunnels. And you too, Genilda.’
‘Oh, no,’ says Genilda. ‘I think I’ll stay behind.’
‘But why?’ says Kyflynn with surprise on his face.
‘This adventure is over for me. You see, I have two kids back home. And the man who went into the fan in pieces was my husband.’
Kyflynn is crestfallen. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. But why did you take the mission in the first place?’
‘Because it was from the Pope. From Vadis. We thought we can finish this up and go home together to our kids. But now that my husband is lost, what will my kids do if they lose me too? My family is everything to me. I’ll do whatever I can here for Vadis’ sake, and then I’ll go back to the entrance through the forest. I’m sure Lord Vadis will understand.’
‘Well, if you must. You’ve been a great help in there. Thank you, Genilda, ma’am. I’ll never forget you.’
‘Jolly holly, it’s been an honor to fight side by side with Kyflynn Windwalker,’ says Genilda. ‘Now go. May Vadis and Enia be with you.’
‘And you too. C’mon, Tina!’ says Kyflynn as he walks into the North door again. Agustina doesn’t answer, but she follows Kyflynn silently, still with her cold, expressionless face.
With the additional information from Hernan’s group, Kyflynn is now convinced that the right route is through the North Room, and then they take the left tunnel again. They fight through the wind elementals successfully in the next room, thanks to Agustina who casts An Jokul’me Fyasch, her powerful Blizzard Blast magic, turning them into liquid and freeze them so the other hunters can destroy them with ease.
And then in the next room Kyflynn says to his comrades, ‘Guys, we surely must take the middle tunnel. From the info I’ve got, a hunter has tried the left tunnel before and took a longer route before finally returned to the rune room. So, shall we?’ And without further ado, all follow Kyflynn into the middle tunnel.
And then Kyflynn, Agustina and the rest of the group arrive in an identical room as the previous one they’ve gone into. No one has any information about where this room series will lead to. Without thinking twice about the risk and the trap they might find, Kyflynn and his group press on. They meet three wind elementals in the next room, and the positive-thinking Kyflynn says, ‘Well, from the looks of it, I think this IS a progress.’
With Agustina’s magical assistance, once again the wind elementals become sitting ducks for the hunters. As they go into the next room quickly before the fans generate another batch of wind elementals, Kyflynn is now faced with another three tunnels. And as there’s no information about it, he has to figure out which is the tunnel that doesn’t return them to the start again.
He begins to speculate, ‘The first is left, the second is middle. So this time it’s a fifty percent chance the right is the right one.’ Kyflynn immediately gives instructions to his comrades. ‘You three take the left tunnel, you two the middle, and Agustina, come with me to the right. And don’t forget to share our route with Genilda and Carolyn if any of us return to the rune room.’
‘Aye aye! Right on! Yes!’ are the various responses from other hunters except Agustina, who doesn’t even nod, blink or move her lips. And yet she follows Kyflynn obediently into the wind and flies into the right tunnel.
They come out at the end of the tunnel into a completely different room. It’s a round room, much larger than the previous ones. As Kyflynn observes it more, he finds three things: First, He and Agustina are still floating in mid-air, tossed here and there by multi-directional wind made by four large fans at the floor. The second thing, there are fifteen tunnels around the room. Kyflynn doesn’t have a chance to count it yet because the third thing comes and takes his full concentration: another wind elemental with the same round head as before, but this time it’s three times larger than the previous ones. And what’s worse, the scythe-like arms are three times larger too, and there are three of them.
Now Kyflynn has a reason to be panicked, but he’s not. He runs at once as quickly as possible to dodge the scythes, and yells, ‘Tina! Do your thing!’. Hearing Kyflynn’s yell, Agustina is now recovered from her hidden shock and casts ‘An Jokul’me Fyasch!’ in order to turn the giant wind elemental into liquid and freeze it, but this time the Blizzard spell doesn’t affect it much, instead the elemental absorbs the blizzard through his head and blows it out, redirecting the blizzard towards Kyflynn and Agustina.
Kyflynn increases his running speed to avoid being hit by it, and Agustina casts ‘An Jokul’me Prdaj!’ And an ice wall forms in front of her, blocking the blizzard as she can only absorb a part of the cold energy. As the wind elemental finishes blowing the entire blizzard it sucked, it immediately changes its attack mode into Wind Scythe Fins again. Its fins and body break the ice wall into pieces, leaving slash wounds on Agustina. Luckily the wall muffled the slashing force from cutting deeper into Agustina’s vital organs, so the wounds aren’t deep. Agustina runs, points her finger on her wounds, freezing the blood to prevent more coming out from her body.
My blizzard can’t harm it at all. I must defend myself and help Kyflynn find the right tunnel. But how?
Agustina keeps on making walls of ice to block the slashes. Kyflynn on the other hand tries to make a good use of the walls although he got some cuts himself, and his wounds bleed blue blood in several places of his body. He looks up and down, trying to find some kind of clue while the wind from the fans keeps tossing him around. He looks at the walls and the ceiling, and suddenly an idea strikes him. He catapults himself to the ceiling from the nearby wall, and nails a pair of his spare daggers on the ceiling, leaving him hanging there like a spider escaping when its web is being destroyed.
With a precise calculation, Kyflynn hooks his legs on the nearby wall. The giant wind elemental can’t reach Kyflynn with its scythes and it can’t elongate himself or climb the walls, because of its form. So far Kyflynn is safe, but for how long? How long can he strain his muscles to hold his daggers?
Thoughts are racing in his mind. Agustina can’t stand much longer too, so we have to figure out something, fast! Unfortunately, no ideas come out.
Agustina is beginning to get very exhausted too, from her wounds and from draining her mana energy to make ice walls every time the scythes come near her.
As Kyflynn and Agustina are in their wits’ end and they can’t hold on much longer, they hear rumbling sounds from the entrance tunnel. And soon enough, some figures are emerging from the tunnel. And apparently they are Carolyn, Hernan, Iris, Desmond and four other hunters including a dwarf and a faun (half-human, half goat creature but retaining his human face, hands and torso).
A hunter flies too close towards the giant wind elemental and is cut into pieces by its scythes. Desmond is also hit, but because of his rock-tough skin he only gets some scratches. Kyflynn yells desperately, ‘C’mon! Attack it now! We can’t hold on much longer!’
The wind elementals reveal their shining eyes on their ‘windy’ heads and unleash their most deadly attack to strike lots of enemies at once, Seven-Split Tornadoes! Two wind elementals split up into seven regular-sized wind elementals with the largest still positions itself in the center. They begin chasing the hunters with their scythe-hands spinning ceaselessly. Hernan unleashes his Requiem of the Tides skill on a wind elemental with no avail, but something catches his sight and he begins to speculate.
Then he yells to Kyflynn, ‘Hey you, dark elf! Attack the giant wind’s eye! I don’t know if it works but it’s worth a try!’
Kyflynn hears this and thinks quickly. That must be its weak spot! I’m up here, so only I can do this one-shot opportunity! Let’s hope my sacrifice can save them!
With this thought he lets go of his spare daggers, takes out his trusty twin daggers Maraj’vriad (A Myriad of Shadows) and dives, spiraling downwards with one of his lethal moves, Soul Splitting Drill. His spiraling move creates a drill-like whirlwind around him to the head of the giant wind elemental. One shot, one target. Hit or all will die. He forcefully thrusts his daggers and it’s a hit!
Sparks of red light come from the giant wind elemental’s eye as Kyflynn retracts his Maraj’vriad from it. It lets out a deafening shriek before the whirlwind on its body becomes uneven and bursts everywhere. The six other elementals also dissolve the same way as the giant one. The shattered winds don’t hurt the hunters at all, just blowing them flying everywhere. The faun himself is blown into a tunnel.
The rest manage to stabilize their positions, still floating in the wind stream. ‘Tina, glad to see you safe,’ says Desmond, gliding towards Agustina. But Tina doesn’t answer or even look at him at all. Desmond snorts at Tina’s usual response towards him, and then talks to Kyflynn. ‘Good job, partner. Now what should we do now?’
‘I’m at my wit’s end’, says Kyflynn. ‘Which one among these many tunnels is the exit? We don’t want to get back to the start again now, right?’
‘You got a point there, dark elf. I’m too exhausted of going back to the start again and again,’ says Hernan. ‘By the way, what a nice Whirlpool Polonaise Thrust you did there !’’
‘Thanks. Actually it’s a reversed Soul Splitting Drill. But anyway, as far as I saw, there’s no clue whatsoever about the right tunnel except for the sun and moon symbols on top of each tunnel. I need anything more: riddles, numbers, codes, runes – for Enia’s sake!’
‘That’s it! I think… maybe we can use this,’ says Carolyn. ‘You see Iris has sung this so many times so I can remember every word of it. Now, if my memory serves me right…’
Enia, caught in no avail,
The Twins’ fight make you wail,
Thirteen times to The One you prayed,
Only your sacrifice is the way
Plunge into the sea you did,
Be one with Eternia you bid,
The Twins stopped fighting and mourned,
Their beloved they fought for is no more
‘Carol, that’s amazing! It’s Ode of Enia, sixth verse! You remembered every word of it!’ says Iris. ‘I never thought you’d paid attention in the first place!’
Carol responds with a smile. ‘Thanks to you too, Iris. Now we know that thirteen is Enia’s sacred number. People said it has extreme effects on our fate, whether we’ll be lucky or not. So whaddaya say? Shall we try the thirteenth tunnel?’
Just then, Robert, Chiel the Micha, Andreas, and more hunters and elf guides arrive at the spot. They can hardly hear the discussion between the heroes just now, but they stop and listen to what Kyflynn is about to say next.
‘Hmm, thirteen is our best bet yet. I’m going to try it. But which one is the thirteenth tunnel?’
Iris says, ‘Don’t you get it? You see the entrance tunnel? It has a sun carved around it. It’s obviously the starting point. Then we count from right to left, following the sun and the moon symbols like the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, day and night. There it is! Thirteenth to the right, fourth to the left with the entrance also counts.’
‘Okay, okay, I got it,’ says Kyflynn, irritated, ‘Three cheers for my fellow elf’s logic. Now you can freely choose to follow me or choose other tunnels. Let’s go now before they generate another giant elemental!’
Robert, Carolyn, Chiel, Andreas, Agustina, Iris, Hernan, Desmond and a large number of hunters immediately follow Kyflynn flying into the thirteenth tunnel, and the rest of them go into their own choices. After flying for a while, they come out in a completely different room. The room is not as large as the dome of fifteen tunnels, but it looks exactly like the rune room, except the wall is made from large stone bricks and instead of four bird statues on pillars, the epitaph at the center is guarded by two stone gargoyle statues.
‘I guess we have passed the wind tunnels now,’ says Robert. ‘But alas, I just remember something. Where’s Chris?’
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