53 Lifeless

Leira tagged alongside Andres in Dani's hasty team as agreed earlier. Jeff rode in the back with the rest of the team. There really wasn't any life detected anywhere. Not even bunnies to make a nice soup. Even worse, the path was leading to a mountain range they couldn't avoid.

Once near, they saw a pitch-black cave that was able to house a hoard of elephants. Their detection skills revealed nothing but a dead cave.

"What do you guys think?" asked Dani.

Leira was confused, "I mean, is it bad that there's nothing detected in there"?

"I don't detect any traps," said Logan.

Andres laughed, "I detect Logan is gonna run out on me... Again".

Dani took a moment to explain, "When there's nothing to be detected, there's something bad. Kinda like that candy cane place. That was bad. We had no clue on what we were going up against nor how to beat it".

Logan stood staring, "I see nothing".

Dani sighed, "We're gonna just have to walk through it".

Leira was confused, "How are we gonna do that"?

Dani laughed, "By sticking Logan and Andres in the front. Let those two get taken out first since they say they can't detect anything".

Andres led everyone into the dark cave. Logan created a number of white balls that orbited himself and Dani's team. They weren't the brightest. But they could see a few meters ahead while still being visible to Jeff. Everything appeared to be safe. Dani's team even made frequent stops to detect life and traps.

Nothing. It was an empty humid cave. Footsteps echoed over their breathing. Sounds rang against the walls, coming back to fool the non-sensors as though something was there. Their hairs would stand as they began alarming the others. Of course, the sensory types would become frustrated delivering the same news again.

Logan signaled a halt. In their tiny echoes were slight rumbles. Everyone stared waiting for confirmation of the situation.

Before they could flinch, the walls slammed into various mazes. Dani's team was completely split from each other.

The ground under Jeff opened to a slide that dropped them to a lower level.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Dani began blindly running down a tunnel, "Crap".

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Andres hunched over drooling which caused Leira to panic. With no guidance from her escort, Leira shot out a fire arrow into the tunnel to give them some light. An odd figure stuck out of his gut.

As he fell, the creature entering his back was exposed. Another fire arrow was shot at its head.

The relief he felt as the spirit crawled back out was like losing 3/4 of his body weight. Stumbling to Leira, he took her hand and ran.

The ghost lashed at them from behind causing Leira to forcefully fire many shots at it.

"We have to run!" yelled Andres with a sore throat as he picked up Leira.

While running, three ghosts clashed into his body. Dropping Leira, Andres spazzed across the tunnel.

Once he fell, Leira tossed a few grenades. The host left him momentarily to suffer.

In his daze, Andres swung, hitting himself against each wall as though he was trapped in a hexagon. Luckily Leira fired at the three ghosts flying around him.

A card flew by. It flashed a light that engulfed the two and the ghosts. Their movement was halted for that moment. Even their sight was limited to a sheer burning light.

Logan snapped his finger to erupt the light, vanquishing the ghost.

Without noticing how exhausted Logan was, Leira asked, "You can use holy"?

"Barely," answered Logan, "It takes a pretty big toll on me. We need to hurry up and find Dani to get out of here".

"What about Mina?" coughed Andres while picking himself up.

Logan faced forward, "At this point, we should just cut our losses and continue with only Leira and Dani. Not to mention, Andres is cursed".

Leira stared at him, "So that's why he keeps running into walls".

Leira assisted Andres down the tunnel while logan fought off all ghosts with his magic enchanted sword. It was a pain to hold them off.