chapter 56- Next floor is below

The floor collapsed beneath our feet, the ground itself opening like a ravenous maw to devour us whole. Our party froze in shock, utterly unprepared for such an incomprehensible horror. The yawning chasm eagerly pulled us into its abysmal depths.

I tried to grab onto something, but the rocks and gravel fell when I grabbed them. There wasn't anywhere I could grab onto successfully. I tried to summon my daggers and stab the walls, but the gravity pulling us down was too strong.

The others were with me, falling down, struggling to think of a solution.

I could only think of one.

I spread my cloak wide open, facing towards below us, then water appeared, shooting down below. The source was my quick switch dimension. The water I stole was now being used, hopefully, it could soften our fall.

Seconds flew by, was this abyss endless?

That just meant we had more time to think.

The cloak behind expanded.

"Tommy, you know the metal thing that looks like spider legs that open the umbrella?" I asked.

"You mean the stretcher or rib assembly? Wait, you don't mean..." he shouted over the wind.

I reached my hand towards him and Max as we became three, pods holding and locking our arms together.

"Now, form the thing I asked and don't burn the cloak, while you do that I'll try to expand the cloak as big as I can, got it."

"I'm ready when you are," he said. He didn't need to shout this time as he was a bit too close to me.

But I focused back on the objective. I don't know if we had enough time or not, but a gamble seems like the only way to pass these floor trials.

My cloak expanded to its original size. Tommy's hand went behind my back as metal spread and interlocked around my body like a rib cage. In the spine area, it created a rod, underneath the cloak.

From then on, the top of the rod spread out in five different wide, long legs grabbing onto the cloak.

Now it seemed to be more like an umbrella, hopefully, movie logic would work in real life.

The wind pressure from down below shot upwards, slowing our descent, only a temporary relief.

Max, on the other hand, used the puller of light, clasping his hands together. This was to create light and fortify our bodies so we could absorb the impact.

"Please, please work," I gritted my teeth.

Then we saw it, the bottom of the hole. The water I shot out below was visible, it seemed to be collected in one spot. Our fall onto the water wasn't as graceful as we wanted it to be.

I breathed in, closed my eyes, ready for that painful water impact, but surprisingly, what I felt wasn't water but what seemed to feel like silk tissue on my skin. I opened my eyes; webs of a network blocked our descent, absorbing our kinetic energy from the fall. We kept falling closer and closer to the ground, yet it seemed just when my face was about to touch the water, the web sprung us back up, like a slingshot.

We all flew up higher in the air. How did I not notice the webs? It only became visible once we got close enough.

I bounced while still bouncing up and down on the web like a trampoline.

Whatever it was, it seemed to have saved us. We got lucky this time, but the real question was if this was only the beginning of the trials.

After some time, our force disappeared, and we stopped bouncing. Through the small gaps between the webbed networks, I crawled underneath, and my feet finally landed on the ground.

The others did the same. I shrank my cloak back to normal while Tommy shattered his creation.

"Okay, wow, holy crap, we really did that. This is why I hate heights, never doing that bullshit ever again," Tommy said.

"Maybe you don't have to," Max pointed towards the web. "Whatever made that, either has to be a giant spider or a superhero. My guess is it ain't the superhero."

"Back-to-back, guys, this is the start. Creatures of the unknown may attack us."

We all formed a circle as best as we could and slowly walked towards the water.

I didn't really need all that water, but maybe it could be used for drinking and hydration. I only stole a little bit, keeping it in my pocket dimension.

It's a shame I lost my pocketknife. When I needed room to fit the water as we were drowning, I emptied all my slots, but I really didn't need it.

I refocused my attention to our surroundings. The new arena looked like a cave, as rock formations created deep grooves in the walls, while in each direction, there seemed to be caves within a cave. We didn't dare to guess what was inside.

What horrors lay dormant? But we couldn't guess just by the web above our heads.

"Jay, you know I have a fear of spiders, right?"

"We were born and raised in Australia, we know a thing or two about dealing with spiders."

"Yeah, but tiny ones, not car-sized ones."

"Okay, enough. You either have to conquer your fear, or your fear will conquer you. We don't need that right now. I'm not asking you to be brave, but be smart, okay?" I demanded.

Both nodded. The truth was, I was just as scared as Tommy. Holy fuck, if our opponent is giant spiders, then I'm out of here. We already lost in the fear factor.

Our spirits were down already.

Then we heard a sound, a startling vibration. The cave we were in seemed to shake and rumble.

Shit, maybe they are coming to us. We didn't have time for this.

"Oh my god," Max whispered in shocked, wide-eyed.

He kept tapping our shoulders, and we finally looked as he pointed to one direction. One of the holes that were made to be a hole of sorts, seemed eerie.

Suddenly, what seemed to be long arachnid legs, long and skinny, four legs at a snail-like pace crawled itself, reaching out of the hole.