Gone with the Wind

Beyond the doors that the statues were guarding was a circular room, with walls that extended very high, probably to the top of the mountain. It seemed like I was right about the physical part, we need it in order to climb up there... But it was strange, there were no stairs nearby, only a floor made out of bars, looking like a giant drain. There was a strong light source on top of the room, but despite that, there was only darkness below the bars... It looked like a bottomless pit.

"I think the light is from outside... The sun", Jeffrey said and it did seem like so, given the strength of the light source.

"It means it's probably our way out of here...But how we are supposed to reach up there from this chamber?", I asked Beech and Jeffrey while looking around the room for any hints.

Stopping to think for a minute, the only thing that this could possibly mean is that there is a button somewhere... And then I saw the button on the place where all the bars of the floor crossed, in the middle of the room. It seemed too obvious and easy, however... I wasn't so sure if the button was going to help us now.

The previous button, which I accidentally pressed and lit up all the torches, was hidden in the darkness, but this one is sitting in the middle of the room and even has a green color that makes it stands out from the beige bars and walls... It looked like the perfect bait for a trap.

"I suppose we can't win without taking some risks, right?", I said and approached the button only for the fox to be faster and press it before I could.

An annoying loud noise came from the door when the button was pressed. Two long bars blocked the doors from opening again. I was right, this was a trap. I could only wonder about what was going to happen next... The floor will open and spikes on the bottom will kill us? The ceiling will close and will fire arrows at us? The former seemed more possible as the bars of the floor started to shake violently, as though they were about to open... But then...

The floor stopped shaking... Nothing really had changed... Nothing opened... Nothing closed. It didn't seem we had triggered a trap at all now, at least not until a wind started to blow at us, coming from down below and passing through the spaces between each of the bars. It was refreshing at first... But then the wind grew stronger and stronger way too quickly.

Our feet stopped touching the ground in the next second... Losing balance, I was forced to put myself in a laid-down position, spreading my arms and legs in the air. I thought my face would hit against the bars of the floor and receive red marks from them... I even closed my eyes for the impact. But I was... Floating... I was centimeters away from the floor. And as the wind intensified, the farther away from the floor I was getting.

"huh... Hehe...", I laughed a bit nervous. "Are you... Are you seeing that?", I asked the others. The fox was already enjoying this, making maneuvers and movements that seemed risky but fun, spinning around happily while Jeffrey was still afraid but getting used to it, slowly.

"I always heard that leaves and clouds could be gone with the wind... But I never thought we could actually be gone with the wind!", it shouted, fear noticeable in its voice.

"Remember what the paper said? Breath in, Jeffrey... And just do it!", I said to him and he tried to calm himself down, avoiding looking down at the floor. Instead, he laid belly up on the air, facing the source of light.

"Uh... I think... It's not as easy as that, Dagger...", he said.

I looked up to see what he meant by that and up there, I saw strange humanoid creatures... Made of a purple fog apparently. They were in a hole in the wall and jumped on the air stream. They didn't seem very friendly... Was that what the statues actually meant by our physical? It makes sense... Water also had those frozen knights I had to face, after all.

I didn't have time to think much, however, the enemies were descending upon us already, creating weapons made with themselves to strike us. I prepared my sword and put myself in a defensive position, although it was hard to hold still in a position when flying like that. I quickly lost my balance and one of the enemies managed to strike me in the arm, cutting my left elbow.

Looking at my enemy while upside-down on the air stream, I held my sword and went for a strike, but instead all I managed to do was spin around myself. The blood leaving through the cut flew with the wind, but luckily it wasn't too much. Regaining balance and securing a good position now, I looked at my enemy again... But it was too late, he was in for another strike with its sword and cut me again, this time on the left side of my stomach. Angry, I attempt to strike again, cutting the arm holding a sword, but just like air, my sword slipped through its body which regenerated soon after.

"Dammit, this will be hard!", I said and looked around. There was one enemy for each of us, including Beech. Jeffrey was dealing well with the situation, but got some cuts on the leg and waist while Beech sustained no wounds, and its enemy was barely able to even aim at the fox.

With a sigh of relief, I focused on my enemy again... It was ready for another strike, but this time I defended it with my blade. I was getting the hang of air combat now and that's when I noticed the shining crystal in the middle of the enemy's body... Just like the water knights, the enemies had the crystal as a core. So there was only one way of dealing with this...

At the first chance I had, I started to kick him multiple times, and he defended every each one of my attacks. But it didn't have a single clue of the real intention of my moves... I put some extra strength on my attack and forced him to open his guard for a second and then I went for the crystal. The single strike made the crystal fade as if it was air... And soon after, the purple fog that shaped my enemy disappeared with the wind.

Jeffrey saw me and attempted to attack the crystal as well, with a punch. Though it is not smart to hit something hard with your hand, it somehow did the trick... the crystal disappeared as if it was air again and the fog disappeared. The fox meanwhile had already handed the situation, the enemy wasn't there at the moment we looked at it.

"More enemies...", Jeffrey then said...

From the same hole on the wall, up above us, more fog enemies were waiting, and then they jumped. It seemed like there were countless enemies now a whole army descending upon us.

"Dammit, we can't defeat them all!", I said and looked to the ceiling... The distance from us to it wasn't giant anymore. "Try to survive until we can at least get across the hole", I said to the others and they nodded.

Easier said than done, however... There were about ten enemies for each of us. I managed to defend attacks done by one, two, or three, at the very best. But when all of them attacked at the same time, I got several wounds.

The last attack I got, besides the cuts on the chest, legs, feet, and even one on my face, was on my right arm, forcing me to let go of my sword that flew up and hit enemies that were still coming. My only option was to retreat away from my enemies.

"Dammit... Please... Just a little longer", I said while swimming in the middle of the air stream, away from my enemies, until I was cornered and had nowhere to run. All I could do now was just close my eyes, waiting for the next strike to land on me...

But instead of feeling more pain, I could only hear silence... Even the wind could not be felt anymore. When I opened my eyes, I saw the clouds, slightly below us... The sun above us... And the two of them, Beech and Jeffrey, standing on solid ground...

We had reached the top... At last...