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There are lilypads and trees nearly all the way to shore as the water swirls. What's next? Quote:
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There's always the option of heading back to shore, too. |
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This should work. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he commanded loudly. (Yes, the earplugs were still doing their job.) If the lily pad started to levitate enough, he would then fixate it just a bit above the water and then.... and then he would charm it to shore. He had been told his wand was good for charms, and it was his second favorite subject behind transfiguration, so there was no reason this shouldn't work.... |
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Water ran from the bottom of the pad, splashing into the water. The shore is ahead of you, easy to reach if you command your lilypad vessel which is still rising. When your feet touch down on the sand, an onslaught of bouncing bulbs will begin. They do not target you directly, but as they careen off the cavern walls and the grass, they cannot help but pummel you in the process. There is nowhere to run, as the shore bumps up against walls of rock on all sides. If you can look around long enough - not likely until the bulbs are taken care of - one wall only goes so high. But, it is too high to jump and too sheer to climb. An errant bulb knocks a bag from a shelf in the wall, spilling a bean that burrows its way into the sand. From that bean, green tendrils being to sprout, working their way toward the surface and breaking through. |
Though luck was on his side in getting him to the tree, Raiden wasn't exactly sure it was with him in any other capacity. His left hand was starting to sting in a much more noticeable way from the gash left across his palm by the rock; his fingertips were tender and scratched from grabbing onto tree bark so much. Upon reaching the tree, he found his balance and silently conjured a bandage to at least cover the achey cut. For a moment he considered wrapping his entire hand, forming the bandages into a makeshift glove around each finger. But that might reduce his ability to grab on... He'd do it when he reached shore. To at least make them hurt a bit less. With a gentle flick, he re-lit his wand, and waited for the next tree to move into range. When it started moving in his direction, he jumped for it. The motions got progressively more painful, the closer he got to shore. Not even a bandage between his palm and the bark could stop it from hurting a bit whenever his hand slapped against a tree; several times he was sure he'd fall into the water, his right hand still unwilling to unclench now that he had his wand. It took a bit of doing, and a lot of patience and waiting for trees to line up, but soon he was within reach of dry land. Which was when his shoe slipped on a root and he fell off the tree and into what was hopefully fairly shallow water, merely one short jump from where he'd almost made it without getting soaked. Fail, Kururugi. Fail. |
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Grinning madly to himself, Fletcher tapped his lily pad with his wand, casting a nonverbal Fixate. Now it hovered there, him seated on top, in the middle of the air, the perfect vessel for zooming to the shore. "Locomotor Lily Pad!" he cast again, causing the lily pad to take him to the shore. At last. AT LAST. It seemed like the task was over! Fletcher eagerly jumped off his boat and onto the sand. He could have kissed it he was so happy... if only it weren't for the crazy little (friendly?) bulbs bouncing all around. Literally. Well someone was glad to see him, eh? Wincing as a few bulbs hit his arm and torso with considerable force, Fletcher quickly flicked his wand and caused a shield to go around him and block some of the bulbs. He squinted and half-ducked, looking for the way out by the illumination of his branch. There were walls all around him. Ohhh no, not another barrier?! Fletcher swore and almost turned around to head back the other way when he saw it. The short wall! YES! He reached out to see if he could climb it and only found its sheer, slippery face. Damn. Another foil in his plans. Fletcher sighed and started turning in circles, looking for something else that could be helpful. He turned and saw a great green plant, magically growing out of the sand. What could this be? Some kind of....... beanstalk?! The boy approached the plant warily. After all, his name was Duncan, not Jack. That was his look-alike. Reaching a hand out, Fletcher tried to see if the plant would somehow support his weight.... and maybe be tall enough to get over the wall.... |
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But alive. As your feet touch down on the sand, an onslaught of bouncing bulbs begins. They do not target you directly, but as they careen off the cavern walls and the grass, they cannot help but pummel you in the process. There is nowhere to run, as the shore bumps up against walls of rock on all sides. If you can look around long enough - not likely until the bulbs are taken care of - one wall only goes so high. But, it is too high to jump and too sheer to climb. An errant bulb knocks a bag from a shelf in the wall, spilling a bean that burrows its way into the sand. From that bean, green tendrils being to sprout, working their way toward the surface and breaking through. Quote:
At first, the stalk doesn't support much of anything, its firsts sprout thin and week. But as it continues to grow, it thickens, extra tendrils, now thick enough to support you sprout out the side like foot hand holds up the side of the cliff. |
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Ahem. Fletcher watched and waited as the stalk continued to grow, stronger and stronger. It even seemed to be working with the cliff and creating useful hand and hand holds for him! Excellent. Maintaining his shield as best as he could, Fletch turned his back on the bouncing bulbs and began mounting the plant, climbing carefully in his ascent up the wall. |
Ugh. COLD. COLD AND WET. Raiden had grabbed for the roots as he felt himself sliding off the tree, but it hadn't stopped him from going right into the water, which soaked through his sweatshirt and jeans immediately and left him rather cold when he got above the surface. His clothing was sticking to him as he wobbled to shore, but his wand was still securely in his hand. And it stayed there, even as a bulb hit him in the chest and knocked him back a few steps and into the water again. Muttering under his breath, something that one might find offensive if one or more of their parents were a jarvey, the boy tried to focus on these... stupid... bulbs. And not on the fact that he was cold and damp and he just wanted a minute to dry himself off, please. Merlin alive. The stalks caught his attention, even has he got knocked to one side by a particularly vicious bulb, and he stared rather hard in their direction. The wall was... not as high? Was he meant to climb up them, then? He wondered how many of the champions were in trouble for upper body strength at the moment. Bump, bump, bump. This was ridiculous. And he was disinclined to start lighting them on fire, as he figured they wouldn't stop bouncing right away and then he'd be in a lot more danger than he'd been with the Devil's Snare. A regular shield might not protect him effectively. Batting a few of the bulbs away with his left hand, Raiden flicked his wand. "Impiriano." The blue aura shield he'd learned years ago should protect him from the bulbs, but also let him grab those stalks and climb, right? |
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But the plant holds, allowing you to move up it. The climb is steep and the stalk vibrates as it continues to grow. Eventually, you reach the top of the cliff. If beanstalks were elevators, this would be your floor. Climb the stalk any higher and there would be no ground to set your feet on. Tread carefully, however, as the path quickly narrows and there are no walls. Instead, perilous drop-offs await on both sides should one slip. Soon, you come to another fork. From where you stand, the only different you can notice is that one path looks wider, at least as far as you can see, that is. Nothing else betrays what may lie ahead. Which way? Left and narrow or right and wide? Quote:
The stalk continues to grow, the base thicker, with extra tendrils shooting off the sides like thick foot and hand holds. They are certainly strong enough to hold you. The bulbs continue to whiz about, some skittering off into the water, others pelting at your shield. |
Ahhh, good. Unfortunately, with this shield up... Raiden wasn't about to start drying himself off. It would hold, from what he remembered; it was meant to let things go out, but not come in. That meant he'd have to reach through it to grab onto and climb the stalks, but... well it was meant to let him do that, wasn't it? And it wouldn't be as bad as getting pummelled by them without having a shield at all. Stepping through the bulbs, resisting the urge to light at least one of them on fire as it ricocheted off his shield, he reached through the blue aura and grabbed onto the stalk. Going up? |
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He turned to face the path ahead of him and right away noticed the scary, sheer drop-offs to his right and left. Gulp. Best not walk that way. Instead, Fletcher carefully stepped down the middle of the cliff. He realized he didn't need the shield anymore and instead went back to using his wand as an additional light source. Eventually, the narrow cliff path came to a dead end. Here he was again, with the choice to go left or right. Well. For some reason, he felt that going left again would be like going in a circle. And it was really really narrow. His mind easily made up, Fletcher chose the wide, right fork instead. How huge were these caves?!! |
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The climb is tough, and the stalk shakes slightly as it continues to grow If beanstalks were elevators, this would be your floor. Climb the stalk any higher and there would be no ground to set your feet on. Tread carefully, however, as the path quickly narrows and there are no walls. Instead, perilous drop-offs await on both sides should one slip. Soon, you come to another fork. From where you stand, the only different you can notice is that one path looks wider, at least as far as you can see, that is. Nothing else betrays what may lie ahead. Which way? Left and narrow or right and wide? Quote:
The path you chose was wider, for sure, but as you travel further down it, the incline grows steeper and the path slick with water. Watch your footing. It's a long way down. As you proceed forward, the way gets only more difficult to navigate when your path is completely blocked by a large number of plants. At first they seem harmless, but as you get closer, they start moving and snarling, and you realize that they have…teeth? How strange! Unfortunately the only way to get to the end of this tunnel is to get past these little monsters, so hopefully you have some idea of how to pass them up your sleeve! |
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When the cave started sloping downward, Fletcher put out his left hand for aid in descending the path. He groped along the tunnel wall, slowly picking out the least-wet looking bits of path. What a slippery slope to traverse! He continued forward until he was forced to stop completely at the sight of some vicious plants in front of him. It was like a flashback to the beginning of the term last year, when he had been nearly eaten by that venemous tentacula. Were these the same kind plants? Did they know he feared them, and that's why they were snapping like that??! Fletcher bit his lip and took a step back, trying to think of some spell or defense or SOMETHING he could use to tranquilize the plants. The first thing that came to mind was the stunning spell, so he went with that. "STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!" he cast, pointing his wand at different sections of the snapping plants. Maybe they'd be knocked over and he could quickly run through them..... |
Stupid... bulbs... Even though his shield protected his back, he could almost feel the vibrations they caused as they hit the not-super-strong barrier, and he gritted his teeth as he climbed, preparing for the moment where they might break through. The best thing about this shield was that it allowed him to use his wand for light, which was good, because the fireseed branch that was still tied to his wrist was out completely now. Slippery tree roots. Not good for fire. Fortunately, it held out, at least until a little bit after he had gotten high enough for them to be unable to reach him. His hands were very unappreciative of his insistence of climbing, and several times the fingers on his left hand trembled and threatened to let go, which meant he would have probably fallen. When he reached the top of the wall, he forced himself to not just flop down on the ground and rest. Who knew if there were bulbs or something equally offensive -or worse- up here? Thank Merlin it didn't seem as if there was. Before he continued on, he cast a few charms at himself to siphon off water in his clothing and dry himself a bit. Being sopping wet and walking around was just asking to get sick. He also did as he'd planned to do when he reached shore, and wrapped light bandages around his fingers and hands, making sure he conjured them thin and flexible enough that he could still grab onto things and bend his fingers. It was nice, being decent at the handful of medical charms that he knew. Following the path, and taking care to not wobble or stray from side to side as he became aware of the empty span of nothingness on either side, he finally came upon the fork. ...huh. Without putting much thought into it, as he couldn't see anything that would indicate he should take the other, Raiden stepped to the left path. It might have been narrower, but that meant that should anything attack him, it too would have a limited range of mobility. And he had his wand now. That helped with his confidence considerably. |
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They'd taken anything. Pant cuff. Shoelace. Finger tip. The pathway was still impassable. Quote:
As for your chosen path, it may be narrow, but at least it's flat. The only danger, from the terrain at least, lies in the rocky stumbling blocks jutting up from the floor. Watch your step, the rocks down below don't make good cushions. As you proceed forward, all seems to be quiet until a number of large bushes are nestled in your path. From afar, they look like normal bushes, until you get closer and realize those bushes are actually made out of numerous spikes! As you get even closer, the plant closes to your left proceeds to shoot one of these spikes at you—it misses and shoots off into the darkness and falls over the edge without a sound, but hopefully your reflexes are top notch, because your only way forward is to get past these plants! |
did the flowers start to free or freeze? xD Quote:
Fletcher backed up a bit but still went at them with stupefy. Flashes of red light from his wand lit up the cave but after a few more minutes, it became obvious that this wasn't really working. Time to try something else. "IMMOBULUS!" Fletcher bellowed, flicking his wand in a long arc in the hopes to cover the front half of the flowers. If those froze, he could step over them and have a better view of the back half which would be frozen next. |
The young man stumbled more than once on the rocky path, but managed to regain his balance each time. Good going with that, too... he didn't need to have rocks jammed into his chest. That wouldn't make him feel any better than he currently was. Holding his wand a bit higher as he moved down the narrow passageway, he eyed the bushes with doubt. Had he not been assaulted by several plants already, he'd be less inclined to be wary of them, but... well. He was pretty sure any plant in this place was going to be out to kill him now. O_O! "HOLY CRAP!" Raiden flinched away from the spike that had just whizzed past him, immediately back-pedalling a few steps. HOLY. WHAT. JUST. WHY. They really weren't kidding when they said this tournament was dangerous. And they had the spike shooting bushes to prove it. The prefect bit his lip, eyes wary as they watched for any spikes that might shoot toward him while he considered his options. Death by spikes, or stand here until someone came and fetched him? The latter seemed the better option, but... well. Who knew if they even would? "I wonder if... Impriano would..." It probably wouldn't hold up for terribly long, though. It hadn't held for more than a few minutes against the bulb plants... It wouldn't help to simply blow them up, or anything like that. The spikes would still fly. And lighting them on fire... might not be the best plan, because he had to walk through there. Maybe... Directing his wand at the nearest one, body tensed to jump out of the way should any spikes come his way, he cast. "Frigus." If he couldn't light them on fire, maybe freezing them would work? |
The plant seems to have eaten my Z Quote:
Hurry up. No telling if your spell will hold. Quote:
The bush of spikes is hit by the spell, but it simply chills and is not immobilized. In retaliation, it sends off two more - now extra hard and frozen - spikes. |
His plans. They just didn't work as well as he was hoping today, did they. When the bush sent the spikes off, Raiden took another step backwards; one went past him, but one ripped through the left arm of his sweatshirt, swiping his arm and leaving a gash that probably looked worse than it was. Swearing in every language he knew, and probably several he didn't, the champion resisted the automatic urge to clamp his wand hand down over the cold cut. "Damnit!" THAT. HURT. So it was a no on freezing, then. This... this could get potentially bloody and painful... "Diffindo!" he tried, aiming it toward the base of the bush, frowning as he kept his wand held up in case he'd have to cast a shield. Didn't want to take another spike to a different body part... they had the potential to do a lot of damage. If it were severed... maybe it wouldn't be able to attack then? He couldn't tell if there were too many to make this an effective strategy, though... |
Great. JUST greaaaaaaaaaaat. Clinging for dear life, Cameron realized that it was swim or ... Cling to the tree for the rest of her life, until the pus got infected and she flailed. <_< Seriously. The lily pads still looked... Suspicious. She put out her foot to try and test one would it hold at all? HMPH! She eased down the tree and making triple sure that the fireseed was above water, she started to swim. Hopefully Mrs. Squid didn't make an appearance. |
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It would take several more to sever it from its roots, but not even that guarantees that it will stop firing. Quote:
Or you could keep swimming, though the water threatens to pull you and your only source of light under. |
There were not enough swearwords in the world for his frustration in that moment. Flicking up a shield to block the single spike (which he'd kinda expected to come his direction), Raiden tried his best to hold back the annoyed sounds that were sitting in the back of his throat. These things were evil. Fire would probably destroy them, but... he was really loathe to light them all up. He'd have to put them out to go through them, then, and who knew if the smoke would clear... Screw it. There were ways to deal with that. And there were ways to put them out, easily... He directed his wand at the bush again. "Incendio." He took another step or two backwards, mindful of his feet and the rocky path. Death by spikes was preferable to death by falling. |
She gasped for breath, the water sloshing against her fireseeds. It was going to go out! She wasn't THAT great a swimmer, but she could see something. Trees!?!? Oh dear sweet Merlin... Sopping wet, teeth chattering and her left arm aching from swimming one handed, holding the branch AND the pus, it took a good minute of panting and heaving to Get up onto the tree's. Her arm bloody hurt. Now.. Could she just hop-step each tree? Was it close enough? |
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The heat coming off the plants was intense, as was the light as it filled the cave. Even with all of it, though, if you looked over the edge of your walkway, it is black black black. You've beaten the bush! Now it's just your own fire that's in your way. Quote:
It is not in the direction of the shore, but instead is near the rock face that borders the lake's edge. That distant shore you are trying to reach, however, remained cloaked in darkness. Either way, the path is similar: another five trees, clumped together that sway gently in the wind, but will sway more as you jump. |
...well. He should have used fire first, apparently. Watching the flaming remains of the bush, eyes following the feebly shot spike with an almost amused expression, Raiden finally pressed his hand to the gouge in his arm from the spike. It was bleeding pretty well, and a bit deeper than he'd originally thought. The fact that the spike had been frozen had seemed to numb it to immediate pain. However, that was wearing off. And it hurt a lot more. Fracking spike. Unzipping his sweatshirt a bit and pulling his arm from the sleeve, he cast a tight bandage around it. It would need actual attention, probably, but... well he didn't have that just now. What he had now was a large bush on fire and in his way. Easing his arm back into the sleeve, not bothering to zip the sweatshirt up again, he focused on the bush. Aguamenti would put it out easily enough, ri- ...shiny? Huh. "Aguamenti." He'd just have to hold that on it until it went out. Shouldn't take too long, right? |
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