Water balls hurled toward them and Victor's fire balls clashed with them. A rush of stream filled them room as flame tornados spread around.
"Press the button on the right under your mask." he whispered
They followed his instructions, their voices changed with the tone and pitch constantly changing. Alexander was interested but Victor grabbed a whip made of water and eyed the woman blocking the only exit.
He cut the whip and several fire flame sparrows descended down toward the woman. They clashed with a water barrier and she shot a blast of water. Victor made a wall of fire and it broke down into thousands of red petals.
"Beautiful." Violet exclaimed
The petals fired forward into small fire lasers and forced the woman on the defensive.
"How's it going?" Victor's altered voiced echoed
Alexander and Violet quickly turned to Gwen. She was humming happily while tapping the floor while moving her body to the tune.
Gwen snorted, "Someone would think I'm a machine."
"But it's one of your specialties." Victor retorted
Gwen hit the ground with a spike and the earth shattered and revealed a space underneath. Victor was forced back when he noticed several water tentacles slowly creeping from the walls and made the petals spread out forming a shield.
"This way young ones." Gwen beamed
They jumped down, Gwen turned on a torch attached to her outfit and advanced with large smile. Her eyes sparkled and before she could do anything.
"No...Ivy " Victor's voice echoed "No adventure, find us an exit."
She clicked her tongue grumbling that he was a boring person by nature. Violet tapped her shoulder and her eyes were sparkling too.
"How did you find this place and how will you find an exit?" She asked
Gwen smiled, "Nothing to fancy. It's just sound, vibrations, other things and experience."
She touched the wall and looked up toward Victor. Several clawed fire hands gripped the tentacles.
"Let's get moving!" She laughed
Gwen dashed forward straining her five senses and pulling in her years of memory. Victor jumped into the hole, set out several exploding fire sparrows and grabbed the children. He ran after the the woman.
He heard her laugh happily as she bounced around the walls with renewed energy. She lived for extreme moments and although he would never say it, he trusted Gwen to get them out of since it was one of her talents.
Gwen's jumped to the left, her spike collided with the wall and it collapsed. The woman hopped inside and ran forward with searching for weak points in the tunnels.
Alexander sent out icicles to clash with incoming water tentacles. The children saw a woman leisurely walking toward them with a soft smile and more tentacles advanced toward them. The icicles merged together and stabbed into the roof of the tunnel.
Victor slipped into the new hole and saw Gwen up ahead. She suddenly jumped up, he had a terrible feeling and disappeared. He pulled out straps, connected the children to pins on his outfit and began to increase speed into a sprint.
Violet's saw tentacles advancing, fireworks were going off in her mind remembering the Victor and Elizabeth's use of ether. She channeled her ether and allowed her thoughts to run wild.
Petals stretched out into petals and formed together into butterflies. They advanced rapidly, its wings cut into everything and the roof collapsed again. Violet was frustrated by the small space that made her experiments fail.
Her thoughts were forced to stop as Victor jumped upward and grabbed a spike. A trail of spikes were in his view, he jumped upward another spike and continued forward. The children felt their hearts in their throat at the view below.
Tentacles slipped up and Violet noticed the rocky soil near them began melt. A pair of light blue eyes looked up at her and several bubbles shot out. Icicles from Alexander clashed with the incoming projectiles.
"THE WATER IS ACIDIC!!" Violet yelled
Victor pulled himself out of the hole and saw Gwen hopping around with a calculating gaze.
Gwen smiled, "Doesn't this remind you of the good o' days!"
Victor dropped several fireballs down the hole, stream rose up and the tentacles were forced back. He turned toward Gwen with a tired expression.
"No, I don't miss any of it." Victor sighed "I learned how important my back is."
Alexander frowned, "Can you put us down."
"Why? I don't need to try and catch up with them this way." Violet wondered
Gwen pulled him out of the way of attacking tentacles. They all cursed the persistent enemy and looked at the cliff beside them. They were led upward out of the underground ruin and met yet another river.
"I think I'm cursed?" Victor thought "Why a river?"
Gwen pulled them over the cliff, Victor and the children were speechless. It was just too unexpected for them to react. Victor noticed the river was too far for them to fall in and below them was beloved solid ground.
"You've finally killed me Gwen!" Victor thought as the ground got closer
SPLASH
They were in muddy waters and crouched down low. Violet saw the woman glaring down the cliff with a hint of annoyance and made several water bubbles. The projectiles were hurled down into the water and she watched intently like a predator.
"Did they trick me?" her soft voice echoed "Illusions? I'm in trouble now. I shouldn't have played too much!"
They waited another half hour after she left in frustration before pulling themselves out of the mud. Violet and Alexander felt tears ran down their face when they saw the large wound on Victor's back.
"I'm okay. We'll just patch me up at one of Gwendolyn's hideouts." Victor told
He felt light headed and saw the pool of crimson underneath him. Gwen pushed soil and mud on the puddle and helped Victor to walk. He instructed the children on how to cover up their tracks.