Chapter 227: The Other Way

'No! That is my essence, you infernal woman!' -TDM.

'Calm down, I will find you something else to kill, there are other people here too!'

The Jet-Ax Carly held, drank in the particles, and started to shrink down into a normal-sized hammer, but more like an ice pick. Intricate lines grew up around the handle and metal, but the trigger and jet were gone. It was hard to believe that the hammer had stood two meters tall when Tilly and I first found it.

A blue circle was forming on the ground, but I looked to Latisha and started to look around, asking the other two to help us. At first, the room was normal, but then we noticed there were symbols around the edge of the room. Different combinations of circles, squares, and triangles went all the way around the large room, but they were about twenty-five centimeters wide.

"Do any of you notice anything weird about the symbols?" I asked the girls while studying them.

I couldn't really see anything other than what they were, a bunch of shapes, but Sandra was walking around, looking at each stone. Suddenly she stopped and squatted down, putting a hand down on a symbol I couldn't see from my side of the room. The symbol lit up and stayed that way, then she turned to face the rest of us.

"Look for sets of three that are the same and then press the middle ones!" 

We all started to run around and found them within no time, and when I pressed the last one, things began to move. The center of the room dropped down and then it started to spin and then drop out like a spiral, creating a spiral staircase that led down. We all met at the top of the stairs and I gave Sandra a big hug and a deep kiss that promised more later.

"What do you think is going to be done here this time? I really hope it's not another puzzle!" Carly complained as we walked down.

"You think that was hard? You should have seen the puzzle Dave and I did!" Latisha retorted.

"I know, I was there remember? I will help you guys, with all the copies of myself!"

"Oh! That's right! Hmm? Still, I really hope it's something that we can get over and done with fast since now we need to go and find our food!" Latisha complained to no one imparticular, but I knew where it was directed.

"Yeah, Yeah, get moving down those stairs faster, and then we can get out of here faster ladies! This should be the last room and then we can get Delilah or whoever is still left! Let's get a move on!"

We all jogged down the staircase for what seemed like forever, and right as I was about to start sprinting, we were at the bottom. This game seems to like to put a player to its limits and then give in. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, constantly being led on, but there wasn't a lot I could do but beat the game fast so I could get to the next world. The thing was that every world had something and not a lot of them had real perks unless I created them.

Carly and I let out whoops of joy as we saw the massive pile of giant back and blue pythons in a pit below us. There was a pillar in the center of the room with a switch on top of it, but it was about fifteen meters away, so Carly and I jumped into the pit. The other to yell at us, say that we were supposed to fall into the snake pit, but there were always two ways of doing things, the thinking way, or the other way.

Both Carly and I were fans of the other way, which basically meant, whatever way worked. Today that meant eliminating the threat and hitting at the base of the problem. We were the simplest, plus there was a certain art to not thinking about what you're doing.

Massive red metallic wings burst from my hand and slowed me as I watched Carly slam down and strike at the first twenty-meter python that tried to attack her. The effect was spectacular to see from here, a black crack like a lightning bolt tore through the snake and instantly turned it into black particles. Sensing this, TDM changed from wings and into a long dragon neck and head, filling me with pain as I started to drop father's again.

TDM snapped its head and neck forward and we shot at a snake, tearing into it like paper. Then, right before I hit the ground, my arm punched down with an intense force, making me push up as I connected with the ground. I let the momentum make me do a front flip, but as the momentum carried me forward, TDM whipped forward and speared through three snakes, killing them instantly, latching onto the forth.

I rocketed as TDM ripped me towards the snake I was still latched onto, and I could see Carly cutting through gigantic snakes with massive strikes of black lightning. Moments before I reached the last snake, TDM let go and I spun into the snake that was trying to grab me, now that I had let go, but I met it with a left-handed dragon giant head hook. The snake was blowing into black flecks and I prepared myself for the waves of pain.

But it didn't come, or not like I had assumed it would. There was still a dull ache, but after TDM finished, that too went away as well. My body was becoming more and more compatible with this thing inside of me, and I probably would feel no pain from it all soon. 

I walked over to the pillar and flexed my scaled fist, pulling my arm back.

"The other way!"