her next challenge.
Maybe I’ve passed this challenge already, she thought.
Maybe.
She heard a rumbling thunder then and forgot the need to stay on the rectangles. Annja let her body guide her and broke into a sprint forward. As the first stones rained down from above, she put her hands overhead to ward off what she could. As it was, she caught a few of them on her hands.
Praying that there were no more darts, she bent her knees, diving into a roll that brought her ten feet ahead of where the roof collapse had started.
The thundering stopped.
Annja got to her feet and looked back. The corridor was completely blocked.
There was no way back now.
Annja had no choice but to proceed.
Chapter 10
The floor switched from the stone tiles to rock.
Annja stopped, aware of the change and wondering what might have triggered it. Had she passed into yet another level? The slope of the floor also flowed down at a slight angle. As she moved slowly ahead, the air grew cooler.
I feel like I’m in a live-action Dungeons & Dragons game, she thought. She wondered if there’d be an ogre around the corner.
Luckily, I have my sword, she thought with a grin.
But there wasn’t an ogre waiting around the corner. And as Annja progressed, the light dimmed even more, making it difficult to see what lay ahead. She squatted, trying to see if she could make out any details of the landscape.
She heard vague noises.
A shuffling sound.
Was someone walking?
But if they were, they didn’t seem to be getting any closer or farther away.
Annja kept moving. She used the sword to light the way ahead, and its gray illumination enabled her to see that she was approaching another corner.
The volume of the sound increased, but Annja wasn’t so sure that she was hearing footsteps now.
But there was definitely something moving back and forth.
When she rounded the corner, she saw what it was.
A large scythe blade swung back and forth over the corridor, its steel edge looking incredibly menacing. Annja would need to pass through it to continue on.
The shaft that held the blade disappeared into a gap in the ceiling almost twenty feet overhead. Annja tried to get a look at the mechanism controlling it, but it was dark and tough to see. Plus, if she got too close, the blade would cut her open. And the size of the blade suggested that even a minor cut would be fatal.
Annja sighed. Fairclough must have had a thing for recreating old Indiana Jones movies. Some of these “props” looked like he’d lifted them right off the set.
Still, it wasn’t much of a deterrent. Annja drew as close as she could to the blade and felt the breeze as it swung back and forth. There was a momentary gap as the blade passed her. If she timed it right, she could leap across and be on her way on the other side before it had a chance to cut her up.
But if she misjudged, that wouldn’t be good at all.
Annja shook her head. It wasn’t worth taking the chance.
So instead, she jumped onto the back of the blade itself, close by the shaft, and squatted there as it swung back and forth. Then she simply leaped off to the other side, rolled and came up in a crouch.
And immediately had to leap to avoid a slashing blade that cut at her exposed legs. Annja went high, looked down and saw that the blade cut in a circular arc. She came down, leaped forward again and landed in a squat, breathing hard, but having escaped injury.
That was a little too close for comfort. Fairclough was stacking his challenges now. Lulling people into assuming there was only one main task to deal with and then nailing them when they got lazy.
Like I did, she thought with a frown.
Well, never again.
Annja followed the corridor down another slope and then found herself facing a simple wooden door. Her first instinct was to check for trip wires, but a quick search revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Annja opened the door and, after a quick visual once-over, walked inside.
She stood in a ten-by-ten room, brightly lit by
Maybe I’ve passed this challenge already, she thought.
Maybe.
She heard a rumbling thunder then and forgot the need to stay on the rectangles. Annja let her body guide her and broke into a sprint forward. As the first stones rained down from above, she put her hands overhead to ward off what she could. As it was, she caught a few of them on her hands.
Praying that there were no more darts, she bent her knees, diving into a roll that brought her ten feet ahead of where the roof collapse had started.
The thundering stopped.
Annja got to her feet and looked back. The corridor was completely blocked.
There was no way back now.
Annja had no choice but to proceed.
Chapter 10
The floor switched from the stone tiles to rock.
Annja stopped, aware of the change and wondering what might have triggered it. Had she passed into yet another level? The slope of the floor also flowed down at a slight angle. As she moved slowly ahead, the air grew cooler.
I feel like I’m in a live-action Dungeons & Dragons game, she thought. She wondered if there’d be an ogre around the corner.
Luckily, I have my sword, she thought with a grin.
But there wasn’t an ogre waiting around the corner. And as Annja progressed, the light dimmed even more, making it difficult to see what lay ahead. She squatted, trying to see if she could make out any details of the landscape.
She heard vague noises.
A shuffling sound.
Was someone walking?
But if they were, they didn’t seem to be getting any closer or farther away.
Annja kept moving. She used the sword to light the way ahead, and its gray illumination enabled her to see that she was approaching another corner.
The volume of the sound increased, but Annja wasn’t so sure that she was hearing footsteps now.
But there was definitely something moving back and forth.
When she rounded the corner, she saw what it was.
A large scythe blade swung back and forth over the corridor, its steel edge looking incredibly menacing. Annja would need to pass through it to continue on.
The shaft that held the blade disappeared into a gap in the ceiling almost twenty feet overhead. Annja tried to get a look at the mechanism controlling it, but it was dark and tough to see. Plus, if she got too close, the blade would cut her open. And the size of the blade suggested that even a minor cut would be fatal.
Annja sighed. Fairclough must have had a thing for recreating old Indiana Jones movies. Some of these “props” looked like he’d lifted them right off the set.
Still, it wasn’t much of a deterrent. Annja drew as close as she could to the blade and felt the breeze as it swung back and forth. There was a momentary gap as the blade passed her. If she timed it right, she could leap across and be on her way on the other side before it had a chance to cut her up.
But if she misjudged, that wouldn’t be good at all.
Annja shook her head. It wasn’t worth taking the chance.
So instead, she jumped onto the back of the blade itself, close by the shaft, and squatted there as it swung back and forth. Then she simply leaped off to the other side, rolled and came up in a crouch.
And immediately had to leap to avoid a slashing blade that cut at her exposed legs. Annja went high, looked down and saw that the blade cut in a circular arc. She came down, leaped forward again and landed in a squat, breathing hard, but having escaped injury.
That was a little too close for comfort. Fairclough was stacking his challenges now. Lulling people into assuming there was only one main task to deal with and then nailing them when they got lazy.
Like I did, she thought with a frown.
Well, never again.
Annja followed the corridor down another slope and then found herself facing a simple wooden door. Her first instinct was to check for trip wires, but a quick search revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Annja opened the door and, after a quick visual once-over, walked inside.
She stood in a ten-by-ten room, brightly lit by
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