Chapter 1224 Trapped In The MountainAuthor's Note: Unedited Chapters ---------------------- "Kiiiihhhhhhh!" The creature screamed in pain as it quickly yanked its left leg out and fell to the side. That leg was already a pile of bones but Gustav and Aildris didn't wait to witness this. They had kept on charging forward and even used the creature's body as land as they ran across it. The group behind didn't let their astonishment slow them down as they kept running forward as well since there were still three more beasts chasing them. While they were curious about how Gustav and Aildris were so synchronised that they managed to pull that off, they would need a miracle to deter the rest of the three beasts. The beasts weren't slow, however, due to the terrain, they were more likely to sink especially with their size and weight. This was the major reason they hadn't caught up to the group. The sinking highlands wasn't just dangerous to the participants, it was also dangerous to beasts. "At this rate they'll catch up to us, we need to separate," Gustav voiced out as they kept running. "Separate but..." One of them wanted to retort when Gustav continued. "If we separate into three, the beasts will be forced to split as well and then each group can find a way to deter the Beast chasing them. There's a better chance of doing so with separation," Gustav stated. "Then we all can circle back and meet on the path that leads to the yellow zone after this or we meet at the yellow zone," Aildris voiced in agreement. Chatter! A lot of them seemed reluctant but Gustav's plan was making sense. "I'll go east," Endric voiced as he turned to the side, breaking off from the main team. "Who's with me?" Endric question as he ran off. One of the beasts paused at this point while the others kept chasing Gustav and the rest. A small chunk from the team quickly broke off to follow Endric. "I'll go west," Aildris stated before turning to the run in the opposite direction that Endric had taken. A small part of the team broke off once more following Aildris, and Gustav was left with around twenty individuals. Six of which were earthlings. E.E, Angy, Falco, Abestos, Matilda and Phinx had stayed on this sise while the other fourteen were alien participants. Just as expected, the separation had slowed the beasts down a bit as each of them began chasing after one group. Gustav had told the group before they set out that, they should never use any of the attacks in their bracelet unless it was an impossible situation that they were a hundred percent sure is inescapable. Gustav believe their present predicament to be escapable since they happened to still be within the sinking highlands region. "There!" Gustav voiced loudly as he spotted a hole by the side of the bottom of a mountain. Everyone quickly followed after him while the creature behind was catching up. Fortunately, they arrived in front of the boulder sized hole before the Beast could get them. The group of twenty wasted no time in filing into the hole despite their various sizes. The beast dived head first, straight through the entrance of the hole after them but got stuck halfway in. The middle part of its body clogged the entry point of the hole as it struggled to push itself in. Gustav and the others sighed in relief as the beasts claws were inches away from the last individual to get in. They moved further into the hole but it happened to get smaller as they did. Dhrrrrrihnnn! The ground suddenly began sinking in from the entry point of the hole. "Kiiiihhhhhhh!" The creature screehed loudly as it's upper body which was stuck, sank into the green sizzling liquid below. It's body which was stuck soon became unstuck but at this point it was too late, the surroundings at the entrance of the hole had sunk and half of the beast's body was already well dipped into the greenish liquid. "It's... dead," Matilda said as they peered backwards. "Yeah, nothing would be able to survive that," Falco voiced. "We need to head back," Warhdoli, one of the reddish leaf like participants voiced out. Turning to stare forward, the space in the hole was very tiny but it seemed to extend further ahead. Meanwhile behind them which was the entry they had used to get here, all that could be seen was a puddle of greenish liquid bubbling with intensity. Since none of them currently had supernatural abilities, avoiding the greenish puddle up ahead while trying to leave through the entry point would be impossible. Not only was the puddle covering a distance of nineteen feet, the hole was also really small so their heads were kissing it's ceiling despite their hunched backs. "We can't go back there," Gustav shook his head before squatting to move forward. The others could see that there wasn't a choice as well and followed after him. The hole was getting much smaller the further they moved that at some point, they began to crawl on fours. Minutes later, crawling on fours had turned to crawling on their belly for the earth participants and for the others, they had to lay completely on the ground. The group could only hope that they wouldn't come into contact with a sinking area or it would be really difficult to escape the greenish liquid due to their crawling speed. "We've arrived at the end," Gustav voiced from up ahead. "Finally," The group voiced with tones of relief after hearing that. "There is no way out," Their relief was short lasting, dissapearing the instant Gustav made this announcement. "What do you mean there's no way out?" One of them asked from behind. Gustav tilted his body to the side for everyone behind to see. It was just as he stated. They had arrived at a dead end which was completely sealed up with the same composition the mountain was made up of. "Try hitting it, maybe it's soft," One of them suggested. Gustav shook his head before knocking on the mountain wall up ahead. From the sound of collision, it was obviously a strongly sealed wall. -"What do we do now? We can't go back and we can't go forward," -"Are we stuck here?" -"So this is where it ends," The group soon descended into despair upon realisation of being stuck here. "Hold on guys," Gustav whose expression had been indifferent this whole time, called their attention as he voiced out. "Before we got into the hole, I took note of the size of the mountain. Height and width," He began speaking. "Based on my estimation, we have crossed eight hundred and thirty five feet since we went in the hole. I also estimated that were we to travel in a straight line through the mountain we'd reach the other side after eight hundred feet. We crossed eight hundred and thirty feet and from the structure of the path within the hole, its not completely straightforward. It's a little snaky at some areas which would also mean we'd cross longer than..." "Where are you going with this?" Everyone was getting really anxious so Phinx cut Gustav off seeing as he was taking really long explaining. "...What I'm saying is, we should be very close to the other side of the bottom of the mountain. There is a high possibility that what awaits after the wall before us is escape from the encompassment of the mountain," Gustav stated. "Are you saying that if we could find a way to get past this wall here, we'd be out of the mountains?" One of the alien participants questioned. "The possibility is very high yes," Gustav responded. "This is where the agreement we had at the top of the rock comes in," Gustav added while staring at the additions to their group. "Oh" -- "Has it left?" "I can still hear it's footsteps, I think we should wait," Behind a stack of rocks positioned atop a highland area, a group of around fifteen people could be seen squatting. They seemed to be hiding from a menacing looking beast, parading the vicinity. "We can't stay here forever," One of them voiced. "We also can't just go out there while it's still around. We have to be patient," Endric voiced. "Listen to my hubby, he knows what he's talking about," Sheila voiced with twinkling eyes. One of them was about to retort again when a loud explosion went off. Boooom! It caused a minor tremor which they felt from their position. This proved it happened quite a distance away from them, however, it was loud enough to attract the attention of the beast roaming about. The group could hear the footsteps of the beast slowly reducing in volume before completeley dissapearing. -"Finally," -"I thought it would never leave," -"We got lucky," The group expressed their relaxation after hiding here for nearly thirty minutes. "Let's go before it comes back," Endric voiced while standing upright. The group checked their map and began making their way northwards as quickly as they could. -------- -"We're alive," -"Phew that was quite the explosion,"