One second to impact Nora hastily put her palms together to form a circle in her hand which made a duplicate that enshrouded him as he sank into the lava pond.
She fell on her knees, her heart already skipped when he jumped without warning.
"Teenagers," she whispered silently in regret.
Meanwhile Oscar was already at the bottom of the pool. He could see a flicker of gold light reflecting from an object that's sitting at the depth of the pond but he couldn't quite tell what it is. Regardless, he was definite it was the Aconite.
He veered towards it.
The flicker was as a result of the surface being casted with gold, the surface of a 12 inch tube. As Oscar reached for it he discovered a huge problem, his fingers cannot get past the bubble no matter how he tried. It wasn't elastic, and wasn't at all breakable.
"Damn!" he cussed.
He heard a loud beep just then…
{HP: 97 – 100}
{Warning:}
{You're taking damage. Destroy or evacuate heat zone}
"God! Nora break. Nora break," Oscar prayed.
On the surface, Nora too was facing her own problems. The fighting men on the field had marked her an easy target as she was on her knees and were now kicking and beating her with rods to make her get up on her feet and fight them.
Additionally they considered her amusing wondering what she was up to, and hence was the ridicule.
With fear for Oscar's life, Nora endured every blow, every kick, and every object that crashed on her. She thought if she moved she could accidentally break the shield and cost him his chance to exist. She closed her eyes tightly only concentrating on holding up the shield.
"C'mon Oscar, c'mon," she whispered to herself.
On the other hand, Oscar too was praying with her name on his lips.
Out of nowhere, one of the men grew tired of her getting all the attention on the battlefield and cut her head off.
Nora respawned ten inches away from her former spot and immediately fell on her knees with an heavy heart, "Oscar."
She shut her eyes and put her palms together again, "Please work." A dark fog formed in hand.
Inside the lava Oscar had managed to grab the tube as soon as the shield collapsed. But just as he attempted to swim back up the shield engulfed him again, this time some of the lava got into the shield with him making it impossible to swim back up.
Oscar was wide-eyed like a man staring death in the eyes.
His HP rapidly deteriorated. He was trapped.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Three loud beeps followed with a tab appearing in front of his eyes.
{HP: 0 – 100}
{HOST IS DEAD}
Oscar's body floated in the lava, his skin slowly burning out to join the liquid.
"I failed," for the last time reality hit Nora with a harsh truth. Her eyes saddened, life gradually leaving her face.
"I failed," she stood up on her feet.
Then her eyes widened as she looked up to the sky.
"I can't fail. I can't fail!" she yelled the second one out loud and ran towards the pond, sequentially jumping in.
It respawned her to approximately ten inches away from it.
Nora raced for it again as soon as she was reformed. It killed her and respawned her again.
"Ahhhh!" she raced for it the third time and jumped in.
Reality repeated itself.
"Ahh!" while she charged towards it for the fourth time one of the men tore out her stomach with an axe which killed her and respawned her at the corner of the hole.
"Oscar. I'm sorry," she balled her fist as the negative energy surged through her. "I shouldn't have let you go. I should have stopped you."
"The score is 2 – 2 now," Oscar's voice echoed behind her. "It's your fault I died in that lava."
She beamed with a smile for the first time since he visited, but then she washed the smile off as she turned around to face him.
"Where you crying?" even Oscar was quite stunned. "Oh my god! She loves me. You love me don't you?" he teased.
"Did you get it?" Nora was quickly back to her badass act.
"The lava burned out my clothes so I picked this up," Oscar directed her attention to the oversized piece of designer rags he was putting on. "I wonder why yours didn't burn."
"When you die, you get a cloth, you wear it forever. They call them garments," she rapped and opened her hand to him. "The Aconite, did you get it?"
"Relax, it's in my clothes. It's shiny, I don't want to draw attention to ourselves."
"Oh thank goodness. Put it in my hand I'd cover it up with darkness."
Oscar obeyed. Life surged through Nora as she grabbed the shiny tubee, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Just then Oscar's system beeped…
{Notification x10}
{Initiating countdown to go home}
{5…}
{4…}
Freaked out, Oscar turned out to Nora, "Nora…"
"Well well well, I see you have the Aconite," just then Oris' voice echoed through the hole in a steady rhythm.
He stood above the hole with an army of both men and natives surrounding every edge of it. They clearly outnumbered every man inside.
"She's the one, the girl with dark hair and beautiful eyes," he pointed out Nora. "The darkness in her hand is the treasure you all seek."
"Nora," Oscar grabbed her arms firmly. "I can't stop it. It's happening…"
{0}