Esoterico: A Hidden Land

Chapter Fifteen: The Dark Side Of Aracounis

Every member of the group braced themselves, struck with shock—and also excitement—after Newton's remark. 
As Ryan realised where he was, he immediately barked, "Then what are we waiting for? Search for Rudy at once! Once we've found him, we've gotta get out as fast as possible." 

"Not that easy," Newton said grimly. "It's hard to get out as well as get in. More hard actually."

"We'll think about that later. Find Rudy first." Ryan remarked.

So the group continued their voyage, calling Rudy's name aloud in the absurd woods, as they stepped forward. But the next moment, they stood stupefied. Rudy is transformed into his werewolf form, so he won't respond to his name obviously. So it was only a fruitless shame. Lucky that no one's here. 

But they realized that somebody was there as the next moment, a cold, booming voice playfully echoed behind them: "Rudy who?"

They all turned back and saw a black cloud forming into a figure. Moments later, the cloud had turned into a gigantic black smokey figure with red round eyes and a mouth—which was hazy, but still, Ryan could just feel that mischievous grin. 

"Who are you?" Ryan boldly asked. 

"I'm 'The Darkness Beyond the Darkness of the Dark'," proclaimed the grinning black giant in his booming, cold voice. 

"Is he mad?" Smith whispered in Ryan's ear. 

'The Darkness Beyond the Darkness of the Dark' continued, "I'm here to welcome y'all to my residence, the dark side of Aracounis! So, my dear guests, I dearly hope that you all will love this little trip and enjoy the games. Good luck!" He disappeared like a fading gas. 

"Games?" Newton dumbfoundedly looked at Ryan, but the roar of thunder covered his voice. And as they looked skyward, they saw seemingly thousands of pitch-black clouds cover the sky, turning the atmosphere darker, ghastlier, and more dreadful. Once again thunder roared, and went on roaring frequently. Ryan noticed Newton building a pair of spell structures quickly. He said to Newton, "What do you think will happen?"

"Dunno, but you've got to be prepared for anything life-risking," Newton replied, giving the finishing touches to his circular spell structure. 

"Will your beginner spells work against them?" Ryan expressed doubt. 

Newton couldn't reply as— 

CRACK!

A lightning bolt struck right on their heads, but the deafening sound was produced as Newton's structures shielded them from its deadly blow.

"But how? It's only made of light!" Ryan astonishedly said as another roar of thunder filled the place with noise. 

"It's a shielding charm, basic level." Newton quickly said. 

"But we haven't been taught anything like that—" Ryan stopped as another lightning bolt attack was yet stopped by Newton's shield. 

"It's my secret," Newton beamed, "I've been sneaking into the library at midnight when everybody's asleep and learning quite a few extra spells. I did it the last two days—" Newton stopped speaking as once again he had to stop another lightning bolt attack. 

"These are attacking us intentionally," Sally said, panicstricken, "Targeting us.... Trying to finish us!"

"One good thing is that we'll be able to boast back in school after surviving this," Smith said jokingly. 

"If—we—survive." Newton seriously bellowed. Wind breezes were sweeping against them, and it started to rain in torrents. The sky was as dark as evening. They felt like they were facing a stormy night being outside. But this was more dangerous as the thunderbolts kept attacking them from different angles intentionally, and Newton kept shielding themselves from those. The same continued for several minutes as Newton skillfully shielded all the thunderbolts but the following moment witnessed a startling scene. As they were shielding themselves, as well as looking around desperately and running for any sign of Rudy, a lightning bolt missed the target and struck straight into a gigantic tree all of a sudden, causing the absurd, twisted, and fat tree to quiver greatly. And, as a result, a great transformation took place in front of the eyes of the wet teens, rainwater dripping from head to foot. The tree turned larger and harsher; a nasty face with red eyes and yellow dog-like teeth thrusted out laughing, and all the branches turned into long, muscular arms with sharp, pointy nails. As it continued laughing, it said, "Amazed, kids? Then you gotta know that you have to see more tricks comin' by!"