The Isekai Game

Black Noise

As the doors slammed open, The Wild Bunch was quickly pulled inside neverending darkness. The doors closed. Earth rose to cover the door completely. Vanessa's excitement was now at its peak, destroying her prior confusion.

Andres took charge, pacing himself through the darkness. He and Logan had a clear sight of the fortress. Or rather, a cave it was.

Logan began relaying his observations. Large spikes of earth protruding from the ground. Slippery muck was at the bottom of each spike. His sensory abilities were thrown off from detecting any creatures. It didn't stop him from noticing the water flowing above.

"We have to pick up the pace," said Andres.

Yet the second their momentum began to rise a soft song played by a piano was heard. It began at a slow pace that would set one's mind to a place of innocence.

Logan threw a card to the right, "Lookout"!

The team paused until his card exploded to their right. The explosive light revealed a swarm of bats. Logan was confused, as he had seen something different.

As a couple of bats fell, Dani followed up with an explosive that killed off the remaining.

The bats continued to attack in small swarms from varying places of the cave. The music was noticed to have picked up after a few attacks. It played a melancholy as though there was something expected to come.

It gave Dani, Leira, and Mina paranoia that Vanessa tried to calm them down from. Dani began randomly shooting her gunfire across the cave causing many reckless rattles and echoes.

"Vanessa! To the rear!" shouted Logan.

Logan's urgent turn alarmed Andres to also look back. Vanessa coated her blade in flames to see the bats which were already near. She sliced away in an attempt to cut them down.

However, their shape morphed to the likes of spike and blades.

Now that they were in range, the bat's speed had doubled. A few had gotten past Vanessa's flurry of strikes. Andres covered her blind spot to halt the morphed bats with his shield, and cut them down.

Once the pair took them out, the music calmed down. Andres returned to the front, where Logan was now squatting down with a card on the ground.

"Get ready everybody," said Andres with his chest, "We are going to run out of here and find an exit. Just be mindful of Logan".

Everybody waited, listening to the music pick up once more. They knew something was coming.

Drom the card he laid, Logan released a series of firework that lit the entire cave per explosion.

They started running, shooting down every swarm of bat that came near. Not only were the bats able to morph independently, but they could also do so together. Logan realized they had morphed into a giant spinning blade earlier to attack them.

Luckily the bats were weak, and The Wild Bunch didn't lose speed until Andres noticed water falling upwards from the ground. Surely it could be an effect, but he didn't notice it before.

The ground shattered, dropping everybody to a bed of slippery muck.

Once on the hard ground, Dani yelled, "They dropped me in bat-s**t"!

Nobody cared, given the music picked back up.

Logan dashed to Leira's side, countering an oncoming attack from a giant bat-creature. The creature refused to hold back, slashing its claws at him.

As he flipped a card to shine a blast of light in the creature's face, Vanessa felt the pressure of the piano music to attack. In an instant, she was in front of the grey bat-monster. The light shined, revealing its gargoyle-like appearance.

She sliced through its arms as it attempted to fly away. Andres tossed his shield at its wings to stop, allowing Vanessa to slice its throat.

"We gotta stay moving," said Jeff.

"They must be using the music to dictates the attacks," added Logan.

The team was already running through the cave once more with Logan setting off his firework spell. They kept a watchful eye as many other bat-creatures attempted to attack them as well. Again, Logan noticed they were actually easy to handle.

They typically flew up high in patterns, close to the water. When ready, they would swoop down in a blind spot in accordance with Logan's fireworks.

A weak attack would be thrown in sync with the piano music. It was almost like the music from the piano was telling the story of their battle.

A logical mind would say it merely provided a sense of direction and control for the bats to attack. However, Logan knew otherwise.

As The Wild Bunch ran through the cave, Vanessa couldn't help to believe they needed to swim up for some reason. It made sense given everything was upside down and they needed to be right side up. The problem was how were they going to achieve that?

Vanessa stared up looking for a pattern in the water or the oddly attacking bats. But her efforts were futile. Logan attempted to focus on water to see where there was a connection. Yet once again, the cave interrupted his sensing abilities.

Jeff heard water running from an unknown direction. He commanded his team to defend him as he shot around the cave.

His bullets pierced through large chunks of the cave walls. Screeching from the flying bat creatures clinched the team's ears. The piano wasn't heard for the moment. But the bat-creatures were indefinitely planning an attack.

Andres looked up, spotting a c***k in the cave's wall leading to the water. He relayed his findings to the team, but everyone was nearly down to their knees.

Dani, being sick of the noise, shot an explosive up at the water. The heavy drops of water muffled the sounds and hindered their flight patterns. The team took advantage to run out safely. 

"No lightning nor fire in the water," yelled Jeff as they approached the opening to the water.

Mina was taking frequent pauses as she came close to the entrance. Vanessa grabbed her hand, reassuring her that she would protect her. Mina was overcoming her fear of what could be in the water whereas Leira was as water-friendly as a cat.

Leira stopped at the sight of the water entrance to argue excuses. After all, she would definitely do it if she was safely in a cage.

Logan picked up Leira, who had begun to panic, and jumped into the water. Dani ran in to jump behind them. The Isekai Game gave a notice that Leira couldn't be forced to go into the water.

Dani pushed Logan aside and placed her hand on Leira's shoulder, "Leira, listen to me. Don't worry. It's just a game. You'll be safe. The game won't let anything happen to you. And neither will Logan... I swear to you on his life".

Staring into Dani's big brown eyes, Leira knew she was safe. 

Once everybody had entered the water entrance, the entrance itself was sealed shut. Vanessa held onto Mina as Logan held onto Leira. The Isekai Game announced the water was going to fall in 10 seconds. The countdown began with every second adding pressure upon the team's chests. The music became overly dramatic as everybody stared up at the soon to collapse water.

"We got this!" yelled Andres.

Vanessa's eyes were peeled as she looked for possible threats swimming in the dark water. Her sword was in its sheath just as everybody else had closed their weapon off. It had been a while, but once again Vanessa had to rely on her first.