The size of the plants inside the garden was humongous.
Angele could see tree leaves that were the size of a washbasin and huge sunflowers about the size of an adult.
Angele stepped forward and carefully observed one of the sunflowers. He saw a human face right in the middle of the flower; its eyes were closed, and it wasn't breathing. Neither eyebrows nor mustaches could be seen. Angele looked around and saw the same faces on all the sunflowers. It was almost as if the face was the flower itself, with petals growing around it.
The path was surrounded by huge sunflowers. He didn't know when these faces would open their eyes. Just by looking at them, Angele could already feel a chill creeping upon him.
The others didn't seem concerned about it; only the girl was slightly scared. It was probably that they already knew of the existence of those flowers.
It was a short path, so they went across it quickly. Before leaving, Angele decided to take several flowers with him for research purposes.
They entered the iron gate by the end of the flower path. There, they saw another path lying between the bushes. Gray stone chairs sat on both sides of the path; even the ground had been constructed with gray bricks. Again, a gate laid by the end of this path, yet this time, the gate was made from stone.
As the five of them stepped on these bricks, the ground began shaking.
*Clank*
The bricks stood up one by one, with feet suddenly appearing on their bodies.
"Ah!"
Those bricks screamed at the top of their lungs, doing so while running away quickly. All the bricks disappeared from their sights within a single minute, almost like they were running for their lives.
The five stood there as they watched the bricks leave until nothing was left on the ground. They were all speechless.
Suddenly, the white stone gate by the end of the path dissipated in the air, breaking down just like soap bubbles.
"Wait! Those are Screaming Bricks. They'll lead us to the next destination. Without them, we won't be able to proceed. We need to get them back!" the black-robed man shouted.
"How? Those bricks are fast, we have no way of tracking them down." The red-robed man had his brows scrunched up.
"They love Earth element energy particles. Anyone? Please," Messi slowly spoke.
"I'll do it." The red-robed man stepped forward. He closed his eyes and raised his palm.
He began invoking incantations. As he did so, groups of brown spots of light quickly gathered onto his palm. Those spots of light were of dense and heavy property.
The spots of light looked like sesame seeds. Slowly, it formed an egg-sized, black ball on the man's palm and started glowing.
Right after the man opened his eyes and stopped the incantation, he threw the ball down in a careful manner.
The black ball dropped down and sank into the mud.
*CHI*
The ball liquefied and turned into black-brown oil, which covered the entirety of the area the bricks formerly had been, and a black path appeared in front of them.
*Kata-kata*
Angele heard intense footsteps coming from all angles. It sounded like a group of people running at full speed.
All the bricks that had escaped returned to their original position within minutes and an amusing scene took form. They were licking the liquefied Earth element energy particles; they even started talking. It was as though they were praising the taste of the particles. Angele couldn't understand a single word they spoke, but he could easily identify their genders; the place became noisier and noisier.
As the bricks returned to their position, the white gate by the end of the path revealed itself slowly.
"Move! Don't waste any time," Messi advised.
They quickly stepped on the bricks and rushed toward the white gate.
"Oh!" Angele stepped onto a brick, causing it to moan in pleasure. Angele felt uncomfortable upon hearing such strange sounds, so he increased his pace.
Every brick that had been stepped on began moaning, nearly sounding as though they were having orgasms.
Messi stepped onto the last piece of brick. It moaned several times before it ceased moving.
Messi became flustered and had goosebumps all over his body. His granddaughter was laughing from the side after seeing what just transpired.
"Damn bricks!" He swore, and the others started laughing as well.
"Who the hell creates a spell like this! Some of the Ancient Wizards were really sick." The black-robed man chuckled.
"Humph!" Messi looked ashamed, and he entered the gate first.
The others followed him from behind, then arrived at an empty patio. Nothing was around besides the dried leaves on the ground. The place was deadly silent.
Within the confines of the gray walls was a pool in the middle of the patio. The exit was located right beside it. By the exit, Angele could see various plants and flowers flourish.
"That's it." Messi's granddaughter looked at the exit and shouted in excitement, "I see the Byro Flower! Grandpa, we finally found it and…"
*ROAR*
The violent cry from the lions broke the fleeting peace, interrupting Messi's granddaughter from finishing her words.
Two golden lions jumped off the wall and landed in front of the five. They were standing upright on their hind legs. Silver sabers and black chain hammers being held in their hands.
These lions were bare naked and their body extremely strong. They looked like two bullnecked beefy men. Their dense mane waved in the air, following their own movements.
"The Guardians!" The black-robed man placed his hand into his pouch and stepped back.
The five started preparing for battle right away. The red-robed man rubbed the silver ring on his left middle finger and mumbled incantations.
Messi took out a short, white wand with a sapphire embedded on its end. The sapphire started glowing with light as he slightly swung it in the air. At the same time, his granddaughter lowered her head and began casting a spell. A lump of steaming green slime slowly formed in front of her.
Angele recognized the spell; it was Acid Strike. Angele raised his bow and quickly retreated to the back, aiming at the lion man on the left with the arrow.
*ROAR*
The lion man roared again and charged toward the red-robed man.
"Explosion!" The red-robed man shouted right before the lion's saber could strike him.
A red dot of light appeared in front of him and exploded. An orange flame about the size of a human head smashed against it as it moved through the air.
The attack caused the lion man to force itself back, even causing it to become stunned. The red-robed man turned pale as he withdrew; the explosion had been too close to him. The black-robed man came to help immediately and prevented him from falling to the ground.
The other lion man started to battle Messi and his granddaughter.
The black-robed man made sure that the red-robed man was fine before he turned around. His incantation ceased, and he pointed at the lion man in front. The lion man that had survived the explosion was about to charge toward them, only to be struck with another spell and once again becoming stunned.
Angele took this opportunity to shoot an arrow quickly.
The arrow struck hard against the lion man's forehead and penetrated his brain. The attack was accurate and powerful. Blood was dripping down the arrow. The lion man was knocked back and fell to the ground right after. He trembled for several seconds before he stopped breathing.
The black-robed man began preparing his next spell after the lion man was killed. He didn't notice the other lion man jumping toward him, thus he took a hit from the chain hammer it wielded. The severity of this blow caused the man's eye to roll to the back, blood spitting out of his mouth. This strike most likely broke several of his bones.
At that moment, Messi quickly charged toward the back of the lion man and struck him with the palm. The lion man was immediately paralyzed and tumbled down.
Messi quickly drew his dagger and stabbed the lion man right in the neck. Streams of blood spurted out of the wound, forming a small pool of blood on the ground.
"This is just the beginning. Stay alert guys. Based on the logs of the other adventurers, guardians will appear randomly, and the creatures they had encountered were completely different. We'll have to force our way through," Messi spoke in a grim tone as he stood up.
The black-robed man coughed. He was severely injured; it seemed his right arm had been broken by the hammer.
"Messi… Why didn't you warn me?! You were fighting with that one!" The man questioned in anger.
"I didn't do it on purpose…" Messi shrugged.
"Come on, stop. We don't care if you die or not. You should be more careful during the battles." The red-robed man addressed, seemingly uncaring that the black-robed man helped him during that fight.
"You!" The black-robed man was breathing heavily, trying his best to hold it back.
Angele was still checking the surroundings. He nocked another black arrow onto his bow and pulled the bowstring. He was aiming at the pool.
"Guys. It's not a good time to start an argument. We need to deal with this thing first," he spoke in a low voice.
The others stopped talking and looked at the direction his bow was pointing at.
A strong naked man slowly emerged out of the pool with water dripping down his body. Although the man looked like an adult male, he had no male genitalia between his legs. Every muscle on his torso was like a work of art. The entirety of his body was covered with a golden glow.
The man had no hands. Instead, he had two huge crab claws.
His hair was messy, and he was swinging the claws in the air.
"Intruders… Die…" he muttered in Vlasov.
*CHI*
The golden glow around the man turned into a barrier.
"It's the Crab Man… I mean, Claw Warrior! We are in trouble…" Angele knew this creature, causing his expression to change, "Adult Claw Warriors are able to use force fields…"
"Claw Warrior…" The others gasped.
"Well, shit…" Messi's face turned pale, "Guys, prepare your most powerful spells and do whatever you can. Otherwise, we won't be ablt to leave the garden in one piece."