242 A place of darkness

The last thing Quinn could remember was Layla shouting out his name. Then, in a blink of an eye�-- they were swallowed whole. What came afterwards was darkness. His body was continuously being swirled around, throwing him off balance and it gave him not even a moment to balance himself nor use any of his abilities.

Everything was happening so quickly but during the whole process, he didn't feel any pain. Then when he had finally reached the bottom, Quinn felt his body continuously sinking. It felt like he had been dropped in a watery quagmire. He tried moving his hands using all the strength he could muster but it seemed to have no effect. If anything�-- it was making him sink quicker.

His legs were the first thing to pass through and as it did, he felt a free range of motion. They weren't hitting or placed against anything, but they felt like he was in mid-air kicking them backwards and forwards. Still, he was unable to feel anything.

'If the plant swallowed me and now, I'm falling down, doesn't that mean I'm falling into another part of the mountain, or underneath the planet?' Quinn thought.

The height of his fall worried him the most. His arms had now gone through the strange substance and now only the top of his head remained. Just like with his legs his hands were able to move freely. But now, he started worrying.

If Quinn was right, then once his head fell through his whole body would be falling.

He was strong and he had a sturdy body as a vampire, but what was he falling into? Lava, spikes? Or into a pit of beasts? His abilities couldn't possibly save him from that.

Quinn's mind madly spun as he thought about his next course of action. He activated his shadow ability and covered his body thinly. It seemed to have worked and slowed down the sinking process.

But this was a mere stopgap. Not a solution to the problem. But of course, this stopgap should give him enough time to think.

Suddenly, a voice reverberated out of nowhere.

"What the hell is this?!" A boy yelled as his voice echoed out.

"It can't be, is that Fex's voice?" Quinn thought.

The space was narrow, and if Fex was coming from above it meant that there was only one place where Fex could land.

Bang!

The force and Fex's weight struck Quinn's head and managed to push him through the last bit of strange substance.

As Quinn's body floated through the air, he thought back to how the last thing he ever saw might have just been Fex's backside knocking him down, as he fell to his death.

"That arse!" Quinn shouted.

When looking around him, even though he was in the dark, his pupils widened enough, letting in more light. He could see nearly just as well as outside. His guess seemed right and he was really falling from the ceiling.

The good news was there didn't seem to be anything below that would do much damage, the bad news was he was falling from about twenty meters in height and the ground was coming closer to him as the seconds went by.

All he could do was brace himself for impact, as he curled up into a ball. At the same time, a shield of shadow was created in front of him. The shadow was the first part to touch the ground and Quinn followed shortly.

It had worked.

The shadow had slowed down the momentum of his fall and Quinn went inside and fused with the shadow.

"You really are useful," Quinn said as he took the shadow away but in that moment. The speed had returned, and Quinn's body was slammed into the ground just as hard as he would have done if he hadn't used the shadow.

In his haste, Quinn had forgotten that the shadow didn't actually slow things down, but only slowed down the time while he was touching the shadow. Once he travelled through the shadow, or once it was taken away, the object would continue to travel at the speed it previously had before passing through the shadow or being one with it.

Covered in rubble from the walls of the cave, Quinn stood up and discovered that not a lot of damage was done to him. He felt sore in all sorts of places, but his body was sturdier than before. It also didn't seem like any of his bones had been broken from the fall.

Just then, he could see Fex falling through the sky nearly at the exact same spot.

"Quinn, catch me!" Fex shouted.

Still remembering how Fex had shoved him down under here. Quinn chose not to help. If the fall didn't kill him, it wouldn't kill Fex.

Fex looked around but the walls were too far away from him and there was nothing nearby to attach his strings to slow down the momentum of his fall.

Stepping to the side at the last moment, Quinn allowed Fex to land headfirst into the same spot as him.

Unlike Quinn, Fex immediately stood to his feet after crashing, rubbing the back of his neck. "You could have at least caught me man, what was that all about?" Fex continued to dust himself off and then looked around at where they were.

They seemed to be in a large cavern that was completely empty. There were several large holes or tunnels that seemed to lead to different paths. When looking above them, They could see the plant hanging from the ceiling that had swallowed them whole.

When Fex started to pat himself down he noticed something strange...

"Oh no, my Flask. It must have fallen out when that giant plant hit me!" Fex said angrily.

"Do you want the one you gave to me?" Quinn offered. After all, it was never his in the first place and he still had his blood bank to rely on.

"No, I can't," Fex replied. "I know I'm not big on rules and stuff but that was a gift and I can't take back gifts. Besides, my reliance on blood is a lot less than most people. It is already at that of a vampire Noble. Don't worry about me."

It was true that Fex never seemed to be as interested in blood as Quinn did. Even when a student would bleed slightly Quinn would get this tingling feeling all over his body and his eyes would naturally be drawn to the bloodied area�-- but Fex never felt the same way.

Quinn would keep it for now, and if Fex really needed it. Quinn would still be by his side anyway.

Over at different sections underneath the mountain, the others were experiencing the same thing that Fex and Quinn had gone through. Layla and Vorden were both being slowly sucked down, while their faces were pressed up against each other.

"You, this is all your fault for grabbing me!" Layla shouted. Vorden even felt some of the spit from her lips land on his face due to how close they were.

"Did your parents never teach you how to speak without spreading spittle everywhere? And you would have been eaten anyway, so don't blame me!" Vorden shouted back.

As the two fell from the plant into the large cave. Layla used her ability to slow her down from falling at a fast speed. Vorden also used the same ability and achieved the same result, so they managed to get down onto the floor safely.

They discovered that they were in a large cavern with several entrances, holes, and tunnels all around the cavern walls. However, there seemed to be no one else with them.

'Great looks like I'm stuck with a psycho. As if there could be a worse pairing then this." Layla thought.

In another section of the cavern, the last pairing was of Cia and Peter. The two of them fell through the strange substance at the same time and as they were falling through the air...

Cia noticed that Peter's expression didn't have any trace of fear.

"Does he have a plan on how to land safely? Otherwise, how could he be so calm." She felt like she had no choice but to grab on. A fall from this height could kill a student, and at best�-- it could still break a few bones.

Cia didn't have any beast gear on her, and her ability would do nothing to slow the descent. After grabbing onto the back of Peter. Cia held on tight.

As they got closer to the floor, she was waiting for him to reveal his ability.

She still had no idea what it was. The group had asked Peter to keep it that way while in front of the teachers. Students apart from those that knew Pio wouldn't know but teachers had files on every student.

"No, it can't be!" Cia thought, and a few seconds Later Peter crashed dead into the ground.

Cia was hurt but Peter managed to break most of her fall, but as she opened her eyes and looked at her comrade next to her�-- she could see that all of his limbs were mangled and broken.

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