"If you get lost here, you are worse than a headless ghost." Razvan chuckled as he led his team into a large hall. "Alright people, today we are going to explore this room." He gave the order, then grabbed Rahul by the arm and started walking into the complete darkness.
"The boss is screwed." Benkó shook his head with a desperate half-smile.
"Just in love!" Achilleus waved next to him.
"That's what I said too, mudbrain!" Benkó glanced at the Motumisz boy, but he just stuck out his tongue at him.
"Let's race, whoever finds something new first wins!" Achilleus' eyes sparkled.
"The loser stands guard for two weeks instead of the other!" The heir of the Bokló tribe grinned.
"Rules?" Came the question.
"All's fair in love and war!" Benkó poked him and already ran forward. And Achilleus started in the opposite direction. This is how the quarreling pair of the Athamanas took to the cave. However, none of them found anything interesting. This year's room was much more boring than rooms are usually.
"We came here unnecessarily." Benkó closed his eyes and pressed his forehead. "Mudbrain?" He blinked in the direction of a side passage. "What is that bastard doing there?" He scratched his head."What if he found something? I can't let him win!" He decided and hurried into the side passage.
"It's suspiciously dark!" He blinked around. "We are out of the boss's range, the eternal lantern only lights up to a certain distance." He grimaced. "I have no other choice." He shook his head, then raised his right hand in front of him and concentrated on his palm, where in the next moment a small blue cold-flame flared up, which slowly grew bigger. "That will be fine. Well, where is that idiot?" He looked around, but didn't see the other boy.
"Gravel!" He called out and started further down the corridor.
Meanwhile, at another point in the cave, Achilleus was scanning the wall of the room with shining eyes, but his enthusiasm was getting less and less every moment.
"Well, fuck it." He grumbled under his breath. He had no intention of losing the competition, he can't be shamed like that. It's not like they don't make a competition out of their tasks every chance they get, but the excitement and adrenaline is still the same now as it was the first time.
"Peeing boy?" The boy's feet rooted to the ground, as he saw the unmistakable pale blue dress in the corner of his eye, which indicates the Bokló tribe. "But didn't he?" He turned around, but he only saw the light of the blue eternal lanterns, not the people standing next to the lanterns. "I see! So we cheat! Just wait!" He grinned and hurried into the corridor with the eternal lantern flickering behind him.
"Ice cream!" He called out, but got no answer, and the corridor grew darker and darker in front of him. He went almost completely blind until he saw a faint bluish light in front of him. "There you are!" He grinned and stopped for a moment to stamp at the ground, as a result of which four small clay dolls appeared at his feet. "Let's get him, boys!" The Motumisz boy gave the order as he hurriedly started towards the light.
In one of the more distant caves, Mo Ching watched the wall in front of him with an evil grin on his lips, on the wall he now saw the two quarreling boys. He has already taken care of two members of the eight-person team, they have already passed the first task. Now it was the turn of the second pair, whom the chán man was now leading towards each other with his self-created clones, because he did not know that they could do anything other than hinder each other.
That's why he was surprised, when the two boys met face to face in the corridor and ran against the glass wall, but instead of fighting, they both looked around suspiciously.
"It's a trap." The chán man heard Benkó's voice, although the voice echoed a bit here in his cave.
"Your exit is blocked." Said the other one coldly.
"Yours too." Benkó said immediately, and Master Mo nodded with satisfaction as he showed the pair the room where they had to complete their task.
Achilleus began to nod as he saw the long hall appear on his left. The terrain was familiar to him, as was the one on the other side of the glass wall. He tilted his head to the side and put his hands on his hips.
"Hey Ice cream, do you think we have no other choice too?" He asked aloud.
"We have to go through it, Gravel. I guess this is your begginer course, right?" Benkó turned towards Achilleus.
"Yay. Do I remember well that you have to fiddle with how cold and warm the water is under your weird ice?" He asked as he crouched down and tapped the ice under his feet.
"Exactly. You have to change the texture, don't you?" Came the question, and Achilleus just nodded. "Do we do it at the same time or one after the other?" Benkó folded his arms in front of him.
"Where is the challenge if we do it separately?" Achilleus grinned at his friend.
"You took the words out of my mouth." Benkó laughed.
"I wouldn't touch your mouth even if you paid for it!" Achilleus stood up."Then let's start. Quicksand!"
"Cold." Benkó snapped at him, and then the two boys jumped to the tracks at the same time. Taking turns shouting orders at each other.
"Quicksand to the right, rock to the left!" As soon as Benkó heard the instruction, he jumped to the top of the rock.
"Fucking ho..." The word got stuck in his throat when he saw that the other simply walked through the hottest wall of water. "Gravel, how the fene did you survive that?" He opened his mouth, while the other laughed.
"I can handle hot water. We have a lot of geysers." He waved. "How are you doing, Ice cream?" He asked with his hands on his hips.
"Ready. You?" Benkó spat out the question.
"Let's do it." Achilleus grinned, and the two boys ran at the glass wall separating them at the same time.
Meanwhile, Mo Ching was watching them with wide eyes and the only reason his face didn't show his surprise was because such behavior doesn't befit a clan leader.
"They keep surprising me." He shook his head. "I want to agitate them and they stay calm. Instead of fighting, they help each other." One of the boys shouted, so his voice echoed in the chán man's cave. "And those nicknames. What are they? I've never heard them before." He scratched his chin, but at this moment he opened his mouth. "How in the seven chambers of the underworld did you break that?" He asked, but the next moment he already pressed the green dot that appeared on his small wooden board.
The two boys in the cave faced each other with triumphant grins. However, Benkó suddenly nodded his head to the side.
"Did you seriously call me Ice cream? What if someone was watching us?" He got mad suddenly.
"It doesn't matter anymore. If they had been paying attention, they would have known in the end. Also you went with it anyways." Achilleus rolled his eyes.
"I'll kill you, Gravel!" Benkó shouted and jumped on the boy's neck.
"In your dreams, Ice cream!" Achilleus cut back and repeated his friend's movements. But before the two boys could go so far as to strangle each other, their eyes suddenly opened and they were engulfed in impenetrable darkness.