The restless shadows

streamed through the night

As we prayed to the heavens

to bring on the light

With a cackling laugh,

the witch took flight

basking in joy,

seeing our plight

'You thought I was the one to fright,

now you all shall perish

in this undead blight'

Irene Guillan - The march of the hollow

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Hera needed some time to get used to her surroundings. First, it was the fact that she was in an ocean and had to swim to move. Second, the notion that she could breathe underwater. Instinctively she would hold her breath, and during the first ten minutes, she kept hurrying to the surface when she was running low on air.

Moving around in the water was a problem of its own. Hera wasn't able to move as freely as she was used to. Before rushing in, she spent around twenty minutes swimming around the entrance before she was confident enough to look for her target.

A good thing about the room was that the water was always clear. Hera could see the ocean floor even from the surface. This wouldn't be possible in an actual ocean, but it seemed to be another MAZE trick.

She started to move, looking for something that could give her a hint. After some time, she saw dark shadows moving around. She dove deeper into the ocean, trying to hide on the ocean's floor.

As she got close, Hera noticed a coral reef to the side. It wasn't big, but it could be enough to protect her from whatever was coming. The shadow got closer and closer, and Hera could see that it was a large hammerhead shark.

The beast moved above Hera, who held her breath until it passed through.

"Great, if those things find me, I'm done," Hera thought.

She kept swimming close to the bottom. Luckily, there were few of those creatures moving around. Hera spent another twenty minutes swimming and looking for the target. Thinking about the video, she remembered that the target seemed to be hidden on the floor. She used her pulse to see if something would appear, but to no avail.

She kept thinking about what could be the target and how she could find it, but it was getting more and more difficult to move around. The sharks were passing by more frequently.

Hera stayed as hidden as she could, trying to figure out if the sharks had somehow found her. Hera started to go through everything that she did up to this point, trying to see if there was anything that could have given her location away.

The more time passed, the more the sharks closed in on her location. Hera started to get more and more worried, watching the shadows pass by her. There was no way they had seen her, was there?

She looked to the side and saw a manta ray emerging from the sand in the ground and stopping a few meters in front of her. Hera looked back up to the shadows and to the creature on the ocean floor. She could try to rush it. If the sharks took a bit too long to notice her, it would be enough to reach it.

She looked up once more and saw two sharks making a B line towards her. Her heart started to beat faster, and Hera moved as fast as she could towards the manta ray.

All the ten sharks rushed towards Hera. Before she even was able to cover half the distance towards her target, the sharks reached her. Biting down on her arms and legs and sending Hera back to the first reception.

Hera coughed up the water in her lungs and kept lying down.

"Are you ok there, kid?" Peaches asked.

"Yeah, I just wanna stay here for a while," Hera said with her face still on the floor.

"What went wrong?"

"No clue, the sharks started to get close to me even though I did a pretty good job at hiding."

"Were you bleeding or something?"

"Nope. I was fine."

"What the information said?" Peaches asked.

"Pass me my tablet. I'm not getting up yet."

Peaches shoved Hera's tablet towards the explorer. She moved quickly to grab the tablet before it fell on the ground and started to look through her notes.

"It says they are experts in detecting the smell of blood in the water," Hera said.

"What else?"

"They are fast, can't stop moving. Ferocious and lethal. And they have some sort of electromagnetic detection, whatever that means."

"And what does that last thing do?"

"It can make the sharks perceive the magnetic fields of the earth."

"And?"

Hera read more of her notes, "Differentiate between animals and plants because of the electrical current on the brain," she got up quickly, "Wait, those sharks can use it to find me? How am I supposed to hide from that?"

"You have to find that out."

"Ok.. is there a way to lower that current?"

"I honestly don't know. Sorry about that, kid."

Hera stayed a couple more minutes sitting on the floor, trying to see if she missed anything else about the monsters she had encountered. It seemed like there was nothing new, and in another ten minutes, Hera got up, ready to try again.

One thing she noticed was that her clothes were dry at the moment. According to Peaches, every time she got teleported out, anything that she didn't bring to the test would vanish.

Setting out once more, Hera took another 2 hours to reach the ocean stage again. She kept being hit by the flies or the snake. The reptile was more intelligent than she expected. It would create traps and ambushes to get her.

During the entire time she completed the rooms, Hera kept considering what she could do to avoid the sharks. She believed there were only two options. She could either move fast enough so the sharks wouldn't swarm her. Or she could find a way to reduce the electrical current on her brain. The problem with the first option was that it relied too much on luck. The issue with the second option was that Hera had no idea on how to do that. The only thing she could think of was to use a spell or to think less. But her movements would trigger the electrical current, anyway.

She was already fighting nonstop for close to twelve hours, and the fatigue was getting to her. Hera took a deep breath to calm herself before jumping in the ocean. The cold water helped to keep her awake, even with the sound of the sea around her having a calming effect.

Hera went straight to the ocean floor and started to look for any signals of the manta ray. It was a difficult thing to do. The only things that could give Hera some semblance of position were the small coral reefs spread around the area. Even so, it all looked the same. She wasn't able to use it to position herself in the room.

Hera focused on the sharks moving around her. Several times she had to hide from the creatures under the reef. At one point, she noticed a shadow approaching by the corner of her eye. She twisted her body, trying to swing her handaxe toward the incoming creature. As she moved, the shadow vanished as if it was never there. Hera kept looking from side to side, trying to find the beast that was coming, but to no avail. She felt something by her legs and stomped, trying to stop whatever it was from grabbing her. The manta ray, who had just passed the explorer, turned around and attacked Hera with its stinger.

Appearing once more in the blue reception, Hera was still trying to understand what happened.

"Hey, kid. Bad luck?"

"I don't know. But I need to try again," she said, leaving the reception before peaches could even say anything else.

Less than five minutes later, Hera appeared once more in the first reception.

"Do you know the definition of crazy, kid?" Peaches asked.

"I do, but you are going to tell me anyway," Hera was sitting on the floor, looking at her hands.

"You are right. Crazy is someone who spends more than 12 hours fighting without rest."

"But I only have more 12 hours to beat this. If not.."

"If not, you can try again later. Besides, you humans only need 6 to 8 hours of sleep, right? Maybe 10 since you are so tired. It still gives you quite a bit of time to keep trying," Peaches cut Hera off.

"I guess. But I need to figure out," Hera let out a long yawn, "How to beat the test."

"Kid, you need sleep. Go rest. I'll wake you up in six hours. Deal?"

Hera wanted to disagree, but she was too tired to argue. She got some water and ate something before crashing on the bed.

"You really need to stop pushing yourself so much, kid," Peaches said while Hera started snoring.

#########################

"Do you have someone to talk about this?" the doctor asked.

Helena was staring at the result of her exams. The little knowledge about medicine she had was enough to understand what was going on.

"Miss Dittro?" the doctor asked again.

"Sorry, I was distracted. What was the question?" Helena asked.

"Do you have someone to talk about this?" the man in front of her asked once more.

Helena gave the man her professional smile, "As you said, doctor. My issue is very unique. I don't think I know someone who could relate to this. But yes, I have people who will at least listen to me."

"That's good. This is not something you should deal with on your own," the man nodded and avoided her gaze. Helena knew that giving this sort of news wasn't easy, and since he was the one taking care of her, he felt guilty for the result.

"Do I still need to be here?" Helena asked.

The doctor shook his head, "No, not at the moment at the very least," he took one of his business cards from the desk and wrote down his contact information, "This is my personal cellphone and email. Any changes, please let me know. If we have any developments on our end, I will contact you. We will just do one last basic check-up and discharge you."

Helena kept looking at the doctor. She knew he was a powerful healer but not even with magic and enchanted tools, they were able to find a solution.

"I'll contact the guild. They will escort you back home and talk about what is going to happen moving forward," the doctor said.

Helena nodded, "Can I go back to my room? I want to be alone for a moment."

"Of course, but just to let you know, we will be monitoring your vitals. Just a precaution in case you attempt to harm yourself."

"You don't have to worry about that, but I appreciate the warning."

Helena left the doctor's office and headed to the room she was staying in the hospital. A few people stared at her while she walked, but Helena didn't notice it. She had too much on her mind. Arriving in the room, Helena sat on the bed and focused on her hands.

A few moments later, tears started to fill her eyes.

#########################

"Kid," Hera didn't move an inch.

"Kid?" the explorer moved a bit, getting more comfortable on the bed.

"KID!" Peaches jumped on top of Hera, hitting her stomach.

Hera got up with a jolt, spooked by the sudden attack.

"What, what?" she fumbled for her weapons, "Are the sharks coming?"

"Really, kid? You were even dreaming about that?" Peaches turned around in the bed after being tossed away from the explorer, "No, they are not coming. You slept for 7 hours. I tried to wake you an hour ago, but not even jumping on your head was enough."

Hera rubbed her eyes, still a bit sluggish, "Ok, so I have.. 4 hours remaining?"

"5 actually. Splash some water on your face to wake up. You still have time, but It's better if you don't wait around too much."

"Ok, thanks," Hera walked to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, she returned to have a small breakfast.

With everything, ready Hera walked towards the door that leads to the jungle. Before stepping out, she looked to the clock.

"Five hours, you can do this, Hera."

"Yes, you can, kid. Just don't rush it."

Hera nodded and walked out of the room. She still needed to start with the silverback, but her goal was to kill the manta ray.