Shaman felt like she was suffocating as the massive hall that opened up in front of her was the same one where they had previously fought the skeleton knight.
Shaman fell to her knees and tried her best to breathe. Elysia grabbed hold of Shaman's arm, trying to catch her fall, only to fail and end up kneeling alongside her .
'Shaman, it's okay, I am here with you, just take deep breaths and we will get through this together." Elysia hugged Shaman trying her best to comfort her.
Clara was a little perplexed on what to do but not wanting to be useless she started to pat Shaman's head to try to comfort her. Wolfy nuzzled his nose against Shaman's back, trying to cheer her up in his own way.
Shaman's breathing began to stabilize and the fog clouding her vision cleared up, and so did the fear that was festering within her.
Shaman let out one last breath before letting Elysia help her back to her feet.
'I am much stronger now! As long as I have my friends by my side I should be able to cope.' The encouragement Shaman got from her friends allowed her to continue forward. Although she had not known Clara for long, she knew she was trying her best to be sincere and Shaman was rather touched by her attempts to comfort her. The fear from her trauma still lingered but she was now able to suppress it as it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as before.
"Sorry, let's keep going." Shaman continued to walk into the same open hall that they fought in previously.
Shaman's hand trembled a little, but she held strong and continued to push forward. Elysia noticed the shake and grabbed tightly onto Shaman's hand.
Just as last time the hall was lit up by torches mounted on the pillars and walls, whose light completely illuminated the room.
Shaman looked around and noticed they've entered near one of the hall's corners, meaning they were pretty far from the knight who therefore was likely still dormant.
"Let's see if we can locate the knight without him waking up and if I'm able to cope, I shall fight with you." Shaman wanted to test her limits as they did not have a backup plan if things went wrong and so by testing the waters Shaman would hopefully find the courage to participate.
They began slowly making their way around the edges of the hall, trying to locate the knight they expected to find at its center without alerting it. It was only when they neared the halfway point that they could finally find their target.
Shaman had shut her eyes and tried to mentally prepare herself as she had no idea how bad it would be seeing the real thing. She slowly opened her eyes, staring right down the middle.
The skeleton knight could be seen sitting limp in the middle of the room as if it has yet to awaken, which was a relief. Shaman then locked her gaze on where its eyes would be as suddenly they began to glow red.
A system notification went off but before Shaman could read what it said, she had passed out falling onto Elysia.
[Curse of the puppeteer detected]
[Blessing of the fox has been activated]
[Blessing failed, user is not aware of the curse]
Elysia read Shaman's messages and began to panic as she was unsure if Shaman was going to recover.
"Clara get ready, I have no idea what's going on and I don't like where this is going." Elysia's mind started to spiral a little as she was once again left in a position where she was unable to do anything.
Clara was very concerned and so was Wolfy. However they were unsure what to do since the looming threat of the skeleton knight was too close for comfort.
"Uhhh We, we need to move her somewhere, staying here will only pose more trouble." Clara tried to think of the best choice and concluded it was to escape. However that conflicted with their main objective of helping Shaman face her trauma, leaving them unsure whether to wait for her to wake up .
Elysia nodded and began to lift up Shaman but stopped when she noticed white strings originating from Shaman's body.
Clara noticed this and instantly realized what phenomenon was happening.
"ELYSIA GET AWAY FROM HER NOW!!" Clara shouted and picked up Wolfy quickly putting distance between her and Shaman.
Elysia took a moment to react but when she remembered what the curse was called she realized what might be happening.
Elysia quickly jumped back and watched as strings started to pull Shaman up until she was standing.
Purple mist also started to flow out from the strings and circle around Shaman just like it would the skeleton knight.
'Elysia, good news is that Shaman is fighting it but the bad news is that her body is being possessed so make sure not to harm her.' Rea quickly spoke up in distress as she told Elysia what was going on in more detail
'So we just need to wear her down so she breaks free herself?' Elysia wasn't too happy as she wanted an immediate fix but she was glad to hear that there is a way out.
'Sadly yes but you need to focus on staying alive, also don't worry about the skeleton knight as whatever entity was controlling it before is now controlling Shaman.' Rea spoke quickly as it seemed like she was having issues on her end.
Elysia nodded and took a deep breath as she waited on what the puppet Shaman was going to do.
***
"Urggg what the hell happened." Shaman found herself on a pitch black floor and was rather confused about where she ended up.
Shaman stood up and felt rather disoriented as she couldn't even tell if there was ground beneath her. She looked around trying to get her bearings but everything around her was shrouded in darkness, all but a single ball of light sitting above her head.
Shaman had also noticed that all 4 of her tails were out and she was unable to make the extra 3 disappear.
'That's odd, why the hell can't I get rid of them.' Shaman began to get extremely worried as she was unsure what was happening.
Suddenly the surroundings changed and she was once again in the same hall as before. However this time Shaman did not feel the same fear as she did before and was rather confused.
'Things are getting weirder by the minute and clearly I am in some form of imaginary space.' Shaman guessed she had passed out and her consciousness is either trapped inside herself or is in another mind space.
Shaman tried to use her skills and pulled up her system but nothing worked which supported her theory that she was not in control and this wasn't reality.
'Shit, shit, SHIT! How the hell am I supposed to get out of here.' Shaman tried to think but the stress was starting to get too much and her ability to reason was deteriorating until a voice spoke.
"Vixen, you are no longer in control of your body and now belong to me, you have fallen for my curse where you will be a slave to this crypt till you are reduced to nothing more than bones." Shaman looked up and could see purple mist floating which was the same mist that controlled the skeleton knight.
"Curse?" Shaman was a little confused but things were starting to make sense for her.
"Yes, now enjoy counting your days as this will be the only place you will be seeing, AH HA HA HA." The mist had a raspy voice and sounded like it was speaking from all directions.
Shaman's stress had started to calm down a little since she was given crucial information that could help her break out.
'So this is possibly the dungeon boss and he's able to manipulate living being's minds through a curse. So technically my Blessing of the fox should be able to break free of the curse!' Shaman's eyes brightened a little and the mind space started to shake.
"YES!"
Cracks started to form all around Shaman and it seemed like the blessing was about to break her free of the cursed mind space.
"What th-" the mist was confused for a moment but realized what was happening and disappeared out of sight.
The shaking grew weaker and the cracks began to heal all of sudden.
'Wait the mist can fight back the blessing?' Shaman was confused how it could be and instinctively tried to pull out her sword. Surprisingly, it came out with ease..
'Wait did the blessing allow me to have some control back?' Shaman instantly tried to use one of her elements and although weaker, it had worked.
Shaman smirked as now she had some tools at her disposal to try to break the space she was in.
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