We fade back in on the group of children, all asleep on the forest floor—until they weren't.
"Ahhhhhh!" Ken yells, shooting upright, his hair disheveled from his impromptu nap on the forest floor.
"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep," Jinx groans, her hair cascading down as she pushes herself up onto her knees.
"Where are we? What's going o—" She's suddenly cut off by a sharp pain in her side. As she looks down, she sees a pool of blood forming at her knees, and a long black spike connected to a deep purple tentacle buried in her side.
"Ahhhhh, it hurts, oh God save me!" she screams as she desperately pulls at the tentacle. Another comes out of the foliage, shining in the moonlight. As the tentacle soars toward her, a hand grabs the squishy appendage.
"Everyone get up NOW!" Ken yells desperately as his grip begins to slip, the long appendage squirming wildly under his grasp.
"Ahhhh, please wake up!" Jinx yells, pulling hard at the tentacle ripping out of her body, blood spurting from the freshly opened wound.
"What's happening? Just calm down," Elias mumbles, slowly opening his eyes to the horrific scene around him.
"Oh my God, Jinx!" he yells as his hands desperately search the floor for anything he can use as a weapon. He finds a large stone. As he stumbles to his feet, he tries to lift the heavy rock, with no luck.
"Move!" a now-awake Olivia shouts at Elias as she pushes her fingers into the muddy ground under the rock and lifts, pulling the stone above her head.
"Are you just gonna stand around? Help Ken—we can't afford any more injuries!" Olivia yells before charging at the tentacle attacking Jinx.
As Elias receives the command, he awkwardly stumbles toward Ken, slipping in the mud and landing on top of the tentacle Ken is wrestling with. Realizing where he is, Elias wraps his hands around the tentacle and begins squeezing, causing the appendage to writhe in pain from their combined attack.
As the boys struggle with the tentacle, the girls are having a fight of their own. After ordering Elias to assist Ken, Olivia rushed at the tentacle Jinx was struggling to contain. Her hands slipped from the blood covering them, and right before the tentacle broke her grip, Olivia smashed it with the large stone, causing the appendage to rip. Purple blood sprayed everywhere as the tentacle flailed, coating everything in a slick layer of violet.
After all the commotion, what woke Eloria was the feeling of something wet coating her face.
"Hey guys, what's happening? Did the spell work?" she asks groggily as she sits up. But as her eyes open and she scans her surroundings, she freezes, overwhelmed by the sight in front of her.
"Eloria, move!!!" Olivia screams as another tentacle appears from the trees behind her.
Thanks to Olivia's shout, Eloria rolls out of the way as a tentacle impales the spot where she was sitting mere seconds ago.
"What are these things!?" Eloria yells as she picks up a handful of small rocks and chucks them at the tentacle. They bounce off its rubbery skin before it charges once more.
This time, now able to see her would-be attacker, Eloria manages to easily dodge the tentacle. As she weaves around the attack, she dives at it, grabbing on before biting into its flesh, ripping and tearing at it, biting off pieces until it stops moving.
"Is everyone okay?" she yells out, just as a loud squelching sound rings out—Ken and Elias ripping their tentacle in half.
"No. Jinx was attacked before we even knew what was happening. She's hurt badly," Olivia says in a slightly panicked voice as she rips a piece of her skirt off and presses it against the wound, hoping to slow the bleeding.
"Oh God, oh God, oh God, am I gonna die?" Jinx asks frantically as the pain courses through her body, causing her to shake violently.
"No, no, no, no, no! We were supposed to stay together, remember? This was our dream—a magical world where we could be free!" Ken shouts as he rushes to Jinx's side and removes his shirt, offering it to Olivia, who balls it up and presses it against the gaping hole in Jinx's side.
"Ahhhhhhh, big brother, it hurts so bad! Please save me, I don't wanna die!" Jinx cries out as blood pours into the makeshift rag keeping her from bleeding out.
Eloria watches, powerless to do anything, as she stands frozen by the realization of what she has done. She had found that book in an old abandoned house. She had convinced all her friends to escape with her, to run away from their problems—but she never expected this. She didn't want this.
"I'm such a failure. I couldn't even protect my friends. They're all gonna die because of me," she sobs as she falls to her hands and knees. As she cries, time seems to stop around her, and a warm embrace wraps around her entire body. Then suddenly, the world snaps back. The embrace is gone, replaced with the cold sting of her failure.
But one thing is different. A book now lies before her—the very one that got her into this mess.
But it's different somehow. Less worn. It looks almost new.
"Why is this here?" she asks the air, her confusion distracting her from her grief for just a second. She slowly moves her left hand, gripping the book tightly, and with her other hand, flips it open.
Welcome, traveler. You have used my power to come to this world. As you might have already seen, this world isn't all that you bargained for. So, to assist in your journey, my loyal servant, I have decided to grant you this tome of spells. Although, be careful—for more than your mana is consumed when using these spells.
The first page ends there. As she desperately flips through the pages, she finds something:
Unholy Healing
This spell requires 15 fel of mana, 2 pints of human blood (the caster may use the blood in their own body if they wish), and 0.5 percent ## ##### #####
"Crap, the rest of the page is scribbled out. Screw this—I don't care what it costs at this point. It's all my fault. I must save her."