Andrew

I sat across a table from Oligog. "So, what do you think? Will you join?"

"I'm sorry Andrew, but and I can't risk my death again... it's impossible to know that if I die again, it won't just revert my consciousness data back to the way it was." He explain apologetically. He then stood and bowed. "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

I put up my hands in a placating gesture. "It's okay Oligog! You don't have to if you don't want!"

He sat back down. "If there's anything else I can help you with let me know, but I can't risk participation myself."

I thought about that for a while, before posing a different idea. "Would you mind helping me with the recruitment process? I'll bet you know of a bunch of champions I didn't ever meet."

"I can't say how helpful I will be, but I can certainly try."

I leaned back in my chair with a deep sigh. "It's honestly a lot of work, so I'll take anything I can get." I pulled out a tablet-thingy. "I asked for a complete list of champions from the last game, and it feels like it never ends!"

Oligog stood and walked over to the tablet to see the list I was talking about. "Oh dear... I can see why a helping hand would be of use."

I looked at the upper-right corner of the tablet and stood. "It looks like it's about time for my next meeting."

"With whom?"

"Manglow The Mauler. He didn't get to do that much in the previous game, so he might be receptive to a second chance."

Oligog put a hand to his beak in contemplation. "I don't believe I remember hearing about him, what was his rank?"

I shrugged as I walked toward the next meeting room. "Oh, I have no idea, he was my first kill."

Oligog gawked at me. "Why aren't you picking from the top ten?"

I turned and grinned widely. "They don't call me 'Unorthodox' for nothing."

Oligog was silent for a good thirty seconds before replying with a chuckle. "I suppose not."

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Grigory

It was another morning covered in dust.

It was as though the mountains themselves spat on us for our mere existence.

I used the inside of my undershirt to attempt to wipe the dust from my eyes, to mixed success.

I stood from the sitting position that I had used to sleep, and I strode through the makeshift encampment we had set up.

Some others were still awake, likely because they couldn't sleep for various reasons.

"When the day comes around again, make sure to at least close your eyes, at the very least it will rest some of your body." I told them.

They looked over at me, and one of them spoke.

"We can try, but it's just so hard to sleep on these rocks and in the heat of the day."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I held in the urge to say that I had been sleeping on the floor since childhood, and searched for a more empathetic response. "I know it's hard, but do what you can, I need you to take better care of yourselves."

"It's not like I'm choosing not to sleep!" Another of them replied angrily.

I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "I meant no offense, excuse my poor wording."

They sighed and went back to what they were doing, clearly too tired to stay angry.

That's a state I understand well.

Without another word, I moved to meet with today's gathering team.

James, myself, and two others were chosen for the task, with Atticus acting as leader until we returned.

During our previous meeting, we had discussed our low resources and that the best weapons at our disposal right now are stone knives and slings.

Morale was low, and it wasn't hard to see why.

The four of us had to find something useful or else our group cohesion was in danger of falling apart.

We departed not long after meeting, spending the better part of the next hour walking and searching fruitlessly.

There wasn't anything except rocks and dust anywhere to be seen no matter how thoroughly we looked.

My patience was wearing thinner and thinner, but I had to continue to be strong, I had to make sure not to show my frustration on my face.

It was honestly taking all of my concentration to keep walking forward without exploding into a fit of rage.

...So I suppose it could be forgiven when I was suddenly pulled under the surface.

The drop was shallow, but the surface closed back up as soon as I fell, meaning it was pitch black in this tiny room.

I immediately tried to move, but I found myself stuck to the ground because of some sort adhesive.

In the next instant, my torso was pierced by two sharp pains.

The two areas around the pain started to hurt even worse, spreading through my body slowly.

I grabbed at the sharp objects, and found what I could only imagine were a pair of fangs.

I pushed upward, beginning to lift some sort of creature, and hearing a high-pitched screech in protest somewhere in the darkness.

The fangs slowly lifted out of my body, and as soon as they were removed, I thrashed the creature against the walls of this small hole as violently as I could.

With each slam, came a noise akin to a meaty slap as well as the screeching that was previously described.

It tried to pull itself away from me, only to free me from the ground.

I redoubled my efforts, also adding kicks to where I guessed the base of the fang was.

Suddenly, both the creature and I lifted into the midnight air and I finally saw what it was I was fighting.

Before me was a twelve-legged arachnoid covered with a thick scaly skin instead of an exoskeleton. It had a myriad of simple compound eyes and a single pair of feline-like eyes, which shrunk to slits as soon as it was exposed to the light produced from our crude torches.

I found myself hanging from what I had correctly deduced as massive fangs.

As soon as I had the time to process that information, the arachnoid shook itself from side to side to try to buck me off its fangs.

I pulled myself toward the creature despite all of this.

The process was agonizing, both in speed, as well as the pain that was still spreading throughout my body.

Eventually I climbed up the beast's fangs like a ladder without rungs and reached the head.

I then put my foot at the base of the fang, and pulled upward.

The arachnoid stopped shaking, and instead began screeching as I ripped out the massive tooth.

I then jammed it into the creature's head, ending its misery.

To my surprise, it didn't become dust like the other beast had, which meant we now had access to several resources we didn't have before... which was certainly a great boon, but I had a more pressing problem at that moment.

"Someone bring their torch over here please." I said as I took off my shirt.

James was the one who complied.

The wounds were wide, deep, and already festering a little... my only saving grace was that it hadn't punctured any of my organs.

I held out my hand and gestured to the torch in James' hand. "I need that for a moment."

James' eyes widened. "You aren't going to do what I think you are right?"

"I've been poisoned, putting a bandage on likely won't be as effective." I rolled up my shirt and bit down on it.

He gulped and handed me the torch.

I cauterized my wounds.

The pain was an order of magnitude worse than I expected, forcing out a scream and causing my body to shake.

But it was done, so I handed back the torch.

"Please start gathering the beast's remains, I'll collect the thread as soon as my hands stop shaking."

All present simply looked at me in awe for a full minute before anyone realized what I had said and set to task.

Damn it, why couldn't the poison have been a numbing agent?

Hours later, we returned to camp with all of the resources we had acquired from the arachnoid.

We now had bones including a pair of fangs, a scaly hide, a poison sack which I insisted that I be the one to remove, about forty-five kilograms of recoverable thread, and a spinneret... not including the meat we weren't certain was safe to eat yet of course.

I immediately chose a group of the less athletic individuals to start trying different weapon and tool designs as their new primary task.

Not long later, we had a prototype bow using the thread covered in dust to make sure it didn't stick to our hands.

We may just survive yet.