Chapter 90 – Taen Movorio

Name: Taen Movorio

Level 54

Class: Necromancer

Taen was a young man in his mid-twenties with short brown hair and handsome, kind features. He wore a black cloak over leather armor, wielded a single well-crafted longsword, and specialized in death magic. He, along with two of his friends in other parts of Nagochus, had been flung into this new world from Earth many months ago and were wrapped up in a series of quests that a minor deity - or Numen - named Maltetious wanted them to complete.

It was a long story, and one that would take many days to complete when he told it - so when asked, he usually avoided the subject as best he could.

He’d been through hell, completing her two years of training before he’d been allowed to try his hand at completing said tasks - but he was finally here, in the Deadlands of Ornthas, to find a ring for her.

Thus - with his massive flesh golem Butcher, his insidious phantom Coriana, a ghoul he’d just subjugated named Bann, and a number of zombies - he’d been hired on by two treasure hunters. Their names were Claire and Coctim, and they’d agreed to search the Deadlands together with the promise that if they found the ring - it’d go to Taen, and that most other findings would be left to them. They’d taken a crew, along with a band of battlemages from the Worvan guild - a highly distinguished group from Teretog - to search one of the ruins called Gorgamin.

Fate would have it that he would never reach Gorgamin though, and Taen’s life was about to take a drastic turn that would shape the rest of his life in ways he would never have believed.

***

The map clearly indicated that this was the fastest route to the ruins of Gorgamin, but the group was skeptical as to whether or not they should take it. They stood on one side of a large ravine, and on the other side was their destination - or so they thought. The jungle foliage stopped them from being able to see far into the distance past where they currently were, but so far the map had been correct with all of the landmarks presenting just as they were described. Far below them, deep into the ravine, the path led downwards along the cliff wall. Apparently they were supposed to take the passage down and then follow the ravine westwards for a couple of miles until they found the way back up again.

“Looks like a deathtrap to me.” commented Coctim to brush his curly brunette hair back and straighten his brown vest over his scrawny body. Claire, a raven-haired and plump young woman with dark skin, nodded in agreement with her fellow mage.

“It is a deathtrap,” stated Bann with a humph and folded arms. The heavily armored and completely bald ghoul (though you wouldn’t be able to tell with the full-plate helmet he wore) was a battle-hardened veteran of years living here in the Deadlands, and he didn’t trust this group he’d come into in the least. “This is an incredibly stupid idea.”

“Yeah yeah we’ve heard it all before,” Ovalia, a pretty redheaded Worvan girl said as her heavily armored brother Drade began to make his way down the path. “Let’s get a move on.”

Her petite form skipped forward to match her brother’s pace onto the path.

Bann stood silently by as members of the group followed Drade down into the ravine, but Taen put a hand on his pauldron.

“When we get there, you don’t have to follow us in if you don’t want to.” Taen was serious as Bann peered back at him through the slit in his helmet. “Just take us to it, I won’t force you to come in.”

There was a long pause.

“Do you mean that?” asked Bann who turned his muscular body to his front, facing his new master head on.

Taen smiled, and nodded affirmatively. “Yes, I mean that.”

People continued to file in behind one another down the steep path until it was only Taen, the 31 zombies in various states of decay, Butcher the flesh golem - who towered over the others at well over twenty feet tall, and the heavily armored ghoul named Bann that stood along the edge of the ravine. Coriana was definitely around somewhere, but that phantom was elusive as hell.

A bird of prey circled overhead as if an omen of things to come… but they weren’t dead just yet. If luck was on their side, they’d come out rich from this expedition and Taen would find the ring within a couple months.

“I will consider it then. Thank you for allowing me the choice,” replied Bann with a nod. The ghoul adjusted his armor, turned again, and descended down behind the rest into the dark crevice leading into the earth.

The ravine was far darker when they had finally made it to the bottom. Torches had been set aflame to light their way through, and Taen had refrained from using his night vision to avoid blinding himself with the nearby torchlight or scaring the others.

The ravine had also narrowed the deeper they had gone, until they had come to the bottom floor where it was less than a hundred feet in width. To their east and west the ravine traveled far beyond their line of sight into darkness, and they continued westward into the depths. As they marched on, they saw many faces of elves and men carved into the stone walls. The carvings were ancient, and hundreds of years of rainwater had morphed them to look quite strange in the torchlight. They came across two skeletons of men, and a couple more of various other jungle creatures that had probably fallen to their deaths here long ago.

“Creepy place.” noted Rory, a burly black-bearded Worvan brawler, as he kicked at a rock to send it skidding across the floor into a large jungle cat’s skeleton. “It fits right in with the rest of this land.”

From in front of where Taen walked, the plump raven-haired mage named Claire stopped to wait for his approach. Letting the others walk past - she continued her trek beside Taen, giving him a hesitant nod of acknowledgement. Her original set of bloodstained clothes had been thrown away and were replaced with a similar cloth traveler’s outfit. The wounds she had originally been dealt were now gone thanks to her passive regeneration and being well fed, and she looked pretty normal other than the poor mood she had been in since coming back from the dead. Bann took note of her presence and caught on to the social cue, speeding up his walk to give the two room to talk. When he was up ahead, Claire touched Taen’s arm lightly before speaking.

“I… I just wanted to say thank you for what you did.” whispered Claire with her head lowered in what seemed to be shame. “I have reacted very poorly and should have been grateful for the opportunity to live again.”

She was referring to a recent event where they’d been attacked by ghouls, she’d died, and then she’d been resurrected as a ghoul herself with Taen’s necromancy. She’d not reacted well to it at the time, but since then - she’d come to realize that she’d much rather have this body than none at all.

Taen continued to walk beside her in silence as Claire collected her thoughts. He didn’t blame her for being upset, but would she have rather been dead? He thought not.

“I was just concerned, and I supposed I still am, of not being able to return to civilization. I don’t want to be stuck here for an eternity of hellish living - if that’s what you can even call it at this point. I feel so weird, like… numb. Inside and out... and I’m afraid… I realize that we have antidote, but it doesn’t always work after you’ve been turned. When undead, sometimes the disease stays with you forever… which is why ghouls are killed on sight leaving Ornthas.”

Taen stopped, turned to face the girl, and gave her a warm smile. “I will make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ll find a way to deal with this plague and you’ll be back before you know it, just keep your head up.”

The smaller woman was surprised at first, but soon returned the smile half-heartedly.

“We should catch up to the others. But I promise you, this is not over. We will find a way to deal with this.”

Claire sullenly nodded, brushing out her plain brown robes and deeply sighing as she looked around the canyon they’d walked into. Shadows danced about them, and they were going deeper and deeper into the Earth - not what she’d expected, but they’d find a way up to the other side eventually. “Yeah, let’s catch up before we get left behind.”

***

“What in the hells is this?” Coctim said with a puzzled expression as his brown curls bounced with his trot. He looked back down to the map and then up again at the large circular doorway that had been built into the ravine’s northward cliff face. “It isn’t on the map, and it’s far too early to be the path back up.”

The circular doorway before them had hinges on the left hand side, and stood already open upon approach. Though even with the torch light to guide their way, they had nearly missed it due to it being placed on the flipside of an indentation in the ravine wall. It was well hidden, and stood with a radius of several meters across.

“The hinges are rusted, and based on the debris it looks like someone just recently opened it.” noted Drade - the brother of Ovalia and leader of the Worvan faction in their group. Two of the other Worvan stepped forward and began examining the markings printed upon the door, making sure there weren’t any traps or missed runes before getting closer.

“Ancient Demon...” stated one of the Worvan who turned to the rest of the group. “Definitely the demonic language. No idea what it’s doing here at the bottom of a canyon though.”

“What does it say?” asked Ovalia curiously as the others waited in anticipation. Her blue eyes widened in excitement at the prospect of finding a hidden dungeon that may have not seen treasure hunters in many centuries if not longer, and the thought of the riches awaiting them made her internally drool.

The scholarly middle-aged man cleared his throat and turned back to read the runic markings, adjusting his glasses as he did so. “It says… ‘Here lies Xil of the Third Age. Those who seek his knowledge and prizes may do so at their own risk. The game master watches all.’ Sounds pretty threatening, but doesn’t explain much.”

“Probably a tomb...” murmured Rory as he heaved his large battle axe up over his shoulders. “Or a dungeon. How recently was this opened? Can you tell?”

Drade turned back and leaned down to inspect the debris littering the ground. He then took another look at the hinges, and wiped a large layer of dust from off of the inside of the doorway. He then pointed to a set of tracks in the dust leading inwards and raised an eyebrow. “VERY recently. Looks to be a smaller sized party, maybe thirty or less?”

Rory chuckled. “It probably isn’t even halfway looted then! Even if they did get some of the good stuff, they wouldn’t have been able to take a lot with them!”

“Good chance they’re also dead,” noted Bann. “But if this means avoiding the ruins of Gorgamin, I’m all for it, and I’m excited to go exploring! I love doing this kind of stuff, but being a loner before you all showed up - it’s been hard to do by myself.”

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN ABOUT!” exclaimed the burly black-bearded warrior Rory as he slapped the ghoul on the back. “I like the change in attitude my friend! You’ll come around soon enough!”

The rest of the men all laughed and Taen could tell even Bann was smiling from underneath the plate helmet he adorned.

“Alright, who goes first?” asked Rory who swung around to face the rest. “Any volunteers? Or are we going to have to draw straws?”

“I will go.” stated Taen as he held up his hand and stepped forward. “I can see in the dark a lot better without those torch lights in front of me. If there are no objections, I’ll lead.”

“None at all!” laughed Rory. “What a go-getter this one is!”

It didn’t take long for them to get going, and before he knew it - Taen was leading their party into the crypt. Butcher was small enough to fit inside he was came along too, following right behind Taen with Bann off to the side and Coriana’s grey etherial body flying lazily overhead.

Taen’s suddenly glowing sapphire eyes startled his companions at first, but no one questioned him as he continued forward. Even if he was mistaken for a vampire because of those eyes, he was still on their side. This was Ornthas after all... Some of them even identified him for details and his status page claimed him to be human, but even though it was very rare - they all knew status pages could be forged with the right skill set. It certainly made many of them wonder.

The open door had led into a pitch black passageway that sloped up and then back down, leading far into the underground. The door itself was large and the hall was much larger, dwarfing the party as they entered. Large statues resembling Aztec monuments of warriors and beasts stood at intervals on either side of the passageway, and faded paintings lined the ceiling. The walls were quite smooth as he reached out to touch one, and it made Taen wonder how this place had been forged.

“Do any of you feel that?” asked Taen curiously as he paused to hold up a hand. The rest stopped behind him in unison.

“Feel what?” asked Claire in response.

Drade shifted his weight forward, and the armored warrior’s eyes narrowed. “The aura.”

Taen nodded slowly, suddenly becoming hesitant to continue. But, he had no choice… he needed this group to continue looking for that blasted ‘Ring of Shadows’ Maltetious wanted, so he’d play along and go ahead anyways. “Something else is here… I can feel it.”

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Continuing their trek into the abyss for a solid fifteen minutes, the passageway made a right-angle turn and presented an enormous domed room. The circular room was even larger than some of the professional football stadiums Taen had attended back on Earth, and it made him feel quite small.

Thousands of stone coffins lined the walls to the right and left, as well as the wall directly behind them upon entering. The curved wall in front of them had three stone doorways, one of which was currently closed - and footprints in the dust could be seen leading up to it.

Atop the doorways were positioned three enormous statues - one of a devil, one of a dragon, and another of a succubus. The two gates leading into the dark with the devil and dragon atop their frames stood open as if inviting them in, while the gate with the succubus was closed.

Upon gazing above these statues, there was a fourth much-larger stone statue upon a platform at the apex of the room. It almost resembled a gothic-styled imitation of an armored spider, but its body seemed to be a machine in nature. It had six legs, with three long smooth tails leading up to stingers and a faceless head that looked somewhat like a large wicked helmet staring back out at them. Upon further inspection, four smaller insect-like hands were tucked underneath the head at the protruding neck.

“Help me move this!” yelled Ovalia as she tugged hard at one of the stone covers to a coffin on the near wall.

Rory and two other Worvan men immediately came over to help. The entire group had entered the room now, and they quickly filed out to try other coffins to see if anything valuable was inside - but the stone lids were incredibly heavy. As they struggled, Taen continued to look around and turned off his night vision.

He had an eerie feeling about this place... Where were the others that had come before? The ones that Drade had said were here so recently? Taen was less concerned about what the coffins held, and more concerned about the immediate dangers that may be lurking here. His party was full of greedy idiots, and it frustrated him immensely that they didn’t want to thoroughly check the room for possible traps before starting to loot it.

He shook his head hopelessly and followed the footprints that had disrupted the dust on the floor. Their footprints lead into the third passage - the one with the succubus statue above it, but he could clearly tell that the door was barred from this side - even from standing here on the opposite side of the room. Had one of their party decided to betray the others and lock them in there? Or had something else happened?

“That’s strange…” muttered Ovalia from behind as she gazed into one of the coffins. “This corpse is fresh… and it isn’t a ghoul or zombie… this man was killed just recently.”

A sudden earth-shaking thud echoed loudly from the passageway from whence they had come, and when Taen whirled around - he saw that a large stone door had been dropped from the ceiling to seal off the exit point.

The result was mass panic of the treasure hunters. They may have been professionals, but being trapped in an unknown tomb was more than enough to freak them out and put them all on high alert instantly.

“SHIT!” yelled Coctim as he rushed over to the door with a number of others, beginning to swivel his head left and right as he looked for potential enemies. “This is a trap!”

Immediately everyone began to swarm back over to the entrance. Some of them drew out their weapons and readied spells, while others were trying to lift the enormous stone slab that had dropped from above - and were having zero luck in doing so.

Taen was growing more nervous by the second, and he commanded his 31 ghouls to surround him on all sides in a staggered manner - while placing Butcher right behind him. “God damn it… I would get a bunch of idiots as teammates. Called it. I really wish Chris and Michael were here…”

A booming synthesized voice echoed about the room - ending Taen’s thoughts of regret - and everyone present froze in place. “Trap? Were you not warned of the consequences of coming here?”

The ominous aura that Taen had felt earlier now had within that split second engulfed his entire body, overwhelmed his senses and caused him to tremble in terror as foreign magic flowed like a river about to turn hurricane at any time.

Whatever that powerful aura was - whatever creature was producing it - it was far beyond anything he could handle. Of that he was certain.

A heavy gust of wind blew out the torches in the room, causing darkness to envelope everyone present. A moment later and lights along the entire ceiling began to glow an orange-yellow, dimly illuminating the interior to reveal the massive, gothic, spider-like statue had moved to tower directly in front of them - standing as still as a rock. It was as large as a big yacht, and the people beneath it looked like ants in comparison.

Every one of the party was immediately startled with many letting out screams and cries of astonishment, and Taen nearly had a heart attack as he stepped back in wide eyed fear. A lightning fast movement brought its head close to ground level as the gigantic being seemed to look directly at Taen - though he couldn’t tell for sure as the face had no true features on it aside from one large hexagon carved into the front. It’s movements were absolutely silent despite the enormous size, and it made it that much scarier.

Weapons were drawn from members of the expedition who hadn’t already taken them out, and others readied magics to unleash upon their possible new foe. Butcher placed himself inbetween the new potential enemy and Coriana frantically shrieked out and vanished into thin air. Taen knew Coriana was still lingering nearby, but she’d definitely taken a hard scare.

“NORIAGA! WHAT’S THE STATUS ON THIS THING? YOU’RE THE IDENTIFIER DAMN IT TELL US WHAT IT IS!” Drade screamed out as he looked up at the titanic stone creature, obviously frightened.

One of the other Worvan, whom Taen assumed to be Noriaga, yelled back. “I CAN’T GET A READ ON IT!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T GET A READ, WHAT THE FUCK ELSE ARE YOU GOOD FOR IF YOU CAN’T IDENTIFY THESE THINGS? YOU’RE OUR FUCKING IDENTIFIER!” barked Drade as the men waited in formation for further orders, frightened beyond belief by whatever the fuck this thing was.

Taen stood with a cold sweat beginning to drench his clothes, and the moisture trickled down his face as he stared back at the monstrosity. It continued to gaze at him before cocking its head with a mechanical movement.

“Necromancer… You in particular very much resemble the ones to come before you. Are you one of them?” asked the monster with its synthesized voice echoing yet again throughout the domed room.

Taen shuddered. “Uh… I don’t think I know what you’re talking about…”

“Then you do not speak the tongue of my kind?” asked the monster again.

Taen looked over to his friends for emotional support quickly before responding. “I… It depends, what is it that your kind speaks?”

The machine cocked its head again to the opposite side. “Ancient Demon. The language you use now, human dialect, is primitive at best. The ones that came before you knew my tongue, and it pleased me greatly to converse with them before allowing them passage into the games.”

This creature was a demon? Really? Taen would have guessed some sort of earth golem or construct. Perhaps it was a demon-machine hybrid? He could only guess at this point.

Taen awkwardly put a hand up behind his head, but was feeling slightly more relaxed as he was successfully having an alright conversation with this massive thing in front of him. At the very least it could be reasoned with or talked to… or so it seemed. “Unfortunately no… I don’t speak Ancient Demon. I’m sorry.”

The giant creature processed this momentarily before withdrawing its head silently to look at the others around the room. “How disappointing. Very well. Have you all chosen a path?”

Looks were exchanged between the group as they lowered their weapons and discarded their summoned magics.

“A path?” asked Drade. “What do you mean? And what are you?”

The giant spider-like machine whipped its tails around momentarily and paused before responding. “I see you do not know the rules of the games. The ones before you did not know the rules either. Yet the warning upon the door and the inscriptions upon the walls should have expressed these rules. I am confused. Perhaps your primitive brains are unable to think ahead... Though it matters not. I will instruct you as I have done before with others.”

The giant construct turned swiftly and pointed a long insect-like arm from underneath its head to point at the statues and pathways across the room. “You have entered the tomb of Xil. Xil has instructed me, the Game Master, to allow those who explore his tomb a chance at finding the treasures stored here. You are to choose a path. Each path leads to a unique game. The third path has already been chosen by the prior group, so you must choose one of the first two pathways. The statues above the doorways are updated regularly to symbolize the boss creature you are to fight at the end of your games, if you survive. Upon defeating the boss creature, if you do not die in the process, you will be able to choose from three randomly selected prizes out of this tomb.”

“We each get to take a prize if we win?” murmured Ovalia absentmindedly as she rubbed her hands together. The game master turned back to look at the girl.

“No. Your group as a whole will choose one of the three prizes. Take note of this as there is no limit to how many participants you take with you into the game. Xil’s prizes are items of enormous power, and they are regularly stocked by Xil himself for the games. Though the vast majority of participants in these games do not make it past the end-game champions.”

“How many have made it through the game and then past the champions at the end?” asked Drade hesitantly from beneath his blue crystalline helmet. “And who is Xil?”

The game master again cocked its head to one side. “78. Though since the fall of Ornthas, the amount and quality of participants has significantly declined. Since the plague nearly four thousand years ago, only 382 different attempts have been made at Xil’s games. One has succeeded so far out of those 382... again: the quality of participants has greatly dropped since the fall. We even reduced the difficulty of our games over the last millenia in hopes that it would attract more competitors, alas this was not the case. Though Xil is quite hopeful for the group currently undergoing trials as we speak, and is thrilled to finally have a competent challenger. I myself have been quite impressed with their progress.”

The game master paused. “Xil is the game designer, and my creator. He is what you know to be an Elder Lich.” The game master turned to Noriaga. “You, the one they call Noriaga, why do you keep trying to identify me?”

Noriaga’s face paled and his blonde hair looked frazzled, like a deer caught in the headlights. “I, I just wanted to see what your attributes were! You, you’re so unique that I thought I -”

“You could have just merely asked.” interrupted the game master. “It is quite rude to continually identify someone. I am willing to part with some meager information, though I will not display my status page to you. I am level 17,567. My race is Necropoliptic Boonfather, Arch Demon - Arch Undead hybrid. My name is Game Master. My title is Game Master. Is that enough to satisfy your curiosity?”

Level 17,567? And Taen was pretty certain Maltetious had told him that the major immortal races such as Undead, Demons, Fallen, Celestials, Fae, and Spree couldn’t mate with one another. How was this a hybrid between demon and undead? That shouldn’t be possible. Taen wasn’t sure he believed it, but he wasn’t about to dispute it here. Regardless of what the actual level was, Taen was sure he was absolutely no match for this thing towering in front of him.

“1 out of 382 isn’t good odds…” muttered Coctim, disregarding the information this game master had given them about itself as absolute nonsense. Nothing was that powerful. “Can we withdraw?”

“You may not withdraw now that you have already entered the tomb - every person to have entered this room must undergo one of the games. None may be left behind.” replied the game master, its synthesized voice rasped harshly against the cold metal of its frame. “You must choose a pathway. Though if you wish to, you may first watch the ones who came before you as they undergo their own game. It may give you some insight as to what the games are like. In the past, all of Ornthas would watch Xil’s games as participants would try their luck at obtaining prizes worthy of the gods themselves. It gives Xil great joy to share the games with others.”

“This doesn’t sound good…” said Bann as he stared at the two open doors. “Not good at all.”

Rory spat, his muscular arms flexing as he gripped his enchanted axe tighter. “This is what we’ve been waiting for!” The man waved his free hand around and grinned back at the rest of the party. “WHY are you all so afraid? We wanted unexplored and unlooted vaults, and we just hit it big!”

Some of the other Worven nodded in approval and two of them even start clapping, but Coctim’s men were less enthused. Ovalia - the redheaded girl - looked up nervously to her brother, but Drade was grinning as well. He put his hands up and motioned for everyone to quiet down.

“Very well, Game Master. We will take our shot at this.” stated Drade as he puffed out his chest underneath his blue platemail.

“Yeah… like we have a choice…” muttered Coctim to Taen and Claire.

Drade didn’t hear the scrawny mage and continued speaking to the enormous creature in front of them. “May we take you up on your offer and watch as the other group goes through their own game?”

The game master gracefully climbed up to where it had sat previously on the ledge overlooking the room, moving with unnerving speed and agility considering its size. “Of course, these games are meant for entertainment after all. Just keep in mind that every game is unique, though there are obvious similarities between them. This particular game underway has seven trials, and they are currently about to start trial number five.”

Motioning to the center of the hall with one of its mechanical insect-like arms, the game master summoned a ball of light to float high above Taen and his friends. At first it just glowed brilliantly, but soon began to take the form of an image that began to blare out sound. The image began to move, and upon it - Taen was to experience what he thought was very much like a movie-theater viewing:

The stone double doors, standing larger than a two story house, grated loudly against the ground to open up at a slow steady pace. From behind it, twelve figures stepped forward.

A little, horned, black imp with a ferocious display of teeth and large ears was the first as it skittered inside while clapping its hands and laughing at the top of its lungs. Next were two huge musclebound minotaurs, a bigger black one carrying a huge warhammer and a similarly sized but slightly smaller brown one wielding a double-bladed battle axe; each standing well over ten feet tall. There was an abnormally large armored toad with spikes along its back and two large yellow eyes on either side of its face, waddling in behind the death-cows and struggling to keep up. Then there was a very pretty, leather-clad, and demihuman rogue with two crossbows cocked back at the ready in either hand. Her fox ears were perked up and twitching in different directions as her long golden tail swished back and forth with each step. Next came a very tall, naked, red-skinned demoness with goat hooves and horns - and she carried a large stone maul that was slung over one shoulder. She was keeping pace with another, shorter demoness who was quite stunning, had purple skin, small black horns, and was obviously a priestess from her attire. The priestess wore black silk robes with a black cloak over the top - with an ominously glowing red-orange halo hovering above her head. The cloak had a red eye symbol sewn into the back and into the hood, and there was a green glowing lantern strapped at her side next to a long wicked dagger. The most unique feature aside from her beauty was the staff she carried - It was nearly as tall as she was. The staff was made of ebony, snakes trailed along the shaft leading down to the base. The top of the staff had a horned crystalized skull with a black power stone embedded into the forehead, while three ebony blades were sticking out of the skull at the top and both sides to make a crucifix.

Next came two… demons. Or at least that’s what Taen thought until he identified one of them as a summoner, and the other as an ifrit. The ifrit wore only a pair of deep-red fireproof pants made of what was probably silk, and another pair of sleek, brown, fireproof boots that the pants were tucked into. The ifrit stood somewhere around 7 or 8 feet tall and was significantly larger than a normal human man with black hairless skin, red eyes and horns curling around like a ram’s would. The shirtless and rather in-shape man he was conversing with was just around 6 feet tall with wavy brown hair, bright red and black eyes, and had a tail similar to the ifrit’s. This horned summoner was about Taen’s age, maybe a little older if he had to guess, and also had a very unique but interesting tattoo that was only semi stationary along his left arm that ran from his fingers all the way up to his shoulder. The black figurines in large part moved around his arm, excluding the borders of the tattoo which were outlined in black as well and the largest figures set at intervals in varying runic markings.

Behind them came the final three. An oriental woman wearing steam-punk attire with a top hat, a pistol and some ovoid canisters strapped to her side, a brown satchel across on the other side of her hip with the strap over one shoulder, red linen under a brown leather vest, and a metal backpack with a strange contraption held on by a hinge. Beside the orienatal girl was a tall blonde man bearing a mace, a bow, a quiver strapped to his back, and he held a box of what Taen realized were potions. Lastly, a redheaded, masked and hooded man with a longbow and two quivers half-full of arrows peered out into the open room as the doors grated shut behind them.

“The fifth of seven events is about to start… for this event, your goal is to merely survive. I promise you that there will be no sharks this time!” a voice hissed out from the beyond. According to the game master, it was Xil speaking. “You have done well to make it this far! I am pleased with your efforts. Try your best to continue, and may luck be on your side. After all, I wouldn’t want the show to end just yet!”

The stone room on the screen was rectangular, and at the front end stood the challenging party while at the back end stood another large stone door two hundred yards across from them. Lights along the ceiling illuminated the room far, far above - and otherwise the room was mostly barren with the exception of a couple large boulders scattered across the middle that the game’s participants eyed warily.

Then, suddenly, on the opposite side of the room from where they’d entered: the other stone doors began to grind open.

“From the defending side!” roared Xil enthusiastically, “My very own experiment! The construct - Noveo, Battle Angel! And supporting him will be 120 dwarven trilobites!”

Xil let out a cackle that would forever be remembered by Taen - as a large humanoid machine of metal and cogs stepped into the room. It was a giant. It stood five times the height of any man, with a frame and large outstretched wings built from various alloys - it wielded two swords that individually dwarfed any weapon Taen had ever seen before. Behind it, a swarm of metal spheres - he could only guess that they were the so-called dwarven trilobites - rolled into the room. Each transformed into an insect-like metal critter displaying pincers and claws along their armored six-legged bodies.