Leaving Lance after the defeat stung. The rules insisted that if we were not contesting an orb then we couldn’t strike at each other. It had been humiliating to have to get to my feet as he stood there smiling. But I’d had no choice. As I raced down a new corridor, the memory of the moment continued to plague me. A bitter anger burned in me. A tiny, idiotic, but primal part of me raged that I hadn’t fought on. Damn the rules, damn The Choosing.

I slowed to a jog as I entered a new chamber. My breath caught as I found myself facing a grotesque creature with a bulbous body, its many tentacle-like legs writhing as it moved to the extent its tether would allow. Its beak-like mouth clicked menacingly, and it wore a collar like the Bearwolf had, a collar that was meant to carry an orb.

The fiend turned its many eyes towards me. The creature’s flesh was scored, and blood and foul black fluids leaked from wounds. I could see the scorch marks of a blade employing CUT on the ground. My heart sank when I saw the broken chain lying on the ground and the absence of the orb One of the others had been here already. I can’t swear that part of me wasn’t relieved not to have to fight the ugly thing myself. But I was starting to fear I’d run out of options.

I clenched my fists, feeling the anxiety build within me. Time was slipping away, and the orbs were disappearing fast.

I retreated from the room and chose another corridor. This corridor seemed to wind downwards. The builders must have cut a path through the arena floor. Had they incorporated part of the basement in this maze?

The air grew cooler as I descended. I could feel the cold on my exposed skin, I could sense it relayed from the miracle surface of the armor as well.

I entered a room covered in ice. Every surface was frozen. The floor was a polished mirror. The walls were shiny and blued with their coating. Icicles and the fur of frost hung everywhere.

As I approached the ice, I saw the space had already been disturbed. In the centre of the room lay a huge pile of shattered chunks of ice. Amongst the chunks were pools of water and already hardening lumps of slush. I could imagine the orb that had been in here, frozen in some impossibly huge block. Someone would have needed to use CUT over and over to get through it. And someone had. It must have been exhausting.

I had to keep moving. I had to find an orb before it was too late.

I hurried back to the main chamber. Real panic was starting to build in me. A sense of impotence threatened to overwhelm me.

There was one more corridor that I hadn't checked yet. I dashed into it. My anticipation was at a peak as I ran. As far as I could tell, this was the last corridor I had left to check. If there was no orb here then the game was essentially over.

The corridor darkened as I ran until I found myself entering a space blackened by the absence of light. I could sense that the room was bigger than the corridor I had passed through. But my heart beat faster with new hope. A room like this would be easy for me with my SIGHT, maybe impossible for the others without the attribute.

I activated my SIGHT attribute, and the room slowly came into view. The room was an obstacle course. Rambs, walls, and pillars filled the space. And bear traps littered the floor.

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And still, my heart sank. I could see the pedestal at the far wall. I could see the empty recess where the orb would have sat. The recess was vacant. I couldn’t imagine how one of the others had achieved this. But, imagine or not, the deed was done.

I jogged back towards the main chamber, feeling crushed. Maybe there was a chance there was some other corridor I hadn’t checked. Maybe I’d missed something.

I heard the clash of weapons as I neared. Entering the chamber, I caught the last seconds of a combat between Lance and Gideon.

Gideon was strong. He was utterly tenacious. His was a spirit that would never yield, never be denied. But spirit alone did not swing a sword.

I arrested my jog as I watched Lance smashing Gideon’s defenses aside. Lance was methodically dismantling the other young noble. I had a brief moment of excitement. Lance could best any of us, but could he best two of us? I was allowed to contest an orb. I gripped my sword, dashing forward to cross the room.

Would Gideon understand that I was coming to fight by his side? Would he turn his sword on me in the chaos?

But I wasn’t fast enough.

Before I could reach them, Lance finished it. His sword blazed with the light of CUT. Was it brighter than before? Had all these combats allowed him to level the attribute again? The blow smashed into Gideon, his body flew backward, and the orb flew high.

Lance caught it, spun, and lobbed it. The orb ran around the rim of his pot before falling in. He turned and planted his feet, meeting my gaze. His confidence was like a choking stink in the room.

Then I felt steps beside me and glanced to see Lauren skidding to a halt. Her body was tight with the same strain I felt. The sinews in her neck stood out as she clenched her jaw. Her shoulders sagged with despair.

From the opposite corridor, Katya emerged. She stopped dead in her tracks. She too understood what had happened. The defeat was written all over her posture. There was another who had traveled every corridor and exhausted every option.

Even Gideon seemed to wear worry more than rage at that moment. As he painfully found his way back to his feet, his head hung low. He looked at the floor, like a scorned child.

For a moment, the four of us stared at Lance. He reveled in it. He stood before us all, the conquering hero. Untouchable by any of us. Together we would have been able to overpower him. But all the orbs were gone. I waited in terror of the voice of Mario announcing that the day was lost, The Choosing over. I could almost hear him now, his satisfaction, as he declared Lance the Sword of Boston.

We all seemed to have the same realization at the same moment. All four of us had searched the maze. I knew Gideon had tried the room with the force fields. It stood to reason that Lauren and Katya had been there two. Orbs did remain. They were unreachable to us, but none of us had lasted this long because we gave up easily.

Almost as a whole, we moved toward the corridor. Gideon caught my shoulder as I passed him. He shoved me hard as he scrambled to get by me. There was no need. Four orbs waited. But he was burned by the defeat of the last moments. I clenched my fists, biting down the urge to retaliate.

We entered the chamber. The pedestals stood before us, each topped with an orb masked in a hazy, burning field. Gideon was the first there. His arm still smoldered from his earlier attempt, but he stood staring at the orb in front of him as if trying to crush the field by sheer will.

My hand bore the scars of my own failure.

Katya stepped up. She turned her head to me and then back to the nearest pedestal. She pushed her hand into the field. I could see SHIELD glowing over her surface. She had won the attribute too. It glowed as mine had, a level 1 attribute.

She pushed further than I had. I wanted to stop her as she kept pushing, a scream rising in her chest. She pushed and pushed, unable to suppress gasping shrieks. I turned my head away. I couldn’t watch it.

Then she was doubled over, clasping her wounded arm. She was sobbing from pain or defeat, or both. To see even Katya, stoic, detached, Katya, sobbing like this… finality started to settle over me.

A silence fell over us.

How could it end like this?