Inside The Sarc

Rowan Regicast stabbed his sword through a bear's open maw, then rotated left and sliced the neck of an approaching skeleton. The Monsters burst into shards of sparkling light as they vanished, temporarily brightening the dark blue-orange sky.

I know time works strange in the Gates, but this isn't a real gate. I've been in here far longer than any of the other—

Something hard slammed into his back and he fell forward onto his hands and knees. His palms sliced open on the jagged rocky ground. His legs stung, even through his trousers.

The pain is so real.

Rowan swung blindly as he regained his footing, but hit only air.

A dark brown golem, three times his height, laughed at his pathetic swordplay as it stepped forward.

Rowan spun around as a giant bouldery leg threatened to crush him, then jabbed his sword up into the Monster's pelvis. It, too, shattered into light with only a single strike, despite its size.

Four more Monsters charged. He dispatched them with a sweeping swing of his blade, but they were quickly replaced by five. Wolf claws shredded through his calf from behind. He flicked his sword, cutting the beast's paw. It disintegrated like the others.

He wiped sweat from his forehead. I need to fight more efficiently and waste less energy with these big swings. Even the slightest touch seems to defeat these Monsters, no matter how large or where it hits. So that's what I have to do. Fight as conservatively as possible.

He climbed onto a boulder and surveyed his opposition.

They were endless.

Literally.

As far as his eyes could see, a venerable ocean of Monsters churned beneath the twilight sky, painted with black clouds and distant lightning. He dropped his sword arm in disbelief.

This was nothing like the test his brother had described to him. "Uthen, you demonspawn..." he muttered.

But Osiris, too, had exited The Sarc after only a few minutes, jolly as could be. Same with all the other student who had gone before Rowan.

He hopped from the boulder and edged against it to defend his back as three zombies approached.

"This!" He swung through the first. "Isn't!" Jabbed into the second's chest. "RIGHT!" And decapitated the third.

Boney fingers grabbed his wrist. Shit. He'd travelled too far from the boulder with his footwork. Half a dozen skeletons now filled the space. He hacked through them and returned to his rock, but before he could set a proper stance, a searing pain ripped up his spine.

He whirled around to find a red imp floating beforehim,m wielding a curved cutlass that dripped with his blood. A Monster with a weapon? It wasn't unheard of, but these were supposed to be low level fodder.

It grinned, revealing yellow razor teeth, as more imps, skeletons, and zombies stepped into line beside it. There must have been a score of them. And they each carried a sword, spear, or spiked club.

"Sorry, my apologies. Monsters with weapons." He bowed and readied himself. He was a good swordsman, but against this many foes... Exhaustion was a realistic risk, even if he continued to win the individual battles.

They attacked all at once.

Rowan blocked. Jabbed. Parried. Sliced. Iron clanged against iron. These weapons didn't shatter on contact like the Monsters did.

By the time he dispatched of them all, a dozen cuts stung on his arms and legs. What was left of his new custom fitted uniform was stained red with blood and shredded to tatters. He ripped off the shirt and threw it to the dirt.

This isn't real, he reminded himself. It's a simulation designed to test new students. But this wasn't how the test was supposed to be. He was certain of that now.

Somehow, someone changed the test on me. There's no other explanation.

Another herd of Monsters with swords approached.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Rowan screamed into the sky.

Thunder roared back in reply. Rain erupted from the clouds.

He firmed his boots in the mud and raised his sword beside his face, pointing it at the oncoming enemies.

"Then come and get me!"

A strange rolling thunder rumbled to his right. He risked a glance in that direction.

Not thunder. Water.

The giant deluge of a wave plunged toward him, as if a dam had burst, kicking up small rocks and consuming Monsters as it travelled.

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He rolled back and crawled onto his boulder as the wave poured through the area. It swept away the nearby Monsters, leaving the ground drenched, but empty.

He took a deep breath.

It's finally over...

The hard boulder was oddly comfortable after the gauntlet he’d been through. Breath heavy, he sat up.

Shouldn’t I be transported back by now?

A spear-like icicle shot past his face, nearly taking his left eye from its socket. He fell backward off the rock and landed on his shoulder. A crunch and a pop preceded a throbbing pain that felt like someone had shoved a knife into the joint.

Rowan grabbed the shoulder and gritted his teeth, leaving his sword in the mud.

It was his strong arm. He tried to move it, but even clenching and unclenching his fist made the pain surge. Most joints could be popped back into place with help from a partner. But he was alone here.

Only one option then.

He threw himself against the boulder. Pain exploded through his arm, but the shoulder was still dislocated.

He tried again.

And again.

Then a hissing noise came from behind the rock.

A naga slithered up and glared down at Rowan from his previous respite. Its red eyes blinked and a forked tongue licked its lips through two rows of sharp fangs.

Rowan stumbled back and grabbed his sword with his off hand.

The Monster slid down after him. It carried a metal staff with... With a stone of lazurite embedded in the end.

"Impossible..." he whispered.

The wave. The icicle.

But how?

Monsters couldn't perform magic. They couldn't wield Heroic Energy.

He shook his head and lifted the sword tip.

Just a simulation. This is just a simulation. None of it is real. This—

Raindrops coalesced around the naga's staff and froze into a hundred tiny needles of ice. It rose the staff higher, the lazurite glowing. The gem seemed off though. It didn't glow blue like all the lazurite he'd seen, but purple.

The needles shot toward him. He deflected a handful with his sword, but the remaining pierced into his skin, digging deep like a swarm of bee stings.

Rowan yelled out and threw his sword at the naga. It skewered the Monster's chest, then dropped to the ground as the naga burst into shards like the others.

He backed against the boulder again, picking his sword up on the way, only to find more Monsters coming at him. Each bore a staff or weapon with the strange purple-glowing gemstones.

If he gave them distance, they'd continuously attack from afar with their magic. I'll be dead in seconds with no magic of my own.

So Rowan charged.

He ducked and slid to a knee as a ball of flame flew over his shoulder. Two more icicles smashed against the ground two steps away. The broken pieces flew in all directions and sliced against his already ravaged face.

He bounded to his feet, ignoring the pain, and closed in on the Monsters. He sliced through two, but a bolt of lightning struck his dislocated arm and crawled up his wet skin, burning hairs and electrocuting every nerve on its way up his arm to his neck.

Rowan screamed, sparks flying from his mouth. His skin steamed and melted to scarred, disfigured flesh.

He cut through the skeleton that had cast the lightning at him. Then another. And another.

"I hate you!"

Naga. Bears. Golems. Zombies. Skeletons. Imps. Zombies. All fell to his blade he he whirled through them like a tornado.

"I HATE you all!"

He tripped on a crack in the ground and fell. His sword tumbled away and out of reach.

Tears shredded down his cheeks, stinging the cuts, and dripped into the ruddy mud. "I hate you..." he cried.

He stayed there, head to the ground, hair submerged in a puddle, a waited for the end to come.

But no Monsters struck him.

The rain had stopped.

Thunder too.

Rowan rose to his feet slowly.

A roar ruptured the sky from above. Lightning arched across the clouds, illuminating the silhouette of a gargantuan winged beast. A cone of fire burst through the clouds and the creature swooped down through the smoke. Another bolt of lightning struck, reflecting the light off its midnight scales and piercing yellow eyes.

A dragon.

But they're all extinct.

What in the Creator's name is going on here?

The dragon spiraled toward him, its mouth wide, an orange glow building in its throat.

Rowan didn't even bother picking up his sword. Instead, he closed his eyes and raised his arms.

Then the inferno engulfed him.

Rowan stumbled out of the shimmering portal and fell to his knees.

I'm back. Finally.

The eighteen faces of the other human recruits stared down at him.

One boy whispered to a friend, who snickered. Another girl giggled and said, "I think the second son is bowing to me!"

Rowan felt for his clothes, worried for a moment he was still shirtless. But he wasn't. In fact, his uniform was as neat and clean as the day his tailor fitted it to him. No rips. Every button and embellishment in place.

No injuries anywhere on his body.

It all felt so real. He'd been told it would, but it was beyond anything he dreamed possible.

He scrambled to his feet and brushed the dirt from his knees.

Headmaster Castellas stood beside The Sarc's gate, unfazed by Rowan's arrival. He jotted a few notes on his scroll, as he'd done for each other student when they returned. Nothing was different. No one seemed concerned.

Did I not actually take that much longer than the others?

The events inside The Sarc were completely isolated to those within. No one would have seen what happened. The Headmaster probably had no idea. Unless he'd been involved in changing the test.

Rowan glanced at him, but the man didn't appear to be acting suspiciously. He looked up, ignoring Rowan, and called up the next student.

Okay, then.

A large boy shouldered into Rowan's no-longer-dislocated arm as he passed. "First time in a gate, prince?"

Rowan rolled his eyes. It's all of our first times in a gate, dimwit. What kind of insult is that even supposed to be?

He made his way to Osiris, who stood near the back of the group chatting with a girl. She left as Rowan arrived, and Osiris shot him an accusatory look. Somehow, the castle cook's son was better company than the second prince.

"What was your test like?" Rowan asked, ignoring his friend's annoyance. Though his body had completely recovered, his breathing was still heavy from the ordeal within The Sarc.

"I dunno," he said. "Boring? Pretty much what I expected."

"But what did you have to do? Step by step?"

"I just patrolled the castle perimeter for a bit. Eventually the Hero found me and I delivered the scroll."

Just like Uthen had described it.

"You didn't have to fight anything?"

"Oh yeah. Almost forgot. A wolf did wander too close to the wall at one point, so I took care of that. Wasn't sure if I was supposed to, but... I'm still here, so...." He raised an eyebrow. "Why..? Was your test different?"

Rowan stared at his knee imprints still in the dirt in front of The Sarc.

"No... No, it was the same."