Come the morning, Azim and the rest of the group felt well-rested and satiated, though the robot did not rest much to begin with. Packing up their things and stashing away the goods they had gotten from the borcs, the travelers got back in their carriage and strolled off, now with a moss-covered companion.
The adventurers talked about everything, filling the proceeding 30 to 40 minutes with pleasant conversation. They fawned over Azim’s new pet, picked at a small breakfast Riva had made, and discussed what to expect or look forward to when they reached Lemaerk. Of course, the residing idea was to invite a fellow adventurer to join their quest, potentially someone of a new class. The decision on who to bring along, however, was a bit tougher of a decision.
“I’m telling you, after that fight, it makes me think we should have a ‘big guy’ of our own,” Leone disclosed. “Or at least a guy with a big sword or something.”
“It’s not like we need someone like that to handle big threats, you two were perfectly capable,” replied Riva. “Unless you’re saying you can’t handle such ‘big guys’ on your own…”
The young man fumbled with his thoughts. “No, no! I can, I mean of course I can, no problem,” finding his words again. “It just couldn’t hurt to have a tank behind us to scare people off if need be.”
“Well, I would really appreciate having another woman joining us. The ‘man-ergy’ is starting to get a little intense, and that includes you, too, Roman,” the woman said, jokingly giving attitude to the cat. “I’m just saying, if we get another guy, I would really start to feel outnumbered.”
“Okay, okay, it doesn’t have to be a guy. Still, someone with a big sword, or big stature in general. We need that.”
“So someone more of a Barbarian class?”
“Yeah, someone to rough stuff up. Either that or a super genius. One of the two.”
“Well, what could we actually benefit from? We have your magic, my resources, Azim’s… sturdiness. Plus, whatever Roman did with those vines. What else would be helpful?”
“Sturdiness?” Azim interrupted.
Riva giggled. “I was just trying to think of your specialty, hun’. I know you’re learning your magic, and you’ve got your strength and agility, but all together… I think your biggest strength is how resilient you are.”
“I understand. I apologize for my confusion.”
“It’s okay, dear,” Riva assured. “Oh! Speaking of your magic, what was that thing you pulled out against the borc that seemed in charge? You know, with the sword?”
“Wait, what? What happened?!” Leone asked, intrigued.
“Azim stopped the man’s blade mid-swing… without touching it,” Riva explained.
“What?!” Leone was ecstatic. “Buddy, that’s awesome! So what did you do, like what was it exactly? Some kind of telekinesis? A magnetic repulsion or something?”
Azim replayed his memories of the fight in his head. Though he was not sure why or how, the metal man was able to scan through his back brain to find any moment he had witnessed, as if it had been recorded. It was a rather impressive photographic memory. The robot thought of the fight. He thought of the moment it happened. When the incoming borc swung his giant sword at the android. And when the sword stopped. It had stopped because of Azim. He remembered his hands. He remembered instinctively putting his hands up to stop it, but also not having a plan or knowing what he was doing as he did it. He was working off of Orvo’s advice. He had slowed down his processors and let his instinct programming take over.
Azim thought about the moment. When he put his hands up and caught the incoming blade without actually coming into contact with it. He thought about the movement of the sword as it froze, and how it vibrated slightly before stopping entirely. How his metallic hands felt some kind of ambient pressure pushing against them. And how the whole incident had only lasted for a moment or two, before whatever Azim had done wore off and the borc was able to rip his weapon away from its held placement.
“I can not ascertain why, however I believe the spell that was emitted from my hands… was some form of stasis,” the android finally admitted. “It did not feel or appear as if I was pushing the large man’s weapon back, or repelling it from myself in any way. It also did not feel as though I had complete control over it. It is possible I could have if I had attempted to gain it, but such was not the case this time. What appeared to be happening, as far as my visual receptors could perceive, was that the sword was being held in place. As if in an entirely spatial sense, the weapon was stuck in that point in the universe and could not move out of place. It was not just about pushing it away, the sword was locked from moving in any direction. At least until I lost… or regained… concentration and the spell broke, leaving the borc to region control of his weapon.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Woah…” Leone muttered before whispering to Riva. “The guy’s one hell of a talker, huh? He’s either silent or delivering a speech fit for a room to hear.”
Riva smacked the young man upside the back of his head. “Ow…” he grumbled.
"Well, buddy... in all seriousness, that sounds really cool if that’s what it is. Maybe we can look for some magicraft books on the art of metalmancy, and see if we can learn about stasis spells or something. How ‘bout it?”
“I would appreciate that,” the robot replied sincerely. “Thank you, Leone.”
“Aw, shucks, it’s nothing, don’t mention it,” Leone smiled.
----------------------------------------
A short while later, the travelers emerged from the other end of Milkwood forest. Riva was staring at the map the last few seconds before exiting, looking to see where exactly they should look for the supposed coliseum.
“Okay, so we entered the forest through this point, and we made sure to go straight pretty much the whole way,” the woman mumbled. “So that would put us on the other side right about here… meaning once out of the forest, we would just have to go—“
“Riva?” Leone called for the woman’s attention, pointing to a giant, crumbling building as she lowered the map. “I think that’s it.”
“—That way. I was going to say we go that way.”
Leone tussled the ropes, shepherding the horses drawing the carriage toward the strange, worn structure. As they got closer, they could hear the sounds of warriors fighting. Metal clinked and clamored within the walls. Spells and other forms of magic erupted and flowed out into the open air. Screams and battle cries echoed through the bricks of the coliseum.
Then there was the tower itself. For one, it was much larger than the adventurers anticipated. In front of them was what looked like a coliseum, yes. However, the entirety of Lemaerk was a stretching tower that looked as if it could touch the clouds. The coliseum depicted on the map was the “penthouse” of the huge structure, but windows similar to the ones at the top canvassed the entire building, suggesting to the companions that the place before them was multiple arenas stacked upon one another.
The exterior of the tower was built from worn, tired bricks with a faded beige color. There were faint cracks along the sides of the structure, yet despite all the rumbling and shaking coming from inside the impressive building, none of them seemed to stretch any longer. There was a ring of windows around the tower every few meters, giving the slightest glimpse into each individual floor. Sitting at the top of everything, appearing to poke through the heavens themselves, was the final coliseum. It looked to be the most deteriorated piece of the towering structure. There were engravings along the side of the coliseum penthouse and no roof, all of which could not be seen by the travelers.
“Woah…” Riva and Leone muttered at the same time, astonished by the magnificent height of the tower.
“Due to the illustration on the map, I was not expecting Lemaerk to be so tall,” Azim admitted. “It is truly a remarkable sight.”
“I think you mean… Le-markable, eh?” Leone chided, hoping for a reaction from his companions. Unfortunately, the only one he received was a head-shaking facepalm from Riva.
Surveying the edge of the tower looking for an entrance, the group stumbled upon an open door that led into a dark, unlit hallway. Debating whether to go in through this entrance or some alternative pathway, the travelers were interrupted by the sound of screaming. Looking up, they saw someone flying out one of the tower’s windows, about 3 stories up, plummeting toward them.
A meters to the side of the carriage, a large dust cloud formed as the unfamiliar body smacked into the ground. “Um… are you alright, whoever you are?” Riva asked to the groaning voice within the cloud.
As the dust cleared, Azim and his friends saw before them a human man in shining armor. The knight had a full set of armor covering his legs, torso, and arms, the only exception being his head. The man was barely holding onto the hilt of a sword, though the blade that went along with it had clearly broken off, and was nowhere to be seen. The man himself had curly, blond hair and a scratched-up face, and looked to be about 30. Whoever the man lying beside them was, the travelers could tell he was not going back into the tower any time soon.
“Sir… Sir?” Riva asked again. “Are— Are you alright? What happened to you?”
Weakly, the knight turned his head to face the adventurers leaning over their carriage. “I… was beaten, by some… someone on Floor 4,” the man uttered, coughing. “I thought I… had a shot, seeing as how I had handled the first 3 floors… but I… could not beat him. He fought dirty… he somehow… pit some of the other fighters… against me.”
Azim jumped out of the cart and leaned over the injured knight. “We intend to enter the tower of Lemaerk and find a warrior suitable to aid us on our journey,” the robot began. “My companions figured we might find some powerful individuals here. You seem capable yourself. It sounds like you were taking care of yourself until this ‘someone’ got the best of you. We are going to enter the tower. We are going to make it to the fourth floor. When we do, we will defeat the floor’s champion, and bring you solace.”
“The floor… does not have a champion, it is merely… a free-for-all,” the blond man replied weakly. “But, thank you, sir. Just… be watchful, of his staff. He pulls off… a lot of crap with that thing. Okay?”
“I understand,” the metal man responded. “We will return shortly.”
“W-Wait… please, let me… come in with you guys,” pleaded the knight. “I know how… this place works. I can give you tips, what to… watch out for… and so forth. Please.”
“I suppose we can bring him with us, he might prove helpful,” Riva chimed in. “Though he is pretty badly hurt. I don't know what we can do about that.”
Leone looked away awkwardly before cracking, “Ugh, fine…”
The young man rummaged in one of their bags for a moment before pulling out a glass bottle with a white liquid inside. “He can have one of the milks I got.”
Handing it to Azim, the robot uncapped the bottle and fed it to the laid-out man. As he did, Leone grumbled to himself from inside the cart, “Can’t believe some stranger’s getting to have one before I need one…”
Seconds later, all of the knight’s wounds were gone, leaving the man to get up swiftly and easily. “Wow… thank you, thank you all,” the man said graciously, putting his broken sword behind his back in its scabbard. “That was very kind of you. I feel reinvigorated.”
With the stranger rescued and the adventurers ready, Azim and his friends, along with the knight leading the way, set forth down the dark tunnel into the towering coliseum of Lemaerk in search of a champion.