Burgess rouses us from a nearly catatonic slumber on the morning of the 11th day, our bodies allowed to actually recover for about 12 hours since he called an end to our individual phase of training.
Before we start our next phase of training, he has us gather around him in the sparring circle and sit cross legged, as if we are back in elementary school, and begins lecturing us in a manner we have since come to know very well.
“The Contest itself, as I mentioned, will have individual and group events, your party can be anywhere from 3-5 Players with the group events are weighted less, naturally, than the individual ones in terms of your victory and survival overall. But, as far as the System’s victory goes, they are weighted the same. So, in other words, you want to win the group events just as much as the solos. Mainly, the solo events will be one on one battles or some form of race or contest pitting two Players head-to-head. Group ones will be much more varied. Sometimes, you will be sent to a temporary pocket dimension, formed for the Contest and meant to be searched for a specific item to win, or you may end up in some form of maze or even something as simple as a battle royale.” he details with his muscular metal arms crossed as he stares down at us searchingly, as if weighing us and our value.
“For the last 10 days, we have focused solely on how you fight alone, how to maximize your individual power. Now, we will focus on your group synergy, both in teamwork and in utilizing your abilities in a supplementary or complementary way, not as disparate attacks. You already have some idea of your roles, we drilled enough for you to understand your strengths and weaknesses at this point. Belina?” he asks with an arched brow.
“I am the front line, I will focus on defense and keeping foes attention as much as possible.” She answers solemnly.
“Good, just remember to stay focused like we practiced and use your movements to block out attackers coming from oblique angles. Artemis?”
“Woof” she says, swiping her paw with claws outstretched and leaping to the side in a blur of movement.
“Correct, your job is to attack and harry the enemy before using your 4-legged advantage to get away swiftly and save your HP. Nova?” he says, as he turns to me.
“Damage. Cause as much, as quickly and as varied as I can, using the attention drawn by my teammates and the obfuscation of my cloak to launch attacks from surprise whenever possible. Since I can take some damage and can recoup my Mana the more blood I spill, the more damage I can cause in turn.” I answer smartly, our roles one of the many morsels of knowledge he had force fed into us over the previous days after all.
“3/3. Perhaps you lot have a shot after all.” He compliments in his gruff manner, “Now, we will start with you all taking on a single enemy marginally higher leveled than you and progress to much higher leveled, before moving on to group on group combat tomorrow and the following day. On the last day, you will face a team of my golem avatars, all of a higher tier than you, which will include one of the gemstone variants, which you haven’t seen yet. If you can beat that one sometime before the 2 weeks are up, I have a reward for you. One that, I assure you, will be well worth your effort, blood, sweat and likely tears as well. You have shown admirable work ethic thus far, but I warn you now, you will need to work even harder still if you want that reward…” he trails off challengingly.
“Yes, sir.” we all reply by rote now.
And so, the next few days blur by as we take on, at first, manageable enemies and then thereafter, exceptionally difficult ones.
We take wounds and fall, only to heal and climb back to our feet, again and again.
We battle through the metal variants and even beat the Mythril main body of our instructor, before going right back to being wounded again and again when he moves a group of 3 platinum level golems to attack us at once.
Belina struggles to keep more than one busy and they are fast enough to land even the occasional hit on Artemis!
But we adjust, battle and adjust some more until we manage to beat all but the team of 3 Mythril sparring partners, those we hold to draw after nearly half a day of constant fighting!
Burgess, conscious of our weariness, once more gives us nearly a half a day to sleep before our final challenge of the dungeon, the last day dawning with anticipation burning in each of us, excitement and anxiety at war inside our minds.
Will we be able to win?
How hard will it be if we can?
And, most prevalent, even if we try not to dream about it and let it distract us:
What is the reward to be?
“Well, you all have shown some good growth over these past couple days, you’re not quite a well-oiled machine of a team, but that will come with time. Now, for your final challenge…..” Burgess announces seriously, one of his trademark gleams filling his eyes.
At his words, a golem unlike any other emerges from the shadows at the back of the Training Dungeon, this time its body is forged from sapphire, all a single piece somehow.
The body is shaped the same as all of the others of course, but this one bears a certain….weight to it as it steps into the sparring ring, its movements crisper and cleaner and all around just better.
Its palpable presence is intimidating to say the least and as we feel it, we all look to each other: man, woman and dog. So very different beings, fighters and Players but we each share at least one similarity that separates us from most….
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Our eyes nearly shine with determination, our bodies brim with energy, with purpose.
We were already exceptional before the dungeon but now, we exude a casual competence, an aura reminiscent of a blade’s keenly honed edge.
We are ready.
Then, with the drop of a raised Mythril arm, our trainer begins our final bout.
Hours later, midday finds us in a much different state…
Belina’s shield bears rents and dents more than any smooth surface, her breaths come in deep heaving gasps as she hurries to suck down air in any spare moment.
Artemis’ fur is more red than white or black, her wounds staining her formerly pristine coat even after they’ve been healed and her tongue hangs loosely from her mouth as she too pants with exertion.
I bear my fair share of wounds, sweat and need for oxygen as well but manage to stay mostly upright as our seemingly futile battle progresses, although my stone armor bears cracks and great gaping sections where strikes have landed.
I can feel the harsh training honing myself and my companions even further than we already were, trimming off the excess movement, unnecessary thought and anything beyond the most rudimentary communication between us to plan our attacks.
And still, we stand.
Still, we fight.
Still, we adapt.
And as day makes way for night and our final 12 hours begins, we start to turn the tide…
The sapphire form of our opponent begins to bear more than small scrapes and dings, now dents and chips of gem fall from its form.
As our efficiency together grows, we place more and more pressure upon the golem and even Burgess seems somewhat excited by our close bout from his spot on the sidelines.
But our time runs low…
As the final four hours begin to tick away, I realize that as we have been, there is no way we can pull out a win and based on the fugue like state of my two peers, they may not even last that long.
A fire seems to light inside me, my desire, my very obsession to win flaring up at even the dim prospect of losing.
As that small flame inside me begins to grow, as I feed it all of my fears and doubts and worries and sheer willpower, a change seems to overtake me….
The world and its laws, they seem to fall away from me, leaving me feeling, oddly enough, completely free.
My movements blur ever faster, swings of my weapon grow more ruthless, more brutal, and my nascent style….begins to grow.
I feel the concept of it that I have painstakingly built inside my mind, a hostile and wild environment of pure natural destruction, begin to distill in some esoteric fashion.
As I strike faster and faster, drawing rapt attention from my companions, they are able to land cleaner and more powerful attacks, which allows me to land more of my own as the golem falters for a half second, at the most, after each wound taken.
As the golem gets put on its back foot for the first time of the match, my style continues to grow purer and purer inside me, the streamlined movements from days of hard work becoming as smooth as butter the more I use it.
My power, focused before, becomes akin to a laser, imparting damage at the point of impact and penetrating far beyond what it should, especially against the supernaturally hard gem-forged body of our opponent.
Before I know it, the final hour begins with Burgess yelling out in his special way, “Better hurry up…..”
I consider my style, still adapting and learning, and place all of the pressure I feel on it, to help it finish doing whatever process it is in the middle of, all the while whittling away at the now nearly crippled golem, a strike sent toward its knee only barely blocked while Artemis uses the distraction to hamstring it.
It falls to one knee but feels no true pain, pulling its bum leg behind it as it fights on, its efficiency only barely affected.
As more time passes and the damn thing still won’t fall, my mounting desperation acts like a great forge, kindled by all that I have felt and all that I desire, slowly molding, forming, and condensing my already unique style.
And then, with but moments left as I dodge another a powerful strike from our opponent, the final metamorphosis of the visualized concept of my fighting style comes to fruition in an explosive fashion…
I find myself momentarily shunted off to the image itself, the great natural destruction occurring, rewinding and occurring again in a dizzying cycle of life, death and obliteration down to a microscopic level right in front of my very eyes.
Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and even wildfires flashing across my inner mind as a peak of my future capabilities with the style.
Those aspects seem to lock in and encompass the entirety of my concept, the style once more a cohesive whole, polished, preening and ready to go.
Suddenly, I am back in my body without time passing, still in the act of dodging the golem’s strike and with my style rearing to go like a great stallion in my head.
So, I release it…
The next moments are a haze, my style and instincts driving me as I strike and move and strike again in a spinning array of death, each strike containing the power of a waterfall or a falling mountain, each dodge a rushing river or a boulder rolling inevitably downhill as I take a hit and keep on striving.
With one final, brutal, savage swing I exhaust the last dregs of what I have to give, empowered by my Wild Rampage as it takes from my health to deal critical, and hopefully fatal, damage.
Before my might--our might brought to its full potential in this single moment, the golem, already failing before my style’s growth, if not fast enough, finally falls to the ground in a heap of precious blue rubble!
BEEP!
And just in time too, as the buzzer signifying the end of our two weeks rings within our minds, my companions collapsing as it does.
“You still have some time before you need to completely leave, the features of the dungeon will not function though but 30 minutes or so to rest and prepare will be fine.” Burgess tells us, arms crossed and looking at us with the usual stoic expression.
Relieved and victorious, I let my exhausted body fall to the ground as Belina and Artemis have already done and allow my aching limbs to tremble as my enhanced Constitution slowly heals me.
After about 10 minutes, I pull myself up to a sitting position, one thought lying heavy upon my mind which I quickly voice:
“So, what’s our reward??”
“Well, you did sneak out a win there, miraculously enough, so I suppose you earned it…” Burgess teases, seeing our interest, even the still sprawled Belina picks her head up from its place flat on the ground, a noticeable sweat circle clearly revealed underneath.
After a moment longer of torturing us, he continues, “Your reward is a unique title, one which will appear as you depart the dungeon. I have to say, you three worked harder than any other beginners I have ever trained. If you keep that up, you and your world may have a real chance. Much better than most worlds at this early stage could say. Of that, I assure.”
Excited to see what our title is, as well as the expected tsunami of notifications regarding our ability increases, I give Burgess the first, and likely only, bow I have ever or will ever truly give out of respect in my life.
Belina and Artemis follow my example soon after, although for obvious reasons Artemis’ is much more adorable.
Burgess, giving us a nod in return, bids us an ominous farewell as we head to the great door, “I’ll be seeing you soon, if you explore enough….”
Then, as a true team, we depart the dungeon that offered so much to us and back out into the whole, wild world.
We exit back through the engraved door, its heavy form slowly closing back in its frame with a slight echoing thud, the ending of but one small step in our advancement.
But it is only the beginning.