Nick was whisked down the ramps, the cautious approach that he and the Scout had taken the last time he’d made a similar trip was thrown out the window. Nick could even hear the other Hogs hooting and hollering from further down the ramps, these people were absolutely crazy. As the team moved away from the ramps on the 65th floor Nick began to sweat, none of the members even bothered to set up a light. They just ran headfirst into the darkness, seemingly daring the monsters to try their luck. Nick certainly couldn’t match their confidence.

The scout had told him that you needed to be a level six team to confidently roam these levels. While the other members of his party might be level 11s, Nick was lagging behind in power. As they ran Nick saw that the monsters were hiding themselves, not like they were setting up an ambush though. The monsters seemed to be trying to avoid the Hogs. It was a great surprise to Nick, he’d assumed that these monsters were creatures of unthinking malice. Now they seemed to be showing some sort of survival instinct, knowing that even crossing the path of the Hogs would spell certain doom for them.

It was while he was distracted thinking about the behaviours of the monsters that one of them struck out at him. It came from the ceiling, somewhere Nick should have been paying attention to. A massive tendril lashed out and wrapped around his torso, yanking him up into the air. Nick tried to employ a similar tactic to what he’d used back in the Trickster room, but when he tried to turn himself towards the body of the monster he found himself locked in an iron grip. That’s when the other tendrils snaked in and started locking down his limbs, while they weren’t as oppressive as the main tendril they still proved far too strong for Nick to do anything about.

Nick panicked and tried to thrash about, anything to buy him a little bit of space to work with. It was useless though, the creature had him locked down and wasn’t letting up. Then the teeth started to dig into him, cutting through armour and flesh like it was butter. Nick let out a pained yell, still desperately trying to writhe around. This couldn’t be how his life ended, not here, he still had far too much he had to do.

“Geez this kid’s weak.” Jackie commented.

“Aye now, we were all tha once.” Kim replied.

Suddenly the creature was pierced by an arrow and it went limp. Nick was dropped to the floor and landed awkwardly, rolling his ankle. Thankfully his heal kicked in and did its best to fix that up. A hand slapped him across the back, almost sending him tumbling back to the floor as he tried to get up.

“Keep up laddy, ya can’t be trailing tha far behind.”

Then the group was back to running again, though this time the Hogs were clearly lowering their pace even more for him. Nick was now positioned between the other three, keeping him in a much safer position than before. Nick was thankful for the slightly slower pace as while his ankle had healed up, it was still a little tender. Nick noticed that the group wasn’t running along any pathways or following the usual routes he had become used to. Instead of running to the centre of the floor then towards the hotel, the group seemed to be beelining towards the hotel. Nick realised that if there wasn’t a large settlement living on the 65th, then they didn’t need to keep a fort in the middle of the car park.

The group quickly made it to the entrance to the hotel and Nick was met with a new type of doorway. This one was a sliding glass door that let him get a full view of the room on the other side. Not that anyone in the group stopped to inspect it at all, they just moved right through and into the room. Nick thought it was a cool feature though. The room wasn’t as impressive a lobby as the 75th, but it was still certainly quite grand. It was a large hall like space with a massive door sitting on the far side, a long rug leading the way to it. Nick then took in the crowd that had gathered in the room. There was a surprising amount of folk gathered here, a couple dozen or so. Each of them seemed rather geared up, each wearing full sets of their particular choice of armour and holding a decent looking weaponry.

“Do people live down here?” He asked.

“‘Course laddy. People be living everywhere down here.” Kim answered.

That made sense, if the hotel provided a person with the basics they needed to survive then people could probably live on any floor they wanted, as long as they could get there. Did that mean that there were people living on floors way stronger than they had any right to be on then? Like a 1-1 living on the 50th floor? Nick then realised something insidious, if you kidnapped someone and dragged them down to a level they were too weak for, they’d be trapped there. The car park would be too tough for them to get through and they wouldn’t be able to take on challenge rooms to get loot or anything. Nick then realised that Tony and Jacob had done exactly that. His blood began to boil and he wanted nothing more than to have Tony in front of him. The things he’d do to that man, oh god. Not even a healer would be able to fix him, probably.

Nick shook his head clear, the Executioners were handling that. Benny would be home safely in no time. He’d seen the strength that this one arm of the Executioners could display, he had no doubt that their combat specialists would be a reckoning force. Nick could only imagine how bad things would be for Tony and smile, while it wasn’t exactly what he wanted at least he knew the man would be dealt with.

Kim then led the group towards the large door at the end of the hallway. Nick saw some of the teams in the room shake their heads and leave through other doorways, though a majority of the teams followed after Kim’s. Nick knew what came next and when it was his turn he grabbed the door handle and accepted the prompt that came up.

Welcome to the event!

65th floor - Hide and Seek!

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Watch out for the lord of the manor!

The longer you hide, the more points you get!

Attacking other players eliminates them!

Good luck!

Nick found himself standing in a new lobby, this one was much smaller but far more aesthetically pleasing. The decor of the place suggested a Tudor manor, with lots of wooden furnishings and gas lamps lighting the entire place. It was quite atmospheric. Nick then realised that there were about forty people in the room with him, various groups and teams scrambling to reunite with each other. Nick found the three Hogs standing around in the centre of the room, chatting with each other. As he made his way over to the group he was privy to snippets from various conversations.

“Why are the Hogs here?”

“Greedy pigs can’t leave any of the loot for us.”

“I thought they only roamed the sub fifties these days?”

“This is going to be a total wash now.”

It seemed like one topic was dominating the conversation right now and Nick couldn’t blame them. The Hogs were likely the best of the best and talked about higher levels as if they were nothing. It would be rather disheartening to see them on the floor you were trying to roam. It felt rather unfair but Nick wasn’t going to complain, the only reason they were here was to get him some class gems.

Nick then made his way to the Hogs and found them discussing their favourite kinds of meat. They were using names that Nick didn’t even recognise so Nick just nodded along and got to thinking on his own. This event was rather different to the one he had done on the 75th floor. This one seemed to have some sort of player versus player aspect to it, with people having the ability to eliminate each other from the event. Reading the prompt back over he started to work out some of the details. The main challenge of the event seemed to be hiding from the lord of the manor, whoever that was. Was the lord going to be some sort of monster or was another one of the people here going to be nominated as the lord? Then there was the pvp aspect, which is probably why the Hogs chose this floor.

It really wasn’t fair. Nick could imagine how this event was going to go. The average person was likely going to try and hide from the lord and end up being hunted down by a Hog, who they stood absolutely no chance against. These were level 11s going against people competing for a level four class gem. While Nick wasn’t a fan of the injustice of the situation, at least he could take solace in the fact that it was likely going to be quick. That’s when Leif turned to Nick.

“Just try your best man. Getting in the top ten would be a pretty huge achievement for a 2-2 like you. We’ll take care of the rest.” He said with a grin.

A new message appeared in the air before everyone, before Nick could even read it people were running for different doors.

Time to hide!

1:58

Nick wasn’t given any pointers at all by his teammates, as they simply just split up and started following behind some of the larger groups that were running away. Nick quickly found himself alone in the lobby, unsure of where to go. As the time continued ticking down Nick’s anxiety peaked, everyone else seemed to have some sort of idea of where to go and he didn’t. His eyes desperately scanned the room for anything to hide behind. He saw a few cupboards but he knew that they were likely the spots that would be checked first. He saw the thick curtains covering the windows but that felt far too childish for even him.

With just thirty seconds left to go his eyes fell on a massive grandfather clock sitting next to the door of the lobby. It stood at least three metres high and had a decent bit of width to it. He saw the cabinet door to the case and decided to chance it. With 15 seconds left on the timer he opened up the door and tried to cram his way into the small space. He ended up catching a pendulum to the face but got himself entirely inside the clock. He barely managed to get the door closed as the time hit zero.

That’s when he heard heavy footsteps from the outside of whatever manor they were in, slowly stomping towards the door. The large doors slowly creaked open and the footsteps entered the manor.

“Who dares invade the home of this lord!” A deep voice bellowed out, sending reberations through Nick’s entire body.

Yep, no wonder nobody stayed in this room. This was a terrifying experience, it made him feel like was a trespasser and that an authority figure was here to punish him. It reminded Nick of the few times he’d been found brawling out the back of pubs by the police, the authority in their voices enough to freak him into running. Nick had jumped many a fence on nights like those, returning home in quite the abysmal state.

Nick was pulled from memory lane as the feet began to stomp through the room. Nick held his breath as he could feel the lord pass by the clock. He heard the curtains get violently pulled open, thank god he hadn’t hidden there. Then he heard doors opening and being slammed shut throughout the room, Nick counting his lucky stars that he hadn’t chosen any of the cupboards to hide in. He wasn’t sure what fate awaited those that were caught by the lord, but Nick didn’t want to learn by first hand experience.

Eventually the lord seemed satisfied with their search of the room and lumbered off into a different room, letting Nick release the breath he’d been holding. That had been a nerve wracking experience, the pressure that emanated off the lord was oppressive. Nick suddenly began to feel rather claustrophobic, the pendulum kept digging into him and trying to swing its way through him. Nick was fairly sure that’s not how these kinds of pendulums were supposed to work but who was he to know? It felt like the clock was trying to force him out of it and Nick was keen to oblige.

Nick spilled out of the grandfather clock and onto the wooden floorboards, he quickly scrambled up to his feet and got his wits about him. He didn’t want to be caught unawares if the lord decided to come back and recheck the room. Nick then realised that he’d probably hear it coming if it did, so the only thing he really had to worry about was the other people moving around this place. Nick decided to try and find a different room to try and wait out this event in, hopefully a spot that was a bit more comfortable than the bowls of a grumpy grandfather clock.

Nick carefully made his way over to one of the doors that led out of the lobby and peaked his head through, when he found a large dining room that was empty on the other side he crept his way in. He was careful not to make a noise, as surely the lord had some sort of way of tracking down the people in the event. Nick slowly made his way through the room, aiming for a door on the other side when there was bang against the wall.

“Six! Keep up asshole!” A voice that was distinctly Jackie’s yelled out.

Nick sighed. Of course he shouldn’t have expected this event room to play out normally with the Hogs around.