Sorn woke up in an isolated room. He had been sleeping on a simple blanket of wool on the cold ice floor for the past few hours. Looking across the room, there was a plate of meat by the door. If he went through that door, he would be eliminated.
The rules told by Varian were as followed:
* All participants can no longer communicate with one another for the remainder of the Fourth Stage.
* All participants will spend a mandatory twelve hours in a makeshift ice room to recover for the Final Stage.
Sorn spent most of these hours sleeping. Surprisingly, he had mostly recovered. Oden had discreetly handed him a miniscule sized ax the moment they made it to the bottom of the arena without exchanging a word. Sorn still had little idea as to what he may have meant by this
After eating, Sorn placed the ice plate he had eaten from in the middle of the room. He then proceeded to fall back on his blanket, lost in his own thoughts. It only took about an hour for a hole to appear in the middle of his room. He watched as the plate fell through. Varian’s voice rang out from above.
Varian: “Contestants, twelve hours have passed. Those of you who will reign victorious in the Final Stage will be the ones who are truly worthy of endless honor.
Sorn stepped in the hole, falling down into yet another tube of ice.
From above, Varian was looking down at the contestants as they dissapeared. He had created rooms without walls but had removed the ceiling. This allowed him to view the contestants’ every action. As he prepared to move away to attend to his business, ten chains suddenly wrapped around him.
Varian: “Well, this is quite an interesting twist.”
He was completely trapped in layers upon layers of chains, unable to move a muscle or generate an inch of ice.
From the sky, Cedric came floating down amongst his most trusted members of the Chain Subclan. The true elites of sealing abilities in the Fortress.
Cedric: “Your senses have truly dulled with age if you really couldn’t notice us above you Varian.”
Varian: “Staying up all night would do that about any Elemental. Now Cedric, your Subclan has always been loyal disciples of ours. You are like a little brother to me. What could’ve brought such a drastic change?”
Cedric: “You heard it too in the Prophecy. You know with all your unsatisfactory answers to our unanswered questions, someone would come back to bite you eventually. What did you do to her Varian?”
Varian’s expression darkened.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Varian: “What is a child like you, demanding from me. I am your elder, your superior. You dare disrupt our hierarchy and our order? You forget yourselves.”
He was no longer just talking directly to Cedric, but to all ten of his assailants.
Varian: “Your sealing skills are commendable, but you remain disposable. You are only useful for lowly tactics like this. It will not be of much assistance to our cause. Do you understand? Killing you here and now will not do much to disrupt our order further.”
Cedric: “Don’t avoid my question you old bastard. I asked you, what the fuck did you do to Fiore! ”
Another Chain member muttered something, and multiple glowing runes appeared underneath Varian.
Chain member: “You can either answer his question, or never see the sky again. We have taken measures to distract even your precious First Division. And not even you can escape from our chains once they are in effect. Surrender, for that is your only option.”
Varian: “Is that so?”
Four large spears appeared from every corner of the square shaped arena.
Cedric: “What’s going on?”
Varian: ”Such an unfortunate waste of talent.”
The spears launched themselves towards Varian. However, three more Chains emerged from higher in the sky, using chains of their own to wrap around the spears and stop them in their tracks.
Varian: “It seems you anticipated such a plan.”
Cedric: “I’m offended that your expectations are so low for me. I’m well aware of your crafty techniques. Now, answer my question-”
As he was speaking, a smaller spear suddenly stuck itself into the side of Cedric’s stomach, piercing clean through. It then swiveled back, piercing through the side of his neck.
Varian: “Now whoever said this was my technique?”
The previous enchained spears had disappeared. They were now replaced with four of the First Division members, all brandishing their unique signature spears.
Varian: “The Spear shows no mercy. Kill them all.”
——
Sorn landed in the middle of a ginormous hall. Most of the other contenders had already arrived or were in the process of doing so. Once all ten were present, a large figure emerged from the shadows. There stood the head of the Marauders, Bjorn. He was accompanied by a man who adorned the Spear uniform, even though Sorn had never seen him before. Bjorn was excited as he welcomed everyone.
Bjorn: “A quick reminder, you cannot communicate until the match actually starts. For this game, you will be playing as a group of two even Teams in what I call ‘Win the Ax’!”
The room tensed as Bjorn summoned two massive axes. They looked exactly alike, and equally deadly.
Bjorn: “These axes are at the opposite ends of the Palace. You will start at one of the axes. Your goal is to travel to the other side and steal the other team’s ax. If you accomplish this, your next step will be to make it back to this middle room with the ax. Whichever team manages to do this first wins. Everyone understand?”
The room was silent as the tension was extremely high. Bjorn seemed to not mind and continued his speech.
Bjorn: “I’m sure you are wondering, ‘how will the teams be chosen’? Well, there is an answer to that! I have a request from none other than our beloved Council Head, Varian. As you can see, the First Division leader, Radan, is here to make sure the game plays out smoothly. There will be two leaders responsible for picking their team to lead to victory. Please stand by my side, Sorn and Keilan!”
Sorn hadn't realized he had been standing by Crystal until she slapped him on the back, shoving him forward. Radan gave a sharp glare and Crystal bowed in apology. Every noise seemed to echo in the vast hall. Sorn tried to ignore the loud sound caused by his own footsteps. He stole a quick side glance at Keilan, who was focused straight ahead. They each stopped at Bjorn, who smiled at both of them.
Bjorn: “Very nice! Unlike the last round, I do things differently. What I mean by that is anything is okay in this game! You can kill each other, cut off limbs, whatever it takes for you to get that flag over here! Now then, here is how you boys will choose your teams. Since Sorn made it to the Fourth Stage first, he will get to choose any person from this lineup. Then, each of you will be taking turns unpicking one person until each of you reach five people. Do you get it?”
Sorn: “In that case, I’ll pick Crystal please.”
Sorn ignored the dirty look Keilan was giving him, and Crystal seemed more interested in her fingers than the awkward tension going on beside her.
Keilan: “I’m choosing Raven.”
The dangerous looking girl skipped up happily to Keilan. Sorn immediately met Oden's determined gaze as his next choice was clear.
Sorn: “Next I’ll choose Oden.”
Keilan: “Kaen.”
Even Raven seemed surprised by this pick, but Keilan remained confident as he nodded to Kaen, who responded with a curious look.
Sorn: “Um, Aria please.”
Keilan: “Jester.”
Sorn: “Flen.”
Bjorn: “And by last pick, you receive Neville! Amazing, we can now begin the final game!”
End.