Time thinned—a ripple of lights descended the tower. The windows of Casters who had been taken out, or were still on the first tier, dissolved under the disturbance. When the ripple passed the height of the crowd, Sheaths defeated fighters emerged from the tower. A reversal of their ascension process.
The stricken figures consisted mostly of first time entrants like Meral. Their bodies slumping as they crossed back into the world of mortals. Some stumbled, others wept openly. Many hugged their bodies where they just a few moments ago had taken mortal wounds. While their bodies had returned to their prior condition, the pain had been real enough. Each returnee potential unfulfilled, lives spared yet marked with failure.
Their families quickly collected them under the eyes of the city officials overseeing the process. Many relieved to see them hail after the cruel display.
Through the crowds murmurs Rez heard a conversation rise. He turned to find himself staring into the weathered face of Master Gelrin, the stern overseer tasked with training Sheath's challengers. The training master was talking to his grandfather, hand on the old mans shoulder. Lines etched into Gelrin's skin seemed to deepen as he spoke, his voice carrying over the sound of the crowd.
"That's your boy, isn't it. You been teaching him?" Gelrin released his grip, and moved his hand to scratch a scar along his jar.
"You know what good it did last time."
Gelrin looked Rez in the eyes and said, "Times are changing. At least I won't have to spend time on bad habits then. Short enough as it is."
Rez's grandfather jerked his face towards the Master but said nothing else.
Rez not sure what to do nodded in Gelrins direction and watched him stride away before turning back to his grandfather. His elder was focused back on the climb already with a frown even deeper than before. Rez shared another look with Lerrin in confusion and followed his grandfathers example.
Kapa and her climbers converged at a nexus point in the third tier. It loomed as a massive, sculpted archway of smooth obsidian. An opening that led to a domed chamber. The climbers faces were openly suspicious of anyone else in the vicinity, their eyes flickering with calculations as they appraised potential allies and adversaries. A few groups lingered. Unease swept through them as they entered the nexus point, hands reaching for spellbooks as they prepared for surprises.
Inside the chamber, globes of warm light floated on thin tendrils that emerged from walls and floors. Shadows danced. The globes dripped a luminescent fluid that stayed lit where it fell for a few seconds. The floor was uneven, composed of rough-hewn stone and littered with discarded pages.
A hush fell over the climbers as a shimmering apparition appeared in the center of the nexus. Tendrils with lights started to thicken and wrap around an invisible figure. They twisted and warped, forming hanging shapes that draped the air like a coat. One light hung above turned a bright white and stretched away left and right like a low tree with two branching trunks before growing downward antlers. The light settled in the center. A tower emissary.
It now swayed before them in harmony with the lights in the chamber. "Your task," the emissary's voice echoed through the chamber, "is to slay Stone Elements north from here, and to survive."
Without missing a beat, one of the climbers stepped forward. Rez watched as Kapa held out her spellbook, the air around it crackling with energy as it opened itself to the entity to receive the quest. In that moment a second person stepped from the gloom of the chamber into the light of the entity, performing the same gesture.
Rez watched as Kapa and the foreign caster eyed each other. No violence was possible once the entity commanded the room.
And then he saw something else: A flash of movement, a shadow slithered over the ground unnaturally. Almost blending into the movement of the light. Rez's heart hammered in his chest as he watched the shadow race forward. "No!" Rez shouted without thinking. Kapa's teammate beyond the towers surface oblivious to his concern didn't notice a thing. And a few people around looked at Rez to understand the commotion. Rez's heart skipped a beat as he watched the dark energy hurtle towards him and silently melt into the fighters shadow unseen.
In a flash, Kapa and her team vanished.
A gasp in Sheath as two groups reappeared in a forest. The other group, a human and two scaled Draconians, with an actual golem heart on display.
The Emissary had accepted both teams.
It wasn't possible to talk to each other, ever since twenty years ago the Aeon Coalition had murdered it's way through the participants at a rate that triggered the tower itself to change rules of the competition. Instead, teams could only invite another party to team up and see if they accepted or not.
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The Draconian that had stepped forward earlier, nodded once toward Kapa. His tongue flicking out to taste the air. Kapa moved, their approach cautious. Their hands met in a clasp a small sign of trust and they set out to hunt.
The forest seemed to hold its breath as they journeyed deeper into the third tier. Along their trek, clear scars in the landscape began to emerge. Long troughs cut into the earth and flora.
A sudden rumble shook the ground beneath their feet, causing most of the casters to stumble. A deafening crack split the air as massive stone creatures erupted from the earth, their rocky forms imposing and threatening. The once tranquil forest was transformed into a battleground in a moment.
Without missing a beat, the two teams launched into action. One of Kapas stepped forward, his fingers moving in a complicated pattern against his page. The ground around him shimmered with blue energy as he cast an Earth Ward spell. His comrades followed suit, throwing out protective barriers around themselves.
On the other side, a Draconian unleashed a barrage of ice shards at an elemental. The icy projectiles crashed against its stony exterior, chipping away at its form. The stone creatures retaliated, their limbs swinging in wide arcs that smashed through protective wards and sent casters sprawling.
As the dust of the first eruption cleared, the foes became more clear. The elementals were double the height of the casters, with no discernible faces. They generally moved sluggishly but could explode forward with speed momentarily. While the moving elementals didn't have faces or eyes visible, a massive stone face had emerged in what was now a forest clearing. Lying flat, grey-white stone cracked, with rust-colored veins of ore through it. Skyward eyes wide open and flickering around the clearing.
In Sheath, Rez watched with bated breath as each caster fought against these monstrous foes. Rez was reminded of the Golems, but the elementals were more a collection of stones magically held together than anything intricate. The display of group protection and attack coordination on both sides was thrilling. The enemies attacked in tandem, one raising stone spears from the ground to trap the hunters and a second one attacking from above to pin, spear or crush them.
Stone dust danced in the days light, motes swirling in a miniature storm, as Kapa's team squared off against the elementals. Rez watched, heart thundering in his chest as the assailants bore down upon them with savagery.
A half-orc stood at the forefront of Kapa's team "Slingshot", a bastion against the onslaught. His name was Torak, and he was a paladin of formidable presence. His conjured armor clanked with each step, his massive form casting an imposing shadow even in the diffuse glow of the cavern. Two elementals came at him with arms raised, their pace and missing expressions looking like indifference.
Kapa loosed arrows from her position at the rear, her pages glowed softly as she summoned them from her spellbook. Each one humming through the air before finding its mark in gaps on the stone with lethal precision.
The last of their band, Joil, a nimble fighter, darted between his foes and in support of Torak, his twin daggers flashing. He wove a dance around Torak's solid form, leaving scorch marks on the stones.
But it was Torak who turned the tide. He had been able to hold his most powerful abilities back so far. Having made his way to the stone face, he raised his hand high and a page materialized above his palm. "By my ancestors' ," he roared as he slammed his gauntleted fist straight into the eye of the monster, while Joil held back the closest elementals. A shockwave rippled outward from where Torak's fist met stone, golden energy coursing outward. The elementals staggered as the ground beneath them buckled and the stone face split apart.
Seeing the effect, all combatants renewed their efforts and went all out in their attacks on the moving colossi. Kapa notched another arrow, this one shimmering with an icy sheen. It whistled through the air and split a stone creature right down the middle. It crumpled to the ground encased in frost.
Torak followed his punch with another spell—a page flaring to life between his fingers—and his hand glowed again with divine energy. With a deft movement, he reached for another elemental. That one, currently defending himself from Joil couldn't stop the touch. Light exploded from the point of contact, freezing the stone in place. The stone elemental vibrated in place, trying to espcape, but before he could do so, the other team banded together and managed to catapult another creature into this one, causing stone to crumble on both sides of the impact.
Torak stood amidst the carnage, chest heaving from exertion and adrenaline, thought it wasn't over yet, he took a moment to collect himself, having turned the tide. A glow began to emanate from him and he looked at his own hands with a smile. Blue light encased him entirely. The audience in Sheath stared as Torak seemed to grow taller within his cocoon of light; it shone through cracks in his armor and seemed to fill them before receding, reluctantly giving way to reveal Torak standing there transformed—not in body but in essence.
Whispers raced through Sheath like wildfire: "What boon, what did he get?"
In that moment a bright flare lit up from behind the group taking one of Kapa's fighters directly on his helmet—and Rez's heart dropped. Six figures emerged from the shadows of the forest. While in that moment nobody could be certain—the last years had taught them all to expect the worst. Their arrival was met with a stunned silence before the forest erupted into chaos once more.
With a sickening realization, Rez watched as the Draconian party only put up a fight until they realized that they weren't being targeted. They stood back, their previous camaraderie replaced by apprehension and detachment. The group continued to put down the stone elementals but watched as the Aeon invaders launched an assault on Slingshot—their spells landing with deadly precision.
The forest became a blur of motion and light as Kapa's team struggled to defend themselves, while some stone elementals still sowed chaos around the fight. In Sheath, gasps filled the amphitheater as each caster fell. Families cried out in despair, clutching each other for support as they watched their loved ones on the ground. The city echoed with cries of grief and anger, a haunting dirge that drowned out everything else.
Rez stood there, rooted to his spot, watching in horrified silence. The world around him blurred into a sea of faces marred by shock and grief. He felt Lerrin's face against his shoulder, her tears wetting his shirt.
The brutality of the moment took the last of the life out of many. What had been close to an eager crowd before was now between desperation and disillusionment as the shock wore off.