The grey mountains loomed below me, the clouds just underneath their peaks. The night sky blossomed above me, the stars forming pathways through the sky. Before me stood my master, and my current opponent. With short bursts of power I launched myself, weaving under her massive swing and delivering several blows, My opponent staggered backwards at my onslaught as my jabs pummeled them into the mountainside. We both gasped for air, the high altitude dizzying our minds. My opponent stood twice as tall as me, and with a single swing of the arm sent me skidding back, but I held my ground, reaching down an arm to help stop my momentum, before I was grabbed by my shirt collar and dangled over the cliff’s edge.
“Good form, but still slow. Better recovery, but you still need to trust your own body.”
“Are you going to-”
“Yes.” And with that, my master let go of my shirt, and I plummeted to the ground below.
Suddenly, the scenery changed. I was no longer in a mountain range, and instead inside a stone ruin. Moss lined the wall, covering murals and markings, symmetrical and strange. The walls seemed to resonate with an energy I couldn’t name, but felt in my very core. Whatever this place was, it was calling to me.
The Foundry beckoned.
Enix woke with a start, his consciousness swirling around him as his gelatinous body shuddered. He sighed, realizing the dream was only that, and wondered for the upteenth time whether the dream he had was just that, or perhaps a memory of another time.
His thoughts were silenced by a sharp cry from above, the light that seeped into the hole dimmed for a second, the shadow of the Roc casting him in temporary darkness as he saw it blot out the sun as it flew away, growing smaller and smaller.
“Well, now or never Ingot. You ready?” The creature in question yawned, stretching like a cat before waddling to the boy’s side to be picked up. As Enix bent to scoop his friend up, he nearly fell over.
Ingot had definitely gotten heavier, and perhaps a bit larger?
“How? You haven’t eaten anything!” The boy braced his arms as he held the creature to his face, Ingot only responding with a lick. Enix sighed, clutching him against his shoulder as a mother would an infant as he held his hand out for Vice as it reached for the wall, securing a good enough hold for Enix to grab. He planted his feet against the wall, and hoisted himself up. He let go of Ingot as the creature clung to him, allowing him to use his free hand to strike the wall above him several times, and eventually he managed to form a small crack just wide enough to act as a hold for his hand. With his other hand, he guided Vice and hoisted himself further as it latched itself higher on the wall.
It took time, between resting for his stamina and then striking the wall to gain a hold. A few sun phases later and he had reached the top.
You have been afflicted with the ‘Forced Duel’ effect. You cannot leave the combat zone.
Enix grinned, hoisting himself up over the damaged wood as he finally met the open air again. Ingot dropped, rolling to the ground and perking up as the statues began to move. Enix stood calmly, activating his new skills as he took in his surroundings.
The ruins lay as various square structures circling a small collapsed tower. It’s structures had a strange order to them, if one looked closely enough. It was as if the architects built the ruins for a strange abnormal purpose, not to shelter, but neither to imprison. Around it lay an old and unkempt garden, populated with statues and empty pedestals.
As the statues began to move, Vice began to hum, forming itself into his hand, extending and expanding outwards until Enix held a rectangular club-like weapon, small bits of teeth-like points from the sides of the club.
Enix tested out the club with a few swings as the statues approached, before activating his Acrobatic skill and beginning to run, dodging swings from weapons and other statues reaching out towards him.
As he ran, he swung the club, using Strike to glance off the blows he couldn’t dodge.
Congratulations! Through a special action, you have unlocked a new skill: ‘Deflect’.
Ignoring the screen, he leapt over the low swing of a statue’s attack, finally able to slow down and take a breather, noticing how low his mana and stamina were.
At his feet was a small stream, a large wood plank carving the stream in two, the water trickling around and continuing its path away.
In that moment he was finally able to wonder about the true reason he was here, why he was risking his life for this forgotten place. Why he nearly died to enter the equivalent of a pile of stones. For a second he pondered retreating, climbing back out and just… moving on. Continue his short life of scavenging around an endless forest, fighting the creatures who threatened his survival.
But the tug in the pit of his soul was strong. The drive he felt when his eyes laid upon the valley was more intense, it fueled his body to move. More than instinctual survival, it was something more. More than an impulse, he was driven by a need.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Whatever this place is, or whatever it once was, Enix was drawn to it. He would find out why, or die trying.
Speaking of ‘die trying’. Enix ducked past a swing, the doors in sight as he hopped onto the statue’s face and kicked off, vaulting over another, landing roughly and failing to recover. As the boy hit the ground, Ingot rolled up to him, uncurling and sniffing as Enix struggled to get up. Hearing heavy footfalls behind him, he rolled to the side, a stone hammer smashing into the ground where he just was.
“Can’t you just give up?!” He kicked out with his legs, skidding a few feet to dodge the hammer again as he got to his feet. He whacked a statue with Vice, barely making a scratch.
“Okay now this is just rude!” Enix’s body stretched and shrunk until he took the form of a slime again, Vice sticking to his side as he stretched his body in one direction, flattening himself against the face of a statue before flinging himself away as another slammed a stone club into the former’s face. It shattered into sizable chunks, the statue barely hesitating to continue to chase the slime, even without a functioning head. Enix chuckled, and the statue seemed offended at the boy’s humor in its predicament.
Enix turned, finally noticing the door. Two pillars stood before it on a stone platform, with steps leading up to it. Turning back, he counted seven statues surging towards him. He racked his mind for an idea, an answer, some semblance of a way out of the situation. He couldn’t fight, they not only outnumbered him but easily overpowered him. He couldn’t flee, he was bound by rules the boy wouldn’t even consider breaking.
It was then Enix noticed the pillars, or rather the inscriptions that read on the stone roof that connected them. It was written in an odd style of writing. Circles and semicircles with straight lines and odd slants, with a strange symbol in the middle, like a multi-horned helm.
While Enix was incapable of interpreting the ideography, he seemed to understand its message in his core, as if an unseen hand opened his eyes and directed to him the meaning of the symbols.
The Test of Passage.
A Quest has been received!
Passage and Progress
Survive and succeed the trial, enter the Foundry.
Completion reward: 50,000 XP, ‘Progress’ skill, Entrance to the Foundry.
Enix breathed. A test was all that it was. But of passage? Was he meant to combat these statues?
Was the goal to win the fight? Something about the wording caught Enix, and drew him away from that thought. It was a test of ‘passage’, not one of combat, might or battle.
Maybe the idea isn’t to fight them, but just… persevere through them?
The only option, then, was to head into the ruins. He accepted the quest.
In the time it took the boy to think of this however, a barbaric looking statue had approached him and swung with an axe, hitting Enix hard enough to knock the boy to the ground, the axe cleaved into his torso. The statue raised the axe, bringing the boy with him, and flung the boy away from the door.
Warning, excessive damage has been taken. ‘Pain Nullification’ has been activated.
Yeah, I noticed. Enix groaned as his body slowly reconnected, the gel-like substance he consisted of simply reforming. The damage was still there, Enix could feel it, but with the amorphous body he had, the damage wouldn’t manifest.
Enix stood, then halted, staring as his torso came back together. His health was frighteningly low, his stamina and mana slowly regenerating.
His mind went back to the stream. How, despite an obstacle, it was able to flow around it.
And when faced with stone warriors, I don’t have to go through them. If I can’t break through them, I can go around!
With that Enix used the last of his stamina to activate acrobatics and broke into a run. The boy leapt upwards, planted his feet onto the shoulders of one priestly looking statue and held on. Enix saw the barbarian statue move in, taking a swing with its stone axe. Enix held tight before jumping at the last possible second.
The sound that followed rang throughout the valley, and as Enix landed he turned to see the stone head and torso crumpled into pieces.
The stone barbarian paused for a split second, as if contemplating its actions before it turned to pursue the boy.
Enix breathed, his legs shaking underneath him as the statues stopped, still and quiet.
“Yeah, how’s that? Wanna try that again?!” Enix egged them on, panting hard. The statues responded by moving again, this time with surprising speed.
“I was kidding!” Enix dropped to a crouch, moving to try to find the best routes through the horde of stone. He saw a statue lunge towards him, arms outstretched. Enix jumped over it, planting his feet on its back and jumping again over the remaining statues before finally reaching the door. Two more statues stood in his way, each holding a stone mace and club, and reared to swing them. As they did, Enix noticed the angles of the swing, and as his Acrobatics finally ended, he jumped one last time, lifting his legs to one side as he tilted his body to the other. As the statue on the right swung low, the other swung high, and Enix felt them brush against his thighs as they swung by, barely missing him.
Enix landed roughly, attempting to steady himself but falling on his rear. He crossed his arms across his face, bracing himself for another hit-
-but none came.
He held his breath for one moment. Two. After a third, he lowered his arms, looking up at the statues as they stood still, their weapons lowered. Enix turned and saw that the rest of the statues had also frozen. The statue that had been broken apart suddenly reformed, standing as the pieces dragged towards the larger chunk. As one, they turned to return to their original positions, the valley silent once more.
Quest “Passage and Progress” Complete!
Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!
Enix looked at the screen, sending it away as he stood and approached the doorway. This was it. He took one last look at the valley behind him as Ingot joined his side, and moved to open the door.