by I. Felix
"I'll teach you guys once you level up enough. Now, let's go. I'm feeling the fear in the pit of my stomach, and it's giving me the worst chills."
"You get used to it. But, yeah, let's move!" Blake exclaimed. May opened a portal and they entered it.
They appeared back in Pruntire, next to Arche, who didn't seem impressed with his friend.
"Now, let's go! I can't wait to see the boss that we're going to face!" Blake exclaimed.
"Not so fast," they heard someone saying. They turned around and it was the Manager, the same NPC as before when they were at the broadcasting center. "I need to talk to both of you about your performance."
Arche and Blake didn't have enough time to say anything. The NPC teleported them, leaving May behind. They appeared in the same hall as before, with the black leather couches and the table.
"You cannot die." The manager said, going directly to the point.
"Oh, good morning for you too..." Blake whispered. He had never seen an NPC angry before.
"Dying means interrupting the broadcast. Nothing is shown till you get back to the world of Sentinel."
"Not even the Purgatory?" Blake asked.
"No. It's a no-broadcast zone," the NPC said. "Which means that if you die and take your time to come back, you're losing views. And that means you're losing money. Precious money that can keep you ALIVE."
Arche and Blake exchanged looks but didn't say anything. The NPC seemed furious and they felt as if they were being scolded like two naughty schoolboys.
"If you don't want to be ejected from the world of Sentinel Online, you must think about something REALLY good to make up for the lost time. Normal adventures won't do it. You have to make the audience perplex. Good luck with that," the NPC said in a passive-aggressive way. He snapped his fingers and the boys were back in Pruntire, next to May.
"Now I understand why you hate the guy," Blake said, still shocked with the talk.
"See? He's crazy. It's the representation of how Sentinel Company feels when we don't provide it the precious ad money it needs," May said and shivered. "I've almost been killed several times when I was too depressed to do anything. What saved me was the fact that I've been here for long enough to have loyal fans that kept sending me incentives and giving me enough audience to not die. But the Manager told me several times that if my channel didn't stop growing again, they would kill me. It gets harder as time goes by. You always need to grow and grow, it doesn't matter how many followers you have already."
"I'm damned. I'll probably be dead soon, then," Arche said, really worried.
"I won't let this happen," Blake said.
"You can't avoid it," Arche said with a hint of desperation in his voice tone.
"Yes, we can," May said. "We'll do something really popular. The thing that SAVED me. We will tame different monsters. There is an avid audience that is here only to watch the Tamers go by trying to get a weird monster. That's why I became a Tamer. And that's why Katie hates me, again. Because she was doing great when I came with the idea of taming unconventional monsters and my popularity exploded."
"Nice! And I already know what we can tame..." Blake said with a smirk. He turned on the camera before his friends could ask anything.
"Boys and girls, I was dead, you know, but now I'm back and you won't want to miss what comes next. We'll tame the BOSS from level 5 of the Tower."
"What?!" the comments said.
"What?" May asked, looking with her eyes wide.
"Have you lost your mind?" Arche asked. Blake kept smirking and winked to the camera.
"You won't want to miss it, so tune right in and invite your friends. Tell them what we're about to do."
Then, he turned off the camera. Arche wanted to kill him but May laughed.
"I can't believe you just said that!" May exclaimed, excited. "You know that's nearly impossible, right? And you don't even know what the first boss is!"
"I know you have that item that can tame anything," Blake said. "Let's buy enough potions to survive, and let's convince the boss that it's much better to keep going with us than to be there alone."
"What if we don't win? What are we going to tell the audience? We'll really be damned," Arche said, still a little desperate.
"We won't think about that, we'll think positive," Blake said in that same way. "For real, though. We'll have to put everything that we got into this."
May answer was to open the portal to the Tower again. They were afraid that the fourth floor would be full of orcs, but the place was empty. It only had the exploded crystal and a swirl of light where the crystal was before.
"That's it, guys. Are we ready for the boss?" Blake asked.
"Well, we're probably ready to die again, and then die for real," Arche said.
"Let's do it!" May exclaimed, not very worried.
"She has a death wish," Arche said. May looked at him with a smile but didn't say anything, which made Arche even more sure of what he was saying.
They entered the portal and then they were taken to the next room.
The next room was entirely made of crystals, from the floors to the walls, to the ceiling. Everything was in different colors, looking expensive, a Hollywood housewive dream. It was pretty clear there as if even the smallest of the lights were reflected through the whole room. It was almost as glass but thicker, in a rhinestone way.
When they entered, the floor started shaking slightly, like a small earthquake, and the notification popped up floating in front of their eyes, in the room, like subtitles in a movie.
The first boss here lies
She's not ready to die
Her treasure she'll protect
No matter the attack
"Well, I could have written something better," Arche whispered.
"How come you can be a grammar nazi even when there's a floating poem right in front of our eyes in an enchanted room?" Blake whispered back. May giggled, even amidst the tension.
The poem slowly faded away.
And, as soon as there weren't letters floating anymore, the boss appeared.
It was a huge golden fox.
It glowed as if it was illuminated by the sun and it if it had a halo around it. The red part of her fur was like the ruby stone that was around the room. She looked fierce but also extremely beautiful. So beautiful that Blake couldn't stop looking at her, being attracted by her. He couldn't think about anything anymore, just how he wished he could touch her fur, he could feel her light. He didn't notice the fact that he was approaching her, slowly, step after step. His mind was absolutely blank, taken only by thoughts that seemed like the orc cave fog. He had never seen anything as beautiful as that magnificent creature that was in front of him.
"BLAKE!" May was screaming and shaking him, and he didn't even notice. He was too mesmerized by the creature in front of him. But May slapped him on the face and he woke up.
"She's hypnotizing you. Don't look at her!" she exclaimed, a little desperate.
"Oh," Blake could say before he fell on the ground, shaking. All the crystals in the place were emitting some kind of buzzing noise that made them crazy. Blake thought he would die only because of that. He wanted to scream but his internal ear was almost bleeding and he didn't feel strong enough to do anything. He was sure it was the death of him.
When he saw something bright and Arche had thrown a firebomb on the creature. The fox was so focused on making the room tremble in that horrible noise that she didn't act fast enough to avoid the bomb. It was a great explosion and Blake could only think that Arche was crazy.
When he opened his eyes, he realized he was still alive. He couldn't see how till he looked up and saw Valky flying over them, projecting a ball of water around the three of them, like a shield.
"You were finally useful!" Blake exclaimed, feeling actually grateful.
"I told you that I was a Healer," Valky said, scornfully as always. She had acted at the right time when they needed it the most.
The fox had ta
ken a big toll. She was half broken on her back, like if she was made of crystals that shattered. More light was coming from the inside as if she was some sort of being that produced light. It made the room hot and they realized this would be a problem when a little square appeared on their vision:
"Boiling Hot," the stat square said. They started feeling like if they were in a sauna.
"Okay, I now understand why this is a boss," Blake said, getting to his knees. It was almost worse than the desert on the Tournament.
"I'll throw another bomb," Arche said. Valky nodded, as if prepared, and so he did.
The explosion was gigantic, bigger than the last time. This time, the boss was entirely shattered even though she was still intact. It was like a phone screen that fell on the floor.
The problem was that, even though her HP was now at the half, the Boiling Hot stat increased and their HP started to decrease very fast.
"We have like 30 seconds left if we don't think about anything!" Arche said, calculating. Blake got his dagger but immediately let it go with a scream. It was melting. Every crystal seemed to be reflecting the heat, increasing it.
"Arche! Throw an Ice Bomb now!" May screamed, right when their HP reached 10%. Arche didn't think twice and did as told. Valky protected them from the big explosion. This time, it was like if an avalanche had happened.
The room drastically changed. From the scorching heat, it became freezing below zero. The crystals changed their color to blue, it seemed to have snowed in there, and the fox also changed colors. She looked like is she was made of ice now.
This time, the stat was blue and it showed a frozen face. It was called Freezing and it felt like if the players had stepped inside a giant freezer. However, it was still more bearable than the heat. Their HP started decreasing slower. However, everything started to become slower. Their movements. Their thoughts.
"We're literally freezing..." Blake said, slow, like if the words were ice cubes that could barely go.
"If we don't tame this beast soon, we'll end up dying," Arche said.
"Tell me about it..." Blake said, between teeth.
"Arche, throw another firebomb. I'm pretty sure she'll be close to death and have no choice except for accepting coming with us," May said. Valky was still protecting them but their HP was also decreasing very fast. However, Arche nodded, got a bomb from his inventory the best as he could, so slow that Blake didn't think he would be able to make it. But he threw the bomb and it exploded on the fox again.
May was right. Her HP was almost coming to zero. So May got the Golden Strawberry and threw it at her.
"This is exactly like Pokemon," Blake murmured. His body was aching so much he thought his muscles would disintegrate from the successive heating and freezing.
The whole floor started shaking again, the crystal breaking and evaporating. The fox had accepted it.
"What do we do now?!" Blake asked, desperate, as the environment around him started to disappear.
"Enter the portal! It's our only chance!" May exclaimed and opened up a portal. They rushed there before the room finished crumbling apart.
They appeared in Pruntire, exhausted. Blake threw himself on the ground, panting. Arche also sat down, unable to believe they were still alive. May was too excited to do the same. She held the egg up.
The egg was made of ruby, the size of an ostrich's egg. It pulsated and vibrated.
"Look what we did, boys and girls," Blake told the vlogging camera out of nowhere. He saw that the chat was rolling with the live audience vibrating.
"I think it's the first time in the game that anyone catches the Sun Fox," the comments said, all impressed.
Blake turned off the camera and lay on the street, not caring if that was the most crowded city and everyone was staring at him.
"I can't believe we did it," he said.
May put the egg in her hand and it started glowing red. The next minute, a small baby fox appeared on the floor. It was made of a green crystal and it looked really cute.
"Our new homunculus," May said, proudly.
"I also got subscribers!" Arche exclaimed.
"I told you wouldn't die, dummy," Blake said, so happy that he laughed aloud.
"And you won't believe that," May said, looking at her own analytics. "Katie is starting a hate campaign to take us down. She is challenging us to go to the Arena. She even left a video message."
May clicked on the video message and it appeared in front of them.
"Hello, losers," she appeared on the notification. "I hope you aren't well," she said and laughed. "I'm challenging you to the Arena. Player versus player. Whoever wins, has to tell their followers the truth about the other one. Yes, you can bash me, May, as I'll bash you. Do you accept it?"
A notification popped up in front of their eyes. "Do you accept the player versus player challenged proposed by Katie Boss? Yes/No."
Before they could discuss anything, Blake clicked on the yes.
They were immediately teleported to another place. It looked like the castle mixed with a wrestling arena. They couldn't immediately see Katie, but Blake screamed and hid behind Arche.
"What's wrong?!" Arche exclaimed, confused.
"Those guys there! They tried to rob me! At the assassins guild!" Blake said, pointing to the assassins he had found the day he changed classes.
"Here's a very popular place for those types of guys. People come from all over to fight and get prizes. It's also super popular, so it's great for the audience," May said. "It's the Arena of Peyun."
"Count me in," Blake said. "I never run from a challenge. What about you two?"
Arche and May exchanged looks.
"I can't leave you alone, can I?" Arche said, rolling his eyes.
"And I won't leave you two alone ever!" May said, jumping on their shoulders in a group hug. "Peyun Arena, here I come!"
"But maybe we could go grab some filet-o-fish sandwiches first, right?" Blake asked. They laughed, filled with excitement for the adventure that was coming.
The End
It continues in Book 2
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on Amazon!
About the author
I. Felix is the author of several novels in different genres with different pennames. When the author is not writing, they’re playing with their two chinchillas, one rabbit, one cat, two golden retrievers, and one snail. Yeah.
One Last Thing...
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