by Ryan DeBruyn
Good luck!
Rewards:
Etherience
Looted reward
Progression through Combatant Ranks
Azrael felt his head fall. This started the timer much sooner than he wanted. He would have to fight again today. Even after his near-death experience from yesterday.
“Verimy, have you started your challenges already?” Jophi asked.
Verimy shook his head and looked to Azrael. “As I said before, I was to start yesterday, but your intervention stopped those fights. The first challenge is a joke from what I have heard, and you’re supposed to get longer breaks at higher ranks. But I can’t tell if this is faster than normal or not, Azrael. Though it does seem that way.”
Azrael sighed. He should expect to fight as often as possible. If Verimy was right, the time between bouts would increase the higher up the ranks he went. The tournament would add a layer of unknown to that. Regardless, Oberan wanted Azrael’s fame to grow, and then to snuff him out. This made it a priority to learn the rules Oberan was going to play by.
He ate in silence before Bat exited the shower. Still humming his ridiculous high-pitched tune. He sat beside Azrael and whispered, “Who are you talking to in the bathroom?”
Azrael froze and looked at his blue-skinned acquaintance. He didn’t seem to be anything other than curious. So, as discreetly as Azrael could, he made a shush symbol in front of his lips. Bat ducked his head by a small margin, and Azrael went back to eating.
I really need to find out more about his abilities. They could prove very useful.
Within fifteen minutes of Louis delivering breakfast, guards arrived to escort Azrael and his friends, one by one, out of the cell. Azrael was last. His guard thankfully wasn’t Torin.
He was brought to the launderers complex this time.
In his group of thirty slaves, he didn’t recall a single face. He also realized with discouragement that it was entirely possible for multiple facilities to exist. He and the other slaves were brought into a complex that smelled strongly of lye and chemical soaps. Then brought down to the basement, where they began sorting through dirtied linens.
Jophiel had said she was cleaning clothes at the launderers yesterday. This added an entirely new dynamic to the escape plans. Was Verimy at a skinning section within the butcher’s yard? Was there a planking area for woodcutting? He felt his mood sour further because he had already considered the likelihood of getting them all onto the same work team near impossible. But to get the work duty they planned their escape around and be on the same team was statistically impossible with so many potentially varying tasks.
He sorted colors of clothes into buckets already set out. The task was so monotonous that he didn’t have to pay it any mind. He studied the surroundings, trying to find escape options. A cloth bag easily the size of a small vehicle thumped to the ground loudly. The weight suggested it was stuffed full of fabrics. He read the label, “Gulliver?”
An identical bag held the buckets he was currently sorting his pile of clothes into. He read that bag, “Hansil.” These must be the linens from noble houses in the city. Likely, that chute led up to a shop on the street, which servants dropped soiled and picked up laundered linens from. Theoretically, if he could climb up the chute into that shop, he had a chance to escape.
His werewolf ‘friend’ made him very wary of that method. If there was an enchantment halfway up, it could obliterate him in the enclosed space. The climb could also be longer than the two stories he had descended. He checked the stairs the slaves had come down. Some form of metal bolted into the concrete wall. Another set of stairs was near the chute. On the landing of both sets of stairs, two guards stood surveying the workers. Another ten guards patrolled the floor he was on. There was very little chance of escape from this basement. Azrael mentally checked it off as impossible.
He went through the rest of his tasks until lunch time. They were brought back to their cell to eat. This time it looked like Verimy lucked out. His trainer was bruised and bloodied, lying on the ground and breathing hard when Azrael returned. Bat was cleaning a few of the worst scrapes. “Torin?” Azrael asked.
Bat continued cleaning the wounds and nodded. Honestly, that angry toad was getting really frustrating. Jophi arrived last. Lunch had already been delivered by Louis while they were out, so the group sat down to eat.
Verimy broke the pragmatic silence, his injuries still not fully healed, which was indicated by the strain in his voice. “What did you do to that orc, anyway?”
“I didn’t die in the Battle Royale like I was supposed to,” Azrael replied.
Verimy laughed then groaned from the pain. “Oh, that’s all?”
The silence now broken, the group chatted as they finished lunch.
“Ogma might be able to get Torin let go as a guard if I tell him about all this.”
Verimy flinched. “How do you know Ogma?” Azrael jumped at the volume of Verimy’s voice. Verimy modulated it. “Sorry, we all barely know each other, and I think it’s time we at least know some basics.”
Jophi told her story, which seemed to bother Verimy, but instead of confronting Jophi, he indignantly turned to Azrael. “You have brought a member of the Cathodiem Guild into the cell with us? All Guilds are scum and have no loyalty!”
Back to questioning my plans, huh?
Jophi shook her head, seeming to convey a world-weariness that was far too old for her young looks. In a low voice, she retorted, “And where do you come from, Verimy?”
Verimy pushed his chest out, “I was a trainer at the Sovereign Halls—”
Jophi’s laughter cut him off, causing him to glare. “You question Guild loyalty but trained unwitting bastard sons of your Emperor King? Once they left your care, did you ever see them again?” At Verimy’s head tilt, Jophi’s eyes widened, and she looked at Azrael. “Does he not know?” She laughed louder. “You poor imbecile! Azrael, do you want to tell him the whole story—why your class reads Sovereign now, but didn’t before?”
Verimy’s clenched jaw and flushing face demanded an explanation. And fast. So, Azrael gave a quick summary of what he had learned when he read the letter. Verimy’s face faded from red to pale white. After Azrael finished explaining that there was no Ancestral Sovereign Class and that it was all a ruse, Verimy didn’t speak. He just looked to the table and shook his head, over and over again. As if he was trying to wake himself up from a bad dream.
Bat looked around as the silence started to stretch. His jaw tensed and his ears folded in half. “I was an envoy to Gertid, one of the many planets of the Sovereign Empire, when the Tuatha De Danaan attacked. Even though there was an entire battalion led by Sovereign Sons in residence, the Territory I was in stood no chance. But after hearing your tale, it is making more sense.
“The batman race lives on a planet that is nearly perpetually dark, called Nosferat. The planet has six moons that circle it and only a distant Sun God. We had been trying to join the Empire, but hadn’t yet heard about the Guilds’ campaign against it. Perhaps it was best that I failed the negotiations? Or maybe that was why they sent such an untrained low-level negotiator with only a token guard,” Bat chirped into the silence.
Everyone’s head fell after Bat’s tale. Verimy continued to shake his head, and Jophi frowned, seeming to feel bad about her part in everyone’s current mood.
Azrael looked at his small group and hoped they could successfully escape just as footsteps echoed down the hallway.
His guard was here to take him to the first challenge.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A wolf leaped at his throat, and Azrael swayed back, using Praying Mantis to score deeply into its back. The blow severed the spine and the wolf crashed heavily into the ground. Its back legs were now useless.
He rotated his wrists and thrust the point of his sword at a low-lunging member of the pack’s eye. It sank home and a small bit of pressure scrambled the brain of the beast. Lunging forward, he rolled over the
back of gray fur to avoid two more of the pack that attempted to hamstring him.
He executed Feldman’s Retreat and released a double stack of Soul Strike. Both invisible skill blades struck home with yelps of surprise and pain that echoed off the walls. Most noise absorbed into the sands, and Azrael fought against the remaining three healthy wolves. With only three to track, he dealt surgical blows, killing them easily.
Azrael exited his fighting crouch and took a deep breath. The arena barrier came down and the sounds of the crowd washed over him. “Sovereign. Sovereign. Sovereign.”
He cleaned his sword on the fur of a nearby wolf and looted each corpse. Only a single item dropped.
Necklace of the Wolf Fang
● This is a necklace made of a string of wolf hide and has a canine tooth as its pendant.
Ether Pool: Small
Current Ether Pool: 20/20
Enchantments: Strength I (+1), Agility I (+1)
Azrael slipped the cord around his neck and walked back to the arena entrance. The cheering never stopped. He waved at the crowd and made his sword disappear mid-motion. The decibel level spiked and he exited into the antechamber with his ears buzzing. It would seem the arena wanted more showmanship, and he was sure he would hear a demand for it from Oberan.
He opened the quest notification.
Congratulations! You have completed a quest.
Dungeon Quest
Apprentice Combatant
Second Level Survival Challenge
Doom Wolf Pack
● You have completed the second challenge of the dungeon: the Doom Wolf Pack.
Congratulations.
Rewards:
100,000 Etherience
Access the Third Level Survival Quest
The first challenge had been even easier than the second one. It had only awarded half the Etherience and no loot had dropped. The rabbits had only been level five of the apprentice rank, too.
Today, Azrael had luckily been escorted to the arena by a guard that wasn’t Torin. Now that same man escorted him back. Azrael considered what his best course of action would be. He knew that the second level of the challenge had also been easy. But, he had seen the betting odds displayed on the jumbotron. Making it past the fifth challenge was listed at a ten percent chance.
He still had the tournament this afternoon. Oberan chose to have Azrael fight a double header every third day, from now on.
He could allow the others to fight in the tournament on his behalf. Of course, doing so had its own repercussions. Azrael needed to appear like an idiotic hero to keep his group together. To keep the escape plan, albeit a slim chance, a possibility.
In the three days of slave labor, his friends had confirmed that the highest chance of escape were the three tasks outside the gates. So many unanswerable questions still needed to be discussed. Both Jophi and Verimy had mostly accepted his leadership at this point, but there was a sticking point for each of them.
Jophi wanted to know how they would save Ogma. Verimy wanted to know how they would save Dara. And Azrael knew that some people would have to be left behind. There was no way to take everyone in an escape. Unless he brute forced it. And that was a very stupid idea.
Regardless, this all came down to his timeline. In nine days, he would face the fifth stage. In all likelihood, that would end in defeat. The crowd might save him, but counting on something that changed with ticket sales of the day was extremely distasteful to him.
The guard dropped him off in the double gates. Jophi, Bat, and Verimy stood up. He entered the room and immediately sat down, wanting to take the weight off his legs. The system would help you recover from muscle fatigue. But loading stone the previous night and then fighting this morning had taken its toll.
He looked around at his group. Each of them regarded him back. They had the day off today to fight in the tournament that afternoon. He tried to think of the best way to bring up the escape planning. Each time he had brought it up recently, the conversation devolved into bickering by Verimy or Jophi. Or both.
“We need to start planning an escape. We have about nine days before I face a boss creature in the arena. I am listed at nine to one to lose. We need to have a plan and work out the rest out as we go.”
Bat’s ears flicked, and he bared his sharp teeth. “Nine days?”
Verimy punched the stone wall. Jophi spoke up, “I agree, but we don’t know how to get ourselves onto the same crew even. Let alone have Ogma and Dara out there with us. Thanks to Louis, we found out that Octorian, or the current Arena Champion, makes the schedule. How are we going to get him to place us on the same team?”
Azrael did have a thought on that, but it required Jophi to ask her Cathodiem guard to talk to Ogma. He worried that she might not do that, as it would risk her family’s spy.
She looked around. “Does anyone have an alternative idea for escape?”
“There are many unused tunnels all around—and below us. With my sonar, I found an enchanted vent in our team’s waiting room—we could likely use it to access the lower levels and attempt an escape. Unfortunately, we would need to know how to disenchant the bars, and I think the area below belongs exclusively to the dungeon, as well. I couldn’t sense any guards down there.”
Azrael leaned back and narrowed his eyes. “Why haven’t you said anything before, Bat?”
“I am pretty sure the floors below are filled with monsters. I see them coming up the stairs at the end of the air vent,” Bat responded.
Azrael blinked and looked at the others, finding their looks of shocked surprise directed at Bat as well. It would seem everyone was starting to notice the value in the batman. He smiled at Bat and quipped, “That is certainly a good option. Can you investigate further this afternoon during our match?”
Bat nodded simply, but Jophi spoke up, “Can we save Ogma? He knows enchanting!”
Verimy growled at her and spat, “Ogma? Ogma is a member of the Tuatha De Danaan. He is not even at risk. Let’s save Dara, she also can enchant!”
This was Azrael’s cue that the conversation was mostly over. Perhaps he could find an escape option that didn’t require anyone’s help. Dara and Ogma were likely kept in the upper tiers of the complex. How these two couldn’t understand that infuriated Azrael. And yet both of them had begun treating him as a child. They both needed to come to terms with leaving their friends behind. Maybe in time they could come back and try to liberate them, but to do that they had to escape first!
Jophi was red in the face and opened her mouth to respond.
Azrael stood up and slammed his fist on the harvest table. The crack of the wood startled everyone. “We have no chance of rescuing those two. Stop bickering. Our only option is escaping and coming back for them. To have any chance of saving the others, we must first save ourselves. We will need to come back to find a ship off this rock anyway. I am going to go shower and calm down.”
Everyone went silent and Azrael walked into the bathroom. He needed to speak with his dungeon core. The shower was just an excuse. He closed the door and turned on the shower.
“Apep, could you hear what we were saying outside?” he asked.
Apep stated, “Yes, I heard. Do you speak of escape through the hypogeum? I would not suggest it. I used mine to keep all of my creatures. It is part of our system instructions to do so. You would essentially have to battle through every creature this dungeon can spawn.”
Azrael dunked his head under the hot water. “It’s currently our best plan. Do you have a better idea?”
Apep didn’t respond, and Azrael stood under the tap, letting his muscles soak in the heat. He jumped and banged his head on the nozzle when Apep whispered in his ear, “I could tap more of the Pit’s veins. With enough power, I could dig a way out, while also seizing control of some of the Pit’s body.”
Azrael rubbed his head, trying to change the pain to a different sensation. “Didn’t you say that was dangerous to do the first time? Do you think you can do mo
re without getting caught?”
“Something is severely wrong with this dungeon. It should be fighting me for the space I have seized, but it hasn’t even seemed to notice. I think I can steal more from it without worry.”
Azrael shrugged. “Go for it when we are out fighting this afternoon, then.” This way they wouldn’t be caught up in the collapse if something went wrong.
***
Torin held Azrael at the end of its polearm noose. A wad of spit landed on the wall beside Azrael and he rolled his eyes. That was at least the tenth attempt. Soul Cloak wasn’t going to let any projectile mucus land on him. The toad was clearly as stupid as it looked.
Torin growled at its latest failure. Then tried another tactic. “You and your team dan’t have long now! Other groups are allowed ta watch the competition, but you lot are all dolled up on the second level. Alone.”
Torin dropped Azrael into the antechamber and removed the noose. “Good luck. I’ve got some bets to place.”
Azrael spun and glared after the orc as his friends were led into the antechamber one by one. Jophi was already inside and studying the Ether-Tech gear when Azrael was deposited.
Of course, Torin chose to drop that bombshell just before the fight.
“They know your fighting style, Azrael. If one of us takes the armor and gear, we will be just as capable of winning three fights in a row,” Verimy said.
If they did that, Oberan would take it as Azrael breaking their contract. “Verimy, try to help Bat if you can. More options for escape are better than pinning everything on one.”
Azrael didn’t believe for a heartbeat that facing a fire giant in the first round was random. He had to wonder if he was about to walk into a death match. He put on the new armor to hide his nerves. It was a massive gamble no matter how he played this. He slid the helmet over his head. “Bat, try to find a way into the hypogeum. I will slow the fight and try to buy you time.”
