NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: The Burning Arena
Trapped in the arena dungeon, Team Fire and Team Water prepare for Munera’s next challenge. Each team consists of twelve members of all races, having been chosen randomly via a draw from a hat. The atmosphere is charged with anticipation as the game's simple rules are revealed: each team must protect their own orb, a condensed ball of glowing magical energy in their team’s color, while attempting to capture the opposing team's orb. To claim victory, a team must bring the opposing orb back to their starting point without losing possession of their own, or alternatively, destroy the enemy’s orb. Destroying the enemy’s orb is worth one point. Capturing it is worth three. The first team to reach nine points wins. The chaotic nature of the game allows for fierce combat and cunning strategy in equal measure.
As the signal to begin echoes through the cavernous chamber, Team Fire and Team Water launch themselves into action. All around the side of the arena, the undead spectators that have been brought back to life cheer on with a series of raging shrieks and cries. The competing warriors wield an array of weapons: swords flashing in torchlight, bows twanging as arrows take flight, and magic crackles in the air.
An elven mage from Team Water casts a protective barrier around their orb, deflecting incoming attacks with a shimmering veil of energy. Several hastily launched arrows and spells are caught in the air and deflected off into the spectators, blowing up a dozen zombies at once. The destroyed remains continue to cheer.
Meanwhile, a human rogue from Team Fire slips through enemy lines with catlike agility as she runs along the edge of the wall, eyeing the opposing orb and searching for any weaknesses in its defense.
— Her feet freeze in place, and she’s left stuck there, very awkwardly, as several archers aim her way.
Dying in the game means you’re out for fifteen seconds. After that, you respawn again back on your team’s side. Each subsequent death adds fifteen seconds to the timer.
She doesn’t have time to gulp before she’s pierced by a volley of arrows from the two archers.
A resounding crash signals the onset of melee combat as orcish and human warriors from both teams collide in a storm of brute force. They exchange heavy blows with axe and hammer; each strike is enough to shatter bones or cleave through flesh.
While the close combatants engage in their ferocious duels on the front line that begins to form in the middle of the arena, a fairy from Team Water flits above the fray, darting between enemy ranks to unleash torrents of water on unsuspecting opponents below, ruining their footing as the loose sand beneath them turns into mud. This aerial assault throws several Fire team members off balance just long enough for a determined elven archer on Team Water to land several well-placed arrows into Fire's defensive line.
Seeing an opportunity amidst the chaos of their disadvantaged position, a caster from Team Fire charges headlong at Water's orb, his staff raised high above his head as he launches a crackling spell its way. The magical barrier trembles under the force of his attack, but it holds strong. The orb takes no damage. A deafening roar reverberates throughout the chamber as the spell connects with the magical shield, sending sparks flying in every direction. The magical shield breaks, leaving Water’s orb exposed.
At the same time, the human rogue who is freshly respawned from Team Fire manages to slip past Water's distracted defenders and grasp their orb with nimble fingers. Her triumph is short-lived as an imposing orc from Team Water barrels into her path, swinging a massive club that narrowly misses her head. The rogue nimbly leaps to avoid the crushing blow, but she loses her grip on the orb in the process. It tumbles through the air for a few heart-stopping moments before it is caught by a member of the defending team, Water.
The chaotic and frenzied battle rages on as each team strives for victory. Warriors clash with unyielding ferocity, while mages and archers provide support from afar. The air is thick with tension as both teams fight to defend their orbs and seize victory in this brutal competition.
Munera watches greedily from above as they begin to find rhythm in their teams. The competition slowly shifts from packs of individuals fighting against another pack of individuals to small groups fighting against small groups. Soon, they’ll be in full team-spirit after a minute more of this.
Marjus the spearman, a renowned fighter within Team Fire, rallies a few of his comrades as they run out of the respawn zone together. He knows that their chances of victory hinge on their ability to break through Team Water's defenses and seize the orb. Team Fire has the offensive advantage given the makeup of its members. However, Team Water is stacked with defensive casters, and the two archers are a real problem. Somehow, luck decided to let Water have both of them. He brandishes his spear and signals for those around him to follow.
“Let’s move!” he barks as the four of them run straight toward the enemy, moving through an opening in the middle.
Together, they surge forward as an unstoppable force, their footfalls echoing with the intensity of their resolve. The surprised casters making a front line there aren’t prepared for this team-work and are overrun right in the middle of their line. Three members of Water die in the assault, leaving a significant dent in their defenses. As they approach the freshly recast protective barrier surrounding Team Water's orb, they are met with an unexpected challenge: Frejvald, the ice-casting fairy, who hovers above them with a glow in his hands. “Forget it!” yells the fairy down at them with a snide look.
With a wave of his delicate hands and an incantation whispered on his frosty breath, Frejvald summons a towering wall of ice that rises from the ground before them. The translucent barrier glistens menacingly in the torchlight, blocking their path and thwarting Marjus' group’s charge.
The ice wall crackles, separating the arena into three quarters, with the majority of the territory now belonging to Fire, who recollect themselves in the quiet phase. The two unfortunate Water members who got locked out by the wall are killed.
“Shit,” mutters Marjus, looking around the area. “Hack it down!” he orders, not having a better plan. They only have a single caster on their team, and he’s in the midline, playing defense.
The game falls quiet, except for the undead spectators who go wild for the spectacle.
Marjus scans the ice wall for any signs of weakness or cracks that he can exploit as his men strike away at it with their weapons. However, as he assesses the situation, another threat emerges: an agile archer from Team Water skillfully scales the ice wall and perches atop it like a watchful sentinel.
“ARCHERS!” yells Marjus, diving to the side just in time as an arrow lands where he stood and several others fly, piercing two of his people immediately.
The spearman rolls, cursing to himself as he looks up at the two archers standing on top of the ice wall — a human and an elf. They’re both good enough that this is a real problem for them, especially with only one caster on their own team. He runs, arrows landing behind him. “BOOST!” shouts Marjus at the man ahead of him, who turns, dust clouding beneath his boots as he cups his hands together before himself.
— Several arrows impact into his broad back.
Marjus springs forward, using the power of his legs to propel him upward onto the man’s hand, who throws him up toward the top of the wall. His spear whistles through the air as he hurls it towards the elf archer with deadly precision.
The archer, caught off guard by this sudden attack, is struck cleanly through by the spear's lethal trajectory. She’s launched back off of the wall and down into Water’s side of the arena, screaming as she falls. Scrambling over the slippery surface, Marjus charges toward the elf, who throws her bow at him and then pulls out a knife from her belt. The two of them get into a scuffle atop the wall.
This distraction is just enough for Team Fire to shatter a large section of the ice wall.
With a resounding crack, chunks of ice tumble to the ground, creating an opening for them to push through.
Munera, the dungeon core, watches in delight from above.
Fascinating.
They’re just such fascinating creatures, aren’t they? They’ve adapted so quickly, accepted the nature of the games so readily.
— Marjus the spearman, holding the elf’s wrist and having pushed her own knife into her own heart, turns his head to look as the ice beneath him begins to crack and shatter.
“…Shit…” mutters the man in the last moment he has left.
He doesn’t have time to drop the elf or do anything else before he falls and is sent flying.
Unbeknownst to Marjus and his comrades, Team Water had planned for the possibility of their ice wall being breached. In fact, it was the plan. As soon as Team Fire shattered the barrier, a massive surge of contained, magical water that they had built up on their side was unleashed from behind it.
The ice wall ruptures as the flood presses through the tiny broken hole, sending jagged shards of ice flying outward and into the Fire combatants, who are pierced and swept away. The deluge roars through the opening. They’re all helplessly carried by the powerful torrent back into their starting zone, losing their hard-earned offensive advantage in an instant. Drenched and disoriented, Fire struggles to regain their footing in the now-flooded arena. The water begins to drain through the slits in the walls, but the loose sand everywhere becomes a thick, coagulated mud that makes it impossible to move easily in.
Screams come from the other side of the arena as Team Water launches their first offensive, now in counter to Fire’s failed attempt. They’re led by the snake-like priestess Niji-ji. Her teammates rally around her as she summons a series of magical barriers that swiftly transform into bridges spanning the flooded expanse of the battlefield.
With these ethereal pathways at their disposal, Team Water wastes no time in pressing their advantage. They dashed across the glassy, magical bridges with astonishing speed, deftly avoiding the floundering fighters of Team Fire, who were still struggling to adapt to this sudden change in terrain, being stuck in the mud just inches below, at a significant mobility advantage to them and especially to the fairies in the air.
Niji-ji continues to craft additional barriers to deflect incoming ranged attacks from Team Fire's desperate defenders.
Despite their valiant efforts to protect their orb, Team Fire finds themselves severely outmatched in this new battleground. There’s nothing they can do, and the few people who do manage to climb up to the bridge are quickly killed.
In a swift and decisive maneuver, a member of Team Water breaks through the remaining defenses and snatches up their coveted prize with an air of triumph, stealing the orb and running back to their side of the arena with ease, as most of Team Fire is now dead and stuck, respawning.
Munera, inhabiting a seat on the sidelines next to a group of cheering undead, buzzes with excitement, watching the games continue now as the first goal is scored by Water.
“This is great, right?!” asks Munera excitedly, turning to look at a groaning zombie.
The arena resets, with the orbs returning and the sand drying as everyone respawns on their side of the field.
— A shrill whistle blows through the air as the next round starts!
“There is nothing under your bed, Mikael!” scolds his annoyed mother. “You are much too old for this nonsense, boy.”
Mikael clutches his sheets with pale fingers. “But mo-!”
“- No!” she interrupts, stopping him. “Sleep and be still,” she instructs, walking away and closing the door to his bedroom with a heavy thud.
The boy presses himself down deeper into his blankets, his neck squishing his pillow as his nervous eyes look around the dark bedroom. It’s the middle of the night. The world is asleep. Outside is a soft wind that hisses as it moves through his cracked window in a tone he does not care for at all. It causes the hairs on his neck to stand on end.
Frightened, he looks around the room one more time and then throws the blanket off, running to the window to close it so he doesn’t have to hear the haunting storm outside. However, as his fingers grasp the metal handle of the window, he realizes something.
— It’s already closed.
Mikael stands there, listening, as the shrill sound of wind pressing through a narrow, whistling gap comes to his ears as it remains in the darkness of his bedroom. His heart thuds in his chest, and his cold, sweaty hand is unable to let go of the window, even if he wants to.
Something moves behind him, coming out from beneath the bed. The whistling breath becomes louder and clearer. It was never from outside, from his window. It was always there in the room with him this entire time.
Urine runs down Mikael’s leg as he slowly turns his head, the only part of his body that responds, as he looks at the putrid, rotting skeleton standing there, inches from his face.
“Precious child… Do you like… games…?” it asks in a raspy, whispering voice that carries through the true darkness of midnight, an aeons dead, bony hand touching the side of his face.
Mikael screams.