Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

Ian crept unseen into the larger cavern. It wasn't huge compared to the dungeons he was familiar with, but compared to the passageways with barely enough space for two people to stand side by side, it felt spacious. The cavern had only one other entrance, which made life easier compared to the last few he had come across.

He took a second to relax as he moved into a shadow-covered area and deactivated stealth to reset the cooldown as he waited. As the seconds ticked by, his mind wandered back to the conversation he had with Mavis before they entered the dungeon. She had been more than a little peeved that he hadn't heeded her request to stay out of the dungeons during the tournament, and he had originally assumed she was angry at him for his actions.

What she had actually been angry about were the leaders of various organizations, including a few of the other guild masters in the AO, requesting that new rules be implemented during the next tournament that prevent individuals who participated from running the dungeon during their tournament. The few levels most adventurers could game wouldn't make much of a difference, but his rapid growth was seen as something that disrupted the balance of the tournament. Which was honestly something that Ian decided he didn't care about, since the largest group that was impacted was the gambling circuit.

He shook his mind clear of the thoughts. It had been a silly conversation that had turned into her venting about the entire situation. It had forced Claire to take on the role of the group's spokesperson for the interview with Mini, so he at least considered that to be a win.

Footsteps brought him back to the present, but they weren't the footsteps he had been expecting. He took a small whistle from his bag and blew into it two quick times. Even though no noise came out, he put it back in his pocket and reactivated stealth. If he had taken a second longer, he might not have been completely invisible before the enemy team walked out of the other passageway into the room.

Ian felt his body tense as the team fanned out with their weapons ready. He held himself completely still, trying to suppress his breathing and minimize any sound that he might make. He was strong, but knew that he wasn't strong enough to take on the six adventurers in front of him by himself, especially when they were already prepared to fight. He hadn't moved ahead to fight the enemy by himself, but instead hoped to find them before his team got pincered in a hallway.

When one of the adventurers in full plate mail began moving towards him, Ian thought he was going to be caught. He was so tense that he nearly jumped when a scraping sound suddenly filled the chamber as the rock around the entrance the enemy had come through began to slide into place and cover the entrance completely.

"Alright, the door is blocked," said a man in dark brown robes. "That's three in a row, so we should hear them coming if they decide to break them down to get to us."

"Good deal," came a woman's voice from the armor that was near him. "We'll wait here for a few moments before moving forward."

Ian felt some of the tension leave his body as the woman moved across the chamber to stand next to the passage he had entered from. The rest of the team placed themselves around the chamber in ways that would let them support the armored woman and a man with a maul, both of whom waited silently just out of sight from anyone walking in the passage.

"I don't hear anyone," said the man with the maul after a couple of moments.

"Damn," muttered the earth mage. "If we could catch them in one of those hallways, I could end them before they get a chance to attack back."

"You'll get your chance, Tim," said the armored woman just loud enough for Ian to make out. "You'll get your chance. We've closed off all the entrances other than the ones we used. As long as we take it nice and slow, you'll get a chance to use your earth spikes on them, and if it doesn't work, Bramble can use her vines. Either way, this is the perfect map for us."

"Shhh," whispered the archer who had taken up a position on the opposite side of the room from Ian. "I think I hear something."

Ian couldn't help but notice the shift in the earth mage as the man seemed to move forward in anticipation. Ian could even sense what felt like a large spell slowly building as the man moved from the door he had covered as he slowly crept forward. It didn't take a genius to see that he was excited that he was going to get to use his spell on whoever was coming down the passage, but Ian had to give him credit for managing to stay just out of sight of anyone making their way towards them.

Unfortunately, that meant the man had to hug the wall, which brought him only a couple of steps away from Ian. A couple of steps that didn't even give the man time to cry out when a glowing spearhead burst from his chest and lit up the area.

The attack had been nearly silent, but the sudden glow brought the attention of the other five enemies in the room solely to him. He knew he had signed his own death warrant with the move, but his stealth had been running short on time anyway. At least this let him remove the greatest threat to his team and draw their attention…and he found himself with all the attention he could ever want.

He kicked the man's body off his spear as he willed a tower shield to appear on his left arm. The decision quickly proved to be the right choice when the shield was pushed back towards him as a concussive arrow exploded against it.

"Kill him quickly!" screamed the armored woman as she turned towards him and snarled.

Ian barely had time to adjust his shield before the man with the maul used a charge ability and drove his hammer down in an overhead strike. The blow to the shield felt like a dozen jackalopes hitting it all at once, and the numbness that instantly spread through his arm let him know that he wasn't going to be able to take more than a couple of those hits.

On instinct, Ian stabbed out with his spear while activating magic soul. His aim wasn't very good, but the attack managed to drive into the large man's thigh, cutting straight through his armor and causing the man to howl in pain. Sensing a chance to finish off another opponent before he was taken down, Ian brought his spear back and attempted to thrust towards the man's chest.

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He never got the chance to land his attack as the man was suddenly shoved to the side as vines ripped themselves free of the floor and walls. His spear managed to sever the first one Ian could make out, but there were too many, and they were moving too fast.

Before he could swing at any more of the roots, Ian's world tilted as he was foisted into the air as the roots managed to wrap around one of his legs. When he tried to attack the roots holding it, half a dozen more wrapped around his chest and caught his arms as they began to constrict around him. He could feel his bones creak, and his chest barely moved enough to allow him to breathe. His shield was pushed against him at a sideways angle that covered most of his vitals and barely allowed him to see past it.

Ian's eyes darted about and focused on a woman on the other side of the room. She was staring at him while holding a staff covered in the green glow of nature magic—a glow that also came off her irises like smoke.

"My roots aren't crushing him. Someone finish him off!" the green-eyed woman yelled to her team.

"Dealing with stuff of our own, you are going to have to do it yourself," the party leader screamed from the door.

Ian stole a quick glance to see a giant ice shard be deflected by her shield and nearly skewer the archer on the other side of the room. When he glanced back to the green-eyed woman, he saw her eyes were wide and her face had gone pale. He saw her whisper the word 'sorry', but his mind barely had time to register as thorns shot out of the roots holding him in place.

The pain was unbearable as the weaker parts of his armor failed to completely hold off the thorns as they sank nearly an inch deep while applying a lot of pressure to the places that managed to hold. He couldn't even scream as the roots began to writhe, trying to spin while attempting to pull the thorns through his armor and skin. He felt himself bleeding freely, and opened his eyes to see the woman staring at him with agony written all of her face.

"It's not working," she screamed. "It's just torturing him."

The pain had grown so unbearable that his entire body had gone numb. He felt himself let go of the pain as his mind detached from the situation. All his mind could focus on was the tears flowing down the woman's face, lit up by the green glow of her eyes.

He didn't make out whatever answer came from her plea, but his shield was suddenly pulled away from his body by a root. He couldn't even manage the piece of mind to try fighting against the pain roots. He hung there feeling helpless as a glowing arrow slammed into his exposed chest. He felt pressure as the hit broke through his armor and embedded itself deep.

* ~ * ~ *

Ian reached up and grabbed at his chest, only to find the arrow was no longer there.

"The disorientation never actually gets better," Mavis said, causing Ian to turn as he realized he was standing outside of the portal with Mavis standing at the closest monitor. She gave him a sullen nod as she continued. "At least the archer found an opening to finish you off. A concussive arrow is a good way to go in a situation like that. Slowly bleeding out while being ground down in a slow-speed blender…was probably the worst."

Ian shuddered before he walked over to the screen to watch the remainder of the battle. There was going to be a lot he needed to unpack about that experience, but now wasn't the time to do it. When he reached the monitor, he was surprised to find it wasn't focused on his own team.

"I definitely messed that up," Ian said with a sigh as he watched the man with the maul get healed enough to retake his spot at the door. "I didn't even manage to get two of them before I was taken out."

"There are definitely areas you could have done better, but you weren't going to be able to get more than one unless you were willing to sacrifice some of your teammates," Mavis said, giving him a look that said that made it clear he was being stupid. "People are not monsters, and every team you are dealing with now is assumed to have at least one member on their team with an easy or standard awakening challenge. That team has gone public, admitting their earth mage and nature mage both completed awakening challenges, and I would have to guess they were probably standard with how strong they both are.

"Given a chance, that earth mage you killed could have skewered everyone in that tunnel with spikes of rock, then probably caved it on top of them. With the strategy you all chose, you probably picked the best option for your team."

Ian shuddered at that visual. "So they are extremely powerful?"

"In the same way that you are," she replied as she nodded back to the screen.

Ian watched as one of his sister's concussive arrows caught the armored woman on the shield and blew her completely clear of the entrance she had been blocking. When the woman went to stand, a giant ice spear slammed into the shoulder not covered by her shield. She went down again with a scream before roots pulled her out of the line of fire.

"And in the same way your team is." Mavis gave him a no-nonsense look. "Their power is far greater than it was during the last match. If they weren't afraid of bringing the cave down on themselves, I think Maribelle there would have been blown to pieces by Lana, the woman who is registered as your team's healer. Your sister could have also charged up her concussive shot and made an explosion that would kill half the people in that chamber in a single shot."

"I get it, we are an overpowered group," Ian said, watching as the archer began charging a shot to shoot down the hallway. As he stepped over to fire, he was struck by a dozen glowing purple daggers that zipped through the entrance. They hadn't even slowed down when they hit him, but the man ended up unleashing his charged concussive shot into the wall next to the entrance, causing huge shards of rock to fly around the room, hitting half of his teammates. None of them died, but the sight of their wounds and the screams of pain made him realize how dangerous all of their skills were.

Mavis sighed as she brought her hands to her temples. "Ian, it isn't that you are overpowered, or that your team is strong. Everyone at this point is strong. The problem is that everyone is incredibly strong, yet still so very fragile."

As if to accentuate the point, a wall of ice suddenly appeared in the cavern. It barely had enough time to form before it suddenly exploded into giant shards and embedded itself into the remaining enemy combatants. A second wall appeared and exploded a second later, causing the screen to go black.

"Whatever your inherent skills are, they have made you too powerful to compete with the normal teams at the top of your tier. However, if you hadn't decided to kill that earth mage, your entire team would have died in that tunnel."

Ian nodded his understanding before turning to see his friends appear from the portal.

"Only two more matches to go," Ashlyn exclaimed, taking a couple of steps forward to lap Ian on the arm. "How did Operation stealthy-stabby go?"

Mavis snorted at the young woman. "Your brother saved everyone else's life, but when you see the replay, I doubt you would consider it worth it."

"I feel like there is a bit of a story there," Tram said, giving Ian a concerned look.

"Yeah, one that's probably going to need at least a beer or six," Ian responded with a small smile.

"The cafeteria opens for lunch in a few minutes, so let's go," Selenia said, beckoning everyone towards the exit.

As they turned to follow, Mavis leaned in and said, "She's picked up our culture and speech patterns fast enough that I doubt anyone would believe she wasn't born here."

Ian could only nod as Ashlyn rushed to catch up with her friend.