Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

The worked stone walls and old wooden furniture weren't what Ian had expected. He had seen caves, villages, forests, and all sorts of natural terrain in the replays from the tournament, but he had never seen anything quite like this.

"Are we in a freaking castle?" Ashlyn asked. "It literally looks like it was ripped from a museum display...well, almost. Everything seems just a little bit off."

Ian could only nod as he looked up at the iron chandelier above the large rectangular table with matching high-backed chairs in front of them. However, the table didn't have any tableware. Instead, it was covered in realistic paintings of a feast that appeared almost three-dimensional from his position. From the looks his team had on their faces, they thought it was strange as well.

Continuing to examine the room, he found large arched windows with iron bars that allowed light to enter, but Ian couldn't immediately see any trees or clouds. When he moved to get a closer look, all he saw was a wide expanse of open sky without a horizon. Looking down made it obvious they were either incredibly high up or this castle was simply floating in space.

"Whatever you do, don't get thrown through a wall or tossed out a window," he said as a shiver ran up his back. "I don't think there is any land outside this castle."

"Yeah, I have no desire to fall to my death again," Tram said, his eyes not leaving the room's only entrance.

"Let's get into formation," Ian said, moving to take the rear of the group.

Tram took the lead, with Selenia, Claire, and Ashlyn forming a circle around Lana. With her being the only way they could sense the other team's presence, protecting her had become their number one priority. It was a plan that put a lot of the responsibility on Lana, and it seemed that she was completely locked into her role.

"Remember the signals," she said as Tram began moving them carefully towards the next room.

As they pushed the door open and left, Ian was surprised to find that they didn't walk out into a hallway. Instead, the room was set up like an old office. The walls were lined in bookshelves except for two doors that were on the walls to their left and their right from where they entered.

"Damn," Tram said after taking in the room. "I was hoping each room would open into a hallway. It seems weird that we went from what looked like a dining room directly into an office."

"Yeah," Claire agreed, before walking over and pulling a book off the shelf. A shiver visibly ran up her spine when she opened it. "It's completely blank. This is the creepiest thing I've ever seen in a dungeon."

"Oh shit," Ian whispered, looking back at the room they came from as a realization hit him. Pointing to the door on his right, he continued, "I couldn't see that room from the window I looked out. It was literally just the blue of an afternoon sky as far in any direction as I could see."

"Alright, so what does that mean for us?" Claire asked, looking at the doors uncomfortably.

"I'm not sure yet," Ian said, nodding to the door. "Let's go through there and see where it leads."

Nodding, they all got back into formation and followed Tram. The room that followed was a kitchen, which made even less sense being attached to an office than the office attached to the dining room. Worst of all was that it had doors in the center of each wall. Turning around, he saw a window next to the door they had just come through that showed the same blue sky.

"Damnit," Ian said with a sigh. "It's a maze, and the windows are just there to mess with us."

One of Claire's daggers flew through the air and cut deep into the stone wall, embedding itself up to the hilt. Ian stuck his head back through the door and saw the very tip of the dagger sticking out of the wall on the opposite side.

"Worst dungeon, ever," Selenia growled under her breath. "They could be on the other side of any of these walls."

"My aura only covers the room we are currently in," Lana said with a grimace. "Whenever I enter a room, it cuts off the perception from the other side of the doorway. It's almost like these rooms aren't actually next to each other."

"I wonder if each is its own dimensional space," Selenia said, a smile coming to her face. "I wonder if there is actually anything under the flo—"

"Bzzt bzzt bzzt," Ashlyn cut Selenia off with a terrified look. "We do not speak of things we do not want to know. There is a solid floor under this. Does everyone understand me?" Everyone gave her a nod of agreement. "Let us agree this place is just creepy as hell and spend our time on more important things, like how their team lead can probably go through any of these walls and we wouldn't be able to tell."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"If Claire's knife can go through, it would be stupid to think he can't," Ian agreed.

"Then the most logical thing for us to do would be to find a room that works defensively for us," Tram said, drawing everyone's attention.

Agreeing, everyone fell into formation in the center of the room as Tram moved to open the first door with his shield up. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open as hard as he could and got into a defensive position with the kitchen counter providing an additional barrier to his left and right.

"We got a bedroom with two sets of bunk beds," Tram said before reaching through and pulling the door back shut. "There was a fireplace and a door on the opposite side. Nothing in there seemed even relatively defensible."

He moved on to the next room to discover a closet filled with racks of clothes. It was literally the perfect place for people to jump out and attack them from. With how difficult it was to see through with all the clothes, they immediately shut the door and pushed one of the tables up against it.

The third door led to a small throne room, which had three more rooms attached to it. Slowly entering, they were ready to act until Lana gave them the signal that the room was clear. Even with the signal, Ian couldn't bring himself to relax as he looked at the suits of armor that stood in the corners of the room.

"This place is so damn creepy," he said, trying to force himself to focus in. "Let's keep moving carefully like this until we find a better place."

Nodding, Tram took the lead and began checking rooms. Every moment seemed to stretch, and every room opened caused a sense of tension that made twenty minutes feel like twenty hours. They had found cartography rooms, alchemy rooms, stables, three different styles of day rooms, a half dozen bedrooms, and even a greenhouse before they stumbled upon a multistory entrance hall that was easily ten times the size of the other rooms.

As they stood in the latest bedroom staring into the hall, Lana's head suddenly lurched to the side as her wand came up. Ian brought his spear up to follow her gaze just in time to see a hand sink back into the wall.

"By the curator, we're in a horror movie," Ashlyn swore before turning around and looking at the surrounding room.

"Everyone into the hall," Tram commanded, bringing his shield to bear and rushing through the door.

Ian followed the rest of the team through as they moved towards the center of the room, making sure there was plenty of space between them and the walls. To make matters worse, the ceiling suddenly tripled in height as they moved in front of a giant stone staircase.

"There is a second-floor balcony in this room," Claire said, scanning the railing up top for any signs of movement.

"And half the doors are already open in here," Lana said, as she finished scanning the first floor. "I'm not feeling anyone, but my aura isn't going to cover this entire distance."

"Would we be better in the smaller rooms?" Selenia asked.

"They are too small for us to really fight in," Claire answered with a small shake of her head.

"True, but this one also has an overhang, making us susceptible to more angles," Ashlyn said, nodding to the second floor.

"Not much we can do about it now," Ian stated. He could feel his entire body tensing for the fight. He was ready to strike the moment the enemy moved to attack.

As the seconds turned to minutes, Ian could only sigh before loosening his grip and adjusting his stance to a more sustainable posture.

"They're probably watching us right now from one of the open doors, so make yourself comfortable without using up much strength," he said, rolling his shoulders, one at a time, to loosen them up. "Unfortunately, they get to decide when this fight takes place."

Hearing his teammates adjust their posture, he almost wasn't ready for the clapping that suddenly came from the top of the staircase.

"Very astute observation," came a woman's voice as a hooded figure in black suddenly appeared. She was leaning with her forearms crossed on the railing as she stared down at Ian. "I kinda hoped you'd wear yourself out before the fight started, but things don't always go to plan."

"She's just out of range for me to detect," Lana whispered just loud enough for Ian to make out.

"Doesn't matter," Ashlyn said, bringing her bow up and firing a concussive shot directly at the woman on the balcony.

She didn't even dodge as the arrow hit her dead on and exploded, shredding that section of the second floor and causing a fireball to roar out to either side of the impact.

"That was rude," came the same voice as another cloaked figure appeared, leaning against the railing on the exact opposite side of the second floor. "You could have at least—"

"By the curator," Lana growled before raising her wand and hitting the new area where the woman was with a kinetic blast with a click. "What is wrong with these people? Just because people are watching doesn't mean any of you need to fucking monologue. We're sick of these god damn matches. Just hurry up and fight us so we can get back to our lives."

Ian couldn't help but smile when a large portion of the floor she had been standing on broke off completely and collapsed, leaving a gap on the second floor that would have been hard for most to jump across. Before Ian could say anything, Lana moved the wand to line up another shot. She began to systematically fire at the second floor, causing huge areas to crash down, eliminating any chance of moving across it unhindered, and opening up additional lines of sight for the rest of the team.

After a few moments, Lana stood in the middle of the formation, panting with her wand still outstretched towards the last area she had blasted. Her eyes slowly moved from side to side, searching for any sign the enemy team was there.

"That's fair," came the voice again, though this time she didn't immediately appear. If Ian's senses were correct, the voice was coming from multiple places of what was left of the second floor. "I didn't want to talk shit or prattle on about stupid things that you kids probably don't care about. Despite what you may believe, I do remember being a twenty-something once upon a time.

"I just wanted to say that this is the first time I've ever been able to go all out, and hopefully you all can help show me the ins and outs of my inherent skill." As she spoke, her voice began to emanate from more and more areas on the second floor, growing louder. "With this being my team's last tournament, and possibly our last fight, I just wanted to make sure we give everyone one hell of a good show."

Ian's eyes got wide as dozens of copies of the woman moved into view and stared down at his team. He could only curse his luck as a dagger appeared in each of their right hands. As they began to launch themselves off the second floor to attack, his team struck out with everything they had.