“Just like a cat,” Diana remarks while admiring the big man's athleticism.
“You mean a big pussy cat,” the mage quips.
Wesley walks over to stand in front of Conrad and holds out his hand.
The professional athletic accepts the hand and is pulled back to his feet. “So how does it look? Any more crawling in store for us?” he asks.
“To be honest, I haven't checked beyond a cursory confirmation that there is no monster waiting to ambush us in this intersection,” the cavalier replies. “If I have suitable lighting, I can check now and see,” he glances over at the battle mage.
“One light source coming right up,” Lucious replies cheerfully. He raises his staff, and the staff's orb glows softly. He dispels the Will-o'-the-wisp back to its elemental plane of air. “Here we go! One light source. Would you like some complimentary fries and soft drink with that?” he says with a smirk.
“Just stick close to me,” Wesley replies with annoyance, clearly not amused with the young man's attitude at this critical juncture.
“Aye, captain!” the mage salutes, earning an elbow in his ribs from an equally annoyed Diana.
“Knock it off!” she growls.
Lucious wisely stays silent, hurrying to keep up with the cavalier, who has already entered the hidden tunnel. He catches up with the knight, holding the staff slightly behind Wesley's head to provide illumination for the new tunnel. The passageway is approximately half the size of the previous one inhabited by the giant centipede, and therefore off limits to the insect. Thus, the party is now able navigate through the tunnel while standing upright, as long as the adventurers lower their heads a bit. "Hey Conrad! This new tunnel is big enough for us to get through without crawling," he yells back from inside the tunnel.
Wesley keeps turning his head back and forth, weary of any more hidden traps inside this tunnel. Suddenly he notices another opening up ahead, and stops walking for a moment. “Guys, I see another opening dead ahead. Be ready for anything,” he declares. Hearing no comment, he marches straight for the exit. Suddenly he finds himself in a room full of television screens, all showing the cavalier avatar!
“What the heck is this?” Lucious remarks as he enters the room, which is cubical in shape with each side of the wall approximately five feet in length. Each side of the wall is filled with screens from end to end; each screen is depicting a party member in the room.
“Look at this!” Diana exclaims while checking her face and hair with the image on the screen.
Suddenly, the screens change, and white words appear on the black screens: “Welcome ye brave adventurers! Ye have arrived at the Room of Eternia. In mere moments, the Doors of Eternia will appear. Only one person may go through each door. Good luck!” The screens go blank after ten seconds. Abruptly, the room starts to rumble and move downward! After a few seconds, the room stops moving. Crack! The Strangers look around the room, and see that doors have appeared on the walls. The doors are labeled, “North,” “East,” “South,” and “West.”
“Team meeting, Strangers!” Wesley says. I don't think monsters will appear in this room, he thinks confidently. It feels like the campaign has reached a critical stage, and a small prep talk is in order. The party gathers around him, attentively waiting for him to speak. “Okay guys! It appears that the campaign has split into solo portions now. I don't know what the dungeon designers have in store for us,” he says as he slowly turns his head to look each party member in the eye. “But I am confident that each one of you will survive and get past whatever is thrown at you. Why? Because you are the best of the best! You are a STRANGER!” He pumps his fist in the air to emphasize the point.
“Stranger!” Conrad joins in with a fist in the air.
“Stranger!” Diana repeats.
The three turn their heads toward the battle mage.
“Stranger!” Lucious replies with a lackadaisical fist pump. I thought I graduated from high school, he rolls his eyes at the impromptu prep rally staged by the old man.
Wesley breaks up the party gathering, and walks across the room to stand in front of the North door. The door senses his presence, and opens by itself swinging outward. A blue shimmering hue appears, blocking the adventurer's view of what lies beyond the door.
Taking the hint, Lucious chooses the East door. Hopefully, I get lucky this time, he thinks of the possible monster encounters in store for him beyond the door. After all, I am due for some good luck.
Diana takes the West door.
Conrad walks to the remaining South door.
Looking back at his party, Wesley sees that doorways are yellow, red, and green in colors, respectively. I wonder if the colors have any significance. I'm probably over analyzing this. Shaking his head, the leader offers some parting words to his teammates. “See you guys at the finish line.” With that, Wesley steps through the blue doorway, and hears the door slam shut behind him.
Chapter 11 – Chessboard
The faint sound of footsteps echo softly as Wesley walks through yet another passageway. However, this time the corridor is illuminated with a torch on the right wall every ten feet. The cavalier has counted five so far. Suddenly, the corridor empties into a wide, square chamber.
Still standing in the passageway, Wesley sees no other exits from the room. However, in the room itself is a life-sized traditional chessboard, with each square approximately three feet wide and spread across the entire floor of the room. The squares alternate in black and white color; the squares are immaculately polished, giving off a shiny gleam reflecting the torchlight on the wall. Wesley notes that he is standing behind the white side of the chess pieces. Seeing no alternative, the knight steps into the room, and onto the vacant spot for the king chess piece.
Once the knight has placed both feet on the designated square, jewel stones embedded within the walls begin to glow, and a faint, transparent-white colored wall suddenly block off the opening, trapping the adventurer inside the chessboard chamber.
STOMP! A black pawn suddenly moves two steps forward of its own accord.
Wesley makes a mental note to designate the square positions on the chessboard as “a” through “h” from left to right, and “1” through “8” from the end of his white side to the end of the black side. The piece that just moved was in the a7 position and is now in a5.
As the cavalier stares at the chest piece that had just moved and wonders what he should do, another black pawn, in c7, rises high in the air, as if lifted by a giant, invisible hand, and is placed in c5.
Let's see what happens if I block a pawn, Wesley thinks to himself. He steps out of his white king position on the chessboard, squeezes past the two pawns in front of him, and jogs down to the c4 square, blocking the advancing black pawn at c5.
In response, the black pawn rises high in the air, and starts dropping down on Wesley's square! Without hesitation, the knight draws his long sword out of the scabbard in one swift motion, and cuts the giant pawn piece above him into two.
The two pieces drop lifelessly onto the marble chessboard, and slowly dissipates into thin air.
The other black pieces shift and stir, and begin to move on their own!
“Oh, you don't like having your buddy killed?” Wesley taunts the now animated chess pieces. “Then come and get it!” he cries as he winds back and swings his long sword horizontally to his right, cutting the black pawn in the adjacent d5 position in half.
With his back turned, a black rook slams into the cavalier from his blind side, knocking the surprised adventurer out of the square!
“Umph!” Wesley blurts out in surprise. Checking his health bar, the cavalier notes that the hit wiped 2% of his health bar. "What a cheap shot," the player mutters under his breath as he gets back to his feet. Annoyed at the cowardly attack to his back, Wesley lashes out with his shield, and knocks the chess piece down on its side. Putting his foot down on the helpless rook, he chops its head off. The warrior watches with immense satisfaction as the piec
es dissipate into thin air. Pay back's a bitch, he thinks to himself. Too bad I can't say that aloud, he grins as he remembers the in-game video and audio capture.
With his sharply honed fighting instincts, the player senses another piece approaching. Wesley calmly executes a dive and roll to his left, and lifts his shield to block the head butt attempt by a knight chess piece. The force of the blow against Wesley's shield pushes the valiant knight back a few steps. He quickly pushes his body forward while slashing his sword from right to left, cutting the knight piece into two.
Relying solely on his finely-honed instinct now, the ex-marine leaps back while covering his chest with his shield, blocking a forward attack from another black pawn piece. Lashing out with a quick stroke of his long sword, Wesley makes quick work of the attacker.
Standing in front of his line of still inanimate white pawns, Wesley notices that the black pawns in rows “g” and “h” have reached his pieces. Before he could take a step closer to the enemies, the two black invaders knock the white pawns at g2 and h2 on their sides, and immediately take over the spots formerly held by the white pieces. "Oh no you don't!" the player yells as he begins to understand what the pawns are trying to accomplish. Moving as fast as his legs could carry him while decked out in full steel plate armor, the cavalier somehow reaches the right side of the chessboard in time. He swings his long sword and cuts the black pawn in row “g,” while the pawn in row “h” moves forward again, knocking the white rook aside.
With a “puff,” the black pawn is immediately promoted to a black queen!
Before the second black queen on the board could move however, Wesley chops down on the piece in one powerful stroke, cutting the second queen into two. The knight turns his head back towards the black territory, and sees that some black pieces have stayed in place to protect the king piece by surrounding it.
Wesley takes a moment to assess the situation. It is obvious that the dungeon designers want me to win this WoE version of a chess mate before I can move on to the next stage. And to do that, I have to knock off the black king. "Time for checkmate," he says aloud for the cameras. Locking his eyes on the king's position, Wesley dashes forward across the board in that direction.
As if reading his intentions, the black pawns at d7 and e7 hop onto d5 and e5, respectively, to mount a defense to protect their king. The black bishop at f8 moves forward diagonally to e7, while the black knight at g8 leaps over to f6, standing in front of the unmoved pawn at f7.
Reaching back into his mind for the rules regarding movement of chess pieces, Wesley decides to launch an offensive from the f4 position. If I go to e4 instead, I would have to fend off attacks from two pawns and one knight piece. That is simply not going to work. Arriving at f4, he launches a quick slash strike to make short work of the black pawn at e5.
While the adventurer attacks the black pawn, its companion at d5 takes another step forward.
“Oh no you don't!” Wesley shouts as the adventurer moves to the just vacated d5 square, and attacks the black pawn from behind. Wham! While Wesley is attacking the pawn piece, he is blindsided by a surprise attack from the black queen! Wincing at the 5% damage to his health bar, the ex-Marine finishes off the pawn quickly and pivots to face off with royalty.
The black queen hops in the air, and lands hard on the d5 square.
Wesley dives away to an adjacent square, and starts his counter attack. He jabs at the queen with the point of his sword, but the piece reads the attack and jumps in the air to avoid the jab.
As it lands back on the square, the queen tilts its crown forward.
Wesley blocks the blow with his shield, but still takes a 3% hit to his health bar. He counters again and scores a hit on the chess piece. This time, the queen stands her ground and dogged slams its crown against the shield again. The attack between the two continues back and forth for several rounds. “Geez! You're tough for a woman,” he quips after scoring a half dozen hits on the still standing chess piece.
The black queen responds by using a different attack. She bull rushes into his square, trying to knock the knight flat on his rear.
Reading the move, the cavalier easily sidesteps the attempt, trading places with the queen on the chessboard. Launching a shield bash from behind the black queen, Wesley finally knocks the chess piece to the ground. Holding his long sword upside down and high in the air, he stabs the weapon into the ground and pierces through the queen.
The black queen spasms for a few seconds, and slowly dissipates into thin air.
Bam! The other black knight piece knocks the adventurer out of his square, depriving the victorious knight of a precious moment to savor the hard fought duel with the black queen.
Wesley rolls on the ground until he reaches an adjacent square, and quickly pops back to his feet. Springing toward the knight chess piece, the adventurer launches a chop with his weapon from high in the air, intending to finish off the enemy in one blow. Clang! The blow leaves a slight scratch on the horse figure's head.
Narrowing his eyes inside his virtual reality headset, the player turns his head to check his avatar's stamina bar. “Ah, man!” Wesley whines when he sees that the bar has been fully depleted, making his blows as powerful as a punch from a newborn baby. Seeing that his cavalier's health bar is still at a relatively vigorous 60%, Wesley decides to save his slowly recuperating fatigue for the king piece.
Surveying the battlefield quickly, the ex-Marine sees that the remaining opponents are the king piece, the rook on the right, the bishop placed in front of the king, the pawn next to the bishop, and the knight piece still chasing him.
The black knight piece hops down on his position, forcing the adventurer to hop back to an adjacent square. Before the chess piece could jump away, Wesley jumps on the horse figure's back!
The knight piece frantically jumps several squares, unable to dislodge the adventurer off its neck. In blind desperation, the piece launches itself off the chess board and into the left wall!
“Time to get off!” Wesley remarks as he pushes himself off the errant chess piece, and watches with glee as the horse figure knock its head into the wall and vanish. BOOM! No trace of the chess piece remains but for a crack in the wall.
“Boy, that was fun!” the cavalier says as he rises to his feet. Checking his stamina bar, the player sees that it has refilled to 15% already. The knight draws his long sword and takes long, purposeful strides towards the king piece. Walking along the left wall, he walks straight down column “a” until he reaches the a8 position at the upper left corner of the board.
The black bishop keeps moving back-and-forth between the e7 and d8 squares.
Wesley observes the movement by the bishop, and smiles at the restricted movement by this chess piece. This movement confirms his suspicion that the chess pieces have been programmed to follow the rules of chess, including the requirement for each side to make a move per turn, no matter how useless and disadvantageous the move may be. The only pieces that can move along row “8” are the bishop, king, and rook pieces, he observes. The remaining pawn piece at f7 can be safely ignored, because it won't reach my side of the board for a promotion in time to affect the outcome.
Turning right from the a8 square, the cavalier marches along row “8” at a slow pace. Checking his stamina bar, the player sees that it is now 25% full. As Wesley steps into the c8 square, the black bishop pulls back to the e7 square. He also sees the king and rook pieces perform a “castling” move, where the king takes two steps towards the rook, which is then placed next to the king on the other side. Thus, the black king is now occupying the g8 square, while the rook is at f8.
Seeing that it is now his turn to move on the chess board, Wesley suddenly dashes into d7, and slashes at the bishop before it could move to avoid the player's attack. He ignores the vanishing chess piece as he checks the board to see what move the black side will perform next.
In response, the black pawn takes two steps forward from f7 to f5.
Alert
ly staying out of row “8” to avoid the black rook, the knight takes another big step to the right to e7 and attacks the stationary rook piece.
The black king finally makes a move, going to the f7 square.
Wesley turns and swings his long sword at the king piece. But his timing is late and his adversary avoids the slash by hopping high in the air and tries to land on the adventurer. The cavalier alertly tumble rolls back to d7.
The black king follows the cavalier and moves to e7. It presses the action with a hit from its crown.
Wesley blocks the powerful blow, but feels the impact on his left forearm, earning a sting from his left glove in the real world. The player quickly checks his health bar, and sees that his character took a 5% hit despite the fact that his shield had absorbed the hit. "I guess the royal pieces are a lot of more powerful than the rest," he notes.
BAM! The black king attacks again with its crown.
“Uff!” Wesley blurts out as he absorbs the blow with his shield. The military man drops his sword, and puts his right hand on the shield. He pushes back, and knocks the chess piece onto the ground. Retrieving the long sword, he holds it upside down, lifts it high in the air, and slams it down with all his might.
The impaled king piece twitches once, and slowly disappears. The remaining pawn, which has already reached white territory, also dissipates. The entire chess board is now cleared of all black pieces.
Wesley sits cross legged on the ground to rest for a moment. As he takes a deep breath, the player basks in the after glow of his hard fought victory. I really worked up a sweat today, he thinks as he feels the sweat dripping down his back in real life.
A glow of blue light abruptly appears on the wall to the north, slowly tracing the outline of a doorway from the top and working its way down in a clockwise manner. When the outline is completed on the wall, the stone wall surface within the outline begins to dissolve into a glowing, blue hue surface.
FLASH! An overwhelming shower of blue light blinds the victorious knight temporarily, forcing him to turn his head away from the blinding light. When the flash disappears and he looks back to the wall, Wesley sees that a blue portal has formed.
World of Eternia: The Complete Collection Page 10