by R. A. Mejia
Vrax Lvl 6
XP to level: 1334
Health: 100
Stamina: 177
Mana: 44
Abilities: Backstab, Hamstring, Leap, Ghost Step, Spring, Bolt
Spells: None
I sigh in frustration when I look at my companions’ character sheets. Vrax has almost double the health I do and more than double the stamina. Mary, who passed me on the XP train, has two-hundred and thirty mana, which is three times what my mana pool has. If it weren’t for this amazing mana regeneration rate and all the great crafting benefits, I’d likely give up being an artificer.
By mid-afternoon, an official-looking man in a dark robe finally comes by the locker room and calls out, “Armon, Vrax, and Mary?”
My group stands, and we’re escorted to entry onto the field. I feel myself getting a bit nervous as I walk up the dark corridor to the open sands. The rectangle of light from the exit to the arena is the only light source we have. As we get closer to the exit, I can hear the crowd. The sheer number of people in the stands creates a roar like that of ocean waves that reverberates through the very walls.
Another official in robes holds up his hand for us to wait at the exit. The announcer says, “And now ladies and gentlemen. The main event of today’s gladiatorial contests . . . Our Gold-Level fight!”
The crowd cheers, and it feels like the entire Colosseum is vibrating. The announcer continues, “Tonight's fight is between the newcomer who has been making waves in the gladiator ranks and a long time champion. Let's welcome our challenger, Armon the Artificer!”
The official holding up his hand waves us forward, and my friends and I exit onto the field to the cheers and boos of the crowd. However, my eyes are solely on the governor, who watches eagerly from his personal box seats.
The announcer can’t help but comment as my friends and I walk out, “Oh, it looks like Armon didn’t think he could win by himself today, so he brought a couple of friends. You may recognize Vrax the kobold from his embarrassing defeats, but new to the Colosseum is Mary the fairy!”
The crowd laughs at the joke, but a few women in the audience yell, “Fairies rule!”
The announcer continues, “The other contender in today’s fight has been named the Empire’s best beast trainer three years in a row. Please welcome Ashe Capere, The Beast Catcher!”
As a rotund figure enters the field from the other side of the Colosseum, the crowd goes wild. They start to chant, “Catch’m all, catch’m all, catch’m all.”
For some reason, an old song from a popular animated TV series pops into my head. Then I realize it’s because Mary is singing, “I want to be the very best, like no one ever was . . .” while she snaps her fingers and dances mid-air. I poke her and say, “Stop that, Mary. We have to beat this guy. You can’t join his fan club.”
She sticks her tongue out at me. “Hey, I can’t help it if I loved that show. When you were a kid, didn’t you want to catch them all?”
I wince at the memories of my own brief obsession with the franchise as a kid, but I push on, “That is completely irrelevant to this fight. Just focus on what we have to do.”
I hear her mutter, “Spoil sport.” But she stops singing.
The announcer continues, “Before we begin, if both contenders would bow to our great governor.”
I can see Ashe face the governor and bow from the waist. I follow suit. Though, when I rise, I see that the governor is staring at me intently . After a second, he turns away, waves at the crowd, and then sits down.
“With that done, the match will begin in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Go!”
At the word ‘go,’ my team races across the field. I’ve gotten used to my enemy running to meet me in battle, so I’m surprised when I see Ashe still standing in the same spot. He takes a large black orb from his vest pocket and then sits down on the ground. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I’m sure I don’t want him to finish it.
As I continue to run, I yell at my flying fairy friend, “Mary, see if you can disrupt whatever it is he’s doing.” She just nods and starts to chant under her breath and wave her hands. A moment later, a burst of three magical bolts fly out from her outstretched hands. The three purple projectiles streak away towards Ashe, but moments before they’d hit him, they instead crash harmlessly into a translucent, blue dome that’s sprung up around him.
“Oh, the three challengers didn’t make their attack soon enough, and now the Beast Catcher has activated the Orb of Xovuso, an artifact level orb that creates an impenetrable shield that absorbs up to 500 points of damage,” the announcer calls out.
The orb of what? Well, even if it takes us all day, we can still bring down that shield. Five-hundred damage isn’t that much. Sure, it’s like ten times what my bracer shield can take, but who’s counting?
Mary sends another batch of magical bolts, but they again hit the shield. We’re about thirty feet away from Ashe now, and I think I see him laughing at Mary’s attempts to break his shield. Then he starts to chant again, and in front of the blue dome, a series of arcane symbols appear, and smoke starts to rise from the ground. The whole thing has a familiar look to it, and I signal for my team to slow down. By the time we come to a stop, there’s a popping sound from the circle of arcane symbols, and when the smoke clears, there sits a serpentine monster as thick as a telephone pole and over fifteen feet long. It’s a deep-green color and almost appears to be made out of leaves and bark. It coils its body protectively around itself and raises it head to hiss at us.
From inside his bubble, Ashe yells out, “Go get ‘em, Viney!” and a health bar and name appear above the monster.
Viney, Vine Snake lvl. 8
Viney is directly between us and Ashe, so I guess we’ll have to kill him first. I press the red gem that’s embedded in the bracer on my left forearm, and a circular, translucent shield made of force energy forms. I swing my arm around, and the shield moves weightlessly with it. My teammates already know the formation we’re supposed to take. Vrax positions himself on my left so that his spear doesn’t get tangled up with the one I’m using with my right hand. Mary, our only flier, hangs a little above and behind us. With my shield raised, I take my first step towards the vine snake, and Mary fires off a trio of magic missiles.
Mary deals damage: 4 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 4 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 6 (force damage)
Viney hisses in pain as the missiles hit, and it immediately targets Mary as the biggest threat. The snake tries to strike out at her, but she just flies higher into the air and out of its reach. With the snake distracted, Vrax and I move into range to use our spears, and we each use [Thrust] to lay on the damage to the monster.
Damage dealt: 19 (Thrust, Fire)
Vrax deals damage: 10 (Thrust)
As our spears slice into its body, the snake monster hisses in pain, and its bark-like skin catches on fire from the flame damage from my spear. Vrax and I take a few steps backwards as the creature rolls its massive body to put out the flames. The monster reevaluates his choice of targets and lunges at me with its dagger-length fangs ready to bite into me. I quickly raise my shield to intercept the attack, and I’m forced back a step as the open mouth slams into it. It’s decidedly creepy to see the snake’s wide-open mouth pressed against the translucent shield. But Vrax happily takes advantage of the creature’s preoccupation with me and stabs the monster again while three more magic missiles rain down from above.
Vrax deals damage: 11 (Thrust)
Mary deals damage: 6 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 5 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 3 (force damage)
Our tactics are paying off spectacularly as I look above Viney’s head and see that his health is already down to the halfway mark. “Keep up the pressure, team!” I yell.
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, or maybe it’s karma for getting my hopes up for an easy victory, but at that same moment, I hear Ashe yell out
, “Go get ‘em, Rat Face!”
I turn my head, and behind the vine snake, a cloud of smoke is clearing, but I don’t see this Rat-Face monster. Mary, high above us yells, “It’s a giant yellow rat! Ewwww, I’m going to have nightmares for a week now!”
Her statement of disgust is followed by another round of magic missiles. These don’t hit the snake, though. Instead they seem to home in on something hiding behind the serpent’s body.
Mary deals damage: 3 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 4 (force damage)
Mary deals damage: 4 (force damage)
There’s a high-pitched squeak, and then a rat the size of a bulldog hops onto the snake’s body, and I see it’s name.
Rat Face, Electric Rat lvl. 8.
It peers up angrily at Mary in the sky. I take the chance and glance up and see her making faces at the land-bound creature. The yellow rat squeaks indignantly, and its hairless tail stands on end. Sparks start to form around it, and then three white orbs of crackling energy shoot from it into the sky.
I hear a loud, “Oh, shit!” and I look up just in time to see Mary get hit by two of the three orbs. Her health drops by about 20%, but worse, she drops slightly from sky. Her wings start flapping again within moments, but those electric blasts must have stunned her. Mary starts to take evasive action as more electric orbs are thrown at her.
In the meantime, Ashe Capere calls out, “Viney, use [Vine Grab] and then [Vine Snap].”
I see that the snake nods, acknowledging its master’s command. Thick rope-like vines shoot out from the body of the snake and wrap around my feet. As the vines entangle my legs, I lose my balance and fall to the ground. Thankfully, I don’t lose my spear, and I start to immediately use it to burn through the tightly-wound green vines.
Damage received: 5 (Vine Snap)
Damage received: 7 (Vine Snap)
I’m hit in the side of my face as Viney executes its masters second command. The flame damage from my spear helps me cut through the vines finally. I roll to my feet only to see the vine snake arched like a cobra and half a dozen long tendrils whipping forth from its body, striking out at me and Vrax. My magical force shield takes two hits as I get back into range to attack, but Vrax uses each of his movement abilities to dodge the vines and then counter attack.
Vrax deals damage: 12 (Thrust)
Vrax deals damage: 9 (Thrust)
I marvel at my scaly friend’s skills. If I’d tried to use that many abilities one after another, I’d already be passed out from stamina loss. But I’m not without my own tricks. As the next wave of whips strike, I activate [Side Step], the world shifts to the left, and the vines pass right past me. I stab the arched body of the snake with my spear, activating [Thrust] at the last moment to give it a little extra kick.
Damage dealt: 18 (Thrust, Fire)
A slew of damage notifications fly by, letting me know Mary and the electric rat are trading ranged attacks, and when I glance at Rat Face, I see that he’s already down to 10% health.
Then, Ashe yells, “Rat Face, use [Thunderstrike]!”
An instant later, the air around me begins to crackle, and I see the electric rodent glowing as all it’s yellow fur stands on end. I raise my spear ready to throw it, but I’m too late. A bolt of electricity shoots from the rat into the now-darkened sky. For a moment, I think the creature missed, but then I’m struck by what I can only describe as a massive electric shock.
Damage received: 12 (Thunderstrike)
I feel every muscle in my body spasm for a second, and then the feeling passes, leaving me slightly dazed. What brings me back is the scream above me. I look up to see Mary falling right out of the sky, her wings smoking. She must have gotten hit hard by that [Thunderstrike]. I try to move to catch her, but my legs don’t seem to be working right, and I can only stumble towards her as her small fairy body hits the ground with a thud. I stare at her unmoving form and fear the worst until a small, blue dome shield appears over her, and then she disappears. A quick check at her companion sheet alleviates my fears, and I see that she still has nine health points left, and that number is rising. She must have fallen below the ten-percent threshold and been removed from the match.
I turn angrily to see Rat Face standing on the bare ground, wobbling slightly. That attack must have cost it a lot of energy. In the corner of my eye, I see the vine snake curling up to strike, but I raise my flaming spear and throw it as hard as I can. The well-balanced spear flies through the air and penetrates the vulnerable and squishy electric rat.
Damage dealt: 20 (Thrust, Fire)
The shield I still have up takes another hard strike from the vine snake and flickers for a moment. Since I’m off balance, the attack knocks me back, but I roll with the fall, and I’m back on my feet just in time to see the electric rat disappear in a puff of smoke.
You've helped kill Rat Face, Electric Rat lvl. 8. You receive 0 XP.
The vine snake looks to where his little friend was, a screaming hiss comes forth from the creature’s mouth, and its massive body speeds across the distance between us. I barely have time to raise my shield before its massive form slams into me. I’m knocked a step back, but even worse, my shield must have finally reached it’s damage absorption limit because it flickers once again and disappears. Shieldless and empty handed, I reach for the gladius at my waist. But before I can do more than grab the handle, the vine snake wraps its body around me, pinning my arm to my side. My left arm is free, but the snake squeezes tightly, forcing my breath out of me. Spots are starting to appear in front of my face when I hear a scream and see Vrax leap into the air, his spear raised above his head, ready to strike down.
The vine snake unfortunately also sees my friend. Its massive jaws open, and it strikes at him. I don’t see how my friend can avoid such a quick attack, but just as the snake’s jaws close around him, his body turns ghostly, and he takes one step to the right. It's just enough to avoid the attack, and still in midair, he turns and plunges his spear into the eye of Viney, the vine snake.
Vrax deals damage: 27 (Thrust, Backstab, Critical Hit)
I feel the body of the snake, still wrapped around me, spasm once as the creature falls dead.
You've helped kill Viney, Vine Snake lvl. 8. You receive 0 XP.
I cheer at the sight of the notification, though I’m internally annoyed that we don’t get XP from the kills. That’s likely because they are summoned creatures like Mary’s pet wolf.
The snake’s body disappears in a puff of smoke, and I find that I can breath again. Vrax trots over to me, and I pull up our stats to see how the two of us are doing.
Armon Ellington Lvl 5
Health: 43/67
Stamina: 35/65
Mana: 69/69
Vrax Lvl 6
Health: 77/100
Stamina: 32/177
Mana: 44/44
I close the screens, but even at a glance, I can see that my health is down a third but that my mana has already recovered thanks to that amazing mana regeneration rate. Vrax’s health is about a third down too, but boy has that kobold been burning through his stamina. The cost of all those movement abilities adds up.
A sobbing sound catches my attention, and I look up to see Ashe on his hands and knees looking at where his two summoned creatures were. His head snaps up to Vrax and me, and he yells, “You two killed my friends. Now you’re really going to get it.” Ashe folds his hands together, closes his eyes, and starts to chant. I finally pull the gladius from its sheath at my waist and start to run towards the Beast Catcher. Beside me Vrax runs too. The two of us reach the chanting man and strike his shield as quickly as possible. Blow after blow rains down on the blue dome shield, and I can only hope to do enough damage to break through before he finishes. But my hopes are for naught. Ashe stops his chant and looks straight into my eyes and smiles. I quickly turn and see a massive cloud of smoke above still faintly glowing arcane symbols. Out of the smoke, a massive paw pokes out. Then another. Wings stretch out f
rom the sides of the cloud and flap once clearing away the rest of the smoke, revealing a creature out of myth and legend. With the body and face of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the wings of a giant bat, I don’t need a tag to know we face a manticore. Much to my chagrin, it looks like George at the Smuggler’s Guild failed to get me some crucial information.
With a shout, Ashe yells gleefully, “Get ‘Em, Stabby!” and the name of the monster appears above its head along with its health bar.
Stabby, Manticore lvl. 9
Obeying its master, the creature folds its wings and leaps at Vrax. Thankfully, my friend is much more dexterous than I am, and he rolls to the side. He even manages to get in a little stab as he gets back to his feet.
Vrax deals damage: 4 (Glancing Blow)
The creature spins to its left to face Vrax, giving me a wonderful chance to test out my gladius. I stab once in the monster’s side and hear it roar in pain.
Damage dealt: 13 (Piercing, Acid)
Before I can do more than admire the damage, the manticore spins and bats me back with its paw.