by Konrad Ryan
Time painfully dripped away. Tad summoned his cloak into his hands, remembering how he had controlled it. He had floated through the void, able to perfectly control his cloak, turning it into hands and appendages. Until the fourth void readied up, he had plenty of time to practice. He tried to remember how it felt to form his cloak into hands and tried to duplicate it. The cloak wriggled in an attempt at obedience, but even now, in the pitch blackness, the cloak lacked the strength. Maybe that image was too complicated. He should start simple, something easy… like a rope.
Gently, slowly, Tad explored the cape on his lap with his mind, pushing some bit of his consciousness into it. The ends of the cape wriggled to life. Beads of sweat formed on Tad’s brow, but he pressed on, separating the bottom of the cloak in three sections. The split sections struggled and trembled to rejoin, to return to their previous form. Finally, Tad lost his concentration, and the cloak returned to normal.
How had it been so easy in the void? It had happened at will, almost by itself, but not here. Here, Tad struggled to do even the most basic of manipulations. Holding the three tendrils of split cape separate in his mind was like successfully juggling, and then closing your eyes, expecting to continue.
But he wouldn’t give up. Tad set once more at the task. A minute later, the cloak split into three sections once again. This time, instead of trying to keep them apart, he used their affinity for each other to braid them. He released two at a time. They would race to hug each other, then he would twist them, separating them once more before they had time to merge fully. Then he would repeat the process with the next set. His mom would have gotten a laugh out of Tad braiding his cloak. As a child he had helped braid her hair, until someone at school was made fun of for doing the same thing. Then he had told her it was a useless skill, one not suited for boys, but he hadn’t forgotten how. Manipulating each of the strands was harder than he thought it would be. Any lapse in concentration would revert it back into a twisted, jumbled mess of shadow cloth.
Tad pulled up the buffs section of his stat sheet while he worked. Usually, he wouldn’t have a way to tell how much time had passed in a place like this, but his buff duration ticked down every minute. Even with twisting his cloak into a rope, he obsessively checked it. Every second was excruciating, like watching an hourglass slowly deplete. Except, each grain of sand was his only advantage in a fight for his life.
Thirty-five minutes later Tad finished his cloak rope. From the bottom of the cloak to the top, he had twisted it into a single thick braid. He gripped it in his hand and pulled with his might. It didn’t even groan, even under the immense force of his enhanced strength. Was there ever a rope to match the strength of this one? On one hand, Tad was proud of his achievement, but it had taken him far too long to form the rope. It would be a completely useless skill in battle until he could manipulate his cloak at will.
But that didn’t make the time practicing useless.
The enhanced power of his elixirs still coursed through his veins, increasing strength, dexterity, and constitution past their normal limits. He ached to test out his new strength and speed, instead it just trickled away, minute by minute. Just what was taking the last player so long! Tad stood up and paced. The small cell only allowed him to take two small steps before he was forced to turn around and start over. It was supremely unsatisfying.
Tad stopped his pacing at the sudden realization. Where had the message gone? Tad couldn’t find the notification that three out of the four players were ready. It no longer floated in his vision. Did he really need to be sitting down on that uncomfortable bench the entire time to be considered ready? His backside was already raw and scratched from the unpleasant sandstone bench, any more scratches on his rump and it might bleed. With a sigh Tad cast heal, the raw skin repaired with a painful sting. Tad sat down once more, a bit more comfortable than before. The message reappeared.
*Three out of four voids are ready.*
Why wouldn’t the last person just ready up?
A stream of impassioned curses, some borrowed from Elsie, flew from Tad’s mouth as he waited. If not for the buff countdown, he would have sworn it had been a full day. He was sure of it. Did time pass in the outside world while he was stuck in this prison? He hoped not. His brother would wake up to find him gone again and worry for nothing.
But the worst part was the voices. In the darkness, voices mocked him, his sanity stretched to the brink. They called to him, telling how stupid he was for walking into this trap without thinking. That this was a prison, just like Titan, the prison that held Zero. Tad would be stuck here for all eternity. Was this really how Zero was? Just stuck on some uncomfortable bench that rubbed the skin off his butt periodically, stuck the same age, yet unable to progress? If so, no wonder he had sounded so mad all the time.
“Will you please just ready up, you moron!” Tad’s booming voice hurt his ears in the little cell, but an electronic confirmation sound rang throughout Tad’s mind.
*Are you sure you are ready?*
“Yes!” Tad shouted. “I’ve been ready this whole time!”
*Confirmed. Four out of four are ready. “Four Voids Versus the Void Minotaur’ will now begin. Brace yourself.*
Tad clung to the bench. Suddenly the entire room shot upward like a super speedy elevator, and though his already raw backside complained at the added force, his mind was more occupied with what the voice had said. Four voids versus the Void Minotaur? It sounded like a team game, maybe even similar to a regular dungeon boss fight, except you had voids for teammates.
The walls of his cell shook violently, the entire room trembled as it raced upward faster and faster, but the pressure on his spine didn’t cover up his embarrassment.
It had been Tad.
He was the ‘moron’ who hadn’t readied up. The person responsible for the long wait, for his buffs almost wearing off. A glance showed less that twenty minutes remained.
Tad’s ears burned. His teammates were certainly going to ask who hadn’t readied up, and the thought of admitting that he hadn’t known how weighed on his shoulders. Why hadn’t it given him the option to ready as soon as he had sat on the bench? Why did it wait so long?
He forced the thought from his mind. Instead, he banished his cloak to his void equipment slot. He wasn’t sure if the other voids would have a similar cloak, but he didn’t want to give away any advantage.
The small room jerked and came to a stop. He flew upward and smashed his head into the stone ceiling, a bump already forming. His rump was rough and sore, scratched repeatedly by the sandstone-like material. How far had they climbed? Just how many miles had he been underground? No wonder pressing on the walls didn’t work.
A small message popped up in front of his eyes.
*You have ten seconds to select gear.*
Only ten seconds! Tad would barely have time to grab anything, there was no chance he could even equip it all. His thoughts were cut short as the wall directly in front of him vanished, revealing a slightly larger room filled with blunt-looking weapons and clothes, but no armor.
Tad rushed through the weapons, each looked dull, chipped, he doubted there was anything worthwhile, they would be useless next to the likes of Raekast’s Fang and Fangshredder, but he scrambled to find enough clothes to cover himself, for some reason there were far too many hats, and not enough of everything else. Finally, the room vanished before his eyes.
A giant obsidian minotaur statue held the biggest two-handed axe Tad had ever seen, even bigger than Wraithford’s axes by almost double. Above a candled chandelier glowed a dim orange, sending bouncing shadowed lights at every motion, making the minotaur almost appear to be an inky mirage. The floor beneath Tad’s bare feet was the same rough sandstone-like material his bench had been made of. Suddenly he was grateful he had found shoes and hadn’t just tried to throw two hats on his feet. The thought had crossed his mind.
Motion past the minotaur caught Tad’s attention. On the opposite side of the small ro
om was a woman, stark naked, but hastily dressing. Tad went to avert his eyes, but a few bouncing details and her flurry of activity made it impossible to look away. The first was that she was a naked woman, in all the right places, but Tad tried his hardest not to stare at that. It was the second, more interesting detail, if that were possible, that he struggled to pay attention to. In her spinning hops to clothe herself completely, Tad saw what looked like a puff of fur on her backside, almost like a cotton ball. From the top of her head, stretched two tall white furred ears that could only be rabbit ears. Tad had only seen that once before, in the book ‘Path to Zero’ where Zero had cut down his own party members. The slender woman moved with purpose, legs thrust into trousers, feet into boots, finally throwing a woven tunic over her naked torso, long hair flowed down both sides of her cloth tunic. Even in the dim lighting, her cheeks held some color. Her eyes flicked up, meeting Tad’s. Her expression darkened. The embarrassment so delicately painted across her visage, just a moment before, disappeared in a splash of pure rage. Presumably at being watched while she dressed.
The room shook again, more violent than before.
*Challenge of the Void Minotaur will begin in 5… 4…*
The bunnyvoid’s defiant eyes flicked downward. Tad followed her gaze in horror at his still naked form, impressive muscles coated his once scrawny body, but she looked even lower. Tad’s cheeks became bonfires while he struggled to throw the tight pants on as fast as he could, then hopped from foot to foot as he tried to squeeze into boots that were a little too small.
*2… 1…*
The thought struck through his embarrassment, couldn’t he equip all this mentally? At the thought he dragged his clothes through his mind into their various slots, they disappeared from his hands, reappearing onto his form.
Obsidian chunks exploded from the minotaur statue. It burst to life, fifteen feet tall, its horns almost scraped across the ceiling as it swung its giant axe in a powerful arc. A figure Tad hadn’t noticed leapt off the wall behind and sailed over the deadly strike. Tad turned toward the wall behind him. Mimicking the figure, Tad launched off the wall and over the axe strike as it continued toward another figure on Tad’s right.
The bunnygirl Tad had seen previously leapt onto the minotaur’s back, plunging both of her dull-looking one handed swords, clearly grabbed from the equipment room, deep into the flesh of the minotaur. A roar of pain filled the tiny room. The sheer volume threatened to burst his eardrums, but Tad had no time to press hands to ears. Another great axe strike from the minotaur arced his direction. He tried to move, but the roar paralyzed him. His feet felt like lead that glued him to the spot where he stood.
Time seemed to slow while the giant axe blade sliced through the air. He couldn’t move his feet, but the rest of him worked. Tad turned and palm slapped both sides of the huge axe head and lifted himself. He flew with the axe blade, swept across the room in a rush, holding the devastating axe blade inches from his ribs.
“Look out!” Tad yelled before he crashed into a lightly armored man quick-drawing arrow after arrow at the massive minotaur. The axe head bit deep into Tad’s ribcage at the collision. With speed and grace Tad hadn’t seen so closely, a man, with a mane and ears like a lion, brought his legs up to Tad’s side, then the lionvoid leapt away, the impact of the jump forcing Tad’s ribcage deeper onto the axe blade. *-178 health.* Mustering all his strength, Tad forced himself off the axe and pushed downward. He tumbled across the top of the axe head and fell to the ground. Suddenly, the axe stopped.
The minotaur leapt. Right at Tad.
Tad stumbled to his feet, there was no time to dodge. Blood poured down the side of his ribs as he summoned Fangshredder and held it overhead in both hands to block the huge axe head. The force on him increased, shattering the sandstone below in a spiderweb pattern. Tad’s legs trembled under the attack, his broken ribs crushed together. What ungodly strength! Blood found itself in the back of his throat, but Tad fought the tidal wave of force from above. Finally, the ocean of power relented, and the axe withdrew. The notification *-315 health* appeared before his eyes. Resisting the minotaur’s strength had been costly. The minotaur swung the axe at another target. But his fist swung down in front of him, almost like he was swinging a weapon…
Tad realized he had made the same motion many times before. Tad turned to the side and banished Fangshredder to the void. He wasn’t out of the attack yet! Suddenly, in an explosion of black mist, the minotaur’s axe slammed into the ground, where Tad had stood just a moment before. Cold sweat mingled with the hot blood at his side.
The minotaur had the equipment system.
The shock wave from the missed attack sent Tad reeling backwards. This time the minotaur lunged forward to pin Tad against the wall and impale him on its sharp horns. Tad’s elixir enhanced dexterity allowed him to roll away from the attack. The minotaur slipped into the obsidian wall, soundlessly.
Tad leapt backward, away from the wall, to the center of the room, directly under the candled chandelier. The lionvoid was already there, and the bunnyvoid joined a second later, followed by a fourth, another woman, with a sleek black tail and black furred ears. A catvoid? Panthervoid, maybe? The panther void was thick, with a hard shell on her back. Did she have the fat crab class?
His question was quickly forgotten as he watched the walls with laser focus. His arms and legs trembled from the brief exchange. It had taken all of his strength to not be crushed. Another moment and surely his shattered ribcage would have given out. His health had dropped over fifty percent. Tad cast ‘heal,’ and his shattered ribcage recovered, he continued until his breathing came easier. Surely his lung had been shredded like cheese. Tad spat out blood clots, keeping his eyes on the walls the entire time.
The axe appeared high by the ceiling. It sliced the chandelier, which fell toward the four voids. Tad dove away, hoping that the minotaur didn’t choose him to attack again. The room plunged into sudden darkness; the candles extinguished from their fall. A moment later, a lightsphere appeared, owned by the lionvoid. The minotaur roared, paralyzing Tad’s feet to the ground once more. He ducked, expecting a blow that didn’t come. The two girl voids attacked the minotaur in a frenzy, the panthervoid bled from a deep gash from her side. The bunny void was fast, only his elixir made him faster than her, but the panthervoid moved like a slug. Both of the girl voids wielded chipped and dull weapons. The panthervoid swung a two-handed sword at the minotaur’s head; the bunnyvoid stabbed viciously with her two one-handed swords. From a single look at their weapons, Tad doubted either had the equipment system. But the two girl voids stabbed minotaur flesh wherever they could find an opening.
Tad flew forward, stabbing a freshly summoned Raekast’s Fang into the Minotaur’s backside. Arrows peppered the minotaur’s hide, its health falling fast. Suddenly, the minotaur’s enormous axe disappeared in a puff of black smoke, his hands slipped like snakes, shooting through space and caught both the girl voids by the throat, its dripping scorpion tail stabbed deep into the panthervoid’s side. She writhed in pain, her face instantly pale. The tail strike had been lightning fast. The minotaur wasn’t only strong, but its speed likely exceeded Tad’s own.
Tad pressed forward, stabbing viciously into the thigh of the minotaur. He couldn’t help the girls directly, but if he damaged the minotaur enough, it might change targets. Lightning struck the two captured voids from above and then they were gone, free from the clutches of the boss minotaur. The shocked look on the minotaur’s face showed that this wasn’t his doing. Blood exploded from his chest a moment later, Tad only caught glimpses of the enormous two-handed sword that caused the damage. So fast!
Arrows rained once more, from the male lionvoid that Tad had careened into. Wherever the arrows landed, they punctured deep holes, followed by exploding magic. Fire, lightning, and even ice, almost as if the arrows were imbued with sorcery. The minotaur ignored Tad’s frenzy, charging after the lionvoid, exposing its back. Did that mean the lionvoid was d
oing more damage than Tad? A bubble of envy floated to the surface, he hadn’t met many people who could out damage him, not since Bunta, and not now. Tad leapt toward the charging minotaur and summoned his newest weapon. Fangshredder exploded into existence and roared to life. The glass blades howled. Tad yelled vortex, the glass teeth twisted, the weapon pulled him toward his target even faster. Fangshredder bit into the back of the minotaur, who was focused on the lionvoid. Gore sprayed the length of the weapon in an instant. The crimson vortex bit deeper. The minotaur roared in pain.
Tad had named it well. It shredded flesh and bone effortlessly, razor sharp glass ram horns cut cruel and viciously deep wounds at every rotation.
A thicker beam of lightning then struck the minotaur’s entire body from above, its muscles seized for a split second. The lionvoid didn’t miss the opening. His arrows broke bone after bone on the right side of the minotaur’s face. Its right horn even broke off from a fiery, exploding arrow. The lionvoid’s arrows struck with impossible force, each snapped the minotaur’s neck to the side like a sledgehammer. The lionvoid held a shifting and shimmering bow in his hands, made of black obsidian, like Raekast’s Fang. But more than a weapon, his motions alarmed Tad the most. The man attacked so fast that Tad could only see a blur. Cold sweat dripped down Tad’s side at the display of violence. The lionvoid’s strength, his speed, the sheer damage his spells seemed to cause… The lionvoid was in a league of his own. Did he press further in the class tower and get a better class? What was the reason for the disparity of strength?