As the tir appeared, I tried to channel so shields to get us ready, but my flows didn’t seem to be responding. Was that just normal until the tir countdown finished? I wasn’t sure. I went to open my mouth and ask, and realized I couldn’t move either. So instead, I pulled up my soul chat to test that.
>Dave: Can anyone see this?
>Maud: Yep, take it you can’t move either?
>Dave: No, but it’s very interesting that this isn’t blocked.
>Corey: Yes, it is. We will need to discuss this implication further later. The ti is nearly up.
>Dave: Okay, the second the tir drops, I want shields around everyone. Alpha we start with only you deployed until the mont Beta and Gamma can get a drop on the enemy. If Elicec or Rabyn says sothing different, though, follow their lead. I want everyone alive.
>Corey: Understood.
>Maud: Understood. :)
>Alpha: Okay.
>Beta: For the Empire!
>Gamma: Mostly Understood.
I closed the chat window as the countdown dropped to single digits, now even more confused about Beta, but at least they seed to be fully ready to fight for . I couldn’t ask for more at the mont. I hoped Gamma understood enough as well, but there wasn’t ti to truly determine that either.
One last thought hit as the tir neared zero. What would the floor do to the cores if I died here? Were my possessions returned to the group? Were they considered my possessions? I knew they weren’t seen as squad mbers independently, but I didn’t know what that ant otherwise. Damn, I wished I had looked into that before now.
“Zero,” the voice said. Magic flared to life all across the battlefield. In front of us, a wall of earth and stone rose out of the ground nearly instantaneously as several parts of it broke off, stepping out of it as so sort of golem creature. Each of them looked ready to fight. At the sa mont, several instrunts appeared hovering around Connie. Corey placed the shields around all of us as ordered. They hit Alpha last just as the mallet joined us for the upcoming fight.
“We need that wall gone now!” Elicec yelled as several of the Earthen creatures charged. Connie’s instrunts roared to life as a rock opera began to play, the force of the lody erupting out of Connie’s makeshift band crashing into the creatures. The majority of them crumpled back into dirt as the soundwave blasted them apart, continuing past them into the wall itself.
The force was enough to rip massive chunks out of the wall, but not enough to completely tear through it. As I considered how I could potentially assault it, the ground below the wall shifted, and the footings seed to sink into the ground, causing a wobble, then a complete collapse, sending dirt and dust everywhere. “What happened?” I yelled, feeling a wind kick up all around us. It was pushing the dust storm away and was likely either Elicec’s or Maud’s doing.
“Clay orb!” Glorp yelled as his form vanished into the dust. I quickly sent a ssage to Alpha.
>Dave: Alpha, get up above the dust cloud, let us know what’s going on.
>Alpha: Okay.
The wall may have been gone, but this lack of visibility was a problem, and probably a secondary effect they had been counting on. Behind , Connie’s tune changed as a charge of electricity ran through the air. My hair imdiately stood up on end. A form had appeared in the dusk, a hulking humananoid elephant’s silhouette was being pelted by tiny charged particles as its trunk flailed, trying to fight them off.
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“Damn they’re behind us already!” Rabyn yelled, and I felt the mana flow from his shield reverse just as he cried. As I spun to see what was happening, I felt the sa thing happen to several more shields. How had they gotten behind us so easily? Rabyn was already at work, dueling another of the humanoids. There were nine here as far as I could tell, and all the sa species as the other. That ant we had five unaccounted for. Rabyn’s butcher knife made a rending sound as it split a sword in half.
Elody leaped into the fray, covered in a silvery armor, wielding her sword and loudly reading. Three of her books were floating around her head, rotating quickly around her. I caught a glimpse of her top two eyes focused on the books before she vanished into our much taller opponents. As their blows resounded off my shields, I spun back to the creature in the dust and let off a series of fireballs fueled by the returning mana. The elephant-like person vanished back into the dust.
I doubted they were gone from the fight, but I didn’t want to chase after them yet either. Glorp’s shield hadn’t been hit yet, so whatever he was up, he was safe for now, which ant he had the other side of the duststorm under control. On the other hand, as I spun back to the bigger fight, I caught Elody’s form hit the ground in the midst of her attackers. She had taken two of them with her, but we couldn’t afford to lose her from the fight already. I topped off the healing mana with soul mana and watched her leap back to her feet, her sword slashing straight through one of them.
That was the good news; the bad news was that both Maud’s and the brother’s shields had just collapsed entirely. To make it even worse, I couldn’t spot them in the fight; had they already left the battle? I needed more eyes now. I quickly pulled up a chat window with that intent in mind.
>Dave: Beta, Gamma start attacking, I want constant eyes on the group here. Maud, are you still here?
>Maud: Yes, but one of them yanked us to the other side of the field, no idea how, but we’ve got four of them on us over here, wait, I see Glorp.
>Dave: Okay, Alpha, find them. Stay with Glorp.
As the chat window closed, Beta and Gamma appeared around and quickly spread out. Imdiately, Corey began relaying information in the chat window about locations. I kept it pushed to the side of my brain. It was a good idea and I was glad they had thought of it. With that knowledge in place, I went to work trying to clear us so breathing room. Corey released several pinpoint-targeted gravity reversals, flinging half of the opponents skyward.
The shield around Rabyn exploded. The sheer strength of whatever had done it sent a powerful backlash of mana across my sockets. Corey did their best to contain it, and while we had managed to push enough of it back out into fireballs and shields, one of them had noticed my focus had slipped. The stabbing pain was horrible, even worse was the shaft of the spear still sticking out from my stomach.
It had gone straight through my shield. How the hell had they done that? I coughed up blood just as a voice sounded in my head. “You have been mortally wounded. Do you wish to exit the floor? Note, you only get this opportunity once.”
***
The judge’s appearance may have surprised l for a second, but it also caused so of the things that had been rattling around in his mind to finally settle into place. Too much weird shit had been happening for all of this to be a giant coincidence. He floated in close and whispered to the judge. “So, just how much of this is yer doing?”
“Let’s wait until everyone is inside,” the judge whispered back.
l wasn’t big on the waiting, not with the man right there, but he had known him a very long ti. He knew that Zcalria wasn’t a bad man, at least he thought he knew that. It was hard to really predict what anyone would do in the long term in the Spiral. But as far as judges go, he believed him to be decent. So once the squad vanished into the Arena and l managed to calm down his own fears for them, he whispered again. “Ya sent the tree, didn’t ya?”
“Yes, I hoped that would be enough of a sign to make you realize what was going on here,” he answered.
“It wasn’t, between that and Floor Master’s note, I only really put it all together right now, still don’t see why though. What do ya have ta gain by making sure the System gave Sanquar’s banishnt universe back out as a prize?” l asked, looking intently at the man. He still wasn’t entirely sure on the last point, but it made the most sense. Soone with so pretty high access to the Spire had to have done it. Pryte could believe it had been bureaucratic screwups all he wanted, but l knew better. Soone was playing gas again. And gas were how good, innocent people died.
“Things are happening lhelm. There are so very dangerous alliances being played with at the highest levels of the factions. Things I am surprised would ever even be considered are now just coming to pass in whole. So I decided to introduce an older elent of chaos back into the Spiral. I have no idea if it will be enough to change the course we are on, but he was literally the only possibility I could think of,” Zcalria replied.
“Great, so that ans ya had nothing ta do with the Jesters, don’t it?” l asked, already knowing the answer. l found the idea of whatever the big factions were doing being enough to scare Zclaria more terrifying than he would ever admit.
“No, and they are only the beginning. But as you can’t do anything to help there besides make sure this faction grows, I’m not going to risk that information spreading. The Arena soul oaths have already started to fail, so I can’t even use sothing like that to protect what I’d tell you,” Zcalria said.
“Damn,” l replied, that answered the question of why they hadn’t had a soul oath, but opened up so many more questions. He looked back at Pryte and spotted the man wink at him. Had he heard everything? l was surprised to realize he hoped so.
The infection grows, slowly at first, but still it grows. That rot from the blackness so few dare venture, but sotis those who do co back are changed. And in them, it grows. Eventually, that growth consus them whole. Oh, they still exist, and only those closest to them will ever truly notice the difference. An odd smile or an ill-tid smile are so of the first clues. Whatever you do, though, never confront them.
117 Scary Stories for Sleepovers by S. M. Gri
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