The masked man spread his arms wide.
"Now, let me introduce this world to you properly! Welcome, otherworlders, to Motika, the world born from chaos by order!"
He gestured to the red-purple clouds. "The chaotic lands are the edges of this world, the chaos trying to reclaim itself. The chaos takes on the forms of monsters and beasts, while order builds up all the races capable of thought! Beastkin, orcs, genasi, the spirits, celestials, and even demons and teiflings are all beings of order!"
"So, you must fight! To drive away the chaos, fight! To drive away the chaos, live! And if you rise high enough... perhaps you may become one of the great legends capable of driving the chaos back and allowing order to grow, creating new lands entirely!"
He dropped his arms to clasp his hands before himself.
"I do so hope you'll surprise me." The voice was so happy in its interest, yet everyone listening merely felt unnerved.
Who, or what, was this masked man? Was he even a man?
"Now, you'll want to focus on bringing up you 'status'. Just focus and it'll be there. You should instinctively just get how it all works, so I'll leave you to it! Remember, make sure to work in groups! Don't want you dying tooooo quickly now, do we?"
And with that he vanished in a flurry of lilac sparks...
And the invisible floor vanished with him.
"OH FUUUUUUU-" "AAAAAAAIIIIIIEEEE!" "HOLY SHIIIIIIII-" "AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Many screams tore out of their throats as everyone began to fall! Even the constantly smiling Nick and stoic Xandra began to scream as they hurtled down to the ground below, towards the lake near the mountains peak!
Kai felt that same panic, but he saw a flailing dark shape screaming with an extremely high pitch, and a thought occurred to him!
He quickly grabbed the panicking batkin, shaking her to look right at him. "OPEN YOUR WINGS! YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO FLY!"
He screamed in her face, but she kept screaming!
He slapped her, snapping her out of it, and screamed again!
"OPEN! YOUR! WINGS!"
She nodded hurriedly, looking down with panicked eyes, and her wings began to spread... but not in a way that could catch the wind.
Kai was looking at the parrotkin, sending a kick at him as they spun about in the air, then pointing to the bat girl when the parrotkin broke from his screaming to look at who hit him.
The parrotkin nodded gratefully, and tried to spread his wings... and everyone shot past him as he slowed down slightly, but he definitely wasn't flying.
'Fuck, wings aren't big enough!' Panic once again began to overwhelm the parrotkin as he stared at the ground still coming too him, at just slightly slower a pace.
Meanwhile Kai swung back to look at the bat girl, who was once again panicking as she hurriedly bent her wings to make the air catch into the leathery skin now pulled right into wings-
And as he looked over, it looked like she suddenly shot up, yet really she just slowed down much like the parrotkin.
Neither had big enough wings for their size... and both had intense pain in their arms/wings from the intense force against them!
'Ouch ouch ouch!' The girl screamed as her mind simply flinched in pain, as her wings were almost popped out of their sockets by that sudden yank of air pressure!
Everyone continued plummeting, and Kai stared down at the approaching water-
'Hitting water at that speed is no different than concrete.'
And then, what might be the last thought he ever had in this world passed through his mind.
'Wait. What is concrete?'
"WHOOPOOOOSH!"
A massive explosion of water rose from the lake and pattered around the surroundings in a drizzle much like a small localized rain-shower from how fast so many bodies hit the water.
The parrotkin and batkin soon followed alongside the owlkin who had noticed what they were doing early enough to also attempt it.
The splash of those three was not simultaneous, but consecutive, and not nearly as big as the first of all the rest, but still scary huge!
It would seem a miracle that the waters were not dyed red in gore and blood to any casual observer...
~ ~ ~
Kai opened his eyes to look at the sky above.
'I... should not be so surprised. Magic. Answers absolutely bloody everything.'
He sat up with a grimace, his entire body sore and aching as though he'd done a massive bellyflop.
But seeing as he got off with just that little pain, he was not going to complain.
The others also began getting up with winces or rubbing their body wherever they hit the... air?
They'd passed through the water like it was an illusion and now sat at the bottom of the "lake", a pit in the ground, and no water could be seen from within.
Right as they passed the water, they'd somehow just... stopped.
And then dropped the last 2 meters.
'Ow.'
'If it's a spell placed by that masked guy to catch us... then why the heck is the lake water just gone? Is it an illusion? Where does the river come from then? I don't get it at all.'
Kai looked and saw a text box.
Nick stood up, a serious expression showing in his eyes even as he had a calm and friendly smile. "Alright guys, looks like we're on our own... and seeing as monsters were mentioned, I'd say our first priority is a method of defense, then to get to that city down the mountain. Anyone see anything we can use as weapons?"
Kai frowned. 'Wasn't Nick paying attention to all the other stuff? Sure monsters was important but he also mentioned hoping we'd do well, and we're safe right now. I doubt that masked guy would send us somewhere to die, so the area is probably mostly safe at least, with smaller threats. He told us to do something before when we were up there too... plus the gather into groups for safety thing.'
Kai stood on shaky legs from the falling, and cursed Nick for looking so casual and easygoing about standing after THAT experience! 'Fucking invincible main character-looking ass.'
He stumbled over to Michael.
"Sorry..." he fell down next to Michael and eventually shifted into a sitting position after a second.
Nick was now in a argument with the big tiefling, truly the trouble maker of the group it would seem...
Ignoring that, Kai looked to Michael. "I dunno if your memory is better than us being a machine and all... but would you happen to remember what that masked dick asked us to do BEFORE dropping us?"
Michael was examining a crack in his plexiglass exterior on his arm, the most severe of many scratches along his surface.
"Yeah... something about checking your status-oh." He paused as a new text box opened that only he could see. "Yeah just focus on the idea, you'll see it too."
Kai nodded, looking away and around the cave, noting light sources being strange moss that flowed blue-green, and a tunnel in the wall going who-knows-where, also lit up by bioluminescent moss.
'Status?'
* * *
Name: Kai
Race: Kitsune/Foxkin(Spirit Ancestry)
Class: Level 0 Unselected
State: Healthy
Talents: Animal Senses, Keen Reflexes, Spirit Kinship, Mana Control
Skills: N/A
Titles: N/A
* * *
Kai nearly had a headache from the sheer amount of text practically slamming one another as they kept appearing one after the other, layering on top of each other.
'Fucking-! What the hell?!'
He thought/read through the information both in his mind instantly and before his eyes to look over again.
'Class? So this is how I choose how I can fight as an adventurer? Seems I'm for sure a mage type... except spirit medium seems to be a class geared towards taking my unique bloodline and magic talent and making that into a melee strength. Keen Senses and Animal Reflexes would probably help in melee too...'
'Definitely not mage, a unique class is harder to counteract cause it's less well known what it can and can't do.'
He nodded, then shook his head. 'I... understand this? I know how this works, and can even criticize classes as if I know the pros and cons? I think the masked dick-waffle did say something about "just knowing" or "just understanding but... this is ridiculous!'