I cross my arms and stare coldly at Vex.
"So, where is the portal to Mathric?"
I ask, closing my eyes and waiting for a response.
"Well."
A familiar womans voice hits my ears and I jolt my eyes open. I see Vex pointing out slightly behind me.
"Mathric's portal should be that way."
I quickly look around, the sound of the woman's voice echoing in my mind over and over.
I know that voice, but how? Who is that!?
I think to myself, a strange sickened feeling slowly taking over me. A feeling of nervousness and regret. Almost as though a fog falls from my eyes, I see Vex snapping in front of me.
"..y!...ey! Hey, Dante!"
I snap back, almost sweating with my heart beating heavily. Vex and I stare at each other and he places his hands on my shoulders, a strange look of concern on his face.
"Are you ok? You look like you just saw a ghost."
I pull myself away and take a deep breath.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Um, where's everyone else, we, uh, need to get going."
I mumble, rubbing my forehead and pulling my black hair from in front of my eyes. Vex pauses, almost confused by my attitude and words.
"They're headed towards the Mathric portal, following Blankk. We just need to meet up with them."
Vex looks to me, then grabs my wrist.
"Come on, let's catch up to our friends."
I nod as he turns and starts running. I follow behind him and within a few seconds of weaving in and out of alleyways and streets, we see them. In front them, and us, is another portal.
This portal has red and green swirling within it. Only a few guards stand around the others, but they all seem to be in a trance. Vex and I quickly move to them and Blankk laughs.
"It's not hard to resolve things peacefully, especially using higher level magic."
He smirks and starts walking up the steps towards the portal. We all follow behind him, all of us looking at the guards around. Vex chuckles as we see Blankk jump into the portal. We all quickly follow, and after a few seconds we appear on a grass platform.
On closer inspection, I can tell its the same type of metal platform, just reclaimed by nature.
"Outsiders!"
Someone screams in front of us, followed by the sound of loud horns. I quickly look up to see a village with ten-foot tall wooden walls. Men with spears are standing ready, aiming directly at us. The gates slowly push open to reveal several other warriors emerging.
Four men stand behind a tall, toned woman. She has animal pelts wrapped around her, and small pieces of stone strapped to her shoulders.
"We have told you before, and we shall tell you again, we will not share our sacred land with you. Leave."
The woman says, the strange haze seeming to cover my eyes up again. I speak up.
"Honestly, I couldn't care any less about your sacred land, or whatever. I'm here to find Grim."
I speak loudly and clearly, the warriors in front of us looking at each other. The woman walks forward, quickly moving up the steps and to me. She stands about seven feet tall with extremely toned muscles and little clothing.
"You seek pilgrimage to our warchief? What makes you think you are worthy to even be graced by his teachings?"
The woman asks, almost making me angry with how she words it. I clench my fist, cracking my knuckles and staring up to the woman.
"He's doing something bothersome to me. So I'll either make him stop peacefully, or kill him."
The woman looks back at the warriors for a moment then raises her fist.
"Trial of Skalad!"
She shouts, almost excitedly. The village suddenly erupts with strange chanting.
"We will grant you pilgrimage to Grim, if you can prove your strength."
The woman says while walking away. Before I can speak up, I see fifteen more warriors run out of the village and sit down in a circle. Our group all look to each other then move down towards the ring.
"We will go from weakest to strongest, in your group. Each of you that win will be granted passage. Each of you that lose, will be exiled from these lands."
The tall woman says, placing the hands on her sides and nodding to one of the other men. He quickly moves into the ring, dropping his weapon and limited armor. We all look to Kain, seeing him already readying himself.
Kain removes his armor and weapon, then quickly steps into the ring. Kain quickly readies himself, assuming a strange position. In an instant, the warrior charges Kain. In another instant, Kain punches his stomach, chest, throat, and face. The warrior falls to the ground unconscious and the ring explodes with applause.
"So it doesn't matter who wins, they just like strength and skill?"
Vex mumbles under his breath. Next up, Warren walks into the ring, almost hurrying the warrior along. The warrior takes one step before Warren gets to him and kicks both of his legs out from under him. A loud crack and we see both of the man's knees are completely broken. Warren slowly leaves the ring and Vex nods.
"I almost forgot, every one of us from the original group has a score above thirty-thousand, due to defeating the dungeon over and over. Kain has a normal score, and he was too much for that fighter. We will need to hold back."
Vex whispers, just loud enough for me to hear him. Azeroth moves into the ring next, dropping his scythe and standing with his hands in his pockets. The warrior he's fighting takes little time to prepare, immediately charging him and swinging wildly. Azeroth easily dodges a dozen punches, then delivers a swift kick to the man's ribs.
The warrior falls to the ground after being knocked up over fifteen feet, landing with a heavy thud. The ring gasps, then cheers more.
"Small one, your appearance is deceiving."
The tall woman says happily. Blankk is up next, but it isn't even considered a fight. The warrior takes one step, them Blankk appears behind him and thumps the back of his neck. The warrior is flung forward about six feet and rolls to a stop. No applause rings from Blankk's victory.
Vex steps forward and smiles. I watch his lips move slightly and know exactly what he's doing.
"[Dominate 1]."
His opponent smiles as Vex nods. Vex slows himself down and puts on a show, only obvious to me and Blankk based on reactions. After a seemingly hard back and forth, Vex knocks him to the ground amd claims victory.
I step into the ring, brushing Vex as he exits. I watch the tall woman enter the ring and start hopping side to side with her fists pulled up. I smile, almost excited to demolish her in a fight.
I slowly walk towards her and throw one weak punch, but shockingly get knocked back instead.
[-18,000 HP]
[+18,000 HP]
"You're easy to read."
The woman says, continuing to hop back and forth.