TEN: TOWER OF HELL
(Tyrone Lee)
I charged into the Colosseum with my Spear alight. There were a hundred others. Some were already tearing each other apart. I couldn't afford to fight blindly on my instincts only. I had to be decisive and strike at the right moments.
I decided to run around and take down some small fries. My eyes fell on a bipedal Dog. It had a ripped body, red eyes and was drooling as it charged towards its prey. The prey was a huge Spider creature. It crumbled under the ferocious attack of the dog. It used it's claws to whack the dog over its head. The Dog grunted before continuing to pound the shit out of the Spider.
I couldn't wait any longer. As it was distracted, I dashed towards them. The Dog must have sensed me coming. It jumped away to the right. But I wasn't gonna give up. I had some distance left to cover. I leapt with my spear pointed at the Dog.
It seemed to have anticipated my attack. It bared it's fangs and leapt towards me as well. I used the opening, to turn sideways, by using some fire as footing. I swiveled right and stabbed through the Dog. I kept burning through it, as I used another footing to rotate myself as I stabbed through the Spider with my Spear, through the Dog.
The Spider screeched as it bled out. The Dog was growling and whimpering as it died. I dragged the Spear through the Spider's body, as it burnt to ashes. The Dog had burnt to a crisp by now.
That took care of two of them. Looking around I realised, that although it had only been a couple of minutes, the Stadium was nearly half finished. I had to take care of some more competitors.
I looked around, and spotted a Golem. It had a rock body, and seemed to be made of boulders. It rolled around the Stadium clearing out at least twenty small fries in an instant. Apart from him, the other noticeable fighters included, a golden bullfrog, which despite its small size (compared to other fighters) was quite the ferocious opponent, a purple glob of acid, which burnt through anything it touched, and a giant electrical creature, which zapped anyone and everyone around it.
I decided the Bullfrog would be the easiest opponent of them all. I spun my Spear around and dashed to it. It was busy fighting a group of robotic creatures. Bullfrog used it's tongue and limbs to fight in a Martial Arts kind of style. I rapidly spun my Spear.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOOOOSH!
With whooshing sounds, it started a small tornado of acid green fire. I flung my spinning Spear at the Bullfrog. It shot like a disk, whirring with the speed and Mana.
"CROAAKK!!"
My spear sliced straight through the Frog and burnt down the robot creatures. That was easy. I rushed to collect my Spear. I was just about to pick it up, when I was paralyzed with pain and was shot halfway across the Stadium. The Zapper had zapped me. He kicked away my Spear to a far corner of the Stadium and started advancing towards me at unbelievable speed.
Before I realised what was happening, I was four feet off the ground and was getting punched at supersonic speed by him. I only had the briefest time to act on impulse.
Discharge!
With that simple command, I felt myself powering up instantly. The Mana from my Spear had flooded back into me. In an automatic response to the pain, I fired myself up.
BOOM!
I exploded with the force of a small bomb. I dropped down to the ground and bounced up a couple feet, before dropping down on my feet. I didn't see or focus on anything else. I saw Zapper getting to his feet, a little distance away from me. I swirled some fire around my right arm and shot it towards him.
In a spiral it shot in a straight path. With a sizzle and crackle as Fire and Electricity mixed, the Zapper went up in smoke.
I looked around the Stadium. Everyone was knocked out or dead. Except me and the Acid. He was burning down the last bits of the Golem. The glob sloshed it's away towards me. I leapt into the air and shot some fire at it. It was useless.
Acid was liquid. It just sloshed around and dodged my attack. I looked around quickly. My Spear was way out of my reach. I tried to use my fire as a rope to grab and pull my Spear towards me. It was useless, as Acid shot a glob at my fire and dissolved it.
Seeing that gave me an idea. I leapt up again, as Acid shot itself at me. I concentrated all my fire on my right hand and blasted it at Acid. Not in a single shot, but in a spread out shot. It engulfed Acid completely. It reacted with him and dissolved him in a matter of seconds.
"WHOA!! WE HAVE A CHAMPION AMONG OURSELVES!!! FROM EARTH, TYRONE LEE CAN ADVANCE TO STAGE TWO!!"
The ceiling opened up and the floor started rising. I dashed to my Spear, grabbed it and put it in inventory.
I'll skip over the details of the second challenge. It was pretty boring. It was exposed to the heat of the core of the Volcano. It was an endurance test and since I had fire related powers I easily won through it.
Once again I ascended to the next stage, Stage 3. The announcer spoke again, "WELCOME TO THE THIRD STAGE!! HERE WE SHALL BE GOING THROUGH A SIMPLE OBSTACLE COURSE! THE ONES TO CROSS THROUGH CAN CHALLENGE THE LORD INFERNO TO A DUEL!!"
So this was the final stage. But it was strange. Why was I all alone? Then it dawned to me. The courses were perhaps different for everyone. Without wasting a moment, I stepped into the course room. Damn!
It was astounding. It was under a clear night sky of a purple shade. An empty field lay ahead of me. I had no idea how the fuck they fitted it in the Volcano, but by now I knew not to question anything.
I looked at the time left and saw that I had only six hours left. I mean I did spend quite a long time in the endurance test. Since I had six hours and I still had the Inferno Titan to beat, I decided to rush through this one.
I took off running in the direction pointed by the giant arrow above my head. Hopefully it wasn't a trick. I ran for about twelve minutes but encountered nothing. I kept on running. Just as I was starting to let my guard down, something hit me hard under the feet and sent me flying in the air. Especially with the less gravity.
I flew well over fifteen feet, then glided down slowly. I didn't have time to look back or fight. I kept on running as fast as I could. I was shot at least five more times before I finally found a monster I couldn't avoid. It was twelve feet tall, was shaped like a humanoid and had cold ice body. I could feel my teeth chattering.
I pulled out my Spear and put in 20% of my Mana. It lit up to a bright orange this time. It was warm, but even the flames were freezing!
I realised I had to end this quickly. I put in 50% Mana into my Spear as it burnt indigo. I pulled out the rest of my Mana and surrounded my body with it. I leapt and put in a burst of speed as I slashed him down in one fell swoop and landed. I put away all the Mana to save as much as I could and kept on running. I ran and ran and ran for another hour, slaying monsters and jumping over traps, before I finally reached another door.
I had a little less than three hours left. I took a deep breath, and pushed the door open. A gust of cold, icy wind greeted me. I could see frozen structures all around. I stepped in.
It wasn't really cold in here though, it was just moderately cool. I saw ice statues and monuments all around. Then my eyes fell on the glowing, fiery red orb. It was surrounded with multi colored fire. It was floating a few inches off the ice.
But it was in an ice casing. With thorns all around. And more omniously, it was surrounded by bones and decays of every kind of living creature imaginable or unimaginable.
I grabbed my Spear and made my way towards it cautiously. I went to it without a hitch. I reached out and grabbed the casing, about to lift it off.
BZZ-KRKLE!!
With a shock and cracking of ice, I was thrown backwards, as I skidded away on the smooth ice floor. With loud thuds, he finally came into my sight. The Inferno Titan!
He had an armor as black as the void itself. Through the cracks, I could see his fiery body. But the portion of his visible face was made of ice. He had no mouth or nose, but a horizontal slit, stretched across his face. It glowed purple, then red, then green, then orange, then red again, then purple and it continued on. He was a few inches taller than me. He wielded a broadsword in his right hand. It was crackling with electricity. But the blade was made of cracking magma rocks.
He looked down at me and turned his head slightly to the right. He pointed his sword at me and nudged me to get up. I quickly got to my feet and held my Spear steady. He spun the sword swiftly and held it in one hand. He was a pro at it. I willed 75% of my Mana into my Spear, as it burnt acid green once again. I used the remaining Mana to to create a half armor. It only covered my chest, forearms, and head. That was a lot since it was only 25% of my power.
He spun his sword, and pulled back his hand and charged. Boy was he fast! He dashed while changing his path so fast, that my eyes couldn't even keep up. Sensing danger, I started spinning my Spear to protect myself.
He dashed at me. At the last second, he stuck out his right leg, and sidestepped me. He swerved behind me and shoved his sword into my head!
Luckily my fire helm, protected me this time. But I could still feel the impact. I swerved around by a perfect one hundred and eighty degrees. Slashing the Titan. His Armor absorbed my attack completely. I jumped a few feet back, and took a second to recalibrate myself. I pushed myself beyond my limit and summoned a bit more fire into my body.
To my shock, it worked! I now had a cover for my lower body. Only the front side, but I had it. It was exhausting me greatly, but I had to push through it. I spun my Spear around and pointed it at the Titan, who was now charging at me again. In a split second, I swung my Spear as hard as I could.
KRAKK!!
With a sick crunching noise, the ice broke. Literally it did. My attack had hit him smack on his face. As my fired up Spear swung around, it had hit him right below the slit. The ice had cracked a bit and molten lava was spewing out. He stopped for a second, and touched his wounds. Without waiting for a second, I knee kicked his jaw (after covering my knee with fire from my lower body). With another cracking sound, a thin crack appeared. Not as effective as the previous ones.
He skid back on the ice with the force of the kick. That was my goal. I leapt and used fire to jump on the air. I kicked some fire and rotated myself to the right, then once more to the left, and repeat. With my Spear pointed straight ahead of me, and rotating with full speed like a screw, I shot straight and drove my weapon in his chestplate.
His Armor couldn't absorb the attack this time. It struck straight in and impaled him. He hunched forward and punched me away. But my Spear was still in him. Before he could pull it out, I transferred all of my Mana into the Spear.
The fire roared and turned white. The fire was roaring and twisting and grabbing on to the Titan by itself. I got to my feet and staggered to him. I used my remaining energy to, pull out my Spear and ram it down straight in his face. With a cracking and sizzling sound. He crumbled into a million pieces. His sword melted away into lava and melted into the ice. His Armor lay empty. I tried to pick it up but it was way too heavy.
DING!
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE INFERNO TITAN]
• YOU HAVE OVER AN HOUR LEFT (YOU WILL BE REWARDED
• YOU CAN GET A CLASS BY ABSORBING THE ORB OF EMBERS
I finally went to the Orb and grabbed it. It pulsed and glowed brightly in my hand. Then without warning, it dissolved itself into thin air!
What the fuck? After all I went through?!
Before I could start cursing the System, a new window popped up.
[YOUR NEW CLASS: PYROMANCER]
[CHOOSE A SKILL FOR YOUR JOURNEY]
• FLAME BOOST (SHOP COST 250 SHARDS)
• PYRO AURA (SHOP COST 750 SHARDS)
• ARSONIST (SHOP COST 1000 SHARDS)
I pulled up the info manual for each. Flame Boost let me fly around using fire for no Mana charge. Pyro Aura used a continuous drainage on Mana to maintain an Aura of fire, that could burn through Hell itself. The information on Arsonist was labelled as classified. Without thinking much, I realised the best choice would be to choose Flame Boost. I could easily buy the others later in Shop.
I chose Flame Boost. The second the purchase confirmation disappeared, everything went pitch black as I passed out.