15 Down in the Dungeon Pt. 9 The Arena

Ian was supposed to wake Markus halfway through the night so he could get some rest and Markus would go on guard duty. That was 3 hours ago, and Ian was still fine with being awake. Rahska had knocked out about 2 hours in and woke up a few minutes ago to keep his master company.

The little pup was curious about his master and the group he was traveling with.

'Master, where are you from?'

'Someplace far away, someplace you have never been to.'

'Do you want to go home?'

'Yeah Rahska, I do. More than anything else in the entire world.'

'When do you think that will be?'

'Hopefully sooner than later.'

'If you go home, will you take me with you?'

'I don't know Rahska, it will be a long time before we can go back, and someone might not make it back. It might be better if you stay here when we must go back. For now, just worry about being stuck with us.'

'Ok master, whatever you mean by that.'

Ian had continued studying the floor while he was awake in hopes of trying to figure out anything that could explain its purpose. After some looking around Ian had found some etchings in the ground.

'I wonder what these etchings could mean, something old or something dangerous? Maybe both? Who the fuck knows.'

The etchings looked like a combination of Arabic, Korean, and Russian so they were pretty much chicken scratch. He had never seen anything like this, but Ian knew that these etchings had a much deeper meaning. There was something he remembered though; he had brought with him a language book from the castle library.

The book had a recording of every known language and it had enough of an explanation that someone could learn those languages. The author of the book was none other than Gyrax himself and he had made some comments on which languages were used in what regions. That's when Ian caught a glimpse of a word that was like one of the etchings. He ran over the etchings and found that they had been covered in substance.

'This is kind of muddy, but it has a metallic smell to it as well. What could this be?'

The "mud" had a metallic smell with bits of white in it and some hints of this awful smell. The truth hit Ian like a falling brick.

'It's a person!!!!!'

Ian stepped back quickly and looked at the "mud" and sure as shit, there was enough of the substance for 8 people. He took his stick and started to clear the leftover people from the engravings. It took about 4 hours and he was running on no sleep, but he was able to read the runes.

The ancient runes were a challenge writ. They said, "Accept the challenge of the Arena if you wish to continue. Live and keep fighting, lose and die. Good luck."

'Condescending asshole.'

Ian decided to share this information with the group once they woke up. He was nervous because if it was a 1 v. 1 fight then Rose and Alice would be in some serious shit as they weren't all that strong on their own. They usually relied on Markus or Derek to take the hits for them so that they could attack. Derek and Markus would also struggle because while they could take hits and deal damage, that damage would accumulate, and they would eventually break down. Zoe was fast and dealt a lot of damage, but she couldn't take a hit easily.

Ian also debated on his fight because he didn't plan on bringing Rahska into it. The pup was strong, but he wasn't sure how Rahska could hold up in a fight with whatever they might have to face.

The lack of sleep finally overtook Ian and he found himself no longer able to stay awake. He slept and dreamt of home and his family.

After a short rest Ian was back up on his feet and addressing the group on his discovery.

"This place seems to be an arena, but I have no idea what we have to fight or how we initiate the fight." (Ian)

"Well, maybe we should take a look around and see if there are any more of those etchings." (Alice)

"Alright, everyone spread out and look for etchings that are covered in the muddy substance." (Ian)

The group started looking for more of the etchings and found 4 more that matched the first one that Ian had found. Ian uncovered the etchings and once all 5 were fully visible they all began to glow.

"Everyone, weapons out!" (Markus)

The light faded and an ancient mechanical voice sounded.

"Champions, who will step up and take on the ancient shadows of Leone? Only one at a time and please don't die, we don't have anyone to clean the floors. Thank you and I hope you have a clean death."

"Disneyland mother fucker. I'm going first. These shadows can't be that tough, right?" (Derek)

[A/N: Shadows can be very tough. How do you hit something that is intangible?]

Derek was the first one up and he ran into the "arena." When he reached the circle that was placed in the middle, all five etchings lit, and a blue light bathed over Derek. Then a shadowy figure appeared and took on Derek's form.

It was like Derek in every way possible for a shadow and it possessed similar weapons. It even yelled and ran in the same manner. Derek went on the defensive and blocked the wild swing from the cheap copy. He retaliated with a swing of his own and the shadow dissipated.

*Ding*

"Congratulations <insert your name here>. You have beaten shadow copy lvl. 1. Next challenger step forward for lvl. 2."

"Level 2? What do you mean level 2?"

"I think it's a ladder fight system. We each will have to do a fight of some kind and each fight will be more difficult than the last."

Ian said those words as a theory, but he was worried that he was right. This could mean that the last person who goes will have a damn near impossible fight.

"I'll go next, it should be cakewalk." (Markus)

Markus took a step forward but was stopped by Ian's hand in front of him.

"You shouldn't go next, let the girls go before you."

"Are you crazy, why on earth should I do that?"

"I have a theory about this place and if I'm right then the girls should before you."

"I'm trusting you on this Ian and if you're wrong, we're gonna have a serious problem."

"I'll just have to hope that I'm right. Who's next?"

"I'll go, it shouldn't be too much more difficult." (Alice)

Alice stepped forward and entered the "arena." The next shadowy figure took form and it again was like the hero, but this figure had a little bit more gear than Alice did. Alice had her standard robes, staff and her pointy hat, but the shadowy figure had a more extravagant staff, thicker robes with some symbols on them and a fancier hat.

"Uh guys, why does it seem like the shadow is much more different than before?"

"This has confirmed my theory, the shadow evolves with each fight and will probably get more powerful after facing us. The last fight will obviously be the toughest one."

Zoe and Rose were cheering for Alice on the sidelines,

"You got this Alice."

"This'll be a cakewalk."

Alice, who was nervous for this fight, took her friends words to heart and prepared her spells. The shadow took a stance and began preparing spells. The two wizards faced off and prepared to sling spells.

Alice launched her first attack and quickly fired at the shadow with a small ember.

"Firebolt."

"..."

The shadow fired back with its own firebolt and the two spells collided with a small amount of arcane energy. The collision caused the two spells to dissipate and the energy to disperse into the surrounding atmosphere. Everyone was now on edge as it seemed that the shadow's firebolt seemed to be slightly more powerful than Alice's.

Alice started preparing her next firebolt when the shadow began preparing something else. It had started to prepare electro sphere which Alice had just recently learned. The shadow fired the ball of electricity at Alice with some killing intent, but the shadow lacked accuracy with the spell, and it hit the ground to the left of Alice.

Luckily, Alice had finished preparing her firebolt and aimed it right for the shadow. The firebolt went blazing towards the shadow and hit it dead center in the chest. The shadow then dissipated and the familiar sound from Derek's victory was heard again.

*Ding*

Congratulations challenger for clearing lvl. 2. Please choose the next challenger for lvl. 3. All eyes were on Rose as she stepped forward and prepared herself for who knows what.