28 The Array Tower Challenge: Defeat the Fire-Eaters!

After all three of the arenas had finished their battles the Elders began to escort the eliminated competitors away. One Elder to the escort, the rest to the victors. Addressing the competitors who were continuing, they directed them to a hidden stair built into the cliff to go down and board a set of transport barges designed to take them to the next challenge.

They were told that they had a four day journey ahead of them on the barges before they arrived. Each arena would board a barge corresponding to their arena, and these groups would be transported to the next venue.

Yun and Fenglong shared a single hug before separating to get on their barges, then proceeded down the stairs and began the short, meditative journey.

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Four days later the barges pulled up to hidden docks set within caves on the riverside facing the mountain range. These caves were only accessible during low tide, and the docks were only useful during high tide. The caves lead upwards and joined into one singular exit quite a ways up from the water level, where all the competitors were shocked by the view.

Just outside the mouth of this well-kept cave was a massive nine sided, nine floor pagoda. This pagoda was almost invisible from the river level, but nobody could think of why such an eye-grabbing edifice was not visible from below. Surrounding this pagoda was a set of wooden posts stuck into the ground forming a nine pointed star, with one particular point open to allow entry.

Stopping just outside the cave, the Elders then began to explain the next phase of the competition.

"This is the Fate Tower. Within this tower you will enter another space where you will fight an endless number of Fire-Eaters. For those who do not know, this one of the four clans of Volvaka that reside on the super-volcano, Foska-Vakaal, near the south of the Cradle, just northeast of the outpost of Cora Sylverwar."

"The goal in this tower is to survive for an extended period of time. There is a small world inside where you can eat, sleep, and do battle. Each floor is a smaller world, providing a higher challenge. The higher the floor the more points you receive for each Volvaka Fire-Eater you defeat. When the last person exits the tower we will determine who continues."

"This phase -will- eliminate ninety percent of you. Only one of every ten here will proceed to the next phase."

"Everyone that is here right now will be able to, at the very least, continue to observe the next two phases and see the victor complete this tournament."

After giving this extended speech, the Elder sent them all to rest for the night before beginning this challenge.

The first thing the next morning the entire camp was woken and lined up. They were then sent into the tower one by one, disappearing as they entered the door into a pitch black fog. As each person in front of Yun disappeared into the fog she became slightly anxious. How could everyone just step into this dark and unknown place without a care? As it finally became her turn she trembled slightly as she stepped through the door and felt a strange sensation, like her mind and body disconnected, but simultaneously like everything was rapidly spinning around her.

Woosh! Suddenly the world was lit up dimly again. She was in a vast plains with rolling hills and some forests and small cliffs around the edges, and she appeared to be in the very center of the space. Pausing for a few moments to get her bearings, she decided it would be best to move around and find a safe place to rest when she got tired. Wandering randomly towards a cliff with some trees near it, after a while of walking, she suddenly remembered a particular detail. The Elders had stated that these independent spaces were within the tower, and that each floor had its own space! She looked around again, but couldn't see anything that looked like a passage to another space.

Disappointment on her face, Yun continued to trudge towards the cliff she had decided on at the beginning. She realized that the best option would likely be to just traverse the outer edges of the entire space to look for the passage to the next floor. Finally, after what felt like an entire day, she came close to the wood line near the cliff when she heard a strange noise that chilled her to the bone. This was some sort of strange hissing noise that pierced the air and seemed to travel for miles. After the noise stopped and her head recovered from the pain it induced in her sensitive hearing, she began to look around cautiously. If there was noise, there must be something to make it, and within the tower that was very likely to be the Volvaka Fire-Eaters.

As if on cue, as she thought about them, suddenly a pair of lizard-kin walked out of the forest with strange claw-like weapons on their arms. These two were easily three meters tall, with powerful arms and legs and a tail that was nearly as thick as Yun's torso. Those strange claws on their hands reached out straight from the gauntlets they were mounted to, and the ends were strangely undulated and looked almost like a set of teeth. On their forearms were bracers with thick metal plates on them that also protruded out into an sharp edge, and their large legs had similar equipment on the lower leg. The upper legs were covered with a flexible layered metal plate material matching the armor they wore around their torso and upper arms. Finally, their tails had very little on them, but the tip swished back and forth with a piece of metal wrapped around it, providing yet another strike surface that could be used to hit or block an enemy.

Striding forward menacingly, these two large Volvaka breathed out little puffs of flame from the sides of their mouths as they grinned menacingly at Yun. Seeing them step out so confidently, she took a strong defensive stance and retrieved her weapon from her ring. With the point held down at an angle to the ground she prepared to receive their first attacks while keeping some of her attention split to her surroundings. The first Volvaka suddenly burst forward, leaving a distinct footprint on the ground where he had launched from.

Yun's eyes were wide with surprise. How could such a large and heavy lizard move so fast? She quickly swung at his waist with her spear only to discover that he was too close to hit properly, so she abandoned her swing and just dove to the side before rolling to her feet. Just as she came back up from her roll, the other Volvaka launched himself at her as well. This time, learning from her previous mistake, she attacked much sooner with a strong jab towards the knees of the approaching Volvaka warrior. Seeing him raise his leg up extra high to deflect her blow, she smiled to herself as she converted the thrust into a slash at the other knee, which was firmly planted on the ground at the time. Her ploy worked, and she successfully slashed across the flesh on top of the knee, but discovered at the same time that she didn't penetrate nearly as deeply as she had hoped. At most this was a superficial cut and didn't even reach past the skin. The Volvaka hissed angrily at her deception, small bits of fire coming out from between his teeth, and swung at her hands with his claws, trying to take her ability to grasp the spear away with his incredible reach.

Seeing the strike coming down at her, Yun hurriedly raised her spear and blocked the claw strike, but because of the sheer brute strength of the warrior she was nearly pushed flat on the ground, just barely managing to stay on her feet. Quickly she shifted her grip on the spear, bringing one hand low and keeping her fingers out of the swiping angle she deflected the remaining force down her spear shaft to the side before she leapt out of her low position. Swiping out at the same time with a vicious overhead slash, she managed to inflict a deep wound on the underside of that Volvaka's arm, nearly severing the tendons, and removed one weapon that could be used against her.

Suddenly, as she brought her spear out of the slash, she was slammed from the side by a heavy hit, completely knocking the breath out of her and seemingly cracking a few ribs. The very enemy she had just slashed had spun around and smashed her aside with its tail! This caught her completely off guard. She had only ever really dealt with vicious beasts and other Lynhär, so her expectation towards their tails were that they were not weapons. The Volvaka showed her quickly how wrong she was to think this, as their thick tails could easily heavily injure her if she wasn't careful!