Factions Abound: Unfortunate Victory

The second round of the Faction War started shortly after the first ended. While Desci was making his way back toward the Hades Collective starting point and while Alric had disappeared somewhere into the darkness of the dungeon, the next round's contestants were receiving their target. Merrick watched from the sidelines as the Yorin ignored taunting comments from his opponent.

Grunt was a Paladin, but Merrick could not be sure what Oath he had taken. The Paladin's Oath was were they gained their abilities and their primary stat boosts. Based on Grunt's gear, Merrick could assume that it was either the Oath of Courage or the Oath of Vitality. Now that they had changed into their battle gear, the former Vice-Leader of Hades Collective, Grunt, was outfitted like a tank with a heavy sword strapped to his back and a giant shield strapped to his arm.

In comparison, Yorin looked more like a Yeoman than a variant of the Knight class. He wore a few pieces of metal armor over loose fighting clothes. He had a pair of shortswords at his side and a long bow on his back. It gave Merrick the image of Robin Hood during wartime.

Their item was announced: Jailer's Keys. Despite the fact that Yorin had been deflecting Grunt's taunts throughout their time at the ledge, before dropping into the dungeon, Yorin cleared his throat to get his opponent's attention.

Once Grunt looked over, Yorin finally spoke up, "With a name like Grunt and that build, I can tell you are compensating for something."

The War Officiant declared the start of the second round. Grunt was turning visibly as red as the trimming on his black armor. Yorin waved to the crowd and then dropped into the dungeon without giving Grunt a chance to respond.

A laugh erupted from Merrick's side of the stands and he could see stifled chuckles on the opposite side as Hades Collective watched someone make a fool of their Vice-Leader. Grunt looked to DeathX, his Faction Leader, on the sideline for a second as if looking for approval. DeathX did not give the approval.

Merrick wondered what that was about but he quickly focused on the Faction War at hand when Grunt dropped into the dungeon as well. Merrick could not be sure what Hades Collective would try to pull, but he knew what Alric was up to. By the time that Yorin dropped into the dungeon, Alric had already mapped out the rest of the dungeon. He had also made a quick physical copy of the map with a brick and the arcane chalk that he left for Yorin at the Curious Glades starting point before disappearing back into the darkness.

Yorin was on his own in this round. The Knight-Errant had insisted on it when he heard Merrick's plan. Alric threw his round on purpose to stay alive and even the odds of winning the war. For that advantage to continue, Alric had to survive to the final round. Yorin, on the other hand, could sacrifice himself to get the point if needed.

As Yorin followed the map to the Colosseum's Jail, Merrick started to feel his stomach falling out. Hades Collective stole Merrick's plan and implemented it to a better degree in the second round. Rather than winning the round and, in turn, winning the Faction War, they set up a trap of their own.

Yorin noticed the spores before anyone watching on the monitors. He waved his hand slightly through the air, using a Knight-Errant ability that Merrick was unfamiliar with, to gather a handful of the spores to inspect them. Yorin took a shallow breath, taking in some of the spores, and then coughing them out violently.

After recovering, he wiped the spores from his hands and double checked that his Holy Rosary was wrapped around his wrist. Yorin said a quiet word to those watching, "I'll never know how you knew but thank you."

Merrick took a deep breath. He had no idea that the Holy Rosary would be so effective. He had crafted it to offset the curse of the other item. However, as Yorin pressed further toward the Colosseum's Jail, the spores grew in density to the point where everyone in the stands thought that Yorin was walking through fog.

The spores had also started to sprout fungus of all kinds along the walls. Merrick had read about these abilities but he had never seen them in practice inside of the game. Desci was a rare breed of Druid, that was certain.

As Yorin entered into the place that Alric had marked on the map as the Jail, he could not see the original structure. Desci's spores and fungus had turned the ruined Colosseum's Jail into a mushroom paradise covered in spore-fog. At the center of it, the Druid was sitting cross-legged with his staff laid over his legs. With each breath out, more spores filled the air.

Yorin cleared his throat, "Excuse me, would you mind turning off the air de-purifier for a bit?"

Desci's eyes opened and looked at Yorin with disdain but he did not break his stance or stop using the ability.

Yorin took a step into the mushroom covered Jail and looked for Grunt. "I was hoping to knock that Paladin down a peg… Is he hiding around somewhere? Seems kind of like a beta move…"

Desci still did not respond. Yorin took another step inward. Merrick watched as the Knight-Errant used a kind of pulsing ability that the Knight-Errant got from their Ranger-like tree that told him if there were any living beings nearby.

Yorin looked around the room in awe, "Wow… it really is just me, you, and this mushroom."

Desci was getting visibly annoyed but he kept breathing out spores.

Yorin cleared his throat, slimy spores came out with his cough, "Locate is telling me that this is all one organism… That is pretty cool. Also gross, because I definitely swallowed about a mealful of spores. That's not going to pass well, I bet."

Desci finally cracked, "Do you ever shut up!?"

"No." Yorin chuckled, "I hate to break it to you and your spores, but I've got immunity. So even if the constant health drain overcomes my regeneration buff, you're still going to have to do more than just breathe at me if you want to die before grabbing those keys."

That was when Merrick noticed the item hanging on the wall behind Desci. It was a small circle of wall that was not covered in fungus and the spores were avoiding a three foot semi-sphere. The Jailer's Keys. Desci could have won the point, as Merrick thought, but they chose to take out the members of the Curious Glades first.

Yorin continued, "Look, you seem like a nice guy and all… but I don't really like breathing this crap in, even if it isn't really affecting me. It tastes bad… like… moldy blood. How about you drop the ability and we fight this out like normal Adventurers?"

Desci took a deep breath, a gust of spores entered his lungs from the room. Even watching from the monitor, Merrick could see that it visibly powered up the Druid.

Yorin smiled wide and drew his bow as Desci got up to his feet. "That's more like it."

"You will regret not taking a shot while I was in my Nature State."

Yorin shook his head as he knocked an arrow, "I regret nothing."

Desci's staff gathered the remaining spores from the nearby air and he shouted a Druid Spell, "Wild Growth!"

Mushrooms the size of wild boars and enraged bears sprouted like an avalanche rushing toward Yorin. Yorin fired an arrow that completely missed Desci. Desci laughed as the fungus cascaded forward.

With a smile, the Knight-Errant took two steps forward and jumped into the air. Like an old-school video game, he hit the top of the coming avalanche and bounced upward like the expanding mushroom was a trampoline.

Thanks to the speed-boost from his cursed ring, Yorin was able to let off several arrows while he sailed through the air. Two of them went wide. One sailed too far from Desci, it hit the fungal covered wall. The second was too shallow, it pierced the mushroom avalanche and disappeared from view. The third arrow caught Desci in the shoulder and forced the Druid to fall to the ground.

While Desci was howling in pain from the arrow, Yorin landed gracefully amid the newly created mushroom forest and activated an ability that he added to his bow. The two arrows that had seemed to miss suddenly crackled with arcane lighting. Yorin cleared his throat, spitting up more gooey spores, and then activated the ability with a phrase, "Ellin's Bow, Release Purgatory Magnetism!"

The two crackling arrows ripped through the air and pierced Desci. The three arrowheads collided and shattered inside of the Druid's shoulder. That drew an even fiercer howl from Desci but that howl spewed a much darker shade of spore. These were black and green fungal spores. As soon as Yorin saw them, he swore so quietly the monitor could not pick them up.

The spores gathered into the shape of a giant fungal creature. It came toward Yorin violently. Two large spore-arms coalesced just in time to strike Yorin like an anvil and send him flying across the mushroom forest. Fortunately the fungal wall kept his back from breaking against the brick. He still coughed up spores and blood as he fell to his knees.

"Time to wrap this up, I guess." Yorin forced out a chuckle, "I was hoping to at least take you out, Druid, but I'll leave that to the boss."

Desci's voice came from the cloudy fungal beast that was barreling down on Yorin, "You will die here and then your thief will come to die for the point!"

Yorin shook his head, "I don't think so."

With that, Yorin snapped the Holy Rosary off his wrist. The spores immediately started to grow into fungus on his skin. He then used the special ability that he had imparted to his bow. "Purgatory Magnetism."

The first arrow that had missed was stuck through the Jailer's Keys. Arcane electricity crackled from the arrow to the keys. Yorin reached out his hand, the arrow tore free from the wall and carried the keys painfully into his hand. It was enough.

The War Officiant's voice announced that the point went to The Curious Glades just as Yorin was consumed by the growing fungus and died.