«The favorite»

«You are dead. Would you like to start over? »

A silence falls over the room. The adventurer stared at this strange character for a long moment, he scanned the huge building with his gaze but nothing, no one but him and this thing, if there was one. He then turned towards Luis, then shrugged his shoulders in a sign of incomprehension. The lizard smiled with all his teeth, which revealed the hundreds of canines all sharper than a dagger, terrible teeth, but predictable for a creature of size.

Then from this huge chasm that is his mouth, came a hellish laugh, a sound so strident that calling it a laugh would be a very terrible lie. The "laughing" intensifies with each passing second, the pillars shake, the dust that resides there is dispersed, a cloud forms, pieces of wood fall from the ceiling, the ceiling! The adventurer slowly raises his gaze upwards, his face contorts as he sees the hundreds of debris falling straight on his head, and he clearly has no time to flee, so he kneels with his arms around his face and pray that no debris falls on him. And meanwhile the strident laughter turns into a joyful euphoric roar, the cloud caused by the dust only intensifies, the roar of the lizard is found accompanied by the enormous crash caused by the demolition of the roof.

After what seemed like an eternity, silence once again becomes king. The adventurer still in a ball, hardly dares to lower his arms, he ended up managing to open his eyes, then to completely free his face and what was his surprise when he saw nothing. No debris lies next to him, and the cloud of dust is no more, there is only him and the lizard in the middle of the same room, without the slightest change. A strong voice breaks the silence:

"What is it small? You look pretty scared to me. Did I say something wrong by chance? Whether? »

The adventurer on hearing his words found himself disoriented, he collapsed on the ground creating a cloud of dust on his landing, approached his knees to his chest, and stared at his puzzled, eyes mixing between fear and confusion.

Seeing his gaze the lizard sighed, then put his hands on his hips and said:

"You didn't hear anything, did you? » and without waiting for an answer he continued « I don't know what you saw and frankly I don't care, so I'm going to repeat one last time… Hum… I'm Shivaxi, The Cutthroat, I dedicated my mortal life to protect my people from the dangers that threatened them, and it cost me my life. I then became a god by accepting the offer of our goddess. Thanks to her I succeeded in accomplishing the impossible by erecting a whole world and by modifying the very fabric of reality. But through the ages my forces have been weakened, and my knowledge lost, so in a last dash I forged a new knowledge. A knowledge so vast and powerful that even time or space cannot escape it, a knowledge capable of controlling all factors. And to know I offer it to you my heir. However, you have shown exceptional courage and strength in your short life, so we… Yes, we. »

The ground began to shake, the pillars and the walls too, a deafening noise set in and the whole room found itself invaded by dust to a point where seeing a meter in front of you was almost impossible, everything trembled under the feet of the adventurer, despite everything he manages to keep his balance. Calm fell on the room, when suddenly a hoarse voice pronounced in a radical time:

" Vah R'hum Hila "

And in an instant all the dust disappeared in a powerful breath, the adventurer had to protect his eyes so as not to lose them. And when he lowered his arms, he could only gape, the wall of dust completely gone, and the once empty thrones found themselves supporting giants, not titans, beings so tall the ceiling could not retain them.

The adventurer, trying to step back, stumbled and was left speechless, terrified at this sight, beings with the appearance of men and women but whose size clearly does not match the shape, all dressed in white, from head to toe, whose hair goes down to the nape of the neck, for everyone, but their face remains too far away to be able to see it. One thing is certain, they are not humans, and all have their eyes on our hero.

The adventurer then looked around for Shivaxi, when suddenly:

"Yuuuu! This is where it's happening honey. »

The adventurer slowly turned his gaze, up behind him, and he saw him, the one who had certainly brought him here, on a throne adorned with gold, silver and emerald, designs of ancient times and bygone figures on it, and seated on it, this accursed lizard, its tail hanging down from the seat, holding its head by the hand, its elbow on one of the arms of the throne.

Shivaxi's eyes were riveted on the adventurer, this time they are not as cold as the last time, on the contrary, they say it all, a demonic malice is there, and this malice is heading straight for our adventurer.

After a long time Shivaxi says:

"We decided to make you a proposal" He gets up from his throne and walks towards the adventurer, and at his first step a sound of lightning resounds in the whole room, and Shivaxi finds himself face to face with the adventurer, still on the ground, so he holds out his right hand to him and says :

"If you accept my right you will become a god member of the pantheon under my protection, you will then have nothing to fear from hunger, thirst, life or death. All you have to do is pay an insignificant price and it will all be yours. Or" Shivaxi then extended his second hand to him "You accept my left, and you will continue your life of adventure with your comrades, however, once again you will have to pay an equally insignificant price. SO? Chose with wisd…" Even before Shivaxi finished his sentence, the adventurer grabbed his left and stood up.

Seeing this, Shivaxi was left speechless, a hubbub erupted through the audience who witnessed this whole spectacle. Then a laugh, but not a monster laugh, no, a human laugh, Shivaxi laughed even more, which caused even more confusion between the spectators, who now did not utter a word.

After a long euphoric laugh, Shivaxi put his hand on the adventurer's shoulder and said:

"Congratulations my champion, you succeeded where many have failed, I recognize the humanity of yesteryear. Well honey, as promised I'll get you back on your feet. However, I was not kidding about the price to pay. Hearing his words the adventurer swallowed his saliva while trembling all over his body, there are two things that make the reputation of adventurers: the lack of discipline, and debts. And our hero must have at least a hundred, to tell the truth he stopped counting from the 38th. "Don't worry, because as promised, it won't be too bad. Hey, can you trust me? »

The adventurer nodded frantically, much to the despair of the lizard who exhaled deeply before saying:

"Well, I'll have to earn your trust later." » Then in a less ironic tone « It's time. Monster hunter, do you promise to honor our deal? The adventurer nodded, his gaze filled with determination. "Umm…are you sure you know what this is about?" » The adventurer lost his determined air to give way to uncertainty, which triggered another inspiration from Shivaxi « Well, I offer you my knowledge and immortality in exchange for one thing. »

"Destroy them. »

A huge hubbub settles in the room. Then out of nowhere, golden chains form around the adventurer, it is created in the void and takes shape particle by particle. Then suddenly, when the chains finished forming, they went straight to the heart of the adventurer, a sound of metal resounded and the golden chains surrounded the torso of the monster hunter, as if they were embracing him, imprisoning him, yes, imprison him. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared, leaving behind only millions of small golden particles floating around, and slowly fade away.

"Okay, you're ready to go. I'll help you master your power, but, no, because otherwise it wouldn't be fun. So what else? Oh yes! There's a kind of tournament or I don't know what, well I think, I guess, maybe, surely. Anyway, you are going to have to kill guys like you, champions? That's it? Ah damn it, you're going to figure it all out yourself anyway. »

With his words, Shivaxi lifted his hand from the hunter's shoulder, then placed it above his head.

«Go. And have fun»

Then in a flash the lizard's hand closed and, nothing, absolute silence.

A long time later, the adventurer finally started to feel something again, his head hurts horribly, and he feels in constant motion. He manages to hear some distant voice, but nothing specific, his sight as his hearing have certainly seen better days.

Then when his eyes snapped back to life, he jumped. He is running? No, he's being lifted by someone, he can't see what or who, he can only see the lifeless trees parading at breakneck speed before his eyes. Despite his terrible headache, he managed to raise his head, and was confronted with the horror of his life, a huge deformed creature, twice the size of the trees, it moves thanks to the immense spears which serve as its arms. , she is all covered with black skin, sticky in appearance, her roar comes from a huge chasm in the center of her abused and injured body, a chasm, moreover, populated by several thousand teeth, immaculate with blood for the majority, at each of its steps the ground trembles, and its continuous cry burns the eardrums of our unfortunate adventurer.

"Dear god, she's catching up!!! Faster!! »

The hoarse and imposing voice of Azkhar had been missed by our adventurer. He tapped his shoulder, as a sign of life, which gave him a wonderful laugh, then said:

"By all the heavens are you still breathing? Hahaha, I suspected it, everyone had lost hope but not me mate! Take it in your teeth, stupide elves, our brave little one is still breathing and moreover… deer god!!! One of the creature's legs widened and headed straight for our two heroes, when suddenly a vial fell on it and lightning fell on the creature, which gave it a shrill scream to wake the dead. A calm, if somewhat panicked voice answered Azkhar:

"Say it again, so I don't waste our potions on your dumb old skin." Then in a less violent tone "I'm glad to see you, made it out alive, just remember one thing, forget that beautiful dream you just had and welcome back, to your worst nightmare. »