Chapter 00110001 00110001

What Lily had been doing was showing the team an accident that had happened during their previous battle in the Dark Dome. They had been sucked into an avalanche that came out of nowhere. It killed everybody but the Death Hunters.

Apparently killing another person alots points based on the type of kill. Direct kill grants 10 points a person. Indirect grants 5. Considering the amount of goblins and rats. Which numbered about 30 goblins and 10 rats(which are considered people despite being pets). The avalanche probably gave Thor (who started the avalanche) about 200 points. I personally didn't know what to think about it all. I was an outsider just getting on the inside.

Lily pointed at me. "You are right. That is what happened. We barely survived the surprise attack. Which means we need to work through some more team exercises. Especially since we have a new recruit." I nodded a little nervously. In all honesty I didn't know how to work in a group setting. I was used to working alone.

"How about we rewind a bit. Can we see the footage of Sil in his training period?" Bethany said quickly. I looked at her in shock. "Hold up.They record those?" I said quickly stupidly hoping that I had heard wrong. "Yep. So the factions can see who's good and who needs a little work." The hologram suddenly shifted to the area I had left only a couple days ago. It showed the entire arena. The mountains, grasslands, desert, forest, and sea zones. The side opened and I saw Ares leading our group through. And there I was at the back doing my best at being nothing but a speck in the crowd of 75 some people. Then I saw it. The deaths starting and me bolting into the jungles. The view changed.

I saw myself going up a tree. Couldn't hear anything. But then it began a complete recording of what happened to me over those two weeks. We fast forwarded through massive sections but they all showed the same thing. Me. Alone. That was till I found the beach.

I saw Bell sneak up on me. I still wonder how I hadn't heard her sneaking up on me. How I reacted when she put her sword to my throat. Even me running and taking shelter beneath Leroys leg.

" Hahahahahahahahaha!" Henry was roaring in laughter at how comical the scene was. And as the dust cleared how Bellona was confused as to where I went. Beth smirked a bit at me before refocusing on the screen. Then came the interesting stuff. As I watched I noticed things.

The white dots roaming up my chains after a kill. I watched in interest. "What are those dots?" I asked pointing at the ones roaming my chains. "We dont know." Lily said. "Must be a passive ability of some kind. You'll have to find out on your own what it does. Till then I guess we'll see what we can do with you." She said before nodding back at the hologram and we continued watching.

Then came the funnies. Me always running from Bellona. The forests always got her caught in some trap. Tangled in vines, or dropped down a big hole trying to catch me. Geb wasn't helping obviously. "You are such a troll!" Horacio said trying to choke down his laughter.

Then came the day of my fight with her. I saw the chains fly about and could actually see how I moved. It felt surreal. I had never imagined moving like that when I was normal. But that was also when I noticed something in the video.

The mark of the scales on my arm had begun to glow. And the longer we fought the color changed. Turning from red to a green color. I had remembered the refreshing warmth I had felt when we had fought. It had been nice. Perhaps my scales passive was what had activated during the battle. It was only a few moments later that I saw the battle end and the video cut out.

"Not bad for combat skills but there were no points where you showed ability to work with others. It looks like you've been a lone wolf for most of it." Lily said with a slightly bored expression. "Guess that means we'll have to train you in team tactics." Beth said as she cracked her knuckles and I could feel my face pale. "If you disintegrate me I will get back at you." I said as I pointed at her.

"Oh that won't happen. Team mates can't injure each other with our abilities. Hence the brand." Bethany said nonchalantly. Henry shrugged as Horacio clapped his hands together excitedly. I'll say. If I didn't know better I'd say he was gay. Maybe that was why he was so quiet when I first met him. I myself didn't swing that way but everybody has their bottle of wine as they say.

We ventured down to the holo-room as it was called. I found that out a day or two after my experience inside it. As we entered I felt a pulling sensation like the world was trying to stretch itself out. After a couple moments it was gone and the world came back into focus. "What was that?" I said under my breath.

It was a sensation I didn't like and would rather not feel again. "That my good sir was the holo-room expanding to accommodate multiple people. You'll get used to it given time." Henry said as he passed through the door behind me. The desert scenario filled the room as Bethany entered and shut the door. It was calm and bright like nothing else.

"Ok everybody. Assume your battleforms!" Lily called out. I let the anubis image enter my mind and felt my body grow. Soon I was standing 8 feet tall and had my senses back. I began to look around. To my right stood Henry. His Grim Reaper was a cloaked monstrosity that stood 10 feet tall and screamed "Boogie Man" at me. His hands were skeletal and devoid of any form of flesh or muscle. His face was a skull with green fire in its eyes. He had no scythe like I imagined he would. "Doesn't the Grim Reaper have a scythe?" I asked. I could feel his hackles raise before he forced himself to calm down.

"The weapon room was lacking when I came through a few years ago. Nothing suited me or allowed me to take it. Not even a sickle." He said. His voice was colder and rattled like bone chimes in the wind but it still sounded sad. "I'll help you find one one day if we get the chance." I said. He raised his head a little. "I dont judge man." I said with my hands raised.

He nodded before I continued looking around. Horacio came next. What I saw was stunning. There was a tall dark haired man standing there in black robes like a Greek or a roman. In his right hand was a sword and in his left was a sickle. His feet had leather sandles on them but seemed to float off the ground. It was cool to look at.

Then I saw Lily. How do I know it was Lily? It was the most beautiful goddess I'd seen so far. There stood an 8 foot tall woman who was perfectly curvy. She didn't have too much or too little of anything. Her hair was like grown grass and filled with flowers. Her face was full and healthy. Her eyes an aubern brown color. Her dress was made of different materials consisting of silk and leather. The joints of the dress were adorned with bones. The top part of skulls sat on her shoulders. A grey cloak held together at the top by skeletal hands. Her very prescence seemed to scream divinity compared to my emaciated canine form.

It actually took a bit to look beyond her to see Achlys's form. She stood not even 6 feet tall. And what I saw horrified me.

It was a elderly woman who was hunched over and held an old cane made of weathered white wood. The varnish from it gone long ago. Her nails were long and yellowing. The hand that was connected to them was bones covered in a thin veil of pale white flesh that led up to a grayish white robe.

I continued to look and saw a haggard face covered in streakmarks like running mascara. Her eyes were red and bloodshot. Her teeth were still sharp but her lips were thin and black. A mist eeked out of this woman. A mist that made even the sand shift away in unease.

I looked at Beth and all that came out was "Damn." Everybody bent over in laughter at my comment. Even beth smiled a little which just made her character look like it was planning to eat me.

"We expected you to be so shocked noise wouldn't come out. Poor Horacio here didn't even have the words when he saw her!" Henry roared out as his character actually hit the floor laughing. It only took one cold look from Beth to get him back on his feet. I dont know if a skeleton can have cold sweats. But it looked like it to me.

"You have him whipped?" I whispered to Beth. "Yep." She replied. I stood up with an impressed look on my face. And that's when Lily started our training. "Dark Dome is in 3 days people! That means we need to shape up! Don't want Thor stealing our kills again! We had better have a good way of discouraging others from doing just that! We became a laughing stock because of that avalanche! Time to make a comeback! Simulation on Hard Mode!" She called out. Then the fun began.

We spent an hour in there at a time. I kept trying to break away from the group and had to be pulled in by Lily often. She karate chopped me into the floor at one point. "Stop going alone! It screws with group synergy!"

I got the point and made myself the center of the group next to Persephone. A hologram shot toward Henry where he couldn't see it coming. I sent out a chain hitting it with one of my sickles. I hauled it into the group and plowed it into the ground with what could only be described as a German suplex. Henry grinned at me and gave a thumbs up. Even though Henry didn't have a weapon that didn't mean he was useless though. Actually the opposite. A chilling fog spread out from him slowing our foes. In a 5 meter radius they were forced into slowly approaching.

Persephone's passive was a constant state of growth from the places death happened. The growth caused vines with grasping bone hands to pop up every now and again tripping or trapping a foe.

Every time an enemy got too close to Bethany they turned to dust in her miasma. It was slightly horrifying yet interesting all the same. She had no weapons. She was a weapon. She cried out a high pitched wail that halted our foes in their tracks before she splashed her tears on them making them scream as they smoked and dissolved into nothing. Now that was a truly intimidating feature.

Thanatos meanwhile was casting multiple shadows of himself around. They erupted out of his shadow like clones made of evaporating black mist. The holograms started attacking the black forms which exploded over them in a sticky black mess hence causing more chaos.

Every once in a while I was actually needed to sub in and use my chains while one of the others recovered. I was brutal using my weapons. But I didn't have any useful combat abilities like the others. After our 8th session of combat training Lily took a step out to see what would happen. It still went well. We didnt have the vines about to entangle enemies or have them tripping over themselves. Though it did get a helluva lot more difficult. Enemies were able to dodge easier and we had to pay more attention to our surroundings.

I actually got hit upside the head by one of them which only served to anger me so I tore it to shreds and used its arms to beat some of its companions. When I found they dissapeared not long after the hologram died I swapped back to the chain sickles. An hour later we were let back out of the room. I let out an exhausted sigh.

It was then that Bethany came up with a suggestion. "You know... We haven't really celebrated having a new member in a while. How about we do that! Who's up for The Vineyard?!" She shouted. I raised an eyebrow as everyone else seemed to get very excited.

"The Vineyard?" I said questioning what they were all excited about. "You'll see." Lily said with a smirk.