"Ow, what the fuck?!" I yelled, looking over at Cassi who fell after straight up stomping on my head. I didn't even realize Korbin switched with her, having returned to my meditation after talking to him about my last rather unpleasant interaction with Derrick.
"Sorry, I didn't realize I got subbed out." Cassi replied, sitting up and staring blankly for a moment. Her eyes fluttered before clamoring to her feet and offering me a hand up.
"It's fine, I sort of want to stay back here and meditate. I heard how you went out though, tough break running into that ratty fuck with the oversized icicle." I said solemnly. Cassi's brow furrowed, shaking her head and letting out a single sarcastic burst of air through her nose.
"Yeah, I just should've known better than to let my guard down. Even if he was having some sort of breakdown, there were no friends in that maze. I should've neutralized the threat when I could." Cassi scoffed, her eyes trailing away towards the projection displayed across the window wall. Korbin was just hopping off the same starting platform she spawned in, immediately booking it down a shiny metallic hallway.
"He only needs to find one more and get out of there. But, I have no idea how many other competitors are still in there with him." Cassi exclaimed, her eyes glued to the screen.
"There's a reason we chose him as your closer, Cassi. The option wasn't given because one of us is supposed to win this alone. There were 10 of you, yet you found nearly half of all those stupid fake pendants available, don't be so hard on yourself." I replied, recognizing that grave brooding. A look of self deprecation I knew all too well by now.
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have done it.." Cassi said, her eyes falling to the floor. She looked up, flashing me a forced smile.
"Thanks anyway Tom." She said, before turning and heading over to watch the projection with the others.
"Yeah, anytime." I said to myself as she walked away. Sighing, I crossed my legs and began slowly swaying to enter Flow Meditation. While Korbin and I mostly discussed how unbelievably disappointing I find Derrick at times, I couldn't help but bring up the exciting new ability I'd been trying to hone in.
"Okay, so there's this thing called 'mana manipulation', so what you do is cre-"
"-reate extensions of yourself with mana in order to harness the energy coinciding with the type you're utilizing as a medium. Yeah, what about it?" Korbin asked, only his incredibly serious expression held back my knee-jerk instinct to be defensive.
"Wait…you know about this?" I asked after a pause.
"Tom, that's like the third thing I figured out about in the tournament." Korbin replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, oh that's good. You're kind of a battle mage type, so that makes sense." I replied, recalling every fireball and strange orange boosting domes he throws around from the ends of his battle axe. Korbin's eyes narrowed, looking me up and down suspiciously. Slowly, a grin emerged across his face.
"Hey Tom, when did you learn about mana manipulation?" He slyly asked. I sighed, knowing I'd accidentally cornered myself into embarrassment.
"…last Planetary Objective." I replied, averting my eyes from his. He laughed, pressing his hand on his stomach between cackles. As his head bobbed around however, something at the corner of his eye made his smile drop immediately. His head snapped to the side, staring intently at the projection on the window wall.
"Oh shit, Cassi got eliminated by that guy pretending to be crazy." He said, staring up at Cassi laying beside a man holding a long bloody ice pike.
"Fuck, wait what do you mean b-AGH?!" My question was then cut short by Cassi's oversized boot stomping on my face. So, naturally, my goal is to get better at mana manipulation than Korbin. Since he only has about a month's time on me max, compared to fighting in which he has YEARS of experience over my head, I could see myself closing the gap far quicker. That of course requires putting Korbin, currently ripping his axe free from some poor archer's spine, completely out of my mind and focusing solely on my meditation.
——————————————————————
Damn Cassi, you took the smoothest fucking routes?
After fully eliminating two contestants back to back, I finally had a second to collect my thoughts while ripping my battle axe free from this guy's back. I only made two turns in this dark, twisting section of the maze I've found myself in. A notification popped up saying there was only one Pendant Of Spectral Warding remaining, meaning the real one was all that's left. I stopped, hushing even my thoughts coming at a crossroads of paths. The goal is to follow the carnage, hoping someone had a beat on the pendant.
*RUMBLE*
All four paths simultaneously began shifting in seperate directions, with the one in front of me quickly rising above.
Worked for her.
Leaping up, I snagged the ledge of the rising pathway and pulled myself up. Before heading down the cold, frost covered path, I turned around to get a better view of the maze as it reassembled. My perspective of the incredible amount of moving parts resetting the maze over a sea of lava slowly twisted completely sideways, though my sense of gravity never changed. Peering out, the glimmering outline of a door sat sideways on a platform higher above. Looking to the side, a long streaking section of the labyrinth was shifting by, covering my view of the lava far below.
…this is going to be so embarrassing if this doesn't work.
Retreating a few steps back into the biting cold breeze gusting from the frosty path behind, I sprinted off the open gap, my head barely ducking under the section of the maze connecting to the pathway. My bones were the first to shift momentum from forward to the side as gravity flipped towards the sea of lava. My shoulder smashed onto the top of the slow moving maze I'd seen at my side, leaving plenty of room to climb back to my feet.
Never doubted it for a second.
Looking up, the free moving sections of the maze all finished their paths, firmly connected to one another. My eyes locked onto the nearest path, extending vertically just 10 feet away from me. Looking down, the bent into an L shape roughly 20 feet down, giving me a back up landing spot in case I can't grip onto the vines twisting around its metal exterior.
Of course, TOM gets the fucking grappling hook.
With a deep breath and little space behind me to get a running start, I leapt off the edge. Luckily I'd taken pride in being able to dunk while standing sub 6-foot, making the leap across not entirely daunting. My hands grasping onto a thick set of vines that immediately snapped was far more alarming however. Luckily, my hand found purchase on a bundle of much thicker vines, giving me time to find a foothold of vines to even out my weight distribution. Slowly, and through constant testing of the next vines strength, I ascended up the side of the maze. The climb itself wouldn't have taken me a full 5 minutes if it hadn't been for how unstable these vines were.
As I reached roughly 5 feet from the top however, the vines abruptly stopped, replaced by brittle limestone walls. Tucking a set of vines in my arm, I summoned my battle axe to my free hand.
Fuck it, it SHOULD work.
With all my focus on keeping my weight from shifting too quickly, I raised my axe head up and over the ledge. After a few tugs to ensure it would slip loose, I focused a portion of my boosting skill into my shoulder, all the way through my hands. With all my might, I pulled on my axe while leaping off the vines I had my feet hooked into. One vine snapped immediately, forcing me to leap exclusively off one leg. As my head lifted over the edge, limestone cracked and gave way under my axehead causing it to sleep free.
"Shit!" I exclaimed involuntarily, my hands barely snagging onto the edge in time. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth hearing my axe clank atop the vertical structure as I began pulling myself up.
*RUMBLE*
Finally getting to my feet, the labyrinth began shifting again, only this time lifting me towards the strange doorway leading into somewhere I hadn't seen connected by the maze yet. Slowly, the platform got nearly within my reach when it began spinning and bending to the side under my feet. Not seeing a better alternative, mana surged into my glowing legs as I leapt up towards the ledge leading to the glowing door. My fingers barely snagged around the edge, my pinky knuckle cracking loudly as I pulled myself up.
Rolling over the side, I drew a long, deep breath after that bullshit idea to climb the outside of the maze finally panned out. Looking up, bright white light beamed from the sides of a door that oppositely appeared devoid of all light, barring its golden handle. With my curiosity peaked, I twisted the knob and entered through the doorway.
My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim, blue light that filled the room. There were two stone paths at my sides, with another circular layer of a stone sat floating above. In the distance, I could see other competitors standing outside of their own respective doors around this new layer of mazes, each at eye level with me.
No fucking way they ALL did what I just did.
*ding*
*Congratulations!*
You've discovered the secret path to the one true Pendant Of Spectral Warding!
*Objective Updated!*
Maneuver through the layers of Spiritual Gateways, until you've reached and collected Pendant Of Spectral Warding!
Not wanting to waste any time, I took off down one of the winding stone corridors. Within a mere 10 feet, I came across another strange dark door built into the wall. Once again, I stepped through the doorway finding myself in another winding stone labyrinth. One of the paths winded at an incline, indicating to me it was the correct path towards the next level. After running up the hallway however, I came across another 4 sets of doors devoid of light. Not wanting to break stride on a path I knew headed up, I continued past all of them until the wall opened up at my side. Peering down, a wide circular stone maze sat far below. Above me, another rounded bottom of a slightly smaller stone structure.
Ah, I see.
Realizing the doors may very well be useful after all, I made a note to take the next one I saw making my way up the winding stone path. The ground leveled out before I found another, opening up into a wide empty stone room with only a single door at the center. As I jogged toward the lightless door, it suddenly opened from the other side. Out stepped the same deceitful ice wielder that eliminated Cassi.
"Aaahh, we've been here, Conrad." The man exclaimed to himself. Sneaking around the frame, I slipped past him into the open doorway while he took one final look around the empty stone room. As he stepped backwards and closed the door, his eyes shot wide open finding the fireball I held in front of his face.
"You shouldn't be here." I said, unleashing the built up fire energy fighting desperately to escape my control. A thin layer of ice covered the man's entire body in an instant as he launched backwards from the impact. He flew past where the door was just a few seconds ago and bounced off the blue, glowing mana wall behind him. A wall of ice rose between us, though I didn't care overly much tossing another smaller fireball through his frozen barrier.
The apparent ice mage had barely gotten to his hands and knees when I blasted through his ice wall, leaping forward and smashing my knee into his jaw. The mage's head clapped off the mana wall, collapsing back to his chest.
"Damn, I sort of expected you'd be better than this." I said, lifting my battle axe overhead and decapitating the mage. Blood poured onto the stone floor before his body and head disappeared from the room entirely.
*ding*
Not willing to spend any precious time reading new notifications, I turned heels and sprinted down the winding blue hallways. Not far along, several doors I assume are the 'Spirit Gateways' peppered the walls, bending its mana awkwardly around their door frames. The ice mage muttered to himself that he'd been in the previous area before we both came back through his door, implying it's possible to go backwards with these things. Meaning, I had to somehow distinguish which ones moved me closer to wherever that pendant's at.
What separates any of these doors from each other?!
The bright white beams gleaming at the seams surrounding these strange doors made from what looks like the opposite of light itself were completely identical. Running back to the door I snuck into behind the mage, not a single detail differed from the others. Clearly, their appearance means absolutely nothing. Glancing around the room, I began searching for some hint at any form of a discrepancy involving these doors. Maybe even a hidden one, tucked above reasonable fields of view. Compared to the hallways, the room this door sat in was far more spacious, which is the only reason I wasn't looking for any hidden paths further ahea…
Oh, fucking duh.
My metal armor rhythmically clanked with my strides as I sprinted back down the path. Looking ahead, a competitor holding a large staff and a flowing hooded robe stood at one of the doors along the mana wall. Their head snapped around, revealing only a stubbled chin before leaping into the door. While I'd love to follow a mage blindly through a weird portal door, I've already committed to my theory. Without breaking stride, I continued past the line of doors along the path.
After passing countless doors on either side of me, my pace finally slowed seeing a door positioned at the center of a much larger, more open room. Similar to the one I'd found the ice mage in, only the blue mana shields bent into the same spherical, open shape rather than stone. As I stepped through the room's threshold however, a slimmer fellow wearing leather armor holding a crossbow came sprinting in from the other side of the room.
Shit!
I leapt past several steps leading up to the door, my extending hand reaching within an inch of the doorknob before it opened inwards. The crossbowman's cackle was quickly cut short as the door imploded in a whirlpool of white streaks.
"Ah sonuvab-"
*WOOSH*
A second, red door manifested in the prior one's place before I could finish voicing my momentary frustration. A smirk grew across my face as I grasped the silver doorknob, knowing after passing dozens of those identical portal doors that this one would be at the very least different. I glanced over my shoulders, praying to Beloris I guessed wherever these 'cameras' that played on the projections were.
"When one door closes."