CHAPTER 6

          The group came up to the third room. Above the entrance to the third room had a sign that read “The Hallway of Horrors, where your worst fear comes true.” Trying to forget about the previous room, the group joked about the entrance sign to the third room. As the room looked more like a hall of mirrors in a fun house. They all walked in looking at the mirrors. Kevin was hesitant at first saying the place was giving him bad vibes. Maria assured him all was well. They were busy looking around for the room’s activation switch but couldn’t seem to find one. The group wandered around a bit careful not to trigger anything. Even though they had a passive skill to let them know if a switch was nearby. After a few minutes Kevin decided he was coming in. Maria went over to him. She wanted to be by his side when he entered to make sure he didn’t trigger any traps or unwanted accidents. When Kevin stepped over the threshold. The room was activated. Where they had entered from was blocked by a wall with mirrors. A message screen popped up in front of each player.

CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING IT TO THE MINI-BOSS. The first player to beat the mini-boss will receive a rare unique reward. The fight will begin in five seconds, 5-4-3-2-1-GO. Right as the message said go. The room changed from a hall of mirrors to having just five mirrors. Without warning each player was sucked into one of the mirrors. As each player was sucked into one of the mirrors a demonic skeleton horse appeared with the player. The players looked at the horse and were overwhelmed with racing thoughts from the horse. As if it was stampeding to throw their minds. The horse left each player’s mind and it dissolved into a misty smoke. A new message appeared. This time it said the player to first defeat the mini-boss will get the unique reward. After the mini-boss had been beaten. All other players have five minutes to finish up the assigned mini-boss or will be forced out of the dungeon in their current state. 5-4-3-2-1-GO.

MARIA POV

Maria was suddenly sucked away from Kevin. As they got separated, she screamed that she didn’t want to abandon him. She watched as the party was all split and tossed into five separate mirrors. A demonic skeleton horse formed in front of her. In a flash of light, she saw the horse running through her mind as if it was taking over. It suddenly reappeared and dissolved into a misty fog. As soon as it did this, the room she was in became a black void. At one end of the void was white light appearing through a doorway with her teammates and Kevin by the open door. They all stared at her and began to say things to her. “This is all your fault we are in this mess. Come on guys let’s just leave her.” As she cried out not for them to leave, she felt a sickening pull go throw her.

“PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME” she yelled. She then felt another sickening pain run through her. She desperately tried to run towards the door. No matter how hard she tried she seemed to be frozen in place. She never thought she was going to be abandoned by her friends. Her three teammates walk throw the door at the end of the void. She began to panic even more, then she was hit even harder with a sickening feeling. She doubles over in pain, beginning to cough up small bits of blood. She held her chest as she is on her knees. She looked over at Kevin still standing there next to the door. For a moment she feels the dread wash over her as she talks out in a calm tone.

Kevin stared at her before making a face that made Maria wince. Kevin walked out the door and it closed. She turned pale from the thought that Kevin had also abandoned her. Maria feels like her life force has been completely sucked out of her. Then she feels another sickening feeling that makes her cough up blood violently as she falls backward. She feels like she is at death’s door. She collapses into a pool of her blood. She thought about Kevin and how she couldn’t protect him. Her vision begins to fade.

As her eyes began to close a familiar voice calls out to her…., Maria the voice sounds faint, Maria you can’t die on me sounding more clearer now, Maria Please come back I need you, your teammates need you, the voice said. She slowly opens her eyes and to her surprise, all the blood and her wounds had been healed. The room wasn’t a void anymore too. The voice she looked around for wasn’t there. All she could see was the Valkyrie she summoned to protect Kevin was next to her. The Valkyrie was treating her wounds. It told her it had used up all its healing skills on her so it could only use protective status now. She asked where Kevin was. The Valkyrie replied it he had defeated the illusionary boss. He was on his way to help Cory.

The Valkyrie quickly summarized what was going on and how the room worked. As the two were talking they jumped out of the mirror, and it shattered only leaving three left. Kevin told me to heal you, I hesitated on the order, since you summoned me to defend him. When I was told of your condition I didn’t have to argue twice. I’d rather not see my master die. He said he was going to help Cory break free. He seems to have gotten a handle on the situation. The horse can be beaten in one hit. She and Valkyrie decided to split up and saved her other teammates before they got kicked from the dungeon. She knew their passive skill [DETERMINATION] would kick in if their HP dropped below 20% if they were troubled. The skill allowed one to be invulnerable in a dungeon room when their hp dropped below 10% in a crisis where no other skills could be activated. Just as they were about to split up, they both heard a deafening scream.

KEVIN’S POV

Right as the message said, Kevin happen to see the horse reform back into its normal self instead of mist. He was confused as to what to do. Just then he heard around him in the other mirrors the other 4 players panicking, screaming, or crying. His first thoughts were on Maria as he heard her begin to cry saying “please don’t leave me." Unfortunately, he was so distracted from to sounds of fear and dread he didn’t notice the horse galloping right for him. At the last second, a Valkyrie popped up out of nowhere and took the horse’s head blocking the gallop with sheer force. The resulting sound made Kevin refocus on the task at hand. He needed to beat the horse. He grabbed his sword and charged at the horse. He landed one hit at the horse and it dissolved into mist. A message appeared and said CONGRATULATIONS ON BEATING THE MINI BOSS NIGHT” MARE”, YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL ALTERED REALITY. Kevin then spat out of the mirror he was in and it shattered as he landed back in the room. Kevin first tried to contact Maria through the system chat but all he got was an error message. There were four remaining mirrors in the room now. He looked in each mirror and saw each other players, not fairing as well as he had. They were all trapped in some sort of illusional nightmare. Cory was trapped inside a small room in his mirror illusion. Every time he freaked out in the small box the horse would manifest itself and gallop right throw him. The player would take 1 hp per hit. He looked into the other three remaining mirrors and figured out what was going on. It had seemed the room was meant to bring a player’s worst fear to come forth. Kevin never was afraid since he had to be more on his own his whole life. He had learned to be tough with life. It seemed whenever someone freaked out the horse would attack the player. He did happen to glance over at Maria it seemed she had accumulated some success. By overcoming the dread or fear by talking calmly or positively. The player was closer to getting free from the trap. His friend was in a dire situation still. He needed to save her first since she was the only healer at the party.

Kevin kept trying to break into the mirror hoping he could go in, but it was no use. Each time Maria succumb to grief the horse would trample her, and she didn’t even know it. “How can she not see the horse,” he thought.” Her hp was draining fast and she was starting to bleed. He quickly thought about the new skill he had gotten. He pulled up the skill tree. A new skill was added with a ton of hidden subskills. ALTER REALITY, it read. There was only one subskill usable now. If a player is in the dungeon “altered reality.” Once “altered reality” is activated any player in the room can enter another player’s mirror. Kevin was excited. He loaded up the skill to jump into the mirror’ As the skill was loading, he looked over into the mirror. He was watching in the mirror worried he wouldn’t make it in time. He saw his friend pleading for her teammates not to go. As they went through a door, she was begging them not to leave. He watched helplessly as the horse kicked her in the stomach. She grabbed her stomach and doubled over in pain. She began to cough up blood. She got up on her knees looking over at the Kevin illusion in the room. For a brief moment, she had overcome with a little bit of joy that the illusion of Kevin hadn’t walked throw the door. Kevin watched as the illusion of himself made a face. Maria winced at the face it made as I went through the door. Maria then fell into final despair. The horse kicked her in the stomach once again causing her to fall flat on her back. She rolled her head to one-sided and began to violently cough up blood. As this was happening Kevin’s skill had finished loading, and he told the Valkyrie to aid his master while he took on the horse. He jumped throw the mirror. Holding his sword high over his head he slashed the horse right at its neck before It could deliver another blow to Maria. [PLAYER 2}, he yelled as he ran to Maria. Maria you can’t die on me cried, Kevin. Maria, Please come back I need you, your teammates need you, he cried louder. Kevin asked the Valkyrie if it could heal Maria. For a moment, the Valkyrie hesitated until Kevin explained she is going to die if no one heals her. He said he didn’t have any healing spells barely and rE skills to boot. Knowing he was the party’s only hope he told the Valkyrie he would face off the horse illusion himself in [TANK 1’S] room. He wasn’t sure what he could do for Brad and Samantha. He jumped back to throw the mirror right as his friend began to become wary of her surroundings.

Kevin jumped into Cory’s mirror room. “I’m coming to help,” he said. Cory was in such a panic frenzy, he swung his sword at Kevin barely missing his head. “Stay back”, Cory yelled. The situation was spiraling out of control. Kevin tried to reason with Cory that it was just an illusion. “I need you to calm down…,” Kevin stammered the phrase but was getting anxious about the whole situation. “I-I can on..ly kill the boss if you are swing…ing your sword at me,” he stated as it drifted off all mumbled from anxiety. Cory then went into [BESERK] as he had lost his nerves in the small space. This time Kevin was hit in the face with Cory’s shield. Kevin fell with stars in his eyes. “What was that for?” Kevin said in a hateful tone. At this point,t Cory had completely lost it. He thrust his sword into Kevin. Kevin let out a deafening scream in surprise. Suddenly, a bright light formed around Kevin pushing him back. Where the sword had pierced him was no longer there. He looked up at the ball of light to see the Valkyrie with the sword initss chest where Kevin had been stabbed. The Valkyrie soon dissipated into light particles. Before Cory could land another blow on Kevin, Maria blocked his attack. She tried to fend off Cory. Kevin jumped up to attack the skeleton horse but before he could land a fatal blow to the neck it disappeared along with Cory in surprise. Suddenly, Kevin and Maria were tossed out of the mirror. They both looked at each other in confusion. A window screen appeared before both of them stating. Cory, Brad, and Samantha have been kicked out of the dungeon on failure to defeat the Night ”mare”.

Back at Dungeon Dwellers GO! Headquarters,] the staffwase frantically trying to get a connection through. Without warning, Cory, Brad, and Samantha were chucked out of the VR transfer machine. Brad and Samantha were both unconscious, with serve injuries. The command center quickly called for the medics. The two were rushed to the hospital. Cory on the other hand had broken down into hysteria. The staff got the idea something horrible must have happened. They tried to ask Cory what had happened. Unfortunately. It was no use as he just kept rambling on about sand and small spaces. Although it wasn’t the best idea, the staff had to sedate Cory as anyone who tried to approach was certainly going to be decapitated by the way Cory was swinging his sword around. He was also taken to the hospital as well.