1
Kilian, drenched from hornet blood, rubbed his scalp till all his damp hair stayed in place. Bizarrely a fragrant scent, as noted by others in the group. Redolent to a soap used for body wash. Being from blood is fantastically terrifying, and the first exposure comes with the uncertainty of time.
“I don’t know how many floors this refinery has. Hornets on the first floor, what could be up there,” Kilian answered.
The Hornet leaps herself in the air, “I heard Hornets. Pretty strange to my ears. We call ourselves Veschwarz, but I’m Viessa.”
“Veschwarz,” Kilian muttered, grasping the thought that possibly an entire species of them still exists, debunking the mythological aspect of the species. Incredible theory but distraught within the common populace. Thinking about the time after meeting Tursus, seems his moment sets the precedent that he is about to proceed onto Viessa. “Once all of this is over, you're gonna have to make a case.”
“A case? I don’t understand what you are saying,” Viessa confusingly replied.
“The longer you are with us in the journey, a proof of your alliance is needed to prevent events of a panic with the public.”
Vessa took a moment to process that offer. She doesn’t understand the word of panic, slowly zooming in circles. “Fear,” she muttered. “Alright then. I guess I’ll accept my case.”
“Happy for your service,” Kilian said.
“Just don’t sting at us when you feel like it,” Roland stated, fearing the capability of the Vessa’s stinger. He stood behind Selina who glanced her eyes back at Roland. Oh, not you now! She mentally gasped when Roland went behind her with the rest of the group. Hirko holds his intrusive thoughts when he senses the tremors coming directly from Roland’s fingers. He walks past him, observing Vessa.
“Shall we head up?” Kilian asked everyone.
The fire dims back to pitch black when everyone starts to move along the tampered floors. All wanted Kilian and Vessa to walk first, maddening Kilian to the bone. “Roland!” He bawled.
Roland was stunned through his spine, calling his yell uncalled for. “What?!” He blurted carelessly.
“Can you turn your illuminating beam into a light source?” Kilian asked, recalling the moment of their fight under a pouring storm at the training site. Roland’s grimoire opens upwards, flipping the pages shooting out the light, revealing the ceiling.
Selina cast a spell ring to hover above, redirecting the light ahead, revealing a stairway leading up to the upper floor. Kilian leads them up with Vessa instinctively serving as the defensive output on the frontline. All turned around to the left following the handrail. The light dims following the last of the group touches the soles of his feet on the stairs. “We’re heading to the next floor,” Vessa said with Selina glancing at the large sign [2].
Vessa flying a bit into the pitch black, immediately summons the flashing lights from afar. Everyone notices the floor changes to mural-like vinyls, forming from the edge of the stairway. Circular bulbs from above illuminate, revealing the circular wide space surrounded by grand Doric columns, holding the elegant ceiling. In between the columns are vacant benches all entirely tainted stone, serving as the arena’s remaining circumference. Ahead is the sole spot without any form of benches or barrier but two columns at each end with a spacing.
Rumbling slam from behind where they all came from now encased by the concrete wall, leaving no exit and trapping all in the arena. Sensing fishy vibes from the open arena, Kilian sent the message through the OLRS to Roland and Selina, preparing everyone’s health to the max. Hirko benefited others with his backpack that he kept hidden on his back, pulling out the herbs and the necessary recovery items. Kilian grabbed one bottle but insisted on sharing it with others, conserving the remaining left in the backpack.
||Heilung Substance (I)
Health: +
Stamina: +
Chances of fatally if ingested an entire serving||
Right when he received the information, one of the men drank the other bottle. Being glass, he can visually see the leafy green substance flowing right into the mouth effortlessly. Kilian immediately struck the bottle away from him, shattering the bottle along the floor, and striking his upper back. The man spewed it out from his mouth, aggressively coughing as if his throat was burning. “What on earth was that for?!”
“Unless you want to be considered an accidental death, then by all means,” Kilian replied, turning towards Hirko. “Where did you find this?”
“Before we got the order to charge into Cloudburn, we were dealing with another wave of them. Us and Tursus killed them, and we scavenged through their bags, and discovered them.” Hirko pointed out that all the items in the bag were from the scene and were then called into Cloudburn.
“What is this? A spill onto my floor?” A loud echoing voice from behind. Killian stood up, spinning around the arena to find the source not present. “A fucking trap!” He exclaimed.
“Oh, we have trespassers!” The loud voice added, echoing among the arena, summoning gates appeared from the empty opening, lifting itself upwards.
||Automatic Documentation Updating…
New Documentation
- Face the upcoming wave(??)
||
“Company!” Kilian draws his black sword.
<< Time to let off some steam!>>
||Skeletal Figure HP(??): 500/500||
||Skeletal Mammal HP(??): 2400/2400||
Tons of irregular wildlife creatures barge out of the gates. Kilian sprinted towards the mob with others spread out through the arena. He slashed through a group of skeletal-like creatures, tumbling them, and clattering the floor. Many came out of the gate like stampedes of ants, overwhelming half of the arena in the first few seconds.
Kilian with a couple of deep breaths, charged at the whole upcoming stampede. He exerted scorching hot qi over his blade, blasting a mini mushroom cloud in their direction. The blade divides the overwhelming pressure of smoke spewing along his side, considering it might clash with the rest of the group. Some of the corpse debris hovered over the ceiling. Clinging he lifted his sword to his back, leaping back from the continuing heat of debris. Turning to the left, Hirko and Selina side by side, worked well. Hirko provides the end hits of the combo. His robust short stature proved advantageous with his swiftness in going between their stampede of mobs, thrusting his fingers multiple ways in vulnerable areas. Added along with Selina’s casting spells proved vicious, his speed counters any damage inflicted on himself. Fredrich’s big mistake. Kilian reflected.
||+45 XP||
About heading right to assist Roland, a piercing echo came from the center of the cloud, popping out and clashing with Kilian. Flashing sparkles distracted his attention, grasping who dared come to face him at this moment. Debris and smoke mask the individual, giving off a silhouette figure. Maintaining blockage it thrusted one of its feet towards his side, sending him crashing through the benches.
“Kilian!” Hirko yelled from afar.
Kilian smashing through the rubble, “Don’t bother, I’ll deal with this!” He side-flipped to his right, dodging the upcoming bull-like projectile crashing to the landing site. While landing back on his feet, the projectile ignited a blast and a shockwave, propelling Kilian upwards across the arena. He senses the faint qi from behind, clashing once again. He instantly spins around, exerting qi along the whole area, revealing the attacker.
Face-to-face with the individual, Kilian’s qi wiped all the smoke debris away from the scene. All eyes clear, a well-suited man in an overcoat appears.
||Automatic Documentation Updating…
Update: Face [??] -> Face Unknown Suited Stranger
Ongoing Documentation
- Face the upcoming wave(??)
||
“Is this the CEO I keep hearing about?” Kilian asked with his eyes focused, outmaneuvering him, thrusting him a little distance away.
||The Suited Man HP: 8000/8000 ||
“Incorrect, but more of a bodyguard,” the suited man replied. “What’s so funny?”
“Your hair is too distracting!” Kilian said, trying not to burst mid-sentence. He summoned a lightning bolt from the ceiling, zapping his head. His bent eyebrows are bluntly obvious, and the man stares furiously in return, exchanging his lightning bolt back at him. Kilian reacted by reflecting it away from his shiny black blade. “Nice try.”
||The Suited Man HP: 7800/8000 ||
He wasn’t so pleased to see that, resulting in him deploying a ring of red cluster balls. It initially shoots with a couple deflected by Kilian, dissipating the balls. The remaining hit the columns and walls, leaving a dented crack on it. The man came at him first with a swirl through his ragged katana. Clashing once more, Kilian got a vivid look at the suited man’s blade. All of its edges are gashed inwards with each endpoint sharp, waiting for its moment of bite at its prey.
That explains why it didn’t drop when I turned around earlier.
<< His sword seems very fun. Let me have the fun will ya? >>
The black sword exerted black qi in between one of the gashed edges and Kilian pushed the spine, expressingly beginning the true parts of battle. “First time in a long while an opponent lasts this long,” The man boastingly speaks through his loud mouth.
The two exchanged swift skills in swordsmanship, hovering in the air the masses of mobs beneath getting brutalized by the group. The man attempted again with the red cluster balls but through his sword, successfully knocked Kilian back, with one lacerating his left shoulder. Ugh.
<< Oi. What’s up with you now? You weren't like this before. >>
Oh please, It ain’t my fault. Besides, I'm still a newbie on certain unexpected twists.
<< Then get your ass together, and I noticed you still refused my assistance. When are you gonna accept my call rather than bluntly ignoring my insistence? >>
I’m not denying it. I’m not ready yet.
The suited man jumps upwards, hovering above Kilian, almost hitting his head towards the ceiling. Kilian palms his sword away, scrapping a little through his robe. Fuck. Kilian touched his chest and miraculously didn’t tear his inner shirt. He puts his right palm parallel to the floor, pulses blasting himself upwards. The man became progressively more infuriated. He grunted while swarming point-blank at Kilian. One yell before being able to get another landing at him, slicing a bit of Kilian’s chest, generating a [X] cross from his robe.
Glancing down on the floor, noticing Selina’s area has settled, he strips off his robe’s belt and aggressively takes it off, thrusting it in her direction. Kilian flexed his calves midair, thrusting himself to the man, prompting him to summon a small dark void followed by thousands of hiltless blades mimicking bullets back. Kilian’s hand wielding the sword in front, innately cast itself as a shield, diving through the blade swarms. He made it through, and he found the suited man had disappeared. Kilian spins around, not to be found.
||Incoming hostile ↑↑↑||
Unfortunately, he was seconds late as the OLRS and his sense of qi miscalculated when a very bright light flashed from behind, visualizing its brightness across multiple columns ahead of him, striking his back. Kilian went into a free fall down with most of his aura exerted through the front, dispersing all debris below, revealing to be Roland and the remaining men, “LOOK OUT!” he yelled. Roland jumps himself at the following men away, and Kilian crashes head down onto the concrete floor.
Rumbling!
Rock particles flew into the air as more debris surrounded the crash site with the beam from above still striking down where Kilian himself crashed. With that much tragedy, the suited man can only hope for the damage to be done and finish off. He cuts the wide beam of his, disabling it while descending to the arena floor. He slashes through the outer debris, effortlessly clears it, and summons a circular ring of swords and one gesture towards the inner debris.
“KILIAN!” Roland blurts through his vocals as his OLRS can’t detect anything, and rages through the few mobs left before having a conflict with the man. His grimoire flashed the light beam at the man seemingly debilitating him. A swirling sound comes through the brightness, heading straight at Roland, before being suddenly pushed to the floor.
Splat!
Roland, feeling heavy, not knowing what happened, rubbed his head and got up only to see a lifeless head, eyes closed, lying on the floor. Blood trail comes from its dismembered neck towards the headless body. Widening puddle of red. He got lucky. At the last second one nudge prevented a decapitation the man sacrificed for. Roland, ignoring the corpse, fires back in the direction of where the suited man is. Only to find the spot vacant.
||Incoming hostile →→→||
He smacks the grimoire to his right, stopping the suited man who is about to cut him in half. Roland rolled himself further away, hearing tears of paper. He got himself up to find his grimoire being clean and shredded to pieces.
||The Suited Man HP: 6780/8000 ||
“You got nothing left, pal,” The suited man murmured with a smirk, thrusting the tip of the blade right at Roland’s chest.
Sqwelp!
It’s over. I’m sorry, Kilian. This is it for me. Roland thought.
He opened his eyelids slowly, expecting to be in a holy place. Only to his shock, he is still here. His view was below, seeing his hands and looking up. To his horror, he didn’t get stabbed. Someone was in front, protecting him, he looked at his chest. No wounds. Nothing to be hazardous. Returning to the one in front of him before recognizing the clean hair and the black t-shirt. No no no.
||Kilian Health: Concerning but stable
Stamina: Unstable||
“Kilian!”
Kilian looked at his chest where he got stabbed. The suited man was horrified given his wide-eyed facial expression.
“You are an illusion! This can’t be true!” The suited man ranted in denial after he surely annihilated him with all the blades and the beam he summoned. A sudden jolt came from his blade.
“Can an illusion do this?” Kilian grunted, with his hand on the blade, applied pressure through the gashed edges, pushing the blade out of his chest without letting it go. Boiling Kilian exerts blue qi over the suited man’s sword, gluing the suited man's hand to the hilt. The dead body Roland saw triggered his mind. Any casualty is his loss. “I’ve had it with you!”
||The Suited Man HP: 6780/8000 ||
↓↓
||The Suited Man HP: 5900/8000 ||
Kilian’s boiled strength melted the blade's toughness, turning it into a rope. Flexing through his forearms, he jerked the sword upwards, sending the suited man upwards. His blue glaring eyes send its message to him, changing his reaction. Before he could react, Kilian jerked down, crashing the suited man to the floor while his hand still held the hilt. He did that continuously while yelling tantrums.
||The Suited Man HP: 5900/8000 ||
↓↓
||The Suited Man HP: 2100/8000 ||
||Automatic Documentation Updating…
Documentation Completed
- Face Unknown Suited Stranger -> The Suited Man
Ongoing Documentation
- Face the upcoming wave(??)
||
A documentation notification from his OLRS stops him from continuing further, letting go of the gashed blade. The suited man’s bruised arm and his disfigured hand let go of the hilt, tumbling to the floor. Kilian, along with terrified Roland, walks up. He rolls him over to his back, scavenging his pockets.
||The Suited Man HP: 126/8000 ||
|| Keycard obtained
25 Silvers
Keychain obtained||
He hears a low murmur coming from his mouth, “Speak up!” Kilian slaps the suited man’s ribs while healing him enough to talk.
||The Suited Man HP: 126/8000 → 300/8000||
“Duan? No one makes that face ever except Duan…How the hell are you still alive?”
“Duan?” Kilian grew curious as the name returned to the front of his mind. “What do you know about him?”
“Are you serious? It ain't a joke. No one can do what he does. A force to not be reckoned with. Mimicking his facial expressions is nigh impossible. We are directed to step back when he makes that face…I’m sorry Duan…”
“Oi, hey hey!” Kilian witnessed the suited man succumbing to his wounds before he could continue asking more. “Shit,” he muttered, standing up and turning around to see the last of the mobs.
“Duan? The one you told us about?” Roland’s eyebrows raised.
“Maybe, how the hell should I know,” Kilian confusingly answered. “One death today, mark that.” He sprinted towards the last wave of mobs and was pulled back. One of the columns tilted and collapsed to the floor. Debris emitted from the fallen column. Kilian and Roland dispersed it quickly.
<< You can’t be serious. You're not gonna lift that thing!”
Kilian wraps his tight arms around the column, ignoring the blood spurt over it from his shoulders. His teeth clenched while letting out a lengthy groan. Stones cracked as he attempted to lift the entire behemoth. Quickly spinning his head around in multiple directions preparatory to swivel towards the mobs. “GRRRRAH” His thunderous roar shunned everyone when many stopped witnessing the arena floor begin to crack beneath his feet, prompting Roland to scream at others to move away. Vessa flew quickly first giving Selina the space.
||Stamina Unstable!!!||
Selina grabs Hirko and a few men beside her, boosting her legs, flying around the circumference counterclockwise, passing the prior stairway entrance, and going over the protruding column. Kilian with the clearance, quickly swivels the entire column while also leaping high into the air, withdrawing his black sword and performing a downward swipe, unleashing a heavy dark slash, rampaging its path.
He drops down, standing with others, observing the mobs being disintegrated. Selina summoned a shield after seeing ignited sparkles flashing from within. Noticing his upper body turned sore, took a couple of deep breaths. Hirko opened his backpack, handing him a roll of bandages. “Heal up once more, we might have after this floor,” he said, tearing part of the roll, wrapping it around his left shoulder and chest, and anchoring it under his armpit.
||The Suited Man HP: 0/8000
Deceased||
||+500 XP
+820 XP
[Level 1: 3773/5000] 227 XP remaining to unlock Level 2 info perks ||
“You were bleeding a lot earlier. The blood spurted parts of the column as you tried to lift it,” Roland said, causing Selina to grow concerned when her eyes turned towards his wound.
“And somehow I don’t feel the pain I should have. My health was partially affected, but my stamina was still in disarray. Consistent training seems to not entirely cure this whole problem. Everything went as we all desired according to the results. Unfortunate for me.”
Kilian took deep breaths again. Hirko assisted in tightening the bandage and moved the anchoring to his back instead of the edge of his armpit. “You have talent, kid. Unfortunately, the other two with you are deceased…The speed transitions when you were helping Selina. Were those newly acquired?”
“Timing. I didn’t have the opportunity before, and Fredrich took it the wrong way. So-”
Rumble! Clank!
Screeching came from the stone benches, dividing in half, separating itself apart. Coincidentally the part where Kilian crashed into was the solid line. The benches opened further, visibly revealing the lights pierced through the line. Ahead was an open entryway leading to the hallway with another stairway in the distance. A timer popped up from the oblivion, immediately counting down from fifteen.
All spinning around, they noticed the entrance they came up to the arena, the wall cracks and collapses, revealing a giant device openly exposing its gears, towering over the path.
“We have to move!” Hirko yelled, teleporting behind the group. Standing at the center of the arena, he revs up his feet and legs, launching himself skidding coming from his shoes, leaving a trail of smoke. Picking up speed across fifty yards, like a grappler, he extends both arms out, exerting qi to push the entire group, thrusting all through the entryway in a bare nick of time.
All crash face down to the floor as the entryway closes followed by a time tick, igniting the whole arena. Heatwaves attempt to gush in as the benches close up. Selina cast towards the site, absorbing any remaining source till it finally sealed shut.
They all stood up, all counted themselves. Six. Kilian frowned, directing all to the stairway. The hallway exactly appears as if it were from the first floor instead of pitch-black. Just one pathway heading to the opening of the stairway.
||Automatic Documentation Updating…
Documentation Completed
- Face Unknown Suited Stranger -> The Suited Man
- Face the upcoming wave
New Documentation
- Head up through the stairway.
||
