Arkok was a giant Ogre. Or, more like, a half-Ogre and a half-Giant. The stuff of nightmares, at any rate. Lucius was the first to charge. He tried to dive for the heel of the being, but Arkok stomped his feet and Lucius was thrown back.

Elmar gripped his staff. It would be useless unless someone got hurt, but he didn’t want for it to come to that. He touched the ground with his free hand and began to whisper a spell.

Round, round stone.

Become rougher, spiked and mean.

Come alive, stone and strike this Ogre.

Go for the heel and never yield.

Spiked appeared in the stone, and they began to move. Arkok jumped and caught a chain hanging from the ceiling of the arena. The crown booed Elmar and began to throw things in the arena. One of them was a necklace with a chipped locked.

Elmar inspected it. There was plenty of magic inside. It was the exact necklace that he needed, even. He pocketed it. Then he watched as a mace flew towards Diana. He ran and pushed her out of the way. They landed centimeters away from a sharp rock spike.

“Thanks for the save, Elm.” Said Diana. She had no weapon. Elmar decided to fix this.

Moisture in the air, gather.

I would, you be ice, thou I rather,

You became a dagger sharp with an evil gleam.

Appear in Diana’s hands and guard her from the dim.

An ice dagger appeared in Diana’s hands. She gripped it and took out her invisibility cloak.

“You three distract it and I will go for the heel.” Said Diana, clasping the cloak together and disappearing. Elmar raised his hand high, and both Lucius and Dereck ran to him.

“We need to distract it, so Diana can get at its heel.” Said Elmar. Dereck pointed at the rock spikes on the ground.

“It won’t go down as long as those are here.” He said. Elmar regretted wasting his mana in this failed attempt, and he put his hand on the ground.

You failed in your task.

You may now return to your mask.

The spikes disappeared and Arkok jumped down with a roar. The three fanned out and began shouting at the creature to come their way. Then, Elaine appeared in the center of the arena again.

“Three are fighting, but the fourth is sneaking. Do we let the rat escape?” Asked Elaine. The crowd boomed their “No!”

Elaine cackled, and bright lights appeared in the arena. One of them illuminated a silverly silhouette. Arkok charged it with an evil grin. But before he could stomp on Diana, Lucius threw himself at Arkok’s back and drove his sword in the creature’s back.

Arkok roared and began to stomp around wildly. Lucius’s sword had a fire enchantment on it, and so it was very effective against giants. Arkok swayed to the side, but did not fall. Instead, with one big sway, he catapulted Lucius from his back and onto the ground with a sickening snap of a bone.

But standing still even for so long was all that Diana needed to plunge the dagger into Arkok’s heel. The being gave out a whine and fell down on the ground. Elmar ran towards Lucius and touched his staff to his leg, which was bend at an odd angle.

The leg righted itself with another snap and a scream from Lucius. There were beets of sweat forming on the noble’s brow. He moved his leg around and then got up and took his sword, which had fallen a little to the side.

Arkok breathed his last just as Lucius retrieved it. There was a hush that spread through the crowd.

“This is the dungeon of lies.” Said Lucius loud and clear. “And so, it wasn’t Elaine who was the core. It was Arkok.”

The surrounding illusions began to break one by one. The arena turned into a ruin. Arkok’s body, into a crystal. And the crowd into a goblin tribe.

“You don’t even know anything about Persephone or Hades, do you?” Asked Elmar angrily. He used his staff to threaten Dawin, who had leaped down and tried to retrieve the fallen and cracked crystal.

“We are simple goblins. We just wanted a home. Arkok gave it to us.” Said Dawin, voice full of fear.

“At the cost of people’s lives.” Said Lucius. He pressed his sword to Dawin’s neck. “Was the part about the teleportation ring or the tunnels to the forest of plenty true? Speak, goblin!”

Dawin smiled then. This was his salvation.

“We don’t have such a ring, no. But we do have tunnels. One of them leads to the forest of plenty. But to get pass it, you have to pass through the Spider Mother’s nest. She likes fresh meat.” Cackled the goblin as he rubbed his hands together. Lucius made to sever Dawin’s head, but Elmar stopped him.

“Wait, Lucius, we can trade the goblins with the spider for save passage.” Said Elmar. The goblin’s smile dropped from its face.

“That is a dark spell, that is. Your soul will become foul, young mage.” Said Dawin.

“This is more than I.” Said Elmar, and he went to the cracked core and touched it.

Rob their will.

Bend their hearts.

Lead them to their doom.

And feed a spider dreadful and dark.

The goblins all dropped to the ground and the dungeon core glowed before cracking further.

“We have an hour. Dawin, lead us to the spider mother.” Said Elmar. The goblin nodded. The more they walked through the now ruined city, the less it looked like a dwarven settlement. It had wooden huts and mud roads, and there were no paintings anymore. Perhaps there were never any to begin with.

They found a tunnel at the twenty-minute mark, and Elmar let the goblins walk before them.

“Are we really going to do this, Elm? Feed the goblins to a spider?” Asked Diana, worried how this will harden her friend’s heart.

“They would have killed us too. We can’t behave like Theanore. Not here, perhaps not anywhere.” Said Elmar. He could hear laughter at the back of his mind. Did he pass this test or did he fail? He guessed he would need to wait to fall asleep to find out.