Chapter 8: The Islands and the Gate

Dragging his gaze away from the dark lake with its islands and gateway, Miguel looked from one side to the other.

He could now make several of the other contenders dotted along the circular raised platform. The platform, it seemed, was punctuated with multiple entrances, each just like the one that he had just emerged from himself. To his left again was the red-bearded and scarred figure of Sid Geraghty, currently crouching over a wooden chest near the wall and pulling something out of it.

Far to the right he could see the compact and muscular figure of Tarja Tuomi, the blonde warrior who he had seen holding a pistol. There were, however, only another four contenders in sight, though there were plenty of other entranceways further around the edge of the ring. As he looked on, Chloe made it out from a nearby entrance to his left, panting. That made it five – or rather six, including himself.

The only visible contender not standing on the raised platform was a man with long black hair tied in a ponytail, who Miguel recognized as Youssef; the third name on the leaderboard that they had been shown. The man was currently on a sort of boat, or rather a raft, and was punting himself across the black liquid with a pole.

Well, that made sense. The underground lake hadn’t been put there for decoration. Miguel could see that the contenders were expected to somehow cross it, or perhaps to get to something hidden on the islands.

And the bad news was that Youssef was already considerably further on with that task than he was.

Miguel looked behind him, and saw that there was a wooden chest near his entrance way as well.

Equip dagger

Opening the chest with the blade of the dagger was a wise move; as soon as he lifted the lid, a blue gas hissed out, and he rapidly took a step back. Someone, somewhere was yelling in pain, and Miguel guessed that they had been hit by the gas trap that he had just narrowly missed out on. What damage would it do, and what did the pain feel like?

There wasn’t time to think about it.

Inside the chest itself were a set of wooden poles. It looked like they could be slotted together.

Unequip dagger

Unequip shield

Miguel glanced ahead. It was certainly annoying that Youssef had got the jump on him, but this just showed that he wasn’t the only one with a good speed stat. Or perhaps his rival had just been less hesitant at the important moments.

Or less curious.

As Miguel reached into the chest and quickly pulled out the pieces, he began to mentally curse himself for not running faster at the start of the task. He could have gone much quicker if only he had known what the goal was. It had been a serious mistake to pace himself.

If only he had known.

That was it, though, he realized. The whole point is that you don’t always know what is coming. You have strengths, you have stats, you have weapons, but you can never know exactly what is just around the corner. For the audience, a major part of the fascination would no doubt come from watching people think on their feet.

Now though, he would need to be not just fast but also methodical. He rapidly took each short pole out of the chest in turn, looked at one end and then the other, and then put it down neatly on the stone floor. Then he systematically began to move them around, lining them up on the ground until it looked like all would fit together, then began to slot them together, adding one short piece at a time.

Notification: You have gained 5XP

Looking closely, he also saw that there was a bronze hook with a threaded screw end. This he took out too. He found a hole in the end of one of the poles, then threaded this on. Overall, he had soon created a sturdy and well-connected pole of around fifteen feet in length, with a hook on one end.

Notification: You have gained 10XP

Now, Miguel looked to both sides. Chloe was still at the early stages of trying to connect the sections of her own pole, while Tarja had already completed hers. The red-bearded Sid had made progress, but now appeared to be having difficulties – he had two halves of a pole, lengths of around seven feet each, but was struggling to attach these together.

“He’ll need to take them all apart, and start again,” Miguel muttered to himself, suppressing a grin.

Then he reminded himself that he should focus more on his goal than on the other contenders.

No more hesitating.

He hurried to the edge of the vast central pool, and gazed down into the murky water. Right enough, as he had guessed, there were more of the rafts that Youssef was using to make his way through the water. Each one had a metal loop on the back.

So – that’s what the hook is for, he thought.

The rafts were moving around, too, so he would need to be patient, like a bizarre fishing game.

One raft was approaching from the side, but he would need to stand here for another minute or so until he was able to reach it.

But... Miguel felt himself tense up. Did he just hear something from behind him?

Without looking around, he ducked; a weapon then whistled through the air where his head had been a moment before. He shoved outwards hard with his elbow, hitting his attacker, but nearly overbalanced on the edge of the platform in the process, still clutching onto his pole with one hand as he turned.

His attacker – a handsome blond-haired man with a pointed beard – was now staggering backwards, axe in hand. The attacker looked just as surprised as Miguel had felt. The advantage was gone. Miguel hearing the sudden attack had evened the odds, and now both men had to ready themselves for a fight.

Equip dagger

Miguel ducked down again, placing the pole on the ground, and then dodged to one side as the blond man struck out at him once again.

You have lost 2 hit points. You have 3 hit points remaining.

Miguel had been ready this time, using his speed to good effect to ensure that the follow-up attack had only been a glancing blow.

Now he circled around towards the far side of the circular area, so that the lake was ahead of him. And as the man began to bring the one-handed axe down towards once again, Miguel grabbed at the weapon with his left hand and stabbed at the attacker’s weapon arm with his dagger.

The blond man screamed in pain as blood began to spurt out of his arm. He let go of the axe, and stepped back. At that precise moment, Miguel threw himself forward, barging into the man’s chest with his shoulder.

This time it was Miguel’s attacker who staggered towards the edge, except that he didn’t so much teeter on the edge as fly right over it, his legs flailing as he disappeared head-first towards the dark liquid surface.

Spinning around, his dagger held high, Miguel readied himself for another attack, but none came. Sid was still working on his poles, giving Miguel only the occasional wary glance, and nobody else was close.

Notification: You have gained 24XP

Miguel picked up his attacker’s axe, and then peered back over the edge. The blond man was struggling in the water now, sinking rapidly... and the raft that Miguel had noticed earlier was now getting very close.

Unequip dagger

Unequip axe

He raised the pole in both hands again, and guided the tiny vessel so that it was near enough for him to clamber down onto.

At first Miguel had assumed that the little islands in the huge circular black pool of water were the target of the next part of the trial. Instead, he now saw that while they did have some items on top of them, their main function was to make up the walls of a maze.

His job, it seemed, was to guide the raft in between the walls of this maze, finding a way to the gateway in the center. Presumably only those who made it that far passed this particular test.

Pony-tail was well on his way, of course, while Tarja and one other woman had now launched rafts too, and were ahead of Miguel.

The nearest pair of islands had a gap between them that led to a channel, and this would be Miguel’s first target, he supposed. He began to pole rapidly, wobbling and nearly overbalancing a couple of times as he did so. He cursed his bad agility, and paused for a moment in order to allow the small vessel to steady.

Just then, he became aware of another struggle back on the platform above him, and his eyes rapidly scanned around the circular edge area that ringed the lake.

Chloe.

The red-bearded Sid had apparently abandoned his attempts to sort out the construction of his own hook and pole, and had instead run around to where Chloe was holding hers. He pulled at it, then kicked out at the young woman, who stumbled backwards towards the edge of the raised area.

Sid then swung a fist. Chloe ducked and backed away, but in doing so she had dropped her pole... and looked to be heading out of the game.

Urgh...

Twisting, Miguel turned the little raft around and rapidly began to pole the vessel back towards where the struggle was taking place. As he did so, Chloe and Sid both pulled out swords, and began to engage an angry, rapid exchange of blows. As metal clashed against metal, Miguel closed in on the scene.

He held the pole in his left hand, concentrating on staying balanced, and then narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sid.

Equip throwing star

He knew he only had one throwing star left, so he had better make the shot count. The big red-bearded man was above him – a difficult angle, but Sid made for a large target, too.

On the other hand, Miguel was balancing on a raft that was moving through the water. Every time he got ready to throw, it moved under his feet.

Looking down, he jammed the pole as hard as he could downwards with his left hand, placing it in front of the raft. Its drift forward stopped, and he was able to lean against to pole itself to steady his throw, the muscles of his left arm straining as he raised as much of his weight onto the pole as he could.

The gleaming star flew out. And at just that moment, Sid had turned his back towards Miguel while parrying a blow from Chloe. The throwing star embedded between the big man’s shoulder blades; there was a bellow of pain, and then Sid staggered forward, away from the edge and out of sight.

Notification: You have gained 10XP

“Down here, Chloe!” called Miguel urgently, and after a moment, he saw Chloe’s face appear over the edge, looking down.

“Uh... you want me to join you on that?” she said.

“Well, yeah,” he called up. “Or have you got a better plan?”

They looked at each other in silence for a moment, the water gently swishing around Miguel as he continued to hold the raft still.