Prismatic

Elimination

The capsule had olive green for a top and a raspberry red for a bottom. The top part folded back, revealing a transparent reinforced glass. Inside, we could see a Lutin with a microphone by the ear. He looked the same as the ones that greeted us at the inn. “Welcome champions!” he greeted with ecstatic enthusiasm, “I am Lutin and I am here to explain the rules of the room. First of all, this room is called Praefloro.” He looked at everyone before continuing, “There are one hundred of you here. The aim is to cut the numbers to only ten teams. There is only a five-minute time limit. The ten teams that survive will be able to advance to the next floor. Without further ado, the timer starts… now!”

“Let’s team up. The goal is to have ten teams right?”Chella looked at me with slight fear.

“Yeah, see you at the next floor”, I said glumly.

The scene became barbaric. The previous laughter became murderous intent. The alliances started to break up and went against each other. The teams started shooting array of spells at each other. Someone’s head was flying already. Fountains of blood were seen everywhere.

Some groups went at us with maniacal screams. Aina crushed a team in an earthen prison. No trace of them, not even their blood, was seen after the prison evaporated. She went for the next one with flaming fists and icy blasts. She was burning with fear and anger after one of them beamed a lightning bolt at her making her bleed to the side of her torso. Tyke went berserk after witnessing the damage Aina received. He went for the jugular and hacked anyone who came close. He slid under one of them and slit it open. He was struck on his left shoulder after a sword flew at him. Bry was next to me neutralizing the other teams. He summoned swords of different elements from the ground impaling some of them. He silenced some magic warriors at once to prevent them from using magic. He was trying to hide his pained expression after being scorched below his knees by some opponents. I was shooting shrapnel after shrapnel of light at the enemies in defense. I eyed my team and witnessed all the damage they have received. When I looked back at the menace ahead, I was struck by an arrow on my right arm. A trickle of blood flowed down from it. In response to the attack, I transformed the arrow into hundreds of replica of light. I casted, “Nova Astula!” and struck half of the population with multiple arrows.

The other teams on either sides of the triangle managed to defeat the remaining numbers. They were all covered in different assortments of blood from the defeated teams.

The scene around us became a s*******r house. The bodies were either ripped to shreds or brutally mutilated. The walls and the floor were painted with different shades and colors of blood. Most of the defeated cannot be distinguished from one another. I was close to losing it when I saw the horrid scene around us. The surviving teams were cradling their individual injuries.

Suddenly, I heard the door behind us open with a ‘clunk.’ All of our eyes darted at the intruders, the team that I saw before the door closed entered the room. They were all covered in metallic shades of gray. They posed to greet us and then we heard pained gasps. We all turned around and saw two sets of golden triangular metal chained from an unknown source bore into the heads of Chella and her team.

The Lutin cleared his throat, “Now that there are ten of you. You are now entitled for a recess. I will inform you when it is ready to proceed to the next floor. Rest well!” he zoomed out. “Oh, before I forget”, he echoed enthusiastically as his ride vanished from us. “As reward for completing this floor, you are rewarded with a small vial of potion, good quality weapon or armor and some Tregelheim currency, individually. The currency will be and should be used up on later levels. Good luck and hope you survive,”

After hearing that and seeing the horrors of the room, some of the teams cried tears of pain, worry and fear. I buckled to my knees, shocked at the flash of events before my eyes. A warm streak of my tears dropped like rain. Bry went to my side limping. He tried to comfort me as best as he could. “How could this happen?” I busted through my chest, “I thought we were just taking some sort of stupid trial. I didn’t want this to happen!”

“We didn’t know what was happening or what we were getting into. I thought we prepared ourselves for that”, he said in the calmest voice that he could manage. He continued making the tone light, “You did great there and I was impressed that you could beat the hell out of them.”

“But I killed them. I am a mass murderer”, my eyes were a waterfall now.

“They were trying to kill us the moment they heard the announcement”, he sighed from his diaphragm, “It wasn’t your fault, you just defended yourself and nobody gets arrested for that.”

“Yeah, I guess”, I wiped my tears and smiled at him, “Thanks, anyway.”

“Drink that. It will make you feel better”, Bry handed me one of his potions.

“Thanks, again.”

“No problem.”

I looked back at Aina and Tyke. Aina was tending to Tyke’s wound. Tyke was wearing adoring eyes and a goofy grin. When Aina looked at him, he faked cries of pain at her. Aina slapped his face like a celebratory ham.

I looked at the items that we received as reward. I got Radiant Circlet that had some transparent crystals mirroring my sorry reflection. It gave me some magic boost. Aina received Chimera’s Hide, a glove with a blood ruby at the center. It boosted her attack. Tyke received Stellar Shield which had sparkling crystals decorated around it that boosted his defense. Bry received Basilisk Shard, an earring of smooth glaring balls, which boosted his critical hit. All of us received a hefty amount of currency.

I turned my attention to the potions at hand. I mixed the thin vial of red potion with the fat orange potion that Bry gave me. I believed that mixing them would make the effects stronger. When I drank it, I felt my vision sharpen and my wound healed at the same rate. I didn’t feel the stronger effect though. Then, Bry handed me some shiny crystal powder, “Eat this, it will help you calm down.”

“I might get drug overdose, Bry. You keep giving me a lot of drugs”, I teased him.

“No, I’m not. Stop saying that, they might think I’m a drug peddler or something”, Bry was raspberry pink with embarrassment.

“Okay drug expert, you aren’t”, I grabbed the powder from him, “I will drink this later when I need it. Thanks.”

He hugged me tight, “I was just so happy that you were okay.”

I wiped some tears from his face, “Are you crying, Bry?”

He suddenly straightened himself, “No one’s crying, you were crying. I was just stung by the powder I gave you.”

“Okay Bry, whatever”, I rolled my eyes and gave him a morning smile. He smiled back.

“Hey lovebirds, Get a room will ya? It suffocating all the singles here”, Aina said in an uproar.

“Oh shut up, Aina”, I groaned with teasing eyes, “Want me to tell Tyke what you told me a few dinners ago?”

“What about me?” Tyke seemed surprised.

“Oh no you wouldn’t”, Aina threatened. I gave it a run around the triangle. She tackled me to one of the corpses. I dropped face down to some of the meats. I stumbled from the mass and spat some at Aina.

“That’s just gross, Aina”, I complained looking at bloodstains on my clothes.

“Well, you started it”, she bickered back throwing chunks at me.

One of the members of a group complained, “Oh come on, girls. Give it a rest. Aren’t you a bit curious about the group that just entered the door moments ago?”

The guy was quite shorter that any of us here. He had a thin masculine voice and a mustache. He had a silky skin under a knight’s armor.

All the teams looked at the group behind the guy who just spoke. Yes, guy. I don’t know any other words to refer to it. Anyway, the group seemed suspicious. Aside from their armor, they wore coats of yellow. They only had weapons ranging from a short sword to a halberd. They were the ones responsible for the death of Chella and her team. When they entered the room, they never said anything after the incident.

One team charged at them. A pale turquois aura protected the team and the challengers bounced back. Lutin’s voice can be heard from above, “No more fighting as the round was over.” The tone was serious but with a joyful undertone, “Anyone caught fighting will be boiled beneath the surface of Tregelheim.”

There was dead silence again. The mysterious group never moved an inch, never talked to anyone, not even each other. Everyone just ignored them after the Lutin’s threat.

I just sat there with my group. Aina was trying a conversation with Bry but was unsuccessful. I found myself talking to Tyke. “Hey there, Tyke”, I said in monotone.

“Howdy”, he said trying a southern accent, “How am I to be of service to the lady?”

I rolled my eyes, unamused. “Can you tell me something?”

“Hmm…?”

“Why haven’t you tried talking to me, alone?”

He pondered at the question, “That’s a tough one. I guess I left you alone a lot with Aina, huh?”

“Yeah… But why though?”

“I guess outdoors was more of my thing. I never had a chance to single you out from the clutches of Bry and Aina”, he took a glance at them but they weren’t paying attention, “You see my point? It’s a tough competition with them around. It took me by surprise when you took the liberty of talking to me.”

“You see Tyke, that’s not what I want to talk about”, my tone was now a whisper. “I wanna know the real score between you two.”

He shuddered and flushed a strawberry red. “Oh, it’s one of those questions”, he laughed nervously, “Why do you wanna know that?”

“Ugh. Answer question by another question”, I disgruntled, “I saw it in your eyes earlier. They were gleaming sunshines over the rain.”

“That’s one hell of a metaphor you have there”, he mused, “Yeah. Well you see she’s been like that to me since we were kids. She doesn’t show it like lover boy there.”

“Yeah, I see that. I thought that a way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. What has she been feeding you?”

“Well, the usual stuff,” he chuckled lightly, “Anyway, thanks for the chat. The air feels healthier now.”

“Thanks me, too.” I smiled with him.

“Aina looks bored, I’m gonna fetch her.”

“Yeah… Have fun with that.”

He went to Aina’s aid. I went back to Bry’s side and wallowed there.

“Champions, the portal is ready! Please proceed immediately”, Lutin commanded cheerfully.

A warm ethereal orange glow beamed at us. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Tyke said matching the Lutin’s cheerfulness. All of the teams worked their way to the portal. The bodies were an obstacle course. They were rotting real fast and the stench was becoming unbearable. I swallowed the bile to prevent adding it to the horrid smell. We finally made it with the other teams to the portal. The mysterious team waited for us to enter the portal before moving towards it. They made it in time before the portal closed behind them.