Chapter 34

My mind was wandering as we waited, trying to figure out what we would have as a challenge. Various means and scenarios filled my mind, though they seemed either too easy or too extreme for what we would be given. I had hoped that the challenges that we had seen before would help me to expect things. Despite what my mind could come up with, I knew that nothing would match anything that the Council could come up with. I looked around the room we were in, trying to keep my mind off of what was about to happen. The room was just a box of stone, with an intricate, multilayer glyph on the floor. As I looked closer at the glyph and realized that it reminded me of how teleportation circles were described in Dungeons and Dragons. I figured that this would be how they plan to transport us to the challenge area. There was a metal door behind us with no doorknob or handle, meaning the room was one way. I guess this ensured that no one would be able to leave or manipulate the group before they entered the challenge.

Knowing what was about to begin, I began to do some of the breathing exercises I learned for the spiritual side of my martial arts. By going through these exercises, it helped to focus my mind and energy on the task at hand. When I was as calmed and centered as I could be, I glanced to my left at Katie, and I could see that she was nervous. She was trying to stay strong, but there were signs that she was uncertain of how things were going to turn out. We had no idea what would be waiting for us when we appeared and though she had fought with us in the Dungeon for a while now, we all knew that this was going to be a whole other animal than we were used to. I looked over at the others and could see the same mix of both worry and excitement on their faces. I found myself yearning for Amenthia and Entivala to be here with us. They would have given us much better odds to deal with whatever was about to happen. Hopefully, we would be able to handle this threat with the tools at our disposal, but there would be no way to know until we were in the thick of it.

“Hey guys, are you all okay?” I asked, causing them all to look at me. “We knew it was going to be an unknown shit show, but we can deal with this. The last few challenges that we saw showed us that this was bigger than we expected. Regardless, we are ready for whatever they throw at us, and I know we will come out on top. Don’t get me wrong, I am just as worried as the rest of you, but we have worked hard to prepare for this. I have zero doubt in this group, and I have every confidence that together we will not just make it to the next round but win this whole fucking thing.”

Darius chuckled at my enthusiasm, “Really, Pathios? Why exactly do you think that we will come out on top of this tournament when the first group failed and the second barely made it? I mean I get you having faith in our little group, but we have no idea what they are going to toss at us.”

“I know because we can’t afford not to win,” I said with a smirk. “We already promised our ladies we would win this thing and I sure as hell don’t want to have to deal with my ladies or Cassandra if we don’t deliver. Do you?”

I saw his eyes widen and then he began laughing. He admitted that those three were too scary to disappoint and that we did have to win it all. Within moments we all were laughing, and it helped to cut the tension that had been building as we waited. Just as the laughter died down, a display shimmered into existence in front of us. We all glanced at one another, knowing that it was about to start. Odin’s face appeared on the display, and I felt the nervousness of our plight begin to grow once again.

“Welcome back one and all to the Champion’s Challenge,” Odin announced with a smile. “Now we will watch as the Tyr Pact House faces their challenge. While the goal is simple, the means to reach that goal and the hazards that are in their path are anything but. They will be placed within a tunnel labyrinth that they will have to reach the end of. Use of the map function of the bracer will be allowed, given the extensive tunnels, but they will still only have four hours in which to solve the labyrinth. Let us see if they have what it takes to complete this task and move on to the next round.”

As soon as he finished saying it, there was a flash of light from the glyph at our feet and we were no longer in the square stone room anymore. As the light from the spell faded, we saw that we were now in a darkened tunnel. Much like the fifth floor of the Dungeon, there were various bioluminescent fungus and crystals in the floor and walls. They all were giving off just enough light to see where we were going, but not enough to see things easily. Katie had the best Awareness of the group, which made her the best choice to help us determine the path we would need to take. While she was the best choice, her need to focus on the map would limit her reaction time if and when we were attacked. Given how vulnerable that would make her, she was moved into the center of our formation, with the rest of us surrounding her. This would allow us to soak up some damage while she turned her focus to our enemy. She did decide she would carry her crossbow in her hand, ready to react, but still there would be a little delay for the change of focus.

Darius stayed in the front of the party formation, with Grishta at his side. She chose to bring a shield this time, though unlike mine, which was a medium sized circular shield, hers was a kite design. I hadn’t seen her use a sword and shield fighting style, but I was sure that she would do fine. Ilthvana was moved beside Kat’ilth’ana with her longbow in hand. This would ensure that she could deal with any volleys while Katie readied her own counterattack. Ilthvana had her focus on a swivel, looking behind us every so often just in case something tried to sneak up on us. I was in the back with Dilbar who was armed with his heavy crossbow. This would allow us to deal with both short- and long-range defense of any group attempting to attack us from behind. I was hoping that the new strings made of the Arachni queen silk would help give us an edge as we traveled the many tunnels, we needed to pass through to reach our destination.

With our marching order in place, Katie activated her map display, showing a decent sized map of our location and possible travel routes. I was glad we had worked our asses off to get our skills up enough to give us any edge we could have. Thankfully, her awareness allowed us to see enough of the map to get an idea of some of the tunnels that would end up dead ends. Still it would limit us just enough to be unaware if the tunnel we choose would be the right one or a dead end. What the others didn’t realize was that we had an ace in the hole that would help us. Katie glanced over to me, and I gave her a quick nod. She gave me a quick smile before she moved towards one of the walls and found an exposed root. She reached out, placed her hand on the root and her eyes flashed with emerald light. We watched as the same light emanated from her hand, allowing her senses to stretch out through it. I didn’t know if the Council had been aware of her ability, and if they had, maybe they had broken up the root systems to limit how much she could be aware of. Of course there was only one way to know for certain and what she was about to tell us would answer that question.

“Okay, we need to head straight for about half a kilometer,” Katie said, removing her hand from the root. “Once we get there, we will find three tunnels open to us. We have to take the tunnel to the right, as the other two will lead to dead ends.”

Dilbar looked at her with surprise, “And how is it that you know this young lady? All you did was touch a root and flash your eyes.”

“It is something unique to Dryads,” she said with a smile. “I can touch a root and see down it to see the paths ahead. I can tell that there is a dead end at two of the paths, though, unless the root sticks out of the wall, I can’t see if those particular tunnels have enemies in it. Hopefully, they will as we continue through, otherwise it would make things more difficult.

Darius smiled, “Well, aren’t you two just full of surprises. Every time I think I have a handle on what you guys can do, you surprise me with something else.”

“Well, a girl can’t give away all her secrets,” Katie replied with a wink and a smile. “I will have to do it every so often, but, in tandem with the map, we should be able to find a way there, no problem. The only issue will come from either the creatures that will no doubt be within the tunnels, or if the tunnels begin to move. That, of course, will mean other issues, but we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

With the first step of our path laid out for us, we readied our weapons and began to move forward along the entry tunnel. Given the size of the other maps that the Pact Houses had for their challenges, we moved at a pace that we thought would ensure we reached the end with time to spare. We made sure we didn’t move too fast for Katie to warn us and give us the chance to react before being surprised by enemies or traps. We watched the areas around us but made it to the three tunnels that Katie instructed us to go to in good time. We entered the tunnel she had said to go through, and I glanced at Katie, wondering if we had any threats ahead that she could see. Thanks to the time we had spent working together she understood the unasked question and she shook her head, so we continued onward. We walked carefully for another kilometer, following the directions she gleaned from the various roots as we went.

As we neared another group of tunnels, she had to stop to commune with the roots again. We formed around her as she stretched out her consciousness and, depending on the length of the root system, it could take a few minutes depending on how far the root system could go.

As we waited for her to give us the next set of directions, I thought that I heard a faint sound coming from one of the tunnels in front of us. It was a faint echo, but it was difficult to tell where it had come from. It seemed to be almost directionless and almost above a mere whisper, but it was enough to catch my attention. I looked around and could see that the others were on edge. We shared a glance and I gestured to my ears, to which the rest of them nodded. Katie was still scanning through the roots, so I nodded to Grishta, who took point in front of Katie. With her protection secured, Ilthvana readied an arrow and began looking around for threats. Dilbar readied a bolt on his heavy crossbow, readying the bolt feeder for rapid fire. I wasn’t certain where the sound had originated, so I strained my ears to try and pick up more sounds. Given that there were multiple directions to be attacked from, I turned my focus behind us, in case Katie had either not picked them up, or the roots couldn’t sense them.

We didn’t have to wait long before the sources of the sound made their move. I was happy that my instinct had proven right, as two arrows came sailing towards us from behind, hitting my shield and Dilbar’s armor. He grunted from the force of the impact, but otherwise shrugged off the attack. I yelled that there was an attack from behind us and our threat focus turned that way. We could hear the movement of creatures running towards us, though the low light made it hard to see what they were until they got closer. As they rushed us, they came close enough that we could see that our current attackers were a band of goblins. They were garbed in makeshift armor, patched together from the creatures they hunted. Their weapons were not much different than those we used but made in a much more rudimentary and simplified way. Crude versions of axes, spears, and daggers, along with a rudimentary bow and arrows. There looked to be just under a dozen of them coming at us, with two using ranged weapons and the rest charging at us with their weapons. I was wishing that Entivala was here because her wall spells would have proven particularly useful to us in stopping them or blocking them. Dilbar turned and began to put his new weapon to use with a gleam in his eye. Using the quickfire design, he let loose a barrage of bolts towards the rushing horde, laughing as he unleashed his fury at them.

I watched happily as the goblins fell to the bolts, as, in some cases, they were sent flying by the force of the impact. Out of the ten goblins that were rushing towards us, seven were taken out by the barrage. The three that survived slowed their approach and looked at each other with uncertainty. As that happened, I heard the ding of impact from behind us, telling us that another assault was coming from the opposite direction. Two more impacts struck Grishta’s shield and the three goblins that slowed down began to approach again, bolstered by the reinforcements. Dilbar placed the crossbow in its back stirrup and drew his hammers in preparation for close combat. Before they could reach striking range, a wall of roots burst up from the ground, closing off the tunnel. I turned to see Katie gesture with another hand and roots shot out of the walls like spikes, skewering the approaching group instantly. A few seconds later, they disappeared in puffs of smoke, and Katie retracted the spikes.

“I know the path for the next three kilometers,” Katie told the group, with a smile on her face. “There is still another group of goblins ahead and the three behind us will have a time trying to get through those roots, as there are three layers that they will have to cut through. I will create a few more walls of roots to ensure they can’t reach us before we reach our destination.”