“Alright, listen up, ya heard Pryte’s spiel, now ya get my advice fer the floor,” Mel said, floating his way over the top of the table.

  “Do we have to?” Connie asked jokingly.

  “Yes. We’re gonna go over the way this floor works. I kinda skipped some of the more specific details, figured I’d get ta that when y’all got there. But here we are, so it’s time ta get ta it,” Mel said, his color shifting slightly as he talked.

  “What exactly is different from what you already told us?” Elody asked, finally looking up from the table.

  “It’s ain’t that it’s different, just there’s more ta it. So the first killing blow, that’s going to actually drop ya to a protected state that will last a certain length based on how badly ya were hurt. It can’t be less than five seconds, though. When that happens, ya get ta make a choice. Continue the fight or leave the Arena. If ya stay and no one heals you back up in that time, that’s it, yer dead,” Mel said, looking at each of us sternly in turn.

  “That actually seems better than what you had led us to believe,” Elicec said while Cecile continued eating.

  “Yes, and no. Remember, they have more people than ya, and they get the same benefit. And right now, I’m putting my proverbial foot down on four of ya. Elicec, Cecile, Glorp, and Maud, if any of y’all go down, ya leave the floor, period,” Mel said. His tone made it clear he’d take zero argument on the topic. “The rest of ya, well, y’all decide what ya think is best anyway, so that’s yer choices to make.”

  “Can we do anything while the timer counts down? Like heal ourselves?” I asked. If I could do that, it would be incredibly hard to convince me to leave. One of the better things I had going for me at this point was the interplay between my shields’ mana regeneration and my healing magic.

  “You aren’t frozen in anyway if that’s what yer asking. Yer free to act however, and I recommend that however is getting yer ass away from the danger and ta someone that can heal ya. Which is gonna primarily be Dave, Elody, and Connie, or any of the dungeon core tools. Though I want ya to try and keep everyone but Alpha in reserve as long as ya can. They shouldn’t be expecting the other two, so let’s surprise ‘em,” Mel said, answering my current question and somehow the next one I had coming.

  “I may be overstepping myself, as this is more a Mel or Elicec topic, but this will be a fight beyond what most you have ever encountered. It is imperative that you hold nothing back during the fight, anything you’ve been cooking up or even contemplating, if it can help at the moment or turn the tide in any way, use it,” Rabyn said, his earlier smile gone from his face, having been replaced a look of calm determination.

  “Rabyn is entirely right here, and as far as being in charge will go inside on the floor, no plan is gonna survive past the first blow. yer all gonna have ta make split-second decisions without much of a chance to look fer new orders, so ya gotta think on yer feet. Glorp, most of all, the speed yer gonna be moving around the battle at, it’s gonna be impossible fer anyone to help. Dave, at least will have access ta his special chat, assuming they don’t jam it somehow. Which expect them ta do with Connie’s whispers,” Mel said, backing up Rabyn’s words. His glare had softened into something I thought might have been concern. His color was rapidly shifting, though, so it was hard to be sure.

  “We could keep discussing this all day, but I think everyone here knows the reality of what’s about to happen. Pryte made that pretty clear, so how long do we really want to put off the inevitable?” Connie asked as she stood up from her chair and did several deep stretches, the last one followed by a large burp that caused her face to turn red. “I, uh, excuse me.”

  The following roar of laughter finally broke through the tension that had been over the room since Pryte had started his speech. I half wondered if it had been intentional on her part. She was an entertainer, after all. In the end, it didn’t really matter as I wasn’t about to spoil the change by bringing it up.

  “We got about another hour before the match, but Connie’s right, no reason we can’t just head over ta the room now,” Mel said.

  “Assuming Rorge isn’t busy at the moment, yes, we may as well,” Pryte said. He then pulled a small device out of his pocket and tapped on it a couple times, paused, tapped again, and then put it in his pocket. “Let’s get outside. He will be here momentarily.”

  True to Pryte claim, Rorge was already waiting for us near the bunkhouse by the time we got there. “Really bringing everyone then, eh?” he asked, looking us over.

  “Yeah, the less said on it, the better though,” Pryte replied.

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  “You got it,” he said. I immediately felt the familiar sensation of the teleportation effect as our waiting room came into view. How private was this thing anyway? Given the size of the Spire, I supposed it was entirely possible they had what was essentially an infinite number of these rooms. Did factions even get more than one?

  One of the clearest signs of my anxiety trying to rear its head was when the random questions started to flow into my brain to avoid me thinking about the reality I was facing. It had been that way for most of my life, and I credited it with a lot of my problem-solving ability, but it could be a problem all its own during moments like this. I forced myself back into the here and now. I needed to focus on everything happening around me as best I could, and to do that I I needed to push the fear of the potential aftermath of this fight as far out of my active thoughts as I could.

  So I did what I did best to combat that. I walked over to the food area and made myself a sandwich. Then, I slowly walked around the room, carefully mingling and checking on everyone. By the time Floor Master walked in, accompanied by a surprising guest, I had managed to take stock of my friends and family and get myself in the mental space for the fight.

  “High Judge, have you come to watch our match?” Elody asked, all four of her eyes focusing on the strange man.

  “Yes, I want to make my ruling clear immediately, as it’s for the best either way,” he replied, the shapes sliding across the room as he found a spot next to Mel.

  I heard Mel whisper something to the judge but couldn’t quite make it out. The judge whispered something in return, and Mel’s color shifted subtly. Something important had passed between them, and I wasn’t sure if I should ask what.

  “Oh no!” Maud’s voice yelled from the other side of the room, pulling my attention away from the quiet conversation.

  “What’s wrong?” I called, quickly making my way over to her.

  “We forgot the cats and the moose! What’s going to happen to them?” Maud asked, genuine fear and worry coming in her words. She was right; we hadn’t even considered them. I was less concerned with the moose than I was her and John’s pets, though. I had a feeling the moose could reasonably take care of itself, and the new faction might want it around anyway.

  “Everyone, let’s calm down. I promise everything is fine,” Pryte said, winking at me. What had that been about? How was everything fine? Wait… Timon was still on Earth with Chip. Had Pryte really planned to grab the moose?

  I pulled up my chat window and sent a quick message to Maud.

  I closed the window, spotting Floor Master nearing us. I took a deep breath and nodded to Mel in the distance. he just nodded back, keeping his face a mask of calm. There was no turning back now, even if we wanted to.

  “If everyone could please follow me,” Floor Master said, gathering the squad behind him as he passed between everyone else. “Please be careful on this level especially, and I truly wish you all good luck.”

  The door opened after his words, and we all walked silently into the darkened hall. The only sound came from the door sliding shut behind us. The blackness vanished, and in its place was a giant open field of grass. Far on the other end, I could see fifteen figures staring back at us.

  “Climbers, combat begins in thirty seconds,” an unseen voice said.

  “Dammit, why did I let Pryte talk me into this?” Timon said as he set the second cat down in the bus and started working on patching up the wounds now covering his arm. The new slashes had joined a host of others made only minutes ago by the cat’s sibling. Why had no one ever told him these cats were so deadly? For that matter, why weren’t they being trained for the Arena? As far as he could see it, this was a giant missed opportunity.

  With the cats secure in the back of the bus, he went in search of his next target. He found the moose again, having snuck into the garden and munching on the decoy vegetables Cecile had left out for him. Timon reached into the pocket of his brightly colored shirt and produced an incredibly mana-dense carrot he had saved in case it came to something like this.

  “Come here, Mr. Moose. Just need to get you on the bus. We might need to get outta here in a hurry, and I just wanna make sure we can do that without any issues,” Timon said, slowly luring the moose back toward where he had left the cats.

  In the end, death comes for us all. Those of the Spiral love to pretend that immortality is a given as long as you can climb high enough, but no, it will come for them someday, too. The Spiral itself will one day die, for all things come to an end. Nothing is eternal. But I am not here for such trivial realities. I am here to discuss just what hides on the other side of the vale. Tonight, I go in search of that answer.

  Gharamez the Unwitted’s Last Known Words.

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