The cramped cavern walls pressed firmly against his body; like a snake, the tunnel constricted inwards, its walls illuminated by the soft blue glow emanating from the beating lamp cage. The small handheld cage contained within it a shining shape, incorporeal and ever swaying. The man had one arm uncomfortably compressed under the weight of his laying body while his other held the lamp cage in front and slowly dragged him forward. His backpack trailed behind him tied to his ankle by a short rope. The glowing blue light of the lamp cage illuminated the cave ahead.

Occasionally the light would reveal strange, small creatures with many tentacles and semi-transparent bodies. The creatures would quickly scurry into the cracks in the walls before the man could fully make out their form. The man made slow progress; with every push forward, he had to fight to squeeze through the ever-shrinking tunnel. Without any exterior sounds to interrupt, the man could hear the beat of his heart echo into the darkness ahead, only drowned out by the sound of his heavy breathing. The tunnel was slightly inclined downward so that he at least had gravity to help him on his trek. The tunnel was tight enough that he wouldn’t fall down the seemingly endless path, but the ever-flowing blood to his head was beginning to take a toll on his sanity.

He continued to crawl slowly down the path for what seemed like hours; although, without any source of natural light it was impossible to tell. Eventually he felt a cool draft waft over his face, granting him the refreshing taste of clean air. The lamp cage was unaffected by the breeze. The light contained within was a glow of some pure essence, it was not some flame or magic that could be so easily extinguished by outward influences. With the breeze coursing through his hair, the man found a renewed vigor and continued forward with greater speed. He could not wait to stretch his muscles and breathe in open space once again. The cool breeze eventually led to the sound of rushing wind, and then to the sound of running water. The light filling the cave seemed too strange to originate from his lamp cage. With a press of his will, he sapped color from his softly lit cage. The blue light within was seemingly absorbed into the metallic walls of its container. The cage regained its natural hue from this, but the light source, now drained, could no longer illuminate the cave. Darkness overcame the tunnel, but not entirely; a faint source of light emanated from further down the tunnel. Invigorated even more, he pushed through as quickly as he could until finally, he could see it.

The cave opened into a massive dome; giant stalactites stretched down from the ceiling. Even with the great size of the astonishingly large pillars of stone, only the largest of them could even come close to brushing against the top of the odd trees. Buried deep within the stone walls, this humongous forest was hidden. The odd, tear-drop-shaped trees were hundreds of times the size of the man. The grass was a beautiful lush green, well-watered by the waterfall that fell from a hole in the roof of the cave and formed a river that cut through the entire length of the dome before disappearing into another small tunnel. The hole through which the waterfall fell seemed to access the outer world as sunlight poured through the quaint gap. The daylight filtered through the waterfall, causing wave-like silhouettes to blanket the cave in a blue glow. Noticing the sunlight irritated the man as he wiggled and writhed in the cramped tunnel hole in which he lay.

The man struggled to squeeze himself out of his tunnel before promptly falling a few feet, landing uncomfortably on the soft grass bed. He quickly stood back up and tried to shake off all the dust and debris that clung to his body. A few of those strange transparent creatures that had made their homes in the creases of his clothes were revealed and flung away by the fall. The man picked up the lamp cage that had fallen with him. He inspected it intently. “Are you okay?”

The lamp cage did not seem to bear any scratches or dents from its fall; satisfied, the man tied the lamp cage onto his belt. He unknotted the rope around his ankle, stuffed it into his backpack, and took the opportunity to stretch his limbs, exercising his tired cramped muscles. A few minutes of flailing limbs and he was ready to continue. He picked up his backpack and headed into the forest. The man wandered through the forest all day, making sure to move slowly and carefully as he hunted for his prey. The light from the waterfall was beginning to fade, indicating what the man assumed was the start of night.

Without any hope of finding anything in the darkness of the cave, he set up camp, lighting a small fire, and pulling some dried meat from his pack to snack on. The night was calm with only the crackling of the fire to fill his ears. That wasn’t quite right, he could hear another sound; from the darkness, the countless patter of many thin legs crawling up trees and around bushes. The man quickly stood and drew his short sword, poised at the ready. The patter grew louder and closer, coming from every direction. Whatever the monsters in the darkness were, they were crawling up in the tree canopies as well as digging through the ground under his feet.

In his free hand the man cast a bright white explosion that filled the area with light. Casting the darkness away, it revealed hundreds upon hundreds of shifting insect-like legs, large crushing mandibles thrice the width of a leg attached to flat lengthy bodies protected by hard segmented exoskeletons. The light faded and darkness once again overcame leaving the man alone with his campfire and the sound of swarming patter. The man waited for his opponents to strike, firmly standing his ground, tightening his grip on his weapon. The sound grew louder and more numerous.

Then silence.

He waited, still poised for the coming battle. Seconds of waiting turned into minutes which turned to hours. Then, light poured again from the waterfall and daybreak revealed an empty forest devoid of creatures.

The man having wasted the night was exhausted, but he could not waste what little daylight he had. He extinguished the campfire, grabbed his equipment, and continued his hunt. He eventually came across a small opening in the forest, at the center of the opening stood a gorgeous white horse grazing on the yellow flowerbed. Protruding from the horse’s head was a large sharpened bone that twisted out to a point. From the tip of the bone, small wispy tendrils would appear dancing and wiggling about until fading away into the air.

The man quietly placed down his backpack. He unclipped a small pouch from his belt and opened it. The pouch was filled with a moist powder. He unsheathed his sword and poured the powder onto the blade; he pricked his finger letting his blood drool down the blade and mix with the powder. The powder and blood sizzled away and the whole blade was engulfed in a thick blue aura. Next, he unclipped his lamp from his belt, and poured his will into it causing the blue wisp within to grow to a heated yellow that then shot out a powerful bolt of magic power towards the horse.

The bolt grounded into the horse’s side knocking it over, it let out a large wail of agony which temporarily paralyzed the man. The horse stood back up before the man could recover and poised itself for combat. The horse pointed its sharpened bone at the man and the tendrils at the tip grew, thickening into large pulsing orange masses. The horse charged forward, its large orange tentacles whipping around creating arcs of ethereal orange light in the air which after a delay would ignite to a secondary combustion. The man recovered himself just as the first tentacle was about to strike. With quick reflexes he managed to intercept it with his glowing blade. The blade cut straight through the tendril. Once severed, the tentacle faded away into nothing.

The horse reared from the unexpected retaliation; in turn, the man quickly lunged forward and swiped at the horse’s stomach easily rending it apart. The gash in the horse’s stomach, like an opened pouch, let spill out the contents inside, and three long palpitating worms dropped onto the floor, their barbed teeth still barely holding their thorny upper bodies within their host.

Exposed to air the worms exploded into orange flames, their back ends flailing widely in desperate attempts to strike their attacker. Unable to keep up with the random motion, a tail managed to slam into his side launching him towards a tree. His lamp exploded into a blue glow that covered his body just before smashing into the tree.

The glow of his lamp dissipated, and he raised his blade again towards the eldritch horse. He carefully watched the three spindly worm tails flail, identifying their pattern, he watched the thick orange tendrils on its sharpened bone and analyzed the strategic trap of orange streaks it laid out for him. After calculating his enemy, he jumped back into battle; the orange streaks burst into flame as he predicted, which he swiftly maneuvered out of. Jumping into the fray of the worms, he could not help but receive a few grazes as he encroached closer. Finally, when close enough in range, he drove his blade deep into the horse’s neck, and with the glow of his lamp cage, he sent a deep blue light into his sword. A powerful glow emanated from the sword buried in the horse’s neck and then a heavy explosion decapitated the horse and sent blue bolts flying into the forest, piercing trees and shrubs alike.

Two worms quickly detached themselves from the lifeless horse and slithered away into the forest. The third worm, cleft in twain along with the horse’s neck writhed in agony. Its longer latter body slowing to a still mortis while the short upper head regenerated a small tail and pulled itself free of the horse’s head dragging out the protruding bone as well.

The small horned worm tried to quickly wiggle away but the man managed to jump it and stake the worm firmly to the ground. With a strong kick splitting the horn off at the base, the worm finally stilled.

The man went back to collect his backpack before returning for the worm’s horn. He pulled out a small dagger from his pack, the dagger was plain but sharp, its edge curved and partly serrated; this dagger was a tool specifically for dissecting animals. He used the dagger to carve out the rest of the horn that dug deeper into the worm’s head.

He set camp right in the middle of the wrecked flower bed and from his pack brought out all of his cooking utensils. He hung a small pot above the fire in which he drained a vial of darkened ichor. He was so excited to finally have all that he needed he could not wait a second. Once the ichor was brought to a boil he then—from his pack—pulled out a pouch of glowing dust, a thumb sized beating heart, and a skinless wing, dumping them all into his broth. He gingerly positioned his lamp cage next to him.

In one hand he held the sharp tip of the recently collected horn and in the other he held the base of the horn as well as a small wiggling chrysalis. He carefully watched the pot, stirring it occasionally without letting go of his two items. Finally, the liquid in the pot shifted colors, he quickly dropped the chrysalis into the pot and immediately brought his hands together aligning the horn halves and pointed it just above his concoction. The liquid exploded into a puff of steam which was promptly absorbed into the horn. He carefully moved the horn, its two halves somehow reconstituted and vibrating with power, towards the lamp cage and placed the point in between two bars of the cage. The blue essence inside spontaneously glowed red and just as quickly turned back to blue as the horn popped out of existence.

“WHAT!” The man shouted, running his hands through his hair. “No, no, no, no, no, no. It can’t be.”

He quickly began pouring magic into the lamp cage, briefly the blue light would slightly shift to a whiter color but not for long before falling back to its usual blue. The man slumped down next to the lamp cage, exhausted and demoralized. He lazily grabbed onto the lamp cage and imbuing his will onto it, shot a beam to the roof of the cave which evaporated the entire ceiling exposing the outside. A massive building perhaps millions of times larger than the man could be seen. He didn’t care. He walked towards his pack and pulled out a small tablet. He ensured that he had everything he came with and then swallowed it. The man suddenly grew larger and larger until finally he was back to his normal size, all alone in this empty alley squeezed between a rancid butcher shop and a long abandoned Devadootian church. A few civilians paused in their routinely clamor along Horsa’s bustling market street to peer down the alley curiously investigating the strange beam of light they just saw. The man looked down at the cracked pebble by his feet.

“Dang it!” He stepped on the pebble. Just as he crushed the pebble a loud bell chimed next to him. When he twisted his head to see what caused the sound, there was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus that grew out of thin air, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards the man holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Pith