The smell of blood fills the air ahead of him, the metallic smell mixes with the dust and smoke in the air, making him taste the death ahead of him, he knows that this, this may be Humanity's fall. But still there is some hope, their strongest heroes have not yet joined the fray, just maybe they can turn this around, find a way to continue to progress. He can’t see the battle yet, no one near him could, they had yet to take those last few steps needed to pass through the arch to the next floor, but soon he knows he will see the cause of the ruin he knows to be ahead.

Trystan’s legs feel about ready to give way as the increased gravity of this floor hits him for the first time. Marching near the middle of the army he can see multiple others who are now stumbling as they step through the massive archway gaining entrance to this floor. Grimacing he can already hear the calls for help, the sound of battle up ahead, and as he looks forward he can see his premonition was correct. Smoke, dust, and fire fills the air ahead of him, giant flaming boulder’s come crashing down into the middle of the groups ahead, dozens perishing in an instant, with other’s rolling, trying to smother the flames now engulfing them.

‘Status.’ Trystan thinks quickly, trying to understand what new debuffs this location would apply to him before he engages in the battle ahead.

Name

Trystan Hunter

Race

Human

Age

28

Tier

Generic - 1

New Points

0

Banked Points

1280

Stats

Abilities

Strength

268 (1583)

Enhanced Strength

Agility

146 (575)

Enhanced Endurance

Endurance

248 (1465)

Troll Regeneration

Intelligence

15 (22)

Ki Cultivation (Disciple)

Wisdom

15 (22)

Telekinesis (Initiate)

Charisma

17 (25)

Shield Mastery (Adept)

Willpower

17 (25)

Sword Mastery (Master)

Luck

15

Sword Grandmaster (Apprentice)

Physical Perfection

Armor Mastery (Adept)

Elemental Item Imbuement (Wind)

Trystan reaches for and draws the sword at his side, raising his shield in his other hand and setting it in place, and then begins his mad rush forward towards the sound of battle, towards the sounds of his friends. Glancing to the side he sees that Henry is doing the same. Humanity’s heroes had called for their warriors, all of them, young, old, weak, strong, every last soul was going to be needed if humanity was to survive, but...it does appear like that dream was doomed for failure today.

“We’ve...lost.” Henry whisper’s, seeing the damage ahead of them, humanity’s warriors being decimated by the boulder’s and long ranged abilities raining from the sky.

“Not yet.” Trystan grunts, as he continues his dash forward and finds himself facing against one of the golden skinned humanoids that represented their opponent on this floor. His sword dances in an intricate pattern, playing across his opponent’s defense until it finds its way through, and he quickly slashes across the throat of his opponent.

It takes a moment for him to register what happens, as he instinctively begins his turn towards the nearest opponent and really it’s almost humorous, all of the points he spent, all the training he had accomplished, he may not be one of humanity’s heroes, but he was definitely not a weakling, yet...even as his sword flashes across the intervening space and strikes hard into his opponent he sees only the smallest shimmer of gold blood as the barest hint of a line appears to mark where he struck his opponent.

Trystan almost can’t help but to cry as he sees the limit of his strength appear as a simple line, a papercut on the weakest of the opponent’s in front of him. But he steadies and steels himself, they have to make it, they must, or everything, everyone that has passed away in these last few years...well it will have meant they died for nothing. All they have to do now is hold out, hold out long enough for the heroes to arrive.

Trystan snarls as he continues his dance against his opponent, each of his hits drawing only the slightest of wounds from his body, and each of his opponents hits nearly bringing him to his knees before his own health regeneration kicks in, one of the few abilities that he has that is actually listed in the top rankings. Well, he thinks for a moment, ‘There was always the joke about death by a thousand papercuts back in old earth’s offices, maybe he can see whether that actually works here.’ He continues his dance with his opponent, ever so slowly gaining ground as his opponents endurance and health continues to be chipped away, fraction by fraction, by Trystan’s endlessly dancing blade.

He can hear the shouts behind him turn to joy, and his hopes rise. Perhaps one of the heroes have finally managed to make it through the archway. If they are to join the battle then perhaps humanity won’t fall today. A line of fire burns a path across the field, catching his opponent in it and proving his hopes reality. The Red Dragon stepping confidently through the parting army, in his human form the red sheen of scales coating his skin giving some semblance to the reasoning behind his name. Trystan turns just soon enough to catch him breathing out once more a line of destructive flame into the air, catching one of the boulders before it comes crashing down and turning it into a rain of pebbles and rocks instead, saving the group below it.

“We may actually make it, the Ice Queen and Sword Saint are coming up behind him.” Henry yells to Trystan.

Sure enough both of them walked in behind Red Dragon, along with Merlin, Night Blade, Earthquake, and Phoenix. All of the surviving heroes in one place, for this one battle. Trystan blinks a few times, trying to make sure that he can capture their victory in his mind, something to propel himself forward in the future. Or at least that was what he was planning to do when a bright light slammed down in front of them.

Runes glowing softly on the gold humanoid's skin, he stands from his crouched position, and faces the assembled humans. He speaks without effort yet his voice carries across every inch of the battlefield.

“Welcome to the 50th floor. You have done well in making it this far and for that you deserve congratulations, but you will only receive death.”

The gold skinned humanoid looks down on those heroes in front of him with pity and disdain. A single hand of his is raised and the incoming boulder’s and abilities stop, those already launched are intercepted by a strong bright line of light expelling from his palm and cease to exist.

“I am General Crag of the Hikarin...”

The General is interrupted as the Red Dragon transforms instantly from his human form to a massive and towering Red Dragon, a line of flame the width of a skyscraper engulfs the General and incinerates everything in its path. A moment passes as nearby individuals try to blink the residual purple lines in their vision away, only to see the General standing there, unharmed.

With a sigh the General looks at the Red Dragon, “If I could, I would allow some of you to live, but it is your race or mine, and I cannot allow mine to fall.”

He slowly brings up a single finger, pointing it at the Red Dragon. A beam of blinding white light races from his finger tip and appears to effortless pierce through the scale and leathery hide of the red Dragon, leaving a large gaping whole through his chest. The hole seems to pulse for a moment and then starts to devour the rest of his body, turning his remains to a fine white ash.

Gasps of horror rise from the troops as they see one of their mightiest heroes fall so easily. The Ice Queen and the Sword Saint move in unison towards the Hikarin General. The Queen draws in her breath and wings and armor of what looks to be ice the color of blue diamond surrounds her, blades materializing from the humidity in the air begin to twirl around her, creating a nigh impenetrable barrier. The Sword Saint draws his single black sword from his side. The killing intent rising from the blade in his hand sends scores of the men behind them falling to the ground.

Once again the Hikarin general raises a finger and a beam of light slashes out towards the Ice Queen. Only this time the Sword Saint moves quickly, his sword slashing through the beam of light, diverting it from it’s path. The soldier’s still on their feet cheering for a moment before utter shock and disbelief sweeps through those present. As the Sword Saint's blade completes it’s ark downward and only remnants of the ruined blade drip to the ground, the molten metal sizzling as it hits the dirt and stone below.

The gasps of horror quickly turn to screams as the Hikarin moves once more, a single effortless step appearing to bring him instantly across the vast distance between him and the Sword Saint. His hand forms a quick fist and flicker’s forward. The Sword Saint twists quickly attempting to avoid the blow, but as the air pressure of the strike cuts through him he merely ends up distancing the two halves of his body from one another as his upper half continues to twist and his lower half is blown away. The Ice Queen looks on, her mouth dropping open, but no sound coming through. She merely looks down and tries to grasp closed the hole that the strike also put through her, to no avail she drops to her knees, eyes already glazing over as the ice armor and blades surrounding her shatter into a cloud of sparkling motes.

The stammering cries of “Retreat.” start sounding off through the soldier’s on the battlefield, yet even Trystan can tell it is already too late. The Hikarin General is going through their strongest heroes like a hot knife through butter, and the Hikarin Soldier’s have begun to move closer. Trystan glances over towards Earthquake, Merlin, Night Blade and Phoenix, it looks like Merlin is chanting something while the other three attempt to hold off the General. Trystan looks at Henry for a moment and then rushes towards the General, maybe, just maybe, he can do enough to let Merlin finish whatever he was casting.

Before he can even finish crossing the first few yards, and Earthquake has already fallen, his massive rock encrusted form falling to the ground causing a small temor to quake the battlefield. Night Blade falls as Trystan comes across the next 10 yards, his blade of shadow actually managing to draw the smallest drops of blood from the General before his own lifeblood comes pouring from his body. Phoenix tries her hardest to make a stand, but her flame and generaritive capabilities seem insufficient to the task, and her eyes go lifeless as the General’s punch disperses the flaming form that is her body.

The General is a mere step from Merlin when Trystan finally manages to make the distance, his shield rising to deflect the next attack from the General. He feels the jarring power of the attack as his shield goes flying backwards. He staggers for a moment and he looks over to the shield lying on the ground dozens of yards away, his arm lying next to it, still strapped on. His vision begins to narrow as he starts crumbling down to the ground. As he glances to his shoulder he sees that most of the left shoulder was gone, removed presumably at the same time as his arm.

As his vision continues to narrow he turns his gaze back to the General. Merlin’s voice reaches a crescendo as his spell completed. A bolt of black lightning sizzles through the air, striking the General, then dozens more start raining from the sky striking all across the battlefield. Through the pain Trystan can feel his face contorting into a soft smile, ‘At least I managed to do something, to help some of them.’ he thinks as the world continues to slowly grow darker.

When the lightning storm ends there is silence, as the smoke and dust settles. The Hikarin army is revealed to be badly injured, not many dead, but enough that perhaps humanity still has some slight chance. Then, that hope is shattered, as a low chuckle fills the air.

“You actually managed to injure me, how intriguing Mage, but I fear that this is the end.”

The General stands revealed from amidst the smoke and ruin that was the battlefield. His armor scorched and small burn marks running down along his left arm. Merlin’s eyes go wide as he starts retreating backwards, his voice rising in a quick chant, preparing the next spell to be cast. The General merely shakes his head.

“Too late I’m afraid.” He says simply as he raises his right hand to the sky and brings it down again quickly, and with it beams of light start raining down.

Merlin is disintegrated almost instantly as the first beam falls across him. Trystan looks up to see one coming his way and turns his head, tear’s coming down his face as he realizes the truth of what has happened today. He sees his friend running towards him in slow motion, shouting something at him. And as the world turns to light Trystan can only wish that humanity would have another chance.