Urg.

All the muscles in my body stiffen as I fall forward through the doorway to the next chamber, a smouldering scorch mark left on my back from a lucky bolt of lighting.

Struggling to move, I pull myself forward into the room as the door grinds shut behind me. Letting my muscles relax, I catch my breath and search my body for new injuries.

I look over the scratches and bruises on my arms and legs which have accumulated throughout the last couple of chambers. They throb with a dull pain as I flick away a piece of dirt that's clung on since an encounter with a couple of earth Sprites. Luckily, passing through the air Sprites’ room was pretty harmless, but my clothes are still thawing from the ice Sprites chamber. A red itching rash has spread across my left leg from a close brush with some nature Sprites, but no other notable injuries from them. Apart from these more minor nuances, a couple of new scorch marks dot the back side of my arms. Nothing as bad as the burns from the first room though.

I sigh and lean my back against the wall as I finally turn my attention to the chamber that I just entered. This room is darker then any of the others that I've seen so far. Shadows, which almost seem tangible, drip down the cave-like walls and collect along the floor. The door to the next chamber is just barely visible as the darkness heavily obscures my vision. According to the possible Sprite elements that I saw during character creation, this should be the second last chamber.

I take my first step forward carefully, the darkness flowing and squishing like syrup beneath my feet. Walking further into the chamber, I warily look out for any Sprites hiding in the shadows. I make it halfway through the room before a streak of movement catches my attention. Spinning to face it. I get a glimpse of a grinning Sprite before I’m hit directly in the face by a glob of inkey darkness.

The shadow clings to my face like plastic wrap as I fall back in surprise. The foreign liquid(?) stings as it enters my eyes and mouth, and I flounder in a panic to get it off. I can't see, and worse of all, I can't breathe.

I scratch at my face, desperate for a fresh breath of air, but my claws only seem to pass through the viscous shadow. I feel a layer of fog enter my brain as the oxygen deprivation kicks in, and I shake my head in futile panic.

Calm down and think Brian, THINK. There has to be some sort way to get it off, floundering like that will only make your muscles use up what little oxygen you have faster.

I still my movements and focus on my situation. The shadow is like a liquid right? So what if I…

I take my hands and attempt to squeegee off the darkness. Letting out a small grin, I flick away the shadow that came off with my hand and repeat the squeegee motion. It worked! Sort of…

Now able to breath, I begin rubbing my eyes as I stand up, waiting for my vision to return. With a frown, I blink. The darkness still hasn't left my eyes, and I still couldn't see anything at all. To make matters worse I hear a chatter of frustration from the Sprite as it notices my improved condition.

At that moment, two things happen at the same time. First, I feel a sort of twitch in my gut, a nudging feeling pushing me a bit to the left. Then a pair of sharp claws strikes the right side of my face as I hear the Sprite dash forward with a cry.

Another nudge tells me to duck and I comply, just narrowly missing the Sprite that I hear go flying past me. With a rush of adrenaline, I begin running blindly to where I remember the door being. Hoping that, by pure luck, I am going in the right direction.

You know, I'm really noticing a pattern here. Almost every single time it’s been enter chamber, get attacked / ridiculed by Sprites, run for my life. It really shouldn’t be surprising me anymore.

A nudge breaks my musings telling me to turn to the left, but before I can react the Sprite slams me face first into a wall. I reel back from the impact. If I could see right now, I'm sure my vision would be swimming. But I can't, so I instead turn and run along the wall with increased haste.

The grinding sound of the door opening fills the air as I feel I another nudge and twitch in my stomach, telling me to stop. Oh come on, why would I stop? The door is right there! I ignore the feeling and double my speed toward where I can hear the door.

BAM!

Another sharp bloom of pain hits me in the back of my head as the Sprite charges into me once more, sending me tumbling from the impact. Guh, I should really learn to trust my gut more... Heh.

This time, a wave of dizziness hits me as I stand up. I'm honestly surprised I haven't passed out yet. Something to do with my race choice maybe?

I take the last few steps and, (after a nudge notifies me to duck) fall forward through the door…

…And right into a face full of sand. The door slams behind me as I sit up and brush myself off. I blink as my vision starts to clear, the darkness dissipating after leaving its room of origin. Scooting back against the door, I rest my head in my hands as I start to calm down.

That was by far the worst room yet. The fire Sprites were painful, but this? I shudder. The feeling and panic of not being able to breath is not something I ever want to feel again. What in the world is with this game!?

The pain, the panic, the adrenaline, heck, even the fear. It all seems so real. If it weren't for the obviously fantasy scenario, I wouldn't even be able to tell that it’s a game.

I shake myself off. Now isn't the time for that. I need to finish this last chamber before I log out. Then I can spend some time reevaluating my in game choices.

Setting my doubts about the game aside, I think back to the events of the last chamber. A lot of things happened there, and if it weren't for my race choice I don't know if I would have survived that. Then again, it was my race choice that caused this in the first place.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, It seems like I do in fact have a weakness to magic, (the fire from the first room hurt), but it also seems like I have an increased physical resistance and endurance? The physical attacks of the shadow Sprite didn't seem to do as much damage as they should have. That many hits to the head should have at least sent me unconscious.

And that weird nudging feeling, it seemed to indicate the best actions to take? I only managed to follow it once, but that was the one time the Sprite didn't hit me. Was this how the developers introduced the ‘Combat Sense’ feature of the Thorn Fiends? It was certainly something that I’d need to get used to, seeing as I'll probably be fighting more in the future.

Well, hopefully I won't be needing that ability again too soon. With any luck, this chamber will go by as smoothly as the second one did.

Speaking of this chamber, I (once again) finally turn my attention towards it. I'm standing on a short stretch of beach that leads downwards into a deep blue-green body of water. Even with my enhanced sight, the water seems to continue on forever, and the fresh smell of salt in the air seems to indicate it's some sort of ocean. Looking around, I see the door I just came through standing upright and alone in the middle of my island, but I don’t see the other exit. Looks like I'm going to have to pick a direction and swim.

Nervously, I approach the edge of the beach and dip my toes in the water. *sigh* This is going to be a problem. You see, on the station water is a precious commodity. And to collect enough of it in one place to actually swim? Well that would be beyond wasteful. So as you can imagine, I haven't exactly had the chance to practice.

Ever so delicately, I begin to wade deeper, shuddering at the foreign feeling of water around my legs. As the water creeps higher and higher, I feel my pulse quicken and my breathing grow more erratic. I know swimming was a popular recreation pre catastrophe, but every inch of being seemed to be screaming that it is unnatural and unsafe.

My muscles feel tense and unwilling as the water passes my shoulders. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something.

A splash of water hitting me in the back of the head reminds me with a cold shock. Right, that was it.

I turn to see a giggling Sprite who, with a cheeky grin, points to the water underneath me.

Confused, I follow its direction. The water is clear, but I don’t see anything under the surface except for my legs and fine white sand. I glance back up to where the Sprite is- er, was. The Sprite is no longer anywhere in sight. Either that was one of the most harmless Sprites yet, or-

My thoughts are cut off as a strong undercurrent suddenly sweeps my feet from under me. I only manage to take a small breath before the torrent of water drags me beneath the surface.

The currents pummel my body as I’m thrown back and forth under the waves. I desperately kick my legs in an attempt to get some semblance of control, but I only manage to slam them into the ocean floor.

As I feel my lungs cry for air (come on, again?), the water around me begins to move in a different way. While before its currents were rough and erratic, they now seem to be swirling in a more controlled circular motion. Despite every part my mind saying I shouldn’t, I force open my eyes in order to see what’s going on.

Just as I felt, all the water around me is spiraling, funneling and disappearing down a… drain? A dark, pitch black pit about two meters in diameter sits in the middle of the spiral. The empty abyss seems to swallow all that enters it, even light. That can’t be good.

With more adrenaline than ever, I flail my legs and arms trying to do anything I can to escape the vortex. It’s all futile though. In horror I watch as I rapidly approach the pit. With nothing else I can do. I squeeze my eyes shut and hope that wherever I end up, I’ll be able to breathe.