Benjamin Vryce.

One rat mound, one swamp snake, two rat mounds, two swamp snakes. Benjamin didn’t know how many times he had died before he had managed to clear each of these stages, or how long it had taken. The sun never seemed to move no matter how much time passed.

Thankfully it looked like riding out the snake bite had been the right call. He had somehow become immune to their toxins, though getting bit still hurt like a bitch. He had given in and added more armor to his kit. Bracers and greaves. Leather shin and forearm protections that somewhat reminded him of rollerblade pads he used as a kid.

The rest of his kit was the same, two crossbows of varying size. The Morningstar, and a long belt knife. There was also Silver. He had broken down and given the spider a name after days of calling it Repair drone, mechanical spider, silver spider. It had gotten annoying, so…the little guy was Silver now.

He had gotten so good at killing rats and snakes that this go around he made it all the way here without being injured at all. The little tremor he felt inside every time he killed something had grown to. It was now a low buzzing itch inside his being that he couldn’t seem to touch.

Unfortunately, none of his progress mattered in the slightest. This was the fourth time he had made it this far. Like the times before, he had no idea on how to defeat this foe. Once more he looked around, desperately hoping that the layout had changed. It hadn’t. the trail led through this small cave, there was no going around.

Benjamin eased his way forward, to the cave opening. It was only thirty feet long and maybe fifteen feet wide, he could see daylight on the other side from here. Benjamin didn’t know enough about geography to know if it was natural or constructed. The twelve-foot-long crocodile/turtle hybrid nestled down right in the middle of the trail however, was definitely not something he would find on earth.

He had tried sniping the beast, the bolt had bounced off its thick hide. He had tried sneaking around the monster, it had known he was there as soon as his foot entered the cave. He had even tried using silver to poison it, the needles wouldn’t penetrate and the beast had rampaged as soon as it felt silver try.

There had to be a way, Benjamin knew that. The Erlking had given him everything he needed to complete this trial. He had to believe that, otherwise why bother going forward at all. What was he missing? None of the weapons on the table could touch this monster, it had to be something else.

Benjamin grit his teeth in frustration. This wasn’t fair! He was just a man, fighting monsters. They were all faster than him, stronger than him and had fangs and claws. He thought of the Erlking, about his lithe, muscular body and his fangs and claws.

He looked at the monster, if he was faster, he could run right passed it. He looked at his Morningstar. If he was stronger, he could bash it through the beast’s thick hide. He clenched his fists wishing he could rend into this foe with them. That tingling knot throbbed from within him and it reminded him there was something else he couldn’t figure out. It was the last straw.

“Fuck it.” He said, climbing to his feet and rushing the turtle croc…croc turtle…in a rage. He could always try again but right now he just needed to hurt something.

It saw him coming and was soon on its feet. Benjamin thought it had moved a little slower this time reacting to him, but he shoved that thought aside. His legs burned with exertion, more then ever before as he ran. His fingers gripped around the Morningstar started to burn from the strain.

On the beast in seconds, he wound up and smashed his weapon into its head. There was the sound like a ringing bell and the handle of the Morningstar cracked in half. The spiked ball stuck in place for a moment before rolling away.

The impact also bounced the beasts head off the ground for a moment, dazing it. Benjamin, stunned himself at the power behind his blow couldn’t capitalize on it. He was soon dodging the creatures snapping jaws as it recovered.

“Damnit!” he screamed. Throwing the broken handle at the beast, it wasn’t fair. They were all so much stronger than him, faster than him and they all had fangs and claws. How could he compete with that?

The creature’s neck was similar to a turtle in how it thrust forward while it bit down with its crocodile mouth. Benjamin barely managed to dodge that bite and wrapped his arms and legs around the creature’s neck before it could move away.

He didn’t know why he had done it after the fact. He had just wanted to get outside its reach and this was the only way that came to mind. He didn’t have a weapon anymore though. Letting go to grab his belt knife would see him thrown off, and it wasn’t likely to have any more effect on the creature than his Morningstar had anyway. All he could do was hang on for dear life. Hang on and curse these beasts with their stronger faster bodies and their fangs and claws.

The tremor inside of him started to buzz insistently. It was growing hot and starting to hurt. Damnit! He was stuck riding the neck of a beast that could crush his weak human body in seconds. He had no way of defending himself and the only power he seemed to have was burning him from the inside out rather than helping him in anyway.

“Fuck this!” He shouted grabbing hold of the trembling knot of power inside of him and ripping at it with all his mental strength. “How does the Erlking expect me to do this, when I don’t have what he does!” he screamed as he pulled on the burning knot. Thinking about the Erlking’s muscled frame with his sharp natural weapons.

Suddenly his entire body exploded with pain, and a burning itching. It was most intense in his mouth and hands but he could feel it everywhere. He wanted to let go and start scratching himself all over to relieve the itching. It was the worse feeling he had ever experienced, way worse than getting poison oak as a kid so bad that he had been hospitalized.

He couldn’t scratch himself because he was still holding onto the croc turtle, so he itched his hands on the beast’s neck. Scratching and scratching away with his fingers. It seemed to help a little but the burning in his mouth was getting worse.

His teeth hurt and itched so badly. Scratching the monster seemed to help his hands so not knowing what else to do he opened his mouth and bit down hard on the turtle croc’s neck. He felt the bellow of pain thrumming up the tree trunk sized throat of the beast. Too deafened by his own pain to hear it.

It thrashed around wildly, and even began to roll on the ground trying to throw him off. It couldn’t get him to let go though, it must be the pain induced adrenalin. That was the only explanation he could come up with as he continued to relieve the itching by biting and scratching the beast.

His hands were wet, having a increasingly hard time finding purchase. His mouth was also filling with blood making it hard to breathe. He hoped he hadn’t broken his teeth on the beast’s thick hide.

A long while later the creature stopped its frantic thrashing and lay still. Benjamin lay still as well panting and in pain. He couldn’t seem to move from his position. A stinging on his neck let him know that Silver had injected him with something from his kit. Two more stings followed and Benjamin found himself drifting into blissful sleep.

* * *

Granite

The giant wood and stone avatar Granite had chosen for himself lay in a tumbledown pile. He had thrown himself there in a bid to get more comfortable while he watched his screens. There weren’t very many of them left at this point. All the chaff had been stripped away leaving only the wheat behind.

That was how Granite preferred to do things, quality always won over quantity. He may hold the least number of planets out of all the World lords. However, he was the oldest World lord still living and he hadn’t lost a single planet through all the eons of endless civil war.

He looked at the six remaining screens, each held a human soul. All the others that he had gotten had begged that damned Arbiter to be sent to other World lords or back to the ‘reincarnation cycle’ ha, fools.

Another benefit of holding fewer planets was that he needed fewer soldiers to defend them, so he could afford to be a little picky. These remaining six were something special. They were still weak beyond a doubt, but he had smashed them with endless waves of wood, stone, clay as well as a few other forms of elementals.

They had died over and over again, but each time they managed to take one or two more of their enemies with them before they went down. Their souls had gained strength with each kill, and he was pretty sure they were the most advanced of the human souls. Even that upstart Erlking with all his plans and schemes hadn’t managed to get six of his people to this level yet.

He stopped the waves of enemies. These few were not going to give up after holding out this long. He didn’t have to keep testing them, now he sent in lower numbers of stronger foes. Time for them to raise their skill levels and soul power to even greater heights.

* * *

Jade Benz

Jade was pretty much…completely fucking lost. She didn’t mind admitting it, on earth she had always had a driver to deal with the directions. Not like getting lost there was such a big deal anyway, just open an app on the phone and zap back on track again.

Here it was different, and her drivers Tik and Toc, needed a little more handling. She had fallen asleep after finishing off that bag of blue. When she woke up the two dumb brutes were quite literally walking in circles.

Apparently, they needed her guidance to do anything other than laze about, eat or break things. Since she couldn’t remember what direction they had been heading in and surprise, no internet, she just picked a direction and they started moving in it.

She couldn’t remember how long the horny dude had said this trip was supposed to take, she thought however that she should have been there by now. It had been five, maybe six days. Whenever she fell asleep the ogres would either walk in a random direction, in circles, or just set the chair down and rest until she woke up.

Jade had had days now to think about her life. To put things into prospective and try to come to terms with her new reality. That shit was soo boring, so she said ‘fuck it’ and let her mind wander.

Eventually the three of them came to a town, it wasn’t like the one with the little dudes. This one was a lot bigger, no really it was huge. Each house had to be fifty feet tall, like why were the buildings so big? She looked down at the pipe in her hands, nope still empty. Huh. Well, horny dude said to smash a town so…

“Let’s go boys, times a wasting” she said, pointing at the huge town. They walked in with murder on their minds, they woke up in the white box.

“Well Fuck.”