The arena was easy to find--it’s a massive marble colosseum in the center of Lomberg. At first glance, it looked much like the ancient ones in Rome. Of course, Gary had never seen the Roman colosseum in person, but he had read a lot about them, and seen pictures online.

A man dressed in a simple tunic stood by the entrance of the arena. “Greetings travelers!” he said brightly. “Do you want to skirmish? The first season has not officially started, but there is an extra award for winning your first skirmish!”

Quest obtained! Win arena Skirmish.

300+exp in skill of choice. 10 Silver

Difficulty: Easy.

Cedric just logged in.

Gary messaged him to get to the arena so they could start a battle. Soon, the three were there, and ready to form a team.

Gary sent in the request, and a screen popped up asking for a team name. “Uhh, what do you want to be called?” Gary asked.

“Something cool,” said Cedric.

“Something really cool,” agreed Dom.

“How about…” Gary took a second to think. “Mob Squad.”

“Stupid,” Gary said.

“Yeah, that’s dumb,” Cedric agreed.

“Ok, whatever, you guys suggest something then,” said Gary.

“How about…. Death’s Requiem?” said Dom.

The three were silent for a moment. “What’s a requiem?” asked Cedric.

“No clue,” said Dom. “It’s just one of those words that pop up every now and then.”

“Hey Brittney, what’s a requiem?” asked Gary.

“A requiem is a mass for the repose of the souls of the dead, used especially by the Catholic church,” said Brittney.

“I’m still confused,” admitted Gary. “But whatever, let’s just go with that, it makes us sound kind of smart.”

The three entered the queue. The wait time was only a few seconds. Before he could even think about it, Gary was looking at the loading screen for the arena.

Suddenly, Gary materialized next to Dom and Cedric. He was in a stone room, empty except for a heavy iron table. A thick granite gate was clearly the entrance to the arena. In his visor, he could see a timer, currently at 0:58 seconds. Clearly, the gate would open at 0.

“Looks like we have just under a minute to plan,” said Gary.

Dom drew out his dagger. “Dunno dude, me and Ced will fight melee and you just shoot your bow. That’s about all we got.”

“Shoot, I wish you could use magic,” said Cedric, eyeing his brass knuckles.

Dom rolled his eyes, “Don’t we all?”

“Sure, you guys stand ahead of me, I’ll do my best to drop back and get some shots in.”

The timer was down to 6, and Gary readied and arrow and dropped behind Dom and Cedric.

5…4...3...2...1…

Dom gulped.

Horns blared as the doors opened.

The arena was solid marble and bare except for four massive pillars and some blood stains in the center.

Gary couldn’t see the enemies. “Uhh, you guys see anything?” he asked.

“Nope,” said Dom.

Cedric motioned them to move forward, so they crept forward slowly.

Shadows loomed behind the pillars as the three made there timid advancement. Something about this fell a bit off to Gary…

A figure leapt out of seemingly nowhere and struck Cedric in the forehead. Sent sprawling backward, Cedric yelped and punched at the figure.

For a moment, time stood still and Gary saw one of his opponents. The man was covered head to toe in a black cloak. Even his face was obscured by dark bandages. Only a bright Steel Dagger was visible protruding from his cloak.

Gary shot an arrow, but it went wide right. The man was moving too fast to hit.

Suddenly, an arrow was sprouting from Gary’s chest. He gasped as a red 22 appeared in his visor.

Dom was also struck by an arrow in the shoulder. “Come on Gary, shoot that archerer!”

Cedric, meanwhile, was deep in combat with the masked fighter. The man slashed at Cedric, while he fired back a quick punch. Dom moved in to 2v1 the fighter, but the masked man didn’t even flinch, but pressed his attack even harder.

Gary bit his lip in frustration. He couldn’t even see where the arrows were coming from, never mind getting a clear shot.

A green figure flashed in the distance at the same time an arrow struck Cedric in the thigh. Cedric howled in pain, but kept trying to kill the masked man. The figure disappeared behind a pillar in the back.

Finally with a target in mind, Gary sprinted toward the pillar, running clear passed Dom and Cedric.

There! Gary saw the archer clearly. It was a tall girl with a crossbow and a scowl on her face. She quickly fired an arrow, Gary just managed to duck and not get killed. Hands trembling, Gary fired an arrow back, the arrow sinking into her forearm. A red 6.2 appeared above her head.

Gary felt a massive weight slam into his head, and suddenly he couldn’t move.

“Minor Head Trauma! Stunned for 1 Second,” said Brittney.

He was seeing little specks of light, but he couldn't move anything but his eyes. An extremely ripped guy with a Iron Sledgehammer had struck him from the side. The man howled and slammed him again with the hammer. Numbers popped up in Gary’s visor, but he didn’t even look. He knew he was done for.

An arrow to the side finished him off. An announcement rung through the arena, Neoswordsman of Death’s Requiem has been slain!

Gary was then sent into spectator mode. He looked down, and saw his body was transparent.

He drifted towards Cedric and Dom, who were still distracted by the masked man.

Between the two of them, they had managed to get some hits on him, but the masked man still had 72% health.

Gary could see the flank coming from a mile away. Unfortunately, Dom and Cedric were too busy with the masked man and the archerer to do anything about it.

Frustrated, Gary tried to face-palm, but his hand just went straight through his face. They are totally punking us…he thought miserably. Of course, he didn’t blame Cedric or Dom at all, he had fallen for the exact same trick. It was just frustrating watching it as a ghost and not being able to do anything about it!

Like clockwork, the big guy smashed into Dom from behind. Caught off guard, Dom crumpled like a ragdoll. A swirling yellow circle indicated that Dom was stunned. Cedric, unfortunately, was so caught up dueling that masked man he didn’t even notice.

Within a couple of other hits, Dom was downed, and the man made a final move vs Cedric.

Between Cedric getting caught off guard, and the match now being 3v1, it was obvious that the match was over.

A screen popped in Gary’s visor that read: Knight Squad won the match! Underneath the heading, there were detailed damage dealt and taken by each player.

Death’s Requiem

Bagerknight

ElDominator

Neoswordsman

Damage Dealt

9.3

0

6

Damage Taken

100

100

100

Shots Landed

3

0

1

Killing Blows

0

0

0

Knight Squad

Rock

Sparrow

Jade

Damage Dealt

82

112

106

Damage Taken

0

9.3

6

Shots Landed

5

14

11

Killing Blows

3

0

0

You gained +2 experience in archery!

Soon, the three were again at the entrance of the arena. Dom was hanging his head in shame. “Dude, we got destroyed.”

Cedric looked a bit annoyed, but he didn’t say anything.

Gary took a deep breath. “Yeah, that was rough. Did you guy realize their strategy?”

“Nope,” said Dom. “I was too busy getting wrecked.”

“It’s ok. The only reason I saw it was because I died first,” said Gary with a snicker.

Cedric laughed, and the previous tension was gone.

“Pretty much, the masked guy and archerer distracted us, while the big guy with the club snuck up on us. When he hit us in the head, it stunned us, for some reason or another. Then, it was easy picking.”

Cedric nodded, “Makes sense. In all honesty, they would have probably won it anyway if they just fought us head to head. But, the way they did it made it even more 1 sided.”

Dom tapped his foot impatiently. “So, uhh, you want to try again?”

Gary nodded. “Yes. We do get exp for fighting, although not very much if we keep getting steamrolled.