Aporeu chronicles Issue 83: Champions of the Colosseum 3: Survival Game
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Another day, another Colosseum fight.
Champions of the Colosseum 3: Survival Game by Custous
I’m still in doubt when I walk into the back entrance of the Colosseum, where the hero’s will be addressed by Ruzak, a grey skinned dwarf. Fellow friends are here to, Noaz, Jade, Effie and Thamior. A good versatile team, and if it is something similar to the gold ceremony, we will be fine. Ruzak explains the rules to us, we will be fighting 6 waves of creatures, each stronger than the one before. You may call out to stop, but if one person does, then the whole team will. We step onto a platform that slowly starts ascending towards the arena, the roof opens up as we are welcomed by the thunderous sounds of the welcoming audience. Our names get called to introduce ourselves; “Styx soulthirster” as black grey smokish ghasts whirl around his body; Effie “Wildfire” as her dress turns red to black where embers slither up; Jade as she bounces around and starts wildly waving toward the crowd; Custous “The Undying”, I’m not fond of the name, but oh well, the grey flames on the top of my mace spread, curl and lick my shield as I bash in to it, and my eyes turn grey with smoke slowly lingering around my eyes; and Thamior “the teddy bear” whose unimpressive growl changes into the bestial roar of a bear as he grows twice in size, turning into an actual bear. We have risen into an arena with several different terrain features, 2 caverns opposite each other, and a tomb and a forest on their opposites. I immediately sense undead and necrotic energy from the tomb and some sandy mounds around it. They are using undead for a game like this! I feel insulted, and resist an urge to tap out straight away. But I’m sure I can have them; in the end it would mean fewer walkers left. From both the caverns come several greyish skinned humanoids, devoid of eyes and sticky long black hair. Two of them are slightly bulkier and hold a heavy bony axe. Effie is quick on her feet as she dashes forward and sets a bunch of them aflame, but the brute charges forward and with an intimidation roar Effie’s back behind me. I immediately call forth my spiritual weapon which strikes home. Styx takes our rear and charges in and deals quite some damage. The grimlocks respond and rush into the fray, I’m unable to dodge and get brutally mauled by two of them, I barely am able to hold my footing. As the rest starts surrounding Thamior, he is unable to hold his form and drops back to his humanoid form, but is able to cut another one down with his rapier. I retreat into the forest to get some distance from the combat, and check on my own wounds. But as I turn around, I’m bitten and pulled by hyenas that have come out of the forest. My vision turning black as I drop to the ground. I vaguely hear a bear roaring once again, fire burst in a short distance, but I can’t tell for sure. I sense my periapt warming up, and feel my wounds slowly close, but I’ve lost a lot of blood and I’m still trembling with pain. A wolf is leaning over me, but quickly is dispatched with an arrow. Noaz appears and shakes me while he puts a potion to my lips, which I instinctively and greedily drink up. immediately feeling revived as its magical warmth rushes through my body. My vision is becoming clear and the sounds of battle coming back to me. Noaz quickly turns around and I see him swinging down his axe onto a grimlock just behind him. Just in the center I See a bear turning back to Thamior, in response he kills one of the wolves. Just several wolves and some grimlocks are left as Ruzak’s voice bellows over the arena “They wake up the dead, by creating ruckus!”. As a robed figure steps out of the tomb, and where the sand mounds were, six ghouls rise. A fire orb just glances at the shoulder of the necromancer. I quickly get up and move towards the newly risen threat, I smash my mace on my shield as I chant ”Kelemvor defendit eritis” combined with the ringing of my shield, three ghouls turn around, as the others aggressively hiss towards me. As Styx puts down the last grimlock he was combating and moves up while getting hit hard by a ghoul. Another grimlock claws at me, but I’m able to evade it. The necromancer conjures an icicle which he keeps holding in his hands and backs away, Thamior responds with the same spell, but hits the necro hard, also hurting some of the ghouls around, and shaking one out of its fear from me. An orb of fire and arrow follow up to the necromancer but he manages to dodge them. My spiritual weapon appears behind the grimlock engaging me and takes it down, I start to chant “Kelemvor custodit te'' as I imbue Thamior, Noaz and Effie with faith and vigor, keeping my focus to help them strike true. Noaz advances to the necro and hits him twice, who responds by disengaging and seeking refuge behind the tomb but not before blasting me with unholy magic, bringing me back on the ground. Thamior conjures a flaming sphere and rams one of the ghouls, Effie gets clawed at and cramps up, the poison of the claws doing its work. Noaz works his way back towards me and helps me back up with another potion. A spectral cold hand just barely misses me as the necromancer moves back behind the tomb.
I realize I’m better off on the ground and start crawling for cover. Thamior keeps dueling with a ghoul with fire and sword. A ghoul runs to the far back of the arena towards jade but gets struck by Noaz, giving Jade just enough time to dodge away. Effie just starts moving, but is unable to duck away from another claw and cramps up again. Thamior is able to parry the ghoul, and counters it with his fire sphere burning a hole through it and killing it.
Two flying feathery snakes appear above the cave and tomb, blasting lightning over Thamior and Effie, Effie unable to duck drops to the ground still cramped up. Jade takes another ghoul out and just dashes into the shrubbery in front of me. Meanwhile I’ve blessed Thamior, Noaz and Effie once again with faith, while also making sure Effie won't bleed out, giving us all some extra time. Noaz seems to be slowly wearing down, as he attacks and distances himself from a ghoul and drinks a potion. All the while evading another chill touch from the necromancer, which I’m hunting with my spiritual weapon. Thamior also takes down another ghoul, and I can see Effie just retaining her muscles as I notice a powdery substance dropping over me, slowly yawning and closing my eyes.
The sounds of battle fading away. Before being abruptly awoken by jade kicking in my side, shooting in the air and dashing away again. I retain my senses and notice Effie still laying on the ground in front of me, I crawl quickly towards her, lay my hand on her thigh and mutter “ Negare ad mortem”, followed by Effie gasping for air and opening her eyes widely. Styx gets some solid strikes on one of the flying snakes, a chill touch flies over Thamiors head, he roars to the sky, as clouds start to gather and a deep rumbling starts rolling through the arena. With a flash a ghoul is struck by lightning and falls to dust. Effie yells something foreign to one of the snakes and dodges in to the brushes while downing a potion. Jade and a snake lock eyes, as jade cramps up spins around and starts aiming towards Thamior, luckily just missing him. That could’ve been a kill shot.
I hold my shield up as one of the last ghouls lunges at me, Styx is battling one of the flying snakes and dodging a chill touch. A lightning hit behind me in the forest, damaging Jade and the snake. But Jade seems to be thinking straight again. From the cave's spiders and ettercaps emerging. Effie is back at it again, landing some hard hits on one of the snakes.
I notice the necromancer hiding behind the tomb, steering my spiritual weapon towards him, and giving him the final blow, just before it dissipates. Styx does some impressive moves taking down one of the snakes in two heavy blows. Thamior is surrounded by spiders and Ettercaps, but manages to walk away unscathed, and hitting them with a lightning strike, killing the two spiders instantly and hurting the ettercaps badly, takes this time to chuck a potion real quick. But then the last snake blasts a lighting ray towards Effie, Styx and me, taking me down once again. I vaguely see Styx stumbling and trying to keep his balance, as he is getting worn down. I look up and see Jade crouching over me, pulling something loose from my own belt and serving me one of my own potions. An Ettercap appears from behind her and mauls at her, but she manages to not take the full blow. I see Effie lying next to me, and tap her once again with my healing power. She wakes up and quickly replenishes her own vitality with a potion of her own. Noaz is still standing his ground against several spiders and ettercaps surrounding him. Before I can do something again, I get hit by the same dust and feel my body become heavy as I fall asleep, but quickly being woken by Jade once again. Noaz is still on the ground asleep, but they are unable to penetrate his armor. I call forth my spiritual weapon again but don’t seem to be able to hit, as do some swarms of spiders' latch onto Effie and Noaz. But being fried by a lightning strike from Thamior, using Noaz as its target, killing the spiders instantly.
A giant door behind us starts to open, as a hellish scream echoes through the arena, a giant beak and claws can be seen trying to get through the door. As the creature which towers over us is almost able to storm in, Thamior shouts to stop. As the Door quickly closes and the demon screams in disappointment. The ettercaps cramp up and move away from us into the caves.
We’ve gotten quite far, and my beginning was very rough, being clawed at straight from the beginning. But the rewards speak for themselves. But this was definitely nothing like the gold ceremony!
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