Azorath's Adventure

Chapter 9: A Test Of Might!

     The doors slowly moved. Everyone stood in silence as their only way to the tournament was opening. As the doors continued, everyone could see people who looked small in comparison to the thick layers of metal that was moving. Every person working on moving that door looked buff, while wearing a yellow hard hat, an open jacket, and yellow pants. These people were obviously workers for the tournament. They stood still breathing hard as the doors were opened fully. Everyone looked around at eachother for a second before slowly walking in. When everyone was inside the men worked on closing the doors. All lights were off. Some people started to panic when the doors closed fully. Nobody could see until a light turned on across the large room. Nobody could see what was in the light, if anything. Everyone stood still not doing anything. Soon chatter began to rupture between some people. After a bit someone went through the crowds and stood in front. Who was this mysterious person?

     Why, it was none other then Azorath! The half-breed hero stood tall and proud in front of them. Minou chased after him and stood beside him. "H..hey! What do you think you're doing?!" She asked. "Minou look, there's obviously something over there, and I'm gonna find out what it is!" Azorath replied as he started to run towards the light. "No! You can't just do that!" Minou yelled and slowly ran after him. Everyone else stood silent and watched. Azorath turned behind him to see Minou, and he stopped for her. "What's your problem?" He asked "There is obviously something there and I wanna see what it is." Minou sighed and spoke back to him "That's not how this works, you cannot just go through people's stuff cause it has a light." "Well yeah but-" Azorath's words were cut off by a faint clink sound and his foot began to sink. "D....did I just step on something?" Azorath spoke to Minou and himself. Lights began to turn on around the room. Bars began to come from the floor and ceiling. Grates began to be uncovered. The light showed what the prize was. A treasure chest of unknown secrets. Azorath stared at his feet and noticed that grates surrounded him for some unknown reason. He stared at them in confusion until they shot out pillars of flame. He freaked out for a moment but relaxed as the pillars had stopped. When they started again he was less scared because he knew it was coming. "We can't let 'dem get that there box!" Someone cried out from the crowd. "It's mine ya hear?!" Another shouted. Then there was silence but for a moment. After that once graceful moment, the crowd came rushing forward to grab the box. But as the crowd ran, fights began to break out. None of them would use magic however, not this early. Because what if they made it to they made it far in the tournament, they would then run out of magic. So fist fights broke out across the arena as traps of fire pillars, swinging sandbags, and moving bars around.

     Minou and Azorath both stopped for a moment, and looked back at the crowd running towards them bursting into fights of all kinds. The pair looked back at eachother before Minou spoke "YOU IDIOT! WHY DON'T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING?!" They got up and started running away from everyone and towards the goal, Azorath soon after replied to her as they were running "WELL HOW SHOULD I KNOW THERE WOULD BE HIDDEN BUTTONS ON THE FLOOR?! SERIOUSLY YOU NEED TO-" He was suddenly stopped by a swinging sandbag that hit him right on mark on his face. As he fell to the ground he groaned, Minou had turned around "Oh God are you ok?!" She turned around to help him up. Minou stood him up next to her and put his arm over her shoulder. She proceeded to drag him as best as she could. All Azorath could say was unspoken gibberish. Minou moved as fast as she could but from what she had in speed she lacked in strength, with the vile group or barbarians that intend to participate in the tournament chasing them and closing their distance, Minou had started to lose hope. She cannot fight and protect Azorath by herself. Whatever shall she do?

     "Arggh! Get up! You're to heavy!" Minou yelled at the unconscious Azorath, but with no reply. Finally she dropped him down in front of her and held him face to face. Minou put her hand out and slapped him repetitively "Wake! Up! Darn! You!" She repeated at Azorath until "Owwwwwwwwww," he groaned "What did you just do to me!?" He jumped up and looked around "What's going on?!" He then yelled "Why am I in so much pain?!" "Shut up!" Minou yelled back "The entire rest of the tournament is right behind us we half to go! Now!" She then grabbed his hand and ran forward. Azorath answered by running close behind. They dodged and weaved throughout the traps they encountered. "Wait!" Minou told Azorath as she put her arm in front of him, motioning him to stay there. "What's the matter? We need to hurry!" Said Azorath, whos anxious and wanting to win the mysterious prize ahead of them. "Look at the walls." Minou said, which caused the two of them to look back and forth almost as if they had one mind. "Yeah so?" Azorath replied "They have holes in them so what? It's just a building malfunction." Minou looked at him with a glare. "No you dope." She spoke with annoyance "It means there's a button here which will cause something to fly out. Most likely arrows or poison darts. Be careful." She let go of Azorath and they carefully continued forward. "Whoa where did you learn that?" He asked "I would've never seen that and I probably would have died." Minou smirked and looked behind her into his eyes as they both stopped. She shrugged and told him "I saw it in a movie once." For a moment there was silence between them. Azorath continued to stare at her smirking face. "Are you basing your adventuring skills off....off a movie..?" Azorath questioned before taking a few careful steps forward. "Welllllllllll actually," Minou followed with quickly before going in front of him "It's a series of movies that I rather enjoyed as a kid, but yes I am." Carefully avoiding the buttons, the pair had walked all the way to the end of the area, except a few steps. The humongous fighting crowd behind them had slowed down some, as they were worn and tired.

     "Aha this is it!" Minou opened with as she lunged forward over the small-ish pit and into the safe zone "C'mon slow poke you're almost there. Or maybe I'll take all the treasure for myself. Haha kidding!" Azorath watched and got ready. "Ok I'm almost there! We can open it together!" He spoke with a smile before taking a step forward for his jump. But as he took his step forward, a small, thin, and deadly weapon shot out at him and pierced his right arm. "Arrgh!" He yelled "Needles!" Azorath had fallen forward at the very edge. One step more would take him down below into the seemingly endless pit below him."Azorath no!" Minou screamed, wanting to help him but without knowing how. He stopped to try and be careful, but his slow speed had cost him. "Ahh!" He yelled again. This time the needle had landed into the back of his left shoulder. The pain drove him forward a bit before he freaked out and jumped back. A terrible mistake, for needles from every direction stabbed his torso, mostly on his back but partially his front. Which caused him to fall on one knee in pain. He yelled more but this would not help. He cut out the surrounding sounds from his mind. "I've got no choice!" He quickly thought "I have to hurry forward!" With that thought in his mind he stood up and ran forward and quick as he could. The only thought in his mind was getting out of the hellish trap he is facing. At the very edge, he lunged forward into a jump. Hoping with every fiber in his being that he would land it.

     As if a guardian angel was looking over him, he landed on the other side of the pit. He stumbled onto the ground and just stayed still for a moment. "Azorath!" Minou said as she ran forward and crouched down to check up on him "Are you ok?!" "Yeah...heh....I'm fine." He replied as he started to get up, putting his left hand on his right arm. He walked over to the chest, with Minou walking beside him carefully. They stopped in front of the chest and looked at eachother. "Together." They both told eachother in unison. They opened the chest and looked inside to find a small red ticket at the bottom. Minou picked up the ticket and looked at it carefully. The bottom had sloppy writting which said "Tournament Pass" in pen. Was this really what they came for? Did they go all this way for a free ticket to watch the tournament. A door slid opened in front of them. In the doorway was a stair case upwards. They carefully walked forward separate until Minou freaked out and helped Azorath walk when he groaned from the pain of the many needles. They started to walk up the stairs.

     As they started walking off the stairs and into the dark room, a mysterious voice spoke to them from unknown where. "Congratulations! You have found the ticket! Now normally I would make you two fight for it, but you worked as a team. I enjoy that. You both deserve the prize." The lights turned on to reveal the back of someone covered in a long cloak and hood. The door behind them began to close, their only known way out was getting away, and they could do nothing about it. "Argh!" Azorath groaned from pain before saying "Who are you. What's the meaning of this ticket." "Yeah! Minou added "Get Azorath some medical attention first, or he might die!" The mystery man replied with "Whoa whoa calm down you two. I'm not a bad guy. He won't die the needles are not as deep as you think. But I'll have some people look at it." The man turned around to reveal his face. He was quite old. He let his hood down and showed his thinning hairline. Even though he was old, he was quite buff and standing tall and strong. He clapped his hands together loudly and two women in white uniforms similar to the men in yellow came in, but with their jackets buttoned up. They went on opposite sides of Azorath, plucking the pins out of him and wrapping bandages on every spot. Minou looked at them with annoyance while Azorath was being treated. When they finished and stood there for a second, saying something to Azorath before Minou pushed and shooed them away. They left the room and immediately Minou checked on her friend. "Azorath are you ok?" She asked, checking for any mistakes the nurses might've made. "Erm, I'm uh fine thanks." He replied before looking at the odd old man. "Now you answer our questions." The old man smirked and chuckled. "You cannot demand things from me, here in my own world. I am the owner of this tournament. But I shall entertain you, after all, entertainment is what I do best. My name is Erwin and that ticket gives you a pass straight to round two.  You pass the preliminaries that you participated in downstairs. That was your test of might, and now you've passed round one. Congratulations you two. I mean it."

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Creator Joshua's note~
      I'm sorry this chapter is really long! (And if you're wondering, the story part of this chapter ends at 2000 words exactly!) But I wanted to keep the same tone, mood, and feeling all the way through.