rrick felt his body trembling. The sensations were distant, traveling through his increasingly squeezed nerves to his brain. One this was clear: each mont was agony, like sitting and watching as your family was flattened by a steamroller. Except you were watching yourself pressurized until you popped. Sweat clung to the tip of his nose, itching his skin. But the worst was the silence.
The silence made the agony endless and final.
A little over nine thousand individuals stood on the bobbing platforms. So stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, so sat with their legs folded beneath them, all with the sa expression of concentration on their face. The tournant participants, here to cross the last threshold. They had been allowed to choose whatever position they found the most comfortable, but from there, any sort of significant movent would be deed a failure.
This test had already stretched for five and a half hours. The thick, oily energy of the Ghosthound flickered rrily in the air, crunching their psyches beneath its sheer force. Images withered and recoiled beneath its pushy ministrations. rrick had anticipated a lot argunts over what constituted a significant movent by those disqualified and asked to leave the test. However, none he had not seen anyone argue.
Not that he was in his most attentive state. But from what he could tell, all who gasped and collapsed were led away quietly with hollow expressions on their faces.
After experiencing this hell for so long, rrick understood it. Those who had given in to the force were almost happy to allowed to leave, hiding their disappointnt within their strained bodies and frazzled minds. Perhaps they couldn’t even face the relief they felt.
A relief the rest of them now dearly craved.
rrick allowed himself a small movent, lifting his chin and hissing a breath out through his nose. They were coming up on an hour mark, which ant that the intensity of the Nether would be rising. The trembling in his arms worsened, as he considered the difficulty increasing once more.
He felt chewed. The aura of the Randidly Ghosthound just rolled them like a plump grape between their teeth, ready to squeeze until juice leaked out between the ruptured skin.
All at once, the pressure vanished. The sudden lack made rrick collapse backward, his head cracking against the wooden ground. The clouds churned above, briefly leaving him srizing. Then he began to sob, realizing that what he just did definitely counted as a significant movent, and so part of him felt a deep sense of relief-
“Congratulations, all those who are still here,” Naffur Suite, the leader of the Order Ducis and the public face of Randidly Ghosthound’s influence over Expira, bood his voice over all the panting individuals, a balm on their hot skin. He stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes playful. “You’ve made it. You are in the final 8,192. And so, welco to Tournant Island.”
rrick pushed himself off the ground, one of the 90% of participants that looked like they had spent the night kneeling in front of a toilet with a stomach bug, rather than just waiting for their opportunity to prove themselves. They rose unsteadily, looking at Naffur’s serious expression. Sothing broke in rrick’s heart. His eyes began to gleam and blinked away tears.
He had made it. Despite how many powerful fighters turned out of the woodwork for this tournant, he had been selected. It was definitely a step down from being victorious last year, but-
“You have forty-eight hours until the island is opened to anyone else but the participants,” Naffur continued. In his mid-twenties, he seed the perfect balance between youthful potential and mature leadership. He turned away, stepping onto a wooden plank that led off the platforms. Above him, buildings gleaming with the fresh edges of new construction waited. “After that, six hours until the tournant starts. So for the next two days… enjoy yourselves. There are shopping outlets and restaurants, bars and music venues. Or you could train. But I do recomnd that you spend the ti and effort to et the other finest in the Alpha Cosmos. Because everyone you see is one of your peers, that passed the sa trials.”
rrick followed the flow, walking on stiff legs and with a slightly empty expression. They were released onto a wooden pier, heavy with stands for fresh-squeezed juice and fried bits of dough. The evening sun pressed against their skin, warm and reassuring. rrick’s inner question over how all these stores could operate without anyone but the participants were answered: Kharon’s Brass Automatons were everywhere, assisting with your slightest whim. Their servos whirled and their brass joints glead as they offered participants every refreshnt they could imagine.
Oh shit, rrick wandered forward, taking two glasses of champagne off the tray held by a tal person. His heart pounded. These next two days are going to be so sick.
And they were. All of the beer and spirits present on the island had been made with powerful Classers in mind; they relied more on Skill Levels from the brewer rather than alcohol content for their effects. About five drinks of various bright colors later, rrick felt like he was floating. Joy bubbled up through his veins as he explored the island.
The constructed place was dived into quadrants. Southeast housed the hotels and participant housing. Northwest was the arenas and training halls, to which a very busy minority quickly moved. Many had likely felt their limits in the entrance test and now wanted to gain any advantage they could.
rrick, like the truly powerful, perhaps realized that it was too late to make any aningful difference in his abilities. Instead, he wandered around, his instincts warning him that everyone he saw was dangerous.
The Northeast held music venues and bars. Constant noise and laughter flowed across the entire island, originating from this portion. anwhile, the Southwest held a very particular sort of shop, including high-end weapons, armor, and information repositories about Skills. There was even a small shack filled with books, with a short blurb about every participant in the tournant. The famous individuals even had a breakdown of their exploits, images, and fighting habits.
rrick perused a book about Alana Donal for ten minutes, trying to imagine what it was like to fight while still in the isolated Zones, growing up with Randidly Ghosthound before he had beco such a monster. Eventually, he stopped, if only because the attentive automaton waiting for him to finish unnerved rrick.
The center of the island was marked by a massive cylindrical complex that featured other anities. More mundane varieties of shopping (including several scents of shampoo all based on the Ghosthound), massages, movie theaters, grocery stores… the exterior was marble and each entrance was massive, almost four ters tall. The open middle was filled with a manicured, spiraling bonsai tree ten stories tall. Each set of branches corresponding to the ten floors of the shopping complex blood with differently colored and shaped flowers.
The lowest level was tiny powder-blue flowers that were so dense in so spots you couldn’t see the branches. Above that were open yellow blooms with petals so long they cascaded down like strears. Above that, the flowers were nestled between green leaves, violet and vaguely spiky. Up and up, all the way to the open skylight above. It was an impossible bit of plant life that had rrick standing and gawking. He watched long enough for Brass Automatons to clamber expertly up the wooden trellis spaced intermittently around the trunk and carefully comb the tree for any flaws.
A few leaves were snipped, nubs for new branches removed. Wilting flowers were respectfully clipped and taken away into one of the strange tunnels that the automatons used to move throughout the island.
“Wow,” rrick blinked. Then he shook himself and left the building. After exploring the entire island, he went to the Northeast. He needed so relief from the stress he felt growing in his chest.
As he obtained more drinks, the night began to blur. He stumbled onto a bar where a Frost Dragon faced off against a man in an eating contest, a wooden table piled high with roast pigs and thick mushroom sauces, to the roaring approval of a crowd. When he finally couldn’t stand the sight of the dragon any longer, rrick moved down the cobbled street to a classier establishnt, where a half dozen Brass Automatons effortlessly played string instrunts and groups of participants played cards at a dozen tightly packed tables.
He sat at the bar, which was empty aside from a bear-woman nursing a drink. She glanced over at once, twice, and then clear her throat. “...would you like to join for so shots? I’m trying… to let loose a little.”
rrick said that he needed to let loose as well. Sowhere between five and twelve shots of specially brewed liquor later, the two were arm-in-arm and swaying as they left the bar to find sowhere else to drink. They passed by a bowling alley and an outdoor volleyball court, where an octopus played along against a group of humans.
The duo was overtaken by a group of bobbing frogpeople, heady with excitent. Trailing in their wake, they went into a hoy pub with a roaring fire cramd into one side of the establishnt. Their beer ca in mugs and while they cheers and threw back their drinks, a solo arrival ca into the building.
Lucifer, the powerful poster-child of Franksburg sidle up to the bar next to them and inclined his head. “Charlotte. Glad to see you are getting off of that rainy island.”
The bearwoman made a sour face. rrick swayed side to side, unable to believe that Lucifer, the intense man with long hair and a Skill nad after him, had co over to their group to join. Lucifer cleared his throat. “I actually had another reason for looking for you. As I’m sure you know, I’m recently married. I’d like… to surprise my wife with a portrait of us, drawn by you. I’ve brought so photos-”
“I don’t draw much, anymore,” The bearwoman, apparently Charlotte, said. rrick wondered if she had introduced herself and he had forgotten or whether it just hadn’t co up during their drinking.
Lucifer’s hands were large and he tapped his finger evenly against the bar. Despite the noise of the rest of the patrons, those finger taps seed to resonate with rrick’s chest. “Maybe so. Well, I just thought I’d ask. If you change your mind, let know. I hope you enjoy your night.”
Afterward, Charlotte’s mood turned bleak. They took several more shots, but the magic had been lost. rrick cleared his throat, trying to sound mature. “Is everything alright?”
She simply shook her head. Very soon after, she left, leaving rrick to find his way on his own. He wandered out of the quaint place, drawn by thumping bass and bright lights to the place at the end of the street, called Moondust. Purple spotlights shone up on billowing gossar banners, the light rippling with the fabric in the night wind. Once inside, rrick was hit by sound and the sll of sweat all at once; sotis, it was a negative to have their empowered senses. He squeezed through the press of dancing bodies, so of that tension coming loose as he saw a dozen individuals dancing at such fast speeds that their bodies blurred.
For an indeterminate amount of ti, he joined them, flailing and screaming along with the latest Raina hit song. The lights pulsed in different colors and soone was projecting images of waves crashing through the club. Everything rushed around, sloshing in the enclosed space. rrick didn’t need to breathe, didn’t need to think. Motion carried his entire existence. He was image, personified, all body and emotion in a surging sea of the sa.
Eventually, even the powerful brewers out of Donnyton couldn’t keep his senses blurred. He ca back to himself, slick with sweat and with a fast-disappearing headache. Coughing, he pushed his way off the dancefloor and found a balcony.
There, he found a young man standing and staring off the high ledge toward the other glittering establishnts along the street. At the sa ti, as he walked out and stopped, the young man looked up. Their eyes t. There was a sort of defensive guardedness in his eyes that rrick found very appealing. The young man had his spear leaning against the railing, out of any storage device, which revealed he was one of the people from Tellus.
“Hello,” rrick managed.
“Greetings,” the young man returned.
rrick tilted his head to the side. “...would you like to do so shots?”
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