"Crap!" Sang shouted as she began to fire arrow after arrow at the creature, but she didn't have enough time to aim for its weak spots, so the arrows merely bounced off of the beast.
"Help!" Fredlin shouted as he began to take damage. Sang watched as his health dropped down rapidly; he had been at nearly 500 points of health at the start of the fight, and now he was barely at 150.
"I'm on it!" Van shouted as he rushed forward as fast as he could. "Rawrrrr!" he bellowed as he activated his Berserker Rage ability. This would give him the power to move faster and hit harder, and increased his jump speed. The only downside was that he would receive the exhausted status after his rage ended.
Van leapt high into the air with his hammer and came crashing down on the head of the Feralice. It growled in anger as the words 400 damage hovered above its head. It hissed and tried to shake Van off of its head, but to no avail. Van had dug his heels into the creature's sides and was holding on for dear life.
Fredlin scrambled out from underneath its grasp and limped away. "Oh man," Fredlin said as he swigged a healing potion. His health bar began to climb rapidly back to 800 points. "At least it didn't bite me."
The Feralice turned around and looked at Sang, who had struck it with one more arrow. Although the arrow had only landed a glancing blow, the beast certainly didn't like the fact that it was being attacked from a distance. It bared its fangs and began to bound after her.
"Hold your ground!" Van called out as he dropped his warhammer and grabbed the beast by the ears. "When I say shoot, shoot!"
Sang nodded and loaded three arrows on her bow. It was fortunate that the ranger character she had been given had all of her old skills, including the Multi-strike ability. She took a deep breath and held perfectly still, waiting for the signal.
The Feralice charged her, and Van screamed "Now!" as he pulled with all of his might on the beast's ears. The weasel-like monster didn't like this at all, and it reared its head back, exposing its neck. Sang took the shot, seeing how the neck of the creature glowed bright purple. Her three arrows sank into the monster's neck and it roared in agony. The words Critical Blow 800 damage floated in the air. Blood sprayed from the beast as it collapsed on the ground, hissing and shrieking.
"Yes!" Sang shouted as the words Optional Monster Defeated +350 points appeared on the screen.
"Nice," Van said. "We've got to move, though; the clock is ticking!"
"Is there enough time to loot?" Fredlin asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Van asked. "Of course, there's enough time to loot it – we're gamers after all. That hasn't changed."
CHAPTER SIX
Van, Sang, and Fredlin rushed into the next room, which was some kind of a cellar. There were dozens of shattered skeletons laying on the ground. Among the barrels and bottles of wine was a ladder leading upwards.
"No sign of them, so I guess they kept moving," Van said as he grabbed the ladder. As he began to ascend, the words Skeleton Room defeated +100 points hovered above him. He grinned as he continued his ascent.
He wasn't particularly worried about making the cut in this tournament round. If gaming logic had taught him anything, it was that the first round would always be the easiest. Advancing to the next section wouldn't be hard, but would probably be difficult enough to weed out the truly incompetent. The more points they gained now, though, the less they would need to garner later on.
As he climbed up the ladder now, he heard some shouting upstairs. It was Kylian yelling at Sahara.
"I've already tried that! Okay? I don't need you suggesting that we do the same thing over and over again!" he said.
"I'm just trying to help!" Sahara shouted back. "And you're not doing it right, so try it my way!"
"Guys!" Van said as he emerged from a hole in the ground. "What are you two arguing about?"
"Captain Grumpy over here thinks he can solve this logic puzzle, but he's only getting more confused!" Sahara said as she pointed to a body of water. They were in a square room, but there was water between them and the next exit.
"I'm not getting more confused," Kylian said as he pointed to three statues. "It's an old logic puzzle and I know exactly how to do it."
"What are all of these?" Sang asked as she climbed out of the manhole. She examined the statues for a moment. There was a statue of a cow, another of a dragon, and then a large barrel of hay. Tied to the barrel was a boat, but it looked like it only had enough room for one statue.
"It's part of the puzzle," Kylian explained. "That door over there is sealed tightly. We've got to figure out how to get all three of these statues across."
"That's the puzzle?" Fredlin asked as he hoisted himself up into the room. "Just put one statue in the boat at a time. You two have been arguing about this?'"
"It's not the easy," Kylian said as he grabbed his hair and began to pull on it a little. "There's a method to it."
"Wow, I have never seen you this perturbed, Kylian," said Van, laughing a little. "It's just a puzzle. Relax."
"I know the answer!" Kylian shouted. "I was a mathematics champion in high school, okay? I just… can't figure it out."
"Because you're suffering from a very advanced form of dementia!" Sahara shouted back.
"Take it easy, everyone," Sang said as she walked up to a glowing interface that hovered above the boat. She pressed her hand against it, causing the interface to rapidly expand into a large drop-down menu.
The Dragon, Hay, and Cow Puzzle
If you want to open the door, you must solve an ancient mystery. Three statues are before you: a cow, a dragon, and a barrel of hay. The boat will only hold one statue, but all three must cross. If the cow and the barrel of hay are alone together, the cow will eat the hay. If the dragon and the cow are alone together, the dragon will eat the cow. How then, will you get all three across the river?
"Oh, I think I know this," Sang said as she looked at the statues. "I think."
"I know I know this," Kylian replied curtly. "You just need to give me a minute to think."
"Well, let's use progressive elimination," Van said as he put a hand on Kylian's shoulder. "If we send the barrel of hay first, the cow will be eaten by the dragon, and if we send the hay, the dragon will eat the cow."
"But even if we get it across, we still can't leave them alone," Sang said as she crossed her arms. "Meaning that we're going to have to make multiple trips, right?"
"Yeah…" Van muttered. "Okay, let's do what we know first: let's send the cow across the river."
Fredlin and Kylian grunted and groaned as they grabbed the statue and dragged it over to the boat. The boat immediately began to move to the other side of the water, and there it slid the statue off. It then turned around and floated right back to them.
"Now what?" Sahara said. "If we put either of these across the river now, someone is going to get eaten."
"That's where you're wrong," Sang said as she waded across the water. "Whatever you send to me, I'll just send the cow back. So, send the barrel of hay next!"
Van complied, and shoved the large bronze statue of hay onto the boat. The boat drifted over to Sang's position, where she swapped out the hay for the cow, sending the cow back to them.
"Oh, I got it now!" Kylian exclaimed as he helped pull the cow off of the boat and the dragon back on. "This wasn't so hard after all! I was just overthinking it."
They sent the dragon across the water to Sang, who then quickly took the dragon off and returned the boat to Van and the team, so that they loaded the last statue and crossed the river.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Van asked Kylian as they walked through the water. "I have never seen you perturbed about anything."
"I'm fine, Van," Kylian said. "I just go crazy when I can't figure puzzles out."