A booming voice outside shouted, "Let the fight commence!"
"Well, get to it!" Van shouted as the gate began to slide open. Fredlin, still grumbling to himself, waved his hands, turning himself invisible.
"Alright, we'll try to stay tightly packed together," Van said. "Make them come to us!" Everyone followed after their leader as he walked out into the coliseum. The gates were all open and dozens of players were pouring out of the waiting areas.
The battle was absolute chaos. Arrows and spells flew through the air, and Van could see that very few teams had any semblance of cohesion. Archers were shooting at whoever was closest, warriors were clashing against one another, and as they had predicted, anyone with healing powers was killed immediately.
Sang snapped off a few arrows, but the team stayed together in a closely knit formation. Kylian and Van were holding the front, Sahara was at the rear and in the middle was Sang. This formation was like a two-pronged fork and would help them stay alive.
Kylian brandished his axes and growled, "Come on! Who wants to fight me!" His taunt was successful, as three players – all wearing plate mail and armed with spears – came charging towards him.
Sang fired arrows at the charging foes, striking several of them for 50 damage apiece, but this did nothing to slow them down.
"Watch my back!" Van shouted to Sahara as he activated his Berserk power. Energy surged through his body as he swung his warhammer straight at the first player who came within range. Kylian swung his axe at the same time, aiming for the oncoming spear and managing to chop the tip of the spear off before it made contact with Van's chest. Van brought his warhammer down with the full fury of a berserker and watched in satisfaction as the words 300 damage floated above the spearman's head.
"Crap!" The spearman shouted as he stumbled back, and he turned to run but two players had jumped him from behind and quickly stabbed him to death with their knives. The other two spearmen tried to fight against Van, but with four players fighting against them, they didn't stand a chance.
Van cheered triumphantly for a moment before realizing that, now that two men were down, two more were coming straight for him. They were armed with twin daggers and were easily evading the hailstorms of arrows coming from all directions. Van grunted in pain as he felt a crossbow bolt land directly between his shoulder blades. 100 damage! greeted him. A few more of those and he'd be out.
"I thought I said, 'watch my back'!" Van shouted to Sahara.
"I'm trying!" Sahara grunted, but Van couldn't glance behind him to see what was going on; it sounded like Sahara was in a fight with someone, of course.
"Heads up!" Kylian called out as he spun his twin axes and moved toward the advancing players, hacking up and down.
Van pressed forward in a charge, feeling more pain as two arrows struck him from the back. 250 damage! floated above him, but he didn't have time to think about it. Instead, he rushed one of the knife-wielding players and swung his hammer down hard. It was no use, however, as the word Dodge greeted him. The knifer, a rogue from the way he was dressed in leather, leaped to the side of Van's hammer and sank his blade right into Van's hamstring.
"Gaaah!" Van shouted as he saw the words Leg Injury ½ Speed hover in front of him. Fortunately, his berserk power allowed him to ignore all of the effects of wounds at least temporarily, and it seemed that this attack hadn't dealt any immediate damage.
"Hahahah, kill 'em!" the rogue triumphantly shouted.
Van glanced over to see that Kylian was busy trying to pin down the other rogue, but he wasn't nearly fast enough. He held up the haft of his hammer to block another blow from the rogue; the steel weapons clattered loudly against one another.
"This strategy isn't working!" Kylian grunted.
"Sang, a little help?" Van called out as he swung his hammer low, to try and knock the rogue off of his feet. The rogue flipped over Van's head and threw a dagger right into his shoulder at the same time. 50 damage floated above Van's head. His health was seriously starting to drop, and if they kept this up, he'd be dead in no time.
"Sang!" Van shouted as he spun around to face this foe, only to realize that Sang was lying on the ground, dead. "Crap! Sahara! I thought you were protecting her!"
"Trying… sir!" Sahara said as she wrestled against a large player who had grabbed her by the back of the head and was trying to pin her to the ground.
"This is a mess!" Van shouted to Kylian, who was now surrounded by four other players, all of whom were armed with halberds and axes.
"What? I thought things were going just fine!" Kylian shouted before an axe crashed into his skull, killing him instantly.
"Arrrgh!" Van yelled as he blocked the rogue's perpetual knife attacks against him. The entire area had descended into chaos now, and he could barely keep up with what was going on around him. People were charging at him, only to be shot down by archers, who were in turn attacked by other players. It was a nightmare, and Van had no idea if they were going to win this one. He had to think quickly, though. He took a deep breath and feinted swinging his weapon at the rogue, who quickly leapt back, giving Van just enough time to rush to where Sahara was still struggling.
"Hahahaha! I'm gonna win this one!" the hulking monstrosity of a man said as he tried to strangle Sahara. No one was paying them any attention – probably because they were on the ground.
Van let out a berserker roar and swung his hammer like a golf club, crashing it right into the mouth of the man trying to kill Sahara. Critical Hit 500 damage! floated above the man's face as his head made a sickening crunch of a sound. He slumped to the ground, dead.
"I'm staying under here!" Sahara announced as she grabbed his body and rolled it over herself so that she was concealed. "Just stay alive!"
Van opened his mouth to call her a coward, but realized her strategy was brilliant. The longer each player stayed alive, the bigger a chance they had of winning this thing. Another arrow nailed him in the arm and he grunted as he took 15 damage. He turned then to see that there was a woman standing far off in the distance, armed with a bow. She had cleverly stayed back from all of the fighting and was on the other side of the melee. As soon as Van made eye contact with her, she balked.
"Grahhhhh!" Van screamed at the top of his lungs as he charged straight toward the archer. She panicked and fired more arrows at him, but thanks to his Berserker Charge special ability, he was immune to any damage he took while using the charge action. He raised his hammer high and smashed it down on her before she could leap out of the way, killing her instantly.
"Whew!" Van sighed as he spun around to see that there were only eight people left. They had gathered in the center of the arena and were brutally attacking one another. Van waited for a few minutes as they killed one another off. Eventually, three came out of the fray victorious. They all wore the exact same sort of blue ribbon around their arms. They must be on a single team, he realized. They were all fighters, from the looks of it.
"Crap," Van said when one of the shorter players, a woman wielding a morningstar, pointed at him. They all huddled together and then slowly advanced towards him, weapons at the ready.
Van glanced around, but there was no one else alive except for him. Was Sahara still hiding underneath of that corpse? He hoped that she was.
"Come over here and die!" Van shouted as he raised his hammer high. "I have killed many of you and I will continue to kill even more!" This bluff did nothing to dissuade the three fighters as they cautiously approached him.
"Ha!" cried a triumphant voice in the distance. Van glanced over to see that Fredlin was now visible, and was on the opposite side of the enemy team. "Now, I will cast my most powerful fireball spell!" he shouted as he raised his hands.