A New Mission [Solo; Explanation]

How things had progressed to this level, he still was not entirely sure. However, it probably went a little like this. 

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The sound of his leg slamming down on the head of some weird skeleton had echoed through the dungeon chamber, and now that they weren't being pursued by any opponents any more, they were able to progress. 

However, with the sound of a hell-hound echoing behind them, Alek's face fell into one of resigned irritation. He was going to need to fight another weird beast again wasn't he? 

He'd been lucky before the skeletons, but with that bellow, it was clear that his luck was not going to last. Or... that was what it seemed like, before the bellow of the beast turned to a surprised, and rather upset, squeal that carried on for longer than it probably should have. 

The constant changing of the place of the sound, and the type of squeal that it was, gave the image that it... had fallen off the edge of the stairs? 

He had to assume that this was just some sort of sign of good luck, but unfortunately that wasn't true. With the sound of two people talking, Alek just stood there frozen in shock as he noticed... a carpet flying over head? What in the...

"Am I going crazy, or was there an 8 foot tall guy riding a flying carpet? I don't remember drinking before I took this mission."

Finally, after what seemed like forever but was probably more like five minutes, he wound up in some weird hall. It was obscenely tall, to the degree where he could barely see the top of the hall. 

It seemed more like it was built for giants than built for any normal human; this hall alone would have been enough to be a mansion, it could be subdivided into so many different rooms that it could actually be a very nice house on its own. Yet, there was barely anything in here. 

Oh, it was nice and all - there was no denying that, but the fact remained that it seemed... rather inescapably empty. He had, at least, found the guys that he had been hunting, and they were still on their magic carpet... Or, at least, one of them was. 

The eight foot tall guy was standing on the floor, and had moved away from his compatriot... his compatriot who was a normal human. It wasn't exactly hard to tell, his hair was brownish blonde and Imuchakk always had blue hair. 

It was a strange genetic trait, but it was a fact nonetheless. Sometimes things were made that didn't seem to abide the law of nature, and that included blue-haired eight foot tall giants with an overdose of adrenaline. 

Point being, if an Imuchakk was working with a normal human.. then this guy was a traitor. Or, at least, someone who had left the tribe. Otherwise, a human would only be near an Imuchakk on the battlefield, and even then they wouldn't be on the same side. 

The fact that he wasn't working for the tribe was a large source of comfort, but he didn't feel exactly calm. Could you, if you were seeing what he was seeing?

The thing that freaked him out so much was the fact that the dungeon entrance had sealed itself. He had been staring from just outside the room when it happened, but when he moved his hand to where the entrance had been a second before, there was nothing but a sensation of inky blackness. 

Putting his finger against it inquisitively, he could sense that it... was not quite there. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that it wasn't natural. For something like this... he had to guess that it was magic. 

Slamming his hand against the nearest part of the wall that was still a part of the wall rather than some inky shadow construct, he shattered the stone in his annoyance. Someone else had gotten there before he had, he had lost to these idiots! 

How had his entire division been ignored? Was it the carpet, had they just flown over the head of the corps? It was probably that now that he thought about it, there were very few other alternatives to explain how this had happened. 

That was embarrassing... he had to make sure that the General gave them magical tools; otherwise they would be just as under-prepared next time as they were this time.

Time seemed to flow without any rule or reason; it could have been hours or seconds, he just didn't know. They had reached the middle of the maze before he had, that meant that they were able to get the power that the world had been promised. 

He was impotent compared to them now, but that didn't matter as much as the fact that he was now trapped; there was no way that he could get out of this place any more. He had come in through some sort of teleportation magic, and now he was here with no entrance and no beginning. 

There was no way that he could get through the stone walls, every one that he could knock down would surely just lead to another room, and another one after that. 

He had no idea how big this place was, and if it was as large as he thought, then it was very likely that he would be trapped in here until the monsters that he had run past just managed to catch up with him. 

How many could he defeat? Well, he thought with a bitter sigh, resigned to his fate, he was at least going to go out fighting. He'd not be the coward who just died curled into a ball, sobbing about his death.

Besides, there was a small percentage of people that managed to be reincarnated. Maybe he would be one of those lucky ones?

Every second that dragged on, he heard more and more clues that the inhabitants of the dungeon were coming. Something that sounded like a snake's hiss, the sound of footsteps, every a couple of barks. 

The thing about this was, not only was he massively outnumbered, but it was one against many. Sara would have been useful, but she had disappeared into the nether so long ago that it was actually a little bit ridiculous. 

To be brutally honest, it was safe to say that Sara was about as much help as a chocolate tea-kettle in this little situation. What good was a companion that wasn't going to actually help? 

Thankfully, he still had his weapons, cloaked around his arm like small safe-guards against threats. Bathed in the light of his flickering torch, he could see the first of the oncoming army coming, backing away slightly against the wall. Not out of fear, but it was just a sensible reaction. 

After all, if he was going to go out fighting, there was no point in wasting his energy before it was necessary, right? Yet, with every second that passed, he only got into more and more shit since more and more people were coming. 

Some weird things that looked like zombies out of bad literature, dogs that looked like they had come from the very depths of hell... Well, if there was a heaven, he was going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do when it came to saying why he'd died.

The fight began as he felt an arrow brush just past his right arm, nicking it and drawing flesh blood. It had landed just an inch or two above his glove, which annoyed him considering that if it had landed just a couple of inches lower it would have bounced off harmlessly. 

Thankfully, incarnated corpses seemed to be about as accurate as a blind squirrel, as the arrow hadn't hit him in any vital areas... or even properly hit him as it turned out. Still, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to take care of this. 

Shooting forwards, his fist slammed out, knocking the skull off of the top of the walking skeleton, sending the monster toppling to the ground. 

A second to the left, a punch through the neck, they dissolved into random bones, strewn around like it was some kind of boneyard. 

This wasn't so hard, he thought with a shade of optimism as he yanked the sword from one of the downed skeletal soldiers. It was pretty cheap, but it would do the job and that was all that was needed.

Throwing himself backwards and dodging the jaws of a hell-hound, he dove forwards, slamming his sword into the beast's head, piercing it and cementing it to the ground. 

However, as he tried to pull the sword out, he realized that, to his dismay, the sword was stuck. He was back to relying on his own fists it seemed... and that wasn't enough as he felt one of the ghouls slamming into his chest, knocking him to the ground. 

The damned thing felt like it weighed over a tonne and a half, how this was physically possible... well, it didn't seem like it would be physically possible. Slamming his fist into the thing's face again and again, it turned horrifically disfigured; The amount of damage that he was doing was extreme, but then he remembered something.

Ghouls are zombies, zombies are dead and when you're brain dead... you can no longer get things from your nerves. No matter the amount of pain that he put the thing in, he was only going to be able to get rid of it if he stopped it being actually capable of attacking him. 

Moving his hands, he grabbed hold of the claws that were trying to rake through his Fanalis Corps armor and yanked them in opposite directions, dislocating both of them with ease. The thing about ghouls is.. they might try and claw you to death, but thier main weapon... is trying to eat you.

As he lay there, his body slowly but surely being crushed by the inexonerable weight of a gigantic half-dead zombie, he couldn't help but wonder exactly who had designed this bizarre place. Was the reason why it hadn't been conquered yet because everyone who tried ended up in this position? 

That would explain all the skeletal monsters, you don't get skeletons without people, and considering that this place was made within the last month, it was pretty clear that they didn't have any corpses before now. 

It was a weird thought; A promising military career, a life ahead of him, and it was all going to be ended just because of some stupid invisible wall that he was never going to be able to get through. 

He had come so close to winning, so close to being able to wield that great power, whatever that power was, and yet he was going to end up being eaten by some semi-decayed bastard who smelt horribly of rotting flesh. 

It took all his strength to force the monster's head away from his own, and every second that passed he could feel his ability to hold this fucker back dwindle. Fuck you, Sara.

And, then, in a flash... the ghoul was gone. But, not just the ghoul. The ground, the waiting strew of monsters, hell, even the walls were gone. 

Where he was now... was peaceful, sun was raining down over everything and he didn't feel any pain or weight in his body whatsoever. It truly seemed to be like its own little form of paradise after what just happened... 

"Oh god, I got eaten by the ghoul and went to heaven, didn't I?" The question seemed likely to be answered with a yes, but a familiar voice seemed to cut through the momentary theism. 

"What the living hell is a ghoul? And why are you covered in blood and lying on the ground... and what the hell happened to the dungeon?" 

That voice... it was Lieutenant Arja, one of his most trusted compatriots and a sight for sore eyes. Leaping to his feet in a moment of elated giddiness, he just decided that, rather than ask why exactly he had been yanked through space time again, he should just be glad that he wasn't turned into zombie dinner. 

Moving to her and giving her a warm embrace, he grinned honestly "You know, if I didn't know that you were engaged, I'd tell you I bloody love you."

However, before he could focus on Sara or on just being happy, he had to deal with one little issue. 

The guys that he had seen entering the center of the dungeon were on their carpet again. Damn it, they were not just going to get away. He had to stop them, he had to make sure... he had to make sure what, exactly? 

That they didn't get the power? They had earned it fairly, and that surely proved they were better than him - at raiding dungeons at least. What was the chance that he would be able to take them out? He could at least talk to them, make sure they didn't join a nation state. 

If any nation state had this kind of power, they were going to become an unstoppable conquesting machine that would destroy everything and everyone in their way getting between them and absolute control over the world as a whole. 

Even if he'd had the power, he would have made sure it was well used, kept it within restraints... well, sure, he'd have abused it to kill off the final members of the list, but that was a good thing to do and it was going to happen anyway. 

Moving forwards, he grabbed the carpet in an attempt to stop them from getting away without talking to him, and... ended up being hoisted off the ground with ease. He would have yelped in surprise but he caught it at the last moment, it was going to be hard to explain his position as it was, he wasn't going to add to that fact by catching them off guard and so for now... he was just going to have to wait. 

This clinging on for dear life game was really beginning to get old. He had been holding on for half an hour, and that was really all that he could do. 

If he was to pull himself up right now, he would throw himself into the midst of two mages, probably still paranoid from everything that had just gone on just now.

That was a recipe for disaster, but if he just kept holding on they were going to continue heading in this direction, which unfortunately for him seemed to be positioning him squarely towards Magnostadt. 

Magnostadt, the city that hated non-mages with a fiery passion. Considering both the Imuchakk and the human were mages (either that or they just liked having mages staffs for no apparent reason) they would have absolutely no problem with the city, but if he were to be forced into the city.. 

Well, Fanalis were the anti-mages, one of the few races in the world that weren't able to breed any magicians. Hell, any Fanalis that was able to magoi manipulate was considered a prodigy - They were basically the least in touch with their rukh out of the three races, and thus merely going near the city could very well be a death sentence for him. 

Stop the carpet, I wanna get off! he thought bitterly. I survived the dungeon to get this shit piled on me the moment I get out? Give me a break!

However, if he was ever considering actualy just letting go and coping with the broken bones that would result from this, it was over as they changed trajectory, heading in a completely different direction. 

Well, at least they weren't heading for mage city, but now there was a completely different problem. Well, two questions really; He had absolutely no idea where they were heading now, and of course his muscles were beginning to ache from the constant strain. 

See, muscles are all well and good, but as any body-builder will tell you, muscles way more than fat. Not just a little more, a lot more than fat. 

Although Alek was no hulk of muscles like some of his co-workers, his body was pretty damned toned so he was like a gigantic anchor, weighing down on his arms. 

He could have held on for dear life for about a minute more, but since he'd need to get come up at some point, he decided to make it a little bit more expedient by climbing up as if it was nothing, seemingly appearing before the blue-haired giant, acting absolutely natural as if nothing was wrong.