The Tunnel

This will have about three chapters, and from there I'll decide weather to cut it to an SS, or continue it, all depending on your guy's ratings.


Kpik sat back on a rock, a dead Shrill at his feet, behind him stood the others, some were in their other forms, others just chose to be their regular Toa forms at the moment. He sighed, how long was this going to go on? They had already been here for three days, and already their kill meters were reaching the triple digits, Kpik looked down at his arm, around his wrist was a type of watch, that would display a number six digits long, his was at 68, was that really how many he had killed? It felt as though he had murdered more than that.

He stood up, looking around at the scenery, all he saw was dead, black stalagmites for miles around, they certainly provided the perfect battle field and feeling, but it all felt so dead, as if nothing had ever lived, and nothing was ever going to live, he had already given the area a nickname, "slaughter spikes", the others laughed at this, it was one thing they could all enjoy before they came again, attacking to kill, once more he sighed, turning around to face his friends. "It's almost time, we should start preparing." He said, walking off to grab a drink (for some reason water was available), and pulled on his metal gauntlets and shoes. The others did the same, and those who were transformed turned back to normal, after a few minutes of preparation, they heard a loud crack, as usual, followed by silence, and then the voice, oh that voice, it could strike fear into the bravest of warriors, into the most fierce monsters, it spoke, saying; "welcome again, I hope each of you are ready, for this time around, I bring a new friend onto the field, I call it, "walking agony", have fun, let the torment begin." Each of them waited with their blades and various weapons ready, Kpik breathed in and out, a new enemy, hopefully it wouldn't be as bad as the time the conqueror brought out his ballistics. They could come form anywhere, from behind, in front, beneath, above, some had even tried to come from within.

A roar that could crack mountains shook the heroes, it signaled the arrival of the boss, and the beginning of the fight. Out of nowhere, three Shrills leaped in, and began the usual attack of screaming at them, with a flash, Spawn shot each one down with fire, more enemies came out, from around corners, up above, underneath, the Heroes took action, everyone ran forth, weapons slashing, and then all Karzanhi broke loose, everyone was dragged away to their own fights, rapidly, everyone's numbers rose, this caused only one problem;

"The one with the highest number at the end of the tunnel shall die by my hand, while the others will be set free, watch how much you kill, because you just might be the one to go." Those were the Conqueror's words, and everyone heeded them well, everyone kept their numbers down as low as possible, but with all these enemies, it was a hard task.

To be continued...

C & C is greatly appreciated.

Does anyone think I overdid this? Or would you guys say this it a good start?

Review topic will be open.

Kpik out.

I guess you could say this was all a dream…. But a few of us would disagree. It all happened so fast, one moment, we were all standing inside, peacefully, trying to get our work done, then, well, it all goes blank after that. So far, we’ve just woken up, except, there was something strange about all of us, for one thing, we were covered in armor, and the other thing, we were in some type of strange, tunnel.

No one has tried to explain this, except everyone’s rational thoughts bursting out; we’ve all been desperately searching for a way out, none of us know where an exit might be, all we’ve seen is only black spikes and ground, the only other sight is a small white dot at the very end of the tunnel, Celu attempted to run for the dot, but didn’t make it ten feet before something grabbed him and put him back with us, hang on, something’s happening as I write, it’s a voice, it sounds angry and sympathetic at the same time, it also sounds deep and intimidating, maybe he, or it, knows a way out.

***
Kpik lie on the ground, partially unconscious, so do five more, also not moving, and asleep. Slowly, the Toa of ice awoke, his eyes opened as if they hadn’t in years, he did not bother speaking, he could feel no throat to speak from. He pulled his elbows toward himself, and pushed up into a sitting position, everything was white, and all he could see was thin outlines of five other bodies lying around him. “Where am I?” he asked himself in thought, little by little, the white faded, revealing a darker color of black, although his friends lit up the scene with their bright colors. He pulled his legs in to a kneel, he then pushed up on a hand, and stood up, immediately, he fell forwards, trying to stop himself, he ran along with his body, but he only hit a spike with his head, and was forced to sit back down.

The Toa sighed, he looked around at where he was, he could identify the others near him as his friends, but he hadn’t the slightest clue on where they were. He rubbed his eyes with his wrist, and tried to stand up again, but before he could; the others started getting up.

First was Celu, he went through the temporary blindness and stumbling around, but he noticed Kpik, and tried to speak, but he only moved his mouth, or so Kpik thought. At that moment, Kpik realized that his ears were ringing, as if a gun or other loud noise had been shot off around his head, he shook his head, hit it, and finally stopped trying to hear. He looked at Celu, who had now stood up; his friend walked over to him, and helped him onto his feet. Almost instantaneously, he could hear again, apparently Celu had been screaming, Kpik shook his head once more, and looked at Celu, “its okay, I can hear again, you don’t have to scream anymore,” he said, looking around at where they were again.

The next one up was Spawn, except he did not stumble around or anything that they had done, it also appeared he had not gone through the blindness; it was as if he had just woken up. “Guys, where are we? I remember a bright light, followed by a loud noise, and then it was like all my senses were shut off,” the Toa of fire said, he breathed in and out, he was looking around, worried. Kpik turned around, looking at the rest of the group; Aero, Aderia, and Riglax, he ran over to Aero, and began to help him up, but he would not wake. Instead, Riglax got up, he could hear, and speak just fine, but he could not feel, or see, “guys?” he asked out, his head moved in their general direction, Celu walked over to him, and helped him up on his feet, just like Kpik and Celu, Riglax regained all his senses, Riglax sighed, “I didn’t think I was ever going to see again,” he said as he smiled, but that smile soon disappeared as he looked around at where they were.

Aero and Aderia both opened their eyes together at the same time, and they both got up, exactly how Spawn did, without any loss of the senses. “Hmm, maybe some of us got hit harder than the others?” Kpik guessed, he was happy now that each of them were awake, but they now needed to figure out where they were, and how they were going to get out.

For the next few hours, they all tried to get out, and they all tried to escape, they had all found they were suited in armor from head to toe, and everyone had their own unique color. They had also discovered that each of them possessed an element they could control, everyone thought that this was pretty cool, but it didn’t help them find their way out. “What’s that?” Aderia said one hour, pointing at the end of the tunnel, where she saw a white dot, just sitting there, everyone walked over to see what it was, and Celu spoke up. “Maybe that’s our way out, wow, either that’s a small hole, or this is a really long tunnel,” he said. He started walking towards it, and after about ten feet, a large shadowy hand came out of nowhere and grabbed Celu; putting him back where he was.

A few people flipped out, but Spawn and Kpik walked over to where Celu was picked up, but stayed about a foot away. The only light was a lantern hanging on a pole ten feet away, so Spawn lit up his palm, and shined it down upon the ten foot mark. There they saw several rune-like drawings all bunched together, forming a circle around the group. “What do you think it is?” asked Kpik, he looked back at the staring group, who were just as confused as they were, “guys, come here, come look at this,” Spawn said, beckoning for them to come.

One by one, they all came, looking at this strange line that went all the way around them in a circle. Celu came forward through the crowd of others, and pointed to his side, there was a large handprint on it, but it was fading fast, “this is only getting stranger by the minute,” Aero said, he stuck out his arm slowly through the circle, and it was suddenly grabbed by the large hand that grabbed Celu, and was set back by the pole, “do not cross the line once more, or there shall be punishment,” said a loud, deadly voice. Kpik pulled put a notebook, and began to write down everything that had happened so far.

In the middle of writing, another voice came, this was the same one that had spoken before, it sounded like an announcer, but more evil, it only said one long thing. “Welcome to the Tunnel, I have taken you six captive to test your strengths and weaknesses, please, do not be worried. You are to go on your first wave tomorrow, there, you will meet my beasts, this wave I will show you Shredders, these nasty things will tear you apart if you are not careful, you shall all attempt to make it to the next site, with another circle, and pole, there you will rest until the next wave, you will all do this until you reach the end of the Tunnel, and then you will all be set free.
“Oh, and about those wrists of yours, well, every time you kill, it will go up one, yes, even if you kill one of my rather large beasts, it still counts as one. The one with the highest number at the end of the tunnel shall die by my hand, while the others will be set free, watch how much you kill, because you just might be the one to go.
“Beware though; you all have limited lives, ten each to be exact. Yes, that is right; when you die, you will spawn where a teammate is not fighting. When you run out of lives, well, you die, alright? When you enter a circle, the beasts cannot follow you, so you’re protected until I say so. Fight well with the weapons I will give you, do not worry about them dulling or breaking, because they cannot, my own little gift for you. Now that I have stated the rules, get a bit of rest. Let the tormenting begin.”

Everyone waited for a few seconds, and then six weapons appeared from thin air, everyone received a sword that matched their armor, along with a wrist strapped shield that would protect them from attacks. They all decided to do as the voice said, and they all spread out through the circle to sleep.

Celu and Kpik stayed awake, talking, “so how do you think he’ll get us to move out of the circle? What if we just decide to stay right here?” Celu asked, Kpik only shrugged, “well, my guess is that if he can put us in here, he has control over it, which means he’ll probably take away the circle,” Kpik suggested, looking around at the circle. Celu sighed, “If that’s the case, then we’ll be moving through this thing who knows how long, and what if someone loses all their lives? How are we going to get through this alive?” Celu asked; he was very worried about this, but who wouldn’t be? They obviously were fighting for their lives, trying to get to the end of some Mata Nui knows how long tunnel, Kpik could only sigh and shake his head, “I don’t know, Celu, I guess we’ll just have to hold onto those lives, I’m going to take care of myself, I suggest we all do that, nothing will stop us from working as a team and helping each other, but we should watch our own backs as well,” The Toa of ice said as he turned over to sleep. Celu did the same, and both drifted off to sleep.

To be continued…


I actually wrote this a long time ago, I just never got around to posting it. :/

So what do you guys think?

Kpik out.

I was JUST looking at this wondering where I was and how you needed to update it.

Lawl.

-Spawn

Um.... REVIEW TOPIC?????



Tell me when you finish the facepalms, and I'll delete the posts.

The Tunnel
Chapter Two


Aero sat atop a boulder, he seemed relaxed, but below him, standing on the ground, was a beast, a monster. The monster had long claws, and was jumping up to try and get Aero’s foot, which was just out of reach, much to the monster’s annoyance. Aero held a sword in his right hand, one that matched his armor perfectly, and a shield was strapped to his left arm, which also matched his armor.

Aero laughed at the sight, at that moment, he knew that thing wanted him dead more than anything in the entire world; but Aero wasn’t going to willingly give up his life like that just to satisfy a creature. “Hey, someone come over here and give this little bugger some medicine!” he called out, and a few seconds later, a larger beast, at least twice Aero’s size, walked into view.

The beast looked extremely evil, or at least strong, it had the head of a turtle, a humanoid body, and wore armor over its body. It also held a sword in its hand, and a shield was strapped to its left arm, and both weapons matched the armor it wore. With a grunt, and large beast kicked the smaller one into the rock, instantly killing it.

Aero slid off the boulder, and looked up at the larger beast with a smile. Slowly, the large turtle-like beast also smiled, and chuckled, “You’re getting lazy, you could have easily taken care of that yourself,” it said to Aero. The Toa of air shrugged, “I just didn’t feel like it, besides, I really kicked butt in this round,” he said, and the beast nodded. Slowly, the beast began to grow smaller, its head changed shape and appearance, and eventually it was the size, height, and shape of Aero.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have killed so many… you know what The Announcer said…” Celu told Aero, and his friend nodded. After a few minutes, the others returned from various areas in the battle field, and none congratulated Aero for his high kill number.

There had been forty enemies that round, Aero had gotten himself twelve kills, while Celu only got eight, Aderia got four, Spawn had killed five, Kpik nine, and Riglax had only killed two. Riglax smiled, “I’m glad I only got two; now I’m not as close to death as everyone else,” he said a bit coldly. Aderia walked up behind him and hit him over the head with her shield, “Don’t gloat about it,” she said in an equal tone to his.

Kpik sighed, “I had a really close call with a Shredder back there… and I’m really glad those Shrieks can only hit you if you’re right in their path,” he said to the group, who agreed. Shredders were half their height, with vicious teeth, and short arms accompanied with extremely long claws to help them. Shrieks were long “tubes” that floated through the air mysteriously, with a circular mouth, and no limbs, practically a flying snake with its mouth pried open.

“Well, I only wish that there was a way out of this… an upside is that it’s so cool,” Aero said, holding up his sword, Spawn disagreed, and didn’t think that the possibility of dying was in any sense, “cool”. The group walked onward, toward the next camp, where they would sleep.

Along the way, Kpik was thinking, he was trying to come up with a way out of their problem. Eventually, he thought something up, “Guys, I have an idea; what if we evened out our kill counts? If we did that, then the Announcer wouldn’t be able to kill any of us, he would have to let us all go!” he said to them, and all but one seemed to agree with the thought.

Riglax thought about the idea, and then voiced his immediate opinion, “Yeah, that’s cool, but, what if this guy doesn’t want to do it like that? What if he decides to kill us all?” he asked them, shadowing any gleam of hope they had with his critical darkness. Some looked down at the ground, hope lost, others seemed ready to argue the question, but it was Kpik who spoke.

“And what if that happens? If he decides to take us all on, then we’ll just kill him together,” Kpik said, renewing the hope they had. Aero nodded, “Yeah, we have powers, and awesome weapons, I say we go through with this idea, and we kill this guy.”

Everyone except Riglax seemed enthralled by this idea, but he did have good points, this Announcer person controlled the game, what if he just evaporated them? Or sent his entire army out to get them?

They had no idea how strong he was whatsoever. “I doubt any of us want to die without extremely good cause, so maybe it is worth a shot… by the end of this game, this sick game, I think we might know how to kick some butt,” Riglax said.

Soon after the conversation, they came upon the ring of odd symbols again, and right in the middle of this ring, was a table of food, long enough to fix six people, and enough food for everyone and more, the group ran toward the table, and began eating the meal they thought had to be the best they ever had in their entire lives.

***

3:00 AM…

Kpik awoke to voices. Two of them, quiet, whispering, it sounded like two of the guys, talking, so he rolled over, and sat upright, looking around for who was talking. Oddly, there was nobody up, he wondered if they were talking while lying down. He stood up, and checked everyone, but nobody was awake. “Strange…” Kpik said to himself, he looked around, the whispering had grown a bit louder, and it was more like talking quietly now.

Kpik was starting to get worried now; was he hearing things? When he focused on the conversation between these two people, he discovered it was in another language, one he had never heard before. He started freaking out, he started shouting at shadows, wondering if it was something outside the ring, but nothing moved but himself.

Another strange thing was that no matter how loud he yelled, the others didn’t wake, or even move, he couldn’t even tell if they were breathing or not. He reached for his sword and began slashing at everything around him, the voices grew louder, they were now raised voices, and soon after that, they were shouting angrily at each other.

Neither voice took a breath, but both kept on yelling, not a single pause in speech or sound, and soon, Kpik was deafened by the loud voices.

He fell to his knees, grasping his head, he was now screaming himself, not a rational thought crossed his mind, in fact, he didn’t know if he was thinking at all.

The voices grew so loud that they both eventually knocked him out. Kpik could feel himself falling, falling forward, he didn’t feel himself hit the dirt ground, and instead, he fell through that, and hit some cold, and solid.

He woke right up when he hit the ground, and he felt the pain of hitting the ground. He couldn’t tell if he was dreaming, or if he was just going insane, either way, he couldn’t get up. He managed to push himself into a crawling position, but he was in great pain, and he felt extremely exhausted, as if something heavy was fused to his back.

He crawled forward, little bit by little bit, and he suddenly began to sweat like crazy, once or twice, he slipped on his sweat and smacked his face on the ground, he could feel his nose break over and over again, and he realized that he could not make a sound, nor hear anything.

As he continued crawling for what seemed like hours, he felt himself bump into an unseen object, when he looked up at it, he saw a metal circle, like a stand. It was about 4 feet in diameter, and about 3 feet tall. He raised his arm slowly and painfully, and put it on top of this stand, suddenly, he felt all the pain, all the exhaustion, and all of the sweat melt away, he could breath straight again, and he felt excellent.

He quickly stood up, and looked at the stand, he realized that there was somebody standing on it, but when he looked up at this person, he realized that it was a statue. The stand and the statue were both gold, pure gold, the figure looked like a Toa, he wore a cape, and was holding a sword, along with a shield strapped to his left arm.

The Toa appeared to be looking up at something, as if it was heading into battle. The details were incredible… when Kpik turned around to look at what the Toa might be staring at; he came face to face with a large creature.

Kpik almost screamed out, but he only gasped silently, and took a step back, he examined the creature, and figured out that it was living. It was humanoid, with a beast’s head; it stared at the statue like it was an old friend.

“Falnr…” the beast said. Its voice seemed old, ancient, as if it had not been used in centuries… Kpik decided to speak, “Did… did you know… him?” he asked, looking back at the golden statue. The beast looked slowly from the statue down to Kpik, and it slowly nodded.

It then spoke again, “We… were the first… competitors…” it said to him, and Kpik looked back to the statue, and down at the stand. There sat a plaque, Kpik crouched to read it, but it was in another language. He stood back up and looked at the beast, “So, you fought in the game as well?” he asked, and the beast nodded, once again slowly. “Falnr… he gave his… life… for us, and… therefore… he won,” it said, and Kpik couldn’t make sense of that. How could you win if you died? Kpik wondered how evil this game was, and before the beast could speak again, or before Kpik could ask any questions, it slowly transformed, smaller and smaller, into a humanoid form.

The being was small, frail, and couldn’t hold himself up, Kpik rushed to help him stand, but he only disintegrated in his hands. “No!” Kpik shouted, but it was too late, all that was left of the being was ashes.

Kpik felt wind behind him, and he saw the ashes slowly blow away across the black ground, when he turned to face the wind, a doorway was in front of him, the door was open, and all was white inside.

Kpik decided it was better than the room before. He entered the doorway, and realized that there had not been a floor to this new room, he fell. He didn’t feel the urge to scream, instead, he felt calm, and at ease, he could see a black ground coming up, he would hit it, and probably die.

He closed his eyes, and braced for impact, but, the impact never came. All he felt was a change in gravity, he felt as if he was suddenly pulled back by some force, but he barely went back two feet before his back hit ground. With a grunt, he stood up, slowly, and opened his eyes; he was back in the tunnel, back in the ring, his friends on the ground around him.

He sat down in his sleeping spot, and pulled out his book, he chronicled the battle the day before, and the strange dream, or paranormal experience, that he had gone through.

After that, he shut the book, and went to sleep.

-End chapter two

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Three


Aderia flew through the air high above the others, not as herself though, she had transformed into a large Raven, and she was scanning the area for any signs of life, and more specifically, monsters. So far, the grounds were clean, and as far as she could see, there was nobody in the Tunnel except them. She dove towards the ground, lifting up before she slammed into it, and slowed down, landing on a large rock.

She turned back into her Toa form, and leaped off the rock, landing silently. "I didn't see anything, it's clear," she told the other five, who had been waiting for her to come back. Aero came out first, "Woo, maybe we'll make it to the next circle before they even get here," he said loudly. "Shh, what if they're waiting right around that next boulder?" Spawn said as he and the other three came out. "Okay, let's move, we don't have a second to spare, and the less kills we have, the better," Celu said, and the group began to move.

After about one minute of walking, Riglax pipped up, "Wait, this is stupid, why don't we just ride on those who can fly? We'd go ten times as fast, and we might be able to avoid any combat that comes our way," he said, and everyone agreed, walking was stupid as long as they could fly. Aderia transformed into her Raven form again, Kpik turned into a Dragon, and Aero turned into a Phoenix. The other three got on each of their flying companions, and they all took off.

***

After two long hours of flight, they began to realize that the Tunnel was never-ending, the small white speck in the darkness refused to grow even a bit, and the protective circle still eluded them. Celu called for the team to land, and the three flyers of the team dropped down to the ground, and landed. Once everyone dismounted, the Dragon, Raven, and Phoenix all transformed back into Toa once again.

Celu looked around, "Alright, guys, this is obviously not getting us ANYWHERE, I say we stop, take a rest or something, and wait for these monsters to show up, because that seems to be the problem." Even though nobody liked it, Celu was right, they were stuck until the Announcer said they could be unstuck, and they would wait until he was ready to send the next round of mosnters.

Everybody found a place to sit down, and they waited, Riglax and Aero tried cracking bad jokes about the monsters and scenery, but the moment was just too tense for a joke, or even a smile. Eventually, at long last, a loud dong was heard, that of a bell, a large one, rang across the Tunnel. "Contestants, prepare yourself, for today you face my newest minon, the Shrill. Shrills hide using camoflague, and their bites are nasty, beware them, for they are not your average grunt, they are hardened commanders, and another thing; they are all about your size... about time something came along that was as big as you, hm?" The Announcer said with a hint of mad glee to his voice.

Apparently this guy was getting a kick out of this, watching six people being terrorized by an army of monsters and all sorts of devilry, this was his game, a game made to slaughter the players, a game made to lose, not to win. But, as Kpik knows, there is evidence of survivors, even if it was only in his dreams, that dream gave him the confidence to continue on, to tough it up the hill, and to not give up.

He could only hope the others shared his confidence. Aero clapped, and laughed, "I was beginning to think you had skipped out on us for a bit, A!" Aero said to the announcer, who stayed silent for a few minutes. "Have fun dying, my little pricks," he said, and a loud airhorn went off, signalling the start of a new round.

They came from everywhere at once. Spawn used his powers of fire to keep the Shredders at bay, and Aderia used her powers of water to knock the Shrieks out of the sky. Of course, it was a tight circle of defense, they wouldn't last, so Kpik transformed, and flew into the enemy, clawing and slashing and biting, and freezing everything he saw that wasn't a Toa.

Celu also tranformed, and took out three Shredders with one swipe of his large sword, and Riglax was taking them out in large numbers with huge chunks of stone. So far, the fight had been going there way, that was, until Spawn was grabbed by the arm, and bitten into. With a yell, he set himself on fire, burning off whatever bit him, and sealing his wound. What the group saw shocked them, a large creature, hunched over, with spines running down to the end of a long tail, with an extremely hideous head that had wickedly sharp teeth.

Spawn wasted no time looking at it, he aimed his sword at it's head, and blasted it's smug little grin off with a large fire ball point blank. "TAKE THAT!" he yelled, blasting fire all around him to make sure there was no more of those things. They had split up now, and were all fighting their own battles, Spawn was looking around for the Shrills, and the rest were fighting off the Shredder and Shrieks.

***

After a long three hour war, they all settled down to take a break, they didn't want to kill all of their opponents, they just wanted to make it to the circle, but instead they stuck around, fighting, and killed every last one of them.

50 opponents, Kpik; 10, Riglax; 8, Aderia; 11, Celu; 6, Spawn; 8, Aero; 7. Their kills counts went up accordingly, and everyone was beginning to regret it. "Come on guys, remember the plan, we even our numbers out, and we may have a chance, since nobody will have the highest number at the end, he won't be able to take any of us," Celu said, "Also, it doesn't matter how many we kill, it could be in the thousands, and as long as we keep it even, we'll be good," he said, lifting everyone's spirits.

After a few more minutes of rest, they all got up, and headed for the circle. Once they arrived, there was more food to eat, an entire table again, and once again, everyone rushed to it, eating like there was no tomorrow, and as if that was the best meal they had ever tasted in their entire lives.

At 'dinner' everyone remained quiet for the most part, until they had cleaned the table of all food, and there was nothing left to do but sleep. "You know," Aero said, stretching, "this is the life, killing baddies, and eating a feast at the end of the day, and respawning, heh, that just makes all this ten times better," he said, grinning. Aderia shrugged, "I don't know, I just want to get out of here as fast as we can," she said, and a few other nodded. Riglax sighed, scratching his head, "Personally, I think we don't know anything, this thing could go on for years as far as we know, and I bet this thing is going to get harder, and harder, and harder, until we can't last anymore, and we surrender," he said, it was a cold truth, and a reminder of how little they knew of this game.

"Yeah... that tunnel could go on forever, it could be a black background, while we're stuck on a Treadmill-like landscape... who knows," Spawn said. "We can't surrender like that, and we never should, even if have to fight for decades straight, we need to make it through this thing, no matter how long it lasts, and no matter how hard it gets, we can't give up," Kpik said, completing the cliche hero "never give up" speech.

Everybody went to sleep, tired beyond belief, and exhausted, a good night's rest would do them good.

Aero: 19, Kpik: 19, Celu: 14, Aderia: 15, Riglax: 10, Spawn: 13.

-End Chapter Three.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Four


Poke, Prod, Jab, Stab, Punch. Over and over again Razgriz did this to his small opponent. The small beast was overwhelmed with the flurry of movement, and the pain that each and every poke, prod and jab made, Razgriz thrust his arm forward at an incredible speed, and hit the monster in the center of its chest, effectively breaking a bone inward into the beast's body, and killing it instantly. Razgriz watched his opponent fall backward, dead, and looked around, there were many dead bodies, all with similar wounds.

He realized that he had forgotten to use his sword in combat, and he cursed himself for not remembering Mangai's request. Mangai was a fellow teammate of Razgriz's, and they had been traveling together since day one, originally, they had been accompanied by others, but they had all died out, one by one. "Hey, did you just put your sword back, or did you forget to use it again?" Mangai asked, and Raz wasted no time in answering, "I don't need a stupid sword, I got my limbs, hands, feet, elbows, and I can do more damage with them than this little blade," he said. He suddenly realized something; his staff was missing, he looked around (a bit frantically) looking for it. He ran about the battle field, looking for his favorite weapon.

"Ah! Here it is, the slippery little devil," he said, picking up the staff. He turned around to face Mangai, who was obviously annoyed, "You know, you have weapons for a reason," he said, and Razgriz nodded, "I know, not to use them."

***

The team woke up, and had gotten ready for combat once again, walking from the circle once they were sure everyone was up and prepared. "Alright... looks like another day at the office," Spawn said, stepping from the circle and onto the battle field. A chill went up everyone's spines as they entered their possible graveyard, everyone there knew death was all too possible, and because of that, everybody respected he creature's power to kill, possibly excluding Aero and Spawn. Normally, the day would progress on as a normal day on 'Earth' would, the sun would slowly rise, come up into the sky to be seen by all, and then set back down slowly.

Now, the fact that this was a tunnel, and there was sunlight shining overhead, was daunting, but nobody thought about it when they were killing and striving to survive another round. Another strange thing was that the days had no set time, sometimes they could last for as long as a day and a half on earth, and sometimes they could be as short as two hours, nobody could understand why all this happened, but they could guess that it was a part of the plan of the Announcer.

Truth was, nobody could understand the mind of a maniac, it was just a sick game of death made up by a demented guy, forcing people to kill, or be killed. The Announcer told everyone that this was all to "test their strength", what was he going to do to them? Turn them into his private assassins? Nobody could guess it, and everybody quit trying. Aero sighed loudly, followed by a yawn, and a stretch, they all walked onward, around rocks, over hills, Aero seemed overly excited for this round, and it just seemed odd, everybody began to wonder about him, had he lost it? Or was he so deep in glee that he didn't realize what he was talking about?

So that was two people they didn't understand. As the group progressed through the tunnel, the silence was broken by a loud cracking noise, and everyone looked to their right, and up to the ceiling of the tunnel. The tunnel was no small place, it was at least half a mile in diameter, with the ground covered in large black rock formations, and the color of the ground itself being stone gray and black mixed together. The group focused on the ceiling, and a stalactite, or a large stone, that fell awfully slow (because it was so far away) toward the ground.

Most of them passed it off as just physics doing it's thang, others wondered why that hadn't happened sooner, or at other points during rounds. Before they could start to move again, the loud voice of the sinister overlord of the tunnel rang out, speaking to the contestants. "My dear friends, today, you shall not face the wrath of my armies, today, there shall be no bloodshed, no battle, no death, instead, this is a round of Endurance! Today, I will test your physical prowess against all possible natural disasters, beware, sometimes, nature can be more fierce than all the armies of the world combined..."

As if all at once, a loud cracking noise was heard above them, as the group looked up, they realized that they needed to run. Somebody shouted for everyone to move, and immediately, everybody deserted the area, and ran in all directions while a large rock, the size of a building, fell down where they had all just recently been standing.

As everyone regained stability, Aero shouted, "Make a run for the circle!" and immediately, everybody had transformed, and were making their way toward the circle. Kpik, Aero, and Aderia were all flying, while the others on the ground were running, Rig happened to be a large Alligator that could gallop, so he was moving very quickly across the ground, Spawn was a Panther, so he was running at a decent speed. And Celu as a giant turtle being was taking long running strides and leaps, making great time and distance quickly.

More rocks and large stalactites fell every passing second, and what was worse was that they seemed to be growing back, so no just waiting it out, and then moving.

***

Razgriz leaped straight up, propelled by an immense force of static and lighting, and thrust his arm forward, right at a falling stalactite, and hit it directly in the precise point where it would crack in two. The large rock fell into three pieces, and then hit the ground all around Mangai. "Uh... yeah... thanks," Mangai said as Raz landed on the ground in front of him. Raz nodded firmly, and the two ran on, personally, Raz thought it was a waste of time to transform, especially when he could split rocks with his fingers.

As the two continued on, they realized that the ground was beginning to break in some places, large cracks appearing out of nowhere. As Raz stopped for a second to look at one, Mangai noticed that the ground next to them was breaking as well, and falling, like the ground they stood on was just a shell, Mangai leaped, and tackled Raz to safety, Raz, with his reflexes, got up faster than Mangai, and was able to see the ground behind them falling apart. He walked to the edge of the new canyon, and looked down, sadly, he was unable to see the bottom, for it was covered in black and shadow.

Razgriz shrugged, "Oh well, I don't care what's at the bottom of that, as long as it ain't me," he said, jumping over Mangai who was still getting up.

---

Raz and Mangai had been running from the falling stalactites and the breaking ground for about an hour, Raz was beginning to show signs of energy loss, and Mangai was almost dead beat. But the continued on, and their persistence paid off after a few more minutes. The two of them came upon a clearing, not very common among the black rocks, and in the middle of this clearing stood a poll, a tall poll with a ball of light at the top. It was getting dark already, and that light (which they could have seen earlier) was a welcome sight. As they approached the pole, they noticed a table with two seats, and on this table was a bunch of food, Razgriz didn't even think, he went right to the food, and sat down, starting to eat.

Razgriz thought about the others while eating, and how they would always hate how he ate, he had no manners, taking what he wanted, and shoving it down, of course, Mangai had learned to leave Raz's lack of manners alone, but he couldn't help but stare at him for a few seconds while he was making such a clutter. They had been supplied with all sorts of cutlery, forks, knives, spoons, the whole nine yards, but Raz had tossed it all away except for a large fork he used, and he barely used it.

Mangai on the other hand used a knife and fork, and cut his meat, even a chicken leg, and Raz couldn't help but stare with his mouth wide open. "Dude, put the fork and knife down, and grab that meat with your hands, yeah that's right, just like that, now take a bite out of it... good, now you know how to eat like a real person," Raz said, taking a large bite out of a leg.

***

At the other circle, the Team was sleeping, they had gotten to the circle faster, and hadn't taken so long to eat. Aero lie awake though, and he couldn't help but imagine what the next round might be like, were the fighting? Were they runnign from avalnches from nowhere and rocks falling from above? The game had become more complex... and Aero was starting to dislike it because of that, he liked good old fighting, none of this running stuff, he turned over a closed his eyes, there would be another time for talking and thinking about it.

Aero: 19, Kpik: 19, Celu: 14, Aderia: 15, Riglax: 10, Spawn: 13, Razgriz; 22, Mangai; 18.

-End chapter Four.

It's a chapter, yeah, it might not be as long as it may need to be, but so what?

And Raz, I know you wanted to see yourself kick major monster butt, but this idea popped into my head halfway through, and I went with it.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Five

Raz woke up with a jolt, sitting upright faster than anyone should be able to, and slashing the air in two with his elbow. A battle yell acompanied this slash, and awoke his partner, Mangai, who started. "What the Karz, Raz?" Mangai asked, looking around, it was early morning, and the ring was still there, "That's the third time you've done this," he said, getting up angrily. Raz didn't apologize, instead, he got up, and looked around, "Should we get a head start, or wait for the Big Man to start the round?" Raz asked, and Mangai shrugged, "I dunno, you know what happens if you try to leave early," he said, reminding Raz of the black hand that would put them back in the circle.

Mangai began to wonder about Razgriz's health, and mental state, Raz was usually quick on his feet, and never forgot stuff, for him to ask a question like that was unlike him. Mangai shrugged it off, and sat down at the table, it would be about thirty minutes before the gong rang, and they were free to fight... or run, as the last round showed.

***

Aero was awake, and had been for the past two hours, waiting for everyone else to get up, several times he had thought of waking them up, but he kept on remembering that if we woke everyone up, they would all just be waiting. Well, he figured if they got up now, they could all be ready for the new round, so he got up from the table (he had been sitting there for quite some time) and stretched, yelling as he did. A few people tossed and turned, but nobody got up, he went right for the kill, yelling at the top of his lungs, and using his power over air to keep his lungs full of air.

As the scream continued on, the others slowly got up, and Aero stopped yelling, it was an unusual feeling, keeping his lungs full, but he got over it as the others woke up, complaining about all the yelling. "What the heck was that? Shrieks?" Riglax asked, and Aero just laughed, and continued to laugh until he forced himself to stop. "That was me, waking you guys up," he said, wiping away a tear of pure laughter and joy from his face.

"Well, now that we're all up, I suggest we get ready for battle," Kpik said, getting up. One by one, the team all transformed, it was routine to do so because they never knew when their powers might fail on them. Aderia flexed her arm, and pointed it at the nearest rock outside of the ring, sending a concentrated jet of water at it. The rock wasn't broken, but it was chipped, and knocked over from the force of the jet.

Spawn was trying new hand movements with his element, and he was slowly learning to fling the fire into formations, and make it stretch, he even figured out how to make a whip on the end of his hand that he could control, and extend to ten feet. He whipped a few small rocks away, and burnt a few of the larger ones, he absorbed the whip quickly, satisfied with his new tricks.

Celu was learning to create vacuums, and figured out it wasn't as easy as he had thought before, it took constant thought and concentration, and at first, he couldn't master the bubble shaped vacuum, and was stuck with abstract shapes, he eventually got the hold of a round object, but it was no perfect circle. He let his go of his concentration, and the vacuum dispersed, Celu needed to perfect the noise as well, because it was very loud, and annoying.

Riglax had made his arms into two long crystal 'swords', slicing rocks in two easily, he absorbed the swords, and pointed his hand at a rock, firing an elemental blast of crystal at it. He attempted to shape it mid flight, but it ended up deforming, and it simply bounced off the rock it was intended to impale. He instead decided to shape it first, then fire it, he did so, which took him a few minutes of practice, once he got a sharp enough crystal in hand, it was cone shaped, and it was only about two inches in diameter at the end, and got smaller toward the point. Riglax decided it was sharp enough for it's task. He lifted it with his right hand, palm open, and fired it off, it flew at it's target, and embedded itself at least halfway into the rock. Pleased with his work, he continued to fire these cone crystals at rocks.

Kpik was using his arm as a jousting pole in a sense, he was quickly extending the sharp pike, or sword of ice on his arm to break rocks with the sharp tip of the ice. As he continued to do this, he got increasingly better over time.

Aero was practicing with his earth powers, lifting huge ammounts of earth from the ground around them and engulfing rocks with it, picking them up, and tossing them around. He figured out how to form the earth around him into two large fists, and with his large fists of earth, he could pick up rocks, and throw them quite long distances, it would be a great help against swarms of foes.

Suddenly, while they were all preparing themselves, the loud gong sound rang, signalling the start of the round. They all ran out of the circle swords first, ready for battle.

***

Meanwhile, Raz and Mangai were facing the same ammount of foes, but they had one advantage, Raz's physical skills. He was like an ungraceful god on the battle field, laying waste to enemies left and right, he also made good use of his lightning powers, he threw bolts of lightning all about, using them in sync with his martial arts skills perfectly, many enemies fell by his hand. Literally.

Mangai on the other hand (lol) was fighting with his sword and elemental powers alone, he had the element of iron, and had discovered all the tricks and uses of it, including how to make a bed of spike rise up underneath the enemies, and how to 'grow' metal elsewhere, such as the ground, or on a rock, this had come in handy a few times, as he had been able to slaughter enemies from afar while he simply controlled the metal.

Now, when they combined their powers, it was near twice as deadly, Mangai was able to liquify metal, and Raz could use that as the ultimate conductor, especially if the enemies had slipped and fell, or otherwise gotten the liquid metal on their bodies. After five Shrills died this way, Raz and Mangai were separated, with Raz cooking up a storm with his lightning powers, and Mangai shielding himself, and slaughtering the enemy with his powers.

Suddenly, Mangai was surrounded by a lot of ugly faces, Shrills, Shredders, and Shrieks coming from above, Mangai tried to fight them off with his metal spike and splitner technique, but it wa futile, and because Raz could not get to him in time, Mangai was slowly overwhelmed, and the Shrills got to him with their teeth.

The enemies had no time to feast once they had killed him, as the body faded away. And over by Raz, a body appeared, and that body was Mangai. Raz started, and almost decked him, but stopp when he noticed who it was exactly. "Died again?" Razgriz asked, and Mangai nodded solemnly, he only had four lives left, while Raz had eight. "Well, we're no use behind this rock," Raz said, running out from his cover, and frying a Shrill where it stood. This was a stupid move, and Raz knew it in seconds, as he felt a burning on his back, a well placed slash from a Shredder who had been hiding.

Raz grunted in pain, and turned around, he quickly pointed both arms toward the Shredder, and fried it to death with chain lightning. He then ran over and kicked it, and he realized that it was merely ashes. He could feel the fatigue of expending so much energy in one moment, and nearly fell to his knees, he kept himself standing, and walked over to the rock where Mangai still stood. Panting, he spoke to the Toa of Iron, "Well, what are you standing there for? Go kill something," he said, leaning on the rock while he recovered from that attack for a second.

Mangai did as Raz said, and walked out from behind the rock, holding his sword outward, he sent shards of metal speeding toward enemies, similar to bullets, but more like shrapnel. He took them down from afar, keeping them off Raz while he took a break, but eventually they got close, and he had to form a whole 'nother sword to fend them off.

They were no easy peasy enemies, they actually took a few hits to kill, even with a deadly sharp blade, and Mangai was using his elements to his full extent to ward off the beasts. When it was 30 against two, it seemed like the battle went on forever, killing 15 people in ten minutes felt more like killing 50 people in seconds. After a while, the enemies were all gone, not a living being in sight excluding themselves. Silence reigned across the field, and a quiet breeze blew by, whistling past the rock formations.

Minutes later, there was a high note being played by these rocks combined with the wind, and it was growing slowly louder every second, Mangai tried to speak to Raz, but discovered that his voice was ultimately silenced by this note, in fact, all sound was. Mangai began to get worried, what did this mean? What kind of joke was this? As the two waited to see what would happen, the sound suddenly went dead, stopped, and all went silent. Before either of them could say, "What the Karz was that?" a loud roar, a monsterous roar, was heard, a chill went up Mangai's spine as he realized what was happening; a boss had just been released.

Aero: 30, Kpik: 29, Celu: 20, Aderia: 23, Riglax: 25, Spawn: 23, Razgriz; 40, Mangai; 40. (oops)

-End chapter five

Thar is ye chaptah, as ye requested.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Six

There he stood, an assassin, deadly even when unarmed, silent as nothing, fast as light, nothing stod in between him, and the path to greatness. That is, nothing, except a long tunnel. Zarayna Sigur Foireann, was this assassins name, he had been fighting the tunnel and all it's evil for two weeks, every day worse then the last. Just like everyone else, he had a team of five that he was part of, making it six, but they had all succumbed to the pure evil and hate, and death that radiated from the tunnel.

He stood there, silent, amidst rocks of all shapes and sizes, with some open ground to walk upon. He took one step forward, slowly, and carefully, he took another, and then one more, and soon enough, he was walking at a pace, albeit a slow one, but he was moving. If he were to turn around, he would see the dead, the bodies, the pain he had caused, he would see a war field. Zarayna tried to not look back, he only wished to stride forward, and to forget the horrible crimes he had commited in his own defense.

He took in a deep breath, and lept himself from not looking back, with a quiet sigh, he took of running, at his top speed, around rocks, over rocks, and across the flat ground. He felt relieved, happy even, the running was taking his stress, his anger, all his feelings or angst, and throwing them away, for Zarayna, running was the best therapy. After a few minutes, he slowed down, panting quietly, and took a short breather. He looked back behind him, not a body in sight, with a smile, he looked forward once more, and continued his run.

---

Celu picked up a rock, and crushed it in his hands, the head-sized rock crumbled into smaller pieces, and he crushed those, until only dust remained. He took his sword, and, in anger, sliced a large rock his size in half, he looked at the others with a slight glare, they were all staring at him. "What?" he asked angrily, turning back into his Toa form, he sheathed his sword, and walked over to them. His rage was understandable, he had just recently lost a life in combat against the enemy, and was now at nine lives.

Now, Celu, being who he was, could not accept this. "Celu, it will be alright, be glad you are still living, back home, you would have been dead permanently," Aderia said to the Toa of air, who sighed, nodding. Kpik looked at the others, "Celu lost a life because no one else was there to save him, now, I'm not pointing any fingers at who could have saved him, but I know we all should have been more aware of his situation. He was overrun, and killed by Shrieks and Shrills, and we should have prevented that," he said, walking forward. The group slowly made their way to the Ring, and once again, they all ate at the large table covered with food, but not like they usually did, they ate more solemnly, and slowly, some even picked at their food, not hungry.

Riglax spoke up at the table, "How much longer do we have to go?" he asked, and Spawn answered after a few seconds, "What do you mean, Rig?" Riglax put down his utensils, and looked around at the table, "We've been playing this game, killing these beasts, fighting the mock-up war, for about a week now, and I want to know how much longer we have to go," he said, getting angry. Spawn scowled, "Do you think we know any more than you do? How are we supposed to know how much longer we have? Fact is, we aren't, we just play until we get to the end, and that's that," Spawn said. Kpik, however, was avoided eye contact with the others, he did know things that they didn't, he had been having a dream almost every night, telling him the story of the Tunnel.

---

He thought back to his latest dream, one he had two nights ago, he was walking through the construction of a large building, tall and wide in miles, and longer than anything anyone had ever seen. The building was similar to a tunnel, long, large, the designer had made it so for a competition, a large scaled one, with many challengers, he had made it for a tournament.

The building was done, and the tournament had started, with thousands of people participating in this huge event. Kpik was viewing the dream fro mthe perspective of a participant, by the name of Falnr... the name rung a bell in his mind, he had heard that name before, spoken by an old man in his first dream...

Everyone was to join a team, and set out into the long tunnel, with stone ground, and black rock formations scattered as grass is scattered across the ground. Falnr was one of the first fifty people there, and had been stuck into a team with five other people randomly. He and the others of this random team got to know each other quickly, and Falnr became good friends with one other named Kast. They were named the first competitors, and were sent into the tunnel with no preparation, or warning, for they were teleported into the tunnel. Once they arrived inside, they realized they wore no armor, and their weapons were gone, confused, they began to question the game, wondering what type of tournament this was. They were soon well informed, for a voice came out of the depths of nowhere, and slowly explained the situation, and game to them.

They all had a device on their right arm, meant for no other purpose than to count numbers, it was to keep track of their kill count. Apparently, they were to fight their way to the end of the tunnel, their only obstacle being the beasts that they fought, they were told that they would recieve shelter and safety in rings, circles, that kept the beasts away.

Each day, they would wake up, and continue on to fight against the beasts, they each had ten lives, and could now transform into a form of Rahi to aid in battle. Falnr could become a large eagle, with armored wings, razor sharp tallons, and a beak that could break rock in two. Kast could become a Stone ape, larger than normal, and armored, and the others were various other Rahi, one of them being a Catapult Scorpion. Stunned, and suprised, they were forced to play a sick game of death and war, none of them had been prepared for this.

---

Riglax sighed, and threw his plate out into the dark abyss of the tunnel in anger, only to have it, and every particle of food that had been on it, returned, and set back down in front of him. He stepped on the plate, breaking it in two, he walked over to his bunk (yes they have bunks) and went to sleep. Spawn sighed, "He didn't need to go off like that," he said, getting up from the table, and walking over to his bunk. The rest slowly went to bed also, but Aero and Celu stayed up, chatting about anything and everything.

Meanwhile, Kpik was dreaming, more history about the tunnel, he didn't know if this was fact, or just his subconscious paranoid view on how it could have started, but it sure did feel real, whatever was causing it.

---

Falnr and the others had been fighting for quite some time now, over two weeks, already, people had begun to snap, and furious arguments were happening almost every night over nothing. None of them had lost any lives yet, but they had all had their own close calls. Falnr had been elected the leader of the group, and he had called the shots, although there weren't many decisions to be made, every day, it was get up, and fight to survive. Kast had elected to die constantly until he was out of lives, so he could go and tell everyone about it, but everyone else said no, none of them knew what happened when you ran out of lives.

Of course, anyone that would let someone die in a game tournament, was insane, and everyone knew this wasn't a real tournament, this was more like a death sentence. Everybody knew that when this game was finally over-they all agreed they were going to win-they would have a word with the host of this so called tournament.

Personally, Falnr enjoyed the combat, and had grown used to it, and he accepted it, although, he still hated the idea of forcing people to play such a harsh game without warning, but he was confident that after they got out, nobody would ever play this game again, unless they didn't take their word, in that case, the host could continue to fool people for as long as he wanted to.

Falnr also wondered where he was getting all these beasts, was he mutating people into them? No, they were all to similar to one another to be mutated. They must be some type of Rahi that had gone undiscovered... perhaps they live on a remote island somewhere where nobody would notice them. They were violent little things, especially the Shrills, which lived to rip you apart, it also seemed they never took a break, if one set it's sights on you, you were going to have to kill it, before it killed you.

Putting his hand over his food, he warmed it, for it had gotten cold, and began to eat it once more. The dream went fuzzy, and eventually static came, and Kpik realized that he was unable to do anything but watch in the dream, the battle scenes were horrific, just as bad as his own experiances, but watching them from another's eyes just had a different effect on him, a feeling of helplessness.

---

Zar sat alone at his table, eating enough food for six, he stopped after eating two full plates. Only one bunk remained, the others had all disappeared, and his had a nice 6 on it, at the front, although it was nice to look at, it's meaning was more sinister. That was how many lives he had left, until he was officially dead, it had been a while since his last death, and he knew he was getting closer to the end. He didn't know if he would have to challenge the host on his own, or if he would let him live for being the only survivor, he would have to wait and see.

-End chapter six

Jsyk, Zar is meeting up with Raz and Mangai next chapter, or, the other way around, because he's been there longer. Huh, I didn't update Raz and Mangai this chapter... I'll make sure to make up for that in number seven.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Seven

The Assassin stood in all his greatness atop a black rock, in his left hand, he held a bow, that matched his armor perfectly, color and all. In his right hand, an arrow, ready to be fired the moment he took even the slightest ammount of pressure on it off. The bow had no apparent means of targeting aid, it was the archer's hand and aim that made the shot, and, being the emperor of arching prowess in the tunnel, Zarayna could easily make any shot, anywhere, from a distance of over fifty yards.

And, being that his enemies were closer than ten yards, every shot he made was deadly precise, to the point where he could easily shoot every enemy in the heart, every time. He let off an ounce of pressure, and the arrow zipped out of his grip, and five yards away, a Shriek fell down to the ground, pierced through the mouth by the arrow. With a loud gong, the round was over, he had beaten his enemies, as he usually did. Zar slung his bow across his back in one swift motion, too fluid to be natural, but that was the thing, Zarayna was not natural, he had spent day after day for years, honing this ability of his into not only a profession and hobby, but into a lifestyle. Of course, he had no motto, no secret pact or code he lived by, he only knew his work, and he knew it well, and he would tell that to anyone who asked.

He hopped off the large smooth rock, landing without a sound to the ground, where he stood to his full height, examining the carnage he caused. With the grin of a madman, he stepped over the body of a Shrill, and walked away, jumping from one open spot on the ground to another.

---

Razgriz held an enemy in his hands, t'was a small Shredder, who was fighting and jerking and attempting to break free with all it's little might. Of course, it's might and strength was no match by far to Raz's, who held the beast in a position so that it could not touch him, nor get free without him letting it go. He squeezed tighter, and heard a pop, his enemy going limp, he had pulled his spine apart.

He dropped the enemy, satisfied, meanwhile, Mangai walked over, his sword sheathed, and they both stared at the now disfigured Shredder. A silence ensued, and eventually, Mangai spoke, "Let's go." Raz nodded, and kicked the beast in the face, "That one gave me trouble, it didn't go down as easy as the others," he said, kicking it out of the way to walk forward.

As they both began walking, Mangai wondered about Raz's mental state once more, Raz had been waking up, and then suddenly screaming for no apparent reason... Mangai decided to inquire about it. "How are those nightmares you've been having?" he asked, feeling very intrusive, and awkward. Raz stopped, and turned to look Mangai straight in the eye, "Listen, they aren't 'nightmares', those things scare children, and wimps, what I'm having... is more like... like burning, like if you were on fire while you slept. When I wake up, I'm not screaming in fear... I'm screaming in pain, immense pain," he said, looking toward the hole of light, that hole of light that so often gave them hope, strength to move on, for it was getting larger with every step, there was an End.

Mangai slowly nodded, "Alright. Now come on, let's go," he said, turning, and walking onward. Razgriz followed behind him, zapping every body he passed purely to see their nerves go crazy and their bodies shake uncontrollably. Raz truly loved his element.

---

He stopped, looking around the surrounding area, rocks, ground, not much else. A sound was heard, though, a rock, innocent and small, fell to the ground, and broke the silence that gripped Zarayna's world. It was a shock that could put anyone on their toes, especially when they knew they were alone. Rocks don't fall by themselves... he thought, looking around the area with his keen archer eyes.

He heard a voice... silent, and muffled, yes, muffled, by the silence. He paid all his attention to it, trying to determine which direction this voice came from. When he could not find that direction, he began to run about, jumping up onto rocks to get a good view of the area, while atop one such rock, he noticed something, something odd, something he had never seen before in his entire time in the Tunnel.

A rock, split clean in two. He hopped down from the rock he stood on, and walked over to this split rock, it was split cleanly, it wasn't as smooth as the outside, but not a dent or crack was felt while he was feeling it. He took a step back in disbelief, staring at it, what could do that? Was there something lurking about, something sinister enough to do this to an object? Zarayna became slightly intimidated by this sight, but he convinced himself that it was not something the announcer had planned. This was... different, the whole scene seemed to shout... others.

Other Toa, that is, Zar wondered if it was possible, could there really be others trapped in the tunnel? If so, where were they? Did they cause that noise he heard? Was this rock that noise? Zar's heart raced as he once again began to look around the area for any traces of life other than himself. While looking frantically, he noticed something about the rocks, some were broken, and some weren't. He decided to follow this path of broken and maimed rocks.

It did not take him long to realize that these were not marks made by any beasts that he knew of, perhaps the announcer had unleashed a new terror upon him? Zar decided that that was not possible, the owner of the tunnel always introduced new enemies as if it was a game, Zar believed it was unlikely that this was the work of beasts. The round was officially over, that was for sure, so Zar could only wait and see, was this the announcer's trickery, or was this possibly others who he had caught up to?

As he took another step forward-

---

Razgriz tackled the mysterious being, rolling away, and then standing up, he walked over and held the Toa down with his foot, while pointing his hand at his neck. "Don't move, or you'll have a nasty snapped neck," Raz said, and Zar let his body relax, however, his eyes betrayed his true feelings, as they moved around frantically in his head, looking at the two beings who stood over him. Mangai walked over, and scowled at Razgriz, "Don't you see? He's not one of them, he must be another player..." the Toa of iron said, trailing off his sentence as if that was impossible.

Raz reluctantly took his foot off the Toa, and he shot right up, rolling backward into a crouch, suddenly holding two daggers in each hand, "If you're smart, which I doubt, you'll never, ever do that again," Zarayna said, flinging a dagger into the rock beside Raz. The Toa of sound swiftly got up, standing to his true height; he stood about eye level with Raz and Mangai... they all seemed to be about the same height and body shape. Mangai stuck his hand out to shake Zar's, "Introductions, I'm Mangai," he said, but Zar did not return the handshake. "Razgriz," the martial artist grumbled, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"You can call me Zarayna Sigur Foireann, Zarayna or Zar for short," the assassin archer said, walking over and snatching his dagger from the rock he embedded it in. Being blunt, Zar turned to the others and asked them one simple question, "What are your kill counts?" Mangai looked at his wrist mounted kill counter, "Fourty-eight," he said, followed by Raz, "Fourty-five, I still don't believe I conly killed five enemies last round..." he said.

Zar nodded sharply, "Mine is floating around eighty... seventy-eight, to be exact," he said, and he was simply stared at by Razgriz and Mangai. "Is there a problem?" he asked, looking at the two of them, Mangai spoke first, after Raz decided not to. "That's quite a lot of kills, how did you manage to get so many?" The Toa of Iron asked. Zarayna gave him a straight, simple answer, "I've been alone for the past three days, I've been fighting enough enemies for two all alone... thank goodness I haven't been fighting enough for six..." he said, thinking aloud to himself.

"Well, now that we're all nice and acquainted, I think we should be moving on, we're losing daylight," Razgriz said, turning in the direction that led them toward the end, he began to walk toward it again. Mangai looked at Zar, and then followed Raz, mumbling the words, "Every step counts..." Zarayna waited for a few seconds, and when Mangai glanced back to see if he was coming or not, Zar took a step forward, then one more, and then another, until he was in a stride, following behind the others.

-End Chapter Seven

Well, I guess this could have been longer, but the main reason of this chapter was to get Zar with Mangai and Raz. There'll be more interesting stuff next time around.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Eight

Usually, at the beginning of a round, a noise would sound it off; be it an airhorn, a bell, or even a scream on some occasions, there was always a noise that accompanied the start of a new round of beastly devilry. However, this time that appeared to not be the case, for this time, the group found themselves able to venture out far from the ring of protection without being pulled back or set back by the large black hand of shadow that usually put them back. Soon, they began to question this oddity, and Spawn voiced his opinion, "What the karz is this? What happened to that airhorn and whatnot?" he asked, but nobody could give him an answer. "Well, maybe this is just another addition to the game," Aderia speculated, looking around at the large black rock formations, she swore some of them had been staring right at her...

"Whatever the reason, we know the round is started, now let's go before those little idiots ambush us," Celu said, stepping out of the ring that protected them every night. While everyone was walking forth into the battle zone, Aero asked a question, "Hey, does that ring even protect us? I mean, those beasts are never even around when we're supposedly 'protected', and we've never seen any proof that it CAN stop them," he said, and Kpik piped up with his solution to the problem; "I don't think it matters, those beasts aren't around, just like you said, and we haven't been ambushed so far," he said, and he was right, their nights were normally calm, and quiet.

"Meh, you're right, I guess it doesn't matter... but if we ever get ambushed in the night, and most of us lose a life, I'm never trusting the announcer again," Aero said, and Riglax looked over at him as if he were crazy, "You mean you actually trusted him at all?" the Toa of Crystal asked the Toa of stone, who shrugged, saying, "Not really, I trusted him enough to not let us die like some kind of rats in an experiment." The group moved on cautiously and stayed aware of their surroundings while progressing through the day long hike to the next ring of protection.

Most of them liked to think that they weren't doing this just to survive, but to escape, both reasons applied to the situation they were stuck in. After a few minutes of uninterrupted and rather peaceful walking, Kpik, who was walking in front, was shoved over by an invisible creature. All swords were drawn as Spawn blasted the Shrill off of Kpik, the beast had almost gotten a bite out of him. As the flaming Shrill ran off to die, Spawn formed a ring of fire around the group, and they watched as Shrills attempted to get by this fire, only to be burnt. Their screams of pain were like nothing else, even Shreiks couldn't hold a candle to how blood boiling that cry was, eventually, Spawn had had enough, and raised the ring of fire into a dome of fire, blasting it out in all directions.

As if on que, the six of them transformed all at once, the three that could fly leaped to the air, slashing down the Shrieks that had managed to come along unnoticed, and the three on the ground fought off any Shrills or Shredders that were lurking about or attacking full on.

Then, something extremely odd happened, as they continued to fight and kill their enemies, they noticed their numbers were not decreasing when they should have been, every time one was struck down, another would take its place. This soon became tiring to everyone, and they began to lash out more viciously than they probably should have, Celu was bashing through enemies left and right, using his power of air to suck oxygen from the lungs of his victims. Riglax was thrashing and smashing around, using his large head lined with razor sharp teeth to grind his enemies into useless jelly.

Spawn was leaping from rock to rock, using his claws and teeth to slash enemies open every time he saw one. Kpik would dive down and grab enemies, lifting back up into the air, and throwing them down to smash into whatever happened to be where they landed, he was also bringing fire and death from above, torching many enemies in one single breath. Aderia was using her tallons to rip and claw her way through enemies as she made sweeps down, usually killing about five each sweep.

And Aero was doing similar things, grabbing enemies and throwing them into more foes, slashing at them, ripping them up savagely, and killing them off in other various ways. As the group of six picked off the last remaining enemies, the all noticed how much carnage they had wreaked, dead bodies lie everywhere, black blood spilled across the stone ground, it was a true battle field now. Kpik, Aderia, and Aero landed, all transforming back into Toa form, and so did the other three; normally, after a battle, the group would check their wounds, for no battle was without them. Aero had a particularly nice slash along his arm, and both legs, something he guessed he got from Shredders, while Riglax had a large bite mark on his neck, a very unsightly feature which he attempted to hide.

The others had various wounds, nothing life threatening, but Riglax was worried about this bite of his... usually, they were healed overnight, just another odd advantage they had against the beasts, they never knew how or why they were healed, but they always woke up without an ounce of pain in their bodies. "Don't worry... it'll be better in the morning," Celu said, looking at the bite across Riglax's neck. In any normal situation, Riglax might be dead within the next few days without proper medical treatment, but because this was not normal, they paid the wound little to no attention.

The group continued on their way, Riglax scratching at his neck.

---

Razgriz yelled out, and thrust his hand onto the head of a Shrill, he let out an astounding ammount of power, frying the poor beast in seconds. Mangai was forced to turn away, as the beast had basically been cooked, and his head split, the Toa of Iron tried not to look at the sight, and instead looked around for Zarayna. "Zar? Where did you run off t-" he said, interrupted by a tapping on his shoulder. "I was cleaning up a mess back there," Zar said, glancing behind a particularly large rock. They waited for the noise that usually accompanied the end of a round, but the sound never came. Raz stretched, yawning as he did so. "I feel tired, let's just get to the next ring" he said, stepping over the enemy he just recently cooked; Mangai also made his way over the dead bodies littering the field, with Zar jumping over them as if they were large obstacles.

Mangai noticed Zar doing this, and turned to face the leaping assassin, "What are you doing? You're wasting energy," he said, and Zar came to a halt in front of him, standing over a dead body. "As you can see, I'm not breaking a sweat, nor am I panting, I'm moving just enough to launch myself from the ground and get over the bodies on the ground. And besides, why would you worry about my energy?" Zar asked, jumping over three more bodies.

Mangai sighed, and just continued to step over them, trying not to step on any bodies because he wished to keep his feet clean. He thought it strange that no noise had sounded off at the end of the round, but, no sound had signalled the beginning of the round, perhaps it was just another mental trick the announcer was playing on them. As they continued on through the field of black rock formations, none of them noticed the pure black being floating behind them soundlessly, many tentacles formed the 'legs' of this beast, with two long bladed arms stretching down on either side of the being.

It had no face that could be seen, just a black round shape for a head, and spikes similar to the rocks around them 'growing' out of the back of its head. It had a symbol on its back, a pure white A that seemed to be scratched onto its back. The beast floated down right behind Mangai, and reached out to grab him- but the beast was soon impaled by an arrow that came from nowhere.

The beast went out of focus, literally, and the arrow fell to the ground; with a scream similar to that of a Shriek, the Boss of the round swooped in to grab Mangai.

---

Kpik leaped to the side, and the beast passed him just by a few hairs, shooting back into the air; before any of them had time to react, it had turned around, and was already swooping back down to grab someone. This time, Aero wasn't as lucky as Kpik, and he was picked up by the large flying creature; the others bombarded it with elemental attacks, making it drop Aero before it almost... did something to him. It flew away, throwing its hand up into the air and turning around to face the Toa, it did not speak, but instead, it pointed to a large rock, and whispered a word in some other language. The word was harsh, came from the throat, and seemed primative; Kpik recognized the language as that of the beasts.

Meanwhile, the large rock that the creature had pointed to began to move on its own, even stranger, it began to change shape; after a few seconds, a tall obisidian warrior stood tall, swords equipped, the tall man of rock looked over at the Toa who stood 20 yards from him, all six of them in awe. It too had no facial features, just a round ball-like shape making up its head; it looked over at the thin flying creature, which had been pointing at the Toa for some time now, the rock-man nodded solemnly, and leaped off the ground, launching himself easily 30 feet into the air above everyone's heads.

He came down on top of the Toa, who realized he was coming for them, and scattered. However, they were still knocked about by the tremor the beast had caused once it landed, and whilst on the ground, Aero and Kpik both looked at the flying beast, and then to each other. With a nod, both of them stood up, and transformed into their Rahi form, flying above and around the stone beast that stood in their way.

Kpik went up higher and higher, attracting the attention of the flying beast, while Aero went for a dead-on attack on it. He dove right into his enemy, sending the beast sprawling towards the ground while he raised both tallons, flying downward toward the flying beast-who now was on the ground-Aero attempted to grab onto it with his tallons. Unfortunately, Aero never saw the large rock coming his way, and was knocked clean from the sky by a large ebony rock, thrown by the large man made of it. Kpik, still climbing in altitude, finally stopped once he believed he was high enough, and went straight down, heading for the flying beast who was now just getting up.

Opening his jaw, Kpik came down upon the unsuspecting foe, grabbing right onto its head, he swerved upward so as to not hit the ground or any rocks, and gripped on tightly to the beast's head in his mouth. He slowly felt it cracking, while the beast fought back with all its might, attempting to pry his mouth open, slashing at it with its balded arms, but Kpik just held on; he decided to cook his foe a bit, so he let loose a firey flame from deep within his throat, effectively baking the enemies in his grip.

While Kpik tossed the lifeless body away, the four others were in combat against the giant stone man, who was still fighting. Riglax was using his power over crystal to temporarily blind the creature while the others let loose all kinds of attacks, but eventually the giant rock man would tear the crystal head-cap off, and go into a blind rage of smashing and thrashing, sending hundreds of pounds of debris everywhere. Once the giant man came out of his rage, it was back to the same old plan, seal his head, and bombard him with all sorts of elemental attacks.

Aderia was using pressurized water to chip slowly at his ankle joint, hopefully she could immobilze him while the others continued the attacks. Riglax tried to keep the crystal seal on his head, Spawn was busy melting his left knee, and Celu was attempting to push him over with gale force winds being pushed at his torso.

Aero stirred slowly, and shook himself awake, he looked around, and spotted the giant stone man fighting against something, perhaps the others were killing him. He transformed quickly, taking off almost immediately after he did so, he scoured the area for a sign of life, maybe that beast had escaped while everyone else was fighting its monster. Aero instead found something he did not expect, he found Kpik, lying up against a rock, his face hidden from view, Aero landed, transofming back into a Toa in an instant.

"What's wrong? Something up with your face?" Aero asked, looking around the area, Kpik slowly removed his hands from his face, and Aero took a step back in shock, he only gapped as he looked at Kpik. That beast, the one that was flying, had really scarred his face up, it was bleeding, mutilated, it was obvious he was in tremendous pain, Aero took a step forward, "What... what happened?!" the Toa of stone inquired, looking down at Kpik's arm, he noticed that it was cut wide open, bleeding out to death was a possibility. "I have to seal your arm in stone, just for a little while, then Ads can clean it up, and Rig can put a cleaner seal on it," Aero said, putting his hands over Kpik's wound. His arm was instantly sealed in a stone cast about two inches thick, Aero decided not to seal his head, because he didn't know if there were any enemies lurking around the corner.

"I need to go help the others, stay here, I'll be back soon with the guys," Aero said, and Kpik slowly nodded, even though it was probably painful, and Aero nodded once, transforming, and taking off to the sky above. Kpik slumped against the rock nearest him, holding his casted arm with his other one, he had to stay awake... awake... he had to stay awake... But unconsciousness took him faster than lightning, and as he slowly drifted off into his to-be nightmare, he couldn't keep his eyes open long enough to see the beast that was reaching for him from above.

Kpik was slowly picked up from the ground by the beast that he had supposedly killed not long ago, if he were to look up and stare at the beast, he would not recognize it. It had a head with one side clearly missing, with the other half burnt to a crisp; its torso was also burnt, with pieces, layers of it peeling off from the incredible amount of heat and fire that had just recently cooked it. Emotionlessly, the beast held Kpik in both hands, flying away silently with the co-leader of the group of Toa.

Meanwhile(inHomalol), the others had sucsessfully downed the giant obsidian man; it had been no easy task, there was a lot of melted rock (now solidified on the ground), along with broken pieces of rock that were scattered about. The creature's body was still partially intact, with various joints broken off or detached; the group had killed it by taking its head clean off. Aero had been a huge help to the battle, and he had been the one who tore the head off of the creature with his powerful beak, tossing it away into the fields of black.

Aero landed on the ground, clearing a spot as he did; he transformed back into his Toa form, and looked around at the others, with a large grin on his face, he yelled out, "YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" and he turned around, beating on the beast with his sword. "WE GOT YOU, WE SO GOT YOU, SUCKER!" he yelled, smashing further into the broken neck of the beast with a large stone fist that he had brought forth from the ground. Everybody else couldn't help but grin along with him, but nobody else continued to assault the dead body.

"Alright, alright, enough victory smashing," Celu said with a laugh, and Aero nodded, unable to wipe the grin from his face. "We did it, we so killed that thing. Now we're unstoppable, if we could beat THAT, we can take on anything," Aero said, hitting the beast one last time before sheathing his sword. While everyone took a break, recovering from the harsh battle, Spawn noticed something; Kpik was missing. "Hey, where's Kpik?" he asked aloud, and Aero literally facepalmed, "Augh, I got so caught up in the battle, I forgot I left him to.. recover," he said, and Spawn raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? Is he alright?" Spawn asked, and Aero nodded, "Yeah, yeah, it's just... he got his face torn into by that flying thing, he's really messed up right now," Aero said, and immediately, Aderia transformed, and took off faster than any of them could think possible.

Everyone slowly followed their flying friend, Spawn glaring at Aero as the group moved out to find Kpik. Aderia flew through the air, searching the ground with her incredible Rahi eyesight, looking for any signs of a body; she flew for ten full minutes, circling the area again and again and again, but was forced to land after she could not find any sign of Kpik, not even bloodmarks. She landed atop a rock, and transformed into a Toa, jumping off onto the ground, she walked back until she met up with the group. "I couldn't find him anywhere, he's not anywhere near here, and there weren't any signs that someone left the area either," she said, and Aero closed his eyes, putting both hands on his face. Spawn looked at the Toa of stone, "You decided to leave him out here, all alone, while he was wounded and unable to fight?" Spawn asked, his tone getting louder and more furious with every passing second.

Aero paused, gapping, trying to find words that would calm the storm that would soon be Spawn, but no words came forth from his throat, and he closed his mouth, unable to answer the question. Spawn sighed, putting an angry fist on his forehead, "You should have stayed with him, we could have taken care of that other monster, and you could have watched out for Kpik. Because of you, he's now missing, and he's not anywhere in sight, and there aren't any darn signs of where he might have gone!!" Spawn yelled, but before it could go any further, Celu stepped in, ending whatever fight was about to happen.

"Hey! We can't start fighting, not now, what we need to do is spread out and find Kpik, wherever he might be. Something... something could have.. taken him, but we don't know, and we won't know until we start looking, and we can't work as a team to find him if we're fighting each other. I say we spread out, and try to locate him, maybe he got confused and went the wrong way, or maybe he continued on to the ring; there aren't any places to hide here, so he should be easy to find. Now come on, let's get going, no use standing around here," Celu said, transforming into his secondary form, and taking off running through the black field.

The others did the same, and Spawn glared at Aero until he transformed, and flew off into the sky in search of Kpik. Spawn could only hope that Kpik was alright, and that if he was in trouble, that he would be alright, he transformed, and also took off into the forest of black.

To be continued...

So yaa, beastly chapter is beastly. I hope this sufices for the long wait.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Nine

Zar watched as his arrow fell to the ground, useless; t'was a daunting sight for an assassin archer, to see their most devastating weapon become futile in seconds. He was ripped out of his small phazed moment by the large flying beast as one of its tentacles slashed towards him, he narrowly avoided said tentacle, but he did get a good slice across his left arm. Mangai was stuck beneath the beast for the moment, it flew above him, more interested in Zarayna; that was a mistake. Mangai kneeled, and dropped his sword and shield, turning his armor covering his arms into two long blades, which he stabbed up and through the beast which flew just feet above him.

The beast instantly regretted ignoring Mangai, once again it became intangible, and it flew away from the sword-swining Toa. When it materialized, it was staring down at Zar and Mangai, preparing to attack with its tentacles and bladed arms; but before it could, it received a tremendous amount of pain in its back, causing it to jerk forward, and flicker from intangibility to tangibility. Raz grinned, obviously this thing didn't like electricity, he quickly rushed over to a rock, jumped, and leaped off said rock with one powerful leap, punching into the chest of the flying boss with his electrically charged fist.

Obviously, the energy that traveled through Raz into the beast hurt it, Raz was guessing that his charge would have killed any regular beast. However, this particular beast was not having it, it took the blast, and grabbed Razgriz by his arms as he fell, using his own momentum to fling him into a rock. Zar ran up to the beast, and leaped off the ground, flipping over and behind it, once he landed, he took both his arms and shoved the beast away, his shove was accompanied with a sonic blast powerful enough to shatter rock.

The being seemed to go into a spasm for a few seconds, jerking and moving around without control over its body. It became intangible again, and it reached up in anger, the entire area going dark, as it became tangible again, a large streak of lightning came out of nowhere, and nailed the flying beast where it floated. It went down, unable to continue this horrid battle, why had Master sent him to fight against foes he could not beat?

~

Twenty yards away, three Toa kneeled behind a large rock, whispering among themselves. "Alright, I think I hit it, I can't hear it moving, god, I don't even know if that thing breaths!" Raz said, peering from behind the rock to see if he could see the beast anywhere. Sadly, he couldn't see more than a few yards in front of him, and how he got that shot was just amazing; of course, Zar could see perfectly, echolocation was an amazing thing. "Alright... it's, it's on the ground, and its trying to move," the archer said, holding his hand out to maintain a continuous soundwave so he could keep tabs on all movement in the area.

"Alright, tell me where it is, Zar," Razgriz said, charging up an electric blast to fire at the beast. Suddenly, the beast seemed to disappear, "Wait, it's gone... it just disappeared," Zar said, walking out into the open to get a better 'view' of the area. One moment, it was there, then the next it wasn't. Zar couldn't put his finger on why, but he was guessing the beast had used its intangibility power in some way to avoid being seen. Then it hit him, soundwaves bounced off tangible objects, the beast could be completely invisible whenever it wanted to be... Zar couldn't see it with sound, and it was impossible to see it with eyesight until it was very close.

Intangible beings also made no sound unless they spoke, or became tangible once again, so that was but another advantage for the beast, and one more disadvantage for the trio. "It's intangible..." Zar said, opening his eyes to see around him. Amplifying his hearing to the max, he told the others to be quiet, and he listened for the breathing of the beast. When he could not hear anything whatsoever, Zar began to worry, was this thing staying absolutely still and just waiting for him to turn his head, or... maybe... had the beast died? Turning his hearing back down to a more normal level, he spoke to the others, "I think its dead... I can't hear, or see anything through echolocation."

He turned back to walk over to the others, and suddenly felt a sharp pain on his back; he leaped to the side in shock, and looked toward where he was just standing, there it was, the beast in mid slash. Zar flipped out a small blade and flung it into the cranium of the beast, embedding it in the side of its head; the beast was obviously not effected by it, the blade only angered it. The beast ripped the blade from its head, and flung it back at Zar, the archer moved to the side quickly, avoiding death from his own weapon. Razgriz took the oppurtunity to electrocute the monster once again, sending a large arc of blue and white electricity into the beast's chest.

And that was that, the beast could take no more, it did not die, but, oddly, it flew down to the ground, and began to... bow. Zarayna, Mangai, and Razgriz had never seen anything like this, a beast, meant to kill them with every ounce of their being, had thrown itself to the ground, and was now worshipping them, or, begging for mercy. "The karzanhi? What the heck is this thing doing?" Raz asked, maintaining a safe distance from the beast just in case this was some sort of trick. Zar assumed so, "A trick, Razgriz, finish it off before it kills us," the assassin said, locating his blade through means of sound, and retreiving it.

The beast held up its hands in surrender, and then, it did something that shocked the trio further than they already were; it spoke to them, in THEIR language. "Please, don't hurt him, he has been posessed, posessed to kill, this is not his doing... please, believe him, he does not mean you harm anymore," the beast said in a gutteral tone, its voice emerging deep from its throat as it spoke to the three stunned and horrified Toa. Before Raz could say anything to it, Mangai stopped him, and walked a little closer to the beast. "You say you have been posessed, by whom?" the Toa of Iron asked, and the beast grabbed its chest, scratching at it roughly.

"Yes, he has been posessed for many years, just as they all have... they have been posessed by the man who speaks. Once before, they were not, they lived elsewhere, outside his dungeons, in a green place full of life. The man told them that they could live a better life in his country, and that all they needed to do was play a game... it sounded so easy at the time... he took them to his home, and once they got there, they were all forced deep down underground... the gas hurt them, it changed them... the gas that the man made them breath made them look strange, and they all went to sleep..

"When they woke up, they were in a red room, a big red room of rock and heat... they all sweat, a lot, and they went to sleep again from dehydration... and then, sometimes, they would wake up again, surrounded by black rocks, and people who wanted to kill them... sometimes, they would live long enough to go back to wherever they came from.. only to be put back out the next day to fight the same people again... it was a horrible game, and they always died, they always died, and they never came back..." the beast said, trailing off.

Mangai was simply stunned, and not only that, he was apalled, who would do such a thing to a population? Mangai turned to look at the others, and Raz threw up his hands, "I don't have a karz of a clue, Mango, he-I mean, it, could be lying, and probably is, no matter how convinciing the story sounds, or how sad it is," the toa of electricity said, and Mangai nodded, "True, but it could be telling the truth, it's fifty fifty," he said. Zar shook his head, "There is no chance in this, and it is lying, I did not expect them to speak our language... but that doesn't mean anything, this one may be a trained liar and combatant," the archer said, looking over to the beast in question.

"You beast, you foul monster, you're going to pay for killing my friends," Zarayna said, pointing at the beast with a hand, he created a bubble of sound inside it, and simply amplified the sound until the beast began to scream in pain, it took Zar two seconds to do this, and in three seconds, Mangai had shoved him aside, knocking his concentration away, along with the sound bubble inside of the beast. "NO, we can't kill it until we know for sure that it means us harm," Mangai said, and Zar crossed his arms, "What are you going to do with it? Make it come along and we can talk to it outside the circle?" Zar asked, slightly mockingly, and Mangai nodded slowly, "That's the plan." Zar turned away, annoyed, and Mangai walked closer to the beast, leaning over to touch it on its shoulder.

"What is your name?" he asked bluntly, and the beast looked up from the ground at Mangai. Mangai looked at the head of the beast, there was black liquid pouring out from where Zar had thrown his knife into its head, other than that, the head was a black round shape, a ball, nothing more. "The man called him, Teylnr, the man told him he was meant for great things... what did he mean?" the beast-Teylnr, asked him, and Mangai paused, "He probably meant... what he said, perhaps you will do something great soon," he said, and a happy demeanor fell over 'Teylnr', and he floated up, taller than Mangai. "He is glad that you have woken him from his slumber, and he thanks you," Teylnr said, lifting his arms up, the shadow left the area, and lift prevaded the air once more.

"Ah, at long last!!" Raz shouted, glad that the light had returned, him and Zar walked through the maze of black rock formations, while Mangai and Teylnr followed, talking. "This isn't a good idea... are we going to tame it or something? Come on, it's like taking in a ferral wolf from the wilderness and trying to turn it into a house pet," Raz said, and Zarayna nodded, "I agree, we should have killed that beast on spot the moment it made itself tangible, then we would have been rid of this problem-to-be."

The three continued on with their new companion, who so far was not showing any signs of hostility whatsoever...

-End

Hm, alright, next chapter, we'll get around to rescuing me.

-Skar

The Tunnel
Chapter Ten

Aero flew steadily through the air above the black rocks, veering to the left and right every now and then; he was searching for something, or someone, since his eyes scanned the landscape for his missing friend; Kpik.

Aero was not in his normal form, instead, he was a large and red Phoenix, gliding onward silently through the air, and using his bird of prey vision to scope out the ground, and even the walls of the Tunnel. He glanced to his left, and saw another bird roughly his size, but pure black; a raven. The raven’s name was Aderia, and she too was searching for their lost friend.

In all truthfulness, it was Aero’s fault that Kpik was gone; he had left him where he figured he would be safe, and went to aid his friends, but instead, he had been captured by the enemy. Aero avoided eye contact with Aderia, even though she was not as angry at him as the others had been. He turned his attention back towards the landscape, Kpik could have wandered off by himself, and gotten lost, but they probably would have found him by now, given his physical state.

***

The levitating beast dragged his captive behind him with a chain, tugging harshly on it when the prisoner refused to move along. “Your friends—if you can call them that, left you for dead, and now it is time for you to meet your… capturer. Well technically I captured you, but this man was the one to imprison you here. You may call him Falnr,” the beast said. Suddenly, the name rang a loud bell in Kpik’s mind, Falnr… where had he heard that name before?

He knew of it, he had heard it before, he just couldn’t recall where he had heard it… the beast tugged on the chain once more, forcing Kpik to stumble forward, and fall flat on the ground. The beast turned around angrily, and picked him up with the chain (which was attached to his hands), bringing Kpik up his face. “Keep up, combatant, before I knock you unconscious and drag you there. Consider me generous to even give you the option to walk,” he said, letting Kpik fall back to the ground to land on his feet.

The beast moved onward, followed slowly by Kpik. Escape was useless, as Kpik had discovered, he was unable to transform, or use his elemental powers, and had given up trying a while ago. After only a few short minutes of walking, the beast stopped in his hovering tracks, still as stone. “Here…” it said, still not moving. Kpik waited a few seconds for the beast to say something, and when it didn’t, he decided to walk around it to see what could be stopping it from moving or talking.

What he saw didn’t shock him, but it was bit of a surprise, before the two was a small hut, seemingly created of pure… bone, it was white as such, and seemed to have that dead sense about it. The hut had one window, and a door constructed of… something, Kpik could see firelight coming from within the hut, so there must have been someone living there. Kpik found the chains around his hands undone, in fact, the chain was gone altogether, along with the beast…

Kpik realize he could use his elemental powers again, and he could transform as well, for some reason or another, that chain had prevented him from doing so before. He realized he could escape, right now, and fly all the way back to his friends, and continue onward through the tunnel, but… he didn’t want to. Curiosity overwhelmed him as he studied the hut of bone, debating whether to enter or not.

Once again, curiosity overwhelmed him, and he walked over to the hut, stopping at the door as he prepared to knock. As he once again weighed the options, a creaky voice emanated from within the hut, saying, “Come in…” Kpik couldn’t help but get the feeling that whoever was inside knew exactly who he was, and what he was doing.

Without too much reluctance, the Toa opened the door, apparently it was made of wood, and was covered in odd looking symbols and shapes, all carved deeply into it. He slowly entered the hut, looking around the inside of it.

It reminded him of a science lab, but lower tech, no tubes or computers lying about, but wooden devices, and even glass ones. He could see various kinds of plant-life around on desks, few of said plants were living, and the others seem to have been dissected. Several desks and tables were around, but all of them seemed to be built into the circular wall of the hut, with chairs sitting in front of them.

Kpik then noticed the giant furnace in the middle of the hut, with a fire burning inside it; although, that was not the source of the light in the room. Above, hanging from the ceiling, were decorative lamps, six of them, with fires burning inside them which shone light in every direction.

As he ventured around the furnace to see more of the hut, he spotted a being sitting in a chair at a desk, both his hands at work on something that only he could see. As Kpik walked closer, the being stopped, and looked up from his work, looking back to see the Toa of ice standing in his hut.

He was a Toa, Kpik could tell, smaller than himself, and maskless, and what armor he was wearing seemed to be red with rust, with some holes here and there. The being smiled, and set whatever it was he was working on down on the desk; he then stood up from the chair (with strength and speed he did not appear to have), and simply looked at Kpik, beaming slightly.

“I see you have survived,” the being said, his voice creaky and old, yet rough, with a deep tone of incredible strength to it. Kpik nodded slowly, looking around the hut. He couldn’t help but get the feeling he was in some sort of laboratory, “Do you live here?” he asked, turning his attention back to the old Toa.

“No, of course not, this is merely my house of study. This is where I experiment with new ideas for the tournament, such as these plants over here,” he said, leading Kpik toward the desk with various types of plant life on it.

“Notice this particular plant,” he said, picking up a small dish with some dirt in it, and from the dirt sprouted a small green stalk that supported a leaf. “In just a few days, it will grow into this,” he said, setting the plant down and gesturing over to a glass case, which held a much larger plant; the plant was supported by one thick stalk, and had many-what seemed to be- heads on it, all moving in sync with each other. As Kpik approached the glass case, the heads of the stalk turned to him, and opened, revealing what seemed to be throats of some kind.

Kpik started as the plants fired off shots of green liquid at him, steaming and bubbling; he figured it was some kind of acid. The old Toa chuckled, “Yes, you will have a lot of fun dealing with him,” he said, speaking of it as if it posed no threat at all. Kpik was then lead to another table, its only item on top of it being stones, simple and small tan stones.

“What do these do?” Kpik asked, reaching out to pick up a stone; the old Toa’s hand flashed out and grabbed Kpik’s wrist, pulling it away from the stones before he could touch one. “Do not touch them, this is most likely one of my most dangerous experiments; you see, the stones are sentient, right now they pose no threat as far as your eyes can see. But, they await a curious being, wanting to be picked up, or stepped on. They are actually small beings made of stone, sharp, clawed creatures that only want to rip through your armor and feast on you,” the Toa said, picking up a stick, and prodding one of the stones with it.

Kpik watched as the stone the Toa poked suddenly transformed, taking on a humanoid form, and grabbing onto the stick in an instant. The stick was yanked from the Toa’s hands, and devoured by the stone and its companions. Kpik was confused, “Do they not attack? Aren’t you in danger as long as they are out in the open?” he asked, prompting another chuckle from the elderly Toa. “My dear boy, I am in danger every moment as long as I am in this shack, everything in here is meant to kill Toa just like myself. But, thankfully, I know how to maintain a safe existence here, and as long as I do not touch those rocks there, they will leave me to my business.”

Falnr (as the Toa was called) sat down in a chair near the middle of the room, gesturing to Kpik to sit in the one opposite of his. As Kpik did so, Falnr began to speak, “I ordered my servants to bring you to me for one reason; to educate you. You have seen my creations’ work already first hand, and now you have seen more of my devious makings. But that is not why you are here, you are here to understand the Tunnel, as you have a misconception of it; I did as well, at one time, but the Announcer before me showed me a different view on all of this.

“I am not choosing you as my heir; I am only explaining how things will work out eventually. The first Announcer, a Vortixx by the name of Jurl, built this very Tunnel shortly after his family died. Traumatized, the Vortixx came up with an idea, a way to make other grateful for their lives; for he saw many taking much they knew of for granted. However, he elected the path of pain and suffering, showing others, through pain, that their lives were worth much more than they ever knew.

“Jurl was an adventurer, traveling the islands of the universe and chasing the sunsets. During his travels, he stumbled upon a lush jungle island, filled with the most fantastic things; this island he found was populated by the Beasts that you fight against today. He knew that they were the key to his plan, and the key to his Tunnel.

“They had no society; their virtues were kill and eat, or be killed and eaten. He realized that they were distant relatives of Rahi, the creations of Makuta Terridax and his clan, but he did not know how the Beasts came to be. They had some sentience to them, enough to realize that Jurl wished to help them; Jurl offered them a better life on another island, one where they did not have to kill each other anymore. The creatures accepted his offer, and allowed Jurl to take them to his island.

“Jurl spent countless years setting up his world, his Tunnel; he wished to open it to the world, and was just barely able to scrape up the funds to build it. Several times he was faced with the ethical question of the Tunnel, was this right? Force people to fight or die? And paired with skeptics; he was hard pressed to begin his tournament.

“But, he did, through his troubles and trials; he eventually got his idea out into the world, and with the very first Tunnel built, its duplicates came much easier,” the Toa said, and he noted Kpik’s expression, “Is there something wrong?” Falnr asked, “There is more than one of these Tunnels?” the Toa of ice asked, a bit stunned by this revelation.

“Yes, there is, but this is the master, the true Tunnel, all the others have been put out of commission, sadly, and this one… well, you’ll find out. Anyways, you know the rest of the story, I assume, Jurl ran this Tunnel as its announcer, working out the kinks and making up the technology of the Tunnel as he went along. After years of managing his own game, making others play by his rules, and working to show the world what he learned, he realized just how much time had gone by. He searched for an heir, a person to take over the Tunnel when he passed; he saw it necessary to continue his vision, and to continue to teach the world about loss and pain.”

The door to the hut opened abruptly, and what appeared to be an armor-wearing Shrill walked in. It growled words in a language foreign to Kpik at Falnr, who responded with similar sounding words. The Shrill nodded to the elderly Toa and left the hut-- but not before glancing at Kpik and letting out a small chuckle.

“I’m sorry, but our time is up; we do have a game to finish, after all. It was nice to have met you, Kpik,” Falnr said, standing up, and shaking the hand of the Toa of Ice. Kpik wasn’t sure how to respond to all of this, had he really just been told the entire history of the Tunnel by the Announcer? Before he could open his mouth to speak, Falnr placed something in his hand—a necklace of sorts, with a silver pendant hanging on it with a black diamond in its center. “What’s this?” Kpik said, studying the necklace. “Put it on; it will take you back to your friends… they’re looking for you,” the old Toa said, turning back to the desk he was previously sitting at.

Kpik decided that asking the old Toa questions was a waste of time, even though he had so many to ask. He could learn everything there was to know about the Tunnel and more, but… for some reason, he didn’t feel any urge to seek out the answers. Taking one last glance around the hut and at the old Toa, Kpik placed the necklace of his head, and closed his eyes.

***

Spawn ran ahead of the other two who were on the ground, Riglax and Celu, in search of their lost friend. They had been searching in Rahi form to broaden their search area, since such a large scale search would be extremely tiresome in their regular Toa forms. “Come on Kpik… where are you?” he found himself thinking after two hours into the search. They had scoured the land, for miles and miles they ran and flew, scanning the landscape in search of Kpik.

And after a long two hour flight, Aderia had had enough. She slowly dipped down, nearing the ground slowly; she then reached out suddenly with both her talons, and landed atop one of the many large black rocks that dotted the landscape. She transformed back into a Toa, and swiftly leaped off the rock, landing on the ground with a light thud. “Aero, come down now, I think its time we all talked about this,” she said to her large feathered friend, who nodded, landing similar in the way that she did.

Eventually, the five Toa met up, and they began to evaluate the situation at hand. “It’s only been two hours, right? It’s still bright and daylight out here, and I’ve got more than enough energy to keep searching,” Spawn said. “I know that, but did any of you notice anything strange? Normally it only takes us about an hour or so to get to the next checkpoint, and during that time the light dims and the Tunnel slowly grows dark; none of that has happened, and I certainly haven’t seen the checkpoint anywhere,” Aderia said to the group.

Spawn couldn’t argue with her point, it was a bit odd… as if time had come to a standstill and they weren’t going anywhere when they thought they were. “I agree, and we need to find out what’s causing this, do you think it has something to do with Kpik?” Aero asked, and Aderia nodded, “I know it does, maybe the Tunnel wants the six of us together in the checkpoint,” she suggested, prompting a shrug from Spawn. “I think the Tunnel could care less about our lives, and besides, it would be the Announcer causing this. We need to press on and find Kpik, not stand around and argue daylight and where the checkpoint is,” the irritated Toa said.

“I know you’re upset, Spawn, we all are, but we need to solve one problem at a time here, starting with the one Aderia has pointed out,” Celu said, attempting to calm the Toa of fire. Spawn sighed, and slowly nodded, “I suppose you’re right, and I’m being a little more than upset,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Well, let’s figure this problem out. What if--” Riglax began, only to be cut off by a sudden screech, nothing anything living could make, but something along the lines of metal against metal. This screech continued for a few seconds, forcing the five to cover their ears in pain, which also prompted them to shut their eyes tight.

When the noise stopped, the group all opened their eyes, looking around to figure out what had just happened. A few seconds went by before Aero noticed that there was another being among them, one that looked oddly similar to-

“Kpik!” the Toa shouted, lunging forward to confirm Kpik’s existence. Kpik grunted from the tackle, “Good… I’m glad I’m actually here,” Kpik said, talking to himself mostly. The others welcomed him back to the group, and Kpik explained all of what had happened to him, and all that he had been told. “… And then he handed me this necklace, and told me to put it on; when I did, everything went black-- or white, I don’t remember- and I came out here, with you guys,” Kpik said, stepping into the familiar circle of runes that formed the checkpoint that kept them safe each night.

“Incredible… there’s so much more to this place than I thought!” Celu exclaimed, taking a seat at the table covered with food that always met them at the end of the day. “I know… and, that guy looked old, he had very rusted armor… do you think he’s going to pick one of us to be an heir?” Kpik asked aloud, causing the table to go silent for a few seconds. “Well… I don’t know. It’s possible from what you’ve told us, and if it’s true, then he may pick the one with the most kills…” Celu said. “Wait a minute, he said that the person with the most kills would die by his hand, not become ruler of the Tunnel,” Riglax pointed out.

“No way to know what that old cook is up to… all we know is that we have a destination to reach; the end of this darn Tunnel,” Spawn said, continuing to eat his food as the conversation rolled on. The six of them went to bed with many questions answered, but many more revealed, it was a confusing situation, the one they were in; but they only had to worry about getting to the end of their long, dark road.

-End Chapter Ten

WOOT. Chapter ten is FINNALY here. I hope whoever still reads this enjoyed it, despite its massive size. I hope it makes up for the long gap that I put in between the chapters. :3

-Skar