New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***Back on the surface***

While Azamus was getting chased by the two-headed raven and the death knight, Khalor never stopped watching the timer. He was waiting for it to reach zero.

His goal had never been to take out players, only to get the potion. After that, all he wanted was to wait for the penalty to go off.

Since this wasn't his first play-through, he already knew what the penalty was. Although he hadn't taken part in the original first tournament, or any subsequent, he watched all of them through live streams.

He had intended to kill Azamus quickly and go sit back on the pyramid, to wait it out, but had underestimated the pro player's resilience.

After a full twenty minutes of chasing around, shooting, and dive attacks, Azamus was still standing. He kept drinking potions, to keep his health close to full, but his stock was practically empty.

Khalor was grinning madly, enjoying this futile resistance from his prey. He could see Azamus was struggling, and he was slowly growing tired.

This fight was nearing its end.

But there was another issue at hand. The timer for the round penalty had already run out.

And yet, nothing was happening. He had felt the slight tremors from the gates to the underzone opening, but the monsters were nowhere to be seen.

When the timer had reached zero, there had been an announcement that punishment was being served, but nothing was happening.

This brought a frown to Khalor's face. He had immediately sent the death knight to investigate the underzone entrance, and was still waiting for it to come back.

For now, with him gone, this had given a bit of respite to Azamus, who was now occasionally sending potshots toward Khalor. This only amused the latter, as he lightly dodged the incoming fire.

At the five-minute mark past the end of the timer, Khalor knew he had to end the fight soon, or else he would miss his secondary objective, but that was the moment the death knight came back.

"Sire! The gate was open, but the tunnels were empty!" The death knight said, kneeling before Khalor.

"What!?" Khalor exclaimed.

His head snapped towards the pyramid, which was now opening, but nothing was coming out of it. His mind immediately went into a panic.

'Has someone found out about the underzone? Are they wiping out the monsters? Where is the last boss?!' He thought, his brain a jumbled mess.

He snapped around, looking at Azamus.

"Munin! Forget the gnome! We need to fly back to the pyramid! Now!" he shouted to the two-headed raven.

"Yes, master." It responded.

It swooped away from Azamus and toward Khalor, picking up the latter as it swooped down, and back up.

Azamus, who was happy to have a moment to breathe, became very displeased at being ignored like this, though. He immediately switched his weapon back to his rifle and aimed at Khalor's head.

"Don't think I will let you leave that easily!" He shouted.

But just as he was about to pull his trigger, Khalor turned his head, facing him. The two men's eyes locked.

The air in Azamus' lungs all escaped. He froze in terror as his mind went blank.

Khalor enthralled his mind with an illusion strong enough to make the player piss himself. He had used a spell to show Azamus his worst imagined death.

By the time Azamus broke out of the illusion and caught his breath, tears running along his cheeks, Khalor was already too far from him to do anything.

He clenched his jaw hard enough to hear his teeth creaking.

"You are going to pay for this, you worthless noob!" He growled.

Azamus then unleashed his rage against any unfortunate player to cross his path. He didn't sneak around and snipe, but actively sought other players to tear them a new one.

In the meantime, Khalor had reached the pyramid, and it was now split up into four pieces, sporting a gaping hole in the center that dove underground.

There was no sign of the last boss he expected to see here, and that made him nervous. He couldn't hear the sounds of fighting or anything, either.

"We're diving in!" He ordered.

They wasted no time on a response, as the two-headed raven, Munin, dove into the hole. They flew downwards at blazing speeds, as the death knight followed behind in free fall.

They didn't go down for very long, as they reached a rocky surface, where there should have been none. Khalor pointed at it.

"Valerian! Break through it!"

The death knight then pulled out a massive halberd from thin air and swung it with much might, making the air vibrate as it cut through it.

When the halberd connected with the stone, a deafening ring echoed, followed by a cracking noise and the crumbling of stone. The hit had pierced through its obstacle in one shot.

Munin dove again, appearing in an enclosed cavern with high ceilings and a large open area. Khalor then saw what had been holding the boss monster back.

He was slightly in shock, from how low the beast's health had been brought down to, but could see that all the players present were unmoving.

He guessed what was happening in mere moments and acted to seal the Manticore's fate. Khalor jumped off Munin, as the raven kept diving straight down, aiming to pin the Manticore to the ground.

The beast, who was too busy charging up a finishing attack, failed to notice the new arrivals. Something soon pinned it down to the floor, with talons planted in its nape.

The impact alone took away most of the remaining health from the Manticore, but the true finishing strike came a moment after, as Khalor came dropping from above, bident in hand.

He planted his weapon directly into the eye that had already had an arrow lodged into it. The hit, along with the momentum of his fall, took out the little health the boss had left.

With a small whimper and twitch, the life faded out of the Manticore's remaining intact eye.