New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***Astaroth POV***

Standing there, frozen in place, watching the Manticore charging up a finishing move, the entire party knew they had messed up.

They could all clearly see the Manticore's throat light up in a red glow. It was easy to guess what was coming next.

But before any sort of attack could happen, a loud boom happened overhead, and the ceiling collapsed where I'die had closed the hole. Something big and black came lunging down from it.

The form was barely a blur as it travelled the distance from the ceiling to the floor almost instantly. That was when the party noticed what it was.

A large, black, two-headed raven was now standing on top of the pinned Manticore. It was holding the creature down to the ground with its huge talons, as something else fell from the ceiling.

This form was descending much slower, and was easily discernible as a human. But something was peculiar about him.

His skin was as white as alabaster, and his eyes were black as night. The man was well-defined, and strongly built, but, also had a grace to his figure.

Astaroth almost mistook him for a vampire, but he was almost certain that was not an available race to play in New Eden. And yet, he could also feel in his gut, the huge aura of death, emanating from this player.

It felt somewhat familiar.

The next thing that caught his eye was the face of the man. He could swear he had seen it somewhere before, but could not remember where.

As the man fell from the ceiling, he landed squarely on the Manticore's face. His weapon embedded itself in the already wounded eye of the monster, and from the side, Astaroth could see the life slipping from the Manticore.

Right after, a notification rang in his and his allies' ears.

*Ding!*

*You have helped in killing a Manticore (Legendary Boss)(Lvl 50). 375'000 Exp awarded for contribution (Bonus 200% for kill two tiers higher) (98% damage done)*

'Such an enormous sum of Exp!' Astaroth thought.

But now was not the time to think about that.

As soon as the Manticore died, the fear effect pinning them in place disappeared, and the five party members quickly regrouped, making sure they monitored the newcomer.

The man on top of the manticore looked up after killing the monster. He could now identify the player present.

He recognized four of them from his memories, but one of them wasn't supposed to be here. That player was the Ash Elf.

He brushed aside the stray thoughts and did what he had come here to do. After climbing down from the Manticore, he turned to face it, completely ignoring the party of five.

He didn't feel any threat from them. With the death knight and Munir covering him, no player could reach him currently.

Khalor stopped thinking about them and put his hands on the beast's corpse. The bystanders were wondering why the corps hadn't disappeared already, since all the other monsters had burst into particles almost right after their death.

It didn't take long before they understood why.

They heard an indistinctive murmur, and a sudden burst of mana shot out of the man and into the body. The energy then roiled around the corpse of the Manticore in a black and blue miniature tornado.

Soon after, the corpse started twitching. It was as if the nerves and muscles were all spasming from an electric shock.

Astaroth was the first to get what was happening.

'A Necromancer.' He immediately thought.

Lo-and-behold, a few seconds after that thought, the Manticore opened its eyes again. They were now completely black, and to anyone looking straight into them, they looked like small black holes.

The monster slowly rose to its feet, as the tendons in its rear paw reattached themselves, and the broken wing snapped back into place, as if it was never damaged.

The Manticore roared at the party of five, still angry at the damage they had dealt it. But with a raise of his hand, the man silenced it.

"There is no reason to fight amongst ourselves, for now." He simply said.

The man then turned his back to the party and mounted the Manticore. But before he could leave, Astaroth stepped forward.

"Who are you?" He asked.

The man hesitated for a few seconds before deciding it wasn't worth hiding his identity any longer.

"My name is Khalor. But you would have found that out in a few minutes, during the next phase of this tournament." Khalor said, before heeling the Manticore.

The now undead monster roared again before crouching. With a strong beat of its wings, combined with a mighty leap, it soared up toward the ceiling.

Khalor left the five players alone in the cave, leaving almost as fast as he had arrived. All of them stood there, confused at what they had just seen.

But another announcement snapped them out of their confusion.

*Congratulations to the remaining players! The first phase is now over! We will soon teleport you out of the map and onto the next stage of the tournament! Good luck!*

Astaroth sighed in relief. At least they didn't need to fight other players for their right to the phase. This whole underzone had given them a freebie and much-needed Exp.

As they all stood there, waiting for the teleportation to happen, Phoenix walked over to Astaroth.

"Why did you seem to recognize him?" She asked.

"Huh?" Astaroth said, turning around.

"The expression you had when you saw him. You looked like you recognized him." She replied.

"Oh… No, I did not recognize him, per se. But he had a familiar face. Like I had seen him somewhere before." Astaroth answered.

"Hmm. I see." Phoenix said.

Soon after, their bodies started glowing gold again, just like when they had been teleported to the arena for the first time.

"See you in the next phase." Phoenix said to Astaroth.

He smiled at her, as they disappeared from the underzone altogether.