Rob X Punzel ~ Thirty-Five!

The top of the herald's head poked through the reopening trapdoor of the dais, his face scrunched up into disgust as fluids trickled into the small chamber he had retreated into. A glance at the sky showed that it was only five minutes before midday, so he pulled himself up and out, taking a moment to peer around the open arena. Letting out a low whistle, he met the eyes of every individual or small group remaining on their feet.

“Nearly fifty people making it through?” He tapped at his chin, tutting softly as he did so. “Truly, the queen is a devious genius, is she not? My only concern is that this cohort is fifteen ladies larger than the previous. I wonder, does that mean this group is stronger or weaker than those who went before?”

The door of the tower rattled with the sounds of chains being undone on the other side, and the man could only shrug his shoulders and gesture at them as they began to creak open on rusty hinges. “I'm sure we will find out soon, won't we? Oh… and before you go in, you should know that you are being observed! Is everyone out there having a good time?”

A roaring crowd of men suddenly filled the stadium seating around the arena as the illusion of emptiness shattered. The women who remained standing looked around in shock and—in some cases—horror when they realized how many people had seen them just sneak attack someone else. A few of them recognized their own families in the crowd and tried to put on a brave face in spite of their ignoble actions. Others even waved valiantly with a bright smile on their blood-flecked faces if they had directly faced all their opponents.

Yet it was the most ambitious who ignored their surroundings, running for the opening door and slipping through as soon as they could fit through the crack.

Realizing their competitors were getting a head start, the other women broke out of their stupor and rushed the tower door as well. Just as the last one stepped into the building, a manicured foot swung through the darkness and landed on her face. The failed contestant slid backward into unconsciousness, tumbling across the ground and joining the others.

Soon, only the herald remained standing, looking at the hundreds of ladies laying on the ground—some unconscious, some far worse off.

“What a terrible waste of talent!” The herald called out in a soothing tone over the rising groaning of those who were cognizant but unable to continue. “Don't worry, the crown has purchased the services of the healers’ guild for the month, and anyone left alive will receive the best… they’ll get great… that is, they’ll be heal… bah, everyone remaining out here will be seen by a healer! Now, only six minutes remain before the doors close. If anyone else manages to hobble their way over—watch out for flying feet! Oh? What's this? The foreign princess?”

Goldie hopped out of the stadium seating, where she’d been waiting for the last few hours. With her skill set, climbing up the ragged wall and getting on top of it had been child's play. As soon as she had gone over the lip, she’d vanished from the view of everyone in the arena, while simultaneously coming face-to-face with the cheering crowd. A laughing group had invited her to join them, and she sat among the noblemen, graciously accepting their offers of delicious morsels and chilled drinks.

Even her arm was now properly bandaged, as the men had brought their personal house healers with them. After she convinced them to bet on her success, they had wanted to offer everything they could to increase her odds of winning.

Striding past the chuckling announcer, Goldie carefully stepped into the base of the tower, jaw dropping as she saw a truly unexpected sight.

Bureaucracy.

The other members of the cohort were calmly standing in line, several feet of space between each of them, as royal guardsmen carefully watched them to ensure there was no foul play in this space. Even though the forty-five other women turned to glare at the late arrival, each of them held their peace as the gate smoothly closed behind her, ensuring no one else would be participating in this round.

“First floor is survival in the beast gauntlet,” a bored, matronly woman behind the counter called out. “When you get up here, you are to register your name for the leaderboard. I don't want your street name, gang affiliation, sweet-talking affectation, or whatever other nonsense you call yourself. You will put down your system-given name. If you have people out there searching for you, waiting for you to fail… well, I’m only gonna say I need enough to make sure we can identify you at each of the other checkpoints between floors.”

This seemed to be directed at a grizzled, scarred young woman who was clearly from the slums. She’d been the first to enter the tower and had specifically gone out of her way to target wealthy participants as they waited for the doors to open. Her hands were twitching as she rubbed at her wrists, thick scars showing where manacles had been removed not long ago. Goldie remained calm, not looking directly at the woman, whose attention snapped to whoever stared at her too long.

“I’ve seen that before,” the thief murmured to herself as she studied the aggressive lady out of the corner of her eye—someone she assumed was an indiscriminate murderer, who had a class or skill set that rapidly increased in power not through combat, but by killing. “People like that are usually the only reason city guards come into the slums… it's a good thing no one gets a class like that by accident.”

The line moved slowly, but it was no surprise to Goldie that they were released at a rate which was consistent with how much time they had between them as they entered the tower originally. Nearly half an hour after entering, she approached the counter and offered a warm smile to the unimpressed registrar.

“Hand on the desk,” the woman casually ordered her. “Name?”

“Goldie.” Immediately, an orb built into the desk flashed red.

“Lie.” The way the word was drawled in response made Goldie’s lips twitch in frustration. “Normally, I’d send you to the back of the line for that, but since it's just you, I'm going to add five minutes to your start time every time you lie to me. Got it?”

“Yes.”

The red light faded away, but the registrar's smirk did not. “Want to go ahead and try again? What's the name you're going to register with? Need me to explain the rules again?”

“Just give me a moment.” Goldie bit her lip in frustration, though as she thought over her situation, she realized this might be an unexpected boon. “The alchemist only ever called me Goldilocks… I wonder if Chay actually forgot that's not my real name.”

“Yeah, I don't know who any of those people are.” Getting a response to her murmuring made Goldie wince and reach up to pull her hair into its usual face-framing curtain. “Plenty of girls came in here and tried to give me a fake name for whatever reason. Just don't. Whatever business you have outside of here, it's not my problem.”

Bobbing her head to show her understanding, Goldie resumed muttering.

“I don't want to use my full name. Chay will point it out to the alchemist as soon as he recognizes it. He knows me as Becca, so that name is too hot for me to use. If I use Rebecca, he’ll still manage to put that together, so that’s a cold option. Has he ever heard my last name? I don't… think so?” Finally lifting her chin so her hair wouldn't muffle her words, Goldie calmly declared, “Punzel.”

The orb flashed with a white light, but her triumphant grin faded as the bureaucrat shook her head. “That means it's part of your name, but you need to include your first name as well, or at least some part of it.”

“Can I just do ‘R’? R. Punzel?” The orb flashed bronze, to the surprise of both of them. “I guess that one’s ju~ust right.”

“Huh.” The woman shrugged, waving toward the door. “Guess you can. Don't die out there, Rapunzel.”

“R. Punzel.” Goldie’s eyebrow twitched. “Two words.”

“Sure thing.” The bureaucrat scoffed at the attempted correction, reaching up above her countertop and pulling down a metal divider. “I'd care if you had combat abilities instead of… the ability to make your hair extra fancy? Yeah, you're definitely going to die in there.”

“Charming lady, that one,” Goldie sneered at the closed help desk before carefully stepping through the archway, remembering all too clearly how her immediate predecessor had been ambushed. Her hands found the hilt of her battle scissors, holding them in a white-knuckled grip as she rushed forward. The heavy metal door slammed shut behind her, the rattling lock slamming into place with a deep, metallic finality.

A wash of sound flowed over her; snarls, shrieks, a stomach-churning racket of steel parting flesh or clanging off armored sides. Goldie looked around the enormous chamber she’d stepped into, recognizing the oblong shape as an enormous arena. From below, the haphazard structure reaching into the sky seemed even more unhinged, a precariously balanced tower resting on a series of stone arches intersecting at the midpoint of the open arena. The midday sun streamed down into the open-roof design, granting her far too clear of a view of the slaughter. Where even the underground fighting rings had some semblance of order, here there was only a massive melee.

Before her was pure carnage.

Creatures of all shapes and sizes rampaged through the room, locked in combat with the women who had entered before her. Before Goldie could fully survey the scene, her bangs let out a sharp crackle of warning, and she dodged to the side as a handful of arrows sliced through the air where she’d been standing only a moment previous. Three of them caught in her hair, and Goldie had no choice but to study the projectile tangled only an inch from her eye. “That’s no arrow.”

 A quick glance revealed the origin of the attack, and her gaze landed on a slender woman wielding a curved scimitar, who was dancing with her blade to gracefully slash at a beast resembling an oversized hedgehog. She carved into the creature, her weapon glancing off its quills, which shimmered with a metallic sheen in the streaming sunlight coming from the open-topped area. A heartbeat later, the lady gracefully swooped into a low stance, narrowly avoiding the creature’s spines as they blasted away—as if launched from a crossbow.

Minimal-rank Piercing immunity gained!

“Come on, focus! Where's the exit?” Goldie's eyes darted across the battlefield, pausing despite herself to take in the bizarre array of animals, awakened beasts, and monsters chasing each other and the contestants around the stone-ringed field.

A massive stag, horns gleaming like burnished bronze, reared up and brought its hooves down on a screeching woman, driving her into the ground with a sickening crunch that caused everyone within earshot to flinch. In another space, a creature which seemed to be a cross between a peacock and a centipede fought a handful of women to a standstill, its vibrant, iridescent tail feathers trailing behind it like a deadly bridal train, with each feather ending in a venomous stinger which lashed out unpredictably.

Forcing herself to push aside the pangs of sympathy, Goldie resumed her search. “No room for kindness here—the challenge is to survive, not to kill every creature. Survival is what I do.”

Edging around the outskirts of the chaos, Goldie looked for the promised path upward. She’d been expecting stairs, perhaps with a guardian at the door, but there was nothing. Only by following the trajectory of the women slowly cutting their way forward did she finally find her goal: a solitary ladder dangling in the center of the room from the underbelly of the tower.

Already, someone was clamoring up the ladder, and even from halfway across the room, Goldie recognized the scarred, murderous woman who’d been the first to enter the arena. A trail of blood and death traced her direct path from the entrance to the ladder, completely blocked off by the dozens of creatures tearing into the carcasses she had left behind, snapping and snarling at each other as they worked to satiate their ravenous hunger. Watching the murderer ascend into the stone above them, Goldie murmured, “I can only hope she takes the pardon and gets out of this tower as soon as possible… that is not someone I want to have to get past.”

As soon as she took a step toward the ladder, the thief was forced to backpedal as a wiry figure with short-cropped hair and a spear crackling with lightning stepped in front of her.

“Where do you think you're going, fancy hair girl?” Before Goldie could react, the spearwoman lunged, closing the distance between them as though being dragged by her weapon. Goldie’s scissors sparked as she shoved the tip of the weapon to the side, the impact jarring her arm and sending a jolt through her shoulder. Her opponent frowned, glancing at the energy bursting from her spear and into Goldie’s hair-wrapped hands—which had poofed out to capture as much of the yummy lightning as possible—then into her completely unfazed intended victim’s eyes.

The leaf-shaped tip of the spear pulled back as she readied herself for another lunge, though the vicious lady tried to yank it along Goldie’s arm to open a wound. “Even if my spear doesn't do the trick, it might shock you to know I find you perfect. As a distraction!”

As she tried to press her attack, a lumbering beast—a bear with the head of an eagle—rushed past the spear woman, bellowing in fury and pain as a laughing lady rode it to exhaustion, repeatedly thrusting a short sword into her mount’s back. Not wasting the opportunity, Goldie darted to the side, following after the enormous creature at a run while angling toward the center of the room.

A knot of vicious creatures swarmed toward the center of the room, howling in anger as they realized someone had escaped their clutches. The other contenders who’d been rushing forward found themselves beset on all sides by berserk beasts, and blood began to flow freely as the center of the arena turned into a charnel house. Seeing the opportunity for what it was, Goldie rushed through openings between combatants, leapt off the ground and onto the backs of beasts and pushed off of their bodies with uncertain footing.

Most of them didn't even seem to notice, locked in combat as they were with people actively trying to slay them. A few snarled and snapped at her, but she was away by the time they managed to turn. No matter what, her eyes remained locked on her goal, and she pushed off a thick turtle-shell like back plate, hands reaching for the dangling rungs…

Only to sail past the escape while remaining locked in her outstretched position, landing awkwardly on the ground without being able to break her fall. Only her hair flinging itself in front of her saved Goldie from an ignoble death as she crashed into several creatures before hitting the floor. The swarming bodies above her hid her from sight, allowing her a few moments respite. Sensation returned to her body at that moment, and Goldie gasped for air, even as her vision flickered with darkness and tiny dancing lights.

Pushing to her feet, she found that her hair was moving on its own, lifting and pointing in accusation at a shifting, distorted creature casually strolling toward her and letting out a low, constant laugh. It had dog-like features, but walked on its hind legs like a human would. It held its elongated arms to the side, happy to show how they were tipped with foot-long razor-sharp claws; which it used to slash at any living thing it passed. As the strange shifting light it emanated brushed against the creatures around it, their muscles locked them in place, just as it had stiffened hers. Most of the creatures it swiped at survived the attack, though the terrible, rending wounds allowed blood to flow freely.

“Corrupted monster?” Goldie moved carefully away from the creature, trying to put other monsters between it and herself. However, it seemed to have locked on to her, and its pitch-black eyes bored into hers as it quietly chuckled, the aura around it cutting off the sound in odd intervals. There’d always been rumors of creatures like this, but that was exactly what she thought they were—rumors. Tales of boogeymen meant to keep children from exploring dark places.

Awakened Beasts were already dangerous enough, and they were just simple animals which had leveled up through their own version of the system by following their natural urges and ascend. Similar to how humans progressed, they had a second chance to evolve again, becoming actual Monsters—Awakened Beasts with access to magic and granted true intelligence. Some were far more dangerous than others, especially if they’d started out as a creature with the desire to kill and maim for fun—as hyenas did.

If they maintained their dark tendencies, eventually the system would grant them commensurate abilities, and they would become corrupted monsters. They were the monstrous analog to Witches and Villains, with decades of experience hunting and killing to achieve their terrible might. Goldie forcefully controlled her breath as the monster crept closer, slowly lowering itself in preparation of pouncing at her, reminding her panicked brain of a simple fact. “All I need to do is survive-”

Screaming with laughter, the corrupted hyena threw itself at her, arms splayed to the side and claws grasping for her heart.

Goldie threw herself behind another monster, this one the front half of a horse with a long winding snake tail blending seamlessly to replace its back end. The hyena followed after her in a straight line, its claws separating the creature into its two distinct halves with a single slice. As it came after her, the shimmer around its body made her vision blur, and Goldie constantly blinked as she tried to force her eyes to focus on the charging killer. It swiped at her, intentionally missing and laughing eerily as she let out a shrill, frightened shriek.

Even though she hadn't been touched, the distortion tingled along her body, causing her extremities to go numb as the paralytic effect it generated swept over her. Goldie gasped instinctively, remembering how close she had come to suffocating due to her inability to inhale only a few moments previously. She darted away, trying to circle the monster and make it to the ladder, but the hyena clearly knew her goal, going by how it smoothly stepped around to block her. It looked at the blood oozing from the wound in her bicep, slowly licking its lips before grinning at her maliciously.

“Abyss, now what?” Goldie was breathing rapidly as she lifted her battle scissors, doubly terrified as it seemed that her first and usually most reliable line of defense—her hair—seemed to be no use against the bizarre aura. Its energy was all-encompassing, bypassing her protective strands in a way very few things managed to do. The hyena made a sharp motion, and the nebulous red and black aura around itself collapsed into a line and lashed out at her, freezing her in place.

Goldie couldn't even blink as it stepped forward, laughing to itself as she threw everything she had into struggling against the clearly magical effect. As the hyena stepped forward, lifting its hand, her hair lashed out on its own, slapping ineffectually against the creature—as she hadn't been able to imbue it with any elemental effect. Unsurprisingly, the hyena simply appeared amused at the attempt. Instead of slashing her roughly, it slowly reached forward with one of its claws, ready to take its time driving the tip of its black nail into her heart.

The hyena’s laughter cut off with a strangled yelp as its distorted form froze in place—its body coming into perfect clarity for the first time as hundreds of points along its aura were impaled by the ends of Goldie's hair. She had just enough time to see a nearly human expression of confusion flashing across its grotesque face before the aura began bleeding energy from the tiny perforations.

It barked in pain, wrenching itself backward… or at least trying to do so. Reaching the edge of its own energetic field, the hyena rebounded as though it had struck a wall. Goldie's hair shifted and pulled, tearing chunky holes in the aura and causing more and more tendrils of energy to seep out.

Then the distorted aura burst like a soap bubble, and the hyena shivered only a single time before slowly collapsing to the ground. Sucking in a fresh breath of air as the paralytic effect vanished, the young woman stumbled away, staring at where the monster had fallen. Her mind and heart raced to see which could be faster. “What… what just happened?”

Her hair, the ends still crackling with residual energy, twitched exactly as she would have moved to fling liquid off the ends of her blades, then, seemingly satisfied, dropped into their normal position around her.

“Was that what it means for my hair to be able to interact with incorporeal energies? It can tear apart auras?” Taking a shaky breath, Goldie turned her attention to the ladder, which was now unguarded thanks to the beasts being too distracted with their own battles. Refusing to be caught out once more, she made a run for it.