Chapter 8 – Locked in the Darkness

The rest of the class with the Instructor centred around discussions of what a Defender does and a handful of the general skills they could have, two of which Titus had already seen in action during the arena fight and used by the boy named Benjamin. The first skill, 'Root in Place,' Mr Sinclair said, was given to many Defenders upon adopting their Class and usually didn't cost a skill point, as the first ability could be thought of as a freebie, and taunt was another of these possible starter abilities. It caused an enemy to be immobilised for a short period of time, determined by the Defender's specific skill - as two skills named the same weren't always identical. The second skill mentioned by the Instructor was 'Taunt,' a skill that was self-explanatory; it forced the target of the spell to focus their attention on the Defender and nothing else.

It didn't sound like something Titus would want to do, to make a rampaging beast focus on him above all else - it was kind of opposite to human nature in mind, where one should hide from huge deadly boars, not encourage them to charge him. His mind wandered back to the fight he'd just watched and the thought of taunting the rampaging Deadlands Boar, only to watch as it charged towards him. He wondered if he would've been as brave as Benjamin had, holding his shield up ready to accept the immense impact.

What Titus liked the sound of more than anything was the thought of standing far away from his enemy and casting spells. The moment he had seen that first spell, the fireball that had hurtled across the golden sands, he knew that it was something he wanted to be able to do above anything else. Magic was no longer the pipe dream of some innocent child; it was a reality. A reality he wanted very much to explore.

Mr Sinclair eventually let the Contestants go for lunch once his explanation was over. Titus could tell that the Instructor had a flair for the dramatic, not just telling them about a skill or path once, but giving them the same information over and over in different ways until he was sure it had sunk in. Titus had to admit that the technique was quite effective as he found he could retain most, if not all of the information.

"Tell me, Titus, what else don't you know?" Petra asked as the pair walked.

"I have no idea," Titus said. "That's a bit of a weird question, isn't it? Hpw am I supposed to know what I don't know?"

"Well, you must've known why the Arena was founded in the first place."

"Kind of," Titus said, "and I've kind of learned everything I need to know on that front in the last day. But I'm being honest when I say that my father really did keep me away from the Arena and as much to do with it as he could. When I was growing up, he wanted me to be a baker. He had me working in the bakery every day ever since I could reach the handle on the oven door, but I was just so bad at it."

Petra smiled. "Like Mr Sinclair says, we can't all be good at everything. Sometimes, a path just doesn't suit an individual. Sometimes two paths will work together and sometimes someone will just have absolutely no affinity to a Class or skill. Well that's what I was hearing anyway."

"And sometimes two paths happen to cross at a convenient moment." A third voice joined the conversation, and it didn't take Titus long to figure out that it belonged to Henderson. The boy always seemed able to interrupt at annoying moments.

"Henderson, are we going to do this again?" Petra yawned animatedly. Titus did his best to hide his smile. He didn't want to annoy the large boy in case he ever had to face him alone, but Petra just had such a way of minimalising Henderson.

"I think we'll do it a bit differently this time," Henderson said. "I think this time I'm going to give you a lesson you won't forget. So why don't you come along with me, and we can settle this nasty business once and for all."

"What makes you think we're going to come with you?" Petra asked.

Henderson didn't have to answer because, as soon as Petra'd finished speaking, two more large boys with blue armbands grabbed hold of Petra and Titus by the arms, forcing them to turn and walk along the hallway away from the lunch hall where they'd previously been headed.

"Get your hands off!" Petra snapped before she realised just how large the two boys were, and also the fact that they had blue armbands. These were Contestants who'd been trained to the point where they were ready for the Arena. They could've even fought in the Arena already. And that meant they weren't to be messed with.

Janus: Level ?

Class: Warrior

Profession: Arena Contestant - Blue

Eric: Level ?

Class: Warrior

Profession: Arena Contestant - Blue

'Both warriors,' Titus thought. 'They must be strong and must be able to hit hard.' He kept his gaze forward, not wanting to annoy any of his captors after that.

"Can't do your own dirty work?" Petra asked, clearly not as afraid as Titus was of the Blue-Rankers. "Have to get others to do it for you? I suppose you've got to pay for this one, right? Or did it come from the bank of daddy dearest?"

"Shut your mouth," Henderson snarled. "The more you talk, the worse this is going to get. Why don't you show them your full stats, boys?"

Titus glanced back at the two Blue-Rankers and his eyes bulged as he saw more of their information displayed for him.

Janus: Level 4

Class: Warrior

Profession: Arena Contestant - Blue

Eric: Level 5

Class: Warrior

Profession: Arena Contestant - Blue

"L... level five?" Petra stuttered after reading the two henchmen's stats, just as Titus had. "Are you seriously going to listen to this little worm?" She directed her question to Janus and Eric. "The hell?"

"When you get paid as much as he's paying us to do this, you don't really care where the money's coming from," Janus said and Eric nudged him to get him to shut up. "What?" Janus asked annoyed, but Eric simply shook his head.

"Yes," Henderson said. "Money speaks for itself in this world, doesn't it? But anyway, I think this is far enough, so let's get this over with, shall we?" He shot a glance at his two goons and their expressions hardened.

The group had walked so far down the torchlit hallways that Titus had no idea where they were. They'd gone down stone staircases, around corners, and along more hallways and corridors than he could remember. The torches attached to the walls had become few and far between, and that meant that long stretches of the hallways were thick with darkness though it didn't prevent the group from waking.

And then Titus heard a sound that made his skin turn cold. It was like someone was rattling iron bars against each other.

"Are... are we in a dungeon?" Titus asked, trying to peer through the darkened areas of the hallway. "You're going to lock us up?"

Titus felt his pulse quicken and he balled his hands into fists as he began to feel his body's natural reaction to want to flee from this situation. To run as fast as he could and never look back. But he still felt the hands tight around his arms holding him back. And besides, he knew that even if he could make his escape, he wouldn't just leave Petra behind. She'd already done too much for him and it was kind of his fault she was in this mess in the first place.

"Oh no," Henderson said. The boy now faced Titus and Petra as he spoke. "You don't need to worry about us locking you up in some cell and leaving you here. No, I have something rather more creative in mind."

Henderson picked up a torch from its iron holster attached to the wall and walked into the darkness to illuminate exactly what Titus had thought it was: a set of iron bars. A cell door.

"Come on Henderson," Petra said. "You really think we're falling for this act? Like you're just going to leave us here. Why don't you stop trying to scare us and call off your hired goons before you make an even bigger fool of yourself?"

Henderson smiled. "Oh, don't worry. Like I said, there's something far more exciting for you. You both liked watching that fight in the Arena earlier, didn't you?"

Neither Titus nor Petra responded.

"Well, I hope you did, because you're about to find out just how difficult that particular monster can be. Especially for a pair as useless as you two. I wonder if you learnt any useful lessons watching those idiots almost getting themselves killed out there?"

Before Titus knew what was happening and had a chance to realise exactly what it was Henderson was saying, the large boy had nodded to Janus and Eric, and the two Blue-Rankers forced Titus and Petra to walk towards the iron bars. When they were near, Henderson pulled the locking bolt free with a heavy clang and swung open the gate to reveal nothing but a deep darkness within.

"Stop!" Petra shouted as they approached the door. Her tone was now markedly different and Titus felt exactly the same way. "This is crazy! You three really think you're going to get away with this? And you teo just do what he says?"

This time neither of the two Blue-Rankers replied.

"Get them out of my sight," Henderson said, spitting on the ground before the pair. "Oh, and I'd try to be quiet if I were you. Screaming like that tends to draw the kind of attention you might not like."

"What?" Petra said, but before she could get an answer, she and Titus were shoved through the open gate, and Henderson locked it in place behind them. Then he pulled a small iron padlock from his pocket and clicked it shut around the lock.

"Don't want you to have to miss out on any of the fun, do we?" He said.

Titus and Petra both immediately turned around and tried to force the door open, but it didn't budge no matter how hard they pushed.

"Oh, there is one more thing," Henderson said. Before anyone could do anything about it, he reached through the bars and pulled the white armbands free from Titus and Petra's arms, keeping hold of them and stuffing them into his pocket. "Probably best if you didn't have these on. You know, wouldn't want to make it easy for you, would we?"

"Come on, Henderson, enough's enough," Titus said shakily.

"Well, I wish you'd have said so sooner, my friend, because, well, it's probably best you just see for yourself."

Henderson took a step back, wound up his arm, and threw his torch through the bars and into their cell.

The cell was now fully illuminated. Stone walls on three sides and iron bars to the front; it was very much like a prison cell. Except for the fact that prison cells didn't usually lack a bed, a toilet, and in this particular cell there was a large, angry-looking monster staring at its two new cellmates.

Titus analysed it with bated breath, but he knew whatever the result was, it was going to be terrible.

Deadlands Boar

Level: 2

HP: 110/110

"Titus," Petra whispered. "That's another one of those boars. You saw what they could do..."

"Just stay still, stay quiet and don't make any sudden moves," Titus whispered in response.

"That sounds like a great plan!" Henderson said in a loud tone. Then he rattled the iron door as he spoke. "I hope he doesn't know you're in there!"

"Who's down there?" a voice carried back along the dark hallways like it was in response to Henderson's own.

"Let's go," Henderson said quietly to Janus and Eric. "Wouldn't want to get any blood on these nice clothes anyway. Good luck in there, you two; I think you're going to need it. But if you wouldn't mind, try to scream as loud as you can so we can at least hear it."

The boar stood still and stared at Petra, then Titus, like it was trying to decide who to charge at first. It was smaller than the last one they'd seen, but still larger than your average dog. And its tusks looked particularly deadly too.

"Help!" Titus shouted. Someone was out there he knew, and the quicker whoever it was found the pair, the better.

"No time," Petra said. "We need to split up, keep moving, and don't let it charge you."

Titus knew that much already. The boar again had large, sharp tusks that it had already lowered to the ground to prepare its charge, and Titus knew that if one of those hit him, he would be in serious trouble.

And then, without another moment passing, the boar leapt into action.