Ascension of Chaos

Ashley

I roll out of the way before the sentinel crashes into the floating block, knocking the block flying away and sending me flying off of it. But this time I slam into another block almost right away with a grunt.

Despite the tears I find leaking out of my eyes from the pain of smashing the back of my head and the previous hits I took, I try to quickly climb to my feet on the block. Then I turn to face the sentinel, finding it already charging towards me again.

Damnit, this is getting nowhere.

I grit my teeth even harder, ignoring the pain that is starting to fade a little as my health bar deals with regenerating it at a very slow pace. And after a few seconds, I quickly turn around while reaching into my pocket and grabbing my knife.

The sentinel doesn't pause as it tries to fly past me again, this time not slamming into the block in the process. But unlike the previous times, I'm on my feet right now, so after avoiding it, I stab my knife straight down onto the back of the rhombus-shaped block of iron.

And, as I should've expected, it doesn't do anything other than make a screeching sound as the knife scratches against the iron without doing much damage other than a small dent and the scratch it leaves behind. Then the sentinel just continues flying past even faster thanks to my push.

Seriously?!

The thing makes a U-turn to head back towards me, and since I'm still off balance, I end up slipping off of the block again when I try to dodge its attack.

I hurriedly look around, trying desperately to find another block.

But I don't find any near me to land on, so I continue falling, and falling, and falling.

Straight down towards the endless abyss below.

Damnit, damnit, damniiit!!

The air pressure hitting me grows more and more intense as my speed increases. Only for that to end up giving me a rather welcome surprise in the process.

My wings – which I had almost entirely forgotten about due to my inability to use them – finally straighten out and catch on the wind and air pressure, slowing me down.

It's not enough though as I still continue falling.

Looks like this is my last hope.

I try to figure out how to flap my wings.

How to control them.

How to fly.

I try everything I can think of, from twitching my back muscles, to trying to actually use the strange and unfamiliar sensation I have sticking out of my back. But no matter what I try, nothing works. Just like before.

Then I think back to that one time I managed to flap them.

And as if that was all I needed, I feel that same odd itching sensation that I felt before. Followed by an even stronger surge of adrenaline than what I'm already feeling.

Then my wings flap once, significantly slowing my fall.

They flap a second time after another itchy sensation.

And a third.

A fourth.

A fifth.

Each followed by that same itching sensation. But every time I feel it, it slowly turns away from being an itchy sensation and more like a twitch of a muscle. One I didn't realize I had.

But now that I do know about it, I finally manage to figure out how to control it.

I repeatedly use that muscle to flap my wings, gradually slowing myself down to a stop as I heave one breath after another in exhaustion.

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That was too close for comfort… come to think of it, don't a lot of birds teach their chicks how to fly by just tossing them out of the nest and letting them learn or die?

Guess whatever works, works. But still.

Not a fan myself.

I also don't have enough stamina to keep flapping my wings like this forever, so I need to get myself back to a platform.

With that thought in mind, I begin flying back up by flapping my wings with more force. Just passing through the darkness down here for a bit before I soon hit the part where the wall is white again and I can see the blocks several dozen meters above me.

I gradually make my way upwards bit by bit until I'm sweating buckets. Sweat that surprisingly doesn't get soaked by my clothes.

Oh, right. Almost forgot about the whole 'waterproof clothes' thing.

Nice.

Would suck to have clothes soaked in sweat and blood for the entire tutorial.

My wings slowly begin to feel like they're going to cramp up due to lack of use before now, but I just barely manage to make it to one of the floating blocks. And the moment I do, I collapse flat on my back while heaving in exhaustion and drenched in sweat.

Fortunately for me, there don't appear to be any of those monsters near this block. All of them are much higher up than down here.

I glance at a ledge not too far above me. A ledge I'm actually being brought to right now on this floating block.

Then, when the block makes it to the ledge, it actually stops moving, allowing me to see over the ledge.

It doesn't take me long to come to a decision, and I quickly drag myself to my feet before lumbering over and jumping off of the block and onto the ledge.

Because I would much rather be on solid ground right now than on a damned floating block.

And after just a brief glance around, spotting a strange pattern on the ground of this ledge in the process, I collapse back onto the ground again. Still panting heavily in exhaustion.

Also still watching those annoying follower numbers skyrocketing. Something they started doing even more when I started flying.

As if people were just watching me fall to my death and then thought it was exciting when I stopped myself.

I continue lying here for what feels like an entire hour but is probably only ten to twenty minutes. Then I begin to sit up again with a wince and a light whine due to the bruising all over that still hasn't finished healing.

Damn. That hurts.

But not bad enough that I can't get up.

So I climb to my feet and turn to look at the ledge I ended up on.

What's going on here?

I don't have the strength to fly right now, so I might as well check out what is going on here.

There's a large pattern across the entire ledge including where I'm standing. One that seems to be of a large… golem…

Wait a second, is this-

My thoughts come to a halt when a System Notification flashes in my vision and a bright gray light shines from the pattern.

When the gray light fades again, I find a strange portal at the center of the pattern.

I frown at it, only for an equally strange array of text to appear on my screen outside of any sort of box.

Conqueror of the Maze

You have found the first of three Mini Bosses within the maze. Defeat all three and you will be greatly rewarded.

Objective 1: Kill the Goliath of the Maze

Objective 2: Kill the Wraith of the Maze

Objective 3: Kill the Serpent of the Maze

The term mini boss comes from video games if I had to guess. Which generally refer to the subleaders of some sort of dungeon or something. Powerful creatures or people below the boss, which is the leader.

I glance down at my sweat-covered and exhausted self. Then I raise my head to look at the portal.

Nope.

Far too exhausted right now and there is no way I could possibly win.

So I begin to walk over to the edge of the pattern, only for a strange pull to begin coming from the glowing gray portal. Drawing me towards it despite my attempts to walk away.

No, please don't do this…

I try to run as fast as I can away from the portal, but I'm still too exhausted. Ending with me falling flat on my face and being dragged into the portal.

Everything goes dark for a split second before I find myself landing with a grunt on more stone.

I quickly try to climb to my feet, only to almost stumble when I get a look at where I am. What looks like a massive copy of the room I was already in. But with a floor at the very bottom and a lot more floating blocks than before. And there appears to be a ledge at the very top that I can see but not see what's on top of it.

Seriously?

More importantly, there are a lot of monsters scattered amongst the floating blocks.

Great.

Just great.

I let out a sigh.

Then I collapse again onto my back, deciding to go back to my break