Adam reached the foot of the long stairwell before he could control his own body again. Thankfully, the long trek down into the depths of the Forbidden Altar hadn’t actually exhausted him due to it being part of a cutscene.

  His mind was already racing. Ilya was a formidable fighter as far as he knew, and he had been primed by Mórrígan to take Adam out of the game.

  Do I unequip the Fiendbarb? He must know how easy it is to counter.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t rely on my ranged attacks either, since he might have found a way to reflect them.

  But no, I need to consider the other Players here as well.

  Adam was in a stone hallway. It was lit from above by a bright yellow gem embedded in the ceiling. Further down were tall statues of stoic Elphin warriors holding swords and spears.

  He tried to move forward, but felt a boundary barrier in the way.

  Before he could ask Shitbox to remove it, the tesseract announced the objective.

  < < Stage Objective > >

  < Claim the Altar before the timer runs out >

  It was clear the 30-minute timer hadn’t actually started yet, since otherwise most of it would’ve been exhausted by the journey down the steps.

  [The Stage will begin in 30 seconds.]

  “What about the other Players?” Adam asked. “Do I have to fight them!?”

  [Only 1 Player may claim the Altar.]

  “What happens if I claim it, but don’t kill anyone?”

  [Once the Altar is claimed, other Players will perish.]

  Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  It was the worst-case scenario. Only one person would be leaving alive no matter what.

  “So, it’s a race to the Altar?”

  [Yes. However, if there are other Players remaining, claiming the Altar takes 5 minutes.]

  “Are there any bosses and enemies to fight?”

  [I cannot say.]

  That probably means there will still be enemies. Great…

  Adam took a deep breath and tried to think about this more rationally.

  “Can I loot other Player’s Relics?”

  [If you are responsible for their deaths or if their killer is dead, yes.]

  If I’m willing to overlook murdering other people, there’s a potential windfall to be made here.

  All but one of us is guaranteed to die, so I may as well make the best of other Players’ deaths.

  In the end, if someone beats the Trials, those that died along the way will return to life, so it isn’t actual death…

  He sighed.

  Can’t believe I’m trying to justify murder.

  There is no other choice though. It’s kill or be killed.

  Adam hadn’t looked at the other Players, so he didn’t know what to expect.

  I’ll keep my Fiendbarb attached for now. Anyone who isn’t covered in armour will be easy to deal with.

  [Begin.]

  The boundary vanished and Adam was able to take a step forward.

  Immediately, one of the statues, a tall Elphin with a sword, took a step down from its plinth.

  Ah shit.

  Adam unequipped the Fiendbarb with a mental prompt and it dropped to the ground. Then he sprinted towards the statue before it could take the initiative.

  The stone Elphin turned around to face him, just as he shot forward and drove his spear into its neck. With a loud crack the head broke off the statue and struck the floor behind it, shattering on impact.

  It swung back at him despite missing its head and Adam only barely leaned out of the way of its sword.

  Shit! It’s gotta be another elemental, which means there’s a core somewhere…

  The statue swung again and Adam flung his shield out in a parry, momentarily disorienting it. A glowing-red dot appeared in the middle of its torso.

  I forgot about the weak-point effect of my vambrace!

  Adam didn’t waste a second and drove his spear into the red dot. His spear sheared through the stone statue and struck something that sounded like glass when it broke. An instant later the entire statue turned to sand. Amongst the tiny granules lay the fragments of a hollow glass ball.

  “That was an elemental, right?” he asked Shitbox, while looking down at the remains.

  [Correct. This was a type of Elemental called a Statue Elemental.]

  Seems it only has one core, like the blood elementals from Stage Three.

  Adam sighed.

  My Fiendbarb is going to be useless here, alongside my Slime Glove and Bolt Ring…

  Maybe I should’ve invested more into upgrades instead of Relics.

  He returned to pick up the Weapon Relic before continuing down the hallway. It wasn’t difficult to equip and unequip the Fiendbarb, so he kept it on just in case.

  Even if Ilya knows how to counter the Fiendbarb, he doesn’t know how it works with the Blood Bolt. If I combo it with Fateful Strike and my Spring Boots, I can produce an explosion that he won’t be able to survive.

  The end of the hallway was a 90-degree corner to the right and Adam continued delving deeper, while keeping an eye on the many Elphin Statues lining the walls. He realised that revealing the statue’s true nature at the start was a deliberate move to slow him and the other Players down, since they’d suspect every statue on their way to the Altar.

  Adam ran his eyes over the ones he passed by, trying to see if there was anything that stood out or not. They were all sculptures of the same male Elphin rendered in exquisite detail and no matter what weapon they held, each was identical.

  He followed another corner, this one going left. More statues lined the walls. As he walked past them, he noticed something creepy.

  One of the statues was tracking him with its engraved eyes.

  Adam immediately hopped back a step as it swung its sword at his head. He unequipped the Fiendbarb and shot forward, striking it right in the middle of its torso.

  The statue stumbled back a step and bits of its stone body crumbled where it’d been struck, revealing its glass core. Before it could recover, he stabbed it in the same point again, driving his spear-tip through the glass ball and turning the statue to sand.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  All my speed upgrades are actually quite effective. I guess speed increases the impact of my strikes, in turn making them better at penetrating.

  I just didn’t notice because of the Fiendbarb.

  Just as he turned around, another statue stepped down from its plinth. This one was wielding a spear.

  Adam didn’t even give it the chance to attack. Two precise stabs to its chest and it became sand like the other one.

  He picked up and equipped the Weapon Relic, then he continued.

  After wandering through snaking hallways and fighting three more statues, Adam finally reached an open chamber. It was shaped like a rectangular box and there were only a few statues within, one on either side of every tunnel mouth.

  Five tunnels connected to it and for a second he thought that this was where the Altar was located. Then he looked around some more and realised this couldn’t be it. There was a hallway entrance in the wall directly opposite him and three more at the other end of the room.

  The walls were carved with symbols and strange depictions of rituals and events. In the centre of the room was a large stone coffin. It too was covered in carvings. One of the depicted events showed what he guessed were past champions fighting over some kind of podium made of waist-high pillars. Another showed a tall woman handing some kind of fruit to small people standing at the foot of a great tree.

  He went through the room, scanning the engravings and tunnel entrances. Suddenly the sound of running came from behind him. He spun around just in time to see someone enter the chamber from the tunnel directly opposite the one he’d come through.

  The other Player paused when she saw him. From behind her came the sound of at least two statues chasing after her.

  She was wielding a rapier like Kate who’d told him about the Slime Glove, as well as a small parry dagger. Her skin was pale with freckles and her frizzled hair was auburn. She also wore large round glasses.

  Before she could attack him, Adam lunged forward and drove his spear into her unprotected neck. The effect of the Fiendbarb was immediate and her skin and flesh crackled as it crystallised.

  The woman dropped to the floor and the impact shattered her neck.

  Adam stumbled back a step, on the verge of throwing up. Just then two statue elementals appeared in the tunnel opening. They trampled the dead woman in their attempt to get to him and he back-pedalled quickly to avoid the thrusts of their spears.

  Before they could push him up against a wall, Adam moved forward and parried one, then lunged with his spear at the other. He struck it twice in the torso to reveal and break the core, then he spun around and rammed his spear through the red weak-point visible on the first.

  His pulse throbbed in his temples like a jackhammer and he felt as though he had to throw up. A mixture of stress, guilt, and relief roiled around in his stomach.

  I need to check what she had.

  As Adam went back over to the Player, he kept his ears piqued for others coming down the three hallways behind him.

  He tried not to look at her shattered neck and the terrified expression on her severed head, focusing instead on what Relics she’d been using. There was a ring on her right hand, as well as the Tainted Bracer on her forearm. Her sweater and jeans were covered with the familiar Bone Armour from Stage Two, and she had a Potion Belt looped around her waist. There was a red and a green potion inside it.

  “Can you tell me what Relics she has?” Adam asked Shitbox. “Also, can I unequip it without having to touch her…?”

  [Of course. You may take any looted Relic through verbal command or mental prompt.]

  [When looking at a lootable corpse, you may utter the command ‘Loot’ to receive a list of Relics available to take.]

  Thank God I don’t have to actually touch her.

  “Loot.”

  < < Loot -— Charlotte Hayes > >

  < Captain’s Cape (Rare) >

  < Bone Armour (Uncommon) >

  < Tainted Bracer (Uncommon) >

  < Potion Belt (Uncommon) >

  < Committed Attack Ring (Uncommon) >

  Oh, I didn’t even notice the cape.

  I can’t wear the ring without swapping either my Bolt Ring or Slime Glove, and the armour is worse than what I’m already wearing.

  “I’ll take the cape, belt, and bracer.”

  [Understood.]

  The belt with the two potions appeared around Adam’s waist, replacing his original belt; the cape looped around his neck and hung down his back; and the bracer strapped itself to his left forearm.

  And just like that, I have almost filled out all potential Relic slots…

  All it took was killing another Player.

  Another person…

  He sighed and left the dead body behind.

  The first tunnel he followed from the chamber led to a dead end with three statue elementals, which he quickly dispatched. The 25% increased attack speed from the Captain’s Cape was immediately noticeable. He had a sneaking suspicion that the way its effect was added to his existing spear speed was multiplicative, greatly increasing its effect. With the increased attack speed came increased damage, and he was sometimes killing the statues with a single strike when his form was on point.

  After returning to the chamber with the dead Player again, he went down the middle hallway, which led to a smaller chamber with a stone chest and two other connecting tunnels. It had already been looted however and the remnants of two dead elementals pointed to the looter having gone down one of the hallways.

  Adam followed this one until he reached a large oval chamber. Inside were more dead statues and signs of fighting. A large pillar took up the middle of the room and there were raised stone coffins placed near the walls.

  Whoever had gone through here had destroyed all the statues, even though most clearly weren’t elementals. It wasn’t a bad strategy though.

  He wandered through the room, trying to figure out who he was following. There weren’t any sounds coming from up ahead, which was strange. There should be at least two other Players still alive and one of them had to be Ilya.

  Adam stopped as he reached the large pillar and saw what was engraved on it.

  Eyes. Countless drawings of the same thing, but rendered in slightly different ways with every repetition.

  As he took a step back, he saw that all the eyes, when viewed from the front of the pillar, came together to form a large iris with a serpentine slit in the middle.

  < < Stage Alert > >

  < Player Lee Hyong has claimed the Altar >

  Adam jumped in surprise at the announcement.

  That was quick!

  He was about to run through the oval room, when he heard the scrape of a boot on the floor behind him. Without even thinking, he threw himself to the side, just as something struck the stone pillar loudly.

  Adam landed in a roll, realising that the thing that’d struck the pillar had gone right through his cape. It had happened so fast that there could only be one explanation.

  The Blink Ring!

  He hurried around behind the pillar, just as a projectile struck the floor and another went wide, hitting the back wall. Adam knew from experience how difficult it was to aim while using the Blink Ring, especially if the target was moving. But his opponent wasn’t an amateur. He’d tried to predict Adam’s movements, even if he’d guessed wrong.

  Adam finally looked at one of the projectiles.

  It was a spear.

  A loud thud came from the pillar’s other side.

  And another.

  How many fucking spears does he have to throw!?

  Adam pulled his cape off and swung it out to the side of the pillar. A hole immediately appeared in its fabric and a spear appeared down at the far end.

  Fuck!

  Man, Blink Ring is no joke. Why the hell is that only an Uncommon Relic!?

  “Ilya! I know it’s you!”

  Another spear struck the pillar.

  Is he trying to destroy it??

  “I really didn’t think you would be hiding, Adam,” Ilya said. He sounded disappointed.

  “What do you expect!? You cheated! You knew I’d be here with you from the start! That’s why you wanted to know what Relics I had!”

  “She will tell me how to see the future if I kill you,” Ilya replied.

  A spear suddenly struck the floor next to the pillar.

  That’s 8 spears he’s thrown now. Does he have any more?

  “Mórrígan is lying to you!” Adam yelled. “She can’t see the future!”

  “You’re wrong!” Ilya shouted.

  “She’s just using you to get to me! Can’t you see that!?”

  Ilya laughed. “Why would she care about you?”

  “Because she can’t control me like the rest! She wants to control everything and everyone! She killed Lenard to get to me! She’ll kill you too!”

  There was a long stretch of silence until an announcement went out.

  < < Stage Alert > >

  < Player Marcus Doyle has claimed the Altar >

  Adam quickly poked his head out and saw Ilya standing ten metres away. It was obvious he’d hidden behind a coffin when Adam entered. No doubt it was Mórrígan who’d told him where they’d meet.

  Ilya looked different than when he’d seen him on the stairs going down, because he now wore the Tainted Helmet from the last Stage. Aside from the helmet, he had the same robes as Adam and there was a ring on each of his hands. He didn’t have any special boots, just normal shoes.

  He had one spear left in his hand, but he threw it as soon as their eyes met. It instantly struck a pane of blood in front of Adam’s face, before deflecting into the pillar where it got stuck like the rest.

  Fuck, that was close!

  But he’s out of weapons now!

  Adam went around the pillar and triggered his Spring Boots, shooting himself forward. At the same time he fired the blood bolt at Ilya. It exploded and showered him in shards, while also pushing him back with its shockwave.

  Got him!

  Then something attached to Ilya’s hip turned into dust and the fragments all popped out of his body, having done no significant harm.

  How is he still alive!?

  He has to have had something like the Affliction Ward!

  Adam landed a few steps from Ilya and immediately dropped the Fiendbarb to the ground, before surging forward. He could see the Russian’s eyes through his helmet.

  Ilya lifted his hand in front of himself as a last defence, no doubt regretting throwing all his weapons away.

  Then he clenched his fist and closed his eyes in a blink.

  Adam cried out as he was immediately speared by nine different projectiles, stopping him abruptly only a single step away from Ilya.

  [Warning! Health below 5%. You are close to dying.]

  [You have been afflicted with Taint. Stamina recovery reduced by 50%.]

  [You have been afflicted with Venom. Speed slowed by 30%.]

  [You have been afflicted with Bleed. Receiving 40 damage per second.]

  The spear dropped from Adam’s grip, but he managed to shoot off the glob of acid from his right hand, just as he collapsed face-down on the floor.

  Ilya screamed as the slime struck his leg and began devouring him.

  [Small Healing Potion consumed automatically! Recovering Health back to 41%.]

  Adam felt the healing effects from the potion that’d been in the belt he’d looted, but then the wounds on his body throbbed and blood rushed out of him eagerly.

  [Warning! Health below 5%. You are close to dying.]

  Ilya continued to scream nearby, but Adam couldn’t see him.

  His wounds throbbed again.

  Then everything went dark.