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The Portal Games

Arena 3, Episode 2

Black Chaos

"Fffffff - fine. Fine. You know what, fine." Ailsa waved. "Alright. Fast as we can!"

The rest of the team fell in step behind her, most of them panting from the heat as they charged behind the giant sled-sail that the other team had put together. They were no longer in the lead, but they were not going to fall behind and give up. Not now, not ever.

"Options! Jaden! Spirit-talk!"

"Not - ugh - they didn't - ah - say - ah - much!" the orca shouted back, sounding like he was having a hard time breathing. No surprise; he was as drained as she was, and he wasn't a trained soldier. "Demons...not wanted...in city."

"Not wanted, or not allowed?"

"Nnngh...not...not wanted. Eastern road...safer for demons..."

"Tarin!" Ailsa shouted.

"Veer right!"

"Right it is!"

She could already guess how the other team was going to play this. More than likely, they'd drop most of their people inside the city, and have one of them swing the sled around, taking it north and around to the other side to pick them up. If that was the case, she needed everyone that she could drag along for whatever happened at the challenge point. If she could outnumber them there, then they had a chance. If she could just fucking get there first...

They needed those collars. She and Jaden were suffering most, but Sanmer wasn't doing too well either, and Tarin was only doing well because of the demon he was carrying around. Everything else was just fucked. Fucked.

But if they could get the collars...

"Anything else? Anyone else got something?" she said as they followed the ring of the ruined city around to the east.

"Something...the demon does know something," Tarin called out.

"And what the fuck's that?!"

"The center of the city. It's not just where they keep the collars. It's also an arena."

"...What kind of arena?"

Whoopsie Daisies[/i]

"Fuck if I get it, but Hellaxe says that it's a big one, and the kind that two men enter, one man leaves." Sergino grunted as he pulled the levers and ropes that connected to the ice box. "And I want in."

"You're staying in the ice box, Mr. Sergino," Isabella said. "We need you piloting this thing. If we can get there first, then we have an advantage."

"Hmmph."

"You're going to listen, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Thank you. Thank you."

The rest of the team were right on the edge of the sled, weighing it down so that it didn't flip over as they turned around the ruined city. The wind was still blowing well enough to keep them moving, but once they were around the city, there would be no coming back. Not without risking the sled proper. They would need to hop off and hope that Sergino was able to wait for them on the other side.

As Isabella ran up to join the others, however, Sergino tossed the axe out. The slavering blade landed with a thump on the deck.

"One of you take it. You are going to need it."

"I'll take care of it, honey."

Sarah picked it up, and the T-Rex looked the mouthy part right in the eye. It glared at her, and she glared back.

"You want a bite?"

It rumbled in her hand, almost seeming to nod.

"Alright. One. And I get you for the next hour."

"..."

"Your choice, chomper."

"..." It clicked its metal jaws with a nod.

"Good. Isabella? Cover your ears."

The pangolin wasn't happy, but did as she was told. Sarah held the axe to the tip of her tail and pinched her eyes shut.

Black Chaos

They were exhausted by the time they reached the eastern road, but at least the shade kept the worst of the heat at bay. The moisture in the air was nonexistent, so the shade actually did make a difference. Ailsa slumped against the building, as did Jaden, almost dropping the knife.

"Maybe I should take that," Tarin said.

The orca pulled his hand further from the black-furred deer, shaking his head. Despite his exhaustion, Jaden managed a surprisingly firm glare.

"Not...a chance...in hell."

"It was just an offer."

"Maybe...but I doubt it."

Tarin shrugged, stepping around the exhausted orca. He leaned down, whispering to the stingray.

"He's getting more and more paranoid. We might want to watch that..."

Meanwhile, Sanmer all but flopped on his back, the white-furred fox groaning as his plant leaned over him. One of the petals that had formed at the tip of the vines dragged itself over his head and down his cheek, almost like a concerned dog licking its master. The white fox shook his head.

"That...was...insane," he muttered. "There's never any chance to look at things. I mean, the whole point of an expedition is to...to..."

"Yes?" Lykus grunted.

"Too tired. Need water."

As the team looked at their water supply - barely sufficient for them to not pass out - Ailsa looked down the road. Unlike the others they'd passed, this one had a straight line right to the city center. It was bordered on either side by buildings that ranged from deep sandstone tan to a dark red, the latter almost pulsing. The air spun and twisted with the energy of wind spirits, so vibrant and thick that it was impossible for anyone to miss them, even the stingray.

"I don't like a straightaway like this," Ailsa muttered.

"Me, neither." Tarin shook his head. "You trusted them rather easily."

"Jaden hasn't been wrong about the spirits yet."

"And yet, only one path remained for someone possessed by demons? And he has been strange ever since he started carrying that knife." The deer shook his head. "We might be better off just running. Maybe stealing their sled at the other end."

"Maybe...if we still had Mchumba," the stingray said, shaking her head. "I don't think the rest of us could pilot it."

"..."

"Sanmer!"

"What? What is it now?"

"I want a scan. Everything that you can get."

"Ugh...give me a second...please. I'm dying here."

"One-mississippi."

The white fox groaned, rolling over and pulling his scanner out. He remained flat on the sand, holding it out in the direction of the street as it beeped...and then beeped louder, and faster.

"...Sanmer, what's that mean?"

"...A lot of stuff in the way."

"Lovely," Ailsa muttered. "What kind of stuff?"

"Traps. A lot of them, buried under the sand."

"Anything else?"

"A few houses that are open to the street, some of 'em with caches."

"..." The stingray rubbed her forehead, biting back the curses that wanted to come flying free at the situation. But...she had to think of her team. No matter how much she wanted to fly into a rage or sit down and scream, she had to think of her team. "Sanmer, memorize which houses are safe. You and Lykus hit whatever caches look good, then give me the scanner. Jaden, you, me, and Tarin take the street and mark the safe paths. Best we can, we leave a trail for them to follow."

"I can do that," the orca said. "I mean...I'll do my best."

Tarin shook his head, but nobody said anything. Except Ailsa.

"Move out."

Whoopsie Daisies

The pangolin and her team leaped off the sled as soon as they hit the south-southwest road leading into the city. Even from the start, they knew that they were going to be having to take some turns, but better than wasting time to try and find a straighter road. Kotone and Glyn took point, while Isabella and Sarah kept up the rear. Sarah had the axe in hand while the pangolin nursed the bleeding wound at the T-Rex's tail.

"Mmmph. Sorries, sorries," the pangolin muttered. "I'm trying to fix it, but they don't want to listen."

"Well, the spirits probably think it's a deal," the T-Rex said. "I paid some flesh to get the axe to obey, so there's nothing to fix. Even scales and all that."

"That's mean."

"That's a bargain."

Further down the road, the well-rested timber wolf and mare moved fast. Glyn used his grappling hook gun to leapfrog down the edge of the street, moving from point to point as Kotone moved right down the middle of the road. The ninja trusted her ability to react in time if a trap were to trigger, while Glyn was staying to the edge of the road to see if there were any obvious trigger points to be seen.

It didn't take long before they reached their first trap.

Kotone felt the ground shift beneath her feet and immediately threw herself forward into a spinning roll. The mare's warning shout echoed down the street, and both Sarah and Isabella threw themselves sideways. Glyn saw the shimmer beneath the sand and spat out a curse -

WHOOSH!

A pair of fireballs shot down the road from the end of the street, launched from barely-seen rune-marks in the building ahead. If any of them had been in the way, they would have lost more than just their clothes...

Or at least, that's what it seemed like. Isabella watched the green fireball fade away as it left the city, cocking her head to the side.

"That...didn't look like fire," the pangolin said.

"Looked close enough for me," Sarah grunted, pushing herself up with the axe. "What else could it be?"

"I...don't know. Glyn? Did you see how it happened?" she shouted.

"Pressure plate and magic sigil. Double trigger."

"...Okay, let's be careful. Kotone? Can you keep going?"

"Yes. I can."

"Then keep moving!"

Black Chaos

The first cache ended up being a good haul. Sanmer had found a crate with sufficient water and food for twice their number, and they moved along while drinking as much as they could. Ailsa had point, while Tarin walked immediately behind her. Lykus followed after, with Jaden and Sanmer at the back.

The water apparently was doing the arctic fox some good, because he alternated between flirting with the orca - and keeping Jaden even more flustered and not talking about demons, for a change - and calling up to the stingray to ask for his scanner back.

"Not yet," she said.

"But there might be more out there. And this city is fascinating; it's ancient, but there's modern conveniences in some of these houses. Surely, that -"

"I need it for the traps."

"Always in a hurry..."

Ailsa shook her head, trying to keep her attention on the scanner. It was slowly taking on damage from the way that it had been handled in the past two arenas and from the number of times it had been jostled around. From the looks of things, it was down to about a quarter of the battery, and worse, the screen was cracked, and the cracks were in just the right spots to make it a little hard to be sure that she was seeing everything that she needed to see.

But it was useful, still, and combined with Tarin's monocle, they were picking up most of the dangers ahead. The deer's magic detection allowed them to find the trigger points for traps, and so far, they'd avoided any serious dangers.

So far.

The downside, of course, was that they were moving slow. Very slow. And they were struggling to make any real progress when most of the triggers were laid out in rows that forced one to walk in a circuitous path to avoid them. They'd walked straight left, then turned right, and right again, then left, and left again, like an endless queue that was slowly leading down the street.

Eventually, it was Sanmer that lost all patience with the slow pace, and the white fox groaned under the burning sun.

"I can't take it. Give me the scanner back!"

"Why?"

"I want to test something."

"Will it get us through this faster?"

"Maybe."

"Then no."

"...Fine. I'm testing it on my own, then."

Before anyone could stop him, the arctic fox took one step to the left, taking himself off the safe path and onto one of the trigger plates. He folded his hands behind his back, and waited.

He didn't have to wait long. The floor dropped out from under him, and the sand fell. The fox dropped through it, and was only saved by Lykus throwing himself to the side and grabbing Sanmer by the arms.

"You idiot!" the striped wolf shouted.

"Hey, I can touch the bottom!"

"Then why aren't you climbing out?!"

"Because, um...the bottom's trying to suck me in."

"Quicksand?" Ailsa asked.

"No, um...kinda...more alive than that..."

Everyone looked around the edge to see that the 'sand' at the bottom of the pit was slowly creeping up Sanmer's legs, smearing them with mud and sucking along his limbs as if trying to pull him further down. Lykus grunted, the wolf barely managing to maintain his grip.

Jaden dropped to his knees, pulling at the fox from the other side. Together, they were able to stop him falling further down, and even start to drag him out, but the oozing mud continued to climb, seeping between the fox's toes and sliding up his legs. By the time they pulled him free of the sucking slime, it was up to his thighs, and strands of it had rolled out to his cock and balls, sheathing him in a hardening muddy layer.

As they sat him on the sand, Sanmer looked at the damage. His knees could bend, if a bit slowly, and from the thighs down, he was completely covered in semi-solid mud, mud that was still shifting and moving on its own. His cock and balls were covered, and his ass cheeks were gripped in hands of enchanted earth.

"Okay, well, not the most ideal results -"

"Goddammit, Sanmer."

"Look, just listen. That was still viable. We could move on that if we had to. It's got a delay. Half a second. It's something."

"No more tests!" Ailsa said. "We have a safe way, and it's not taking that long. If we have to use that, we will, but for now...just stay in line."

Whoopsie Daisies

"Nngh...ah...ah..."

"Well, it was...heated, alright," Sarah said, shaking her head as the mare stumbled along behind them. "Do you think that it was always like that, or do you think our show-runner changed the magic?"

"Who knows?" Glyn asked. "But that puts a damper on things."

Isabella was trying to soothe the mare, but Kotone had been hit hard by one of the other fireballs that they'd run into. It wasn't even entirely her fault. It had been a double-turn, a little wiggle of a double-zig-zag. She'd dodged the first fireball, and the second, but the third had reflected off a mirror that she hadn't seen, and taken her from behind.

Thankfully, it hadn't done any physical damage, but the ninja was panting hard, and her bare body was sweating from a need that didn't have anything to do with the heat of the air around her. She hadn't started groping herself yet, but her body was putting out all kinds of signals pointing out how much she wanted to.

"Isabella? We need someone at the front!" Glyn said.

"I - coming!" The pangolin shook her head. "Are you going to be alright, Kotone?"

"As alright...mmmph...as I can be, mistress."

"Just...don't do anything stupid."

"I will not."

Nodding, the pangolin pushed forward. She was still clinging to hope. So far, they'd gotten through most of the traps without too much effort. Kotone had been a strong front-runner, someone that could push through the traps and dodge most of their effects, triggering them as she went and clearing the path for everyone else. It was bad luck that they'd lost her this close to the end.

Glyn waited for her at the next turn. The timber wolf nodded around the corner, and she joined him, peering down the sandy expanse. It was one last straightaway, and the arena, a raised platform with a circle of stone on the top, waited for them. The climate control collars were right there, waiting for them.

"How bad do you think this one's going to be?" she asked.

"From experience? Really bad."

"You want me to run it?"

"Heh...if I wanted to avoid it all, yes, but..."

"But what?"

"Let's be honest. I'm the one with experience in this. I should be the one to run it."

"So, what do you want me to do?" Isabella asked.

"Follow sideways and be ready to grab me if it goes horribly wrong."

"I'll try."

"That's all I ask."

Glyn moved carefully from the alley at the end of the street to the street center. The timber wolf relaxed his arms, shaking his head and breathing a bit faster than he obviously wanted to be. The end of the street and the challenge point was only a hundred feet away. It wasn't that far, really. But in that space, the tightly-packed buildings were just screaming 'traps'. The wolf took one more breath, limbering himself up.

"Times like this, I could really use a theme song," he muttered.

"Oh. Maybe we can ask Mr. Draconicons for that," Isabella said. "Mr. Draconicons?"

"Come on, there's no way -"

Da da-da da, da-da-da, da da-da da -

"No way..."

And as the Raiders theme began to play, Glyn's face slowly turned up into a bigger and bigger grin. The timber wolf nodded, pulled his grapple gun up, and bent forward to run.

"Watch me work."

The timber wolf lunged forward, and as he did, everything went to hell.

The buildings behind him exploded in net-launchers. The buildings at either side released gusts of wind to blow him either way. The earth opened up under him with sand traps to pull him in. Whistling whispers of feminine seduction whispered through the air.

And the timber wolf smiled.

With a laugh, he lunged through the succubi. With a twist and a grin, he leaped over the gaps in the ground. With a lucky shot of his grappling hook, he caught a house off to the side and swung forward, propelled by its retraction, and he did it all with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

As he turned the swing at the apex into a spinning jump, he saw over the platform, spotting the other team. They were still fifty feet out, but moving in an odd pattern back and forth. They saw him, and several just stared, wide-eyed.

"Ha ha ha!"

As the rest of the team watched, Glyn threw out his arms in triumph...

And landed flat on his face three feet away from the platform. A hat fell from the air, reminiscent of a certain artifact hunter, and landed on his head. The theme song cut off, and after a moment of silence, Glyn gave a thumbs up.

"Route's clear!" he called out.

"MOVE!" Sarah ordered, and even Isabella obeyed that.

Black Chaos

"Are they all insane or something?" Sanmer asked.

"Don't...even...go there," Ailsa said, shaking her head.

But seeing the wolf meant that the other side were very close to the challenge point. And they still had too much space to clear if they were going to get there first. The stingray looked at the traps still between them and the challenge point, and then back at Tarin.

"Think you can make it?" she asked.

"On the delayed pressure points? Perhaps."

"...Go for it."

If nothing else, they could stop it from getting any further out of hand. If nothing else, they could force a fight that would give them a fucking chance to turn this around.

Tarin nodded and broke from the group, leaping with those delicate hooves of his onto the trap panels that lined the side of the walkway. He ran with an elegance that belied whatever tiredness he had, darting forward with such focus and determination that one could almost forget that he was running along a rapidly-falling pathway. Ailsa shook her head, waving for the others to keep up.

They had the pattern down for the trap line. It was a giant queue, and she didn't need the scanner to see that anymore. She tossed it back to Sanmer with the order to tell her if it changed pattern and set off at a run. One of the two water bottles she'd gotten from the cache went all over her face, waking her up and cooling her off to be able to take it, and though her throat burned, she still pushed herself.

Ahead of them all, Tarin ran with his head down. Every so often, he felt a pulse through him, and he forced it back down. Not yet. Not yet.

Instead, he ran with all due speed, breathing slowly and evenly. His hooves clicked as he ran ahead, and he saw the arena getting closer...and closer.

Lykus fumbled with his cards, the striped wolf pulling two free. He didn't show what they were, nor say, but he was ready to use them if needed, it seemed. He hesitated, though, and pulled a third one free after a second. Sanmer cocked his eyebrow, but Lykus didn't explain. He just held them.

And at the back, barely keeping up with them, Jaden clenched his hand tighter around the dagger.

"No, no...don't do this...don't do this..."

Draconicon

The black dragon watched the show from his far-off, far more comfortable chambers. The race for the arena was on; Glyn had come close, but hadn't quite managed to hit the challenge point. As it stood, he was too dizzy to drag himself up and over the edge after that landing, but at least he'd managed to map out the route for the rest of the team, and set off most of the traps. He'd give the wolf credit for that. He was one hell of a showman, and worthy of the Indiana Jones hat.

On the other side, Black Chaos was working on the last of their stamina. If they didn't get this, then the aquatic species were going to need dragging along before much longer. Their extra water might just carry them through the day, but to move at any more than a walk after the sun went down, they would need far more than they had.

The deer was a fast runner, but the dragon knew he had some help. The possession from the space station had lent itself to some physical advantages for the deer, though it seemed that he was suppressing all but the most basic of them so far.

"Wonder if he'll be able to keep that up."

Sarah, Isabella, and Kotone were stumbling along at various speeds from the other side, with the T-Rex and Isabella pulling into the lead. On the other side, Tarin was nearly upon the challenge point.

"Almost there..."

He grinned as he ate another mouthful of popcorn, leaning back as the desperate challengers went for it. There were five collars, just five...but he wondered if the teams had figured out everything that there was to know about them just yet.

And then...

Three people leaped.

Two of them landed.

Both Teams

Sarah landed with the Hellaxe in hand, the shaft of it jammed through the five bands of the collars.

Tarin landed just across from her, the deer's hand punched through the bands, his demon eye blazing in defiance of the corrupted weapon.

And behind them both, the other teams were kept on the outer border of the arena, unable to enter, unable to help or join any fight. The edges of the arena, marked by the stone circle, lit up with a red light, shimmering with the droplets of blood on either side. The T-Rex shook her head, chuckling to herself.

"Well. Looks like it's you and me," she said. "Pretty sure that Sergino wishes he were me right now."

"..."

"And from what I'm guessing...you're thinking about using the demon's connection with the axe to make sure that my weapon doesn't work."

"...It was a consideration."

"Heh. I made my own deal, Tarin. I've still got some time before that contract runs out. But if you want to challenge that, go ahead. I've never tried arguing a case with a demon before."

Isabella thumped her fists against the barrier, but the pangolin couldn't get through. Black Chaos reached the barrier, but they couldn't pass it, either. It seemed that the challenge was struck by whoever reached it first, and whoever was in it when the other team landed. Sarah's tail swipe had taken Isabella out of the arena before she could be part of it, leaving it as a one on one, lawyer against 'agent', T-Rex against deer.

They both slowly stood up, circling the prize, looking down at each other, and outside, the two teams eyed one another up. The team leaders made plans, and the team members tried not to freak out...