When I awoke to, the once black clothes I had were replaced with a dark crimson red that felt warm and dripped down from my arrow chest wound. I felt like the wound should've killed me, as if a higher being watched me and documented my adventures and that was the sole reason why I was still alive. No one was here, hearing only the distant battle cries of monster and ally alike. Tearing the bolt away from my chest very painfully, I dropped down and looked at the door I tried to open. With the ease of no enemies and no fear of being shot through the chest with a crossbow, I picked the door and opened it ajar, there might be an enemy inside.
    Silence was inside the building, indicating no one else was here. Still realizing I was only in my undies, I needed to find my gear, fast. I took the door to the right and opened it into a crudely made bedroom. Inside was seemingly ordinary drawer, opening it with slim hopes of finding something valuable had actually paid off! Golden ring, as simple I could describe it, I slowly adorned it on my finger as if I was marrying someone with it. I instantly felt better and seemed to regenerate health, this was pretty good considering the other events...
     A chest in the room was the main attraction that lured my eyes and reeled them in. I realized I opened the chest without me noticing and OH MY GOD I'M FILTHY RICH! Gold! Gold! And more gold! I saw through my greedy eyes only shimmering gold and only gold. Imagine, all the fantasies I could live with this! After the ecstasy died down, I started to pity myself as underwear was the only loyal clothing I had left. But when there is a will there is a way. I started to stuff my undies with as much overflowing gold as possible, it felt REALLY cold like ice. This temporary feeling of icy freeze was going to be worth it though, I'm going to be rich!
    Of course, what's the point of gold if I'll never get out of here? I will never be able to enjoy the riches of having twenty pieces of gold if I didn't get of out here. " I AM SHAYMAN THE SHAWMAN!" A voice bellowed with great pride in it's tone right behind me. The proud shaman I saw earlier that only said this line was now with the assassin who has been in the pits before us for who knows long were now here. It turns out that we were pretty much the last guys left, all the others were hypnotized and became "friends" with the enemy. With our collective intellect, our best plan was to... run away. We knew there was absolutely no chance to fight an entire stronghold off with just the three of us.
    Don't worry, we'll come back some day... I tried to justify our actions of cowardly abandonment as I got my gear and fantasized about what riches I could afford with a thousand gold pieces. The best plan of action was to somehow take our wagon and scurry out of there, then we'll come back, it's a flawless plan! Sneaking out the door with silence, I looked up at the twenty foot wall imagining the freedom that would be other side. A quick peek in my pack revealed a grappling hook I had long forgotten left in there, it was a damn good thing I buy the most random stuff for such niche situations. The anchor flew up the twenty feet with no hesitation and quickly held on with its sharp claws, indicating our master plan was about to be executed.
    The air seemed to get a bit thinner with every heave of climbing, even though it was just twenty feet. It seemed the air was much cooler, with a nice gentle breeze that could calm even the most angriest of people. Never had I been so grateful for that breeze, after all, I was in fifteen foot deep pit for quite a while. The brown wooden platform gave a view of the entire stronghold, and in the corner of my eye, I saw the now hypnotized "friends" that one day would rescued valiantly by me. Dismissing my far out future plans, the shaman and assassin climbed quickly after me and headed near the catapult towards our "friends". Out of some desperate act of attention-seeking, they yelled that they wanted to be "friends" too. Not much later after their insane surrender, was me, the least qualified to be an adventurer was the sole survivor.
    Damn, why did I somehow become the last guy on our team who wasn't a "friend"? Screw this guys, after what all we've done, nearly save the entire kingdom, almost gain access to the most powerful armory in the world, and the last two guys on our team decided become "friends" with the attacking army out of the blue. In an act of impulse, and the desire to forget what happened here, and the needy desperation for freedom, I grabbed the pointed log walls and simply leaped over. Feeling rushing air, and landing down with a roll closing my eyes on to the soft soil and green grass. I opened my eyes and adjusted, spotting the glimmering mountains of where we teleported to the left, and the soft blue glow of the vast ocean, maybe I could start anew, I thought gripping the gold pouch.
    Maybe, that word was now shoved at the back of my brain, my body was also shoved back into the pit with everyone else. Although my brain temporally could not hold words after the werewolves that took our chest, now took me right after I was basking in the view of what could have been a new start. Sigh...

To be honest, we really did not expect our plan to go this smoothly and now have no idea on what to do next. Then again, what can you do when all but one of your allies is in a fifteen foot prison pit in a stronghold that's guarded? There was a shuffling noise that was in front of the grate, werewolves that seemed familiar somehow and demanded the "cowardly" cleric. He was taken out, the tone of the garbled speech made it seem to be an interrogation and thrown back into square one. I tasted a long piece of metal in my tongue,  I realized it was my lockpick! I climbed up the pit's steep walls up to the midday sun to reach the grates lock. Although I moved swiftly, the others were ahead of the game and opened my grate. Freedom!
    The Arsenal. Arsenal. Arsenal. The title of the most powerful weapon for the kingdom that could change the fate of history drilled into my mind, we must find it. When I already climbed out, a battle between us and the stronghold was in full force with everybody hitting someone or getting hit by everybody. So far, in my experiences of the events that happened, I'm pretty good at setting things on fire. And this was show soon after the cleric tossed me some flint and steel, a bottle of oil and let my instincts work it out. I violently shook the bottle of oil, flinging most of the black liquid around the corner of the nearest building. All it took for a blazing inferno was just a small spark of flint and steel. Air was suddenly replaced by a burning sensation called fire, and crept slowly but surely upwards engulfing the building and the poor sods inside.
    Me and the paladin ran down a tight alleyway between a building and a twenty foot tall wall  on the left, while simultaneously letting nearly the rest of my oil run down behind me. I could now only see the fighting silhouettes of both ally and enemy that were in front of the flames that followed behind me. There was a locked door on the building to the right. Our gear was somewhere, and it was probably inside somewhere. In front, two enemies with similar ideas to ours also decided to go down this alleyway as well, coming straight towards us! The paladin rushed in to defend me as I desperately picked at the lock to unlock it. Sharp pain pushed from my chest into my back. I dared to look down and saw a bolt firmly planted itself and warm liquid blood trickling down. I tried in vain to move, but I was impaled to the wall finally passing out.

Stomach pains was the thing that woke me up. A gentle breeze of fresh air and bleaching sunlight alerted me that I was no longer in the humid, dark cavern where an orphan's final resting place was. The outside finally felt nice, and eased my disgusted stomach and mouth, but not by a lot though. A familiar growl was heard nearby the foliage, it was the hermit's massive white wolf that always following him. The wolf strangely had the voice of the hermit, seeming that he was eaten by the wolf, but my fears were no longer to be feared as he was speaking to us telepathically.
    "Where's the Arsenal?" the hermit asked. Immediately all of us shut our mouths and only spoke silence. We attempted to tip-toe across the subject of what our quest in the first place was and instead fell off into the pool of awkwardness and eye-contact avoidance. One of us broke the ice by simply stating that we did not have it since it was stolen by werewolves. The hermit let out a sigh of disappointment and warned that if we did not obtain it soon, the attacking army would take over Avendale and later, the entire kingdom.
    The hermit, told us of the town Redstone nearby, destroyed and taken over by the attacking army, but not without the resistance of the town leaving the army with some casualties and some wounded. He soon left with our ranger and wizard, they were both having blank minds and empty stares. But he said not to worry, after tossing what seemed to be a transportation gem when they snapped out of non-conciousness.
    A plan needed to be hatched and it was luckily laid by the half-orc wizard who seemed the best at planning. He was extremely charismatic and even been able to befriend enemies of the attacking army, before backstabbing them. He said we could ambush the carts of wounded coming back to the stronghold that are barely guarded and take it to the stronghold, supposedly where the Arsenal was. We scouted out for the bandwagons, once spotted we set up ahead and prepared to take back what was ours.
    I set atop a tall tree by the trail feeling the fresh wind breezing my face instead of smoke and flames which I was used to see on the treeline. When the caravan passed the plan was executed. Three of us, walked and stopped right in the tracks of the bandwagon.The half-orc wizard hailed them saying that the people with him were prisoners, tricking the caravan. All of the rest of us turned away, letting the wizard conjure a blinding bright light destroying the vision of all who dared to look. The three carriages' drivers and guards forfeited their lives after they looked at the vison-destroying spell, being met by a barrage of fists, spells and arrows. Somehow, one of the carts caught on fire during the blitz. Not wanting to give away my position, I remembered the silent blow dart I owned and pulled it out. Each shot I did with it seemed to merely annoy those I shot, except for one wounded goblin in the cart died by the measly tiny prick of the dart.
    Parts of the caravan, guards, the wounded and drivers were strewn everywhere mixed in with chaos and inferno fires. It finally seemed a plan that had actually gone well! Or so I thought. A small brown flying glob that was barely over the horizon was spotted by my eyes. It was something unmistakable to me, A wyvern. A small green goblin sat atop of the wyvern commanding the wyvern because he was his master. I slinked down deeper into the tree to hide in the foliage and not grabbed by its powerful predator talons. Crap, the rest of the team was taking one of the wagons without me! I couldn't simply jump down thirty feet breaking my ankles and start dashing for the fear of falling a hundred feet more because of the wyvern. I stayed in the tree longer, for the sliver of hope that the rest of the team would come back for their talented rogue.
    The entirety of what was left of the caravan was now set ablaze, coming dangerously close to the surrounding forest. Melting colours of orange, yellow and red clashed with each other, but there was one that I feared the most, grey. The translucent grey smoke rose above into the blue sky, now the attacking army was most certainly alerted to the contrasting smoke, Now I realized why the wyvern was flying low to the ground, searching for prey. I had another realization seeing the wind brush the leaves, making the smoke come towards me! A stinging pained managed to grab my eyes and choke my lungs of their fresh air. At the same time, I could feel the air whoosh knowing that the wyvern was nearby, I barely managed to not make a cough. But the wizard did.
    The damn wizard coughed right beneath my tree, but something was amiss with him. He took off every single possession and clothing and ditched it and ran, far. The wyvern immediately landed down near the tree, at least it didn't spot me. The wizard, embracing the joys of being naked, casted a magic missile on himself and the goblin that commanded the wyvern, knocking himself out and killing the wyvern's master. The monk ran out of the carriage and tried to help the suddenly suicidal wizard, to be picked up in a snatch by the wyvern and flown away. Just seeing one of my teammates face a near-certain death, I decided to stay in the tree, there was no opportunity to run to the safety of the team.
    Hearing only the forest's nature and fires that will soon swallow nature's sound, I chose to silently go down the tree picking up the only possessions of the spaztic wizard. Another teammate, the fighter decided to follow the footstep's of the monk and charged directly at the wyvern. He got picked up too. I saw the chaos and smoke that alerted the attacking army, I attempted to set my tree on fire to destroy evidence of the events but there was no kindling to start it. Knowing my only chance to run to my allies since the wyvern was distracted is now. I turned my back, filled with adrenaline to start dashing. Instead of that, there was a wyvern. Even before I could set a foot ahead, three slashes of pain slapped the front of my body, I felt like dying again. But this was weird, It wasn't even a fatal injury, I could just feel the life in my body faint away and fall asleep forever.
    A jolt combined with a rotton wooden floor woke me up again. I pondered on how many times I have cheated death so far. I got up, stripped of all my belongings in the carraige with my allies. I dare not to ask how I was still alive, for the fear of jinxing it. Yet another plan was deviously hatched by the half-orc wizard. All of us were to empty all of our belongings to look like prisoners except for a lockpick I kept under my tongue. The orc-wizard was going to be part of the "attacking army" saying that he captured us and get us into the stronghold. The carriage stopped and the wizard faked it saying that he got prisoners for the stronghold, with our authentic looks of prisoners we tricked them. We were lead into the stronghold, and spotted the Arsenal! We were so close, but so far I thought as we were tossed down a deep prison pit.

Time shifted in and out of random paces, bright white lights engulfed my vision exchanged with pitch black darkness made sure I could see nothing. I felt my entire soul exhume itself as life in my body extinguished, I could see what happened outside my body. My soul totally invisible, floating above and could not alert any of the others of what happened. I watched my limp and doll-like body picked up by a hill giant that burst open through the door of the golden-glowing room as if I were only a chew-toy to it.
    I cringed and winced as the hill giant took a huge chomp out on my lower body, blue alien liquid came out- wait a minute... I always knew I had the regular blood of a half-elf, right? Was I something completely different, something I should not have been? The whole scene of what was happening started to stretch- literally. As if the unfolding scenes were drawings in a piece of paper. Slowly my legs felt a tug of pressure, pulling away from the paper that was surrounded by ominous pitch-black nothing. Not even a little resistance could be put up by me as nothing existed at all. Nothing. But a small, wheezy breath was heard and slowly grew in volume.
    A prickling feeling came as is I had been reincarnated, but this body is so similar to my old one... I struggled in a bound position on the ground tired and tied by what seemed to be the doppelganger who went on an orphan rampage killing. The ropes were seemingly tied poorly and in a rush resulting in a quick release from them. It seemed that I was in a cavern again, similar to the one before. I crawled to the wet puddle showing off its glowing reflection. I stared into the puddle intently, seeing any reflection to indicate who I was. Me. Exactly the same before, realizing I was in the same cavern even!
    I saw all of my allies in that golden room with the aftermath of my doppelganger, a hill giant and some dead orphans. I needed to tell them of the murderous doppelganger without being brutally murdered over again. I decided to approach the situation like any logical person.
    "HEY GUYS I'M ALIVE I WAS TIED UP AND DITCHED BY MY A DOPPELGANGER WIZARD AND NOT AN ORPHAN KILLING MACHINE, THAT WAS MY DOPPELGANGER WHO WAS AN ORPHAN TERMINATOR BUT I'M NOT ONE OKAY SO DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!"
    This speech was surprisingly effective as they shrugged their shoulders and continued to fight the hill giant. The half-orc wizard stood by me distrusting me and inspecting me with his sword. However, this was no regular sword... It was a talking sword! Ted, was his name and he said I was the real Mordecai, speaking the truth and not your average orphan rampage killer. The other wizard shoved some potions that were of brown colour. He told me to drink them since I was parched. I was actually really thirsty at this point and started chugging both of them for the anticipation of hydration, oh man I did not expect what would happen next.
    My stomach was the first thing to warn me of oncoming poison. It contracted to an insane amount causing massive pain already making me fall to the ground vomiting and my body in a mass panic started to excrete out of every single orifice. My tongue was a battlefield long inhabitable and brown, permanently. I layed in a prone position seeing the wizard's eyes of psychopathy and no mercy. He pulled out even more potions of horrendous torture, pain and humiliation. Please, no more. I fought as hard as I could and at least stopped the mad man from feeding more potions. I may have won the battle, but he won the war as I could no longer cope with life and decided to pass out.

Stunned and prone, that's what my body currently was after a devastating blow by that traitorous monk that I once thought was cool. Laying in pain with my eyes closed but the shimmering gold glow from the bright and wet cavern shined through them. My hair then caught my attention, I realized though, strand by strand of hair ripped from its precious head screaming at me to immediately stop the source of pain. But my arms were already tired and my will could not muster them to command. I was being dragged away!
    Through the narrow caverns the floor dragged and scratched my legs. No matter how much pleading and resistance I could give, nothing stopped the mysterious figure that dragged me away from the monsters I so desperately needed to kill. I needed to know who or what was making my skin rip apart with the floor. Slowly turning my neck in anticipation, it was exactly who I thought it was. The monk!
    Nearly giving up my body soon felt more damp and Less and less light and more darkness as I could no longer open my eyes. A sudden shift of balance and the empty space appeared behind me. Gravity forced me down onto a puddle and changing my perspective directly toward onto the ceiling. Slowly, the idea of freedom drenched my mind, feeling the ecstasy of being free! My donkey loyally followed behind me as I recovered the hair from my head that would never be the same again. Leaping on my donkey valiantly, knowing I must defeat the enemy.
    Time slowed down the moment I spotted the children, my heart paced down to a snail's. I must do this. CHARGE!!! I rode my donkey as fast as possible through one of those monsters bellowing a yell that would make the gods proud. A blood curdling scream emerged from one as his lungs were punctured and forced air throughout the throat. I could hear its small bones crunch and muscles struggle over the mighty power of my brave little donkey. He breathed his last breath finally, feeling like I completed my life goal.
    CRACK!!! I had pain resonate through my skull ringing my vision and balance. But surprisingly I felt strangely calm, like nothing mattered at all. My life's purpose was complete. I let the mysterious figures maim me, slamming something heavy shaped square on my jaw. I felt the last of the life on my body disappear suddenly, but calmly.

My body awoke as if I had been in a slumber for aeons. I could barely remember the acid burning flesh right off my body. Slowly moving my body all knowing it went to hell and beyond, expecting to wince in pain. No pain whatsoever happened as if an angel gave me ambrosia. My eyes curiously opened.
    Midgets. Midget was the first thought that came up in the dark and cold cavern I had awoken in. All my blood boiled so hard as I saw them surround my allies and friends. Damn those abominations to hell! My skin was seething red and steam came out of my ears. I wished and prayed more than a priest for lightning to strike fear and death into them.
    Prayers were answered as my devoted loyal donkey appeared. Even though I've never ridden him before, I mounted him perfectly as my sights were set on those monsters. We valiantly charged in battle to save the only allies I have towards those things. Unbeknownst of me, the figure whose shape I could not recognize in the darkness put a stick in front of me. What was she doing! I thought before crashing passing out yet again, this time I was left to the mercy of the midgets.
    Even though my eyes were closed, I could see the glowing of something yellow, maybe gold even. Just one more time I opened my eyes. There they are, those animals. In a blinding rage I tackled one of them and was about to yell a voice that came deep from the soul and bellow from the bottom of my body. As the adrenaline was about to make my vocal cords tear themselves apart, the monk quickly grabbed my throat and threw me aside, traitor.

At the crack of dawn we set our horses and ourselves onwards to find the Arsenal. We trotted slowly and quietly through the once alive but now burnt forest and our battlefield to search for any clues of the ruthless were-wolves that took one on the Citadel's most prized possession. On the battlefield, one of the rangers spotted the tracks of the were-wolves which were deeper than the others showing signs of something heavy they were carrying, along with a lot of blood at the scene which was apparently mine and the bits and pieces of my donkey!
    We followed the tracks which led to the first town that was abandoned after the raid on it. It all seemed so quiet, Way too quiet. Another eagle named Bastard the II was summoned to scout out the town, but first pooping on the ranger's arm for avenging it's predecessor. Reports came back that the town was completely dead. A small team of us were first sent to see if anything would cause great trouble to us if we all came. The assassin spotted a kobold passed out inside from a house from partying too hard from the spoils of battle. Two quick slashes of his scythe and the problem was solved. A door became ajar as an old wizard nonchalantly popped out yawning. A voice yelled asking if he was part of attacking the town. Tired, the wizard just said yes.
    This prompted three our our guys to attack him, but all of them missed miserably without him even moving an inch. He seemed so confident of himself, He was a big threat seemingly doing nothing as three people tried to take him on. I charged at this wizard with my horse at full speed in order to trample him, But I too missed and paid dearly by crashing through!
    I felt a heavy breath on me as my body lay on glass, wood, and steel. My head turned around and saw an eye as big as my own head open wide and stare at me. It was no doubt that this was a dragon. It felt surreal to suddenly have a dragon thrusted into my face. slowly, I unsheathed my rapier and stabbed its eye, the eyebrow, specifically. All I felt next was a burning sensation all over my body.

A coat of pain covered my entire body was regaining conscious, starting to regret it as it rocked to and fro. All joints retaliated against me by refusing to work properly. Every fiber of my being wanted to scream out in pain, but alas it had no mouth. I could only feel my pain and nothing else with no input from the outside of the world.
    My body tensed up as I could feel sudden air rushing on the bottom side of me where ground used to lay. A loud CRACK was both felt and heard on my skull. I could feel the cognition of myself deteriorate and slip further away. The first function to go was thinking coherent sentences, only vowels and verbs remained, the rest were casted away only to be used for the intelligent. Another unexpected skull crack caused extreme muscle control loss and all loss of speech.
    DONKEY. MOON-WOLF. TOWN. JAIL. Those are the only things I could try to remember since arriving in Arendale. Our party arrived at the tall gates of one of the last frontiers before the kingdom would completely fall. It seemed very suspicious that we were scouting for the attacking army since we were complete strangers demanding to enter. All of us were immediately thrown in jail, with me still retarded and half-dead.
    My cognition and body were put back together by a healing spell, like a puzzle that had been smashed and hastily glued again passing off as "completed". Before any plan could be hatched by the remnants of the Citadel, a wizard tried to grill as much information from us. She deemed we were not a threat anymore, or anytime soon. The wizard is the daughter of the mayor of Arendale, and he too was a graduate of the Citadel but now too old and fat to help defend. She asked us to help defend Arendale as the "soldiers" were the smith, baker, farmer and some other peasants, pity was hinted to them.
    The wizard asked if we had "The Arsenal", which was the Citadel's most prized treasure. It contained the most powerful weapons known to the realm to defend against evil and those who wielded it. Explaining the loss of it was no easy thing to do to her. She lost it, a torrent of how we failed the Citadel and the kingdom by being idiots and losing the only thing that could've saved us.
    The Arsenal was taken by were-wolves while we were on the way to Arendale, But I could barely recall this as at the time I was retarded. We needed a plan to take it back. At the time, it was already hours since the wolves had taken our only hope and long gone then. Our vague plan was to track them down and take what was rightfully ours.
    Our wizard sold my VERY valuable gem to a merchant without me realizing for some stupid potions. This caused an outrage to burst from me and yell at him for being such a dolt. Another man who owned some stables offered to let us rent some of the horses for 100 gold. Me being already in a storming mood blew up in his face. This situation is a matter of life or death! Gold doesn't matter at all when your dead! We needed all help possible to get the Arsenal. A good yelling at him convinced him and he was enlightened. Free horses were given for compensation for him being to greedy and stupid.
    We slept uneasily, knowing every second we sleep the wolves are getting away.

My mind went blank and dark as reality set it's eyes and targeted me. The Hermit snapped open my mind by telling us of our current options. We could go back to the Citadel and burn the instant we arrive, stay with the hermit until the end of our lives or go to the towns. There are two towns, the first one might be under attack at this very moment. Arendale, the second town, is poorly defended and might be attacked soon.
    Considering our skills as a team, Going back to the Citadel was suicide and crossed off the list. Living with the Hermit would not be fun at all. We were stuck with two options, going to the first town, or to Arendale. An eagle named Bastard was summoned by our Ranger to scout ahead of us to see what remains of the first town. An elemental created by our wizard to do the same task to make sure we could get information. With no choice but to trudge down the mountain we hope to warn Arendale of their impending doom.
    As mountain became trees, and trees became forest. The eagle that had been sent was nowhere to be seen. Afraid it was shot down, we continued through the forest which soon became covered in webs. White webs covered every single spot of the forest, giving a surreal look of nature taking the forest for it's own. A small cry for help became increasing with volume with every step we took. A figure wrapped around a tree with webs struggled to breath and escape. We started to help this unfortunate soul before he became part of the spider food chain. Of course, spiders don't like their food taken away. Surrounded by spiders we were forced to fight back. I slayed one using my bow after shooting it three times, barely getting bitten since one spider spit it's web at my legs getting them stuck!. Even though I'm not that good at fighting, the wizard had the short-end of the stick. Swinging his mighty axe overhead at the same spider, he slammed it into the ground not once, not twice, but a whopping three times...
    Once all the spiders were eradicated, I freed myself from the webs on my legs that prevented movement and nearly got my face eaten off. We failed our objective that got us fighting spiders in the first place, as the man after the fight was sickly green bloated and most of all, dead. His body had nearly two-hundred gold giving the clue that he was a merchant. He didn't need the gold anymore, it would be a waste if we did not take them.
    Once the adrenaline had died down, we had absolutely no clue where to go. The webs blocked any vision to see the sky. I had the brilliant idea to climb the tree which once had the merchant. Slowly climbing branch by branch I reached the top, I could see the dimming sun and the webs that seem to make the forest have a second floor of white webs.
    Something shined in unison with the sun. On the very top of the tree was a gem, I instantly knew that it was worth an extreme amount and took it. I felt compelled to set the forest on fire for absolutely no reason, maybe to get rid of that merchant's body. I pulled out my flint & steel and perfectly set a web on fire, so easily it felt that I was destined to burn this place down to the ground. Hurrying down the tree feeling the increasingly intense heat and smoke, I felt extremely drowsy. Despite my efforts to stay awake just long enough to get down the tree, My body gave in and I plummeted towards the ground.

A musk of dread and desperation filled our barracks as we were paralyzed in our minds of what to do. The Citadel did not want us to to commit yet a third murder, with two guards in our front door, magically sealed every crevice, crack and opening. A final attempt by our new wizard, whom I felt deeply sorry for as he was dragged into this whole commotion.
    Somehow, someway, he opened the backdoor using his magic. A small hope fluttered in all of us as I managed to physically lockpick the door. The wizard was the first to sneak out using a spell of invisibility, I felt a sense of only pure fear as that if we were caught attempting to sneak out, We would be denied the right of ceremony to execution, only to die on the spot. He slowly opened the door to freedom only to be surrounded by a flurry of archers wearing cat goggles which are able to counteract any illusion spells. We slammed the door in haste, not wanting to be shot. A voice from the hallway stopped us in our tracks. Panic overtook us as the voice could be anyone out for our heads, we all scrambled out. I ran towards the monk's room and locked the door.
    Hoping my friends had found a way out, I slowly leaned against the wall betting for a bit of an eavesdrop. A bit of me was relieved when the voice was just the rouge of team Charlie. The rougue has said that he found incriminating evidence of team Alpha, and it seems deeper than the deep dark ocean. Supposedly team Alpha is working for the surrounding kingdoms, and all they want to do is bring the downfall of the Citadel and kingdom.
    He wants to help stop the execution, he can help us by getting  only one item from their base, we had a choice of a spell in which we all could telepathically speak to him and us without the single movement of our lips. A hidden ring that allows the user to cast spells without saying a word, a ring that is hidden with a small blade to cut the rope when it is bound to our hands, another ring that can give us all tremendous strength to break free of our nooses, and finally a spell that cast a black smoke screen that makes vision to see through impossible except for those who cast it.
    After much debating, the final choice of our item was the telepathic spell. We don't have any spells that as of our past experiences, the blade ring won't give us enough time, the ring of strength is not enough to get us of there, and the black smoke screen would only last a little while before we get executed. Talking is not a skill we're good at as shown at the court three times. He could help us on what to say and get us out of this slippery situation. He then slithered back into the vents in which I have not noticed they were ever there for the past five years I have been there. A long time passed with each minute closer to execution, soon enough the rouge came back with the item that we considered the gate to our freedom, and our lives.
    The crowd that was about to witness the execution of an entire barrack was in mixed feelings, some felt guilty that they let us die, some were proud and loud about our soon to be deaths. This crowd was particularly big since there has never been an execution of an entire barrack and wanted to see us choke on the rope. I could spy the other barracks within the crowd, all but team Alpha, I thought they were the ones who wanted our necks hung the most but yet they were not there? "Any last words?" the guard said to the dwarf, monk and wizard as I stood beside with hands tied and feet stood still.
    I felt some heat radiate onto my body, maybe it was the sun just coming out of the cloud. But when I stared a bit on the sun, It dawned on me, It was moving closer, and it was not the sun. Everything and everyone was blinded and deafened by a combination of pure intense heat, light brighter than the suns and fear by this fireball larger than anything, paralyzing everyone.
    I opened my eyes, still nearly blinded and unsteady looking at the chaos, most of team Charlie and Delta were missing members, body parts and heads with nowhere being unscathed by this ball of fire. As the ringing in my ears subsided, A small snicker was heard behind me. The entire Alpha team was there with a horde of an army waiting to rip fresh blood. "Run!!! You're gear is in the fruit stand of the market, and get to the teleporter!" is what I heard from the rouge within my mind. I locked my eyes on to the long field which held the market behind the once huge crowd, now reduced to bloody gibs.
    As hastily I untied the bounds around my hand and dashed towards the battlefield which now had all kinds of monsters attacking with the teachers and some of what remains of the teams fighting back. Dragons roared and soared above as they fired relentless fireballs raining death. I wanted to avenge those who died, but alas I was totally defenseless. I hear the sound of fire raging towards the ground and it finds its target, the monk. What is left of her smoldering body is burnt, black flesh was somehow still breathing. I dragged her by the arms to reach the market before we were subjected to more deadly flames.
    The cleric reached us and casted a life saving healing spell on the monk. Now she was no longer burning and we could move faster. We ran up to the lonely fruit stand that contained our items and our livelihoods. I felt something extremely hot before blacking me out, I woke up by the cleric who yet again me before the burnt flesh would take over me. With the Alpha team on our tails with no sigh stopping, we dashed with all our force to the teleporter. Captain Greenwood was already there at the white pedestal that surrounded the pillars of teleportation, telling us to come quickly. Something was off about his tone though, it felt... different, and I saw him in the field fighting off creatures and telling us to go to the teleporter. Regardless of this, we had no time. When we reached Captain Greenwood, he transformed, something we despised.
    The wizard of team Alpha cleared the illusion that he was Captain Greenwood and cast a spell of paralyzing, yelling out that we were fools, somehow no one was actually frozen or paralyzed. Rage emminated from all of us and projected it onto the wizard, attacking with all our might. The grandmaster and owner appeared seemingly out of nowhere, now the wizard copied the exact looks of him and soon became a fight so quickly we could not judge who is who. We all struck at one of them, hoping that it was the wizard. One fell down and slowly melted away to be revealed as the wizard.
    The Grandmaster ushered us to move as quickly can be to the pillars, since Alpha team and its army were right up to the steps of the teleporter. Right as they were about to attack us, we felt our selves become part of the world, fading away. We did not know where we were except for the fact that it was extremely cold and snow surrounded as far as the eye could see. We peered around, and saw the entire Citadel alight and burning below us. It wasn't just the Citadel though, all of the kingdom was under attack. And from that moment from now on would be very different forever.

END OF CHAPTER 1

A sense of dread casted over the whole company, we could feel the eyes of others staring down at us as we walked the halls that once welcomed us now dead in their eyes. Every single possession of ours that gave each of us our individuality were stripped of us along with the armour in which we fought zombies, swam in deep dark waters and singed with fiery lava.
    I tried to sleep that night feeling uneasy and rewatching the events that unraveled that earlier the day just made sleeping a task only short-term amnesiacs could have done. My ears were perked up in ever the case of what happened on the night of the murder could repeat, sending us down to death row.
    Hearing the tiniest of a whisper outside the window of the dwarf, my throat sank throughout my entire body. It was Alpha team's whispering behind the magically sealed window. Creeping to the window, what I heard of was that two Alpha members were threatening somebody that would let out their secret of cheating. A spine chill ran down my body, another murder was about to happen.
    I pounded on the window yelling that we could hear them, it was futile. They responded that we were ''next'', what I could hear were the muffled screams and dragging of somebody who dared to cross the boundaries of team Alpha. It slowly dawned on me of what will happen, a stomach sinking pain absorbed me as I stood still with one thought. Execution. The dwarf screamed only the heaviest of sleepers would trek through, waking up everyone. We gathered at the front door discussing on what to do, a small glance at the main door made me realize that it was not sealed or locked in anyway.
    I looked through the door as quietly as can be, then the ranger decided to go out. Much to our surprise, the entire Alpha team was there! In a flash they fled leaving a huge blood puddle that gave a copper scent and a dagger that was placed there to surely blame us for the atrocity that happened. A flash of events blurred past of what I could remember that somehow the dwaf got stabbed by one of our members in a lame attempt to frame Alpha team, with our wizard and ranger running down the hallway to get Captain Greenwood, leaving behind bloody footprints. I barricaded our main door with furniture to prevent Alpha team from invading. Soon, Captain Greenwood and the entire army had been summoned to our door, sending us yet again to the court, I have a feeling this will end in death.
    The courts showed no mercy to us, prosecuting all of us and shooting down any of our arguments that could save our lives. It didn't help that two of our members were running away with bloody footprints and a stabbed dwarf topped of with me barricading the door with sofas and tables. Ruled guilty with a dose of execution tomorrow, I let out a sigh and felt more hopeless.
    With our heads hung low and Team A's held above all the others while in our soon to be empty barracks, a hope came out, Captain Greenwood. He was suspicious of team Alpha since they have broken all previous records and seemingly perfect, nobody is perfect. He actually believes us and our innocence, we just needed to get some evidence to show that it was not us who murdered the poor souls. We voted our results and the result was we were going to have a vote with the other teams to get our sentence reduced, at least a chance has been given to the underdogs.
    This was the third visit to the courtroom, with different intentions this time. All the teams were summoned upon us in order to determine the fate of our lives. We used compelling arguments to convince the teams of our innocence, how we could not have stabbed the team Charlie member as our doors and windows were magically sealed. We had been stripped of our weapons showing that we could not have stabbed anyone and we had worked with team Charlie, why would we stab their backs?
    Despite all logic and reasons, Alpha team managed to convince the other teams that we were unworthy of life, no dreams that have been held such high and crushed that you could feel the ominence and silence of us. With team Alpha declared the winner and us not even worthy to breath the same air we share, we are here in our barracks, no future, just death.

The intelligence test was unlike any of the other test, no zombies, drowning, or snakes, but just a written test. Unfortunately, we bombed it with whopping sixty percent. Although we passed the engineering part with flying colours. As a pity gift, we received a book of engineering. We decided to give it to our newest member, a half-orc wizard, somehow the book would be of use for him.
    Rumour had it that Alpha team was cheating, like we never knew. The new guy on our team said that Alpha team had tried to convince him to join their team by giving him cheat sheets at midnight at the northern window for the Wisdom test tomorrow. A bard from Charlie team wanted in to take Alpha team down by being with us. This was our opportunity, to strike down those who have mocked us, the taller they are the harder they fall. We told Captain Greenwood of the plan that was going down. I decided to sleep through as our Wisdom test was tomorrow.
    In the morning my hands had been tied by the guards, confused about what's happened. Apparently the bard from charlie team snuck out at midnight when he was nearly caught by Captain Greenwood. He came into our dorm to hide for a while as the guards searched, he left after they were gone. Captain Greenwood was questioning us why there were footprints on the railing and balcony. He noticed dripping from the roof and started to investigate it. It was blood from the dead corpse of the bard. We would be brought to court for the murder in which we did not do.
    In court we were bound with our hands on our backs with no weapons. A bit humiliating. We would be tried for the murder of the bard. The dwarf and the wizard were chosen to be our saviors in this time of peril. But everything they tried to show that was contradicting was shot down. There was no doubt that we were losing. We were guilty and as the punishment of choice were being debated the dwarf suggested execution. Who in the right mind would say that? Luckily the judge thought that it would be too cruel. We would be locked in our barracks with nothing until the wisdom test is finished, I want to punch the dwarf now.

We were lead to an open grass field that was boring and plain at first sight, in the field were these two puddles for our constitution test. Somehow, these puddles led to an underwater dungeon which had been flooded with water. We had been tasked to retrieve four coins in the depths of the water somewhere in "corners". With nothing else to do but dive for coins I jumped in the water, I looked for a corner. Lo and behold there was one! A whole chest of them, I decided to take four coins to pass the test much more "quicker". I returned back to the surface to give the coins back to our cleric and once again dive in. I swam in the opposite direction along the wall only to hit a corner with nothing. I had a feeling that something was behind me... I looked back and saw two pairs of glowing eyes! Cobras! I was underwater, nothing at all could be done, I made a feeble attempt of trying to fire an arrow at the two snakes, but alas I was underwater. Then, something happened.
I woke up back at the puddle with two snakes at the puddle. Did they save me only to eat me and agonize me? I slowly placed my feet in, they did nothing. I took no chances and immediately shot one with my bow. The cleric came up to check on me, he also yelled at the snakes very loudly. Nothing we did seemed to get a reaction from them as they just went back down into the water. Not wanting to waste time at all I dove once again underwater. A small black abyss caught my eye making me swim above it to see anything, something did catch my eye, snakes!
    Those same snakes stared at me with blank eyes and unmoving bodies. I slid past them to see if I could provoke a reaction on any of them, but they stood still and above the abyss. I'm sure they were just protecting their nest, hopefully. Checking any corner of the dungeon, inside a pile of rubble held a strange blue potion.
     Having a sense of slowly deflating lungs I immediately took an entire swig of this... thing. A surge of energy burst through my lungs. I could breath! Underwater even! Determined to find the last coin, I looked thoroughly and indeed found it. Before attempting to return to the surface, something struck me odd as I glanced at a doorway. A natural cavern was through the door, but it was shimmering blue.
    Testing to see if it was safe, I picked a random bone from a long gone human corpse to throw it within. I was wrong, very wrong. Almost instantly blue creatures that were similar to snakes came out by the dozens! I couldn't afford to lose the test so I started to swim my way back further than my body could think of. Those blue creatures were as fast as lightning! As I was about to surface, One of them gripped around me preventing any movement. The dwarf dove down to rescue me, but that was a lie. He took the coin and just left me there. All alone.
    We were teleported instantly without any warning to our barracks. Like always, Captain Greenwood was disappointed. Alpha team's miraculous perfect score which included friendly snakes and chests of coins once again showed how good they were.

Another test. Like last year, this time its dexterity. It was the same place where the zombies absolutely destroyed us, but this is different. We're not just dealing with archers on buildings now, we have lava... We all started on the roof of the building we tried to cower in before, but that was last year. Archers were perched on all of the other buildings aiming down their sights. I gazed and saw a humongous turret manned by one of them, we would be in serious trouble if it shot us!
    We all had one plan. Take down the turret. One by one we took down that turret, but more archers did backflips onto it, commanding the turret. Everytime I tried to shoot something, I missed! I didn't land a single shot! One archer attempted to shoot me, Luckily I proned down and it hit that halfling bard right in the eye! He lost his balance and fell into the lava. I had a feeling that it should have hit me instead... The turret shot something like big at us, it landed and hatched into a spider! I tried to kick it down to it's fiery death, but I forgot that spiders can use their webs. It stuck on the side of the building like gum. The ranger somehow summoned an eagle, which soon was subjected to becoming delicious chicken by the archers. One by one we defeated all the archers and actually passed a test without failing!

The night was eerily dark, with these strangers some how, we need to survive waves of zombies coming toward us as our first exam. Out of the edges of the boundaries, we heard moans and silently panicked,the zombies surrounded the perimeter. I managed to shoot one in the damned eye, except it didn't do a thing! It just slowly mangled across the muddy ground. we just stood there in the middle of the open, I wanted to go into the buildings. But that idea became all but possible as the zombies became crowds, and the crowds became hordes, and the hordes brought death. As far as my eye can see, all my allies were screaming their throats out as flesh became meal for the already dead.
    I needed to retreat, a fallback plan. I dashed to the door of and old rickety house trying to ignore the screams of fallen comrades, the table was a perfect hiding space that I could wait until the commotion died down. I hear someone open the door, thankfully it was the something... a monk. We locked the old door and blocked it with an old useless chair. The door looked like the slightest breath of a creature could knock it down. shuffling noises concentrated on the door, then banging, then full on door breaking! The zombies piled in numbers that only a mathematician could figure out, it was so packed in the house I don't think the zombies could have noticed me. Then, all zombies dropped like dead flies.