New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Lucian, who was slowly falling from his high jump, was frowning. Something was wrong.

He knew how much damage he usually does, and those numbers weren't right. Even if his opponent had zero defence, the damage was much too high.

That's when he noticed. Instead of turning to particles, the body was slowly melting into a brown puddle.

'A mud decoy!' He realized.

Not a second later, a humongous hand reached out from the ground below him, grabbing his whole body. Attached to the hand was a body made entirely of stone.

The stone giant rose from the ground, taller and taller, until it was standing at a height of ten meters. It had two pit-like eyes and an enormous gaping mouth.

Lucian, who was stuck in the rocky hand up to his shoulders, looked on in horror. This stone golem could only be one person's spell.

I'die, from inside the stone golem, was still frightened by what had happened. When the two gunshots had fired, he was already activating his mud clone spell.

And time had almost slowed down as the spell took shape around him, as he watched the bullets race toward his head. He had sunk into the ground just in time to see the bullets pierce his head.

That was a terrifying thing to see, and he was still shaking from deep inside the stone. Even though he was now safe.

Remembering the situation, he looked at Lucian, squirming in his giant stony hand. He lifted his arm up over his head and slammed it down.

The impact almost rendered Lucian unconscious, as it crushed the air out of his body. I'die then dropped the floppy body down.

Ensued a very gruesome scene, as the giant stone golem started repeatedly slamming its enormous fists onto Lucian, turning him to a pulp.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

It was almost rhythmic. It stopped after a few more hits, as Lucian was already dead and had disappeared.

The golem vanished from the arena, as I'die reappeared in the stands, his hands raised in the air in a slamming motion. He almost lost foot as he realized where he was.

He dropped on his butt, huffing. He then burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! That was scary! But so amazing! Did you see me?!" He exclaimed, looking at Athena.

"Yes, I saw." Athena replied, with a chuckle.

I'die then raved on, recounting the experience from his point of view to his friend, as the next combat went underway.

Astaroth was only mildly interested in the fight going on. It was between two pro players that he knew well, but weren't that strong in the last game.

They were both in the top five hundred, which was already impressive in itself, but they weren't top dogs. The players were Stormbringer, the Thundermancer; and War-Machine, the Technomancer.

Their names were not that original, but who would blame them? The gamer community was filled with unoriginal names.

Astaroth watched it absentmindedly as he brought his thoughts back to his conversation with Khalor. Every time he thought about it, the words he said sounded so impossible.

And yet, the more he mulled over them, the more the possibility didn't sound so outlandish.

'What if what he said is true?' He thought.

He kept asking himself that, again and again, like a broken record. He didn't want to believe what Khalor had told him, but for now, most of what he had said sounded like possibilities.

He had brought to his attention details that he shouldn't know about players that were barely known. And talked about situations that were happening right now, outside the game.

But they didn't have access to that information from inside the game, so he could only learn the truth about those once he was out. But they didn't sound like things that couldn't be happening.

In fact, they sounded all too plausible. But how would he know with significant details about things that hadn't happened yet or were happening right this instant?

The more he racked his brain over the matter, the more his headache came back. So he shelved it for now.

Khalor had also given him his personal information, so he could contact him outside of the game. He said to call him after he had confirmed all of what he had told him.

This was where Astaroth hooked. Why would Khalor tell him lies and then give him his info to call him after he confirmed them?

It made no sense. That was the move of someone confident in his information.

The mystery around Khalor only expanded the more he thought about it. Astaroth was so deep in thought that he barely saw the fight, and only saw who won after it ended.

The winner was War-Machine, by a clutch one hundred health margin.

The next two combatants were a Human Monk, named Brooce Li, and an Orc Berserker, named Grogg lockjaw.

Both were again pro players from 'ToB', amongst the top five hundred. These were all small fry in Astaroth's opinion.

The ones he wanted to fight were the top one hundred at a bare minimum. And lower than that, and he feared he wouldn't have any challenge.

Then again, he only considered their past prowess. This time around, these players could be stronger than they were in 'ToB'.

Or they could be weaker.

And from what he could see currently, it wouldn't matter if they were slightly stronger than in 'ToB' anyway, since he was much stronger than them.

In the end, he only cared about facing one person here today. And that person was Khalor.

Even though Khalor had said he would win this tournament, and Astaroth knew he was a very strong opponent, he still hoped he could face him.

And as things were right now, he would only meet him in combat if they both made it to the finals.

Astaroth clenched his fists hard, a grin slipping on his lips.

'I really hope we both make it there. Please don't lose to anyone before then.' He whispered to himself.

Athena, who was standing almost face to him, talking with I'die, saw his face.

'Isn't he pumped up? Guess I'll have to think like that too. It's almost my turn.' She thought, looking at the graph in the sky.