Chapter 4

"Are you sure this isn't a prank?" Terrick asked his companions.

"The guy was covered in blood and had lots of wounds. I highly doubt it was a prank," Clementine responded as she rolled her eyes at the idotic question.

"That man was bleeding. A lot. Like a lot. By the time we got to the hospital, he was barely conscious. Which is really impressive considering the amount of blood he lost," Amaris added, "So either that man was actually serious or he is very dedicated to the art of conery."

"Conery isn't a word, Mar," Clementine pointed out. Amaris chuckled at her statement.

"I am the main character here. Whatever I say goes!" Amaris exclaimed as they continued walking up the mountain trail.

"Wait a minute, I thought I was the only one who could break the fourth wall here?" Terrick asked.

"Terrick, we just said in the last chapter to stop pretending you can do that. Everything around us is real, we aren't in some fictional reality. Therefore, it's impossible to break the fourth wall," Clementine told the black-hair boy.

"B-but you and Mar just did it!" stuttered the dark-skinned boy.

"Dude, what are you talking about? Are you making up conversations in your head again?" Amaris questioned.

"What? We just been arguing with each other for the past minute!" Terrick tried to explain to them. "Do you guys honestly not remember anything? We been here debating about the truth of reality and the four-"

"Terrick?" Clementine interrupted as she pulled out a chocolate bar from her pocket. "Have this ordinary chocolate bar, even though for some reason I wanna call it a snicker."

Terrick took the chocolate bar out of her hands and quickly gobbled it.

"Better?" she asked.

"Definitely better," Terrick agreed.

"Guys, I think I see the cave!" Amaris yelled to them. Terrick and Clementine both cleaned out their ears, annoyed at their friend's loud yelling.

"There is no fucking reason to yell. We are right next to you," Clementine hissed at him.

"Ha! I always knew you were a Slytherin!" Terrick said.

"What's a Slytherin?"

"Ignore that. We do not have time to ponder his odd references. We have to think of a battle plan!" Amaris told his companions. They just stared, doubting that he didn't know how fantasy stories work.

"Come on dude, we all know the battle-plan here. You are our fearless leader. The tank, and melee specialist. I am the badass and completely stunning archer, and Clementine is the sexy, yet useless mage," Terrick explained to Amaris.

"You had me in the first half, not gonna lie," Clementine replied.

"Oh, well since we got that out of the way, let's head on in," Amaris said. Clementine conjured a ball of pure light to make sure it wasn't pitch black as they walked in. And with that, the trio head on inside, ready to defeat any evil that may lie hidden in there.

The cave was dark, extremely dark and devoid of any type of...well order. The path into the cave was wide, but then went narrow, and wide, and then narrow again. The rocks were all different shades of grey and several bats slept on the ground.

Clementine, being the magical genius of the group, assumed this lack of natural order was due to the chaos energy centered in the cave. This worried her quite a bit, as the amount of chaos energy that was presented was really unnatural.

"Be on guard, something doesn't feel right," Clementine warned her companions.

"No shit," snickered Terrick, "We just entered a cave where some dudes just got merked. Do you honestly think we're just gonna waltz into this cave?"

"Considering that we are talking about you, I believe my worries were pretty grounded in terms of realism," Clementine snarked.

"And just like the AI in Dark Souls kills players, I killed that worry!"

"What the fuck is AI?"

"No one ever gets my references!" Terrick wailed.

"You guys are talking awfully a lot. What happened to all that "be on guard" stuff?" Amaris asked as he turned his head to look at his friends.

"Keep your eyes forward, green eyes!" Clementine replied.

"Yeah, no one was talking to you!" Terrick remarked.

"Wait, Terrick's the side character! Why am I getting bullied?" Amaris cried.

"What? Your entire storyline is simply a sidequest in the grand schemes of things!" Terrick remarked.

"Yeah, the next upcoming chapters will be dedicated to me, Clementine The Beautiful, and how I became the richest woman in the world," Clementine added.

"We ain't even done with this part of the story!" Amaris pointed out.

"Nah, you probably are going to be the first one to die. Nice guys always get the shortest stick, or something like that," Terrick informed. Amaris eyes widened at this news.

"What!"

"Is it me or is the author really overusing the "breaking the fourth wall jokes". Like really, get some new material or The Dark World will never get views. Dumbass," Clementine said very rudely. She really gotta learn how to curb that tongue of hers.

"Don't insult the author! I still gotta go through the usual protagonist's bullshit powerup! How can I become a hero if I don't go thro-" Amaris tried to explain before he sensed a chaotic presence. His tone and posture suddenly became uberly serious. "Be careful from here on. I estimate we are about a kilometer away from the exit, so it is safe to assume that retreat isn't an option."

"We are nearing the baddies, right?" asked Terrick excitedly.

"That is probably the most likely scenario," Clementine answered. Just as she did, an arrow went buzzing by her head, grazing her hair. "My hair!"

Emerging from the darkness were the corpses of the regiment, filled with chaos energy. There was one archer, and three swordsmen.

"Terrick, you get their archer. Clementine, you are gonna support me with the other three," Amaris commanded. They nodded in agreement. And with that, the battle began.

Amaris dashed forward while creating a purple Sosu bo staff in his hands, ready to strike. He jumped in the air, preparing himself to start off the battle with a bang. However, as soon as he got into the air, the archer's corpse pulled out an arrow and drew his bow. The arrow was coming at blinding speeds, as it was infused with chaos. However, before the arrow struck Amaris, the arrow was intercepted by another arrow from the one and only Terrick.

Right when Terrick saw the archer drew his bow, he quickly summoned his green Sosu bow. Empowered by his Sosu, Terrick shot his arrow at lightning speed. The arrow quickly traveled through the cave, until it finally intercepted it's target. He shot 3 more arrows, this time aimed at the archer, aiming to immobilize the corpse.

Amaris slammed his staff at one of the swordsmen as the arrow struck the archer in the arm, denying the use of his bow. The swordswoman fell to the floor with immense impact, as the bones in her right shoulder cracked in half, as that's where her body and Amaris's staff collided

"Ice: Gelidia!" Clementine exclaimed. While Terrick and Amaris were in the midst of attacking, the young mage busy preparing the rest of the corpses demise. Unlike the other two, Clementine is not proficient in Sosu. However, the young woman found herself to be pretty skillful in the arts of sorcery.

Immediately after she yelled her spell, ice started slowly creeping up from underneath the ground where the last 2 standing swordsmen were standing upon.

Amaris rushed towards another swordsman, with ferocious speed. The second swordsman lifts his sword up to block Amaris's staff. However, due to his feet being frozen, he couldn't do much in terms of footwork. Amaris quickly noticed that, and spun and slashed at the second swordsman's legs, aiming to separate his legs from his body. With crazy speed, the second swordsman even managed to block the second strike and quickly slashed Amaris's shoulder.

The young man groaned in pain as blood started leaking from his wound. Unfortunately for him as well, Clementine's spelled wore off, and the second swordsman came rushing at him.

"Wind: Dis!" Clementine yelled as she shot out her left hand. A vortex of air came from the hand and struck the second swordsman before it could continue attacking Amaris. However, as soon as she did that, she summoned a magic shield to block her from the third swordsman's attack.

Things also weren't going so well for Terrick, as the archer managed to conjure a new arm made out of solidified chaos energy. Both of these stellar archers were shooting arrows at stunning speeds, both aiming for the kill. Or for Terrick's case, the head, as that is where modified souls are inserted in. Things only got worse for Terrick as he realized his arrows were usually weaker than the archer's due to him having to spend some of his Sosu in enhancing movement speed and depth perception so he can avoid the archer's arrows.

Just like the other two, Amaris was facing his own struggles. The first swordswoman bones managed to heal with the power of chaos. She got right back up and rushed the emerald-eyed boy with her sword. Amaris turned around just in time to block the incoming attack behind him.

He was now involved in a two versus one situation, a less than ideal spot for anyone.

"Okay, let's slow down a bit, and inspect the situation here," Amaris thought as he continued blocking attacks from both the first and second swordsmen and women. "The swordsmen don't have any order to their attack patterns. They are randomized, but yet efficient. I recognize the forms Qav, a damage tanking form, and Sab, a defense and speed mixed form."

Amaris blocked an attack from the second swordsman, but right when he did, the first swordswoman slit his side with her longsword. Panicking, Amaris backflipped away from the two swords wielders. Despite the distance he put between them, the swordsmen immediately rushed the boy.

"Damn it! They are using heavily defensive focus forms. Fighting one of them would have been a challenge, but two will prove to be a struggle," he thought as he evaded several more attacks. "I'm gonna have to get creative with my attacks to disrupt them. After all, a defense can only predict so much."

With that thought, Amaris ran to the nearest wall and climbed it, using the cave's rough edges to get a firm grip. Once he got near the top of the cave, he jumped backwards in the air, and channeled most of his Sosu into his Sosu staff and spun around, to face one of the swords wielder. He aimed the staff at the swordswoman and threw it like a spear at her.

The staff traveled through the air at incredible speeds, gaining too much momentum for the swordswoman to block and gaining too much speed for her to be able to avoid it. In a mere moment, the staff was impaled in her head.

The swordsman's corpse slumped down to the floor, and eventually stopped moving at all. The chaos energy inside her leaked out and retreated back further into the cave.

It wasn't over however, as right when Amaris landed, the second swordsman rushed him. Amaris rolled over to the left, avoiding the strike that would have been fatal. The young boy ran towards the corpse of the swordswoman and grabbed his Sosu staff.

"Now it is a one v one," Amaris thought as he analyzed the situation, "His attack pattern is still random, but also still defensive focused," Amaris dodged another strike, "Without a shield, this form isn't much used when being attacked from range. But I don't have enough Sosu for another ranged attack," he sidestep out of another slash, "Guess I'm just gonna have to wing it."

The brown-haired boy rushed the swordsman, with his Sosu staff being held in his left hand. Amaris thrust his staff forward, aiming for the stomach, but was blocked. The swordsman threw a quick jab at Amaris's face.

"Uhg!" Amaris grunted in pain. Leaking from his nose, he tasted the metallic taste of blood. Unfortunately for him, the second swordsman did not let up, kicking him with a Sosu enhanced kick. Amaris was sent flying to the wall behind him.

Amaris forced himself up onto one knee, determined to not give up. The second swordsman charged at the down man, ready to put the final strike. He thrust his sword forward, the sword impaling his armor

It seems that the only thing it impaled.

In the moments leading up to the death of Amaris's favorite armor, Amaris took off his armor and flipped over the swordsman, whose sword went through the armor and became stuck in the wall Amaris was just in front of.

With a sharp swing of his staff, Amaris sliced the body in half, separating the swordsman's upper and lower body. As the upper body fell to the floor, Amaris slammed his staff through the second swordsman's head, cleansing the corpse of its artificial soul as the chaos energy retreated back to where it came from. Amaris wiped the blood off his face and discarded his Sosu staff. Amaris glanced down at

"I wonder how the others are doing," Amaris said to himself.

In the midst of his fight, Clementine was also proving to be quite the challenge for the third swordsman.

"Earth: Muto!" Clementine shouted. Mud shot from her hands towards the third swordsman. The third swordsman evaded the mud with beautiful footwork, as not even a droplet of mud came close to grazing him. He dashed to her right, attempting to slash at her side. Luckily, she managed to block the strike just in time.

"Air: Clypeus!" she exclaimed. An air shield surrounded her as the third swordsman struck again. "Think, Clementine, think! I will not be the weakling in this group! That's Terrick, not me!" She thought as the third swordsman continued attacking.

The continuous use of the air shield was quickly draining her energy, so she started working on ideas to beat the third swordsman. "Damn it, Clementine! Think! How do I beat train Varlyand soldiers?" The third swordsman barrage continued as she thought, making her feel her fatigue. "Wait, what did Dad say about this?"

She remembered one of the many conversations that she and her deadbeat father had.

"Remember Clementine," her father said, with his breath stinking of alcohol, "If you ever on the run from the police, throw a match at them or something. Those assholes have cotton clothing under their uniform! Fucking idiots!" he remarked as he burped, "This is why this country sucks! Everything the government does or owns is filled with incompetence…"

Clementine shook her head, not trying to remember more of her father. Instead, she focused more on what he said at the start of his political rants.

"Fire:Calor Trabem!" she yelled. With only one hand keeping the air shield up, it quickly became weaker. She estimated it could only withstand a few more strikes until it shattered. In her left hand, she summoned a blazing swirl of fire.

"Right when the shield breaks, bam! You're going night night!" Clementine thought, "Look at you Dad, you actually fucking did something."

Swoosh! The air shield broke with the last attack from the third swordsman. He raised his sword above the girl, ready to impale her with a single motion. Right when he started descending his sword, a blinding stream of fire blasted from Clementine's left hand and collided with him, sending him flying backwards.

Due to the chaos energy contained within him, he was naturally fire resistance. But since the clothes were extremely flammable, and the lack of intellect corpses poses, the fire kept on burning. After a minute, the flames burn the skin off the skull, and the flames completely burn the deadman's brain, destroying the artificial soul inside the man. Like the second swordsman and woman, the chaos energy escaped and traveled further back into the cave.

"Beautiful, sexy, and amazing. What can't I do?" Clementine said to no particular. "Hey, I wonder how the dumbasses are doing?"

While the other two victors were fighting, Terrick and the archer were having a standoff.

Terrick and the archer were exchanging arrows with each other at lightning fast speed. All but one single arrow from the archer hit their mark. The archer's arrow zoomed through the cave, and hit Terrick in his right shoulder.

"Ungh!" Terrick grunted as he felt the arrow pierce his right shoulder. For that short time he stopped, the archer released five more arrows at the young man.

Terrick evaded them, using a multitude of side steps, jumps, and spins to avoid another mistake. Terrick, ignoring the pain in his right shoulder, drew his bow and triple shot the archer. Like most of the other arrows, they missed their target.

They once again exchange arrows, both dodging and shooting at the same time. It was a stalemate, but unlike the archer, Terrick energy was depletable.

"Welp, I don't have enough juice in the tank to do this all day. Guess I'm gonna have to yolo it," Terrick thought. Terrick ran to the nearest wall and jumped on it. Instead of climbing, he pushed Sosu down to his boots. With excellent concentration and control, he manipulated his Sosu to make little holes into the cave wall, and attach his Sosu to them, making sure he doesn't fall.

As he ran on the wall, he kept on firing arrow after arrow at the archer. Naturally, they were weaker as he was taking Sosu away from his attacks to stay on the wall. The archer also tried to hit him several times, but ultimately failed as Terrick avoided the arrows with elite footwork.

When Terrick neared his target, he slid down the wall and rushed the archer. The archer shedded the arrow he was about to shoot, and entered the Sab form, instinctively thinking that Terrick was going to try his hand at melee combat.

Instead of optioning for melee combat, Terrick slid under the legs of the archer, jumped into the air, and spun himself around as he drew his bow. With speed only McQueen poses, Terrick released the arrow.

The arrow pierced the air as it soared towards the archer. Sound itself submitted to the arrow as a thundering crack could be heard when the arrow was fired. The archer attempted to move but the arrow was way too quick as it pierced his forehead, and eventually went through his head.

The chaos energy inside the archer slowly creep away from the corpse, and Terrick lost track of it as it disappeared into the dark depths of the cave.

Despite that, Terrick counted this as a solid win for him. He turned to look at his companions, who were all standing above the corpses of the Varyland regiment. Terrick smiled at friends as he noticed their individual victories.

"Yo, so we all got the W?" Terrick asked excitedly.

"Of course. Did you expect anything less than me?" Clementine responded.

"Yes, I definitely did," Terrick answered her. Clementine just glared at the dark-skinned boy as Amaris laughed at his response.

"We have just won our first battle, but many more are to follow. And just like we did today, we shall prevail next as well. Because we are heroes!" Amaris exclaimed happily, "Now, let's get going!"

"As...inspiring as that speech was, none of us are in the shape to fight. You and Terrick need to get your wounds healed, and I need to regain my energy to be able to heal you dumbasses," Clementine pointed out. Terrick nodded in agreement, as he also felt pretty drained.

"But what if there are more tomorrow?" Amaris questioned the young woman.

"Creating an artificial soul costs a lot of energy. Like a ton. The highest number ever created in a twenty-four hour timespan was two. This necromancer can probably only make one for a day. Besides, we don't even know if the necromancer is still in here. He could have just left the chaos energy he summoned in here to throw us off our tails," Clementine explained.

"Alright then, let's go back to the entrance and set up camp," Amaris ordered, "Terrick, did you bring food?"

"When do I not?" Terrick asked.

"Good point."

And with that, the trio left the cave and set up camp to nurse their wounds and regain their energy. It was a successful battle today, but these fights were only the first floor of the challenge tower. They would need to improve and hone their skills if they even want to survive the floors above, let alone defeat.

The trio was victorious, but soon they would learn…

Rarely does victory ever feature an after-party.