Chapter 16 – The Harbinger Nightmare

Titus stared at the statistics that The God of Balance had bestowed upon him and wondered what Silas and Evangeline would've been staring at when they'd done the very same thing. He thought about how high those numbers would've had to have been for them to have kept their lives when they'd fought the Rockhide Ogre. Would another ten health points have been enough? A hundred? A thousand? There was no way for him to know, but there was one thing he was sure about: If he was going to have to fight in that central colosseum at some point, he wasn't going to take any risks.

Titus: Level 1

Exp: 6/100

Class: Capacitor

Profession: Arena Contestant - White

Primary stats

Health: 50

Mana: 10

Stamina: 10

Secondary stats

Constitution: 1

Wisdom: 1

Agility: 1

Strength: 1

Defence: 1

Magical Defence: 1

Skills

Sacrifice

Items Equipped

White Arena Contestant Armband

The numbers he was looking at were so small. So insignificant that it was almost laughable. But then that was the point, wasn't it? His white armband, although it kept him safe, had removed all danger from his life, so he wouldn't be getting any experience while he wore it. And no experience meant no levels, no stats, and no skills. It was a catch twenty-two.

"It's weird how he just keeps staring off into the distance, isn't it?" Jordan said in a whisper. A whisper that Titus heard but didn't respond to.

"He's looking at his stats, you great lummox!" Petra replied at a normal speaking volume. "And don't be so rude."

"What? I was just saying..."

"You were just being an idiot."

Jordan didn't reply, but the feeling Titus got from him was that he was hurt and embarrassed.

"It's fine," Titus said for all of their benefits. "I was just thinking about how strong we're going to need to be to survive out there."

"Well, that depends," Jordan said. "If you want to survive on your own like Lucius did? Then you're going to have to be the best at everything. Fighting, defending, spellcasting - you need it all. That's why most people fight in teams. My goal is to be the best Defender I can be, then fight with a team where we all work together."

"That does make the most sense," Petra agreed. "Why doesn't everyone just fight in a team, though?"

They were all silent for a moment, then Titus spoke quietly.

"The harder the challenge, the more the experience, right? I bet it gets shared if you fight in a group."

"That's it!" Petra cried. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

Titus smiled. But if what he'd said was true, then the only thing he could think of was that Silas and Evangeline had chosen to go out there as a pair instead of a three. A choice that had cost them their lives. The draw for just a little more XP had cost them everything.

He wondered if as time went by and he began to grow, whether he would feel that same draw.

The group of three had finished the day's training, had their dinner in relative peace, and returned to their dorm room, where they had spent hours just talking in peace, digesting the events of the day. Titus had found himself thankful that he'd been assigned a room where he got along so well with the others and found himself feeling sorry for anyone who'd been paired up with Henderson.

"It's late," Petra said with a yawn. "I think we should all get some sleep before we have to get back at it tomorrow. I heard someone say that they're going to make us run. Actually run. Like that's something people do."

"Not something I do," Jordan said. "I prefer to stand still and Defend. That's why I know it's my calling in life."

"Like a rock," Petra said.

"Exactly."

"I knew there was a reason why I sometimes think talking to you is like having a conversation with a stone wall."

Jordan didn't reply, but Titus smiled.

It didn't take long for Titus to fall asleep once the group had said their pleasantries. He'd been through so much during the day that not only was he exhausted physically, but also mentally.

Hours had passed, not that Titus knew it. The hallways outside the dorms had turned quiet, and the Arena was still. Torches were still lit and burned throughout, illuminating the underground labyrinth that constituted the entire place. The torches were not made of natural fire but rather burnt with a magical longevity that never seemed to expire.

Titus turned over in his sleep. His bed was as comfortable as it had always been, but he was restless, unable to find the sweet spot that would carry him over to the morning.

But there was something else.

Something that was turning the room cold, and it was something that caused him to open his eyes just in time to see an ethereal figure glide silently through the door and into the dorm.

But he knew it was a dream. There was no such thing as ghosts.

Titus cleared his mind and forced his eyes shut to try to get back to sleep, but as soon as he did so, all he could see was Evangeline's face as she'd entered the arena sands. He wasn't sure what it was when he'd seen it the first time, but thinking back now, it was obvious: she didn't want to be in the fight.

Her face had been one of apprehension. Titus could now see why. She didn't want to fight as a pair; she wanted to be anywhere else. But for whatever reason, she had been out there.

Silas had looked like he wanted to be there. Like he thought he'd have no trouble against the monster on the sands. But he'd been arrogant, and that'd got him killed.

Then Titus thought about how Evangeline must've felt when she charged at the Rockhide Ogre after Silas had fallen. She had no choice but to attack the monster. She'd had to push her sadness and anxieties away and do what she could to end the Ogre. But she'd lost.

Then Titus' mind's eye put him in her place. He was stood out there on the arena sands underneath the hot sun with just a short sword in his hand. And towering over him was the terrifying form of the Rockhide Ogre.

Titus felt fear coursing through his very body. His knees felt weak, and his arms were shaking. He could hear the rushing of his own blood as his heart raced. His hands were soaked with sweat, so much that it was a wonder he was able to hold onto the weapon.

Then the Ogre lunged. Its balled fist hurtling towards him faster than it had any business moving.

Titus fell backwards and rolled from the path of the first, only for the creature to follow up with another strike, and then another and another. Titus dodged them all by the skin of his teeth. But he knew he couldn't keep it up.

So he turned and ran.

He heard the sound of the crowds beginning to laugh at first and then after a moment, the laughter turned to jeers and insults.

"Turn and fight you coward!" a voice called.

"I hope it kills you!" another added.

"Weakling!"

"Loser!"

Then Titus turned around to face the Ogre again, but this time something was different. Where the creature once had a dark grey, rocky exterior, now its face looked decidedly familiar. It took him a moment to realise what it was, but then he saw it. The Ogre's face looked just like his father.

"It really makes you think, doesn't it?" Henderson's voice came from nowhere and when Titus looked around, he found the large boy standing beside him. "If he ever actually loved you, or if he just thought you'd be useful as a worker for his bakery. He did send you away once you both realised you couldn't cut it as a baker, didn't he? But then... you couldn't even make it as a baker, and now you're here. You're going to get people killed, you know that?"

"No!" Titus cried. He tried to sound strong and defiant, but his cry was almost a whimper. "I didn't..." then he let out a sob. "I didn't ask for this!"

"Titus!" a call rang out around the arena, but it sounded distant somehow. Titus ignored it, knowing that it was just going to be another angry soul there to tell him how he wasn't good enough.

"Snap out of it!" the voice echoed.

Then Titus' dream flickered for just a moment, and he saw the flowing white spectral form standing before him as he lay in his bed, back in his dorm. Its white ghostly hood covering the darkness beneath.

What had caused the dream to flicker was evident as Jordan was stood holding a wooden chair in both hands, having swung it at the monster. He did it again as Titus watched, and the chair passed right through the thing without even causing it to flinch.

Titus then did the only thing he could think of in that situation: he analysed the monster.

Spectral Harbinger: Level 2

HP: 20/20

"Titus!" Petra screamed, and his attention turned to her now. She was standing on the other side of the ghostly figure to Jordan, both of them with concerned looks etched on their faces.

Then Titus realised how much pain he was in, and he checked his HP. It'd fallen by ten points and was still dropping, slowly but surely.

"W... what's happening?" he managed to croak.

"It's killing you, Titus!" Petra shouted. "You need to fight back!"

"With what?" he asked, finally awake and conscious of the situation.

"Don't let it get in your head," Jordan said. "I've seen one of these before; I just can't remember how you're supposed to beat it. Magic works, but that..." he was clearly trying to remember the key to beating the Harbinger, but the expression on his face was pained.

"It feeds on negative emotions. Makes you feel bad and then sucks that right from you..."

"I was having a nightmare!" Titus called back.

"I don't care what you were doing just kill it!" Petra screeched.

Titus looked back at the Harbinger, and when he did, he found his gaze locked in the darkness beneath its hood. There was something there, something within the darkness that began to swirl, and he felt himself falling back into the nightmare. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

Titus’ vision flickered, and the room returned again when Jordan swung his chair at the monster again.

"Go and get help," Jordan instructed Petra.

"What? and leave you two here?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"He can't go," he nodded at Titus, "and you're faster than me. So go, now!"

The order was so forceful that Petra didn't spare the Harbinger another look and ran straight out the door, slamming it behind her.

Jordan swung his chair again, though this time the Harbinger turned around to face the larger boy. And Titus watched as Jordan's face turned sheet white.

"Jordan?" he called. "Whatever you're seeing, it's not real. Jordan!"

Without the creature’s attention on him Titus could finally think straight. And he could see that the Hsrbinger was now making its mark on his friend.

But Jordan didn't reply. Whatever the Spectral Harbinger was making him see must've been terrible for him to react like that. Titus didn't envy him at all.

Then he looked at Jordan's arm and noticed that his white armband was nowhere to be seen. And then he noticed his own was gone too.

"Jordan! You need to snap out of it; we aren't wearing our armbands!"

Jordan didn't reply.

"Tell me what to do!" Titus begged as he took to his feet.

Jordan still remained silent, though now Titus could see his friend's HP dropping by a single point every couple of seconds. He needed to stop this, and fast; otherwise, they were both going to die.

Titus had no idea how long Petra would take to find someone to help, but at a shade less than fifty HP, his friend wouldn't last two minutes.

Picking up another of the chairs in the room, Titus swung it with all his might at the Spectral Harbinger, though just like when Jordan had carried out the same attack, the chair passed straight through his opponent. What was worse was that Jordan didn't seem to snap out of it as he had.

He swung again but again to no avail.

Another five HP had sapped away.

Titus knew what he had to do. It was the only thing he could do to give them a little more time and the only thing he thought might actually work.

He called upon his Sacrifice ability.

The pain hit him like a burning sensation in his chest but it was manageable, and to his delight he and Jordan were now only losing a single point of health every four seconds. He'd doubled the time they needed to hold on for.

Jordan didn't snap out of his daze though, and Titus could only imagine the horrors that the Harbinger was causing him to witness.

Over the next few moments, Titus tried shouting at, shaking, and finally slapping Jordan, all the while the Harbinger watched from beneath its dark hood, all the while feeding, all the while both Titus and Jordan's health pools slowly faded away like a leaky bucket.

When Titus' HP fell below ten, he fell to his knees. It was like he was unable to breathe, and his lungs were on fire.

A few more seconds passed, and he knew he wasn't going to make it. Whatever he had been supposed to do with this Spectral Harbinger, he hadn't been able to figure it out.

And then the darkness set in.

A loud crash reverberated around the room as the wooden door slammed open, and Petra ran in with two other girls behind her. The loud sound caused Titus' eyes to snap open, and it was just in time to see both of the girls unleash fireballs into the body of the Harbinger.

The creature screamed as it was engulfed in flames, and then abruptly disappeared in a puff of fire and smoke.

Titus took one look at Jordan, let out a loud breath, then closed his eyes to let the darkness take him.