[CLOSED] Beginning of the Duo

[Quantum]

Night had fallen since Quantum had started out on this fool's venture to gain levels. He looked up from the clock of his status menu to view his surroundings. To his back on each of the four corners of the area was a blue lit torch, marking the area as one of the few safe zones within the labyrinth. A small group of people also rested nearby, two of the three others far more out of breath than he. Outside of the safe zone he could hear the yelling and stomping of the kobolds that had chased them here, far too many for the four of them to take on. The teacher sat there listening, waiting, watching. Time passed slowly as the health bars of everyone slowly ticked back to full with the passing of time.

"Think we should port out of here?" Asked Amelia, the youngest of the group. A small girl probably no older than fifteen with sleek black hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked more worried that the others here, and rightly so. Their escape route had been cut off by nearly a dozen kobolds, and with no other path out of the maze that had been found yet by their map maker, it was the most logical choice.

"I. I don't have a teleport crystal." Said another one of his companions. Again this player was about the same age as Amelia, her brother if he remembered right with the same hair and similar facial features. He had gripped his sword tightly, both him and his sister having shields and rapiers in each of their hands.

"Neither do I." Said the last unknown member. A player much closer to the age of Quantum, male with hair of a golden hue. He sat there with a large two handed ax across his lap. "Of course, I never planned on leaving either." Triad was the name that the other man had when they joined together in their party. His voice was rough, like one that enjoyed the taste of tobacco more than was healthy. Triad was the only one among them who had armor better than the beginner set, his testament to the grinding he had done.

Quantum looked at his own inventory, knowing that he still had the one teleport crystal that had been gifted to him by Triad as they entered this dungeon hours ago. The stares from the other adult present bore deep into his soul, questioning what he was going to do with what he knew he had. "Brandt. Here." The physicist said while passing one of the only two crystals to the much younger boy after looking at his name in the party window. "Both of you get out of here. I'm sure that Triad and myself will be fine, but we would rather not test the waters with your lives as well." His argument that they would both be fine brought a curt laugh from Triad, who acted as if he had given up hope on surviving this day.

Brandt looked at the crystal in his hand, then back at Quantum, and finally at his sister. "No." He said quietly. "I don't want either of you two to sacrifice yourselves for us to escape." The younger boy compalined, a sense of justice and duty filling his heart to do what was right. He tried to pass the crystal back to Quantum, to which the teacher held his hands up with palms open. "Why?" The boy asked.

"Because we know we are going to survive." Quantum said simply. "Me and Triad here, we both have know these enemies better than most. And although with the two of you here, we could escape that much easier, neither of us wish to put you in harms way unnecessarily." Quantum fought within himself to force down the sliver of a thought that wanted him to grab the teleport stone and think of only himself. "Besides, we are not sending you away just to be safe." He added. "We want you to convince a few other players to come here and rescue us alright?" He asked.

The task he had given the boy helped steady Brandt's ideals, and Quantum could now tell that he no longer thought of the fleeing as cowardly. That, or he hid it a bit better. Light shone and the teacher was forced to look away from the animation of the two siblings leaving. "Wait right here for us." Amelia had said before vanishing with a chime. Again everything had gotten quiet, except for the sounds of the creatures within the dungeon. Quantum now picked himself up off the ground, as did Triad. Each of them lifted their two handed weapons onto their shoulders and stared out back the way they came.

"Are you actually planning on waiting for the kids?" Triad asked with a glimmer of mischievousness ringing from his smoker's voice.

"Nope." Quantum replied, taking the first step out of the safe zone, him and the other party member ready to fight for their escape. "You did not mean what you said right?" Quantum said knowingly, just to prick the other's hide.

"Of course not." Triad exclaimed loudly, his voice reverberating through the labyrinth's halls. "I will be damned if this fucking game ends my life, my little girl was going to be born in a month. I am going to miss that, but I will crawl out of hell before I miss seeing her face." He said holding out a fist towards what lay ahead.

[Quantum]

Firelight flickered from the scattered torches, their sconces rusted over in places and in just as many missing entirely. Quantum and Triad had no trouble seeing what was ahead of them, for there were enough twists and turns in this section of the great labyrinth to keep the light from having to travel far. Still the light that shone was dim, and if the teacher had been cursed with a fear of the dark, quite spooky. Howls, snaps, and stomps echoed from far out of sight. It was nearly impossible to tell exactly how far the duo was from the kobolds that hunted them, and that was both a blessing and not.

Each of the pair took turns rounding the corners carefully, watching for a good minute or two before deciding that the path ahead was safe. Triad put his back to the wall this time, his face peering out just enough to let his left eye view the area ahead. Silently he looked back at the physicist and put his pointer finger to his lips, silence was needed then. Another motion, the extending of his thumb and first two digits on his hand told that there were three kobolds ahead. Next the smoker raised a thumb and then lowered it, asking if Quantum thought that it was worth the effort to attack. The teacher pondered the options, and raised his thumb in the positive to begin. There was no other way to go but back the way they came, and deeper into the dungeon was not an option as they tried to escape.

Quantum let the Triad take the lead in the attack, his partner having built himself more as a defensive player than one would think given that large ax of his. Neither of them had any form of stealth ability, and rushing was just about the only thing that they could do. With a blur of blue, Triad had opened up with his art, a wicked dash attack that sliced his opponent a half dozen times faster than the average eye could travel. And thus the first of the three troopers fell, it's body exploding into a symphony of light. The two others looked as surprised as their scaly faces could render, but also wasted no time at all in preparing to counter.

The physicist dived for the closer kobold with an angry yell, his voice bouncing through the maze a dozen times before fading off in the distance. Metal clashed against metal as sword met sword. Quantum needed to gain the attention of the other kobold as well, Triad's art had a paralysis effect on the user after its execution that now left him defenseless. The kobold he faced gave no quarter, and being a level above the two handed swordsman meant that Quantum was having a hard time in this battle of strength. The kobold he had squared off with turned its one handed blade to the side suddenly, parrying the larger blade to the side and a countered with an overhead slash. Sparks flew as the smaller sword crashed into the floor, Quantum rolling on the floor just out of reach. Moving with the heavier weapon was easier than trying to save it, and now that he was behind the first kobold, made a run for the second.

The other wielded a sword just like the first, it's armor just as patchwork but with a small leather helmet instead of a pair of gauntlets. It was this one that Quantum made his first attack against, driving his large sword in a stab from behind. The surprise attack succeeded, and if the game registered internal injuries instead of just the external one, the lizard man would be on the floor with its spine severed. No this time he only was able to observe the health bar satisfyingly drop to just over fifty percent, and slowly drop as he left the blade piercing through to the other side. It would be many seconds before the kobold fell, and it thrashed and turned in a wiled manner to throw the teacher off of its back.

The health of the kobold hit just under forty percent by the time that Quantum had to pull away, the partner of his enemy having found a chance to attack in the madness. A cut that would have severed the teachers arm numbly made its red mark on his body, and without so much as a groan of effort, backed away to the wall. A cleave pair of cleaves in an "x" pattern kept the weaker of the two enemies at bay, with the stronger taking a slice from a roundhouse slash along its thigh. Both of the kobolds knew that they were strong enough to tear apart Quantum if they teamed together, but had all but forgotten about Triad behind them.

Triad leaped into the air, a benefit of his acrobatics skill, and cleanly severed the weakest of the two kobolds in twain with thick red mark. Another enemy shattered into a burst of pixels and light, making their path just that much safer. Together now, the two adults surrounded their last enemy attacking from both sides. In a last futile attempt, the sword of the kobold snaked out to stab at Quantum's throat, easily parried aside by his own sword now that he played defensively. A dance of clashing weapons as both he and Triad lunged, bringing their sharp weapons through the body of the kobold at the same time. Still not dead they repeated the process quickly, four lines forming a diamond around the kobold as it too shattered into light.

"Need a rest?" Triad spoke with his smoker's voice, garbled and husky in a way that only the addicts of tobacco could accomplish. In response Quantum shook his head, his health had only just now dropped into the yellow, and there was no need for them to slow down just yet now. The pair had only covered a tenth of the path that they needed to travel to escape, and the longer that they took, the greater chance they had of being ambushed.