Seth cautiously stepped out into the spacious room. He tensed, waiting for any signs that it may be a trap. After a few moments, he decided that the area was safe enough and began examining his surroundings. The cavernous room was made of the same bronze metal as the rest of the structure. At the far edge of the room were twelve open doors and a sign hanging above them with the words “ONE PER ROOM”. Seth walked over and peered inside. Through each door there was a small room with food, water, a small cot, and a locked door, probably leading deeper inside the structure. With a heavy sigh, Seth flopped upon a bed in one of the rooms. The food and water seemed fresh but Seth decided he would wait for someone else to try it first. It never hurt to be a little cautious, and besides, Seth had brought some rations of his own. After positioning himself with his back to the unopened door, Seth fell into an uneasy sleep, utterly exhausted from the trials he had already endured.
    Seth bolted awake what felt like mere moments later. The ringing sound of steel on steel echoed through the room outside. Seth took a quick inventory of his room. It appeared that nobody had disturbed anything, not that he had expected anyone to, he was a light sleeper and the second anyone set foot in his room he would’ve woken. But old habits die hard. A sudden yell from outside drew his attention. Drawing a dagger from his cloak, Seth crept to the door and peeked around the corner. It appeared that while he had slept the remaining adventurers had arrived. Most of the rooms seemed to be filled now, judging by the other heads poking out to see what the disturbance was. Further down the rows of doors, a fight had broken out between some adventurers over the final rooms. Apparently one of the groups had managed to make it this far and they now were trying to steal an occupied room so that each of their members could proceed. The target they had chosen was a slim teenage girl. She was attempting to fight them off but there were four of them and only one of her. Seth watched the encounter closely, curious to see how the group fought. Three of the four were your basic hulking brute, carrying a short sword and buckler. They immediately attempted to corral the girl back into a corner. To give the girl credit she didn’t make it easy for them. She twirled a spear about with a familiar ease and gave the thugs several superficial cuts as she was forced back. The fourth member stood back a ways, and judging by the way the other three took their cues from him he appeared to be the leader. The leader was tall and sturdily built. He would’ve been considered handsome had it not been for the jagged scar running down his face. Scar-face carried a trident and net slung over his shoulder but was currently holding a crossbow and watching for an opening in the battle.
    Seth knew he should just go back to his room. This fight didn’t concern him. Eventually the girl would run out of stamina and she would be overwhelmed. The group would continue on with the rest of the adventurers and the girl would soon be forgotten by all. He should rest while he could and ignore this nasty business. Although Seth knew all this he didn’t turn back to his bed. He stood rooted to the spot and watched as the girl began to slow, her cuts became sluggish, eventually stopping altogether as she became purely focused on defending herself.
    Sensing that the end was near, Scar-face yelled encouragement to his underlings, causing the thugs to attack with a renewed vigor. The girl began backpedaling rapidly as she attempted to dodge and parry their hail of blows. However, before they could finish off the girl a sudden roar followed by a charging figure in silver armor disrupted them. The thugs were so shocked that they hardly had time to respond. The armored man smashed into Thug 1, carving straight through his shield and the man behind it with a great two-handed battle axe. Thug 2 and 3 quickly shifted so that they were back to back, one facing the armored man with another facing the girl. “HAVE YOU NO SHAME?” roared the armored man. “WHERE IS THE HONOR IN FIGHTING THREE AGAINST ONE? AND AGAINST A GIRL NONETHELESS!”
As the remaining thugs attempted to stammer out an answer, Scar-face, unnoticed by the armored man, took aim at his back with the crossbow. In a flash Seth was behind him, dagger to Scar-face’s throat. “What on earth am I doing.” thought Seth. “I really ought to know better than this by now.” Pricking Scar-face’s throat with the dagger he whispered into the man’s ear “That’s quite enough of the now. There are enough rooms for everyone remaining, no need for any more bloodshed.”
    Scar-face was shaking with fear and anger, obviously startled by the silent appearance of Seth and angry with the slaying of his underling, however he knew he was in no position to push this fight. “Withdraw, boys!” he bellowed. “No point fightin no more”. Seth waited for the two thugs to slink to their separate rooms before releasing Scar-face with a rough shove. Righting himself, Scar-face slowly walked to his room without a backwards glance. But Seth knew this wasn’t over, not by a longshot. Sheathing his dagger with a sigh, Seth turned to walk back to his room.
    “HOLD THERE, STRANGER!” It seemed the armored man had taken notice of at least part of that exchange. Seth paused, contemplating whether to run or wait. He didn’t like the thought of only having his light weaponry against that battle axe, but he still had a few surprises up his sleeve if necessary.
Whirling about Seth peered up at the armored man from beneath his cowl. He was an impressive figure, standing a bit over 6 feet by Seth’s estimation. The man was obviously heavily muscled judging by the way he moved about in such heavy armor with ease and wielded such a monstrous axe. “Something I can help you with?”, Seth asked tersely. The figure ignored Seth’s question, and planting his axe upon the ground the figure slowly reached up and to his helm.
As the helmet came off Seth glanced at the man’s face. He seemed to be in his late teens, probably close to Seth’s age give or take a year. No surprise there, since that was around the age most would-be heroes started out on their own. What did surprise Seth was the enormous grin plastered to the man’s face. “Whew! I can’t hear a thing in there!”, the man exclaimed. “The protection this thing offers may be good, but I’m not sure it’s worth being deaf.” Tossing his helm to the side, the man stuck out his hand. “The name’s Artix. Thanks for your assistance, I never would’ve seen that guy. I suppose that’s what happens when you act before thinking. My master always said that would be the death of me one day. And what do you know! She was nearly right!”
Seth slowly let out the breath he was holding in as the man continued prattling on. Artix’s attitude was… unexpected to say the least. After months of traveling on his own Seth was unused to such enthusiasm and liveliness, especially from a potential rival. Artix continued talking like he and Seth were old friends bumping into each other at the market, a rather odd feeling considering the situation. There was a sudden pause in Artix’s dialogue which brought Seth’s attention back to the conversation. “My apologies, what was that last part?”
“Your name stranger! I was asking for the name of the man who saved my life! I can hardly thank you properly without a name!”
“Seth. My name is Seth, and there’s no need to thank me. It was a spur of the moment decision. Nothing more.”
“On the contrary!”, roared Artix. “Saving a man’s life is hardly something to be brushed aside! Were it not for your actions I would’ve been slain here. I owe you a debt, Seth. Should you ever require my assistance, all you need do is ask.” Finished with his little speech, Artix stuck out his hand a little farther, still intent on the hand shake.
Ignoring Artix’s hand with a little shake of his head, Seth cracked a small smile. “As you are obviously set on this decision I won’t argue it. If I ever require help I’ll be sure to contact you somehow.”
Unperturbed with Seth’s refusal to shake hands, Artix finally lowered his hand back to his side. Artix stuck out his chest as a proud smile grew on his face. “Contacting me is easy. Simply burn a prayer to the God Aias with my name on it. I’m a new acolyte of his. He’ll be sure it gets to me.” This said, he pulled off a gauntlet to reveal the glowing symbol of Aias on his palm.
The unfamiliar sense of ease Seth had been feeling evaporated instantly. Aias, the God of strength, protection, and honor. At least he was supposed to be. “Burn a prayer to Aias you say? Seems simple enough.” All expression was gone from Seth’s face but Artix appeared thankfully oblivious. I believe I shall retire to my room now, perhaps our paths will cross again later in this competition. Maybe you should see to our friend over there? The one you originally rushed out to save?”
“By Gods, I nearly forgot!” Artix whirled about searching for the girl he had rushed out to save. He spotted her cleaning off her spear on the body of Thug 1. She seemed somewhat unsteady on her feet, but otherwise unharmed. “God’s willing, our paths will cross again, brother. Until then, stay strong.” With these final remarks Artix jogged over to the girl and began talking animatedly with her.
“With any luck, I’ll never run into him again.” Seth turned to go back to his room, a wry smile on his face. “Then again, considering my luck I’ll probably being seeing a lot more of him before this competition is over.” Walking back to his room, Seth collapsed on upon his bed. Oddly exhausted from such a brief encounter. “Things are going to be a lot more dangerous than I had expected from here on out. I’ll have to be even more careful about my actions than normal.” Seth remained still for a few moments, lost in thought. Eventually he snapped out of it, propping himself up again so that he could rest while watching the door. Outside Seth could still vaguely hear Artix’s loud voice as he talked with the girl. Slowly, Seth pulled off the black leather glove on his right hand. Hesitantly, Seth turned his palm face up. The mark of Aias on Seth’s hand looked nothing like the glimmering brand Artix had. Seth’s mark pulsated with a dark light and gave his hand a sickeningly opaque look. With a look of disgust Seth shoved his hand back in his glove. “Will I ever be free of his curse?”