The Player's System

Trap

The sky-high, black, rusty iron gates welcomed them to hell and the team entered the colony with bravado. The black clouds over their heads seemed glaring at them. They never knew that the realistic settings of any gale could generate such a threat too. It appeared as if the clouds were alive. They wanted to prevent the players from going forward, however, something restrained them.

"I should not look above." Clark was very excited earlier, however, seeing the dread of the black clouds, fear started to creep up his spine. He held his sharp blade ready to tear apart the imaginary ogres.

As soon as they entered the gate locked behind them with a deafening sound. This was a clear indication that they could not leave this colony without clearing it or accepting death as their inevitable fate.

"Do they need to make it this dramatic?" Albert commented with a tight smile.

There was a whole new world inside the colony. They were all gawking at the immensity and attention to detail. The black clouds prevented the light from shining upon this valley of hell, painting it in a deep colour of unpalatable horror.

It was hindering them from making out their surroundings. The dark colony was divided into many parts, according to the will of the Python. The difficulty levels were put to get rid of the intruders.

They were present at the outer layers. Here they could only fiddle through their path meanwhile the ogres that were loyal to the python were securing the shredded skin. The Python knew that its skin was invaluable and the basis of its strength. It did not want it to end up in somebody's hands.

And because of that, it let the ogres keep hold of it. The ogres were very diligent. As soon as the thundering clouds informed the arrival of the team members, they secured it in the first seal.

"Can you see those flickering eyes?" Junan pointed toward the left side.

They noticed those eyes. "Staying here and waiting might waste a lot of time. We should follow those ogres." Junan whispered.

He ȧssumed that perhaps those ogres were trying to hide something.

There was nothing else that they could work on. They only had two options, either following them or beginning the battle so those ogres might bring them somewhere.

They decided upon following them.

The ogres were patiently waiting for this to happen. They prepared the first trap. The path was simple however due to the black clouds it was concealed from the direct approach.

The ogres set this trap to stray them from reaching the first seal. Junan and others ran behind ogres. They hurried because they did not want to miss the tracks of the ogres. In the dim dark and the constant thundering of the clouds, they got confused.

The ogres ran in the dark street. They were making loud noises so that the team members might not stand somewhere and look critically. Jake was at the end running with Ahram. He was slow because of his controls.

Ahram considered his pace and thought to remain slow as well. At least a pair of two was better than a lone player.

"Thanks, buddy. I think we should not miss the surroundings too. I feel something is off…" Jake did not get to complete his sentence because Junan's scream erupted.

Junan shouted and fell into the trap. He shouted to alert others however Orin followed up because he was running side by side. Jake halted his rush. The ogres started to appear. They were hiding around. As soon as Junan fell into the trap they appeared out of thin and started laughing wildly.

Many thorns were pricked in his buŧŧ. Junan coughed with pain and lack of oxygen since unfortunately Orin also fell on him. It added to his misery. Albert, Sashi and Clark were running behind. They stopped themselves immediately from falling in the trap. It was all due to their healthy control, otherwise, they would have also stumbled over the team head.

Ahram saw the situation and understood that they were imprisoned. The ogres had brought them away from the first seal and because they were in black statures it was very hard to filter them from the surrounding darkness.

Only their flickering golden eyes were helpful. They did not immediately attack, instead, they spread themselves in the form of the groups. They were surrounding them so that they could attack them in groups. It would augment their strength against the team.

Junan on the other hand tried to get rid of the thorns and thankfully succeeded to some extent. He cursed Orin twice or thrice.

"So this was a trap. Get out of the ground and battle." Junan ordered Orin. After gearing this command he felt energized. He leapt like a lizard and got out of the ground easily. It was not a deep hole.

The ground was filled with dried out leaves and the jumping of the ogres over it created unstable crunchy sounds. This was also troublesome for the team because the ogres could detect the movements of the players.

"We both could kill as many ogres as we can. My grenades exist for this day." Jake noticed the ogres that were trying to separate all players before starting the battle.

It was feasible for the ogres because the team members were unskilled to see through the darkness. They were blindly searching for others. It ȧssisted the ogres to attack. Clark bȧrėly saved himself from the attack which was aimed at his head. He was sure that if this attack had met his head then he would have been gone. Poof. Dead.

"They are sly. Keep your eyes open and weapons ready." Sashi shouted to inform others.

The signs were already pointing to something grim. The pre-planned actions of the ogres were there to stop them away from the seal.

"Wait! What if I use a grenade and some team members are battling there." Jake fell into a dilemma about what to do. The grenade might leave a bigger impact. In the darkness, Jake could not figure out the right placement of the enemies and team members.

It could add to the already existing crises. Jake thought about using guns till the time he figured out some idea on how to use the grenades efficiently.

An idea struck his mind. He could gather all the team members at one place and then aim at the ogres that would be in front of them or the surroundings.

This was a reasonable idea to get free of these cunning ogres. He called Ahram. Ahram was slaughtering an ogre because it attacked him. He wanted to make sure that the young boy would not get in trouble with the ogres.

This young boy was an intelligent part of the team and losing him meant losing the competition once and for all. Ahram did not want this to happen.. He was sincere toward all of the team members and their need to win.