POV Jacob

  …So without further ado, let the fun begin and let the wheels spin!]

  I stare at the sickening swirl of colour in anticipation, waiting to see what would become of our world. 'What a time to be alive, huh? Our lives are now based on and intertwined with a glorified gacha game for the entertainment of Gods. You'd think they would come up with a more interesting method of media by now, with infinite power, but here we are. Ooooo, it's slowing down.' Like last time, I couldn't make out any sections of the wheel until it finally slowed to stop, and a new pop-up filled my vision.

  [ Event: Endless caves.

  Description: An endless cave network has formed under the surface of Earth's land mass with small openings leading to the surface. The caves are filled with unknown creatures and resources that become more abundant the deeper you go. While you can attempt to stay on the surface, beware of what lurks in the sky.

  Challenges: Kill a Cave crawler, Travel 100 miles of the endless caves, discover and survive the 11 creatures that call the caves their home, kill a brood mother and/or a Sky Lurker.

  Misc information: Descriptions and misc information of this level will only be available within the tutorial. The undead will increase in intelligence and speed. Undead will develop night vision. Cave crawlers are a species similar to Earth's centipede and are predatory arthropods with a gem inside their head that can be sold for points in the interdimensional shop. Upon a person's death, they will drop a small cube holding the contents of their inventory. Humans will be allowed to explore the Endless caves before they are partially closed before the next event.

  Please enjoy :) ]

  "Aww, look at that. The evil message of death told us to enjoy ourselves. Isn't that nice?" I asked aloud while rapidly putting on the modified motocross armour, which was too uncomfortable to sleep in despite my best efforts. "It even has a cute little smiley face." I finished putting on my armoured trousers and grabbed the rose steel knife from under my pillow to fasten it to my leg.

  "Looks like it's caves. We didn't do anything for caves." I hear Ava calling out from the landing as I head towards the door to open it, revealing Mai, Ava, Ella and Noah exiting their rooms onto the landing, grim determination displayed across their faces.

  "Christ on a bike, that thing is huge!" Mai gasps in shock. I temporarily ignored the outburst, trusted Mai to inform us of any immediate threat, and focused on gathering supplies.

  "Has anyone been caving?" I ask only to get shaking heads in response. "Right, ummm. Climbing go bag, lights and batteries?" I suggest, prompting Noah to re-enter his room to grab the duffel bag of climbing gear while Ella disappears into the master bedroom to get the spare lighting gear.

  "Mai, what's going on outside?" Ava asks while I lean over the bannister, calling down the stairs to the makeshift room and sofa bed to ensure Sam is alright.

  "I'm guessing it's the Sky lurker thing, it is massive, like the biggest thing I've seen, almost as big as Ava's ti…" Mia starts, but is interrupted by Ava's indignant cry. "Anyway, it's a massive jellyfish-looking thing, there's loads of them high up in the sky with long ass tentacles…Oh shit, they are fast, ones at the window." Before she can continue, she is interrupted by a panicked yell from downstairs.

  Hurried legs leap over the bannister before I know what I'm doing. In a panic, I slam clawed fingers into the melting wall to slow my impromptu free fall to the ground floor, allowing for a controlled descent that quickly transitions into a sprint for the living room. Bursting through the door, I see a panicked Sam frantically trying to fend off a transparent blueish, white tentacle that looks to be made of jelly, with his unmodified javelin.

  "Why the fuck did you have the window open?" I yell, taking out a knife and rushing over to help.

  My question goes unanswered as Sam yells out a question of his own, "What the hell is that thing?!?" He shouts out in a panic, frantically waving his javelin around, trying to dissuade the gelatinous appendage from advancing. Sadly, his erratic movement causes the weapon to get stuck on the ceiling light as the transparent tentacle slowly sways side to side, getting ever closer. "Sky lurker's tentacle," I answer, drawing my second knife and slowing down to assess the situation.

  While the last week fighting the undead and mutant animals had allowed me to become slightly more adept at combat, I was still just a scrawny teen with anger issues, but even I could tell that something about the tentacle's movements was off. It swayed hesitantly through the room, randomly darting around in a seemingly random direction. 'Is it blind? Well, it's basically a fancy arm; you wouldn't have eyes on an arm, right? But then how did it find the open window?'

  Before I can voice my query, it lashes out in a sudden burst of movement, colliding with Sam's javelin just as he untangles it from the lights. At the exact moment of contact, arcs of electricity sprout from the appendage, travelling down its length, through the javelin and into an unsuspecting Sam. Electricity flows, making Sam seize up as his body gives off micro spasms, his eyes and muscles twitching uncontrollably as he's dragged towards the open window by his own unrelenting grip.

  "Fuck”, I rush towards the javelin to separate Sam from the conductor connecting him to the alien limb. Activating my ability to liquefy, I channel it to my right hand and slam it down onto the electrified javelin. Pushing away the nausea from the reckless internal power channelling, I feel my body lock into place, my muscles tensing as a high voltage of electrical power courses through my flesh and blood. But then the javelin melts, cutting it in half and freeing us.

  Gasping for breath, I sag slightly and look towards the tentacle, watching it jolt from the sudden loss of weight before stopping in its tracks and dropping the partially melted javelin 'So it could tell its prey got away?'. I shake slightly to remove the numbness in my body and begin to remove a wooden club from my inventory when the tentacle once again darts forward like a cobra juiced up with lightning, hell-bent on killing its prey. Which, given its trajectory, would have been Sam if I hadn't managed to spartan kick him out of the way, causing him to fall through the sofa bed and onto the floor in a tangled pile of blankets and pillows.

  'Sorry, Sam!'

  I planned on dropping to the floor myself until I could have gotten a suitable weapon, but the tentacle lashes out upon not finding its prey and catches my extended and unprotected leg. 'Double Fuck’ Once again, I lose control of my body, feeling as though lightning has replaced my blood, and concrete fills my bones. As fast as thought, the appendage coils and snakes around my leg before dragging me towards the window.

  For a brief moment, the grip loosens as a tentacle of water smashes into the jelly-like limb before a fresh wave of electricity sparks across the appendage. Screams fill the air until I realise they are my own as the air is forced from my spasming lungs as the smell of roasted meat wafts off my burning leg. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Ava and Noah rushing towards me, fear written across their features as they try to pull me back to safety, but I know they won't make it in time. I try to convey that it's okay and that they shouldn't beat themselves up about the giant tentacle monster taking advantage of me, but I highly doubt they can read my mind, or if they would want to be in there in the first place.

  Shattering glass soon fills my vision, sparkling like snowflakes as it scrapes against my face and gets lost in my hair. While I am sure it would hurt like pissing vinegar, I can't actually feel anything through the electrical hostage situation my nerves are currently in. My mind blinks in and out of consciousness as I am dragged out through the window and into the sky above, where I see the true body of the Sky Lurkers. 'Big…Triple…Fuck.'

  While I would normally relish the feeling of flying with the absolute freedom it promised and the earth slowly shrinking away, I was currently preoccupied with the giant ass JellyFish wannabes floating in the sky. Each Sky Lurker was the size of a small cruise ship and looked to be made from liquid glass that pulsed with a bright blue light that danced across their enormous frames. Thousands of tentacles swam across the sky, crackling with arcs of lightning, and swarmed across the streets and parks, picking up victims that were brought up to the main body's gaping black mass of a mouth.

  From my new enforced vantage point, I could barely see the houses below, but I could see tens, if not hundreds, of Sky Lurkers, each with thousands of tentacles lit up by arcs of lighting. Even if I was about to be eaten and possibly die, I still couldn't help but find it beautiful.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Fragmented thoughts struggle to form from a sporadic electrocuted mind as I'm brought up to the mouth of the enormous beast. Admiration for the beauty and wonder of the new world, rage at the thought of my life ending before I can experience it and a burning desire to complete the challenge and live.

  POV Ava

  Bursting into the living room, my eyes dart around the chaos to see Sam lying on the floor, a stunned look on his face, while Jacob's leg is ensnared by a Sky Lurker's tentacle that sparks like a live wire. Not wanting to waste time, I spring into action, unhooking the modified wine bottle from my belt and slamming it into the wall. Sharp shards of glass begin to fall to the floor before they are picked up by the arm of water that I whip at the limb, trying to drag my friend away.

  With an ironically meaty slap, my glass-infused water smashes into the invading appendage, and for a moment, I thought I had succeeded. The appendage froze, and I pumped more water into the arm, hoping to buy enough time for someone to help pull Jacob free. Then it all came crashing down. Blue arcs of pure lighting erupted from the beast into the water limb, the foreign energy making the liquid construct collapse into a puddle with an anticlimactic splash of water and clinking of glass. But it didn't stop there. It went into Jacob. The blinding light of raw power danced across his convulsing body and screaming face, leaving burnt flesh in its wake. The smell of cooked meat fills the air, and his eyes roll into the back of his head as he smashes through the window and out of view.

  I watch in abstract horror, lowering the outstretched hand I don't remember raising, and stare into the empty space as Jacobs's screams grow more distant as he's dragged into the night sky. Complete and utter helplessness eats away at me like maggots on a corpse. 'I was useless. Pathetic. How were we meant to survive this?

  Movement to my right makes my eyes flutter to the side to see a dumbfounded-looking Noah, sledgehammer in hand, staring at the same broken window, muttering to himself softly. "Do you think the Gods will make their own show boring?" Before yelling in anger and desperation, "Shit. Fuck. What the fuck was that?!?" He heaves up his hammer before slamming it through the TV in a fit of blind rage. Plastics and electronics explode from the impact as the mighty hammer slams to a stop after taking a chunk of wood from the dense oak TV stand. "It's just started! They can't throw that shit at us and expect us to live! What the fuck were you doing, Sam? Lying on the floor?!?" The usually calm and collected Noah rounds on Sam, who was still sitting in a pile of blankets, dumfounded.

  "I…Um…" Sam starts to mumble before a new message fills our vision, causing the room to fall silent as pale-faced Ella and Mia enter the room.

  [One of the 7 has died. There are 6/7 left within the show]

  "One of the 7 is dead?" I ask nobody in particular, "But if they can't make it, how will…" I start before Mia interrupts us all.

  "There's more coming; we need to move," she half whispers, fear lacing every syllable like a thick sludge. 'What was she seeing out there to make her act like that?'

  Spurred on by her words and a pure primal sense of self-preservation, we quickly scramble around the house, picking up the dropped gear bags before rushing over to the dark pit that appeared under and swallowed the dining table at some point during the chaos. I share a panicked look with Mia before lowering myself into the hole of rough grey stone. My feet scrape around the jagged earth, trying to find a foothold to hold my weight, while my hands grasp for anything that feels solid. All around me, my remaining friends struggle to climb into the shoddily illuminated hole. In our rush, only Noah and I had managed to put on our head torches, but they didn't help my poor climbing ability. 'Jacob liked to go climbing,' I think, with a light sob, but I don't let it hinder my already slow descent.

  Eventually, we make it down the 10m drop into a small cavern. Its floor is covered in wooden shards from the now broken table, half covered by a tablecloth showing a world map. A few meters ahead of me, the cave tapered off into a single stone tunnel that faded out into the darkness. The small cave just about had room for all of us, including Twitch and Mittens, who Mia brought down in her custom baby bag Jacob made for her. Not wanting to stop just yet and be found by the three tentacles Mia confirmed were in the house, we quickly jogged down the passage another 20m before stopping when we reached a fork in the road.

  "Can we stop here for a bit?" I ask the group, trying to find time to grieve and process what's happening. With no complaint, everyone stops and sits against the cold stone walls with only Mia's pets travelling further down the branching passages to keep watch. I sit in silence, nervous energy and anger fill me with a strong desire to move, yell, even scream, but I just sit there in silence, bouncing my leg, trying not to break down as the events of the last few days crash into me like waves of a storm.

  "I'm sorry for lashing out earlier, especially at you, Sam." Noah fills the silence with sadness in his voice as he turns his body to face Sam.

  "It's okay. It was my fault. I left the window open, got stuck, and was…useless. I just hope he can make it back okay, "Sam replied in a distraught voice, causing me to pause as my brain took in his optimistic statement.

  "Um, Sam, I don't think Jacob is coming back," Ella states, exhaustion heard in her every word.

  "I heard him scream all the way up he was still alive, and the challenge said those things could be killed, so he should be able to escape." He counters with determination.

  "He melts things, not even living things, and he's very high up with no way down. We should get as far away from those things as possible." Ella argues back.

  Sam opens his mouth but pauses, allowing me to join the conversation, "He might have made a parachute, he's paranoid enough and has been skydiving. If he's alive up there…" I trail off before Noah's soft laugh echoes off the passage's walls. I shoot him a curious glance, only to see him gingerly holding a thick reddish bracelet. "He will properly find a way to kill the thing with one of his jerry-rigged power tools or explosives to complete the challenge." He snorts, and I found myself agreeing with the assessment, as outlandish and unrealistic as it was.

  Ella looked anything but convinced, but kept her thoughts to herself as we agreed to wait an hour while Mia kept watch through Sunny, the recently acquired budgie, for anything that looked promising. For some reason, the sky lurkers ignored anything non-human, allowing her to monitor the situation in peace. In the meantime, we rested until there was movement in Twitch's tunnel, causing the white rabbit to come running out of the stone tunnel at high speeds.

  By the time she arrived, we were already well informed and standing ready for whatever came down the passage, and given the event's message, it almost wasn't even a surprise when a gigantic centipede scuttled into the beams of our head torches. It had a flattened, many-segmented body with a bulbous head that sprouted long, erect antennae and vicious-looking mandibles. It was at least 4 metres in length and coloured a dark purple with bright yellow rapidly moving legs that dragged its armoured body toward us at high speeds before gradually slowing down a few meters away from us. Its head swivelled side to side as its antennae danced through the air.

  It almost looked like it would turn around again at the sight of us, but I didn't want to waste the perfect opportunity to unleash my nervous energy and anger. Not letting it get to the others or turn around, I launch fist-sized bullets of water on either side of the monster, funnelling it straight into the floating blob of liquid under my control. Opening my palm, I gesture for the water to wrap around the antennae and pull backwards, causing what could only be the cave crawler to screech in pain and skid to a stop as it tried to relieve pressure from its sensory organ. Not letting the open mouth go unpunished, I send a thick stream of liquid through its gnashing mandibles and straight down its gullet. I asked the other to stop, waving them back, so I could complete the challenge alone, and began to walk forward.

  I didn't pick up any broken glass from the living room, but that didn't stop me from shoving as many loose stones into the beast's open mouth as I could fit. No longer able to scream or sense the world through its abused antennae, it tried to retreat back the way it came, only to find itself expanding from the inside out as I pumped more and more water into its bulbous head, flooding its organs.

  I couldn't drown it; the message said they were based on centipedes. Centipedes have spiracles on their exoskeletons to allow air into their bodies; they don't need their mouths to breathe. But I didn't need to drown it. I closed my open palm into a fist, holding the water in place as best I could, making the creature freeze and struggle to move only a few inches at a time, while my other hand stooped down to pick up another loose stone. Water flows from my fingertips around the solid rock before I begin to spin it as if it were attached to a liquid rope, quickly building up momentum until it is a whistling blur that crashes down onto its chitinous head with a thunderous crack. Once. Twice, on the third time, it split open like a rotten coconut, the monster's brain leaking out of its head and revealing a crystal that sparkled even in the dim light.

  I lower my shaking arm and slowly sink to my knees as my mouth, throat, and eyes burn from the rapid dehydration, as my nerves light up like a Christmas tree, sending a stabbing sensation throughout my body. The downsides of my powers and improper internal energy channelling methods were steep, but the results speak for themselves. 'I could do this, I could survive, and I won't feel helpless again.' I raise a trembling hand to pick up the monster's revealed crystal from the pile of gore and slip it into my inventory.

  Shortly after, I feel Noah's steady arms help me up and hand me a bottle of water while Ella appears from my side to heal the raw, tingling nerves. I stare into the darkness for a moment before turning my head to look at my friends and see a range of shock, fear, and respect plastered across their faces. 'I guess we all needed a bit of a wake-up call. ' I stand up straighter, taking my weight off Noah and finishing off the litre of water in record time.

  Taking a moment to wipe the beads of water travelling down my chin, I check my watch to note the time. 'Looks like I have another 40 minutes to kill.' With determination filling my being, I will pour more water to appear and begin to practice for a few minutes before Mia interprets my concentration, making me pause. "The sky lurker, it's shaking a lot. It doesn't look like it's having a good time."

  I feel a smile blossom across my face as I return to practice, trying to move the blood of the dead beast.