Faro was leading the players in a charge through the downed gate, a huge roar coming through his throat. When he suddenly stopped and stared at the scene before him. As he and the rest of his mercenary band of players took in what was behind the wall that had been the hands of Carthax.

  Which was a sight of horror, which was saying something, considering the hands of Carthax was effectively a mishmash of thousands of bodies crammed together into a wall. So to see that there were still things just as horrifying waiting for them in this fortress dedicated to Hargal disturbed Faro and the players greatly. As there was probably some other horror after the current one they were gawking at waiting for them deeper in.

  What exactly were Faro and the players staring at in horror? It was a series of moats separated with small strips of ash land in between them. Each moat was made up of strange, darkish red blood, which had strange, human-like faces constantly forming and disappearing in its murky surface. The strange foreboding moats had bridges made out of the skulls of the Detreon people and their beasts. The bridges were spread out periodically across the different moats, giving Faro and his men a rather difficult crossing as there wasn't a straight path across the moats.

  Faro shaking off the shock of the disturbing image that the interior between the hands of Carthax and its second wall had begun to give out orders to his forces. "Alright boys, I don't like the look of the moats or the bridges. So let's double time it across them. No march lads!" Faro shouted out as he gave his small force of players a once-over before charging ahead and leading them all across the nearest bridge.

  Faro was hoping to lead his small force quickly to the second inner wall without incident. Sadly, his hopes were dashed as from under the bridge came several tentacles slamming into Faro's force from both sides of the bridge. "Well, Faro, it looks like our new friends here disagree with your plan." Mark said, trying to make light of the situation, finding that all the recent combat had gotten him back into his old hero habits again. Such as making light of the situation so that those around him would be better at ease.

  The players were holding well, though several had fallen to the initial surprise assault. Luckily, from the looks of it, they weren't dead, just paralyzed from what little the other players could make out of them. Though the players were too busy to check as they were engaged with tentacles trying not to be stabbed by the barbs at the end of the tentacles. As they engaged in a fierce struggle, they began to get the stats of the creature the tentacles were attached to as they continued to hold them off.

  The players began to panic as they saw the creature's ability, Skull Bridger, and they began to get an inkling of what might happen next. Their suspicions were proven correct as dozens of tentacles shot up from the bridge, all now sporting skulls atop their barbs to either ram into Faro's force with the hardened skulls or bite down on them with their new sets of skeletal teeth.

  So now the players found themselves not only having to deal with giant barbed tentacles coming at them from the sides; they now also had to deal with ones with skulls coming from above and leaving gaps in the bridge that they have to be wary of lest they fell into the rather suspicious blood moat. Faro, taking in their situation, decided they needed to get a move on or they would get bogged down on a bridge that would fall apart as the beast below them tore it apart for fresh skulls to kill them with.

  "Alright lads, looks like we're making a run for the end of this mad course real quick-like! So keep moving forward; don't get stuck fighting these tentacle things; just slash at any in your way as you move forward!" Faro shouted out to his small force of players before he began to make great sweeps with his scythe, cutting down several tentacles with each swing as he charged forward, trying to create a path forward for the players to follow.

  The players, hearing his orders and agreeing with his reasoning, quickly followed suit as they swung their weapons at the tentacles, trying to stop them with maces made of broccoli, swords of pineapple, and staffs of corn, which were only a few of the many different plant-based weapons on display as they made their mad dash through several bridges, each one having a pillar anemone as its main support pillar, which meant the players were attacked every step they took as they made their way across several bridges of skulls over moats of blackish red blood.

  "Come on, guys, we can make it—just one step in front of the other!" Mark screamed, trying to keep spirits high. He had stayed to the right of Faro, helping him to keep a path clear in front of their force by using his blade's powerful cutting ability to cut down as many tentacles in their path as possible. Though it wasn't doing as much as he had hoped.

  Despite Mark's and Faro's best efforts to make a path for the rest to follow behind them, keeping the force fast and maneuverable, they had lost several along the way. Either due to the sudden holes that popped up as tentacles took skulls to add to their tentacles, creating holes in the bridges, or just the repeated attempts by the tentacles barbs eventually getting through the players defenses and bringing them down as they began to lose pace with everyone else. So by the time they made it across several skull bridges and onto the other side, they had lost a third of their original number.

  For a few precious moments, Faro's attack force caught its breath on the other side of the defense line of blood moats. They were safe since the Pillar anemones weren't able to follow after them since they were a part of the bridges and so couldn't come out of the moats to pursue them. They could only seethe with rage as Faro's force was out of range of even the longest of their tentacles.

  Once the attack force had caught its breath, they began to make the march across the final stretch of ground from the last stretch of ash lands after the last moat to the second wall. Now that they were closing in on the second wall, they could see that this was an actual wall unlike the hands of Carthax. It was made out of an entirely gray stone with iron gates. Though the force began to notice that there were strange stone heads scattered along the wall that seemed to be recently added to the wall, they could tell from the fact it didn't have the same wear and tear that the rest of the wall had from the passage of time.

  The heads were made to look like those found on dragonflies with giant reddish-black crystals for eyes that matched the color of the moats. The attack force was a bit confused by the choice of aesthetic, but they didn't let it stop them from closing in on the closest iron gate. Though as they closed in, they began to hear a strange buzzing noise like a thousand tiny insect wings buzzing in time with each other.

  Stolen story; please report.

  That's when they heard a slow grinding noise and looked up once again to notice the dragonfly statues had opened up their mouths and swarms of smaller dragonflies had stormed out. The swarm of dragonflies made their way to the moats, and soon the entire swarm disappeared underneath the strange blood moats. This left the force confused as to why summon an insect swarm just to drown that same swarm moments later?

  The attack force soon found their answer. Which was you don't as an insect rose out of the blood moat, though now as the core of strange slime creatures that were making their way towards Faro's force. "It looks like we have our round two for this set of wall lads! Get ready for the fight, lads." Faro shouted out as the players under his command all got into battle stances, ready to fight the new incoming slime horde.

  They began to see the stats of these new creatures that were charging at them. Though the screen only appeared for the dragonflies flying around inside them instead of the slime itself for reasons that were soon made apparent once they saw the stats screen.

  The players got a few precious moments to read the important intel before they were swarmed with living blood. The blood slimes quickly began trying their tactic of trying to drown them with their own bloody juice. When that didn't work, they began forming tentacles of an almost solid jello-like substance to beat them to death with instead. Faro, seeing that his force was about to be overwhelmed in pure slime once again, showed off his amazing skill with a scythe by quickly cutting several of the slimes dragonfly swampers, causing them to become nothing more than a bloody puddle with bits of dragonfly swamper mixed in. This confirmed what a few players had suspected from reading the earlier stats text.

  "Alright lads, looks like if we're going to put down these damn blood sacks, we're going to have to cut up their little friends that they're hiding inside." Faro shouted out, his voice booming out across the battlefield as the players tried desperately to hit the dragonfly swampers, but they were constantly moving around in the blood slimes bodies they controlled, and the liquid nature of the blood slimes slowed their strikes as they hit, making it easier for the dragonfly swampers to dodge.

  "Well, Faro, it looks like your scythe and my sword are going to have to clear up these pests!" Mark said to Faro, excitement filling his voice at the opportunity to fight side by side with Faro again, but this time as an equal instead of a rookie like before at the siege of Faria. Faro looked at him for a moment, then at his blade, Foxe's teeth, seeing its rather sharp edge, and nodded to Mark before letting out a roar and charging into the biggest group of blood slimes he could find with Mark at his side.

  The two men reaped a bloody two, cutting down blood slimes one after the other as they both sliced through dragonfly swampers with ease. Faro using his skill and strength to become a blur as he seemed to become a tornado with his scythe Mark, though, relied more on the natural power of his blade, Foxe's teeth, using its ability to sharpen grain to cut down any blood slimes that crossed his path. Thanks to the two, eventually the stone dragonfly heads ran out of dragonfly swampers to send, leaving the players to recover in a graveyard of recently killed dragonfly swampers while covered in blood slime.

  Mark sat down for a moment to catch his breath. He realized that he and Faro alone had probably killed hundreds of the things. Though not without cost, as their force had been cut down once again as players had been swarmed by the blood slime, drowning in small red rivers led by the dragonfly swarmers, causing them to drown in what was probably necrotic blood.

  Honestly, it made Mark glad that this was a game and players went back safe and sound; otherwise, there would be a lot of families getting letters about people not coming home. Sure, they had made it to the gate at the second wall, but they had been whittled down to less than half their original number. Honestly, he wasn't sure what Faro was planning to do with the men they had left.

  Faro stood still, staring at the metal gate of the old fort of Carthax, not saying anything as everybody caught their breath. Then he turned around and gave everyone a quick glance before he spoke. "Alright lads, there aren't enough of us left to take the second part of the walls for ourselves. So we're going to go through these gates here and charge as deep into the fortress as we can, and if we're lucky, we'll get to gut the commander of the fort. So you are with me on this mad quest, lads!" Faro shouted out to the players who were listening and proceeded to get up and roar their approval, wanting to see just how far they could get in this fortress of necrotic horrors.

  Faro began to lead his men to the iron gate of the second wall to try and break through and get to the keep waiting beyond. His hope was to find the fort's commander and kill them, mostly because Faro figured that by killing them, they would cripple a lot of the fort's necromantic defenses.

  Simon and Robert watched on through the thousands of TV screens that made up the walls of Robert's workshop. "Hmmm, got to say I didn't expect to have filmed a hundred-yard dash with barbed tentacles involved. You didn't change this game rating on me without telling me, did you, Robert?" Simon asked, his voice somehow filled with sarcasm and genuine curiosity at the same time.

  " No Simon Get your mind out of the gutter. I didn't turn it into that type of adult game." Robert said with a firm tone in his voice, somehow pinning Simon with a look despite Simone not being there physically and so couldn't be looked at or feel such a look to begin with, but somehow Robert pulled it off.

  "Alright then, moving on from that subject. There were some interesting tidbits going on with the defense, weren't there?" Simon said with a tone of interest in his voice that somehow came through the usual radio static that came about whenever he talked. For a moment Robert said nothing, still pinning Simon with a look, but he eventually stopped giving Simon the side eye and began to speak.

  "Yes, there was something interesting going on in the defense. In fact, there seem to be a few things going on at Carthax that are all connected if you are really looking. If I were to guess, Faro might regret trying to go after the fort's commander considering he doesn't even know who it is yet." Robert said as he stroked his chin with his taloned hands, thinking about who was probably in command of the fortress.

  "Ah yes, the going for the head of the snake plan. A classic, but it might backfire in Faro's case. While it'll make great television, which will be great ratings, whatever happens, regardless." Simone said, excitement once again filling his tone as he imagined the battle that was about to unfold between two powerful champions of two different gods and the ratings that would give him.

  Robert just rolled his eyes at Simon's continued obsession with rating as they both focused back on the TV screens. Once again watching the siege and following what was left of Faro's force as they made their way deeper into Carthax to see how the battle would conclude.