Story [Issue 12] Darien's Chronicle: Part 2, The Labyrinth

[r_SwagBoy110 421]

Previously...





The first thing I noticed was my shadow.

Aside from the faint glare of my headlights, there was no light in the tunnels of the labyrinth, yet a small shadow lay ahead of my tank.
Whenever I reached a fork in the road, or a turn off, my shadow would either turn to the right or to the left. Considering I didn’t have any other way to navigate, I decided to follow my shadow.
After about an hour of driving, I passed a skeleton tank. It was an old Wasp/Thunder combination. The turret was bent and mangled and the hull had a large dent on the left side.
Its expression was one of horror, as if it had died of starvation down in these tunnels. The paint had slowly drained out of the tank, leaving it a deathly shade of grey.
After another hour of driving, a faint light started to glow up ahead. As I got closer, I saw a large bronze door marking the end of the tunnel. Beside the door was a shiny gold insignia of a Generalissimo.

I had arrived at the lair of Sebastian Mally.

I was surprised how easy it had been to navigate the labyrinth. I’d been expecting a lot more blood, guts and violence.
Yet I’d arrived in a matter of hours, completely unscathed. Without another thought, I pushed down the button and the door slid open.
The inside of the room was neat and orderly. On the left wall was a computer console with a couple of monitors and keyboards.
On one of the screens was a list of current battles; no doubt they were ones Sebastian had frozen.
The right wall was lined with bookshelves. Even stranger, stacked on the bookshelves were hundreds and hundreds of bored games.
I spotted Clue, Battleship, Hungry Hippos and many others I didn’t recognize.
The far wall was plastered from bottom to top with black and white screenshots of gold boxes, battle rewards and rank ups.
In the centre of the room was a full size pool table with a game of monopoly in the centre.
And with his back facing me, was Sebastian Mally sitting at the table. He was equipped with a combination of an M3 Dictator, M3 Smoky and a paint I’d never seen before.
The paint was a royal purple, with ancient Greek writing written across it.

Before I could think of a plan of action, Sebastian turned around.


“Hello Darien,” said Sebastian, nodding in my direction.
“You… you know my name?” I croaked.
“Umm… I can kind of see your nickname. It’s right above your tank, just like every tank.” He pointed out.
“Oh, right,” I said as I came back to my senses.
“Come sit,” Sebastian said.

I drove to the pool table and sat, not taking my eyes off Sebastian for a second.

“That was too easy,” I mumbled.
“Oh, mostly everyone navigates my labyrinth easily; it isn’t that hard at all. However, I usually kill them before they can leave, that’s why they never return,” Said Sebastian with a chuckle,
“a couple of weeks ago a team of moderators came down here. They were about to fine me, but I strangled them to death; Ah, good times.”

“I’m not here to die,” I started, “I’m here to get you to reset my battle. That’s all I want.”
“To be honest, I couldn’t care less.” said Sebastian, “I’m not feeling very violent at the moment; would you like to play monopoly?
We can play one game, and then I’ll kill you. How does that sound?”
I didn’t answer.
“Which game piece do you want to be? Would you like to be the dog? To be honest, I prefer the hat.

At that moment I lost it. I lunged across the table at Sebastian.
Without looking up, he ducked to the side, letting me soar over his head and crash into a bookshelf.
“I’m going to take that as a… yes?” chuckled Sebastian.
With that, he turned around to face me and fired.

I’d been shot by a Smoky hundreds of times back in Kungur. It merely felt like a pinch, the pain went away after a few seconds, leaving a dull ache.
However, I’d never felt the power of a critical hit. The pure electricity surged around my tank, making me black out. The pain was so severe I almost passed out completely.
Everything around me seemed to exploded with vibrant colour, instantly giving me a headache. After the critical hit ended, I crumpled to the ground.
As I stood up, I noticed that my health was at 2%. I couldn’t survive another shot from even a Smoky M0.

“Can’t you see it’s useless?” muttered Sebastian, “Now come here and play monopoly or die.”

As he spoke, a health box appeared and fell onto the table. Sebastian kept talking, unaware of the box.
I waited for the perfect moment, and then fired.
The shot took him by total surprise and my bullet connected with him a split second before he fired. This ruined his aim, causing his shot to ricochet pointlessly off the ceiling.
I dove straight across the table and passed through the box as it disintegrated. My health was now up to 40%, which would withstand a few shots from the smoky as long as Sebastian didn’t get lucky with another critical hit.
A smile spread across Sebastian’s face as he rose up from the table, with his turret pointed straight at me. “You have some guts kid, I’ll give you that. However, I’m going to kill you anyway.”

With that short speech, he lunged at me and fired. I sprang back and dodged the shot while firing my own weapon straight into his hull.
As Sebastian brushed himself off with surprise, I took my chance and dove behind the pool table. He cursed and stood back up with only 30% health left.

I was about to leap out again and fire when everything around me froze. Sebastian's face went from rage, to confusion.
I drove out from the table and tried to fire, but I couldn't, Sebastian tried to fire as well, but nothing came from his gun. Then an image flickered to life in between both of us. It read, “SERVER UPDATE! The server will reset in 59 seconds.”

“Oh, well isn't this just wonderful.” said Sebastian mockingly as he rolled his eyes.

After a few more seconds another image appeared in front of me. It was the scoreboard of the match I was in. Because of the server reset, the Labyrinth was restarting as every map does, once per day. The scoreboard was titled “Sebastian Mally's Labyrinth.” The two players in the match were me and Sebastian, who both had zero kills and zero deaths. There was one thing that caught my eye on the score board. In front of Sebastian’s name was a small thumbs down button, which is used for reporting and voting tanks off of your team. Because this Labyrinth was a private match, there was only two ways to get to the centre. You can start at the entrance and navigate to the centre, as I did. Or you can be summoned by someone already in the centre.

Without a second thought, I leapt into the air and slammed my turret into the thumbs down button with all of my strength.
Sebastian's eyes opened wide with rage as he realized what I had done.
“You foul beast!” he bellowed with anger, “you blithering *****!”

Just as he said it a blinding light filled the room as moderators joined the match. Sebastian was tackled as the tank slammed into him at full force.
The other moderators followed with ropes and chains and bound Sebastian. After he was secure, all of the moderators, except one, left the battle, taking Sebastian with them.

“You saved a lot of people right there,” muttered the remaining moderator, “I'm guessing you're here because your match was frozen by Sebastian, eh?”
“How did you know?” I coughed.
“Oh, it was pretty obvious. That's why most tanks come down here. To save their maps, but it never works.” He said, with a sad look in his face,
“Well, back to business. I am a bit of a technical expert if I do say so myself and if I could just take a look at this console,” said the moderator, pointing over to the computer on the far wall, “I might be able to fix your match.”

The moderator drove over to the computer and started typing and messing around.
“Just as I expected,” mumbled the moderator, “it’s a simple hack that can be reversed easily.”
After a few minutes he turned around with a big smile.

“I think that ‘ought to fix it, you can return home now. I’ll take you back into Dusseldorf and arrange for a consultant to accompany you on your way back to your home.”

[jtipt 30]

:lol: :lol: great :mellow: :mellow: is it over ?

[r_SwagBoy110 421]

:lol: :lol: great :mellow: :mellow: is it over ?

Yes. Sorry if the ending was too abrupt.

[jtipt 30]

Yes. Sorry if the ending was too abrupt.

I thought it will extent more couple of issues :lol: nvm still great Edited May 31, 2013 by jtipt

[SilverCenturion 0]

Well done :lol:

[FaaiqBilal1 795]

Great, I thought the whole post would be about him getting through the labyrinth,

 

I know ur secret, you read percy jackson :3

 

[r_SwagBoy110 421]

I know ur secret, you read percy jackson :3

A while ago. But yes, you know me too well.

[FaaiqBilal1 795]

A while ago. But yes, you know me too well.

Y u reveal spoiler D:

[jokjinari 160]

You know who you sound like? Rick Riordan. :P Great story! Albeit a bit abrupt!

[GoldRock 6,165]

Could've been longer, I'd have loved it if there was more to it/another part intended next issue. Because the build-up from the 1st part was ended pretty abruptly here. But what you actually wrote was excellent, with a really creative ending; I just wish there was more of it to read!

Edited June 1, 2013 by GoldRock

[monster0909 299]

Nice article!

[r_SwagBoy110 421]

You know who you sound like? Rick Riordan.

Thanks. :P

 

Could've been longer, I'd have loved it if there was more to it/another part intended next issue. Because the build-up from the 1st part was ended pretty abruptly here. But what you actually wrote was excellent, with a really creative ending; I just wish there was more of it to read!

I might write more in the future.. idunno.

[GoldRock 6,165]

I might write more in the future.. idunno.

 

You could do - what I said doesn't make your article bad though, it was a really good read :)

[flae999 282]

Nice story, i wish there was more

[DeoxyriboNudeicAcicl 97]

What if there was a trap in the console? If you delete the 'simple' hack, something bigger might have activated. Perhaps creating ghost tanks.

[r_SwagBoy110 421]

What if there was a trap in the console? If you delete the 'simple' hack, something bigger might have activated. Perhaps creating ghost tanks.

Uhh, k.

[jan-nim3D 1]

lol

[AngeIs.And.Demons 1,988]

WOW.