Storms Of Ataraxy

Korbin, Cassi and Lonni all enjoyed their fill of chuckles as I started to get up from the floor, realizing I must've somehow won or died and got eliminated without knowing it before that damned Naiad could reach me. Lonni quickly jogged over to lend me a hand seeing me sit upright.

"Real fuckin' funny guys. How long have I been here for?" I asked, nodding to Lonni and quickly walking toward Korbin and Cassi. No doubt one of them decided to fuck with me the literal first chance they got upon my return, it only makes sense to question them directly.

"Like 10 seconds, I still can't believe we held it together that long." Korbin said through a laugh, grabbing onto Cassi's shoulder to stay upright.

Ah, so it was his idea.

"I assume since I blipped back to a fucking prank rather than a congrats that I didn't win?" I asked, looking at Cassi since she was only grinning nefariously rather than falling over herself like Korbin.

"No, you won. The goal was to be the last team with a pillar, and you were the last person to touch the one that light-fighter was defending." Cassi said, chuckling herself and avoiding eye contact as she spoke.

"Okay come on?! I think that's pretty fuckin' cool, what the hell's so funny?" I blurted out upon hearing I'd actually pulled it off. I suppose I had grazed my hand on the face of the pillar trying to evade the Naiad's raining blood eagles, though I hadn't even noticed I received the capture notification.

*Pillar Captured!

Pillars under 'Elysium's' control: (1)

"Because it's a lot less cool-looking when your winning pose is cowering in a ball on the floor." Korbin interjected before bursting out laughing yet again. Before I could thoughtfully and not at all frantically defend my honor, another notification prior to the pillar update caught my eye.

*Skill Upgraded!*

Ooh, my favorite.

"Fair enough, glad I could help." I said dismissively, walking right past my jokester greeters towards my little meditation corner. As I strolled over with my notifications still open, a hand clasping my shoulder made me jolt.

"OH SH-" I exclaimed, pausing as my eyes locked with Lonni's.

"Woah buddy, it's just me." Lonni said in his usual calm, baritone voice.

"Fuckin' hell Lonni, how the hell did you of all people manage to sneak up on me like that?" I asked, sighing as my hands relaxed from my twinblade.

"I…walked right up to you. I even waved." Lonni replied with a confused furrowed brow.

"Oh…well uh, I guess that's my bad." I said, realizing my excitement to read my new skill upgrade literally blinded me to the 7 foot slab of muscle walking right up to me.

"You okay? It looked pretty rough out there after I got eliminated." Lonni asked in a hushed tone, leaning his head down closer.

"Yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be?" I asked, confused at the question. As if a few new species of fucked up magical monsters could've compared to that fucking Gibslandris.

"Just checking. Derrick was uh, pretty pissed when he got back in here." Lonni replied in an even quieter tone. I leaned over his burly shoulder to find Derrick, sitting not more than 6 feet from my own meditation spot.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken we only get 2 lives in this Labyrinth. And, that last elimination was his second so, he's effectively benched now. I'd be pretty upset too." I replied, trying my best to keep my emotion from leaking into my hushed speech. Lonni sighed, dropping his eyes to the floor.

"I tried explaining to him we'd be okay, and he seemed to believe me, but that didn't seem to help all that much. You think you could maybe..?" Lonni asked, somehow bearing puppy dog eyes while towering over me.

"Why do you think he'd listen to me? Last time Derrick tried that, he got eliminated anyway." I asked, feeling a tinge of guilt at possibly having led him astray with my words at the portal.

"Look, you don't have to. I just think it would do him good for you two to squash whatever the hell's going on with you two." Lonni replied in a surprisingly sharp tone. Shaking his head, he continued over to Cassi and Korbin without another word.

The fuck? I've yet to see Lonni exhibit a modicum of disapproval over my choices like that since I was cutting through his friends on day 1. Is Derrick actually in that bad of shape over this?

Looking over to my meditation corner, Derrick was periodically glancing up at air and down at his Halberds Violet rune. If there's anything I could recognize by now, it was someone occupied with internal prompts and notifications. My boots purposely slapped flat onto the cold metallic floors, successfully snapping Derrick out of his internal workflow.

"Oh hey, I heard you pulled it off. Way to be." Derrick said casually, his eyes darting back down at his halberd as he spoke.

"Yeah, couldn't have pulled it off without you saving my ass a few times though, wanted to come over and say uh, good shit out there." I said, realizing I strolled over here with zero game plan for 'cheering' him up. Lonni's hand hovering over his halberd's largest tunic insert slowly relaxed, falling onto the face of the blade.

"Yeah, yeah I'm happy I helped. Hey I don't mean to be rude but, I'm actually a little busy here." Derrick said, pointing down at his weapon.

"Well, you're working within spitting distance of my meditation spot. I'll be working on mana manipulation for the foreseeable future, what are you working on?" I said, extending one last olive branch to conversation.

"Kind of the same. I got a lot to figure out before I can even touch that damn formula Andolis' simulation gave me. Might as well start now, while I have time." Derrick said, smiling looking down at his glowing rune.

"Seems like a good use of time. Try to show that smile a little more though, would you? You worried ole Lonni boy over there enough to worry me." I said, flicking my head back toward Lonni while strolling over to my spot, sitting down cross-legged. Lonni's smile slowly faded before he replied, making eye contact as he grew more serious.

"Neither of you need to worry about me. I was Elysium's most talented Lithomancer before ever stepping foot into the Quarterlies. With this formula, that status might've just upgraded to a global scale. I think being the combative 'weak link' amongst you homicidal maniacs is something I could settle for with pride." Derrick said, snickering to himself at that last part. A flicker of frustration at his smugness lit within me as I smiled, realizing maybe his attitude was just an indication of self assurance. An unhealthy one, but at least he wasn't entirely wrong in his self assessment.

"Right, whatever keeps you comfortable until this labyrinths over buddy." I said sarcastically. Derrick flipped me off with a grin. His eyes fell back down to his halberd, then immediately rolled in annoyance as the system's effeminate event voice echoed through the chamber.

"Attention! 'Escaping Fate' will commence in 2 minutes!" The voice announced in their typical soothing tone. If I'm not mistaken, our breaks between these labyrinth objectives are getting shorter, considering I had time for just a few conversations before our first warning. Still, the title of this event brought me back to our choosing who would participate in these objectives.

"Hey Korbin! Correct me if I'm wrong but, I believe you're on deck." I hollered across the room to Korbin, who appeared in the midst of a rather serious conversation with Cassi and Lonni. Leaning his head around Lonni's towering frame, Korbin took a few steps in my direction to reply.

"Would you look at that? Tom was right for a change! Did you evolve after that last objective or..?" Korbin said, smiling deviously.

"Big talk for a guy who has his whole event in front of him. At least mine's last so I got time to bask in this." I shot back, returning his grin with my one.

"I didn't realize we were hoping for mutual failure. If you'd like I could influence that outcome better for you in the future?" Korbin replied, his smile fading. I fought off a chuckle realizing I got to him with that.

"Don't worry, I want nothing more than your success out there-" I began, scrambling to my feet and waving Korbin over. Puzzled, he met me halfway as I lowered my voice.

"-and you picked one that's titles become more and more daunting by the Objective. Fuck fate, didn't exist before and it doesn't now." I said in a hush, knowing full well we shared the same resentment towards the concept of 'destiny' and 'fate'. If anything, his feelings towards the idea were far more intense than my own, often leading the charge in our late night ramblings disproving the concept. So for us to have been kidnapped on a global scale and thrown magical powers, terrifying monsters, and fucking gods made now be faced with a system recognized Objecive that both recognizes fate and implies it's your direct opponent all but comforting. Truthfully, I'd only fill in if he lost a life out of necessity, unless we've both terribly overestimated this obj-

"Tom, no shit it's not real. Destiny's a pretty name and a filler word people who yearn for a legacy use to justify their present failures. Why are we talking about this right now?" Korbin replied with a confused look, not lowering his voice at all. My head recoiled back realizing he didn't share my apprehension at all.

"Your objective? 'Escaping Fate'?" I asked, not quite seeing how he didn't understand.

"Oh, that's just a title, Tom. There's probably some being that called themselves fate that'll be chasing me around or something, I'm not worried." Korbin replied casually with a shrug.

"30 seconds until 'Escaping Fate' commences." The soft system voice announced.

"Wait, then why did you just get all pissy?" I asked, recalling the genuine look of anger in his eye not more than 15 seconds ago while bickering across the room.

"You realize it's not just us in here right? I can't just pretend like hoping any of us loses in any context is okay. Not until these Quarterlies are over at the very least, where we can spar playfully where that kind of shit belongs. Not where lives and futures are on the line, do you understand?" Korbin replied sharply. My eyes trailed as did my mind, realizing how often I'd been unfittingly comedic.

"I was just trying to keep morale high. Both of our strongest tanks were looking kind of down when I got here, so I figured I'd at least try. Derrick's doing better, or coping well at least, and I figured Lonni wou-." Korbin's hand fell on my shoulder as he chewed on the inside of his cheek, his eyes flaring with frustration before relaxing.

"I get where you're coming from. I'm not saying you're an asshole for not seeing it that way. I'm saying to know the situation you're in moving forward, or at least try to be wary of it." Korbin said. My eyes drifted to the air, shamefully recalling multiple times I'd spoken or acted blatantly out of place. A quirk that might not be afforded anymore, given the stakes we're working under 24/7.

"Yeah, I guess your ri- hey?" I said, turning back to find Korbin completely gone. Cassi's devious grin caught my eyes as I glanced around, only realizing what had happened after she started giving me shit.

"What part of '30 seconds' did you not understand?"