"Where is everyone?" Drake asked as the team moved up the corridor.
"There is a lot of activity going on," Phil said using Priest as a guide dog. "I can't tell exactly what. It's all....... muttled."
"Is everything okay there, Diff'?" Ozzy asked as the alien's pace slowed a bit. His face contored into a very uncomfortable condition that Ozzy had never seen before.
Adem answered, "It's that headache again. For some reason, it just intensified."
"It probably doesn't mean anything good," the ex-boxer sighed. "Nothing like that every means anything good."
The troop stopped dead in their tracks. Right in front of them stood a large stone door. "Where's Brianna and Ed?" Danny asked looking at the barrier in front of them.
"Nope," Ozzy continued, "not good at all."
"Should we go through the door?" Preist put his hand against the door.
"It's obviously a trap." Adem scratched his head more out of imitation than habit.
"Of course it's a trap. We're not stupid," Phil said looking at a wall he thought was Adem.
Ozzy spoke up, "Maybe would should just go ahead and go through it. The last thing they'll expect is us walking into a trap when we know it's a trap."
"No," Drake interjected. "That's not true. You'd think it would be, but it's not. I bet that they are, in fact, ready for us being ready for them."
"If they are ready to taste my steel, who am I to disappoint them?" Templar boasted as he moved to unsheat his sword before remembering that the guards had previously confiscated it from him. "That shall not stop me," he proclaimed with a hearty laugh, probably as a cover. "I shall tear the flesh from their bones with my bare hands."
The door slowly raised on it's own. Bright rays of sunshine blinded the Vanguardians. The stone beneath them came alive and rose upwards. The team was pushed out of the hallway and into the bright light.
<So you are the ones who have been causing me so much trouble!> The voice was gravely and the speech unknown to the team. Templar could discern it just as he had the peasants in the village. Different's translator had studied the language as it had been spoken to them since their arrival and found the meanings of the words. <I shall show you how I, Lord Godbolt, deal with pests.>
"What'd he say?" Ozzy asked.
"We're in trouble," Adem answered in a tone of wonder, as if the idea was unfanthomable.
"Aye! That we are! Hahahahahahahaha!" Templar smiled from ear to ear.
The ground shook violently as the earth shook. The team could now see that they were in some sort of arena. Godbolt sat on a large throne, flanked by a somewhat nervous Grayavale. A large, red scaled beast entered the arena from the other side. In it's right hand hung a net holding the limp forms of Raptor and Banshee. The left impacted with the ground, sending a shockwave that knocked the team over like bowling pins.
"Oh, what fun," Danny spit out blood while attempting to pick himself up off the ground.
Ozzy charged the beast with a primal scream as his metallic hand balled into a fist. What would normally be referred to as a bitch slap knocked the man across the field and into the stone wall.
"You're the professional in this situation," Adem said looking at Mason. "What do you suggest we do here?"
"Why, my boy, we fight! A-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
