Chapter 200: Chaos Dungeon End

Chapter 200: Chaos Dungeon End

Back with Zeth.

Zeth finds himself in a narrow path with two slanted walls on each side. A group of fast running zombies sprint down the slanted walls.

“I don’t want to still be here when the zombies get down here!” he shouts.

Zeth and the other participants run as far as they can before the zombies get down to their level.

“Looks like we have to fight them,” he mutters.

As they start fighting the zombies, boulders start falling from the ceiling.

“You have to be kidding me!!” Zeth yells.

Zeth punches a zombie then rolls out of the way of a falling boulder. Some of the participants are unable to avoid the boulders and get crushed by them. Zeth kicks some more zombies out of the way and keeps running, dodging more falling boulders from there.

***

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the dungeon.

Keith runs into Emily. Emily’s part of the dungeon merges into Keith’s part of the dungeon.

“Keith, it’s you!” Emily shouts with relief.

“No time to talk!” Keith frantically says. “Run!”

“What?”

Emily sees the cannons aiming at her. She turns around and starts running as they shoot at her. “I escape the spike and crushing ceilings only to end up running from cannons! I hate this!”

“Spike and crushing ceilings? So this place does have real dungeon traps,” Keith mutters to himself as he runs.

“What?”

“Never mind!” Keith shouts. “Just keep running!”

Keith and Emily escape the room but one of the participants near them gets vaporized by the beams.

***

Returning to Zeth.

Having escaped the room with zombies and falling boulders, Zeth and other participants run toward an intersection.

Zeth thinks, “I hope this doesn’t go on for too long!”

At the intersection, he runs into Sasha, who stops once she sees him. The other participants move on ahead.

“I’m glad I ran into you,” Zeth says.

“Likewise,” Sasha replies. “Let’s not fall behind.”

Zeth nods and they follow the other participants into the next room. They find themselves in a room with large swinging axes and laser beams firing all over.

The participants hesitate, trying to figure out the best way through.

“This isn’t too bad,” Sasha says. “Let’s do it, Zeth!”

“Right!”

The two of them go for it. Sasha elegantly maneuvers past the large swinging axes while jumping around to avoid the lasers. Zeth, on the other hand, has more trouble. He avoids the swinging axes, but takes a few hits from the lasers. Each laser deals minimum damage but taking many hits will add up. Despite that, they both manage to make it through alright. Encouraged by their success, the other participants begin their way through.

Zeth and Sasha continue on ahead and find an opening that leads back to the tunnel connected to the arena.

“Thank goddess!” Zeth says with relief.

***

As time goes, more and more participants show up back to the arena, including Keith and Emily. Eventually, Zonbi decides to close the exit of the dungeon, snapping her fingers to activate its closing function.

“Why are you closing it?” a participant asks.

“Because everyone that survived the dungeon is here now,” Zonbi replies.

“What!?” Zeth gasps. “How do you know!?”

“Don’t worry. I can tell. And we’ve all been watching on the jumbotron. Besides, your whole team made it out so why would you complain about having less competition?”

Zeth looks around and notices only about two-thirds of participants are left among those who entered the dungeon.

“It looks like around a third of the remaining participants were wiped out,” he notes.

“Looks like it,” Zonbi confirms. “Some of the teams were completely wiped.”

She then focuses specifically on Zeth. “Hey Zeth, come here for a moment.”

“What for?”

Zeth jumps over the zombie pit and walks up the stairs toward the announcer desk. Once he reaches her, she turns off her microphone.

“I know that you want your friend’s release in return for participating in this tournament, but I have information I’m willing to share with you if you win. I already gave you a little teaser when I saved you from Sergon.”

“What kind of information?” Zeth asks.

“Information that you may or may not be interested in. Win and find out.”

“That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Yep. I just wanted you to know the stakes.”

Zeth sighs and walks down the stairs and jumps back over the zombie pit to land on the arena.

“Zeth, I’ve noticed something,” Keith whispers.

“What is it?”

“The team we’re matched against in the second round only has two people left, and one is quite banged up.”

“I can only hope that means we’ve caught a break.”

***

In the VIP suites.

“Now dat was entertaining,” Glen says with a grin. “Dat dungeon wiped more of them than I thought it would.”

“It’s no surprise that my daughter had no trouble making it through,” Sergon says proudly.

“You really do have that proud dad energy, Sergon,” Sue teases. “However, Sasha and all of Team Crimson Heart were more impressive.”

“Say whatever you want,” Sergon fires back. “My daughter will still be victorious.”

Glen stands up and starts walking out of the room. “I must excuse myself once again. I’ve got a rat dat needs more torturing.”

***

A little bit earlier.

Joe walks up to a stadium door that leads to the off-limits internal sections of the building.

He thinks, “I wish Nick had told us how he was going to investigate. It sure would be nice to know how he got in.”

He tries to open the door, but it’s locked. He clenches his teeth in annoyance. “Can I open this without blowing it open?”

“Leave that to me,” a man’s voice says from behind.

“Huh?” Joe gasps as he turns around to spot Kurt.

“Kurt, you should be resting!”

“My medical treatment for the day is done,” Kurt says. “I’m helping you in this investigation.”

Joe sighs. “Fine. But how are we going to get this door open?”

“I’ve got that covered,” Kurt says as he walks up to the door. He sticks his finger close to the keyhole and pushes in his finger’s aura. The aura interacts with the locking mechanism within and quickly unlocks it.

Joe smiles. “Wow! Nice. I guess it’s good that you decided to come after all.”

The investigation continues as the tournament reaches its next stage.

Chapter 200 END

To be Continued in Chapter 201: Pursued by the Stalker