I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Fifth Time

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I open my eyes, confused. I'm standing in a large tunnel. The walls, the ground, everything looks like it's been carved from brown stone. The are metal rods sticking out of the walls, and each rod has a glowing jewel embedded in it.

I hear a stifled scream, and I turn around. There are three other people here. Two women and a man. One of the women is covering her mouth as she looks around.

The man asks, "What the hell is going on?" as he looks around.

Shortly afterwards, we hear an inhuman voice shout, "Intruders!"

This is all incredibly familiar...

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The four of us humans stand very still while the Danians point their swords, spears, and other weapons at us. The other three stare down the tunnel nervously when heavy footfalls sound from there. I take a slow, deep breath. Well, time to try again.

A larger Danian appears behind the mandiblores, who part to let him pass. Odu-Bathax stops a few feet away from us and puts his lower pair of arms on his hips while cracking his knuckles with his upper pair of arms. "Well well well..." he says with a deep voice. "What do we have here?"

The other three back away. I make a snap decision and copy them.

Odu-Bathax's head lifts slightly as he makes a deep-chested laugh. "Come now, I want to hear you speak. I want to know how you managed to penetrate this deep into Mount Pillar without anyone noticing."

The other three are too intimidated to speak. I guess I have to speak again, but how to do this? Acting tough isn't going to help, I'm sure. Acting ignorant, maybe?

"I-I don't know," I say, trying to imitate a stammer. "Wh-where the heck is this?"

Odu-Bathax blinks. "Are you saying you haven't heard of Mount Pillar?"

I point at the walls. "Is that this place? M-Mount Pillar? Are we inside a mountain?"

Odu-Bathax blinks again, like he doesn't quite know what to make of me. "Let's start at the beginning." He performs an overly dramatic bow, bending his upper body almost all the way to the ground, stepping back with one leg, and spreading all four of his arms in one motion. "I am Odu-Bathax, esteemed warrior of the Danian tribe, a guardian of the Hive's entryways, which you somehow got past."

I pretend to hesitate, as if I wasn't quite sure how to answer. "Um, m-my name is Michael. Um, tribe? Do you mean species? I'm a human. And I have no idea how we got here."

Odu-Bathax gives me a hard stare. "None at all?"

I shake my head while still trying to keep up my nervous expression. "No."

Odu-Bathax folds both of his pairs of arms and stares at the four of us. He looks like he's deep in thought. Eventually his antennae begin to vibrate. Maybe he's talking to another Danian?

Nothing happens for quite a while, then suddenly Odu-Bathax speaks, making me jump a little. "The four of you are to follow me. I will bring you to one of our muges."

I have to keep up the act. "M-muges? What's that?"

Odu-Bathax presses his face into on of his palms. "We can discuss that later. Mandiblores, keep your weapons on them!"

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I actually feel pretty confident. After all, I didn't die immediately like last time.

As we walk, I try to gather my thoughts. Apparently I ended up in the the exact same beginning situation as my first time in Perim. Exact same place, exact same partners, who acted the exact same way as before. Heck, even the mandiblore who found us first was the exact same one as before. A complete reset.

I'd actually thought, after my fourth time, that I'd never come here again, that I had already used up all my chances. It's exciting, getting another chance. It's also rather nerve-wracking. I mean, walking directly in front of me is the creature that killed me last time I was here.

It's been a while since we started walking. "I-is it much farther?" I ask.

Odu-Bathax answers without turning around. "We will meet the high muge in the next tower."

High muge? "Lore?"

Odu-Bathax stops, and I run into his back. "Tell me, Michael of the the Human tribe. How did you know his name?"

Oh crap. "I... uh..."

In a swift motion, Odu-Bathax draws his sword and swings as he turns to me.

There's an intense shock in my neck, like it suddenly decided to start screaming. It hurts so much. That's not the scary part. The scary part is that I can't feel my body.

The other three humans are screaming. I'd scream too, but I can't breath. I'm falling slowly backwards, and in front of me I see my headless body slump sideways.

Everything fades.

So much for try number two.

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Up next: The Confrontation

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

And so our return to Mount Pillar ends as quickly as it began. Sorry about that. Kind of lost my head there.

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