Hey, readers! You may have noticed that Game Content is getting a bit of a rework (in my opinion, for the better) so there will be a few updates floating around as well as several new chapters! I've elongated the story, changed Malchior's motivations, and a few other things.
Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you like this version better!
-Song
What emerged from the mountain cave was nothing less than extraordinary.
A great, mountain dragon with grey and blue wings roared and soared above Robin. It spit snow, ice, and gusts of wind from its wings that threatened to blow him off of the mountain.
Its eyes were completely black to block out the glare of the sun, but all-seeing. Even when he was dodging between boulders, Robin seemed to be unable to escape its sight.
He thought he was better at the art of elusiveness than this and, already feeling drained and tired, he did his best to hunker down behind a large rock outcropping to reassess.
The dragon was close behind, its claws scraping the ground. Robin grimaced, wishing he had a better view of the creature; see what it was capable of.
The precariousness of the mountain prevented an aerial view and the wind and ice magic the dragon seemed to possess prevented getting even close to it.
The rock outcropping above him was suddenly torn away by the dragon's claws, causing a small rockslide to collapse on Robin. A large rock hit him in the knee and a second struck his shoulder.
He bit down a cry of pain and started running again.
The dragon advanced, hovering over him, jaw open and ready to strike. Robin ducked beneath its neck and ran under the dragon's body. He raised his sword and sliced deeply into the tendon at the base of the dragon's tail. It screamed and he kept running out from beneath it.
As he did, the dragon turned. A gust of wind from it's wings pushed him forward, and his right foot slid just off of the rocks. His eyes widened for a small second and he felt a 'whoosh' through his stomach.
It was like he'd missed that last stair into darkness; the feeling of falling through space.
He breathed in a single, fast gasp before he plummeted downward.
...
09:33
There was only about nine and a half hours remaining on their quest to save Raven and time was still ticking.
Beast Boy had only just defeated his first boss creature out of three, and he wasn't even to the second gate yet. He had tried to pick up the pace an hour earlier as a cheetah, but every time he morphed, his stamina bar fell drastically.
Eventually, and much to his own embarrassment, he'd passed out on the path from exhaustion only twenty minutes later. He'd woken up on a mossy bed off to the side of the road.
A small bird had been flitting back and forth over his head, possibly either worried for him or angry he was sleeping there. When he reached out a hand to let the bird rest on it, it did.
Unable to morph and ask the bird any questions, Beast Boy thanked it for its concern, let it fly away, and started walking back down the path. Since it didn't follow him, he figured it didn't have anything more to say.
Beast Boy was sluggish and tired.
In his desperation to pick up the pace he'd drained his whole body. His stamina bar was barren. The yellow line indicating its progress was slowly going back up as he walked, but it would be a while before he could morph properly again.
The limits that the game was putting on him did not reflect what he felt was his true potential, and even though he would be twenty years old this year, having been a hero for over half a decade, he felt helpless.
Beast Boy trudged through the sunny woods, exhausted and frustrated. In the distance a great shadow fell on the path, and he realized that the gate was cresting over the hill. The gate was still closed and there was no monster waiting for him, so Beast Boy kept walking, saving his strength.
On this gate was another carving, but it was Robin and a great, grey mountain dragon carved from pearl, sapphire and lapis lazuli. Robin's hero's outfit was fashioned from citrine, rubies and emeralds.
The gate did not open.
Starfire's had opened almost immediately after he'd reached it, and Beast Boy blinked up at the shining rocks, squinting in the light of the sun.
Almost gratefully he collapsed against the stone and rested against the gate. He panted in the shade and the sweat on his brow trickled gently down his neck. Without thinking he glanced down at the hourglass and he felt sick. The mirror told him what the hourglass only hinted at.
08:43
They were running out of time, and yet the gate still did not open.
"Please," he panted, "Robin, hurry."
...
In the last second, Robin plunged an arrowhead into the side of the mountain like an ice pick.
He grasped it with all his strength and slowed his fall, reaching nearly ten feet below the head of the dragon which was gnashing its jaws at him, daring him to climb back up.
Robin took a different route, finding footing and grip before leaving the arrow behind in the rock. He scurried as best he could to the left of the beast and, once he was able to, he began to climb back up.
In his pack the ringing of bells sounded again. It was just like the first time, fighting Leviathan at the river, when he'd heard Raven's call through the mirror.
He pulled himself one last time up to the plateau of the mountain and dodged the dragon's spiked tail, doing his best to fish in his pack while staying out of danger's reach.
When he answered the mirror, Raven's face was blurred and phasing in and out of focus, but this time he could almost hear her properly.
"You want me what?" Robin cried into the mirror.
"Yes, stall!" she cried in response.
Robin smacked the mirror to get it to focus, like an old TV, and remarkably, it worked.
"Beast Boy's stamina is at less than ten percent, if you win now and the gate opens he'll die!"
Robin's stats were dropping, too, but he figured that a quick victory would save his life. Now he had to stall?
"I've seen what's beyond the gate, Robin."
"Okay! Okay," he snapped. "How long?"
"Ten minutes, tops."
His eyes were huge.
"Are you kidding me!"
Ten minutes making breakfast was whatever. Ten minutes at the gym was a blink of the eye. Ten minutes in a battle?
Eternity.
In less than one minute you had the opportunity to live or to die, but in ten bad minutes the dragon could kill him four times, chew him up, spit him back out and then chew on him some more.
Just as he was about to ask for an alternative, the dragon struck. Icy breath grazed Robin's cheek and he dropped the mirror, shattering it to pieces.
Now he couldn't see Raven or his own health and stamina bars, and he couldn't go digging for his stats book.
"Ten minutes. Fine." Robin grit his teeth and faced his foe while the dragon roared with a sound like icicles smashing into steel.
Robin attacked.
He lunged for the tail again so the dragon would have to turn around, pulling them away from the cliffside and back toward solid ground. As soon as he was safe he ducked beneath it again, and the dragon spun. Again and again the dragon tried to follow the movements of Robin's red cloak, its soulless, black eyes trailing after him like a shark to prey.
As it spun once more, it lost sight of Robin, and then there was a sword in its back right leg.
The great mountain drake failed its wings as it teetered off balance. It growled and roared, attempting to come back to a defensive position. Robin dug deeper and sliced its leg open, nearly in half, and down it went.
Once it was on the ground it wriggled like a frightened snake, but Robin mounted it and used his bloody sword to sever one wing. The dragon screamed and roared, flailing helplessly on the rocks.
Robin's stomach twisted in sick distaste. This is dishonorable, and cruel.
He was supposed to give his enemies the mercy of a quick death. In his heart he knew the world, the game and the dragon were all an illusion, but the smell of blood, the spasmodic wriggling and the roars of pain were too hard to ignore.
But Raven had asked for ten minutes, and so he waited.
And waited.
Then waited some more.
Robin had to hold the dragon down to keep it from trying to stand back up, but as the hot blood steamed the frigid air he knew that the dragon wouldn't rise again.
Finally, after ten minutes had passed, he dismounted the dragon and approached its head. It lay there, icy blue eyes hooded and afraid. Robin bowed gently to the poor beast that lay in agony upon the mountain, and ended its suffering.
...
While Robin's gate was still closed, Beast Boy fell asleep against an old oak tree.
His stamina rose as he slept, faster now that he wasn't expending energy. When the sound of the gate cracking open roused him, he glanced down worriedly at his mirror and was relieved to see that he had only been asleep for about ten minutes.
Beast Boy stood up and prepared himself for the fight that was coming to him. But there was no way to prepare for what emerged.
At first he heard the scuffling of what sounded like thousands of feet scraping gently against the earthy ground, but Beast Boy frowned as what appeared to crawl out from behind the gate doors was a snake - he heard the hissing of a snake. Quickly, Beast Boy realized that it wasn't a snake at all, but in fact a giant centipede-looking monster with the torso and head of a woman.
Except the hissing of snakes was coming from the woman, from her hair, and Beast Boy had at least a rudimentary knowledge of monsters and mythology to realize what she was.
Beast Boy yelped as he felt his left elbow turn hard as stone, and he could no longer bend his arm. He quickly shut his eyes after that, and they'd been closed ever since.
Beast Boy felt something grab him, and he realized that his legs were being pulled, his body dragged unceremoniously backward, and he landed on his stomach with a loud 'oof'. The dust he was kicking up as he struggled left a dirty taste in his mouth.
He spit out the dirt as he spoke aloud, "why did-it have to be-a snake woman!?"
A rock hit his Adam's apple. He hissed in pain and tried not to swallow.
Forget about searching for a good spell card or trap card. He was all alone with his animal hearing on this one, belly down on the battlefield, being dragged backward into what he could only assume were her waiting jaws.
The thought of being eaten by that ugly thing alone was enough to make his stomach turn.
So turn he did, onto his back. The flip and quick, rough shift in weight made the monster lose her grip and he scurried backward as a scarab beetle, getting as far away as possible from the gorgon.
The soft clicking of her many legs and moving exoskeleton made it difficult for Beast Boy to gauge where her head was and. more importantly, her eyes. He finally made it to some tall grass and became even smaller, a fly buzzing its way through the dandelions. He was able to see a little bit at least, and the gorgon could not trap him and turn him to stone if she couldn't see his eyes.
It was as a fly that he planned his attack.
She was a centipede, that was true, but the tail end of her held a rattle, just like the snakes in her hair. He considered that she must be some kind of chimera, dreamed up by Malchior in the category of 'worst nightmares of all time'.
It was the rattling tail that he decided to attack.
He became a star-nosed mole, for its blindness, and dug a quick tunnel beneath the hissing snake woman. She slithered above him, and he could easily pinpoint her vibrations above him. When the opportunity arose, he morphed into a mongoose, and emerged from the tunnel he had made. With a fast jerk, he rose up and bit the end of her tail, digging in his fierce, small teeth, and held on for dear life.
The snake woman screamed like a pipe that was spitting steam and hot water. She attempted to reach for him, to get a look at him, but his eyes were still firmly shut, even as a mongoose. Without her blinding ability, she was useless in the way of an attack.
As she twisted and turned, attempting to reach the caboose of an otherwise huge, elongated centipede body, Beast Boy waited until he knew he was at a safe angle.
He finally released her, and she took some time to right herself, but as she did so he dug through his pack for the only thing that could help him.
Beast Boy played the card: 'Backstab'.
He assumed that the card would do the work itself, but as he played it, he felt something on his hip weigh him down. It was a large, serrated hunting knife. He pulled his assassin's hood over his head and unsheathed it.
The card's energy enveloped him, and in a swift and calculated movement that he didn't know he could do, he jumped up onto her slithering back and stabbed her hard into the spine with his right arm.
The gorgon screeched, the pipe sound from before bursting and hissing. He flattened his pointed ears against his head and let go of the knife, which remained rooted into her spine.
He fell from her back and hit the dust. As he did so, he saw that her movements were becoming jerkier and erratic.
She was turning to stone.
He must have hit her right where it would completely immobilize her, thanks to the card's magic. He lowered his hood as slowly as possible, carefully examining the fallen gorgon.
Like carved marble in a horror attraction, the gorgon's pointed teeth and bug-like eyes were etched into stone, harmless and horrifying all at once.
Then the stone started to crack and crumble, like a snake shedding skin, and Beast Boy worried that he would have to ready for another attack. Instead, the statue became ash, and soon she was nothing but a long, curving pile of dust upon the arena floor.
Beast Boy breathed a sigh of relief.
After the gorgon was defeated he gained a health potion which cured his left elbow of its paralysis. He flexed the hard muscles in his arm and grinned.
"Just one left to go," he said to himself.
He didn't want to keep walking, to run forever northward, but the castle was getting closer. He could almost see the details in the distance of its wrought iron gates, its purple thatched roofing and its darkened stone walls. There would be one more gate, he knew, but it would be the final one.
Then they would have Raven back, and he could remind her how difficult it was to get by without her and her powers to help his team along.
He could tell her how much he missed her.
Beast Boy only hoped that Cyborg would complete his mission quickly, before it was too late.