WAR PLANET: The Phantom

Chapter 4.2

Ronan stood silently in the presence of what appeared to be friends of Red, contemplating possible opportunities to escape the place, or at least Red.

He couldn't however... After uncovering Red's true intentions, and realising how stupidly calm he was about being on another planet. Ronan had attempted one of his escape plans, but no sooner than a few seconds into initiating it, Ronan found he was frozen; in a sense that the only things he could move were his eyes. What's worse was Red gained control of his motions, and marched him right into the building with ease. Ronan couldn't call for help nor flee as he followed Red through crowds of young teenagers, most of them appearing happy and full of conversation that they distributed with their company, but he couldn't bring himself to understand the source of their enthusiasm.

Red had walked him across a large hall made of crystalline walls, lined with multiple pictures of strange armour-clad people. Some rode fearsome beasts, while others posed in heroic manners. Each picture was framed in beaming silver and bore what was most likely their identity on thin plaques beneath them, but the small curvaceous writing had been too far away for Ronan to make out.

Parts of the roof and upper walls consisted of the same crystals making up most of the buildings outer structure, the ones that caught the stars' beams and danced with subtle rainbows as they illuminated the entire hall. Mighty stone pillars with cryptic runes carved into them held up the roof, without showing a fault to the tremendous burden they kept.

Ronan looked at his feet, the floor was plastered with a soft, crimson red carpet, lightly edged with silver embroidery, and where the carpet didn't reach a shiny stone floor peeked out.

Eventually it came to the point where Red assumed friends came along, and Ronan noticed a girl around his age who couldn't seem to stop checking him out, until she locked eyes with him for a split second and quickly averted her gaze. Not that he was complaining, her scrunched nose and resting glare just screamed the gossiping scatterbrains at his school. His school. His home. Ronan went a little paler as he thought about his uncle coming back to an empty house.

The freakishly tall boy was the first to strike conversation."Where'd ya find the noodle Red?"

Ronan immediately redirected his irritation from Red to the boy; he was being called a noodle by someone he'd just met.

"He's stronger than he looks, trust me," Red replied, smacking Ronan's back. "I didn't go all the way to Earth for nothing."

The boy scoffed. "Yeah right. There's no way you found a way to Earth and found one of them. I mean look at him." He poked Ronan's face. "It would take a true idiot to believe this noodle's from there. Let alone from the war."

Ronan wanted to punch this kid in the face, just once, to see if he'd still call him a noodle afterwards. But whatever Red had done to him was still working, so the best he could do was a stare down with his provocateur.

Red chuckled at Draven's comment and forced Ronan to approach a set of silver doors. "We'll see about that."

It was a strange feeling, moving without the consent of your brain. Ronan's arm lifted towards the silver doors, overpowering any futile resistance he could muster. He felt his palm pushing against its cold metal surface, and the bulk slowly moving inwards. The door was opening and Ronan was helpless in terms of stopping it. It slid open smoothly and he walked in with the rigid stature of a robot. His head turned forcefully to give him one last look at Red's stupid face.

"Oh, and one last thing..." Red whispered, pulling out a tiny book from his pocket and tossing it into the room with him. "Hope it's helpful."

The door covered its last bit of distance and clicked closed, sealing Ronan off from further communications. The aura that imprisoned his movements melted away, and he stretched his back, sighing with the relaxation of being able to control his movements once more. However, despite his riddance of an irksome obstacle, his problematic situation appeared to have yet again grown to an outstanding new level.

Jeremy nuzzled the small book sitting near Ronan's feet. He looked down and glared at his untrustworthy companion then snatched the book from the ground, scanning the indecipherable runes running across its cover; but the text quickly morphed into his recognizable alphabet. The words that ran across it's cover now displayed proper English, 'Lumience For Idiots'. He growled at its bluntness and shoved it in his pocket.

"What is your full name?" A voice announced, it was female, but it's stern tone reverberated off the walls, giving it an inhuman chill.

Besides Ronan and Jeremy, the small room was bare of any visible life forms. So he turned to his uncle's advice, which he'd foolishly ignored earlier when he introduced himself to Red. Don't give a stranger something they can use against you.

"Jackson," he replied as his eyes wandered around the solid grey room, scouting for cameras or speakers.

Although the box of a room didn't display a lively scene, it did hold a variety of weapon like tools, most of which stumped Ronan with their proper purpose.

The girl sighed with displeasure. "Don't lie to me, I can see your heartbeat. Now provide me with your real name please."

"Damn." Ronan muttered looking at a blank part of the wall where the voice was originating from. "Ronan..."

"Good. Now please select your choice of weaponry."

Ronan gave the table full of weapons a hesitant smile. "Question. What is this place, and any chances of leaving it?"

"If you're referring to this room, it's an interchangeable battle space, but if you're referring to this place, it's currently the entrance examination area; and for your sake I hope you know what that means. The only way to leave is to try the test, all other routes are currently blocked to minimize cheating."

"Great."

A simple, decently lengthed sword, sat sheathed in thick leather on one of the racks, Ronan snatched it and popped it open to check its quality. The blade was sharp and surprisingly light, but the weapon had no shine to its grey surface; it was a blade of stealth. This disturbed him even further as to what lay beyond the room he stood in. He fastened the sword onto his back and grabbed three daggers that he slid into his belt.

He would have prefered a few ranged weapons, but anything resembling a gun lacked a visible trigger. A small, tied-up blue satchel attracted his curiosity, and he unwound its golden tie to peer at its contents, it was filled with tiny black marbles. He pulled one out and rolled it in his palm. It was warm, and heavy for its diminutive size. The sack had a name embroidered on its side, Smoke Balls. He imagined the short list of possibilities that name could mean, and stuffed the tiny sack in his pocket.

"20 seconds." The voice called. "You better hurry uuuuup."

Ronan quickly scanned the rest of the weapons and picked up a short metal cylinder, holding it up to the roof. "What's this? A taser?"

"It's a flashlight genius." The voice teased. "And it's controlled by lumience... Just don't overload it."

He jammed it as far as it could go into one of his pockets. "Am I going somewhere dark?"

The voice paused for a moment, then gave a soft hum. "I don't know, are you? Time's up."

The room cracked away, dissolving into a sea of pure white that Ronan and Jeremy stood as the only specks of color in. In the blink of an eye the whiteness was replaced with a new set of scenery.

A maze of twisted grey walls surrounded Ronan in a perfect circle, at the center of which sat a wooden sign. He cautiously approached it, hungry for clues regarding his purpose in the strange setting.

Welcome to the Entrance Exam

(The information below may help you)

SETTING: Small Maze

ENEMIES: Molves x6 (One pack)

TIME LIMIT: 20 standard minutes

GOAL: Eliminate as many enemies as possible before the time runs out or you are eliminated.

"Eliminated..." Ronan muttered, rereading the last sentence to make sure he'd read it right. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" He swallowed the lump of panic forming in his throat, hoping his skills in playfully fighting with tree branches could commute to a legitimate broadsword. "What the hell's a Molve?"

Ronan was suddenly drawn away by Jeremy abrupt fit of warning hisses and growls; he couldn't control his wavering breaths, knowing what he was about to find himself facing.

A giant beast—if it could be called that... sauntered out from behind one of the walls. It moved on all fours, nearly reaching the height of Ronan's head with its orange eyes locked onto him with predatorial determination. The beast sat only a few meters from Ronan, bearing a striking resemblance to a wolf, but more robust and ruggedly vicious as it prowled in front of him, keeping its distance and assessing him with intelligent eyes. Ronan noticed the lack of movement in the creature's pelt, realizing it wasn't fur plating the beast, it was jagged rocks, grinding with every movement the beast made. Its chest was a gaping ravine jutted with spiked stones, and a bright orange light, like the ones emanating from its eyes, swirled within the cavern.

The entrancing ball of fiery energy looked weak, yet strong at the same time, hiding behind the thick stone covering the creature's torso, yet existing as the only moving thing within its hollow shell.

To his utter misfortune, this thing was a molve.

He paced his breathing in an attempt to calm his leaping heart, and slowly drew one of the daggers. The molve produced a deep growl, prowling towards him. Its mouth hung open, displaying its set of sharp fangs, as it kneaded the ground impatiently with thick, talon-like claws.

Without warning, the molve leaped into a swift sprint, forcing Ronan to dive out of its trampling path. It came to a skidding stop when it missed its mark, causing a spray of sparks to shoot from its keen claws as they grinded against the cobbled ground. It quickly recovered, and unabatingly chased after Ronan as he bolted behind the nearest wall.

Ronan ran aimlessly through the paths peppering the maze, the molve lagged behind, barely keeping up despite its superior speed. Every time Ronan cut a corner the beast would slam into the wall or skid into another path to change its direction. It was fast in open spaces, but cutting corners in confined halls proved to handicap its abilities in pursuing its prey.

However, the advantage Ronan acquired was short lived when he threw himself around a sharp corner only to collide with a large rocky mass... quite like the one he was trying to escape. The impact threw Ronan into the wall, slamming down on his tender goosebump that received only a couple hours to swell down prior to its second assault. The familiar pain pounded like a drum at the back of Ronan's head, drawing out a small whimper from his throat. He looked up at the second stone wolf.

Six.

He had to eliminate six of them in twenty minutes.

Unless he wanted to be eliminated himself.