Gauntlet

Chapter 4

The moment I stepped in front of the building I was overcome with a dark, sinister feeling. It loomed over me intimidatingly, almost as if it was baring its teeth. The dark wood that held the place together creaked and groaned often to the point where I thought the building was laughing at me. Even the brooding sky crackled at me, the mist of grey clouds making it harder to see the stars.

The trees were tilted in my direction, their branches taunting me. 'Come in Xavier. We won't hurt you' they'd say. It was obviously a lie, but I'd oblige anyway. As I waited, I grew uncomfortable, but I knew that whatever was inside the building would match that feeling tenfold.

"You guys coming?, " I asked my favorite group of stragglers. The more I waited, the more I thought ghosts and scary creatures were staring at me from in between the trees.

"I honestly forgot we were supposed to be doing that. No one was talking for so long," C confessed. It didn't take long for him to pop up beside me, followed by the Willow and Kingsley.

Widow spoke next, laughter laced in her voice. "Sorry about that! I'm in the same boat as C. Kinda forgot."

"I got distracted in general," Kingsley said. "Did King say he was coming?" A small smile grew on my face.

"Let me see." King and I had gotten closer the past few days. Although we didn't have another call, we texted as often as either of us could with college and his job getting in the way. He was the sweetest really. I felt comfortable talking to him. I found out cool things about him like the fact that he collects swords and enjoys cooking whenever he isn't busy with work and gaming. Before I could pick up my phone and send him a quick text, he joined the voice chat.

Kingsley was the first to speak. "Wow, your timing is amazing. We were just talking about you."

"King saving the day once again!"

"Saving the day? What happened?" His low baritone beautifully crackled over the mic.

C piped up again, "We need your shiny character to lead the way through this..what is this? An asylum? It's made out of wood though?"

"It could be an old asylum. Like a small one. Ancient," I suggested.

Widow sighed, "True, anyway, are you guys going to grind for the special skin drop?" Gauntlet was having its annual Halloween event. It was a two to three week long event where players could take on Halloween themed challenges and dungeons to get special items. Personally, I didn't care for a new skin. I had my eyes set on the skeleton dragon blade set. They weren't katanas, which is what I was used to, but they were a sexy pair of black tactical swords that had a moving skeleton dragon on them. The swords were also in Gauntlet's store, but lord knows that I wouldn't let myself buy anything.

"Nah, I don't really care for the skin as much as the new blade set." I was looking at said blade set in the store, visibly pouting at the whopping $68.99 that it would cost to retrieve them. It seemed to be a ridiculous price for the special swords, but it also came with a little skeleton dragon pet and a rare chest that would have anything from health potions to ultra-rare gear materials. "The pet is so cute too."

"They do look nice, but I heard they are almost impossible to get. You'd possibly have to play the events quite a bit." I pouted even further at C's comment.

"I know," I closed the store menu and was faced with my character, Xavr. "I doubt I'd be able to get it too, especially with college taking up quite a bit of time lately. I definitely can't buy it either."

"Ah, broke college student vibes. I feel your pain." Kingsley sighed dramatically. Kingsley was also in college, although I couldn't remember what his major was. All I knew was that computers were involved, and he was too smart for his own good.