RuneScape Forum Archive | A Tale of Four Champions

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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And that was when the lava hit the rope that was attached to a rock on the island, snapping it. Joshua suddenly felt himself sliding downwards. He looked down and saw, in terror, that he was falling towards the lava. He knew that there was only one thing to do, but it was dangerous.

He let go of the zip liner.

Now he was REALLY freefalling. The rope was falling beside him. He had to grab it before it ended and swung towards the other side of the lava. So he reached for it, missed, and swung his legs around the rope, just as it began to swing back. He quickly grabbed on with his hands and pulled himself up it.

The rock wall came up to meet him. The lava was also rising, creating rockslides. "As if it wasn't already deadly enough," Joshua murmured.

Finally the rock wall got its wish; he slammed into it full force. It hurt. But then, looking down, he saw the lava eating away at the rope. The rope was fraying, smoking, and eventually burning. He climbed up with renewed vigor; if he didn't, he would get his hands burned, and fall, screaming, into the lava whirlpool waiting for him. He climbed as fast as he could, but it wasn't enough. The rope was burning right under him.

And then the rope began to rise rapidly. His friends were pulling him up! He climbed more, and was just pulled over the top when the rope burned totally.

Then he was faced with another dilemma: they were on the top of a volcano.

Joshua groaned in despair and kicked at a rock. "We jumped from the cutting board to the frying pan to the fire!" he roared angrily.

Borl attempted to pat him on the back, but he only succeeded in reaching his leg. "Carol died fighting for us. For you."

At the mention of Carol, Joshua felt those tears streak down his face again.

Lyese DID succeed in patting him on the shoulder. "Carol will be honored for what she did," she said softly.

25-Jul-2007 14:35:25 - Last edited on 25-Jul-2007 14:46:44 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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"No, she won't," Joshua said with heat. "All this is just a game. A dangerous game, for sure, but still a game. Nobody is honored for dying in a GAME!" Everything felt so wrong to him. He spent his life fighting in a game. People cheered death. His emotions bubbled inside him. He felt paralyzed.

Aaron then stepped up. He threw his spear down and smiled. "Hey, if we can escape falling to our death, getting burned to death, being crushed to death, and burned to death, why can't we get off a volcano?"

The others smiled. Joshua looked up. He faced the volcano. "I, at least, will always remember you," he whispered.

Then he saw the lava coming over the edge. "Oh, no," he said, pointing. "Run!"

All plans were thrown aside. They ran for their lives. All around them, rocks were bursting and showering lava everywhere. Superheated rocks crashed all around. Massive, gaping holes opened randomly, leading to a void. And overlooking it all was a slow river of lava, swallowing everything it could.

Then Jack tripped and fell, sliding to a stop on the unstable ground. Joshua stopped and ran back, grabbing his arms and hoisting him over his shoulder. Then he ran after his friends.

Down the mountain this frenzied race continued, while all around them rocks, ash, and lava were flying. Joshua tried waking up Jack, but the young man wouldn't so much as open an eye. Meanwhile the lava flow was coming closer.

Joshua suddenly slipped and the two of them fell on a long gravel strip. They slid past the others, who saw and also jumped on. So the ten fighters slid down a steep slope on an uncontrollable slide, while behind them a massive lava river was coming.

Suddenly a half-melted rock smashed into the gravel slide in front of them, spraying hot chunks of rock everywhere. Joshua grabbed Jack and began to try and slide to the side. He suddenly became aware that the slope was growing steeper. He looked ahead, to see the rock on the edge of... a void.

25-Jul-2007 14:46:57 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:13:25 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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He sped faster and faster. Nothing he could do would make them stop or slow down. So, at the last instant, he drew his sword and hit the rock with as much force as possible, and narrowly missed it. All around him, his companions did the same.

Behind them lay lava, heat, and the memory of Carol. Ahead lay...

A thousand-foot drop leading to a slightly less steep area.

He tried digging his sword into the gravel, but only succeeded in almost losing it. And so, as much as he tried to fight, he saw there was only one way out of this mess.

And it was falling straight down.

He suddenly hit a little surge of gravel, and found himself in midair. For a second, he was still. Everything seemed to be very far away.

And then gravity kicked in and he felt his stomach ride up into his chest. And from the deepest bowels of his chest, he screamed in pure terror. Jack suddenly woke up and wondered why Joshua was screaming. Then he saw where he was, and he too let out an earth-shattering scream.

The fall seemed to last forever. Gravel fell all around, and small streams of lava began to fall. A waterfall of lava was forming below them.

And then the slope began to get less steep. They slid down at a freakish speed, with the brunt of the lava river tumbling over the edge. Joshua saw up ahead that the gravel slide stopped. He yelled to his companions, "Grab a rock and swing off the gravel slide!"

They screamed something unintelligible in response. The plan was on. Joshua saw a rock coming up and swerved to grab it. All of his companions were on the same side as him, so they wouldn't be separated. He took a deep breath through his teeth, and grabbed on.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:08 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:15:39 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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His arms snapped to the side, swinging him over the side and onto soft ash. Though he was burnt, cut, sweaty, his arms felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets, and he had just been through the most terrifying moment in his whole life, he laughed. His other teammates swung over too, just in time to see the lava river surge through the small canyon that the gravel river had been in. The lava poured out the other side and into a massive hole in the ground. Very convenient.

His other companions saw him laughing uproariously, and Aaron laughed too. All of them began to laugh. For a while, they were relieved of the trauma.

Yaol then piped up, "Why are we laughing? We are lost in the middle of the Wilderness, with an erupting volcano behind us."

Joshua looked up at him, and stopped laughing abruptly. Suddenly, tears burst out of his eyes, and he let out one long, agonized cry. Then he looked back at Yaol with glistening eyes. "How could you possibly say that I forgot?" he said softly, getting up.

Yaol held out his hands, palms up. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Joshua exploded with rage. "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY EVEN THINK THAT I FORGOT?!?" he bellowed. "CAROL DIED TRYING TO SAVE ME. I WOULD HAVE LET HER GO. BUT SHE INSISTED. SO HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?!?!"

Elyssa wrapped her arm around his neck. "It is okay, Joshua," she said softly. "Yaol spoke his mind, he didn't mean to hurt you. For now, we need to get out of here."

Joshua looked up at her smiling face, her kind eyes, and the burns and scars on her arms. "Let's get revenge on the people who did this to us," he said forcefully. They got up and walked behind their simmering Champion.

All around Joshua, signs of the volcano's devastation were clear. The ground was many thick layers of ash, and there were rocks with holes that were pouring smoke into the air. Lava drifted lazily around in rivers, and there was drying molten rock.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:12 - Last edited on 25-Jul-2007 14:50:18 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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Elyssa was walking next to Joshua. She wanted to comfort him about Carol. He accepted her comfort, but it didn't make him feel any better.

Suddenly Yaol stiffened, and whispered, "Stop!"

Everyone stopped. Yaol's super-sensitive ears flicked back and forth. Finally he pointed his dragon mace at an outcrop of rocks not far from them.

Joshua drew his scimitar and muttered a spell, pointing his scimitar at the outcrop. Seconds later the rock exploded and flew everywhere. A screaming man smashed into the ground right next to him. The man was wearing a full green dragonhide suit and was holding a flail.

"Did you make us come at the volcano?" Joshua demanded, holding his scimitar at the ready.

"What? I-" the man's spluttering was cut off when Joshua saw a tattoo on the man's neck. It was two dragons breathing fire ate each other, and the letters "PC" circled.

"Pest Control," Joseph breathed. "Xhou!"

"Yeah, this was the work of Xhou," Joshua growled. "And this man is gonna pay." And he raised his scimitar, preparing to chop off his head.

"No!" Elyssa cried at the last minute. "Don't kill him!" Joshua looked at her with pained eyes.

"But Carol..."

"Carol died protecting you. She chose that fate. Don't mistake that."

Joshua looked at her for a long moment. Tension and frustration lay heavy in the air. Joshua finally turned, muttered a spell, and pointed at the man. He got teleported away in purple energy.

"He will be at my palace," he said. "I will question him there. Now come on." And he walked south, looking for enemies.

"What do we do?" Jack asked Joshua.

Joshua frowned as he assessed his options. They had been going south for quite some time now, following a large set of tracks. They had gone through the calmest parts of the Wilderness, the ashy, endless plains in the center.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:16 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:17:19 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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And the tracks had led the team of ten to a rocky valley where thirty or forty men were milling about, along with some chaos dwarves and a hellhound.

"I don't know," Joshua replied matter-of-factly. "They outnumber us at least five to one, and that Hellhound is going to be difficult to-" He stopped when he heard a low growling sound. He turned around, and saw...

"Run!" Lyese yelled. The ten of them scrambled, rolled, and somersaulted down into the valley, closely pursued by a slobbering Hellhound. The people had disappeared from teleportation spells, leaving the team nobody to help them.

Then, suddenly, the chaos dwarves reappeared on the rocky cliffs surrounding the valley. With each one was a Hellhound.

"We were tricked again," Joshua breathed.

"What do we do?" Frank rumbled, chopping the air with his huge ax. "We could take a few of them before..." he broke off.

"No, Frank," Joshua said softly. "Carol died to save us. Let's not waste our lives. Kill as many as you can and run south."

And then the Hounds were released, and they charged down the cliffs. They were so eager that most of them tried running straight down, and flipped, tripping others. So by the time they tumbled to the bottom, two had already killed each other out of anger. Three had been bitten, and were in pain.

Frank roared and swung his ax diagonally, slashing apart the first Hellhound's face. Joshua chopped off a swinging paw and gouged out an eye with the end of his scimitar. Elyssa tried roaring a battle cry, but all that came out was a high-pitched scream, and whacked a Hound's face with her staff. Then she muttered a spell, and the Hound lit on fire. The Hound fell into its brethren and started a fire.

Before long, nearly all of the remaining Hellhounds were on fire. It saved the team the trouble of killing them, but presented them with a new one: they could light on fire.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:20 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:18:20 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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Joshua pointed to the end of the small valley through the choking smoke. They followed him as he jumped over smoking skeletons, swung around melting corpses, and slashed at snapping jaws.

Finally they were out, and Joshua turned to Elyssa. "That was a neat trick you did back there," he said gratefully. "Without you we would have been dead many times over."

Elyssa smiled and looked at him with adoring eyes. "All for the Champion," she said softly.

The others sensed that this was an emotional moment, and backed away. Joshua tossed away his scimitar and looked at Elyssa. She stared back. Then she slowly took his hand.

Then, suddenly, Joshua had grabbed her and thrust her towards him, and they were kissing. For a long, happy moment, the two of them had forgotten about Carol or Xhou or anything. They were only there for each other.

Then they had pulled apart, and Joshua looked slightly embarrassed. "I- I'm so sorry about that," Elyssa said softly.

"Let's go," Joshua commanded shortly, and walked south. Elyssa stood there, watching him walk stiffly away.

"Wait! Joshua!" she yelled. He turned, and their eyes met. The magic stirred again.

"What?" Joshua demanded bluntly, shattering it.

"You forgot your scimitar," she said lamely. He turned, and without saying a word, picked it up and walked away again. Inside he was in a deep turmoil. Everything seemed overturned. He had felt euphoric during the kiss, but he felt like he was betraying Carol. And Elyssa was on his team. His heart and his mind fought each other.

For the rest of the day, there wasn't much danger, only a few instances with giant spiders and once, a snake bit Jack. But Elyssa, still quietly mourning her loss of Joshua, healed him.

They strode back into the palace, where Joshua bid them goodbye and immediately went to his dinner of sweet pot roast and Ardougne wine.

All night, he couldn't sleep. He tossed, he turned, he looked for fruit warriors, but nothing worked.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:24 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:22:27 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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He read a long, boring, in-depth book about the Evolution theory (which he blew off, as everyone knew that Zamorak, Saradomin and Guthix had created RuneScape), exercised, sat in bed, and even called in two women.

But he couldn't sleep. The memory of seeing Carol looking at him with those strong eyes and unwavering glance right before she was swallowed into the volcano made him uneasy. And he felt Elyssa's kiss over and over again, the press of her against him, the heat of the moment... It was too much. He couldn't deal with it all.

So he finally got up and walked through the building, wearing only old breeches.

He strode to the huge dinner table and sat there, head in arms. He thought about how he could have done things differently, so that Carol could have survived. But no matter what he thought, there never seemed to be a chance for her.

That was when Elyssa came in, wearing a white night dress. She sat down next to him. There was a long, awkward silence, but finally Elyssa piped up.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"You know... the kiss?"

Joshua rolled his eyes and groaned, "What about it?"

"Why don't you talk to me?"

"It was in the heat of the moment. You saved us, and I was grateful, and I-"

Elyssa stood up quickly, knocking over her mahogany chair. "You know, people are right about you," she said.

"What do they say?" Joshua asked, pouring contempt into his voice. He stuffed the calling voice of his heart down, putting thoughts of Carol in place of Elyssa.

"They say that you care more about the game than you do the people," she said coldly.

"But Carol-"

"Like you said so many times, Carol died trying to save us. That was what she always wanted. So, never mind," Elyssa sulked in a low voice. "I never want to kiss you again." And she walked away, satisfied. But then she stopped, and turned.

Joshua, the great Champion of the Wilderness, was flopped on the table, sobbing quietly.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:30 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:27:31 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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A Tale of Four Champions Part 2: Plots and Romance.

---------------------------------------------

Xhou smiled as he sailed back to Port Sarim. With Joshua out of the picture, his path was clear to victory. The only person that would be a problem would be Daren...

When he landed at the port, the men he had hired were waiting for him.

"Well? How did it go?" Xhou asked happily.

"Not well, my lord," one mumbled.

Xhou's smile melted off his face. "What happened?" he thundered.

"Well, first, when we-"

"Not now, you idiots, wait until we are inside!" Xhou whispered feverishly. "There could be spies anywhere!"

So he stalked back to his mansion, where he walked up the four flights of stairs to his office. He walked through the big room, and sat down in a big polar-bear fur chair. He spun around, looking out his massive stain-glass windows on the beautiful city. When he heard his accomplices walk in, he spun around.

"So?" he asked quietly, eying them and pushing his fingertips together.

"Well, when we put their portal on top of that dragon," one of them men squeaked with fright, "They all survived. And they survived the eruption, with only one death. They are all now unscathed, save the one that died in the eruption."

"Who died?" Xhou hissed.

"Carol," the man whimpered.

Xhou got up. "You disgrace me," he said dangerously. "Give me one good reason that I shouldn't kill you all right now."

"Because you would be arrested!" Came a voice from the door. Xhou looked up, startled. Standing there was Joshua.

"I know what you did, Xhou," Joshua hissed as he stalked towards him. "And because of your idiocy, Carol is dead. Now YOU give me one good reason why I shouldn't bring my team up here and bring you to jail for it."

Xhou gulped. Joshua raised a good point. However...

"Like you said, people die in the games. It isn't a crime."

Joshua seethed with fury. "Watch out for me, Xhou," he roared, and stalked out.

25-Jul-2007 14:47:36 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:28:32 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

[#9PE5KKJ52]

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"Oh, Drake, you are AMAZING."

"Not as great as you."

"Come closer, Drake. Show me your love!"

A typical morning for Drake the Champion of the Duel Arena. As it was, however, today was a special occasion: it was the two hundredth anniversary of the Duel Arena. So he was even more angry when a servant ran in, knocking over a priceless suit of armor, and disrupted his pleasure. The girl extricated herself from Drake and dove under the bed.

"My Champion," the servant said fearfully, "I bring grave news about Joshua."

"Can't you come back later? I'm sort of in the middle of something," Drake sighed.

"The message is urgent," the servant stubbornly repeated.

"Fine, I'll be there in a minute," Drake said dismissively. Then he turned to his "friend" and kissed her. "I'll be back soon, honey," he promised. Then he threw on a robe and followed his servant.

Drake wandered down through his lavish hallways, eyeing all the females that passed. There was a mandatory heat rule in his side of the palace, so it could never be cold enough that jackets had to be worn.

When he reached the kitchens, he grabbed a delicious-looking pastry and walked into the main room. Standing there was...

Joshua.

"Joshua! How are you?" Drake roared happily.

"Not well," Joshua grunted. "Xhou tried to kill me, and ended up killing Carol. And Elyssa is mad because we kissed. What about you? You don't look to happy at being interrupted."

It was an old joke, one that Drake had gotten sick of a long time ago. He still laughed at it for some reason, however. "Well, she was pretty, but I'm coming back directly after the anniversary party."

"...Where you will meet MORE women," Joshua rolled his eyes. "Anyway you are invited to Varrock for a royal dinner. And I am spreading the news about Xhou to the others."

25-Jul-2007 14:47:42 - Last edited on 15-Apr-2008 20:30:28 by [#9PE5KKJ52]

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A Tale of Four Champions