After a few quick pleasantries, the “angel” led them from the particularly flat scale they had landed on into the “city.”

“Tenaxis is the name of both the dragon and the city,” explained their guide as she gestured grandly towards the scarlet edifices that loomed around them. The horns and scales of the titanic dragon had been carved into homes and buildings. As such, the streets they walked on lacked any kind of rhyme or reason, and instead seemed to whirl and twist wherever they pleased. The great beast was so massive that Charis would’ve been completely oblivious had she not known better. However, she did know better, and she knew that each building represented a miniscule horn on the back of a tremendous reptile. When she looked up, Charis could see much larger spikes rising up in every direction, all of them colored in a bloody red.

They hadn’t walked for long when the guide led them up to one such spike, which towered over them like a skyscraper. They marched through a large, door-less opening into a much larger atrium, revealing that the entire spike was hollow. Sweeping rounded edges and a complete lack of corners completed the modern, albeit red, aesthetic.

“Your chambers,” she finally announced. She pressed a button, which prompted a circular door to slide open. Inside, a set of luxurious appointed suites greeted them. They continued the red theme, although less aggressively so. While the room certainly had a lot of red, the dominant color was a pleasantly soft cream. Charis smiled ruefully, inwardly comparing the gorgeous lodgings with her own room in the real world. “I hope you found your accommodations to be satisfactory,” said the woman – drily, Charis imagined. “Tonight there will be an opening ceremony event held by Erivar Vane himself. Someone will be over to bring you to the event in four hours. The first matches in the competition begin tomorrow. If there aren’t any questions, I’ll let you rest.”

“Thank you for your hospitality,” said Milan. Charis and the others chimed in their appreciation. Once she had gone, Milan turned to address them. “We have quite a bit of time. I suggest you spend the time resting. Tomorrow, we’ll put our training to the test.” After a general chorus of agreement, Charis moved out to claim a bed for her own before promptly collapsing onto it. She fell asleep to the pleasant wiggling sensation in her toes caused by Alicia’s struggles.

…

“Wake up, you slob,” chided Rima, shaking her friend awake. “It’s time to go. I have no idea how you slept for this long.” Charis couldn’t believe it either. She shook her head vigorously and got to her feet; she certainly felt refreshed. “Another one of those girls is at the door waiting for us.” Charis could tell she didn’t like the beautiful women sent to escort them around, but Rima went ahead and confirmed it for her anyway. “Why can’t they send some handsome men over instead of these bimbos!”

Charis laughed while absent-mindedly stomping her feet as she tried to get her circulation going. “I’m sure if you ask this Erivar Vane character nicely enough, he can snap his fingers and get that set up for you.”

“Definitely don’t do that,” Milan cut in smoothly from the door to the room. “Now let’s get going.” Charis nodded, and the pair followed him onto the front. As she looked at the back of his immaculate suit, Charis pondered how Milan had quickly become a friend – of sorts. While none of them knew a thing about him – they were too intimidated to ask, really – he seemed so genuine and amiable that it was hard not to trust him. This contradictory set of circumstances resulted in a sort of cognitive dissonance, one that left her subtly uncertain. Ultimately, she justified her actions by reminding herself that this was for Gage, who Milan would restore at the end of all of this.

Speaking of the little guy, Gage spoke to their latest “angel,” perched at eye-level on Nightwing just outside of their suite. Charis put on a half-hearted smile – she would never admit it, but these unearthly women strutting about grated on her too. “Where to?” she asked.

The woman returned the smile and said, “The opening ceremony isn’t far from here. Please follow me.” The group followed this latest guide outside, where night had fallen. When Charis looked it up, she could tell by the stars and moon that they were actually moving, but like some tremendous ship, the motion of the dragon on her was negligible. Despite the lack of sunlight, it was actually quite easy to see. The celestial bodies lit up the way quite well, presumably because they floated above any cloud cover. Furthermore, the dragon’s scales had an ambient glow about them, like dying embers. When they made a left turn onto the closest thing Charis had seen to a straight road so far, she realized that they must be at the very top of the dragon’s back, and that the massive spikes on either side probably extended from its nose to the tip of its tail.

In fact, just ahead an especially tremendous spike rose out of the creature’s scales, this one in the very center of the de facto boulevard. Noticing her gaze, their guide confirmed her suspicion. “Yes, that horn in particular is where Master Vane is having the opening ceremony. We’re actually approaching the base of the dragon’s neck.”

The group nodded politely, before they settled into a hushed silence. The “city” seemed mostly deserted, but as they approached the wickedly curved bone ahead of them, more angels trickled onto the main thoroughfare with people in tow. Presumably, these others were her opposition, so she tried to surreptitiously appraise them.

For the most part, they seemed normal enough. About half of them wore formal clothes like Milan, while the other half wore their battle gear like Charis. A number of them didn’t have human avatars at all, and among these the whole spectrum of beastly characters made an appearance. Nonetheless, aside from all being level 99 (an achievement she had reached without fanfare during her training with Rima), and being decked out in some of the most jaw-droppingly powerful items in the game, they didn’t seem very remarkable. No doubt they planned to save their best skills for the actual competition.

“What do you think?” whispered Charis to Gage. “Do you think we can take them?”

Gage didn’t respond. Instead, he eyed the other players intensely, as if all it took was a menacing stare to defeat them. Charis sighed and kept walking.

She didn’t have long to be irritated at Gage’s disengagement, though. Their destination quickly commanded her full attention. As they drew near, it became obvious that this was no ordinary horn. Part of it had been hollowed out to create an alcove, which had been further carved up to create a series of outrageous murals. Battles between armies and dragons, gods and men, and yet more scenes with yet more beautiful women covered the edifice of bone. The sheer size of the creation made the whole thing more impressive still, and even though Charis had begun to feel numb to all of the flamboyance, she had to admit that this latest spectacle topped everything else. As they proceeded through a tremendous opening, the monolithic structure rose up in a mind-boggling dome above them, reminding her of the Vatican or some similarly absurd creation. Up in the ceiling, yet more statues of dragons and other ridiculous beasts crouched along the edges, while still further carvings stretched up to the walls all around them.

Charis had been craning her neck upward for so long that she almost failed to notice the array of circular ivory tables scattered across the tremendous room. Seemingly also formed directly from the dragon’s bone, each piece had been elaborated sculpted as well, and it appeared that every seat had been specifically reserved. Their guide didn’t hesitate as she led them to one table in particular, and Charis took a seat facing the main attraction of the entire room: a throne.

“This guy really likes dragons,” muttered Rima. While the absurd structure before them was technically for sitting, it actually bore the form of a coiled serpent not unlike the one they currently rode upon. It shone much brighter than the real thing, however, because each scale had clearly been made from rubies, or some other precious stone.

“That thing can’t be comfortable,” noted Charis. The two shared a smile, but remained silent. Despite the large number of people present (Charis estimated the number to be easily in the hundreds), an unnatural hush came over the crowd. Likely, the ridiculous dragon-temple-thing had cowed everyone.

“Are you liking everything so far?” Charis spun around in surprise, her eyes meeting those of a non-descript but well-dressed man with a trimmed beard.

“Uh…” she stammered, “yes.”

“Good,” he replied, his eyes dazzling with mirth. “Your methods are… interesting,” he said with a knowing glance at her boots. “Please let me know if there’s anything I can get you.” With that, he strode away to another table and greeted another person, leaving a speechless, pink-haired girl in his wake.

“This year is different,” remarked Milan with a rueful smile.

“Why?” asked Charis. “Who was that?”

“I don’t ever recall Erivar Vane personally greeting each participant,” he said almost glibly.

Charis felt a thrill of excitement pulse through her chest, but she couldn’t marinate on her encounter for long because just a moment later Vane stood in front of his chair and called for everyone’s attention.

“Hey everybody,” he spoke with a magnified, yet ridiculously informal voice.

“Really taking it a new direction,” Charis heard Milan whisper under his breath.

“Glad we could all get together for this little competition,” he said laconically. “Before we start having the contestants beat each other senseless, let’s have a little party. Sounds good?”

An awkward silence ensued.

“Sounds good?” he prodded, this time a bit annoyed. The crowd met this with a roar of approval, which brought a smile to Vane’s lips. “That’s more like it.”