Fight!

That can’t be it. It won’t. Marcus came here to dominate, and he wouldn’t just let this happen. And he charges.

Marcus rushes at the woman, and her frown turns into a deep glower, and Marcus knows if he loses he’s dead. He gets close, and her claws slam into his shield. It holds, but shudders around his arm, and from the other side deep gouges mar it.

With no spear, and not wanting to risk his arms or legs to those deadly claws, Marcus uses the one weapon he has left: his shield. He swings his arm as if throwing a punch and slams the edge into her stomach.

“HOW DARE YOU STRIKE ME, THE ONLY LIVING LIONESS, LEVINA!!!”

She’s furious, but monologuing never wins battles. Marcus rushes over to the bushes, finding his spear as she rushes him from behind. Her claws flash for his chest…

A wet squelch, a scream.

Levina’s claws slices Marcus’s shoulder open, leaving him screaming and bleeding. Releasing his spear his hand goes to the shoulder, trying to put pressure on it. It was enough though. Levina glances down, face pale, at the spear still embedded in her stomach. Her wild charge brought her right into it, and her momentum…

She stumbles back, seeming to not even understand what’s happened. Weak gasps escape her as blood leaks from her mouth. She stumbles away through the woods.

Marcus isn’t in great shape. He won. He’s sure of that. But… what now? He stands back up, not even having realized he fell to the ground, and stumbles right after her. He needs that spear. He… he can’t think straight. He can barely think at all.

Marcus stumbles through the forest after her. A sudden cliff faces him, but he just catches her collapsing into a cave. He follows, and finds her and what must be her home. It’s not much, except… that’s strange. He grips his spear and slowly yanks it from her lifeless body, and stumbles over to a set of… stairs?

Marcus almost feels as though he’s hallucinating, but starts climbing anyways. They’re stone, carved gorgeously and looking far too intentional fo-

Windows. The stairs continue, and he glances back to see a door? Must be part of the mysticism of the place. After all, he can’t have walked into that jungle, and the cliff, and had it all in that small tower. Another few steps, and he’s almost done. Too much blood is gone. But now, for once, he thanks the mysticism of this tower. With that next step, everything is different. Marcus pulls his hand away, still wet with his blood. But his shoulder… he rolls it experimentally and there’s no pain. No more blood flows out of it. Somehow, the stairs have healed him. The tower has healed him.

And so he continues, reaching another door, stepping through, and in the darkness, preparing for his next challenge.