Tomorrows Knights 3: Endgame

Chapter 16: Gold Comes With a Price

Shining Hope has completed even more cautious preparations and are just about to go for Gold, however...

Anti-Aegis: "We've finally become able to do more than tamper with the arenas."

Anti-Aegis has been evolving at an alarming rate.

Anti-Aegis: "Shining Hope will lose more than those two."

With Shining Hope...

Roy: "Here we go."

They now stand in front of a cave out in the middle of nowhere.

Serena: "Gold is a lot harder than Silver right William?"

Serena is standing eerily closed to William.

William: "I-It should be."

Micheal: "Well we better start on Gold and get to that thing."

They step inside.

Risa: "Any idea what this thing could be?"

Andrea: "I hear Pixel Reality Players at school talk about a chimera, so this could be that."

Isabel: "A cave for a chimera does sound fitting."

They progress deeper.

Zack: "Looks like we're here."

They find a strange creature and a rider sleeping.

Anthony: "(whispering) Should we sneak attack?"

Emily: "(whispering) Any damage is good damage."

They all begin to charge up small attacks.

William: "(whispering) Now!"

They all release the attacks, only taking away 1/16 of before it wakes up.

Serena: "Uh..."

Roy: "We did essentially nothing!"

The chimera has the head of a wolf, the tail of a serpent, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.

Cole: "Watch out!"

The chimera sends a wave of razor sharp feathers at Shining Hope, but Cole and Robert use ice and rock to stop it.

William: "That... was close!"

Robert and Cole show signs of damage from a few feathers that went through.

Cole: "We'll block when it tries something like that again!"

They begin a counterattack, but little do they know, there is one more spectator.

Anti-Aegis: "We should wait until Rank 7 is on it's last legs."

Another blast of feathers blocked, but the two are even more injured.

Robert: "Let's heal before it launches another one!"

They heal as the boss has 3/4 HP.

Andrea: "Let's keep going!"

The chimera begins to shoot lasers out of it's eyes.

Edo: "I wouldn't have expected that!"

A few good lasers hit the long rangers.

Anthony: "Gotta heal!"

They begin to recover HP.

Risa: "This totally feels like an anime when the antagonist has a secret form or attack they've been saving!"

Robert barely shields Risa from a laser.

Robert: "(struggling) Of course you're thinking about anime!"

A few more lasers later and it's down to 7/16 HP.

Anti-Aegis: " A little longer and Shining Hope won't live up to their name."

Robert and Cole are having issues with keeping the defense up.

Cole: "(exhausted) We gotta keep this up."

Edo: "Are you two alright?!"

The boss begins to rush towards everyone with a head charge.

Micheal: "Jump!"

They all barely jump out of the way.

Asaka: "Let's finish this!"

As they all begin to make the last push...

Anti-Aegis: "Now time for the fun to end Shining Hope."

The boss suddenly snaps it's entire body.

Emily: "Uh..."

The rider is tossed off.

Andrea: "Du-"

The rider explodes out of nowhere, dealing everyone critical damage.

Asaka: "(in ) 1/16..."

The boss begins to glow.

Isabel: "(in pain) I can barely move..."

The light gets brighter.

William: "(in pain) Must log-"

They realize they can't log out mid boss.

Cole: "(determined) It's not over."

Robert and Cole look each other in the eyes.

Robert: "(determined) Good guys."

Robert and Cole use the last of their energy to create a wall to protect the others.

Roy: "What're you-"

Zack begins to cry.

Zack: "(crying) Cole!"

The boss explodes as the makeshift wall begins to crumble.

Robert: "We'll be counting on you guys."

The wall crumbles as the explosion finishes, along with Cole and Robert beginning to fade.

Shining Hope: "(enraged) NOOOO!!!"

Risa becomes Lv34.

William: "(crying) First Kyle and Tori, now Robert and Cole?!"

Emily: "(crying) Why?! WHY?!"

Anti-Aegis fazes through a wall.

Anti-Aegis: "Looks like we only got two."

The black energy surrounds everyone.

Isabel: "(enraged) You messed with the system and gave that boss an all or nothing attack."

Anti-Aegis: "We hope you realize this is only a hologram."

Micheal begins slashing at the hologram.

Micheal: "(crying, enraged) You just killed my best friend! You bastards!"

Small sparks of black fire appear on his back.

Anti-Aegis: "Well no matter, we shall have all of you soon."

The hologram vanishes.

Anthony: "(enraged) We're coming after you Anti-Aegis!"

They log out.

Meanwhile...

Walker: "(crying) Now two more?! I still need to finish Bio-Link Z!"

Walker quickly regains his composure.

Walker: "This program has to work."

Walker types away even faster on his keyboard.