“Why do they come to me to die?,” asked Rodin as he stuck a landing. The freshly dead bulldog behind him fell into pieces, as all the rest had. Rodin cleaned his sword, sheathing it and moving forward.
He knew somewhere deep in his subconscious that one false step could mean his death… falling into the veritable river of lava beneath the small, jagged islands of rock.
He grit his teeth and climbed another rope towards the suspended platforms, thinking to himself all the while.
“Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. I can’t protect anyone… Not Sarah, Terra nor Terrato…”
He climbed up the rope, sat on the floating bit of rock and removed the armor plating from his left leg, revealing a particularly nasty wound. He sat and stared at his leg for a minute, not noticing the danger brewing around him until the sphere of blazing hot fire flew past his face.
He looked up and saw another red canine, preparing to spit another fireball into his face. He grabbed hold of the rope beneath him and swung down, the plasma nearly missing his helmet.
He grabbed for his sword again, dropping the leg plating he was holding into the magma.
“Dang it, I’m going to have to pay for that.” Taking his sword off his back, he charged it with a magical energy and bat the next fireball back at the Bain. The Bain took the hit directly, its own flames licking at its face, but didn’t seem to even be phased by it.
“Alright, you stupid dog… You’re not going to be the end of me!”
Rodin hoisted himself up by his free hand and jumped to the next floating platform, the pain in his leg almost too much to bear. He deflected another fireball as he jumped towards the next stone…
“C’mon, Rodin. This is just like training, but you have an injured leg, a mutant dog shooting fire at you and pure lava beneath you. …I’m not helping.” He jumped one more time and realized… he wasn’t going to make it! He grabbed hold of the rope hanging off the platform and slid down, flames licking his boots and the Bain readying another powerful blast. Rodin shut his eyes, waiting for the end…
…he heard a blast like out of a cannon, several sounds of extremely fast impact, and felt a very powerful force rip him off of the rope, blasting him backwards. That was about the time he blacked out.

Then, though, he did something he didn’t expect. He woke up.
“Aigh!!,” he screamed, eyes tightly shut.
“He’s awake,” he heard two voices say in unison.
Rodin opened his eyes with a start, looking around. He was still in the Cave of Trial, on the platform he’d last jumped off of. “I’m… alive?,” he asked to no one in particular.
“I should hope so!,” said the Assassin from before as he stepped into view, “I wouldn’t want to have pummeled a Bain and then made a daring aerial jump across a pit of molten lava to save a zombie!”
“Oh, come off of it. You wouldn’t even have done that if I hadn’t told you to,” said a female mage, walking calmly towards the ropes.
“I would have! I’m all about saving people in danger!,” he replied indignantly.
“I doubt that our Fighter here would like to hear me prove that you’re a selfish and spoiled brat. Now, help him up.”
Rodin shook his head, getting to his feet. “I’m all right. Thanks… thanks for saving me.”
“Hmph! He didn’t even ask for my name.”
“He shouldn’t have to!,” replied the magician, whacking him in the back of the head with her staff. “He said he’s thankful for what we did. Good thing, too. He might’ve died from that leg wound if the lava hadn’t killed him.”
Rodin, startled at this reminder, looked down at his left leg. The unarmored spot he saw had absolutely no mark whatsoever. Looking up at the magician, he merely said, “You’re a Priest!”
“Ahem. Brandy, PriestESS of Dharta at your service.”
“Oh, right. But who’s your friend?”
“That’s my brother, Random. Before you give me the whole speech on how Assassins are supposed to use thrown weapons, I can attest to the fact that he’s horrible at that.”
“Hey!,” Random chimed in, “I just don’t have very good aim!”
“You got ousted from Dark Lord’s teaching after you almost killed him on your first training session!”
“It was my first training session, and he was like, right there.”
“He was BEHIND YOU.”
“Ugh, whatever. We’ll get into this later. For now, though, we’re on a mission.”
Rodin’s mood changed upon hearing this. “Any chance you could take an hour or two to help me out with something? I need a quick Dispel for a friend.”
“You came all the way up here for a Priest? I would help, but our goal’s right ahead.”
Rodin smiled. “Well, I can help with that! How hard could it be?”
Brandy and Random exchanged nervous glances, and it was a moment too long before Brandy spoke again. “Sure, if you think you’re up to it…”
“I’m glad to do it if we can get help for Terra.”
“Terra…?,” Brandy looked at the ground, obviously deep in thought. “I’ve heard that name before…”
“Eh,” Random interjected, “Let’s not linger on the thought too long. We’ve got Zakums to kill!”
“Zakums,” thought Rodin… “Another obstacle on the road to redemption. With Sarah, Terra, and Terrato at stake, I can’t afford to make any more mistakes…”

End Chapter 5.

Well, that was fun! Let’s hope I can get off my posterior and actually DO more chapters any time soon. Whee.
For those of you who can follow the plot of Lost but I’ve managed to lose (yeah, you know who you are… all two of you…) here’s a little recap.

Rodin’s a Mageknight (combination of Fighter and any sort of Magician you can think of (AND MORE due to creatorial stupidity)) with an inferiority complex.
Aurida’s an evil Priest.
Sarah is Rodin’s sister (and a competent Hunter) who’s currently in a museum somewhere.
Terra is a Learner (copies enemies’ spells) who’s filling nature’s place as raw ham.
Terrato is an Assassin who got blasted away by a realistic version of a Super Megaphone.
This is just thrown in here to make sure you’re paying attention.
Random saved Rodin’s bacon and is quite good at punching stuff until it dies (think starless Assassin on crack, that’s right he’s a Black Belt)
Brandy is a Priest who’s both on a mission to kill Zakum and afterwards possibly Dispel Terra.
Grabbersit is just some persistent guy who, upon falling for Aurida’s ruse tries to assassinate Rodin to, and I quote, “rescue the love of his life.” Touching.

Thanks if you actually READ this, here’s hoping you continue to do so. This is Tek Jansen with Alpha Squad 7, and good night