Sorry that it took a while. Clearly I underestimated the amount of work I had to do at school. Best not to increase delay, huh?
The pitch black doors of hell, greater than anything your eyes could perceive, slowly creak open before you. A primal fear grips your heart. You have come here to die; you know it to be true, but despite this you find you weren't quite prepared for this.
Before you stands the Arena Grandmaster... Or so you think. Some of you have memories of a similar event that has taken part merely a century before, when the rule of the Lord of Corruption had its origin here; implanted into you by forces unknown, but still, though the atmosphere, the burnt smell and the fear is familiar, the looming shape before you is not. It is... smaller somehow, but only slightly less frightening - a muscular winged brute with pitch black skin.
"Insipid mortals!", it booms. "The Lord of Corruption has chosen you to test your powers for him. Prepare to heed his beck and call, and die for his amusement! For nothing more shall await you here; either you enter the dark realms of the Netherworld, or you shall get cast to the cold depths of the Abyss... Until then, you will fight in the Arenas of infinity!"
The gigantic doors suddenly slam shut right behind you. You must have entered while this creature was talking without realizing it. The power in this voice is irresistible to you, it is impossible for you to disobey. You are too small, too weak, to be anything more than what you are allowed to be here.
"I am Silfir, and I speak in the name of the Arena Grandmaster!", he announces in a booming voice. He draws his whip...
"You!" With movements almost too quick to notice, he suddenly latches his whip on one of your group and slings him upwards. A circular dimensional rift appears, which reveals a barren mountain peak, on top of which seems to be a giant stadium. You chill at the sight of it as well as the howling sound that leaves the rift. Your friend, or rather, soon-to-be opponent in the arena who happens to share the same fate, is quickly followed by seven more. Silfir seems to enjoy the pain he can read in your eyes, both from being snatched onto and from having to watch the whole ordeal.
League of Air (non-server league):
Managed by Silfir
1. gut
2. Vale
3. PeanutGod
4. Subconscious
5. Baranor
6. Queue88
7. mike
"The seven of you shall have the pleasure to compete in my own personal Arena!" Silfir announces, and lets out a demonic laugh. "I shall get to you later. Now for the rest of you!"
seven more get tossed, one after another, this time in another direction; a rift opens and reveals a deep pit somewhere else in the hells, with spectator ranks embedded in the sickish brown colored earth. Towering cliff walls surround the Arena... from the view available to you it looks like the earth itself could swallow the participants and spectators alike at any time, and the growling earth certainly does sound like the hungry stomach of some sort of creature, if such a sound could belong to a living being - to one with more than a heart of stone it could not. The more claustrophobic of you shudder already.
League of Earth (server league):
Managed by F50
1. nathrakh
2. Laukku
3. _Ln_
4. JellySlayer
5. Ars
6. Grey
7. psy_wombats
"Eff'Feaftee, another of the faithful servants of the Lord of Corruption, will "take care" of you. Ha ha! I would not be surprised if he just swallowed you here and there! Though I do imagine he has a desire for more worthy food."
The seemingly senseless whipping continues. Now the first thing that you sense once the next rift opens is a horrible stench. Your eyes sting and start to water; it is almost as if the air was eating you up from the inside. Those of you that have not been snatched and thrown into the planar hole have trouble breathing, you wonder if your unfortunate fellow sufferers might not die within seconds.
League of Acid (server league):
Managed by Grey
1. evariste
2. deepshock
3. coppro
4. Al-Khwarizmi
5. Samus_Aran
6. F50
7. tapi
"The Arena Grandmaster himself has decided to keep an eye on you fools... Feel grateful for that privilege! It won't make your pathetic lives any less worthless and you shall suffer no less for your unworthiness, but at least your inevitable death will be a slight bit more glorious!"
"And for those of you who are now deluding themselves to feel safe in the knowledge that you shall not suffer under his whip... Think again!" And his crackling whip again snatches seven more of you who made the mistake of breathing out in relief. Relief is not a luxury gladiators get to enjoy...
A chilling cold immediately emanates from the now open rift; it crackles, almost as if the edges of the interplanar opening, despite all probabilities, freeze themselves, make it harder to close again - coldness that chills even the space between dimensions.
League of Ice (server league):
Managed by Grey
1. meh
2. LuciusKain
3. Covenant
4. furious_styles
5. BurnedToast
6. Qui
7. riktikticheck
"Run for your lives in his Ice arena for your foolishness - if you manage to move at all! Har har!"
Snatch! Snatch! Silfir keeps laughing with glee, tirelessly performing his duty as grandmaster. The air that exudes from the next rift now suddenly almost singes the eyebrows of those standing too close; the hotness is extreme, even the contrast to the chill from before scarcely worsened it. You see an obsidian Arena there, encircled all around by brightly burning flames of shifting colors. The heat is nigh unbearable, you'd feel sorry for those that were thrown into the Rift if you did not know that you will hardly fare better...
League of Fire (non-server league):
Managed by Soirana
1. vogonpoet
2. Silfir
3. Molach
4. IGB
5. purge
6. Epythic
7. CheatMan
"The right hand of the Lord of Corruption has the say in here! Rumors say there is no one more merciless among his servants; he might be more cruel than the Lord himself! Ha has no tolerance for weaklings - I might amuse myself with your pitiful efforts, but he will not rest until each and every one of you is weeping with despair!"
Few are left standing now, and the whip keeps crackling. Soon everyone but seven are thrown into the next Rift. The air gets hard to breathe all of a sudden, and is horribly cold now. As you look into the rift, which is now located below you, you see an Arena made of clear glass, floating on a vast blue ocean below a dark grey sky, colored in a sickly red hue that removes all traces, even perverts the beauty of the sight, but nothing is as it should be in these fiendish hells...
League of Water (non-server league):
Managed by gut
1. Per_Killer
2. stakon
3. Xanthine
4. Panda_Lord
5. Soirana
6. Maul
7. quik
"Beware of Gutt, the Master of this league! On the outside, he might appear to be a rather charming, some might say even pleasant person, but I do think he is the most devious and freakish of all the demons you have ever faced. He will make you feel comfortable, but only to increase your suffering even more, because there is no one who desires the suffering of his underlings more than he... Har har har. You poor bastards."
The seven of you left have now started shuddering for good, now that you have seen so many others caught by that terrible whip, but Silfir does not raise his hand. what worries you even more is that instead of disappointment or any indiciation of tiredness, you only see his malicious grin widen. Suddenly another, human-looking black shape appears at his side. Silfir turns around and bows, steps back and disappears through the rift leading to the peak you've seen before.
All you hear is his booming voice now. "This, poor mortals, is the Lord of Corruption himself. You have been given the honor - if there were any such thing here - of dying right in front of his eyes..."
The sick light of hell slowly turns to enlighten his figure... Fear has consumed your hearts already as you feel his sheer presence slowly distorting the edges of your soul...
League of Mana (non-server league):
Managed by PeanutGod
1. MakeReady
2. koctyxa
3. Thing
4. Nehor
5. Conundrum
6. Silwyr
7. 3AM
The league managers are now free to create their respective league threads. I will do so myself in just a moment.
Use this thread to discuss the entire first round of the Weakest Link 2009. Start with an assessment of how unfair the individual leagues are