His sword continued to move towards Arlo, the sword’s pointy tip aggressively ripped through the air, marching its way to Arlo's forehead like an unstoppable force.

Without a moment to waste, Arlo raised his right hand and simultaneously lowered his head as much as he could in the short time he had.

He moved his hand to be precisely right in-front of the tip of the black sword and allowed the sword to penetrate through it.

The sword pierced the palm of his hand, and plunged deep into the trunk of a random tree. His hand had been caught in between the sword and the trunk. It forced Arlo's body to jolt towards the tree, and resulted in his hand to be covered with blood.

"Ahhhh"

He screamed in agony.

Arlo was unable to move his hand, which meant that he couldn't run away. It might seem things looked really bad for Arlo now that he couldn't escape, but this was perfect.

The man's sword was aimed at Arlo's head, but he was able to deflect it using his hand and make it plunge into the tree trunk. The man had damaged a tree located in 'paradise', unfortunately for him that meant death.

Arlo and the man stared at each another, one had eyes drowning in anger, whilst the other stared back with joy.

The man had become a mess.

"I'll kill you, before it kil—"

Before he could finish his sentence, he had already been killed.

Even though it happened right in-front of Arlo, he was unable to see the protector.

It was just too fast for him.

There was no noise, no shaking leaves, no vibrating branches. The protector had made no noise this time, it simply killed him without doing anything unnecessary.

The man's body was horribly torn apart. His head was missing, both his arms were gone and most of his upper body was missing. His legs wobbled a bit, then fell to the ground, the man's blood covered the beautiful flowers and everything surrounding it.

Arlo was still stuck, the sword was too deep into the tree trunk for him to pull out with just one hand. The pain was also getting worse, he gritted his teeth, then as loud as he could he yelled

"Sasha, come here and help me. The two protectors are dead"

Their was no movement for a couple seconds, he then heard footsteps coming towards him.

"Arlo, oh my what happened"

Said Sasha, she had a panicked expression on her face, she quickly can to him.

"Try to pull the sword from the tree"

Arlo quietly said

He was exhausted from all the running he had done, so speaking had become quite a chore for him.

Sasha placed both her hands on the handle of the sword, she put her right leg on the tree, then with all her strength she tried to pull the sword out of the tree. The sword budged a bit

After a couple more tries, Sasha managed to pull out the sword from the tree.

"Ahhh, finally"

Said Arlo

His hand was finally free

"Don't move your hand, I'll help you"

Said Sasha in a panicked tone

She tore off her sleeve, then tightly wrapped it around Arlo's hand to stop the blood from coming out, she then tied it extremely tight so it wouldn't come undone.

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"Let your arm rest and don't move it around to much"

She said in quite a demanding voice

They both sat beneath a tree, the wind was calm and their wasn't any noise, it was peaceful.

'It's finally over'

Arlo had no clue how long he had been in this trial, but he was definitely happy that it was all over. He could go back to the real world with a power, this would help him in so many ways, it would change his life forever.

The silence between the two was comforting, both of them were tired and overwhelmed by what just happened, so they said nothing. Arlo's mind was at ease and quite untill he heard a familiar voice

[Excellent work, you have passed the trial.

You will bloom]

Those words danced throughout Arlo's mind, he was indeed livid. This whole situation had been so bizarre, yet quite interesting, but he was quite happy that it was coming to an end.

As Arlo thought about makutu, a couple of leaves started to shake, then branches violently vibrated. Then it completely stopped

'Don't tell me'

Arlo thought of the worst, he was so close to the finish line, what was the protector trying to do.

He was sure that he was going to die any moment, a big monster was going to brutally tear his whole body apart.

As he contemplated, he suddenly felt something touch him, then a familiar voice spoke in his head

[The protector of 'paradise' has gifted you a tool]

'What?'

Arlo was severely confused as to what had just happened

'The protector gave me a tool? But why?'

He was dumbfounded, why did the protector give him a tool. Maybe it was a reward for showing bravery against the two men, or tricking them so easily, however it could be for something entirely different. One thing Arlo was sure about, was that the two men were most definitely the reason he was gifted a tool.

'It's linked to them'

But he wasn't in the mood to think about it to much, so after a while he put it in the back of his mind.

'Let's forget about it for now and see my gift'

With a smirk on his face, he pulled up his stats

Name - Arlo

Title - ?

Soul - ?

Identity - ?

Natural abilities - [untold fragment] , [Good luck] , [Unusual eyes]

Power - ?

Weakness - ?

Tools - [Star]

Guards - ?

??? - ?

??? - ?

'Wow it's actually their'

His eyes were basically glowing as he looked at his stats, he then pressed on his tool to see what it actually was

Star -

Rank - ???

Type - Service

Abilities -

Light - Shines bright in the dark

Intensity - The intensity of this light can be altered

??? - ?

Story - [ A being aimed for the moon, but only managed to reach the stars]

Arlo's face was emotionless, all the energy he previously had was drained out of him, his eyes were bleak

'It…..it's just a torch'

The Service tool was useless, it wasn't special in the slightest.

'It might have question marks, but it's still useless. Why did it give me something so trash'

He face palmed himself

All his hopes were gone, Arlo sat their with a frown on his face.

'When will this trial end. I'm so done with it'

Sasha saw the frown on his face, she moved a bit closer to him and spoke in quite a happy tone

"Say Arlo, do you want to hear a story?"

He glanced at her for a moment, then looked at the ground. With a heavy sigh

"Sure, let's hear it"

He replied

Her face lit up a bit, with a huge smile on her face, she said

" A long time ago, their was a young boy who enjoyed having adventures, he liked exploring and finding out interesting things. On a particular day he and his friends were going to set out on a massive adventure."

She stopped for a couple of seconds, then started to look at Arlo

"The boy was overjoyed with excitement, he had been dreaming of going on a big adventure for a long time. His friends were also quite excited. Before they embarked on their long journey, the boy took a nap. "

She momentarily stopped, took a breath in and then exhaled

"When the boy woke up from his nap, his friends were no where to be seen, all the equipment was also missing. After a while he found out, his friends had embarked on their long journey without him.

After a couple moments of silence

"The boy was hurt, his friends had abandoned him. They had planned all of it behind the boy's back. This made him feel hateful towards them and this experience made him never go on a adventure again"

Arlo was quite puzzled, the story was quite a basic one, something you would tell a child so it would go to sleep.

He had thought it was going to be about 'paradise' or something really important, but his assumption was wrong

"I don't get it. What's the point of the story?"

She thought for a moment

"The way I look at it is, you shouldn't give up something you love because of others. The boy gave up on going on adventures because of the betrayal he experienced. He shouldn’t have been hateful towards his friends, the best thing he could have done was to move on from it"

She sighed

"Hate is a heavy thing to carry, it's best to let go of it, or else it will slow you down"

Arlo kinda seemed to get the message, it was basically about moving on and not harbouring hate towards anyone.

'A childish story'

To him, it was nothing but a childish story to teach kids lessons. Which he didn't need, so Arlo thought of it as a pointless story.

In a curious tone Sasha asked

"If you were in the boy's shoes, what would have you done?"

He pondered about it a bit, but didn't necessarily give it a hard thought.

"I guess I would have gone on an adventure"

His answer made her smile

"An adventure does sound fun"

As time ticked on, Arlo started to become weak, His consciousness was starting to slip.

'I guess it's over'

In a quiet voice Arlo said

"Thank you Sasha"

She looked straight at him, with a soft voice she said

"You kept your promise Arlo, you saved me, so thank you"

Before he fainted, the last thing he saw was a huge smile on Sasha's face

In a unconscious state, a voice spoke to him

[Congratulations Arlo, you have passed the trial. You are beginning to bloom]