I watched the disciples in front of me, taking a step forward while my eyes darted around. The mists were a hazy redness, coupled with curls of smoky air currents—moving about in one direction and then the other. There was no one direction, the currents changed every few moments, sometimes minutes.

My feet gushed through the mushy ground, the ground here was rather soggy, dirty, and muddy, but I had no intention of turning back. This was nothing.

A cold, dewy mist tendril felt slick against my cheek. I licked my lip and propped my hand up to caress my cheek.

“Ah, finally,” a disciple murmured as we followed behind Master Shin. It’d taken less than ten minutes for all the disciples to gather back and Master Shin took off that instant.

I looked up at the disciple and followed his eyesight. There was a cave, of sorts, in front of us. Master Shin had stopped moving.

“Everyone,” he said, and all the disciples including myself gathered around him.

“This is the first tunnel our group is assigned,” he said. “Pay attention.”

The disciples nodded in unison, and I followed.

“The issue with the mists is that there roam monsters, creatures, sometimes called demons, even. However, make no mistake, these are no demons. Demons are far—far—horrifying.”

I raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

“We shall venture in for now.” Master Shin concluded.

Stepping inside, I felt the uneven ground beneath my feet, the bumpy stone walls enclosing us—a claustrophobe wouldn’t like this place one bit. Tree roots clung to the rocky surface above. As we ventured deeper, our shoes crunched on dirt and dead leaves. That was enough to leave me with some questions.

Why are leaves here?

That had to be impossible. There was no tree in here, nor outside. I’d been quite tentative of my surroundings.

I shook my head and stepped on a puddle of water dripping steadily from the cracks in the ceiling. The sounds of the outside world faded away. No more was there the sharp hisses of mist whipping about all over the place. That sound, however, was replaced by the echo of our footsteps.

The tunnel went on and on and on, leaving me wondering how long it would take for something to happen. It didn’t take long until a commotion rose ahead. I peered, and found that the disciples were getting uselessly excited to see an animal—monster?—or whatever that was.

A rabbit.

Quite peculiar if I had to say. I shook my head and focused more on it. Master Shin sighed as the disciples neared it without waiting for his instructions. Oh, I realized. He wants them to learn a lesson.

That would indeed be quite fun to watch.

The rabbit hopped around, its round, brown eyes wide as it looked at the disciple. I saw its nose getting a sniff, and once it did so, its ears stood tall and alert, flicking at the faintest movement.

I took a step back to get a better view as one of the disciples got way closer than he should have.

As expected, the rabbit reacted badly. Its once-cute face contorted and its teeth elongated into razor-sharp fangs that gleamed. Its body wriggled and morphed into a slightly bigger body—and the process left me feeling a little nauseated. Strings of saliva dripped from its maw.

The disciple in its vicinity let out a scream—one a man wouldn’t be proud of. A sharp, high-pitched, feminine sound that left everyone stuck in a feeling between wanting to laugh at the situation or fear the creature.

It was then. Suddenly, a Master Shin moved, his hand blurred, and the next instant, a painful squeal sounded. The rabbit was flung back, hitting the wall with a thud. It fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and then lay still. The squeal had likely rang through the cave, I could guess that much from the echo.

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The disciple who had screamed was now panting heavily, his face pale. He looked at Master Shin with wide eyes, and then at the dead rabbit.

“Next time, be more careful,” Master Shin said, his voice stern. He turned to the rest of us. “This is just the beginning. There will be more. Get ready. I won’t be intervening at all.”

As expected, he disappeared from sight.

Some disciples panicked while others hollered in excitement.

“This is it!”

“We can finally fight!”

And as Master Shin had said, there were more. More rabbits appeared. They were not cute or cuddly anymore. They were monsters with sharp fangs and claws, their bodies larger than any normal rabbit I’d ever seen back on Earth.

Everyone hesitated.

I had no intention of fighting, my plan was to disappear once everyone here was busy.

One disciple stepped forward, his hand glowing with a blue light. He cursed under his breath and then punched forward. The air in front of him rippled and a blast of energy shot out, hitting a rabbit square in the chest. It squealed and was thrown back. Another disciple unsheathed her sword, its blade gleaming in the dim light. She moved with a twitch, slashing at the rabbits that came too close. Each slash was followed by a spray of blood and a dead rabbit. Yet another disciple simply screamed. It was a high-pitched, ear-piercing scream that made the rabbits pause for a moment. That moment was enough for him to move in and kill them with his bare hands.

But not all disciples were as successful. Some were bitten by the rabbits, their screams of pain echoing in the tunnel. They fell to the ground, clutching their wounds while others rushed to help them.

I watched all this with interest, taking mental notes of each disciple’s abilities and techniques—my mind working on the possibility of replicating some of them given a few were rather cool. I was not here to fight but to observe.

However, when a rabbit jumped at me from the side, I reacted instinctively. My hand moved on its own, reaching out and grabbing the rabbit by its neck before it could bite me. With a quick twist, I snapped its neck and it fell limp in my hand.

I looked down at it for a moment before dropping it to the ground. Then I continued observing until I deemed that enough chaos was ensuing that if I left no one would notice. Master Shin would, most likely, but I doubted he’d care much.

However, when I moved, my eyes fell on a particular girl, and I was left surprised. I recognized her. Smiling, I stopped and decided to observe for a moment.

Huang Jingyi, was it?

She was quite short in stature and had black hair along with a pair of bright emerald eyes. Two hair ornaments and a sword way too big for her stature, almost comical in its disproportion to her small frame.

Jingyi was surrounded by a group of rabbits. She didn’t flinch or scream like the others. Instead, she held her oversized sword with a firm grip and clenched jaw. She swung her sword, cutting through the air and the rabbits with ease.

Her movements were fluid, like a dance. Each swing of her sword was precise, cutting through the air and the rabbits with an ease that was almost frightening. Her face was calm, focused, quite different than what I’d expect from a young girl. She didn’t back away when a rabbit lunged at her. Instead, she sidestepped, letting it pass by her before she swung her sword, cutting it down in one swift hack. The rabbit didn’t even have time to react before it fell to the ground, lifeless.

I made a mental note to myself. It would be interesting to see Renji try to win her over. I could already imagine the awkward attempts at flirting, the blushing faces. It would be entertaining to watch.

But for now, I had to focus on the task at hand.

I needed to leave now.

I slipped out of everyone’s gazes.

***

I tapped into my Eclipse Heart and pulled on the Gu inside. My heart thumped, and I felt a rush wash over me. My senses heightened and I moved to look for anything I could test my strength on.

I’d spent far more time meditating than I should have but it was necessary. I dipped and watched how I moved. I wanted to be stealthy, so my steps remained calculated—I would like to avoid unnecessary attention here, thank you very much. I wanted to test my power, and not get ambushed and lash out like a barbarian.

After a while of careful searching, I spotted it—the same monster I had encountered before; a rabbit. However, there was something off about it and it was glaringly obvious.

It loomed in the distance, it appeared even larger than before. My heart raced and I crept closer, my body low to the ground. Its ear twitched and its head snapped in my direction. I dove to the side and hid behind a rock, trying to stay out of its line of sight.

After waiting a moment, I sneaked a peak and the monster’s back was turned.

Perfect, I thought. This was an opportunity to strike. I lunged forward, aiming to take it down swiftly and decisively.

The rabbit turned around, though. Its eyes narrowed in on me. I cursed. Undeterred, I moved. I was stronger—this was just a game, I didn’t want to simply power through its flesh. I wanted to test my control.

Being the monster it was, it didn’t run and instead thought of me as an easy prey. I moved, and pulled my Gu, thrusting it through my veins and towards my feet.

I blasted it out of the soles of my feet, and the Gu—with no proper form or technique—lashed out, pushing me away from the ground.

I landed on the monster’s side and punched its tough hide. A thump sounded and it winced back in pain, but it wasn’t enough to defeat it—it seemed that I’d held back way too much.

The rabbit moved its claws and slashed through the air towards me. I barely managed to dodge the attack, my instincts kicking in just in time to save myself from a fatal blow.

Realizing that I needed more power, I dug deep within my Eclipse Heart, drawing upon reserves of Gu. I launched another attack. Just as my fist connected with the monster’s body, I slammed Gu right through my fist as soon as it connected.

Blood spurted out from the impact, splattering the ground around us. The creature let out a deafening howl before collapsing.