It was now the second day of the last trial. We were now approaching the valley. The towering natural sky scraper stood menacingly in front of us, barely visible because of the fog.

The sound of heavy rain and crashing thunder had pulled me out of the little sleep I had gotten. I almost didn’t notice that water had entered my sleeping area. It was then Cedric burst into my small cave as if in a hurry.

“We need to get going, now.”

Swiftly we made our way through the Jungle, the sloshing sound of our footsteps barely audible as the storm roared above us. Wind pelted my face with water and my hair stuck to my to my face occasionally obscuring my vision. I was half conscious of my surroundings, only really paying attention to the 3 figures ahead of me. The sound of nature unfolding around us was almost hypnotic to me.

It was then the sound of distant battle cries broke my trance.

“Should we check it out?” Senna inquired.

“No, it would be best if we continued. At the rate at which the water is increasing, this is most likely a flood plain. It would be bad if we got caught in flood waters,” Enan said.

“He’s right, the faster we get to higher elevation the better, which would also mean the valley is now a no go,” Cedric said.

The water had already risen to us above our ankle which severely hindered our movements. It would be nothing but foolish to engage Cryptids like this.

It wasn’t long before we got to the foot of the slope, the water which had gotten as high as our knees now replaced with slippery moss. We were lucky to avoid areas of fast moving water as it would have swept us off our feet long before getting to higher ground.

The mountain, which started with a gentle slope, quickly became steeper, preventing us from ascending any further less we end up tumbling down the valley.

From that point, we moved along the contours of the mountainside, trying our best to keep our footing. The visibility was understandably poor, so gauging how much lower down the valley wasn’t exactly possible, but the sounds of raging water from below indicated that it wasn’t too far off.

Normally it would be a bad idea to travel in fog this thick, but Cedric assured us this would be fine.

“If we keep following the outline of the mountain and not ascend or descend, we will eventually reach the other side of the range.”

Water of water that hammered against our skin was now a soft pitter pater as the trees shed the last few drops of water from their leaves. So far, the trial had been rather manageable, although the sudden the change of pace caught us by surprise.

We trudged along the path, trying our best not to slip. It was then I spotted something at the edge of my vision, a blue light that blinked in and out of existence before I could focus on it. At the time, I assumed it to be just my eyes playing tricks on me, but after several minutes of spotting these flashes, I had no choice but to believe that something was causing the weird blimps. What else was strange no one else seemed to notice them.

“Guys, aren’t you seeing this?” I said as I gestured towards the forest.

“See what?” Senna replied, almost annoyed.

“These blue flashes. I can’t be the only one seeing them.”

“I don’t see anything,” Enan replied. “Where exactly?”

“All around us,” I said as twirled my fingers.

These flashes, which initially appeared every 30 seconds, were happening almost every five seconds now.

“Something’s not right here,” I said to the group.

“Hmm I don’t sense any mana sig…

Cedric stopped for a moment, his face tensed up, and I could see him reaching for his sword.

“How did I not notice this?” He said.

“Cedric, what’s going on?” Senna asked.

“Stealth magic that hides your mana signature. Why do cryptids like that exist here?”

With that, Senna’s face goes pale and her head swivels towards the forest as she attempted to get a glimpse of what Cedric had noticed.

Suddenly, all the blue points of light then flashed in unison before disappearing. The gathering of mana filling the void they left behind.

Multiple water jets shot in our direction. I racked my brain and reached for my weapon to at least defend myself, but the sheer speed and number of these jets. There was no way to avoid this.

“Awaken your unshakable will, Aegis,”

We were encased in a bubble of white light. The magic that had shredded trees and carved rock bounced off the barrier.

A large shield had appeared on Cedric’s arm. From what I could tell, it was one of high quality. He winced as the pressure of the attack shook the surrounding barrier.

“keep up with me,” Cedric said before running, the barrier following him.

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Our previous issue still stood: the ground was soggy and slippery and the natural inclination of the mountainside prevented us from running at full speed .

The unknown creatures chased us down, some even slamming against the barrier. Thier body was round and had long logs that allowed them to jump several meters. I could clearly see through their skin they had no organs or muscles, just bones that moved inside a mass of gelatin.

“As soon as I disable to barrier, we attack.”

The barrier then popped like a bubble, and Cedric pulled out his sword. Countless of these abominations dropped from the forest above, all horrid imitation of frogs and toads. Some even looked like the salamanders we fought yesterday.

I only had a second to get a look at them before they leaped towards us, their faces deforming into some kind of tube like shape and their bodies inflated as if filling up with something. With the three attacks aimed at senna I dashed to her front and used Sacred sky blossom Petal strike to quickly them down before they could unleash their attack.

Senna, dumbfounded by what I just did, stared at me, unable to speak. Three other cryptids rushed me from the side, their bone like claws bared.

“Pay attention,” I yelled to the girl, still dazed from my previous action.

The three attackers swiped at me with their claws in three different directions. I backed away, gaining distance from the two of them while simultaneously attacking one. The cryptid not expecting this tries to dodge, but my sword was already through its soft body, its bones the only resistance I felt.

I then turned my attention to the other two, confident I could take both of them on, but before I could get there, a flash of blue appeared to my right. Quickly I Shifted my body to the side, avoiding the water jet another cryptid had unleashed from a distance. While considering the new contender, two others were now charging from my flanks.

“Sacred sky blossom magical art, Flutter,” I broadened my vision, unsheathing my sword. I dodged the incoming attackers while attacking in one swift movement. To on lookers it would seem that my body is flickering in and out of existence, but in reality the art hides my movements while also increasing my speed, allowing me to make precise cuts while avoiding attacks. The fours cryptids slumped to the ground, unable to see my attacks. But just as quickly as they fell, more took their place.

I gritted my teeth. There were too many of them. This tempted me to use the sword strapped to my back, but before I could weigh my options, a voice shouted out.

“Get down,” Ennan shouted.

It was then he held his sword up towards the cryptids. The air that surrounded him vibrated and I could feel a large amount of mana burst from his core.

“Wind Scale Magical Art thousand sword winding serpent,”

Uncountable amount of swords appeared around him before he vanished and suddenly a gust of wind forced me onto my knees. Enan was a blur as wind attuned mana filled the surrounding forest. All I could see were countless snakes dancing throughout the branches.

“Ugh, what the hell,” Senna said, as she lay chest down on the soil.

I could hear the death cries of our attackers as they fell to the ground one by one.

It was then the raging mana came to a calm, and Enan landed in front of us. His body radiated heat, and he collapsed to one knee. He was struggling to catch his breath.

The remaining cryptids watch us hesitantly after the death of their brethren. They seemed to shrink back. The tide of battle had changed……. or so we thought.

Their bodies pulsated, and from their deformed mouths escaped a sound I could only describe as an old man laughing.

Kek

Kekek kek

Kek

Kekek

It was a weird, throaty noise, as if they were cackling.

The forest was a flood of cackling sounds as the cryptids all ran in one direction. They all collided into each other, their gelatinous bodies’ slapped and slopped together, the ungodly sounds of flesh melting and bones snapping the only thing I could hear.

“The- they’re fusing?” Cedric said in disbelief.

“Run while you can,” Enan said, his body still faltering.

Before we could even turn around another jet 10 times larger than previous shot out from the mass of gelatinous flesh.

Before it could reach us, however, the ground gave way from below us, swallowing us. Senna had parted the earth below us, allowing us to dodge the attack.

“So many close calls. What the hell are these things?” She said.

“First, I’ve seen of it,” Cedric said as he collected himself.

A loud boom shook the surrounding earth.

“This thing doesn’t give up,” Cedric Continued.

A gelatinous arm then shot through the earth grading senna by the hair. Before it pulled her up to the surface, I cut the part of her hair it had grabbed.

The pounding only got worse.

“Keep moving,” Cedric shouted.

Senna then parted all the earth ahead of us, making an underground tunnel. The cryptid above the ground was hot on our heels. It seemed to sense mana, just like us.

“We have to surface, eventually. My mana can’t keep up with this,” she said.

Senna was intermittently opening up underground tunnels for us to run through, but she also had to hold the earth up to so that we don’t get crushed, as these were not natural tunnels. This wasn’t ideal as the moment we would resurface, the cryptid would be there waiting to attack us.

With that, I took a risk.

“Senna resurface here.”

“Huh? What are you trying to do?”

“Just trust me.”

She hesitated for a moment before looking at the other two

“Either way, we don’t have any other options,” Ennan said.

“Fine, I will trust you with this.”

“On my mark,” I said, looking at the group

Using my mana sense, I tracked the cryptid as it approached. I could sense it preparing a water beam to snuff us out from underground.

“Now I shouted,”

The earth opened, and there it was: its body, unlike its smaller split up form, it looked like a man 8 feet in height, the only expiation being its bulbous head that housed only a mouth. It loomed above us, its body already swelled up, seconds away from releasing its attack.

I used Spring bloom and zoomed towards it, my sword connecting with its neck. But its skin was thick, no, it was protecting its body with mana. This cryptid was even more bizarre than the one I had fought back at the shrine. It was almost as if it had thought behind its actions.

Due to the force of the strike, the cryptid unwillingly released its attack in random direction while the force still carried us above the forest canopy.

Once we came to a stop and began tumbling back to the earth, it then aimed another attack at me.

“I’m not done with you yet,” I shouted.

“Magical art Raging thunder sakura,”

We then crashed to the ground in a stream of crimson thunderbolts.

The cryptid let out a howl of pain as its soft body splattered on the ground under it. Using its right arm, it flung me away easily. It then followed up with half charged water jet to finish me, but Cedric was already in front of me, his shield in hand.

“Aegis Reflect”

It reflected the cryptid’s attack back to it, destroying one of its arms.

Following up, senna launched countless earth spears which pierced through its body completely, pinning it in place. Without its mana skin, its body was rather soft.

It then buckled to the ground, trying to get the spears out of its body, but before it could do so, I had already charged my next attack.

“Raijin no Ichigeki,”

Its upper body, now missing, the cryptid fell to the ground with a thud and was now disintegrating into nothingness.

“Is it down?” Ennan asked, almost expecting it to get back up.

Upon seeing its body disappear, I fell on my back, letting out a loud sigh.

“hahahaha,”

Senna sat next to me an awkward laugh escaped her lips.

“You guys are fucking crazy. I might just be able to pass the trial this year.”

Cedric then got up and started walking ahead.

“I would love to stick around and celebrate, but let's get off this mountain and find a safe place to rest.”