(Author: Hello. As the titles implies, there will be blood. People will die. Some readers might be entertained. My story is my own original and this story is not all sunshine and rainbows. There are no sudden events that make the MC become OP. People die and stay dead. Limbs don't grow back. People kill out of jealousy. That's life and I plan on writing that way. Again, this chapter will contain blood. I did put a tragedy and mature tag for this story. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. I made this long as I wanted the second trial done in one blow without a cliffhanger. I know what that's like. Thanks for reading.)

Chapter 8: Not Enough Blood

As the sun set, many of the initiates burst toward the houses. Duren held Glint back and shook his head.

"Let the masses go first. We need to know what we are dealing with and the first wave suffers the most casualties," Duren warned.

Glint nodded and it did not take long for the screams to start. Half of the initiates in Duren's group had run into the house without a group or a plan. Duren felt nothing as blood suddenly appeared on the windows. One initiate tried to escape from the window and some of the initiates cried in alarm as a spirit beast that looked like a lightning had its jaws open above the escaping initiate.

Duren grinned  as he could relate to the lion's next action. The lion spirit beast closed its jaws and a sickening crunch was heard. The right arm of the initiate hung against the bottom of the window and blood started flowing. The blood dripped just like water as crimson spread on the floor. Through the window next to the entrance door, Duren observed similar fates of other initiates. One had his face clawed from the upper left of his face to the lower right, skin tore off his face and Duren was pretty sure the right eye was gone too.

Only a little over twenty of the one hundred who rushed in from their group managed to escape. The ones who entered last had little to no injury but the fates of the rest were severe. One woman was holding her arm with three inch wide claw marks extending from her shoulder to her elbow. A few others had claw marks on their arms and chest, a small stream of blood extended from their location to the door of the house. One unlucky initiate was the last to escape. His face was pale and sweat poured from his forehead and arms. He had to crawl from the door way as half of his shin of his right leg down was missing.

None of the others managed to move to the poor guy as he gasped for help. Duren only moved forward as the initiate crawled ten feet away from the door and out of danger. He noticed two of the adept disciples in red sigh and close the door before heading back to the cent house. Glint and the others thought Duren was saving the initiate.

"Thank you," the initiate gasped as Duren bent low toward him.

"What did you see inside?" Duren as he held one of the boy's arms but made no motion to lift him. "I need to know so I can help you."

The initiate believed Duren and said, "It w, was horrible. The house was nothing as it seemed. In the first room only three spirit beasts were there with the rest of the room empty. We thought at first that we had to clear the room and than proceed to the next room. So we decided to kill the spirit beasts and we managed to kill them as we ganged up on the ones we saw. When we killed on or two, the door in front of us and the two on the left and right did not open. As soon as we killed the third spirit beasts, three spirit beasts from each door suddenly appeared and attacked us as we thought we could relax. Twelve of us died before we decided to fight back. We were wrong. Oh so wrong."

"Why? There should have been over eighty of you left. A party of six could take on a rank two spirit beast no problem," Duren frowned.

"That was it!" the initiate cried. "When we were attacked we were not organized and fought randomly. Blood started flying everywhere. Their teeth bit into the arms of some initiates and tore the arms from their bodies. I could see lines of tissue and skin connecting the arms together for a good three inches before it got dismembered. We panicked as started to head for the door, but the ones in the back pushed us forward to try to escape. We had to run over other initiates who got in our way. I felt bones crack and blood spurt as I ran on unfortunate initiates who got knocked down on the floor. But I kept running man. I KEPT RUNNING. Oh gods it was horrible. I thought it was over as I tried over an arm and lost my balance with my other foot because of the blood. The pain I felt when my right foot got eaten. You don't know man! You don't know! They looked like lions, horses, and wolves. We thought the deer were the weakest but they covered themselves with wind qi and ran over us like a battering ram. One guy got blasted and the only trace of him was a foot. A bloody foot! I never saw anything more horrifying in my life."

Duren only smiled and it looked like he was lifting the initiate from the back. Duren leaned his head next to the initiate and said, "I do know what its like. My left arm blew up, but let me tell you another secret. I was once a spirit beast immortal. I was Malverok, the Seventh Thunder Beast. I ripped humans to shred. I fed on their backs until their spines were in my mouth and I relished it as I ripped it out. That was joy. That was fun. And you know something, I can't enjoy that feeling as a human. I have to thanks you. I got the information I needed. Enjoy the next life. I'll take the items from your storage bag as a souvenir of us crossing paths."

The initiate's eyes bulged as he looked abruptly at Duren. He felt fear as he looked closely into the azure eyes and saw flashes of lightning. He wanted to scream but felt his body grow cold. The numb feeling extended from the arm held by Duren to his heart and he died. Duren appeared to the initiate up to try to wake him but grabbed the storage bag and stored it in his own.

"What happened?" Glint asked as Duren appeared to sigh and dropped the initiate's arm gently on the floor. "What'd he say?"

"He's dead," Duren said as he and Glint walked away from the group to make plans. "He told me about the structure of the house and how the spirit beasts came in. It seems once a room of three spirit beasts is cleared, the doors in all directions opens and the spirit beasts from those rooms converge and attack you. This means clearing one room isn't just killing three spirit beasts. It could be as many as nine if the three rooms ahead are not cleared."

"Not good," Glint said silently. "What now?"

"We join the second wave," Duren answered.

"But we'll die?" Glint snapped.

"We won't. Spirit beasts of different natures kill the weakest prey first before attacking the threat," Duren spoke from experience. "The guy told me there are wolf, lion, horse, and a deer spirit beast. That means at least half will die with others getting injured. That leaves about five or four of the nine alive. We just need to kill three with a few more people and run out before the remaining ones die. I have a paralysis potion. I can toss behind us as we leave."

Glint was startled by Duren's ruthlessness but they both wanted to pass the trial and knew it had to be done. Alchemists usually carried potions to offset their average capabilities. Glint nodded after taking in the information and he and Duren waited for a second round of initiates in their group to head forward.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The proctor said nothing of killing all three personally. So long as he helped kill one, Duren can than sneak back and salvage the storage bags and some spirit beast parts. Moreover, even more blood would no doubt spill in the house, making more chaos to take advantage of. Duren focused qi into his golem arm and made a claw of ice with his left. He didn't want to use his wind and destruction element yet and decided to save Blightfang as a trump card. His plan was ready.

Duren frowned a little as a young man with blonde hair and an arrogant stride walked in front of the group. He rolled his eyes as he saw enough nobles in his life to knew what kind of guy this initiate was.

"My friends," the blonde started. "My name is Maximus Glazer. I am a rank five Spirit Knight. I know this may seem like a bad situation, but fear not and follow me. Together, we can kill the damned spirit beasts and head to the next trial together!"

Duren rolled his eyes as the forty others cheered and were mystified by Maximus's charisma. Glint noticed Duren's reaction and came to the same conclusion after a moment.

"We're gonna let him go in first right?" Glint asked.

"No," Duren said as he started walking to the door. "We need to move first before the mob to get credit. He and his new posse can help finish off the spirit beast that attacks us and we can hang back while they kill two more. He's probably the type that wants to be in charge. Seeing us go in first will lead him to try to take the first kill to gain the support of his followers."

"Haha," Glint laughed as he and Duren broke into a run. "This trial got a lot easier thanks to that idiot! I wonder what his face looks like right now?"

Maximus looked back and was startled as he saw a strange boy with a golem gauntlet and a commoner looking guy race to the house. There were stealing HIS moment. He was supposed to charge first as a hero. He looked back at the group and noticed them look in admiration at the two's bravery.

"Follow me to victory!" Maximus cried and the second wave of the remaining forty rushed inside. The other sixty or so were too afraid or too cautious to join and would sit back to see how this wave survived. The first wave of one hundred failed so how could forty prevail?

"As expected of a hero," Duren mocked silently as he heard Maximus shout. "Human chivalry really was the greatest tool. A spirit beast would not fall for hollow words like those. So long as he proves his worth."

Duren and Glint barged through the door and entered the house. The floors were made of black wood and blood littered the floor. Limbs, and bodies were spread apart with looks of terror frozen on the faces of the dead. As Duren expected, a dead deer spirit beast and three horse spirit beasts were dead.

The lion spirit beast he saw eat the head of the disciple was fighting against four spirit beast wolves.  The lion was missing patches of its mane, the tail was gone, and various bite and claw marks littered its body. Killing the lion would unite the wolves against the initiates so he decided to kill a wolf spirit beast. With the lion still alive, the wolf spirit beasts would ignore it and attempt to kill the initiates. This would ensure that not all the spirit beast would die as the lion spirit beast would avoid the fighting for a time.

"We'll kill one of the wolves," Duren said and Glint nodded as Duren was the one with the plan. Duren concentrated his qi into his throat. He could feel his Golden Wolf tattoo grow warm as his ice Yin qi turned to thunder qi.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Duren shouted and a shockwave blasted forward toward the spirit beasts. Only one of the wolf spirit beasts seemed to feel any pain and it turned to see what hit it. Duren laughed as he slammed his left arm, augmented by his qi, and it smashed against the wolf's head. As it was a rank two spirit beast, the wolf was only dazed and it snarled at him.

Duren licked his lips as he raked the face of the wolf with his claw of ice and Glint thought for a second that Duren would try to drink the wolf's blood. Glint used wind qi to send a storm of daggers of wind at the wolves. Glint shook his head as none of the wolves felt any pain and encased his fist with fire and performed a right hook, burning the left eye of the wolf spirit beast that Duren attacked. Glint's skin seemed to peel upon contact as the wolf's body was too strong. He saw blood appear on his knuckles and thought it was over as the wolf centered its attention on him.

"Your end is here knave!" Maximus shouted as he brushed past Duren and leapt into the air. "Fear the power of Maximus Glazer!"

Duren laughed as Maximus and his group arrived as he anticipated and let himself be pushed aside by the mob. Quickly he brought out Blightfang from his dimensional storage bag and willed it into the size of a knife. Knowing that the combines forces of three spirit beast wolfs was not enough against a mob of forty lead by a rank five Spirit Knight, Duren hastily cut antlers from the deer spirit beasts as they were the most precious.

Duren looked around and saw Glint trying to wade his way to the back of the mob toward the entrance. Duren looked around and saw three spirit beast bodies that he assumed were the first three that started the massacre. Two of the spirit beasts were snakes and he put the entire bodies into his bag. Snake spirit beast contained venom that he could use to make poisons and antidotes. The last of the spirit beasts was a lowly raccoon and had no parts he needed.

"Only the lion remains! Kill the foul beast and the room is clear!" Maximus shouted as Glint finally pushed his way out of the mob. Glint's face turned gaunt and he and Duren quickly ran outside the house. They had attacked the four spirit beast wolves and would receive credit for their deaths.

"What in the Nine Realms?" Maximus cried as the injured lion was finally killed. and he proceeded to the next room. "More of them have shown up. Everyone retreat!"

Similar reactions were heard from the initiates who entered the other two doors and only Maximus and two others managed to escape the house while the others died under the onslaught.

"Congratulations," one of the adept disciples snickered as he closed the door behind the trio. "Five of you have passed the trial. This group seems to have done poorly. The other group was more organized and only a few dozen were killed. Two of the ten rank three spirit beasts were even killed.

Maximus could only stare at them in shock and wondered who the other two were. Duren and Glint laughed as Maximus stared at them and realized he played into their hands.

"I believe that was the face you wanted to see," Duren laughed as he and Glint followed the other adept disciple to the center house.

"It was even better than I hoped," Glint agreed. "Still. That other group was able to kill the rank two spirit beasts and enter the second floor to kill three higher ranked spirit beasts. That's insane."

Duren nodded and stared back for a moment. Upon hearing the news, the remaining initiates tried entered the house, but only screams were heard and none came out.