CHAPTER 302 – TRIAL REALITIES

Keikain with a smirk at him made the ground boil and in moments hundreds of pebbles surfaced. “A bit of sport boys?” He picked up a pebble and flicked it at Tom. It bounced off his sudden rock-hard forehead.

“Ten points per hits on the skin and one if you hit stone.” Thor immediately proposed.

“And fifty if you make him bleed.” Keikain suggested.

“No,” Thor snapped. “We’re helping him train not trying to be malicious.”

“Geez… read the tone. I was joking.”

Thor stared at him flatly. “If you hadn’t spent the last couple of weeks being an arse that would have been a hell of a lot clearer.”

“I had reasons.”

“We know.” Micheal interrupted. “Now, are we happy with the rules?”

There was widespread agreement, and everyone without an assigned duty gathered around the ammunition. With so many people participating keeping up with the flood of stones was annoying and more than a couple struck him on unhardened skin to leave bruises. Each one of those was greeted with cheers from the person who threw it and curses from the others.

“Your mind’s not on the job.” Thor commented after a few minutes.

“It is,” he flinched as another stone smacked against his undefended chest. “I’m experimenting with different techniques.” He winced as a pebble struck him on the ear. Healing Tranquillity immediately healed the wound. “Unfortunately, not all of them are successful.”

Another five minutes passed in the same way, and then Harry lowered his telescope. “The situation is not as bad as I first feared.” He said in a clinical tone with the majority of his attention still on the structures below. “Most of the runes are innocuous. They’re there for structural purposes like reinforcing the stone or providing heat exchange to moderate the internal temperature. But there are two unique varieties that we need to be aware of.”

Harry then scribbled the problematic runes on the ground. “This one,” he pointed at it. “Is triggered if you approached too closely. It’s not particularly malicious as they only triple your effective weight for two minutes. That’s not enough to kill or even damage you, but it will slow you, crimp your agility and in a battle that could be deadly. It’s a nuisance rune,” Harry concluded. “And if someone gets tagged, we’re going to have to defend them because none of us can fight effectively with that type of debuff. It’s always active, with no intelligence in its triggering mechanism. There’s no fooling it. If you get within two metres of it, you will be tagged. The good news is that it applies to them too, so it’s sort of a no-go zone for both parties.”

They nodded, and Harry turned to the second rune he had scribbled. It looked like a mini sun. “This is not a nuisance rune. It’s genuinely dangerous.” He then explained all the technical details.

Michael frowned. “So to summarise this is their hidden ace. You trigger it and it summons what, for this zone at least, is an almost unbeatable fire elemental. And there’s no way to deactivate it remotely?”

“None at all once there primed.”

“And you think the summons will be above rank thirty.”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

“And the triggering range is three metres?”

Harry nodded.

“It seems,” the healer paused to find the right words. “They feel almost unfair. How is this allowed in a twenty-two ranked zone?”

“It’s because they’re a genius design. They only get so powerful because they’ve absorbed the sun’s energy for months.”

“But this is a trial. The fact they have had months to charge is a cheat. After all, we’ve only been in here for less than two days.”

“That design is also a weakness.” Harry observed excitedly. “That’s how it’s balanced. To get powerful, they need exposure to the sun, which means they won’t be a problem inside the mounds.”

“That’s an important observation,” Keikain said. “But it doesn’t change the reality. The ones on the outside are dangerous. We need to know where they are. Can you pinpoint all their location?”

Harry shrugged. “Well, I can’t see through stone, but otherwise sure.”

“Great, we can counter the rune then,” Keikain interrupted. “We’ll get a map of all their locations and then it has to be everyone’s focus to avoid them.” He was looking right at Tom when he said that. “We all need to show battlefield awareness. No blundering where we shouldn’t.”

“Me? You’re staring at me!” Tom snapped. “I’ll have you know that I’ve fought hundreds of battles with more restrictive limitations than this. I have great battlefield awareness.”

“Of course you have,” Keikain agreed. “We all have, and I don’t doubt your ability. I wasn’t singling you out to mock you, but because you’re the only one whose battle style has any level of lateral movement. None of us in the middle of a fight are going to accidentally stumble into one of these. You, on the other hand… It wasn’t about your ability just your fighting style.”

“Oh,” Tom responded, feeling slightly silly at his reaction. “You don’t have to worry. If I know where they are, I won’t get near them.”

Keikain nodded and turned to face the Elder. “Can you fly Harry to scout the area?”

The elder moved to hover next to the ritualist. “Exotic magic specialist. Can I provide alternative angles for you to scout the battlefield?” It said deliberately, with an overly formal tone like you would hear from a butler.

Tom smiled at the attempt at a joke. Not because it was particularly funny but because it was fascinating to see the chosen slowly pick up on human social norms and then test their understanding in this fashion.

Harry accepted the offer. When the chosen took off, it flew straight up until they were two hundred metres high. The elevation was carefully selected to limit the risk of attacks from the ground. Safe from most threats, they started their surveillance. They flew slowly and circled the target. Harry had his spy glass out and a map on his lap and as they flew, he annotated it.

Five minutes later they landed and Harry presented the completed map for them to memorise.

“So many,” Tom muttered when he saw the map. The dangerous runes were spread everywhere. Curiously, he looked down at the small village and aligned the map to what he was seeing. He had of course noted and then ignored as irrelevant the frequent small stone structures that just poked out of the vegetation. The monsters had been using them as springboards to bounce and bypass the thick ground layer of bushes, but apparently they served a dual purpose. They were also inscribed with the dangerous offensive runes. The bird’s-eye view Harry had got had revealed the otherwise hidden traps.

All of those partially hidden structures had to be avoided along with two sides of each of the mounds. It would restrict them, but not by that much. Forewarned about the danger, Tom was confident they could clear the entire site without triggering a single elemental.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Satisfied with their preparations, they marched down to fight the rank twenty creatures. Apart from the threat from the runes which they avoided the enemy was nothing special. Clearing the structures was tedious, but not difficult. A single flame elemental appearing would have changed everything, but with their preparation eliminating the threat the fight was too easy.

Very early on, it became apparent the bouncing balls even with their telekinesis were not strong. Tom pointedly withdrew from the front line and let the others do the killing.

“Way too easy for a mid-boss,” Everlyn said at the end of it. “Since we’ve finished here. I’ll be off and will link back at the next major threat.”

With the boss stone reward collected, they took off at a run towards their next target.

“AMBUSH!” Rahmat yelled.

Instantly, the area of effect spells that everyone had purchased were laid down. As instructed, Tom stopped and dropped his own lightning barrier to encircle them and then he launched himself sideways to avoid three of the loaka that were attacking him. He twisted his spear as he did and used his spear skills to kill one of them. Another shot towards him with some form of decay aura covering it. He teleported to the side and used Channelled Mirror Reflect on it.

The creature was not immune to its own attack, and its flesh sloughed off it as forty percent of the potency was returned to it. For their rank, the loaka had terrible vitality. Which was why the area of effect magic was so potent, but it could do nothing against the rats already in their midst.

He turned to kill the last of the three that he had dodged, but there was no need. An air blade from Toni had cut it in half. Tom glanced up and down their ranks. Only a dozen of the loaka had actually reached them, which was less than two each, and as a result they had been easily dispatched.

Interestingly enough, only about half the monsters had been killed with magic. The others had been cut out of the air with melee weapons.

It was not surprising.

The group was if nothing else battle hardened. Even someone like Toni, who had specialised in magic and was the weakest physical fighter amongst them, was competent. If she somehow ended up in a UFC cage fight with attributes reset back to Earth normal, Tom would still back her to destroy anyone close to her weight class, whether they were male or female.

It was the difference between someone who trained in martial arts versus a person who had fought for their life hundreds of times. Toni might be the worst fighter amongst them, but on Earth she would be one of the best of the best.

With immediate threats taken care of, Tom extended his senses further.

First fact was that the battle was over.

The loaka had been soundly defeated and were running.

Around the humans where they had stopped to fight, the ground crackled with magic as the area of effect spells designed to be functional even in this environment went to work. They crackled beneath the vegetation, hunting down the fleeing creatures. His Earth Sense ability in the five seconds following the attack recorded the death of over forty of the attackers with an equal number running away. The only ones surviving were those that had defensive abilities to provide protection.

He counted up the bodies. There were less than a hundred in total and they had been expecting twice that. Given the weakness of the attacking force it was no wonder they had been repelled so easily. Tom watched, amused, as the fleeing rodent like monsters collected together and charged straight at his lightning barrier. They had no idea of its existence and ran head on into it. All the leaders but one were fried in moments. The one that survived did so because its magic protected it.

The following loaka were not so stupid. They learned from what they had seen. As one, they paused to refresh their defensive skills and then pushed forward. They used different strategies. Some attempted to follow the path of the one that had already escaped probably hoping there was a hole in the ward there while others ran wide in an attempt to go around the invisible magic that had killed their companions.

None stopped.

They all kept fleeing from the dangerous humans, and none of them got close to running wide enough to bypass his ward. Every single one of them went into the magical barrier, but with their defensive skills restored the death toll of the second wave was not as extreme as the first. To his disappointment over a third of those surviving made it through.

“There’s fifteen fleeing that way.” Tom declared and pointed.

“Let them go,” Rahmat ordered. “We’re on the clock.” He took off. There course taking them away from the central area and the threat of ambushes.

They kept going and repeated the same pattern. They would pause before each battle to confirm their strategy and then clinically execute it. Tom’s recurring impression from the day was the phantom aches and pains from muscles not used to such continuous running and that was with his Healing Tranquility advantage. He didn’t want to know how everyone else was functioning.

In the evening, they were all ready to collapse immediately and pre-cooked meals were handed out. Tom was still the first to hit his bed mat and was greeted by another True Dream. He was in the body of the same Wador from earlier. Tom noted the leg sized squirrels they were fighting and recognised the zone.

The moment he did so, the dream ended with its purpose clear. The wador had progressed to the next layer, and he knew where they were.

He was woken with gentle prods to the shoulder and immediately informed them of the dream.

It caused Everlyn to grab their map her expression worried and frantic.

Tom looked confused. “Guys, what’s happening?”

“There was news overnight,” Thor told him.

Everlyn’s finger stabbed down onto zones in layer four. “I fucking knew it. Selena’s going to be here.” She pointed. “Next to the wador’s new confirmed location. Our plan was initially to meet them in the first zone of layer four. And with the wador’s location… shit… that’s even more important. But…” She shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fuck… I don’t think we can. My lord! This is terrible. We might need to let her make first contact.”

Michael studied the information and looked as concerned as Everlyn had expressed. Based on his dreams and the messages from the auction house they theoretically knew where all the players of all races were and where they were heading. “What are we looking at.” The healer mused. “Are we missing anything critical? If we go with our plan to rescue Vidja, then Selena will recruit the wador in layer four. I suspect they’ll probably migrate into her zone and she won’t have a choice. What then?” He traced the different paths available that all the various teams could take, and his face darkened. “This isn’t going to work. Selena’s squad will also certainly be the first humans positioned to make contact with the inventor in layer five or six, depending on timings. Then we’ll meet up with them later on in the sixth zone or maybe even in the seventh when we meet Phil and the giant.”

Everlyn shook her head sadly. “I can’t see any other viable alternatives.”

“We’re going to have to trust her,” Thor agreed. “Unless, we can delay the recruitment.” He looked at Tom.

“I…” The weight of all those dreams leant heavily on him. The message was absolutely clear. They, and not a they that referred exclusively to his species, it was a they in the context of all five species had to come together and create a joint strategy as soon as possible. Failure was death, and any postponement was almost as bad. “No, no delays,” he whispered. “We need to make them allies as soon as possible.”

“We can’t ignore Vidja,” Michael warned. “They’re already struggling. You can see it in the number of zones they’ve completed and after Ronalds…” The healer frowned. “It’s only going to get harder for them now.”

“No,” Keikain interrupted. “We’re being reactive. Instead of rushing to save them we can trust that Vidja’s group is elite and can take care of themselves. It’s best we stick with our original plans and link with Selena. We can’t risk her growing in strength and getting allies. Yes, we have the paper contract, but that is not enough until we can meet them face to face for Tom’s contract to take hold. We’re currently exposed. If they get stronger, if they get allies, they’ll get ideas and that disunity will be a disaster.”

“We’re not sacrificing Vidja’s team out of misplaced fear about Selena’s squad’s trustworthiness,” Thor told him.

“Us doing nothing does not equal dooming them and that fear isn’t misplaced. Selena’s squad has proven themselves to be dogs.”

“It is...”

“The fact Vidja’s team is here,” Keikain interrupted Thor loudly. “Means they’re elite and can grow stronger.”

Thor glared at Keikain. “No. You’re smarter than that. How do you think we would go without the chosen.”

“We’d be doing fine. We’ve been in this zone for a day and a half and we could beat it by ourselves. They’re speeding us up, but us finishing this is not dependent on them.”

The big man growled. “I can’t reason with this.”

“What Thor’s trying to point out,” Michael interjected. “Is yes we could do this zone, but how long would it take?”

Keikain shrugged. “Two, maybe two and bits times as long.”

“So twelve days?”

The earth mage nodded. “About that and we have sixteen.”

“You’re not that dense Keikain. Do the maths,” Michael said with a tired voice. “If they can only complete one zone per level, they won’t be able to keep pace with how fast the monsters are growing. Our two third strategy, the minimum we need to keep pace with the monster’s rising strength relies on us completing at least two zones per layer and three when the chosen are diluting our experience. Vidja’s team faces the same realities and now that they’ve lost one person, the chance of them finishing two zones per layer has dropped further. It’s a slippery slope and they’re not going to make it.”

“We’re not abandoning her,” Everlyn said quietly. “I won’t let champions of humanity die when I can save them.”

“Fine,” Keikain shrugged. “But don’t blame me if this blows up in our face.”

“Wait,” Tom interjected as his brain caught up with the conversation. “Who died… Ronald was it? Who was that?”