I was literally shoved into the proving grounds. Or in the antechamber where the examinee could stand while they made sure everything was fine. A wooden screen blocked my sight of the testing grounds ahead but I could hear people doing their thing behind it. By the looks of it, it would raise into a frame hidden into the stonework above when it was time to go.
The stupid, no, BAKA barbarians took the bleachers to cheer on literally tossing babies to the not-so-literal wolves. I hoped they didn't have me fighting wolves. I liked wolves, they were my family once. I couldn't even admire how they had bleachers adapted for centaurs, because...
I.
WAS.
SO.
FREAKING.
MAD.
Before they closed the gate behind me and started the trial, I pointed at the priestess. "You. Come here."
My mom looked like she was about to give express birth to a new sibling without the proper time to bake or conceive one. But the priestess approached with a smile.
"Yes, supplicant?" The cheeky old lady asked demurely.
"Can we talk with some privacy?" I asked in a whisper. She snapped her finger and a bubble appeared around us. I kept a meter away from her and the bubble so I wouldn't break the divine magic.
"You can speak your mind now," She said, still smiling.
"You know who I am, right?"
Dumb question. She got smilier. "Of course. You are Snowdrop, the centaur."
I sucked in a deep breath. "You know who I was, right? Before I became Snowdrop."
"Queltphion told us," she answered, keeping her cards to herself.
I giggled to calm my nerves. "Can we get to the part where we stop dancing around with words and you explain to me why you had to single me out to take the trial?"
With her undying shit-eating grin, she sat down, tucking all four legs underneath herself, and hugged me. "Of course I can. You don't need to be on the defensive. Let me explain, my little prancing pony."
"I hope my random disability isn't dwarfism this time," I sighed. "Nevermind, go on."
"Good. Wait a moment," she shuddered and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. When she looked at me again, it was a detached and expressionless face.
Then she spoke with a male voice, "I, Queltphion, wish for all creatures of these plains to take the trials at the start of their lives. I want to bless the warriors so they achieve great feats in battle. That's hard as very few wish to take upon the priesthood. I need the tribes to come here for their trials.
"However, we know your feats in previous lives are greater than any a creature of these plains can ever dream to accomplish. That doesn't deny the fact you are a creature born of these plains.
"I wish to reward you for your achievements, but... the political landscape of the pantheon is turbulent. If I grant you a reward after you are back to the System, there are some unsavory peers that will take notice. And Rabhorktaar has an outstanding reward for you for your help with the demon hordes on the other side of the gauntlet. A selfless feat worthy of a true [Hero]."
He paused to let me absorb what he just said - and more importantly, left unsaid - then continued.
"The trials of battle are your birthright, Snowdrop. Who you were in previous lives changes nothing. But we all know that if we wait until your tribe comes back here, it will be too late. Once the system triggers for you, you will grow beyond the trials effortlessly. This is your only shot at it. However, I won't force you to take the trials."
The priestess shuddered again and her mischievous mien returned. "That's what the Lord of War wishes. He kept me aware of what transpired and more." She caressed my hair and mane. "So soft..."
I rested my head against her stola. "I'll do it," I decided and communicated in a whisper.
She chuckled, "Fight well, little filly."
Afeter a long moment, the old priestess stood up and clopped out, closing the trial gates behind me. If the God of Balance thinks I should take the trial, why would this mere mortal disagree?
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I sucked in a deep breath, filling my four lungs to full capacity. My hearts pumped with excitement. They raised the wooden screen blocking my sight of the trials. A series of obstacles rotated and swiveled in front of me. It was an obstacle course, like Ninja Warrior but the medieval edition. Here and there, some padded targets stod within reach of the supplicant but guarded by more obstacles. Blunt dowels sprouted from the walls and rotated along slits and I could also see some pit traps among places where the dirt was raked to hide other traps.
One would need agility, strength, and resilience as some targets would be almost impossible to hit without getting hit back. It all seemed mechanical and I could hear pulleys and gears turning underneath the arena.
I dug into the packed dirt with my front hoof. A few jumps to limber up but the centaurs were already booing because of the delay to talk. With my Skills locked, I could only rely on muscle memory that wasn't suited for a six-limbed body. But no more hesitation. It was go time!
I trotted forward and picked up a rock along the entrance. Two dowels rotated toward me and I skipped up, tucking my legs close to my body and leaning backward with my torso. That's when I found I had a huge advantage in this obstacle course.
Everything was sized for an adolescent creature. Moreover, It was sized for an adolescent centaur because they didn't have time to change the obstacles, only clean it up and fix what broke down. I wasn't supposed to skip this first set of dowels by passing between them. No time to waste, though.
I bucked up my hips and rotated over my front legs, throwing my left hand on the first obstacle. I had an advantage but also a disadvantage. My reach was ridiculously short. Once I punched it, the obstacle sunk back and a bell rang up. The centaurs cheered.
I felt something approaching and ducked. My life as a blind Eleon trained me to rely less on sight. An obstacle shot where my head was and I moved back and around, rotating to focus on the next obstacle.
I jumped over a trap door and skipped to the side, to avoid a rising set of dulled spikes that shot out of the loose raked dirt. Too obvious. The next target was one of those where you would be hit by the side obstacles once you struck it. I spun my arm and tossed the rock at the target. It struck true and the bell rang.
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More cheers. The excitement contaminated me.
The third target was behind some moving platforms mounted on a pair of spinning totems. Several parts could rotate in any direction and the platforms themselves could overlap along with other obstacles. A set of six platforms in different heights separated the ground from the target about five meters up. I watched as they went around but had to move when the floor buckled and threatened to opened up. Another trap door, to stop people from wasting too much time. To avoid it, I had to jump on the first platform. Then the second and back to the third that rotated above on the same totem as the first. To make things easier, I named the two totems odd and even and numbered the platforms according to height.
Behind and below the totem poles, there were only pits with straw at the bottom. Falling into one would disqualify me but I wouldn't die, it would just hurt a lot. Worse, waiting until the trap door opened made me start on the platforms at the wrong alignment. To recover lost time, I jumped for the fourth one, holding on to it with both arms and letting my lower body hang down. It swung ahead with the momentum and was too heavy for me to hold. But I just needed to wait for the third platform on the first totem to come around.
I kicked the even totem pole and forced myself to swing back. Then I kicked the third platform and pushed myself up on the fourth with my hands, tucking my upper legs close to my body and sailing over the fourth I was hanging from. I scraped my knees and belly on the wood badly. Then I rolled to the side and tucked my rear legs in. This way I'd skipped the second and third platforms but missed the fifth. I saw it move away with the corner of my eye.
I heard something click and the totem section between the fourth and sixth platforms changed directions. The dowel were coming for me, to knock me down. I followed my instincts and looked down. I saw some gnolls in priestly robes moving levers down in the pits. So they could mess with the obstacles mid-trial. They were probably the ones that tried to spring a trapdoor on me. Made sense to have people operating things as it was easier than automate but it meant they could screw me up.
"Where is the Balance in cheating like this, Queltphion?" I asked nobody.
The dowel came very fast behind the sixth platform. Worse, they would reach me on the fourth at the same time, makign a dowel sandwich impossible to jump around. The space between platforms wasn't intended for a creature to stand in it. With the dowel crossing in the middle, not even a child like me could pull it off. I moved to the edge of my platform and watched the sixth and last platform. The odd totem had slowed down, delaying the return of the fifth slab of wood.
Challenge accepted!
The dowel came along from the same side as the sixth platform but faster than it. I timed it and jumped off my platform, taking the hit on my horse chest and wrapping my front legs above the dowel. It pushed me forward in an unstable position. To counterbalance, I grabbed the wooden rod on reverse, as if I intended to hold it down against the crook of my knees while pushing it up with my hands.
The centaurs 'oofed' along with the air leaving my lower set of lungs.
The rod took me away from the sixth platform as it was faster. My hindquarters dangled. I felt an urge to kick and find purchase on something but I've stayed long enough in the shape of a bird to know that, when airborne, legs are to be kept tucked in at all times. My tail, however, fluttered wildly. The fourth platform came back behind me as it was in the other direction. The odd totem ground to a halt as the hyena-faced guys down there pulled the brakes on it.
Assholes.
I pulled my butt forward then tensed the muscles of my horse back. Pull forth and push back again. Get momentum. We approached the sixth platform from behind and I threw my body up, pushing against the rod. That gave my light body the height necessary to sail over the platform and land on my back over it as the speeding dowel sailed between us.
The crowd cheered. Too bad my [Diva] perks were blocked. I could use some HP regeneration right now. My back hurt. From all these antics, I had quite the collection of bruises. My front knees were bleeding from where I'd scraped them earlier. Horse shins are too delicate.
I made a show of throwing a Popeye spinning punch on the third target. The crowd went wild.
The gong rang and the odd totem came back to life as the gnolls spun it to align the platforms into a staircase leading to the next section. I jumped and climbed down.
Before I left the first platform into the dirt patch ahead, I seized a dowel from the odd totem and pulled it out. The whole thing was a giant wooden block assembly. The pole came out easily. I gave it a swing to find its center of mass and readied it as a baby centaur-sized great club. Then I jumped on the dirt.
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The next three obstacles got me even more bruises and I almost lost my improvised weapon. It was crucial to give me the extra reach I needed to hit the targets. But I could see the back wall of the proving grounds and the gate that led to a staircase and into the bleachers where my tribe awaited. I moved forward.
The gate was closed and the ground was packed dirt stained with dried blood. By the smell, some of it was recent. The small alcoves with wooden doors were a dead giveaway. A rope and pulley set attached to the doors allowed them to open remotely. A detailed scan of the grounds showed some fine strands of fur scattered in the dirt. I knew what was the last obstacle. An end fitting for the God of War.
"Let them out!" I shouted, defiant. "Let's end this!"
The centaurs roared their approval of my foolish bravery.
The ropes went taut and the pulleys squealed. The doors went up on their grooves and eight al-Mi'raj came out. It wasn't a fair fight even for an adolescent centaur. And I was still a baby in the eyes of my people.
"Snowdrop!" My mom shouted in despair, loud enough to be heard over the now-muted crowd. They all knew the odds. And let's be honest, that catchphrase from the Hunger Games was a big lie.
The al-Mi'raj were far from just rabbits with horns. They were monsters with the shape of rabbits. Very little of the demure demeanor of the docile lagomorphs remained. They could pretend to be bunnies to attract predators to a trap but that was it. Monsters with a sharp bite and a vicious spiral unicorn horn. For some reason comparing these monsters to a noble unicorn pissed me off.
But I knew their attack pattern. They would frolic around until I got within optimal distance, then do a jump-charge to gore me with their horns. Once they got close, they would skip around me and bite. All I needed to do was bait them into misreading the distance. All eight of them.
I moved to the side, getting closer to the leftmost al-Mi'raj and shifting the distance to the others in my favor. At least they weren't the type to rush and attack immediately. They would bait me as it was their modus operandi.
It skipped like a careless rabbit but I knew it was keeping a bloodshot eye on me, measuring the distance. I took my pole and held it in front of me. Once I felt I was close to the striking distance, I swung it and readied to invert the movement to swing it back.
The movement of the wooden weapon was enough to trigger the monster-bunny to skip around to align itself and jump to strike with the horn. I pushed myself to the side against the pole, forcing it to accelerate back to counterbalance my momentum. It was awkward and would put me off-balance if I was a bipedal creature. But as a centaur, I could coordinate my four legs to keep me standing up.
The al-Mi'raj was slammed on the side of its head by the pole, and its cranium crunched against the wood. I heard the chieftain bellowing a war cry with the full might of his four oversized lungs. I felt a surge of power wash over me and my improvised giant club became lighter on my arms. He'd used a leadership Perk and I had no intention to ask if it was legal. Payback for the meddling hyena-folk.
I looked at the monster's body with a strange feeling. It didn't disappear into my item box. Shaking it off, I shouldered the dowel and picked the carcasss up. Then I tossed it against the next monster. Monsters are unnatural. They have no noticeable aversion to cannibalism like most other creatures. The carcass attracted the attention of three monsters that considered me an insufficient threat to keep their guard up and skip a free meal.
They jumped on the corpse and started to greedily eat. The four others on the other side of the exit gate were considering joining in but the three started to fight among themselves for the food. That's when they were bowled over by the thrown dowel.
Sharing the body shape with rabbits meant they also shared the weakness. Al-Mi'raj bones were too fragile. The wooden pole crushed them against the wall. They didn't die but I quickly reached the trio and finished them by grabbing the horns and jerking to the side. Their tiny neckbones snapped easily with the Strength buff from the chieftain. I got some blood splatters on me but I ignored them.
I recovered my weapon and tossed the least-mangled carcass at the other four. They didn't fall for it as they've witnessed what I've done to their fellow monsters. Now I was a threat big enough to be treated seriously.
That's why I pulled up one of the doors from the simple sliding grooves and tossed on the closest one of them. I missed but it aggro'ed the monster. The al-Mi'raj came running and jumped. I timed it and swung my great club, scoring a bloody homerun as the tiny critter splattered against the wood and then became a stain on the wall.
I shouted at them. The other three came running. I swatted another from the air but the other two hit my horse chest, carving deep gashes and staining my pristine white fur with more blood, this time my own.
They tried to bite me but I bucked up and stomped on one, got bit by the other on the leg, then stamped the last one with the wooden pole as a pile driver. I raised my clenched fist!
"Victory!"