Miserable screams of pain, roars of half-beasts, explosions of magic techniques, sorrowful cries after losing loved ones, and his own incredibly loud heartbeat were everything that Richard heard now. His daughter was crying and shaking uncontrollably in his right hand. Richard’s son was using his both hands to wipe off blood from his sister. Richard’s wife was trying to keep up with him, but she was physically weak, so he had to run slower not to lose her here.
Disgusting odor of blood, turd and vomit was attacking Richard’s nostrils, and every few steps he had to jump over a dead body of someone he knew. Even though Richard understood that it was just an illusion, his heart was in intolerable pain and he was using his full mental strength not to break down and give up.
Richard knew that even if he came up with a perfect plan of escape, there was still a high possibility of dying just because he had no power to resist any enemy wizard or even just a wild half-beast.
Richard knew that he didn’t need to be placed in top five in this trials, but he wanted to test himself to prove that he was worthy to be a part of his great family. His elders still didn’t tell him what was the truth behind his family nor what was his future, but he knew that it was a responsibility a lot more serious and heavy than anything he could imagine. His father once told him that the Carter family shoulders responsibilities that even royal family wouldn’t be able to carry out. He always wanted to find out the truth, but the only answer he got was, “Richard, the world around you is a mere puddle in a middle of an enormous continent. And you are destined to walk out of this puddle to conquer the whole continent.” He didn’t quite understand what was the meaning behind these words, but he was always training diligently not to let down his elders’ expectations.
But now, in this illusory world, he had no background of a powerful family nor personal strength to defend himself. He could only depend on his own brains and courage to finish the trial with a best result he could achieve.
As Richard has finally completely calmed himself down and started observing his surroundings, he noticed that in a middle of the chaotic battlefield was standing a white-haired middle-aged man with a sword in his hand. He understood momentarily that this person was a powerful wizard, but for some reason that man was standing still and calmly, observing the battle.
Richard quickly decided to use that man to survive. He shifted the direction he was moving in and called his wife to follow him. When Richard was a few meters away from the man, he suddenly felt a strong force lock down on him. Richard glanced back and saw a horrifying three-meter-tall blue creature with strange fins on its back jumping in his direction. He didn’t have any time to properly react so he could only throw his children in middle-aged man’s direction, push out his wife and then cross his hands at his chest to defend against the half-beast.
*BOOM* *CRACK* *CRACK*
In the next moment, Richard felt a tremendous power of half-beast’s attack as all bones in both his hands were shattered. Richard’s hands became numb and he spat out few mouthfuls of blood. He heavily fell onto the ground and his mind started shutting off.
“Mortal, your plan of using me as a shield was splendid! It’s a shame that I don’t give a single fuck about you or any other mortal in this world.” Richard barely managed to raise his head to take a look at the middle-aged man and then his face was pushed back into the mud of the ground.
“RICHARD! Senior, please let my husband go,” Richard’s wife begged and the middle-aged wizard turned his head to look at her.
“Wow. You’re actually not half-bad. Come, forget about your husband; I will take you out of this mess and make you one of my beloved concubines.” The wizard licked his lips and waved his hand. Richard wife’s clothes and skin immediately became clean and her body flew up in the wizard’s direction.
“You… you will save me?” Richard’s wife’s voice was slightly trembling and she immediately glanced at an injured Richard and her children lying on the ground, “I… I will go with you, but please save them too.”
When Richard heard his wife’s words, his heart broke and his soul felt like he just lost part of it. He was trying to get up, but his hands were now non-existent and he had almost no strength left.
“Save them? Honestly, you aren’t worth me wasting my time on saving that many people. If you want, then follow me without any conditions.” Wizard’s tone was cold and indifferent.
“Go, I will take care of children myself.” Richard mustered his all remaining power and barely stood up. His legs were shaking, hands were hanging limp and cold sweat was dripping from his forehead. Wizard’s face changed slightly when he saw Richard’s decisiveness and braveness.
“I like your determination and fearlessness. I will grant you these two pills. First one will heal all your current injuries and second one is a very special demonic medicine. If you will swallow that pill, your power will be boosted to the level of those half-beasts, but in exchange you will have to endure unbearable pain in both your body and soul. You won’t die because of this pill though; it will only continuously torture you. After a few hours you will either commit suicide because of the pain or go crazy and completely lose your mind. A lot of people who ate this pill obtained great power but eventually killed their loved ones with their own hands.” The wizard took out two pills from his magic ring and showed them to Richard. First one was white and sweet fragrance was emitting from it, while the second one was red in color. Richard was shocked when he felt immense killing intent coming from the second pill.
*BOOM*
A streak of violet lighting flashed before Richard’s eyes as he fell onto the ground once again. A second later, a loud explosion resounded throughout the whole battlefield.
When Richard finally managed to lift his head up, he saw a shocking scene before him. The wizard was holding his sword with both his hands above his head blocking an attack from a three-meters tall muscular man with body of a human and head of a lion.
A violet lighting was dancing around the lion and the middle-aged man was covered in a barely noticeable translucent snowy white aura.
“So you’re a leader of these humans, little old man?” the lion-headed half-beast said with a vicious smile on his face.
“So they really sent you this time, Kayir. My name is Bazyl and I’m here to kill you.” The middle-aged wizard’s aura suddenly changed and a tremendous power burst out of his body. The lion now understood that he underestimated his enemy and the wizard in front of him was concealing his real power before. The wizard’s sword was now shining brilliantly as it was slashed at the lion-headed half-beast.
But all of that had nothing to do with Richard. He was now trying to reach his children to protect them. His wife was lying on the ground unconscious and he was the only hope of the family to survive.
As Richard was crawling in his son’s direction he suddenly stopped. He noticed that there was a chilling killing intent emanating from nearby. He looked in the direction of the killing intent and saw two pills lying on the ground right where Bazyl was standing before. Apparently, when Kayir attacked him, Bazyl had to take his sword with both his hands so he dropped pills he was holding with his free hand.
Richard changed his direction and started slowly crawling in the direction of the battle of two powerful beings. Streaks of violet lightning and slashes filled with white energy were flying everywhere, but Richard had no fear at the moment. He understood that those pills were the only hope he had, so he couldn’t afford to ignore them.
When Richard finally reached the area where he saw two pills, he stopped moving and concentrated on trying to feel the dreadful aura of the red pill. After a few moments, he finally located the aura, but he didn’t see the pill there. As expected, pills were already buried deep in the mud because of the battle of two powerful wizards.
Richard’s both hands were severely injured so he couldn’t use them to dig out the pill, so he braced himself and started using his teeth to bite and gather dirt into his mouth. Then he had to thoroughly inspect everything with his tongue to check if the pill was already in his mouth and spit everything out if he didn’t feel the pill. Richard had to be extremely careful not to swallow red pill right now, if he did, then the result would be unpredictable. That pill was dangerous enough for a healthy person, Richard didn’t know what would happen to him if he took it in his current condition. Richard’s hope was to find the white pill first and swallow it to hastily recover himself and then search for the red one, but when he previously saw them, they were very close to each other so Richard didn’t dare to be rash in swallowing anything.
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After Richard has already gathered and spat out seven mouthfuls of dirt, he felt a sweet scent in his mouth. Richard’s eyes started glowing from joy as he spat out most of his mouth’s contents. When Richard made sure there was almost no dirt in his mouth, he resolutely swallowed the pill and focused his mind on changes of his body.
As a warm soothing feeling flowed throughout his body from his stomach, Richard felt his broken bones recovering at a noticeable rate. His mind started clearing up, strength started reappearing and he finally could slightly move his hands.
A few second later, Richard could already move both his hands freely and he started searching the ground for the red pill. Effect of the white pill was astoundingly fast and efficient, while it wasn’t anything special for a wizard, it was definitely a miracle medicine for a common mortal. By the time Richard found the red pill, his full strength was regenerated and his mind was even a little clearer and concentrated than before.
Richard immediately turned and took both his children in his hands and ran toward his wife. Even though she was ready to leave him earlier, he could understand her decision and on top of that, the first thing she asked from the wizard was his and their children’s safety. And most importantly, his duty here was to survive and ensure safety of his family, so he didn’t even hesitate to try to rescue his illusory wife. When he finally managed to wake her up, she momentarily broke out into tears and started apologizing for her betrayal. Richard didn’t have time to bother about it, so he just said he understood everything and told her to follow him.
Richard and his family was running through the battlefield again. At first, they didn’t meet any enemies nor allies; everyone on the battlefield understood that they would be obliterated by the collateral damage from the battle of two powerful wizards so they were all trying their best to stay as far away from it as they could. But after a few minutes, first half-beast appeared in Richard’s line of sight. A strange creature with four hands and a head of rat was ripping a middle-aged woman to pieces and throwing these chunks of flesh into its mouth.
Richard changed his direction in order to not attract rat-headed creature’s attention. His wife followed him closely as they ran as fast as they could while trying to avoid corpses on the ground and half-beasts eating humans.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” Richard heard his wife’s sudden scream and he turned his head to look at her. She was standing still a few meters away from Richard and her right leg was held by a strange hand, covered with gray fur, sticking out of the ground. Richard put his kids down and decisively popped the red pill into his mouth.
A terrifyingly demonic energy flowed through Richard’s body as he felt the power equal to a rank 1 wizard again. Richard felt his strength increase at least tenfold, but he obviously didn’t get any attribute affinity, so he wasn’t actually a wizard. But with a tremendous power, Richard also felt a terrible pain in each cell of his body and sharp throbbing pain in his mind. He felt like a million little demons were piercing his soul with little blades without stopping. While he could endure physical pain rather easily since he was a well-trained wizard, the pain of his soul was already driving him crazy.
Richard clenched his fists and gathered all of his willpower to calm himself down and focus on the enemy before him. The ground beneath Richard’s wife collapsed as a one-meter-tall creature appeared out of it. The creature had gray fur all over its body and a head of a mole. While it was small, it had a tremendous power in its body so Richard’s wife had no chance to break out of its grasp.
Just as the creature prepared to slash at Richard’s wife with its claws, Richard ran toward it and tried to punch it with his bare hands. The half-beast noticed the danger coming off Richard’s body, so it immediately released Richard’s wife and jumped a few meters back.
“Take children and run toward dark forest!” Richard’s wife wanted to say something, but when she looked into his eyes, she understood that there was nothing she could say. She took children and started running away.
The half-beast coldly looked at the leaving woman and a killing intent burst out of it. Richard braced himself for a fight and started moving in creature’s direction. The half-beast suddenly jumped high into the air and Richard prepared to dodge the attack and then counterattack the mole. But to Richard’s surprise, the mole missed the attack and heavily fell onto the ground behind Richard. He was ready to attack the mole after its failed attack, but then noticed that the creature has already vanished from his sight into the ground.
Richard’s heart stopped beating for a second as he understood that he wasn’t a target of the mole from the beginning. The mole attacked Richard’s wife and its killing intent was focused on her the entire time. He then remembered that moles were extremely fast underground and he rushed to try to save his family.
With his strength boosted by the demonic pill, Richard’s running speed increased as well, so he caught up to his wife in just a few seconds. He quickly took children from her and put them away from her.
Right when he was ready to fight the mole to save his wife, he saw the four-meters tall humanoid creature with a head of a bull walking in his direction. Richard’s face darkened and his eyes became serious. While he was confident in taking on a single half-beast with his current strength, he knew that he needed a miracle to stand against two of them. And on top of that, mole wasn’t even focused on him, so he had to split his attention to protect his wife.
The mole apparently felt an ally coming so it showed itself and coldly glared at Richard and his wife. The bull came close to the mole and they said a few sentences to each other in a strange mumbling language. After that, the bull focused on Richard while the mole licked its lips as it looked at Richard’s wife.
“Don’t move far away from me,” Richard said to his wife and took a fighting stance.
*MOOO*
The bull screamed and moved in Richard’s direction. At the same time, the mole was trying to evade Richard and attack Richard’s wife. As Richard didn’t have time to actually plan his movements, he jumped in the mole’s direction and threw a heavy punch at it. The mole viciously smiled and immediately slashed at Richard with its claws.
*SLASH* *BOOM*
The bull stopped moving and shocked expression appeared on its face. Contrary to its expectations, Richard didn’t evade the mole’s attack and let it injure him.
The mole’s body trembled and fell onto the ground, its head was smashed by a single attack from a mere human. The mole’s skull now had a fist-sized dent on a right side and huge amount of blood was flowing out of it. Richard managed to kill the mole in a single hit, but his condition wasn’t good either. While his strike was faster and reached the mole first, he was still heavily injured and had four deep scars on his chest.
Richard looked in the dark forest’s direction and made sure there wasn’t any half-beasts on the way, “Take children and run into the dark forest, but don’t go too deep before I’ll catch up to you,” Richard said without even taking a look at his wife. She didn’t hesitate to turn around and do as he said.
The bull was looking at Richard with a different look in its eyes now. Just a few seconds ago the bull was sure that Richard was an easy target, but now it understood that Richard was a worthy opponent and his decisions were fast and fearless. The huge half-beast was actually a little scared standing against a tiny human with a serious injury.
Richard understood that he didn’t have much time since he swallowed that demonic pill and aftermath of that would soon be evident, so he charged toward the bull without even thinking about his injury for a second.
*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*
The bull’s speed was far inferior to Richard’s, but its body was very hard, so even though Richard managed to land a few hits on the bull’s body, he didn’t inflict any serious damage to it. The bull was frustrated because of it, but he kept on swinging his fists in Richard’s direction in hope of hitting him at least once. They were in a stalemate for a few minutes and it was a great thing for Richard as it allowed his family to retreat into the dark forest.
Suddenly, Richard felt an extremely sharp pain in his mind and he lost his footings for a moment. The demonic pill’s side effects suddenly increased and the already unbearable pain became even worse. And that moment of Richard’s weakness was enough for the bull to land a solid hit on Richard’s back.
*BAM*
Richard flew through the air and heavily landed a few meters away. He spat out a few mouthfuls of blood and his entire body trembled from pain. Richard felt that a few of his ribs were now broken and it was harder for him to move. The bull used that moment and jumped into the air in an attempt to use its full strength in one attack and kill Richard instantly. Richard barely managed to evade using his all remaining powers and started running away from the fight. He delayed the bull for enough time for his family to enter the dark forest and he was in no condition to fight the bull now. His only hope was now that the bull would decide to not chase after him.
Richard ran as fast as his broken body allowed him to; even though his speed was noticeably slower than before, he was still a lot faster than the huge bull. When Richard was already a few meters away from entering the forest, he turned around to check if the bull was still behind. To Richard’s joy, the bull was nowhere to be seen, so he sighed a breath of relief. Richard entered the forest and started looking for his family.
After a few minutes, he saw his trembling wife and sleeping children hiding in a shadow of a huge tree. When Richard saw them, he finally relaxed his body and mind. Unbearable pain was pressuring Richard this whole time, so the moment when he saw that he successfully saved his family, he fell onto the ground. His wife saw it all and ran toward him. When she saw deep bloody scars on his chest and blood flowing out of his mouth, her body shivered, but she still came close to him and hugged his trembling body.
“Richard, you saved us. You escorted us to safety. Our children will be able to see the light of the day again thanks to you. They will remember you and your today’s actions for the rest of their lives. You can sleep peacefully now…” When Richard heard his wife’s words, something inside of him clicked. The pain was gone and his mind was as clear as day. For some reason Richard felt like he successfully accomplished the mission of his entire life and tranquility spread throughout his mind and body. He looked at his wife, smiled and closed his eyes.