I hiss in pain as the last of my wounds heal up quickly.

Looking over to where my punch had thrown Isabelle, I doubt that she is out of the fight. I stand up slowly, unsure what to do next.

“[Take Your Time]” I cast, watching the world slow down around me and buying the time I need to think of a plan.

I doubt that I can take Isabelle down by myself in a head on fight. From what little I have seen of her during our fights, her physical enhancement powers are more powerful than mine, which means that I want to use my brain to make it out of this fight alive.

The blue window had said that we would receive our rewards and be sent home in an hour, maybe I can play a little game of cat and mouse? Wait out the time.

I do love Tom and Jerry.

Taking a deep breath, I examine the circulatory system of Psi in my body.

I grab the Psi flowing around my Root Chakra. Using my experience from my Defense of The Earth spell and a large amount of guesswork, I twist the flow of Psi into a spell,

A small breath of surprise escapes my mouth, as the earth below me opens up and swallows me.

I keep falling through the floor as the earth gives way before me. Then there is no more earth and I fall onto hard ground.

I push myself up and pause at the complete darkness that surrounds me.

My imagination takes over me for a moment as I imagine all of the creatures that could be hiding from me in this engulfing darkness.

Maybe I can meet one! I’ve always wanted to meet something like the Slender-man. Terrifying creatures have always been interesting to me, except clowns.

I hate clowns.

A booming sound from above me reminds me that a superhuman Beta Tester is looking for me to kill me right now. Shaking my head, I focus in on my situation.

First thing I need is some light. I’d rather not walk around down here without being able to see where I am going.

At that thought, my gloves begin to glow with a soft light, illuminating my surroundings.

Huh, useful.

I look down to see me standing on top of subway tracks.

I don’t hear any electricity, which hopefully means that they aren’t active.

Isabelle probably doesn’t have a way to track me, but you can never be too careful- actually, you can, but that is beside the point.

I don’t want to be too close to her if she does somehow find me.

I look first right, then left, trying to decide which direction I should walk. On a whim, I choose left.

Maybe I will meet the Slenderman.

You never know, this is a weird world after all, full of strange creatures.

I walk for a while, waiting for something to happen. When nothing does, I start to feel a little bored.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that nothing is actively trying to kill me at the moment.

It’s just that, over the past week, there has always been something going on, something I need to worry about.

Now I’m just walking with no real destination in mind, in complete silence.

I start humming softly, mostly to keep silence from closing in on me. “I’ve been working as a beta tester all the livelong day.”

I wonder where Hans went when I almost killed him. It looked like he disintegrated into dust, but I’m pretty sure a punch to the throat doesn’t cause that.

“I’ve been working as a Beta Tester, just to pass the time away.” My voice echoes surprising far in the silence.

This whole thing is strange, why would the gods make us work together to stop a threat, only to turn us against each other in the end?

“Can’t you hear the spiders a-killin’, wake ya up so early in the morn. Can’t you hear the-” I stop mid-hum. Listening hard, I wait to hear what I’d thought I’d heard again.

A creature turns around the bend, stopping as it sees me.

Black, scaled skin covers the humanoid creature, which is around my height. It wears a curved sword at its waist and furs for clothing.

We both take a moment to take each other in, Its cat-like eyes studying me carefully.

Its hand moves to rest on its sword, but it doesn’t draw it.

“Hello, I haven’t seen anything like you before.” I say cheerfully. “I wonder what we would call you? A lizardman maybe?”

The creature pauses, confused by my prattling on.

“Lizardman is a little generic tho, and you don’t actually look much like a lizard aside from the scales.” I pause frowning, “Oh well, I’m sure that some culture out there has you in their myths, with a proper name.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“We call ourselves the Ki’Sar.” A soft voice slithers out from the creature, making it impossible to tell if it is male, female or… neither? You can never tell with alien races.

“Ah, well, we call ourselves Humans. It is a pleasure to meet your race.” I make a small curtsy, pretending I have a skirt.

Its hand relaxes on its sword. “How are you addressed Human? I am Kai’Lenal of the Intekai tribe.”

“My name is Elena Trudeau. You can call me Elena.” I say, smiling at it.

I start walking towards Kai’Lenal and his hand tightens around his sword.

I raise an eyebrow, but keep walking, aiming to get past the creature.

His sword is drawn in warning, but I keep walking.

“You wouldn’t happen to know of a Slenderman, would you?” I say, walking just slightly outside of his sword range.

“A slender man?” he asks.

“Guess not then. It isn’t that important anyway.” I respond casually.

I am about to completely pass him when a thought occurs to me,

“You aren’t part of the ‘infestation’ that we were hunting, are you?” I ask.

“No.” Kai’Lenal responds. “I hunt them just as your kind does.”

“Then what are you doing here?” I turn my whole body towards him, my curiosity forcing me to stop walking.

“Creatures from other worlds now roam this world with them, come the Chat’Kai, the new warriors. I am a Chat’Kai.” Seeming to decide that I’m not a threat, the lizardman sheathes his sword.

I appreciate a cryptic sentence as much as anyone, but I would like it if the lizardman could be a little more specific. “What is a Chat’Kai exactly?”

Kai’Lenal studies me, his face unreadable “A Chat’Kai is an unleveled warrior. Only he can travel to the Beta Worlds.” Seeing me open my mouth to ask another question, he continues. “The Chat’Kai protect those who cannot protect themselves. What he lacks in levels he makes up for with experience.”

“How generous of you.” I say, a question in my tone.

“There are rewards for the Chat’Kai.” He says, not elaborating.

I think on his words for a moment, then shrug, “Well, thanks for the information, I guess. I hope that I meet another Chat’Kai in the future, I can tell that behind that tough exterior your all big softies.” I blow him a kiss and continue walking.

After a while, I hear his soft footsteps as he continues his own journey.

Or so I thought.

His footsteps never leave my hearing as the lizardman follows me from a discrete distance.

I don’t really care what he does, so I ignore him and continue on my way.

I pause as a strange feeling covers me, my psi shivering from an outside source. The outside force seems to focus in on me.

“Hey, um, Kai’lenal, you aren’t using any kind of magic on me right now are you?” I ask as each step forward slowly becomes harder and hard.

“I am n-” I hear the start of his sentence as everything becomes dark.

{Perseverance}

I open my eyes to a black scaly face leaning over me, only slightly blocked by a blue window that is begging for my attention.

You have been affected by the spell [Sleep]. Your class’s passive has overcome this spell.

“Are you alright?” Kai’Lenal asks, his body hovering protectively over me.

“If you plan on casting magic on me, next time, make sure that I have a pillow to land on.” I groan, rubbing my head.

“I did not cast any magic on you Beta Tester.” The Lizardman says, tilting his head as he looks at me.

I frown, Isabelle didn’t show any signs of having this kind of magic when I fought her. And why would she wait so long to use it, if she did have it? I push myself off of the ground as the bump on my head heals itself.

“Did someone aim a spell at you and miss?” I ask, not really believing that explanation myself, the spell had locked onto my psi specifically.

That thought gives me an idea, I immediately get into a meditative pose, and “look” at my psi.

The spell had targeted me through my psi, so if I can hide my psi, then I can hide myself. I don’t want them, whoever they are, to just keep putting me to sleep. One bump on my head is enough.

I watch, my psi for a few moments, trying to decide how to do this. The psi flows through my body circulating in each of my chakras, before continuing on its path through my body.

As the psi reaches the top of my head and my white chakra, I notice a small portion of it seperate from my body through the chakra.

The crown chakra, our connection with god. Stopping that psi from leaving me sounds like a bad idea, considering my close relationship with all of these new gods. There is no saying what cutting off that connection could do to the power that Isis gave me, for all I know, it could kill me.

I notice idly that my physical body frowns.

I take a moment to myself considering my options, then I dive into my crown chakra, exploring every part of it, watching as the psi travels through it. Then I make gentle changes to the psi, twisting it slightly, then seeing what happens. Some shapes cause slight pain and I hurriedly back off from those, not wanting to cause any kind of permanent damage.

I think for a moment, my curiosity wanting to get the better of me. When I had sped up the psi in blue chakra, I had increased my vision to an unbelievable point. What would happen if I did the same thing with my crown chakra?

This doesn’t help me with my problem regarding sleep spells… but i’m curious.

I slowly start to ramp up the speed of the psi in my crown chakra. At first, nothing happens, then-

I open my eyes to see the same sycamore tree that I had seen all those days ago in the hospital.

“This is a surprise.” A soft voice says from behind me.

I turn around to see a beautiful woman sitting majestically on a rock. She smiles at me, making me feel a sense of peace. Her crown with two Kites in it looks the same as it had.

“I was not expecting to see you until after your trial. But pleasant surprises are always welcome.” She motions for me to sit.

I look behind me to see a small chair. I sit with a sigh.

“So what brings you here, my paladin?” Isis asks, folding her hands in her lap.

“Someone detected me through my psi, so I was experimenting on ways to stop it.” I say, leaning the chair on its back two pegs.

“Oh? I thought that your instructor had given you that handy little book with all those spells in it.” She says, tilting her head questioningly.

I smile guiltily, I had forgotten the book in my haste. It was because of that bump on my head, definitely.

Isis laughs at my expression, then stands up. She walks to me and puts her finger to my forehead.

Knowledge fills me on how to turn the psi that comes out of my crown… invisible? I guess that is the word for it.

“My gift to you for figuring out how to meet me.” She smiles. “But please don’t interrupt me too often, I have things to do.” After saying that, she flicks me in the head.

I open my eyes to a worried Kai’Lenar.

“That was an interesting experience.” I say with a smile.

You have manipulated your crown chakra into the right shapes to unlock the spell [Speak With God]