Aric reappeared several feet to the left just as the axe cleaved through the air where he had stood moments before. The impact sent a tremor through the ground, and a cloud of dust and debris erupted in its wake. His vision blurred, dizziness threatening to overwhelm him as the sudden disorientation from the teleportation took hold.
'I can’t warp any farther,' he thought, staggering as the ground shuddered beneath him. 'The mana cost is too high, and the strain on my body is brutal. I’m barely holding it together—feels like the world’s spinning from the sensory overload.'
The titan's roar echoed through the chamber, deafening and filled with rage. Another swing. The shockwave hit like a battering ram, knocking Aric off balance. He crashed hard, knees hitting the stone floor with a jarring thud, the force momentarily driving the breath from his lungs. But there was no time for weakness. He pushed himself up, muscles screaming in protest, and moved—always moving. The titan’s next strike was already looming.
'Am I still in the 2nd Gate?' His mind reeled as he dodged a massive fist slamming down beside him, the ground cracking under the weight. 'Or did I cross into the 3rd without realizing it after fighting those other versions of myself?' He darted behind a jagged pillar for cover, heart pounding in his chest.
'If this is still the 2nd Gate… there's no way. The difficulty’s way too high.'
His eyes flicked around the arena, scanning for any opening, any possible advantage. His breaths came fast and shallow, every muscle tense with exhaustion. He couldn’t take on the titan head-to-head. That much was clear. It was too massive, too strong. One wrong move, and he’d be flattened.
'I need to outthink it…' He focused on the beast’s movements, searching for a pattern, a rhythm in its relentless onslaught. There had to be a way to exploit its size, its power. Something. Anything.
The titan let out another thunderous roar, its axe crashing down with terrifying force. Aric blinked again, teleporting just out of range, but the shockwaves from the attack were getting harder to avoid. The air around him seemed to vibrate with the creature’s raw energy, distorting reality itself.
“I can’t keep dodging forever...” Aric muttered under his breath, gritting his teeth as he felt the strain of the spatial magic take its toll. Every teleportation drained him, burned through his reserves of mana faster than he could replenish. The thread of mana connected to his heart thinned dangerously, the heat building in his chest with each surge.
The titan swung again, and Aric barely had time to react, blinking out of the way just as the axe carved through the stone floor, sending a shower of debris into the air. He landed in a crouch, his breathing labored, his body screaming in protest.
He needed a plan. Fast.
Aric’s hand shot out, tracing a sigil in mid-air. The symbol flared to life, and the ground beneath the titan’s feet erupted, sending jagged stone spears shooting up toward its legs. The titan staggered, momentarily off balance as the stone pierced its limbs, but its glowing runes flared in response. The spears crumbled to dust as the chaotic energy coursing through the titan’s body overwhelmed the magic.
“Damn it...” Aric cursed under his breath. The titan was more adaptive than he had anticipated. It wasn’t just brute strength—it could counter his magic.
The titan roared, raising its massive axe for another devastating strike. The ground trembled as the blade gleamed in the dim light, ready to tear through anything in its path. Aric’s thoughts raced, heart pounding in his chest. He had to use every ounce of power he had left—sigils, spatial magic, the raw flow of mana still coursing through his veins. But there was one problem.
'Why can't I use a sword?' Every time he tried to pick one up from the shattered statues littering the arena, it crumbled to dust in his hands, as if rejecting him. It was as though the arena itself was denying him the choice.
'So, I have to win this with just my fists?'
His pulse quickened, the thread of mana flickering dangerously, almost at its breaking point. His muscles screamed in protest, but he couldn’t afford hesitation now. He had to push further—past the exhaustion, past the pain.
The titan’s axe came down with a deafening crash, splitting the earth beneath it. In an instant, Aric teleported again, the world around him blurring as he reappeared directly behind the hulking creature. His vision wavered for a moment, the strain of another warp hitting him like a tidal wave of nausea, but he held on.
His hand shot forward, fingers moving with precision, tracing the lines of a sigil he had only recently mastered. The air shimmered as mana pulsed from his fingertips, weaving into the intricate design. Space itself seemed to ripple, bending under his will.
'This has to work,' he thought, feeling the raw energy hum against his skin. The titan was powerful, but it was slow, lumbering. Aric needed to turn that against it, to manipulate the very battlefield to his advantage.
The sigil ignited with a blinding surge of energy, flooding the arena with an intense, searing light. In an instant, the space around the titan twisted unnaturally, its massive form contorting as though reality itself was bending under Aric’s will. But the effect was fleeting—Aric's mana reserves were too strained to maintain the distortion, let alone fully trap or defeat the creature. It was a brief disruption, not a victory, and Aric knew it.
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In a flash, he drove his fist into the titan’s back, infusing the punch with the raw mana that flowed through his veins. The impact sent a shockwave through the titan’s body, and for a brief moment, its runes flickered, the chaotic energy within it destabilizing.
But it wasn’t enough.
The titan turned, its glowing eyes locking onto Aric. With a speed that defied its massive size, it swung its axe in a wide arc, catching Aric off guard. He tried to teleport, but the strain was too much. His body faltered, and the axe caught him across the shoulder, sending him crashing into the ground with a sickening thud.
Pain exploded through Aric’s body, and he gasped for breath, his vision swimming. Blood poured from the gash on his shoulder, and his limbs felt heavy, unresponsive.
"Not... yet..." Aric growled through clenched teeth, forcing himself to his feet. His legs wobbled, his vision blurred, but he wasn’t done. Not yet.
The titan loomed above him, its axe raised for the final blow. But Aric wasn’t going to give up that easily. He focused, pulling every last ounce of mana he could muster into the thread connected to his heart. The heat in his chest flared, burning him from the inside, but he didn’t care.
As the titan brought its axe down, Aric blinked—teleporting not away, but up. In a flash, he appeared directly above the titan’s head, his hand already moving to trace the final sigil.
“End this.”
With a roar, he slammed his hand down, driving the sigil directly into the titan’s skull. The symbol flared to life, and the chaotic energy within the titan surged, uncontrollable. The runes on its body flickered, then shattered, the creature’s form destabilizing as the raw mana erupted from within.
The titan let out one final, deafening roar before its body disintegrated into a cloud of dust, its massive form collapsing into nothingness.
Aric landed hard, his body shaking with exhaustion. Blood dripped from nearly every part of this body, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. His heart still hummed with the faint pulse of mana, but it was weak, fragile.
He had won.
But just barely.
"That was... too close." Aric's voice barely escaped his lips as he lay on the cold, unforgiving floor. The room had fallen into an eerie silence, though the air still thrummed faintly with the remnants of the titan’s immense power.
For a brief moment, he let the weight of his victory sink in, but the satisfaction was fleeting. He knew this was only a reprieve—another trial awaited, and he wasn't sure how much more he could endure.
But he would. He had no choice.
"Just a bit of rest... I need to recover my mana, let my body regenerate," he thought, feeling the exhaustion crash over him in waves. His heart still pounded in his chest, adrenaline ebbing slowly, and before he could muster another thought, darkness claimed him as he slipped into unconsciousness, overwhelmed by the strain, exhaustion, and pain.
The cold floor seemed to drain what little warmth remained in Aric’s body as he lay there, motionless, his mind slipping further into the void of unconsciousness. The darkness was a strange comfort—a respite from the constant struggle, a brief escape from the pain gnawing at his muscles and the dull throb in his head.
In the silence, the pulse of mana within him slowed, shifting into a steady rhythm. It wasn’t enough to fully heal him, but it began to mend the worst of his injuries. Bruises faded, and the deep ache in his bones eased. But the weariness—born not just of battle, but of something deeper—remained, heavy and unforgiving.
Time passed in a haze. Aric drifted between the realms of consciousness and oblivion, aware only of his own shallow breathing and the distant hum of the mana slowly weaving through his veins.
Then, something stirred in the air. A faint ripple, barely perceptible, yet enough to pull him from the edge of unconsciousness. His eyes fluttered open, hazy and unfocused. There was a shift—an energy, subtle but growing, like the calm before a storm.
Aric groaned as he forced himself upright, his limbs trembling from the exertion. There was no new threat—just the cold, empty chamber, silent now that the third trial had ended. The oppressive weight of the titan’s presence had vanished, leaving only the distant memory of its crushing blows and overwhelming power.
He leaned against the rough stone wall, chest heaving as his body fought to recover. The stillness of the room was a stark contrast to the chaos he'd just endured. For the first time since entering the trial, there was no looming danger, no colossal enemy waiting to strike.
“It’s… finally over,” he whispered, a mixture of disbelief and relief washing over him.
His fingers twitched instinctively, tracing the lines of a sigil in the air, though he had no mana left to fuel it, nor the capability to draw any from the surroundings. The memory of his battle still burned in his mind—the teleportations, the sigils, the way he’d bent space itself. It hadn’t been perfect. Far from it. But he’d done it. Somehow, he had pushed past his limits, wielded magic he barely understood, and survived.
The faint afterimages of his warping movements still etched into his mind. The toll it had taken on his body was immense. His muscles ached, his head pounded from the sensory overload, his mana reserves were dangerously low, and his heart was very weak. But he had done it.
Aric exhaled slowly, feeling the faint stirrings of his mana returning as his body worked to regenerate. It was a slow, grueling process, but he could already sense the flow of energy stabilizing within him. The sigils he had used during the fight, ones he hadn’t fully mastered before, had worked. Not perfectly, but enough to give him an edge against a foe like the titan.
"I’m getting stronger," he muttered, more to himself than anyone. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, though the weight of exhaustion quickly crushed it.
But with that realization came a sobering thought: the power he was tapping into was dangerous. He had been on the brink more than once during the fight. If his calculations had been off by even a fraction, the consequences would’ve been deadly.
'There’s still so much I don’t know,' he mused, staring up at the ceiling. 'I’m barely scratching the surface of what’s possible with this magic, and it’s already threatening to consume me.'
He let out a tired chuckle, shaking his head.
"One step at a time, Aric."
The road ahead was still long. But for now, just for this fleeting moment, he allowed himself the luxury of rest. His body would heal, his mana would return, and when the time came, he would be ready.
Or at least, he hoped he would be.
...