"Are you morons done?" Came my girlfriend's slightly shaken but still acid voice. She'd intercepted all those rocks, shifting them away from us, and had used plenty of power doing it, so she wasn't in the best mood. "Because you just blew up a MOUNTAIN and there's no way everyone in this damned trial didn't notice it. So we need to leave before hordes of them show up to kill us all."

I groaned, stumbling forward. My whole body had cracked under that attack, but the healing burst I'd used was mending me way too slowly. It wasn't made for a magma body. I let Belial drop, and then almost fell over as I realized what a terrible fucking idea that had been.

My arm was shattered, my shoulder blade and collar bone were cracked, and every rib on the left side of my body was fractured. Not to mention my hip was broken, my leg had been snapped and I was just generally wrecked on my left side. Forget a train, I felt like I got hip checked by a collapsing star. Callie appeared next to me, catching me under my good arm.

Abel whistled. "Damn kid. You look rough. Kudos for keeping it together enough to stay in the temple at all. You going to be alright?"

Grunting, I tried to nod, then realized it was probably going to kill me to move my neck that much, so I just gave him a thumbs up with my free hand. "Yes. You bastard. Callie's right though, we better get out of here. It'll take hours for my bones to heal, and I don't want us to get caught."

I wasn't even sure how the hell heal burst was working. I was a soul fragment right now. The Ruined Soul Temple was...weird. I looked longingly toward the flag, but Callie just shook her head. "Don't even think about it. I think we need to miss this one. We don't even know when the round will start anyway, or how long until the one after. Maybe taking a few hours to rest will be a good choice."

"I know." I sighed as she helped me through the trees, away from the site of our little exchange. "Sorry I got us mixed up in that, but I really think having Abel on our side will make a huge difference going forward."

She sighed. "It probably will. Tactically it was the right choice, but that doesn't mean I like seeing you get hurt."

"See." I said with a sigh. "Now that you're stronger than me again you're totally patronizing me. I can't even shatter fully half of the bones in my body without you nagging me." I winked at her to make it clear I was teasing, and was pleased to actually get a giggle for my trouble.

She put on a serious look. "I guess I'm just controlling like that. It's part of my devious master plan to completely do away with all the fun you have. Today its life threatening injuries in meaningless battles, tomorrow who knows? Maybe I'll make you cut out red meat."

We both dissolved in peals of laughter, quickly cut off by howling wracking screams from me as I remembered that laughing makes extensive use of the torso and neck.

Callie's joking expression faded to concern as she held me through the fits of agony until my body stopped feeling like a wafer cookie someone fed through a woodchipper.

"Come on." Said Abel from behind us. "I know a place nearby we can hole up. Found it just before I found you. We'll have to negotiate with the shitbag squirrel that lives there, but I'm sure one of us has something it wants." He muttered something uncomplimentary about the squirrels parentage, and I wondered what the thing had done to leave such a negative impression after what had to be a very short meeting.

He led us down a side path, through a copse of trees, and down a small hill into a little crevasse where we found a hole leading into the base of a very short buy VERY wide tree. We stopped at the base, and within seconds, a pair of huge red eyes opened in the darkness.

A chittering sound came from the dark. Abel scowled. "No I didn't bring any acorns you asshole. My friends and I need a place to lie low."

I blinked at him, then looked over to Callie. "Can...can he speak squirrel?" I whispered in Stealth.

She shrugged, which caused a wave of pain to rip through my shoulder as it tilted, but I bit back the curse. "Who knows with him."

Despite the stealth, Abel seemed to know what we were saying. He shrugged as he looked back at us. "This thing is a total monster. It follows the Path of Blood like I do, and I can SORT of understand its intentions. This kind of thing is usually only a factor in battle, but I'm not going to look a gift squirrel in the mouth. Anyway, it says it wants fruit. F-rank or above."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I blinked at him. "Exactly where the fuck do you think I'd have gotten F-ranked fruit? Also, can it even eat shit in here? We're all SOULS. How is it even hungry?" Actually, how had I been eating earlier. This whole temple gave me a huge fucking headache.

"Don't think about it too hard." He chuckled. "You don't have any fruit? I know what a foodie you are. I'm surprised you're not holding."

I chuckled guiltily. "I mean...I HAVE fruit. But it's all G-rank. I don't carry F-rank food. I'm not a good enough cook to make proper use of it anyway. Realistically I don't make the best use of G-ranked food either, but at least I can put in the work to come close. Will it accept G-ranked fruit or nuts?"

He turned back to the red eyes. After a second, he scowled. "That's absurd. Why would he even have that much?" He paused. "Because he's not a fucking squirrel. We don't stockpile food for the winter." His expression became a scowl. "How is that speciesist? That's a notable thing that squirrels do!"

Callie groaned in annoyance. "As funny as this would normally be, my boyfriend's left side is currently the next best thing to a tube of toothpaste full of drywall screws, so can we please hurry it up? What exactly does it need to let us in? Someone might come through here soon. I have some fruit too, how much does it want?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "Your body weights. It wants you to hand over your entire weight in comparably ranked fruit." He shot a dirty look back into the cave. "You just try and eat us, you overgrown guinea pig. I just blew up a mountain over there, let's see you live in a hole in the ground instead of your cozy little tree."

Shoving him aside, Callie stepped forward, leaving behind a shadow clone to hold me up. It was a smooth shift, and I was pretty damned impressed. She came within about a hundred feet of the tree and bowed slightly. "Mr. Squirrel, can you understand me?"

Abel paused before nodding. "It can. It can't speak but it knows human language." He frowned. "It's weird that this thing is here. What is going on with this temple?"

"Shut up an translate." Growled Callie. She looked back at the cave. "We're willing to hand over all the fruits and nuts we have on us. It might be a simple offering, but I know that such a majestic and powerful creature must have an equally broad heart."

There was a chuffing sound, and the darkness shifted as a MASSIVE russet squirrel emerged from the hole. It towered over Callie, chest puffed out, before eventually nodding. Turning around it knelt down, and Callie looked at me uncertainly before shrugging and climbing up onto its back. It's huge fluffy tail came up and wrapped around her snugly before the squirrel scampered off down the hole.

"Thanks." I called sourly. "I'll just walk. You furry asshole."

Abel threw his hands up in triumph. "See!" He shouted. "I TOLD you! We should probably go though, who knows if its coming back, and it did kind of run off with your girlfriend."

I shrugged. "Callie can teleport, it's not like she would be there if she didn't want to. But yeah, come on. You want to help me with the walk, this shadow clone isn't exactly intelligent, and this IS kind of your fault to begin with. Playing walking stick is the least you could do."

"In point of fact." He said dryly. "The least I can do is nothing. Also don' you actually HAVE a walking stick?"

Scowling at him, I gestured vaguely with my destroyed arm. "Yes, but I can't fucking USE it right now because you injured me too badly, now shut up and help me walk."

He did, slipping under my arm as he helped me hobble into the hole in the ground. As I walked, I was able to get a better look at the burrow. The walls were made from twisting tree roots that seemed to have grown into a passage, the roots were thick and gnarled and looked incredibly sturdy.

Something seemed different about this trial. The first few had seemed...isolated. Like we were in special small worlds made just for this purpose. This place though, it seemed almost like a complete world. I'd tried looking off into the distance and I could see land for miles and miles.

Was this trial different than the rest? What was the temple and how was it here? Were we really just soul fragments being rendered in some kind of magic virtual environment? The more I saw of this place, the more confusing it got. What was the Ruined Soul Temple really? Where had it come from?

After about ten minutes walking down a very steep tunnel, we entered a large wooden room. The walls were lined with acorns, fruits, and nuts of various kinds, and when we arrived I found Callie reclining on the soft looking bushy tail of the squirrel and feeding it an apple. She waved as I came in and I rolled my eyes as I looked around and found nothing to sit on at all.

Luckily I still had my own chair, and removed it from my ring to take a seat, with some help from Abel. The heal burst was still working, but it seemed like it would take a while for me to heal so I reclined in my seat and closed my eyes, considering taking a nap.

The next round hadn't started yet, but it was only a matter of time, and while we'd sat this one out, who knew if someone would stumble on our hiding spot soon. Of course, we did have the squirrel to chase them off, but who knew how effective the furry bastard would be.

I needed to rest and recover as best I could and get ready for future rounds, having Abel with us was a big advantage, but eventually we'd be up against someone strong, if not here, in the later trials. I also wondered about Gabriel, would he leave after he broke his soul shackles? The Adamant couldn't afford to lose, and he was unlikely to survive staying here until the end.

All of these things swirled around in my head as I drifted off, and more. I'd worry about that when I woke up and wasn't in so much pain. As I started to fall asleep, I let my mind drift to potential second stances and combinations that could produce powerful attacks. I had some ideas that would really blow the competition away, I couldn't wait to try them out later in the trials. For now though, Belial still needed polishing. So much work to do here, but damn if I wasn't having a blast.