บท 51: Trials
Emile and Blood continued to proceed through the labyrinth. After facing the Cloudlet and receiving a relic the duo grew arrogant in their selections.
Their next obstacle was going to be a group of five with melee weapons. Stepping into the makeshift arena, Blood and Emile watched as their five opponents exited the dome.
Five wooden dolls each with a unique weapon; a heavy sword, a short sword and shield, a mace, a spear, and dual daggers. From the moment the five dolls exited the dome, they rushed towards Emile and Blood.
Blood conjured multiple blood icicles and shot them at the incoming dolls. The sword and shield blocked them along with the daggers, spear, and mace.
The heavy sword doll was able to block one projectile, but they couldn't connect into another swing fast enough to block more.
A foot long crystal penetrated the dolls forehead killing it in an instant. Meanwhile, the fastest doll, the dual wielding one, made it to Blood.
The doll attacked with a horizontal slash, but Blood stepped back and dodged the blade. With its second dagger, the doll stabbed forward and pierced Blood's stomach.
Blood quickly oozed out of the open wound, immediately allowing Blood to manipulate it to his will. Like a porcupine, spikes erupted out of Blood's stomach and ripped into the doll.
Now littered with holes, the doll collapsed at Blood's feet. Thanks to Blood being stabbed, he now had a new source of blood to pull from.
He formed a barrage of blood bullets and shotgunned it into the mace doll's chest. The doll's wooden frame obliterated before their eyes, chunks of the light brown wood flew across the arena.
In just a few moments, only the shield and spear doll remained. The shield stood in front of the spear and the two cautiously approached Emile and Blood.
"You ready?" Blood asked.
"Yeah—I think." Emile responded.
Blood dropped his arm to his side and walked directly towards the shield doll. The doll immediately tried to take advantage of the situation and pushed ahead with its short sword ready to strike.
But Blood didn't stop. He took another step closer to their enemy. The doll raised the short sword into the air and moved its shield to the side.
Just before the doll swung down, Emile instantly appeared beside it. He looked off in the distance, facing away from the doll. Then, the doll's neck split and its head fell to the floor.
Before the spear doll could react Emile lunged forward and sunk the dagger into its abdomen. The doll stumbled backwards then disintegrated into white sparks before its corpse hit the ground.
[Chosen Wooden Puppet Slain]
[Chosen Wooden Puppet Slain]
"See?" Blood approached Emile, "I told you it would work out."
***
The duo spent a long time repeating this cycle of hand picking their opponents and facing them in unique arenas each time. They fought three more groups of Wooden Puppets, four single opponents that were smaller, and two single opponents that were larger.
They only participated in two trials against larger opponents because they were the most difficult. In each circumstance, Emile and Blood were pitted against colossal beasts much stronger than any of the previous trials.
First, they fought an Enlightened four legged beast. The beast was as large as an elephant and had a thick layer of brown coarse hair surrounding it. The hair was so dense that Emile couldn't cut through it with Blood's dagger.
It had four curved tusks that pointed forward which the beast used for charge attacks and slashes. The most unnerving aspect of the beast, however, was its eyes. It had six eyes, three on each side, and they were just as empty as they were black.
The duo was able to defeat the beast after a painstakingly long fight by giving the Nimbus Charm to Blood. Prior to receiving the charm, Blood formed an incredibly large lance where his missing arm would have been.
Using the charms' incredible acceleration, Blood rocketed his shoulder into the beast's mouth during an opening. The lance was so incredibly long that it tore through the creature's esophagus and punctured its lungs, killing it shortly after.
A few trials following the hairy beast, Emile and Blood chose to fight a single large target once more. They were convinced the previous beast had been a fluke and was most likely the strongest opponent in that category.
But the next creature was even larger and more dangerous. Towering over the duo, standing a few stories high, their new opponent entered the arena.
Bipedal, covered in navy blue scales with orange accents around its eyes and stomach, the next monster was truly frightening.
Emile wasn't entirely sure what the creature was spitting, but its main attack resembled a spitball—an insanely fast spitball. The blue fiend never moved from its spot in the arena, instead it continuously sucked in deep breaths and barraged Emile and Blood with invisible cannonballs.
The fight was difficult for this exact reason, they simply couldn't approach the thing. Whenever one of them would peak around a column the cannonballs would rain down which would then destroy the stone pillars.
After hours of running from cover to cover, the number of remaining places to hide dwindled until two were left. With no place left to hide, Emile suggested a suicidal plan that was only plausible because of his healing gift.
Taking Blood's dagger, Emile cut down the center of his chest to his stomach. It wasn't a deep cut, organs weren't spilling out, but it was deep enough to bleed.
Then, Emile held the dagger in front of him and activated the Nimbus Charm. Emile exploded forward and rammed into the belly of the beast dagger first.
The dagger sunk into the steel like scales, but the dagger was a mere toothpick in comparison to the size of the creature. The real attack came shortly after.
Now that the colossal lizard had been punctured the duo could take advantage of its open wound. Blood pooled out of Emile's chest and violently poured into the belly of the beast.
It only took a few moments for Blood to maneuver Emile's blood throughout the creature's body. Once it had traveled enough, Blood crystallized it into sharp spikes and chaotically ripped the morningstars through the creature's organs.
Once they defeated the colossal lizard, the two entered the dome expecting to face another trial, but instead they were met with a long and narrow pathway.
It seemed the maze feature of the labyrinth was starting.
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