The fiend swung downward, and Arthur stepped to the side; a slash made the monster stagger backward, and a forward thrust made the beast jump into the water.
Arthur followed closely behind. The beast slashed at Arthur, tearing open his white robe; Arthur's blood dropped into the sea below them.
Zach squinted his eyes on the sidelines. "No... no..." Arthur shouldn't have gotten injured.
The ocean roared around their ankles now. Salt spray coated Arthur's chest, stinging his cuts.
The fiend snarled, blood dripping freely; it lashed out in fury.
Arthur braced, lowering his stance. Pain seared through his back, nearly buckling his legs, but he anchored himself like stone.
The beast struck—he met the claws with his sword and twisted, dragging the monster's arm wide.
"Die!" With a roar, Arthur plunged his blade into its chest and shoved forward, forcing the Thyxar deeper into the waves.
The fiend screeched; its body convulsed as seawater poured into its wounds.
'It's working.' The creature tried to mutter words but drowned.
Thyxars weren't particularly good swimmers.
The spectacle attracted a few monsters; a black snake erupted from the deep, its body casting a massive silhouette.
It lunged toward the duo. Arthur jumped back, allowing the predator to sink its fangs into the Thyxar's waist.
The fiend yelled, slashing at the monster with its claws, but the serpent was relentless.
It coiled its body around the Thyxar's grotesque frame.
Arthur quickly skidded back to land. Then more monsters pounced on the fiend, drowning it in a horde.
Zach rushed to Arthur's side, helping him up. "Arthur..." He slowed, words caught between relief and panic.
"You're hurt... you should've told me." Zach would've relied on other methods to get past this trial.
Arthur smirked faintly, though the pain showing deep across his face betrayed him. "I've been worse."
The fiend screamed one last time; its voice broke into gurgles; its flesh peeled as multiple hungry beasts gorged on its meat.
Bone crunched under the sea of monsters. Its skin sloughed off in chunks as monsters ravaged it.
Its regenerative body didn't help either, as it couldn't breathe in water.
Slowly, the monster was dragged further and further into the ocean; its screams muffled by the oven waves.
Everywhere was calm; the monster was gone. Zach had passed the trial that killed him.
Something felt off, though. It felt like that was only the beginning.
From the distance, shadows writhed; leaves rattled as figures emerged—dozens of them.
Each bore mismatched bodies that looked like nature's experiments gone wrong.
Their hind claws sank into the dirt, leaving a trail behind as they scattered to form a crescent.
"Look over there," one pointed, its voice sounding like a low growl.
"One of the older-looking Thyxars walked forward, eyes squinting. "Did they really kill Savi?" It asked, glancing at a shorter Thyxar that looked like a weird mix of an old man and a gecko.
"Yes, sir..." It paused. "I saw it with my own eyes." It pointed at its gouged eyeballs.
At this point, Zach didn't know whether to laugh or cry. They'd just defeated an enemy; now multiple were at their tail.
The Thyxar kingdom was making its move.
Zach felt this was the real beginning of his trial.
The Thyxars shifted. "I think we should kill this one," one of the Thyxars, towering over the rest like a ten-foot-tall boulder, pointed at Zach.
"Kill me?... Nah, that can't happen..." Zach shrugged.
He was 99% sure he'd die right here and now, so might as well make the most of it.
Meanwhile, Arthur had a look of pure devastation on his face.
"When... what did they get here? What about the fleet?... the guard?" One of the Thyxars grinned, licking its claws.
"All dead, boy..." That was when Arthur lost strength in his limbs, kneeling on the floor.
"Bro was injured... we can never make it," he muttered.
"That's what they want you to think," Zach stated, helping the white-haired prince to his feet.
"So... what do we do now?" "We...?" Zach looked back.
"We run..." The Thyxars stared at the duo in the distance, waiting for them to make a move, charge in, defend anything.
But the duo just stayed there, stagnant.
Then... Whoosh.
Arthur and Zach sprinted in the opposite direction; Zach let go of his crutches, allowing adrenaline to do its work. Arthur charged behind him, his back screaming, his whole body aching, but they just had to keep going.
Boom! The familiar feeling Zach knew all too well struck him. It felt as if he flew meters into the air, while in reality, it was his head rolling off his body.
His lifeless body collapsed on the floor in a puddle of blood. Pain flared in his neck area; his bodily functions began shutting down as Zach could feel the electricity in all of his neurons die down.
His vision tunneled; the area became darker as Zach slowly sank into the abyss, with only one thought in mind.
He wanted to fight back, but due to his stupidity, he couldn't. "Strong."
He traced back all the steps to see what he did wrong. First off, fighting using the Algera Thrust without any prior knowledge wasn't exactly the best choice.
And the manpower he brought was too small; he needed at least a squad of star-ranked knights or platinum knights to actually pull this off.
Zach was injured, but he had absorbed a ton of bloodstones now and was a lot faster than the average human, yet they were able to reach him in seconds.
Zach was still conscious until the last minute, so he managed to catch a glance of a light beam shooting out of the Thyxar's hand towards Arthur.
Zach's eyes widened as he saw this.
"A... a Hunter?"
This challenge just took another leap of difficulty.
[Again if you have any questions, feel free to lay them out for me and I'll se what I can do, enjoy reading]