Inside the slime, I am suffocating. I can't breathe, and I can barely move, and my vision is blocked.
I try to reach out of the slime, and I feel it, the centipede's body is curled up into a ball, being protected by the slime. I try reaching out the other way, and I can feel my hand, my fingers can move normally, which means I managed to get my hand out of the slime.
I reach for the ground and manage to grab onto some random rock that I feel and start pulling myself out of the slime it doesn't seem to notice.
I manage to jerk my head free from the slime and finally breathe some air, sweet, sweet air.
Then, after my head is free, pulling the rest of the body is easy because I am no longer being suffocated by a giant slime. The moment I get out, I fall to the ground, and the slime turns around.
"shit, shit, it saw why did I have to fall. Shit." I curse at my body's weak state.
My body is far weaker than normally, it's as if the slime absorbed all my strength.
The slime starts charging at my slamming his fists on the ground. I try to dodge it, and I fail miserably as it hits the ground and absorbs me. The shock from the hit almost knocks me unconscious, but I manage not to et enveloped by it again. It raises its hand I hold onto the cracks in the ground, barely managing to escape its grasp.
I run again in the opposite direction of the slime, but again it is way faster than me and easily catches up. It does the same move of slamming its fists. This time, I managed to move out of the way in the last second.
"How in the 6 ancients am I supposed to defeat this thing?" I ask myself in frustration and fear. My breath is ragged from dodging him, my body is still weak, and I don't know how to fight.
"This has got to be one of the worst fights in existence," I say under ragged breath, my body is practically shaking from fear and weakness.
I try circling the beast to try and find a weak spot, but it looks like it thinks it got me because it is no longer looking for me, and then I see it at the back of the slime monster is another body trapped inside the slime I do not know whether the person inside is alive or not but I cant risk them being alive and just leave them there.
I pull out my bow, load it, get into position, and shoot at the centipede inside the arrow stops before hitting it, but now the slime notices me and starts charging at me. I pull out an arrow and shoot again, and it stops right before it this time too. I pull another arrow, and then the shock of the mass of the slime slamming into me in a full sprint hits me. I almost pass out.
I take the arrow in my hand and drive it straight through the centipede curled up in a ball, and then the slime falls, and with it, I do too.
My body can barely move anymore, I can't even manage to stand up, but yet I laugh, laugh at my near-death experience, and soon the laughter turns into cries, I cry so much just lying there alone in this dark cave. Why did I have to join the trials? How did I ever think that could possibly be a good idea?
After a long time of crying and self-loathing, I hear a cough. I get up, wiping my eyes from the tears, even though my vision is still blurry, I can see the other person who was in the slime. It's a girl just like me, and she doesn't appear any older than me, yet somehow she remained alive inside the slime. How did that happen? How did she survive? It's a full year between each trial, and each person who dares attempt the trials is transported to a different trial, depending on what they must face.
The girl lying in front of me is not wearing the trial robes. I do not know what happened to them, but she is wearing the plain black silk clothes that I wear under the trial robes.
She coughs again. She is slightly taller than I am, not that I am particularly tall, but nonetheless, her hair is black and messy, probably because she was trapped in here for at least a year.
She carries no weapon or anything to fight with, which expl-
She starts groaning and slowly opens her eyes.
"Are you awake?" I ask the girl, grabbing her.
She groans even more, and her eyes start opening, they are blueish grey.
"Thank the ancients you're alive, can you hear me?" I sigh with relief that she still lives.
She coughs multiple times, and her eyes are opening more and more, but it looks like she is blinded by the light in the corridor. I block the light from reaching into her eyes, allowing her to open them fully.
"Hello." I smile at her, noticing she has regained consciousness.
"Hello." She says with a weak voice.
"Are you ok? Your body doesn't seem wounded or anything, but do you have any strength ?" I ask her.
"Yeah, I think I do." She answers, her voice becoming stronger and less shaken.
"Good, do you remember anything that happened to you?" I ask her.
"I remember going to the trials and then wandering around here, and I found a random centipede that suddenly grew into a giant slime monster, and then I woke up here." She replies, her voice now not shaken at all, and her voice is strong and soothing.
"Ok, so that's good to know, so I just killed the giant slime, and you were stuck in it. I don't know how long you were there, but you are somehow alive. I reckon you were there for a year, since you look around my age or a tad bit older." I explain to her that we are still in the slime and that her body was probably somehow preserved by the slime.
"Eh, where are my trial robes? Shouldn't they be on me?" she asks, looking around for them.
"Yes, so about those, when I found you, the robes weren't on you or anywhere to be seen," I answer her question.
"Also, what's your name? I'm Airoh, and I just entered the trials." I smile at her.
"I'm Elara, nice to meet you." She smiles back, trying to stand up, and surprisingly to me, she actually manages to.
I didn't notice it until she stood up, but her figure is beautiful, and so is her face, and I look away, blushing a little.
"Also, I forgot to ask, but where is your weapon? I think everyone gets one when they start the trials, but you don't have one, and neither did you ask about one." I tell her.
"Oh, right, the weapon choice, yeah, I just didn't choose one." She replies bluntly.
"What do you mean you didn't choose one? You just went down here with no weapon?" Asking her shocked.
"Yep, I prefer to just punch the shit out of things I don't like." She grins at me.
"You are crazy. Now it makes sense why you got trapped in the slime." I say, annoyed she doesn't have a weapon.
How can someone like her, with no weapon, who was practically on the verge of death about five minutes ago, help me with these dammed trials?
"Oh, the slime, no, as I said, it just randomly transformed behind me, and when I noticed it, I had no time to react." Elara counters my accusation.
"Also, how ancient are you, so energetic? You were trapped there for a year on the verge of death when I rescued you, and now you are in peak form. How?" I ask her, frowning.
"I'm not sure, but my body seems to just be building up more and more strength as we walk. Also, how did you get your hair so silky? It's in the most perfect shape I've ever seen. I would never manage to get my hair in such a clean, beautiful way." She asks, her eyes gleaming at my hair.
"It's just my mother, she used to brush it for me before I entered the trials, but now I just make sure to keep it straight to remind myself she told me not to join, but I did anyway. I sigh, looking away.
There is an awkward silence between us now, but then a loud voice interrupts it.
"Thou is now entering the first trial. We wish you the best of luck." The ancient's voice booms in the corridor as a tear in what looks like space itself appears we step through it.