Bahamut followed Henut as they moved through a long corridor with black walls and golden hieroglyphs depicting legends of the goddess Isis. His bandages had been taken off except for the ones on his hands. He had gotten a new blindfold from Henut, which hung on his neck. Ren was perched on his head, munching on a carrot.
"Your pet is really cute," Henut commented from the side, eyeing Ren with a gaze that screamed, "I want to touch it!"
"I doubt that... ouch!" Bahamut retorted only to get his head stomped by the bunny. Ren was technically a Tier 2 beast, so his stomp packed a punch even in a weakened state.
"So cute! Can I hold him?" Henut was oblivious to Bahamut's pain, her full attention on the bunny whose whiskers wiggled anytime he bit into the carrot.
"Go ahead. You can keep him if you like..." Bahamut said in a nonchalant tone, but his back was drenched in cold sweat. Ren stared at him like he'd spoken a taboo word, his eyes glowing menacingly.
"Ah! So fluffy!" Henut exclaimed in pure joy as she hugged Ren against her chest, squishing him in between them. Her chest wasn't small in the slightest. They were full!
Ren's face was flushed as he was plunged into a realm of bounciness and softness. His eyes moved to Bahamut's face: Bahamut was really fighting to keep himself in control.
Their eyes coincidentally met. Ren smirked in triumph, causing Bahamut to release a low growl like a beast.
"I suddenly feel like eating rabbit soup," Bahamut exclaimed loudly, but this only caused Ren to act afraid, which Henut found cute, earning him a new round of squishing.
Bahamut had officially lost a battle... to a bunny.
...
The trial had gotten a bit interesting and heated. In the viewing area, the screen projected Aerith locked in battle with a 7-foot-tall gorilla, a Stone Gorilla, a Tier 1: Circle of Spirit beast. It had grey fur with patches of golden brown on its knuckles, chest, and knees. Its four eyes glowed with a golden color as it locked in battle with the stormy-eyed youth.
Aerith dipped under the stone gorilla's swinging arm and rolled across the ground, coming up on one knee as grit sprayed into the air. The impact of the missed blow cracked the earth where his head had been a breath earlier. He did not pause to admire it.
The weapons in his hands were ugly things. Barbed feathers torn from the Tier 1 Tailed Crow he had killed earlier, their quills shaved down with stone, and their edges hacked short until they could be gripped and swung.
Each one stretched close to four feet, thin and slightly curved, the barbs catching the light like serrated teeth.
He wasn't good with the spear, so they'd been turned to swords to suit his preferences.
He lunged in low and slashed.
The feathers screamed as they cut, the barbs biting deep into the gorilla's stone-flesh legs. Chips of rock and dust burst free as if flesh had been torn. The beast roared, the sound grinding and hollow, and staggered half a step as one knee buckled.
Aerith twisted his wrists sharply, ripping the feathers free instead of letting them stick. He had learned that lesson the hard way. Never let your weapon get trapped.
Two more feathers were strapped across his back with torn strips of hide, bouncing against his spine as he moved. Backups.
Survival was not about elegance. It was about still having something to kill with when the first thing broke.
The stone gorilla slammed both fists into the ground, shockwaves rippling outward. Aerith leapt back just in time, the impact rattling his bones even through the distance. His arms burned. His breath came fast and shallow. Sweat ran into his eyes.
But he grinned.
These weren't swords forged by masters. They weren't sacred relics. They were scavenged, brutal tools shaped by necessity and blood. Just like him, right now.
Aerith shifted his stance, feathers angled low, eyes locked on the cracks spreading through the gorilla's legs.
If it could bleed stone, he could kill it.
...
Henut led Bahamut to a small room where Elder Derek waited with his award-winning smile, hands behind him, blue eyes glinting with a mysterious light.
His eyes flashed with a hint of lust when he saw how Henut squeezed Ren in between her twin peaks, something that didn't escape Bahamut's senses.
"Are you ready... kid?" Derek asked with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Yes," Bahamut replied flatly.
"Good. Then step onto this circle," Derek pointed to a silver teleportation circle in the middle of the room. "You will be teleported to a random region of the trial, as you've already experienced. This trial is about survival. You are to survive for at least three days. But the days are calculated in the real world. In the trial world, a minute here could be a day there, so you could stay for weeks, months, or even years. After three days, the trial will end, and the rankings will be announced.
Remember our bet..."
"I will," Bahamut turned to take Ren from Henut, who was very reluctant to let go. No! It was more like Ren was reluctant to leave that heavenly bosom.
Not like Bahamut cared. He didn't care a bit!
"Thank you, Miss Henut, for the care and the clothes. I will repay you one day," Bahamut said with a slight nod at the Egyptian woman and moved to stand in the circle.
Elder Derek just stared at Bahamut intensely as he stood in the circle, bunny in his hands. He raised his hands and started reciting an incantation in Ancient Egyptian. The circle lit up with a soft, silver glow.
Unlike the huge one used for the others earlier, this one needed the incantation. Why?
Bahamut and Henut thought it was to send him to a random part of the trial grounds. But the main reason was that the operator could choose where to land or send someone.
As long as they knew where they were going, they could choose the place and be teleported there instantly.
So what would happen if an elder did it? An elder who had experienced tests for at least 50 years...
It was a danger for Bahamut and Ren, and they realized too late.
Bahamut's eyes widened in shock at Derek's menacing smile as he was slowly teleported.
...
"So stiff," Bahamut murmured, rolling his shoulders as he loosened his clothes, fingers tugging his shirt open just enough to breathe properly.
PAH! BOOM!
The world exploded.
A colossal force slammed into him without warning, snapping the air itself apart. Bahamut was hurled like a thrown weapon, his body tearing through the space before crashing hard into the cliff face. Stone shattered on impact, dust and debris billowing outward as his back carved a shallow crater into the rock.
Ren was flung away in the same instant, his small body spinning helplessly before vanishing from sight.
Where Bahamut had been standing moments ago, the ground was gouged deep. Looming there now was a massive, whip-like tail covered in dark, overlapping scales, still swaying from the momentum of the strike.
He had been swatted aside!