White lightning rushed out of Jason's body wildly. Everything present near him was burned to ashes, alongside the few beasts who had managed to come near him.
'So this is what unrestricted power feels like…' Jason thought with an inward smile. His entire body shuddered before a wave of lightning shot outwards.
Jason could feel his muscles humming with power. He felt as if he supply electricity to an entire country at once.
No beast survived in front of his attacks. Only those above the low level of a rank were able to survive his attacks. They, too, suffered major injuries.
Iktomi's expression darkened when he saw this. The domain beast could tell that it was going to fail at its job miserably.
Though Iktomi was only created by the help of Albus's mana, he was very much like a real beast as well as a human.
His consciousness told him that if the silver-haired boy wasn't stopped then and there, Iktomi would lose his form.
[ Attack from under the ground! ] he shouted using telepathy.
Since all of the beasts int he forest were under his command, iktomi could easily order them to do as he pleased.
The beast with the highest level of Earth affinity managed to create an entrance for other beasts to enter.
They went underground at the same time and decided to attack Jason from below.
Jason, who was busy killing and fending off beasts on the ground, didn't notice that a few beasts from the back had vanished.
His sole goal was to kill as many beasts as he could and make a dash towards the portals using the last bit of his strength.
The system's sensing abilities were also nerfed while Hestia was completely combined with Jason and couldn't do anything.
[ Huh… ] The system suddenly sensed some movement directly below Jason. As soon as it realized who the figures below were, it shouted inside Jason's mind. [ Host, there are beasts right below you! ]
By then, it was too late. No matter how quick or deadly his lightning was, Jason couldn't deal with an attack coming from below.
"Hmm… I guess you forgot about me," Amber pouted slightly. "I don't fight that many people but when I am fighting someone, I will like it if I don't get ignored."
Amber had already sensed the beasts when they had entered the ground. Her control over the magma element granted her the ability to sense underground as well.
Due to her being connected with Flamey, Amber's powers had increased by multiple folds.
Iktomi suddenly felt his connection with multiple beasts severing at once. '
Jason had launched a dragon made from lightning on the ground while Amber had closed all exists below ground.
The red-head had then released her burning flames underground, demolishing everything that came in front of them.
This was the power held by two vessels at the mere age of ten. If they could develop their powers further and become stronger, they would might be able to blow the entire forest with one attack…
At least that's what the system believed. It had been analyzing the entire fight silently without giving any hints to Jason.
After all, it was useless to say anything. Jason was doing fine on his own.
'Two more minutes…' Jason felt the strain being put on his muscles increasing by every passing second.
He had cleared more than half of the beasts that had gathered together to kill him. The feeling of holding this much power thrilled Jason yet at the same time, it was challenging his physical limits.
Jason had realized that he was approaching his limit. His body was already begging him to stop.
[ Amber, its time for us to go towards the portal and run from here. ] Jason said through telepathy.
[ Indeed. I have managed to stop any attempts of beasts trying to attack you from below, top or behind. I will be reaching my limits soon. ] she replied.
[ Same here. I will release one last major attack. After that, I will use my powers of lightning to take both of us to the portals. Keep a look on things. ]
Jason compressed a great amount of lightning in his palms. He jumped back and released the lightning forward.
It took the shape of a bird, one that resembled the bird of balancer that Jason had seen on top of the carriage.
The lightning bird swooped forward and acted as a shield between him and the other side of the army.
Jason looked back and appeared beside Amber.
[ Hold tightly. ] he placed his hands on her shoulders and let a bit of his lightning move around Amber's body.
A few strands of her hair stood up yet she didn't seem care about them. Amber felt a strange surge of power invade her body as Jason took off.
It barely took him a minute to reach the portal which was at least a kilometer away from their previous location.]
'I should use this as an alternative for teleportation until I learn it.' Jason silently wondered before he dropped Amber.
"Go on and enter the portal." He said and ran away.
"I didn't even get to say thank you…" Amber sighed, her eyes turning towards the portal.
The pillar of light was emerging from the ground and withheld a large amount of mana inside it.
Amber touched the pillar of light with her hand as a window materialized in front of her. Since she had seen a few windows before, she wasn't surprised by the appearance of another one.
[ Would you like to undertake the trial of fear? ]
Amber's obvious reply would be yes but something irked her. Just before they had launched away, Iktomi hadn't even tried to do something against them.
'Did he simpty give away knowing that the chances of him being able to win were quite thin?' Amber found it hard to believe that the domain beast would give up so easily.
Simultaneously, her powers faded away, the scarf on her neck vanishing alongside her powers. She could feel her body feeling quite weak, one of the after effects of the using the full powers of her guardian.
'Jason's powers should have vanished before mine since he had activated his first…' Amber had a bad feeling as she stared at the other portal situated a few kilometers away from her portal.
The presence of the pillar of light indicated that no one had yet taken the portal to enter the real Trial of Fear.
'Oh well, the worst thing that can happen to me is death. Might as well go and make sure he reached his portal.'
Amber sighed, her feet moving towards the other portal. She had already swore that she would not leave Jason behind so she couldn't exactly enter a portal while leaving him behind.
***
A few hundred meters away from the portal, Jason was running with gritted teeth. His chest hurt from the short amount of running he had done, which was quite funny considering how he was used to running at a higher speed with his lightning element.
'My powers just had to run out the moment I left Amber behind.' Jason sighed.
His body felt extremely weak after using Hestia's powers to the fullest. The scarf on his neck had vanished yet Hestia was no where to be seen.
[ She is definitely resting and would likely not be able to meet you for some time. As for your body, you are experiencing the after effects of abusing your body while fighting. ] The system explained.
'Everything comes with a price smh.'
[ You did not just think of the word 'smh'. No wait, 'smh' isn't a word in the first place. ]
'It's an abbreviation.' Jason pointed out.
The temporary discussion had managed to get his mind off his exhaustion. Using small flickers of lightning, Jason had managed to get quite close to the portal.
Unfortunately, Iktomi chose this moment to catch up to the silver-haired boy.
The domain beast had appeared out of nowhere or at least that's what it looked like at first. Iktomi had simply swung from one tree to another like a spider.
Perhaps he could be called the Half-Spider man.
"You will not enter that portal. If it disappears, I will disappear too." Iktomi said with a stern expression.
The domain beast had already noticed that Jason's speed had been reduced by a lot. The dangerous white lightning wasn't surrounding him either, making the boy much weaker than before.
Iktomi shot multiple webs at Jason, one after the other. Since he wasn't good at fighting, this was the only thing he could do.
'Damn it…' Jason knew that in his current state, he wouldn't be able to dodge all of the incoming webs.
He decided to use Ariadne's threat as a last resort. Jason threw the thread towards the incoming webs, cutting them swiftly.
A stinging sensation spread across his hands but there was nothing he could do.
Jason could only walk towards the portal with steady steps while hoping that Iktomi wouldn't call some beast to fight him.
'My hands might get cut into half if I try to sever a beast's head using this thread.'
Jason continued to tear the webs with his thread. The wounds inflicted on his hands had also started healing.
'How? How can he keep destroying my webs with a simple thread like that?!' Iktomi was frustrated due to how things were proceeding.
He silently looked around for any beasts that might help him but all that remained were low rank B beasts.
With no other choice left, Iktomi summoned the beasts and ordered them to ambush Jason from behind.
The latter wasn't aware of this and continued his slow but steady approach towards the portal.
'He is looking so desperate to capture me. But from the looks of it, he doesn't have any power left to do anything else.' Jason observed.
He had figured out how to destroy the webs without using much strength. By simply holding out his hands and gripping the thread tightly, he could separate the webs into two pieces.
'Just a bit more.' Iktomi, with a desperate expression, continued to launch more webs from his lower half.
His powers were never suited towards battle. The only reason Iktomi had reached his level was due to his ability to make beasts weaker than him bow before him.
'This is it!' Suddenly, Iktomi launched himself into the air.
He used his webs to swing from one branch to another, aiming for Jason's face.
The latter suddenly jumped backwards and landed in a clearing. The portal shone brightly behind him.
Jason immediately turned around and broke into a sprint. He just had to to touch the portal and enter the Trial of fear.
Unfortunately, he fell right into Iktomi's trap.
The Earth around his feet suddenly turned into quicksand. Since he had initially been sprinting, his body was sucked by the quicksand rather quickly,
Jason immediately went still, his eyes wide with shock. The quicksand had come up to his waist and if he moved anymore, he would surely get sucked in completely.
"Finally I can live in peace. Even if one of the portals vanish, I can still live." Iktomi sighed in relief.
He had ordered what little beasts he had found to create a trap for Jason. The quicksand was the best thing that could have happened since it didn't allow Jason to move.
'How hard could it be to destroy this quicksand.' Jason, who was over his initial shock, focused on his body.
He summoned his lightning and was ready to burst out of the quicksand when all of a sudden, he felt his arms going numb.
'Sht…'
[ Host, your muscles could no longer hold the lightning and I am afraid that you won't be able to move them for half an hour or so… ]
'Ugh… I will have to do this entire thing again from the start, that too with a handicap.' Jason sighed as he dispelled his lightning.
Trying to forcefully use it will only end up harming his body even more than it already was.
"Phew, good thing I came to check up on you. My oath would've been useless otherwise." Amber sighed.
The red-head landed right beside Jason, a grin visible on her face. All around them, the forest burst into fire.
"I killed the beasts surrounding you. Now we can easily go to the portal." Amber used her powers to take Jason out of the quicksand.
She repaired the ground as well before staring at Iktomi. The domain beast had a shocked expression on his face as he stood on top of a branch.
"You were supposed to be inside that portal!" Iktomi shrieked.
"But I am not there now. Let's go, Jason." Amber turned towards the portal and walked towards it alongside Jason.
'That was an unexpected thing.' Jason thought with a surprised expression.
[ Children are easy to influence. Your words and actions must have reached out to Amber or otherwise, she wouldn't have returned too help you in this manner. ] The system pointed out.
'I agree.'
Iktomi could only watch the duo reach the portal with a neutral expression on his face. He decided to conserve his strength since he now knew that the other portal would still remain same.
As for Jason and Amber, both of them had encountered a problem. There was only one portal and two of them.
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