"D-damn it! I won't die here, not when I haven't achieved anything yet!" The youth grumbled, struggling to get up as the young woman calmly maintained distance between themselves, staying well beyond his reach.
She then looked at the mural, noticing the inscription of the incense having been almost burned. It showed that time was almost up. 'I have to hurry. There's a risk of him launching out a last-second attack. In any case, I have no other choice.'
She then pulled out a couple of spikes, throwing them towards the youth, surprised when he exhibited surprising agility to dodge the attacks. "So, you were putting on an act."
But rather than be shocked, she smiled, noticing the visible strain the youth was experiencing to move around as he did. She threw another spike, causing the youth to dodge it when she launched forward, quickly grabbing the shaft of his spear. This prevented him from using it as she dodged all of a sudden, evading a slash from the knife he pulled out and kicked his groin.
As the youth howled in pain, unable to react for a split second, she plunged the spike through his throat, wedging it deep. "It's over!"
Though, right as she landed the finishing blow on the youth, guarding against any possible retaliation he might mount, her vision suddenly blurred as she noticed that she was unable to speak for a moment. A piercing pain originated from her neck as she turned around, noticing a blue-colored spike piercing through it.
The blue-colored spike suddenly vanished as her blood spurted out profusely, causing her to clamp on her neck in an effort to stop the bleeding. Sadly for her, blood still leaked out of the wound, causing her to slump on the floor, gasping for breath as she saw the light in the eyes of the youth die out.
"Damn it!" She looked around, noticing a certain bluish entity hurriedly flying behind a pillar, causing her to curse as her vision spun from the blood loss. Eventually, she was unable to hold on, collapsing to the ground as she cursed, "Seriously?"
A couple of seconds after she breathed her last, the incense inscription died out as a mechanical voice resounded once again, "Survivors: One. Congratulations for passing the first stage."
Krune lost consciousness as his body was teleported from the chamber. A couple of seconds later, a mysterious energy arrived, flashing upon all the corpses as they turned into liquid. The liquid then congregated into one place, merging into a tiny solid sphere after being compressed many times.
Soon after, it vanished, causing the chamber to regain its pristine look. After all, even the weapons had been dissolved into that liquid. Ten seconds later, a teenage girl appeared in the place, looking around in confusion as she observed the mural, soon hiding upon understanding just what the place entailed.
Soon, after 12 people arrived, the mechanical voice repeated the same as before, causing everyone to fight one another.
…
"Where…is this?" Krune became alert the moment he regained consciousness, noticing he was surrounded by humans. There were at least a couple thousand in the place, waking up one after another.
Some of them had pristine appearances, while most were bloody. The stronger ones had the blood of their enemies covering them while the rest had a mixture of both them and the blood of the foes they had slain on their bodies.
Krune's appearance caught the attention of quite a few of them, causing them to wonder just what type of demon beast he was.
However, he didn't pay heed to their gazes, frowning as he thought, 'My speed has also fallen to how fast I was in the past. I no longer have the speed I have before entering the Alacatra Ruins. At this speed, I'm not faster than the humans. So, I'll have to be alert to dodge anything that might happen.'
He then observed his surroundings, noticing that they were in what appeared to be a tunnel of sorts, possessing a cuboidal shape that extended out from the front and back with almost no end. During his observations, Krune noticed an old man that was bleeding to death, having sustained grievous injuries in the first trial.
In any case, Krune's attention wasn't on the man but on the blood that had been spilled on the ground, noticing faint ripples forming on it. 'Ah, shit!'
Right as he had thought and prepared himself mentally, the mechanical voice resounded once again. "Second mission: Reach the end of the maze."
Roar!
Right as the announcement ended, an intense roar resounded as hundreds of demon beasts charged through the tunnel, aiming for the group of demons. Krune was prepared already, flying straight the moment he heard the announcement, quickly passing through most of the crowd.
The humans that were alert also began to sprint immediately, having felt the faint vibrations in the ground all along. Those that failed to react in advance began to run, only to realize the crowd of people before them prevented them from escaping promptly.
As the humans forced themselves onto each other to escape, the demon beasts arrived, joining in on the frenzy as a war between the two parties erupted.
Some of the demon beasts simply jumped overhead the crowd, using the heads of the people as footholds as they jumped further deep into the group of humans, starting a massacre. Then again, it wasn't as if the humans went down easily.
After all, most, if not all of them, possessed weapons, allowing them to defend against the demon beasts. So, the number of demons beasts that dropped dead was at least twice to even thrice the number of humans that died.
As for Krune, he didn't care about something like that, having been blazing through the tunnel from the start, soon noticing numerous forking paths before him. "So, the maze starts from here."
He was just about to enter one of the paths when something hit him from the side, sending him flying towards the ground. "Move away!"
It was a woman with a large build, having a brash character as she simply swatted him aside like a fly.. She then turned around, looking at the demon beasts still being a fair distance away from her as she entered one of the paths, quickly proceeding through it.
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