LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL

The lightning snake had traveled close to five miles, and there was still enough energy left inside of it to crawl into the pit.

"Close the wall, and move forward, we head to the pit and the end of this trial," Tarian said, and he folded his hands behind his back, surrounded by hundreds of nobles whose heads were raised in pride as they followed him.

"Did you see that man in armor? I heard he is an Ascendant Candidate from the Stoneward Asylum?"

"What does that matter in the long run? Only country bumpkins think those are the real deal, but they are only special when they reach the higher stages; at this point, they are just like all of us."

"Tsk… with all that heavy armor, he must be very afraid of his safety. Have you even seen him anywhere near us?"

"Hahaha, most likely he is standing near the gate, hoping that we clear the path for him.

We could even see if we should peel…"

"Silence, we are in a warzone," Tarian said softly, and the chattering nobles went quiet.

As they moved forward, the ground rumbled as the entire city seemed to be shaking.

®

Theron Vex watched the nobles head towards the pit, and while they had a great leader, he did not need a shield wall, not even the members of his guilds, not when he had his beasts.

The Rune Wolf moved through the spawns like a scythe through wheat. It was old, scarred, its grey fur matted with the ash of a hundred kills.

But it was fast, faster than anything its size should be, and with its teeth longer than a man's hand, each bite took a spawn's head.

Each swipe of its claws opened a belly; it did not stop, it could not stop. There was a reason that Theron chose this wolf, and it was because this old beast… was a berserker.

The wolf tore through a hundred spawns, and it howled to the sky where, above the Sky Hunter circled, its wings dark against the perpetual twilight.

It did not dive; there was no need for the Sky Hunter to have far more terrible weapons than its claw or beak.

The shadow of the Sky Hunter fell across the spawns, and where the shadow touched, the spawns slowed, as their movements became sluggish, and their red eyes dimmed.

Hundreds of the spawns could not move as they were frozen around Theron, and the wolf finished them off.

Manipulating shadows was a very rare trait among the Sky Hunters, almost thought to be extinct among their species.

The Sky Hunter was not a killer; it was a shepherd, herding the tide toward the Rune Wolf's teeth.

And the Deep Crawler's method was even more strange as it moved through the earth beneath the street, its body flowing like liquid, its tendrils reaching up through the cracks to pull the spawns down. They did not scream when it took them. They did not have time. One moment, they were on the surface; the next, they were gone, dragged into the dark where the Deep Crawler waited.

"Theron!" one of his squad called. "You need to fall back and support us!"

Theron did not answer his squad; he was listening to the Deep Crawler, to the images it was sending him.

The pit was close, the Deep Crawler could sense the source of the infestation, and it almost seemed to be alive, and was watching everything that was happening.

"Hold the line," he said. "I will be going forward. There are many more of these monsters coming, so pace yourselves. I will not be here to defend you all."

"Theron—"

"Hold, I go forward alone, don't worry, Elara is coming behind me, and she will keep you all safe. Do not forget the reason you are here, we are Siphons!"

His beasts echoed his voice as the Rune Wolf growled, and the Sky Hunter cried out, while the silent Deep Crawler surged beneath the street, shaking the ground.

®

Sera moved above the rooftops, but the houses in this place were rapidly collapsing, and it would not be long before every structure was shattered.

Her squad had tried to keep up with her, since their goal was always to protect her, but she was faster than they were, and did not have time to wait for them to catch up, especially when she saw Tarian tear a path straight to the pit. There was no way she was letting anyone claim the price but her.

The air hummed as her sword sang.

It was not a metaphor; the blade, the one that had been forged for her when she was twelve, had grown with her, enhanced by her talent of metal control and the stupid amount of essence she had poured into the metal.

Now it was no longer just steel, but a weird mixture of steel and essence, and every time she used the blade… it sang.

Each strike produced a note, high and clear, a sound that cut through the chaos and reminded her of who she was, and was the last thing her enemies heard.

The spawns were not her equal as she moved through them like a dancer, her blade tracing arcs that should not have been possible, her body flowing from one strike to the next without hesitation.

She did not block or parry. She cut, and the spawns fell, and she moved on.

The reason she chose the high places was to cut through as much opposition as possible without slicing through the buildings in her path.

Her speed began to grow when she noted that, without any bodies left behind, she did not have to worry about any remnants behind.

The roof she had just landed upon suddenly cracked in two as the house collapsed around her, dozens of spawns leaped at her from the collapsing building, and for a moment, everything was covered by dust and ash.

Then Sera stepped out of the debris, her blade revolving around her body with a life of its own.

She had barely settled her spirit when hundreds… thousands of these creatures fell upon her, and for minutes, the only sound was that of her blade.

Once again, she stepped through the ash of a thousand bodies, and she was smiling.

"Sera!" one of her squad called. "Behind you!"

She did not turn as her blade reversed, the hilt driving backward into the spawn's skull, and she kept moving.

"I'm fine," she said.

She was not fine. Sera was bleeding from a dozen small cuts, her armor was cracked in three places, and her stamina was draining faster than it ever had in the Academy's training halls. But she was alive, and the spawns were not.

"Fall back to the square!" another voice called. "Everyone, fall back to the square!"

Sera looked back to the center of the city, where hundreds of the candidates were gathering, all around them were tens of thousands of these creatures, seemingly without end.

Then she looked forward, following the glowing line that Tarian had made to the pit, the source of this infestation, as she could see thousands of these creatures flying out from it in ever-increasing numbers.

Sera made her choice, leaving her squad behind, and began to move towards the pit, pulling every bit of metal she could find around her and making them into missiles that tore through dozens of bodies at a time.