The trio’s firm footsteps carried them into the portal’s pink surface where they experienced the most unnerving and disorienting millisecond of their lives so far. They felt a cool sensation cross their bodies in a line that seemed to penetrate through the deepest fabric of their beings. The weight of the space pressed and pulled on them, leading to a swirling impact to their sense of direction.
Up, down, left, right all blended together for a brief moment as they stepped through to the other side.
Lassim carefully landed on the other side. Thankfully, due to his slightly higher cultivation and body’s sturdiness, only felt a slight bit of nausea. Glancing around, he found himself alone in a barren land. The ground was littered with rocks and cracked ground. No moisture or plant life seen for miles around and there was a sweltering heat that pervaded the atmosphere.
Feeling the nausea pass, he steadied himself as he raised his senses. Fully alert now, he surveyed the desolate landscape before him before deciding on a direction to go. Everywhere seemed identical and there appeared to be no other first-years nearby.
As he raised his foot to take a step forward, the earth below him erupted in a sudden burst upwards, sending shards of rock and dust into the air. Startled but composed, Lassim jumped backwards away from the explosion and prepared for confrontation. He summoned and gripped the pole of his halberd.
Out of the dust emerged five Chaos Goblins, their grotesque forms leaped towards him. Seeing them in real life and not in a hologram form, their features were exaggerated mockeries of humanoids with elongated noses, pointed ears, and bushy eyebrows that nearly covered their red beady eyes that contained no pupils. Their hands beheld sharp claws which were aimed viciously at Lassim.
Recalling Elder Linara’s teachings about these creatures’ penchant for traps and scouting, he realized he had inadvertently been teleported directly on top of their hideout. The hut, now fullly exposed, was a ruin of splintered wood and earth. He guessed this had been their makeshift home on this desolate plain.
Lassim quickly met the goblins’ charge. The snarling and screeching first goblin reached him. He swung his halberd in a wide arc in response, rotating his cultivation internally through his body and halberd. Then, channeling his lightning element into the blade, the air crackled as the halberd’s blade met the goblin.
Cleaving it in half with a flash of lightning, its two halves falling to the ground as the air filled with a putrid stench that seemed unnatural. The internal organs were black and wretched and leaked a type of mana particle that seemed against the natural order; chaotic.
Undeterred, Lassim’s passive [Aegis] that had become almost an instinct at this point, had activated a frosty shield that slammed into the face of a goblin that tried attacking him from behind. He pivoted, facing the next goblin. His movement was lightning quick as he unleashed a charged [Thrust], turning the creature into a black husk.
Another goblin, baring its fangs in a ferocious snarl as it pounced towards him. It was enraged further after two of his companions had died. Lassim then brought his halberd down in a powerful [Slam], a new variation of his [Storm Bringer] technique that infused the rear of the halberd’s attack with the weight of his water element.
The ground beneath shattered under the impact, the goblin crushed into a gruesome paste. Its body was obliterated under the monumental force of several tons of water that enhanced the slamming motion.
The loud crash of his halberd against the earth echoed in the surrounding empty landscape like an earthquake; sending tremors through the barren land.
The remaining two goblins hesitated for a moment. Free from the mind control of a Dragal or their Lieutenants, their instincts screamed that Lassim was too dangerous to face now. But Lassim was relentless and didn’t give them any mercy. His figure blurred as he unleashed a wide [Sweep] attack that again sliced the goblins in halves.
This time horizontally instead of vertically like the first goblin whose innards had started corroding the land.
With the last goblins dead, the dust settled, and silence reclaimed the area. Lassim steadied his breath as he tapped his jade bracelet for an update on the system ranking.
/////
Total Participants: 3,569
---Second Trial Ranking---
Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are publish𝒆d on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.
1. Rygar Wildheart - 43 pts
2. Lassim Vanthar - 25 pts
3. Lustria Alisone - 10 pts
4. Sirium Giffard - 6 pts
5. Marcie Springwater - 0 pts
6. Tex Gravewood - 0 pts
...
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Time Remaining: 23:46:22
/////
As he stared at the ranking list, he was surprised at how not even 15 minutes had passed but nearly 500 students had been saved and dismissed out of the elemental plane.
’That’s strange... Why does the number keep falling?’ Lassim stared at the participants and noticed every few moments the number would go down by one or two.
He had an ominous feeling but he could only trust in himself. He said he would help protect weaker students, so he decided his first priority would be to see if he could find other people nearby. The elemental plane seemed massive though, so he wasn’t sure how long it would take.
As Lassim scrolled through the rankings on his jade bracelet, the earth beneath him gave a violent shudder.
His instincts flared again, the adrenaline from this just happening still in his veins. He leaped back just in time as the ground where he stood erupted in an explosion of rubble 10 times the previous one. His empowered and strengthened body barely dodging out of the way.
Emerging from the depths was a monstrous being, its appearance like something like a worm that was torn from the nightmares of the abyss. The creature was colossal, stretching 50 meters in length, with a girth of 30 meters. Its skin was a ghastly blend of decaying browns and sickly greens.
The worm’s mouth was a horror to witness. It’s "face" was a gaping maw lined with rows of long, needle-like teeth, each one as large as Lassim’s whole height. The rocks that slide into the maw were being serrated and torn to shreds within its gaping cavity. Its eyes, if it had any, were no where to be seen, yet it moved through the earth as effortlessly as a fish through water.
Lassim, heart fully racing again with adrenaline at full speed, readied his halberd again. His elemental spirits in their egg forms were whirling around the inner-heart world within, seemingly eager for the confrontation.
The worm’s trajectory had missed Lassim and brought it back down as it dived into the ground, disappearing from sight. The slow rumble of rocks below was the only indication it was still in the area.
Then, it reappeared moments later in a different location, this time changing it’s strategy to lunge at Lassim from afar with its terrifying mouth wide open in a strange roar that sounded like the scraping of metal that vibrated immensely. The sheer bass of the noise the creature produced was shaking Lassim’s body.
Lassim fiercely dodged and weaved periodically, attempting to inflict as much damage whenever the beast emerged. Yet, he realized that usual attacks barely fazed the giant creature; its hide was thick, and its movements were unpredictably fast for its size. It was like battling a creature spawned from some other world that was relentless and seemingly invulnerable.
The brief moments to react to inflict damage wasn’t enough to put enough power behind a meaningful blow.
In an attempt to think outside the box, Lassim changed his strategy. Channeling his elemental power of water to prepare ice like Valeria had during training; he waited for the worm to attack again.
As it burst forth from the earth, it appeared and lunched with it’s mouth agape and ready to swallow Lassim whole. This time he unleashed a torrent of ice at the creature’s maw.
The ice formed rapidly like a spider web of frost spreading across the worm’s teeth and deep into its throat. The mouth was momentarily sealed shut with an unbreakable cold. The worm thrashed wildly on top of the ground. It’s main ability for traveling so smoothly through the dirt was hampered, and the ground trembled under its vain attempts to shatter the icy mouth guard.
Seizing the moment, Lassim deftly leaped onto the creature’s "head", or what he presumed was its head, and plunged his halberd with his his water element that gave it extra weight sending it deep inside. Then the lighting cloud overheard, that always appeared when he cycled his [Storm Bringer] technique, sent a thick bolt of lightning down towards Lassim.
He channeled it directly into the beast’s body.
The worm’s movements grew frenetic, its muffled bass-like roar vibrating through the ground and air. It shook Lassim’s internal organs hard as he was still directly in contact with the worm’s body. Dark and putrid blood oozed from the wound, soaking and acidifying the earth with its foulness.
After a few more moments tense struggle and seizing, the worm’s thrashing slowed. Its life force ebbed away under the relentless assault of the wound and more lightning shocks.
Finally, with a single last shudder, the giant worm laid still.
Standing atop the vanquished worm, Lassim’s chest heaved with exertion. Yet when he looked out over the landscape, what he saw gave him a terror. He tapped his jade bracelet once again and the flashing with the points he had earned from slaying such a formidable foe appeared, but that wasn’t his focus. His full attention went towards the total number of participants that was now at 3,246.
"So... I guess that’s why they call it the Abyssal Legion then." Lassim lamented before jumping down from the worm’s body before preparing himself in another battle stance. As he looked out, the entire horizon was covered in all directions with countless creatures and beasts.
Some were specks of black dots that floated in the sky, some sort of flying type monsters, while others were massive and kicking up dust on the edges of his vision.
He had fought the abyssal worm for nearly 40 minutes, leaving just 23 hours or so left of the trial.
"This is going to be a long one.... How do they even expect us to last the full time given?" he sighed before taking a deep breath and attempting to speed up the growth of the size of the thunderstorm overhead. It’s mass growing expanding outwards.
Rain began to pour down onto the dry land as the thunder slowly rumbled, echoing like war drums to welcome the oncoming horde.