Divyat came up into a massive cavern, pillars of ice stretched forth to hold up its ceiling. Many of the pillars had their top to bottom halves smashed or sliced, and each pillar on its own was roughly around 10 meters in diameter. They were massive and glowed with a crystalline light that happily shined light on the carnage that was happening right in front of him. Eldritch creatures of shadow and ice were flying about every which way, assaulting and killing all of the trial takers. The crystalline form of the pillars were stained blood red, as innards and entrails was scattered every which way, and going along with it were the screams of pain, rage and battle.
There was a central pillar more massive than the others, it pretty much looked like a tower, and that was made all the more prevalent when he noticed the stairs that had been carved into the side. Stairs that led upwards and directly out of the cavern through a hole on the ceiling where the bright glare of sunlight shone down. At the base of the ice tower was a small forest of ice stalagmites. They created an obstacle course of sorts that slowed down the beasts from attacking the people running upwards to the top of the tower. But that wasn't enough deterrence as there was enough people dying.
Divyat noticed the creatures seemed to be made of shadows with an ice exoskeleton, but beyond that they lacked any facial features, just snouts like wolves, but no eyes, no nose and even no mouth, yet somehow they were ripping people to shreds. Also Divyat noticed something peculiar, they all seemed to be hunting by sounds rather than by sight; every time they hear a scream, or the sounds of footfalls, they rush in that direction, and beyond that he noticed the louder the noise the more they're attracted to it. In order words, the smarter people remained silent while those making the noise were slain, buying them enough time to get through the obstacle course and get on the tower. But even on the tower there was battle going on between the people on it, and that was when Divyat noticed the massive number engraved on the pillar.
233 that quickly became 232 the moment someone walked up and out of the cavern. Perhaps the hole or the pillar itself would only give access to a certain amount of people, and everyone already on the tower were fighting for a spot, while those on the ground were desperate to move forwards in order to gain a spot and not be left behind. It was a blood bath as people thrown from the tower met a grisly end either by the creatures jumping into the air to snatch their bodies, or being skewered by the stalagmites on the ground.
There was no time to hesitate, just one look at the scene in front of him and that rapidly dwindling number let Divyat understand just what he was dealing with right now. Beyond all reasonable doubt, those who are unable to be out of this cavern by the time that tally reaches zero would definitely have to deal with those creatures, and from the look of things they seem positively endless, and there really wasn't an infinite amount of bodies to keep throwing at them as many of the trial takers seemed all too willing to do.
Divyat looked around and noticed he was on a ledge, he looked round and especially behind him, but the shadow that had dragged him to this cavern was gone and absolutely nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, he understood what they were now, he had no idea how, but somehow those shadows were portals that led to different areas of the trial or perhaps different area of the Ghadovara mountains. Perhaps this was the method the bandits had not only used to map the expansive continent sized mountain range, but actually travel across of it.
Again it shocked Divyat how easy it would have been for them to band together and invade the human empires that bordered the Ghadovara Mountains. But from what he could see here, they were so divided against each other that the idea of working together did not sit right with any one of them. Perhaps, only when a person with significant enough power rises up and subjugates all of the demi-human, demon and devil in the Ghadovara Mountains would there be hope of any sort of sizable force….Divyat hoped such a day never comes. As messed up as his situation was right now, he was still a human being…or at least some part of him was still human; he wouldn't want to see his true home and species fall to the likes of these monsters.
Divyat took off with a running start, pacing his footfalls and running away from the area that was most concentrated with people. Of course eventually he would have to deal with the carnage at the foot of the tower, but for now he would do his best to avoid these creatures. He had prior hunting training, and an improved body made it so he had more grace and finesse than he knew what to do with, this was a good enough chance to put it to practice.
But nothing was ever full proof. As Divyat ran past the side of one of the pillars, a massive Tauren barreled into him, his horns goring Divyat in the process as they both tumbled to the ground, the Tauren's horn snapping in the process hence remaining lodge in Divyat's chest, and piercing out his back.
The Tauren didn't stand on ceremony as he got up and ran, fearfully looking behind him as four of the shadow ice creatures gave chase. Divyat on the other hand stayed as still as he could, holding his breath and bearing with the pain he was feeling even though all he wanted to do at that moment was scream out in pain and rage. That proved to be the right thing to do on his part as the creatures did not even stop to access the area, they ran over his body in a split second, keeping to their chase of the Tauren.
Divyat got up and with shuddering breaths pulled the horn goring him out of his chest. He might have an impressive healing factor, but every injury he receives hurts as it should…at least for the few moments he had to endure it before his healing kicked in. The shirt he was wearing was already pretty much ruined, even the cloak itself seemed as if it had seen better days. Only his pants and boots were intact, and for him that was enough as he pulled both shirt and cloak, and held them all in his hand along with the horn. And there right in front of the shocked eyes of a group of almost two dozen people, his wound closed up as the whispered calls of 'Human' filled the air. And in that moment the counter dropped to 165.
"Looks like this just got a little bit harder."