Victor breathed heavily as he zigzagged through the stone constructs, he could hear the beasts growling very close to him, time after time he would turn around to strike them or block their hits, but unlike the first stage the beasts in the second stage were sturdier and faster. He didn't dare use his sword intent during all this so he wouldn't attract more beasts, but without it he couldn't take a breather, or he would be fatally injured.
'Think, think!' He gritted his teeth. The hair on his neck tingled and he instinctively dodged to the side, an Aura Beast sailed past him and smacked against a large rock, smashing it to pieces. Instead of running away Victor decided to take care of the beast before it regains its bearings, the ground cracked under his feet as he zoomed towards the beast and thrusted his sword into its throat.
But the beast didn't die, it thrashed its body violently, almost causing Victor to let go of his sword.
''Shit!'' Victor yelled, the beast didn't want to die, and his sword was stuck in it, and the other two beasts were about to pounce on him. With his brain working in overdrive, he took a gamble and used his sword intent, the pressure it brought slowed down the beasts, giving him time to draw his sword out and leap out of the way.
He tried to condense his sword intent, and he could actually feel it compressing, but it was too slow. He immediately switched to something else, his mind working faster than it ever had. He decided to let go of his sword intent, if it attracts more beasts then so be it[]
He released all his energy, his Aura billowed haphazardly in the wind, and the invisible sword intent filled the whole area. He gathered as much of his sword intent as he could in front of him and thrusted his sword forward, the beast he aimed at was sent spiraling backwards with a big hole in its side. The last beast knew no fear, and it waded through the harsh currents of the sword intent just to get to him, Victor slashed down with all his might and ripped it apart.
He immediately confined his sword intent and left the area before more beasts show up, one he could handle but if they came in groups, he would have to break his badge or he would die.
He huffed as he ran, turning around a bend in the road, then ran gobsmack into a herd of goats. The goats had long horns that curved to their backs, were two feet tall and had a gaseous yellow body.
''No. Fucking way.'' Victor said despondently. The goats growled threateningly before rushing towards him, the one in front aimed its horn at him. Victor raised his sword to block it, the goat's horns rammed into him, the force sent him rolling.
Victor coughed violently, the pain giving him the illusion that his chest had caved in. As he sucked air into his bruised lungs his mind for some reason wandered to the past, when he trained with Annie. He always felt frustrated anytime he would get knocked down, but she never once looked at him condescendingly. One afternoon, while he was getting back on his feet, she said a few words.
''You always get back up, no matter how many times you get knocked down, I respect that about you. You never stop trying and you never give up, you're going to great things Victor.
He had never heard such encouraging words, not even from his family. But she was right, he hated giving up.
He stood up slowly and angled his sword at the beasts, his Aura blazed, and a red flame bloomed on his chest. His aura extended from his sword, giving it a farther reach, and he removed the lid off his sword intent. He was bringing out his full power to fight the beasts.
''I won't lose!" He didn't care that they outnumbered him, nor did he care that his sword intent brought them to a frenzied state. Annie's reassuring smile resurfaced in his mind, he gripped his sword tighter and ran into the midst of the Aura Beasts.
When the beasts entered his sword intent, they slowed down a bit, it was barely noticeable, but it was a bit helpful. Even though their frenzied state brought down their intelligence they still retained their instincts, when one attacks another one would instantly replace it. Victor discarded defense – leaving that to his Aura – and focused on attacking, targeting their necks because their heads were too sturdy. He utilized the movements in his sword manual to the maximum, adding some quick thrusts here and there, and his sword intent was left sharp cuts on the beasts around him, but he didn't notice it because he was occupied.
Beasts were dying around him, but they were quickly replaced by others, his sword intent seemed to be attracting even more beasts, wounds were piling up on his skin. But the battle was sharpening his movements, his Pouncing Tiger movements complimented his thrusting force. His sword intent tightened, and dead beasts were flooding him with energy.
But the energy couldn't chase away his fatigue, his arms were getting numb, and his feet felt swollen, he needed to rest but was forcing himself to stand upright. He miss-stepped and tripped on his feet, a beast took the opportunity to attack him. Right before it rammed its horn into him, Victor exploded his sword intent all around him, he was blasted backwards but the beasts around him were torn to pieces.
Victor fainted before he touched the ground, his Aura fizzing out like wet firewood. The beasts raced towards him, ready to tear him to pieces, they were just a few feet away from him when a monotonous voice sounded.
''Challenge complete.''
The white light surrounded him and transported him safely to the other stage, but he the challenger was passed out on the floor.
Victor laid there, silently breathing. Unknown to him, his Aura had slowly reached the condensed stage of the Second Aura, but he still didn't wake up. A few minutes later, a white, bright light blossomed from the ground next to him and a figure appeared. The person looked at Victor in shock then rushed to see if he was okay, after checking his pulse and breathing they brought out the badge Victor wore as a necklace and broke it, a vortex appeared and sucked Victor out of the Sword Mountain.
…
Azealia's life in the past few days was nothing short bizarre, she could confidently say that the past few days were more exorbitant than her whole life combined. For the most part, she was confined in the colorless place, no matter what she did, she was unable to leave the slow-moving grey figure of her captor. Because she was stuck to his side, she got to follow him everywhere, the only time she was released was when he needed to bathe or use the toilet. When released she would be tied up by his magic and watched by the other two members. At least he was kind enough to drop food into the colorless world for time to time.
Anytime she was brought from the colorless world she would be watched by the companions of her captor, the girl would glare at her until she got bored, while the other man would try his best not to look at her, but she would sometimes catch him glancing her way in sympathy.
Azealia sneered as she nibbled the chicken lap she had been given for lunch, she felt she could have the other man – she heard them call him Lorax – help her escape, he seemed to not want someone as pretty as she to be in captivity. Even with just her head visible and without talking she knew how to utilize her facial emotions to draw men closer to her, a little fluttering of her eyelashes and a flash of doe, sad eyes, he would soon find himself dancing on her palms and betraying her comrades for her.
Suddenly, she felt extreme vertigo and she found herself back in the real world again, and as usual after that she was bounded before she could move. She sighed angrily and glared at her captors; she hadn't quite finished the chicken lap they gave her.
''Are we finally going to interrogate her?'' Jasmine said.
''Yeah, yeah,'' Damon waved his hand, ''I was just sorting out the questions I would ask her.''
''Knowing you, you probably still have no intelligent questions and are going to improvise.''
''Let's just get on with the interrogation, please!''
Damon walked closer to Azealia while Jasmine snickered behind him, he crossed his arms while staring down at her, he wasn't trying to be intimidating he just didn't know how to proceed. Azealia rolled her eyes internally at his faux bravado.
Damon cleared his throat, ''How did you find us?''
Azealia stared at him like he was an idiot.
''Does that matter now?! We already caught her!'' Jasmine said behind him.
''Oh, right. Yeah, right.'' Damon stumbled on his words.
'Hmph, amateurs.' Azealia scoffed internally.
''Well, we believe that the sorcerers probably sent her to kill us right? So, ask her where their hideout is.'' Lorax said.
''Yeah! Where are the sorcerers hiding? Where and when are they planning to strike?'' Damon yelled while pointing. Awkward silence followed afterwards.
''Alright, I've tried my best and she didn't answer. Lorax, your turn, get the truth out of her.''
''This was probably you're plan all along, wasn't it?'' Lorax grumbled as he walked closer to Azealia.
Azealia subtly changed her expression from unyielding and strong to a sad, broken-down young lady who was in uncomfortable and in pain. She might have been unlucky to have been caught by them but the way they were handling her told her they were inexperienced in keeping hostages, even their so-called torture would probably be mild hits. Whatever they did to her, she was sure she could take it.
Lorax stood before her with an odd expression, she had to force herself not to sneer in disdain and focused on making her eyes look moist, not enough for tears to fall but enough to make her look vulnerable when he started his so-called torture. But Lorax just raised over her without touching her, she began to think he was too cowardly to even touch her when an unimaginable pain seized her entire body.
A guttural scream burst out from her mouth but was silenced by Damon who covered her mouth with the shadows. Azealia had never felt something like this before, even though she had been trained from a young age to be able to withstand pain that would make a grown man cry for his mother. Everything hurt, every part of her body was in pain, from the soles of her feet to the insides of her scalp. It was like her entire body had been given an order, which was 'be in pain.'.
The pain abruptly stopped just like it came, it felt like what she went through was just an illusion. She couldn't even feel phantoms of the pain, she only felt immense fatigue.
''Wow, Lorax, you actually did it. I thought you couldn't hurt someone with such a pretty face.'' Damon clapped.
''Are you kidding me? Those sorcerers want to destroy everything I hold dear, like hell am I going to hold back on someone just because she's pretty.'' Lorax snorted, ''I'd torture a child to protect my friends and family, especially an evil child who's helping people raise the dead.''
''So, you think she's ready for our questions now?'' Jasmine asked.
''Nah, but I'm sure she will after a few rounds of Lorax's love.'' Damon nodded at Lorax for him to continue.
Azealia watched all this happen with wide eyes, she realized then that she had been wrong about them. They weren't incompetent, they were diabolical. She shook in trepidation as Lorax's hand hovered over her head, his palm generating a fear she hadn't felt in a long time.
But no matter how much she wished for the opposite, her body was racked with pain once more. The fake tears she had initially prepared became real, her body convulsed terribly, after a while her brain couldn't take it anymore, her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
''Oh!'' Lorax jumped backwards when she fainted.
Jasmine sighed, ''Well, we made her faint, guess we'll have to ask her later.''
Damon crossed his arms and frowned in concentration, according to the plan they should have left the Pink Phoenix Duchy already, if they don't get concrete answers from the lady then they would need to kill her –
A cold chill suddenly ran down Damon's back and goosebumps raced down his arms, he felt an existence peering at him from the shadows. He used his magic to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from and found out it was from the young lady who fainted.
''…Damon? Is everything okay?'' Jasmine asked.
Damon didn't answer but kept staring directly at Azealia, Jasmine who had been with him for long realized something was wrong and went on alert. Damon inched closer to Azealia, his magic grabbed a hold of every shadow in the room, he was ready to attack at any given moment.
When he was just a few feet away from Azealia, a monster burst out of her mouth, it shook and writhed its amorphous body. The sudden appearance shocked Damon, causing him to trip and fall. But he still attacked, sending dozens of shadow spikes at the creature. But the monster flattened itself on the ground, effectively dodging the attack.
Jasmine was about to rush towards it but Damon stopped her, ''Stop, we don't know what that is!'' He kept her behind him.
''We didn't know the beasts in the Unsafe Zones, but we still fought them!'' Jasmine growled and fought against his hold.
The creature seemed to be mad, its body twisted and turned as it attacked the furniture. It jumped at Lorax but was blocked by a shield, after being blocked it twisted its body and jumped towards Damon's side. Jasmine pushed Damon out of the way and punched the creature, it flew backwards and smashed through the window.
Damon quickly went to look out the window, his eyes quickly caught a writhing figure moving through the streets.
''What the hell was that?!'' Lorax asked.
''I think it's been established that we have no idea what it is.'' Jasmine said.
''I might have I idea,'' Damon said, ''It's possible that that thing came from the Shadow Realm.''
''But that's not possible,'' Jasmine disputed, ''according to the rules of the realm, you can only use shadows to pass in and out of the Shadow Realm. And the monster came out of her,'' she pointed at Azealia, ''you covered her whole body with shadows, so she wasn't casting shadows herself.''
''Yeah, but her head wasn't covered.'' Damon reminded her, ''That thing probably used the shadow of her head for some sort of gateway.''
''But it came out of her mouth, and her mouth was covered. How do you explain that?'' Lorax asked.
''I have no idea, Lorax. I don't spend lengthy periods of time in the Shadow Realm, who knows what sorts of weird shit is in there!''
''Well, we're not leaving it alone right?'' Jasmine asked, ''I'm pretty sure there isn't any one in the immediate area that can deal with that thing.''
''Of course not, I'm going after it.'' Damon said, ''Lorax you're coming with me, Jasmine watch her.'' Before Lorax could protest, he had been dragged into the Shadow Realm.