[ Ascension Realm - Fortress 1, Time Elapsed ( 1 minute ) ]
Swish!
A blade was swung, arching forward towards the head of a small lizard type humanoid half the size of a normal human.
Its serpentine eyes contracted, dodging to its left side. The lizard type creature narrowly avoided its head being cut off, escaping with a small cut on its left cheek.
It let out a low growl as it prepared to launch a counter attack. Unfortunately for the monster, its evasion was not successful as it felt a piercing sensation in its back.
A flash of realization appeared on its face.
'Stabbed. These lowly beings dared to stab my divine body.'
But before it could act on its anger, the blade that it thought it evaded came back to hack off its head with more ferocity than before.
It became obvious that the creatures it was facing had laid a trap for it, and the first attack it had received was just feint to kite it into position.
What a pathetic way to go out. Three attacks in and it was already dead.
On its way to the endless void of death as its head flew through the air, it saw an unbelievable sight.
Three of its companions were also receiving the same treatment as it was. Their severed heads had also been sent into the air.
It seemed that its opponents had a well coordinated plan for it and its companions long before it was summoned.
'What dreadful cretans…'
However, this was not the most shocking thing it saw before its death.
At the center of the chaotic filled stood a lone human fighting off against 5 of its kin. Not only was the human holding them off, it was even able to completely suppress the 5 and even injure them.
The marsh grassland was being dyed by their blood as it slowly seeped from their cuts and wounds. It was likely that these five small lizard-like humanoids were going to face the same fate as their companions. Death.
Given that the human had not even taken a single hit, it was guaranteed.
And surely enough, just as the now dead reptilian creature had imagined, the remaining lizards had turned into corpses.
…
A minute ago.
Out of thin air, a vortex appeared above an almost dried up marsh grassland. The only signs indicating that this was once a swampy marsh were the streaks of water running down some of the cracks within the mud covered ground.
If one were to look closely enough they would notice that the water had hints of purple infused into it.
From the vortex appeared 9 well dressed armed people, all wielding machetes in their hands. At the center of the group was a Korean man with a determined look on his face.
The man's name was Leonardo Choi, or Leo for short, the apparent leader of this group of individuals. He took a glance at his surroundings, taking note of every little detail of his environment.
From the dried husks, dead trees, to the innumerable amount of insect caracases. Assessing all the visual information in front of him within an instance, Leo opened his mouth to speak.
"Marsh wasteland, this is a Lizardman domain. Prepare formation 3, pair up and…"
Before he could continue a blue panel popped up in front of everyone's faces.
[ Welcome to the Ascension Trial - Fortress 1 ]
[ Task 1 ]
┎
In 30 seconds wild monsters will spawn around you and your team. Defeat them and absorb their life essence.
Life essence will go the team that dealt the last blow to the monster
Life essence will be distributed evenly throughout the team at the end of each wave
Either survive 10 waves or reach the city at the center of the Fortress Island.
Each wave will occur every 10 minutes.
The number of monsters will depend on the number of people in your team and will increase with every successive wave.
For Teams with less than 10 members, 1 will spawn per member. 2 additional monsters per wave.
For Teams with 10 to 99 members, 5 will spawn per member. 5 additional monsters per wave.
For Teams with 100 or more, 10 will spawn per member. 20 additional monsters per wave.
Monsters that have spawned will remain and attack other trialees once all team members are dead or have reached the city.
Monsters will absorb life essence of dead trialees to get stronger
You may bring up your task details by thinking about Task 1 with the intent to see this information.
┛
[ Time Left ( 30 seconds ) ]
"... don't lose focus!"
Leo's words were drowned out by the melodic robotic voice that rang in everyone's ears. As such he repeated himself.
"Lizardmen, Formation 3!"
With that shout, the other 8 snapped straight into action.
Half of them rushed forward, when they were about 50 feet from the group, the four turned to face the rest of them.
[ Time Left ( 25 seconds ) ]
Seeing that they were in position, Leo started to give the remaining four some orders.
"Okay, now all four of you space out. Wait for my signal and get into position. Don't look back, just get ready to run and stab when I give the signal."
The group did as they were told and spreaded out, leaving about 5 feet in between each other. Leo at the center, brought out another machete to wield with his left hand, essentially dual wielding them. He readied himself into a fighting position.
However, unlike him, the four beside him were not in a fighting stance. Instead they seemed to be like track and field athletes preparing for a relay race. While not in full starting blocks position, they were ready to run at any given moment.
The time ticked down.
[ Time Left ( 3 seconds ) ]
[ Time Left ( 2 seconds ) ]
[ Time Left ( 1 seconds ) ]
[ Wave 1 ( In Progress ) ] [ Time Left ( 600 seconds ) ]
Just like what happened with Kai's group, monsters started to materialize a few feet in front of each person. In a few seconds they would be fully corporealized.
However, before the monsters were fully formed, the four beside Leo took off and dashed towards their companions 50 or so feet away. They passed the monsters that were forming without the slightest care in the world as if they knew they wouldn't be attacked.
And true to their assumptions, the lizard-like humanoids did not attack nor did they even react. It was as if they were frozen and couldn't move in the slightest, trapped in a stasis of sorts.
Within a couple of seconds as the monsters were about to be fully materialized the four reached their intended locations, behind the monsters facing the other 4.
A single monster was sandwiched between 2 of the well armed people. They were ready to launch the so-called "Formation 3" that Leo called out.
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
ROAR!!!
Nine deafening booms sounded out, echoing in the ears of the group of humans, finally announcing the arrival of the monsters.
Yet this didn't deter or make the group of well armed people hesitate. Those who were facing the monsters instantly sent a swing of their machetes towards their heads.
The slashes weren't too fast for the lizard to not be able to react to them, but weren't not slow enough for the lizards to block it. The best option for the monsters was to dodge it and launch a counter attack.
Since all the slashes were coming from their lefts they decided to sidestep to the right backwards, narrowly missing their scaly necks.
At this point those positioned at the monsters' backs launched their own attacks. They stabbed forward with knives in hand, which had replaced the machetes they had entered the trial with.
With this, they instantly attracted the ire of the monsters, but before they could even attack with their own weapons, their heads were ruthlessly sliced off their necks. Just a second into Task 1 of the Ascension Trial and 4 lizard-like creatures have been separated from the world of the living.
But this battle wasn't over. Leo, who had been left to face the remaining 5 monsters, now initiated his own attack.
First was a horizontal slash with his left machete.
Swish~
Splurt!
Thud!
The right hand of the lizard directly in front of Leo was lobbed off, flying through the air hitting the face of its companion directly next to it, making it flinch.
A low pained growl came out from the now one handed lizard humanoid.
Without wasting any movement, Leo continued his onslaught. At the same time as the left machete made contact with the lizard's wrist, the machete held in Leo's right hand slashed vertically, downwards onto the head of the lizard.
It only noticed the blade aiming for its life when it was inches away from it. The lizard frantically tried to block but alas it was too late. Death had arrived. The machete had easily sliced its skull and pierced its brain.
Once his blade was inside the lizard's head, Leo thrusted forward and started to twist the machete, scrambling the monster's brains. It let out a low growl as it exhaled its last breath. Yet, Leo did not even react to its death. He continued his merciless display of skill and strength.
Upon seeing the terrifying strength of the human in front of them that was capable of almost instantly killing them, the remaining lizards jolted into action. Each threw out an attack trying to take advantage of the fact that Leo's right machete was stuck inside of their dead companion.
They swung their daggers clasped with their sharp claws straight at him, they were intent to tear him apart and kill the wretched human. They had to avenge their dead kin.
However, they didn't expect him to let go of his weapon and dodge out of the way of their attacks. Logically speaking, from their limited knowledge, letting go of your weapon in the middle of battle was akin to a death sentence.
They had completely forgotten about the other machete gripped in his left hand. These monsters were only focused on the weapon that had ended the life of their companion.
He leapt backwards, allowing the lizard creature's dagger to miss and hit nothing but air. Having missed their target, the monsters stumbled forward a bit off balance from their lunges.
Leo shifted the machete to his right hand and prepared another attack. He took a quick but deep breath then launched himself forward with a horizontal swing.
The leftmost lizard was caught in an awkward position and couldn't properly block the attack. It was only able to raise its scale covered arms. Which was instantly cut into by the blade. However, this gave enough buffer time for it to shift its body to avoid the remaining attack, thus saving its life, or at least delaying its death for a moment.
Its eyes were locked on the human in front of it, wary of its next attack. Even still, it could not anticipate Leo's next move.
One moment, the lizard was staring at the human, the next its vision was blocked by something.
Wham!
A back kick landed squarely on the lizard creature's snout, launching it a few meters away. The force of the kick had knocked it out cold. As Leo brought down his leg he started to rotate and used the momentum generated by his body to deliver a roundhouse kick towards a lizard to his right.
Thwack!
Which sent the creature crashing into the dry marsh, cracking the earth. This kick was much more powerful than the previous one. Not only did it cause the lizard to pass out, but also cracked its skull and the force of the kick sent the cracked shards to pierce into its brain.
Clearly the monster was going to have brain damage. Even if it woke up from its black out state, the lizard was not going to be of much help.
All the while the remaining 2 lizards swiped at him downwards with their claws and daggers. As if knowing that the monsters would react this way, Leo maneuvered his body to dodge slightly forward and evaded them.
After executing these few attacks with such strength and speed, Leo became a little winded and could not carry out another instantaneous attack. So instead he decided to keep dodging their attacks waiting for his subordinates to finish their tasks and regroup with him. All the while, Leo was regaining his stamina.
A few seconds after the lizard, who was sent flying by Leo's first kick, crashed onto the ground, two of the bodyguards that accompanied Leo had reached the unconscious monster. Without hesitation, they stabbed down on the lizards' vital points, giving it a swift death.
A moment later, the remaining six reached the two and immediately the eight rushed towards Leo. Upon seeing the sight of Leo effortlessly evading the attacks of the lizards, they couldn't help but breathe in a cold breath. Thinking along the lines of, 'Boss Leo is truly a man of his word, look at how easy he is making these monsters look so weak.'
Each of them knew that if it wasn't for their earlier sneak attacks they would have been able to kill those lizards with such ease. They probably would have struggled just to deal with one. Seeing that their leader had not only fought 5 head on but also incapacitated 3 of them truly amazed them.
Still they were not inexperienced to the point of staring in awe of his greatness, as that would have been a waste of Leo's training. The eight soon arrived and surrounded the remaining lizards.
At this point they had all changed to their machetes and swung them vertically downwards. The two lizards tried to dodge but even with their speedy reaction times, they could not avoid all 8 blades coming towards them. One received 2 slashes and had its left forearm cut off and chest slashed. While the other was much worse off as 3 strikes landed on the back head directly died from the force of the impact.
When the lizard was about to counter attack with its right arm that held its dagger, intending to take at least one with it knowing full well that this would likely be its grave, a slash came thundering down on it. Instantly the creature's upper body was bisected in half. It didn't even know what happened before it died.
As the body slumped and split open, Leo's heavily breathing body was revealed. He had just regained a bit of his former stamina and saw that the lizard was preparing for a death strike. Without a second thought he mustered up all his remaining strength to end its life as he knew full well how vicious these monsters could get when cornered and forced into certain death.
They would burst forth with unimaginable strength and cause a disaster for the opposing side. Many tragic scenes played out in his mind as he recalled some memories. With a shake of his head, Leo looked over to his companions and said, "Good job. Now prepare to endure."
The group looked at him with a bit of confusion, but then they heard a dreaded voice come into their minds.
[ Wave 1 ( Complete ) ]
┎
Your team has completed Wave 1 of Task 1.
As a reward your team will receive an [ Awakening ].
Your physique will reach the [ Awakened ] level and a [ Bronze ] grade mana core will form inside your body.
For every [ Low-Grade Corrupted Kobold ] killed by the team, each person will receive 5 units of mana.
┛
[ Time Left ( 563 Seconds ) ]
[ Awakening will proceed in ( 10 seconds ) ]
The eight were stunned by the information they just received.
'What is this?'
'The fuck is an awakening?'
'What?'
'The boss didn't tell us anything about this…'
These types of thoughts arose in their minds as they looked at their boss who had now sat down, cross legged on the ground with his eyes closed. It seemed like Leo was mentally bracing himself for what this awakening had in store for him.
[ ( 3 seconds ) ]
[ ( 2 seconds ) ]
[ ( 1 second ) ]
Once the timer hit 0, unbearably loud screams of pain resounded throughout the marsh landscape.
Even the ever so stoic Leo was no different.
"Fuck…"
…
[ May 4th, Sydney, Australia, 5:00 AM AEST ]
A young man was currently passed out on a couch, drunk as hell. While on a slightly bigger couch another 2 young men were blacked out. Beer bottles and cans were scattered everywhere, from the floor to the table. Then suddenly a voice invaded their minds and woke them up.
┎
The Trials of Survival have begun. Your survival is in your hands.
As you are within a mega city with a population of more than 1 million, you all must participate in the Ascension Trials before joining the Regional Trials.
Trial details will be relayed to you once you enter the Ascension Realm.
This trial can be taken with a team. To form a team one must be in physical contact with a person entering the trial.
To enter trial think 'Ascend' with intent to go through the trial
Survive.
┛
"Huh?"
"What the fuck…"
"Bro, turn that shit down… trynna sleep."
The young man and his two friends had been rudely awakened. All three of them had searing headaches as they had drunk themselves to sleep last night.
They hadn't seen each other for almost 5 years. Ever since they had graduated high school they hadn't been able to get together as they had conflicting schedules. All 3 of them led different lives.
One of them stayed in the United States to pursue his passion for art and live to find himself. Along the way he found himself a girlfriend, but they barely went on dates as he was living quite frugally with his meager income from odd jobs and infrequent art commissions. Even still, his girlfriend supported his passion and became an emotional pillar for him. His name was Brandon Evans.
While another, Marcello Bernardi became an entrepreneur, entering the business world. At first he struggled to build his business as he didn't know how to market himself or his business. Yet after a few years, he turned his failure into experience to make his business flourish. Finally, last year his business broke through the mainstream, making him a young millionaire.
In fact, he was the one funding this trip to Australia.
The last of the three, Lucas Delarosa went overseas to study at the University of Sydney. He met a girl while studying marine biology in his second year. Eventually over the course of their undergraduate studies they grew close. They fell in love and he proposed to her. They decided to settle down in the city as he pursued his doctorate.
The three friends were currently sleeping in the living room while the fiancee and the girlfriend were in the master and guests bedrooms respectively.
As they came back to consciousness, what came into vision were not each other nor was it all the alcohol bottles and cans they consumed the previous night. No, it was a thin transparent red box with the words they just heard blaring into their minds.
As they were trying to figure out their current situation, shrill screams came from the bedrooms.
Shook into action, Brandon and Lucas rushed to their feet, stumbling over the bottles and cans on the floor. When they reached the doors to the room, they both realized that they were locked, so they knocked.
"Emma, you okay?"
"Babe?"
Worry was evident in their voices. Within seconds the two doors opened and the girls jumped into the embraces of their respective partners.
Holding his fiancee close, Lucas comforted her by kissing her forehead.
"It's okay Lisa, I'm here."
On the other side, Brandon was rubbing Emma's head. Silently comforting her so she could relax.
"Bradon, did you also see the red box?"
"Um?"
Only now did he notice the red panel at the corner of his eye. Before he could say anything, Marcello came into the hallway.
"Bros, I might be drunk but this doesn't seem like a dream, right?"
He pointed to an identical looking red panel floating beside him. Emma spoke up after getting a glimpse of it.
"Yeah that one, Brandon do you also…"
Brandon looked at the panel with the intention of moving it to show Emma. Like magic, it floated over towards his right pointer finger. Seeing this he seemed to understand something.
"You mean this right?"
"Yeah… how did you get it to move?"
"Don't really know, I just thought of moving it and it did."
"Oh."
Emma began to try it. First she thought of the red panel, it appeared within moments. Next she stared at her finger and thought of moving the red panel to it. Once it got to her finger, she wanted to shrink it and follow her finger.
It did so, and Emma started waving her finger everywhere. Brandon smiled seeing his girlfriend get back to her normal self, completely forgetting about her fear mere moments ago.
Seeing that he was getting ignored by the couple, Marcello couldn't help but shake his head.
'Maybe, I should start dating too… wait this isn't the time for that.'
Cough. Cough.
He cleared his throat to get their attention.
"Alright, alright. Shouldn't we get back on topic and focus on what exactly is happening?"
Giving Marcello a wry smile, Brandon looked back at his friend and actually focused on what the red panel was saying. He read it and the word "intent" caught his eye.
He noted that this was going to be very important in the coming days as that was what he used to control the red panel to move.
'Intent, hmm…'
Lucas and Lisa, who had now calmed down thanks to her fiance, joined the other three in the conversation to figure out what was happening.
"Um, so what do guys think is happening? Is this happening to everyone or to just us?"
"Honestly I don't know. Why don't we check the news?"
"Yeah, I'll turn to channel 12."
"Okay, I'll check twitter."
"Then I'll do youtube and twitch."
Marcello got the remote and turned on the TV while Lucas and Lisa grabbed their phones. Scrolling past a few channels, Marcello finally landed on the News channel. He didn't see the red panels being covered and there was no urgent news notice, so he could only patiently wait until it was covered.
Lisa didn't see much on her twitter timeline. It was all just the normal tweets, but once she opened the explore tab, the voice from before once again rang out. This time from the phone.
[ All communication and information will be restricted to those within the mega city you are currently residing in, until the ascension trial is completed. ]
Then a second later the same message came out of Lucas' phone as he had opened the just chatting tab a moment earlier. Lisa was a bit stunned hearing this and so were the others beside her.
"Seems like we can't contact anyone outside of Sydney."
Lucas said with a wry smile, his nervous tick. He felt helpless.
"Yeah…"
Lisa held onto Lucas' arm trying to calm herself down, it was obvious that that voice had caused her some trauma.
"..."
Marcello didn't know what to say, it seemed like getting any information would be difficult. He scratched his head as he tried thinking of something to solve their current predicament.
At this moment, Brandon finally spoke up.
"Luke, do you have any weapons?"
"Uh kinda. Why?"
Lucas turned to look at Brandon with a confused expression. He didn't know why Brandon was asking this now while they were discussing the situation.
"We might need them. Where are they?"
Hearing Brandon's answer, Lucas seemed to have thought of something and pointed towards the door to the garage.
"I have a few machetes and an ax in the garage."
"Great. Okay, everyone follow me."
Brandon gestured for the group to follow as he explained his plan.
"So the red panel said that we have to go into the Ascension Trial and our fate is in our own hands. If there is any danger we have to face I think we need something to protect ourselves."
"Besides, I don't really have faith in strangers. What do you guys say?"
Maybe they were still inebriated from their night of drinking, but his two good friends were swayed by his words. It had to be known that Brandon had been the leader of the group in their school days so it was only natural for the other 2 to trust his words.
"You're right. We gotta protect ourselves."
"Damn straight! I also have a few sledge hammers!"
"That's what I'm talking about, let's go bois!"
It seemed like they were getting carried away as they were reminded of their youth. Enabled by their drunkenness, their logic had truly gone out the window.
Seeing this Emma couldn't help but shake her head and pulled on Brandons collar to stop him.
"Brandon, what exactly is your plan? We haven't even figured out anything yet."
"Oh, right, I forgot to explain."
He slapped his forehead as if he just came to a realization. Emma became speechless. Both she and Lisa shared a look as their confidence in Brandon's plan wavered.
They had thought that he had figured something out after riling up his two bros, but it seemed like he was just spouting nonsense.
"Okay, so although I haven't grasped the whole situation, we need to take precautionary measures to protect ourselves. In most cases where there is widespread panic, people will probably stay holed up in their homes or leave the city."
"In the first scenario, we will have some time before people start running out of supplies and become desperate. On the other hand if it is the second scenario, we need to be prepared to fight our way out of the city."
He raised his pointer finger and the red panel appeared.
"However, based on the information we got from these red panels, I deduced that we will probably be trapped inside the city. Not only can we not get or send information outside of Sydney, but it is likely we're isolated from the rest of the world."
Brandon pointed to a line on the red panel.
"As you are within a mega city with a population of more than 1 million, you all must participate in the Ascension Trials before joining the Regional Trials."
"This single line indicates that we are gonna be stuck with the city until the Ascension Trials are complete, then we have to join the Regional Trials. And that term regional implies that there are multiple regions, so even after we pass the Ascension Trials, the world will probably be split into regions."
"So since we have to go through these trials, we have to take the initiative so we can have a head start. If we wait until someone else clears the trial for us, our lives would be in their hands and personally I wouldn't trust mere strangers with mine. What do you guys think?"
Emma and Lisa were pleasantly surprised at how much he was able to deduce from the limited information. Still they were hesitant.
"I think I understand, but why do we have to join now?"
"Yeah can't we at least wait until your hangovers are gone."
"I guess, but…"
At this time, Lucas came back from the garage into the hallway. He spoke up.
"We can't wait until then. If we lose our initiative we will have to compete with even more people. Think about it, even though other people will have the same idea as us and think of joining early, who would actually have the courage to actually join."
"Furthermore, I expect that when people run out of supplies, they will get desperate and join the trials. There will be an influx of people and we don't want to get caught in that tide."
Marcello appeared at the doorway and also pitched in.
"We also don't know how long the trials will take to clear. Would it take an hour, day, week, month, year? I don't know if our supplies would last us even a week. By then we would have to compete with other people to loot for supplies."
Emma was once again speechless at the 3 friends.
'Do y'all share the same brain cell or something?'
She couldn't help but feel as though the three of them had some sort of weird spiritual connection. Emma was completely unaware that the 3 had discussed this very scenario a multitude of times in their youths.
On the other hand Lisa didn't think much of this as Lucas had also shared these discussions with her over the years. As such she started to recall the plan she and her fiance came up with.
After a moment, she spoke up.
"I'll go to the kitchen and pack the essentials. Lucas, go get the survival kit from the closet."
With that she headed towards the kitchen to prepare what they needed.
"Okay, um, here, you guys put the stuff in the car."
Catching onto what she said, Lucas passed over the keys and went into the master bedroom. Now only Emma seemed to be out of the loop, as such she just gave up and went to help her boyfriend.
"So, Brandon, what should I do?"
"Hmmm… get some of our bags we need to have some clothes."
"Oh, okay."
…
After 10 or so minutes, the group were inside Lisa's black SUV. Lisa was in the drivers' seat, gripping the steering wheel with her hands, on her shoulder was Lucas' hand. At the back, from right to left, sat Marcello, Brandon, and Emma.
All of them also placed their hands on Lisa's right shoulder. Their expressions were heavy, they didn't know if their plan would actually work.
They wanted to enter the Ascension Trials with the SUV filled with supplies and weapons. However, they were uncertain of what would be transported with their bodies. Could they even bring their clothes?
They just didn't know. Even Brandon was not fully certain it would work, but he was still optimistic. He told everyone that we will be the one to think of entering with the intent to do so.
As such he would be the one to say the word.
"Ascend."
As he said this, he imagined himself and the black SUV carrying their supplies as one entity going into the trials.
Within moments they saw in front of them a purple vortex forming. Then in a mere fraction of a second, it consumed them. All they saw was a flash of purple.