Darkness, Levi felt like he was succumbing in a deep sea of darkness, he couldn't feel anything at all, until...
'It's soft... wait what?'
Once again, he opened his eyes in shock, finding himself on the same bed of his home.
The boy raised his torso but remained speechless, he was still alive, and once again at the starting point.
Looking out the window, the same sight as when he first found himself in this room met his gaze.
'Is this really the Serpentine Essence's test?'
He could not find any other answer for it, he did not know what the test was really about but assumed he had to escape the mercenaries' grasp and run away.
He instantly got dressed, packed what little supplies he owned and headed out through the door. Luckily, Levi lived pretty close to the nearby forest and also knew it was safe to camp for the night, that was his plan, avoid the mercenary group for as long as possible until the test ends.
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.
.
It was barely noon so Levi did not have a lot of things to do, he admired the solemn trees and closed his eyes in joy at the calming sound of rustling leaves.
Finally, it has been a long while since the last time he had been able to feel so relaxed, even before he got forced into the caravan of slaves, Levi was living a pretty stressful life, he always had to sustain himself by working tirelessly.
Soon enough, night came, Levi found it weird that the test did not end right away, he was pretty sure the mercenaries already found another target and left the village.
Shrugging this thought off, the boy made himself comfortable in a makeshift bed made out of leaves and went to sleep.
Breathing in the fresh air, Levi shifted and slowly woke up, he felt strangely comfortable, he was wondering how come his makeshift bed felt so soft.
'Wait...'
Opening his eyes in an urgent manner, he found himself back in his home, everything seemed just like the day before, he had been brought back.
'Damn it!'
Levi cursed in his head, he did not understand what was happening, why was he back at the starting point? Shouldn't the purpose of the test be survival? If not then what was it?
He started to contemplate on the matter and could only find a few possibilities.
Obviously. simply hiding away from his fate was wrong, maybe he should achieve something more grand rather than simply surviving, for example if he managed to run away from those mercenaries and not get caught by Marcus.
Another possibility was that he had to fight them and also emerge victorious, somehow...
He was not too sure about this, he's watched all of the mercenaries fight and he knew they were indeed strong, even if he managed to land a sneak attack, a hooded man would take advantage of it and strike him instead.
And if he waited for them to finish fighting and emerge at the end he would have to fight 3 mercenaries all at once, he was not very confident in winning a head on fight, especially while being handcuffed.
Sighing, Levi strengthened his will and stood up, he did not know what to do at all but decided on going to the market to get caught.
'Trial and error I suppose.'
ALthough he did not like this idea of getting caught again, he had to give in, only so he would be able to receive some clues regarding the test.
.
.
.
This time, Levi did not protest at all while he was being kidnapped, he knew what was going to happen anyways, it was all in his plan too.
"Marcus... this kid is a weird one, he let himself be caught, i think he gave up on life, do we really want to bring him as a product?"
The burly man reported to Marcus, expressing his worry about the abnormal behavior of the youngster.
'Oh come one, it's not like I made it that obvious.'
Levi rolled his eyes as he heard the words of the mercenary.
"Don't bother, everything is fine."
Marcus looked over at the kid in question and did not find it as a threat, slaves were useful for all sorts of activities, they could also be sold at any time or exchanged for personal interests.
Without further ado, the slave caravan started to move away from the village.
.
.
.
It was the day of the ambush already, Levi was going to use the same trick as before to ensure the start of the chaotic battle.
"Argh!"
He stumbled and fell down, faking a sprained ankle.
"Stand up and stop slowing us down!"
The mercenary seemed softer this time, he only gave Levi a warning but seeing that the boy would not stand up he approached him and prepared to kick him in the stomach.
"Did you not hear me you little-"
Without finishing his sentence, the man's body fell to the ground, the battle had started.
Levi was once again standing at the margin of the group, waiting for the right opportunity.
Once the 4 slaves from the front fell down, it was his time to act once again, leaning down he grabbed the sword from one of the mercenaries and rushed forward to meet the attack of the hooded figure.
He already experienced it before so this time was not any different, however, he managed to deflect it quicker, rotating his body with grace he delivered a powerful slash to the man's abdomen, blood sprawled out and the assailant fell down on the ground.
'Shit, did i just kill him?'
This was his first kill on a human being, a bitter feeling emerged inside his consciousness, it was a cruel world but the fact that he had killed someone still impacted him quite a lot.
But there was no other choice around it, he was well aware of the concept of kill or be killed, and fortunately, he didn't want to die a 3rd time.
He scanned his surroundings and saw that one of the mercenaries had one more hooded man to take care of, he was dominating him and the battle would be over soon, a great opportunity.
Levi sneaked behind the man and synchronized his attack when the man would finish off the hooded figure, making his attack unavoidable, the next moment he saw that opportunity, Levi dashed forward and prepared to deliver a powerful horizontal slash to the man's back.
Maybe because of his smaller body, the mercenary did not hear his steps and screamed out in pain as he felt his back being slashed violently by a sharp sword. The mercenary fell down and without a chance to see his attacker, he died being beheaded.
'This is it!'
Levi exhaled heavily and instantly raised his head, running off in the forest.
'I need to see if escaping like this would work.'
Obviously he avoided the direction he remembered Marcus came from last time, hurrying to escape as far as possible.
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.
Finally, the boy was far away from the deadly battlefield, he was resting on a boulder placed at a crossroad.
'This should be it.'
This was one of the possibilities Levi had thought of, surviving while also being taken as a slave. He did not have a lot of confidence in being the only one standing in the midst of that battle and also did not think the Serpentine Essence would be that unreasonable.
Hopefully.
For the next few hours he tried to take off the shackles bound to his arms, it proved to be much harder than expected, he could not exert enough force to break the metal chains.
'Whatever, the chain is broken in the real world.'
With that in mind, he searched for a more suitable place to sleep as it had started to rain. Levi got off the boulder but froze in place the next instant.
Marcus... the lean warrior was looking at him with a threatening gaze, he was slowly walking on the path leading to the boy, readying his sword.
'Fuck! How is he here!'
"I finally found you, little rat!"
Marcus seemed to barely be able to contain his anger, in the next moment he leaned forward and dashed towards the boy, instantly closing the distance between him and Levi.
This time the boy was ready and jumped backwards, making the slash only hit the droplets of rain.
'Fast!'
The swift essence bearer was even more threatening close up, he moved with great precision and experience, just after his attack missed his target he prepared to deliver another one.
Placing his weight on his right leg, Marcus twisted his arms and slashed horizontally, the air whistling at the ferocity of the attack.
A loud metallic sound resounded at the crossroad, and in the next moment a sword flew to the side, Levi got dominated by the sheer force of his opponent and now stood defenseless against him.
'Ah, not again.'
Despite his wish, Levi died again, and just as he had expected, he woke up on the soft bed.
He stood up and punched the wooden wall, bruising his knuckles in a reckless manner while shouting loudly.
"Damn it!"
'Why was he there...'
He could not understand, he was so close this time as well but stumbled into the essence bearer.
He was tired of it already, but had no other choice, Levi needed to persist and try again.
On his 4th try, Levi approached the trial the same as the last time, he finished killing the mercenary just like last time and took another route, running as fast as he could.
Just like that, Levi ran and ran until it got dark outside, he only stopped due to the sharp pain in his lungs, his body felt heavy and hot, every breath he took would ignite a spiking suffering to his lungs but at least he was safe now.
Or so he thought...
The silence of the night was broken by the rustling sound of the fluffy bushes, it was a much different sound compared to the one the rain produced, a set of dangerous steps echoed in the boy's ears, he widened his eyes in fear and shock.
"No- No, how?"
His voice was barely audible, hoarse and tired from the hours he spent running.
In front of him, Marcus was there again...
"You filthy slave, you dare kill all of my companions and then try to run away?"
Marcus looked slightly tired as well, but it was not a problem for an essence bearer to run for a few hours, their bodies were much more resilient compared to a normal human's. On top of that, Marcus was fuming with rage and hatred towards this boy, apparently, due to him, all of the mercenaries there would end up dying.
Levi was still in great shock after seeing Marcus, he seemed to be following him everywhere, making sure the boy would get killed no matter how far he would run.
He was too tired to put his guard up or protest against the swift attack of the essence bearer.
Levi died, once again.
Waking up on his 5th try, the boy felt terrible, he tried his hardest but it proved to be useless in the end.
'What the hell am I supposed to do?...'
He was slowly going mad, in total he had spent 16 days in this hellish experience, it was not easy at all, Levi had to walk barefoot as a slave for the majority of the time and then fight with his life on the line and try to escape.
Tiring, it was too much for him to handle.
'Right, I shouldn't despair in fear...'
He remembered the words of the snake once again, maybe this is what he meant when advising him.
'I need to try something else this time...'
With the new resolve he had found inside him, Levi stood up and headed outside, back in the busy streets of the small market.
.
.
.
The day of the ambush came once again, just like before, Levi managed to kill the hooded man and the mercenary, he was not afraid of them anymore, the feeling of handling the straight sword got more and more familiar.
This time, Levi was going to wait until the end of the battle, and deliver the last strike, thus remaining the last one standing.
The remaining 2 mercenaries had to fend off about 8 hooded figures, they were slowly getting tired and getting overwhelmed by the sheer number advantage.
More deadly confrontations ensued on the battlefield, in the end only 2 hooded figures remained and a group of 4 slaves.
Strengthening his will and tensing up his muscles, Levi dashed forward from his hiding spot, surprising the 2 hooded men. He slashed diagonally at one of them and managed to etche a deep wound on his thigh, making his moves much slower.
"Rise and fight if you want to survive!"
Levi screamed towards the remaining slaves that were behind the hooded men, urging them to fight off the threat in front of them for a chance at making it out alive.
Something seemed to have snapped in the minds of the 2 women and 2 men of the group, as they rushed and grabbed the limbs of the 2 remaining assailants.
They punched, scratched and bit them, gaining some damage in return as well obviously but they managed to hold them down with their weight, completely immobilizing them.
Levi did not stand idle in all the chaos he had unleashed, he pierced the abdomen of the 2 with his sword, killing them in the process.
With this, only him and 4 other slaves remained standing, he was by far the one in the best condition between all of them, the women had gathered some light wounds from the hooded men while the men looked like they were not too far away from dying from lack of nutrients.
The mood was suffocating, no one uttered a word, Levi simply went to the carriage and climbed on top of it, he was not sure if he had to kill those innocent people but he did not have the courage to do it, such cruelty went against his morals.
Plus, he did not believe that killing them would bring him any closer to completing the essence's test, they were far too weak and lost.
Although he managed to survive until the end of the battle, the test did not seem to end...
He was still inside this nightmare, having to stand atop dozens of corpses.
Soon enough, he realized the true trial he had to fulfill.
'So it's you...'
Marcus had come back from the fight against the enemy essence bearer.