"I'm sorry for intruding, but could you let us hide in here for a while? That monster back then is outside."
Shane was still catching up his breath as he tried to explain but Luna cut him off.
"Shhh! Be quiet or it will hear us."
They stood still and tried to hold their breaths, for the grotesque human-faced hellspawn might hear even the slightest bit of noise. A fight was breaking out in the small clearing outside the hidden cave. They could hear the painful cries of the sentinels as they were being slaughtered like pigs by a stronger evil entity.
The fight didn't last long and a few minutes after, the screams died down and the only thing they could hear was the sound of crunching of bones and tree barks while the creature was crawling outside, looking for another set of victims to kill. They all tensed and was scared witless but did not dare to scream, except for someone.
Luna was the only one who was looking as calm as ever as she readied her hand in the hilt of her sword in case the hellspawn would discover their presence. However, it started moving away from the cave and soon it was gone.
Feeling like they were pardoned from a brutal execution, they relaxed slightly with Ray and Stanley sweating profusely while Klaudia was in tears, both from mental exhaustion and at the same time, happiness. Escaping from death felt so good.
"I thought I'm done for."
"What the hell is this? This doesn't look like some kind of trial at all!"
Ray shivered as he complained loudly.
Shane was slumped against the wall, looking exhausted as well. All of them had a terrible day and their mood was already at rock bottom. Lloyd was the most pitiful of them all. Having almost no strength left, he weakly reached out to his old backpack and took out the rations given by the academy which contained five ready-to-eat canned goods and three bottles of water. He opened one of them and greedily eat and drank. Never in his life did the food taste so heavenly.
He remembered the days when he was still living on the streets of the outer district and could only eat food that were close to rotting. The taste was so horrible but he had no other choice but to eat what he could find. There were also times when he ate expired goods and filled with molds which made him terribly sick and thought he would die from it.
"I feel so thankful to be able to taste such good food."
Lloyd's exclamation made the others laughed a bit and lessened the tense atmosphere. He looked at them confusingly and asked.
"What? Did I say something weird?"
"What do you mean thankful? You actually had the guts to be thinking about food when we're moments away from death earlier. I wanna punch you, little guy!"
"Well… I prefer fighting that hellspawn than dying from hunger. You wouldn't want to know how it feels like to starve."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. I get your point."
Ray chuckled. Then he seriously added a warning to him.
"However, it's best you conserve your rations. Who knows how long we'll be stuck in this hell? If we run out of supplies, we're still as good as dead."
"That's right. Still, this is really strange. How could the trials be this difficult? Based on what I heard from aspirants who completed theirs, the trials would never send them to a place that would be beyond their capabilities. But this place is not something a powerless human like us could dare venture."
Shane agreed and voiced out his own ideas. No matter how he looked at things from the beginning up until their current situation, it didn't look like something they could conquer at all. Just a few minutes after being sent to the trials, they immediately encountered a man-slaughtering hellspawn which even took the life of a direct descendant of a great clan like Silverthorn. He now had a solid doubt there might have been errors in the process of the trials.
"And what was that hellspawn, anyway? Such an abomination couldn't probably have waited there for us to arrive, right?"
Everyone thought about Ray's question but didn't find a good answer. It was the blond-haired girl who answered which made them turn towards her.
"That was… "
"A what?" Everyone asked.
"An Elite." She said hesitatingly.
"How do you know? And uh, who are you again?" Shane questioned her.
"It's Klaudia Auclair. I know because I can identify them with my innate ability."
"What?! You already have an innate ability? How?"
Lloyd was intrigued by this revelation and asked her excitedly. He knew a little about innate abilities and obtaining them was worth more than any kind of weapon they could ever find in the world. He thought that if only he had awakened his right before the start of the trials, then he would have an ace that would help him throughout this whole damned ordeal.
"It's not just her. We have awakened our innate abilities, although, just partially. We cannot access our soul tree and only the most basic functions of our innates could be used." Luna chimed in. "As for how to awaken them partially, it differs from person to person. She awakened it through mastering her aim with the bow. I awakened mine by killing people."
"Killing people? What in the world—" Lloyd had a hard time digesting and thought his ears heard it wrong. They all paled upon hearing the shocking information she had just revealed.
"What I mean is I retaliated against my assailants who tried to take my life and killed them. Once you try to kill someone, you should count in the possibility of getting killed by your target." Luna interjected, still using a flat tone with no changes in her facial expression.
"I see..."
Lloyd was speechless and had nothing else to say about that part. He was surprised at how easily this girl ruined the mood by casually dropping something that was so hard to swallow. He wanted to change the awkward and gloomy atmosphere so he tried to go back to the previous topic instead. He turned to look at Klaudia and asked her again.
"So, your ability can let you identify enemies? How does it work?"
"My ability is called Divine Eye. I can feel the soul orb in a hellspawn's body and how brightly it is glowing which would explain its rank. I could also obtain the name and their description and what skills they have, or locate their weak spots. Earlier, I have detected three soul orbs in its body."
"What a convenient ability. It's too overpowered, I think." Shane exclaimed.
"There is always a condition to be able to use an ability. It could be a sacrifice, or a payment after the ability is used. Every time I use my ability, it robs me of my sight for a short period so I am practically blind once I am using my innate ability."
Being blind while in engaged in a battle was like warranting death. All senses are very crucial in order to survive. If one as important as eyesight would be taken away, how could she run away faster without stumbling or even evade attacks if she couldn't see where she was standing? A trace of pity could be seen in their eyes as they looked at her. Her ability was obviously useful if she had a companion.
However, fighting an enemy alone while she's using her innate would instantly bring her to death's door. Klaudia didn't mind it, though.
"What about you, Luna?"
Luna didn't answer. Lloyd knew he asked a stupid question. Just like hellspawns are enemies of humanity, the same could be true for other humans.
Entrusting your cards to someone you aren't familiar with is just the same as telling them how to deal with you. He also had heard that this girl was constantly being assaulted by assassins, so she had every right to not reveal anything that could potentially be used against her. Thankfully, the ones being sent to assassinate her were just normal humans instead of aspirants or she wouldn't even be here by now.
"Enough chatter for now. I have a suggestion. How about we travel together once morning comes? Our group isn't large enough to attract attention, but it would definitely be a huge help having more people who can fight."
It was Shane this time who spoke. Luna thought about it and looked at Klaudia for confirmation which nodded in turn.
"Okay. Let's move once the crimson light comes back in the morning."
They sat and ate silently without talking any further. The temperature was getting colder as the night grew deeper but they didn't dare make any fire. The basic knowledge of 'light attracts unwanted beings' was very common and only a fool would not know about it.
After they were done, they were lied down with the girls near the farthest wall of the cave while the boys were near the entrance since it was just a small one, enough to house this amount of people. They had decided to keep turns for hours in watching and wake them up should there be any intruder approaching the cave.
Shane was the first one to guard the entrance. Nothing unusual happened in the few hours he had been up so he went to wake up Stanley to take turns in watching so he could rest. Another few hours had passed by and still nothing happened. He went back and woke Lloyd up and then he lied down next to Shane.
As Lloyd was looking at the small gaps from the vines hanging at the entrance of the cave while still yawning from drowsiness he was feeling, Klaudia woke up, feeling thirsty. She reached out for her bottled water and drank a few from it. Her face was showing traces of discomfort and dark circles under her eyes could be seen. Her skin was also paler compared to earlier.
'It seemed like she didn't have a good rest.' Lloyd thought.
After drinking, she returned to her place but found out that she couldn't fall asleep anymore. She stood up and walked towards the entrance and sat half a meter away from Lloyd, hugging her knees.
Lloyd wasn't prepared to this unnerving situation. He wasn't used to conversations with strangers nor being approached by someone as he was mostly alone ever since his parents died and no one bothered to talk to him. He waited for what felt like an eternity of silence before she finally spoke in a soft voice.
"Hey. Why did you participate into the trials?"
It was so dark so Lloyd couldn't clearly see her face. Still, he could tell that she was looking at him right now.
"Is there anything wrong with participating?"
"Not really… It's just that…" She paused and sighed before continuing what she was saying. "I was forced here to participate. I didn't want to, but I had no choice."
"Why? By whom?"
"I am sick with a terminal illness. I only have another year to live. The only way to cure it is by ascending as a true aspirant. My father said that the bodies of aspirants who completed the trials are reconstructed as a new flesh, so, I have to ascend no matter what."
Lloyd was stunned. He never would have expected that such a thing was possible in the trials. He thought that its purpose was only to give humanity abilities that would let them fight back the hellspawns and reclaim their world. He was ashamed of himself for thinking that he was the most pitiful person in the world.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Lloyd lowered his head.
Klaudia shook her head in response and silence was upon them once again. It was getting more and more uncomfortable ever since he knew her situation. Then he heard her speaking once more.
"Do you think we would be able to get out of here alive?"
Lloyd thought about it. He wasn't really that optimistic given that they were in an abnormal trial beyond their capabilities and hellspawns of the higher rank existed here. However, he couldn't break the girl's slightest hopes of getting home in one piece so he decided something unusual that never existed before in his life. Maybe it was out of pity for the girl or maybe it was because she reminded him of his weak-ass self in the past who was nothing but a lowly rat in the outer district, constantly working like a slave and being paid less than the minimum wage, so he had sworn to himself that he would see to it that this girl at least comes home alive.
"Definitely. You don't have to worry that much about it."
"Thank you." She finally smiled and chuckled a little. "You remind me of my big brother. He was also like you; a kind-hearted person."
Lloyd thought he had heard something ridiculous. Him? A kind-hearted person? He was a person who had to use all the cunning methods and deceits written in the book of lies just to survive day by day. Nevertheless, he smiled. He never had a sister as he was an only child. Hearing her say that she was like his big brother felt good. He wondered what it was like to have a sister.
'Maybe it's like the two of us right now.' He thought.
"You should get back to sleep now. I would be staying up a little bit and wake up your friend, Luna, to keep on watch soon."
"Yes, I should get some sleep now. Thank you, Lloyd." She was about to go back but she turned around again. "I forgot that you still haven't answered why you have joined the trials."
"Well, I—"
Their conversation was interrupted by a familiar crawling sound that could be heard outside which seemed to be just near the cave. His eyes showed a trace of horrified expression while Klaudia's complexion had turned paler even further.