Lloyd scratched his head as he listened to their complicated conversation. This was the first time he had heard of a hybrid rank. He couldn't help but interrupt them to ask.
"Um, can you tell me what you are talking about? What is a hybrid?"
They all stared at him like some kind of fool who entered a game without knowing anything. Seb sighed and then proceeded to explain.
"You should have heard from the academy that the hellspawns have different categories namely: grunt, champion, elite, elder, defiled emissary, archfiend, voidwalker, and lastly, the primordial ones."
"Uh-huh. I learned that from the professor." Lloyd nodded.
"However, that logic is only applicable in the trials since everything here is just replicated from the past. Once you venture past the gates of Asteria and enter the world of ruin, you'll encounter hellspawns which are known as hybrids. They have much more potent soul orbs compared to the ones in the trials, so they're also multiple times stronger. Since hellspawns in the real world have spawned from the bodies of the deceased who were affected by the hellspawn disease, then all of them are hybrids."
"I see..." Lloyd thought about it for a while and seemed to have realized something was off. His face darkened and he asked another question that troubled him.
"Wait! You said that the non-hybrid ones only exist in the trials. Why are we facing a hybrid here?"
"That's because... we're not just inside a trial. We are inside a living nightmare." Seb ended with seriousness in his eyes.
"What?!"
All of them exclaimed in shock. It was like housekeeper Seb suddenly dropped a powerful bomb upon them. It made them speechless and confused.
"Let's just say that this is the real world, but at the same time, we are inside a trial. Everything here is replicated from the normal one. But what happened in this place had also happened in the real world many years ago... probably. It's like we have returned to a distant past."
"Curses! This doesn't make any sense at all!" Lloyd shouted and gritted his teeth in frustration.
They couldn't understand how they ended up in a nightmare instead of going to a normal trials. What were the chances something like this would happen? It was like someone had orchestrated all of it behind their backs and without them knowing.
Seeing that they were just getting gloomier, Seb clapped his hands to get their attentions and changed the topic.
"Alright, enough with that! While you are here, why not take a rest in the city? It is a little bit farther and you'll have to go through this small forest. However, beware of the hellspawns living there as most of the mare in the elite rank. I'm sorry I can't go with you. I have to keep guarding this gate together with the others in case those blasted undead would successfully climb the walls. It's already noon, too."
It was just the right time when the sun had reached the peak of the sky. Magma started to flood the barren grounds and the burning dead had risen from the pits of hell. They growled and screamed as they rushed towards the walls and tried to climb it. Fortunately, the walls aren't too roughly made so the stacking bodies of the burning dead that piled up collapsed after the current highest one slipped from the walls.
"At least, I'm glad that we won't have to face those rotten fiends anymore." Ray let out a sigh. He was finally free from the long journey and the endless chase with time and the undead.
"Let's go, everyone." Luna left the top of the walls through a narrow staircase near them and everyone followed.
After descending the staircase for a few minutes, they were back to the ground and they could see trees once again. There were broken weapons and splinters of tree branches scattered everywhere, and there were also a few dead corpses of hellspawns lying everywhere.
"Ugh! Can we even make it out of this forest alive? Didn't your housekeeper say that all creatures here are elite ranked?" Ray complained.
"Could you stop complaining every time? He said 'most' not 'all'!" Stanley retorted angrily.
"Alright, alright. I'll stop complaining. Geez! You don't have to be so mad."
They went inside the forest and walked at the paths made by humans so they won't get lost. It wasn't that long before they had encountered their first foe in this area which looked like a great boar, almost as big as an elephant.
"Get ready!"
Luna shouted and drew the Dawnbringer's Cinderblade while Lloyd was already holding his wraithslayer. The others also went into a battle stance with their weapons. Lloyd used the evil eye quickly to analyze their opponent.
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Name: Hellboar
Soul Core: Elite
Skills: Poisoned Claws
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"Try not to get hit with its claws. It can inflict lethal poison on you." He warned them and they nodded in turn.
The hellboar couldn't wait any further and rushed towards them and attacked using its claws which were aimed at the vanguards of the cohort. Lloyd, Ray and Luna easily dodged its attacks while the others took their chances to fire their long-ranged weapons. It hit the hellboar but barely damaged it. That thing was an elite and its body was greatly enhanced by its three corrupted cores.
"Let me try something, Luna."
Luna turned to Lloyd and agreed. She then went into a clash with the hellspawn, keeping it occupied in order for Lloyd to deliver a surprise attack. He activated the 'ghost blade' ability of his sword, which consumed his mana essence, to see how it would perform against an elite-ranked monster. This was the first time he would see its effects.
He sneaked to the back of the hellboar unnoticed, and used his jian to stab it. The blade just phased through its body and directly hit the soul orbs. The hellboar froze and screamed a death howl until it was dead. Lloyd could see the corruption in its soul being severed in half as he sliced through its three soul orbs.
"What was that?" Luna approached him and asked.
"Oh, that was one of the abilities of my sword. It can directly attack the soul of the opponent."
"I see. That's a strong weapon." She let out a smile again as she said it.
Lloyd wasn't used to her smiling. However, he found it pleasant and lovely. He froze upon realizing that he was admiring her.
'Ah! What am I thinking about? There's no way she's lovely. No way!'
He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. The group proceeded to dissect the hellboar's body to harvest its meat since it looked edible enough, unlike those rotten undead in the crypts, or the burning dead in the Vyris Deadlands.
"Finally, we can have meat!" Ray celebrated upon seeing the tons of meat they were able to get from the carcass of the poor hellspawn.
"We can't eat it yet. We will cook it once we find a safe place." Luna said and paused to look at a certain direction where the trees shook. She narrowed her eyes and gripped her sword once again.
"We have more company."
Another hellspawn that looked like a lion was rushing towards them. It was very quick and almost tore off Ray's head in one chomp. Luna quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him away before it could bite his head off.
"S-Sorry. I messed up." He apologized.
"Don't mind it."
Luna dashed forward and aimed for its legs which she chopped off easily, rendering the hellspawn partially disabled. Then she jumped up high and drilled the sword deep into its skull. The lion hellspawn had a short moment of seizure before its eyes went white and it collapsed to the ground.
"Phew! That was quite hard. We would be dead by now if it weren't for these two."
Stanley exhaustingly said. He sat to the ground and took out his refilled water bottle to quench his thirst. There was no time for them to stop since they came out from the crypt so his throat was so dry.
The others also followed suit and took a short stop. They didn't bother looting the dead lion hellspawn yet. They were already so tired and it happened that there were no other hellspawns in the area when Lloyd and Klaudia scouted the area with their abilities.
"This should be a good time to have a barbeque."
Ray grinned as he took out the meat of the hellboar. He was virtually drooling as he was looking at the meat and wished he could just eat it immediately. But Luna took it away and she then took out a chopping board to cut the meat into smaller pieces. Klaudia helped in the preparations and started a fire.
"You are well versed in these things." Lloyd commented.
"Of course. Knowing how to fight isn't the only important thing in surviving a trial. It's important to fill your stomach too." She replied as she chopped the spices and made a sauce for the meat.
"I see... This is an eye-opener. I thought you, rich scions and heiresses, don't cook your own food."
"You're just prejudiced against us."
She didn't continue the topic while Lloyd stayed silent too. He remembered that her family was long gone so she probably had to take care of herself in her childhood days. Klaudia was too sick to cook but still knew the basics. As for Ray and Stanley, he wasn't too sure but they weren't really part of the great clans so they must have learned some basic chores too. He felt guilty from his previous actions. Gladly, they didn't seem to mind it and held grudges on him.
"Sorry." He still apologized to them.
"It's no big deal." As usual, she was replying plainly with an aloof expression.
Soon enough, the meat was cooked and they split the cooked meat evenly among themselves. Lloyd took a piece of the hellboar meat into his mouth and slowly chewed it to savor the juicy meat. His eyes lit up and he made a surprised 'ahh' sound. He had never tasted food this delicious throughout his whole life. Just like the tree sap from the sentinels, the meat of a hellspawn is pretty much edible and even better than most food sold way back in Asteria.
The others also had the same reaction as him. It was a pretty satisfying meal and for once, ever since arriving in this place, they had totally filled their stomachs.
"That was one heavenly meal." Ray casually stated.
"I agree with you. I've never had this meal before." Stanley agreed with him while patting his belly.
"I guess it was worth it... You know, coming here and experience all those hellish situations and finally rewarded with something good. It's not that bad of an ending."
"You must be joking." Both of them turned towards Lloyd with a questioning look.
"You think we're going to die here? I'm not planning to die at all. I'll struggle and go back to the real world. I will build a shop and sell all the delicacies and meals made from hellspawns that would give an otherworldly taste to my customers. You bet it!"
Looking proud, he patted his chest and declared his outrageous plans.
"Pfft! How are you going to do that? Do we even have a chance against those things called defiled?" Ray laughed at him, although he wasn't insulting him. He just didn't believe that they could conquer this nightmare trial after the revelations he had discovered from the housekeeper.
"I'm not sure. But we won't know until we try, right? I mean... It's just a hellspawn."
"That's correct. It's just a hellspawn."
Luna agreed with burning determination in her eyes, desperate to escape from this hell and return to the real world to exact her vengeance upon the sinners who had murdered her whole clan.