The echo of the voice bounced throughout the chamber, each sentence a chilly splash of reality against my naive hope.
The trial started, and I was the reluctant player in Kael Emberheart's warped game.
The cave was utterly silent after that and I felt my gaze frolicking around, my heart thumping in my chest. How many times have I come head-on with death in this world?! At this point, I was willing to be roadkill on Earth rather than die in a cave where no one would probably find my body. Damn, that thought was depressing. It wasn't how I pictured my death. Hell, I hadn't even pictured death.
My thoughts travelled back to the man who was the reason I was standing here unsure of what to do. What exactly did he think he'd gain by not giving me a heads-up.
"The bastard!!" I spat, my hand wrapping around the staff
"He laid me out!" In a meaningless act of defiance, I kicked at the rocks sealing the cave entrance.
Still, the wrath soon gave way to a cold, calculated will. C'mon I made a promise, I wasn't going to die in a cave that smelt of sulfur and fish or whatever that was, I had a purpose and it was getting the fuck out of here for starters.
"I'll show him," I said through gritted teeth. "I'm gonna make it"
The first difficulty arrived quickly, a tsunami of ghostly wolves rising from the darkness. Their teeth teemed with ghostly venom, and their eyes gleamed with a terrible brightness. I raised the staff, its power coursed through my veins, but I stopped. I knew nothing about using this thing, I might as well use it to harm myself if I tried. Right now, it was just a nice stick to me.
"Damn it, Ash, think!". I chastised myself, my head whirling. "You are a strategist, not a warrior. Stop thinking like you can warp the elements here to work in your favor!"
I threw the staff aside, concentrating on what I could influence and know. My blood magic. Not like I had any weapons. Maybe the piece of bread in my satchel counted. Wow, I still had my sense of humor at least.
I let a guttural shout and released a flood of red energy that spun complex designs in the air. Their ethereal forms phasing past my shields, the wolves barked and rushed.
Heart hammering in my chest, I staggered back. The ghostly fangs slid across my arm, leaving a path of frigid chill. The feeling was unfamiliar and terrible, the scratch making me wince in pain as I held my arm.
"Focus, Blackwood," I hissed to myself, perspiration beads running over my forehead. "You have confronted worse than this. You have survived much worse."
Wrong.
Trying to remember every trick I knew, I channeled my blood magic. I spun a shield of red energy to block the wolf strikes. Still, they were unrelenting, their count seemed limitless.
I clenched my teeth, working magic within its constraints. I created a whirl of blood, its jagged edges cutting across the spectral wolves. Their figures shimmering and dissolving, they cried in agony. But two more replaced every wolf I killed. Their terrible energy seemed to pulse the cave, the very air thickening with their presence.
My limbs were heavy, my vision fuzzy, and exhaustion bit me. The constant attack felt never-ending. As I felt I might die, the wolves disappeared as quickly as they had first shown. My body was wet with perspiration and blood, and I fell to the ground gasping for breath.
"Is all you have, Emberheart?" I rasped, defiance tingling in my mouth like blood as I relaxed against the stone wall, sweat beading across my forehead.
But time was not allowing for rest. The ground under me moaned, and the chamber's walls started to move to expose secret passageways and dangerous slopes. I staggered to get to my feet, almost missing falling into the bottomless pit opening out under me.
"He's toying with me," I grow annoyed. The demon or entity who controlled this cave was toying with me and didn't want me to die just yet.
My blood magic guided my movements as I negotiated the shifting maze, my senses strained to find the next trap. With their lethal green glow shining on their tips, I just avoided a shower of poisoned arrows. They Hissed as they sizzled against the cave walls, leaving corrosive smoke trails behind. The ground under me began to shake again, my eyes widening, my blood magic gave my muscles incredible strength as I jumped across it. As I landed, the ground collapsed under my feet; the pit opening below was hungry.
I figured out riddles carved in old run-throughs, their solutions opening secret doors and new routes. But the difficulties become more complicated and lethal with every stride. The cave seemed to be testing me, driving me right to the brink of capability.
I was in a chamber full of mirrors, each displaying a warped version of myself. My own uncertainties and concerns were whispering around me, a dissonant chorus ready to knock me down. I saw images of my past mistakes, the faces of those I had hurt, and blood on my hands. But I knew them not. I didn't know who these people were but the person who owned this body did and it was beginning to haunt me because I could feel guilt, pain, and terror coursing through my veins as the whispers in my head increased.
"This is just a mind game," I said, my voice faltering. "Ash, don't let it get to you*
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the rhythm of my own heart—that constant flow of blood through my veins. Reaching deep inside me, I drew on the unadulterated force of my blood magic. I broke the mirrors with a burst of vitality, their pieces strewn over the floor.
The illusions disappeared, and I was in a dimly lighted tunnel with a stench of rotting and moist ground. A low growl reverberated across the chamber, and I whirled around with blood-rushing cold.
Rising from the darkness, three terrible arachnids scurried towards me with fangs bursting with poison and legs as thick as tree trunks. I knew I was their next meal; their many eyes sparkled with a predatory desire.
Rising my hands, my blood magic ablaze, the beasts were upon me before I could call forth a spell. Their fangs sunk into my flesh while their legs encircled me. I shouted out in agony, the poison coursed through my body paralyzing my limbs.
I battled, but my efforts came back useless. The darkness crept in, the chittering laughter of the animals filling my ears.
"Damn it! I'm not going out like this!" I railed within, my mind flying. "There has to be a way...."
One of them bit down harder and my legs felt numb. No, shit! I wouldn't die! I couldn't die!. Then, nevertheless, a desperate gamble occurred to me. I had never tried it before and had no idea whether it could be done. But I had nothing to lose left.
I grabbed out with my mind, my fingers twitching as though I were gripping an unseen hilt out of a surge of will. I concentrated on the blood dagger, the weapon that was a crucial thing to me now in Kael's possession but there had to be a chance. I wanted to die trying. Definitely not just laying there and about to be eaten by spiders.
"To me!!" I yelled, a desperate plea and pictured the blood dagger vividly, the whispers of the dead increasing.
The air buzzed with vitality, and in my hand, a familiar warmth bloomed. The blood dagger materialized, its red blade shining in the low light.
Shock blended with excitement. It had yielded results. I had called my dagger across the expanse of the mountain.
I clutched the dagger hard, it might be a lifeline facing approaching catastrophe. The creatures' hold tightened as their teeth sank farther. But I now carried a weapon, a means of defense.
Honestly, I don't know how I managed to do it but it was something we could come to after I got the fuck out of here.