Two weeks had passed since the coming-of-age trial first began, and Nyxander, still in the ancestral world, was already beginning to feel the weight of time upon him. Where once thick, fertile soil covered the ground beneath his large, bare feet, it now gave way to a cracked, lifeless expanse. Gone were the dusty winds, replaced by an eerie, silent warmth on a breeze that felt like the whisper of ghosts.
Nyxander suddenly came to a stop at the road's abrupt end, a towering cliff stretching before him. The chasm ahead was wide and deep, with a pit of endless shadows that even his primordial eyes couldn't pierce. "Hah," he sighed, resting his hands on his broad waist as he stared at the sheer drop. "Did I just waste time walking the wrong road? " His voice carried a mix of frustration and resignation. Bowing slightly, he gazed down at the abyss, its depth seemingly mocking his effort. "Fine. I'll just have to try again.
I hope this doesn't happen again," he muttered under his breath, turning to leave.
"Rrrrrrorr." The sound rumbled behind him, low and guttural, a drumbeat of danger, promising something was amiss. He turned sharply, his keen eyes falling on five uninvited guests. The beasts-a pack of Ascendant Realm Rhinoceroses-stood relaxed, yet their gazes were as predatory as those of hunters who enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and cornering their prey.
"Fuck." Nyxander ran a hand through his long, white hair, which shimmered faintly with streaks of lightning. "I need to take care of this fast, or I'll end up as the corpse here," he muttered, adjusting the cross-hide bag strapped securely to his back. With resolve etched into his features, he darted down the rocky incline toward the waiting beasts.
The rhinoceroses fanned out in a flash, settling into an arc around him. Two fell to thirty degrees to his left, two more mirrored them on his right, and the fifth beast remained directly ahead, still and motionless, as if the pack leader. A heartbeat later, bedlam broke loose. The left-hand beasts launched streams of fire and lightning, their energy crackling and roaring as it shot toward him.
In the same moment, the pair to his right retaliated with their own devastating attacks-a compressed air ball and a storm of stone debris, the latter raining down like a deadly hailstorm. Nyxander slid low, fluid and instinctive. The attacks soared above him, colliding mid-air in a brilliant explosion that shook the ground, scattering dust and debris.
As he slid closer to the beasts on his right, they reacted in time to charge another round of fire and lightning. But Nyxander was faster. On his left hand, he pivoted, swinging his legs in a strong upward kick that connected solidly into the jaws of both beasts.
Their heads snapped back, releasing the charged energy harmlessly into the sky.
Seizing the moment, Nyxander somersaulted onto his feet and grabbed their horns, smashing their heads together. Yet, before he could deliver the final blow, his instincts screamed a warning. He turned sharply, eyes wide at the sight of the earlier fire and lightning attacks. The energies had combined into one single, deadly sphere, crackling with fiery sparks of lightning arcing back toward him, spinning like a boomerang intent on destruction.
"Shit!" Nyxander rolled hard to his left, narrowly evading the fiery lightning ball. It struck the ground behind him with an earth-shaking impact, obliterating the beasts he had just fought. Dust and heat filled the air, but Nyxander had no time to reflect as he landed closer to the central beast.
On one knee, left, with his right foot planted, Nyxander barely got his breath when the creatures to the left of him attacked. One belched a stream of stone debris, and the other forced it onward with compressed air-the effect a deadly projectile. Pinned in an almost impossible position, Nyxander shrunk his body, folding himself tightly to let the attack sail over him. Then, expanding back to his full size, he stood on both feet, his heart pounding in his chest.
Then he began to expand to his full size and stood on both feet, his heart pounding against his chest.
But relief was short-lived. The central rhinoceros, unmoving, tipped its huge head. A faint luminescence began to seep from its horn, shining like a star alone in a black sky. Nyxander's instincts flared once more, guiding his gaze this time to the right. His breath caught as he saw the wind and stone debris attacks he had dodged earlier now seeming to boomerang back toward him.
"Damn it!" he muttered, retreating toward the edge of the cliff. In a second, his acute mind fit the pieces into place: "That beast in the center… uses gravity to govern those energies. How could I forget?" But that realization came out a little too late.
The returning projectiles shifted course in mid-air, homing in on him with pitiless precision. Nyxander shrank his body once more, narrowly avoiding a direct hit, but the powerfully tugging gust of wind trailing the attack hit him like an invisible hammer, flipping him off his feet and sending him tumbling backward into the dark abyss beyond the edge of the cliff.
The air grew cold around him as he fell, and the chasm swallowed him whole. His body, compressed once, expanded back to its previous size as he fell deeper into the darkness, the world above him fading to an unyielding void.
At the emerald land region, under the sprawling canopy of gigantic forest trees, the wet crimson leaves glittered like blood crystals beneath the rays of light piercing through the branches. All twenty-four Rhinoceros, with their leader stationed at the front, cast their heavy, unyielding gaze on Vacuros; their eyes locked onto him like a serpent hypnotizing its prey. On the other side, Vacuros was firm, his fists at jaw level, with a retrieved crystal from his first fight clutched in his right hand, its faint glow pulsating like a heartbeat.
Then, in an almost human movement, the lead Rhinoceros took a few measured steps backward, its hoof scraping against the soil in defiance. Then, the sound came, low, guttural: "Mooorrrrrr." The earth shook to the weight of his roar; and as if on cue from some invisible signal, the rest of the Rhinoceros charged ahead like an avalanche of raw energy. At once, three Rhinoceros leaped into the air, their massive forms cutting through the canopy-filtered sunlight, horns gleaming like jagged spears aiming straight for their target.
Unfazed, the cold gaze of Vacuros narrowed into predatory slits as the first Rhinoceros hurtled towards him. He lashed out with his right fist, striking it with the force of a battering ram. The creature flipped backward in mid-air, its bulk crashing into the ground with a resounding thud. Before the second Rhinoceros could even adjust, the back of Vacuros's thrown fist connected to its head like a spinning shuriken, sending it flying sideways into a thick tree trunk. The impact sent shockwaves through the earth below, shattering the bark off the tree.
The third Rhinoceros barely had time to act before Vacuros's hand shot out, clamping around its neck with a vice-like grip. With a roar of effort, he lifted the creature effortlessly and slammed it into the ground, the impact sending tremors through the earth.
As his body dipped low to the ground, two more Rhinoceros took their chance, leaping at him with alarming precision. With explosive force, Vacuros raised his head so that his forehead collided with the lower jaw of one of the creatures. The sound was like thunder as the beast rolled backward, crashing through heavy tree trunks as if they were twigs. In one smooth motion, Vacuros threw the glowing crystal in his right hand into the mouth of the other Rhinoceros.
Before the beast could react, his hand came down like a hammer on its skull, crushing the jaw against the embedded crystal. The collision unleashed a violent surge of energy, the Rhinoceros' head fracturing and detonating in a brilliant burst of light that scattered shards of bone and flame into the air.
Before the dust could settle, the lead Rhinoceros finally launched itself into action, its massive frame thundering forward like a living avalanche. Vacuros threw a powerful punch aimed at its face, but just as his fist closed the distance, it slipped off an invisible surface, as though the air itself had turned solid and treacherous, like a child losing their footing on a wet tile floor.
"Hum," he muttered under his breath, the faint sound laced with both irritation and intrigue. Before he could fully grasp what had happened, the lead Rhinoceros rammed its horn into his chest with devastating force. The impact propelled him through the air, his body crashing into a line of trees like a derailed train smashing through a row of houses. The impact shattered the thick trunks, sending splintered wood and leaves flying in all directions in a storm of chaos.
Vacuros hit the ground hard but wasted no time. He rolled to his feet with practiced ease, planting his left foot firmly on the earth while his right knee supported him, one hand clutching his chest. A flicker of pain crossed his face for only a moment before his eyes sharpened, again locking on the lead Rhinoceros. Their gazes met across the battlefield, both unyielding. It was a silent clash of wills, two predator rivals circling, neither to back down, both to prove dominance.