Zilan cautiously observed his new opponents. He had no plan of attack nor did he care to analyse the mechanical creatures. His anger and hatred commanded him to attack swiftly as well as ruthlessly.
However, just as he was about to set off, his knees suddenly buckled and the body that a few seconds ago exuded a brilliant, overbearing luster appeared to be declining at a visible rate.
Despite his undying rage motivating him to push forward, his body seemingly refused to respond or more accurately could not respond. Zilan inwardly sighed as he quickly reversed the effects of the second level of the Gift of love.
He could guess the reason as to why his body would abruptly lose all of its strength but for it to actually occur at the moment when he needed the effects of the ‘rage mode’ most, was a reality Zilan found especially difficult to accept.
To put it simply, he had overtaxed his body. Exceeding his limits for a short amount of time with the use of enhanced emotion did not necessarily mean that the limitations themselves disappeared. It was more like, putting something aside or forgetting about it with the intention of dealing with the repercussions later. For Zilan though, who had never tried this method before therefore not knowing how long it would last, had consequently put himself in a bad position from the start.
All the blood drained from his face and his breathing grew exceedingly heavy. It wasn’t long before he finally dropped to his knees, his arms acting as his last defense from completely collapsing.
The unexpected new developments coupled with his own internal shock meant Zilan was not ready to react to the danger. As for the creatures that had been warily eyeing him from the start? They were now in the best position to react or rather capitalise on the weakness he was currently displaying.
“GRREAADG!”
A rainbow coloured metal Mastiff twice the size of Zilan was the first to make its move. It first stared at the distraught Zilan with its blood red eyes before releasing a loud yet somewhat cheerful howl. It was almost like it wanted to confirm the thoughts of the other Beasts. “The prey is weak!”
Following that, was the elated charge of the many powerful monsters who appeared to be racing towards the ‘easy prey’. The Hydra was the only one amongst them that did not move. Its intelligence was clearly higher than the rest, understanding that without it remaining vigilant, the strange prey would definitely find a way out.
Zilan blinked and time seemed to move extremely slowly. He was able to witness a strange tiny cat, barely palm sized open its mouth three times its body’s size and then happily bite into his right shoulder.
Its speed was so unbelievable to the point that he felt no pain whatsoever for at least thirty seconds. Seeing this play out only made the other Beasts turn even crazier.
The rainbow Mastiff, swung its Beast force infused claw, tearing the flesh off Zilan’s chest as easily as one would cut into a cake. The force of the swing was too much for his protective scales to bare, directly crushing them.
Naturally, Zilan was also blown away by the claw, blood spraying out from his shoulder, mouth and chest. In truth, his shoulder compared to his chest whose bones were now partially exposed, was many times better off.
“Puh,Paah.”
After heavily crashing into the ground, further injuring his body, Zilan felt extremely tired. Jumping straight from the ‘normal’ first test into this one only served to increase his fatigue, to the point that currently all of the exhaustion had accumulated and was now pressuring him to rest. What would happen once he slept? It was obvious that death would coming knocking. However, despite that, the temptation was still quite appealing.
“Bam, Bam, Bam.”
He could hear the sounds of the approaching creatures but for some reason he felt no fear. Mind you, this was not ‘rage mode’ Zilan, nor was he under the influence of the second level yet inconceivably he was calm.
“Have I grown up? *Cough*” He playfully asked himself.
A smile graced his now ghostly pale face.
“This isn’t where I die!” He whispered.
Struggling, he lifted his right hand up and drew an inscription in the air which he injected with every last bit of Blood force he possessed. The giant sword attack he previously used due to a sudden enlightenment had consumed too much energy but thankfully he could still draw out some internal energy that laid dormant within his body.
With a blue flash the inscription swiftly rose to the sky as his arm lifelessly fell to the ground. A small pitch black screen then suddenly extended and covered his entire body as well a few metres of land around him. How long it would hold or last was a question whose answer did not lay with Zilan as he knew neither who created the inscription nor where it came from exactly. In fact the sole reason he committed it to memory was because the Book of Path placed it as one of the references for shield spells that could be cast at a moment’s notice.
“BANG! BOOM!”
Sounds of collision originating from the monsters trying to destroy the shield rang out. Surprisingly, it held out despite a few trembles.
“Hoping this will last another seven minutes is a bit too much.” Said Zilan to himself as he closed his eyes to focus solely on his next survival move.
……………………..
Meanwhile,
Unable to peer through the unfamiliar black screen left little Red feeling a little frustrated. His eyes shone with blinding lustre and his heart yearned to see what else Zilan could pull out. In fact, he had tried to increase the difficulty many times during the ‘test’ only to be stopped by Old Blue in the name of fairness.
Every time, it looked like the Half-Breed was cornered, he’d suddenly raise his level higher leaving little red both shocked as well as extremely entertained. Therefore, with the current stall in the action, he could not help but feel an itch to interfere. Unfortunately though, Old Blue was sure to not let that happen thus his only option was to ‘encourage’ the mechanical Beasts to try a little harder. The results?
The Hydra as well as many of the more powerful Beasts such as the rainbow Mastiff took action and soon cracks, cracks and more cracks began appearing on the formerly stable black shield.
“Haha, good! Break it! Let me see what you will become this time, little dragon.” Laughed Little Red.
Shockingly, even though he was at his wits end just a few moments ago, not to mention the fact that his body was now practically a shell of its former self, it still appeared that this time Zilan would once again rise to the occasion and not fail to meet Little Red’s expectations.
An,
I apologise for the short chapter however, I’ve been plagued by a really bad cold this past week or so and as such have been forced to remain in bed otherwise I just get worse.
Hopefully I didn’t make any mistakes with this chapter and it provided some enjoyment despite its length.
Finally, I’d like your opinion on how you guys would like me to present the remaining part of book 1 to you i.e
If I write two chapters finishing the book off, the first one long and having the entire action packed ‘test’ of little red while the other one wrapping up the first test arc. (Will take slightly longer to get to you)
OR
I could do three chapters, breaking apart the action of little red’s test into two while having the last chapter finishing up the arc.
Either way you want it, let me know in the comment section and majority rule wins. You don’t have to all comment your opinions if you don’t want to, just like the opinion of someone who shares yours.
