Reincarnated As A Dragon With A Godly Inheritance

Kaedros took a step forward but Rauk's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Let me go first."

"You sure? You won't be stopping until you reach the next door." He reminded him.

Rauk shrugged and reached into his storage space, taking out the fat sword. "Then I better make sure to reach the door."

He stepped properly into the room, passing the first lines of ribbons. They weren't surprised when the drawings jerked to life, turning into thin blades, arching through the air and curving downward straight at Rauk who parried with his sword.

Steel rang against steel and he pushed it off but then another was curving overhead and he had to jump up, straight into the line of the blade ribbon coming to cut him in two.

"Let's go." Kaedros' voice was grim as he watched Rauk deflect another one. "You go first, your eye will be limiting you so stay close."

But then Rauk reached the middle where there was no drawing, and he almost collapsed on the floor but he managed to grin back at them. "Don't be afraid! They don't bite."

Taria snorted and turned to Kael, her weapon resting solidly in her hand. "Right. Don't slow me down too much."

Kaedros' smile was sharp as he followed her into the storm of blades with his sword. It was a blur of curving blades and rolling straight cuts but Kaedros and Taria passed the first one without incident, resting in the middle where Rauk had first rested.

Rauk had reached the next-door platform.

"This one was all about speed and our reflexes," Taria said after she took her time studying the drawings.

"And the last one tested our ability to take a beating?" Kaedros raised his brows as he asked her. "Draw heavily on silver stone, focus only on your legs."

His legs thrum as he followed what he said himself, strength and speed flowing into it. "Well then."

They made it to the other side. Taria had a shallow cut on her left shoulder where she had taken too long to dodge a metal ribbon but apart from that, they were fine.

They entered the next one. This one was relatively simple, so to speak. It was a small wooden room with a rounded floor and arching top. The trial here was to walk to the next door but immediately they set foot on the wooden floor.

It began to tilt, turning upward. Slowly at first but it became increasingly obvious the more they walked. When they turned back they saw that a yawning black hole had opened behind them and the floor was trying to slide them into it.

They stopped moving after that. The trials had been made for humans and not with people having silver stones in their hearts so they took advantage of that and with two leaps, they cleared the room.

"That's one way to get it cleared I guess," Rauk said.

"The right way." Taria corrected.

They waited here to allow their silver stone to take more mana in the air by itself. Then when they were ready, they entered the next room. The sixth room.

And appeared in a room that resembled a mountainside more than anything.

Below them was a dark river, so still, it was like a hole between two mountains. The door gleamed at the other end.

"How do we cross this?" Taria asked, covering her nose.

The room was smelling of spoiled meat and the air was heavy, which wasn't helping.

"Those?" Rauk pointed.

Breaking out of the water were stone pillars, grey and old. Each set close to each other in a way that the reason they were there was clear.

"That's good and all but what's that on each stone pillar?" Taria asked. Large bird-like creatures with feathered wings and long blade heads stood on each pillar, their eyes dull like yellow piss.

"We will have to fight them as we cross?" Taria's voice was sort of a whine. "I wish we had our mana so we could use ranged attacks."

Kaedros got his sword ready then he crouched and broke off a small stone on the floor, he straightened and threw it into the water.

It flew soundlessly through the air but immediately it touched the inky water, it hissed and the stone burned, leaving only smoke behind.

"I think I'll melt bones too," Kaedros said cheerfully.

Then they drew on silver stone and the race to the other side began. The monsters on the pillars jerked to life like drunken beasts, their screech reverberating in the room.

Kaedros slashed at the long neck but the monster was quick, dodging sideways and lashing out with legs fixed with wicked claws. He caught the leg with his left hand and jerked the creature to the side, his sword taking off its head.

Then he heard Taria shout in front of him, she was already in her next pillar, battling the monster there. "The pillars are sinking!"

Kaedros whipped his head up, all the pillars were sinking. It was a slow progress but all of them were sinking!

He leaped to his next pillar, his hands going to the monster's head without waiting, and with a dull crunch, he crushed the head. Letting the body fall to the waters below.

Then the pillars started falling faster.

Another leap took him to his next, his sword already deflecting claws that were meant to take out his gut. Then he heard Rauk's sharp cry and turned.

Big mistake, long neck snapped forward, the monster's sharp beak almost took his head but he twisted at the last moment and it snapped his shoulder instead.

He grunted in pain, feeling the creature's rot-heavy breath on his neck as it tried to yank his arm but Kaedros was burning silver stone.

He brought his sword up, twisting it into the creature's chest. It released him to better snap at his head but his sword already reached its heart, dropping it dead immediately.

Kaedros didn't have time to feel pain, he turned to look at Rauk who was hanging with his hands on his pillar's edge. The monster kept pecking his hands, forcing him to change his hand's position quickly.

He grappled the dead monster by the neck then he started rolling, gaining momentum until he was ready and he threw it with the strength of the silver stone.

Monster screamed. Bones crunched and snapped like twigs.

Kaedros smiled grimly with satisfaction.

Rauk dragged himself up, his legs trembling at his near death.

"You okay?" Kaedros called even as he gently held his left hand, this trial was beginning to make him angry with the way their mana was restricted.

"Yes," He took another fat sword out of his storage space, and with a mighty leap he was gone, his words echoing. "I'll thank you on the other side!"

Kaedros managed a small smile then hung his left hand at the neck of his robe and snatched his sword from the floor. The pillars were only leg high now and monsters flapped their wings in anticipation. "Well then, I should get going myself."

Silver stone was like firewood and fire. The more you burn, the more fire you create but you also use a lot of wood.

Right now, Kaedros burned half the mana in silver stone and his body shook with the cold strength that filled him, it pushed his pain to a dull disturbance at the back of his head.

He jumped forward, the stone cracking where he was. The monster didn't stand a chance as he cut it into two, not bothering to stop as he leaped again, showering himself in blood.

The next monster met him in the air, dull eyes fixing him with a predatory look. Kaedros shouted in the challenge and threw his sword like a spear, a blur that tore into the creature's mouth and through its stomach and outside, gut spilling in a crude imitation of rain.

The waters had almost burned off the last bridge and his right leg broke the pillars completely as he used it as his last jumping stone and shot up, hand raised.

Rauk caught him and hurled him up.

Taria was staring at him. "That was intense."

Kaedros nodded, slowly releasing his grip on the silver stone and the strength leaked out of him. He staggered and hissed. "We really should get a healer or at least carry healing potions with us."

"I remembered Rauk asking Chef about it," Taria said as she examined his wound with her only eye. Thankfully the wound wasn't that deep, with a torn strip from her robe, she bound it firmly.

"She looked at me and said they don't need healing potions and that anything powerful enough to wound them might as well kill them." Rauk shook his head.

Kaedros snorted. "They will have to tell us their ranks when we return."

There was silence then. Will they return? Already the edge they had with silver stone was shrinking fast. The rooms were getting progressively harder and too random to predict what would happen next.

Taria broke the silence with an exclamation. "Wait... is the water rising?"

It was. As they watched, the inky water that had been far below them had risen to half the mountainside and it was rising rapidly at that.

"Do you think it meant to force us to the next room?" Kaedros asked, tone sharp. This was not good.

"But we've always rested at each door platform..." Taria stopped, eyes widening.

Kaedros nodded, face turning sour.

"The difficulty is getting raised. The Castle... or the Eldritch Crowns must be monitoring these trials." Rauk's tone was just like Kael's, dark.

The water spilled over and they had no choice but to move closer to the door and without a backward glance, they entered the seventh room.

This one was a boxy room cast in near darkness, the only thing that made them see the figures in the room was the dark vision that Shadow Blades gave them.

The figures were large brutes with brown toughened bodies, like old leather. Eyes of small dark stone set high in the head, they each carried long war hammers.

"I say... this isn't going to be fun," Kaedros murmured and slowly withdrew another sword to replace the one he lost.

The figures started approaching, still blocking their way to the next door.

"You can say that again. I'll go." Rauk removed his long sword from his storage room. He started moving forward to meet the figures when something darted forward, a blurring, rolling darkness from above.

"Watch out!" Taria shouted, followed by her spear as it whistled by. It connected with the rolling darkness, pinning it to the far wall.

Rauk didn't drag his eyes away from the three figures who were swinging their hammers with practiced ease.

"Go and help him, Taria. I'll keep any other things away from you two." Kaedros' left hand was out of action for now, he could still hold something with it but fighting with it was out of the question.

The first brute swung the hammer as if it was a light sword and it came impossibly fast at Rauk but instead of stepping aside and going for a parry, he met it with his full strength, using his two hands.

The sounds were horrible, like metal getting tortured. The force behind it drove Rauk back and his hand shook even with all the silver stone he was burning.

But still, Rauk smiled in satisfaction because he had done what he wanted. The brute's hammer lay shattered on the floor, and he drove in for another hit, using his two hands again.

It didn't stand a chance, Rauk's sword cleaved it in two like wheat, gore and blood splattering.

He grinned at the remaining two. "Let's dance, shall we?"

A spear flew by his head, slamming into one brute's chest with enough force to make it stagger but not enough to go down even as it went halfway through. "Maybe you should handle the two by yourself," Taria said as she removed another spear from her storage space.

"Maybe I should take them myself! Their strength is getting my blood hot!"

Kaedros watched the two of them fight, while he kept away any flying distractions with well-timed sword throws. He was glad they took many weapons from Thalso's training room or they might have found themselves in trouble.

Rauk cut the last brute off, shearing the top of its skull after he had managed to disarm it.