Chapter 121: Let's go
At first, Kaedros thought Gold had managed to sneak into the trials because the next room was covered in silver statues, each holding a short thin blade.
The room itself was large with a high ceiling that spilled light from above as if they were out in the open. Spilled light into the fifty or so statues arranged below.
"We can't fight this many... not without mana," Taria said faintly. Her left eye was still swollen and her body was covered in shallow wounds.
Kaedros gritted his teeth. He wasn't the only one wounded, even Rauk was limping. Only so much silver stone can do for a weak body. It's like burning fire in a swamp.
"We don't have any choice though. Maybe this is where we lose but I bet we made it past several rooms more than any other candidates," Rauk paused. "Maybe not the other and current Eldritch though."
Kaedros was silent. He knew Rauk was trying to lighten the mood but it only made his mood darker. He knew no tricks he could play, even reverting into his Demon form wouldn't help since there was no mana.
He raised his sword. "We already came here, there's no turning back. I'll be the bait."
Without looking at them Kaedros jumped down even as Taria shouted at him to wait. He wasn't surprised when he heard the two's footsteps behind him.
The statues are the same, small in size with legs thin and solid, reminds him of jumping insects and they are in different attacking poses. Some are crouching, some doing as if they were frozen mid-jump, and some are even on their hands.
They got to the first lines of statues but there was no hurried coming to life, they stood motionless and stiff.
"Maybe they are just here to scare us?" Taria knew that was a lie but she said it anyway.
Kaedros smiled despite himself. "I don't think so."
Even then the statues didn't come to life as they put their backs against each other and slowly started moving among them. Then Taria hissed. "There!"
A statue had come to life, jumping forward without sound, limbs uncoiled. Taria deflected the thrust with her spear and kicked out but the statue was unmoved, too solid with unbelievable strength, its blade swung back to take Taria's right eye.
But Kaedros' sword was there, blocking the blade from Taria's flinching face but before he could return with an attack of his own, the statue backed away and blended in with the others.
"That thing almost took my eye!" Taria shouted in shock, her eye widened with surprise. "It's so fast."
"Like an assassin," Rauk said as he exchanged his small sword for his normal long one. Then he planted his feet on the floor and twisted, his sword spun in a great arc, felling statues. "I don't think all of these statues will come to life, maybe a few blend with the surroundings to kill us."
Kaedros was beginning to nod when instincts screamed at him and he twisted sideways without thought. Good thing too because the blade meant for his back pierced his injured arm instead.
He screamed as his shoulder lit with pain, and his vision wavered for a second even as he brought his sword around to block the statue's next attack.
Then Rauk bellowed. "Get down!"
Kaedros and Taria both did. Rauk spun on the statue with his sword with so much force the statue's head flew halfway across the room.
The body collapsed and stopped moving.
Blood was seeping out of his shoulder, soaking the floor and his robe. Taria gasped and clutched at his shoulder, using more of her own torn robe to stuff and bind it.
"There, it should stop the bleeding," Taria said, her voice low and her one eye weary as she stared down at him.
Kaedros did nothing but simply breathe, even illusion can't remove pain since it's real. His Dragon form was having the same wound as him now but for some reason, his body's natural healing was slow in these trials. "Thank you, Taria. You've been saving me since we entered the first door."
Taria clenched her teeth and her eye flashed. "Stop. We should finish this trial. I want to wash."
"Yes, me too," Rauk said dryly from where he stood guard over them. "The problem is that the instructors might not get our bodies for proper washing."
They sat in silence until Kaedros started chuckling. "That's the worst joke attempt I've heard in my life."
Taria rolled her eyes. "You are well enough to laugh, you are well enough to stand!"
Rauk scoffed. "Just say you don't understand sophisticated jokes, Taria."
"I'll pass." She said flatly.
Kaedros stopped laughing, wincing at the stabbing pain from his shoulder. "So more assassin statues might be hiding among the other ones."
"And it's quick on its feet." Rauk pointed out.
Kaedros drew on silver stone and filled his body with strength, he straightened as it dulled his pain. "How do we recognize them? They are the same as all the other statues."
"Maybe we should just focus on reaching the door platform? Let the assassins attack us by themselves!" She raised her spear for emphasis.
"Do you know what I've noticed from the three previous doors? The room is already at the level of our silver stone body. It means we are fighting things our equal or more powerful than us." It rubbed Kaedros wrong that the only edge they had was gone.
He raised his sword and started clearing the statues surrounding them. Rauk joined him with his mighty swing and Taria's hands and they cleared the statues around them.
After they had destroyed the ones in their surroundings, they moved forward a little and did the same thing, slowly making their way towards the other side.
Two more assassins attacked them again but they saw them coming with the space they had just created around them but seeing them didn't make killing them any easier.
The statues had smooth limbs and sharp blades, their movement fast and calculated mechanical, and their strength was on par with the team.
Even then they managed to make it to the platform door, their black robes made darker with blood.
They stood at the edge of the door that would lead to the eighth room and they knew that it would only get harder but no other choice provided itself.
"I'll go first, if there's any immediate danger I'll alert you when you enter behind me." Kaedros had asked Taria to redress his wound, to bind his left hand to his chest so now he didn't have to worry about it swinging unless by his side.
He raised his sword, it was thin with the lightness made only for one-handed weapons. Kaedros took a deep breath and entered the eighth room.
There was no immediate danger. The room was damp and the air smelled of a cold old place, small blue crystals were set into the walls, lighting the room.
Lighting the hundreds of dark-furred balls on the floor. Thousands of them.
"A cave this time?" Taria asked, her voice hushed.
Kaedros didn't reply, he stood frozen where he was, and for the first time since he entered the trial's door, he felt true fear. His eyes were wide and he looked at the balls covering the floor and the walls where the crystals weren't. "Fuck."
"What?" Taria demanded then she looked and she shuddered, her hands growing tight on the spear.
Rauk was silent, his fear a smothering thing that choked his voice. His voice trembled. "Those... those are monsters, right? Hundreds of thousands!"
"Yes," Kaedros whispered and he knew then that this was not a trial to be won. Only death was in the way. Always death. Then he began to laugh, low at first then his laughter rang in the room like chewed metal.
It seemed funny to Kaedros that he, who had always been cautious with everything he did in his life, would end up in this situation. His life, both as the pathetic Dragon Prince in the City before his mother cast him out, his descent to the human world, and everything he had done ever since had been for his ultimate survival.
Throughout his life, he had lived like a beast, always running from hunters—fitting then that he should die at the hands of monsters like this.
"Well," Kaedros had stopped laughing and he saw his teammates look at him weirdly. It's not weird that he was using the word 'teammates.' It was a horrible word since it meant having people who you would always have to look out for, just like a clan. But then again, his Dragon heart was glad to have a clan even if it wouldn't last.
He smiled and it was a genuine one. "Well, this is it. Let's hope they wash our bodies."
Rauk stared at him as if Kaedros had already lost it and he must have too because he found himself laughing. "Your jokes are just as terrible."
Even Taria cracked a smile. "I heard facing your death does that to the body."
"Really," Kaedros raised his sword. "Maybe I should say some things. Ahem... ahem... the life of any being is measured in worth by the power they can command. We, in the quest for power..." Kaedros frowned. "You know what? Let's just go and have a last fight."
Rauk sighed and wondered how he ended up bleeding and limping in this situation. He paused and his lips twisted in a small humorless smile. He was the one who dragged them into it in the first place with the raid.
"A last fight for the people drawn together with the promise of power," Rauk said, and then he also smiled, a true one. "I like that."
Kaedros looked at Taria next. "What do you say?"
"You remember my role? The shield that draws the monster's attention." Her spear glittered as she raised it. "Then, Kael, let me be your shield for the last time."
Kaedros nodded and no more words were spoken after that. As one they burned every last power in silver stone until they blazed inside like raging fire.
Liquid strength flowed inside Kaedros and he forgot his pain, anger, and fear. His face became smooth, his eyes piercing. "Let's go."
They jumped down, and the monsters that were rolled in a ball position on the floor slowly unfurled. They were small with dirt-colored fur. Their faces were angular like that of a rat with claws that were long and sharp. Indeed, they were such low-class monsters.
But what they lacked in strength, they made up in numbers.
Taria's first strike sent all the monsters in front of her flying like dolls, bodies smashed and shattered, but others were quick to replace them, their claws finding flesh to rip.
It was one of the most difficult fights Kaedros had ever fought. Each death of the monsters had three replacing them in a never-ending stream. A fire spell would have burned them far and fast but there was little he could do, even with all the strength silver stone gave him.
It was like fighting water, but this water had claws and fangs. They latched on their backs, fangs finding flesh and chewing. Kaedros bellowed both with pain and anger. Small monsters! How dare they eat him! A Dragon Prince!
He wished he had his spells and he would have turned that room into a smoked meat joint. He would have turned them to ash but right now they latched onto his hands and he shook them off, only to be replaced by another.
Rauk was just the same, he started pressing forward. Each swing of his long sword was like a reaper to rice, plowing through flesh and bones, splattering himself and the floor, and he grinned each time he saw those monsters die.
But each swing left an opening that made the monsters close in on him. And soon he couldn't hear or see properly, his vision was blocked by blood and body parts, and why did his hand feel so heavy? The monsters swarmed him, their fangs tearing into flesh and ripping until he went down under squirming fur.
Kaedros saw him go down and his fury was swift, he ripped his injured hand from his side using it as a shield as he made his way towards him, focusing on the monster in front of him, those at the back could chew as much as they liked.
Then to the side in front of him, Taria also fell.