Despite Elias's obvious disadvantage against three opponents due to his lower Tier, them outnumbering him, and their combined thirty levels, he was confident.

  He had fought each of them individually and had come out the victor, and that was before he'd received the Flames of Orus skill and improved his Enhancement skill.

  It was now time to test out just how far he'd come in this damnable dungeon. He kicked off, spraying sand in the air with the force of his movement—straight at the Mooshroom, he couldn't let it shoot its mana freely.

  It was an impulsive plan he had come up with in less than two seconds.

  Fireballs—bad.

  Anything after that would have to come out after he'd defeated the spongy entity.

  He pushed only a few meters forward as the familiar scratching of chains rang out and he felt a surge of danger, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

  He turned his head slightly to encompass the Naeru in his vision and grimaced. He raised his shield to block the oncoming assault of its fleshy chains. His shield took the brunt of the blow as the attached pincers were deflected, a few splinters of wood chipping off.

  It knocked him off balance slightly but he stayed his course as he approached the mushroom.

  Neither the Urstok nor the Mooshroom were idle during this time as the Urstok crawled forward on its six legs, it wasn't sprinting, but just ever so slowly trying to enter 'tongue-range'—something that made him shiver with disgust, it was as if it wasn't enough to look at the myriad of different length tongues from a distance.

  "You're next… Definitely" Elias thought.

  The Mooshroom's green aura was already spiking visibly in the air around it, it's stool-like hands gathering mana quickly.

  Maintaining his charge, he realised that the few seconds he had before he would be in range of the Mooshroom was too long. If he couldn't speed up, the creature would be able to let off an attack.

  He ducked as a second pincer soared through the air—it forced him to roll forwards, the brunt of the impact his diving-roll would have caused was absorbed by his armour, although he did feel slightly less agile.

  Mana soared through his channels as runes appeared all over his body—the orange light of the system embracing him as his mana formed into a barrier. He instinctively tried to infuse essence into the barrier—and grunted in realisation.

  He had none.

  Disregarding his lack of Urstok-countering powers, he pulled on his spirit. "Let's see what you can do,"

  Elias felt the shimmering afterimage of his spirit embed itself in his body—his mana pushing out of his channels and pores, and feeding the spirits tangibility.

  Wind smashed into his face as a burst of speed unlike anything he'd ever experienced took him and he cleared the fifteen meter distance between his and the Mooshroom in less than a second.

  The speed he'd displayed belayed the Urstok's expectations as it's array of fleshy limbs tongued the empty space in which he had previously occupied. The Naeru flailed its pincers wildly and the Mooshroom looked shocked. Well, as shocked as a mushroom could at least.

  The problem was, while the creatures were taken by surprise by his sudden burst of speed—so was he and his mind couldn't keep up with his body.

  He drew back on the spirit form and only overshot the Mooshroom slightly, he pivoted and pushed his mana out again in a burst—the afterimage gripped his body and surged it in line with his desires—he shot around with a speed that almost cracked the air as his sword spiralled in an arc.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  It pushed straight through the Mooshroom, before it had a chance to react. Cleaving its body in two, its multiple eyes and mouths completely aghast with the overpowering nature of the attack.

  With barely a moment to register the power of his strike a notification flashed into his view.

  "What?!" he gasped.

  He had poured out almost half of his mana in less than a few seconds.

  "Don't think, keep going" he thought as the Naeru and Urstok abandoned any notion of avoiding friendly fire as both pincers and an array of tongues shot out at Elias.

  The Mana Barriers Elias had erected reacted with the oncoming force of the attacks and mitigated all they could—another surge of mana eeking out from him. He couldn't raise his shield in time and a number of impacts thrust into his armoured body. He was thrown a few feet back—stumbling.

  They were too far away for his Flames. What could he do? He regained his balance and ducked as a pincer thrust out towards him.

  He pushed off, charging directly towards the Urstok, careful not to force out Mana into his Spirit.

  He'd noticed that when the strikes of the Naeru and Urstok had connected with him, he'd felt his afterimage absorb some of the impact. Another drain on his mana—the afterimage absorbing the impact was also something that he had not willed. It had happened entirely by itself.

  He dropped his Mana Barriers - his mana had reached the halfway point and he didn't want to run out before the end of the fight.

  Elias had an idea. He just needed to time it right.

  He dropped to the floor as the Naeru thrust both pincers at once through the air and directly into where his torso had been—they snapped at the air violently.

  Pushing up with force, he kicked off and forced a surge of mana into his spirit—trying to focus it into just his leg. He flew through the air as the distance between Elias and the Urstok fell away in less than a second. Elias dropped his sword mid-flight and screamed out his willed thoughts "Flames of Orus!".

  The Urstoks tongues were immediately encapsulated in the abundance of fire that should out from his unarmoured hand. The runes that appeared were a familiar orange-yellow.

  The effect—well, he knew it wasn't as powerful as when it had been infused with the corruption, but it was still more than enough for the Urstok in front of him. The Urstok had been mouth agape, thrusting its tongues desperately trying to poison Elias—the problem with this? The flames lapped up the tongues and the maw of the beast—thrusting deep into its gooey core and immediately incinerating it from the inside out.

  Two notifications popped into his view and he quickly skimmed the most prominent before cutting off the skills mana flow.

  He guessed it would die quickly against the flames—but the confirmation of its death this quick was welcome.

  The Naeru did not flinch away as a pincer struck the now grounded Elias in the shoulder, it gripped tightly and he felt his spirit try to repulse its sharp pincers as they sank through the chainmail and into his flesh—the metal links of the chainmail piercing into his skin in a surprisingly revelation—armour made this hurt more!

  He dropped his shield and gripped the fleshy chain.

  He tugged, just at the same time as the Naeru squeezed its pincers and blood seeped from his shoulder, the Naeru drew closer. Its other chain-like limb flowed through the air as it tried to make contact with Elias. He pulled the slack of the limb linked to the embedded pincer and positioned it directly in the path of the Naeru's assault.

  The Naeru tried to pull its own attack but, but it was too late, it had built too much momentum, and the pincers clamped down on its own flesh.

  The Naeru let out a squeal of pain.

  Elias grinned as he tugged with both arms—one working slightly better than the other—and forced mana into his spirit. The burst of mana dropped his reserve to thirty percent. But that was fine, the Naeru flew threw the air towards him, with his main hand now dropping the limb it pushed out ahead of him and as the Naeru's body approached him in the air, he willed the activation of the skill one more time.

  Flames of Orus met his call and surged forth, covering the final beast in ethereal flames that found purchase in only a second. A death-screech emerged as a notification swam in his view. He cut off his mana once more and read.

  [Naeru slain – x 1]

  Elias breathed heavily as he stepped back. He pried the pincer off his shoulder as best he could—despite only one hand being able to effectively reach it. He grimaced at the pain and looked around at the scene before him.

  He had just slain three of the beasts at once, easily. "Wow…" he said as he examined his Life and Mana.

  Life—over seventy percent. Mana—below thirty percent.

  His enhancement and acquisition of Flames of Orus had completely skewed his expenditure in battle. Was it effective—yes, yes it was.

  He glanced around at the portals and questioned internally whether or not more would come. He was pleasantly surprised when they began to shrink, before fading out entirely with a pop.

  He took long, deep breaths and put his hands on his waist. "Trials complete. Thank you!" He said with hope.

  A familiar voice billowed through the void and engulfed the platform "You have completed the Trials of Orus! You have bested the Trial of Greed, proving you will not falter for the temptation of treasure—or, at least the dangers that usually accompanies treasure!"

  It was Orus's voice, it had returned and whilst it was still overbearing and commanding… it felt like some of the casual nature he had shown during their physical interaction had returned.

  "You proved yourself worthy in the Trial of Aptitude—only those born with the capacity can build capability. You are worthy of attempting the path ahead!"

  Path ahead… this brought Elias's mind to where Orus had mentioned Pathers. He guessed that anyone who had a path was a Pather, but he couldn't understand how anyone other than he…or an aberration could have passed that trial. When undertaking the trial his Essence, or corruption storage, had been overflowing. That wasn't normal.

  "You conquered the Trial of Conviction—understanding that only the strong-willed and those sure of the path ahead will succeed!"

  Conquered it? Elias thought, a resurgence of frustration running through him "No… I don't think I did." he muttered.

  "And finally you have proven yourself able to stand up to foes at your current level of power in the Trial of Conflict."

  Now, that part was true. Elias also picked up on the seeming conclusion that the voices words were coming to and hope surged within him.

  "Now all Trials are complete and you are free to—" the voice continued before pausing for a moment and coming back with a slightly sinister undertone, "Carry out the final challenge. One reserved for those beyond the average, beyond normal cosmological understanding!”

  “Or for cheaters. Let's hope it's not the second eh? You might struggle" the voice finished with a cackle and faded.

  "Orus! Come on! NO!"

  As before, no further words graced Elias's ears—only a daunting vision in the distance—at one end of the circular platform a shape began to form within the void. A stairs, one so wide and grand that it completely threw off Elias's expectation and instead filled him with trepidation of what might lay ahead.

  He gritted his teeth in frustration and yelled "If you hadn't made me jump into that stupid 'Well of Ascension', we wouldn't be in this mess! I don't even want the corruption!"

  His words met more silence as he slowly realised there was only one path forwards.

  Take the stairs.