Desperation and determination were two words that Elias took to heart in the present moment. The clashes with the Trial abomination were falling more than a little in favour of the Trial.

  He had barely made a scratch and was quickly approaching the fifty-percent mark for his Mana. His essence was gone and his life sat at around eighty-percent.

  The problem was that he had only been engaged with the creature for around two minutes—and other than his barely successful firing of Flames of Orus, he'd not landed much else.

  He was wracking his brain for a way to recover the situation—or a way to escape, something he would take immediately should he be given the chance.

  With an audible grunt he slammed himself into the cover of a large crystal formation next to him, the fight had led into the cavernous region of the arena and he had been relatively thankful. He had grown used to fighting these creatures individually in the environment he now found himself in—did it give him an advantage? Well that was yet to be determined.

  Crack!

  He was shunted away from his cover as an oversized pincer slammed into the crystals, throwing shards of sharp rockery fragments in all directions, including his. Cuts swam across his face from the offshoots of crystals—significantly slowed by his constant channelling of mana barrier.

  He injected mana into his spirit and shot away, taking in the expected sphere of flame hurtling towards his previous position. "Same attack," he grunted as he braced for the shockwave.

  It came and he felt the snap of the wave collide with his body—carrying forward his momentum and knocking him slightly off balance.

  Now, came the third part of the combo. The sound of the Urstoks clawed feet scratching against the rock echoed out and as predicted the oversized creature hurtled towards him.

  He redirected the runes of his Mana Barrier to reinforce in a layered manner behind him as he pushed more Mana into his spirit and leapt into the air—pushing both hands forward as the abomination arrived at his position.

  "COME ON!" he yelled as he activated Flames of Orus once more.

  The beast had used this combo four times in quick succession, it was only now that he had found the confidence to try and exploit its repetitive action.

  His ethereal flames burst out from both his hands and tore forwards into the Mooshroom like eyes and mouths as his leap from the ground had elevated him to their level.

  For half a second it felt like he would do some damage—before its mass smashed into his ungrounded form and threw him hurtling in the air. He had planned for that. Did it still hurt—by the Twins, yes it did. He smashed over the cavernous regions threshold to the crimson jungle and collided with a number of plants and trees as his reinforced and layered Mana Barriers cracked like glass.

  But they'd done their job—his momentum ceased finally against a particularly firm tree and he fell to the floor.

  Deep red blood oozed from Elias's mouth as he coughed and took in a few sharp breaths—trying to regain his composure from the daze he found himself in. "Maybe it died in the exchange?" He breathed before looking over in the direction of the beast. "Nope… not even close."

  The Trial of Defiance let out a guttural roar and then what seemed to him to be a laugh as it did not press its obvious advantage.

  The Trials carapaced legs began to slowly move towards his own weakened form.

  He looked around desperately, trying to work out his next moves. "Come on, Elias… you've come this far!" he cursed to himself, "come on, come on!"

  He stood looked around with realisation—Essence. He needed Essence. He saw it, all around him. The whole jungle was corruption, he just needed it within him, and no, he wasn't going to eat it.

  He dove towards the nearest thorn-covered vine and grimaced as he wrapped his hands around its thick stem and thrust the thorn into his stomach. "Please wor—AGH!"

  A throbbing pain immediately pulsed from the entry wound of the thorn as he felt it immediately inject him with its poison. He pulled up his Essence.

  [Essence: 11/20]

  The pulsing of the thorn wasn't stopping and he could almost feel the crimson in the stem that went on for dozens of meters seemed to draw towards the thorn that impaled him.

  [Essence: 32/20]

  "Hah-Ahhh!" He sounded as he knew that his impulsive plan was working.

  How he'd follow up on the result, he had no idea. He just hoped the Trial would give him a few moments to—

  "Try-ying to emp-pow-wer yourself?" The Trial bellowed as it's many eyes fixated on him, the aura around it intensifying.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "No?!" He yelled back.

  He truly no idea what else to do other than respond in words as the intense pain threatened his insides—combined now with the familiar rapture of—power.

  [Essence: 62/20 - warning, you have exceeded safe limitations of Essence storage, side effects may—]

  "Yeah, yeah—we know!" He said as he cut off the un-needed explanation that the notification had decided to present.

  He jerked himself off the thorn and infused his Spirit with Mana before bursting to the side—a small head of the thorn vine remained within his open stomach as his blood decorated the floor.

  His previous position was once more replaced with a raging inferno of flame, the shockwave bursting out in all directions—and then stopped, only a meter or so from impact as all at once the energy redirected as it was drawn into the array of crimson flora.

  “Maybe my gut was right? This was the right place to be.” He thought, referring to the crimson jungle.

  He prepared himself for follow up attacks—although, the creature had already belied expectation by throwing a ball of flame before the pincers.

  Maybe it had decided to mix things up?

  It didn't matter, soon after a barrage of attack harried his cover—all while the Trial approached, slowly closing the distance.

  Despite the wounds that kept appearing over his body, it was what he needed, from this distance he couldn't effectively respond in any way, he needed it closer.

  As it approached his 'bursting' range, he committed, injecting half his still building Essence into his Enhancement - Spirit and the rest into his hand. He surged out of his cover and straight towards the Trials shoulder—hr had deliberately shot off to the left-hand side shoulder of the creature and as he neared within a meter of the Naeru like limb, he shot out his Essence infused hand—

  "Flames of Orus!" he yelled—willing his power to work audibly.

  It responded.

  Intense flames surged forth, the normal orange replaced by the destructive crimson-orange of Essence infused skills. He grinned as he felt the immediate backlash of heat surge over him, ahead of him—charred remains of the Trials left limb—along with a significant chunk of the Mooshroom like body being charred and smoking.

  He landed as the Trial reeled in pain for the first time this battle. As soon as he touched the ground he bounded back towards the Crimson jungle. As he did a flash surged throughout the Arena and dread temporarily overcame him.

  He looked for its source as a deep red flash washed over his vision once more.

  [Essence: 2/20]

  "It's not me," Elias gasped as his eyes darted around, the Trial was still reeling in pain—so it couldn't be it either.

  A dark void appeared suddenly in the centre of the Arena—drawing the attention of both of them. Out of the void the sphere from the Trial of Aptitude emerged, its cracked casing leaking out Crimson energy. The orb hung in the air for just a moment before a resounding—

  SMASH!

  —the casing shattered completely and an arc of terrible red energy arced the dense corruption energies directly into the Trial of Defiance, it yelled out in agonising pain and Elias could almost feel the direct injection of corruption overcoming the Trials body.

  He could do nothing but watch as the creature before him shook off its pain and brought its now magnificent sets of crimson eyes to bear on him. It shook him to the core.

  As he was about to move, like he was sure the Trial was—he stopped, three more voids appeared over each region of the arena and out shot arcs of brilliant orange light straight into the now infused beast.

  "What is that?! More power?" He said in disbelief, bracing himself for another transformation.

  It just wasn't what he had expected. The Trial of Defiance's guttural screams resonated throughout the arena as the orange light filled its form. As it did, something horrifying began to happen, its carcass began to wither in places, replaced by hairy patches of purple mottle skin. It's Mooshroom like eyes and mouths began to twist into even more unnatural shapes and the Naeru's fleshy chains seeped with a purple pulsing vein that stretched within seconds to cover its entire form.

  The Trial of Defiance was—an Aberration?

  "What the fuck is this Orus?!, This isn't right?!" He called out helplessly as he took in the appearance of the disfigured beast. It truly resembled that of the Aberrations from outside the Dungeon—an aberration that reminded him of the fairy-tale-esque stories that he'd read growing up, mythical beasts with terrifying forms unbeknownst to those within modern civilisation.

  He knew that he had to move, take advantage of the momentary lull in the combat. He charged, still absorbing the remainder of the Essence that had been injected into him.

  He darted back towards the beast, pushing only Mana into his spirit. He closed the distance as the Trial of Defiance remained reeling in its own agonising transformation. Elias drew his sword in a flash and swept up in an arc towards the right-side leg of the monster. As he pushed his body in the movement he pushed Essence into both his own body and his spirit. In response, his movement blurred and his sword struck true—it arc unimpeded by both the muscular mottled skin or the carapace.

  It's leg fell to ground, spurting ichor all over him and the surrounding area. Not wanting to let up, he moved again, hoping to catch the next leg before the Trial could react. Two pincers slammed into the ground, both missing him by the slightest margin as he went to strike again—only mana available for this strike. He cleaved upwards once more.

  His sword smashed into the muscular skin but crashed to a halt only a few inches in, he let go as he avoided the beasts now thrashing body.

  "Yo-ou-'ll re-egr-ret th-hat! Pa-ath-het-tic bu-ug" screamed the Trial, it's previously guttural tone reverberating with power.

  He tried to swallow down his own fear as he tried to get a few meters away, trapped in the legs that slammed down around him and the barrage of pincers that crushed the ground all around. The Trial was faster, he could feel the corrupted power billowing from its pores—along with thick gooey purple pus.

  The stench was what hit him first—the unmistakeable rot of pure corruption, the overpowering stench of decomposing flesh. What hit him second; was a pincer that he couldn't quite dodge in time, the oversized limb clenched reactively to his thigh and he found himself flying into the air.

  The Trial had got hold of him, he yelled in pain as blood flowed freely from his pierced leg, the pincers quickly crushing through layers of skin, muscle and soon bone.

  [Essence: 32 / 20]

  "What?!" he said as the notification pushed into his vision—his essence was increasing rapidly, more rapidly than his injection of the thorn. His thoughts quickly jumped to his encounter with the rats prior to the dungeon.

  [Essence 56 / 20]

  Through the pain he gritted his teeth, the flailing chain suspending him closer to the Chimeric Aberrations larger maw, the yellowed tongues lapping violently in anticipation of the feast. He glanced at his reserves.

  [Life Force: 80 / 223]

  [Mana: 46 / 157]

  A sickening laughter echoed out from the many mouths—bar the one he approached as the Trial knew it was soon to be victorious.

  "Now or never", he spat as he decided that he would only get one shot at this. Willing for his Enhancement - Spirit, Spirit Form to cease and channelling every ounce of power from within to his hands he screamed.

  The pincer immediately crushed straight through his limb, the Spirit Forms passive reinforcement of his body through constant Mana use had listened to his command and his detached limb fell helplessly, followed by a trail of deep red blood. Held aloft by a sinewy stump, cracked bone and torn muscles, dangling unevenly out of the wound.

  He almost passed out from shock in that instant.

  He held on. He channelled, ignoring the life-threatening pain and discarding any doubt or hesitation—his channels ripped apart as the Essence and Mana shot through, his body and spirit had been given no time to recover.

  Flames of Orus shot out at the open Maw, the Ethereal mana of Orus mixing with the Corruption of Essence as it throttled with such momentum through the Trials orifice that it felt as though the Trial had sucked it in itself. As it passed through the threshold of its mouth, He felt a connection form between the skill and the Trial itself—almost as if the Skill was trying to…

  The Trial of Defiance thrashed wildly and the chain holding him bounded through the air with the pincer releasing mid-swing. He was thrown through the air.

  Free from its grasp.

  He had nothing more to give as he felt almost disconnected from his own body. He was almost completely numb, blood flowing in his wake. His vision closing in once more.

  Flames of Orus was cut off from his direct channelling only moments after it was cast.

  Did that matter?

  No, as hr had felt in the moment before his Spirit failed, it had connected directly to the Trial of Defiance, the will of the Skill and his own desire forced upon reality as the Skill consumed not only his offering of Essence, but all of that within the Aberration—it was Elias's after all and it would fuel his skill.

  The horrific vision that befell the arena was that of a gigantic Aberration being incinerated from the inside out, pulses of flame erupting from the ichor oozing pores, each twisted mouth pushed out burst of Crimson fire and the entire beast thrashed in an agony indescribable.

  He smiled as he held on just long enough to witness his achievement. He had grown stronger—and now, he could join them.

  "Mum, Tess… I'm coming."

  Numbing darkness embraced him in Mind, Body and Spirit as his dismembered and mortally wounded form crashed into the plains of the arena.

  “I've missed you.”