47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle

  Newt appeared on a flimsy wooden wall fifteen feet above ground, his eyes at the level of the jungle’s canopy. The surrounding greenery was dense, with a path heading straight from his location into the depths of the rainforest.

  “Welcome to my realm.” A squeaky male voice sounded from the heavens to explain the trial. “I have been asked to create a realm which would challenge and help the younger generation improve their abilities and power. Our race has been struggling with the inhabitants of the Savage Wood for generations of cultivators and for hundreds of generations of mortals. Being able to overpower the beasts has always been important, in fact, our first victories against them represent a pivotal moment in history and our rise to cultivation. As such, I shall seek to recreate those ancient times here.”

  “Help me,” a frightened child whispered behind Newt. He turned and saw fifty filthy women and children shuddering. Huddled together, they wore clothes so torn, they might as well be called stitched rags. The illusion would have been impactful, had Newt not realized that the crowd was made of five identical groups of ten, all speaking the same words and making the same gestures in such perfect synchronization that they only produced singular sounds.

  The rest of his team stood on identical walls, examining their surroundings. The shabby pentagram-shaped fortress was made of planks, which could never stand like that in the real world, where gravity would tear the whole structure down before its builders finished it. As Newt processed the scene, the long-dead venerable continued his explanation of the trial’s format.

  “Your task is to protect the helpless and keep them alive as long as possible from an onslaught of savage spiritual beasts. The walls can take five attacks, but by following the path to its source, you can repair the corresponding wall. Should you dare venture into the jungle, you may find other benefits, or even items provided by those maintaining this realm. I mentioned additional benefits, they include permanently reinforced walls in the lane from which you have entered the jungle, ten additional civilians to protect, traps along the lane you are defending, and more.”

  Newt considered the implication and decided to charge forward and explore the jungle as much as possible right from the start.

  “I believe most of my… fellows… will choose trials which favor the strongest member of any given group. I find this ridiculous. Armies break because of the weakest link, not the strongest, so I shall test how well you can cover your flaws and help the weaker members of your teams. The tournament placement is based on how long you resist the onslaught of attacks, with waves starting three minutes apart. Each wave will be gauged to eliminate roughly a third of the contestants, and you lose once all your villagers perish. The challenge begins.”

  With that, the voice disappeared, and a thunder of stampeding steps came from every direction. Trees swayed in an artificially identical manner, and Newt jumped off his wall, firebursting to face the creatures rushing towards him.

  He took ten seconds to cross a mile and reach the solitary, earth-aligned stegosaurus. Newt ignored the third realm creature’s defense and speared its head without stopping, then dove into the jungle. He had three minutes, and even though he was no airhead, the fourth realm fireburst increased his speed to match one.

  Like in the previous challenge, Newt’s expenditure of spiritual energy was significant, since he was using a technique one realm beyond his, but this was a challenge he could sail through by relying on nothing but the strength of his body and quality of his spear. His spiritual energy should be used to move around.

  “Help me,” a frightened child whispered to the left. Newt turned, reaching the cowering civilians in a heartbeat. They rose and ran for the fortress, disappearing after a dozen steps.

  Two more minutes. Newt turned back towards the fortress and soon found a pile of timber leaning on a small crate of nails. He reached out to grab them, but the supplies disappeared the moment he touched a plank.

  Newt considered the sight and decided he had probably reinforced his wall, meaning it should go to the weakest member of his team.

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  Still counting down the time, he turned around and ran for the fortress.

  “Redleaf,” Newt shouted, “we’re exchanging places. I found some reinforcements for my wall.”

  “I got one too,” Flare yelled from somewhere. “Skillhorn, you take my place!”

  Newt reached the fort in time to hear a stegosaurus’s dying grunt. The palisade in front of him had a bunch of planks nailed to the front. The construction was ugly, looking like a rabid pack of peasants had hurriedly attached as much wood as possible because thicker meant better protection. And let alone multiple attacks from a third realm spirit beast, the wall did not seem able to stand up to a light breeze.

  But as long as the change increased the gate’s defense, the esthetics of it mattered little.

  Redleaf ran over to Newt’s lane, and Newt took his position just as another storm of heavy footsteps started. He blazed forward, rushing to meet the enemy in his new lane, finding a pair of earth-attributed stegosauruses. They died just as easily as the solitary beast, leaving Newt with a choice - help the rest or explore the jungle.

  It took fifteen seconds to slay his targets, another ten to return—Not worth it, Newt decided and ducked into the jungle. Two dozen seconds later, he had found another pile of construction materials. He scooped them up without breaking pace, and they disappeared just like last time.

  The reinforcements are either a common reward for roaming the jungle or others are better hidden, and we’ll need to look closer.

  Newt searched for a dozen seconds longer, when he heard a crashing sound of wood snapping. Newt turned around, sprinting towards the fortress, leaving fire in his wake. Twochains stood before Redleaf’s gate; The two of them together had slain the stegosauruses, but the gate had suffered damage.

  There was over a hundred seconds left until the next wave, and Newt made another snap decision. “Redleaf, you go and wander the jungle, I’ll hold two lanes.”

  Can I manage three? The thought tempted him, Redleaf and Skillhorn could comb the jungle together, but what to do if faster spirit beasts appeared? Getting extra villagers or tougher walls faster was not worth it if a pack of deinonychus breached the wall and slaughtered their villagers.

  Newt decided he would watch over two walls, then checked the damage. A portion of the wood he had added was smashed to bits, but the gate still stood. He rushed towards the place from which the dinosaurs appeared and found a block on the ground with an image of a hammer striking a nail into wood.

  Newt touched the block, which shimmered and disappeared. With a whole minute left. Newt ducked into the jungle, but failed to find anything of interest before having to return to the path.

  A triceratops materialized just above the repair block. The beast roared and stampeded forth, running towards the fort at around sixty miles per hour without paying attention to Newt. Its scorn suited Newt just fine, as he charged it, his glaive slashing through the creature’s neck without resistance.

  The dinosaur disappeared, and Newt fireburst his way back to the fort. The triceratopses stomped their way down the other lanes, rattling loose pebbles on the ground and making the leaves shudder on the branches. Newt cut through the jungle and jumped onto the second lane he had chosen to defend, just ahead of the triceratops, around halfway before it reached the wall.

  The beast’s horn gleamed like metal, and with an enemy before it, the dinosaur increased its speed and charged. Despite being at the third realm, the earth-aligned triceratops was a lumbering beast, barely moving eighty miles per hour even when charging at full speed.

  The giant protective collar hardened as the spirit beast bellowed another threat and shifted its head to impale Newt with its horn. The young man ducked beneath the attack, raised his glaive, and stabbed its tip into the soft, unprotected neck.

  The triceratops disappeared, while two identical roars sounded one after another. Newt hurried to the third lane, nearly a minute had passed since the start of the third wave, and he would have little time for exploration after helping Skillhorn.

  His teammate stood with his sword at the ready, staring at the triceratops as Newt ran out of the jungle. The beast focused entirely on Skillhorn and died to a glaive in the neck. With under two minutes remaining, Newt sprinted through the bushes and foliage, opting for a longer path back to his original lane, exploring the jungle as much as time permitted.

  With half a dozen seconds left over, Newt stepped to the side of the repair rune, waiting for what he assumed would be a pair of triceratops.

  What appeared was a fire-attributed nanuqsaurus. The beast surged towards the fort, easily moving a hundred and twenty miles per hour. Newt dashed after it. He jumped and decapitated it with a single sweep before rushing to the second lane.

  The beast was almost upon the wall, when Newt intercepted it and decapitated it without ceremony. He ran to Skillhorn’s aid when he heard a blood-curdling scream and ran faster.