The Buried Monastery(2)

Before I could even catch my breath, I heard the voice in my head again saying, "The next trial is just as simple, make your way to the end of the corridor."

The scenery shifted once again, and I was standing on stone tiles looking down what seemed to be an endless corridor since the end faded into darkness. I proceeded down the aisle knowing that there was going to be more to the trial than walking. As I was walking tense and ready for some kind of trap, the next tile I stepped on felt as if it had shifted and I immediately jumped back.

I looked at where I had stepped, there was now a hole deep enough that I could not see the bottom. I jumped over the tile figuring that not all of them would be booby-trapped but when I landed on the next tile, I felt the shifting and knew what was coming so I jumped to the next tile which immediately started collapsing. I began to leap forward again when I noticed that the tiles in front of me had already collapsed.

Running out of time before I would fall, I managed to luckily spot a small peg that had yet to collapse. In mid-air, I was already looking for my next foothold and finding one as soon I hit the peg. I jumped forward and continued my frantic path forward always on the edge of falling.

Eventually, I started to notice a pattern slowly emerging, and I was able to get to a point where I was able to move forward somewhat comfortably as I got used to this pattern. I thought now that the trial was easy when suddenly I stepped on a new foothold where the gravity increased dramatically, and I was only able to save myself by quickly activating my core and pushing off with all my strength.

Almost overreacting and causing me to nearly fly past the next foothold, I landed where the gravity once again flipped to be less than five times less than average. This change nearly made me overshoot the next foothold. This situation of ever-changing gravity continued for a few hours. I still hadn't gotten used to managing the changes, but I wasn't nearly dying with every jump when I realized the real challenge of this trial wasn't going to be the ability to survive each leap but instead not succumbing to exhaustion from the energy I was consuming for each jump.

The situation continued for hours more with no alterations which resulted in me getting so robotic in my approach that I started to behave as if on auto-pilot. When all of a sudden I hit a tile that did not immediately begin collapsing, I paused looking around wondering if this was the end. When I did not hear the voice shouting to me, I realized that the trial wasn't over yet, so I started walking forward cautiously wondering what would happen next.

In an instant, the corridor changed from tile to some sort of liquid. Not sure if the fluid was harmful, I dipped part of my sleeve in it to test it. As soon as my sleeve touched the liquid, it instantly melted away in a puff of smoke. I knew the trial wouldn't be that easy. Looking for another way across, I noticed some tiny stones that stuck up at various intervals.

The only problem was that these stones were nearly flat against the surface of the liquid and were only about the size of a coin. Realizing it was probably a good thing I had gotten all the practice earlier, I did not hesitate any longer and jumped to the first stone. With all my nervousness worrying about the impact of hitting the liquid, I lost my balance causing the end of my spear to dip into the liquid.

As soon as it touched, the runes on the spear lit up as if protecting the spear which resulted in no damage to the spear. I continued jumping for a while ending up with more than a few new holes in my shoes. As I was jumping a wall appeared out of nowhere, not being able to entirely land on a stone, I grabbed the wall so I wouldn't bounce back into the liquid.

As I did this, a voice sounded in my head once again saying, "The final trial is just as simple. Merely kill the beast at the top of the mountain."

As soon as the voice finished, the scenery changed once again leaving me standing at the base of a gigantic mountain. I stared up grumbling to myself; if I was supposed to fight the beast at the top of the mountain, why start me at the bottom? I looked up at the giant snowy mountain towering over me.

Sighing at the thought of the tedious trek in front of me, I started up the slope having to plow through waist-deep snow. As I went up the mountain, the steepness of the slope continually increased until I could no longer walk and had to start climbing. This continued until I finally came face to face with a sheer cliff reaching up to what appeared to be the peak. I stared up both in anticipation and dread wondering what the final beast I would have to fight would be like.

I started climbing while continuing to try to imagine what kind of creature I would have to fight. As I crested the cliff, I looked over and saw that the peak was a massive crater miles in width. In the middle of this crater, sat a blue-scaled dragon or at least a small version of one compared to the size of dragons in legends.

Even so, it was still the size of a giant bear plus wings. I started approaching the dragon thinking maybe I could get a strike on it unaware. Yet as soon as I approached the area where it was laying, it immediately lifted its' head and stared directly at me.

Upon seeing me, it let out a roar that reverberated around the whole crater causing a small of fear in fighting this beast enter my mind which I quickly had to let go as the dragon took to the air and dove right at me opening its' mouth and spewing some sort of gas. It immediately froze everything it touched causing a strip of ice to form in a line quickly approaching me.

When it reached me, I was able to roll out of the way but even doing this I could feel the chill from his super cold breath. Seeing that his breath was easy to dodge, he landed heavily next to me and attempted to take a bite out of me. As I dodged away, I attempted to stab him with my spear, but I merely glanced off his armored scales.

Unable to pierce then with a quick counter blow, it was at this point that I started getting worried that I wouldn't even be able to pierce his scales much less kill him. Letting these worries distract me, I missed my dodge letting him scrape me down my side which created a gash that immediately started soaking my clothes in blood. Grimacing in pain, I attempted to counter, but once again my strike just glanced off his scales causing me to fall further into despair.

Not willing to give up yet, I knew my only hope was to get strikes at his weak points. The only problem was he defended them so well that the only available weak points were his eyes. Knowing this, I continued to dodge waiting for the perfect strike. Finally, it came as I dodged a bite aiming for my neck, I struck out piercing through his eye shoving all the way to his skull and letting a burst of lightning run through my spear for good measure.

Unfortunately, I underestimated the vitality of this dragon, and before it breathed its' last breath, it brought up its' claw slashing me from my shoulder to hip. The blood poured from the wound, blood pouring into the snow causing a field of red to form around me.

As my blood flowed, it mixed with the dragons' blood. Splotches of darkness started to enter my vision as my blood loss continued and my natural healing powers could not keep up. Before I fell into unconsciousness, the scenery changed again, and I heard the voice ring out in my head saying,

"Hmm, you actually managed to complete the tasks with what little training you had. Well, I suppose you will want your reward."