Zoey emerged from her inner world with a smile. Absorbing the Null Stalker essense stone had been the right choice. If whatever faced her in the next trial had magic attacks, she would be able to nullify the magic with her new rune.

She opened her Aether Engineer talent and set out to modify her equipment with the new rune. She quickly realized one drawback though, she would only be able to rely on her physical attacks and defences when she had the Null Field rune active. Her handgun and the magic applied to her knife and equipment would be ineffective if she had the Null Field active.

Once she realized that it dampened her enthusiasm a little. Either way she would have to make sure she didn't use her Null Field while she was trying to use any of her other magic or runes.

As for the application of the Null Field rune she simply modified the plates she had attached to her gear and added the Null Field rune as an additional option to activate. Interestingly, when she tested it she realized that the magic nullification effect still consumed magic to operate. An interesting phenomenon, but she did not have enough understanding of magic to properly investigate how the process worked.

Once she had applied the new Null Field to her gear and tested it to see if it worked, she was ready to take on the last trial. Wasting no time she stepped foot into the arena.

There was a resounding crack that echoed through the area, and at the other end of the arena a portal split through reality, creating another gate like the ones before. Zoey pulled her combat knife and her 9mm custom from her inventory and readied herself. She was at her peak right now, nerves and muscles taut and ready, knees bent and ready to move in an instant. Her emerald eyes focused on the portal, waiting on her target to emerge.

The portal rippled, and a moment later a massive arm made its way through, followed by a similarly huge head and body. There was an angry bellow that echoed through the dungeon, and Zoey got her first look at her opponent. She could only describe the creature as an ogre. Over three meters tall and massive, the creature had grey, stone-like skin and was clearly pissed off. As it climbed to its feet Zoey noted absently that she barely reached the creature's waist. One of it's massive feet could probably crush her with little effort if she got stepped on. It carried with it a small tree for a club and was most likely the cause of death for all the dead challengers around her. It was big and ugly, with a wide toothy jaw and small beady eyes.

As it finally got free of the portal it looked around angrily and spotted Zoey still standing in her original spot. It bellowed loud enough to shake the air and charged at her without a moment of hesitation. Zoey looked at the oncoming monster and took a breath. She would survive, she had to.

She was the last human survivor of a dead universe and something like this would not bring her down.

In that moment, as the ogre charged at her, shaking the ground as it ran, Zoey was unexplainably calm. Her emerald eyes for a moment seemed to flash with the color of molten lava, then she moved. She sprinted to her right raising her 9mm custom and firing two magic slugs at the ogre's head as she ran. The ogre was in full sprint as well, but a lot bigger, so it was unable to correct it's course fast enough to reach her. It was also violently assaulted by two magic slugs that smacked into the side of its head, causing it to flinch and bellow in anger as it was hit.

The ogre however was no stranger to taking damage, and its club swept out at Zoey in a horizontal sweep as it shrugged off the damage from the slugs. Zoey simply dove over the club despite its speed, rolled back to her feet and fired two more slugs at the side of the ogre's head. She was surprised at how little damage the first two slugs had done. She had seen blood where the slugs had impacted, but it was barely a scratch for the ogre.

The enraged ogre roared as two more slugs impacted its head and threw it off balance. It twisted its body and with surprising speed launched itself at Zoey on all fours like an animal, swinging its club in a vicious overhead strike as it did, hoping to crush her into paste. Zoey diverted to the side as the club hit the ground where she would have been with a crash that splintered the rock beneath. She had avoided the club, but the ogre was a vicious, cunning creature and had swung its free arm at her after she had dodged!

As the huge fist of the ogre approached her, Zoey pivoted to face the fist that was almost bigger than her and jumped backwards, then used her legs to absorb the force from the ogre's fist and used the momentum to launch herself into the air and out of it's reach. As she flew through the air she aimed and fired four more slugs at the ogre, hitting its arms and shoulders as it covered its face for protection.

As she landed with agile grace, the ogre threw a boulder at her with another roar, forcing her to avoid the rock that was bigger than her. She dodged to the side and decided to change her tactics. Applying all the speed she could, she turned and sprinted at the ogre that had just climbed to its feet again. It saw her coming and swung its club in a brutal arc intending to meet her charge and destroy her once and for all.

The ogre had seen her charge, but failed to notice her left hand as it tossed a small ball into the air. The instant before the two combatants were about to meet, a blinding flash went off in front of the ogres face. As the ogre's swing was interrupted by the flash, Zoey easily sidestepped the club moved in on her target, still in full sprint. Her left hand flashed out, and her combat knife gleamed with vicious intent as she activated the magic blade array and the Ice Venom rune.

As she flashed passed the stunned ogre, her knife struck out and sliced into the stone-like skin of the ogre's left thigh. With the magic blade array active, the knife easily cut cleanly through the thick flesh of the creature with a hiss.

In the span of a moment, a blink of the eyes, Zoey had blinded and then wounded the massive ogre. The creature howled in fury and pain as it tried to figure out what had happened. It had not been able to see her after the flash bomb had went off, and was still blinded, it only knew it had been hurt.

She took some distance from the creature and watched warily as it howled and clutched at its wounded thigh. Zoey knew that the Ice Venom had started to take effect, flowing through the ogre's blood. Now all she really had to do was wait and see how effective it really was.