Erland stood among the massive metal grass of the second trial. Doors gaped in the bottoms of some of the strands. His mind was elsewhere.

Goosebumps ran up his arms all the way to the base of his neck. Deep, sniffing breaths were drawn through his nose. A thrill ran through him. His eyes popped open and his grin stretched wide.

he chanted to himself with glee.

He shot off through the towers, following the scent.

He turned a corner just in time to see a tower door swing shut soundlessly. A sinking feeling entered his stomach. He reached the now seamless doorway a moment later. His hands pawed at the unmarked surface of the tower in panic.

“No no no no…” Erland growled as he desperately tried to find a way in.

After a few moments he was forced to give up. He slumped to the ground with a disappointed groan and lay there, inconsolable. A couple minutes later his wallowing was interrupted.

“Didn’t see you in the last trial,” a high pitched voice called from above him. “I saw everybody in the last trial. How did you get here, little boy?”

“Guess you didn’t see everybody, obviously,” Erland mocked. His nose had barely twitched at the stranger’s approach. “I’m not in the mood, fuck off.”

He leaned his head to the side as he finished speaking. A throwing knife pinged off the tower. He snorted and shook his head as he rose to his feet.

“Last warning,” he said, bringing his eyes up to lock onto the barely visible figure clinging to the side of a nearby tower. “Fuck. Off.”

Under the weight of his glare, the woman let out a frustrated hiss.

“You’re not fooling me,” she said. A look of realization crossed her face before transforming into naked hunger. “Your stats are garbage. You weren’t part of the first trial. You must have gone up a Tier.”

Three more throwing knives streaked through the space between them. Erland was gone almost before they were thrown. He let out a resigned sigh. People like this always thought in such straight, boring lines.

[Charge] activated and he ran straight up the wall.

The cloaked figure let out a squawk as Erland collided with her. His arms wrapped her up and they both plummeted to the ground below under the force of his tackle. To the woman’s credit, her dexterity and agility were top notch. A dagger was in her hand and plunged into Erland’s side in a flash.

Erland merely grunted and accepted the wound as the cost of business.

Just before they hit the ground he flipped her into a headlock and changed the angle of impact. She struggled in his grip, trying to break free, but here she was no match for his strength or leverage. As they crashed down, he felt her spine snap with a satisfying crunch.

It was almost enough to alleviate his disappointment that his prey had gotten away.

Almost.

He got back to his feet, his fallen opponent instantly forgotten as she choked to death at his feet. With a sigh he walked into a nearby tower with the door open.

Erland thought resignedly.

He had tried taking a nap in the last round of the first trial. Once he had gotten Bjarke back for the first round, and tired of chasing down the other competitors, of course. But when he hadn’t moved in five minutes, a warning had interrupted his plan.

He plodded across the floor of the tower, climbing the stairs at the back. Carelessly, he trekked across the second floor when he found nothing there. His reflexes, while quick, weren’t enough to save him when the ground exploded under his feet.

‘You earned [0 points] from round one. You can spectate the trial grounds until the end of the round, but you will not be able to view the interior of the towers.’

Erland sighed mentally.

His characteristic grin painted itself in his thoughts, and Erland ran through what it would be like to fight her on more even ground.

Round two started, but he could tell that Halina was much farther away now. There was no chance he could catch her before she entered a tower this time. His mood soured slightly at the thought, but he didn’t belabor the point.

Now that they were on the same Tier, it was just a matter of time. Even if she Tiered up again he would catch her eventually.

His nose twinged at a couple other good scents anyways, so his time on this Tier would definitely be more worth it than F-Tier had been.

There only Bjarke had given off even a whiff.

Shrugging off his desire to fight, Erland entered the nearest open tower. This time he approached the second floor much more cautiously. When he got to the halfway point and the floor lit up, he was fast enough to avoid the explosion this time.

he mused.

Erland shot forward across the room, letting the floor explode behind him as he ran. It was close, but running flat out kept him just ahead of the blasts. Then the jagged spears of ice joined the party.

That made things difficult.

Especially when the first one clipped his thigh.

Grunting in pain, he ran on anyways. Somersaulting flips and improvised handsprings interrupted his mad sprint. The explosions and spears just got closer and closer. He felt the ground heating up under his foot. A crazed grin was plastered over his face.

[Charge] activated and he was through the room.

Unfortunately he also rebounded off the back wall with a pained grunt as his nose was smashed flat by his momentum. Scrabbling fingers gripped the steps and kept him from tumbling backwards into the deathtraps.

Almost manic laughter broke the silence of the room a moment later.

“If I had known the challenges would be this fun, I would have gone without a fight!” Erland hollered into the empty tower. “That was brilliant!”

Once he had control of his laughter, he got his feet back under him and marched up the stairs.

Speed was still the key to this trial.

The second floor was actually easier for Erland than the first. It was set up as an obstacle course, lined with sulfurous lava pits and whirling blades. Swinging guillotines swooped over straightaways. Spikes shot from portions of the ground in rhythmic patterns.

Everything about this course played to Erland’s strengths.

The whirling blades and narrow paths tested his balance and dexterity. The guillotines and spikes tested his timing and agility. Hidden dart traps tested his reactions.

Unfortunately the first set tested his endurance and constitution as well.

They almost shredded his left shoulder, catching him from behind. Even with a useless left arm, Erland made it through the rest of the floor without any other issues.

Even when the end of the path turned out to be the most diabolical trap of the course.

He felt the trap trigger before it even clicked. Without even waiting to find out what he’d triggered, Erland blew the cooldown on [Charge] once more. When the floor screeched and rent itself asunder where he had just been standing, the cooldown seemed like the deal of a lifetime.

Blood leaked from his wounds, leaving a stained but victorious path to the third floor. A grin slowly stole onto his face.

His nose was practically howling like a wolf at the smell from the next floor.

The anticipation made him want to leap up the stairs two at a time. He held himself back instead, savoring the potential for the battle ahead. When he reached the third floor, he was almost salivating.

The sight that greeted him gave him goosebumps.

Erland offered up an extremely rare prayer.

Two rows of ghostly blue apparitions greeted him. They formed an artificial corridor to the stairwell at the end of the hall. Weapons bristled as he stepped onto the last step.

He recognized each of them.

Here, the Tree of Life had almost granted him his wildest dream. Every worthy fighter he had ever fought lay in front of him. Up close were faces he barely recognized, fighters he had battled before his Player system had ever activated. The memories grew brighter and more vivid as he looked down the lines.

There, at the end, Halina and Bjarke stood opposite each other.

Erland closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He barely managed to contain an excited growl.

The only thing spoiling any of it was that he couldn’t savor each and every battle along this ghostly, half-remembered road.

Letting out his in-drawn breath with a violent burst, he blasted across the floor. His limbs were loose and relaxed despite the danger all around him. He flowed between the blows of his childhood opponents like water. A bit of melancholy passed through him as he remembered his real fights with these ghosts.

Each one had pushed him much harder than this.

Their numbers still didn’t give him room to relax.

Experimentally, Erland tried throwing out an attack of his own as he continually dodged forward. To his slight surprise, the ghost received the attack and stumbled. A grin lit up his face instantly. Now he could make things interesting.

For a while at least.

As he continued through the rows of opponents, his freedom of movement and backlash opportunities were more and more restricted. The blows came closer and closer to connecting as he progressed through more and more skilled opponents.

Dodging was no longer enough.

Blocks and parries entered his movement patterns, staving off killing blows. Then, nicks and cuts started appearing on his extremities.

The grin never left his face.

He dove for the stairwell. Halina finally landed a real blow on him. Her sword cleaved deep into his shoulder and was jerked out by his momentum. Erland landed in a heap and laughed as he felt his chest quickly coated in blood.

After a moment he gathered the strength to stand up and work his way up the final staircase. He shot his foes the finger on his way out.

He was pleasantly surprised when he claimed the tower to find his wounds knitting themselves up and his exhaustion cleared.

He stretched and rolled his neck to revel in the sensation before running back down the tower.