The hair on my arms stood up on end, something under the ground was hungry, and very angry.

With the ground starting to shift even more, stones buckling falling into the growing cracks. Causing more plumes of smoke to rise into the air. Looking at each other in terror as a vicious bloodlust radiated from the ground.

Clenching his fists to stop them from shaking. Alfred said, “We should temporally retreat until we can figure out what's coming up from below south crux.”

Returning her summons to her side, Lukteia said, “I agree, this feeling is unpleasant to say the least. Clyde, Samson we are retreating.”

Bowing, Clyde and Samson said, “Yes, princess.”

Releasing i quite humm, the Nein said, “We agree as well, we can not tell what's down there. Being further away when it comes up would be best.”

Exiting the south crux, and making our way through the streets of the south slums. Although we weren’t going very fast, everyone was tired, and drained from the long fight. We made it past several streets before a vibration shook the ground under us. The building on either side of us, lite up with small gold runes as cracks spread up from the ground.

Worse for the wear, and mana chaoticly flaring, heat rolling off her worn body. Madison said, “This is too much! I want to finish this trial already.”

Shooting her a worried look, Going over, giving her shoulder a pat. Smiling, Alfred said, “Maddy its okay, just calm down, and we’ll be done with trial shortly.”

With huge chunks of stone flying through the air, a giant figure ascended from under the south slums; Covered in thick jagged scales, and thick long limbs. With an even longer tail flipping, curling in the air offensively. It’s giant gold eyes glowing with wrath, it let out a bellow showing off it’s many rows of teeth, releasing putrid clouds of purple smoke.

Choking from the nauseous smell that came from behind us, turning to look to see what had happened. Shocked, stuttering, I said, “What is that?”

Looking just as shaken as I felt, in unison the Nein said, “That is a rarity, a variant Long-tailed scraper queen.”

With eyebrows scrunched in worry, Alfred said, “I did research about long-tailed scrapers the minute I found out about the trial. I expected a queen to be in the nest, but there hasn't ever been a queen of this size, at least recorded.”

I had no clue what a Long-tailed scraper queen even was in the first place let alone the rarity of a variant species. But a more important question was how come no one noticed it, and how long has it been here hiding here.

They Nein began to vibrate, their bodies releasing small hissing sounds. The Nein said, “We should move quicker. Our instincts.. we can’t explain…!

As the giant scraper started sniffing the air, It locked its glowing eyes on us. Shaking from the intensity of its gaze, I said, “Yeah, we should probably speed up a bit, I'm pretty sure it’s looking at us, and it's not happy. Shifting its body forwards, it screamed, releasing a wave of putrid smoke across the south slums. My eyes burned, blurring from tears. I felt light headed, and my chest felt tight, I think the smog the queen scraper was releasing was poisonous.

As a green wave of mana was released by the Nein I felt the burning in my eyes lessen, and my head clear.

Smiling in unison, the Nein said, “The queen scraper is releasing a potent poison, which happens to be beneficial to the Nein. But it is most likely harmful to other forms of life.”

Feeling the air, easily enter my lungs. I said, “Thank you.”

Their glowing emerald eyes, flashed with mirth. In unison the Nein said, “As we said before it is beneficial to the Nein, so it makes sense to take in more of the poison. But you are welcome.”

Along the border of the south slums , where the three robed men stood. A loud whistling noise, and a bright red glow came from the orb rotating between them.

Looking at the south slums, The robed man on the left said, “That's not good, how could we have missed a creature that can emit such, bloodlust.”

Sniffing the air, flicking his tongue as if he was trying to get a better taste of something. The robed man on the right said, “Procter, do you want me to go handle it, whatever is releasing that putrid smog is way out of the league of the children.”

As the robed man in the middle, the other men called proctor. Placed his hand on the vibrating orb, his eyes flashed a deep red color. He said, “No, we will all go, that is a never before seen variant queen, of the Long-tailed species. It's better not to take chances with variants, I want no mistakes.”