Beatitudes

Episode 89.

The silence lasted for a while as two pair of eyes were trained on me. But since I actually didn’t know how the word slipped out of my lips, I didn’t know how to explain. So instead I coughed slightly before turning my attention to the door as I spoke,

“I don’t think there’s anything too dangerous waiting for us behind this door, what say we go ahead and take a look, we’ve been stuck in this mountain for a while…”

The two who were looking at me also turned their heads again as they looked at the door, what I said being tossed to the back of our minds together.

Harry brandished his hammer as he held the handle in his right hand and the large head in his other hand, “Let’s go on then”

Hiya was the one who spoke the least out of the three of us, but at this point she opened her mouth to talk, she just said two words,

“Be careful…”

I turned my gaze to the side to glance at the stunning purple haired beauty beside me as I regarded her words, to reply her, I curved my lips into one of my dashing smiles as I said,

“If you’re feeling uncomfortable, you can stay behind me while we go in. shouldering the burden of two isn’t much of a difference for me.”

And all I earned for my efforts from her was a calm, emotionless stare that made me feel all kinds of awkward. She said no words but following the stare she gave me, I couldn’t choose to back down at the moment, so I kept the smile on my face hoping it wasn’t looking awkward as I spoke again,

“You don’t?”

She still said nothing as she turned her gaze back to the door. I could only give up now, shrugging my shoulders as I turned my gaze back to the door with the smile I knew was awkward still on my face, “It’s your loss…”

No more was said as we began to walk forward at the same time, one step at a time, caution was needed when encountering situations like this, so we could only make sure we moved slowly to avoid any unexpected issues from popping up.

Soon we reached the door since it initially wasn’t far from us, we stopped right in front of it and as I was the bravest one out of the three, I raised my hand and moved it forward to touch the door as slowly as I could. I finally laid my hand on the door and I was able to feel the chill emanating from it, it was at complete odds with the rising hot aura that surrounded the Direflame wolves now lying dead behind us. On touching it, I was even able to smell the blood that seemingly looked like it had been absorbed for years by the door, it had a pungent odor that was completely uncomfortable.

But now wasn’t the time to think about the bloody odor emanating from the door, so I gathered my thoughts and pushed my hand forward slowly.

What happened next came as somewhat of a shocking surprise as when I put my hand on the door expecting to push it forward, if at all I could even move it, instead of pushing it forward, all my hand did was fall forward as I almost lost my balance. I shouted in surprise,

“Whoa!”

I stumbled forward slightly, quickly shifting my legs to catch myself before I fell completely. I knew something was wrong with the door as it felt like I had just pushed my hand through the air.

And when I raised my head up to look forward, what I saw wasn’t even a door anymore. Instead, what I saw was the open space right behind the now missing door.

It was a space that was actually the same size as the fifth floor that we had stepped onto, if not a little bit more wider. I felt surprised at the fact that there was actually another space entirely behind the door even though that was the obvious thought in our minds.

But before I could say or do anything, I heard Harry talking beside me,

“The mountain king is actually a wolf!”

I turned my head to look around the space before me as I finally noticed the crouching figure close to the center of the space. I had no time to feel exasperated at Harry, who was feeling surprised at the fact that the mountain king was a wolf even when the beasts we had been fighting all the way from the first floor to the fifth we were on were all wolves.

I watched the wolf that I realized wasn’t actually crouching down but in deep sleep. Or at least it was previously sleeping deeply, right now as I watched the wolf lie down, I could see its ear twitching from side to side, it looked the beast was quickly waking up. It turns out that someone actually made a noise loud enough to alert the beast of a foreign presence in its territory. Now who would be careless enough to do such a thing!

Astral: “…”

The wolf king was beginning to show more signs of waking up as it shifted it paws and shook its tail.

“I think it’s waking up…”

Once again, Harry chose to speak up, but with words I almost couldn’t bear to hear. I shot a quick glance at him as I spat out, “You don’t say…”

There was no time to say anything and I wasn’t even going to as I turned back to watch the mountain king stir. After what seemed like a piece of eternity, the eyes of the wolf king finally opened up slowly as it lazily took in the sight of everything around it.

When it turned its gaze towards our way and we finally entered its sight as its pupils moved, I could see clearly as its large eyes narrowed slightly, an odd light flickering through it that I felt to be bloodlust.

When I gazed into the blood red pupils that seemed eerily cold, I couldn’t help but shiver slightly as I felt brutality oozing out of it. This is going to a hard one… that was the thought that passed through my mind as I watched the wolf slowly stand to its full height that turned out to be a height of three meters in full.

It didn’t seem so tall at first sight so I was once again surprised at it being close to three times the height of the Direflame wolves from before, how could a boss be this much different from its underlings!

There was no time to even curse at the disparity as the wolf shifted its blood soaked gaze towards my direction, I could clearly feel it’s gaze trained on me.

The hair at the back of my neck stood on end as I held back the shiver that was once again about to course through my body.

“Easy does it boy, let both our sides calm down so we can discuss who gets targe- “

The words all flowing out from my mouth could only get through halfway when the wolf’s visage turned incomparably savage and chilling in the blink of an eye. It wasted no more time as its gaze locked down on me, and I had no time to get ready as I was taken by surprise. With a stomp of its front right paw on the ground, it shot forward towards me at blinding speed, too fast for me to keep track off in my slightly dazed state.

“Isaac!”

The shout shook me out of my dazed state as my sight grew focused to the sight of the wolf almost about to slam into me.

I sort of panicked, having no time to think as I immediately condensed a large shield in front of me, big enough to guard my whole body with some space left.

What came next was absolutely shocking to both me and those watching. The wolf took only about two seconds to reach me from where it slept, and I used even lesser to condense the shield that guarded in front of me, but the wolf took the shield to be nothing but air as even I started to doubt its efficiency when it rammed its large sized body into the shield… and broke it.

The shield only lasted an instant as Harry and Hiya used that moment to tumble back as far as they could, leaving the supposed boss room empty as the battle was dragged back to the fifth floor we knew. While they used the moment to jump back out of proximity to the beast, I on the other hand could only last behind the shield for a single moment as well, as I shot back the next moment.

Even I was shocked at the speed I was catapulted backwards, I had no control of my body as my face froze in horror of the realization. It was damn too strong, definitely way stronger than even our dear berserker looking on at the scene with his mouth wide open.

They could only watch and I could only fly backwards helpless as I took the full brunt of the attack. I flew backwards over the entire length of the fifth floor, and when the space of the fifth floor seemed to have been exhausted, I shot through shimmering barrier of light. That’s right, I got knocked out of the stage before I could even do anything.

The sight before my eyes changed as a fresh wave of air hit me midflight and I could see blue skies above me, and greenery all around me. I didn’t even have time to breath in the fresh air properly when I landed hard on the ground, sliding across the green ground.

At that point my whole body hurt as I laid for a while on the ground. It was only after a while that I finally got my body right and sat up straight. Out of breath, I gasped for hair for another while until I finally had enough strength to stand back up.

It was probably because I was in the safe zone, but I felt better way quicker than I expected. But that didn’t cancel the fact that I literally got tossed out of the stage like a ragdoll.

“That wolf’s being a real bad dog…”, I mumbled to myself as I dusted my whole body. Grass roots and soil came off of me as I swiped everywhere on myself.

It was then that I realized that I was in the safe zone, where we last spoke to Adam. I looked all around me as I took in the whole forest like setting, but I couldn’t find any trace of him, not even the shadow he sent through from outside the mountain.

After looking around for a while, I couldn’t see anyone so I could only shrug as I turned my gaze back to the shimmering barrier of light, the other side that faced the safe zone. The feeling of being bashed away flitted through me again as I shivered slightly in anger, the dog’s going to get it…

**

The safe zone regained its tranquility as Isaac moved toward the barrier of light, he walked a bit of a distance due to the force with which he was thrown through. If he turned back now to look behind him, he would have definitely noticed the shadows of the trees at a spot of the safe zone creeping together as something like another shadow began to gather, separating itself from the shadows on the ground as it rose to float in the air.

It was actually the dark shadow Adam had sent in when the trio had first entered the mountain, the same shadow Isaac had just been looking for. It stared at the back of the youngster stepping through the barrier without a single sound being made.

Outside the mountain, hanging upside down from a tree was black haired Adam, who was currently staring at the mountain with an odd expression. He seemed to be thinking about something when Horace spoke up, the voice could actually be heard not just within Adam’s head but also outside like someone was talking right behind him.

Horace: You saw his legs shaking didn’t you…

Adam: Yep, and it was definitely not from a cold…

Horace: What do you think could have thrown him like that, because I don’t think he would voluntarily toss himself into the safe zone like that…

Adam: …It was probably the mountain king, what they’re facing isn’t the norm for a mountain king of a low tier mountain.

Horace: Why didn’t you say anything, it could be dangerous and an advice would be sure to help.

Adam: …Well first I can’t exactly interfere in a mountain trial, it’s not something possible for me yet, and besides, they should be able to handle it, there’s shouldn’t be anything that can threaten his life. And remember he’s not alone in there…

Horace: You’re right he’s not alone.

Adam: “…”