Beatitudes

Episode 76.

“Alright then, let’s head out…”

Isaac voice echoed within the forest as he stared ahead at the wide expanse of trees that was covering his view of the battlefield ahead of them as well as also supposedly protecting them by keeping the lurking beasts a distance away.

He raised his brows slightly with a strange light flickering through his eyes, at this current low tier mountain and low level beasts, did he actually need any form of protection or something. He wasn’t being arrogant or whatsoever, but he couldn’t just imagine what exactly would be a problem to handle with their current strength and understanding, he knew he hadn’t received any form of instruction on these things before and neither had Harry as well, he couldn’t be sure about Hiya but she was nevertheless a newbie in this as well right, but regardless of it all, he knew they had grown pretty well for their current level.

They moved slowly but at a steady pace, most of the beasts they had killed till now had all tried to launch a sneak attack first before they fought, it was an annoying trait they all shared so they always had to be prepared for a sudden lunging or an unexpected claw to the face.

The forest wasn’t actually very big so they crossed it quickly and reached a point where the trees had disappeared and only grass remained, right in front of them was a shimmering barrier of light, a peculiar aura emanating from it,

“From here, once you step through this light barrier, you’ll automatically be tossed into the real habitat of the beasts and be judged as a challenger, although you’ve already been deemed one the moment you stepped into the mountain, you haven’t yet stirred up the mountain system…”

When they paused here, Adam’s calm voice rang out again, giving them information they currently needed as they stared at the barrier,

“When you step through and start killing, don’t be surprised when you notice some peculiar things different what you would normally see, the whole mountain trial is treated somewhat like a literal game, only a few different tweaks here and there. You’ll be seeing what I’m saying soon anyways…”

And with those words, the group of three stepped through the shimmering barrier and appeared in another place, the view before their eyes also instantly changing as well, a wholly different entered their eyes and made them feel like they had just been transported to a whole new place entirely.

The sight they were introduced to after crossing through the barrier was a place somewhat like a cave dwelling. Looking exactly like a mountain cave dwelling in which everywhere from the ground, to the walls and to what hovered above their heads, was of a stony like substance. One couldn’t think of this place as a normal cave dwelling even with the way it looked, the place was definitely different, they were able to see everywhere within the fairly large space with a considerable level of clarity, this was actually due to a few holes present on the ceiling above them that radiated a good amount of light and together allowed for the current visibility. And with this level of visibility, they were able to ascertain the fact that this space that seemed normal was far from it, the space itself was just tens of meters wide, close to a hundred, so they were easily able to see the beasts that prowled around the area with a different air around them from the tainted beasts outside the mountain.

Since they could see the beasts, the beasts could also naturally see them as well, but oddly enough they hadn’t turned their sight towards their direction yet as they kept prowling around without a care for anything in particular.

When Isaac and the others had finished looking around and accessing their surroundings, they also noticed this fact and revealed puzzled expressions as they looked at each other,

“What do you think’s going on Isaac?”

Harry asked with the usual confusion in his eyes,

Isaac shook his slightly as he replied,

“I also don’t really understand, is there something happening…”

“They can’t sense us”

That was when Hiya finally spoke up, stating her conjecture. The two males on the team turned to look at Hiya as they said nothing, and that was when a voice slipped into their minds as it reverberated in their heads,

“She’s right, they can’t sense you…”

Isaac recognized this familiar voice, so although he did jump a little at the usual style of popping out of nowhere to speak, he remained calm as he turned his head to the left and then to the right like he was  searching for something, but he didn’t see it so he spoke up,

“Where are you Adam, I can’t find you anywhere…”

“You don’t need to see me, not now at the least. What she said is right, they can’t sense you at all now, but once you take a single step forward any further, they’d all immediately attack you three, also remember that you’re in a mountain trial and anything can happen..."

Isaac could hear his words completely, Adam was transmitting his voice to their minds after all. So although he couldn’t mentally reply to it, he could still acknowledge the words verbally

“Don’t worry, we’ll be careful"

After saying that, Isaac was the one who took the first step, naturally attracting the aggression of all the beasts as they snarled and immediately charged at him and the other two.