Job Link: The Dragon's Challenge
Approval Link: P.21, Post 513
Approval Link: P.21, Post 513
Kumi had found it incredibly odd after receiving a message on her iLac with no traceable sender. It had told her to climb to the very peak of the Sky Tower, but not much else, at least nothing that made any sense to her. At first she was going to ignore it, thinking it was just spam, but over the course of the day she had began to feel a niggling sensation, her curious nature eventually winning out. The vixen sighed, if it was a trap of sorts she’d be prepared for it, if it was nothing and she was simply wasting her time, she wasn’t too fussed. It’s not like she had somewhere else to be or anything better to do. So Kumi found herself making her way to the top floor of the tower, it had taken her quite a bit longer than she had anticipated, but it wasn’t called the ‘Sky Tower’ for nothing. She paced herself so as not to overdo it and cause herself to become out of breath, while Zephyr clung to her shoulder, eager to also learn what was going on it seemed. It appeared he was quite at ease with the whole situation, he was a master of the element of wind, so climbing into the sky was more or less like his home.
As Kumi and her companion reached the peak, the vixen glanced around it didn’t seem like anyone else was here, well until something come soaring down from up above, causing her golden eyes to widen in wonder at the sight of the huge beast before them, coated in what appeared to be Black and Blue crystals that shone in the sunlight. Honestly, it was a majestic creature and from what Kumi could feel it bared no ill will towards her or Zephyr, instead it simply lowered itself as if waiting for them to hop onto its back. Kumi hesitated for a moment, feeling the massive creatures aura, after deciding it was indeed friendly she quickly jumped aboard what appeared to be in her eyes, a dragon.
As soon as she made herself comfortable it forced itself off of the ground, soaring into the clouds above. Kumi had always wondered what it would be like to fly and this was the closest she would probably ever get. Part of her was worried about falling, making her cling onto the beasts scales, but the rest of her was too busy enjoying herself to panic over such a trivial matter. The flight was in the fox maiden’s opinion over far too quickly, as the beast stopped once more to drop her off safely on what appeared to be a small, floating island that rested high above the clouds. Now that she had time to properly feel the air around her she noticed it was rather lacking in oxygen, as was to be expected at such a high altitude. Not only that but the air was as cold as ice, causing her to shiver slightly, something she did not do too often. Kumi checked on her beloved pet resting on her shoulder, but he did not seem phased by it at all, which was not overly surprising in the vixen’s eyes. Kumi wondered why she was here though, it seemed odd to be asked here but there to be no one else in sight other than the dragon that had delivered her here.
Her curiosity was sated soon enough though as a dragon far larger than the one she had taken to travel here caused an incredibly gust of wind around her as it lowered itself gently onto the floating island in the sky. Now that it stood in front of her she could see just how overwhelmingly huge it truly was, towering above them all, at least several stories high. “Welcome, Kumi.” The dragon bowed its head slightly in acknowledgement, before bringing its face down closer to the island’s surface to get a better look. Honestly, the vixen was not sure what she should do, what was the polite thing to do at a time like this? Should she bow back? The last thing she wanted to do was offend such a magnificent beast. Before she could even move to start to bow though she heard the deep rumble, almost as if the dragon was chuckling, “Haha, my dear child, have no fear, you do not need to do anything special in my presence.” the voice was deep but kind, which made Kumi feel more at ease. Up till now she hadn’t realised she’d been holding her breath and she quickly released the carbon dioxide from her lungs before breathing in what little oxygen the surrounding air had to offer.
“You are probably wondering why I called you here. Well the matter is simple. You see, I wish to test the mettle of humans from this world, however before I do, I would like you to test my trials for me. Surely if someone of your kind can endure the trials, it would be a good base for my testings in the future.”
Kumi didn’t like the sound of being used as a test dummy, but honestly at this point she figured she really had no choice in the matter.
“Don’t fret, I wouldn’t ask you to do something like this without a reward, in turn for aiding me I will grant you a scroll that will allow you to learn a new spell. However, I must mention that I won't be able to return you to the place you call Earthland till you either complete the trials, if you are unable to do so, then you will eventually perish here instead. Now…” The dragon lifted its foot up far above Kumi’s headline before slamming it onto the platform, causing the a red portal to open up beneath Kumi, “Have a nice fall..." The dragon chuckled once more as the vixen found herself falling into the void.
“Oof.” Kumi grunted as she landed on the red dusty earth, causing particles to rise up before falling down gently around her. “Ugh.. You okay, Zeph?” She asked looking for him, he was simply hovering above her, a cheeky look on his face, almost as if he was teasing her, “Typical.” Kumi huffed, before laughing at her friend. The fox maiden looked around, taking in her current surroundings, there appeared to be thousands, upon thousands of massive holes in the ground, but before she could walk over to inspect the closest one fire suddenly shot from below up into the sky, lasting a few seconds before receding back into the hole. “Ooookaaayyy…” Kumi whispered to herself, wondering what exactly this ‘trial’ entailed. As she looked around, she noticed she was actually inside what appeared to be an arena of sorts, and she was along the edge. In the centre she could see a bright red crystal pillar glowing. Kumi wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but no doubt it had something to do with the crystal pillar. The fox maiden began to slowly and carefully make her way towards it, avoiding stepping over the holes where possible. At one point a flame shot up from her right side, singing her arm, causing her to yell out at the pain, but she held herself together, making her way closer. As she drew near she noticed the flames seemed to be spouting from the ground much faster than before, a sign that told her she was on the right path to clearing this trial. She was nearly within reach as she had to jump back to dodge a blast of flame in front of her. Not wanting to get caught within the burning flames again, she quickly dashed over stretching out her hand to touch the pillar. The pillar was hot and smooth to the touch, a weird sensation filling Kumi’s body before she found herself suddenly transported elsewhere once more.
Kumi looked around herself, well she must have passed the last trial, but just how many were there ahead of her? Well it didn’t matter, if they were all as simple as the last one she shouldn’t have any issues passing them no matter what was thrown at her. The kitsune was now in an arena surrounded by nothing but rocks and she looked at her hand to see she now held a glass of water that was filled to the very top. Just what was this task about? This time she heard the echoing voice of Xiuhcoatl echo through the arena, “Well done on passing the first trial, but you still have many more to go, young one. This one may prove to be a bit of a challenge though, you are not spill a single ounce of water from that glass you hold, if you do, you will fail and have to restart over and over till you pass. Now let the trial begin…” His voice echoed away once more with a small chuckle. Well at least someone seemed to be enjoying himself at her expense. Kumi held the glass still, this didn’t seem like it was that hard of a trial, however suddenly the ground beneath her feet started to quake and rocks began to fall from the sky above. “What the?” Kumi reacted as fast as she could, covering the top of the glass with a layer of her aura to hold it in place as she dashed and dodged the oncoming rocks fall while trying to not fall due to the shaking ground beneath. After what seemed to be about five or ten minutes the shaking stopped and the rocks from above were no more. Kumi glanced around herself, before looking down at the glass, her aura had indeed kept all the water in place and before she could smile to herself at passing the challenge so easily she suddenly felt the strange tingling sensation once more as she was teleported again.
Kumi looked down, feeling a small internal scream as she did, this arena appeared as if there was no floor, yet she was still standing here, just fine. The rumbling deep sound of the dragon’s voice could be heard once more, “Your next challenge is to find your way around this invisible maze, it has no walls so be sure not to slip or you may just fall to your death. Also take care of the violent winds from the floor below, it might just be the death of you.” Xiuhcaotl chuckled as the echoing disappeared again. He certainly loved the idea of people failing these trials, that was for sure. However, he had mentioned a crucial detail to the vixen. The floor was simply invisible. Therefore it was simply an illusion of sorts, another simple challenge that she could easily overcome. Kumi felt her aura shift, causing the colour of her spiritual energy to become a bright shade of violet, allowing her to see through the illusion before her instantly. Well this challenge wasn’t so tough, that was for sure, as the path before her was lit clearly. As she took a step though, she felt a strong gust of wind, pushing her back as it blew up from the tile before her.. Well that would make it a little bit more difficult, she thought to herself as she held onto the ground to stop herself from being blown right off. Well there was no time like the present, she shifted her aura, one push after another, allowing her to move at blinding speed through the maze as as to avoid the chance of being blown right off. She grinned as she found her way to the centre of the maze, standing proudly in front of the white crystal before reaching out to touch it and waiting to be teleported to the next trial. If she kept this pace up, she would clear all the trials in no time. There was nothing to this at all.
Wet. Kumi found herself completely drenched from head to toe, the arena appeared to be some sort of magical ocean in the sky. The water appeared to be incredibly deep, but the bottom lead to the sky, where she suspected she would fall out should she reach that far down. As Kumi paid more attention she noticed there was a small island in the centre of the arena, big surprise, these trials were all ending up quite similar, almost as if the dragon had no sense of creativity at all. However, she noticed that there seemed to be hundreds of sharks swimming around, for the moment they hadn’t noticed the vixen treading water above them, but she was certain that they would notice her eventually. Not wanting to waste another second, she quickly took off, swimming as fast as she could. Kumi wasn’t the strongest of swimmers but she wasn’t the worst either, so it didn’t take her long to reach the centre, where she climbed onto the island quickly touching the blue crystal, finding herself teleporting to yet another arena.
Ugh… just how many of these trials are there? She wondered, hoping to get out of here as soon as possible. It was honestly getting a little old repeating the process over and over, she wasn’t even sure how any of this would really test or prove anything. Was the dragon just messing with her? Maybe he was a bit more out of touch with reality than she took him for initially. Regardless she was stuck here till she finished passing all of the challenges he set for her. She was playing his game and was stuck to his rules for now.
Kumi looked around the next arena, it held massive metallic circular walls with a dusty ground. There didn’t seem to be anything else at all, odd. “Survive.” Xiuhcoatl’s voice rumbled through the arena before a timer appeared in the sky above her 15:00 and began counting down the fifteen minutes, while single steel golem like creature emerged from the ground, swinging its arms towards Kumi as it attempted to crush her. Luck for her she had incredibly reflexes, instantly dashing well out of range of the strike. Kumi fired a shot of her spiritual energy towards the creature, hoping to sedate it, however it just reflected off of its shiny metal body, as it attempted to hit her once more, forcing her to keep moving as fast as she could. She tried attacking again and again, but each shot was just as ineffective as the last, doing nothing to the giant metal creature. Kumi decided not to waste any more of her energy on trying to take it out, but rather do as she had been told to, survive. She put all her effort into effectively avoiding every attack it threw at her. Perhaps this was a challenge of endurance? That seemed to make the most sense to her, she just needed to hold out till the timer hit zero, then hope that it would all be over. The vixen dodged, dip, ducked, dived and dodged repeatedly, avoiding every attempt the metal creature tried to make to injure her. As the timer ticked over to 00:00 Kumi found herself quite out of breath after running around for so long, but she found her intuition was correct as a silver metal pillar appeared in the centre of the arena and the metal enemy melted back into the ground.
Kumi rested a bit before touching the pillar, wanting to regain her energy in case she needed it for the next challenge. Once she felt sure she was ready to go on, she pressed the palm of her left hand onto the pillar, tingling once more as she teleported into a room, she was standing on one edge, a white line only two inches from her feet. On the other side of the white line the room appears filled to the brim with a green, probably toxic, gas. A small white circle suddenly appeared in front of her, only large enough for herself, had she had others with her, she wouldn’t be able to stand on it with them. A familiar chuckle rumbled as it echoed through the room, causing Kumi to sigh. “Stay within the circle, your buddy who till now has been by my side will be your guide from above. Should you step out you will feel your lungs instantly feel with the poisonous gas, killing you in an instant. There are also strange creatures that will feel your presence the moment a toe even slips out, not to mention the spears that will fly up from the ground and impale you. So yea, be sure not to move out of the circle. On the other side of the room, should you make it, you’ll find a green pillar to continue onto the next trial I have set for you.”
‘Great’, Kumi thought. This still wasn’t the final one, just how many did he have set up? Oh well it didn’t matter much for now, she would have to trust Zephyr, she looked up to see him standing above looking a little worried, but she gave him a reassuring smile. While Zephyr never spoke, he was quite adept at giving direction using his body language, his ears and tails were used to point her in the right direction and to warn her of any dangers as she made her way through, slowly moving with the white circle beneath her feet. Honestly, considering how much effort was put into the room, it wasn’t like it was difficult, at least not with the bond that her and Zephyr shared. The duo found themselves breezing through, Kumi touching the green pillar in under a few minutes.
The fox maiden now found herself transported to another small room, with thousands of door knobs on the walls. In the centre of the room there was a riddle, some sort of puzzle that would give the correct sequence to the order of the knobs to be turned. So an intellectual room at last, the vixen though, sitting down to try to work it out. It was difficult without a pen and paper to work with, but she wasn’t stupid by any means. It did however take a few trials and mistakes were made, causing a large amount of lighting to surge through her body, causing her quite a bit of pain. She would scream, but endured through it, she needed to get out of this stupid challenges, up until last trial she had only been thinking of herself, but now she knew Zephyr was still safe and waiting as well. Should something happen to her, he would be forever waiting, forever alone. She didn’t want to let that happen to him, not her best friend. It took her an hour or so but eventually she managed to work out the pattern, it took another few hours to turn each and every knob, careful not to make a single mistake, which would cause her to have to restart from scratch. As she turned the final knob she found herself instantly teleported, no pillar this time and no time to prepare herself as she found herself swallowed by darkness.
She couldn’t see anything around her but it smelt like death and she could hear something coming her way. Kumi felt out with her spiritual powers able to find what was coming at her, using their own aura against them. Relying on nothing but her own instincts, and ability to feel their presence using their spiritual energy, Kumi found herself fighting countless unknown enemies in complete darkness. The vixen eventually found herself surrounded with no more, the auras of those she’d defeated too weak to let the owner of such move let alone fight back anymore. Suddenly she found herself covering her eyes as she was blinded once more, but this time by the sudden change from the dark to the intense light.
Kumi’s eyes slowly adjusted as she found herself back in front of Xiuhcoatl, was it all over? Was she finally done with all the trials? Zephyr bounded through the air and into her arms, to which she held him close, glad he was still safe and sound. “Congratulations, young kitsune.” Xiuhcoatl roared, so loud it was nearly too much for Kumi’s sensitive ears, “You have passed every trial I set forth upon you, you have impressed me greatly, I hope those I test after you will show as much spirit as you do!” He cheered, “Please take these rewards as a thank you for showing me your abilities.” As he spoke a small crystal dragon approached Kumi and Zephyr, handing them the promised scroll of knowledge that contained a secret spell for her to learn. Kumi also felt a strange tingling sensation as she looked down her left hand now bore a glowing mark of a black dragon. Confused she looked back up at Xiuhcoatl, but he answered her before she could even respond, “That is the mark to prove you have impressed me, you may choose to move it around your body and change its colour as you wish. Should you meet any of my kin that mark will tell them you are an ally of dragons. Now, goodnight, we will not meet again for a long time, Kumi.” He blew gently towards her, causing her to feel drowsy and fall asleep.
As Kumi and her companion reached the peak, the vixen glanced around it didn’t seem like anyone else was here, well until something come soaring down from up above, causing her golden eyes to widen in wonder at the sight of the huge beast before them, coated in what appeared to be Black and Blue crystals that shone in the sunlight. Honestly, it was a majestic creature and from what Kumi could feel it bared no ill will towards her or Zephyr, instead it simply lowered itself as if waiting for them to hop onto its back. Kumi hesitated for a moment, feeling the massive creatures aura, after deciding it was indeed friendly she quickly jumped aboard what appeared to be in her eyes, a dragon.
As soon as she made herself comfortable it forced itself off of the ground, soaring into the clouds above. Kumi had always wondered what it would be like to fly and this was the closest she would probably ever get. Part of her was worried about falling, making her cling onto the beasts scales, but the rest of her was too busy enjoying herself to panic over such a trivial matter. The flight was in the fox maiden’s opinion over far too quickly, as the beast stopped once more to drop her off safely on what appeared to be a small, floating island that rested high above the clouds. Now that she had time to properly feel the air around her she noticed it was rather lacking in oxygen, as was to be expected at such a high altitude. Not only that but the air was as cold as ice, causing her to shiver slightly, something she did not do too often. Kumi checked on her beloved pet resting on her shoulder, but he did not seem phased by it at all, which was not overly surprising in the vixen’s eyes. Kumi wondered why she was here though, it seemed odd to be asked here but there to be no one else in sight other than the dragon that had delivered her here.
Her curiosity was sated soon enough though as a dragon far larger than the one she had taken to travel here caused an incredibly gust of wind around her as it lowered itself gently onto the floating island in the sky. Now that it stood in front of her she could see just how overwhelmingly huge it truly was, towering above them all, at least several stories high. “Welcome, Kumi.” The dragon bowed its head slightly in acknowledgement, before bringing its face down closer to the island’s surface to get a better look. Honestly, the vixen was not sure what she should do, what was the polite thing to do at a time like this? Should she bow back? The last thing she wanted to do was offend such a magnificent beast. Before she could even move to start to bow though she heard the deep rumble, almost as if the dragon was chuckling, “Haha, my dear child, have no fear, you do not need to do anything special in my presence.” the voice was deep but kind, which made Kumi feel more at ease. Up till now she hadn’t realised she’d been holding her breath and she quickly released the carbon dioxide from her lungs before breathing in what little oxygen the surrounding air had to offer.
“You are probably wondering why I called you here. Well the matter is simple. You see, I wish to test the mettle of humans from this world, however before I do, I would like you to test my trials for me. Surely if someone of your kind can endure the trials, it would be a good base for my testings in the future.”
Kumi didn’t like the sound of being used as a test dummy, but honestly at this point she figured she really had no choice in the matter.
“Don’t fret, I wouldn’t ask you to do something like this without a reward, in turn for aiding me I will grant you a scroll that will allow you to learn a new spell. However, I must mention that I won't be able to return you to the place you call Earthland till you either complete the trials, if you are unable to do so, then you will eventually perish here instead. Now…” The dragon lifted its foot up far above Kumi’s headline before slamming it onto the platform, causing the a red portal to open up beneath Kumi, “Have a nice fall..." The dragon chuckled once more as the vixen found herself falling into the void.
“Oof.” Kumi grunted as she landed on the red dusty earth, causing particles to rise up before falling down gently around her. “Ugh.. You okay, Zeph?” She asked looking for him, he was simply hovering above her, a cheeky look on his face, almost as if he was teasing her, “Typical.” Kumi huffed, before laughing at her friend. The fox maiden looked around, taking in her current surroundings, there appeared to be thousands, upon thousands of massive holes in the ground, but before she could walk over to inspect the closest one fire suddenly shot from below up into the sky, lasting a few seconds before receding back into the hole. “Ooookaaayyy…” Kumi whispered to herself, wondering what exactly this ‘trial’ entailed. As she looked around, she noticed she was actually inside what appeared to be an arena of sorts, and she was along the edge. In the centre she could see a bright red crystal pillar glowing. Kumi wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but no doubt it had something to do with the crystal pillar. The fox maiden began to slowly and carefully make her way towards it, avoiding stepping over the holes where possible. At one point a flame shot up from her right side, singing her arm, causing her to yell out at the pain, but she held herself together, making her way closer. As she drew near she noticed the flames seemed to be spouting from the ground much faster than before, a sign that told her she was on the right path to clearing this trial. She was nearly within reach as she had to jump back to dodge a blast of flame in front of her. Not wanting to get caught within the burning flames again, she quickly dashed over stretching out her hand to touch the pillar. The pillar was hot and smooth to the touch, a weird sensation filling Kumi’s body before she found herself suddenly transported elsewhere once more.
Kumi looked around herself, well she must have passed the last trial, but just how many were there ahead of her? Well it didn’t matter, if they were all as simple as the last one she shouldn’t have any issues passing them no matter what was thrown at her. The kitsune was now in an arena surrounded by nothing but rocks and she looked at her hand to see she now held a glass of water that was filled to the very top. Just what was this task about? This time she heard the echoing voice of Xiuhcoatl echo through the arena, “Well done on passing the first trial, but you still have many more to go, young one. This one may prove to be a bit of a challenge though, you are not spill a single ounce of water from that glass you hold, if you do, you will fail and have to restart over and over till you pass. Now let the trial begin…” His voice echoed away once more with a small chuckle. Well at least someone seemed to be enjoying himself at her expense. Kumi held the glass still, this didn’t seem like it was that hard of a trial, however suddenly the ground beneath her feet started to quake and rocks began to fall from the sky above. “What the?” Kumi reacted as fast as she could, covering the top of the glass with a layer of her aura to hold it in place as she dashed and dodged the oncoming rocks fall while trying to not fall due to the shaking ground beneath. After what seemed to be about five or ten minutes the shaking stopped and the rocks from above were no more. Kumi glanced around herself, before looking down at the glass, her aura had indeed kept all the water in place and before she could smile to herself at passing the challenge so easily she suddenly felt the strange tingling sensation once more as she was teleported again.
Kumi looked down, feeling a small internal scream as she did, this arena appeared as if there was no floor, yet she was still standing here, just fine. The rumbling deep sound of the dragon’s voice could be heard once more, “Your next challenge is to find your way around this invisible maze, it has no walls so be sure not to slip or you may just fall to your death. Also take care of the violent winds from the floor below, it might just be the death of you.” Xiuhcaotl chuckled as the echoing disappeared again. He certainly loved the idea of people failing these trials, that was for sure. However, he had mentioned a crucial detail to the vixen. The floor was simply invisible. Therefore it was simply an illusion of sorts, another simple challenge that she could easily overcome. Kumi felt her aura shift, causing the colour of her spiritual energy to become a bright shade of violet, allowing her to see through the illusion before her instantly. Well this challenge wasn’t so tough, that was for sure, as the path before her was lit clearly. As she took a step though, she felt a strong gust of wind, pushing her back as it blew up from the tile before her.. Well that would make it a little bit more difficult, she thought to herself as she held onto the ground to stop herself from being blown right off. Well there was no time like the present, she shifted her aura, one push after another, allowing her to move at blinding speed through the maze as as to avoid the chance of being blown right off. She grinned as she found her way to the centre of the maze, standing proudly in front of the white crystal before reaching out to touch it and waiting to be teleported to the next trial. If she kept this pace up, she would clear all the trials in no time. There was nothing to this at all.
Wet. Kumi found herself completely drenched from head to toe, the arena appeared to be some sort of magical ocean in the sky. The water appeared to be incredibly deep, but the bottom lead to the sky, where she suspected she would fall out should she reach that far down. As Kumi paid more attention she noticed there was a small island in the centre of the arena, big surprise, these trials were all ending up quite similar, almost as if the dragon had no sense of creativity at all. However, she noticed that there seemed to be hundreds of sharks swimming around, for the moment they hadn’t noticed the vixen treading water above them, but she was certain that they would notice her eventually. Not wanting to waste another second, she quickly took off, swimming as fast as she could. Kumi wasn’t the strongest of swimmers but she wasn’t the worst either, so it didn’t take her long to reach the centre, where she climbed onto the island quickly touching the blue crystal, finding herself teleporting to yet another arena.
Ugh… just how many of these trials are there? She wondered, hoping to get out of here as soon as possible. It was honestly getting a little old repeating the process over and over, she wasn’t even sure how any of this would really test or prove anything. Was the dragon just messing with her? Maybe he was a bit more out of touch with reality than she took him for initially. Regardless she was stuck here till she finished passing all of the challenges he set for her. She was playing his game and was stuck to his rules for now.
Kumi looked around the next arena, it held massive metallic circular walls with a dusty ground. There didn’t seem to be anything else at all, odd. “Survive.” Xiuhcoatl’s voice rumbled through the arena before a timer appeared in the sky above her 15:00 and began counting down the fifteen minutes, while single steel golem like creature emerged from the ground, swinging its arms towards Kumi as it attempted to crush her. Luck for her she had incredibly reflexes, instantly dashing well out of range of the strike. Kumi fired a shot of her spiritual energy towards the creature, hoping to sedate it, however it just reflected off of its shiny metal body, as it attempted to hit her once more, forcing her to keep moving as fast as she could. She tried attacking again and again, but each shot was just as ineffective as the last, doing nothing to the giant metal creature. Kumi decided not to waste any more of her energy on trying to take it out, but rather do as she had been told to, survive. She put all her effort into effectively avoiding every attack it threw at her. Perhaps this was a challenge of endurance? That seemed to make the most sense to her, she just needed to hold out till the timer hit zero, then hope that it would all be over. The vixen dodged, dip, ducked, dived and dodged repeatedly, avoiding every attempt the metal creature tried to make to injure her. As the timer ticked over to 00:00 Kumi found herself quite out of breath after running around for so long, but she found her intuition was correct as a silver metal pillar appeared in the centre of the arena and the metal enemy melted back into the ground.
Kumi rested a bit before touching the pillar, wanting to regain her energy in case she needed it for the next challenge. Once she felt sure she was ready to go on, she pressed the palm of her left hand onto the pillar, tingling once more as she teleported into a room, she was standing on one edge, a white line only two inches from her feet. On the other side of the white line the room appears filled to the brim with a green, probably toxic, gas. A small white circle suddenly appeared in front of her, only large enough for herself, had she had others with her, she wouldn’t be able to stand on it with them. A familiar chuckle rumbled as it echoed through the room, causing Kumi to sigh. “Stay within the circle, your buddy who till now has been by my side will be your guide from above. Should you step out you will feel your lungs instantly feel with the poisonous gas, killing you in an instant. There are also strange creatures that will feel your presence the moment a toe even slips out, not to mention the spears that will fly up from the ground and impale you. So yea, be sure not to move out of the circle. On the other side of the room, should you make it, you’ll find a green pillar to continue onto the next trial I have set for you.”
‘Great’, Kumi thought. This still wasn’t the final one, just how many did he have set up? Oh well it didn’t matter much for now, she would have to trust Zephyr, she looked up to see him standing above looking a little worried, but she gave him a reassuring smile. While Zephyr never spoke, he was quite adept at giving direction using his body language, his ears and tails were used to point her in the right direction and to warn her of any dangers as she made her way through, slowly moving with the white circle beneath her feet. Honestly, considering how much effort was put into the room, it wasn’t like it was difficult, at least not with the bond that her and Zephyr shared. The duo found themselves breezing through, Kumi touching the green pillar in under a few minutes.
The fox maiden now found herself transported to another small room, with thousands of door knobs on the walls. In the centre of the room there was a riddle, some sort of puzzle that would give the correct sequence to the order of the knobs to be turned. So an intellectual room at last, the vixen though, sitting down to try to work it out. It was difficult without a pen and paper to work with, but she wasn’t stupid by any means. It did however take a few trials and mistakes were made, causing a large amount of lighting to surge through her body, causing her quite a bit of pain. She would scream, but endured through it, she needed to get out of this stupid challenges, up until last trial she had only been thinking of herself, but now she knew Zephyr was still safe and waiting as well. Should something happen to her, he would be forever waiting, forever alone. She didn’t want to let that happen to him, not her best friend. It took her an hour or so but eventually she managed to work out the pattern, it took another few hours to turn each and every knob, careful not to make a single mistake, which would cause her to have to restart from scratch. As she turned the final knob she found herself instantly teleported, no pillar this time and no time to prepare herself as she found herself swallowed by darkness.
She couldn’t see anything around her but it smelt like death and she could hear something coming her way. Kumi felt out with her spiritual powers able to find what was coming at her, using their own aura against them. Relying on nothing but her own instincts, and ability to feel their presence using their spiritual energy, Kumi found herself fighting countless unknown enemies in complete darkness. The vixen eventually found herself surrounded with no more, the auras of those she’d defeated too weak to let the owner of such move let alone fight back anymore. Suddenly she found herself covering her eyes as she was blinded once more, but this time by the sudden change from the dark to the intense light.
Kumi’s eyes slowly adjusted as she found herself back in front of Xiuhcoatl, was it all over? Was she finally done with all the trials? Zephyr bounded through the air and into her arms, to which she held him close, glad he was still safe and sound. “Congratulations, young kitsune.” Xiuhcoatl roared, so loud it was nearly too much for Kumi’s sensitive ears, “You have passed every trial I set forth upon you, you have impressed me greatly, I hope those I test after you will show as much spirit as you do!” He cheered, “Please take these rewards as a thank you for showing me your abilities.” As he spoke a small crystal dragon approached Kumi and Zephyr, handing them the promised scroll of knowledge that contained a secret spell for her to learn. Kumi also felt a strange tingling sensation as she looked down her left hand now bore a glowing mark of a black dragon. Confused she looked back up at Xiuhcoatl, but he answered her before she could even respond, “That is the mark to prove you have impressed me, you may choose to move it around your body and change its colour as you wish. Should you meet any of my kin that mark will tell them you are an ally of dragons. Now, goodnight, we will not meet again for a long time, Kumi.” He blew gently towards her, causing her to feel drowsy and fall asleep.
~End~
[WC: 3581]
