Seth threw himself to the side to dodge both incoming attacks, and threw a couple shards of ice. The rock the statue monster threw sailed past, smashing into the opposite wall. Seth checked back; the monster was still closing in. In front, the monster had reached into the wall to pull another boulder. Focusing on the throwing monster, Seth flung more ice shards. Each shard was becoming more difficult than the last, and he was sure he'd be out of juice soon. Somehow, he was on target this time, and heard solid thuds and cracks coming from the monster's wrist. Not that it slowed the monster's throwing any.

  He stepped to the side as the monster behind him swung downward, and he kicked it in the head. It didn't do any real damage, but it did launch him away. It also stopped the monster from fully dodging the thrown stone. The boulder slammed into its arm, spinning it around twice before falling to the floor.

  A distant boom resounded through the room, shaking the floor. Seth had no idea what caused it, and his opponents gave him no time to check. Ducking under one final rock by the throwing monster, he jumped up and, with all the qi he could muster, tried to jump and kick the monster. Thankfully, he didn't break his foot, though the monster didn't budge. Ducking the retaliatory strike, he aimed at its neck and fired an ice shard.

  The shard hit the monster's neck, taking a small chunk of stone out. The monster also scrambled backward, clutching at the wound. Seth smiled. If they were going to tell him where their weak points were, he wasn't going to argue. While the thrower was clutching its neck, the previously downed statue was back up and charging at Seth. When it was almost on top of him, he ducked a swiping blow and fired an ice shard at the thing's neck. A small crack formed, but the monster leapt backward. When it landed, he could hear a crack coming from its leg, though it stayed standing. The other one was re-orienting after its leap back, and prepared to throw itself at Seth.

  Seth caught sight of Therus out of the corner of his eye. His friend was engaged in his own battle, targeting the monster's neck weakness. A smile crept across his face and he brought his attention back to his own fight.

  The next minute was a dance of him juggling both monsters, keeping them at bay with small chips to their necks. Each shard was smaller than the one before, and they were becoming painful to generate. Fortunately, they didn't seem intelligent enough to know they should both rush in at the same time. If they did that, he'd probably be dead.

  His first slip-up happened when dealing with a monster's charge. He heard a crack that sounded suspiciously like bone and not rock, which drew his attention. Xiaobo was on the ground, his shin bent at an awkward angle. The rock monster he was fighting was in similarly bad shape, missing one of its legs. It was crawling forward on its arms, but it was slow going.

  Seth's attention was forced back when his own rock monster approached, more quickly than he expected. He didn't have time to completely dodge, so he blocked with his brass knuckle while leaping to the side. It sent him spinning away as it plunged it's hand into the wall. Scrambling, Seth fired a few ice shards, but they all went wide, the groove he had found with the spell broken. The monster pulled its hand out of the wall with a large rock, and pulled it's oversized arm back for the throw.

  Out of ideas, Seth used his other spell to create a light between him and the monster and charged forward, ducking. Thankfully, it took the bait, the rock flying harmlessly off to the side. That gave him a second to close the gap, and fire a point-blank ice shard at the thing's neck. A loud crack resounded through the room. A large chunk of ice and rock flew out of the monster's neck. It tried to fall back, but Seth stayed on top of it. Wanting to push the advantage, he slammed his foot into the monster's head. Some of the bones in his foot cracked painfully. The monster's neck also cracked painfully, and it fell to the ground, motionless.

  With only one monster to face off against, whittling it down until it joined the first was not terribly difficult, if tedious. Another minute later, and his own monster fell. As the adrenaline wore off, dizziness overwhelmed Seth, taking him to the ground. His lungs burned and heaved, and he tasted metal. The sounds of battle were replaced with a loud, high-pitched ringing in his ears. The stone floor felt cold against his face, a nice contrast to the burning in the rest of his body.

  After what felt like an eternity, the nausea, dizziness, and ringing in his ears stopped. Therus and Xiaobo had finished their fights, though they looked more wrung-out than victorious. Xiaobo was on his feet, though the blood on his uniform showed where his ankle had been cleanly snapped in two.

  "Damn, you overdrew your qi hard. You going to live?" Xiaobo asked. Seth just nodded, not trusting his voice.

  "That was a hell of a trial," said Xiaobo.

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  "Now, is there a reward, or what..." said Therus, confusion etched on his face.

  They sat in silence for the next ten seconds. Then, there was an open door at the other end of the room. Seth rubbed his eyes and blinked; the door was still there. They walked up to the door. It looked more like a section of the wall was cut out and replaced with pure darkness. Nothing was visible through it. After hesitating for a few seconds, Seth walked through.

  The other side was much better lit than the pitch black door led him to expect. The room was plain stone, except for three shoulder-high stone platforms. On each platform was a scroll. Seth walked up to one of the scrolls, and could hear Therus and Xiaobo walking in behind him.

  Upon reading the scroll, a familiar searing pain lanced through his brain. Instead of the room, he was now looking over a vast, starry expanse. In that expanse was a glowing white circle, which had a shadowy figure that he recognized as himself. The shadow Seth performed a series of hand gestures. He could see the qi moving in such detail it seemed like it was moving in slow motion. The qi eventually hardened into a layer merging with his skin. He saw a vision of his arms getting smashed with an iron pole, and the pole bent around his arms. Another vision showed him smashing his hand into a wall, and it crumbling to dust. As he saw the visions, he knew he was seeing the potential of the technique, not his current power with it. He mirrored the shadow-Seth's motions, and could feel the technique being imprinted into his mind. The mirroring could have been an instant, or a thousand years; Seth had no idea.

  Eventually, the vision released him, and he was standing in the room with Therus and Xiaobo. From the looks in their eyes, they looked equally dumbfounded. Seth had heard of scrolls that could do that, but he hadn't really believed it until he experienced it. One thing that seemed consistent with these kinds of learning technique was pain. Why did it always have to hurt so damn much?

  Before they had a chance to discuss their winnings, they were teleported back to the entrance. This time, nobody was waiting for them.

  "Well, one down...how many to go again?" asked Xiaobo.

  "Based on the poem recited at the start of the challenge, there are probably six or seven challenges. Then again, the wording was obtuse, so I'm really not sure." Therus was looking down as he talked. Seth stayed quiet, but agreed with Therus' reasoning.

  "We don't have enough to go on right now," said Seth. "Want to explore and see if anything changed?"

  "I need to rest. That fight was a bit more intense than expected. Of all the things I prepared to fight, golems was not on the list." Xiaobo shook his head and laughed, walking away.

  Once Xiaobo left, Therus came close enough to Seth to whisper.

  "What skill did you get?"

  "Defensive skill. You?"

  "One that can harden body parts to ridiculous degrees? That's what I got."

  "Same here. Pretty sure Xiaobo got the smae thing."

  Seth nodded, proceeding into the main room. The blank wall behind the altar now had writing. There were three names in glowing gold letters on the wall; their names. Next to their names was the number 5. Four other initiates in the room turned to look at them.

  "How?" someone asked.

  "How what?" said Seth.

  "How did you make any progress? None of us have found anything in the maze."

  "You need to go in a group of at least three," said Seth. Therus looked confused for a second, then smiled.

  "At least? Does that mean it works with more?"

  "Not sure. So far, we've only tried it with three."

  The nameless initiate gathered two others, and they departed into the trial. Seth stepped into what they had come to call the kitchen, although it more dispensed food than allowed them to make it. Therus also came along to pick up some food.

  "That was a bit closer than I would have liked," said Seth.

  "Agreed. Maybe we should stay away from doors that have the hand symbol for now," said Therus.

  "How do you think the score was calculated?" asked Seth.

  "Probably the number of lines on the shape on the right hand side."

  "And the number on the left is how many people are required to participate," said Seth, nodding in agreement.

  "I'd guess it also serves as a limit, though we need to test that to make sure. Want to go check out the trial again?"

  "Won't it be a waste of time?"

  "Doubt it. Saw some rooms indicating one or two people, and if three were a hard requirement, they'd be impossible to get to."

  "Then why require three?"

  "Probably to weed out cultivators."

  "We are kind of antisocial jerks, aren't we."

  "Yes, we are," said Therus, with a chuckle.

  "Let's go," said Seth. "Though I'm not sure I'm up to actually doing a trial. The fight kind of took it out of me."

  "Same here, though I'm not sure we'll have the luxury of being able to rest. Not if we want something good out of this, at any rate."

  They spent the next hour eating and chatting, enjoying their food. Some other initiates came in and ate, not talking with Seth or Therus. Seth was grateful, and tried to cultivate his qi back into a decent state. To his surprise, his cancer didn't try to interfere. At least until he had recovered what he had spent, that is.

  After they finished eating, they went back into the maze. It only took a few minutes to find the trial doors. The first few doors they crossed required five or six people, so they kept walking. After a couple minutes, they came across a door that allowed a single person, with a triangle on the right. They couldn't open the door. He'd have to come back by himself later.

  The next door was marked as a two person trial. It also had a green square instead of a red hand. The eight-sided figure on the right made Seth nervous, though. They had struggled with a five point room, and the idea of taking on an eight point room was felt dangerous.

  Then again, Seth was already on a timer. If he didn't find something to help him deal with his cancer, he'd just die back at the sect. Going back and forth, he looked at Therus for a second before asking.

  "We doing this?" asked Seth.