They were all staring at the ominous red skull above the trial room door. The ten sided figure to the right promised them a bad time. Seth swallowed, trying and failing to wet his dry throat.

  Up until that point, they had been searching for a couple hours without much success. They had seen plenty of doors for one through four person trials. There were also a handful of six and seven person trials that Seth was sure he'd never have the chance to see.

  "Going through this door seems like a remarkably bad idea." Aaron spoke for the first time since they had entered the maze.

  "Probably," said Therus, rubbing his temples. "Still, I say we go for it."

  "Are you mad? This is obviously a death trap," said Aaron.

  "Not necessarily," said Jalon.

  "Death trap is a bit far, but I agree it will be quite dangerous," said Therus.

  "Then why risk—" said Aaron.

  "What would Johan think if he were to see your cowardice now?" Seth leapt into the conversation, locking eyes with Aaron.

  "He'd agree with my prudence." Aaron glared at Seth, who simply took a step toward him.

  "Are you sure about that? Remember, if we fail, we probably die. How is your prudence working out for you?" Seth raised his volume asking those questions.

  "I'm—"

  "Has it been working, or do you need a change of strategy? I believe that in your shoes, Johan would agree that prudence is no longer an option. Am I wrong?" Seth stepped into Aaron's personal space. To his credit, the man held his ground, though shrunk back slightly. "Am. I. Wrong?"

  "...I thought you were his enemy," said Aaron, confusion clear on his face.

  "I also respect him. You, however..."

  Aaron shook his head, his confusion morphing to a determined, yet resigned look. Seth let a long, shallow breath out as his shoulders relaxed. He hadn't been sure if his gambit to get Aaron on board would work, or would just piss him off. Nobody else had any objections to going through the door. Therus put his hand on the door, and it slid open smoothly like most of the other doors. Therus stepped through first. Taking a deep breath, Seth stepped through behind him.

  He almost stumbled on the soft grass beneath his feet, having expected more hard stone. The others appeared out of thin air moments later, similarly surprised. They were surrounded by a sea of trees. Scents resembling oaks and pines floated through the air on a gentle breeze. It was a beautiful spring day. The sun hung low on the horizon. It was only an hour or two until sunset.

  Information bled into his mind as he looked around. They would be attacked as soon as the sun set. Their objective was simple, survive until morning. Everyone else had slightly bewildered expressions on their faces. Except Therus, who just nodded.

  "Bo, can you, Aaron, and Jalon start gathering materials for fortifications? Therus, can you help me find a spot to build a defensible fortification?" Seth had half-expected an argument, but everyone just got to work. He wished he had a proper carpenter with them, but was confident he remembered at least the basics. Following Therus, he continued to think about the problem.

  Seth rejected Therus' first two spots. They were defensible enough, but bumps and dips in the terrain would make building any defensive structure difficult. After ten minutes, they settled for a slightly rocky position on top of a tall hill. Some of the rocks were unfortunately positioned, but they could work around them. That decided, he asked Therus to let Xiaobo know where they were building. Then, Seth pulled out his array making tools and got to work.

  Seth spent the next two hours making formations and arrays, while occasionally giving Aaron and Xiaobo tips on how to build some crude structures. He had expected to have to direct more, but Aaron proved surprisingly knowledgeable. The man also had a wind blade skill that made cutting the trees fairly simple. Therus was helping Xiaobo and Aaron, while Jalon was helping him with the arrays. He left the basic work to Jalon, while he did his best to integrate what he learned about defending against spirits. He was certain he'd be making adjustments on the fly.

  Seth started inspecting the work while there was still a little light left in the sky. The waist-high wooden barrier ran around Seth's arrays. They had put some person-high barriers to give them some defense against ranged attacks. Each of these were reenforced by arrays, though Seth wished he could have studied more about defensive arrays. Most of the arrays were for defending against spirits. There was one that slightly hardened the skin of everyone within, though he was unsure of how effective it would be.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The forest transformed when the last rays of sunlight fell below the horizon. The full moon was a bright, silver beacon floating in the sky. The expected light in the forest felt muted somehow. Shadows were longer and deeper than they had any right to be. The trees swayed in a breeze none of them could feel. The temperature of the air around them plummeted from pleasantly warm to uncomfortably cold in a matter of seconds.

  An eerily beautiful man stepped out of the moon, eyes closed, a gentle smile played across his lips. Long silver threads of hair framed his glowing azure face and flowed down past the bottoms of his feet. The green and blue robes he was clad in felt ethereal. The man appeared to both be standing a hundred feet away in the sky, and on the distant moon simultaneously. The contradiction tore at Seth's brain, making his head throb. The man's gentle smile widened into a full, predatory smile showing a mouth of razor-sharp teeth. Rather than detract, the teeth completed the man's beauty.

  Seth was snapped out of his reverie when the man sent a pulse of ice-blue energy in all directions. When the energy reached Seth's group, it forced all of them to their knees. It also pushed the surrounding trees into the ground, like candles into a birthday cake. Before they had fully grasped the situation, more ice-blue energy started gathering in their enemy's hand. Seth heard his companions preparing to fight, and one of them was shouting something. He activated his qi sight, tuning out all distractions.

  The information overload almost knocked Seth unconscious. Almost. Looking at the gathering energy, he recognized the polarity of it. Smiling, he hummed while gathering some qi into an ice shard. He had no delusions he could actually hit the man thousands of miles away. Instead, he had to wait for the attack and counter it.

  The next blazing blue pulse of energy rushed forth from the moon all too soon. Seth poured more energy into his technique. Doubt flooded his mind. The technique was much larger and faster than he had been expecting. The edge of the technique came into range, and he let his technique fly. Ice shard slammed into the azure pulse. A brilliant flash of blue filled the sky, forcing Seth to close his eyes. He still saw spots when he opened his eyes again.

  A melodious, masculine laugh filled existence. The man was clapping like he had just watched a particularly entertaining performance.

  "It has been too long since I've had a group survive even this long. I was starting to fear that the universe was populated with fools," the man's mouth was moving, but his voice was coming from every direction at once.

  "Let's continue. We have until dawn to dance. I hope you don't tire too quickly." The man stepped, and he was floating right in front of their fortification, holding a spear of black glass. Up close, the man towered over all of them. His smile morphed from predatory to simply cruel as he thrust his spear.

  Seth heard the sound of electricity arcing behind him. Turning his head, he saw Jalon had intercepted the spear strike with a small barrier. Though the strike itself didn't break through, the force of the blow slammed him backward into the barrier. Another step, and the attacker was a hundred feet above them.

  A hum filled the air as the attacker raised his hands. Icy blue electricity danced between them, coalescing into a small, navy blue portal. The portal expanded until it dominated the night sky, electricity crackling at the edges. Stray bolts rained down on the surrounding forest. Spirits started streaming out of the portal, .into a lazy, circular river in the sky. These spirits were singing instead of moaning.

  Seth used his qi sight once more, and once more his world exploded in pain. There were hundreds of spirits in the sky, and most of their qi had the same polarity. The wrong polarity for his arrays, but it was a simple enough fix. Seth smiled through the pain. It seemed overwhelming, but the trial was still staying within the realm of doable.

  With shaking hands, he adjusted the array to shield against these spirits, and prepared a few small rituals to bind spirits to gems. The night was promising to be long, and he'd have to be a fool to pass up resources the enemy insisted on handing him. Finally, he readied a bound spirit to power the array. He had no confidence it would hold otherwise. Looking around, the group was ready for a fight. His qi sight had faded, but he swore he could feel the silent hum of power from each of his companions.

  The attacker lowered his arm, sending the spiraling river of spirits toward their fortifications. They slammed into the protective barrier, instantly draining one of his bound spirits, forcing him to switch to another. Aaron and Therus made quick work of any spirits slipping through the gap the switch provided, not leaving anything for Xiaobo and Jalon to do.

  The attacker waved another hand, and a deep purple portal opened on the ground two hundred feet away. Eight car-sized wolf-like creatures sprung forth and charged their fortification. Xiaobo started firing off ice shards, while Jalon was firing magically conjured blades. The creatures weaved and dodged through the unstable techniques, taking glancing blows at worst. The yelps of pain were the only hint they received that their attacks had done anything at all.

  Seth saw a spirit float away from the river, trying to sneak around to the back as quickly as it could. It wasn't one the barrier had attuned for, so he pretended not to notice it. A quick glance with his qi sight had told him the spirit was quite powerful.

  The spirit circled closer, teasingly floating at the edge of Seth's binding ritual's range. He waited, pretending to focus on the other attacking spirits. The spirit floated out of Seth's peripheral vision, and he took a deep breath. He looked over his shoulder, and activated the ritual. He had been right; the spirit had tried to dart in as soon as it was completely out of sight, and was almost on top of him.

  The force clawing at his soul was greater than any he had felt before. The spirit was thrashing and snarling against his soul, fighting for its life. Pain flared as he held on tight, refusing to let the spirit go. Soon, the spirit's snarling transformed into a whimper. Its struggles grew weaker, but Seth didn't relent for a second. It gave one final struggle just before it was dragged away into his gem. He could feel its final scream for "HEEEELLLLPPP!!!!!!!" reverberate through his soul, fading into nothingness.

  A sense of danger caused Seth to dodge to the side, using his leg to keep contact with the ritual. Pain exploded in his thigh, and Seth let out an involuntary scream. Looking down, he saw a thumb-sized hole going completely through his leg. He looked up at the attacker. He was floating a short distance away, blood dripping from his spear. The smile was gone. Fury blazed in his glowing eyes, and it was all focused on Seth.