The paralysis faded moments before the firebolt would slam into him. He threw himself left, too late to completely dodge. The bolt slammed into his right arm, the wound sizzling and popping. His head swam and his vision blurred for a moment. Still, the impact didn't spin him around as he had expected. When his vision cleared, Therus was almost on top of him, staff swinging.

  Adrenaline was a hell of a drug. Seth was sure he had third-degree burns on his arms, and he was sure he'd regret everything in about five minutes. For now, however, he was barely aware that he had arms. Everything other than the deadly dance with his friend faded from his awareness.

  Seth blocked the first staff strike; that one was real. He leaped back from the counter and tried to charge past. Therus was too quick on the counter and held him at a distance.

  Seth used the last dregs of his own qi to throw light in Therus' face. Then, he dodged backward just in time to avoid a powerful staff strike. He responded with a quick couple of ice shards, which Therus dodged. But it allowed Seth to charge in close and slam into Therus with his off-hand. He doubled over, gasping for air, as Seth smashed his brass knuckles into his friend's chest. He heard ribs breaking and wondered for a second if he had gone too far.

  "I—" Therus wheezed as he tried to talk, and Seth stopped attacking. "I surrender. Thanks."

  Therus was gone, and Seth was alone in the trial—

  Seth was in another stone room. Green script covered one wall.

  "Well done on conquering the fourth peak. Please select a treasure of your choosing. A treasure is considered selected once it leaves this room."

  Before he could analyze the items, the burning in his arms reminded him that they had received second and third-degree burns in his fight with Therus. He used a bound spirit and healed himself in about five minutes.

  I have to find a way to deal with my qi issues. Even if I can bind spirits, I'm not sure the sect will allow them to be used in their testing.

  Around him were seven items he could pick from. First was a silver bell. Second was a twelve-foot long sword with a blade wide enough to comfortably sit on.. A bamboo folding fan decorated with red glyphs was third. Fourth were matching steel gauntlets that seemed optimized for punching opponents. Fifth was an ornate bronze pot with a lid, a door, and vents. A silver cloth belt about thirty feet long was next. The last item was a shimmering red orb.

  He inspected each item, though he couldn't find any immediate clues what they did. Seth activated his qi sight, and he saw that the gigantic sword, the silver bell, and the steel gauntlets were shining the brightest, so he focused his investigation on those. He put on the gauntlets and fed some qi into them. They formed to his hands, feeling almost like wearing leather gloves rather than heavy steel gauntlets. He punched the wall, and the shock reverberated up his arm. It still wasn't enough to damage the trial, but the force he felt in his arms told him he was hitting harder than normal.

  He went to the sword and lifted it. It was only about eight pounds, though the shape still made it awkward. He held it by the handle and poured qi into it. It jerked horizontally and floated a foot above the ground.

  What is this thing? It's acting like one of those boards... wait, it can't be.

  Seth gingerly sat on the sword, and it held firm like a platform. However, he immediately felt a connection with the item. When he willed it upward slowly, it moved up. He willed it back down, and it went down. He played with it for a bit, seeing how it felt. Unexpectedly, he felt rooted to the spot on the sword. With a thought, he willed it to bank right. Even when the sword was completely vertical, he didn't budge.

  He held the silver bell and rang it. It gave a high-pitched bell tinkling. Then, he infused a bit of qi into the bell and tried again. That high-pitched tinkling sent a shockwave out that shook the entire room.

  He spent a little more time analyzing the rest of the items, but none of them seemed quite as good for his purposes as these. Of these, he ruled out the bell first. It was frighteningly powerful, but it didn't feel right for him.

  His problem came down to immediate fighting strength versus utility. Gauntlets would allow him to fight better now, and would allow him to block attacks better. The sword, however, solved a problem that loomed over their return. They were about to miss the deadline for Johan's pickup, if they hadn't already. If he and Therus had to walk back, how long would it take them. Would they make it back in time?

  He sat ruminating on the decision for twenty minutes. After much internal debate, he picked the sword. He had other ways to solve his combat strength issues, while he hadn't seen a good option for allowing him and Therus to get back to the sect in a timely manner. Plus, he felt that it would give him interesting self-defense options, given enough practice. After putting it into his spatial storage, he walked out of the trial.

  He was back in the trial entrance area. Therus was sitting on the floor against the wall.

  "Get anything good?"

  "Yeah. Got us a ticket back to the sect once we're done here." He pulled the sword out of his storage, feeling silly the whole time. He probably looked like a toddler who had grabbed his daddy's longsword.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "That is incredible. Hahaha, imagine the look on Johan's face when we get back."

  "You alright?"

  "I'll live. That last beating hurt."

  "Want me to heal you?"

  "Oh, yeah, you can do that, can't you? Please."

  Seth spent a couple of minutes healing Therus in silence. Neither Aaron nor Xiaobo was present. He'd have to find them later to see if they needed, or wanted, additional healing. Of all the things Seth anticipated, a battle royale was definitely not on the list.

  They entered the main altar area after they had finished. The list now read:

  Seth - Fourth Peak (55)

  Therus - Third Peak (62)

  Aaron - Third Peak (52)

  Xiaobo - Second Peak (39)

  Matrim -First Peak (45)

  Jalon - First Peak (29)

  Seth crushed the wave of guilt that washed through him. Therus was his friend, but the other two were allies of convenience. And he was sure that Therus wouldn't feel bad if he had won instead of Seth.

  "Something wrong? You don't look like someone who just won a hard fight," said Therus.

  "I just... I'm not a fan of knocking my friends down to advance," said Seth. He felt his face flush as soon as he said it.

  "I didn't realize you were that close to Bo and Aaron."

  "You know what I meant."

  "Of course, but no need to feel bad about knocking me down a bit. Was just a friendly competition—"

  "—with all our lives on the line."

  "And you're worried that you put me in a bad spot. I told you—"

  "It's not that," said Seth, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I just wish there were a way to... to not have to trample people to get power."

  "That sounds painfully naive. Weird, normally that's my role."

  "I know that's not how it works. I was just wishing. Maybe if I gain enough power..."

  "Yeah, but how many will you have to trample over to get to that point?"

  "It doesn't bother you?"

  "Never said it doesn't."

  Seth moved his mouth as if to answer, but nothing came to mind. He shook his head, a futile attempt to clear his mind.

  "I hope you're not expecting an answer now," said Seth, trying to do his best impression of an impish grin. Therus, for his part, shrugged his shoulders.

  "So, what's the plan, oh great victor?"

  "Rest, recover, and practice a bit. Definitely need to get some more resources. You?"

  "Definitely rest and recover and practice. Probably head out in a couple of days to try for another peak. Just because I lost today doesn't mean I've given up."

  "Sounds good."

  The next two days involved some rest, some reading, and a lot of practice. During this time, he found a way to use a ritual to pull qi from the air to help power another effect, reducing his reliance on bound spirits. His mastery of the ice shard spell also grew, his efficiency with the spell growing by leaps and bounds. He even discovered a method to combine it with his iron arms technique. Right now, he only had it working less than half the time. And, he could only keep it up for half a second. Still, progress was progress.

  Eighteen flames were left on the timer. Just looking at it made his head throb. More than halfway, yet he still had a hard time believing that he was still in the running. The rest of the cultivators here were far better at this than he was. He wasn't even sure how he had won their contest.

  Today the goal was to replenish his resources. He was running low on bound spirits, and didn't want to attempt another peak while low on the resource. He checked his spatial ring; his supplies were in order. A quick stretch before he went reassured him that everything was in order.

  Upon entering, the maze looked the same as always. After five minutes of walking, he saw a door. A blue square, exactly what he was looking for. The symbol on the right was a triangle inside an octagon. An eleven-sided shape.

  Difficulty eleven.

  He hadn't seen one of those here, and though the trial type was his normal resource-gathering one, he wasn't comfortable with such a high difficulty. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the next door.

  Another difficulty eleven.

  The next door, a difficulty twelve green fist. He definitely didn't want to do a difficulty twelve combat one while low on resources. Ten was hard enough.

  He wandered for a couple more minutes, feeling lightheaded as he did so. Not a single trial was below difficulty eleven. He hadn't seen a difficulty thirteen trial yet, but he wouldn't rule them out either. He didn't want to accidentally summon one by tempting fate.

  The next door he came across was a green triangle, and on the right was an octagon with a pentagon inscribed. Difficulty thirteen. The hostess' warning came to mind about a triangle door, but he was pretty sure it was red, not green. No, he was positive it was red, not green. After a deep breath, he turned around and walked back to the exit. He had already taken too many pointless risks.

  Therus was walking out of the library as he exited. He waved down Therus and jogged over.

  "When are you going back into the trial?"

  "Was thinking tomorrow, in about sixteen hours. Why?"

  "Can I join you?"

  "... sure. Can I ask why?"

  "Of course, it's because—" And at that point, sound stopped coming out of his mouth, despite his best efforts. I should have known it wouldn't let me talk about it.

  "I take it something changed with the trial itself, and you want to verify something. Let's meet up exactly one day from now."

  "You don't need to wait on my account."

  "Yeah, but if I don't, you're not going to get any sleep." Therus fixed him with a level stare as he spoke.

  "Of course I—"

  "You're going to put both of us in danger because you 'feel bad' about making me wait 8 hours? Remember, we're competing—"

  "It's because we're competing. Are you really going to lose out on 8 hours just to help me out?"

  "If it were just to help you out, I would have politely refused."

  "... Thanks." Seth smiled, happy Therus was quick on the uptake.

  They separated, and the next twenty-four hours were a flurry of research, practice, with some sleep in there somewhere. Seth's focus this time was on healing. If things kept getting more dangerous, he needed to get himself back in the fight as soon as possible.

  When he met with Therus the next day, he made some progress, but not enough for his liking. He reduced the activation time overall by five seconds, though he could cut it to about three seconds if he were just trying to stop bleeding or soothe pain. Not exactly where he wanted to be, but he'd have to be prepared for anything.

  "Ready?" asked Therus.

  "Not really, but let's do it." Seth tried to keep a calm expression. Going by the worried look on Therus' face, he hadn't succeeded. Still, they walked forward into the trial.

  Seth had imagined several possible outcomes. In his mind, the worst case was that he and Therus would be blocked at the entrance. If he were to be optimistic, he'd hope that he'd be able to access one of the lower difficulty rooms. If he were being realistic, he just hoped that he'd be able to get some help in one of these difficult rooms.

  Instead, when he looked to his left, Therus wasn't there. He was alone. Before him was a door.

  Above the door was a red triangle. To the left was a single vertical line. To the right was the dreaded pentagram inscribed within an octagon.