"Run!"

  This time, it was the smooth talker who yelled out, and everyone obeyed his words without a second thought. Everyone instinctively made a mad sprint towards the direction of the black gate, not because they had been told to do so but for the mere fact it was the only sort of construct they had seen so far, hence seemingly the safest direction to head to. But while they were running, the creature had already picked out a new target.

  It moved again, ripping apart another two participants that found themselves in its path and swiftly reached someone else. It immediately immobilized him with its powerful arms and pulled them into the horrifying kiss, ignoring the guy's gratingly terrified screams. It was also during this moment that Lucian, even while running for his dear life, took the time to observe the creature's disturbing features.

  And oh boy, was it disturbing.

  It was a tall, lanky creature with a body that appeared starved yet sinewy, covered in taut leathery skin. A pair of unnaturally long arms that reached its knees, each finger ending in needle-like claws. It had no eyes; for where they should have been instead were two grotesque tongues, writhing like snakes and constantly twitching, seemingly tasting the air for something. He couldn't see its mouth clearly now, but he'd caught a glimpse earlier—when it ripped out the last victim's tongue. And it wasn't pretty either, arguably the most disturbing part of its appearance.

  It seemed uncomfortably human, a pair of full lips, pale but seemingly supple. Now that in and of itself wasn't necessarily scary and just seemed completely out of place on the abomination's appearance... but that would have been the case if he hadn't seen the unnaturally long row of needle-like teeth that withdrew back into its mouth when it had the tongue.

  'This thing is as ugly as it's deadly. How the hell are we meant to survive this thing?' Lucian fumed in exasperation as he increased his speed. By this time, the abomination had already extracted its prey's tongue and swiftly moved on to the next target. It, in no time, flashed past Lucian, onto its next prey. This time there was no one before it, and it swiftly went to its next target, ignoring the participants and avoiding what seemed like needless violence.

  'It's not randomly attacking. It's specifically targeting some of us. For what though?' Lucian wondered with great urgency, his mind gears spinning to pick up dots wherever they existed and connect them together.

  By the time it had reached the third person, his internal question changed. 'That's the third person. What's so special about... wait.' something finally clicked as he looked at the third person.

  'This guy... isn't he the guy who joked about being a herald's son?' His brows furrowed a bit, and he turned his head to the second person who had his tongue bitten out. Not quite dead yet but not far from it.

  'He's the guy who joked about being a spartan. And its first victim, it was the guy who joked about having been to the floating city.' He thought as his eyes widened in realization.

  'And if I'm correct, its next victim should be...' his head snapped towards the last guy who mocked the sketchy guy, the one who joked about being a minister in his city. And just as he did, the abominable creature did the same.

  Just as he expected, the creature barreled its way towards the last mocker. The guy ran with all his might, but it was nothing but a futile effort. The monster reached him in no time and proceeded with its tongue extracting.

  "AHHHHHH! Someone please save me!" The guy screamed out in fear with all his strength. Unfortunately, no one did. Well, of course, they didn't, no one could even delay the creature, let alone stop it reaching from its goal.

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  'The Crucible of Lies and Flames, that's the name of the trial. Having that as my best lead, it's safe to say this hellspawn is drawn to lies. Meaning, its next target should be... Sketchy.' His gaze shifted to the creature once more, expecting it to ram its way towards the sketchy guy. But surprisingly, it didn't.

  After it had ripped out the tongue of its last victim, It just threw him to the floor, taking a small step forward, crushing its last victim's chest, looking ahead where everyone was running... or at least facing them. It had no eyes, so he couldn't draw any conclusions on the possibility of sight.

  But it could sense them, quite clearly even.

  It had no intentions of chasing or hunting them any further. It seemed they'd suddenly lost their appeal to the horrid creature. This severely confused Lucian.

  'Why isn't it going after Sketchy? He lied as well, didn't he? Or is it just going after the people who mocked him or made jokes?' Lucian wondered.

  "Shit, shit, shit!!! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" The sketchy guy kept screaming as he ran, automatically ensuring no one else had to. They hadn't forgotten the perils of silence.

  They ran quickly, and in no time, they left the hellspawn's vicinity, its figure slowly shrinking from view. But before it completely slipped out of their sight, Lucian noticed something.

  "Is it possible..." he muttered to himself before running down a sandy hill, completely losing sight of the hellspawn.

  The hellspawn had come to a complete and eerie stop... no, perhaps calling it a pause was more in order. It seemed frozen in time, and even the original restless tongues had gone into a lull, seemingly unable to free themselves from whatever curse kept it in place. But it wouldn't remain disabled forever.

  ...

  Only after what felt about half an hour of running did they start listening to reason... and their sore legs, and decided to take a rest.

  They all crashed down into the sand, finally feeling every tear and pull of their muscles. Fear had gifted them with so much adrenaline most of them had surpassed their limiters running for their lives. Hence their muscles were in agony from the strain. Some of them even had already thrown away their large coats, all for the sake of gaining even a bit more speed. They didn't need them anyways... and even if they did, of what use was it if they couldn't live.

  They were so worn out that even the sketchy guy couldn't muster the strength to make comments. Luckily, their heavy breathing kept silence at bay—no one needed to speak yet.

  But of course, this pseudo silence wouldn't last for long. They were far too terrified and needed to make sense of everything before they continued on.

  "What the fuck was that thing and where did it come from?" One of the participants finally exclaimed.

  "I don't know, but it seems to have a thing for eating tongues. Did you see the way it bit out those other guys' tongues?" another added with a horror-filled expression. The sights today were no doubt the goriest she had witnessed, and she was dead.

  "Yeah, but it also ripped people apart, didn't it? With those sword-like claws. How the heck are we meant to escape or fight that kind of monster?" another woman added, literally shivering as she curled into a ball. She was clearly traumatized. In fact, they all were.

  "Calm down everyone. We need to put our heads together and consider what would bring that hellspawn after us so we can avoid it. Anyone's thoughts at all would be appreciated," Smooth talker stepped in just as despair threatened to take hold. Hearing him speak, almost everyone seemed to calm down a bit.

  "But how can we be calm? Did you see the size of that thing? And how strong and fast it was? Even its entire body seems to be a bane of humanity. How could we possibly fight against it?" Sketchy was quick to join in the conversation. In fact, it was safe to say he had never been quiet for so long.

  Smooth talker shook his head and said, "But I didn't say we should. I said we should try and understand its trigger, just like we did with the paralysis. This is just another challenge we'll have to brave to reach the end of the trial."

  But the sketchy guy wasn't convinced as he lamented, "Ah, We're going to die."

  Smooth talker shook his head with convincing confidence, "We won't."

  Still not sold, "This place is gonna swallow our corpse," said the sketchy guy again.

  "No, it won't..."

  The back and forth between the smooth talker and sketchy guy continued on, and even quite a few other people joined in on the argument. Lucian, of course, couldn't be bothered.

  He sighed, and his thoughts swiftly went back to the situation at hand. He was fairly sure that hellspawn was feeding off the lies of the tongue. It was sort of obvious, and he was quite shocked how they hadn't realized it yet, but in hindsight, it made quite a lot of sense they didn't.

  He was fairly sure he was one of the few, if not the only, person paying attention to everyone here, mostly because he kept to himself, so he had ample time to pay attention to everyone and every detail. That was how he was able to tell that all those people the hellspawn tore out their tongue were the same people who mocked the sketchy guy.

  So he was probably the only person who knew that a few jokes had been the cause of the massacre.

  'But before I make a decision on this, I gotta ask him,' Lucian thought as his eyes narrowed down on the sketchy guy who was still arguing with the smooth talker.

  But before he could even begin thinking about how to approach Sketchy, a figure soon overshadowed him. He looked up only to find the braided beauty staring down on him with her curious bright blue eyes.

  He was mesmerized for a moment, but her next words made his expression change.

  "So, have you figured out what the hellspawn is after?"