B3 Chapter 349: Perseverance, pt. 2

Kaius gasped, his body aching with a fire that sapped his strength. Half an hour of battle. Half an hour of slain challengers and spilt blood. That was all it had been. Just a few minutes, yet already his body ached with a weakness that he hadn’t felt since he was a boy.

Not even his experiences in his first delve came close to this unstoppable march of weakness. Even when he had fought on with empty stamina as an unclassed, he’d still had his natural stamina regeneration to lean on. It might not have been enough to fuel him indefinitely, but each blip of energy had been a reprieve. A momentary rest for body and soul.

With his resources locked down more thoroughly than any restriction-formation could hope to achieve, he had none of that. Every movement, every dodge and slash, wore deeper into his bones.

His breaths came in heavy gasps, the sunbaked heat sinking into his lungs with vicious claws. His heart thundered — pounding continuously. His blade, once carrying a comfortable heft that let him lean more fully into his swings, now felt like it weighed a ton. His muscles burned, every footfall falling heavy and plodding on jellied legs.

And still he fought on — rushing through an unending mob as blood fell like rain in his wake. Exhaustion was nothing. Pain and discomfort were nothing.

He’d long since cut himself a rhythm, where there was only the next movement — the next spray of blood and falling body. His general Skills rose to the forefront once more. In the rush of battle, he moved on instinct — heeding the whispers of Explorer’s Toolkit that lead him to openings and vitals. Flowing through the growing mass of bodies, he moved swiftly — guided by Tempered by Dissonance and Uncanny Dodge to avoid the wounds he could, and endure those he could not.

Heavy it might have been, but his blade reaped life after life — honed and driven by Liturgical Bladeform.

Eyes cold and focused, Kaius clenched his jaw as he stepped to the right. A small movement, one that let the approaching spear tear through the edge of his hip. Blood spilled from the shallow cut, running down legs that were already caked in a red crust.

A cost to conserve his energy, one he spent gladly.

Health was a resource, and between Lesser Regeneration, and Tempered by Dissonance hardening his body, the wound drained little of his reserves. Hells, it was low enough it would only take a couple seconds longer to recover than the time it took for the wound to heal.

He cut from high to low, A Father’s Gift tearing through the challenger’s chest as more blades raced towards him. One challenger leapt ahead of the pack, whirling a poleaxe into a heavy overhead. Kaius caught its haft with the edge of his blade, biting halfway through the wood.

The challenger’s weapons were well crafted — almost certainly inscribed with powerful Durability and other enchantments. They were no match for the calibre of his own weapon. Even their forged steel chipped and cracked when he met their blades edge to edge.

A haft of hardwood? It may as well have been a reed.

Twisting his wrists, Kaius levered A Father’s Gift. The splintered haft snapped — he lunged into a thrust.

Another body fell to the arena’s floor, blood flowing from a shadowed cowl.

**Ding! You have defeated Human – Challenger: Level 200 – Experience Denied, Tier Limit reached!**

Kaius fought on, lumbering through an army of flowing blades. If the ache of his exhaustion and the constant stream of attackers wasn’t enough, the trial had seen fit to raise the stakes.

There weren’t just five challengers anymore. Oh no, that number had doubled. A full ten. He’d caught the change quickly. Every few minutes, five at his best guess, another door to the arena had opened — releasing yet another infinitely replaced combatant into the melee.

And still he fought on — he refused to let something like simple exhaustion do him in.

It was still a building war that pushed back at his every efforts. Every minute that passed he was forced to dig deeper into his reserves — burn more energy to capitalise on ever-shrinking windows of opportunity, to evade an ever-growing field of blades.

Still, the shift in advantage hinted at the nature of the battle. Five doors open from the beginning, with another of the twenty-nine opening every five minutes. Two hours. Just two hours.

It had to be the goal — to survive and last until every door had opened. A victory against twenty-nine combatants at the peak of the first tier, each fresh and well rested — while he lingered at the precipice of collapse.

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An impossible task — for most.

He could have focused solely on evasion: for all he knew, the trial was simply about lasting. It didn’t feel right. He knew himself. Running would not provide the heat he needed to temper; would teach him nothing about Corporus.

Kaius tasted iron as yet more viscera splashed against his face, a nigh-permanent grin plastered on his face.

The challengers might have had numbers — might have benefited from a constant stream of energised replacements — but they didn’t have his strength, his skill. He was the better warrior, and he would prove it with every scrap he had to give.