Day two of the trial came with heat and sweat. The deeper they went into the jungle the heavier the air got.
The jungle around them looked more alive in the daylight.
Different shades of green and brown swallowed everything around the trio with roots crawling over the ground everywhere they went. Sometimes the roots were so huge that they formed arches that the group had to walk under.
Elian wiped swear from his brow while the kept moving forward.
None of them had find a beast to bond yet.
That was not to say they had not encountered any yet, but none of the siblings could afford to bond a lower stage beast. The small and harmless beasts that were at the edge of the jungle were not worthy of their attention at this point.
It was not that they were useless, but for the first bond that would set their path within the tribe and Kaltrava they could not afford any of the lesser careers.
They had to become Hunters if they wanted even a small chance of rebuilding their clan.
Kaal moved in front of the twins, like he always did, using a large stone knife to cut through the brush in front of him.
"Slow down," cautioned Sylra.
He was moving too fast in front of them. Stepping where he shouldn't and making too much noise.
Kaal waved her off. "If we keep moving at this pace we will never reach the edge of the first zone. We won't encounter a Stage 2 Beast at this rate."
Sylra did not find what he said funny. She frown as if she sensed something wrong.
"Stop," she said.
Kaal did not. Instead he kept charging forward.
There was a thick root in front of him and he misjudge his jump, his foot hitting the top of the root and causing him to trip over. He fell on top of a large mound in the ground.
The mound began to shift underneath him.
Suddenly it collapsed inward with a loud, wet crack ringing through the air. The first thing to hit the trio was the smell.
Like something rotten and sour had been released, they had barely recovered when movement could be seen within the dust clouds in the crack.
A narrow snout pushed its way out first, carefully sniffing the air around it, checking out the environment. It was quickly followed by three more.
It did not take long for the owners of the snouts to continue moving forward, their glowing yellow eyes flickering to back and forth between the different siblings. Kaal was frozen less than several feet away.
"Ee-Elian!"
He shouted as he scrambled backwards. The ground exploded in front of him.
Mud Raptors, a Stage 2 Common Rank Beast were surging towards his younger brother.
Their bodies were still half submerged in the earth, slick with dark mud that clung to their body like armor.
The beasts kept moving forward snapping jaws and whipping their tails around widely.
A single Mud Raptor was not a danger, but the thing was they never hunted alone.
These Stage 2 Beasts were known for moving in packs that burrowed into the ground turning the jungle floor into a weapon against their prey.
Even more scary was the fact they could lie hidden for hours beneath the earth using their ability to sense vibrations to ambush prey.
If that was not all the mud that clung to their scales was another special ability of theirs that allowed them to burrow into the ground more easily and mask their scents.
Even a Hunter would not fight against a pack of Mud Raptors directly without preparation.
And they had not even bonded a beast yet.
The siblings only option was to run away.
Kaal barely managed to roll away as one of the Mud Raptors lunged at him. Scrambling to his feet he bolted towards his siblings.
Sylra managed to reach out and yank him forward just in time while she screamed at them.
"No time! Run!"
The siblings tore away from the scene quickly running deeper into the jungle with the pack of the Raptors quickly following behind them.
Somehow Kala had managed go get in front of them, running just slight ahead of the group as the sound of raptors growls got closer and closer.
"They are gaining on us," Sylva shouted again.
It was only a matter of time before they got closer.
Elian was at the rear and could sense the steady approach. He had always been the physically weakest of his siblings.
As the smell of rotten carcasses filled his nose he could tell that his time was slowly running out.
Hopefully one of his siblings would make it out of this hell alive. One of them had to survive if there was any hope for their clan.
Lost in his last thoughts and running for his life, Elian had not even noticed that the surrounding jungle had become quiet all of suddenly.
While he kept rushing forward he tripped over an overgrown root, hitting the ground hard.
"Elian!"
His sister was the first to notice and she turned around in a frantic, unsure for a second what to do. How could she save her brother?
It was in the next moment she also realized the jungle had gone quiet around them.
Not it's normal quiet, but a complete silence where she could not even hear the usual hum of bugs.
Kaal had also stopped several feet ahead of them, looking around his surrounding strangely.
Elian quickly got to his feet and looked around.
His chest was beating heavy as he tried to catch his breath and observe the situation now.
He tilted his head slightly like he was trying to hear something in the distance.
"Where did they go?" asked Kaal.
His question was no strange.
Mud Raptor packs were not known for giving up on prey once they had locked onto them. For them, the hunt would only be abandoned if they lost track of the prey or a more dangerous creature was sensed ahead.
All three of them suddenly froze as if the same thought hit them at once.
Mud Raptors never abandon their prey…the fact that they had not lost their scent could only mean one thing.
Suddenly a branch cracked nearby.
Something moved in the jungle just behind the leaves, a shadow stalking them that they could not make out as it moved around them in a circle. It's movements were a blur.
Elian stomach dropped.
The siblings gathered together with their backs pressed up against each other as they prepared for an attack from any direction.
They stood there not knowing what else to do.
Then a branch above suddenly cracked as well.
A shadow dropped right in the middle of the siblings.
Before they knew it, the shadow had leaped at Kaal.
The shadow crashed right into him.
"Eli-"
His voice was immediately cut off as blood sprayed everywhere.
The shadow had torn his body to shreds in a matter of seconds.
Elian mind immediately went blank at the scene as Slyva screamed at the top of her lungs.
"KAAL!"
Her scream only attracted the monster's attention.
It turned leaped from Kaal's body and before she could finish screaming her brother's name, it had crashed right down through the air.
The air seem to split as Sylva disappeared from Elian's side.
Nothing was making sense.
How had their luck been that bad? Was this truly going be the death of them all?
He has not moved from his spot still paralyzed from his siblings death.
Behind him he could sense his death approaching.
He looked up at the stars and prayed that the Ancient Titans and his ancestors would forgive him for breaking his vows.
Before he knew it his world went dark….
___
Elijah's eyes suddenly snapped open and he took in a deep breath of air. It felt like he had just been drowning underneath water a moment ago.
He looked around saw that Logan and Serene were in the same state, both gasping for air like a fish.
Logan was the first to break the silence.
"…did you all see those memories too?" he asked, looking at Elijahi weirdly. "Elian looks just like you bro."
"We all look like them."
Serene seem to be recovering faster than both of them. Processing events much faster or perhaps simple more focus on just surviving whatever happened no matter how strange.
"It looks like they died and we transmigrated into their bodies."
"That's crazy. Yoh sure this is not the opening of the game?" Logan asked.
He typically would not doubt Serene. Besides Elijah, she was the backup strategist and the one Elijah often bounce his ideas off. He looked at his best friend for confirmation.
Up until now, Elijah had been silent. Still processing everything that had just occurred. His body was still recovering from what they had just experienced.
"She is right," he finally answered, his gaze searching thier surroundings.
"Everything we are experiencing right now is too real to be a video game. It like those WebNovels we have been reading lately…"
"You mean like LoM?" he replied, letting a dry laugh out at the idea like he could not truly believe it.
"Exactly," Sylva answered.
"So I'm this Kaal dude now?"
"Correct. Their bodies, their memories…"
"And their problems," Elijah finished. That was the reason he was still scanning their surroundings. Serene had also quickly caught on.
"Which means to survive we have to follow their rules."
"What rules?"
"The trial of course."
Silence followed after that as they all thought it over. It was the only thing left for them to do at the moment. They had to get out this jungle and perhaps then they could think about finding out how they had ended up here.
"So five days to bond a beast and we are already down two and a half days," added Serene, her voice steady.
"So we just moving on like that?" Logan looked at both of them, gesturing at their clothes that had been torn to pieces. "Act like nothing has happen?"
"We don't have any other choice. What do you want to do do?" asked Serene. "Wait for whatever kill them to come back and do it again?"
Logan had no reply to that. The memory of Kaal's swift death replayed in his head at that moment causing him him to go pale with at the thought.
"Then it's settled. We have to move forward and bond a beast," Elijah said, finalizing the decision for the group. He gave Logan a comforting grin to try to ease the tension. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be a tank in this world just like you are in every other game we ever played."
Logan forced a grin in return, but it did not quite feel as real.
"Yeah alright. Guess we are doing this thing for real. So what direction do we start in?"
There was another pause as Serene and Elijah looked at each other. That was a really good question. They had to find a way back towards the edges of the forest and outside the dangerous zone they were in.
Before either of them could give it another thought, a low growl tore through the air.
It rolled through the jungle like thunder, deep and heavy causing the air to vibrate slightly from the force.
All three of them froze the moment it reached their ears.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is?" asked Logan, a look of despair forming on his face. Were they really this unlucky?
The bushes in front of them exploded outward as a massive shape tore through the leaves and plants as if they were nothing landed right in front of them.
It's yellow eyes locked on to the three of them, as small stripes of lightning flickered around its body.
This was not a Mud Raptor. It was much worst…a Storm Maw.