"Fuck. Fuck. FUCK."
He was really deep in the shit now, even though he knew there was no backing out of this test after stepping out of that elevator, it all hit him at once now that he was standing in the middle of a circular arena waiting for beast to emerge.
Suddenly, the environment around him started to change.
Gone were the dark stone tiles that decorated the place.
Instead, a dense rainforest started to emerge from a dense mist. For Rohan, it was a spectacular sight to witness one environment completely transition to another like stepping out of an illusion.
It was dark and humid now, with thick trees and wantonly grown vines hanging from the canopy. Still, the remarkable silence made for quite a creepy difference compared to the rainforests he'd seen on TV. There were no background creatures chirping or chittering in the distance, reminding him that everything he was seeing now was just a projection — not the real thing.
The limits of his arena were clearly marked by a heavy, dense fog where the dark tiled walls used to be, so he at least had a sense of where he should stick to.
'Huh??'
Rohan suddenly caught sight of a pair of dark yellow eyes in the distance. He couldn't help but bolt to attention, shakily pointing his spear in front of him.
A figure stepped out of the mist.
A large feline beast stepped into his line of sight, staring at him. Jet black fur with a few dark yellow spots dotted its body. It looked like a close relative of a leopard, only this thing was twice the size and ten times more terrifying to face off against.
Fear gripped every pore on Rohan's body.
'I'm screwed…'
Every curse imaginable crossed his mind, along with the faces of everyone who had a hand in putting him in this situation.
That bratty higher up's son who misled him into coming to this floor; the gruff looking man who couldn't give a damn about his situation and force him into it anyway; the stern uniformed woman who was a stickler for rules and strictness, realising that he wasn't supposed to be there but not doing a thing about it regardless.
'Okay, okay… Calm down Rohan, it's not like I have to kill this thing. All I have to do is outlast the timer and I'll have passed the first requirement.'
Forfeiting wasn't an option. The only way out of this test once it started was through passing, serious injury, or death.
The Association didn't mess around when it came to Beast Trials.
'All I have to do is keep dodging and moving around for five minutes, and then I can get myself out of this shitty place and file a complai—'
Whoosh!
The Yellow Spotted Leopard interrupted his inner monologue and charged towards him.
Rohan's pupil's shrank.
The beast crossed half the distance between them in less time than it took for him to blink twice.
"So fast—!"
He threw himself to the side in his best attempt to dodge on pure instinctual reaction. The yellow spotted leopard blurred past where he just stood, but even then, he wasn't quite fast enough. A hooked claw clipped his left sleeve and tore straight through the fabric, sending him tumbling across the damp ground in a graceless roll.
'Fuck that was close!'
Luckily, only his shirt was torn; the claw missed his skin by a few millimetres.
But it was more than enough to remind him that this wasn't some harmless simulation.
He scrambled upright, spear shaking violently in his grip as he whipped around to face the leopard again.
The beast had already landed in a crouch and assumed a position low to the ground to stalk him several metres away.
There wasn't a hint of any emotion behind those dark yellow eyes that seemed to pierce right through him.
'This thing is only F rank…'
The very lowest rank one can be in the Origin Realm, and yet this creature was already so overwhelming that Rohan felt like he was one breath, one mistake away from saying his final goodbyes.
His chest tightened at the thought.
He always knew awakened and beasts were powerful. Everyone did in this era.
But knowing it and feeling it for himself in a tense battle with his life on the line… the difference was like that between heaven and earth.
Just moments ago, he felt some comfort in knowing that as an awakened, even if he lacked experience, his body should at least be good enough to dodge and run around for five minutes.
That fantasy lasted all but one attack.
The leopard prowled sideways through the dense projected undergrowth, shoulders rising rhythmically and terrifyingly fluid. Each step it took was elegant, and made no noise at all.
Rohan barely kept track of it in the dark underbrush thanks to his enhanced eyesight, as every awakened had.
"Just five minutes…" he muttered, backing away and keeping his spear pointed towards it.
Not once did he take his eyes off it. If there was one thing he knew about cats, and big cats especially, it was that they were the stalking type of predator. They tended to attack more when their prey was distracted or their back was turned for just a moment, so Rohan wanted to avoid a situation like that at all costs.
Still, the beast would eventually get impatient and attack anyway.
The leopard lunged again.
Rohan jerked backward and thrust the spear forward, but the motion came a fraction too late and a fraction too high. The beast twisted under the tip with elegant grace and appeared in front of him anyway.
It's paw reached out in a deadly swipe.
Rohan barely managed to bring the spear shaft down to protect his body in time.
Crack!
The impact sent vibrations through the spear into his hands, causing him tremendous pain; he was sent staggering backwards, almost tumbling on his back. But he gripped onto the spear regardless. His life was on the line, if he dropped the one thing that could keep him alive, then he was dead for sure.