The eyeball slowly rotated. It was enormous, easily ten ters across, suspended in midair with no visible support. Thick veins of molten gold and pitch-black shadow crawled across its surface. The sclera wasn't white but a deep gray, cracked like cooling lava, while the iris burned with layered rings of gold and crimson.
"Huh… ugh… Greetings? Hello?" Damon bowed slightly, showing a little respect for the freakish, unknown thing, maybe even convert this interaction into a conversation but the eyeball did not really care about such formalities. Damon only had a mont to spare before a golden lightning bolt popped out of the eyeball. It ca straight for him, and it held an enormous amount of attack power.
"Shit!"
Damon twisted his body on instinct. The lightning missed his skull by inches and slamd into his shoulder instead. Pain exploded through him. His entire arm went numb as he was blasted backward, skidding across the arena floor and carving a long trench into the glowing runes.
He rolled twice before managing to stop himself, coughing as smoke rose from his shoulder. His flesh was blackened, blood sizzling where it touched the golden ground. In fact, the damage would have been several tis higher if not for his small shoulder fragnt that he obtained from the world forge.
The eyeball started rotating faster. A low rumble resounded followed by a surge of power. A sort of lightning aura enveloped the whole area. Before Damon could get back on his feet, another bolt ford, and then another. Golden arcs started stacking together one after another like a storm about to break.
Damon's pupils shrank. "Yeah, no way I'm tanking that." He could instantly tell that this ga was all about dodging. The eyeball probably had a weak physical defense or magical defense so he would have to attack while dodging. If he could land enough attacks like this, then he should be able to take down the freakish thing without any issue.
Damon had analyzed the situation. The plan was solid. And he even managed to execute it without any issues. However… there was one tiny problem. His sowhat power-packed attack did little to nothing to the eyeball monstrosity.
In just a few minutes, Damon was completely exhausted. He was using everything he had to dodge the attacks and nothing he was sending to the other side was having an effect. He was unable to even add any buffs using his poison field.
The lightning bolts simply incinerated everything in their path. The damned eyeball was simply untouchable. To make matters worse, it was getting harder and harder to dodge the attacks.
Damon was completely outmatched. At this rate, he was going to fail this whole damn thing. Maybe using the cheat potion to outsmart the system event wasn't all that much helpful. "Fuck it. There is more ti. I am not giving up now."
Damon continued going all out and dodging the insanely loaded back to back lightning attacks. There was no end in sight and the eyeball also looked like it was not going to run out of juice any ti soon. No matter how he looked at it, he was completely cooked. There was only one result here and that was failure.
But he still kept at it and continued to dodge to try and see if he could find sothing that could give him a break. He tried all of his elental attacks. He tried everything in his skill list but nothing worked. The eyeball was simply way too powerful. It had no flaws whatsoever.
Damon clicked his tongue in disappoint. He briefly contemplated using one of La Rocha's deadly poison when suddenly the tir flashed in front of him. Well, it was not much of a tir anymore. Rather than showing how many hours he had left. It was counting down from ten to most probably zero.
The trial was over? Damon was completely confused.
The countdown burned into his vision.
10… 9… 8…
"What?" Damon staggered mid-dodge as another lightning bolt scorched past his ribs. "You've got to be kidding ."
7… 6…
The eyeball's iris flared, its golden rings spinning faster, as if sensing the approaching end. The lightning aura intensified, the arena trembling under the accumulated power.
So this was it? He was going to fail after all this?
Bitterness filled him as he was unwilling to simply suffer an defeat after coming all this way. He had to do sothing, try sothing. A thought struck him and at the last mont, he focussed on all the bloodline strands still circulating in his body.
He was not able to do this before but after continuously pushing his body to the limit to dodge all of the attacks, he was in a sort of ntal zone which helped him get better control of the essence strands. Also, he did not try and isolate them this ti.
Instead, he forcibly willed them all to get back into his blood and integrate with his body. This ti he succeeded and he felt a suddenly surge of power within him. Without wasting another second, he sent a hellfire burning blood lance packed with his own elental powers.
The lance surged like an unstoppable cot, a force of complete and utter annihilation. The golden arcs of lightning couldn't simply burn it away anymore. It looked like one of his attacks was finally going to reach the damned eyeball. He might just make it at the very last minute.
A grin ford on Damon's face but it was too soon to celebrate. A golden barrier flashed in front of the eyeball before the attack could ever reach its physical figure. A resounding boom filled the arena and the shockwaves threw Damon back.
Before he could see what happened, the countdown flashed in front of him again.
3…. 2…. 1
He was out of ti.
Damon went livid. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I almost had it. Why should I fucking figure out sothing so important at the very last second? What sort of bullshit luck is that?" He wanted to punch sothing and break sothing to take out all of his frustrations when another unexpected thing happened.
[Ding! Evaluation Complete.]
[Ding! Qualification Granted.]
[Ding! You have proven your worth. The Golden Throne acknowledges you. You may now ascend the heavenly stairs to enter the forbidden realm]
Damon blinked. He passed? What the heck? He was pretty sure he had done nothing at all to damage the eyeball and he still passed? Maybe all he had to do from the beginning was dodge the damn thing? Or did he have to land an attack?
Damon had a lot of questions and no answers. But he did not care. He was simply too fucking tired to care. "You did great, my liege. Rest now. I will heal you and nourish you." Blood Reign's familiar voice sounded. With that, Damon completely let go and collapsed.
He felt a warmth spread to every inch of his body like sinking into a hot bath after being beaten half to death. Blood Reign's presence wrapped around him, calm and steady. Warmth soaked into his muscles, his bones, his blood. The pain faded first. Then the exhaustion followed.
The burning in his shoulder vanished. His shaking legs relaxed. His body finally stopped screaming bloody murder. Damon's breathing evened out.
And then Blood Reign's panicked voice sounded, "My liege, wake up! You are in grave danger! MY LIEGE!"
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